The best electronic dance music albums of the summer (2024)
Considering what a good year dance music has had, it looks like this will just have to become a monthly column. The culmination of summer 2024 brought us some more phenomenal dance music albums, so let’s take a look back at some of the highlights.
Just a friendly reminder that these are listed in no particular order and I consider many factors when creating these lists including overall quality, popularity and creativity. I’ve also included links to each album so you can listen for yourself. Who knows, you might find the soundtrack to your end of summer party.
Greetings – TRUE MAGIC
If you don’t have Salute on your radar, what do you? The Austrian producer finally released his highly anticipated album, TRUE MAGIC, last month and it’s a non-stop bundle of joy.
The 14-track package contains some of the best and most infectious funky house songs I’ve ever heard. It also features some pretty massive collaborations with Disclosure, Sam Gellaitry and Rina Sawayama. It’s hard to pick a standout track simply because everything is so coherent and well produced. This album is an instant classic and should be in your ears ASAP.
Kiasmos – II
Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen have done it again: Kiasmos’ first album in ten years is nothing short of perfect.
With its hypnotic grooves, crystal clear production, organic instrumentation and overall laid back sound, this record offers eleven tracks of pure bliss. The highlight is the exceptional percussion work; tracks like “Sailed” and “Squared” feature some of the best sounding organic noises, claps and percussion I’ve ever heard. It’s a triumphant return from the duo and hopefully we won’t have to wait another ten years for the next album.
THIRST – AFTER THE HOURS MIXTAPE
I’ll be the first to admit that I think Drift Phonk as a whole is a bit stale, but this mixtape from THIRST, a collaborative project between Hayve, Bad Computer and ROY KNOX, breathes new life into the genre.
The 20-track mixtape is fully mixed and the final track “TIMEOUT” is remixed with the first track “SKYLINE”, meaning the entire project can be listened to on loop. Many of the tracks offer a new melodic take on the genre, such as “TRAPPED MEMORY” and “YELLOW TREE”. The absolute highlight of the mixtape is “MEANT 2 BE” featuring Euphoria, a track that seamlessly blends Drift Phone and Y2K-inspired Hyper Trance.
John Summit – Comfort in Chaos
John Summit’s debut album is finally here. After absolutely dominating the melodic techno scene in recent years, “Comfort In Chaos” contains some of his biggest hits as well as some new tracks that could easily top them.
“Where You Are” and “Shiver” with HAYLA are of course included, but also “Stay With Me” with Of The Trees and “Give Me Anything” with Elderbrook, two tracks that perhaps surpass the mega hits mentioned above in terms of quality. The best track on the album is the closing track “Palm of My Hands” with Venbee, a masterfully produced, fluid drum & bass number. This album makes one thing clear: John Summit has not yet reached his peak. In fact, he is getting better and better.
DubVision – Another World
DubVision’s Spotify bio simply states, “We are progressive house.” This album proves it. The album isn’t actually all progressive house, as there are a few melodic techno tracks in the tracklist as well, but overall this is an extremely strong progressive house record.
Highlights include “The Horizon (With You)”, a prog house anthem with Nu-La on vocals, “GOD”, one of the aforementioned melodic techno tracks that would be at home at an Anyma show, and the two collaborations with Martin Garrix.
Overall, this is an extremely successful record with just enough variety to please everyone.
Elohim – The Power of Panic
This is hands down the best bass music album of the month, and that it comes from Elohim is absolutely shocking. The stylistic shift from her previous work to this is shocking to say the least, and yet she pulls it off.
Each track features Elohim’s gorgeous vocals, expertly blended with dark, gritty production, resulting in a phenomenal package of tracks overall. “Afraid to Fall” sounds like it was taken straight from the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, while “Can’t Remember Your Name” is a bass-heavy future house track that should definitely be hitting dance floors in the next few months. This album is the biggest surprise of the month for me and I encourage everyone to check out what Elohim has in store.
Boombox Cartel – Proof of Life
I’m honestly surprised it’s taken this long for us to get an album from Boombox Cartel considering how long the band has been active. We finally got the debut last month.
Although the album features plenty of Boombox Cartel’s signature trap style mixed with rap, there’s plenty of variety here too. Drum and bass fans will enjoy “Better off Dead,” while dark mid-tempo fans will flock to “Afterlife,” and those who prefer a more radio-friendly pop sound should definitely add “Common Ground” to their playlists. I’d describe this as a trap album with a few surprises, and it’s exactly what I think Boombox Cartel’s debut album should have sounded like.
Whethan – The Life of a Wallflower, Volume 2
It’s hard to believe that Vol. 1 came out six years ago and now it’s finally time for Vol. 2. Whethan’s artist bio on Spotify describes this album as a “return to form,” and that’s exactly what it is: a return to the house sound that his fans originally fell in love with him for.
While the album opens with a trap track (a really, really good one with Flowdan on vocals) that is more akin to the tracks on his previous album, the rest of the tracklist is full of summery house anthems. Whethan’s mega-hit “MONEY ON THE DASH” featuring Elley Duhé is also featured here and fits perfectly with tracks like “DO YOU REMEMBER?” and “ENERGY”. It seems like Whethan was trying to create the ultimate summer album, and he absolutely succeeded.
BONUS: Porter Robinson – SMILE 😀
I’m not officially including this on the list since Porter himself has claimed that this album isn’t EDM, but since he’s a big name in the EDM scene, I’m mentioning it anyway. It seems like he completely changes his style every time he puts out a new album. That’s especially the case here, as he’s once again ditched the house rhythms of Nurture for an alt-pop sound that feels like Big Time Rush at times and James Taylor at others. And yet it still sounds like Porter Robinson.
It’s definitely a sad listen, but the tracklist contains some gems, including “Cheerleader,” which kicked off the release, and “Is There Really No Happiness?”, which highlights an acoustic breakbeat and trance-like, stuttering vocals. It’s definitely the least EDM-y piece Porter Robinson has ever put out, but that’s certainly not a bad thing, and it’s absolutely worth a listen if you’ve enjoyed his previous work.
