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NPR Music releases its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2024

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Today, NPR Music releases its list of the 50 best albums of 2024. And as usual, everyone was in complete agreement with no dissenting opinions or debate of any kind. Correct, Ann Powers?

ANN POWERS, BYLINE: (Laughter) Oh, 100%. You know how we critics are. We just love to agree with each other.

MARTÍNEZ: Love to agree - that, of course - Ann Powers of NPR Music. All right. So before we get started, take us inside the process because obviously, this is not a science. It's entirely based on personal opinion. So how does this list get decided?

POWERS: Well, A, I think it's how you define opinion because the NPR Music team is an array of experts, right? I mean, we have the people who book the Tiny Desk. We have our podcasters. We have our writers and our editors, and every one of us brings a lot of experience and knowledge. So it's a monthslong process. We hash it out. We nominate hundreds of albums and songs, and eventually, we refine and we figure out what the best are.

MARTÍNEZ: We refine. Is that argue? Is that another word for argue?

POWERS: (Laughter) Oh, yes (laughter).

MARTÍNEZ: So I was wondering if you were going to try and sneak somehow Kendrick Lamar into this list. I mean, he dropped a surprise album just, what - a little more than a week ago? So that was just as NPR Music was wrapping up their very well-curated planning. So I mean, how did Kendrick maybe throw a wrench in things?

POWERS: I'm glad you asked that because honestly, the reception to "GNX" has been mixed. And I personally really like it. You know, I love Kendrick's flow and it's just fun to listen to.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TV OFF")

KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) Mustard...

POWERS: It was Sheldon Pearce who wrote a great essay about the album, and it's all about how Kendrick is, like, kind of resetting hip-hop for the next decade or maybe even century, and he convinced all of us. And so now it's on our list.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TV OFF")

LAMAR: (Singing) Ain't no other king in this rap thing, like siblings. Nothing but my children, one shot, they disappearing. I'm in a city with a flag be getting thrown like it was pass interference. Padlock around the building. Crash, pulling up in unmarked truck just to play freeze tag. With a bone to pick like it was sea bass...

MARTÍNEZ: So the genres on this list are a wild mix, Ann. I mean, I see hip-hop, classical, death metal, Afrobeats. I mean, is there an album on this list that you personally, Ann, had not heard before but have since listened to and appreciated?

POWERS: Yes. And I have to shout out my friend and colleague Lars Gotrich for this. It's a Brazilian album by the artist Luiza Brina. I have to say, I think it's pronounced "Prece." I'm not a speaker of Portuguese. This is a gorgeous album of secular prayers that really captures what's happening in Brazilian music right now.

And here's what happened. Like, I had fallen down a Brazilian music rabbit hole on streaming services. I was just finding all kinds of things, and I was bragging about this essentially (laughter), you know, to my team. And Lars is like, guess what? Me too. And then he brought me this record, and I was absolutely blown away.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ORACAO 2")

LUIZA BRINA: (Singing in Portuguese).

POWERS: That's the greatest thing. It's like mutual discovery. It just makes me want to say, everybody, talk to your friends. Like, share music. It really - it enriches your life so much.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. More - I guess, the more music is spread around the world, the better. Now, let's talk about one of the albums that you wrote about for this list, an artist who was impossible to avoid in 2024...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE")

SABRINA CARPENTER: (Singing) Please, please, please don't prove I'm right.

MARTÍNEZ: ...Sabrina Carpenter. Her album "Short 'N Sweet" really might, by some, be written off as, eh, just a simple collection of pop songs, but you heard more.

POWERS: Yeah, I did. Sabrina Carpenter is a multipronged talent. And this little album - it tells a whole story of romantic misadventure. It's so funny. It's so earthy and sexy. Check out the deep cuts, not just the hits, not just "Please Please Please" and "Espresso," but try, for example, "Slim Pickins." I mean, this feels like it could have been in a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SLIM PICKINS")

CARPENTER: (Singing) Jesus, what's a girl to do? This boy doesn't even know the difference between there, their and they are. Yet he's naked in my room, missing all the things he's missing. God knows that he isn't living large. A boy who's nice that breathes, I swear he's nowhere to be seen. It's slim pickings. If I can't have the one I love, I guess it's you that I'll be kissing.

POWERS: For me, one of the trends this year was women giving side-eye. I mean, this was a great year...

MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).

POWERS: ...For women talking back to guys, you know?

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

POWERS: And I can't object to that.

MARTÍNEZ: So Ann, leave us with your favorite album of the year. What was it?

POWERS: OK. This is such a beautiful album. It's by an artist named Cassandra Jenkins. It's called "My Light, My Destroyer." If you've ever loved, say, the music of Laurie Anderson, for example, or if you like artists like Caroline Polachek, artists who split the difference between pop and kind of avant-garde, you're going to love this record. It is about love and loss and grieving. It's about cosmic connections.

But most of all, it's about making the ordinary magical, you know, seeing the way that a strange coincidence, like, walking into a pet store and locking eyes with a lizard, as she writes about in the song "Petco," how that, like, brings grace and beauty to your life. And I really needed that this year.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PETCO")

CASSANDRA JENKINS: (Singing) It's become my second nature to wander through the pet store and stare into the sideways gaze of a lizard. Doesn't always make me feel better, just less alone.

MARTÍNEZ: I'm going to go find me a pet store and lock eyes with a lizard.

POWERS: (Laughter).

MARTÍNEZ: That's what I want to do. That's Ann Powers of NPR Music. Their list of the 50 best albums of 2024 is out today. Go to nprmusic.org and start listening. Ann, thank you very much for all your work on this.

POWERS: It was a pleasure. Keep listening.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PETCO")

JENKINS: (Singing)...For a heart-shaped duct-tape wallet. Thirty years, and I've never... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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A Martínez
A Martínez is one of the hosts of Morning Edition and Up First. He came to NPR in 2021 and is based out of NPR West.