The annual Uproxx Music Critics Poll for 2024 is here, with nearly 300 critics from across the music landscape participating for the 7th edition. Chart performance and award recognition are useful metrics to use when trying to determine who’s the best of the best, but there’s also significant insight to be gleaned from critics, the discerning, passionate media pros who marinate in music every day, from 9-to-5 and beyond.
Hip-hop and pop frequently dominate mainstream music conversations these days, but indie is well-represented in the latest Critics Poll: Albums, songs, music videos, and album covers by guitar wielders beat out some year-defining pop and hip-hop works. So, let’s take a look at a few of the indie acts who ultimately owned the space in 2024. And, once again, check out the full poll here.
Cindy Lee
Canadian musician Patrick Flegel had an esoteric release strategy for his latest Cindy Lee album, Diamond Jubilee: It was released via YouTube or as a direct download from an antiquated-looking website, before eventually making it to Bandcamp and physical formats. It’s still not available on streaming, but none of that stopped it from becoming one of the year’s most esteemed indie projects. Our pool of critics liked it, too, ranking it as one of the year’s top albums (No. 8) and album covers (No. 15).
The Cure
It’s not surprising that The Cure can still make a solid album given their track record, but they did shock the world a little bit with just how great Songs Of A Lost World ended up being: Indiecast co-host Ian Cohen thinks its among the best projects of their storied career. In the poll, the record ended up finishing with near-identical rankings to the Cindy Lee project: No. 9 album, No. 18 album cover.
Fontaines DC
Elton John-approved Irish favorites Fontaines DC have been critical darlings since their debut album, and they continued to please with Romance. The album also finds the band reaching new commercial heights: Aside from landing the group their first placement on the Billboard 200, it also spawned two singles that wound up being top-20 releases on the US rock charts. One of them, “Starburster,” fared well on the Critics Poll, too, coming in at No. 12. The album also garnered plenty of votes and finished near the top of both the album (No. 14) and album cover (No. 12) categories.
MJ Lenderman
Lenderman crushed it in 2024, and he didn’t just lean on the strength of one song, either: Manning Fireworks ended up as one of the top-5 albums in the Critics Poll (the highest-ranking indie album at No. 4 overall), but Lenderman also has an impressive two songs in the top 20 (three if you count the Waxahatchee collaboration “Right Back To It”; more on that in a second). Charli XCX and Kendrick Lamar, arguably the two biggest artists of 2024, are the only other acts to pull that off this year, which surely means Lenderman is also brat and/or beefing with Drake.
Waxahatchee
Waxahatchee truly did it all as far as the Critics Poll goes: Thanks to the all-around effort that is Tigers Blood, Katie Crutchfield is the only indie artist to rank in the album, song, music videos, and album cover categories. The MJ Lenderman collab “Right Back To It” managed to secure the No. 3 spot on the songs list, while Tigers Blood finished at No. 5 on the album ranking (right below Lenderman at No. 4). Things like music videos and album covers might be considered afterthoughts by some artists, but Waxahatchee put care into the whole Tigers Blood experience, and people noticed.
2025 Grammys
Many of the indie acts that ranked high up in our poll have gotten some serious Grammy consideration for the 2025 awards: Waxahatchee is up for Best Americana Album, while Fontaines DC are nominated for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (for their aforementioned works). As for a sampling of other artists who made the Critics Poll lists but didn’t get mentioned here, Adrianne Lenker is competing for Best Folk Album with Bright Future, Jack White’s No Name is up for Best Rock Album, and St. Vincent has four nominations connected to her album All Born Screaming. Inversely, some artists on our poll who didn’t get the same Grammy love despite being eligible for this year’s ceremony include Cindy Lee, The Cure, and Jessica Pratt.
Surprises
There are no real unexpected works that managed to make the top 50 or 20 in the four Critics Poll categories: Everybody on the list deserves to be there and was voted in for a reason. That said, it might be a bit surprising to run down the lists and not see some specific artists and projects represented. Looking at Uproxx’s own list of 2024’s top albums, for example, we liked some projects more than our Critics Poll respondents did, including albums from Being Dead, DIIV, Faye Webster, Hovvdy, and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.
That said, it’s worth checking the extended “Other Albums” and “Other Songs” Critics Poll lists to see if your favorite artists and works made the cut there.
Check out the full Uproxx Music Critics Poll results for 2024 here.