What’s really good and really bad about the never-ending availability of music in the age of online streaming is exactly the same — it’s never-ending.

As of late last year, an estimated 120,000 new songs were being released daily on the internet. That was more than than the total number of songs released on physical recordings in all of 1989, according to a report in Music Radar. The total number of new songs released online in 2023 was more than 43 million.

This year, 20,309 recordings were submitted for Grammy Awards consideration. The streaming service Spotify estimates its users upload an average of 1.8 million songs a month. As of mid-2024, YouTube’s music app offered more than 100 million songs.

It is virtually impossible to determine how many albums — as opposed to songs — came out in 2024, but these are some of my favorites.

Andra Day, “Cassandra (cherith)”

How did San Diego-bred singer and Oscar-nominated actress Andra Day follow up performing the inspirational “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for a TV viewing audience of 120 million at the 2024 Super Bowl? By releasing her first album of all-new songs since her Grammy-nominated debut, “Cheers to the Fall,” came out in 2015. It was worth the wait.

“Cassandra (cherith)” rivals Marvin Gaye’s classic 1978 double album, “Here, My Dear” and Roseanne Cash’s “Interiors” as an intensely moving and brutally honest musical documentation of a love affair gone painfully wrong. The resulting feelings of vulnerability, anguish, hope, resiliency, faith and self-acceptance are powerfully chronicled by Day.

Singing with an inspiring command of power and grace, nuance and pinpoint dynamic control, she draws from neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, bossa nova and more, all underpinned by her wondrous elasticity of phrasing. The results are, at their best (which is often), cathartic and then some as Day makes emotionally immersive music that comes from — and goes straight to — the heart.

Bilal, “Adjust Brightness”

On his first new album in eight years, veteran Philadelphia singer-songwriter Bilal implicitly poses the provocative question: What would Prince sound like now, if he were still alive, at the top of his game and made a head-turning album with D’Angelo?

The answers on this dizzying, 11-song collection are riveting. It’s not so much that Bilal sounds like Prince and D’Angelo in their respective heydays. although there are elements of both in his music. Rather, it’s that he strongly suggests what Prince and the too-long-dormant D’Angelo might sound like if they were creating some of their best music right now.

Billie Eilish “Hit Me Hard and Soft”

With the exception of the thumping, vocoder-fueled “L’Amour De Ma Vie,” the songs on Billie Eilish’s third solo album are largely whisper-soft, impeccably crafted and infused with a degree of wisdom well beyond her 22 years.

Her tales of heartbreak are all the more potent and effective because of how subtly and tastefully she delivers them. Ditto the hand-in-glove musical arrangements by her brother and longtime collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, who has an unerring knack for elevating his sister’s songs without detracting from them.

At first listen, “Birds of a Feather” — a 2025 song of the year Grammy nominee — sounds lush, if not chirpy. But its lyrics deal as much with death as they do with undying love. And Eilish manages to sound unironically upbeat when delivering lyrics dark enough for a vintage Nick Cave or Richard Thompson song, including “Feather’s” opening verse: I want you to stay ’til I’m in the grave/ ‘Til I rot away, dead and buried/ ‘Til I’m in the casket you carry.

Fontaines D.C. “Romance”

Making music that is challenging and accessible is not easy. But on its fourth album, “Romance,” the Irish band Fontaines D.C. pivots from its post-punk roots to create one of the most distinctive, edgy and inviting rock albums of the year.

There is an unmistakable air of melancholy to some of these songs — and the inviting sound of a talented band audaciously stretching out into art-rock, trip-hop, rap and other styles with verve and aplomb. Fontaines D.C. almost makes aiming for the stars while taking major creative risks seem easy.

Shemekia Copeland, “Blame it on Eve”

An eight-time Blues Music Awards-winner, New York-born vocal dynamo Shemekia Copeland was just a year out of high school when she made her assured debut album in 1998. “Blame It On Eve,” her 12th album, is an intoxicating, all-star showcase for Copeland’s first-rate songs and alternately fiery and tender singing.

Consider the album’s superb title track, a brass-tinged romp that looks way back before incisively addressing current events: Years ago back in Paradise/ Adam got an apple, and some bad advice/ Next thing you know he was out on the street/ Every day since, Eve’s been takin’ the heat/ Blame it on Eve/ That original sin/ She just can’t win/ Blame it on Eve/ When something goes wrong.

Copeland’s knowing, no-nonsense delivery — you can almost hear her arching her eyebrows as she sings — is just one of the many delights on this dozen-song album. It reaffirms her position as an increasingly potent artist who is steeped in the traditions of the blues while being very much in, and of, the moment.

Willie Nelson, “Last Leaf on the Tree”

At 91, the constantly touring Willie Nelson is clearly in no hurry to slow down. “Last Leaf on a Tree” is his second album this year and it’s an understated but stirring testament to his singular talents as a genre-transcending American music icon.

It’s also a testament to Nelson’s ability to transform and take ownership of any song he performs, be it the elegiac title track by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Nina Simone’s “Come Ye” or Neil Young’s “Broken Arrow.”

Nelson’s son and bandmate, Micah Nelson, gives the album a sonic edginess that perfectly complements his father’s steeped-in-the ages voice. And when the elder Nelson sings: I’ll be here through eternity, if you wanna know how long/ If they cut down this tree, I’ll show up in a song, it sounds more like a statement of fact than a vow.

Beyoncé, “Cowboy Carter”

Willie Nelson makes a sly cameo appearance on “Cowboy Carter,” a sprawling double-album that finds Beyoncé saluting and reclaiming country music — a genre that originated largely with Black Americans — and then deftly moving beyond it.

Granted, not all 27 songs here hit their mark. But much of “Cowboy Carter” is accomplished and distinctive enough to demonstrate exactly why Beyoncé earned a field-leading 11 Grammy nominations for it, including for album of the year, best country album, best pop solo performance and best melodic rap performance. The song “Texas Hold ‘Em” — which earned Grammy nominations for song of the year, record of the year and country song of the year — makes a strong statement about musical legacies and ownership.

Laura Marling, “Patterns in Repeat”

On her most tender, intimate and stripped-down album to date, English troubadour Laura Marling celebrates the joys of first-time motherhood by reflecting on — and singing directly to — her year-old daughter, who was right next to her when she made most of the gently absorbing “Patterns in Repeat.”

St. Vincent, “All Born Screaming”

Having assumed different personas and musical alter egos on most of her previous albums (one of which was tellingly titled “Actor”), St. Vincent sounds positively liberated just being mostly herself on “All Born Screaming.” It’s a proudly left-of-center rock album that is melodically rich, brimming with raw feeling and full of thrilling twists and turns.

Mdou Moctar, “Funeral for Justice”

“Funeral for Justice” is undoubtedly the only album of the year inspired by the numbing ripple effects of French colonialism in the African county of Niger. It is also an absolutely captivating work by Tuareg desert blues guitarist-singer Mdou Moctar and his band of the same name, who perform with electrifying ferocity and seamless precision throughout.

Also recommended

Leyla McCalla, “Sun Without the Heat”; Common & Pete Rock, “The Auditorium, Vol. 1”; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, “Woodland”; Anoushka Shankar, “Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn”; Kacey Musgraves, “Deeper Well”; Waxahatchee, “Tiger’s Blood”; Michael Kiwanuka, “Small Changes”; The Smile, “Wall of Eyes”; Meshell Ndegeocello, “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin”; Jake Xerxes Fussell, “When I’m Called”; Kendrick Lamar, “GNX”; Hurray For The Riff Raff, “The Past is Still Alive”; Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, “Wild God”; Yasmin Williams, “Acadia”; Adrianne Lenker, Johnny Blue Skies, “Passage Du Desir”; “Bright Future”; Madi Diaz, “Weird Faith”; The Last Dinner Party, “Prelude to Ecstasy”; Nia Archives, “Silence is Loud”; Big Big Train, “The Likes of Us”; Linda Thompson, “Proxy Music”; M.J. Lenderman, “Manning Fireworks.”

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