Every Single Album - The Best Five Albums of 2024

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Nora and Nathan count down their five favorite albums from this year in pop music. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? Chris Vernon here and welcome to a new season of the NBA and the mismatch. And huge welcome as well to my new co-host, Dave Jacoby. I can't wait to link with you twice a week every Tuesday and Friday right here on the mismatch to break down everything that's happening in the league. Who's playing well, who we loved, who we loathed, trade rumors, team dysfunction. We've got you covered right here. So follow us, subscribe and hit us with those five-star ratings on Spotify or wherever you get your. your podcast. And also don't forget to follow us on social media. That's at Ringer NBA and check out the full mismatch episodes with the two handsomest podcasters in the history of podcasting right on

the Ringer NBA YouTube channel. Welcome to every single album. I'm Nora Preciati. And as always, I am joined by Nathan Hubbard. Nathan, did you have a good Thanksgiving? My Spotify rap thinks I'm gay. Oh boy. Okay. Say more. I mean, it, this all I've been doing is listening to all of the candidates for album of the year. And it called my May, my pink Pilates princess strut pop phase. That's what it said about May, because I was listening to Sabrina Carpenter, Charlie XX, and Taylor Swift. My Thanksgiving was great. But it feels like, well, you say that again, your pink Pilates princess strut pop phase. Honestly, that sounds awesome. I hope it never ends. I was going to say, you know what? Yes.

Great. I'm thrilled to hear it. I actually have to confess, I've had a bit of a long day. Oh, no. Really? And today we're recording on the day that that Spotify rep came out. I, as a Spotify employee, I haven't looked at mine yet. Wow. Well, why don't we unbox it on this podcast? Should we do it? Should I do it right now? Yeah. I mean, don't wait for all of the... Okay, let's do it. I'm clicking through, going to spare you guys all of that. What is it? My job artist. Yes. Probably a surprise to no one, although actually kind of a surprise to me.

I'm going to be honest, it's Taylor Swift. Yes. I thought it was going to be Charlie. Okay. But number two is Charlie. Number three, can you guess who number three is? Sabrina? No, she's number four.

Number three is like extremely Noracore. Oh, wait. Why am I not getting it? It's Duelipa. Of course. That's the dumbest thing that's ever happened on this. podcast, me not guessing that. And then number five.

Number five. This is why we shouldn't do live readings. Number five is the 1975. Wow. Yes. Did not have a release. Really? What have you been rocking the 1975? This is so

like this just shows you the songs that I hyper fixated on at one point. Okay. My top song of 2024. is on the dance floor wow it's not a ski trip what on earth

I went on a ski trip and I just spent like six hours at a time like throwing myself down a mountain listening to murder on the dance floor on repeat that I do think that made an impression yeah that song slaps um okay this is all the same

yeah Taylor Swift number one one. You heard it here first. I'll have to check out whether my December was like, uh, you know, sad girl Dutch oven cinnamon vibes or if I too was a pink Pilates princess. I hope I was. Well, Spotify's going to let you know. Yeah. I feel good about that. I'm, I really, I did think that Charlie was going to be my top artist. I'm surprised that it wasn't. Well, there's less volume. Yeah. plotless volume to Brat

than to the tortured poets department and also the entire discography of Taylor Alson's At some point offline I want you to tell me what percentage of Taylor listens you ended up being in were you 5% it's getting weirder because the core fan base

like the crazy core fan base is now streaming this shit in their sleep just so that they can post that they're in the point zero zero one percent I will post the rest of it I will post the rest of it once I go through it more granularly while we're not on a podcast right now. Okay. But that's fun.

Glad we got to do that. The rest of what we're going to do today, kind of in the spirit of wrapped, right? It's wrap up season. It's like end of year list season. It's top songs of the year list season. It's top albums of the year list season. And we're going to do ours today. And because this is every single album.

Yes. Great. this is every single album, we're doing albums. Yes, we are. We're going to do our top five albums of the year, each of us. And I always find these types of lists sort of interesting to think about how you want to go about them. Because there is some desire to be, like, representative. You want to acknowledge the things that were big in culture that people really, you know, spent time with and that sparked discourse.

but you also want to be true to the stuff that was just sort of like your random faves and stuff that got you going. Did you have a particular list building philosophy, Nathan? My list building philosophy was what did I listen to the most? And I in fact have some honorable mentions that made me flip out, but that I didn't listen to the most. Now, the problem as it is with the rest of my life is it's very hard to separate this. podcast from me as a human being, which is Spotify's thing, right? That's why they think that I had May Pink Pony Club because I did have May Pink Pony Club. I also had June and July and August Pink Pony Club. So we covered, if you go back and look at what we did through Pop Girl Spring,

we covered almost all of the album of the year nominees within a very few. days of them being released, which is super cool and super fun. But that's the stuff that I listened to this year. And as we've talked about, I don't really have a problem with the Grammy nominations for album of the year. Those are the ones that I would have picked. The Jacob Collier and Andre 3000 flute albums aside, there are a few others that I might have slipped in there. But of the big hitters, that's what we talked about on this podcast. And so it's not like I've got some out of left field curveball. There are things that I fell in love with this year

that we didn't really cover in full on the pod that I would slip in for sure here. But you're not going to be surprised. I don't think with what's on my list, maybe you're going to be surprised with the order. I'm really interested now to hear if that's the case for you, though. Yeah, no, that's the case for me too,

to the extent that, well, I think there might be one surprise, but I think in general to the extent that we're quibble. It's the order. And, you know, that even comes with the caveat that the difference between my fifth favorite album of the year and my fourth favorite album of the year depends on the day probably in the mood in reality. But it's fun to sort of force yourself

to rank them and to do the exercise. This is a weird year in one aspect in that one of the albums that I think defined this year, which was Chaplain's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest, did not come out this year. Can I tell you I really was hoping that you were going to put it on your list and then I was going to and that you were going to overlook that, but you're too smart for that. Darn it.

I was never going to overlook it. However, I did like think about making the argument for, yeah, sure, it came out last year, but this year it really impacted people and made it smart. And I actually kind of do feel like that. But, you know, we'll work on the technical. basis for this list, but I just had to shout out, Chapel, one of the clear stars and winners of of 2024. There's no doubt. I mean, look, didn't make my list, but gets an honorable mention is Kendrick Lamar's GNX that he just dropped. Sure. I love the songs reincarnated. I love TV

off. Not like us. It's not on GNX. And that for me is the reason why I'm not sure. I listen, I love the album. I think it's really cool. I'm still learning it. It's still early. But I feel like, you know, in the same way. Like, Chapel, good luck, babe, her best song, or not best song, her highest streaming song is not on that album. Putting aside the fact that it was a last year thing, we're talking about albums, not just songs. Well, without further ado,

I think we should go 5, 4, 321. Yeah, for sure, we should. So will you tell me what your number five album of the year was, Nathan Hubbard? It's the tortured poets department, Nora. Okay, here we go. Talk to me. Yeah, I think I feel the same way about this album that I did the night that it came out. There are a few songs that have become more embedded in, I think, the public vernacular.

I think I can do it with a broken heart. You were on to earlier than I was. But Daddy, I love him and the rejection of the fan base. To me is still one of the most fascinating bits of writing that she's done. The Black Dog I'm still deeply in love with. And I hope it's shitty in the Black Dog when someone is the starting lighting. I think Down Bad is the coolest.

Now I'm down bad crying at the gym. Everything comes out teenage petulance. Even if the live live. presentation of it actually bummed me out a little bit because I don't like to think about it as an alien abduction. I just like to think about her completely wiped out in the gym and just the honesty of that. But I think this is an album that is not her best album. And that is perfectly okay because it was a must right to survive kind of album. Not about the relationship that we thought. in Joe Alwyn.

What about the relationship that we thought we understood but clearly didn't in the relationship with Maddie Healy? And I am thankful for it. Front man of my number five musical group of 2020. Shotify. Yeah.

And current just, I mean, incredible shooter of his own dick every time he gets on Twitter. Like, what a dumb fucking guy. Get off, Maddie. I love you,

but get off. It's just enough already. Just put down the device. Somebody delete that shit from his phone. He just can't, he can't separate himself from the character that he plays. And anyway, he certainly was playing a character for Taylor Swift. And it created this album that I think I still feel the same way about, which is that when I put it on from start to finish,

by the time I am in the high 20s of songs, it is all starting to run together. And it feels like things that I've either heard before or that don't really advance the ball musically to a way that would resonate deeply with me such that I'd come back. I'm really glad that I heard them once or twice because I learned about her. I just don't feel the need to go back to them front to back.

By the way, one of my top songs for the song for the year was down bad. So that was on my Spotify rap. But I don't come back to this as an album front to back. I come back to sample little pieces of it. And in the aggregate, I think it is still probably fewer than 12 songs that I come back to on the regular basis. How do you feel about that album? There's an irony to that in that, you know, if you think about just sort of like the state of the album in 2024 and what people did with their albums, they were. were either it seemed like incredibly long or literally called short and sweet, like very short. Yeah.

A 12-song album is a perfectly respectable album, and there's a really good 12-song album in there. Yeah, you said that from the very beginning. And in hindsight now, and we're going to talk a lot more about Taylor Swift as the Erez tour concludes this coming weekend. I think we're going to go all in on that next week. there is something about the quest for milestones and records and numbers that I don't think was the primary driver behind releasing all of this music at once. But in hindsight at the end of this year, as we hear about this book, there was no editor on this book, it sounds like. And there wasn't a whole lot of editing on this album, and that is her prerogative as somebody who creates, I think, don't you? I mean, it is her prerogative. I think it's her prerogative.

It doesn't mean that it's an artistic ideal. That's it for me. And so when we go to best, I think there was an incredibly strong case for midnight. I think there was an incredibly strong case for folklore. I also think there was an incredibly strong case for Evermore. Holiday album, for those of you who don't listen to the pie. Happy Evermore season, everybody. Yep. But I think I think 1989 had an open and shut case. I think on and on. This one to me felt like expression. And maybe that was part of it, is the ramblings of a broken heart and of a madwoman

who is in a place in society that very few human beings on earth have ever experienced. And just understanding what it must be like to be in that mind is what this album is about. That makes it super interesting. And as a standalone album for me, it was really, really good. And it wasn't her best. And that is perfectly okay. It wasn't the point. It's still my fifth best of the year for fuck's sake. That's how good this woman is. Yeah. Well, we'll come back to Taylor again. Can I give you my number five? Please. So. So by Peter Gabriel? That's one of my top five of all time. but that was in the 80s.

Maybe I should rethink exactly what album that fit this category got this nod for number five for me if we're going by what did we spend the most time with based on Duolipa showing up on my Spotify wrapped. It is not radical optimism. But I did end up choosing one of the albums that were part of a group that when we discussed them. They were albums that we really liked, but that there was something about them that felt a little bit slight or that they weren't quite clearing a bar. Did you cave on Gracie?

I did not cave on Gracie. Okay. But number five for me is Ariana Grande, Eternal Sunshine. Come on. Did you see Wicked last weekend? I actually have not seen wicked yet. I'm so excited to see wicked, but I have not seen wicked yet. This album is really good. This album, so the category of albums that I'm describing, I think this album falls into that category. I think radical optimism falls into that category a little bit. The albums that we discussed. Wait a minute. When we discussed this album, you said, if she doesn't care, why should I? Because you felt like she was super. per-focused on wicked.

I think you felt that way a little bit more than I did, but I agree that that was part of the sentiment that we were feeling- Did this thing burrow its way into your mind, like a RFK Jr. Earworm? What happened? Yes, yes. The brainworm, my brainworm is very small and has dyed her hair blonde. Like, every time I revisit this album. Huh. There's something about, I think, the fact that it came out and it was, it was early in the slew of just that time in the early spring when it was like week after week, these heavy hitters were putting out albums. And I think there was so much sort of pressure. And we had, you know, we had Taylor and Beyonce putting out these albums that were 20 or 30 plus tracks long and had these like

high concept framings. And it just felt like, you know, it just felt like, there needed to be this identifiable thing that made it capital I important. And I wonder if I got a little too caught up on that when we were talking about

Ariana the first time because I do think this album lacks that. You have been watching too many of these TikToks where people try to do the defying gravity. Oh, shit in the background

where they try to repeat that. I don't think that's it because here's the thing. If I watch those TikToks, you know what I come away with understanding, man is Ariana Grande, an amazing singer. Man, does she have an incredible instrument? This album, my favorite song on that album is Supernatural.

And I know every time I say that, too, you're like, supernatural. Like what? No, I like Supernatural. I know you like it, but it doesn't set, like it wasn't a number one. It's not what you think you're getting when you put Ariana Grande and Max Martin together in a room. Right? Fair?

Yeah, but I thought it was one of the best songs on the album. It is stunning. Okay. It is just so beautiful to listen to. It's like her voice is ethereal. It has such a light touch. I just, like, I have found myself coming back and spending what feels to me like a lot of time with that album.

Maybe that's a little bit of recency by it. maybe I've been doing it more and more recently and that's why I feel it clearly the metrics say I spent more time with the dulype album I suppose but I that has been one that has to me felt like an album that I will still

want to press play on a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. And it's not because it has a thank you next sized hit. Thank you. Right.

But I just think from pretty much top to bottom, with the exception of the interludes, which, like, let's all make a pact, no interludes in 2025. Honestly, no more grandma. I'm sorry. Even if it means no more grandma, we're just done with the interludes. I'm done with the interludes. In general, I listen to that album and I hear professionals making really stunning music. together. And to me, that is worthy of a placement on the list. Well, I really love, I wish I hated you from that album. I'm guilty. I still feel saying I wish I hated you. So I don't blame you. I sort of blame you

for going number five. But I'm going to give you a chance to talk about what, you know, didn't make the list. And I want to hear the rest of your thing. Well, so what you need to slide right into number four then. Okay. So we'll do it snake draft style. And that's actually helpful because my number four, this is where I have the tortured poets department. Okay. And everything that you said, I mean, it better be above the Ariana album. The are. That's not a knock on. I'm just, come on. All right. Talk to me. I think like if I think about what, you know, I'm trying to. not to talk about this album and just talk about its failings, right? Because I think most people

sort of acknowledge that there are parts of tortured poets, the length, and some of the sort of heavy-handedness and lack of an editor that most people feel like weren't as effective as Taylor Swift is capable of being. But what I was trying to do is isolate the things that I think she did this year that were, were superlative and really truly excellent and interesting. And the common thread in basically like all of the examples that I have that, to me, I think, qualify for that, are there the moments where she got really mad? The fact that on this album, we have like really for the first time, Taylor Swift sang to her fans and her most ardent supporters in some ways, like kind of F you.

And you won't let me... It's a little bit like her going through the kitchen this week, as you pointed out, before we came on the air. I told Nathan before we logged on that I was really thrilled to read the blind item that said that when Taylor Swift and Gigi Veed went to the Waverly Inn for dinner last night as we're recording this in New York, that they went through the kitchen, which is something that she often doesn't do and it always flummoxes me. like why, you know, celebrities do that all the time. And so that, that brought me a strange amount of, like, internal piece, which is something that I should probably work through with a licensed professional. But the fact that on, but Daddy, I love him, Taylor Swift, at this moment in her career, said,

fuck all the wine moms. All the wine moms are still holding now. But fuck, girl, it's over. Like, I'll be thinking about that forever. That is genuinely something that is like, you know, and it's in a package that I think is artistically, like, that's a beautiful song in a lot of ways. It's a really listenable song in a lot of ways.

We've talked about how much we dig, how it sort of turns into a country song at the end. You can just press play, but there's also something thematically incredibly compelling about that to me. And something that is not what we, we've heard from her before. And if that, musically at least,

was something that tripped us up with the album to the extent that it did for something that was still, you know, my top artist of this year. Vipers dressed in Empath's clothing.

Like, that's a bar. Judgmental creeps, sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. Save the most judgmental creeps who say they want what's best me sanctimoniously performing soliloquies. And it's so, like you mentioned the book, and I do think it's really almost makes me feel like she's living in parallel universes or like I'm living in a parallel universe or something,

where there seem to be these competing impulses where like in the art, she has said a few things that I think to me reveal what I assume is a core truth that that they're, There are some times and maybe a lot of times when she feels the push pull of the people who are the most active in, you know, supporting her work and supporting her career, she feels like she is living in a prison of that creation. And she is mad as hell that she can't, you know, date whoever she wants as questionable as some of those choices may be. These people only raise you to cage you. That is like a pretty stark admission from the person in her position. And then we have the moments where, you know, she's out. She's selling the book.

She's trying to end the era's tour with a big high note. She's so weird. She's so weird. I love it so much. Right. It's, it is fascinating. Because it's like if you feel like this, don't you know, I know like money is great. That's cool.

You have so much. much money. It's not about the money. It's just, she is just driven to be. She can't stop. She can't stop. It's why the next phase of her life is the most fascinating ever. Can she actually stop? She's going to get off the biggest tour in history. Offstage, I'm sure some part of her needs wants, looks forward to this rest. She's in. a mature adult loving relationship, can she just be still in it? Or is she going to keep flying to Kansas City

from Nashville for the day and then back to Nashville and then to New York? Because God knows, she's doing something. She's not just putting up her feet in Kansas City. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I truly don't know.

And that is because it does, it pulls in both directions. You know, ultimately this, this ends up being my number four album. And part of that is because there are real, I think, missteps in the execution of this record. I think there's fluff in a way that there hasn't really been on a Taylor Swift album before. At the same time, if you do make that 10, 12, 15 even song album, I think actually contained within that there's some like startlingly good work. and most of it, you know, but Daddy I Love Him.

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me remains one of my absolute favorite songs. You should be. I can do it with a broken heart is not expressing me anger, but it's an expression of the source of a lot of the anger. Absolutely. It's the you don't know me. You don't have any idea how good of a mask I can put on. And then the smallest man, whoever,

lived. I mean, that bridge is like mean, mean in a way that to me is is like jaw dropping and I'll never stop thinking about it. And that and like that portion of the album, you know, maybe that's my number two album or my number one album. Right. Right. Like that's an album that I think rival, you know, that's not that's an album that might be better than Midnights. I might like it better than folklore. Like, I might like it better than some of the recent stuff.

So it's, it's, I feel really split, but that put me in a place of number four. You didn't measure up in any measure of a man. You didn't measure of any measure of a man. That is a wild thing to put on an album from the same person that's like doing a different target pre-sale every other week it feels like. Like those are different modalities. Yeah, it's quite a thing. What a woman.

We're going to talk more about her next week. My number four is Brat. Wow. One of the things that I will remember most about our pod this year is when you and I came back together to record the Brat podcast a few days after it came out. And the way that we crept really slowly into feeling each other out about it, because I think we both couldn't actually believe how good it was. And we had talked about a lot of really good albums already through the spring. And we were both ready to give this thing an A.

And it just didn't feel real. It was for me that moment of realization that holy crap, we are in a really big moment in 2024 for female pop stars. And it's happening. And they're one-upping each other with completely different lanes. And that there was real genius to this piece of work. So it is an exquisite piece of work that shows how constraints breed creativity, right? In the limited number of sounds that come on this album, It is by far the most brilliantly marketed album of the year.

To me, it is four and not one, because if I'm being like brutally honest, I enjoy listening to it all the way through, but that's not how I ultimately will come back and listen to it all the way through. I will skip over a few things. I'll probably skip over rewind. I like everything as romantic.

It doesn't, I skip everything is romantic Yeah I mean I mean like there's some other parts of this album that don't

I don't skip the remix but I think the original Yeah that I don't need front to back but like Apple you need and

girl so confusing you need and so I you need to me anyway By the way, did you see that George did the apple dance? Yes, I loved it. That meant a shocking amount to me. Did you see that Harry Stiles' ex-girlfriend gave her a mug with cigarettes and a rose in it?

People, one thing people love to do is present Charlie with gift items made out of cigarettes. It's kind of a weird thing to become your thing. but that's fine. Obviously. I think it was because she said she wanted people to stop giving her paupers at her shows. So they just came up with like, what can we do instead?

Well, there you go. I think about it all the time. It is unbelievable. But I'm never going to get over Barack Obama putting 365 on his list. That might be my favorite moment of our podcast from this year was when I had to convince you,

that it was 365 instead of 360 on the Barack Obama playlist. Just that alone might have undercut faith in our institutions completely. Not mine. That's all I got. All I got anymore, Nathan, it's just Barack Obama bumping 365. Well, this is an amazing. amazing album that really my first real interaction with it was that fucking video

where I was like, what the hell is this? This is just a hot mess like George Michael I want your sex video or something. Like it just absolutely incredible. All right. Is it my turn? Of course it is.

Okay, so my number three, this is where I have Beyonce's Cowboy Carter. And, you know, I think something like maybe just going through this exercise, I've asked myself the question of when we talk about Beyonce and when we talk about Taylor, like what was it that drove the two biggest pop superstars to make these albums this year that had brilliant stuff, but were just a little heavy-handed in their own ways? But again, I come back to, you know, I can do without Blackbird.

I can do without Jolene. Like, that cover really didn't work for me. Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Take these sunken eyes and learn to see. Jolene, I know I'm a queen, Jolene. When I dig through and get to Yaya, and bodyguard and river dance. There's just like some absolutely spectacular work on this album.

And I think it's made me think that to some degree, I think the consensus around this album where, you know, as we talked about, I think you hear the word like homework and dissertation and stuff like that get invoked around Cowboy Carter. And this is not to say that I don't think that's necessarily fair to a degree. But like, if it's a homework assignment,

if it's a dissertation, it's getting an A. Like she did a, she did the most thorough job. The musicians are incredible musicians. Every little touch, every little place where a song changes and morphs into something else. Like it is just a really expertly, crafted body of music. And it's not the entire album

that, you know, I don't play it top to bottom. But some of my favorite songs of the year are on Cowboy Carter. And I also, you know, look, I have it above Taylor, even though, like, I probably spent more time with Taylor. I did, according to Spotify. In some ways, I like that album better

because it's just, you know, she means an incredible amount to me. I'm always sort of oriented to be really interested in what Taylor Swift is doing. I'm very interested in what Beyonce does, but it's a little bit different. But I do think that if we're talking about sort of like the sprawl of tortured poets, some of the ways in which that felt haphazard or in need of an editor, Cowboy Carter, whether you're bogged down by some of it or not, that was not haphazard. No, there's purpose to every bit of it. Yeah.

And so I found myself wanting to reward that. That's where I came. And I had it as my number two because I just continued to be fascinated with it as a piece of art. I think it's a history lesson. I think it is a incredibly important. important reflection and mirror for where we are, particularly in the United States, in this moment in our history. It just everybody has a reaction to it from all ends of the political, gender, socioeconomic spectrum. And it says a ton of things about America. It says a ton of,

the response to it and the reaction to it says a ton of things about America, about the music business, but the music itself is a history lesson in country music. And while I'm with you that, like, Jolene, I enjoy it, and this is an album I listen to from front to back because it feels like a fun book on tape. It certainly wants you to listen to it from front to back. Yeah. To me, it feels like a book on tape. Like it's like you got to go all the way, an audio book, I should say. It's like you got to go all the way through it to get the point. of that lesson. And I just enjoy it.

I think that the lesson and the impact of the art, we've spoken about this, is not over yet. I think it's going to rear its head at the Grammys, regardless of whether or not it wins. And whether or not it wins is going to speak volumes about how the academy functions and there will be consequences one way or the other based on whether or not this album wins album of the year.

So I think it's a really fascinating, deep, rich text that really matters as an album. And also as a platform that elevated other artists, right? I mean, you know, the co-sign of Shibuzzi in a year when he also had a huge hit separate from Cowboy Carter. I think that's interesting. You know, I get why people have varying degrees of index. interest in the, okay, are we elevating, you know, Linda Martel because it's a smart thing to do and a worthwhile thing to do and sort of a history lesson? Or is this actually like just truly the best artistic choice? I get that there's a reasonable debate about that stuff. I guess I just like,

the thing that I push up against is the idea that like, we don't kind of need this history lesson. I think the reaction to the album kind of bears out that that was essential and that that was important and that that came from, you know, this album that came from a lived experience of Beyonce's, I think everything that she's talking about, the way that it was put into the world, as you said, has only sort of shined a light on how prescient and revealing it actually was. Well, I just wish she'd done more work because I think that the tentacles of this thing could have percolated or dug themselves more deeply into the music. consciousness of the mainstream

had she actually done more work. Promoting it. Yeah. Or making a video with Miley. Or she's going to do some work now. You wanted more Levi's jeans. Yeah.

I wanted more than a sink in the Levi's jeans commercial. I did. And I think you know, there's an interesting way to put out music, which Kendrick just did, which is you just fucking drop it. You don't tell anybody. You don't market it.

You just put it out. And bam, it goes. The opposite end of the spectrum is what Charlie did, which is to create a whole color and season and adjective. And, uh, well, and there's an irony in that part of that spectrum has basically been defined by Beyonce. Yeah.

Right? Like she changed how people thought about album releases by dropping a surprise album. Yeah. Now at this point, she's kind of going back to the traditional thing or at least chose to. Yeah. there's just so much noise that it's possible to get songs to punch through. It's really hard to get an entire work that should be treated as an album together.

In the same way that like, you know, in a lot of cases you're more inclined to watch a shorter piece of content, you know, the TikTokization of the world, right? And watch a shorter piece of video than a long thing. I'll tell you that my number three is somebody who really did that work and actually busted through with a song but has been out hustling all year and that's Sabrina Carpenter's short and sweet and for as much to me

the defining characteristic of this album is that as big a hit as espresso was and we had a little bit of a sense that please please please was coming right behind it and we've talked about how there was some internal discussion around which of those songs should go first. You know, ironically, they obviously probably were interchangeable because they sat at the top of the chart for long periods of time, followed by taste.

But I love the songs that are at least not yet hits on this album. I think Juno is an incredible song. I think Sharpest Tool is still probably my favorite. You're confused and I'm upset. We never talk about it. The Jack Antonoff produced track here. And that to me is the telltale. It was the most surprising album I listened to.

I thought it was going to have some fluffier pop hits and then maybe a little bit of filler in between the lines. And I think you can go, I just don't think there's a skip on this album. And I can go start to back and the intelligence of the writing stands out for me. Yes, it's smart, horny, but there is a depth to what she wrote on this album. And I think, you know, I saw it live again just a few weeks ago. And the show got better and the selling of the songs got even better in a short period of time. So I really love this album and it was my third favorite of the year. I had it second. And it is just to me,

this is an album that is like better than it, way better than it, sort of had any right to be, but also just definitely way better than it needed to be. Right. Yeah, that's a great point. Once she had those songs, it did not need to be this good.

Like anywhere near this good. It didn't need, like this album did not need to have a Juno. It didn't need to have a bed cam. Right. They're really, you know, I have a little, as is sort of our tradition,

the slower, a little bit more introspective, less of beat songs don't grab me as much as they do you. But there's, I mean, I'm certainly not going to sit here and say that I don't think that there is really smart lyrical writing, even if I hit play a little bit less off. How do you feel about Juno? I mean, at the live show, Juno was unequivocally the highest energy moment of the She gets everybody down on their knees. She's up elevated on this heart.

And then she says, jump and everybody gets up and goes bananas. You know what's funny is that I have noticed that outside of, you know, being in a CVS or hearing the radio or something, the places where it's sort of really gears toward just what are the songs that have the numbers and the metrics. The songs that I am hearing people really like seek out right now. They are Juno and they are bed cam. Yep. They're those two songs. It's actually not, you know, people are still listening to espresso.

People will always still be listening to espresso. And same for taste, same for please, please, please. But I think just because, like, people have spent a lot of time with those songs and there is still more to go to. Yeah. Those are the songs that I'm hearing them in. Juno's a hit. It's a hit. Like, it's playing in the workout classes.

It's playing when people are having parties. I've made my case to as many people who will listen to me that Juno is the one. Juno is a hit, but Juno is also a wild song. Like, what was the meeting like? What was the first like, hey, I have this idea for a song where you know how espresso is sort of like, it's like those your love is my drug songs,

but instead of a drug, it's caffeine. Well, this one is like, I love him and I'm thinking about that through the lens of the teen pregnancy movie Juno. Like that writing session

is a crazy writing session. In a weird way, I know this is a weird example, but like I don't think you do that unless you really care and like really have an idea that you think is good. Well, there were a lot of smart people

in that room, a lot of highly accomplished creatives. Beneta, Amy Allen What a year for Amy Allen Yeah, quite a year Julian Benetta too, absolutely

but like what a year for Amy Allen let it just be acknowledged Yeah It's a really good one And it endures for me It has not When I listen to stuff too much It can feel sore

Like if you like scratch your arm for too long then all of a sudden you're ski It just kind of hurts This one Scratch me up like a dog with this thing. I can't get enough. All right.

Number two. Right? That's what you're on. You've two and one left. Yeah. And I just have one. Yes, that's right. And my two was Cowboy Carter.

So we're two number one. And I think we're going to see eye to eye on this. I don't. Oh, shit. I'm like positive. I know what yours is and it's not mine. Okay. Well, mine has hit me hard and soft.

Yeah. And, and, and... Oh, of course. I can't believe you didn't put it in me hard and soft

on your top five. Yeah. I'm stunned. But I'll, I'll make my case. Yeah, you make your case and then we'll talk it through.

Yeah, I just, this to me, start to back, drop my jaw to the floor. Like, I think sonically,

it never stops. It is incredibly interesting. Birds of a feather is a song unlike any that we've heard. Out of the gate, I felt like that was the biggest song

on the album, it became that, but La Mordima V is incredible. Wildflower is incredible. It is compact enough in 43 minutes and 10 songs that you never put the pen down. I never avert my gaze. I never stop intently listening. And front to back, it feels like the expression of an artist that I have to be honest, before the album came out, I wasn't sure if this was an all-timer.

Was Billy an all-timer? Like, I love everything that she's put out, I thought was really great. But to me, it was really like, is there more? Like, what can you actually do with this voice? I loved her last year, Christmas. Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas performance. I loved, you know, I admired her as an artist. I just wasn't sure is she an all-timer.

And this album made me an absolute, full-on faith believer. She is an all-timer. And being able to move from a genre blending into a genre blending style like this, just I think is astonishing. I think it is the best album that I heard this year. I adore it. I am interested to see if she ever does work without Phineas. I'm not asking for it because I think the two of them together in their little room,

in their little sort of, you know, stripped down studio stuff, however they make this stuff, it works and I don't ever want it to stop. That is totally how I felt when I listened the first time when we talked about it. I really thought it was beautiful. I thought, you know, I heard vocals that Billy hadn't really done before. And I still feel, you know, it's not that I feel differently about it. I just, that happened and I felt that way. And then I kind of stopped listening to it.

Interesting. And I think there was this really interesting push pull with Billy Eilish in general where, like, she bursts onto the scene and they're using the dental drill when they're making songs, you know, together in their room. and she wears baggy shorts, and there's this idea that, you know, she's different. This is sort of everything is new. She's almost avant-garde.

Like there's a strangeness that people really grasp onto. And then I think gradually, more and more, what's been very interesting to watch, I'm not the first person who's pointed this out. I think this has been, you know, written around a number of her albums, is like there's this real traditionalist that reveals itself. And I think that's cool. Like both sides of that to me are cool.

And it is the push pull is part of what makes her such an interesting artist. But I don't know. I think there were elements of the traditionalist that come through on Hit Me Hard and Soft, where a lot of the singing and a lot of the singing and a lot of the singing that I really admired and thought was beautiful on first list. Like, there's a crooning element to it that maybe the first time I heard it made me think it was really, really beautiful. But, like, with further time, and this is, I think this is a great album.

It probably, like, this is probably my first runner up. Okay. But it didn't bring me back. Like, I didn't end up feeling for all the different snippets and sort of cut and pasted sections of songs on this record, I guess I kind of felt like I knew it pretty quickly. And like I, it wasn't calling me back because the moments that felt like the high points were, you know, a soaring vocal here and there. But I could hear it in my head and I didn't, I didn't feel like there was more to uncover necessarily. Well, Birds of a Feather was my

number two most listened to song of the year. So that is a beautiful song. To me, it's an absolutely beautiful song. Lends the plane for me personally. Totally. Make the case for Brad being number one. First of all, I really, like, I should ask you this question because you've spent more time over more years

just sort of considering the music that came out over the course of a year than I have. But Brad to me feels like something, like we don't get one of these a year. We don't get one of these even every five years. where something that, like, truly becomes a phenomenon is both totally artistically worthy of it and also truly feels like it came from an organic place.

Like, the fact that Charlie XX, who has had huge mainstream radio hits, but then had sort of retreated into a more underground space and portion of her career, the fact that she just sort of kept at it, And then after, in her last album cycle, making in a tongue-in-cheek way, but making the, I'm going to quote-unquote sell out and make the type of album that I think I would make if I were just trying to hit a big.

And that, you know, and it performed okay, but it certainly didn't do this. Then after that, she leans this hard into being Rave Kid, club rat, like, with all the blog house people in the sort of like pockets of London and the Lower East side and doing all of that stuff. And she goes so hard in that direction, makes this album, which is as idiosyncratic as it is, which delves into ideas about what it is to be a pop star, the sort of like inter pop star relations. Maybe I am just a sucker for that because like I spend my time doing this. but does that all at once over the course of this album

that also proves this point about like what is the idea of a song or an album anyway? Is it something that is like fixed in time or permanent or can it be infinitely remixed in all of these different ways? To do something that accomplishes all of that but then also like has Jake Tapper on CNN being like what was a brat summer? I'm like flabbergasted by it.

I think the more I know we've had these conversations about it's it's sort of a marvel that it even got nominated for Grammys. Also like, you know, whatever. This is the album of the year. Like I feel like I'm taking crazy pills for any other argument. This is the album of the year. It is Brad. Interesting.

Do you think there's a chance that you live in a, a 20-something-year-old female bubble in New York City. And the onlineness of this is a little bit bigger than the actual streaming impact. It's definitely bigger than the actual streaming impact. Like, I know that, you know, if you do the numbers, relative to even the Ariana album, probably, it's not in the same space that obviously, you know, Taylor or

I think Billy, it's not going to stack up there or Sabrina. That to me is not that important. I think the music not quite top to bottom, but pretty close to top to bottom, is both intricate and listenable. I think, you know,

360 is one of the most fun songs of the year. It's a song that I want to listen to. I want to hear it out. I want to hear it getting ready in my apartment. I want to just like, I want to hear it at the gym. I want to hear it when I'm walking around running errands. I think Apple. Like Apple to me is one of the hits of the album, even if it was more about the dance than actual. No, I don't think so. Yeah. And then what she did with the remix album is really interesting too. Well, I was going to say, tell me about the remix album for you. Does it change how you, does it enhance? Do you think about it as part of this collection or just part of the marketing campaign? I think of it as part of the collection because I do think what she's saying about taking a DJ's mentality to making an album is really interesting and really draw. me in. I'm not so much saying that I think the remix album is as listenable and as like, I'm not combining them. I'm not making an argument for those two in the aggregate. I'm making

an argument for the original brat. But I do like, the specter of the remix album exists because Brat as an album starts with 360 and ends with 365, which like by the time you get there, that first song has been cut and spliced and messed with and reformatted in a billion different ways and they all sound good and that to me is really cool. So I'm invoking it as an idea that I think enhances the whole project more so than I want to make an argument for that music as much as I want to make an argument for the original set of songs. It just confirms that you're a hot mess, Nora. thrilled to be.

I mean, if there's one thing that comes through, it's that everybody in 2024 loved a hot mess. That's for sure. So maybe it was a definition of the year. I mean, I think really the only thing that we disagreed on here is you had no Billy and I had no Ariana. And that's fine. Again, I have a, you know,

I thought that Boni-Vary P was awesome, in particular that's song Spaceide and, award season are great. I've talked about Medium Builds album Country here. Those all get honorable mentions along with the Kendrick album for me. But I think those five, I feel really good about, I can accept your Ariana. I think you've been wicked-pilled, but I'll let you I'll let you turn green just once. I've been supernatural pilled. I have not

been wicked-pilled. I promise. We'll see. All right. Those are our talks. five albums of 2024. I do think that ending on the note that people just really love to hot mess this year, I think that's both truthful and appropriate. Just like this pod, Nora. Absolutely.

All right. Well, Nathan, I hope you have a great pink Pilates princess pony club afternoon. This was delightful. And next week, we'll get together and talk about the end of the EARS tour and whatever happens with that.

Let's do it. This has been every single album. As always, I'm Nora Princeati. He's Nathan Hubbard. Thank you so much to Kaya McMullen for producing this episode. And we'll talk to you soon.