DELISPICE's debut album kicks off with a track that sounds ripped straight from a '90s-'00s arcade racing game soundtrack, and that tells you most of what to expect here, honestly. It's just fun music for fun times. It's a little Smashing Pumpkins and a little R.E.M. and a dash of U2 at times, but it's all a good time. Also, it's Korean. Check out my full review.
Super smooth, great feeling bedroom-pop from local Utah band (the first of many). It feels like a late spring sunshiny afternoon. Like, I can't describe why, but it makes me remember my childhood bedroom and the lazy Sunday afternoons of me just lying in my shag carpeted room, daydreaming and building with Lego. It's perfect if you like Jay Som or other artists in that space.
14. miicah - FATAMORGANA (2024)
It feels criminal to put this so far down, but truth is, I just haven't had enough time with this album for it to seep into my subconscious as much as the others. It's incredibly well-written and well-produced; it's just the newest thing on this entire list. If you like vibey indie rock, this is 100% an album you need to check out. It's got so much to like.
(Side note: Shoutout to Joe for getting me this one on vinyl for Christmas and getting the band to sign it. Really neat!)
Favorite tracks: "INDECEMBER/YOUR BEST," "MERCHANTS," "POiiSON," "SAY ii AM," "FATAMORGANA"
Dang Good
12. SHXCXCHCXSH - DO EP (2024)
It's no secret I love the unpronounceable Swedish industrial/techno group, and their first 2024 release is some of their most generally accessible work ever. Now, that's not exactly saying much, and I don't expect this to be a new club classic, but if newer fans were looking for something a little less esoteric and harsh,
DO is absolutely the right move.
The four-song EP is built around a shared vocal sample, distorted and chopped up in slightly different ways — sometimes to the point of complete abstraction. The EP is surprisingly full for only having four tracks, and the sound design is really neat. Also, bonus points for one of the best vinyl releases this year; my copy sounds INCREDIBLE.
Favorite tracks: "DO 2," "DO 3," "DO 1"
11. Oklou - Galore (2020)
In a year where my listening taste was dominated by girlpop and ambient lounge chill, it's really not that surprising that Oklou (the middle ground) found her way onto my playlists. I've been a fan of "another night" for a while now, and I kept meaning to check out more of her stuff. Well one day, it came on again, and I finally said that I was going to do what I'd been putting off.
The sparse, vocal and synth-focused tracks have an eerie, yet natural quality to them, like exploring the North American woods as the sun sets on a late summer day. It's equal parts haunting and soothing, and I can't wrap my head around how she makes it sound like that. Beautiful.
Favorite tracks: "another night," "galore," "I didn't give up on you," "god's chariots"
10. Hoppy - Little While (2024)
Like I said
in my review, I can't say a single bad thing about
Little While. Mostly because how could you get upset at something so dang smooth and enjoyable? I've never had a significant other hold me and run their hands through my hair as we watch a winter storm set in and just enjoy the warmth we share on the couch in our log cabin retreat, but I have to imagine this is what that feels like. I do wish it was longer though. I think my roommates got annoyed by me playing it on repeat lol.
Favorite tracks: "The Casio," "2:11," "Garage Sketch," "Still Breathing"
9. Bully - Lucky For You (2023)
I got into the Chicago group Ratboys after Mike the Snare's deep discog dive video on them. While I was in that space, Spotify had some interesting radios for me, which included a lot of other cool artists. But one stood out above the rest. One was angrier, more annoyed, more brash and unapologetic, and more willing to speak their mind than the others. By the end of the day on that radio, I had nearly every song from
Lucky For You liked, so I figured the rest was worth a shot. Spoiler alert, it was.
Bully has that sort of female-fronted rock sound that feels reminiscent of the 2000s but also carries a lot more earnestness than most of the radio rock of that time. Her voice isn't the most polished thing you've ever heard, and that's part of why it sounds so good. This is someone speaking their mind fully and authentically. It's perfect road trip music, jam in your room music, or just take a break from the world and let yourself sulk a bit music. It's bad feelings but a good time and vice versa. It's passion and energy and all the great stuff you expect from rock blended together. Even if you disagree with her views on "All This Noise," you can't deny the fire and vigor here are compelling.
The best part is that in a time where TikTok has really sunk its teeth into the modern rock sound, this album is devoid of all of that trend-chasing, song-of-the-summer bullcrap. It's just rock for rock's sake (For the record, I don't hate new rock just because the younger generation likes it blah blah blah. I hate it because so many great bands have relented to give the internet copies of whatever everyone else is doing.)
I still love Ratboys and respect the heck out of their music. But in the end, they were merely a steppingstone to a different album that resonated on another level me. Seriously, this album kicks glutes.
Favorite tracks: "Days Move Slow," "Change Your Mind," "All This Noise," "Lose You," "All I Do"
8. Silly Silky - Silly but, Silky (2024)
Silly Silky is far from a 'new' artist, but she might be my pick for best emerging artist of 2024. This mixtape is a behemoth of excellence. From jazzy horn textures to smooth lo-fi electronics, this album has so many mixed-up styles. It's like a mix between Magdalena Bay (who, spoiler, we'll see pop up later on) and Moonchild. The only complaint I have is that this mixtape is LONG. You really feel the full 1-hour runtime.
In isolation though, almost every single one of these 20 songs are better than 90% of what's being released right now. Also, her November EP Debut was also excellent. Seriously, this girl doesn't miss. Go read my review (scroll down to page #006) if you want more of what makes this album great and be sure to remember that you heard it here first when Silly Silky goes nuclear popular.
Favorite tracks: "Cynical," "4D," "Band-Aid," "BB New Attitude," "Happy Accident"
7. MMEND - Spectator (2019)
Another one I've already reviewed and once again, I don't really have much to add. It's just excellent. One fun story though: After the review went live, Mason Winter of MMEND actually came and chatted with me about my thoughts and what I had mentioned in the review. (His studio space is right next to the Provo Music Magazine office, so I see him almost daily now.) The thing that stood out to him was my comment on the album order feeling wrong. It's been five years since they put Specator out, and while he still has a lot of the same connection to the music as he did when he wrote it, there's also a sense of distance now that he can appreciate it differently and judge it based on what it is, not what he expected it to be.
Anywho, we worked together and made an alternate track listing, and I think it's better! The only thing we can't get right is "Warm Hands, Cold Heart" and "Cover My Eyes." Musically they should go in that order, but thematically they fit better swapped. Not super important though. Give it a listen in the new order and let me know what you think.
Favorite tracks: "Slow Down," "Cover My Eyes," "Too Close for Comfort," "Don't Think," "Nothing That Doesn't Happen Daily," Spectator"
6. Charli xcx - BRAT / brat and it's completely different but also still brat (2024)
Ok, I know that not putting Charli in the AotY category, especially as a long-time listener, is a bit controversial, but it's the most brat thing I could do, right?
Seriously though, this album is fantastic. It treads the line of being vapid and brainless fun while holding down a strong undercurrent of deadly seriousness and deeply personal soul-bearing. It's incredible to listen to this album over and over again and peel away layer after layer. The lyrics are great, the production is immaculate - there is truly so much to love here. That said, I don't think this unseats How I'm Feeling Now and Pop 2 as my favorite projects from Charli.
Most of this review was written before the remix album brat and it's completely different but also still brat came out, and hot DANG was that the heat I was missing from the base album. She managed to completely upturn the expectations of what a remix album can be or do while building on the legacy of those tracks. These songs are transformed into everything from gems to hot garbage, and tracks like the "So I" remix elevate and expand the experience of the original album. (Let's be real here too, we all love hot garbage anyway, don't we?)
While I think you probably could create a 'super album' definitive version from mixing the tracklists of the original and the remix versions, a lot of the emotional umph in the remixes comes from the context of the originals. However, the double album is frankly too long. There's a happy middle ground; I'm just not sure what it looks like. Still a banger and a half though, and who am I to convince the world that this isn't perfect? Just go listen already if you haven't. And if you haven't, what did you even do with your summer??
Favorite tracks: "Girl, so confusing" (the version with Lorde might be the best thing Charli xcx has ever released), "365," "Sympathy is a knife," "So I featuring a.g. cook," "Von dutch," "Mean girls"
5. ARTMS - <Dall> (2024)
This album annoys me, but I still love it. I won't dwell on it here too much because I have
an entire review where this is the thesis (scroll down to page #006), but
<Dall> was almost the most innovative, boundary-breaking release for K-pop ever. To quote myself, "[the intro track] 'url' is as magnificent as it disappointing, and I think that's a good representation of
<Dall> as a whole."
Half the album are these incredible, experimental, lush tracks, and the other half is the same generic girl group pop you've heard a thousand times. It's so good when it's good, but otherwise it's just boring. If it was more consistent, this would likely have been my single album of the year. Instead, it's fine. Just fine. That said, the music videos for this cycle are bonkers. (Go read my review for more details on all of this.)
Favorite Tracks: "Butterfly Effect," "Virtual Angel," "Birth," "url," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
Albums of the Year
These are my picks for best albums of 2024. As such, albums in this section all collectively share the title for AotY for me. They are organized by the order I'd put them in if gun-to-my-head I was forced to pick an order right now as I'm writing this, but this section is very fluid and interchangeable.
4. Sego - TANDANG (2024)
Most years, an album this spectacular would easily be my Album of the Year, but 2024 has punched well above its weight, so here it is just a touch further down.
Man, I really don't have more to say about this album than what I've already said. It's good! It's artsy! It's so much freaking fun. The whole thing is finally on streaming now too, so you don't even have an excuse not to go listen to it! Buy a vinyl too! Just have fun for pete's sake.
Favorite tracks: "COWBOYS AND HINDIANS," "SURRENDER," "MOM," "OH NO," "MALIBU MARY," "TANDANG"
3. Hello Meteor - SAID GHOSTS (2024)
While I don't think this is my favorite album of the year, it might be the one that best represents the first half of my year. You see, I've gotten pretty into vaporwave (again) and the sort of nostalgic chillsynth sounds of The Weather Channel and so on. It just hits, idk. Maybe it's because we didn't get a new ATTLAS album this year and I'm using this as a substitute, but there's something extremely enjoyable about the relaxing, refreshing, yet invigorating tones of Hello Meteor. (Honestly, I hadn't put that ATTLAS theory together until just now as I was writing it, but it makes a lot of sense.)
Beyond the great vibes and lush sonic soundscape, SAID GHOSTS also tells a compelling sci-fi story of space travel and the final approach to a new planet. There's a significant amount of Hello Meteor's discography dedicated to the Jaladri saga, and this one sheds a new light on an underrated aspect of that story. The whole time, robotic voices announce new protocol and narrate the actions of the automated spacecraft, and the first few times you listen, the effect is incredibly immersive. I felt like a traveler being woken from a deep cryosleep, slightly disoriented yet knowing I was taken care of. Lesser albums would beat you over the head with this motif, but SAID GHOSTS only touches on it here and there — just enough to keep it in the back of your head.
Hello Meteor has released five albums this year, and this is the best of the group. It's got a lot of the same strengths as last year's Traditional Dreams For January but builds into a new and very pleasurable space. It touches a bit on the sonic landscape that's made the tracks from the Community Broadcasting series so compelling, and there's a bit of dirt and breakbeat mixed in there too. Personally, I think this is Hello Meteor's best work yet overall, if for no other reason than the experience is so incredibly unified and cohesive yet provides ample variety to prevent the journey from getting stale.
Favorite tracks: "Lambertian," "Egression Protocol," "Nightly Review," "Geopolymers," "Graphite as a Color"
2. Drusky - Cake & Absinthe (2024)
I told the world I'd stop
talking about how good Drusky is when it stopped being true, and I'm still here yapping. Seriously, they deserve WAYYYYY more attention than they're getting, and I don't just say that because I run a local music magazine and have any obligation to say that about every band I review. No, Drusky is the real deal.
It's (clearly) hard for me to pick an album of the year, and these top two albums are constantly flipping back and forth. Cake & Absinthe captures so much of what's so real about life: the greats, the not-so-greats, and the pretty dang bads. The mixing and arrangement are so good, and I wish that I could effectively capture the way my heart just shattered the first time I truly understood "Wasted." I've already written a massive paragraph about it, and I don't think I need to do more, but I could. That's the thing - it's so good that I could.
Since writing my review on the album, I've come around a bit "Valentine's Day" and now see a lot of the strengths of the song. However, I still think those strengths are crowded out when it's smushed in a run of five songs that include four of Drusky's best ever. I don't know how to fix it, but maybe it's time to try an alternate tracklisting... As always, go read my review for my full thoughts.
Favorite tracks: "Wasted," "Dead Dog," "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder," "Big Halftime Show," "Religistitious," "Soap"
1. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk (2024)
Magdelena Bay hits the sweet spot in my music taste of being both totally basic and totally weird at the same time. Like, in me there are two wolves, and they're both happy when I listen to Magdelena Bay. Their music is paradoxically massive and almost intimidatingly intimate at the same time, echoing the same kind of hyperreality and post-post irony that hyperpop was built on. There's a deep level of sincerity here, even in the most banal and basic of sounds. The mixture of production styles, vocal techniques, and throwing genre just completely out the window makes for one incredibly enjoyable ride. It's lush; it's flowy; it's the full package. Even now, months after release, I'm constantly finding new things to love about this album.
I will say, the first time I listened to Imaginal Disk, I found it to be a bit long, or at least paced like it had multiple endings. Since then, I've listened over and over (and over) again. I find it's paced more like a chapter book, with each section having a resting point before the next one. And we hear themes being borrowed from one track to the next, which adds a cool level of consistency and cohesion to the rough storyline of self-discovery and metamorphosis. If nothing else, it's full of bangers that will worm their way into your ears and make you a bit silly. (That's a good thing in case it wasn't clear.)
It's weird because while this album is so dang good, it's the only one in the AotY section I like less than something the artist has previously released. However, when your competition is 2021's Mercurial World, you're already fighting an uphill battle. (It's also so dang good.) These guys are blowing up, for very good reason. I'm bummed up I missed out on the true ground floor with these guys, but stoked I got in relatively early nonetheless. Incredible. Simply incredible.
My only regret with this band is that I didn't get tickets to see them when they came through town a few years back. They didn't come to Utah this tour, and if they ever do again, I imagine tickets are going to be much more expensive because this album has boosted their popularity a ton. :( Lol jk just days before posting this they announced a new tour, and they're coming to Utah again! Already have my tickets. :)
Favorite tracks: "Death & Romance," "Killing Time," "That's My Floor," "The Ballad of Matt & Mica," "Tunnel Vision," "Fear, Sex"
Conclusion
And that's the list! Thanks to anyone who made it this far! I started working on this back in September to make sure I could have it done by the end of the year, and for the first time maybe ever, I finally reached a self-imposed deadline. Let me know what your favorite albums from this year were, and please please please tell me if you decide to check out anything based on my recommendation and whether or not you enjoyed it. One of my favorite things is hearing what people think of my suggestions, so even if you hated it, I want to know.
That's all for me for now! Idk when the next post is coming - maybe March or so if I end up doing my monthly ranking in February like normal. Until then, happiest of holidays, merriest of Christmases, safest of travels, and may your wireless headphones always be charged!
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