Best Christian Music of 2024

Christian music had a banner year in 2024. It’s one of music’s fastest-growing genres, with surprising gains especially among younger listeners. I pondered possible explanations for this in a recent commentary article, including the fact that Christian music has simply gotten better in quality. More global and diverse than it’s ever been, it appeals to tastes across various genres, styles, and cultures.

This has been evident as I’ve put together the lists below, which include wildly diverse styles from artists around the world, with one commonality: Each is a musical expression of Christ-loving, God-glorifying, Scripture-inspired faith.

What follows are my picks for the best Christian music released in 2024: best songs, best albums, and best EPs. Undoubtedly, these picks reflect my tastes and won’t resonate universally. But as someone who loves celebrating and sharing quality Christian music, I commend these to you as musically rich and devotionally edifying works. Give them a listen.

100 Best Christian Songs

You can find my picks for the best Christian songs of the year in a 100-song playlist on either Spotify or Apple Music.

8 Best Christian Albums

Here are my picks for the eight best overall album releases under the broad umbrella of “Christian music” (plus 10 honorable mentions).

1. Skye Peterson, All the Difference

Skye Peterson (daughter of Andrew Peterson) continues to be one of the brightest young artists in Christian music. Her debut album, Where the Winter Was, made my list last year, and her 2024 follow-up, All the Difference, is even better. Christian music needs more singer-songwriter music like this, with poetic lyricism that’s both personal and worshipful. With concrete imagery from everyday life, Peterson’s songs work through big ideas in life and faith. “Sound and Silence” stands out as a representative example: a song that explores the nature of music (which her choir director defined as “sound and silence”) as a way to understand suffering and seasons when God seems silent.

2. The Corner Room, Remember and Proclaim, Vol. 2: Scripture Songs for Little Ones

Alabama-based Adam Wright (a.k.a. The Corner Room) has a knack for making Scripture sing with memorable melodies in various genres. He keeps churning out quality albums, year after year. His latest release, the second volume in the Remember and Proclaim series, is especially good. The album sets Scripture to song in fun ways that’ll appeal to kids. But make no mistake: It’s also highly enjoyable for grown-ups. My favorites include an ingenious jazz setting of 1 John 4:7–12 and a foot-stomping, whistle-happy, pop-folk rendition of Jeremiah 29:11–13. This is an album for family car rides, preservice church foyers, and everything in between.

3. Antoine Bradford, Like Flowers in the Sun

I’ve been a fan of Antoine Bradford since first hearing his song “Promises” in 2019. His smooth, soulful voice is consistently a vehicle for personal, devotional, honest lyrics that stir the heart in gratitude to God. His 2024 release, Like Flowers in the Sun, is his most musically and lyrically rich offering yet. Of many standout songs on the record, my favorites include “Find My Way Home,” “Carry Me,” “Living in the Promised Land,” and “Nothing I Can Do” (a collaboration with Tekoa’s Rory McKenna). This album has an inviting musical vibe and relatable lyrics about our desperate need for God in a fragile and faith-challenging world.

4. Ellie Holcomb, All of My Days

I’m a sucker for Psalm-based songs that set the ancient biblical text to contemporary music. We’ve seen a welcome resurgence of this in recent years, from Poor Bishop Hooper’s EveryPsalm Project to the excellent Psalms albums of Sandra McCracken, Caroline Cobb, and others. This year, Ellie Holcomb added an offering of her own with All of My Days. It’s a beautiful collection of seven beloved and familiar biblical psalms set to beautiful folk-country melodies that make full use of Holcomb’s vocal talents. The album’s first three tracks, covering Psalm 23, Psalm 139, and Psalm 121, are among the best opening sets of songs on any Christian album this year.

5. Nick Smith, Help My Unbelief

Some music features elaborate, “big sound” production and impressively clever lyrics yet still feels empty. Other music is sonically pared down and lyrically simple yet quietly pulsates with life and resonance. In this type, the emotion of the song’s delivery feels authentic and connects with listeners on a soul level. This is how I feel listening to Nick Smith’s debut album, Help My Unbelief. The Oregon-based artist has a soulful, almost lounge-music vibe. Applied to the simple melodies and devotional lyrics of songs like “He Is Lord” or “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” Smith’s style feels fresh and pure. The album comes across like an extended worship set in a living room: intimate, raw, and spiritually rich.

6. Forrest Frank, Child of God

Though his reputation has been building for the last several years largely due to social media buzz, Texas-based Forrest Frank took mainstream Christian music by storm in 2024. The Baylor graduate was named the New Artist of the Year at the 2024 Dove Awards. He received ample attention in the secular music press because of his chart-topping album Child of God and his role in Christian music’s rapid growth as a genre. But it’s not just hype. Child of God is a really good album: joyful, vibey, God-centered, well-produced. If a Gen-Z-led revival is on the horizon (and there are rumblings of it), something tells me artists like Frank will be part of it.

7. Psallos, A Sure Hope: Hymns of Romans

Who knew Paul’s epistle to the Romans could be this musically fun? Leave it to Psallos to bring such rich theology to vibrant musical life. A more singable, popular-level companion album to Psallos’s 2015 Romans album, A Sure Hope is a great resource for any church going through a sermon series on Romans. Most of these songs feature old, less familiar hymn texts set to melodies designed for congregational singing. To help churches utilize these songs in their worship services, Psallos has chord charts on its website, along with explanatory videos unpacking the lyrics and how to best play the music.

8. Jimmy Clifton, I Love You All the More

Evoking Josiah Queen both in Appalachian-folk style and social media marketing savvy, Jimmy Clifton has carved a niche for himself in indie Christian music. The North Carolina–based Gen Z artist creates songs that are a refreshing mix of biblical, confessional, sometimes low-key, sometimes aggressive, frequently pastoral, and even prophetic. I’m impressed by his songwriting’s ability to traverse a range of emotions, all while feeling authentic and unpretentious—and ultimately worshipful. It’s all on display in his 2024 release, I Love You All the More.

Honorable Mentions: Jon Foreman, In Bloom; Eliza King, The Pressing In; Nobigdyl., The People We Became; Josiah Queen, The Prodigal; Scripture Hymnal, Scripture Hymnal Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.; Joshua Luke Smith, Liberated; Starflyer 59, Lust for Gold; John Van Deusen, Anthem Sprinter; Young Oceans, Somehow I Know It’s Love; Domas Žeromskas, Meditations on Providence and Perseverance, Vol. 1.

9 Best Christian EPs

EPs in the streaming era are a format in flux. They’re occasionally standalone concept releases, but increasingly EPs are simply avenues for artists to slow-drip new release songs from larger projects. Of the countless EPs released by Christian artists in 2024, these were my favorites.

1. Jess Ray, MATINS. One of the most unique recording projects in Christian music this year, Ray’s trio of MATINS EPs can be experienced in audio but are even better on Youtube, where each can be experienced as a 30-minute devotional worship concert filmed at sunrise. Watch: MATIN 1: Rest, MATIN 2: Love, MATIN 3: Turn.

2. Jon Guerra, American Gospel. Guerra is a Dylanesque folk troubadour unafraid of speaking hard truths. He’s also one of this generation’s most lyrically talented Christian artists. It’s all on display in his election-year-timed new EP.

3. CityAlight, Rise My Soul (Live). The newest release from Sydney’s CityAlight—the church-based worship group changing Christian songwriting—Rise My Soul offers four new tracks you should consider adding to your church’s worship repertoire.

4. Liturgical Folk, Three Gifts. A brilliant concept for an EP, these three songs explore the theological virtues of “faith,” “hope,” and “love,” with the help of Jon Guerra and Tenielle Neda. Beautiful stuff.

5. Caroline Cobb, Close to Home. A more vulnerable, personal collection of songs for Cobb, this lovely EP explores the textures of everyday life—friendship, death, vocation, anxiety—through a lens of gospel hope.

6. Braille, Push It Down. Bryan “Braille” Winchester (of Beautiful Eulogy) has a new full-length album in the works (yay!), but in the meantime, we can enjoy this stellar collection of five new songs exploring gospel hope in a world of sin and suffering.

7. Josh Garrels, Seek Hi Seek Lo. Containing the first four singles from Garrels’s next full-length album (release TBD), this EP shows that the Michigan-based singer-songwriter is still one of the best talents in Christian music today.

8. The Gray Havens, The Magic. The three songs on this EP likely contain the first singles from The Gray Havens’s forthcoming album. If these are any indication, we’re in for a treat when the next full album drops.

9. Poor Bishop Hooper, The Lord’s Prayer. The most famous prayer in Scripture gets fascinating musical treatment in this three-song EP. A musical triptych of sorts, the EP features three diverse interpretations of the Lord’s Prayer.

Brett McCracken is a senior editor and director of communications at The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World, Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community, Gray Matters: Navigating the Space Between Legalism and Liberty, and Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide. Brett and his wife, Kira, live in Santa Ana, California, with their three children. They belong to Southlands Santa Ana. You can follow him on X or Instagram.