#IMPresents: The Best of Q3 2024

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Winter is coming as a famous TV show once said and the sun has gone to be replaced by cold and rain. However, drearier weather did not stop us from getting some great new music to listen to over the last few months. In fact, the third quarter always provides some sensational sounds to define the year. From rising hip-hop stars to genre-defining synth-pop, we gained some great material between July and September.

Kloe Paton (Writer)

Best Single: Cordae FT. Lil Wayne – ‘Saturday Mornings‘

This song made me smile the moment I heard it. This is a great moment for Cordae, as he pairs up with a bonafide legend but still manages to stand toe-to-toe with him lyrically. With all the Lil Wayne chatter that’s been happening lately, let’s bask in his greatness with another one of his great features that he’s so known for.

Best Album: Doechii – ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal‘

TDE has a lot to celebrate right now. Their artists are putting out great projects, extending the courageous labels’ lead and legacy. Here, they have truly found a diamond in Doechii. She can sing, rap, make pop, and burst the ego bubble of your favourite lyricist. This album houses bars for days and supreme delivery, upholding a consistently fast pace, yet is super introspective. You get the feeling she is only scraping the surface of what she can offer the world. 

Honourable mention to Denzel Curry’s ‘King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2‘, Ransom and Conway the Machine’s ‘Chaos Is My Ladder 2‘, and Big Sean’s ‘Better Me Than You‘. It’s been a great Q3. 

Jon Chew (Writer)

Best Song: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn – ‘Traditions‘

Among all the bangers and club classics released this year, this sparse, calm release from Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn sounds like spa music in comparison. It’s the surprising palate cleanser I never thought I needed, but wanted. Richard is best known as a former member of R&B group Danity Kane. Paired with experimental musician Zahn, this unlikely duo has just released their brand-new album ‘Quiet in a World Full of Noise’.

‘Traditions’ is a wonder. Over a few tender piano notes and a haunting ambiance, Richard walks us through her growing-up years in New Orleans and their family rituals. She melds jazz, blues, and spoken-word poetry into one melting pot of lyricism. She speak-sings about how “My mama cover the mirror when it rains / She’ll lay that brick in front of the door just in case.”. Her gorgeous voice and craft beckons us into the song’s every nook and cranny. Take, for one, the way she holds back the ‘s’ at the end of “traditions” ever so slightly. It’s like she’s wistfully holding on to a past that is remembered with tender grace. This is history housed in an exquisite glass jar of a melody.

Best Album: Magdalena Bay – ‘Imaginal Disk‘

If you could download one album this year into my brain before a deep sleep into outer space, it could turn out to be Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin’s sophomore synth-pop masterpiece. ‘Imaginal Disk’ simultaneously expands and dismantles our understanding of pop in sonic-bending ways. Conceptually, the LP tracks the journey of True, some being in the future who rejects an upgrade and goes in search of her own humanity. Honestly, that narrative goes way over my head.

Instead, every track in ‘Imaginal Disk’ feels like a very distinctive road trip. ‘Death & Romance’ is a piano-driven stroll in the fair where all fun games go your way. ‘Fear, Sex’, on the other hand, is a creepy (but weirdly satisfying) walk in a quiet forest that suddenly leads into ‘Thriller’-like monster laughs. My favourite so far is ‘Tunnel Vision’, which starts as a cute K-pop-like paean of self-discovery before descending into a chaos of clanging cymbals and electric guitars. It’s so carefully constructed, catchy, and captivating. Now send me into hibernation and leave me alone.

Thomas Atkinson (Editor-in-Chief)

Best Song: NOTION – ‘FEEL LIKE ME‘

This Bristol DJ can not stop delivering bangers right now whether it is garage, drum’n’bass, or bass house. His recent project ‘FORWARDS‘ shows this, but I have to highlight the pulsating track, ‘FEEL LIKE ME‘. This song takes its time to build up to the drop, but it does this exceptionally well. Once we get that moment, you are blown away by the bass and you have to get the gun fingers out. When this gets dropped at a rave, I’m sure the crowd will be whooping and hollering, but for now, I’ll be moving on my own to this. To conclude, this man has the UKG scene on lock, and that ain’t changing soon.

Best Album: BERWYN – ‘WHO AM I‘

In the month where Jamie xx and Bashy marked their long-awaited returns with ‘In Waves‘ and ‘Being Poor is Expensive‘, you had to release something good to be my album of the quarter. Up stepped BERWYN, with not only one of the greatest debuts by a British rapper but one of the greatest albums this island has ever seen.

This project delivers on so many fronts, whether that be rapping ability, lyrical content, or emotional impact. BERWYN has a story, and it is one that needs to be heard! ‘DEAR IMMIGRATION‘ is a blunt and straight-to-the-point freestyle that documents the unempathetic nature of our society towards immigrants. Meanwhile, ‘WHO AM I‘ provides melody to his hard-hitting bars and powerful singing that questions his inner self. Finally, ‘LOVE IS BLIND‘ is a heartfelt message to someone going through addiction, and how this pain makes you conflicted in your feelings towards them.

This LP has received plenty of critical praise and saw the Trinidadian-born MC earn a second Mercury Prize nomination. To borrow from the Guardian’s review, this ‘should be on the national curriculum’. Not only a musical masterpiece, this is storytelling of the highest regard and a powerful message of the trauma and pain immigrants experience due to society’s lack of empathy. If someone’s making the Mount Rushmore of British hip-hop, this deserves its place.

For our favourites from Q2, click here.

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