THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.

- CRAIG JENKINS

1. Songs of a Lost World, The Cure

Reverting to a primal version of itself, the Cure retraces the steps leading up to our disconcerting present and wonders what went wrong. The new songs are thick but plush, intimidating but inviting, blustering but unhurried. It's the best the band has sounded this century.

2. #RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach-Hommy

On the East Coast rap mystic's latest, revolutionary politics and blunted braggadocios mix in tracks decrying "bloodsuckers" with "avaricious hypercapitalistic aims." Melted sample loops are the lingua franca here, but the title track is your reminder that this isn't one of those underground rappers allergic to a slippery groove.

3. The Thief Next to Jesus, Ka

The late Brooklyn rapper and firefighter's final album is a testament to his monklike poise and pointedness. Prodding Black church history for a thematic concept and sorting convention for samples, Ka inspects generational trauma and the resulting coping mechanisms. It all reads like a manifesto now.

4. Adjust Brightness, Bilal

The Soulquarians singer hasn't lost a step; his instrument - the closest thing to Prince's in its delicate, purposeful fraying of gorgeous falsetto runs - remains breathtaking in action. His first album in nine years reinstalls Bilal as a nexus joining jazz, funk, jungle, soul, and rock.

5. Dunya, Mustafa

The hushed folk tunes of the Sudanese Canadian singer-songwriter's debut album tug at the decade's most disheartening threads. "What Happened, Mohamed?" mourns a friendship ruined by growing neighborhood strife. "Gaza Is Calling" and "Beauty, end" speak to the all-too-common experience of bracing for the worst news of loved ones trapped in ethnic-cleansing operations across the globe.