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Last Active 08-01-22 11:41 pm
Joined 06-10-20
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| Wally's Best of '24
As I put my finishing touches on my '25 list, it's time to reflect on the music that I really dug from the previous year. Turns out I never posted them to this site. Each snippet is just a piece of the review I wrote for it. The link to the full reviews is in the comments. | | 31 |  | Lupe Fiasco
Samurai
Honorable Mentions:
"Samurai" Lupe Fiasco (Hip-hop) Smart storytelling and chill beats.
"In a Landscape" Max Richter (Piano) Sparse atmospheric piano music.
"Mountainhead" Everything Everything (Indie Pop) Pleasant indie pop for a nice summer day.
"FLIGHT b741" King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Blues Rock) King Gizz has fun with 70’s psyche rock.
"Mahashmashana" Father John Misty (Singer Songwriter) Trippy, lounge rock. | | 30 |  | Gnome (BEL)
Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome
Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome is the child of sludge/ doom metal acts like Black Sabbath, Mastodon, and Baroness. Song after song swings and grooves with an attitude of a band from Alabama instead of Belgium (where Gnome herald from). If you’re looking for an album that makes you want to chop down a tree, save a damsel, and fight an ogre, this is the one for you. | | 29 |  | Bruiser Wolf
My Story Got Stories
This album is a masterclass in how to write punchline after punchline. Wolf is a wholly unique artist in that every song is a series of couplets designed to set up and then deliver a hilarious zinger. His flow is closer to that of a stand up comedian than a rapper, and Wolf unfolds a life of sex, drugs, and hustler bar after bar after bar. I have laughed more listening to this album than I have listening to anything else in quite some time. I can promise that you will not hear another hip-hop artist like Bruiser Wolf this year, next year, or any time soon. | | 28 |  | Tigran Hamasyan
The Bird of a Thousand Voices
The Bird of a Thousand Voices is a massive album at just a hair over an hour and a half, densely packed with heavy, rhythmically complex songs (“The Kingdom”, “The Well of Death and Resurrection”) as well as moments of soothing peace (“The Bird of a Thousand Voices”, “Bells of Memory”). Hamasyan’s metal and Armenian folk music influences are on full display here, creating a score that feels as exciting and innovative as it does cohesive. It does a brilliant job of establishing and revisiting themes in a unique way that, without even playing the game, allows the reader to compose an idea of what is supposed to be happening at each level of the game. I guarantee, if you’re a fan of jazz, metal, or video game music, you’re going to find something to enjoy with this album. | | 27 |  | Willi Carlisle
Critterland
Don’t let the seemingly goofy cover fool you. This album is a collection of raw, vulnerable americana/bluegrass/ folk songs about queer identity (“Two-Headed Lamb), addiction (“Higher Lonesome”), and living free (“Critterland”) and a masterclass on storytelling. Carlisle portrays himself as the travelling troubadour, weaving very modern issues into a sound that has been at home in the backwoods of Appalachia for the past three hundred years. In a year where country music saw some of it’s biggest numbers for streaming and engagement, this is the album that captivated and resonated with me long after I’d thought I forgot about it. So if you need a good cry, a good hug, or just want to hear a good story, this one’s for you. | | 26 |  | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
of the Last Human Being
Loosely connected by a story about the last living human being and the public’s fear, scrutiny, destruction, etc. of it, there’s a lot to try to dig into with this project. If you get hung up on how weird it is, you probably won’t like it. Most of you probably won’t like it. But try to focus on one bit and you might just come to an understanding of it. Listen to the wildly intricate compositions that melds influences of folk, prog, metal (“El Evil” is a thrash metal song on violin), and carnival music. Observe the truly astounding vocal harmonies of Nils Frykdahl and Carla Kihlstedt as they serve as the heralds for the coming of the last human (how can it be the last human if people are also observing it? Good question). Appreciate how outlandish and bold some of the song choices are. This truly feels experimental, especially in a day and age where many creators and artists have access and an audience to do whatever the hell they want. This album will unsettle you. | | 25 |  | Elucid
Revelator
Every day citizens are drawn further apart by carefully constructed political and social lines. We are told that the world is black and white. It is or it isn’t. This paranoia is felt in the claustrophobic beats and ELUCID’s aggressive, unrelenting flow, and rich lyricism. It can be felt in the glitchy, electronic break of “SLUM OF A DISREGARD” and the industrial pulsing of “CCTV”. It can be found in the muddy, psychedelic “14.4” and “IN THE SHADOW OF IF”. At times dream, at other moments nightmare, this is an album that demands the listener’s attention and is packed with enough to encourage one to return to it again and again. | | 24 |  | Iron And Wine
Light Verse
Light Verse is a collection of folk songs that encompass the listener in a sense of peace. Accompanied by Samuel Beam’s whimsical, lilting voice, tip-toeing ukelele and guitar lines, and warm production, this is an album for summer days where time doesn’t really matter. Songs dance softly, stretching, smiling, lifting from one pleasant line to another. If you’re in need of something to elevate your mood, this albums going to do it for you. | | 23 |  | Julie Christmas
Ridiculous and Full of Blood
If I had to award a vocalist of the year award to anyone, it would be Christmas. That’s not because her vocals are “good” (read:soaring, beautiful, ethereal) in the way that one sometimes thinks of when it comes to a vocal performance, but because they are phenomenally effective. Christmas is completely unhinged. She shrieks, hisses, and moans over post/ doom metal riffs. Her emotions are torn from her very diaphragm to the point where you have to wonder if delivering this performance actually hurt. But you feel it, and when I’m looking at strong vocal performances that is what I’m looking for. I want to feel Christmas claw her way through the muck and shit of society that represses her voice. | | 22 |  | MGMT
Loss of Life
If many of their previous albums were a celebration of life and living in the moment, experiencing and feeling (especially if those experiences are elevated by substances), then this album is the reflection that comes after. It’s the dissection of the trip. Songs like “People in the Streets” and “Loss of Life” find the band contemplating mortality and one’s place in the world. Even “Bubblegum Dog” (one of my favorite songs this year), which feels more familiar to MGMT’s previous output, is a darker version of anything they’ve created so far, a song about change and growth that portrays maturity as a dog that haunts and lingers with you until you’re ready to make the change. | | 21 |  | Caligula's Horse
Charcoal Grace
But within the darkness is a light. On songs like “The World Breathes with Me” and epic closer “Mute” (one of my favorite tracks from the year) the band implores its listeners to use their voices to speak out against the darkness, to find hope when there is none, and to seek an interconnectivity with other humans in a time that would divide them. This is their most emotional album to date, and one that will stay with the listener long after the final guitar notes echo out from the progressive metal mountaintop they were played from. | | 20 |  | Melted Bodies
The Inevitable Fork LP
What I’m continually drawn to about this band is how wholly original they are. Especially in a world where algorithms lump like sounding acts together to sell a product, Melted Bodies stand out as an act with an unwavering vision. It’s a vile, neon, grotesque, and sometimes unappealing vision, but it’s one that will draw you back in thanks to its smart songwriting, catchy choruses (yes, there are some), and unique flavor. | | 19 |  | Mile Marker Zero
Coming of Age
If their previous album, The Fifth Row, was an exploration of the future and a story about the dangers of AI, government surveillance, and the Singularity, Coming of Age is a look backwards. Using progressive rock as a foundation, the album is about the band’s roots, exploring topics about growing up and leaving your friends and family behind to pursue your dreams. Drawing inspiration from Kansas, Rush, and Yes, the band crafts a smart collection of songs that delve into both the excitement and trepidation that come with having to leave the town you grew up in. It’s an incredibly heartfelt album from a relatively young band that lives one foot in both the past and future. | | 18 |  | Joey Valence and Brae
No Hands
Ok, you’ve seen the album cover. You know everything you need to know about this album. This one is in your face (Eat a booty with a side of fries/ Did a triple backflip, I ain’t even tried“). It’s goofy (“Teachers like thongs, always up in my business”). It’s unapologetically embarrassing (“You a small fry, you look like Toad/ I spit fire, I’m more like Bowser/ I got you scared, don’t piss your trousers”). And… the energy is there. Trading bars about nerd culture (and being “badass”) over a collection of boom bap/ house beats that sound like they belong in the 90’s/ early 00’s, Joey Valence and Brae have crafted an album of front to back bangers that are so infectious, hilarious (yes, they are aware of how ridiculous this album is), and punk that it’s really hard not to love it. | | 17 |  | JPEGMAFIA
I Lay Down My Life For You
It’s taken me a while to come around to JPEGMAFIA. There’s no doubt that he is a talented rapper, but I always felt like the beats he constructed were a little unpolished, a little unfinished. My opinion began to change with last year’s visceral Scaring the Hoes, and my opinion of him has only improved with this year’s release.
I Lay Down My Life For You sees Peggy at his most refined. His signature sample heavy production is still there (and there are some truly wild ones on this album), but the beats feel more articulate, more complete than they have on some of his previous releases. The album is a rapidfire, punk rock affair, with most songs not reaching the three minute mark. Peggy is also at his most volatile, dropping heater after heater with his signature sneer. | | 16 |  | Whores.
War
This album is your neighbor working out in his garage. Next to pints of motor oil and empty PBR cans, he pumps out reps on a shitty bench press, pausing in between sets only to take a draw from his cigarette (yeah, he smokes cigarettes), crush a can of beer against his forehead, and rinse repeat. Yeah, he’s wearing a wife beater. Yeah, the bar touches his chest every time. Yeah, he’s blasting music. Yeah, it’s eight in the morning. He doesn’t give a shit. | | 15 |  | Leprous
Melodies Of Atonement
The result is Leprous’ heaviest album in a hot minute, both lyrically and instrumentally. I came into Leprous at a weird time, jumping on board with their softest, most atmospheric release, 2019’s Pitfalls, and went back to discover some of their older heavier material when they played them all live during the pandemic. All this is to say that I don’t mind and even really enjoy their lighter/ poppier side, and that’s probably also why I really enjoy this most recent album because, even though it is their heaviest album, it is also one of their most accessible ones. | | 14 |  | Night Verses
Every Sound Has a Color...: Part II
If the first part of this album, released last year, was the beginning of a ritual, fast paced, galloping, spiralling in and out of itself, then this year’s release, the second half, is the darker summoning at the end of the mass. There are plenty of intense, faster paced songs (“Plague Dancer” and “Crystal X”), but there’s also an incredible haunting post-metal-esq atmosphere to provide breathing room for the band’s trademark, tightly-woven sound. As I said last year, guitarist Nick Pirro, bassist Reilly Herrera, and drummer Aric Improta continue to prove that they are some of the best metal instrumentalists in the game, writing not only impressive but memorable riffs (“Phoenix V Invocation” is hands down the heaviest song you will hear this year). So light a candle, sit in the darkness, stare into the abyss, and immerse yourself in the second chapter of this behemoth of an album. Just don’t be surprised if you start to levitate. | | 13 |  | Geordie Greep
The New Sound
Driving all of these stories forward is music that can only be described as deranged lounge rock. Latin influence (samba, mambo, tango) infuses each of these soft rock songs with a flair that paints the setting of a shitty jazz lounge from the 70s. Suede and faux leather adorn the furniture as the smell of cheap cologne, whiskey, and cigarettes permeate the walls and air. These elements were used as accents in Black Midi, but Greep leans heavily on them with this project. The arrangements add to the concept, making everything feel cheesy and tacky in a way where you can’t tell if Greep is being sincere or not. If this sounds like an insult, I assure you it’s not, because everything here works. Narratively, musically, tonally, Greep has succeeded in crafting a project that oozes with a deplorability reserved for men stuck in arrested development with mommy issues, sexual impotency, and fragile egos. | | 12 |  | VOLA
Friend of a Phantom
It feels like Vola was really going through something on this one. Songs like “We Will Not Disband”, “I Don’t Know How We Got Here”, and heavy hitter “Hollow Kid” all reverberate with a nostalgia and longing that is only exacerbated by lyrical topics of death, passing time, and memory. That’s not to say that Vola has neglected the grooves and djenty riffs that made them such a growing powerhouse in the prog metal scene (opener “Cannibal” features a killer performance from In Flames’ Anders Friden), but in general there is a sadness throughout the album that leaves the listener with the sensation that some great loss has left its impact on the group. The cherry on top is closer “Tray” which some might say is a downer, but to me is the perfect statement to wrap the album up. Like many of the other songs, it feels like the epilogue of a ghost recounting his life as everything fades to grey. If you’re looking for an album when the world is grey and monochromatic, this is the album for you. | | 11 |  | Toehider
Space Famous
Some might ask “why not just release all the best tracks on one album,” but I think the answer is pretty clear. Regardless of the release, each of these EPs stands on its own, has its own flavor, and to combine them would have inevitably led to a project that was strong in songwriting, but lacking in cohesiveness. So, if you’re feeling goofy, check some of these EPs out. Regardless of which one you choose, you’re in for a wild ride. | | 10 |  | Kendrick Lamar
GNX
It was inevitable that many of Kendrick’s fans were underwhelmed by this album. It wasn’t some epic, multi-layered puzzle for them to dissect like To Pimp A Butterfly or Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. It wasn’t even a chart poacher like Damn. Instead, it was an album to silence those that felt he could only make high concept albums and those that felt he’d abandoned his west coast roots. The whole thing is a love letter to the music he grew up with and the music continuing to be made in that region. “Reincarnated” is a track that sounds like a 2Pac song that reflects on the struggles of black artists before and “heart part. 6” has the g-funk sound that artists like Snoop made famous. So if you don’t get it, that’s ok. It’s not for you, or really me. It’s the album that Kendrick wanted to make, and it’s really freaking good. | | 9 |  | Chat Pile
Cool World
But Chat Pile are back after a two years of touring and growth and they sound… worn. Everything that God’s Country did incredibly well is still there, but the edges are frayed. The riffs are more plodding, sludge-y, doomy. Busch’s vocals are exhausted, blunt, and garbled like a man who’s been punched in the face one too many times. Although the band has stated that this album is an expansion of their sound, focusing on the larger world instead of the issues more central to Oklahoma City where they came from, this album feels more intimate, more personal than the previous one. Songs like “Frownland” and “Masc” explore feelings of voiceless and powerless. The album explores how the world beats people down through violence, be it physical, historical, systemic, and even political. The band almost seems to be saying that, to talk about the issues they did on their previous album is pointless. Information will be skewed. Spirits will be broken. Truth will be buried. | | 8 |  | Yard Act
Where's My Utopia?
It’s hard for me to really pinpoint why I love this album. Is it the funky basslines? Is it the spoken word, highly dry, vocal delivery? Is it the way that the whole album feels in part both heavily sarcastic and bleedingly sincere? Even writing this, I might as well backtrack and say that it’s probably all of the above. What Yard Act have done is construct a slew of cheeky, post-punk songs that sneer at consumerism, pop culture, toxic masculinity, and people who think they’ve got it all figured out. This album is part party (“We Make Hits” and “Dream Job”) and part the ravings of the dude leaning over the bar next to you (“Down by the Stream”, “Fizzy Fish”), drunkenly rambling on about some story from his childhood, referencing people and places like you’re supposed to know them between drags of his cigarette. | | 7 |  | Hippotraktor
Stasis
Alright look, we all know Spotify is the root of all music evil, but every once in a while they provide me with solid data on what my listening habits for the year were and, more importantly, remind me of how much I listened to specific albums. Hippotraktor’s Stasis was an album I sort of slept with. It remained on my year end list from the time of its release in June up until now, happily content to take up space and accompany my drive to work and other weekly activities. It wasn’t braggadocious. It didn’t demand I immediately talk about it with friends, if anything it was fairly unassuming. But here it is, breaching the top ten, to which I’m sure many of you are thinking “how?”... What Hippotraktor have managed to do is construct an album that feels as grand as its album cover suggests. Stasis is an album that is a perfect merger of post metal atmosphere and crushing djenty riffage. | | 6 |  | Meer
Wheels Within Wheels
I can’t stress this enough, whether you’re a prog-head or a casual music listener, you need to be listening to this band (and subsequently, this album). There’s a little something for everyone. Songs like “Chains of Change” and “Behave” might appeal to those of you who love a good radio jam, while the epic, bring the curtain down closer “This is the End”, serves as an artistic statement that throws everything at the canvas and leaves nothing left (for god sakes, they even have lyrical callbacks to their previous album. If that doesn’t give you goosebumps, I don’t know what will). This is a band that has earned the hype and, as I said last time, I literally can’t wait to see what they come up with next. | | 5 |  | Better Lovers
Highly Irresponsible
Unlike some supergroup albums that have mature songwriting but feel more like a shouting match of personalities vying for control of the reins, this album feels like a singular vision. The boys came together out of a mutual respect for each other’s ability to write cataclysmic jams. They’re not ready to let go of their music (and hopefully never will be). And they can put on a decimating live show (seriously, every band member knows how to perform). At only half an hour, there isn’t really much space to breathe on this one. The boys really bottled electricity on this one. Hopefully they’re here to stay. | | 4 |  | The Barbarians of California
And Now I'm Just Gnashing My Teeth
What I respect most about this album is that it takes risks. One might expect a band known for releasing radio friendly alternative music to attempt a project like this and to play it safe, sticking to a sound that’s been tried and true in order to make a cross genre shift that is more inoffensive than it is bad. This album doesn’t feel inauthentic. It doesn’t feel like the band just woke up and thought “hardcore music is easy to make, so let’s do it.” Instead, And Now I’m Just Gnashing My Teeth, feels like a passion project, a true love letter to a genre that the band has wanted to create in and simply hasn’t before. This album doesn’t give a shit if you like it… and that’s precisely why it works. The riffs punch above their weight. The vocals bounce between absurd and manic, adding to the berserk energy that permeates every single song on this project. When I say there are no misses, I mean it. | | 3 |  | Assemble The Chariots
Unyielding Night
What it lacks in story (Aquilegia, the planet of light, is being attacked by the Reavers and they must fight to the death while their great leader escapes to preserve their way of life) it makes up for with fist-pumping riffs, battering drumming, guttural vocals, and smart touches of symphonic scoring. Breaking up the action with minor interludes (which serve to remind the reader of the stakes, the impending darkness, and the plans of the heroes), this album is one headbanger after another, shifting from stomping tracks like “Admorean Monolith”, hyperspeed thrashers like “As Was Seen By Augers,” and power metal-infused epics like “Galactic Order.” | | 2 |  | Frost*
Life in the Wires
Crafting an album that sounds like the lovechild of Genesis, Pink Floyd, and modern progressive rock, Jem Godrey and company have constructed a project that feels as much an homage to the music that saved them (they’re not exactly spring chickens) as it is a message to future generations, a voice in the ancient radio, beckoning teenagers to explore a genre that has historically, and continually been about breaking the mold. | | 1 |  | i Haxa
i Häxa
This is not an album that you’ll want to hear only once. This is one that will linger with you in the darkness long after the truly breathtaking closer “Circle” fades away (seriously, after listening to this whole album all the way through for the first time, I sat in silence, stared at nothing, and wiped away tears). It will summon you back to it, beckoning with darkened fingertips and lidless eyes. It will lift the Veil, and show you the darkness, the beautiful, the haunted, the holy, the Circle. Come. See. Become. Breathe. Destroy. Discard. Renew. Release. | |
WalrusTusk
12.16.25 | Full write-ups on my website so if some of these thoughts seem disjointed or random it's because I pulled them from the middle or reviews.
https://kevinjasica.com/2025/01/17/top-30-albums-of-2024/ | zakalwe
12.17.25 | Ha.
As I was going down the list I wasn’t expecting to see 2 here. Amazing album. | WalrusTusk
12.17.25 | Listening to Life in the Wires is a memory I will always cherish. I was up at a guy's weekend in the mountains and hung over. Everyone else went to play regular golf, but I went to a disc golf course that played through the ruins of a previous year's forest fire. It was an overcast day, I was hungover and recovering with a course beer, and it was the perfect, post-apocolyptic album to get me through the day. |
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