Even Rolling Stone agrees it was a Brat year.
The publication has crowned Charli XCX‘s acid-green pop-culture juggernaut the #1 album of 2024. The mag says the album is “not only a hyperpop roller coaster of post-Saturn return, early-thirties anxieties, and It-girl bravado, but it’s also a still growing, evolving project … just when everyone’s asking about the afters, the club queen makes it clear that the party hasn’t stopped yet.”
Coming in at #2 on the list of top 100 albums is Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter, which Rolling Stone says is “more of a love letter to her Southern roots than strictly a honky-tonkin’ romp.” It adds, “Beyoncé’s point is made crystal clear by the time she reaches ‘Amen’: She is country and has always been country. There’s no doubting that fact, gatekeepers be damned.”
Sabrina Carpenter‘s Short n’ Sweet is #4, thanks to her “knack for turning romantic roadkill into flippantly brilliant pop.” Billie Eilish‘s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, which Rolling Stone describes as “a nonstop rush of emotional and musical quick-change swerves,” ranks #5. Tyla‘s self-titled debut is in at #6, and Ariana Grande‘s eternal sunshine is #8. Rolling Stone says Ari’s album contains “some of the most honest and inventive music of her career so far.”
As for Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department, described by Rolling Stone as “wildly ambitious,” it’s in at #23. Rounding up other notable releases of 2024, Halsey‘s The Great Impersonator is #42; Shaboozey‘s debut Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going is #55; and Camila Cabello‘s C, XOXO is #85.
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