Year in Music 2024: Top Local Albums Critics’ Poll

Using a highly scientific formula (read: spreadsheet) concocted back in 2010, the Scene has once again tabulated ballots from our wrecking crew of music writers to compile our picks for the 10 best local albums of the year. With another bumper crop of releases, many excellent albums landed just outside the Top 10, including those from Eric Slick, Madi Diaz, Medium Build, Mama Zu and Emily Nenni. Without further ado, the Top 10.

10. The Sleeveens, The Sleeveens (Dirtnap)

Singer and songwriter Stefan Murphy captures the sound of punk in 1979 on The Sleeveens’ self-titled debut album. Murphy has a knack for writing songs that combine cultural commentary with the mutated Chuck Berry licks and Ramones-Clash-style backing he and his band — guitarist Eli Steele, bassist and producer James Mechan and drummer Ryan Sweeney — show off on songs like “Tales From the Megaplex” and the amazing “Metallica Font.” The guitar riffs will sound familiar to fans of The Undertones’ 1979 self-titled album and the early work of the Ramones, but Murphy conjures up a fictional Nashville that runs on post-punk energy throughout the album. All I could ask for is a lyric sheet. EDD HURT

9. Katie Pruitt, Mantras (Rounder)

Critics and tastemakers have applied a number of genre labels to Mantras, the second LP from Nashville’s Katie Pruitt: Americana, indie rock, alt-country. And those work, sure. But I’d like to posit that Pruitt also makes a pretty pure form of what we dweeby critic types like to refer to as “heartland rock.” Like icons Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Melissa Etheridge — not to mention latter-day acts like The War on Drugs — Pruitt fills songs like “White Lies, White Jesus and You,” “Worst Case Scenario” and “Phases of the Moon” with introspective themes, driving rhythms, howling lead-guitar lines and transfixing melodies. A Georgia native and Belmont University alum, Pruitt writes frequently about reconciling her Christian upbringing with her sexuality, among other deeply personal issues. Mantras, which they co-produced with Collin Pastore and Jake Finch, is at times wistful and tender; at other times it simply rocks. D. PATRICK RODGERS

8. The Black Keys, Ohio Players (Nonesuch)

From the songwriting to the arrangements and production, The Black Keys’ Ohio Players is a sophisticated rock ’n’ roll record. It can be appreciated as high art, but also make you “shake your body to the ground.” With help from some of their musical friends — including Noel Gallagher, Lil Noid, Juicy J, and Beck, who’s featured on “Paper Crown” but performs on half of the album — the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney broaden their signature groovy blues-rock sound on the album, integrating elements of psychedelic rock, classic R&B and hip-hop to great effect. As best evidenced by their cover of the 1969 William Bell R&B hit “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” Auerbach also shows his continued growth as a soulful lead vocalist. DARYL SANDERS

7. Rich Ruth, Water Still Flows (Third Man)

For his latest effort as Rich Ruth, guitarist Michael Ruth assembled an all-star squad of Nashville instrumentalists to create deep, spiritual ambient rock that oscillates between joie de vivre and heavy vibes. Water Still Flows combines jazz explorations and synth modulations with meditations on the beauty of overdriven guitar sustain that make for an intense and therapeutic listening experience. It rewards repeat listens, deep listens and background listens alike. It’s rich in texture and long on ideas, with harmonic narratives that propel the album forward without ever employing that laziest of musical storytelling techniques: the lyric. SEAN L. MALONEY 

6. Brittany Howard, What Now (Island)

Brittany Howard’s second solo album What Now glides and ignites from start to finish. Playfully bouncing off the retro soul-rock flair Howard brought to the Alabama Shakes, What Now introduces heightened levels of blues, psychedelia, funk-rock and house music. Howard unites these widespread musical flavors with her distinctive vocal delivery, which seamlessly switches from airy and languid to growling and soul-shaking. The result is a lavish candy store for music lovers, with Howard’s elasticity as a vocalist and bandleader in full effect. Through every kinetic groove, piano trill and distorted guitar lick, What Now establishes itself as an album meant to be felt. MADELEINE BRADFORD

5. The Jesus Lizard, Rack (Ipecac)

OK, maybe The Jesus Lizard isn’t the first band that comes to mind when you think “Nashville.” Formed in the 1980s from the remaining pieces of Austin, Texas’ Scratch Acid before relocating to Chicago, the band initially dissolved in 1999. While the group was in suspended animation, guitarist Duane Dennison moved to Nashville, started playing with artists like Hank III and became a librarian. Rack, the first new studio offering since J-Liz returned to the road on a limited basis 15 years ago, was made in Music City at Audio Eagle with producer Paul Allen. And it’s everything fans hoped for, with brilliantly esoteric lyrics howled over razor-sharp guitars and a massive rhythm section that delivers blunt-force trauma — and even, per tradition, a four-letter album title. P.J. KINZER

4. R.A.P. Ferreira and Fumitake Tamura, The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap (Ruby Yacht/Alpha Pup)

The latest full-length from R.A.P. Ferreira brims with the beauty and power of language, and it highlights the dangers words pose when used for ill or misunderstood. Just about every track could prompt a full essay, but the hook of “The Words of the Poem” cuts several ways and gets to the point: “Never will you figure us out / I don’t doubt / You don’t know what the fuck I’m talkin’ about.” While the album’s lyrics work as poetry, Ferreira’s performance and the production from his Japanese collaborator Fumitake Tamura — which feels like a seasoned rapper’s record collection has become sentient and is quietly observing you — bring them to life. STEPHEN TRAGESER

3. Styrofoam Winos, Real Time (Styrofoam Winos/Sophomore Lounge)

On their second album, Styrofoam Winos create a shimmering, utterly sincere work of alt-country. Each of the three members, all impeccable songwriters in their own right, work in the vein of John Prine or Vic Chestnutt, painting vivid pictures of the world around them by weaving strings of words together that seem inevitable and organic. These idiosyncratic songs are full of warmth, capturing the here-and-now in the twang of a pedal steel, the stacking of harmonies or the jolt of the vibraphone.The result is incredibly charming: Real Time feels lived-in, as if the album has been around for years, not just three months. BEN ARTHUR 

2. Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers (Rounder)

Devoted fans flood the comments of Sierra Ferrell videos on YouTube with the assertion that this is the “era of Sierra,” and it aptly captures this moment for the West Virginia-born Americana star. Ferrell flourishes on her second record Trail of Flowers. A slew of career milestones — her TV debut, two nights headlining the Ryman, a main-stage set at the Newport Folk Festival and an upcoming slot opening for Post Malone on his country stadium tour — feels like secondary achievements next to the magic she’s bottled up on the LP. Her lyrics stay true to her wry weirdness while honoring traditional roots songwriting on album standouts like “I Could Drive You Crazy” and “Dollar Bill Bar.” Ferrell’s voice belongs in a cadre of pure and uncanny phenomena like those of Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton. Watching a grainy video of Ferrell performing in 2018 at Honky Tonk Tuesday at American Legion Post 82, you may at first squint and ask, “Is that unassuming woman with the massive hat really Sierra Ferrell?” Then she sings and you think, “Of course it is.” JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

1. Jack White, No Name (Third Man)

Though he’s had a hand in several releases that have made our annual poll since his arrival in Music City, No Name marks Jack White’s first time topping our tally as a solo artist — and that has nothing to do with him silently premiering the LP by handing it out for free. Twelve years after his solo debut Blunderbuss, White keeps drawing gracefully on his White Stripes roots and amps up the quotient of heavy blues that’s been further in the background over the past few years. Unbelievably earworm-y melodies complement White’s casually clever production mastery, which stands out on tracks like the slide-centric “Underground,” thunderous “That’s How I’m Feeling” and swaggering, howling assessment of what humans have wrought “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking).” BAILEY BRANTINGHAM

Year in Music 2024

Talking with stellar songsmith and producer Brittany Howard, counting down the year’s top local albums and more