With Staff Picks, our writers and editors highlight some of our favorite new music this month. Check out the picks for the best albums of November 2024 below.
2025 is a month away, shockingly. But even with the holidays right around the corner, there’s plenty of great music from this month to keep us sane. November featured a remarkable surprise drop from Kendrick Lamar, a return from The Cure that compares favorably with some of their greatest works, and an eclectic new album from this month’s CoSign, Illiterate Light. Plus, new albums from FLO, Father John Misty, Kim Deal, and more.
Here are our staff picks for our favorite albums of November 2024, listed out in alphabetical order.
The Cure — Songs of a Lost World
Despite a full 16 years passing since the release of their last album, The Cure have managed to retain the recipe to their gothic secret sauce. Songs of a Lost World, their grand return to studio albums, is a lush, glacially-paced, existentially-concerned project that lives up to the gloom promised in its title. As is the case for many fans, Robert Smith and company prove that their chronic melancholy wasn’t just a phase — and thank god for that. (Read our full album review of The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World here.) — Jonah Krueger
Stream: Amazon Music | Apple Music
Buy: Vinyl
Father John Misty — Mahashmashana
Mahashmashana ushers in a new chapter of existential reflection, as Josh Tillman captures the frantic energy of society in decline. His sixth studio album fuses explosive rock anthems with poignant, mournful ballads that articulate his spiritual disillusionment as he continues to exist in an increasingly unstable world. Mahashmashana, a Sanskrit term for “cremation ground,” perhaps hints at a space of destruction and rebirth as the old world burns away in preparation for the next. There’s no doubt that Tillman’s songwriting is more polished than ever, capturing the unsettling feeling that if he’s not losing his mind, then everyone else must be. — Nicolle Periola
Stream: Amazon Music | Apple Music
Buy: Vinyl