- Charm by Clairo: Creative instrumental tidbits MAKE this album. Rich attention to detail. Thank you. More here.
2. Night Palace by Mount Eerie: Phil Elverum at his most RAW and NOCTURNAL. Surrendering to the most vulnerable and manic aspects of the human experience. He talks to a fish. HE IS fucking CREATIVE and EMOTIONAL and ABSTRACT. More here.
3. The Crying Nudes by The Crying Nudes: Secret hearts. I will turn them into stone. Plead the blood. Don’t fight it. You begged me for the ride.
4. Rocky Top Ballads by Fine: The greatest albums are the ones that you can either cry your eyes out to or have sex to. The best albums are the ones where you can do both at the same time to.
5. Your Day Will Come by Channel Beads: Mono synth playing a triangle wave filter. Slightly closed with a bit of resonance to reduce bass. Long attack and decay time sustain. Xxvhr on reddit says. Swollen mess. Cryptic nightmare. Creative as fuck.
6. Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker: Nature imagery as a testament to a deep love. Show me photos in your house. Love bigger than labels. So much to feel and taste. Fluid. Ode to things never being finished. Like little kids. Always being able to change the song for however it wants to go and how the band feels. Soul crushing. Do you remember?
7. Big Smile, Black Mire by urikia’ bedroom: Overall impressive and promising debut. Static. Star Six Six. Struck. Narration makes me curious. I smell fire. Easy taking. Interesting. Shoegaze? Trip hop? The best type of experiment.
8. Baggy$$ by Fckers: EP for the gym, pregame, car rides with your babysitter, field trips, Berghain, candy stores, and sex.
9. Basspunk by Bassvictim: Looking at your face with my g-string poking. I’m not joking. I’m being hella serious. Mysterious and hot. With the air on my g-string.Â
10. The Night by Saint Etienne: Dance-pop group turns ambient. Maturing content. Children are growing old. Liminal space.
11. Rong Weickness by Fievel Is Glauque: I want this album to play in my dreams. Whimsical jazz and giddy.
12. Cold Visions by Bladee: I don’t really think I am qualified to talk about Bladee because drainers but I mean COME ONNNNNN. A 30 TRACK BLADEE ALBUM?? YA. There are no boring or “bad” songs on here and the production is pristine.
13: Perfectly Blue by RIP Swirl: Under street lamps after a storm, I am left here thinking and contemplating. I’m emotional and deeply introspective and RIP Swirl offers no solutions. The ends of my baggy jeans are dragging on the wet cement. All of the features are incredible and seriously further the record: Winter, Tanukichan, Maria Somerville, Alias Error, & united (halo) wow.
14. Lily of the Valley by 22° Halo: Hard truths, vulnerability, and intimacy disguised in a garden of blooming flowers: youthful and broken-in-half pastel colors. Steady and diaristic. An obscure and dreary spring day.
15. Oxalis by Swapmeet: Wednesday knockoffs, but they seem like great people. There were better albums/EPs of 2024, but I kept coming back to this easy listen. I really thought it was Karly Hartzman.
Notes on my top 15 albums. It had to be done. There are so many incredible albums not mentioned.
The only reason Diamond Jubilee is not on here is because it wasn’t on Spotify, so I wasn’t able to build a relationship with it as much as the others. But technically, creatively, and everything speaking, it is the best album that came out this year. Probably by a long shot.