I saw a YouTube video in December of 2024 by Kyle Reid Music on YouTube, "Who Actually Won 2024's Album of the Year?" In this video, Kyle Ried looks over several end of year best album lists and compiles the information on these lists to attempt a somewhat objective list of what critics, fans, and reviewers all believed were the best of the best albums released in the year 2024. Seeing his attempt at this, I thought, "Why don't I try this and see what the outcome is?" It took me several weeks to get all of the lists I wanted to include and to crunch the numbers, but I beleive I have an extensive and well made list. To make this quick, I looked at the year end lists of 26 diferent sources (websites, YouTubers, publications, etc.), gave point values to the top 15 entries on each list (15 points to #1, 14 points to #2, 13 points to #3 if they were in some sort of ranked order) and then totaled all of the points together to find the best albums of 2024. I also made a ranking of albums based on how many lists that album apeared on of the 15 sources I gathered, with the #1 album being mentioned on the most number of year end lists.

I will have a condensed version of both of those lists below, and a download of the complete Excel sheet I used to calculate and track everything below that.

Top Albums of 2024 (by points)
• 1st - brat by Charli XCX [319 points]
• 2nd - GNX by Kendrick Lamar [156 points]
• 3rd - Cowboy Carter by Beyonce [140 points]
• 4th - Songs of a Lost World by The Cure [139 points]
• 5th - Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman [113 points]
• 6th - Romance by Fontaines D.C. [108 points]
• 7th - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish [105 points]
• 8th TIE - Short 'n' Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter [99 points]
• 8th TIE - Chromakopia by Tyler, the Creator [99 points]
• 10th - Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt [89 points]
• 11th - Tiger's Blood by Waxahatchee [85 points]
• 12th - Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee [81 points]
• 13th - Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay [60 points]
• 14th - Night Palace by Mount Eerie [57 points]
• 15th - Aligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii [56 points]

Top Albums of 2024 (by number of lists)
• 1st - brat by Charli XCX [25 lists]
• 2nd - Songs of a Lost World by The Cure [19 lists]
• 3rd - GNX by Kendrick Lamar [18 lists]
• 4th TIE - Cowboy Carter by Beyonce [16 lists]
• 4th TIE - Chromakopia by Tyler, the Creator [16 lists]
• 6th TIE - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish [15 lists]
• 6th TIE - Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman [15 lists]
• 6th TIE - Short 'n' Sweet by Sabrina Carpenter [15 lists]
• 8th TIE - Charm by Clairo [14 lists]
• 8th TIE - Romance by Fontaines D.C. [14 lists]
• 8th TIE - Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt [14 lists]
• 8th TIE - Tiger's Blood by Waxahatchee [14 lists]
• 10th TIE- Aligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii [12 lists]
• 10th TIE- Two Star & The Dream Police by Mk.gee [12 lists]
• 10th TIE- Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend [12 lists]
• 12th TIE - Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee [11 lists]
• 12th TIE - No Name by Jack White [11 lists]
• 12th TIE - The Collective by Kim Gordon [11 lists]
• 14th TIE - Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker [10 lists]
• 14th TIE - Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons [10 lists]
• 14th TIE - Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay [10 lists]

If you would like to download the original Excel sheet, click here.