Art + Creative Director. From Queens.
Rosa's Best of 2024
2024: a not great year! I still believe 2023 may go down in history as a true creative bonanza, due to COVID's pushing back of all projects. But, 24 held its own. This year gave us the gift of Chappell, an unusually high concentration of country, and some surprising revivals of 00s names.
But, I'm telling you right now: there is absolutely no T*Swift on this list, so do proceed with caution.
Playlist is in a particular order, follow along below.
Good News
Shaboozey
Shaboozey had some big, big news this year, that's for sure, with the country's longest running Number 1 single of all time. But, it's this one that's song of the year - a great melody and sing-it-in-the-arena chorus, driven by a stomp-clap under-current. We just need a little good news, that's all. We've got hands in the air to pray in the church of Shaboozey, and we need his blessing.
Chappell Roan captured the year, without a doubt, wrenching the crown from Ms Espresso, Ms Guts and even [gasp] Ms. Eras. Chappell brought us the line of 2024: "I heard you like magic? Well I've got a wand and a rabbit", screamed out of every sunny day rolled-down car window, regardless of orientations. But, it's Good Luck Babe, a Kate Bush style mid-tempo kiss off, that really did it for everyone. A unifying single, but don't try to hit the "I Told You So" note or you'll die. Man, she's good.
Chappell Roan
Good Luck,
Babe!
Could almost tip into cheesy 90s country, and brother it tries. But...Mr. Top (ahem) certainly keeps it from going too far into George Strait territory. Slide guitar wrestles with morose lyrics and an achingly sullen delivery about caring, but not caring, and not caring about not caring. Nice.
Use Me
Zach Top
I'll never be safe again after saying this, but Griff's Vertigo album is what Tortured Poets thinks it is: Ethereal, moderate pop with sulky reminiscences on a short relationship that burned bright and went bad. This one does it right, without cringey asides or Antonoffian chord progressions. Into the Walls is the answer to anyone who finds "I Can Do it With A Broken Heart" too self-indulgent. With a driving pop drumbeat and pleading choral arrangement, it's likely the best on this great album. Honorable mentions go to tracks Anything and So Fast if you wanna dig deeper. And you should.
Into The Walls
Griff
The Black Keys are back? The Black Keys are back! Oasis-tinged 90s piano stomper On The Game is not how you remember them, and good thing. They've matured past the sloppy guitar and fuzz-mic deliveries of the 2010s and into a fun album full of features (actually, Oasis IS on it) and introspective rock. Good stuff.
On The Game
The Black Keys
Girl anthem of the century? Weight gained and lost, sometimes I think you might hate me, the things people say to 10 year old girls, long voicemails left overnight, cancelling last-minute so you're not in the pictures, "we've got the same hair".
Girl anthem of the century.
Girl, So
Confusing
Charli XCX Feat. Lorde
A talent, no doubt, with a Dolly sound and 311 subject-matter. When was the last time you heard a gravity bong referenced outside of a Todd Phillips movie? Spacey Kasey did a lot this decade, so this one's for the 27-32 year old: your Saturn is returning.
Deeper Well
Kasey Musgraves
Date someone, but always have someone else on the docket. Hate yourself while doing so, while continuing to do so. Maybe you should stop doing that? Anyway, what are you doing later.
Dockett
Blondshell
CRIMINALLY low Spotify play count on this one. An absolute banger from the breakout Latina trio. They blew up a bit after a rollicking performance at the Latin grammys, but let's get these ladies a world tour!
Francotirador
Darumas
St Vincent is entirely her own person, an individual of particular sound. But, this is a total PJ Harvey throw back, and I'm here for it. A love letter to buzzing 90s grrl rock sends the levels into the red, and stands up to repeated plays. Oh, to have this crackling out at you from a Maxwell cassette tape.
Flea
St. Vincent
These guys have like 14 albums since 2017, and no two are the same. I struggle with them, name and all, as they technically fall under "Jam Band" territory, which is...a special place to be. But this one rocks, can't argue with it. 70s Stones guitar trucking through some of Slade's cowbell, and a touch of Ballroom Blitz. Works for me!
Field of Vision
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
It's the Craig Mack sample under a Foxy Brown inspired straight up sex rap by a tiny girl from Bed Stuy. We are so back.
No One Else
Lola Brooke featuring Jeremih
Kings of Leon are back? Ok, ha ha, but they've never actually left. Though it's hard to beat the ubiquitous legacy of Sex on Fire, they streaked into 2024 with an album full of contenders for the Fire throne. Mustang has the juice - starts small, and by the second chorus, wails out of the garage into a screamo-screech anthem.
Still got it.
Mustang
King of Leon
Nigerian rapper Asake has a new one for your spin class. Super fun track, kissed by C&C music factory throughout. Get pumped.
Active
Asake
No wait, THIS is the girl anthem of the century. If you get to the coughed-out "donttouchme!!" and don't want to take a bat to your boss' head? You're probably dead.
Company Culture
Lambrini Girls
Maggie Rogers should be bigger, but maybe her fame is exactly the right size that we may find these gems when we need them. She knows how to belt out a chorus in a way that brings Faith Hill's late 90s hits to mind, but aims the arrow true for a far deeper lyrical experience. Just lamenting about how we used to set the table, sit in the living room, wallpaper the hallway. The things you remember when they're gone, and the sunlight moves, and the seasons change. Sounds like an upbeat banger, but oof.
Maggie Rogers
In the Living Room
I find this one, simple as it is, hard to define. Much like Hozier himself. It's super catchy, but it's too moderately paced to blast; it's sexily breath-sung, but not about love at all. Total ear worm, and a sing along chorus to boot, but would you call it a pop hit? Regardless, it's mostly just a brief postcard to a tee-totaler: That sounds great for you, but I could never. An ongoing fave, and his first #1.
Hozier
Too Sweet
Absolutely nothing I can say about this song that hasn't already been said. But, I'll say this: The day of the Juneteenth Pop-Out performance with Dr Dre, I think Twitter melted down to a puddle of glee over the run-back after "A-Minorrrrr". The way the crowd lost it, the way the production timed the camera angles with the WAP WAP WAP, the way even Dre was straight up grinning through the performance, the cut aways to Kardashians and Biebers and NBA All-Stars getting absolutely down with it. And then? HE RAN IT BACK FOUR MORE TIMES. Drake is never, ever coming back from this one. See you at the Superbowl!
Kendrick Lamar
Not Like Us
We're all a little unhappy, huh? It's been rough, but we've got SZA there with us, if nothing else. When we all have to leave Earth to find a planet we haven't ruined, chisel "Nirvana's not as advertised" on America's gravestone.
SZA
Saturn
Bluegrass has really permeated the music-sphere, and I don't recall a year with more banjo than 2024. Leave it to Waxahatchee, of course, to blend it beautifully with a soft-rock piece that would sound at home on Linda Ronstadt's B-Sides and Rarities collection.
Waxahatchee
Right Back To It
Surely you don't mean the Nada Surf? I do! And they've got a laser pointer aimed at us all, with a snappy little rock tune about not paying attention to anything at all, while doing everything at once, and resolving to do one thing at a time. Here's hoping.
Nada Surf
In Front of Me Now
Song of the summer. Sabrina has a fun time with lyrical oddities, and twists a vocal melody over a bassline with the best of 'em. Effervescent.
Sabrina Carpenter
Espresso
Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard with a funky Prince-like power-ditty about your ex asking you to come back, and the resounding NO in response.
Brittany Howard
Power to Undo
Fiona Apple just pops up where she feels like it, and lucky us. She's practically Marianne Faithful at this point, here with coffee-grounds vocals against Iron and Wine's smooth vintage. A simple, sorta break up tune with a poetic bent ["Tried on your love, then I folded those clothes"] and beautifully airy arrangement. It borders on sad, but has an end-credits sentimentality to its sound. Hard to categorize, but perhaps we're meant to take what we need from it.
Iron & Wine, Fiona Apple
All in Good Time
Get ON this album, quickly! So you can say you did before it really blows up. Start here with the story-rap DENIAL IS A RIVER, lightly sprinkled in Salt N Peppa style, for a hit of Doechii's singular personality. Rewind to 2020 for the very great EP, Oh The Places You'll Go, that went almost totally ignored. Don't make that mistake again, this is a big one.
Doechii
DENIAL IS A RIVER
Permit me a fangirl moment: the release of this album rolled out across a single record store chain, where the vinyl was slipped into bags as a freebie, with the words "please rip" across the otherwise blank label. God help me, that's fucking cool. And on top of it all, it sounds like THIS? Coolest rock star alive, I'm sorry.
Jack White
Bless Yourself
Sir, a *second* fictional story of a fictional 70s band and their fictional rise and fall from fame has been released. Masquerade comes from the 2024 play "Stereophonic", Broadway's most nominated play of all time(!), with songs written by Arcade Fire's Will Butler. A shade funkier than 2023's Daisy Jones and the Six, and a good bit catchier than Fleetwood Mac, it delivers on its "what if this came out back then" premise, and veers into "eminently listenable". Is this how rock returns? Fakely? I'll take it, actually.
Cast of Stereophonic
Masquerade
Maybe my feelings on pop-stardom, and who should or shouldn't hold the crown, have become clear through this writing. Suffice to say: No one's got it like Beyonce. The visual style, the tour aesthetics, the fashion, the attitude, the photography - all these things are tertiary to what has become a world-changing album. A pop star goes country, and does it WELL? If it was dropped with none of the peripherals and circumstance, it would still be a banger. Despite its bits of controversy on or off country stations, Texas Hold Em is on your and your uncle's and your cousin's and your co-worker's and your little sister's and your upstairs neighbor's playlists. Tell me the same about the Dread Poet's Society or whatever the fuck. Pff, please.
Texas Hold 'Em
Beyonce
A sparkly, outer-space invitation to remember that not everything is bad, not even falling apart, not even building lego mansions just to smash them, not even getting t-boned in your mom's car on your first drive at 16. It happened, it was weird, it kinda hurt, but in the end, it was fun.
Happy 2025 everybody. We'll do ok. Maybe.
May Rio, Elegant Ensemble
Fun!
Why no...?
Birds of a Feather - Whisper singing doesn't do it for me. Cute tune, but best of? Idk.
Ariana - I just don't think the album was that great. Maybe a post-Wicked album will wow us, but this one was sort of a snooze. And you know what? "We Can't Be Friends" is a Dancing on my Own ripoff.
I Had Some Help - It's fine. It's fine! Catchiness doesn't always equal greatness though.
Tortured Poet's Department - Be serious.