Five Amazing Albums From This Year
Album Art (Left to Right): Bruno Berle - ‘No Reino Dos Afetos 2’, Waine Ghazi - ‘umbra’, Vegyn - ‘The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions’, SALIMATA - ‘Wooden Floors’, Lynda Dawn - ‘11th Hour’
2024 was an incredible year for music, with successful high-profile releases extending across all genres. As the year winds down, and in the spirit of the holiday season, let’s take a retrospective approach and shine some light on amazing albums released by lesser-known artists.
1. Waine Ghazi - ‘umbra’
Hip-Hop, R&B/Soul
Hailing from the windy city of Chicago, the rapper-producer duo Waine Ghazi and Dev Shaw came together to deliver umbra in April of this year. This album features jazz-laced, multilayered production and mellow bars along with guest verses from UM’s own Travian and Che AM, both of whom released excellent singles and EPs this year. The sounds emanating from this genre-bending album are reminiscent of the virtuoso-bassist Thundercat’s The Golden Age of Apocalypse and contemplative lyricist Navy Blue’s Ways of Knowing. Uplifting and introspective raps paired with atmospheric instrumentals and beautiful vocals are found throughout this amazing project well worth 21 minutes of your time.
Favorites: use your mind, cha cha, out
2. Vegyn - ‘The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions’
Electronic
Fresh off the release of his collaboration album with Headache, electronic musician Vegyn returns a year later with The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. This entrancing album embraces a wide array of production styles, from the orchestral ensembles on Everything is the Same and In the Front to the danceable and house-inspired Makeshift Tourniquet, it subtly reveals the cards that Vegyn has at his disposal as a producer. The mix of dazzling, ethereal, and spaced-out sounds with mildly melancholic lyrics littered throughout this project make listening an easy decision for fans of alternative and indie electronic music.
Favorites: The Path Less Traveled, Makeshift Tourniquet, Time Well Spent
3. Bruno Berle - ‘No Reino Dos Afetos 2’
Folk, Bossa Nova, Música Popular Brasileira
São Paulo-based songwriter Bruno Berle released No Reino Dos Afetos 2 this April as a follow-up to 2022’s No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to “In the Realm of Affections”). The instrumentation on this boundary-pushing yet traditional-inspired album is largely stripped back and often ambient, complementing Berle’s voice and allowing it to shine. From the outset, Berle’s voice serves as a gentle embrace, inviting you to engage in an intimate conversation with him that continues throughout the album, even as he experiments with vocal automation on the tracks Acorda e Vem and Dizer Adeus. This album is equally radiant and pensive; from start to finish it is emotionally rich and beautifully expressive.
Favorites: Te Amar Eterno, Margem Do Céu, Tirolirole
4. Lynda Dawn - ‘11th Hour’
Funk, Soul, R&B
Following the success of 2019’s At First Light, with standouts like Move, and Fonk Street, comes the sophomore album 11th Hour from Lynda Dawn, the graceful London-born singer, producer, and songwriter. Dawn takes a different approach on this album, opting for more expansive, dreamy, and layered musical performances over the primarily electronic and synthy sounds found on her debut album. The intro track alone is heavenly enough to transport you back in time to a period where the likes of Minnie Ripperton, Dionne Warwick, and Dorothy Ashby were performing in their primes. End to end, this album is incredibly authentic, drawing inspiration from the aforementioned artists while including uniquely lush and vocally brilliant performances.
Favorites: Where You Are, Love is Callin’, 11th Hour
5. SALIMATA - ‘Wooden Floors’
Hip-Hop, Rap
SALIMATA is a budding artist taking New York's vibrant underground rap scene by storm. Primarily inspired by a scene from the 80's comedy Risky Business comes Wooden Floors, a pure hip-hop tape with punchy yet silky-smooth production laden with soul samples throughout. SALIMATA effortlessly flows from track to track with skillful, quick-witted, comedic rhymes and unique cadences that keep you at the edge of your seat. Featuring fellow underground rappers Pink Siifu and MIKE, who also released a great collaboration album with Tony Seltzer in March, this album is an amazing follow-up to 2023’s OUCH.
Favorites: G00DAYII, Dishes, u kno who u are
Honorable Mention: lani! - mixed (e)motions*
Hip-Hop, Rap
Rapper, producer, and South Florida native, lani! released his debut album, mixed (e)motions*, in May after delivering the emphatic singles omg and way up! a few months prior. It’s difficult to describe the overall sound of this album as it features elements of cloud, punk, and rock-rap with production ranging from soft and tempered guitar melodies to heavy head-banging rage beats. The subject matter on mixed (e)motions* touches on just that, with tracks including everything from themes of despair to hope for love and brash braggadocio. This project is a testament to lani!’s deep production bag and knack for unconventional approaches. Be sure to keep an ear to the ground as this emerging artist continues to release music in the years to come.
Favorites: faceplant, like that, floor