Tag Archives for Best new albums 2024

101 Favorite Albums of 2024: 24-1

Well, we did it. We made through another year. I’m proud of you, I’m proud of us. If you’ve been through these lists with a magnifying glass, then thank you. If you’ve just clicked on this one to see a top 10, I still appreciate the time. This has been an extraordinarily fruitful year for new music, and narrowing this list down to 101 was so difficult. Narrowing out a top 24 was brutal, I mean brat didn’t even make the cut.

Curiously, this year was unbelievable for new albums, but I personally felt that it was missing that album. There was not an obvious #1 for me, no dominant album, no Rat Saw God shoo-in. Even now as I’m writing, I’m not confident that my #1 pick is actually my #1. Maybe it’s on me for not spending enough time with most of these albums, but I don’t know that there’s any here I’ll be revisiting for years. However only time will tell for that. All 24 of these albums are near-perfect barnburners regardless.

Nearly all of these write-ups are copied directly from other previous posts on this blog. I’m editing them but please keep that in mind in case there’s a nonsensical reference or anything. Alright – final 24.

#24. Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future

The hot streak continues. You may know Lenker best as the singer of Big Thief, a band seemingly incapable of writing a song even slightly mediocre. Well, she’s racked up more than enough songs to make a runoff solo album. Donned with just an acoustic guitar, Lenker delivers another set of heart-wrenching ditties, as well as a solo version of Big Thief’s “Vampire Empire,” one of my favorite tunes from 2023. Simple and devastating, it’s what you expect from indie’s best songwriter. Also, she released a Bandcamp-only accompany EP with all proceeds going to Gazan relief efforts, which is a nice 180 from what I had heard about her previous politics (possibly hearsay!). 

#23. ScHoolboy Q – Blue Lips

2024 has been a year for form-returning albums. St. Vincent and Vampire Weekend improved on their respective weakest releases, and the same goes for ScHoolboy. His previous album, 2019’s Crash Talk, was a change of pace, as the rapper opted for much shorter tracks. Rather than his normal 5+ minute journeys, the album was full of 2-minute bursts. It was also a change of pace in quality, as everything felt incomplete or off-hand. Blue Lips is a welcome return, technically “more of the same” for a rapper who always wears his heart on his sleeve, but the formula still pays dividends. Emotional, funny, raw and absolute banging: this is what you want from a ScHoolboy album. And there aren’t even any 5+ minute songs – there’s just a lot more energy and effort put in here. 

#22. JPEGMAFIA – I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU

I’m sorry that I’m the flavor of caucasian who loves Peggy specifically but I am, and this is his finest set since Veteran. It’s also the most manic thing he’s ever released, closer to hyperpop than anything else. It’s absurdly beat-heavy, dense, and thrilling. Peggy even gets somewhat lost in the front half, in songs that focus heavily on the bass beats. He shines through on the more measured back half, with some songs that get much more earnest. His guests on this album are Vince Staples and Denzel Curry, two guys known just as much for their intense and mainstream-eschewing rap. So you know what you’re gonna get – paranoid and catchy music that’s too abrasive to play on the family speakers. One of my favorites of the year. I think Knocked Loose still has the best album with a cross on the cover, though.

#21. Jack White – No Name

I sometimes forget how much I love Jack White. Across his works with the Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather and solo, there’s only four albums I would say I dislike. He’s always been an impatient songwriter, but his records have had measured levels of ambition. No Name might be his most down-to-earth set since the middle of the White Stripes run – just a good ol’ collection of no-frills blues rock. It’s the most White Stripes album since, to be honest, Get Behind Me Satan. There’s some of that garage-punk energy, a lot of bluesy riffs, and just compact songwriting everywhere. Some of the back half gets a little repetitive, there is a bit of an itch for some of Jack’s more ambitious stuff to be had. But overall, this is just a slambang rock record. “It’s Rough On Rats” into “Archbishop Harold Holmes” into the manic “Bombing Out” will go down as one of the best three-song runs of any 2024 album. And the closer “Terminal Archenemy Endling” – maybe the only patient song on the album – may be better than all of them. Another critical strike against the tedious and harmful “Rock is dead!!” crowd. 

#20. Uniform – American Standard

These next three albums get pretty abrasive. Uniform’s first few albums were solid but I kept waiting for a breakout release. 2020’s Shame was that record, a mix of industrial guitars and guttural post-hardcore that seemed to come out of the same catacombs that were on the cover. The band’s newest album is impossibly even bleaker, complete with a smog-heavy cover of industrial, rural anywhere. The band also sounds even bleaker, and stretches themselves way out of a comfort zone. That comfort zone is reasonably-lengthed songs. Side A of this record is one, 21-minute song. Side B is only three songs. By stretching their songs out, the band can hammer home the innate misery of their music. This is angry, humorless stuff, just the absolute depths of unhappiness. Uniform is not an easy band to classify musically, even harder here because they stretch into doom-metal for the first time. But this isn’t really metal, and not really post-hardcore. It exists in it’s own dimension, a hell dimension of some sort. This is not something that’s appealing to most people, but I love this band and they crushed my highest expectations. I also finally saw them earlier this month alongside our #101 entry Pharmakon – one of the best live bands I’ve seen in a long while.

#19. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Knocked Loose are one of those bands that I absolutely love but never know how to write about. The metal group doesn’t exist within the bounds of any specific subgenre, but they aren’t so radical as to define a new one, either. What they do is absolutely rip, and their third album rips even harder than their first two. They’re technically metalcore, a genre I usually don’t pay much attention to due to sheer repetition between bands. But Knocked Loose infuse metalcore with elements of hardcore punk and death metal, emitting short and brutal transmissions that always make sure to be on the fun side of things. The songs on this album (especially the first half) don’t so much start and end as they do operate as one puzzling suite. There’s an assist from Poppy that should go down as one of the best guest verses of the year, too. This is absolute fire start to finish. The band were already big prior to this album, but made a lot of waves recently as they appeared (with Poppy) on Slim Jim Kimmel’s late-night show and pissed off a lot of very vulnerable older folks.

#18. The Body – The Crying Out Of Things

The Body’s second album of 2024 is also their second to make this list. I love this band dearly, and this instantly became one of my favorite albums of theirs. These two guys always take their template sound, which is already intensely unique because of Chip King’s squawked vocals, and tweak it differently for each album. This time around, they’ve largely diluted their already flimsy song structures and added a lot of chopped elements into the vocals. It’s more directly synthy than most of their albums, while still unrelentingly heavy. It comes off a tad like Merzbow but with more restraint. It’s an album for metalheads even though it is not metal, it’s just noise music. But for anyone who likes dark, extreme or just heavy music, or a singer that sounds like a chicken, prioritize this one. One of the best from one of the best. 

#17. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood

After three unrelentingly heavy records, here’s an overcorrection. My expectations were set pretty high, given that “Right Back To It” was already my favorite song of the year before this was released. I’m also just a lifelong Waxahatchee fan, although she’s not someone who I listen to often. The rest of the record isn’t 100% consistent, but it often hits. While the lead single is her most straight-up country song yet, the rest of the album is familiar indie-folk, with occasional bursts of guitar. These tunes are very sweet, very casual and just extremely well-developed. Katie’s voice is as good as always, but this album is more about summer-y vibes anyways. These are songs for aimless car rides with the windows down, songs for drinking a beer on the front lawn. And yet, I can tell this is a record I’ll come back to during all seasons. As expected, one of the best of the year. 

#16. Torres – What an enormous room

Okay so I actually spun this one twice back in January in preparation of (finally!) seeing her live, but I gave it a proper headphones whirl in April. The indie singer has been bubbling under the radar for a good decade now, and I’m hoping this propels her forward. It might be her best album yet, a culmination of all the ideas she’s put forward till now. It’s got threatening guitar jams, tender ballads and poppy synth tunes. She continues to blend sexual and religious references like a more deranged Sufjan Stevens. There’s more individual ideas here than on previous Torres records, but she makes them all coalesce. Something for everyone, at least in the indie world. The third spin of this will certainly not be my last. 

#15. Denzel Curry – King of the Mischievous South Part 2

Hot damn. I accidentally slept on this one for a while despite loving basically everything Curry has done so far. Curry has made a name for himself making rap that’s intense without straying too far from genre conventions. This is more of a down-to-basics hip-hop mixtape that shows he can knock something a little more “normal” out of the park too. As a mixtape it is looser and more low-stakes than an album would be, but he puts in no less effort. Bombastic to the core. It’s a quick affair, maybe even a little too short. But Curry can practically do no wrong to this reviewer. Not a magnum opus or mission statement, just excellent, high-energy hip-hop.

Note: I listened to and reviewed the mixtape, not the subsequent album that featured mostly the same songs in a different order with a few more tracks. I don’t really understand what the deal was there?

#14. St. Vincent – All Born Screaming

St. Vincent’s now ten-year-old self-titled will always be my favorite release of hers; it’s a top ten favorite album of mine. For me, she’ll never top it – but this comes damn close. I was really not into her last album, Daddy’s Home, a set of mostly tepid ballads centered around a tone-deaf concept, and her trajectory into duller rock was a familiar one across the indie landscape. So shocking, then, when she dropped a record of heavy, industrial-inspired tunes instead. While the album fluctuates between crushing songs like “Flea” and softer ones like “Reckless,” the influence of heavier, offbeat alternative is clear throughout. Cate Le Bon steps in for a crucial assistance on the lengthy, flowing final track, and it’s a fitting welcome. I could write and probably will write something about how Jack Antonoff is ruining pop music – this record proves that artists can shake the stink of him off and still be alright. 

#13. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God

I’ve mentioned a few times that this flash review exercise has mostly become me showing my own ass, and here I must do it again: I am not very familiar with the Nick Cave catalog. I’ve listened to (and loved) his earliest and most recent records, but there’s 20 years in the middle I haven’t heard. In my limited experience though, I’ve realized the best Nick Cave songs are ones where there’s just minimal piano or static noise and Cave talking lyrics. He does that a lot here. There’s also songs that have full-band with choir backups, and they’re just as stunning. It’s unbelievable that Cave still stuns this much, but every track on this album works well. Most of them work tremendously well. Cave is one of music’s premier storytellers, and this is another legendary release. It’s one of the best albums of the year. No question. I’m in awe. 

#12. Foxing – Foxing

I’m floored. This is a gamechanger. I wasn’t familiar with Foxing before their year-end-list-dominating record Nearer My God in 2018, so that album’s radical left turn in sound was lost on me (although I adored the record nonetheless). This is another shift, into something heavier and darker. This record is unclassifiable, a mix of indie, emo and hardcore that often deteriorates into walls of harsh noise. Yet it is still indie rock. It’s got the harsh vulnerability and self-loathing of the 90’s emo scene that spawned Foxing, with added dissonance, anger and confusion. It has lighter moments for sure, and touches of everyday life, and these separate the more intense moments into individual spirals. It’s still an exhausting affair, and maybe even a touch too long at 56 minutes. But for those of us with depression, we’ve got a new magnum opus.

#11. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks

Let’s not mince words – this was my most anticipated record of 2024. The first single off this album, “Rudolph” was one of my favorite songs of 2023. The second single, “She’s Leaving You,” is easily making my 2024 list. Lenderman’s primary band, Wednesday, handily won my Album of the Year mark in 2023. I set my sights ridiculously high for this one. Lenderman’s solo music bridges the gap between Neil Young and Kurt Vile; it’s off-the-cuff guitar playing and talk-sung vocals, with intricate and specific lyrics that detail American loneliness and wasted youths. Lenderman’s previous album focused on the grungier side of those artists, and this one is heavier on the Americana side. There’s enough Southern gothic here to make Flannery O’Connor happy but, predictably, there’s a lot of humor and just unpredictable references that make these stories entertaining. I don’t think Neil Young ever sang about Ferraris, Guitar Hero or the Cars film franchise. I always love specificity in lyrics even if it makes the songs less applicable – to me, it shows personality and care. Lenderman is always all about that. Only complaint here is that the energetic/somber balance is off in favor of the latter, but it’s a minor complaint. This guy is just on a different level from everyone else.

#10. Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us

Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut will always be one of my favorite albums, but the aura of “rich (mostly) white boys repurpose African music” aged like milk almost immediately. In the years since, the band has taken different approaches to incorporate maturity into their works. Their fourth album, Father Of The Bride, is easily their worst, a set of adult-alternative yawners only one step above CVS radio. For this album, they overcorrected, releasing what is actually their most manic and experimental set to date. Every song on this album has crafted, unpredictable elements, and many of them are absurdly high-energy. Fifteen years after their debut, this is the record that builds upon that album the most – even going so far as to sample “Mansard Roof.” The lyrics remain a mix of serious and tongue-in-cheek. Even though I really dug the singles I heard in advance, I didn’t expect something this remarkably engaged from them. One of the highlights of the year so far.

#9. Melt-Banana – 3+5

Japan’s Melt-Banana served as my intro to noise music. They were the first, and for a long time only, noise band I really heard and digested; I’ve been a huge fan for almost 20 years now. Although the duo has gotten older and quainter, their hyper-aggressive punk is no less gnarly. Their first album in 11 years is short, and the songs are neither the experimental seconds-long chunks of Cactuses Come In Flocks nor the longer, more developed tracks of Cell-Scape. They’re the closest thing to true punk songs the band has done, and they absolutely rip. Every song rocks, and nearly all have the expected 1000BPM. Easily one of my favorite albums of the year, the duo was going to have to work hard to not make that cut. Also, I finally got to see them this spring – best show I’ve seen all year.

#8. Kal Marks – Wasteland Baby

Kal Marks are one of my favorite Boston bands, and yet this album still obliterated my expectations. The Kal Marks wheelhouse is midtempo post-hardcore that’s very bass-y in both music and vocals. Generally, their songs are ones that are heavy and divisive, but not exactly inaccessible. Here, they branch out a bit, introducing some poppier elements and some more optimistic lyrics. There’s plenty of just heavy shit, too, though; it’s a well-rounded record. Quite frankly, it’s one of the best heavy albums I’ve heard all year, local bias or not. Nearly every song floored me in some way. If you’re into a variety of post-hardcore bands like METZ or Protomartyr, then add this one to your list. They’ve done it again. This record hangs with the A-listers. Favorite local release of the year. Finally, a good album with the name “Wasteland Baby.”

#7. Mount Eerie – Night Palace

The best film I’ve watched this year for the first time is Lawrence of Arabia. I knew going in that I was going to love it, but the 3+ hour runtime looked daunting even for someone who loves long movies. The eleventh Mount Eerie album is 26 songs and 81 minutes long, extremely daunting for an artist who deals in gloom. But like Lawrence, I had trouble even pausing this once I got into it. The album is an amalgam of everything Phil Elverum has done to date. There’s short, ripping rock songs, drone tracks, gothic folk and a touch of metal. It’s like a greatest hits for a guy who has always stayed on the fringe. And when you follow the trajectory of Elverum’s last decade, it all makes sense. He’s had a child, with a wife who passed shortly after, married and quickly divorced Michelle Williams, and has gotten into meditation. These tumultuous ups and downs are all over this record, which changes on a dime so many times you’d have enough cash to buy the double vinyl. It’s purely one of the best albums of the year.

#6. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

This album had a lot to live up to. Mannequin Pussy are one of the only bands where I generally love every song they’ve put out. Ferocious, unpredictable and catchy, they’re a punk band that doesn’t really seem to think they’re a punk band. And on their fourth album, they do branch out a lot more. I don’t think the 100% streak continues, however, the best songs here are the best they’ve ever done. It’s a ripper of a record, and one that has more ideas and, *ahem,* patience than previous releases. Missy Dabice gives her best-yet vocal performance on “Sometimes,” a song that stretches closer to indie than anything else. But there’s still punk bruisers everywhere, too. Tremendous stuff.

#5. The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy

It’s been a long time since an indie debut was this hotly anticipated, the fervor was nearly at 08 Vampire Weekend levels. What I’m saying is, if you’re interested in this type of thing, then you’ve probably heard it already. But! It so lives up to the hype. This is a set of well-balanced, bombastic indie tunes with a lot of spunk and even more intelligence. These ladies have a tinge of chamber pop in their songs, with a lot of raucous elements. It’s a unique blend that calls back to the early riotous live shows – but not recorded material – of Arcade Fire. In fashion, this band allegedly has wild and destructive shows themselves. Also a small tic, but I love when a band doesn’t just chuck the singles at the front of the album but places them in where they make sense sequentially. The second single and my favorite track, “Sinner,” comes near the end!

#4. Ty Segall – Three Bells

It’s probably no secret that I’m a Ty Segall fanboy across all his projects, but I do generally prefer his barebones garage punk stuff more – Slaughterhouse, Freedom’s Goblin, Pre Strike Sweep. Some of his more recent, more experimental releases have been a bit above my head (First Taste in particular). So I approached this one with apprehension – only to find that this album ties the knot between Freedom’s Goblin and Manipulator, a great whale sized album that is lighter and more varied in tone, but doesn’t stray too far from Ty’s garage roots, too. It’s maybe his most well-rounded album yet, lengthy but varied where every song feels important and unique. It’s experimental and exciting, but warmer than an average Segall release all the same.

#3. SPRINTS – Letter To Self

Live music can be transcendent. Legend has it that Stu MacKenzie was inspired to start a band (King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard) while at a Tame Impala show. Sprints was birthed by a couple people at a Savages gig – one of the best live bands, and most dearly missed bands of the last 15 years. They realized they could simply make the music they want to hear, and years later, we’ve got their debut. It sounds like Savages. That couldn’t be more of a compliment for me. Loud, noisy, melodic and just restrained enough to fall under indie. It should be clear from this post that I love music that’s boisterous and stressful, and this band nailed it from moment one. This was the very first album I listened to this year, and it withstood hundreds of challengers.

#2. Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced

In direct opposition to a lot of albums in this post, and the norm in general, Pissed Jeans have gotten louder and more immature. This is the leanest and meanest version of Pissed Jeans we’ve ever seen. The post-hardcore band has always treated its aggressive music as a pseudo-joke, as they satirize specific topics like middle managers and guys who have humiliation fetishes. There’s some of that here, specifically in screeds against used underwear sales and guys who disturb you when you’re on break. But there’s also a general, visceral anger here. These songs are way shorter than normal, most under two minutes, just ferocious punk blasts from a band that normally stretches things out. The best song is still tongue-in-cheek; “Everywhere is Bad,” a parody of songs where singers get easy clout by listing cities, instead decrying every city, planet, galaxy, and dimension. Sure, they rag on Boston, Portland and Austin, but they also rag on Proxima B and nonexistence. It’s goofy while being menacing. The chaos balance feels like 2024 in a nutshell. It’s one of their best albums, and one of the most riveting and overlooked releases of the year.

#1. Kim Gordon – The Collective

Haha what the hell. The beautiful thing about listening to the solo projects from Sonic Youth members was seeing what influences they individually brought to the table – Thurston Moore brought the noise guitars, Lee Ranaldo brought the classic rock vibes, and Kim supplied the most experimental elements. On her second solo record (mind you, she is SEVENTY-ONE years old), she creates something entirely new and diabolical. This is noise-trap. It’s a noise-rock record centered around hip-hop beats, but not in any kind of Death Grips way. It sounds like something that isn’t supposed to be heard. Some of these songs were intended for Playboi Carti, but somehow ended up in her lap. And that’s really the only way to describe them. I’ve never heard anything like this, even from Kim. She’s back and she’s still the coolest person around.

And that does it! Another year in the books. I hope you enjoyed this and found some new music through it, or at least gave me a pageclick out of support. I am not planning on keeping my flash reviews going into 2025 – it was a one-year project. It was fun, it was exhausting. I’ll think of new ways to use this blog in the future. See you next December!

Because I can never help myself, here’s five albums that just missed the cut: Never Broke Again – Compliments of Grave Digger Mountain (trap), Melvins – Tarantula (doom/alt-metal), MGMT – Loss Of Life (indie), Undeath – More Insane (death metal), Wishy – Triple Seven (alternative rock). To be honest, Wishy should’ve made the list. I regret this.

101 Favorite Albums of 2024: 49-25

Tired of me yet? I hope not, because we’re only halfway through my favorite albums of 2024! As stated, there was an insurmountable amount of excellent new music this year, even more so than other years. There’s tons of probably excellent albums still on my list, unlistened to. This top 101 is only a small sampling of the excellent music released this year. I hope you find something on this list that’s appealing to you, and that you fall down a rabbit hole because of it. I rated everything I listened to this year, and this portion of the list is in the healthy 8/10 to 8.5/10 range.

Nearly all of these write-ups are copied directly from other previous posts on this blog. I’m editing them but please keep that in mind in case there’s a nonsensical reference or anything.

#49. Tyla – TYLA

This one came to me via recommendation, and I’m indebted because I loved this. I’m normally hit-and-miss on R&B, but this was pretty much all hit for me. It’s worth noting that I chose to listen to this on an evening where it was very nearly 100 degrees, and this is hot weather music. It expertly blends many different pop music influences, roping afrobeats and R&B into African pop. It’s also very sultry music, as sweaty as this heat-stroked listener was. This has the makings of a third or fourth album from a big-name artist who is priming themselves for an arena tour – not a debut from a hot but still underground artist. It’s an extremely impressive debut, one of the best of the year. She’s gonna be huge in no time.

#48. Perennial – Art History

I have had the absolute pleasure of interviewing two members of this band, two people as bubbly as the music is. I’m a massive sucker for mid-00’s dance-punk, a la The Hives and Be Your Own Pet, and that’s exactly what Perennial does. Their third album continues the trend, just a bunch of quick little blasts of melodic punk. No song sticks around long – the record is 12 songs and 21 minutes. Most of them are sonic blasts, high-energy party songs, with a couple more experimental tracks (or segments) thrown in to break the pattern. Clean guitars, dual vocals and nonstop ferocious energy will make you feel like you’re in a club in 2005 seeing a great short-lived band with a terribly long and stupid name all over again. This is punk for everyone, get to this one immediately. Long live Perennial. 

#47. Julie Christmas – Ridiculous And Full Of Blood

I almost made it all the way through the year without knowing that Julie Christmas put out her first record in a decade. This utterly deranged lady used to sing for a band that is quietly one of my favorites, Made Out Of Babies. Her third solo record follows in that band’s footsteps exactly, with a number of intimidating and turbulent post-hardcore songs. Her screamy vocals sound exactly the same as they did a decade ago, she hasn’t lost the touch. These songs are loud, relentless and quite frankly, a bit unsettling. Her vocals have always had the urgency of someone who needs to go to the hospital. The music is boisterous, but always stays restrained enough to really let Christmas shine vocally. It’s intense stuff – and not on enough radars. 

#46. Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?

I somehow completely missed Yard Act’s first album, but their 2023 standalone single “The Trench Coat Museum” completely roped me in. Their second album regrettably doesn’t feature the song, but it follows in the same trend – tongue-in-cheek music that blends post-punk through indie. It’s one of a hundred great post-punk albums this year, and maybe the best of the lot. The band is a lot heavier and faster than, say, Cheekface, but with the same humor and spoken-word vocals. “We Make Hits” is one of the best songs of the year, a meta song about selling out in the face of global destruction that sounds ripped from the LCD Soundsystem playbook. The band never stays quiet or complacent, adding riotous elements to practically every song. Even the lengthy “Blackpool Illuminations” seems to be a self-reflective ballad, before it turns into James Smith arguing with himself through two mics like an old Jim Gaffigan bit. It’s riveting stuff. Maybe it’s a little difficult, but I can see it having a broad appeal.

#45. Los Campesinos! – All Hell

I feel like I’ve grown up with Los Campesinos! Truthfully, I have. You look at the bouncy, quirky and goofy indie they were doing in 2009 and compare it to this record. I’ve been around since day one, and it’s so great to see the band come back to take a victory lap like this. This is the most mature they’ve ever sounded, a healthy mix of bombastic songs and quiet burners, an expected mix of lyrics that are both tongue-in-cheek and brutally emotional. The band has always been openly left-wing, but they’re unfiltered here, to great success. They’ve shaken off the directly catchy, vocals-and-bells rhythms of yesteryear in favor of indie that’s patient and introspective. That’s been the case for a while, but even more so here. The band sounds both calmer and angrier, an effect of maturity. But don’t think that it’s all a serious affair, we’ve still got songs like “Adult Acne Stigmata,” “Hell In A Handjob” and “The Coin-Op Guillotine.” Yet another winner from one of the strongest catalogs out there. 

#44. Tyler, The Creator – CHROMAKOPIA

Few artists have grown and changed like Tyler. This is so flagrantly not the same man who made Goblin. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Tyler is the musical equivalent of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in that he always manages to play off the zeitgeist. In 2011, he was making homophobic jokes and brash public statements. In 2024 he’s vulnerable and telling stories about trauma. Sure, chalk it up to maturity, but I think it’s more calculated than that. Tyler innately knows what gets people going. In fairness, I totally shunned Tyler because of his lyrics until Flower Boy, never gave him a fair shot. I still haven’t listened to his older music. But I loved Call Me and I pretty much love this. He’s a full-on raconteur now, embodying characters that blur the line of reality (including a first-person from a female POV). Most of these songs are self-reflective and depressing, but not in the paranoid way that a lot of other rappers have adapted. These are just songs about pointing out your failures and flaws. It’s one of the most earnest records of the year, even as Tyler sings in character. But also, some of them are just funky and funny, too. It’s well-rounded! 

#43. Porridge Radio – Clouds In The Sky There Will Always Be There For Me 

Another winner from one of the most unique acts in indie music. The British trio makes indie music that is at home with bands like Built to Spill, but might make listeners a little uncomfortable. Singer Dana Margolin has a gritty voice resembling Francis Quinlan from Hop Along, but with a backing band that’s filtered through the looseness of Hole. The whole album is off-the-cuff and extremely raw. It could even be more Tom Waits than anything. The music this band makes is wholly unique, and it’s fair to say that some normal indie fans will be turned off by it. But I’ve them hot on them for a few years now, and this is a real standout. 

#42. The Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis – The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis

I love jazz, but I simply never keep up with any new jazz. The description for this hooked me, though, due to who the Messthetics are – they’re the rhythm section of goddamned Fugazi. And this album is exactly what you get when you take a bunch of punk veterans who have transitioned into jazz. It’s hot, often very free-form and improvised but never so much so that the songs lose structure. Most of the tracks are uptempo, aided by the full-album collaboration with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. This album is, just to put it simply, hot and undiluted fun. A hearty recommendation to anyone, even folks who don’t spin jazz. 

#41. Latrell James – Running In Place

If I had to pick a word to describe this album, it would be: vibrant. The local (Boston) rapper’s new album is quick and diverse, a bunch of short songs that range from muddied to sweet. Mostly, the album is very fun. Pristine production is a key factor here, making the brightest songs pop with effortless energy. No idea sticks around too long, making every song seem like a fleeting thought in a complicated mind. There’s some easy, brilliant stuff happening here. 

#40. Gouge Away – Deep Sage

I love Gouge Away, some good ferocious hardcore with melodic punk woven in. There’s tons of bands that sound like Gouge Away, and yet they’ve always had something distinct I can never put my finger on. It might be Christina Michelle’s profoundly intense vocals, or the fact that the band always seems to straddle the hardcore and post-hardcore line – two genres similar in name only. Their newest release takes a slightly softer approach, with more patient songwriting and more downtime across the record. It’s still mighty, it’s just more vulnerable as ever, too. I’m not sure if the enhanced formula works quite as well as the original one, but I think further listens will truly determine that. It might just be that this album is more of a grower than previous ones. Either way, it’s still one of my favorites of the year. The grading curve is high. 

#39. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk

I was hesitant to even put this on my radar because the year is so clogged with excellent indie and the record is so long that I wasn’t sure I’d get around to it. But rave reviews of both professional and personal manners convinced me – and it’s fun as hell. A loaded but never bloated indie-pop record, this one is not afraid to take chances. One song might be bouncy, standard indie-pop a la Charly Bliss, the next might be jazzy indie. The duo jump into 70’s ballads and drone guitar on a whim. A curated tracklist means the more ambitious tunes elevate the more standard tunes, so they all bounce off each other rather than seem like hits-and-filler. It’s nearly an hour and yet there isn’t a skippable moment. I’m not sure if I ever heard their debut album, but this sophomore release feels like a true mission statement. Don’t sleep on this one. 

#38. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World

I’ve never been the biggest Cure fan, mildly appreciating their hits but never digging much further in. I’ve stated this elsewhere, but a lot of new wave and 80’s alternative bands are ones I’ve only recently gotten into, Cure included. This album is not close to my base knowledge of the band, but/and it is extraordinary. Every song is agonizing slow, often several minutes until we hear Robert Smith’s gorgeously pained vocals. This is a personal and grim album, even by Cure standards, but it isn’t totally bleak. It’s the musical equivalent of grieving, with the sparks and pains of the ups and downs. It’s all midtempo, which is almost always a death knell for me – but it all works. Every song is excellent. The Cure could’ve hung it up or kept touring on legacy status, but their first album in sixteen years is an instant bonafide classic. Occasionally, the biggest bands really do put out the best music.

#37. Geordie Greep – The New Sound

Geordie Greep has lost his goddamn mind. The former frontman for black midi is on his own after the band’s sudden break-up. The indie band was already bizarre, but now Greep is in full control and he’s unrestrained. The core of this album still sounds like black midi, with rapid-fire songs filled with staccato and unpredictable rhythms and a lot of talk-singing, to where the end result feels like musical vertigo. But he’s also added Latin elements, jazz, blues, bongos, a lot of paranoid oomph, and just even more unpredictability. Oh and there’s the genuinely moving cover of a 40’s pop song that closes it all out. It’s an impressive solo debut, especially for one as wildly ambitious as it is. If you liked black midi, as I often did, then you’ll like this. 

#36. Avalanche Kaito – Talitakum

I have no clue where I pulled this one from, and I wonder if I stumbled on it while forgetting the name of Hiatus Kaiyote (who put out a great record this year). I put this one on completely blind, and my god, I loved it. It combines two things I love – noise music and African music – into one. Traditional African rhythms are deployed courtesy of singer Kaito Winse, while he’s backed by a noisy duo from Belgium. The result is a downright thrilling and unpredictable album that stays on the fun side of experimentation without sacrificing energy. This is the type of thing designed exactly for me, and I can’t wait to dig into their previous albums. It’s tough to talk about highly experimental music like this, but if it sounds up your alley, then it probably is. Definitely one of the better releases this year.

#35. BRICKLAYER – BRICKLAYER

Haha this rocks, what a surprise. Another local winner, and one I’ve stumbled onto while knowing absolutely nothing about the people behind it. This quick little debut (I think?) album comes rife with indie-punk jams, guitar-heavy and fun as can be. The band describes their own music as danceable thrash, which is pretty accurate. It’s not out of league with, say, The Hives. These songs are quick, many of them raucous but clean and bouncy. Can’t wait to hear them on a stage at some point. “Gay Breakfast” is already one of my favorite songs of the year. Editor’s note: This band has already, unfortunately, broken up.

#34. Full Of Hell – Coagulated Bliss

If you asked me to list my favorite metal bands, I’d list a couple of heavy-hitters before spouting Full Of Hell right out. The extreme metal band has been pushing the sonic limits of metal and noise for years now, in between more experimental collaborative albums. But their latest solo (?) album takes a half-step back. Sure, these songs are still ostensibly grindcore, often clocking in at under 120 seconds, but there’s elements of hard rock and classic heavy metal thrown in. There are breaks, and more development to (some) songs. I mean look at the cover – their previous non-collaborative albums all feature dismal black and white art, but this one is vibrant. It represents a minor but maybe necessary shift in their music. This record fits in with the others, but has enough going to stand out, too. Plus, there’s plenty of classically abrasive bruisers. Great stuff from an always excellent band. People going in thinking “metal” may mean something like Sabaton are going to be shocked and disappointed, but for those that like the experimental noise, this is the one to beat. 

#33. Xiu Xiu – 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips

Let this be a lesson to all musicians out there – you can just call your albums anything you want. The experimental band’s fourteenth (!) album tones things down a little bit, but still brings in a lot of competing ideas and emotions. It’s riveting at times, other times just funny or horny. It’s always fun, even if it challenges your preconceived notions of song structure. If you must toss Xiu Xiu into a genre, it’s alternative, but only some songs really resemble anything indie. I can’t say I’m an expert in their music, but I will be soon. This is the third album of theirs I’ve heard, and the third I’ve adored. 

#32. girl in red – I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!

I’ll admit that I went into this one with low expectations – girl in red’s debut album was a bold mix of indie and trap influences, but something about it really didn’t grab me personally. Obviously I was alone, as it immediately launched her into a stratosphere rarely seen by indie artists. Well I’m aboard now, because this sophomore album is a blast start to finish. These songs are abrupt, and mostly very energizing and manic. When they’re not, they’re sweet and earnest. It’s a mix of stuff more chaotic and varied than her debut, and all the better for it. At only 27 minutes, the only real downside is that it could’ve used some more.

#31. Lily Seabird – Alas,

Another local indie artist I know little at all about. Shout out to Allston Pudding radio for introducing me to this one (hey Andrew, when does it air? Every Monday 4-6pm and Tuesday 10-noon EST!). This album has all the makings of a quaint little affair, but some of these songs get deep and heavy. The heavier songs start to take on a 90’s fuzzy quality, even shoegaze-y at points. But not all the time, often Lily keeps things softer. Everything works, there isn’t too much of a good thing. Every song feels introspective, some feel vulnerable while some feel distant and cold. This is earnest music, and that something so well-developed and well-produced can come from an upcoming indie solo artist like this is just impressive. To be blunt, I loved this. 

#30. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee 

I realize the placement of this one is actually low compared to most other blogs and publications. This album – originally only available in physical formats and YouTube – is quietly dominating the year-end list game. The expansive indie album from the drag queen persona of former Women frontman Patrick Flegel is a throw-everything-at-the-wall release. It’s an eclectic mix of psychedelic pop, 60’s R&B, indie rock, garage music, and about 100 other things. The album embodies the old school feeling of dumpster diving through the $1 bin at a vinyl shop and finding some forgotten Motown gems. The album intentionally doesn’t flow, so that one idea sounds different from the previous one, yet all fits within one wide umbrella of 60’s influences. Detractors will say the length is a problem – and to be honest, I agree. At 32 songs and 122 minutes, it’s too much; every song is neat, but the ones where Lee is really cooking make some of the more meandering, noodly ones feel a bit unnecessary. However, this one is a massive achievement, and simply unlike anything else released this year. Or, possibly, ever.

#29. Charli XCX – BRAT

The other album dominating the year-end list game. For years, Charli XCX has been in sole possession of a sweet spot in pop music. She’s consistently made music poppy enough for wide appeal, but weird enough to avoid Top 40 weight and arena tours. It’s allowed her to keep getting blank checks to make big-budget weirdness, with time to exist in the fashion and modeling worlds. Put simply: she’s the coolest artist around. So I was disappointed in her 2023 album Crash which, despite the literal car crash cover, was her most conventional album since her rudimentary debut. I was afraid to address it at the time, solely because I was worried that that path would continue. It didn’t. BRAT is completely wild. This is hyperpop at its finest: boppy and melodic, but extremely unpredictable and glitchy everywhere. No, not on the level 100 Gecs or anything, but still chaotic. Save a couple of more tender songs, these are jams.

Charli has spent years branding herself as a cold, partying brat with an impressive clique – “Mean girls” backs this up. But despite this image, Charli is very upfront with her emotions on this record. There’s songs of self-doubt and gender questionings. These are vulnerable songs, sung loudly, but still masked behind boisterous music. The lyrics are there for dissecting, but they’re easy to miss as well. That I picked up on all of this in one listen is itself impressive – I normally don’t pay attention to lyrics much on the first go-around. This is such a complete portrait of an artist who knows her personal strengths and weaknesses. I don’t really listen to full records multiple times unless they’re instant favorites, but I will for this one. It demands it. Maybe it’ll be a favorite anyways. One of the best pop records of 2024, easily.

#28. Salt Cathedral – Before It’s Gone

I heard one of the songs from this album on the radio many moons ago and kept a mental note to check back for an album. Finally, it’s here, and it’s glorious. There’s nothing particularly inventive happening here, yet it all feels original. I know little about this duo, but what they make is beautiful. This is atmospheric indie, almost gospel-like. There’s always rhythms, but some are fainter than others. Some exist only on a breeze and a vocal lick, others bring in hand drums and conventional pop songwriting. Add in some authentic and balanced lyrics, and you’ve got a multi-influenced gem of a record. This is pop music for people who don’t like pop music. Real winner!

#27. Amyl & the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness

I’m a simple man, if a song has fast guitars and Amy Taylor yelling some curse words at me in a thick Australian accent, then I like that song. I absolutely adore Amyl & the Sniffers, and their third album is chock full of drunk-punk goodies. These songs are exactly what you expect and exactly what they need to be – a collection of fast and loose punk songs that are sometimes about vulnerability, and sometimes about hammering down some beers. While the band ventured out into more exploratory terrain on the second album, they double back down into fun punk here. Uncoincidentally, I like this record more than their second one (their debut remains an all-time favorite, though). Put it on and destroy your own house.

#26. Father John Misty – Mahashmashana

If you look closely, Papa John’s has slowly deconstructed his character. For years, the indie-folk god was making constant headlines with ridiculous and provocative statements, simply for his own amusement. But he’s been quite as of late, and this album might be an indicator. His sixth album (under this moniker) is probably his most “adult” one yet, though his music has always had an older-crowd appeal to it. He’s still making some wild swings lyrically, but generally he’s more honed in on ennui and personal troubles. He’s also stretched his songs out even further, with multiple 6+ minute epics here. Most of the songs are measured and seem to have a Highway 61 influence, of full-band folk that grabs an unchanging rhythm to match poetic meanderings. It’s also maybe his best album yet, and certainly features his best individual songs (check my favorite songs of 2024 post for more). Folksy, earnest and consistently catchy, this one has broad appeal. 

#25. The Bridge City Sinners – In The Age Of Doubt

Give a quick shoutout to water. A couple years ago I was at Riot Fest in Chicago when I took a break to refill my water at the sole water station on festival grounds. Right next door is the smallest stage, where the Bridge City Sinners were playing and readers, I was hooked immediately. Bands shouldn’t still be finding new ways to combine genres, but here we’ve got hardcore bluegrass. The band – and I was already a huge fan by the time the plane wheels touched back down in Boston – sings about heavenly bodies and beasts and mythical creatures, complete with occasional gnarly screaming, all done through acoustic Appalachian instruments. I imagine there’s other bands out there like this, and they’re not far removed from psychobilly, but I don’t know of anything in this alley. Their new album is as great as their previous ones. This is certainly one of the more niche entries on this list, but I will make it my mission to get them their widest audience.

This was really a struggle, some of these deserve a top 25 spot and would surely get it in a quieter year. I’m not even confident in my own list placement. But! Check back tomorrow for the finale, 25 absolutely enormous, unavoidable and truly wonderful records.

Since I can never help myself, here’s another five records I wanted to include: Folterkammer – Weibermacht (operatic black metal), The Smile – Wall of Eyes (Radiohead offshoot prog-indie), J. Mascis – What Do We Do Now (guitar indie from an all-time legend), Laura Jane Grace – Hole In My Head (punk from an all-time legend), Thee Oh Sees – SORCS 80 (a thought experiment where Jon Dwyer recorded garage rock with no guitars).

101 Favorite Albums of 2024: 74-50

Hello again, welcome to another edition of me writing way too much about albums you haven’t heard of or didn’t like. There’s a massive range here, from Latin pop and country to industrial metal. I’m not going to repeat everything I said in the intro to my first post, just know that this year was truly remarkable for new music. There’s definitely some albums in here that topped other year-end lists, so if you’re mad about something being low, please understand that we’ve entered the territory of albums I truly loved. There was just a lot of them this year.

Also – these mini-reviews were copied directly from earlier posts, I edited but if there’s a reference that doesn’t compute, that’s why.

I hope you find something new through these posts! On with it:

#74. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere

I’ve said elsewhere that death metal is one genre where bands don’t have to be innovative and often aren’t – because even the most template death metal bands will still find a big audience. But some bands do experiment, none more so that Blood Incantation. Their 2019 record Hidden History of the Human Race is no less than one of the five or so best metal records of the last decade. The band has only grown more experimental, as this record edges hard on progressive rock alongside death metal standards. It’s only two songs – six on streaming, each song broken up into three sections – both over 20 minutes. Both tracks are odysseys, with sections of unfiltered death metal in parts. But both songs embrace prog rock just as much. The second track, “The Message,” takes an obvious inspiration from Animals, the best Pink Floyd album. It’s a purely unique record top-to-bottom, and an obvious candidate for metal album of the year.

#73. Katy Kirby – Blue Raspberry

An album as sweet as its title. This is standard-fare pretty indie, to the point where one of the singles sounds a little too reminiscent of Angel Olsen’s “All Mirrors.” But when everything works as well as it does here, who cares? I was taken aback by how much I liked this one, something I mindlessly threw on based on two songs I’d heard. Very patient, gorgeous indie-folk that knows when to be soft or bombastic. The focus is on melody above all, with obvious care put into every track. And while it mostly stays soft, the whole album builds to a much grander, 2-minute finale that takes you by surprise. Genuinely loved this one. 

#72. Shellac – To All Trains

Rest in peace Steve Albini. If you’re reading this, then you’re probably well-versed in Albini’s work already, but he was a god in the music scene. A talented musician who utterly despised the industry, most of his work was production behind the scenes. He produced records for anyone ranging from Nirvana to your shithead neighbor’s weird noise band – and never took a penny for his work. His last record as a musician came only days after his sudden passing, and it’s hauntingly beautiful. It’s also a pretty normal Shellac record; chunky and bass-heavy post-punk with snarled and often witty lyrics. The band was self-described as “minimalist,” I wouldn’t exactly use that term but these songs are all surprisingly easy. Most of them are perfectly digestible and just off-putting enough to drive away casual folks. Opener “WSOD” jams on a fun riff for a while. But the real ominous standout is “I Don’t Fear Hell,” where Albini sings about waiting to join all his friends down below. Classic Albini – dark, funny, groovy and hauntingly prescient. Albini was one of the best guys around but if he ended up in Hell, then brother, we’ll all see you there. 

#71. Chick Corea & Béla Fleck – Remembrance

I am but one man who mostly loves garage rock, so I simply don’t keep up with modern jazz like I wish I could. Imagine my surprise at seeing two of my favorite jazz artists collaborating, hit immediately by the shock of remembering that the former artist has passed. This record is technically a compilation, a mix of studio songs, improvisations and live tracks, but it doesn’t feel like one. Everything is coherent and similar, and the smatterings of applause throughout signify a captive, sometimes nonexistent live audience. With Corea on piano and Fleck on banjo, you likely know what you’re going to get – and there’s a lot of it. It’s a beautiful set of collaborations, often just the two men alone, together. Very pretty and very fun music for any jazz fan.

#70. Fange – Perdition

Like some of the best metal albums I’ve heard this year, I don’t actually know where this recommendation came from. The French band is on their seventh album, but were totally off my radar until this year. It’s catch up time for me, because I loved this. The French band does a punishing mix of industrial, death metal, sludge and a touch of rock (for melody seasoning). The vocals are menacing and the music is both metrical and unforgiving. It’s all very heavy and intense, but the band finds ways to warp a little melody in there as well. It’s closer to industrial than anything else, but you wouldn’t even confuse this with Nine Inch Nails. It’s straight metal, too.

#69. Vince Staples – Dark Times

This album shares much in common with the rapper’s 2021 self-titled album, and the reasons why I didn’t like that album are why I do like this one. Staples made his name doing bass-heavy, aggressive rap that married huge beats with lyrics that were often shockingly blunt and depressing. But he’s always one for making what he wants to, instead of falling to fan service. Dark Times is much more minimalist, calculated and jazzy. While he explored this side on his self-titled, it was ultimately very repetitive. This album is an unpredictable delight through and through. Vince even directly references that he’s not making another Big Fish Theory. This record is patient and unique, and represents a proper shift in tone while remaining distinctly Vince. Almost definitely going to be one of my favorite rap records of the year.

#68. The Body & Dis Fig – Orchards of a Futile Heaven

The Body are a band who can do basically no wrong by me. If you read my favorite songs of 2024 post, I went into what makes them special. The song chosen for that list does not in fact come from this album, so more on that later. This release is a full-album collaboration with Dis Fig. The band is used to these collabs, they’ve done a ton of them. This is standard Body stuff, which is to say purely dissonant, extreme noise music. It isn’t metal, but it’s less anything else. Dis Fig is an artist I’m wholly unfamiliar with, but her vocals help cement these otherwise exploratory or nonconformist extreme songs, in one of the band’s more logical collaboration efforts. This is music for a small audience but damn is it good.

#67. E L U C I D – Revelator

Although I’ve been a fan of the duo Armand Hammer for a few years, I didn’t know E L U C I D by name until he popped up on the excellent album that Shabaka released earlier this year. This new solo record is a whirlwind of avant-garde rap. Much of it is low-key, opting for bars over vibes. The first few songs are electrically thrilling, high-energy bangers with totally unpredictable instrumentation. The running thread is a nonadherence to traditional song structures, a very free-form work similar to the jazz album he popped up on. It’s all smooth, and his flow is excellent. It’s funny at points, at other points daring. The whole thing is unpredictable, even as it settles in a more relaxed state. It’s just extremely fun. I always seem to love the rap that’s on the fringe of the mainstream.

#66. Kali Uchis – Orquídeas

My knowledge of Latin music is limited, and my knowledge of the Spanish language is nonexistent, so I will always have to view music like this as an outsider. This album is a companion piece to last year’s Red Moon In Venus – an English language album and #63 on my 2023 year end list. Orquídeas is a blast, a comprehensive album that both sticks to traditional reggaeton and strays well beyond it. Even as a companion piece, it feels distinctly separate from Red Moon, highlighting Uchis as a multi-threat artist. Have fun with this one.

#65. Machine Girl – MG Ultra

There’s nothing out there like Machine Girl. They have a lot of elements that I theoretically shouldn’t like, but I love their music. I guess the way to describe the duo is techno-hardcore, hardcore music with a lot of glitchy electronic elements and unpredictability. More often than not, this album is heavy and gonzo, which is right up my alley. It’s fun as hell, while still being mildly off-putting to anyone trying to embrace traditional electronic or hardcore music. Though Machine Girl have been at it for over a decade, I can see this unholy hyperpop-metal concoction being a new scene soon.

#64. Fontaines D.C. – Romance

The previous Fontaines D.C. records were inconsistent in how much they grabbed my attention, but they were consistent in that the songs all kinda sounded the same. The (very) Irish post-punk band has had a relatively standard sound prior to Romance. Well the book’s out the window. This record actually has a majority ballads, but the band hits the highest energy of their career too. They rap, there’s punk, and there’s tender love ballads. The band has always sounded a little inauthentic in their emotions previously; not here. This is earnest and real from a band that has never sounded so ambitious or energized. Don’t go in expecting the high-octant energy of the singles, but do go in expecting what is easily the band’s best album to date. This will go down as a highlight in a stacked indie year.

#63. Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well

There’s been a few examples this year of artists I love rebounding from weaker albums (Vampire Weekend, St. Vincent, ScHoolboy Q). Add Kacey to the mix. Coming off her breathtaking and Grammy-crushing country album Golden Hour, Kacey turned to a more pop-focus for Star-Crossed, and it was, bluntly, meh. For Deeper Well, she’s gone back to the atmospheric country that made her an arena star. It’s a welcome return, as the whole here is excellent. It’s a dreamy album, the same summer-y camping vibes as before. She’ll probably never make another record as good as Hour, but that’s an immense bar to clear. This one doesn’t really have standout songs like that record did, but the full product is wonderful. She’s also shifted her lyrics into a more serious zone. So many of her previous songs coupled breezy music with lyrics about wasting time and days spent milling around. Here, she’s quitting weed and strengthening her relationships. This serves as both a sequel and companion piece to Hour. Loved it.

#62. The Only Humans – It’s a Beautiful Night. I Think I’ll Disappear Forever. 

Full disclosure – I know most of the members of this band. I’m ex-coworkers with three of them, and am actively friends with one. But removing any bias, I’m including a lil review here because this album is genuinely excellent. The band has the proper and orchestral look of the Decemberists, with the music to boot; and, singer Tim Howd sounds like a dead ringer for John Darnielle. The expansive album is a conceptual one, as death invades from all angles. But the record is a lot of fun, and no two songs are really the same. My personal fave is the maximalist “Esplanade.” I know it’s a way overinflated year for indie, but if you’re trying to look beyond the headliners, please check this one out.

#61. Hinds – VIVA HINDS

It’s been a long four years since the last Hinds album. In that time, the bassist and drummer both left, reducing the band back to the two vocalist-guitarists that initially formed it. That might be a disaster for some bands, but for Hinds it was freeing. I’ve been in their camp since the first album from the Spanish indie group (duo), and this record is probably their best one yet. These songs are sweet and unassuming, but confident and broader. That last note is important – this is the widest-ranging Hinds album, with tender songs, rousing ones like the excellent “En Forma,” and space for both Beck and Grian Chatten to show up and do their own thing. The 2024 indie pot has way overflowed, and in a different year this would be a standout. It’s still a real winner.

#60. Cursive – Devourer

When all is said and done and the dust on Cursive’s career is settled, they’d better be recognized as one of the most underrated groups in music history. Ask a casual indiehead and they’ll say they love The Ugly Organ. Well folks, Cursive is still putting out records that good twenty years later. Their tenth album Devourer is simply one of the best rock records of the year, and it doesn’t even have a damn Wikipedia page. It’s apocalypse time on Devourer, in case you were expecting the mood to have softened. But it is very fun, the band is still treading the same thin line of emo, indie and rock, and in the last few years they’ve expanded to include a full-time trumpeter and cellist. It’s a unique affair even if it doesn’t sound like one at a first glance. People are sleeping on Cursive, y’all should get with them.

#59. Camera Obscura – Look To The East, Look To The West

Another legacy indie artist, and one that I have relatively kept up with. Or at least I did during their original run, as this is their first album in eleven long years. It’s utterly fantastic, likely going to be one of the best indie albums in a severely crowded year. These songs are patient, mature and lowkey, and practically every one of them is extraordinary. My three picks are the opener “Liberty Print,” “The Night Lights” and the closing title track, but nearly every song works. Oddly, the only one that struck me as dull was “Big Love,” which seems to be the most popular so far. But, for all the hip parents out there still spinning Yo La Tengo and Hold Steady records, this is another entry for the record cabinet. 

#58. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD

I never know how to write about Godspeed. I don’t even really like drone music that much or post-rock at all. But these folks operate on another level, and even a “lesser” album from them can still be extraordinary. Despite being fully instrumental, the band manages to capture the plague and despair of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in touching and intense pieces. There’s also some of the inspirational music that has touched their more recent albums, too. If you’ve never listened to GY!BE, this may not be the best place to start. But their music can only be heard to be experienced. 

#57. Torey D’Shaun – Come And See.

I’ll take music recommendations from anywhere – including music a Lyft driver is playing that I like. I don’t know much about the rapper, but a song came up on shuffle on the drive home from the airport and I saved it, only to see a full album coming out ~2 weeks later. It’s a gem. The self-described Christian rapper does tackle the concept of faith across this album, sometimes more devout than others. Some songs here are life-affirming, others are doubtful tales of tragedy, sometimes with no resolution. The songs here are earnest and poetic, whether you’re religious or not. And if you’re not, well the beats are great and his flow is solid anyways. Well-rounded lyrics, big beats, and a ton of pathos. This was an unexpectedly great find.

#56. GUHTS – Regeneration

A decade removed from Deafheaven’s tectonic plate-shifting black metal album Sunbather, another band is going the pink cover route. While the book cover-judging comparison can be made, this album packs a different punch. Sludgy, unpredictable post-metal dominates this release, hitting all points between smooth and sinister. It’s abrasive, but not the point of, say, Full Of Hell or anything. It’s one of the most well-rounded metal albums of the year so far – and one of the best of the genre in any capacity. Don’t sleep on this one, if it’s your tune. 

#55. Little Simz – Drop 7

I debated on even considering this one eligible for my list – it is a drop, after all, and clocks in at just under 15 minutes. But when you’ve got the dark horse candidate for best current rapper in play, even the one-offs are extraordinary. While some of Little Simz’s previous works have been steady and heady, this is her at her most impatient, firing a bunch of short songs off the cuff. Big beats and quick tempos make this a whirlwind of a little EP. 

#54. Thou – Umbilical

Historically I’m very hit-and-miss on sludge metal, but Thou holds a special place in my heart. The prolific group hasn’t been consistent over the years, but when you release as much music as they have, some of it is going to hit. The worst thing a Thou album can be is boring, and Umbilical is never boring. The band hasn’t really changed their tune – grim opining, screeching, riffs with the thickness and speed of molasses, and morose black and white imagery. But they’re completely checked in, pummeling the listener with relentless guitar and screams, making sure to fill (nearly) every song with unique elements. Hopefully, this won’t get lost in the sea of their other releases. It’ll certainly be one of the best metal albums of the year. 

#53. Chat Pile – Cool World

Chat Pile had an incredibly high bar to clear on their sophomore record and, if we’re being honest, they didn’t clear it. Their debut God’s Country remains one of the best records of the past 5 years. But the rafters aside, this record rips. The band continues their manic blend of post-hardcore and sludge metal into something that seems obvious but is wholly unique. The riffs are heavy as hell, the lyrics political and the vocals anguished and immediate. These guys are simply a band with a lot to say. The first two tracks on this album haven’t stuck with me, but the run of songs in the middle is nuts. “Frownland” and “Funny Man” are two of the best heavy songs of the year. Unpredictable and urgent, and loud as all hell. Chat Pile are here to stay.

#52. Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

I’m not overly familiar with Portishead, what I’ve heard I’ve liked, but it isn’t music I feel any nostalgia for personally. I’m even less familiar with solo endeavors from their singer, Beth Gibbons, who dropped her first proper solo album 33 years after the first Portishead record. It’s a gorgeous album, one that starts innocently before expanding into something grander. The cover implies a folksy affair, and at most times it is. It’s brooding chamber pop, sometimes soft but sometimes sinister, like slipping back into a nightmare. It’s also usually acoustic, but when the guitars kick in, they really kick in – some of these songs drone and shout loudly, unexpected explosions after multiple songs of slumber. It’s a gorgeous record, one of both extremes, yet often just restrained chamber pop. We expected nothing less.

#51. Bruiser Wolf – My Stories Got Stories

Bruiser Wolf and Danny Brown go way back, and it shows here – this album is full of darkly comic tales of binges and dangerous situations. Brown guests early too, on a whiplash track. Bruiser Wolf builds his lyrics in the same way DB does, poetic and funny with dense meters. But he also couldn’t sound different, rapping matter-of-factly and methodically, like he’s teaching a lesson. His vocals and lyrics are engaging, all bolstered by booming and exciting beats behind him. This is my first foray into his music, I’m gonna check out the previous album now too.

#50. Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet

I love the harmless pun of the title, referring to both the 36-minute runtime and Carpenter herself. Now, surely you’ve already heard this album, I got to it a bit late. It’s utterly delightful, I loved it. It scratches the same itch that Carly Rae Jepsen does – bouncy pop songs that deal with the complexities of relationships that also aren’t plastic. It can be difficult in today’s landscape to make pop music that’s truly authentic but this album is top-to-bottom. It’s raunchy and clever, nearly every song is a winner. It’s easy to see why this is the album that’s really broken her out of Disney containment; if it wasn’t for Chappell Roan, this would’ve been Carpenter’s year to lose. And if it wasn’t for Charli, this would probably be the best pop album of 2024. Those aren’t exactly setbacks, this is an album we’ll be talking about for years to come.

That’s a wrap on this part of the list, which has grown long and sour. Check back tomorrow for the next installment!

Because I cannot ever help myself, here’s five more albums I wanted to include: The Bug Club – On The Intricate Inner Workings of the System (lo-fi post-punk with goofy lyrics), Bat For Lashes – The Dream of Delphi (atmospheric indie legend), Full Of Hell & Andrew Nolan – Scraping the Divine (noise), Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (gritty post-hardcore), Esh & the Isolations – Nowhere, To Be Found (indie rap)