12/06/2024
This year I kept track of shit religiously. I have always been obsessed with data collection and spreadsheets and this year I decided to archive some of my collection, recording more and more random things, for the sole purpose of having a long list to just look at, at the end of the day. I have a very hard time understanding the passing of a long time; I can perfectly conceptualize days, time-blindness in that category was something I trained myself out of (so much so that without looking at a clock I can guess over/under 5 minutes. Can everyone do that? It always feels impressive to me), but understanding an entire year feels impossible. If I say “I’ve been obsessed with this forever now,” in reality it’s probably been 2 months. “I get this meal every time,” I say at a restaurant I have been to once. “This has been on my mind so much lately,” when I remembered it an hour ago. A year feels endless, every year.
So what does 50 albums really scale out to, in one year? I’ve always been a constant music listener, but I took concentrated care to discover new stuff for myself this year, and thoroughly succeeded (in August, I listened to a new album almost every single day, I made it to 27). These albums totaled up to 635 songs, and 2,357 minutes of deep-diving sonic exploration. Well some are deeper cuts than others, but nonetheless, I found a much richer understanding of what I enjoy listening to, thanks to my obsessive effort to record.
For this rank & review, yes, I technically listened to 51 albums, but only one I rated 0 stars, and 50 is such a great number for a list like this, so I left it off. My star rating versus the numbered rank has to do with the two different metrics I measured these albums: album cohesiveness & track takeaway (what I actually added to my library). If you think my opinions on any of these albums are golden, or objectively wrong, please text me or DM me on instagram and we can discuss it over a candle lit dinner. Genuinely reach out. Because the liking gap is smaller than you think.
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Let’s break this down into chunks: the first 25 I’ll try to be brief about, to give you a little momentum reading. But, I’ll give the star rating, only 1 highlighted track, and a fitting recommendation of it being worth your time or not.
Highlighted Track: Cannibal House Rules
Lame, uninspired, disappointing. Anyone can make bland faux 80s pop and this album is unfortunately proof of this. Mainly disappointed that he isn’t doing the weird voice that I find the most intriguing about his work, as well as a lack of creative lyrics. It is really crazy that only the title track is good -- makes you think he wrote it first and just lazily piled everything else on. The album cover sucks as well. But! I really do love the title track. And the worldbuilding of the music video is FASCINATING and I would have loved to see more of that direction in the album as a whole. This hurt to listen to, and it hurts to write, because I have such a fondness for Jonathan Something’s music that this experience, even though so bad, does not deter me in any way from seeking out new music from him.
Highlighted Track: Saint European King Days
Middling ambient music… not much to say! A time-killer with a nice album cover. Not much thinking to be done. Would not recommend.
Highlighted Track: New Year’s UnResolution
With a title so shocking, I expected a lot more. Messy around the edges, too many interludes, and sleepy in content. I discovered them through their addition to the I Saw The TV Glow Soundtrack, Green, which is just so magical, I expected that dimension through this album. I did, however, enjoy the 7 second interlude in which they just say “Oh wow a bird.” Would not recommend.
Highlighted Track: Sun Moth
Too weird, even for me. Just could not get into it. Would not recommend.
Highlighted Track: Hierophant
Powerful vocals all around, but I keep trying to force myself to like metal music and it’s just not working. If you like drone/siren metal then give this a try, it’s short.
Highlighted Track: How Many Mics
I liked the hip hop better than the more RNB stuff, which surprised me. Idk guys I don’t think I get the Lauryn Hill hype sorry if I get crucified for saying that. Would recommend it for classic hip hop fans. Also Killing Me Softly just goes way beyond this album so don’t count it in this opinion.
Highlighted Track: Ball of the Dead Rat
The first song tricked me and I thought this was just going to be some absurdist-swing-Will Wood shit, but it had a nice variety. Not really my vibe, but I like the main singer’s voice. Would not recommend.
Highlighted Track: Beginner’s Guide to Destroying The Moon
I have a complicated relationship with this album. I like Foster The People a lot, and I really liked a lot of these tracks, but I think it’s just a messily arranged album and that was distracting enough that I had to give it such a low score. Just felt like some similar songs on shuffle. But I think indie rock fans could easily give this one a go and be happy.
Highlighted Track: Lost In A Dream
Listened to this on the perfect day. Great relisten quality and super mellow. A refreshing sound for Andy Shauf’s work, but still comfortingly familiar. Just put this one on as super calm background music.
Highlighted Track: Genes
I had previously heard Wasteland, and thought “Wow! I love this sound! Let me see if this artist has songs like it!” and it turns out, every song on this album sounds like Wasteland, and I realized I was just happy with Wasteland. A lesson in greed, I guess. Listen to Wasteland or Genes.
Highlighted Track: Emotional High
The shortest album on this list lasting a grand 17 minutes, it’s fast paced, and lives up to its name. A nice collection that defines the band’s sound, and great for passing the time montage-style. Would recommend it.
Highlighted Track: It All Feels Right
Feels so explicitly written to smoke weed or do psychedelics while listening. Very layered and that means that there’s a lot of relisten quality to find more and more things each go around, but content-wise, it’s boring -- there’s not much of a concept past “I’m greening out dude! Watch me hit the ceiling!” If you like “chillwave,” sure, this seems like a staple.
Highlighted Track: (Being ambient, the whole album feels like a package, do not separate)
Heathered Pearls is one of my favorite artists ever, and I was really happy to hear this album. It was shocking to actually hear spoken words, but I loved all their features, and cohesively it felt like another place to visit from time to time. It’s only this low because I relisten only in certain circumstances, it does not have longevity as tracks folded into my library. I think I would recommend other Heathered Pearls albums before this one, for ambient fans.
Highlighted Track: Twist
Now you may be asking, what are you doing listening to Phish in the year of our lord 2024, and the answer would be… Okay well I’m clearly at a low point, okay? LMAO. And I was also eating one of my all time favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavors, Phish Food, which I have devoured carnivorously for 2 decades, when I realized I had never listened to a single Phish song in my life. And wow yeah that is what I expected. Almost turned on a Grateful Dead album right after but I said No I think I’ve maybe had enough of this thank you. For a rec Idk it’s fucking Phish man
Highlighted Track: Walkabout
Not every song on this album was a hit for me, but overall a very awesome sound. Just really interesting to listen to, and the vocals were entertaining. If you like weird vocals give it a shot.
Highlighted Track: Nos Siguen Pegando Abajo (Pecado Mortal)
Stumbled upon this album accidentally, it’s way out of my genrezone. It’s 80’s Spanish new-wave stuff, and an interesting listen. I think I’d be excited to hear more of his work, and I would prescribe this for someone who wants to also get out of their music comfort zone, but to something seemingly familiar.
Highlighted Track: Muddy River
Laurie Anderson I Love You. This album was really great and all the spoken word parts hit really hard for me (obviously), and I felt like I was on facetime with her. Overall, for me it does not have a lot of relisten quality due to its poetic & conceptual nature, but still manages to be a really fascinating project. If you know you like Laurie Anderson, for sure listen.
Highlighted Track: Here Comes A Regular
I ended up having high hopes for this album that didn’t come true :( But still thoroughly enjoyed it! I have a lot of love in my heart for The Replacements, and it helped that I was overly familiar with a few of the tracks already. Would recommend.
Highlighted Track: Mayonnaise
And another album I was kind of let down by LOL. But honestly I think this one needs to simmer for me, it’s got a great groove that can be explored easily again and again, and at the time I was forcibly trying to enter a Smashing Pumpkins era and unfortunately it did not work. But it will sneak up on me eventually, I am not immune to the (EEEEE)Enchanting voice of Billy Corgan. Would recommend.
Highlighted Track: One More Year
Getting extremely deep cut with this one. How did I never listen to this album before? It has been on my list since it came out, and it really makes me remember that when new albums come out I need to stop saying “Oh, I should make designated time to listen to it,” instead of just pressing play immediately. But, then again, it’s a nice feeling to turn on this album and go “Ohhhh so THAT’S Borderline!” and start attempting to sing along to the lyrics because I’ve heard the song a billion times but it still just sounds like “heebe HEE baaa boo shmeby DEE da do!” Wait this album came out Feb 2020 that’s so sad. Did it have a club presence at all??? Because trust and believe the universe where this album came out at the perfect time I would have been throwing ass in the club to Posthumous Forgiveness. Alright anyways yeah you’ve probably heard this album but just go listen to it again it’s fucking Tame Impala everyone loves Kevin Parker.
Highlighted Track: Whenever Wherever
Simple… delicate… floral… Her voice is truly one of an angel. This kicked off my August Album Adventure and it was the perfect way to start. Honestly I don’t listen to a lot of the tracks I pulled off this album, but her hooks are CONSTANTLY in my head! Shows the real, trance-like siren presence she takes up in my mind. Easy listening, give it a Sunday morning shot.
Highlighted Track: Intimate
I didn’t realize just how many songs I knew off this album! Deeply lodged in an unknown corner of my brain, I discovered the memory of the pocket of time in which I listened to Apple Music (back when it was free) on my first iPhone, and I listened to Fleet Foxes and Crystal Castles Radios. The radio function on streaming platforms back then was primitive, and more like a playlist of the same couple songs, and when it ran out, it just played endless remixes of these EDM classics. Back then, I hadn’t established a library, or a way to save music in any way, so the names of songs and artists only stayed in my brain for the duration of any given song. But, the memory of the songs & melodies themselves are so firmly fitted into my adolescence subconscious psyche that I’m sure it affects my every decision in every waking moment. Would recommend.
Highlighted Track: Rx Queen
It was a Deftones summer, and I wore the fuck out of this album. I really don’t know any track or title off the top of my head because all the songs sound the same and blend together, but that’s what I love about it. And it’s both what I wanted and expected. Can recommend to alt metal fans obviously, but maybe start with a different Deftones album if you haven’t already.
Highlighted Track: Judge Judy
Alright yes this album is awesome but it doesn’t break the top half of my list for a reason: it’s gotta incubate. When I was a flower delivery driver, I drove all around town & through the suburbs until sunset, in my 18 year old minivan. I dropped out of my high school senior year to finish my degree with a year of homeschooling (-- there’s a lot here we can discuss later), which was a fantastic decision, but it left me lonely having a vastly different day schedule than my friends still technically in school. So I spent that winter driving around, with no AUX cord, only a CD player and the sweet floral smells emanating from my backseat. I had heard 1 song off IGOR, and ordered the CD without listening to the rest, and then I listened to it every single shift at full volume. For me. IGOR is so deeply tied to exploding sunset skies, the smell of freshly blooming flowers, and a weird independent loneliness that pervaded my every thought. SO, naturally, Chromakopia had a lot to follow after my uninterest in Call Me If You Get Lost. This is a long, anecdotal way of saying that I adored the album rollout (and insane fans of Frank Ocean yearning) and although it did not really hit that hard in my first few listens, I hope that it finds me again at the right time. Maybe I get another delivery job… or move to a place where I have a 53 minute commute… much to think about as the winds of change catch momentum.
Highlighted Track: My Prayer
This album is crazy: if you have heard one song, you have literally heard every single one. They took the same chord progression and reused it 48 times. And it manages to not be annoying as fuck, I am genuinely interested at every new use of it. You know the tune from “I don’t want to set the world on fire … I just want to start a flame in your heart…” and its eeriness is enticing throughout the album. For a whole album, you don’t need to listen to the whole thing to get it, but this is a completionist’s dream.
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Okay so it seemed I lied about keeping things short. My bad. It will happen again. Top 25. I’ll reign in the personal anecdotes about how Music Changed My Lifeeee! (unless you are enjoying them?) and now you’ll get the genres of each album included in the info.
Highlighted Track: My Dead Girl / Raising The Skate / The Graduates
Genres: alternative/indie rock
I’ll admit, I went back and forth on this album a lot of the time. At times, it’s trying too hard to be edgy, too forced cool-girl -- but other moments feel really sincere and almost desperate. The instrumentation is strong in its awkwardness, and her slower speaking-singy voice is just as compelling as her loud melodic singing. There’s a lot of really hypnotic moments on this album, she does a great job of building this weird experience of suburbia & elements of friendlessness. It’s a self-assured project, but there’s so much loneliness in a lot of the lyrics. I should definitely stew in the experience of the whole album again, but trust and believe My Dead Girl went platinum in my household.
Highlighted Track: Avocado, Baby / What Death Leaves Behind / Glue Me
Genres: indie pop
This may be one of my favorite musicians that play with EXCITEMENT!!! so much. The content and instrumentation of their songs are absurd & tinged with melancholy, but on every track this main singer sounds so unbelievably hyped. And I’m obsessed with an artist just getting so fucking excited to make their art. Further proved by the exclamation point in their name -- it’s there for a damn good reason!!! Everything is so catchy, and there are so many weird ear-catching turn of phrases (They say you and me are tautology)(I’d excavate his throat of voice)(It won't get better, that doesn't mean it's gonna get any worse / You'll find a draft of a life-long love letter, signed to the man who will be driving your hearse). God this album is so much fun. And yes, his voice is slightly annoying, but that’s what gives it charm to me. Save this one for a summer walk. Or for the Little Miscreant in your life.
Highlighted Track: Lovely Allen / Choppers / Royal Gregory
Genres: dance/electronica
A sleeper hit for me. This definitely took some marinating in my mind over the year but I really came to appreciate its weirdness, and it definitely had a hand in shaping my own music/sound making practice. It has this frantic, fervent energy that makes your whole body dance and vibrate without permission. Instrumental only, it still takes you to these post-apocalyptic places that are still roaring with life and sound. If I was still a runner, this project would probably get me on my feet every fucking morning. For a dystopian John Wick club scene, and for me trying to hype myself up to finish the laundry and dishes as fast as I possibly can. Lovely Allen has been in my library for years, its romantic quality feels so much different from a lot of the other tracks, so it’s still my favorite. Full volume, scuttle around on the floor with the lights off, and finally feel like the fucking primal animal you are.
Highlighted Track: Von dutch / Sympathy is a knife / B2b
Genres: electropop, hyperpop
Is there much I need to say about this album? Probably not. You’ve heard it all by now. Loved this as a creative project, and loved what she did with the remix album. Did not love how it became an election symbol. That felt so weirdly unrelated to the content of the album, and super forced. I don’t really think Kamala Harris is doing cocaine in the bathroom, but that’s just one man’s opinion. Anyways you like this album or you don’t, I don’t give a gaf sometimes it surprises me how high I have ranked it but then I remember listening to Von dutch for the first time, and that definitely felt like doing coke in the bathroom.
Highlighted Track: The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo / Replica / Violent Moon
Genres: alternative/indie rock
Okay y’all gotta walk with me on this one. I LOVE a man with a freaky weird voice, if that’s not apparent by now. But this guy… got some Sinister storytelling in his weirdness that makes me feel this existential dread. The album cover seals the deal, but you know when you take a flash photo in front of a pitch black sky? That is the way this album makes you feel. There is something inherently Wrong with the world he has built, truly captured in some sort of musical limbo. It’s wandering, there’s repetitive motifs about the moon, and I am never sure what is real in the reality of this album. The most haunting string work I have heard since Take Care. And it does a fantastic job of not feeling like “scary” music -- it’s still inviting, it is gentle with its listeners. I feel so lost in this sphere, but I trust my guide. For my sad drunks: late night winter drunk walk home. Not too late, though. You might end up somewhere you can’t come back from.
Highlighted Track: Prayers/Triangles / Phantom Bride / [L] MIRL
Genres: alternative metal, shoegaze, early nu-metal
Alright more Deftones. I was honestly surprised I liked this one more than White Pony, knowing that it came out in 2016 and Deftones are more iconic for their older stuff. This is the sweet spot of metal that I enjoy, it’s a calmer drone, the vocals are as enjoyable as the instrumentation, and all the songs sound the same (in the best way possible). Listened at the perfect, miserable point in the summer, and then accidentally fell asleep with it on for like 12 hours so that definitely made a crater-sized impact on my musical statistics. This made me get why people are crazy about them, like they are just Good at music.
Highlighted Track: Space And The Woods / Random Firl / The Bears Are Coming
Genres: alternative/indie rock
FOR MY FREAKS FOR REAL. I cannot stress enough that if you love bizarre funk rock you have to indulge in this POST-HASTE. Every time I listen to any track off this, it reminds me of the time I got electrocuted by a Christmas tree. Unbelievably infectious songs that make me want to roll down a grassy hill in a tire. Only 3 stars because of album cohesiveness, but honestly I don’t care deeply about that. It’s more about the fact that there’s a good chunk of songs that I like less than others, but they still manage to have like 30 seconds where I’m throwing ass like my life depends on it. If I was a DJ, I would play Space And The Woods at every single set. I earnestly believe that in 2025, to survive, we MUST get freakier. So for the world’s sake, it’s your personal responsibility to find ways to make the world weirder. You must actively seek out the scary concreteness of the future, and rev up your jackhammer. You have GOT to find albums like this for yourself that make you want to do something insane, but worthwhile. My Roadhouse Soldier, this one’s for you, get your ass on this now.
Highlighted Track: Cellphone’s Dead / The Horrible Fanfare (...) / Soldier Jane
Genres: alternative/experimental rock & electronic
Beck I Love You. Really awesome stuff as always. I am speaking directly into your ear. He elicits such visions out of me that seem so accessible, but just out of reach. Like what he understands about music and language is on the edge of my peripheral vision. Number 1 king of lyrics for me personally, nobody is doing this shit like him, except maybe like, Bjork. And well now I went down a small google rabbit hole and am listening to Beck remixes of Bjork. Anyways sounds in my FUCKING ears. This album is on the longer side but he can do whatever he wants idgaf. FUCK!! T-SHIRT THAT SAYS I LOVE MUSIC!!
Highlighted Track: So Real / Lover, You Should've Come Over / Forget Her
Genres: rock
This is another pick where I am scared for my life that I didn’t rank it high enough. IT’S ANOTHER MARINATER, I PROMISE! There is a cult following for Jeff Buckley and specifically this album, so know that I was locked and loaded to be blown away. And at times, I truly was. The Hallelujah cover, the guitar work on every track, and previously I had only heard the chorus for Lover. And, naturally, hearing that song in full for the first time is a religious experience. Like holy fuck it’s never over. Just romantically haunting every step of the way. Years before I was born, he famously died in Memphis, in the Wolf River. You can see the Hernando de Soto Bridge perfectly from the balcony of the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid, by the way. It’s pretty fantastical when lit at night. Makes you forget you’re standing on the ridiculous Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. You can also see most of downtown, and with a good eye you can spot the Clark building. It’s a landmark that eventually leads to the second-best grocery store, and a flower shop you never went into. And sometimes when you are somewhere else entirely, you can still hear the same leaves blowing and the same songs being sung. When Jeff Buckley sings, I think of a specter haunting a place I never expected to be a ghost to me.
Highlighted Track: Wasted On You / Norm / Sunset
Genres: indie
Forever grateful I got to see this live in a stripped-back concert of just him in an echoey church. It was beyond perfect for his work, especially for an album asking “Hey, what if God didn’t know how to love and was really insecure about it?” He is always so gentle in every delivery. Even when the story gets increasingly unnerving and leads to a terrifying climax, everything still feels like a soft blanket, dreamlike. My one critique with this concept album is the lack of the subject’s own perspective -- I think it would have solidified the terror of it all. Have you been slow dancing with yourself in your kitchen lately? If not, it’s never too late. You can spare 36 minutes on a Thursday night when your roommates aren’t home, and you burnt your dinner.
Highlighted Track: Microwave Dinner / California / We Don’t Need To Talk About It
Genres: alternative/indie rock
The first album I listened to this year! Usually, I really hate Hippy Folk-Punk Wild Man Screaming music, but something about Petey just captured me. There’s a sass to his hollerin’ that makes me feel like I’m listening to an old friend drunkenly karaoke a song out of their vocal range, or imagining a future friend retelling a story of sticking his head out the car window on a California highway. He has a way with words that feels familiar, but I feel like this album is unpredictable. The arc of the relationships and situations described throughout the album end bittersweet, but hopeful. I forgot how desperate I am for hope when I hear him. I also did not realize for the longest time that he is the same guy who makes esoteric TikTok comedy? This was certainly a realization to come to after being emotionally blown up listening to Microwave Dinner for the millionth time. There’s a certain charming cheesiness in this album, but it feels like it revels in making fun of the stupid parts while maintaining a certain composure. Humor as a certain vessel for nostalgia. It makes the serious parts all the more compelling, there’s still a lot of hidden messages everywhere. I make a lot of assumptions, but I feel like I know a Petey. Is he getting my secret messages? Probably not. I do often wonder if he’s curious enough to read any of these blog entries, he does like my writing. If you are, I like you better in your more serious works. It makes it both more enticing, and funnier, to watch you dance.
Highlighted Track: Moon Tower / House / I’m Not Where I Need
Genres: indie, shoegaze
Christ. Another choice that hit me at the perfect time this year -- and like an 18 wheeler. I just remember walking to the grocery store a lot with this playing. It always felt cinematic, because the grocery store parking lot sky effect was almost always in full swing. This may be my favorite content + cover + title combination, it really significantly feels like going to a new physical place, a concept I have been obsessed with trying to capture ever since I watched The OA. And where it takes me is a delicate, fragile place, but I still feel safe. It’s all too familiar, and I go back and back time and time again. Themes of loneliness and friendship and home. The vocals are quiet and masked to a degree, it makes the lead feel hidden, inaccessible, but still willing to be vulnerable. My favorite thing about this album is that through many, many listens, I still know so little of the lyrics. It feels made to let me mumble through every melody without judgement.
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