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Staff List: The 25 Best Dance Albums of 2024
Best Dance Music Albums of 2024: The 25 best releases of the year.
His twelfth studio album Three is another rock-solid project full of swivels and evolutions, from the twinkling melody arriving on “Daydream Repeat” to the beautiful, morphing dissonance of closer “Three Drums.” As Hebden’s shows get progressively larger (with a standalone set at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum coming in February), Three is also a transmission that, for as big as he’s gotten, his essence remains unchanged. Whether it’s Sampha belting about a startling feeling of closeness experienced with a fellow traveler during a traffic jam on “Fear Less” or SOAK sing-speaking about a positive romantic encounter that leaves them stunned and terrified with happiness on “Just Stand There,” the set is a disarmingly emotional and visceral one — with the DJ behind them approximating all the racing pulses, trembling hands and pounding hearts that denote such life-changingly personal moments. The centerpiece is the pummeling, breakneck-speed title track, but Reznor and Ross flesh out the film’s sonic world with highlights like “‘I Know,'” a radiant synth-pop cut; “Yeah x10,” which channels the LCD Soundsystem-style dance-punk that dominated the mid-’00s era during which Challengers is set; and “L’ouef,” an eerie combination of piano and near-ambient synths that calls to mind The Social Network at its atmospheric best.
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