In Review: Best Albums of 2024
Another list of albums that came out this year. You're welcome.
ERRONEOUS BOTCH:
Okay, so I took a few extra days to really cook on this one, even though my podcast episode discussion on these very records already dropped on Tuesday. Punctuality, I never knew thee…
For our final guest episode of 2024, Mitch Alexander—media personality, political activist, and vocalist for Naarm/Melbourne metallers Eye of the Enemy—joined the show to give us the lowdown on the quintet’s new four-track concept EP, Only Equals Negotiate:
Then, for our actual final episode of 2024, I’ve put together a Good Things Festival supercut featuring artist interviews and backstage shenanigans with Frank Turner, Northlane, Belle Haven, and Alpha Wolf. We chat about their respective year highlights, the realities of touring, pushing the creative envelope, and how to best channel that all-important chaos energy:
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BEST ALBUMS OF 2024
Curious subscribers and attentive old-heads may notice that this year’s edition has switched from “Top 10 Albums of [insert Gregorian calendar year here]” to the more general Best Albums of 2024.
Is this a well-reasoned tactical choice of the semantic variety? An edict delivered and adhered to at the behest of the Gods of SEO? Or perhaps some indicator of the state of music journalism and the normative qualities inherent in any piece of art created through the dynamic will of the human spirit?
Well, it’s none of those. The real reason is entirely practical. My podcast co-host and supremely talented hot wife picked half of them, and we also had double-ups in our respective lists, so this felt neater and more transparent. See? Words are things.
Anyway. “Fuck it. We ball.” On with the list!
Bilmuri – American Motor Sports
I know “y’all-ternative” has a real focus-grouped-to-death, marketing PR bullshit ring to it, but trust me, it is quite literally on point as a sonic descriptor for Johnny Franck’s (ex-Attack Attack) latest effort under his ongoing Bilmuri project.
American Motor Sports is a full-length album stacked with certified “twanger bangers” destined to unite farmhands and mall goths, cowgirls and skinny emos worldwide. There are NASCAR-grade choruses all over this record and a non-zero amount of sexy sax and fiddle embellishments. Trust me, it rocks.
Planes Mistaken For Stars – Do You Still Love Me?
There’s a line in “Dying by Degrees” by Planes Mistaken For Stars, taken from 2004’s Up In Them Guts—one of my favourite records of all time—which I’ve been ruminating on for days now:
“Our histories, they hold no apologies/
And how we suffer what we can’t, what we won’t, let go!”There’s something about the universality of this aphorism—to work, to politics, to love, to the profound struggle of the human condition—and how frontman Gared O’Donnell’s strained, whiskey-soaked delivery perfectly encapsulates the grim acceptance that undergirds this general truth: The past may be immutable and ephemeral, but it’s rarely silent… (Weekly Roundup)
Slim Krusty – Endin’ On A High
Gutter folk troubadour Slim Krusty dropped his debut EP release (mini-LP? Album?) Endin’ on a High, which pulls together many of the tracks featured in his incredible live sets. Despite not getting any pick-up or support from the local music press, Slim’s cult word-of-mouth following has kept him busy, with shows around the country, tour spots with The Bennies, and even a trip across the pond to Canada supporting Ruby Waters.
The record has a slew of his gut-punch, brutally sad songs along with the sweary and fun call-and-response ones, and it’s all delivered with style and charisma that’s uniquely his own. The dude deserves way more attention, in my humble opinion, and hopefully, this release puts him over.
The Story So Far – I Want To Disappear
Maturity and pop punk aren’t exactly synonymous. (Sorry, guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.) Luckily for Californian rockers, The Story So Far, they were essentially forced into growing up. Sure, 2018’s Proper Dose set an incredibly high benchmark, but then the world promptly shit itself, repeatedly, for years. We all know that, ahem, story, by now.
Things finally picked back up six years later with their fifth studio album, I Want To Disappear, which then had the band out on the road for close to 18 months straight, supporting Blink-182 on their recent stadium world tour alongside A Day To Remember and Four Year Strong, and countless shows with Militarie Gun, Pain Of Truth, Scowl, Koyo, Superheaven, and others. All this is to say that while TSSF may be a little older and wiser, they’re still as anthemic and infectious as ever.
Pallbearer – Mind Burns Alive
Speaking of maturation, watching Little Rock doomsayers Pallbearer continue to evolve has been one of the greatest joys of the last decade. I adore their entire back catalogue as a vast collection of raw, heartfelt, crushing, philosophical, emotionally stirring music responsible for one of the loudest shows I’ve ever witnessed.
Vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell described to me how the quartet stripped everything back on their fifth studio album, the nearly hour-long Mind Burns Alive LP:
“I’ve always felt like some of the heaviest songs can be the softest songs because it's really just what are they about, the subject matter of the songs, and the emotions being portrayed—that’s what really moves me... I think there are other languages to speak to quote-unquote ‘heavy emotions’ than just heavy guitars.
Obviously, I still love heavy guitars and we incorporate that a lot into this record. But there was a conscious effort to try to explore a different way of touching upon the types of emotions and subject matter that we’re kind of known for as a band and what we like to tackle artistically with this project.”
Listen to my podcast episode about the record here:
SPEED – ONLY ONE MODE
It’s hard to write anything about Sydney crew Speed that hasn’t already been said here or here or here. Suffice it to say, ONLY ONE MODE, the group’s debut full-length for Last Ride Records/Flatspot Records, is undoubtedly going to go down as an Aussie hardcore classic: It’s 100% Speed, aka “REAL SYDNEY SHIT”.
In a Kerrang cover story, frontman and F.O.T.S. Jem Siow explains the decades-long ethos that propelled the quintet to rapid ascent and international acclaim:
“We all got into hardcore by going to shows, seeing flyers for more shows and attending those spaces, week in week out, for years. You observe the etiquette, the people running the shows, how people participate. We’ve learned everything we know about hardcore through that physical participation, that spiritual participation.”
Crush++ – Power Pleasure
“Okay, let me level with you here. I knew I’d adore Power Pleasure before I ever heard it. As I said in my previous newsletter edition, my unashamed fanboy fawning over Crush++ and their astounding debut album is completely justified (to me, for me) by their strategic position in the crowded Venn diagram that is my mid-2000s post-hardcore sweet spot.
Now, I could try to fill a Myspace Top 8 with tracks from this record, but it would likely make me miserable, and the website is unusable/dead anyway (RIP). Buy it, stream it, bootleg it, steal it—do whatever you must; just listen to Crush++ and spread the good word. Please. I beg you. I’ll follow you back, I promise.” (Weekly Roundup)
Listen to my podcast episode about the record here:
Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
Look, I know this is billed as an ‘alternative music’ newsletter, and you likely don’t need me to explain the merits of globally hegemonic pop music. But I will say this: diminished, saccharine stature aside, Sabrina Carpenter clearly has the juice.
Her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet, is her second “big girl” (read: “non-Disney”) album, and it’s also her first platinum-certified and #1 US album. Oh, it also received eight GRAMMY nominations, including Album of the Year. As Pitchfork confidently put it:
“Carpenter delivers nonsensical, syntax-shredding lines... with the ‘yoo-hoo’ cheek of a Gen Z Betty Boop.”
Example: listen to the lush “Bed Chem,” a synth-heavy retro pop number with winking innuendo about premature ejaculation and a perverted entendre that rhymes with camaraderie, and tell me you’re not entirely smitten with Carpenter’s sweet tooth. Go on.
Balance and Composure – with you in spirit
“If there were a uniting lyrical thread woven through B&C’s discography, it would be the overwhelming desire for human connection, a feeling mediated through, and frequently thwarted by, presence (Separation) and absence (The Things We Think We're Missing).
On standout “believe the hype,” this yearning is abruptly halted, morphing into a kind of weaponized apologia. Fundamentally a song about rejection and the pettiness that follows having one’s heart stomped on, B&C wisely pair Simmons’s boiling bitterness with one of the album's more muscular compositions, allowing lines about masochism and mistaking ‘lust for passion’ to glide across shouted backing vocals, watery guitar leads and a truly triumphant chorus.” (Exclaim!)
Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
“On their third full-length album, Knocked Loose defy the conventional wisdom that dictates how increased popularity necessitates a softening of abrasive qualities. Instead, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To finds the Kentucky bruisers doubling down on intensity, barrelling through 10 tracks in 27 blistering minutes.
Ruminating on self-hatred and blind devotion (“Don’t Reach for Me”), earth-shattering breakdowns and spit-fuelled invective clash with off-kilter rhythms (“Suffocate”) and eerie, atmospheric interstitials (“Take Me Home”). ‘Knocked Loose, motherfucker,’ indeed.” (Exclaim!)
Honourable Mentions
LPs »
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition
Benny The Butcher - Everybody Can’t Go
Drug Church - PRUDE
Neon Nightmare - Faded Dream
EPs »
Antenna – S/T
Balmora/Since My Beloved - Six Pacts Etched In Blood
Candy - Flipping
Counterparts - Heaven Let Them Die
fallingwithscissors - the death and birth of an angel
Gravitate - The Reckoning
Play Drive - Desire Path
RUN - True Heaviness Is Time
Compilations »
The Coming Strife Presents - Light of the Final Dawn