With the halfway mark of the year soon approaching, the best rated and reviews albums of 2024 so far have emerged as records by English Teacher, Bill Ryder-Jones and Beyoncé are – according to Metacritic.
Metacritic aggregates reviews of TV, film, books and music and then gives them an average score. According to their About Us page, the review-aggregator site curates a “diverse group of highly respected critics and assigns scores to their reviews”. They then take “the weighted average of those scores”, which results in their “Metascore.”
The website has shared its current list of best-rated albums so far for 2024, with Beyoncé’s country album ‘Cowboy Carter’ taking the lead spot with a score of 91 per cent. In a five-star review of the LP, NME wrote: “It’s an undeniable thrill to see [Beyoncé] swing so big on a project that dares her to be so intimate and vocal-focused.”
Bill Ryder-Jones’ fifth studio album ‘Iechyd Da’ follows close behind Queen Bey, earning the Number Two spot on the list at 90 per cent. In a five-star review of the album, NME shared: “Ambitious, cinematic and hugely affecting, folky follow-up ‘Iechyd Da’ is in many ways the album Ryder-Jones has threatened to make since 2013 breakthrough ‘A Bad Wind Blows in my Heart’.”
It continued: “His solo work has almost always been deeply personal, which is certainly true of this new self-produced record: ‘iechyd da’ is a Welsh toast to ‘good health’ and the album is partly named for his familial roots in the country. Its songs echo with references to his past tunes, its acoustic aesthetic is set to ‘wistful’ and the lyrics find him baring all with apparent fearlessness.”
At joint Number Two with a 90 per cent is English Teacher with their debut LP. In a five-star review of the album, NME shared: “What you have in ‘This Could Be Texas’ is everything you want from a debut; a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and a landmark statement. Poised for big things? Who knows if this industry even allows that anymore.
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“Here are a band already dealing in brilliance, though – who dare to dream and have it pay off. Not everyone gets to go to space, but at least English Teacher make it a damn site more interesting being stuck down here.”
Following behind to complete the Top Ten list are Mannequin Pussy coming in at Number Four with their fourth LP ‘I Got Heaven‘, Waxahatchee’s ‘Tigers Blood‘ landing at Number Five, St. Vincent’s electrifying ‘All Born Screaming‘ at Number Six, Vampire Weekend’s ‘Only God Was Above Us‘ landing at Number Seven, Brittany Howard’s ‘What Now‘ at Number Eight, Kali Uchis’ ‘Orquídeas‘ at Number Nine and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ wrapping up the list at Number 10.
In other news, the first trailer for Mufasa, the prequel to 2019’s The Lion King, has been released, confirming that Beyoncé and Donald Glover will be back.