From country to indie: Here are the top Nashville albums of 2024 so far
In the first half of 2024, Nashville artists have pushed to the front of pop culture with dynamic albums that showcase the unending pool of talent from the city's performers and songwriters.
From genres spanning country to indie and pop to rock — even with sprinkles of punk and hip-hop in the mix — the albums pouring out of Music City once again show that it isn't just country music. It's Nashville, at large, that's cool again.
Creation is constantly happening all over the city: In East Nashville's rootsy environs, Lower Broadway's bombastic bars, Music Row's writer's rooms and stages large and small, independent and legendary.
Here, in no particular order are The Tennessean music staff's top Nashville albums from before July.
Kings of Leon 'Can We Please Have Fun'
The title for the Kings' ninth full studio album is very indicative of where the band is this far into their careers. And to answer your question, yes. They did have fun making this record and it's also a fun listen.
Singer and guitarist Caleb Followill told The Tennessean his favorite thing about this album is that the band went into it with a plan and executed it.
"We had a goal to do something that was great and something that was bigger than what we had done before and the fact that we accomplished that — and we still feel like there's meat on the bone is great. We still have songs that didn't make the cut that we can't wait to get in and record at some point."
From "Ballerina Radio" to "Seen," this record is packed with strong vocals by Followill and great songs with an edge.
— Melonee Hurt
Charlotte Sands, 'can we start over?'
Charlotte Sands went viral on TikTok in 2020 and ever since, the blue-haired pop-punk singer has released flurries of singles and EPs. Earlier this year, Sands' debut album finally graced our streaming platforms.
Sands released her first album "can we start over?" on Jan. 24, a tight 10-track, 30-minute collection of pure emo pop. For listeners who like Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy, Sands blends just the right amount of 2000s angst with the "brat summer" sounds of Charli XCX and Chappell Roan.
Sands' record reminds all Nashville listeners that Music City continues to expand with its competitive genre-wide talents. Nashville artists can do pop-punk just as well as the L.A. music industry mainstays.
Top songs to check out from the record include "spite," "blindspot" and "die in this room."
— Audrey Gibbs
Beyoncé, 'Cowboy Carter'
Only a 32-time Grammy-winning billionaire would attempt to use one album to install, revive, reform and inspire the past, present and future of country music's Black heritage and tradition.
Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" arrived at the Super Bowl with "TEXAS HOLD EM," a two-stepping Western-inspired pop song featuring Rhiannon Giddens playing the banjo.
The album has been a top seller that has inspired unique conversations about authenticity and honest interpretations of country's century-long tradition. Could the door "Cowboy Carter" opened for revised expectations for honest authenticity in the genre also have propelled performers like Tanner Adell and Shaboozey to their pop cultural and pop chart breakout moments of late? Possibly.
It's also a massive recording that highlights how well acts like Willie Jones, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer opened the door during COVID's quarantine, plus how groundbreaking Linda Martell's legacy has become.
Alongside releases from pop-to-country (and back again) crossover artists like Lana Del Rey, Post Malone and Kacey Musgraves, it sets the stage for country's future.
— Marcus K. Dowling
Shaboozey 'Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going'
While there seemingly isn't a person on planet earth who hasn't listened (and danced to) Shaboozey's breakout hit of the summer, "A Bar Song (Tipsy)," it is important to note that "Tipsy" isn't the only good song on his latest album. The entire project is full of great songs that continue to elevate 'Boozey's range, breadth of blending musical genres, strong vocals and raw talent.
While Shaboozey is Los Angeles-based, he is often in and around Nashville, his home away from home, which qualified this album to land on the best of Nashville list.
Give a listen to "Anabelle," "My Fault" (which features Noah Cyrus) and "Let It Burn." Then you can go back to listening to "Tipsy" on repeat. As one person on Instagram commented, we agree "Tipsy" won't be Shaboozey's last No. 1 song. This album showcases one thing: there's a whole lot more where that came from.
— Melonee Hurt
Charley Crockett, '$10 Cowboy'
Charley Crockett's crossover from barnstormer to crooning cowboy emerges via 2024's "$10 Cowboy."
"I'm a country soul performer making songs for people who appreciate not having to adapt to the limited choices music industry gatekeepers offer them," he told The Tennessean.
Songs like the title track, plus "Hard Luck and Circumstances" and "Solitary Road" find the performer achieving the twin goals of defining himself more fully by the "cultural and political things that I'm still learning how to touch that inspire me" while "defending myself from definition while I'm figuring this musicality out," he said.
"Gospel singers, horns, strings — they're all on '$10 Cowboy' because as much as I understand that everyone wants to have an idea of 'what I am' these days, I'm just trying to maintain what I believe to be music as a high, unclassifiable art that distills everything," Crockett continued. "I'm no longer a desperate young man excited by the machine of popular music. These days, I'm disciplined, mature and pursuing the honest, inspired truth."
— Marcus K. Dowling
Medium Build, 'Country'
Alternative-indie singer Medium Build's fifth studio album has brought him even further into the limelight. His charisma, abrasively honest lyrics and captivating vocals will keep him there.
The up-and-coming Nashville artist (with some Alaskan roots) is known for songs "Never Learned To Dance" and "Cocoon." He brought new hits with his recent album "Country," released on April 5.
More: Amid career takeoff, Medium Build trades Alaska for Nashville, discusses album 'Country'
A 12-track album that includes both angsty, thundering songs and understated but vibey lo-fi tracks, Medium Build — the stage name for singer Nicholas Carpenter — takes his listeners with him as he processes his youth, works to understands his family and navigate love.
Medium Build’s coming-of-age album, with standouts “Crying Over U” and “Stick Around,” could become an indie mainstay.
— Audrey Gibbs
ERNEST, 'Nashville, TN'
Nashville's probably released somewhere in the realm of 10 trillion streams worth of hit songs in the past decade.
The path Music City next 10 trillion is currently trodden by hit-making singer-songwriter and Nashville native Ernest Keith Smith, as inspired by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, and Roger Miller.
ERN's new album is motivated by expanding the breadth of potential for Nashville and country music to redefine America's pop cultural expectations overall.
How so?
The top-tier songwriter wrote mainly for himself, plus grabbed hits from seemingly everyone in town, including legends like Luke Bryan (who contributed the idea for Jelly Roll duet "I Went To College / I Went To Jail"), Country Music Hall of Famer Dean Dillon (who, alongside Skip Ewing penned Lainey Wilson collaboration "I Would If I Could" three decades ago).
— Marcus K. Dowling
Scott Stapp 'Higher Power'
Forget what you think you know about Creed front man Scott Stapp. This record isn't Creed. It is all Stapp, who pulled out a solid rock album full of powerful songs beginning with its title track "Higher Power" and rolling through the powerful duo with Dorothy "If These Walls Could Talk," and "What I Deserve."
Many songs his fourth solo record feature top-tier guitar work from Yiannis Papadopoulos, who tours with Stapp as well as playing on the record. Check out his blistering solos on "Quicksand" and "What I Deserve."
Stapp says this record is a narrative of everything he's been through the last few years and he credits his kids (25, 17, 13 and 6) and his Nashville community of co-writers and supporters with the courage to keep writing.
— Melonee Hurt
Katie Pruitt, 'Mantras'
Katie Pruitt’s sophomore album “Mantras,” released on April 5, captures her emotional work as she learns the art of letting go.
The up-and-coming Americana musician, known for tunes "Out of the Blue," "Expectations" and "Self Sabotage," has opened for Brandi Carlile, My Morning Jacket and Shakey Graves.
Her new record, which follows 2020's “Expectations,” navigates Pruitt’s reflections on her religious past, coming into her queerness and forgiving her family throughout 12 tracks. Pruitt’s experience in therapy both informed and impacted the album, which is ordered chronologically as she wrote them.
With a soaring voice, transporting songwriting, and a gentle, honest tone, “Mantras” holds you in its palm the whole way through.
Standouts from the album include “Self Sabotage” and “Blood Related.”
— Audrey Gibbs
Zach Top, 'Cold Beer and Country Music'
Just as he suggested when he spoke to The Tennessean, Zach Top's debut album "Cold Beer and Country Music" "gives people what they want, right down the middle."
Lead single "Sounds Like The Radio" joins a collection of music that hearkens back to performers like Alan Jackson, Marty Robbins and George Strait by delivering timeless country twang and authentic songwriting.
"Artists, especially country ones that are remembered for generations tend to stand out in a massive way when they (debut in) the genre's mainstream," says Top, whose "fresh" collection of songs defies the "stereotype that (country music) is some sort of programmed machine."
Need a refreshing blast of bluegrass-inspired acoustic guitars, Red Dirt-ready Fender Telecasters, honky-tonk piano solos, fiddles and pedal steel? "If you're worn out on two decades of trends and want to fall back in love with country music, my music is here for you," Top says.
We agree.
— Marcus K. Dowling
Marcus King 'Mood Swings'
Marcus King's "Mood Swings" is one of those rare albums where there isn't one song to skip when listening. They're all good and sit nicely as a collection of work as opposed to several single tracks with filler in between.
From the soulful "Hero" and "F*ck My Life Up Again" to the unsettling-but-true "Cadillac," this album, produced by legendary Rick Rubin, evokes a passionate, honest and transparent King. His soulful vocals and guitar skills offer what fans have come to expect from King all delivered with a clarity that came with his sobriety and addressing mental health issues head on.
— Melonee Hurt
Cage The Elephant, 'Neon Pill'
Nashville alternative band Cage The Elephant’s album “Neon Pill” is gritty, raw indie rock. While vulnerability and rock 'n' roll don't often go together, this is the rock band's most vulnerable record yet.
The Kentucky-bred band, known for songs “Cigarette Daydreams” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked" released their sixth studio album in May.
The 12-track record was written by frontman Matt Shultz as he fought medication-induced psychosis and edited as he recovered in 2023. The record walks the line between reality and illusion, care-free thrashing rock and reflective melancholy tunes.
Standouts “Neon Pill” and “Good Time” are the album’s runaway hits.
— Audrey Gibbs
More: Cage the Elephant frontman Matt Shultz talks writing music amid psychosis
Black Crowes 'Happiness Bastards'
Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson gave Black Crowes fans exactly what they wanted with "Happiness Bastards." The album is 10 tracks that are 100% everything that made you fall in love with the band back in the early '90s. It's great songwriting, masterful guitar work and strong, bluesy vocals.
The band's 10th studio album and their first original release in 15 years, Chris Robinson says the brothers are in a good place — and it shows. The album is full of tunes charged with the same energy as the band's 1990 smash debut album, "Shake Your Money Maker."
— Melonee Hurt
Madi Diaz, 'Weird Faith'
Madi Diaz’s February album “Weird Faith” gives lyrics to all the feelings you never thought could be captured in song.
Diaz's 12-song record and fifth studio album finds her warbling about obsessive thoughts, religion, insecurity and falling out of love. Diaz writes and sings like she's ripping pages from her diary.
One of the album's highlights is a duet with friend Kacey Musgraves on track “Don’t Do Me Good,” where the two contemplate how the feelings that come with love can be toxic and harmful.
Check out standout tracks “Same Risk,” “Hurting You” and “For Months Now.”
— Audrey Gibbs
Kaitlin Butts, 'Roadrunner!'
On a first spin, Kaitlin Butts' latest album sounds like the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "Oklahoma!"
That's on purpose. It's been her favorite musical since childhood.
Alongside a who's who of four decades of Nashville artistic excellence — including Vince Gill and songwriters Natalie Hemby and Pistol Annies member Angaleena Presley — Butts creates a folk-style collection of lyrically stripped-down songs rooted in a pioneering restless spirit.
And yes, three songs — including covers of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and Ke$ha's "Hunt You Down" — at minimum, involve murder.
"I'm talking about truth and reality while having fun," Butts said to The Tennessean. "I'm a sometimes hokey entertainer who can sing about humor and murder and perform some sweet songs. On ('Roadrunner'), I roped in and then released all of the experiences I've thought about in the pathways of my brain."
— Marcus K. Dowling
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville music: Top 2024 albums so far include Kings of Leon, Beyoncé
