24 fowl albums from 2024
Mid year tbh. Albums are ones I wanted to talk about and are ordered how I liked them but this doesn't mean this is my top 24 albums of the year you accusatory chuds. Hope you all had a happy holidays xoxo |
| 24 |  | Chalk
Conditions II
EPoty - Noise Rock / Post-Hardcore / Electronic
Ravey and ragey and tense af, a lil histrionic and edgy but that's always been a + for me |
| 23 |  | Camila Cabello
C,XOXO (Magic City Edition)
Hyperpop / Charli Copy
I imagine this is what Brat sounds like to people who dislike it. Despite being an unmitigated disaster throughout, there are a few disparate bangers stuck between the trendchasing, soulless swill of songs like "I Luv It." Nab "Pretty When I Cry" and "Godspeed" for your playlists and avoid everything else like the plague |
| 22 |  | Kendrick Lamar
GNX
West Coast Hip Hop
I don't like GNX. I think the beats are dry and lifeless, but I could get past that for Kendrick, but unfortunately Kendrick is weaker than the beats. Besides the ridiculous drawl he's adopted and layered over every single verse here, his ego has ballooned to Ye-like proportions. I don't know how anyone listened to "Reincarnated" and hears anything other than a man careening towards a public breakdown. Between his preaching and bragging, I simply don't see the Kendrick of old in the Kendrick of now. He's bitter and thin skinned and egotistical and when the music is mid as fuck I simply stop caring. Let's stop telling rappers they're Jesus, it makes them lose their minds |
| 21 |  | Kaytranada
Timeless
House / Electronic
This album was not, in fact, timeless. Good enough and a really pleasant listen through in full however |
| 20 |  | Mach-Hommy
#RichAxxHaitian
Hip Hop
Ugh I wish I liked this more, I just struggle to listen to this in full. Too many moments drag and I want more bangers and less lolly-gagging. Pray For Haiti is much better imo |
| 19 |  | Ulcerate
Cutting the Throat of God
Death Metal
Technically stunning death metal that is simply too drab for consistent listening. Sorry fellas, if I wanna be a misanthrope I'm bumping early career Ulcerate still |
| 18 |  | GENDEMA
sassy things
Jungle
Besides having the best song titles of the year, this album is a riotous time for the minor criminal zoomer. Gonna change the channel of my neighbor's flatscreen with my flipper zero to this brb |
| 17 |  | Joey Valence and Brae
No Hands
Hip Hop
Sugar IV release kicks my ass just right |
| 16 |  | SENTRIES
Snow as a Metaphor for Death
Noise Rock
This fell off for me a lot, some of the silly lyrics stick out at cringe moments and there is simply too much reverb, but I'm still looking forward to what they'll release next |
| 15 |  | ScHoolboy Q
Blue Lips
Hip Hop
What a production masterclass! Just too long dammit, still a huge improvement over CrasH Talk |
| 14 |  | Hoplites
Παραμαινομένη
Black Metal
Dork metal sometimes gets it right |
| 13 |  | Chat Pile
Cool World
Noise Rock
Going through the motions/settling in as a band = good but not great sophomore album. There are some real highs here, don't get me wrong, but it simply can't match the lunacy of God's Country |
| 12 |  | Handsome Gentlemen
By Handsome Gentlemen
Hip Hop
Hip hop is in a strange state. Outside Kendrick/Drake, most of hip hop has been in a creative rut since the late 2010s. Hell, even Kendrick/Drake plays on previous feud tropes; even if entertaining, none of the music produced was novel. In fact, the only novel hip hop album I heard this year was By Handsome Gentlemen. Between the drunken beats and the sardonic vocals, Handsome Gentlemen recall cLOUDDEAD with a touch of Madlib in the beatmaking. It bangs, but in a kicking rocks while stumbling home wasted kind of way |
| 11 |  | Thou
Umbilical
Sludge Metal
Thou's most straightforward release yet is a riotous time, this thing is packed front to back with bangers |
| 10 |  | Crippling Alcoholism
With Love From a Padded Room
Noise Rock
Lascivious as fuck, this album makes me feel 1000x more bad to the bone. Perhaps it runs a lil overlong, but when every song is a winner I can't complain that much |
| 9 |  | Underworld
Strawberry Hotel
Techno
Gimmie the old guy dance music (not Monolake)! STRAWWWWWWBERRY JAM GIRLSS |
| 8 |  | Uboa
Impossible Light
Industrial / Noise
A harrowing listen that I might never return to but will stick with me forever. Violent and terrifying and evocative |
| 7 |  | Skee Mask
Resort
Techno
There's something intangible about Skee Mask's music which dominates Resort especially. Maybe his ambient moments are simply more effervescent than other producers, that there's more life in the swell of Hedwig Transformation Group than any swell I've ever heard before. I know its not true, but if I'm just high enough I get this album unlike anything else. I just wish I could replicate that feeling sober... |
| 6 |  | Pyrrhon
Exhaust
Death Metal
Death metal extraordinaires release least extraordinary death metal yet; still fucks! |
| 5 |  | Charles A.D.
West Pontoon Bridge
Outsider House
Album sounds like the shade of green on the album cover. Moody and swampy, oh boy!
Still pretty new to this but hype rating it in the top 5 for integrity |
| 4 |  | SUMAC
The Healer
Post-Metal
A Sisyphean album: a boulder to be pushed up a hill and loved for its own sake. I love the journey The Healer takes me on, I love how crushing and imposing it remains every time I return to this, and I love that bass tone. |
| 3 |  | Iglooghost
Tidal Memory Exo
Techno / Deconstructed Club
The only 2024 release I own physically (so far), the amount of texture Iglooghost layers into his beats is frankly obscene. It took me some time to parse everything going on in the music, but each listen makes me love this a little more. The attention to detail is second to none |
| 2 |  | Nala Sinephro
Endlessness
Jazz / Ambient
Placing an aesthetically perfect album one spot below Brat is exactly the litmus test you need for whether my taste is for you. If I were a real music fan this would be my aoty, but alas |
| 1 |  | Charli XCX
Brat
Pop
Brat already feels like the swansong to a bygone era, but I think attributing this to the brief moment after it released ignores the cultural melancholy I at least felt before it dropped. While nothing on it was really that original, it streamlined 2010s hyperpop and club music into a cohesive unit of songs I could easily play over and over, but this was never really the appeal of it. The appeal was the fantasy that the party was still going. So, really, Brat summer was always a lie, an illusion to hide a quickly worsening world behind catchy songs with quippy slogans. AND GODDAMN DID I NEED IT. I never bought into Kamala = Brat or let Charli's cringe undermine how much I loved this thing, because its exact appeal to me was always that it was a cultural touchstone for the last days of fucking around before finding out. This year we were all brat, and, as Tucker Carlson said, "Daddy's home, and he's here to give you a spanking." Good luck in 2025 y'all |
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