What’s really good and really bad about the never-ending availability of music in the age of online streaming are exactly the same — it’s never-ending.

As of late last year, an estimated 120,000 new songs were being released daily on the internet.

That was more than the total number of songs released on physical recordings in all of 1989, according to a report in Music Radar. The total number of new songs released online in 2023 was more than 43 million.

This year, 20,309 recordings were submitted for Grammy Awards consideration.

The streaming service Spotify estimates its users upload an average of 1.8 million songs a month. As of mid-2024, YouTube’s music app offered more than 100 million songs.

It is virtually impossible to determine how many albums — as opposed to songs — came out this year, but these are some of my favorites.

Andra Day, “Cassandra (cherith)”: How did the San Diego-bred singer and Oscar-nominated actress follow up performing the inspirational “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for a TV audience of 120 million at the 2024 Super Bowl? By releasing her first album of all-new songs since her Grammy-nominated debut, “Cheers to the Fall,” in 2015. It was worth the wait. “Cassandra (cherith)” rivals Marvin Gaye’s classic 1978 double album, “Here, My Dear,” as an intensely moving and brutally honest musical documentation of a love affair gone painfully wrong. The resulting feelings of vulnerability, anguish, hope, resiliency, faith and self-acceptance are powerfully chronicled by Day.

Singing with an inspiring command of power and grace, nuance and pinpoint dynamic control, she draws from neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, bossa nova and more to make emotionally immersive music that comes from — and goes straight to — the heart. The results, at their best, are cathartic and then some.

Bilal, “Adjust Brightness”: On his first new album in eight years, the veteran Philadelphia singer-songwriter answers the question: What would Prince sound like now if he were still alive, at the top of his game and made a head-turning album with D’Angelo?

Billie Eilish, “Hit Me Hard and Soft”: With the exception of the thumping, vocoder-fueled “L’Amour De Ma Vie,” the songs on Eilish’s third solo album are whisper-soft, impeccably crafted and infused with a degree of wisdom well beyond her 22 years.

Fontaines D.C., “Romance”: Making music that is challenging and accessible is not easy. But on its fourth album, “Romance,” the Irish band pivots from post-punk to create one of the most distinctive, edgy and inviting rock albums of the year.

Shemekia Copeland, “Blame It on Eve”: An eight-time Blues Music Awards winner, the New York-born vocal dynamo was just a year out of high school when she made her assured debut album in 1998. “Blame It On Eve,” her 12th album, is an intoxicating, all-star showcase for Copeland’s first-rate songs and alternately fiery and tender singing.

Willie Nelson, “Last Leaf on the Tree”: At 91, the constantly touring Nelson is clearly in no hurry to slow down. “Last Leaf on the Tree” is his second album this year, and it’s an understated but stirring testament to his singular talents as a genre-transcending American music icon. It’s also a testament to Nelson’s ability to transform and take ownership of any song he performs, be it the elegiac title track by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, Nina Simone’s “Come Ye” or Neil Young’s “Broken Arrow.”

Beyoncé, “Cowboy Carter”: Nelson makes a sly cameo appearance on “Cowboy Carter,” a sprawling double album that finds Beyoncé saluting and reclaiming country music — a genre that originated with Black Americans — and then moving beyond it. Granted, not all 27 songs here hit their mark. But much of “Cowboy Carter” is accomplished and distinctive enough to demonstrate exactly why Beyoncé earned a field-leading 11 Grammy nominations for it.

Laura Marling, “Patterns in Repeat”: On her most tender, intimate and stripped-down album, the English troubadour celebrates the joys of first-time motherhood by reflecting on — and singing directly to — her year-old daughter, who was right next to her when she made most of the gently absorbing “Patterns in Retreat.”

St. Vincent, “All Born Screaming”: Having assumed different personas and musical alter egos on most of her previous albums (one of which was tellingly titled “Actor”), St. Vincent sounds positively liberated just being herself on “All Born Screaming.” It’s a proudly left-of-center rock album that is melodically rich, brimming with raw feeling and full of thrilling twists and turns.

Mdou Moctar, “Funeral for Justice”: “Funeral for Justice” is undoubtedly the only album of the year inspired by the numbing ripple effects of French colonialism in the African county of Niger. It is also an absolutely captivating work by Tuareg desert blues guitarist and singer Moctar and his band of the same name, who perform with electrifying ferocity and seamless precision throughout.

Also recommended

Leyla McCalla, “Sun Without the Heat”; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, “Woodland”; Kendrick Lamar, “GNX”; Kacey Musgrave, “Deeper Well”; Michael Kiwanuka, “Small Changes”; The Smile, “Wall of Eyes”; Meshell Ndegeocello, “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin”; Jake Xerxes Fussell, “When I’m Called”; Hurray for the Riff Raff, “The Past Is Still Alive”; Yasmin Williams, “Acadia”; Adrianne Lenker, “Bright Future”; Madi Diaz, “Weird Faith”; The Last Dinner Party, “Prelude to Ecstasy”; Nia Archives, “Silence Is Loud”; and Linda Thompson, “Proxy Music.”