Ranking The 2024 Grammys Album of the Year Nominees

By the time you are reading this, the Grammys winners would have just been announced. However, me writing this piece doesn't know who will win yet. What a perfect time for me to give my thoughts on all these albums.

8. Jon Batiste - World Music Radio

Sigh...

The rise of Jon Batiste as a Grammy favorite has been weird. His fame is not really the result he has garnered Grammy nominations, but rather the success he garnered at the Grammys with his 2021 album We Are gave him his success. This might undersell him, as Batiste is an extremely talented musician, and I loved We Are (hear I Need You for some good new-school jazz or soul), but World Music Radio is extremely bloated. It tries to act as a soundboard for pop across the globe, but dials each of its international elements and extremely talented collaborators to their most basic elements. There are some good moments through its bloated runtime, however.

7. Janelle Monae - Age of Pleasure

Note: due to its nature, I am not showing the album cover on this site. You can find the album in all the normal channels.

Despite being short and sweet and thirty minutes, I had a hard time getting into Age of Pleasure. I understand that Janelle Monae is somewhat of an indie darling, but I feel like Age of Pleasure is hardly a good starting off point. Minus some strong production, there is no melody backing many of the tracks. Also, the hedonistic songwriting is a personal pet peeve of mine. Someone else might enjoy this album, but it is hardly for me.

6. Miley Cyrus - Endless Summer Vacation

Endless Summer Vacation might be the most commercially friendly release amongst the Grammys, and one of the most commercially friendly albums through the entire of 2023. This resulted in a massive hit with Flower. That said, the rest of the album sometimes pulls out a surprisingly strong moment. Production-wise we get the odd River, and conceptually the odd Used To Be Young. Between those moments there is a lot of pop-country filler, unfortunately.

5. Taylor Swift - Midnights

The nomination for Midnights is for more than an album but for Taylor Swift as a phenomenon over the last year. She was inescapable, from her Eras tour to romantic rumors. Beyond all that, Midnights is a fine, if slightly unremarkable album. I love the low-ambition urban '70s aesthetic, and it pays off excellently on songs such as on title track Anti-Hero, but even a few b-sides pack a bit of a punch. It is very mainstream, however.

4. Boygenius - The Record

Boygenius are an interesting case of the supergroup formula, joining up together years before their individual breakouts. In many ways, I feel like The Record is one of those 2023 albums that will only get better with time. I didn't feel it at first, but with each and every listen, its folksy singer-songwriter sound gets better. I don't feel the rock edge nearly as strongly, but songs like Emily I'm Sorry, Cool About It, and of course, Not Strong Enough have become some of the most essential tracks of the year.

3. SZA - SOS

We now get to the albums I'm actually rooting for. SOS is frankly a long album, and that has limited how often I have returned to it. That said, its slow-burn cultural ubiquity is quite deserved. Mega-hits such as Snooze, Good Days, and of course, Kill Bill were destined for the popularity they enjoy today simply due to SZA's soulful voice, but the R&B production certainly helped.

2. Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

After the first place in this countdown, Guts is the only album I've consistently returned to since its release. Olivia Rodrigo might be the least experienced of the eight musicians nominated, but she has shown her songwriting chops across both of her LPs. Guts is a visceral look at the world of a typical American teenage girl. From the subtle fears of Lacy to the bombastic regret of Vampire, every single moment of Guts is filled with vulnerability, rage, and youthful concerns.

1. Lana Del Rey - Did You Know There Is A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

I mean, this was an obvious top pick from the very beginning. The only one of these albums to make it into my top 10 albums for 2023, Lana Del Rey's Did You Know There Is A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is a consistent album with high highs and very few lows. Minus a few weak tracks near the end, Lana Del Rey crafted an album that is both intensely personal and also has moments of grandeur. Tracks such as The Grants, A&W, and the title track are some of the best of the year. Did You Know There Is A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd is considered a frontrunner for the Grammys, and for good reason.

Image Source: SCL