Ladies, gentlemen, and any others who happen to stumble upon this humble blog o' mine - please join me in celebrating a momentous occasion! I finally have posted about my yearly ranking within a month of when it was done! (I have never claimed to be particularly good at getting things done on time, and I expect this to be the exception, not the rule.)
For anyone who hasn't read one of my posts before: First of all, welcome! Each year I re-rank all of my favorite albums of all time and then do a blog post because I'm a nerd about music. My boss likes to tease me that even though I write for multiple entertainment publications, I still do this on the side and probably makes me some kind of masochist lol. ...He might be right.
Anywho, my goal for the post this year was to keep it much shorter than last year, so I'm going to stop babbling and just get into it!
Methodology & Eligibility
I discussed the way I construct the list as well as which albums are selected in great detail on last year's post. Go check that out for a full breakdown. Seriously, I can guarantee that nearly any question you have about this besides "why is ____ here/not here/so high/so low?" can be found on last year's post.
To sum it up though for you lazy bums: These are albums that are S, A+, or A tier in my opinion. That's why the number is weird and not perfectly round. Things like greatest hits albums are not included, and I need to have listened to the whole thing more than four months ago for it to be eligible. If you have suggestions for things I should check out or that were not included, please suggest kindly! There's a lot more in the aforementioned post, but that should get you most of the way to understanding this list. Speaking of which...
The List
 |
| Click here for the full resolution |
Takeaways
This year, the total number of albums changed a lot less drastically, with only 16 new entries and 12 dropouts. That's still about 10% of the list, which is maybe a bit higher turnover rate than I'd like ideally, but such is life. It's a lot better than last year's 23 new additions (~15%). Also, for the first time since I started doing this yearly ranking, the top ten albums have remained the same, albeit shuffled around a bit.
Newcomers
I anticipate this being the last time a Rush album is added to the list unless one the remaining seven albums from them suddenly becomes a lot more special to me. I've had a weird hangup in past years about including too much Rush, and this year I finally let myself just add everything I felt deserved it.
Everything non-Rush is either from my AotY picks for 2024, the second half of my 2023 AotY picks (which were not eligible in 2024), or are just banger albums that I'm finally admitting my love for (Wish You Were Here and Rumors). Not a lot of surprises if you've heard me talk about music at all in the last year.
#55 notsure - stressed
#63 Drusky - Cake & Absynthe
#68 Hello Meteor - SAID GHOSTS
#70 Rush - Moving Pictures
#76 Sego - TANDANG
#90 MMEND - Spectator
#91 Oklou - Galore
#94 Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
#97 The Moth & The Flame - The Moth & The Flame
#102 Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
#103 Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
#111 Rush - Grace Under Pressure
#112 Silly Silky - Silly but, Silky
#124 Thy Slaughter - Soft Rock
Dropouts
Oh man, some of these hurt to drop, but I had to be honest with myself that I don't think they quite earn that A rating anymore. That, or they're technically two albums ranked as one (Rhythm of Youth/Collection) - neither of which would make it without the other - or are embroiled in fake music scandals and have since had some of my favorite songs removed from streaming (Michael). They mostly all sit in the A- category for me, so know that they're still great and totally worth your time.
Battle Tapes - Polygon
deadmau5 - while(1<2)
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Depeche Mode - Remixes 2: 81-11
Excision - Destroid: The Invasion
KIRARA - Sarah
Men Without Hats - Rhythm of Youth/Collection
Michael Jackson - Michael
Pet Shop Boys - Electric
SHXCXCHCXSHX - Kongestion
Various Artists - Monstercat 028: Uproar
Largest jumps (change of 40 or more)
Only comment here is that Gotye rising so much makes sense. Dropping 50+ spots last year was a huge mistake, and this is just a course correction.
Largest falls (change of 40 or more)
Imagine Dragons - Smoke & Mirrors -75
Battle Tapes - Form EP -70
Strange Talk - Cast Away -70
!!! - Let it Be Blue -50
Cryoshell - Cryoshell -48
The Script - Science & Faith -45
3rd Line Butterfly - Divided By Zero -42
Kim Jung Mi - Now -40
Also don't have a lot to add here. 83 is a truly ridiculous drop for anything, but that's just how things shook out this time! I even relistened to make sure I wasn't being too harsh, and I think I made the right choice. Who knows though? Maybe next year we'll see STRGTHS make a Gotye-level resurgence in response to dropping so much this time around.
Conclusion
And that's the list! Please please please let me know what you think! I love hearing from others about what they think about my rankings as well as what their favorites are. Anything I'm missing? Anything grossly overrated? Anything you're curious why I like it so much or how I discovered it? PLEASE ASK ME ANYTHING I'M BEGGING YOU. Feel free to reach out and let's chat! I also have all the stats from past years saved on an excel sheet and am happy to talk about the data.
Well, that's all I've got! Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and hope you found something cool and new to listen to!