AP's top under-the-radar albums of 2024: Mabe Fratti, Arooj Aftab, Blood Incantation and more
At the end of every year, great art inevitably gets overlooked
NEW YORK (AP) — At the end of every year, when critics rush to compile their best of the year lists, great art inevitably gets overlooked. A top 10 list doesn't leave a lot of room for discovery and, in music, that sometimes means the most innovative records lose out to make room for other titles. In this list, The Associated Press attempts to rectify that.
Here are 10 of the top under-the-radar albums of the year, in no particular order, as chosen by AP Music Writer Maria Sherman.
In a just world, Portuguese-born Danish singer Erika de Casier would be one of the biggest names in pop, for her retro-futuristic R&B deeply informed by the Y2K greats of the not-so-distant past. It’s hard not to hear Aaliyah or Jennifer Lopez or Janet Jackson in her breathy vocal storytelling, but her songs are not simply nostalgic. They shapeshift in the inclusion of '90s U.K. garage production (“Ex-Girlfriend” with Charli XCX collaborator Shygirl) or her creative collaborations, like on “ice” with Florida rap duo They Hate Change.
