Hi again, long time no blog. As I'm sure you're well aware, it's the end of 2024, and once again I found myself at a crossroads as to how to approach year end list season. I've had a bit of an odd year for new album listening, as for a lot of 2024 I was in various Weird Headspaces that prevented me from keeping up as much as I'd personally like. At the same time, I'm also well aware that my usual benchmarks for this are way outside of "normal" listeners and thus I did have a large pool of records I wanted to talk about along with an even larger list of things I meant to get around to.
But then came list season, and – as regularly happens for me – all of a sudden at the most inconvenient time I get back on the new albums kick and end up left with a massive pile of catch up listening and late year favorites that only further complicate the process of trying to make a year end list that isn't dominated by recency bias.
So rather than give you a short list that doesn't really reflect the breath of stuff I'm into, or taking way too long trying to figure out whether something I heard 2 weeks ago is actually my 62nd or 63rd favorite album of the year, I decided that a category-based list would be the best of both worlds. A ranked or tiered list has value in my humble opinion - if the whole thing is unranked the reader has no idea where or how to begin and is done no real favors - but trying to rank any more than 40 or 50 albums quickly becomes a pretty pointless exercise in its own right.
So to try to achieve a best of both worlds outcome, I have dumped the records that did (or did not) make a positive impression on me into several themed buckets; while also maintaining a system to indicate records that rose above the rest.
So without any further preamble, lets get into the albums:
*** = Top 10
** = Top 25
* = Top 50
I'M BIASED, BUT!
Records from friends / records I worked on / people I am actively Rooting For / internet mutuals - take it with a grain of salt but also GO LISTEN TO THESE, THEY ROCK
Avi Loud - Bangout
Avi Loud - Traditions
Boocanan - Rat King: Into Darkness
Crush Fund - New Fixation EP
Eev Frances - String
Liano - No'Gimmicks
Liano & P2P - Split (Deluxe)
nextdiemensional & Honey B - HONEYDIMENSIONAL
Oak City Slums - System
Pretty Bitter / Flowerbomb - Take Me Out EP
Pinky Lemon - Pinky Hell EP
Pet Wife - Foam Set
Ramon Pang - Life Cycle Waves
The Fever Haze - Moonbow
Twofold - 22XL Remixes
I'M EVEN MORE BIASED BUT IT'S GOING ON THE LIST BECAUSE YOU CANNOT STOP ME FROM BEING CRINGE
Self Explanatory
Ekko Astral - Pink Balloons ***
NEW JACKIE CLASSICS
Time will tell, but these are the albums I think are truly special
argo nuff - taking a break from my phone ***
Midwife - No Depression In Heaven ***
Mount Eerie - Night Palace ***
The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World ***
Kendrick Lamar - GNX ***
DIIV - Frog In Boiling Water ***
SILVER MEDAL CLUB
Not quite the best of the best but still Damn Good - subject to elevation to the above tier with more time.
Erika De Casier - Still ***
Jonny From Space - Back Then I Didn’t But Now I Do ***
Low End Activist - Municipal Dreams ***
Merely & Malibu - Essential Mixtape **
naemi - Dust Devil **
Priori - This But More ***
Skee Mask - Resort **
Ulla & Ultrafog - It Means a Lot **
RECENCY BIAS BE DAMNED - LATE BREAKING STANDOUTS
Albums I caught up with pretty late in the game that I nonetheless feel confident going to bat for + last minute November / December releases that I want to shout out before everyone moves on
Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt **
Daria Lourd (aka Bored Lord) - For The New Moon On November 30th 2024 **
Fergus Jones - Ephemera *
Jawnino - 40 *
Joanne Robertson & Dean Blunt - Backstage Raver *
Lisha G & Trini Viv - Groovy Steppin Sh*t
Moin - You Never End **
quinn - stars fall on the trench
Sunshy - I don’t care what comes next *
SURPRISED HOW MUCH I LIKED THESE
Artists I wasn't necessarily in the bag for and / or styles of music that aren't always my thing. Albums that won me over in unexpected ways.
A Country Western - Life on the Lawn **
Father John Misty - Mahashmashana ***
Iglooghost - Tidal Memory Exo *
Klein - marked *
Tex Patrello - Minotaur*
Thou - Umbilical
PROMISING DEBUTS / BREAKOUTS
This isn’t their masterpiece, per say, but I now have season tickets to everything this artist does going forward.
Amiture - Mother Engine
Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come *
Fine - Rocky Top Ballads *
Emma Dj - Lay2g *
Laila! - Gap Year
Milan W. - Leave Another Day *
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild **
1010Benja - Ten Total
Anysia Kym - Truest *
Lip Critic - Hex Dealer
RELIABLE VETS WHO KEEP CRANKIN' EM OUT
Not my favorite release from this artist but a worthy addition to their cannon. Aka the “when are they bad?” Tier
Chief Keef - Almighty So 2 *
Floating Points - Cascade **
How To Dress Well - I Am Toward You *
Helado Negro - PHASOR
Jlin - Akoma *
Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor *
Spirit of the Beehive - YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING
Tomu DJ - I Want To Be *
Tierra Whack - WORLD WIDE WHACK *
Tinashe - Quantum Baby
DO YOU REALLY NEED SOMEONE TO TELL YOU THESE ARE GOOD? PROBABLY NOT
Albums that I like but feel slightly cooler on than the rave critical consensus and thus don't feel the urgent need to stump for. AKA the “I’m not stupid, I know these are good” tier
Arooj Aftab - Night Reign
Charli XCX - Brat *
Chat Pile - Cool World
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks *
Mk.Gee - Two Star and the Dream Police
Nala Sinephro - Endlessness
DANCE LPs MISCELLANEOUS
My favorite full length releases in dance music this year - stay tuned for my tracks, compilations and EPs coverage coming soon.
1OO1O - Aries
AceMo - Inter Transit *
AceMo - Save The World
Ali Berger - a refuge / 1
ARCHANGEL - CRITICAL HIT
DJ Corey - Heat Files 2k24
Fetus - b1 b2
Girlcop - Girlcoke
Gum.mp3 - Black Life, Red Planet
Heavee - Unleash *
Jialing - 家 (jiā)
Kelela - Rave:n Remixes *
Lao - Chapultepec *
Leonce - System of Objects
Low End Activist - Airdrop
Loidis - One Day *
Money Lang - MMM
Qetsy - Espiral **
Qetsy - LaYeguaDeLaTesis
Qetsy - Paraguay 2050
Regal86 - Stereographs
Regal86 - Club Issue ‘24
Regal86 & MoMA Ready - HOA024: THE TRAX
Regal86 - Unearthed Vol. 2 **
Special Request - Street Anthems
Stones Taro - Dwellers of the Seabed
St.Iff - Eloquent Proof LP
Tah - 30 LESSONS **
Teqmun - Worms Still Have To Eat The Earth
Tim Reaper & Kloke - In Full Effect
SOMETIMES THE MIDS ARE HITTING
Are these especially Great or Important albums? Probably not. Do they really hit the spot anyway? You Bet. AKA the “I’ll Keep Drinking That Garbage” tier
Autumn Rhythm - Nothing Gold
Duster - In Dreams
Flo Milli - Fine Ho, Stay
Fontaines D.C. - Romance
Horse Jumper of Love - Disaster Trick
Julie - my anti-aircraft friend
Loukeman - sd-2
Shallowater - There Is A Well
Two Shell - Two Shell
Vegyn - The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions
NICE TO HAVE ON / THINGS TO RECOMMEND
Albums that are not super high on my list but are nonetheless worth checking out.
BABii - Daredevil2000
Drahla - angeltape
Fuubutsushi - Meridians
ldaho - Lapse
LOVEFEAR - Schema
Meth Math - Chupetones
Perila - Intrinsic Rhythm
Smerz (as Allina) - Allina
Upsammy - Strange Meridians
Yung Lean / Bladee - Psykos
WISH I HAD SPENT MORE TIME WITH THESE
Definitely good and / or interesting, but haven’t come back to them a ton.
bbymutha - Sleep Paralysis
Chrystabell & David Lynch - Cellophane Memories
Claire Rousay - Sentiment
Donato Dozzy - Magda
Metz - Up On Gravity Hill
Midland - Fragments of Us
Kali Malone - All Life Long
Kelly Moran - Moves in the Field
Persher - Sleep Well
AND NOW, WHAT I'M CALLING "THE SASSY SECTION"
I REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THESE, I PROMISE
Albums where I went in with pure intentions and my "good time hat" on but unfortunately left disappointed.
Been Stellar - Scream From New York, NY
Belong - Realistic IX
Charli XCX - Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat
Kacy Hill - Bug
KUČKA - Can You Hear Me Dreaming?
Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud
Prize Horse - Under Sound
SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup De Grace
Snow Strippers - Night Killas Vol. 2
Squarepusher - Dostrotime
Wishy - Triple Seven
NOT SURE I "GET IT", BUT GO OFF
Albums that baffle me in a good way + albums that I respect for existing more than I like revisiting them. AKA the “I don’t really get Animal Collective’s Thing but I’ll nonetheless defend their right to do that Thing to the death” tier.
Bladee - Cold Visions
Body Meat - Starchris
xaviersobased - keep it goin xav
Still House Plants - If I don’t make it, I love u
Perila / Ulla - Jazz Plates
Kim Gordon - The Collective
Alan Sparhawk - White Roses, My God
"I AINT READING ALL THAT. I'M HAPPY FOR U THO. OR SORRY THAT HAPPENED"
Albums I intended to try and either did not finish or did not give a fair shake – because sometimes life is too short and taste is fickle.
Beyonce - Cowboy Carter
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Hex
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Sorcery
Geordie Greep - The New Sound
Machine Girl - MG Ultra
Tyler, The Creator - CHROMAKOPIA
CLAIRO SHADE
Is it more or less Clairo Shade to give this album its own unranked tier? I’ll let you decide. The Clairo Shade is in the eye of the beholder.
Clairo - Charm
THE FIRST ANNUAL ANN VEAL "HER?" AWARD (gender neutral)
Seriously, *this* is who we spent a lot of this year fussing about?? Her???? Not terrible by any means, but not worth having a strong opinion on in either direction.
Winner: Sabrina Carpenter - Short and Sweet
Runners Up:
Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
Halsey - The Great Impersonator
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
St. Vincent - All Born Screaming
This Is Lorelai - Box For Buddy, Box For Star
LOOK AT HOW THEY MASSACRED MY BOY (gender neutral)
My faves (or former faves) dropping stinkers - DNF’ed a few of these out of pure spite / wanting to pretend I don’t see it. AKA the “It Brings Me No Pleasure to Report” Tier.
Caribou - Honey
James Blake / Lil Yatchy - Bad Cameo
Jamie xx - In Waves
Justice - Hyperdrama
Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate
Porter Robinson - SMILE! :D
The Smile - Wall of Eyes
The Smile - Cutouts
Kaytranada - TIMELESS
Gesaffelstein - GAMMA
And now, if you prefer a ranked list - here is my top 25 in order:
25 - FLOATING POINTS - CASCADE
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : In a year where nearly every big name electronic event album was a huge let down (see directly above), it was a comfort to have at least one "dance music veteran goes back to making bangers" album that really delivered. Rarely is dance music this maximalist while also being patient and deliberate in building to its sugar rush highs.
24 - SKEE MASK - RESORT
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Not my favorite Skee Mask LP (Compro is gonna be real hard to top) but any Skee Mask release is must listen and this is no exception. His 3 hour DJ set was my best live dance music experience of 2024 and while this album is much more of a "dance music for headphones" proposition, it captures the breadth of the larger Skee Mask Project and the winding pacing of his DJ sets.
23 - QETSY - ESPIRAL
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Hard to single out just one Qetsy release in a year where I downloaded 125 Qetsy tracks – but I would be remiss to not shout out my favorite discography deep dive of 2024. This is my favorite of the 3 albums they put out this year, some of the most inventive, exhilarating, new takes on footwork I've heard since DJ Rashad left us. Regularly pulls moves that make me laugh out loud at the free-wheeling audacity of it all, without ever feeling "jokey".
22 - ULLA & ULTRAFOG - IT MEANS A LOT
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Ulla is one of my favorite ambient artists of the last 10 years (Tumbling Towards A Wall in stores now) and this collaborative LP with Ultrafog is no exception to the excellent streak she's been on. It's cliche to call ambient music a "balm" but Ulla's music soothes my restless brain in a way few others can. And whatever they're bringing to this stew, "Ultrafog" sure is a great word for it.
21 - MOIN - YOU NEVER END
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : In the time honored tradition of turntables being traded in for guitars, this band made up of former Raime members Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead along with drummer Valentina Magaletti wins my "rock music for electronic music nerds" award of the year. Post-hardcore meets post-dubstep. Just really cool! Love it!
20 - NAEMI - DUST DEVIL
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : We need a new word for the ambient-adjacent, texture and mood driven chillout music that has become all the rage post-pandemic (James K, Purelink, etc), and this album might be the best poster child for this particular style. Features a who's who of names from this scene including Ulla, Huerco S., Perila, and most iconically Erika De Casier credited as just "Erika", all working together to create something that feels like a mission statement for an entire group of artists. Whatever this genre is, let's all agree to call it anything but "hypnagogic pop".
19 - DARIA LOURD - FOR THE NEW MOON ON NOVEMBER 30th 2024
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : I am a known stan of all things Bored Lord (2023's Name It! continues to age like a fine wine), which is why I was even more floored at how excellent this LP is despite abandoning her usual dancefloor instincts almost entirely.
From the album's bandcamp bio: "I think the scrapped titles give it away best; Esoteric Dub Grunge, Ambient Acid Funk, or (my personal favorite) Meditations on the Disillusionment of the Dance Music Industry."
18 - A COUNTRY WESTERN - LIFE ON THE LAWN
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : I was always on the fence about this band – despite their proximity to a world of current shoegaze and slowcore bands like TAGABOW that I generally love – which is why I was shocked that this unfussy, not at all experimental alt rock album was the thing from them to fully win me over. Simple, straightforward tunes that I keep coming back to - this is what I wanted the Hotline TNT album from last year to be.
17 - MERCE LEMON - WATCH ME DRIVE THEM DOGS WILD
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : I thought this was going to be the year that I retired from keeping up with the deluge of critically acclaimed twangy, country-ish singer-songwriter albums – but in fact, I had simply forgotten what the non-mid version of this kind of music sounds like. They call her Merce Lemon because she has the juice.
16 - REGAL86 - UNEARTHED VOL. II
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Yes, this is a 100 song compilation. Yes, I really listened to all of it more than once (in chunks). Yes, the hit rate is actually high enough to justify its inclusion on the list. So consistently good in so many different styles and genres (sorted by BPM from slowest to fastest) that trying to narrow down my top 10 tracks would be a genuine challenge. If he drops another one at the top of next year I will be buying it as soon as I can get to my computer.
15 - ASTRID SONNE - GREAT DOUBT
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : I'm generally pro all of the Danish Experimental Pop Girlies (Erika De Casier, Fine, ML Buch, Clarissa Connelly, Smerz, etc) and don't want to pit them against each other but MANNNN is Astrid Sonne maybe my favorite of the bunch. A record that makes 26 minutes feel like such an immense statement - feels longer than it is without dragging at all. If I had checked this out sooner it very easily could have made my 10 .
14 - MALIBU & MERELY - ESSENTIAL MIXTAPE
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Music should be composed of overwhelmingly emotional Wooshes, the sound of airplanes flying over head, and singers going oooooooooohhhhh. Music should sound more like the Halo 3 Menu Music. Music should sound like - as the queen Meghan Garvey put it - "trance music heard from several rooms away". Music should sound like the soundtrack to Michael Mann's 1995 film HEAT. Malibu understands all of this, and that's why she's the GOAT.
13 - PRIORI - THIS BUT MORE
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : The current king of the Montreal Dance scene delivers a Damn Good full length LP that folds many of his specialties (spacey drum and bass, dub techno, blissful downtempo, and more) into one album. My #1 "idk what to throw on but I just wanna vibe out for a while" album of the year.
12 - TAH - 30 LESSONS
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Another like the Regal86 compilation where I was unsure if it "counts" as an "album" but have listened to it way too much to really care. A 30 song grab bag of TAH's best tracks and edits of the last several years, remastered or released for the first time. Featuring the freshest Daft Punk flip in years and an incredible rework of my favorite Thomas Bangalter solo track "What to Do" for good measure. Put simply: this is about as good as Jersey Club gets.
11 - LOW END ACTIVIST - MUNICIPAL DREAMS
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : A Post-dubstep concept album about the hollowing out of urban life in 21st century England isn't exactly a "new" idea per say (Burial's shadow undeniably looms large over this album) but I think this Low End Activist LP iterates on that established hauntology mold in exciting ways. Takes grime and UK bass music and turns them inside out until the negative space typically reserved for drums develops its own gravitational pull. Weightless and heavy as fuck at the same time.
Even as someone with no first hand life experience of life in the UK, I found this album deeply resonant in its attempt to capture the fallout of the last decade+ of Tory rule in Britain. The sound of barren concrete spaces haunted by their past histories, cities circling the drains, people being forgotten.
10 - ERIKA DE CASIER - STILL
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : For my money, there isn't a better written or more replayable pop record from this year. Does justice to the glitzy Timbaland era of pop RnB it is sending up while not being a total nostalgia exercise, as much Future as it is Past. Also, very horny!!!! What's not to love.
9 - JONNY FROM SPACE - BACK THEN I DIDN'T, BUT NOW I DO
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : It's been a banner last few years in Miami dance music – from the rise of Nick León Supremacy to my discovery of excellent deep cut labels and crews like Schematic Music Company – but Jonny From Space's new LP is my favorite thing to emerge from this world yet. Rather than peak time club music or "imagining the club from your bedroom" club music, this is club music for 6AM sunrise sets – when you're too tired to keep dancing and are content just blissfully swaying side to side. TLDR: Boards of Canada for people who live in warm climates.
8 - DIIV - FROG IN BOILING WATER
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : If this DIIV album takes a trajectory anything like Deceiver, I expect this to be my #2 or #3 in a few years time. A band whose discography continues to age like a fine wine, but also a band that feels like they are just now finding their own distinct lane. It's not explicitly shoegaze, or dream pop, but some secret third thing. "Soul-net" might be the best song the band has ever written, and this is definitely their most fully realized work in terms of themes and concept. A political album about emotional affect rather than policy or sloganeering; "chill" music about feeling increasingly freaked out.
7 - KENDRICK LAMAR - GNX
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : While this record is undeniably a Drake Beef victory lap, I think some people have done this album a disservice by framing it only in those terms. Is Kendrick a hypocrite? Maybe. Is this album dancing around the Drakeo the Ruler shaped Elephant in the room? Definitely. Do either of those things stop me from loving this album? Pretty conclusively no. I can't hear the (mostly fair) critiques of this album over the sound of the "Hey Now" beat bumping from my car speakers at irresponsibly high volumes. Such a relief to have a Kendrick album that is fun without needing to also be Important.
6 - FATHER JOHN MISTY - MAHASHMASHANA
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Look, I'm as shocked as you are. For years I told myself that this guy "wasn't for me" - either I connected emotionally to the most straightforward stuff (God's Favorite Customer) or I found his self-reflexive songwriting several helpings too clever for his own good (Pure Comedy). But for the first time, I was able to fully tap into the having his cake and eating it too nature of FJM: an emotionally devastating AND deeply meta album that pulls off both objectives at once without switching between modes. An album about self-immolation and reincarnation that starts at what would be the closer of any other album and thus creates a mobius strip structure that makes the whole thing feel like you're listening to some alternate universe bonus track hidden at the end of another album – more Endless than it is Blonde.
Much like the way Lana Del Rey's insistence on doubling down and digging deeper on the same idea eventually won me over on Norman Fucking Rockwell! and made me reconsider the project as a whole, I think I finally Get It with Father John Misty. I guess time really does make fools of us all.
5 - EKKO ASTRAL - PINK BALLOONS
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Pink Balloons go pop baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't let the cisgender critics writing about how this album is An Important Statement About Being Trans In America (which it is) or an album about What Life In 2024 Is Like (also accurate) distract you from the fact that this is also just a fun ass time to listen to and one of the most laugh out loud hilarious albums of the year. Jeremy Synder's production is crazy impressive (cannot wait to see him hopefully get more work off the back of the Ekko hype train) and while I am obviously beyond biased, I genuinely do think this is one of the strongest rock debuts in a long time.
So proud to have been a PR shill for this album all year, but now that I'm not being paid to say this let me say it even louder: this album really is that good. My only true hesitation in ranking Pink Balloons this high is knowing that they are already about to top it with the next one ;)
Ekko Fucking Astral 4ever. Keep the rhythm <3
4 - MOUNT EERIE - NIGHT PALACE
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️: While I do generally like the guy, I am neither a Phil Elverum stan nor an expert in his oeuvre, and I wasn't a huge fan of his last record Now Only. So with that all in mind, I went into this 26 song, 81 minute album with a fair amount of trepidation and hesitancy. I knew it would require my full attention and either was going to be:
- a Huge Fucking Bummer
and / or
- way too expert level to appreciate without being steeped in the rest of his work
And while it definitely is both of those things: I cannot express how thrilling and not at all a chore it was to listen to this album for the first time.
Not so much a meta opus about his career but rather a summoning of every past version of himself to soundtrack an exploration into the woods of his mind. An album about why he makes the art he makes and what it all is or isn't capable of accomplishing for him, braiding together his many projects and modes into one language of song. The way this album fuses woo-woo spiritual poetry Phil, "all poetry is dumb" straight talking about grief Phil, and "writes a song called "Non-Metaphorical Decolonization" The Lorax I speak for the trees Phil all into one cohesive voice is ASTOUNDING. Its sentiments are clear as day and yet disappearing into the misty woods as you're listening to it. Like if Charlie Kaufman wasn't so full of himself and touched grass every once in a while.
I can't stop thinking about the scary vocal effects he applies to the fighter jets that roar overhead, as if to say "we rule". I can't stop thinking about the way this album stacks bangers (or what for Phil qualify as "bangers") for an hour before pulling the rug out on the spoken word deconstruction of "Desolation". I can't stop thinking about the fish digging his style too, man.
I can't stop thinking about the first two verses of the album closer "I need new eyes":
I spent decades going on about how nothing doesn't change
Slow tattooing the word "impermanence" bold across my face
I lived examples, I found words to say it yet another way:
Death and birth and changing weather
And romance blown away
I just wanted to say something true
And complicate my youth
But now a new idea complicates my old age:
It's that nothing arises in the first place
All this impermanence is just another thing my mind made
I was never here, and nothing goes away
3 - THE CURE - SONGS OF A LOST WORLD
There are exactly 3 modern "Lega-sequels" that I think are actually great and use this framework to its fullest potential in a way that transcends corporate brand management or simply re-hashing past works:
- Twin Peaks: The Return
- Matrix Resurrections
- This album, which is essentially Disintegration 2 (now with 100% more OOF)
Easily the album that has made me cry the most this year. It should be unsurprising that the guy who made Disintegration before he turned 30 would have a late career "all my friends and loved ones are dying" existential crisis album tucked away in his back pocket ala Blackstar, but MANNNNN this shit is so heavy.
The reason that most late career albums fail is a disconnect or dissonance between who the artist was at their artistic peak and who they are now. But Robert Smith has been exactly this morbid his whole life, and now it simply Hits Different. The same way that a near death Johnny Cash singing "Everyone I know / goes away in the end" resonates on an entire other astral plane compared to Trent Reznor writing and singing the same lyrics, you can hear 35+ years of pain and loss between Robert Smith's voice then and Robert Smith now – though the song remains the same. "Simple" in the purest, most elemental sense: dropping all pretense and poetry and making art about how the only thing that matters is you promising you'll always love me. Even if I know I'll be left alone at the end of every song.
I can sorta hear what the people who say this album is poorly mixed / produced are hearing, but if you listened to this man stare directly into the deepest, darkest abyss and pull something beautiful out of it – and your first reaction to that was "yeah but the mixing is a little muddy": you need to find God. Stop it, get some help.
2 - ARGO NUFF - TAKING A BREAK FROM MY PHONE
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : Was my presumptive AOTY for a long time - a fusion of "zoomer plunderphoics" with a strain of hip hop influenced slowcore ala Hood and finger picking acoustic guitar emo. Peak sadboy music overlayed with samples from Vine era viral videos - like a post-ambient remix of a neil cicierga album meets one of those weirdly emotional corecore videos. What if Grouper was a zillennial Ipad baby, with a rap feature that sounds like a MIKE song recorded at the bottom of a well. It's an album with song titles like "unspoken rizz", "gas station weed" and "r/powerfulmoments" but none of it is a joke, persay. Well maybe everything except the "awesome popcorn chicken" interlude. But it's all fun and games until you find yourself inexplicably crying listening to the Justin-Bieber-sampling outro, "Cherub". It all seemed so much simpler then.
argo nuff are a band / trio of musicians - Avery Levitan, Ruairi Fishback, and Luke Petet - that I was initially put onto via my friend Angel (another W for us having nearly the exact same music taste), but this album takes what I already liked about their previous best work annebolyn and elevates it. Brings in a really cool cast of featured artists (Obiekwe, Take Care, and especially Truman Sinclair doing an incredible Spooky Black impression) that help flesh out their sound, in way that reminds me of the jump from Cycles of Days and Seasons to Cold House in the Hood discography.
Miserablist ambient emo for kids who watched videos on an ipod touch that we'll never see again. Lost internet worlds, lost innocence. Not so much an album about what life online is like right now and moreso a half-remembered period piece about the start of a truly noxious technological presence in our lives. A period piece that now feels quaintly nostalgic because of how much more fucked our digital lives have gotten since. The start of a slow spiraling spiritual decay, the sound of kids collectively realizing we really do be on that dang phone too much.
RIP Young King Dave, I hope you're smoking big doinks in Heaven.
From the album's bio:
"Help. My Phone is locked and there's Still so much Flappy Bird to play. Please they deleted Flappy Bird guys don't Delete Flappy Bird once it's off your phone you can't get it back. Thank you."
1 - MIDWIFE - NO DEPRESSION IN HEAVEN
The Horse Jeans Pitch ™️ : It's hard to say this is her very best work – as a card carrying Midwife Truther who has nearly gotten a Like Author, Like Daughter tattoo multiple times, I've got too much past history with that record for it to be unseated this quickly. But this is the most distilled and clarified document of Madeline Johnson's unique brilliance as a songwriter to date.
Usually, when an artist takes several years and lots of touring to finely hone a record, we get some overstuffed mega opus. Instead No Depression In Heaven is what it looks like when you hone your songwriting so much that time stops, that the world stops. An eye in the center of a hurricane, 7 perfect songs that I could live inside of forever.
With the "heaven metal" noise of her earlier works stripped away, and a brilliant "Better Off Alone" cover to really hammer it home, this album reveals to those not paying close attention that she's actually been writing pop records this whole time; pop records that are meant to soundtrack a melancholy slow dance between the last two people alive at the outer edge of the universe.
I love Midwfie and I love this album. It doesn't have a wasted second or single false note. If Rock and Roll's a dream - please don't wake me.