The 50 best albums of 2024: No 1 – Charli xcx: Brat (and Brat and It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat)

Smart, funny, moving and full of big tunes, the in-your-face masterpiece was the right album at the right time, striking a cultural nerve and defining a change in mindset

You and I are gonna live forever: why 2024’s pop was all about sharing the moment

Pop may be full of solo artists and individually tailored streams, but the Eras tour, Brat summer and Oasis reunion showed we still long to be part of a crowd

Aphex Twin: Music from the Merch Desk (2016-2023) review – Santa’s sack overspills with AFX bounty

Compiling the highly sought-after limited vinyl releases sold at recent festival sets, this surprise 38-track release filled with bangers and beauty is a trove for fans

‘Like Depeche Mode, but evil’: the sweaty, sexual music of 80s EBM

As documented in a new book, electronic body music swept Belgium and Germany as its artists strove to make something entirely new – but their militaristic look became controversial

Bubble Love: Bubble Love review – Ross From Friends’ high-energy pop-club side project

Producer Felix Weatherall adopts another guise, swapping lo-fi analogue for a disorienting burst of alternative dance music

Lennie De Ice, British producer who pioneered sound of jungle, has died

No cause of death given for artist whose track We Are IE had a huge impact on the breakbeat-driven, bass-focused sound of jungle, drum’n’bass and dubstep

‘Blokes who would normally fight would get off their boxes and dance’: Sanctuary, the club that made Milton Keynes massive

It eventually got turned into an Ikea, but for over a decade this warehouse unit galvanised hard dance, grime and more. At a big reunion, former ravers recall the magic

‘God Save the King makes me sick’: Bobby Gillespie’s honest playlist

The Primal Scream man is resolutely unromantic and really dislikes the royals, but what does he put on at a party when ‘everyone’s had a few’?

‘There was a catalogue of errors – but once we opened, we were on fire’: how we made Fabric nightclub

‘We wanted to bring the underground to a bigger audience. We had Bono in the DJ booth once. No one recognised him. In that dark space, he was completely free’

Auntie Flo: In My Dreams (I’m a Bird and I’m Free) review – joyous ride through Kenyan and Goan heritage

Brian d’Souza’s genre-crossing curiosity takes him from propulsive disco to nursery-rhyme melodies and Tiësto-worthy trance

‘By 8pm it is time to head home’: whatever happened to the big night out?

This week, the chief executive of a major bar group suggested 3pm is the new 9pm. Why have we stopped drinking and dancing the night away on a Friday and Saturday night?

BBC Sound of 2025 longlist tips established artists including Chappell Roan and Confidence Man

Following a change in eligibility criteria, nominees for the broadcaster’s annual award also include Kneecap, Barry Can’t Swim and Mercury prize winners English Teacher and Ezra Collective

Jungle, funk and 14th-century Arabic astronomers: piano virtuoso Pat Thomas on his journey through jazz

He started out playing a cardboard piano, but became a key figure in the improv scene. Now at 64, the musician is having a moment with his danceable quartet [Ahmed]

‘There was three of them waiting, like: play this track or else’: DJ EZ, the reality-bending maestro of the decks

The staunch champion of garage is one of the UK’s most talented musicians, manipulating tracks at lightning speed. In a rare interview he discusses neurodiversity, being teetotal – and the truth about his fees

‘I’m often the only woman in the room’: the female music managers changing the industry’s tune

With women now comprising 38% of its 1,500-strong membership, the Music Manager’s Forum typifies the changing face of the industry