Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I’m a bit of an addict when it comes to listening to music. I’ve been that way for most of my life and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
Plus, there are far worse things I could be addicted to, right?
I don’t drink alcohol, do drugs, or smoke cigarettes, so I think I’m doing okay with heavy amounts of music listening as my top ‘addiction.’
During the past few years, I’ve taken part in something called the 100 New-To-You Albums Challenge. Essentially, the challenge is to listen to at least 100 new-to-you albums during a calendar year. It doesn’t matter if they’re old or new — they just need to be albums you’ve never heard before.
My final results for 2024 are in and I listened to…drumroll, please…140 new-to-me albums in 2024.
Woohoo!
Although the majority of them were ‘older’ albums, I listened to 52 albums that were released in 2024. For the most part, I loved what I heard.
Below are my Top 20 favorites of them. Among them are some popular artists I’ve been a fan of for many years, but also multiple acts I’d never listened to (or even heard of) until this year.
Genre-wise, there’s a little bit of everything here — including rock, heavy metal, country, alternative indie music, and a fairly high amount of pop.
Because there are so many of them, I’m not going to comment on them individually. Instead, I’ve included one song from each album, via YouTube videos from the official YouTube pages of the respective artists.
Rather than listing the 20 albums in order of preference (because it would be nearly impossible for me to choose between them), I’ve listed them in the chronological order they were released.
If you’re unfamiliar with some of these albums, I hope you’ll give some of the songs a listen.
Maybe you’ll end up finding new music here that you’ll love!
1. Robby Krieger and the Soul Savages — Robby Krieger and the Soul Savages (January 19, 2024)
2. 10,000 Volts — Ace Frehley (February 23, 2024)
3. Invincible Shield — Judas Priest (March 6, 2024)
4. Bleachers — Bleachers (March 8, 2024)
5. Deeper Well — Kacey Musgraves (March 15, 2024)
6. Live Laugh Love — Chastity Belt (March 29, 2024)
7. Cowboy Carter — Beyonce (March 29, 2024)
8. Radical Optimism — Dua Lipa (May 3, 2024)
9. Here in The Pitch — Jessica Pratt (May 3, 2024)
10. Hit Me Hard and Soft — Billie Eilish (May 17, 2024)
11. Submarine — The Marias (May 31, 2024)
12. Midnight Butterflies — Sea Girls (June 14, 2024)
13. Elements — Siamese (August 9, 2024)
WARNING 1: The below song has explicit lyrics.
WARNING #2 — THIS IS NOT A SONG…
IT’S A #@%$ MOSHPIT!
14. Water The Flowers, Pray For a Garden — Valley (August 30, 2024)
15. Luck and Strange —David Gilmour (September 6, 2024)
16. Radios & Rainbows — Kate Pierson (September 20, 2024)
17. The Lost Record — Susanna Hoffs (October 18, 2024)
18. Tension II — Kylie Minogue (October 18, 2024)
19. Brighter Days — Dwight Yoakam (November 15, 2024)
20. Some Dreams — A Flock of Seagulls (December 13, 2024)
As a sort of ‘bonus’ here, I’m including a Spotify playlist I made featuring all of the above songs, plus several other songs that were released in 2024 — not just from the above albums, but also from other albums that were released during the year.
If you listen, I hope you enjoy it!
Buddy Gott 