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)
Post-Grad Music Reviews 