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02.19.25 SPUTNIK ENDGAME: Hawks x Tundra01.13.25 @cylinder atmo drum and bass list lfg
01.09.25 ask me a question01.01.25 End of 2024 well_Datadump
12.27.24 well_2024: YES (FINISHED) 12.26.24 well_2024: NO
12.10.24 2024 BNM: cringe index 11.11.24 Openers to *infinitely repeat*
11.02.24 DIG these DIGS 10.20.24 Top 47 albums of your time
10.19.24 My 41 albums of all time10.08.24 SPUT ROYALE: FINAL
10.05.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 610.02.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 5
09.30.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 409.26.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 3
09.24.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 2 Group B09.21.24 SPUT ROYALE: Round 2 Group A
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well_2024: YES (FINISHED)

It is here! Here are the best 100 ('101') releases of the year that I consumed party on
101Beth Gibbons
Lives Outgrown


#100
Folk

Time for a reckoning on why this perfectly adequate, undeniably proficient gloomy folk record didn't land for me. I'm clearly not alone here: you saw how low this placed on the staff ranking, and even on release it was shrugged off by writer after writer until we were left with the inevitable Hawks proclamation that Beth does, indeed, sound very very sad. Why such reticence to unpack this? I think at the time for me personally it was a mix of competent songwriting and creative arrangements from such a beloved figure coupled with a simple lack of emotional resonance - no one wants to take the air out of that balloon! - but relistening to it now has given me a few more refined observations. Much more than I remembered, this record often feels strained and unnecessarily busy (the back and forth between that bright harpsichord and the ominous backing vox in Floating on a Moment is shapeless to me), the intimacy and power of Beth's natural voice is somewhat undercut by the business of the vocal prod (listen with headphones and pay attention to when she's panned in or out from a separate direction, as on the opener, or drowned out by harmonised overdubs — she's ghostly enough without this effect). Unhelpfully elaborate and a little overorchestrated, then? It's easy to fingerpoint the likes of Rewind or Beyond the Sun for being so crowded, but I think more of the onus here rests on Beth herself. I get very little out of her lyrical style here — she's never been the kind of writer to leave much to subtext, but so many of these tracks try to accent her every nugget of gloom where a Portishead arrangement would have done so well leaving it to stand on its own, stark terms.

The more I think about it, the less issue I have with the songwriting as a whole and the more off-putting I find it to hear Beth put her trust in restless dynamic shifts and busy arrangements rather than trust in the strength of the material to carry itself. Reaching Out is another great example here — this track works so hard to offer a mobile sense of discontent, yet makes such a superficial impact compared to the likes of Lost Changes, Oceans and the overall standout Burden of Life, none of which augment her delivery beyond the bare minimum (and even then, Oceans' string accompaniment still feels extra). Well, there we have it. This album sounds anxious and insecure beyond the obvious — I'm sure there's another timeline where Beth's stripped-down guitar/vox-only version of it was a stunner and a year highlight, but what we're left with has the prevailing impression of a missed opportunity.
100Shinichi Atobe
Discipline


#99
Dub Techno / House

In what's been an overall prolific, albeit stylistically disparate year for him, Shinichi Atobe saw fit to wait until December to drop his biggest offering of the lot, a full-length installment of maybe his bounciest take to date on his dubby/housey shydancefloor goodness. I'm honestly still trying to work out how much I like it, but my gut tells me this is definitely one of his better albums without being quite top-shelf! It *will* make you dance and it *will* make you feel like a recluse (the undercurrent of social anxiety in that third track jfc) — I dig how much OOMPH his kick is now packing and how kinetically those wavy dub pangs are inclined, but these tracks back to back still demand a certain level of either focused listening or immersed grooving that most denizens of this site will likely be reluctant or outright incapable of giving them. Their loss! I was hoping that at this point in the thoughtdump, the extent of my love for this album would have cleared itself up, but I'm none the wiser. Well.
99whyohwhy
Bruises


#98
Dream Pop

I think what happened here was that I saw this record on the frontpage at the start of the year, jammed it purely because the band name annoyed me, realised it was actually pretty solid and then forgot everything about it as the year went on. Well! Listening back now, this folkish take on dream pop isn't exactly a gamechanger for this list, but it is well-crafted and frequently lovely, and deserved a least a little more rotation in the interim months since it dropped. I am fool
98TWICE
Dive


#97
K-J-Pop / R&B

OKAY the Once reaction to this has been deservingly lukewarm [relative to other Twice, which is a high fucking bar], okay it has a conspicuous proportion of filler even by Twice LP standards, yes fine the production is boilerplate R&B with a couple of similarly template sidesteps (thank u new jack swing!), but in such a crazy good year for the group, none of this baggage can get in a solid string of highlights (Peach Soda, Hare Hare, t/t, Echoes of Heart) or an overall enjoyable stab at yet another new look for them (gooey-eyed steamy underwater R&B smoothtimes yes okay fine). Is it a winner? Hmm, modestly so -- but more importantly, it's yet more proof that these 9 girls plus however many producers/songwriters cannot put a foot wrong right now
97TWICE
Strategy


#97
K-Pop / Electropop / Serves Cunt Pop

Though it's certainly got more flair to it than DIVE, Twice's third and final release of the year was admittedly the least to my tastes: willfully garish and very, very bright, it ditches the innocuous bubblegum style of their early, otherwise halfway comparable work entirely and opts for a decidedly adult plunge into all things sensual and superficial (ft. Megan Thee Stallion). Not an ideal brief, but these girls are versatile enough to handle anything — they serve an undeniable amount of fun here, with enough nods, winks and showstoppers (Magical the Christmas bop we were all waiting for!) to hold onto their familiar charm. Tentatively sold. Lfg!

Cannot decide which way round to rank this and Dive, so since this list had a last-minute inclusion that would theoretically bump every album on the NO list down one place (ugh) the two can share a placement and we can squeeze 101 albums into 100 slots hooray
96Shibata Satoko
Your Favorite Things


#96
J-Pop / R&B

This really do be one of those albums that blows all its juice on its opening track, but the payoff is so good I can hardly complain. Rest of this does well to lean as hard as it does into R&B and adds up to a minor highlight in (far as I've kept tabs on it) a pretty quiet year for J-Pop
95Kashiwa Daisuke
Ice


#95
The usual neoclassictronica post-epica rock orchestra big music Kashiwa Daisuke things

Still not sure how to feel about this one - does everything you could expect from a Kashiwa Daisuke album (other than his more manic drill n bass side) but has had limited resonance with me so far. The gigantic centrepiece cut EBV is pretty impressive and justifies a listen by itself, but otherwise this thing only just judges the "by numbers" label.
94Blood Incantation
Absolute Elsewhere


#94
70s-pilfering jank-happy progressive death fast food metal Michael Bay music

How in the fuck a metal album as a) silly and b) generous in its entertainment value managed to be such a centre of discourse this year is beyond me. From a full manifesto of perceived Sputnik anti-hype to the most insistent (and adorable) fanboy treatises on how this thing's many, many inelegant songwriting decisions are actual intentional jank and should be respected as such, I don't think any other thread has made me smile in affectionate despair quite as much.

It's hard to get too attached to either side of the argument though! These guys know how to put on a good show, and if they treat every one of the genres in their arsenal as a means to an end rather than an end in itself (maybe death metal above all), then they flog enough cheap thrills and gawky moments of contrast out of each for it to be a worthwhile gameplan. This cannot and should not be admitted to any serious station within the metal canon, but as someone who cares not at all for this either way, this was still a decent amount of fun
93Snow Strippers
Night Killaz, Vol. 2


#93
big sugar dumb hyper Electropop

The zillion cheap thrills on this thing can be parsed pretty easily between cheap (Back N Forth) and thrilling (So What If I'm A Freak), but there's no denying the lurid good times it offers. I don't think these guys have quite nailed this niche yet, but they're getting damn close and clearly having so much fun that it's hard to get hung up when they fall short. Video Games 2 SOTY, every creative decision this cover makes is the dumbest and best musicing anyone did this year
92Juliana Gattas
Maquillada en la cama


#92
Synthpop

The lady from Miranda dishes out her solo debut with the aid of Chilean Renaissance bopper Alex Anwandter and, uh, the results are safe but solid. Tight production many bops hooray
91Billie Eilish
Hit Me Hard and Soft


#91
Alt-pop, pop-pop, downer-pop, Radiohead-pop

Still not over the novelty of Billie Eilish making her first good album, but we'll take those wins where they come
90Julie
my anti-aircraft friend


#90
Shoegaze / Noise pop

The nuggets of SY/Isn't Anything/Swirlies-esque gritty, greasy slacker energy this packs at its best aren't quite enough to sustain the whole record, but pluck it for highlights and it'll scratch this old, significant itch as well as anything you'll hear this year. Good band, with the potential to emerge as great further down the line (edit: maybe they peaked in their EPs idk lol)
89Machine Girl
MG Ultra


#89
Digital hardcore breakbeat gamershit

Probably an excellent starting point for MG first-timers, but this is far from my first rodeo and this thoroughly buoyant showcase of familiar MG things didn't stick as hard as it might have as such. Can't knock em though, this is as tight a set of grotty yell-along bangers as any they've laid down
88Julian Lage
Speak To Me


#88
Jazz / Progressive Folk

Wholesome guitar wizard lets rip and the results are heartening, if occasionally dry
87Lupe Fiasco
Samurai


#87
Hip Hoop

Lupe Fiasco's zany chillbeats interpretation of Amy Winehouse resurrected as a battle rapper isn't quite good enough to get me deep diving it for lyrical titbits, but it came much closer than I expected! Don't let that conscious middle finger of a concept put you off the deceptively tight pop-rap songwriting at play here
86Regal Lily
Kirin


#86
Pop rock / J-indie

Always felt this band were hit or miss (but mostly middle of the road), but shit damn the highlights on this one are peppy and adorable in all the right ways. Whatever it lacks in end-to-end excellency, it makes up for in its feelgood peaks. Cute album!
85Shellac
To All Trains


#85
Noise rock

RIP itchy scratchy noise king, this last album might not have been your best or most memorable or profound, but it's still a respectable note to go out on: as a final fix of stop/start abrasive goodness and sardonic humour, this dishes out everything you could ask of a Shellac joint
84Kim Gordon
The Collective


#84
Industrial trap artfuck

We stan a old-school noiz queen dropping a no-one-asked banger on our sorry arses. No one has a stable opinion on this album lol, it probably does not need to exist and is a million years away from perfect, but jfc the *impact* it makes takes both those things in its stride. Maybe my favourite double take of the year, this thing dropping was a real moment
83Frail Body
Artificial Bouquet


#83
Skramz

No denying this thing's energy and intensity, but man is it one thing after another past a certain point. Mandatory inclusion for the initial blast, at least
82Jessica Pratt
Here In the Pitch


#82
Folk / Bossa-happy Brill Building nostalgia goggles

For all of three songs, Jessica Pratt lays down a gauntlet of hazy oldworld whimsy and meticuously tight songwriting perfection, and for that alone this thing vaguely warrants its acclaim. If it falls off a cliff after that opening run, so be it - we take those highlights where they come.
81Aaron Parks
Little Big III


#81
Jazz jazz in your chic lounge jazz

This record will lubricate the daylights out of your late afternoon, and you will remember absolutely none of it! Give thanks! Ultraviable chill jam
80Bongripper
Empty


#80
Doom fucking stoner metal

I'll freely admit that this record is so bloody huge that it filtered me a little, but that doesn't make it any less of a badass flex. This is how bigheavyslow is done -- all that remains to suss out is how much mileage is to be had from it
79John Zorn
Her Melodious Lay


#79
Progressive folk / jazz

Now here's the 2024 Julian Lage album you're looking for! John Zorn's two-guitar fingerstyle folktime bonanza is a surprisingly generous listen — these arrangements might be dense, both guitarists might always always always be doing dextrous things, the flow of each composition might be too intricate to keep track of, but it just about sustains itself by knitting out a dizzying pastoral tapestry in realtime. Hooray for intricate melodious goodness — it's too busy the background listen I'd have loved to use it as, but it should hold your attention just fine. Not a sound I've ever looked to Zorn for before, but glad to have it in the arsenal
78Xenia Reaper
Luvaphy


#78
Ambient Dub

Freeze my organs, cast them into dubspace and time how long it takes the wicked little nods to breakbeat on this liminal zinger of a record to chip them into mince, I'm in this for the long haul. Hope and expect this project to release great things in the future
77Coals
Sanatorium


#77
Alt-pop / Dream pop

This was Jesper's great contribution to the sput radar this year, and I am still slowly realising how neatly it bops. Lovely production full of expansive texture, but very little dreamy languor - the tunes here are ultra-focused, perhaps so much that they lack initial impact. One of the most overlooked of the year's pop highlights
76Chat Pile
Cool World


#76
Sludge metal / noise rock

Having gone in *hard* on God's Country, I found myself more or less whelmed by Chat Pile's latest. It doubles down on their core appeal with a handful of tenable but unextraordinary alterations (murkier production, heavier reliance on groove as a primary vehicle for songwriting, more streamlined song structures, fewer off-piste freaks), and, like, good for them? Good for the droves of people who apparently eat this shit up? Outside of a handful of highlights (Shame, Frownland, Masc), this has lost the wow factor me, the moment-to-moment flair that made individual tracks so distinctive, that made me invest so heavily in the band's (no less salient!) policial narratives and breakout ambitions. This is still a solid record by anyone's terms, but I'm several places away from calling it interesting or essential
75Adrianne Lenker
Bright Future


#75
Folk / Americana

...and there was I thinking that Adrianne Lenker saved her consistency for her solo ventures and channelled her most frustrating decisions into Big Thief: the side-A/side-B cutoff on this thing is absurd! Sadness as a Gift through to Free Treasure is a perfect, tender reward for sitting through the sadsack tedium of Real House, and a shrewd compromise between the wispy threads of her usual writing and a little Americana meat (certainly more even in that regard than anything on the last Big Thief). We don't talk about the lurch into insufferable hipster trash on Vampire Empire or the mediocre run of songs that followed -- the love that this album receives as a whole baffles me, but there are plenty of individual reminders of why Lenker remains such a beloved figure in today's folk landscape. Strip this record for parts
74ØKSE
ØKSE


#74
Avant garde jazz hop

This thing's integration of free harmony rabies jazz with hip hop-inspired beats is actually pretty tight, feels like a very earnest engagement with both sides that wears a whole heap of paint stripper over its swagger. Yay. Very imaginative, quite impressive, decently entertaining. Integration of actual rap verses is considerably less even across the album (giving Maassai free rein to own her track = hell, phoning in a Billy Woods verse as a set-up to two minutes of limp skronkwank = hell no), but this thing stands tall in the 2024 curio cabinet regardless
73Oranssi Pazuzu
Muuntautuja


#73
Black metal psych-industrial bad trip

I remember finding these guys' last album to be a hammy flop, but this thing's industrial wallop really did it for me for whatever reason. Their feverish psych-metal MO is still all over it, but I guess I found this one robust or grounded or what have you? I tend to find the likes of Blut Aus Nord and Thantifaxath tiresome when they take their strains of black metal beyond the pale and entirely lose the sense of being a coordinated band with a shared vision along the way, so this thing's tight sync and focused songwriting served it well I guess. Not the most consistent album, but it gets off to a strong start and lands the blows that count. Hilarious how Voitelu can put its piano so stupid high in the mix and still crunch so good. Funny.
72Greyhaven
Stereo Grief


#72
Metalcore

Once in a blue moon, a release like this comes around and reminds me that I don't keep up with core on this site out of pure sadism. These guys take all the most boilerplate core tropes (mathy riffs, dissonant spammage, thick grooves, breakneck changes of pace, big ol' slow-motion-ready clean choruses to anchor the whole package) and lays them out with enough vim and conviction that, for once, I care not one jot for derivation or recycled tedium and can only admire how much of the good sauce they're clearly on top of. Big ol' kudos
71Four Tet
Three


#71
Microhouse / Downtempo

Maybe the ultimate bleep boop and chill Four Tet experience? I can see pretty much anyone being able to get down to this — it's one of his most even tracklists with melodic lacunas aplenty and a deceptively robust set of beats behind it, but it lacks the creative flair and willingness to go all-out on a full banger that made New Energy and even Sixteen Oceans so rewarding. Can't fault its palatability, but this is very much your gormless stoner's ideal of Four Tet and I've found its mileage limited as a result
70Hiatus Kaiyote
Love Heart Cheat Code


#70
Neo-soul funkadelia shag mat carpet drape music

The most opulent band in the universe (citation needed) trim a lot of fat and articulate tbqh a surprising amount without the lysergic depth that made Mood Valiant such a winner back in 2021. This is far from a Serious record, and although there's a fairly modest ceiling on this list for Hiatus Kaiyote goofing around on autopilot (Telescope), in screwball caption mode (Longcat, t/t) and at their noisiest (that closing pair!), I still found it enjoyably haphazard for what it is: a refreshingly lean fix from an act I usually struggle to consume without prescheduled digestive vomit breaks. Good!
69Ann O'aro
BLEU


#69
Folk / Jazz / Maloya

Know any artists from La Réunion? Great, well now you do. Ann O'aro knows better than most how to use simple pianos and droning brass tones to their most ominous effect, and the stunning opening pair here reflects this perfectly. I was ready to fall all the way for this album, but unfortunately the call-and-return mantras that apparently make up one of Maloya (Reunion folk tradition)'s defining traits proved a bit of a barrier for me. Enjoyed getting lost around this album a lot, but it's cemented pretty clearly by now that I'm definitely not its target audience -- still think Ann O'aro at her best is a striking enough artist to claim univeral appeal though. Powerful record, though I've thrown enough spins into it to be a little disappointed not to get deeper into it.
68Nia Archives
Silence is Loud


#68
Liquid Drum and Bass

A little overlong/frontloaded to posit the end-to-end excellence I'm starting to believe she is capable of (this does *not* feel like 36 minutes), but this thing's charms are undeniable. Unfinished Business is one of the year's most enduring bangers, and Crowded Roomz and the t/t aren't that far behind. Appreciate how personal this is, even on cuts that don't land (F.A.M.I.L.Y.) - Nia Archives has a great imprint on her soul/DnB trademark, and I'm hyped to hear her tighten her grip and grow that audience further. This is exactly the kind of record that makes you grateful for a genre revival - that shit ain't all Rym and Tiktok!
67Alva Noto
HYbr:ID III


#67
Ambient / Glitch

the virgin laptop speakers "tim hecker changed my conception of sound design" trawler vs. the chad headphone-swaddled clicky cutty Alva Noto ASMR freak. I am not as deep into this record/the Hybrid series generally as I should be, but phwoar baby this relisten right now says this can change. Should probably be around 40-60 places higher on this list, and I only have myself to blame!
66gyrofield
A Faint Glow of Bravery


#66
Drum and Bass

Neurofunks and neurothumps around, dig how creatively this thing builds its grooves without going full breakbeat firestorm and yet is instantly recognisably drum and bass (case-in-point Harsh Sun). Didn't leave the deepest of impressions on first spin, but coming back to it now I was silly and should have had it on more throughout the year. Solid album
65Underworld
Strawberry Hotel


#65
Progressive house techno electronic rave nostalgia boomer legends

Somewhere inside these too fucking many tens of minutes is a lean, well-oiled late career apex, and all I can say is that the peaks on this thing (Denver Luna, Hilo Sky, Gene Pool) tower so high that it's easy to take a certain amount of flab as it comes. Not quite the year essential it might have been, but easily strong enough to do itself justice -- give me that warm, slowly fading rave glow and lemme put those hands UP
64Jasmine Myra
Rising


#64
Spiritual / chamber jazz

This found itself criminally upstaged within its areas of core appeal by Nala Sinephro, which is understandable given the masterclass she laid down this year, but Jasmine Myra is no slouch! Love the airy rise and fall of these tracks, love the gentle force and optimism of her sax and the chamber undercurrent that supports her. There's little here in the way of star power, but I've found it a very easy record to return to all the same
63Hammok
Look How Long Lasting Everything Is Moving Forward


#63
Post fucking hardcore

Unbelievable how little attention this has had on this of all websites (EDIT 55 ratings = not awful, but); this is all Sputnik's favourite angsty noisy skramzy hard rocking armpit things in one package, and y'know what? It sounds pretty damn fucking good to me. Any risk it runs of mining screamy tantrumcore for more than its worth is offset by the audacity of the left turns it pulls (thank you H.F.D. and your silly busy Fall of Troy riffdweez, thank you SO MUCH Brainrotdesperation (sic) and your plunge into emogaze mope I love you very much). Solid record!!!
62Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
of the Last Human Being


#62
Avant garde theater metal

I enjoy the (from what I've seen, apparently) universal consensus that this record is a) a highly welcome comeback from a precious gang of oddballs, and b) uncontroversially and respectfully their weakest record to date. It's pretty great! Pretty great on exactly the level that you'd want your weakest album to be! What it lacks in the way of conceptual continuity (the ol Man In Glass Cage bit was a loose conceit for me at the start of the album and seems to have been more or less lost by the end) and a relative paucity of both apocalyptic brimstone and emotional catastrophe relative to previous SGM albums, it makes up for with the most delightful left turns. An absolute banger of a This Heat cover? Yes! Carla taking on a new mantle as a high priestess of hushy shushy creep prog? Absolutely! The bridge we never knew we needed between the lighted stage of SGM and that of Coheed and fuckin Cambria's cheese-guitar-epic-prog now with extra ECM on Old Grey Heron? Why not. They are back! I am happy keep rocking
61Nubiyan Twist
Find Your Flame


#61
Jazz / Funk / Soul

Bursting with life and energy and good grooves, if maybe a little short of huge individual moments and highlights (that t/t though) -- this thing is a righteous flood of vibes, but lacks the definition it'd have needed to creep up the list. A shame, because it's easily one of the better feelgood funky YES MOVE BODY albums of the year in most of the respects that count
60Saidan
Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity


#60
Melodic black metal

I feel these guys have lost a certain amount of their edge (the good kind) on this while doubling down on the silliest qualities of their, uh, edge (the other kind) -- this record has plenty of cheese and drama, but not quite as much of the rawness and intensity that made Onryo 2 such a metal standout in 2022. And yet! This is still high-octane cringe-happy (that fucking artwork, those fucking song titles) metal goodtimes! The occasional blistering cuts hit the mark perfectly (that t/t!!) and whatever requirements I had for dumb fun were handily addressed here. We can abide a little falloff, this record is still a kicker
59The Cure
Songs of a Lost World


#59
Alternative rock / Goth rock

Everything that needs to be said about the new Cure has already been said, *but* I will add just that it is very good and occasionally truly great (Alone + the final three!) and certainly the best album they've made since Disintegration! Good stuff. Much like everything else they've made since Disintegration, it's too sappy for its own good at points and also too insistent on a single angle that is already articulated to perfection by its highlights. I don't think it has the depth or versatility as other Cure highlights (Faith, Head on the Door) or that it would stand as a career peak if it weren't entire decades away from the nearest worthy competitor, but I can't get too hung up on this: Robert Smith's voice is glorious, his guitar-motif first, verse-second style of spacious songwriting has aged equally gloriously, and the highlights here are as good as anything he's put his name to. Most overrated-but-ultimately-great album of the year? We'll take it
58Nubya Garcia
ODYSSEY


#58
Spiritual jazz and many other jazzthings

Damn this is aptly named and there is so much to digest here! I got to it way late in the year (although I do NOT regret putting it off long enough to take a few trips round her debut Source, which is similarly excellent and comfortably recommented to the
57Skee Mask
ISS010


#57
Techno / Techno / Techno

Not quite on the same impeccable dub wavelength as last year's ISS009 -- this thing is meatier but lacks the same levels of trademark airiness I love from Skee Mask. Still a great release from him, more than happy to get down to this. Anyone who thought Resort was too vaporous or diffuse, your answer is sitting right here.
56Mount Eerie
Night Palace


#56
Lo-fi / Folk / Indie Rock / Mount Eerie noises / Phil talky / slowly aging nature man music

Is this more than the sum of its many fucking parts, or just a big bag of ponder full of highlights. I... am not entirely sure? And am not sure when I'll have spent the requisite number of hours with it to become sure (jfc the amount of cramming I've already put into this list)? There is absolutely something special here though, it has the same pattern of pockets of brilliance in a sea of zany endearment that I associated with the overrated Glow Pt 2 and the slightly underrated No Flashlight, all three of which occupy a similar plane of quality overall, I think? I haven't kept up with Phil's output over the last decade and a bit beyond the Microphones' latest, so his integration of synth sounds here (is this new?) surprised and impressed me -- Stone Woman Gives Birth to a Child at Night is an absolutely sublime lategame highlight and I'd love to hear more like this from him. Obvious familiar-Phil-things highlights such as I Walk and the Fish song also very appreciated. Idk. Good album, maybe a great album, will finish digesting it + the rest of his catalogue another time
55Xiu Xiu
13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto...


#55
Industrial rock / psychedelia / experimental Xiu Xiu bullshit

I'll fess to being a little perturbed by this album's immediacy and lack of the usual Xiu Xiu-patented jagged edges and headscratching artistic decisions, but if ever the duo were to craft a straightforward user-friendly rock album in 2024, this was the way to go with it. Good to know Jamie Stewart can still handle himself when the smoke clears and his neuroses align for a scope that doesn't involve self-sabotage: he lands the emotional blows that count here, and a handful of classic quotables (I have done almost nothing right / my entire adult life --> GET IN). Fair shit, solid record.
54Ulcerate
Cutting the Throat of God


#54
Disszzzonanto Deathlica Metallium

For all I meme on Sput's interminable death fuck with this act, I was glad to throw this album on again - for what it does, it really is the buisness
53Jessica Ekomane/Laurel Halo
Manifolds/Octavia


#53
Ambient [heaven] / Electroacoustic [jank]

I won't feign interest in the experimental slop served up on Jessica Ekomane's half of this split, but Laurel Halo has been on a supremely based wavelength when it comes to classical-rooted ambient with subtle electroacoustic flourishes, and hearing her coast off over all 20+ minutes of Octavia makes for a l o v e l y companion piece to last year's Atlas! I have not spent nearly enough time listening to her recent output! I think I 3.5'd it as a whole, but my ranking here solely reflects the Laurel Halo side -- listen to it!
52Eddie Marcon
Shinkiro no naka, Anata


#52
Chamber Folk

Sometimes all it takes is one perfect folksong to make a great EP, and that opener is absolutely it. The remaining three tracks do more than exist as pure dead air (pos!) and this thing earns an easy pass as a result. Love what a prolific couple of decades these guys have had.
51Shinichi Atobe
Ongaku 1 / Dub 6(six)


#51
Dub Techno

In a year where he dished out a new LP *and* a new EP, the best of Shinichi Atobe's latest output somehow ended up tucked away on this 2-track one-off. Ongaku 1 is a solid business-as-usual plodder, but it's the spangled stylings of the aptly-named Dub 6(six) that gives this thing its star factor -- this one is an impeccable techno daydream that stands as maybe his best track since From the Heart..! I am happy.

Hooray. Unfortunately, this caps off Atobe's campaign within the triple-appearance artists on this list, with both TWICE and Skee Mask starting and finishing higher than his string of releases, but hats off all the same for a decent showing
50SENTRIES
Snow as a Metaphor for Death


#50
Noise Rock

this album contains most of the noise rocks and you are snorting them right up til those eyes roll back and this is 100% of the reason it's titled snow as a metaphor for death
49Chelsea Wolfe
She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She


#49
Darkwave / post-industrial / trip-hop

I've spent years sighing and hmming at Chelsea Wolfe's latest offerings as kitsch or overbearing, but this is the best stab she's taken in a while at recovering the atmosphere of her earlier material. If it's a little overproduced and features too many cheap tricks involving guitars for my liking (looking at the bookends here), it's still the most inspired direction she's taken her songwriting down in a while. Highlights like Place in the Sun and the Liminal would have been hits on any of her albums, but then you have tracks like Eyes Like Nightshade that feel entirely unique to this palette. Good for her
48Shygirl
Club Shy


#48
DANCE DANCE ELECTRO HOUSE POP

Shygirl dropping straight bangers for an EP is a very welcome development with strong hooks aplenty (Thicc jfc), but I will say that the energy on this thing is so UP UP UP that its concentrated runtime actually works against it — this is about as draining as a pop EP of its length and energy gets! Hold my beer though, the real praise for this one comes later on the list...
47Macaroom
Burning Chrome


#47
Indietronica / J-Pop

Cryptic elfin wonderland pop, oh how we need you! This is a partial return to form after the diffuse highlights-only package I'm finally prepared to admit Inter Ice Age 4 brought us in 2022. It's great to hear Macaroom doubling down with their mercurial take on pop, as on the opening pair, *and* delving deeper into their lullaby-style folk oddities as on Heike, but the second half of this album falls off in both engaging material and its overreliance on pre-released material (something I found much easier to forgive on Inter Ice Age, precisely because it overlooked the tracks that ended up here). Similar to Inter Ice Age, it ends up being scalped for playlist purposes, but I'm much more confident in Macaroom's focus and overall trajectory this time around
46Grace Cummings
Ramona


#46
Country / folk

Hashersongwritingcaughtuptohervoiceyet, well yes kinda -- and if not, this record is easily grandiose enough to bridge the difference. A sleeper!
45Zorza (CAN)
Hyperdream


#45
Trance Trance Trance Zoomer Trance

I'm reluctant to describe this as *the* overstimulated zero attention span sugar rush HA HA OMG event of the year because there's always something else over that rainbow road, but y'know what it doesn't do too badly on that throne! And it certainly doesn't overstay its welcome! Keep your thrills responsible and succinct, kids
44Florian T M Zeisig
Planet Inc


#44
Ambient Dub

Typically for the genre, this album is a blissed combination of squelches, pang-ang-ang-angs and unobtrusive beats that I could get lost in for hours and later consider every second well spent — but! These tracks are far more succinct than their expansive palette suggests, and I've found it more valuable to keep them in my back pocket as transit jams than to treat this album as the full-scale dub odyssey that I'm increasingly sure sits at the top of peak music. Its immersion is a little lacking as such, but I can't deny it's served me well throughout the year. Great bite-size intro to the genre for anyone interested
43Friko
Where We've Been, Where We Go from Here


#43
indie fucking sadsack loud ROCK

Every year needs a rousing set of bangers from men who sing like goats and play their guitars with so much fuzz and squeal that you can't help but feel their pathos, and Friko was 2024's surprise highlight in this field. I can't even keep up the cynicism — they're really good! And I did not return to this nearly as much as I should have done (or at all, until the time of writing)! This style of indie has had a bit of a dry spell ever since Will Toledo drove his car into the ocean and disappeared forever (forever-ever????), but Friko have the earnest sappy sharply-written oomph it takes to, uh, restore moisture to that field. Even if too much of it comes by way of soppy piano ballads, of which there is absolutely one too many. Hmm. Will you be listening? CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL WOO yay.
42Material Girl
Chain User


#42
Post rock / emo

My favourite genre-juggling zoomer-feeding superproducer artist dishes out an extended post-rock cut that subverts a generous handful of genre tropes and sits very nicely alongside the more pensive cuts in his small canon. Hooray!
41The Necks
Bleed


#41
Minimalism

True to the title, this is some of the edgiest and most punishing music the Necks have made to date, and if the greatest casualty of this is half their audience's attention spans through the first half of this thing, then the trio flex plenty enough in unexpected directions later on to win us back. Not the easiest of listens, but there's enough mystery and mercurial changes of tone here to warrant multiple close inspections.
40Rhun (USA-ME)
Conveyance In Death


#40
Black Metal

As someone who increasingly prefers his black metal to come in the form of high-octane barnburners rather than wistful atmo fluff, I am, uh, very impressed at how handily this thing scratches both issues with such crisp production to boot! I did not listen to it nearly enough this year, and neither did most of you from the looks of things!
39Julia Holter
Something in the Room She Moves


#39
Chamber Art ECM Pop Fart Bliss Pop

Lol how in the fuck was I the person to review this? My opinion on it is such a tangle: it's great when it gives us artsy Julia (Sun Girl), it sucks beetlepiss when it gives us artsy Julia (Meyou), it does pretty well when it leans into straightforward chamber pop Julia (t/t), it reminds me of all the worst, most tedious eyerollers on HYIMW-era JUlia when it leans into straightfoward chamber pop Julia (Spinning), it is an inconsistent mess with a bullshit middle third *and yet* it is somehow my second or maybe third favourite thing she's done overall? Its baroque x ECM palette is overall just too welcome? These Morning and Evening Mood as chamber jazz stealth highlights of the year? Talking to the Whisper as all the elaborate headrush of listening to Aviary without any of the deadening investment of actually listening to Aviary? Wow she is artistic I love how she reduces the discourse to infantile nonense great album sold shut up
38ARTMS
Dall


#38
K-Pop

This thing works so well as an airheaded sugar rush that it's almost a shame it pulls a volte face into full artsiness at the very last minute. Almost. Virtual Angel SOTY maybe Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle ugh perfect airy glitter thank you next this is better than any Loona probably don't call me
37Iglooghost
Tidal Memory Exo


#37
Aggressively Coherent Electronic Music

We love a reformed boi! I'd written off Iglooghost as an admittedly talented procurer of discontinuous jank, but he unexpectedly finds his feet here in a surge of frazzled beats and back-and-forth mayhem. The MC input here provides a vital sense of continuity, but *eyeroll* much like the rising tide, there's a clear sense of momentum behind every percussive flurry or production freakout — each track, and beyond that the album in general, has a very clear sense of momentum that Igloopal navigates with aplomb: finally, he has a worthwhile direction to channel his attention-melting pyro shit into! It is exhausting! Vibe it!
36Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Wild God


#36
Gospel life affirmation rock

I can see how sappy gospel rock Cave wouldn't be many people's flavour of choice, but the man is earnest enough here for his sentimentalism to get the better of me. This thing never overstays welcome, knows how and when to pull off a good mid-song twist, and evolved into the religious experience it was so clearly pining to be when I caught it live (a BIG raise on the album material, cushioned by one of the most impeccable setlists I could ask from a return-to-rock Cave looking to justice to the full history of the Bad Seeds). The Bad Seeds are back for the first time since Push the Sky Away, and I was pleasantly surprised to find my faith strong enough to bask in the rapture
35Geordie Greep
The New Sound


#35
Experimental theatre tropicalia toxmasc evisceration rock

I've written more than enough about this one for the staff list, but suffice to say that you'll struggle to find a show of bombast this year that is 1) sillier 2) contains more words, or 3) focuses its energies on more deserving targets with as much satirical venom or disarming humanity. Good riddance Black Midi, Greep is out of the chrysalis! He's having the time of his life romping all over one of this year's most unlikely Statement albums, and I'm still ears
34Nicolas Jaar
Archivos de Radio Piedras


#34
Electroacoustic / Ambient / Soundtrack

Nicolas Jaar's 6.5hr radio play + soundtrack was perhaps the year's great content dump up until Aphex Twin threw his stray b-sides up on streaming earlier this month. For context, I've ignored the play itself (no hablo) and haven't yet heard the more accessible interpretations of the music via the Piedras records — and yet, I can vouch for this being a highly rewarding, if disorienting and bloated, collection that features some of his best work in the style. Cenizas and Pomegranates fans, rejoice! Do not come into this thing expecting bangers (or do! some of these tracks do flex a welcome reggaeton pulse), but anyone with a few spare hours and an adventurous instinct would be well advised to get lost in here — there's a fresh intrigue around every corner
33Kasra
Dream Metal


#33
Drum and bass

Neat series of collabs (some vocal, some production) that take Kasra's template for a lean drum and bass banger and send it up and around in most of the good directions. Cool creative unpacking of his sound + a couple of certified rippers
32Kelly Moran
Moves in the Field


#32
Modern Classical Neoclassical Classical Classical Piano Plink

O lovely waterfall piano twinklefingers, how you soothe my soul
31toe
NOW I SEE THE LIGHT


#31
Math rock / emo / post rock

This somewhat-undervalued successful COMEBACK record is so drippy and whimsical! Past the point that I can securely follow with a "well, so is all Toe!" And yet, for all it lacks against the enigmatic landscape of this storied math/post rock band's cult classic debut or the lounge-ready stylings of their more adjusted follow-up For Long Tomorrow, it somehow makes up with unabashed, forthright nostaglia. The likes of Loneliness Will Shine and Who Knows? are maudlin *and* earnestly great for the same reasons that any emo has song has been maudlin and earnestly great, and somehow I can think no worse of them for it. They are lovely! The musicianship helps here - the drumming is exquisite, yes, the guitarwork wonderfully refined, but overall this strikes me as a very generous, approachable record with its heart so clearly in the right place that the rest doesn't bear overthinking.
30Mach-Hommy
#RichAxxHaitian


#30
Hip Hop

Big thanks to the Staff list pander train for getting me onto it, very glad to have helped it along a few places. Prefer this guy's production to his rapping by a small margin, but this thing is a girthy winner whichever way you face it
29Skee Mask
Resort


#29
Ambient / Techno / Breaks

Mmmbaby this is surely the most refined Skee Mask to date, almost to a fault? It certainly took me a few listens to warm up to, and while I miss the melodic immediacy and beat-happy OOMPH that gave his highlight album Pool such fantastic highlights, I'm more than happy with this as his take on hazy downtime. The charm here lies less in individual track distinctions but how cohesively each cut fuels the reverie of the next -- and that's one big Chillout Achieved for me.
28Priori
This But More


#28
Ambient techno / Dub techno / Downtempo

Maybe a tad more vaporous than my usual ambient/dub/techno go-to, but under that veil of mist this thing covers so many bases with enough consistency *and* obvious highlights that there is quite simply no way not to get to blissed to it! Sits in very direct competition with Resort, and while I enjoy each record more for the contrast of the other (and will always acknowledge the relative sophistication of Resort's production), the relative immediacy of this thing's beats and its more generous melodic side are practically cheat codes when it comes to this boi's frayed nerves! We are eating!
27Tim Reaper and Kloke
In Full Effect


#27
Jungle

Rave bangers that capture the height of the scene's heyday fever and make for killer sitdown listens to anyone whose synapses can fuck their way around breakbeat violence. Perfect production. Easily the best '90s revival album of the year. Yeet it hard.
26Monolake
Studio


#26
Minimal Techno

The standard Monolake experience tends to be unequal parts mmming and hmming at meticulously well-engineered frigid techno and a grab bag of enduring highlights that work mercifully well outside of full album consumption, but I found this to be one of his more accomodating outings as a full end-to-ender! The highlights are very much still there (Thru Stalactites, Prime Lundy mmm), but your average track here is decisively more vibrant than his usual fare and (while hardly my favourite cuts) I appreciated how he varied the tracklist with a little uncharacteristic levity on the likes of Red Alphonso. Anyone looking for your usual simmering-tension techno-for-the-tech-wired fix will leave satisfied, but kudos where it's due for broadening that appeal
25Kazumoto Endo
At the Controls


#25
Harsh noise

For a solid twenty minutes, this was the single most entertaining thing I'd heard all year, and this mischievous noise maestro's bombardment of zhzhangs, blooshes and gzawps was at the very least inventive enough to make the remaining stretch engaging. Love how recurrently this thing chooses abrasion and violence only to derail itself like a repeating punchline. Wonderful playful ear cancer.
24Charles A.D.
West Pontoon Bridge


#24
Outsider House / Ambient

Mmmmyes big props to blutngorevidal for putting this on the menu -- this here wavy house washout has been one of the most soothing electronic wipeouts of the year for me, and I have binged it irresponsibly! I feel like I've spent too much time in the bath, over seperate days, in multiple baths! Bad water bill hours. The song Dreaming Boy Swimming in the Ocean is perfectly named and refers directly to me (and perhaps you too). Speaking critically, this does feel its 68-minute length thanks to a small handful of tracks that flog elementary ideas for more than they're worth (a particular issue in the third quarter), but with winners as buoyant as the title track and as blissed as the aforementioned Dreaming Boy, I shall shut my pig mouth! This has the zany magic getaway touch, we are dozing
23Tempalay
((ika))


#23
PSYCHEDELIC POP FUN ALBUM

The ease and frequency with which this shifts from baseline-good zany psych goofery to the sharpest fucking hookmaking alchemical greatness anyone cooked up this year makes it an absolute nightmare to fit into a ranking, not helped by its gargantuan runtime! So much pop such many ideas, my answer has will still always go the YES your turn now.
22GENDEMA
sassy things


#22
Atmospheric drum and bass

It's not often that an album with the year's best track titles also proves itself to be a genre standout, but around halfway through "it's okay to kill an atheist", a boi can only conclude that he's found his perfect twinkly breakbeating comfort jam. Love how the production here by and large hearkens back to atmo dnb's 90s heyday and avoids plunging into plasticated gamer-brained DAW jank too readily. Plenty of organic charm here
21Wang Yiling
枯萎颂 (Ode to Wither)


#21
Chamber Folk / Art Pop

This record loves its downtime and can be more than a little evasive, but it pulls several bold twists and sets Wang Yiling out as perhaps the year's most promising newcomer songwriting -- she knows how to pare a chamber arrangement down to the bare minimum, when to dial it up, and when to phone in extra guns (the climactic epic 拂晓 (#8) is just wonderful as a moment of release, and probably a top 10 SOTY shoe-in). Beth Gibbons could have taken notes aplenty from this, though its moments of gloom aren't nearly as morbid -- this is the sound of a sharp artist breathing a new life into the form. Watch this page.
20Hoplites
Π​α​ρ​α​μ​α​ι​ν​ο​μ​έ​ν​η


#20
Blackened mathcore

No parse more mighty! Whatever this contorted hyperfocused barnstorming sax-addled headfuck of a record lacks in replay value (let's be real, you're here for the spectacle, not the earworms), it makes up in sheer pyrotechnics. Comfortable metal highlight and -- from what I've heard, anyway -- pretty unrivalled in what it does. Time to get on that Serpent Column in the new year!
19Mari Boine
Alva


#19
Joik / Folktronica

Snagged this from Elynna's always excellent end-of-year feature, and took tbqh much longer than I'd normally channel into a new record from an artist I've never heard before to warm up to it -- at its best (which tends to be at its most pared back and solemn (which is very often)), this just oozes Nordic mystique and moonlit ghost communion: for my money, it finds a foothold here on Olamuttos letne ain (#3) and does great work come back to it time and again (see #5 and #9 especially). The brighter, more traditionally 'epic' material here is less my vibe (Oidnojuvvon (#4) being a significant expectation), but this is a meaty fucking record and there's more than enough to go around from both camps. Now, my new year's resolution for 2025 is to become someone cultured enough to talk about joik with a straight face without immediately having to resist the temptation to resort to Skyrim comparisons
18Loidis
One Day


#18
Dub Techno / Microhouse

Now here's one you simply cannot listen to in a hurry! Sorry, year-end crammers: the sinuous dub grooves you should have spent days on end working under your skin and realigning your nervous system against are right here. I for one have been eating! There's been a ton of minor highlights that have brushed against this sound (ctrl+F "dub"), but nothing has quite as much meat on its bones or as firm a command of the dancefloor as One Day (Monolake is probably the closest contender, but is too frigid to shake it to and not nearly as immersive as this thing). Hit it! Frontrunner for electronic AOTY in a year that's seen plenty of standouts but relatively little I'd throw right to the top of my full list.
17yonige
Empire


#17
J-indie / Pop Rock

This girl group duo of strong-when-they're-strong guitar-pop songwriters have been waiting a while to really pop off with an end-to-end solid album, and for whatever reason splitting from Warner Bros and dropping their first self-released record seems to have given them the push they needed. Ton of enduringly great POWER POP goodness on this, ton of tracks I can recall from memory in the best way, a ton of good moody downtime that works its way deeper and deeper into the album's core appeal and drags you in along with it. Yes. Loved gradually falling for this album -- it hasn't exactly been my sharpest year on the Japan front, but this is a real statement piece that sits very fucking well alongside every other band of its kind I've done my best to push here. Essential gem.
16Seiko Oomori
This is Japanese Girl


#16
J-Pop

Our queen is BACK and DIVORCED and uhh pulling some pretty liberal moves between reaffirming her writing credentials as pop's #1 international finest and plummeting into self-destructive glitter explosions. She's no problem achieving both at the same time before, but this record's opening run in particular drops a couple of her most punishingly bad songs to date and handily capped the amount of playtime I've given this as an end-to-end relative to literally everything else she's done.

HMM! The real album starts with the squeaky cry she gives of OOMORI JINJA [Oomori Shrine] at the end of the otherwise useless track of the same name - such a classic *her* moment, kashikomi kashikomi - but even then it takes its time to dish out top-shelf highlights. This adds up to my second least favourite of her full-lengths and I will not apologise for bitching about it at length despite putting it so high up - - - BUT!

With all that said, when this record finally gets its shit together, it dishes out an unhinged and vomitously girly set of reminders why there's still, somehow no one out there who can rival Seiko for violently bitter earworms exorcising the full baggage of fractious mental health and unfiltered inner monologues. Whatever elements of positivity, contentment and wholehearted cutsiness she repped on past records are largely absent here — this thing wears its kawaii like a katana and goes absolutely ham at its most unhinged: Koishitsu Dystopia (#8)'s polka/bluegrass-infused diatribe at the ins and outs of feeling revolting in one's own skin is perhaps the most disturbingly catchy pop earworm of the year, while she proves she can still dish out the perfect pop rock banger on Daredemo Zetsumetsu Shojo (#11) and goes all-out in one of her most chaotic epics to date on the closer. Whatever her star factor has always been, she's still got it here, enough of it to palm off the bulk of this occasionally superb record's initial sloppiness -- but beyond that, album highlight Samishii Osanpo (#10) is a rare moment that reaches out as her past greats have done, beyond her established appeal and love-or-leave neuotics, and lays down the kind of perfectly constructed unapologetically sentimental pop masterclass any of your favs should be ready to kill for. If this is a playlist-album rather than an album-album, that's enough for me to be satisfied with.
15Arooj Aftab
Night Reign


#15
Chamber jazz / folk / qawwali

The inspirations and cultural background for this one are far more interesting than I can do justice to (or than anything I can gush in their stead), so do hit them up here: https://www.thefader.com/2024/06/06/arooj-aftabs-night-reign-interview

...but if that one click+skim is too much, please take my word that the playful moonlit excursions on this album are blissed and sultry in a way nothing else this year has begun to approach for me. The opener, Saaqi, Raat Ki Rani are all achingly serene, and the boldness with which Arooj Aftab pokes her nose in other directions (the intensity with which Bolo Na broods!!) makes for a dynamic set of tracks. Obvious year essential, love how this illuminates cultural boundaries at the same time as it headily waves them away
14Melt-Banana
3+5


#14
Noise rock

Melt-Banana's long, long, long awaited comeback is, uh a very welcome and increasingly streamlined extra portion of the thrills they tested out on Bambi's Dilemma and turned into their whole brand on Fetch. Fat-free bangers and lean, hooky songwriting is the order of the day, and if it doesn't exactly up deliver on the thrills and spills and rough edges that even Fetch made an effort to preserve in their sound, then the bangers here bang hard enough to survive on their own terms. It went down just fine live (jfc the amount of sweat seeping down from the ceiling) and I'm grateful enough that they can still pack so much energy not to miss the chaos of their '00s heyday too badly. Probably my softest 4 this year, but a 4 all the same
13Rafael Toral
Spectral Evolution


#13
Ambient / Electroacoustic

My first 4 of the year, and I guess my stand-in AOTY (full-length) until #2 dropped! I knew it would never last, but this record didn't do a bad job holding the floor. *This* is how you make a thoughtful ambient reverie with the guitar as your main instrument! Love how organically this thing flows, how naturally the electroacoustic layers melt into its swelling and humming, how continuously it develops without demanding you throw your attention on this or that moment to follow it as a whole, how recurrently those notes fucking b e n d and warble (the cover looks trite at first, but you'll be hearing nothing but birdsong by the time you're out -- Take the Train is a perfect cut to sample for this). Take this as your ambient bread and butter, and you'll be a happy eater
12Shygirl
fabric Presents


#12
House / Garage / Pop / Serves Cunt 2

The Club Shy EP's natural final form! This DJ Mix takes its time to find its feet, but once it gets there it makes for an absolutely irresistible ecstasy rush that will spur your night along to wherever it was always meant to be. The placement of the Club Shy original tracks is impeccable, each benefitting considerably from the focus and space it's afforded here relative to the EP, and the way Shygirl has grown her dancefloor laterally outward from their concentrated *mmmph* translates so naturally. Ignore this site's crowds of shut-ins trying to persuade you that Floating Points or Kelly Lee Owens were the dance events of the year — this is the night you've needed all along.
11State Faults
Children of the Moon


#11
Post hardcore, blockbuster skramz

Oh fuck, here we are: with however many months of hyperbolic faff behind it, the only thing I've become increasingly sure of with this album is that the mounds of acclaim heaped on it have much less to do with Sputnik's fondness for Saetia and Orchid than its more recent, HD fixations on the Circa Survives, Hail the Suns and Rolo Tomassis of the world. Calling this a skramz album - a SKRAMZ TOP 3 OF ALL TIME CLASSIC, if you will - misses the point, steers attention away from its cinematic scope and sweeping cross-genre ambitions, sidesteps the fact that its comfort zone seems to exist within a pretty neat triangle of post-hardcore contortion, post-rock grandeur and alt rock pining (all of which lend themselves very healthily to intensity of those screamed vocals!), and offers it a pass it doesn't deserve for its recurrent willingness to take Anthony Green as the patron saint of emotive cleans. Something something breaking eggs and making omelettes.

So, uh, what's it doing up here huh? Well, now that we've charted the field it sits in a little more accurately, it turns out this band genuinely does have the magic it takes to excel in almost all the many, many suits they turn their hand to here -- and I would never have believed this from how inconsistently they navigated ethereal fluff on Clairvoyant. Slick enough to take that ultrapolished production in its stride, savage enough to bring the thunder where it counts (Divination mmm yes baby, there's the Rolo Tomassi I need), emotionally fucking wired on a level it fwiw can share with peak skramz (Palm Reader and Leviathan oh yes), *maybe* epic enough to warrant all those whiny singalongs (I'll admit that their Anthony Green x The Fray moment on Bodega Head has won me over), and inspired enough at the points that count to deliver a rare sense of rapture (y'all read enough about No Gospel already). I've approached this record wholeheartedly and cynically in turn, stripped it for parts, sniffed cautiously at its sequencing, but at the end of the day it's a damn fine rock album that hits a ton of worthwhile marks and warrants a certain level of suspension of disbelief. Not quite enough to get me singing along to that fuckdamned WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE MOOOO-ON chorus, but this site's hypewaves have done far, far worse and I'm satisfied with the mileage I've had on this
10Various Artists (Ambient)
Virtual Dreams II: Ambient Explorations...


#10
Ambient / Ambient / New Age / Ambient / Techno

Ain't no '90s revival better than fringe cuts excavated from the actual '90s! This is a remarkably well-curated, well-sequenced comp, brought to us by the same team who resurrected Dream Dolphin on the cult classic Heisei no Oto comp and brought us an excellent extended digest of her ambient works last year (sad to see that one of the contributors passed at the end of last year though). These thirteen tracks cast a serene light on the relationship between early Japanese techno and chillout, offering a blissed interpretation of the experience that could hardly be further away from the wired rave sounds Western revivalists tend to prioritise — even the likes of Basic Channel feel hard-shouldered compared to these pensive, largely New Age-adjacent cuts. Simple melodic purity over economical beats (if anything at all) is the order of the day, but each track brings something of its own character, and — probably the mark of a good comp — it's a rewarding record to pick highlights from without feeling like this comes at the expense of its continuity as a whole (the Akio/Okihide, Ambient 7, Missing Project and Drawing Future Life tracks would be my go-tos). Everything about this comp is as fresh and cleansing as it comes, and the Music From Memory team have done great work rescuing it from the dancefloors of the past for our present-day bedrooms and bathrooms. Don't skip on this, I don't trust anyone who doesn't have a comfort-time niche this record can fill
9Uboa
Impossible Light


#9
Death Industrial / Noise / Ambient

A harrowing and inspiring portrait of the terror and frenzied recalcitrant aversion that comes with facing one's own vulnerabilities (or at least that's what I get from the aesthetics); Uboa's treatment of her healing process and gender transition across the record is never less than bracingly raw, but the finale she serves up with Otay:onii puts a positive spin on things and posits maybe *the* most obvious choice for a SOTY pick (hearing it dethrone No Gospel as the year's epic powerhouse highlight was a chief factor in giving it the top 10 nudge over State Faults). This isn't an album I see myself coming back to often -- the journey it takes from the bowels of darkness to a hard-sought flood of light is not the kind of thing one takes lightly. Devastating, deeply precious album.
8Alva Noto
Xerrox Vol. 5


#8
Ambient / Glitch / Drone

Lovely late-year revelation for me - this thing's frigid ambience comes full of twinkly moments of emotional cinema, and it's racked up hours and hours as I've let myself drift off with them. The rest of the Xerrox series has been a pleasure to unpack, and I can now enjoy this one - the final instalment! - all the more for the way it rounds off the remarkable evolution from Xerrox 1 and 2's granular origins. Essential ambient for this year, hats off to Xerroxes Nausicaa and Xenonym in particular for a lovely midway peak
7SUMAC
The Healer


#7
Sludge / post metal / drone / doom / free improv

The effort it took to approach this record with figurative language in the staff blurbs halfway killed me, and at this point I'm just happy that it's loud as all hell and sounds like the earth moving and does fiendishly elaborate things with dynamics that no one on earth including the band themselves could predict as a fine science. There's a space for insightful commentary on this one, but I'm done overthinking it when I can feel those vibrations resonating from the soles of my feet all the way to my balls. Great year for metal, GREAT metal AOTY, go Aaron Turner, hooray for however many people this turns on to Keiji Haino as its godfather waiting in the wings
6Charli XCX
Brat


#6
PC Music Was Worth It All Along I Fucking Guess Pop

This list is already hideously overlong, but even I am not on the level of inhumanity it would take to make you read another fucking cultural thinkpiece on Brat. It's good. It's almost *that* good, it's one of the most focused and convincing statements anyone has made this year, the way it compresses multiple layers of personality into the most superficial fringes of ear candy is a real triumph for everything Charli XCX has spent years honing her claws for, and it's good enough to survive how fucking tired I am of its entire brand and overrepresentation. Will it age well? Fuck knows, but the level of craft it takes to self-fashion this fluently within the pop meta is timeless. The bangers help. Brat.
5Tiny Yawn
Paddle Ship


#5
J-Indie / Math Pop / Midwest Emo

aaaaand whenever you begin to doubt the value of tried and tested guitar verse/chorusing outside of a strictly-pop framework, of wistful midwestern guitar twinkle, of sentimental rock that knows when to kick it and how to get the best out of virtuosity without choking itself, there is always an obscure Japanese indie act just around the corner to restore your faith. Thank God. Long may it continue. Perfect EP, peak comfort music, I can't believe it's not 2013!
4TWICE
With YOU-th


#4
K-Pop / Synthpop / Drum and Bass / 2-step / R&B

Where to start with this one? This perfect lil EP has been the closest thing my year has had to a main character, and not just because it came out back in February and I've skimmed through it every other morning just before my work day kicks off. It kicked off an extensive foray into TWICE's back catalogue that started with a spin round highlight releases like the Feel Special EP and Twicetagram, matured as I realised that my initial, meme-fuelled inspection of their 2021 LP Formula of Love had unknowingly passed its nose over one of the most well-rounded, filler-free pop records of the current decade, wobbled slightly as I finally worked out how to faceparse my way through all nine members and their infinite wardrobe changes, and peaked in two karaoke nights in two different continents that easily stand among the year's most memorable capers thanks to the efforts and contributions to many a good sput peep (s/o Jesper, Phero, Sint and almighty Once-deity ADAM).

3-8 TWICE bangers is now all it takes kick my energy levels to peak -- that shit is more potent than caffeine, and I know all too well which pool I'm drawing from and which releases have the highest yield of winners. It's not exactly a lifestyle, but it's certainly a further level of fandom than I ever thought TWICE would have the depth to sustain for me with music alone (I'm light on the socials, unversed in most of the MVs and choreo, and always one step behind on the gossip and fashion).

Why such traction? Well, hilaribad title aside, With YOU-th is a pretty neat microcosm of TWICE's main appeal for me: it turns the spotlight squarely onto the supportive relationships they have for one another as a group, as a cluster of nine women who have essentially spent the entirety of their adulthood growing into themselves in one another's company. TWICE are famously versatile and made great work of frothier or more tongue-in-cheek subject matter, but the nucleus of positivity at the centre of their group relationships has always rung the truest to me of their various efforts (as per Feel Special), and it maps out gloriously across six of their greatest earworms to date -- it's very rare to find these kinds of positive depictions of female (or tbqh) male friendships in Anglopop, which definitely helps mark this EP's appeal, and the further I've dug into TWICE as a group, the more authenticity I've been able to trace to these tracks' feelgood factor, and the more I've been able to get out of this EP as the year's progressed. Calling it a personal top 5 release of the year feels like a no brainer at this point -- but don't get me wrong, it was lightning from the start! This is some of the sharpest pop you'll hear from anyone this year, from One Spark's impeccable pairing of drum and bass kineticism with heart-in-mouth chorus work to the choice harmonies and note-perfect ratcheting of dance-ready tension across Bloom to the feel-good synthpop of You Get Me and pop SOTY New New. Go into this EP without context and it's a pop year highlight like any other; mine it for context and group associations, and it's a slab of positivity that I could not imagine having lived through this year without.
33776
The Birth and Death of the Universe Through Mount


#3
everything and the whole universe Art Pop

They've done it again. I had no idea this was out until literally last night [now the night before], so my take is more than a little raw, but this is exactly the kind of record you immediately clear a space in your top 5 for. 3776 is a cosmically zany idol projected themed around Mount Fuji that takes the most absurd vocal/loop collages and genre hops to present Fuji-themed concepts as an ongoing timeline with an absurd level of microscopic detail. 2019's Saijiki (easy AOTY for that dismal year) charted every single day of the calendar against a fixed span of seconds and presented the Japanese year as experienced by Fuji itself over 12 head-spinningly imaginative overloads; this time around, the focus has broadened to, uh, the story of the entire universe as framed around the birth of Mount Fuji as its single focal event, with vocalist/idol Chiyono Ide interpreting focal points of astrophysical history as *checks notes* classroom skits.

Highlights include:
-> the "notice me Helium-senpai" narrative underscoring the birth of oxygen
->the triumphant butt rock riffery that erupts as soon as Mount Fuji has grown to its full height
->the hysterically jaunty synthline that breaks through in tandem with Ide's omnipotent persona apologising for the death of all life on earth
->the constant shifting between fore- and back-ground of the incessant counting effect reprised from Saijiki (now counting tens of thousands of years rather than seconds, and subject to many liberal shifts of tempo)
-> that fucking final annoucement (time to find a new universe with a new Mt Fuji!)

Unlike Saijiki, this album's pacing is much less of an impenetrable overload -- it's still dense as all fuck, but we're along for the ride this time, not being buried beneath incomprehensible cultural references, but if it's a breezier use of 72 fucking minutes, it's no less entertaining. Not quite AOTY this time around, but still an essential late-year drop that I had no idea I needed so much. Hysterically engaging record, no idea how it holds up the other side of the language barrier (and there was a *lot* I feel I missed as is), but this is as fun as it gets
2Alora Crucible
Oak Lace Apparition


#2
Neoclassical New Age

I think the world has been ready for Toby Driver to go full New Age for a while -- even as far back as his maudlin of the Well days, he was dishing out spiritual cheese reveries at a far higher hit rate than he was metal, and hearing him stealthily work that arm of his sound into Talk Talk-esque chamber/guitar reveries in (most notably) Dowsing Anemone and Gamma Knife/Hubardo's downtime may well have given many cause to hope for a more substantive follow-up.

Well, uh, get those rocks off: crystal healing TD is here with more substance than I ever dreamed he'd bring to this palette, and he now plays the dulcimer. The dip the first Alora Crucible album (whatever the fuck it was called) took into wavy New Age was shrouded with familiar Driverisms, but throwing himself 100% into minimalist composition, trusting simple ideas to unfold into vast scopes, tinkling the mystical daylights out of that dynamo, and giving Timba Harris' heavenly violin the free rein it needed to elevate the whole package was the order of the day! I love hearing my favourite artists hit familiar heights off the back of entirely fresh inspirations, and this album offers that rare, deeply reassuring sense of being exactly where it needs to be musically/artistically/acclaim-wise in the world. The timeline is correct. The peace is deepening!
1Nala Sinephro
Endlessness


#1
Progressive Electronic / Spiritual Jazz / ECM / Chamber Jazz

Trying to cough up more words for this, but I think I peaked on "finally the perfect reverie you deserve." This really is a gift that keeps on giving, nothing else this year ((apart from maybe TWICE)) has been as enduring or nourishing as this, or as exquisitely presented. One perfect set of textures after another, perfectly paced and never stagnant. It wears the AOTY crown with authority — Alora Crucible had a shot for a time, but didn't have quite the same breadth or versatility as this. No need to overthink it, it's just a beautiful mix of instruments making cleansing noises and stirring peace out of careful dynamic interplay. That is music.
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