Best Albums of April 2024: Staff Picks

In Staff Picks our writers and editors gather their favorite albums of the month. Check out the best of April below.

We’re nearly halfway done with 2024 — can you believe it? April saw some of our favorite releases of the year so far, and we’re not just talking about Sabrina Carptenter’s “Espresso.”

Last month had a lively comeback from St. Vincent with All Born Screaming, while Pearl Jam offered a rousing return on Dark Matter. Meanwhile, several artists have emerged with some mid-career highlights — Hovvdy’s new self-titled album is full of gorgeous, meditative tracks, and Bladee has hit a new high with his widescreen effort Cold Visions. Oh, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scored the new film Challengers, and we can’t get enough of the original score and the Boyz Noise remix of it.

Listed in alphabetical order, here are the best albums of April 2024 as selected by Consequence writers and editors.

Bladee — Cold Visions

Bladee and the rest of Drain Gang have elicited a sort of “You get it or you don’t” response for the better part of a decade. With each passing project, though, it seems as if the Swedish rapper converts more and more people to the way of the drain, and with the excellent Cold Visions, he’s going to need a bigger church. The production is icy, in-your-face, and awash with the kind of timbres that make your face curl up (just listen to tracks like “FLATLINE” or “ONE SECOND”). Meanwhile, Bladee and company play their part as expertly as ever, coming through with bars that might hide jokes or the answers to the universe (“I’m violently drug abusing weed” being a clear standout). If you’ve been circling the drain for the past few album cycles, Cold Visions might just be the one to finally pull you down. — Jonah Krueger