Sheldon Pearce's favorite albums of 2024

"When I first started working as a music critic, I held nothing more sacred than a ranked albums list. The album felt like the idealized musical vehicle, a prime mechanism for the expression of true artistic vision and an opportunity to see that vision at scale. Songs there were always so many songs. Too many to really wrap your arms around and judge fairly, in my opinion. But albums were self-contained, easier to quantify and could be stacked up cleanly next to each other"

"In recent years, I've started to distrust the process, not simply because canonizing can reward a certain kind of self-important work, but also because the result has felt more and more often like an inadequate picture of the year. Such lists, by nature, exist for consecration and posterity first and foremost; diversity and sprawl are often secondary concerns, and even the most diverse, sprawling list always seems to be riddled with omissions no matter how thorough."

"Most year-end lists, including ours, only have 50 slots, which immediately creates certain priorities and demands compromise. Individual lists are less tricky, as they can certify individual taste, but even they can't truly say anything definitive about a music landscape growing more fragmented each year. 2024, as much as any year in recent memory, exemplifies this issue. I don't usually subscribe to the notion of "good" or "bad" years for music great, meaningful and life-affirming music comes out every year"

Albums were once regarded as idealized musical vehicles that allowed artistic vision to be expressed at scale and to be compared cleanly. The proliferation of songs made fair judgment harder and revealed limits to ranking. Canonizing lists can reward self-important work and produce inadequate pictures of a diverse musical year. Year-end lists that prioritize consecration and posterity often treat diversity and sprawl as secondary, resulting in frequent omissions. Limiting lists to 50 slots forces compromises. Individual lists reflect personal taste but cannot definitively map a sprawling, fragmented music landscape; 2024 exemplified that difficulty, with more than 200 albums considered.

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