| 5.0 classic |
| Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill 4: The Room |
| Alvvays Antisocialites |
| Alvvays Blue Rev |
| Artificial Brain Artificial Brain |
| At the Drive-In Relationship of Command |
| Bello and Shem Strawberry |
| YOU REALLY are not fast food. 25minutes waiting in a snack wrap and I had to ask them for it in the end. Pathetic service, pathetic food and pathetic business. Soggy, Disgusting brown lettuce!!!!!! Couldnt put a piece of cheese on even slightly straight. Chips were cold. I want a refund you want my location details. NO( WAY! You can ram that up your coit. I want my caah back as is the law. You don't make the rules or good food. |
| Bello and Shem Original Flavour |
| Bello and Shem Proper Mint |
| Ben Howard I Forget Where We Were |
| The musicianship is phenomenal, the songwriting is spectacular, and I find something new on every single listen. This might just be the most complete album I've heard this year, and it's getting closer to a 5 with every listen. |
| blink-182 Blink-182 |
| Bomb the Music Industry! Vacation |
| Brave Bird Maybe You, No One Else Worth It |
| Burden of Life The Makeshift Conqueror |
| Casey Love Is Not Enough |
| Casualties of Cool Casualties of Cool |
| Charles Mingus The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady |
| Charles Mingus Let My Children Hear Music |
| Charli XCX Brat |
| Circle Takes the Square As the Roots Undo |
| Counterparts The Difference Between Hell and Home |
| Counterparts A Eulogy for Those Still Here |
| Deafheaven Sunbather |
| Default Genders main pop girl 2019 |
| Domestic Terminal Sanctuary |
| Earthy, resplendent and achingly grubbily human, Sanctuary is simultaneously the band's most humble and most confident and complete album yet. Pristine and homespun production lends a same-room warmth and the instrumentation is refreshingly acoustic, defying modern emo theatrics for songs guided by impulses more intuitive and expressive. Above all, a knockout beautiful collection of songs and the album to beat for 2024 |
| Ethel Cain Preacher's Daughter |
| Fear Not Ourselves Alone DEAD DOG PARADISE (OR LIFE LIKE PARASITES?) |
This is such a huge, gorgeous, weird, unpredictable, joyous, and devastating mess of an
album. The best punk album I've heard in years and my AOTY. FFO TWIABP, Home Is Where,
Dismemberment Plan |
| For Those I Love For Those I Love |
| Frail Body A Brief Memoriam |
| Funeral Diner The Underdark |
| Glass Beach The First Glass Beach Album |
| Glassjaw Worship and Tribute |
| Glassjaw Coloring Book |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada |
| Gorguts The Erosion of Sanity |
| Gorguts Colored Sands |
| Haley Heynderickx I Need to Start a Garden |
| Hop Along Get Disowned |
| Jeff Rosenstock WORRY. |
| Jeff Rosenstock NO DREAM |
| Julien Baker Sprained Ankle |
| Might be cuz I'm listening to Cocksure a lot currently, but this sounds a LOT like Sit Resist era Laura rStevenson, which is a fantastic thing. This is beautiful. |
| La Dispute Here, Hear. III |
| Laura Stevenson Sit Resist |
| Life demo two |
| Mabe Fratti Sentir que no sabes |
| Mastodon Crack The Skye |
| mewithoutYou Brother, Sister |
| mewithoutYou [Untitled] |
| Emotionally ugly and thematically heavy, Untitled is startlingly confrontational, even in its softer moments. A grand Statement Album featuring Weiss' most dynamic and emotive performance yet, this is mwY operating at the peak of their powers and then some. |
| Midwife (USA) Like Author, Like Daughter |
| Night Verses From the Gallery of Sleep |
| Oathbreaker Rheia |
| Palm Reader Sleepless |
| This completely shattered my expectations. This is the most well-crafted, air-tight album in any genre of rock released this year. By building on an already strong foundation, and focusing on and perfecting flow and atmosphere, Sleepless proves that by giving the little things their due, bigger CAN be better. I count this as metalcore's Vheissu moment: an already accomplished band leveling up to a higher understanding and evolution of their genre of choice. |
| Panopticon The Rime of Memory |
| Pianos Become the Teeth The Lack Long After |
| Pianos Become the Teeth Keep You |
| First pre-release 5 I've ever given but my faith in this band is unwavering and TLLA is one of the most emotional, pivotal musical experiences of my life. Hiding and Repine are both phenomenal and this has been my most anticipated release of 2014 since December. |
| pizzamachine HELLISH DEVICES |
| Proper. The Great American Novel |
| PUP Morbid Stuff |
| Without a single doubt in my mind the best pop-punk album I've ever heard, this is a glorious avalanche of pummeling riffs and unwavering passion that frequently turns to moments of genuinely unexpected beauty. Whether it's the Bohemian Rhapsody-esque Scorpion Hill, the straightforward thrills of shredfest Free At Last, or the honestly unbelievable City which I dare not spoil here, Morbid Stuff is a special, shocking achievement. |
| Radiohead In Rainbows |
| Seiko Oomori Kintsugi |
| Spanish Love Songs Schmaltz |
| State Faults Children of the Moon |
| Straylight Run Straylight Run |
| Stuck Out Here Until We're Each Someone Else |
| Sudan Archives Natural Brown Prom Queen |
| Alternately probing, euphoric, defiant, lush, abstract; all of the temperamental virtuosity sticks because it's rooted in complex and relatable themes that keep the listener invested in something more than the whiplash musical twists and turns. This sounds groundbreaking yet achingly human, like an R&B Age of Adz. AOTY easily |
| Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz |
| Sunny Day Real Estate How It Feels To Be Something On |
| The Armed Only Love |
| The Armed Ultrapop |
| Willing to bet the pitiable amount of money I have in this world that this is going to be looked back on as a landmark album in all spheres of heavy music |
| The Avalanches We Will Always Love You |
| The Hotelier Home, Like NoPlace Is There |
| The Mars Volta Frances the Mute |
| The Receiving End of Sirens Between the Heart and the Synapse |
| The Receiving End of Sirens The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi |
| The Weakerthans Left and Leaving |
| The World Is a Beautiful Place... Harmlessness |
| The Wrens The Meadowlands |
| There Will Be Fireworks The Dark, Dark Bright |
| There Will Be Fireworks Summer Moon |
| Thursday War All the Time |
| Thursday No Devolucion |
| Touche Amore Is Survived By |
| The pacing of this album is just absolutely perfect. |
| Trophy Scars Never Born, Never Dead |
| Trophy Scars Holy Vacants |
| Wow. Just wow. A truly special album that continuously doles out jaw-dropping moments. This is one for the ages. |
| Trophy Scars Astral Pariah |
| Astral Pariah finds Trophy Scars at their most ferociously focused and dementedly dense, delivering a fleeting and audacious distillation of everything the band have worked towards in their storied career. Where Holy Vacants was a diffuse blockbuster of epic proportions, here, the band has burrowed inward and found a nasty and unblinking center that is more meticulous and uncompromising than usual. Something wicked this way comes, indeed. |
| Wasted Space Anyway, Anyway, Anyway |
| Wicca Phase Springs Eternal Suffer On |
| WRVTH No Rising Sun |
| Yeule Glitch Princess |
| Deeply bruised and sinister pop album, this is a 5 star alarm instant classic, rearranges the board, all of that, AOTY [2] |
| 4.5 superb |
| +44 When Your Heart Stops Beating |
| Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties In Lieu of Flowers |
| Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill 3 |
| Alkaline Trio Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs |
| Ariana Grande Eternal Sunshine |
| Backxwash I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES |
| Beach House 7 |
| Big|Brave nature morte |
| blink-182 Take Off Your Pants And Jacket |
| Bloom Dream It Didn't Have To Be This Way |
| Brutus (BE) Nest |
| Carly Rae Jepsen The Loneliest Time |
| City of Caterpillar City of Caterpillar |
| City of Caterpillar Mystic Sisters |
| CMAT If My Wife New I'd Be Dead |
| Conjurer Pathos |
| Counterparts Nothing Left to Love |
| Cursive The Ugly Organ |
| Danny Brown Quaranta |
| Deafheaven Black Brick |
| Deafheaven From the Kettle Onto the Coil |
| Drug Church Prude |
| Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia |
| Envy The Fallen Crimson |
| Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux |
| FKA Twigs LP1 |
| Need to give this a couple more listens before I can rate it, I think. I was pretty underwhelmed the first time I heard it, and liked it significantly more after that initial listen. I haven't picked it back up in about a week, but the melodies have been haunting me non-stop for the last couple days. Regardless, there is no denying FKA Twigs is one of the most interesting and promising of this whole 'skeletal r&b soul' whatever movement. |
| FKA Twigs Magdalene |
| Fleshwater We're Not Here To Be Loved |
| Fontaines D.C. A Hero's Death |
| Frail Body Artificial Bouquet |
| Fucked Up One Day |
| All killer no filler bitches fiddyfiddyfiddyfiddyfiddy |
| Gatsby's American Dream Gatsby's American Dream |
| Gezan with Million Wish Collective Anochi |
| Gorguts Obscura |
| He Is Legend Endless Hallway |
| Holy Fawn Dimensional Bleed |
| Home Is Where The Whaler |
| Honey Harper Honey Harper and the Infinite Sky |
| Hop Along Painted Shut |
| Interpersonal The Long Bright Dark |
| James Blake James Blake |
| JID The Forever Story |
| Job For A Cowboy Moon Healer |
| Julie my anti-aircraft friend |
| Kali Masi Laughs |
| Take the best parts of early to mid 00's post-hardcore and mix it with the best (arguably only) good parts of early to mid 10's emo/pop-punk and yr close to what's on display here. There's dancy esoteric phxc, there's shimmeringly expansive Hotelier-esque emo, there's an audacious 'fuck you' straight-ahead punk rager as a closer; Kali Masi keep you on your toes in the best way. |
| Kero Kero Bonito Time 'n' Place |
| La Dispute Wildlife |
| Laster Andermans Mijne |
| Laura Stevenson Wheel |
| Laura Stevenson The Big Freeze |
| Little Simz No Thank You |
| Low Things We Lost in the Fire |
| Low Hey What |
| Lupe Fiasco DROGAS Wave |
| Mac Miller NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert |
| Magdalena Bay Mercurial World |
| How in the actual fuck is this a debut?? Some of the absolute best musicianship I've ever heard on a pop album |
| MJ Lenderman Boat Songs |
| Moss Icon Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly |
| Mt. Oriander Then the Lightness Leaves and I Become Heavy Again |
| Nionde Plågan Transformation |
| Nuvolascura As We Suffer From Memory and Imagination |
| The amount of cohesion and purpose within such a short and chaotic package is honestly tremendous; this is a serious standout within the recent resurgence of screamo. |
| Off Minor The Heat Death of the Universe |
| Orville Peck Bronco |
| Palette Knife New Game+ |
| Persefone Metanoia |
| Portraits Of Past Cypress Dust Witch |
| Prince Daddy and The Hyena Prince Daddy And The Hyena |
| Rachika Nayar Heaven Come Crashing |
| Rebecca Black SALVATION |
| Refused The Shape Of Punk To Come |
| Saves the Day Stay What You Are |
| Saya Gray 19 Masters |
| Shannen Moser The Sun Still Seems to Move |
| Sigur Ros ( ) |
| Sincere Engineer Cheap Grills |
| SKECH185 He Left Nothing for the Swim Back |
| State Faults Resonate/Desperate |
| State Faults Clairvoyant |
| A ritual of blood and fire, Clairvoyant truly feels like a torturous journey through some kind of afterlife. Denser, grander, angrier, more ambitious and more beautiful than anything the band have done before, State Faults has returned stronger than ever. |
| Sunrise Patriot Motion Black Fellflower Stream |
| terraplana Natural |
| Best album of the year so far, more people need to listen to this immediately |
| The Cure Songs of a Lost World |
| The Used The Used |
| Tierra Whack Whack World |
| Tiny Moving Parts Celebrate |
| Tiny Yawn Paddle Ship |
| Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit |
| Tomberlin i don’t know who needs to hear this... |
| Torres Sprinter |
| Tyler, the Creator Chromakopia |
| Ulcerate Stare Into Death and Be Still |
| Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us |
| Waxahatchee Tigers Blood |
| Wednesday Mowing The Leaves Instead Of Piling 'Em Up |
| Wednesday Rat Saw God |
| This band has become something truly so special and singular, like a gnarled Elseworld version of Big Thief drunk on Drive-by Truckers and amphetamines |
| Wiegedood There's Always Blood at the End of the Road |
| Willi Carlisle Critterland |
| Yellow Eyes Rare Field Ceiling |
| Yeule softscars |
| 4.0 excellent |
| 156/Silence Irrational Pull |
| Adele 21 |
| Adrianne Lenker Bright Future |
| Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill 2 |
| Alex G We're All Going to the World's Fair (OMPS) |
| Alex G God Save The Animals |
| Alora Crucible Oak Lace Apparition |
| Alvvays Alvvays |
| Anthony Green Boom. Done. |
| Ashley McBryde Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville |
| Backxwash God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of I |
| Ben Quad Ephemera |
| Beth Gibbons Lives Outgrown |
| Birds in Row Gris Klein |
| Black Sheep Wall Songs for the Enamel Queen |
| blink-182 Enema Of The State |
| blink-182 Neighborhoods |
| Blood Incantation Absolute Elsewhere |
| Brutus (BE) Unison Life |
| Cassandra Jenkins An Overview on Phenomenal Nature |
| Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess |
| Charles A.D. Cyclone foraging |
| Chat Pile Cool World |
| Chelsea Wolfe She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She |
| Cindy Lee What's Tonight to Eternity |
| Deafheaven New Bermuda |
| Dispirited Spirits The Redshift Blues |
| Drab Majesty Modern Mirror |
| Dreamwell In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You |
| Ekko Astral pink balloons |
| Empty Country Empty Country II |
| fauxdeep Then You’ll Go Home |
| This is a fucking awesome and savvy release, embellishing walls of sound with distinct riffs, melodies and dynamics. Sputnik artists are going crazy this year, this needs more attention. 4.3/5 |
| Finch Say Hello to Sunshine |
| Fireworks Higher Lonely Power |
| FKA Twigs EP2 |
| FKA Twigs Caprisongs |
| Fontaines D.C. Skinty Fia |
| Fontaines D.C. Romance |
| Foxing Foxing |
| Glassing From the Other Side of the Mirror |
| Glassjaw Our Color Green (The Singles) |
| Gorguts Considered Dead |
| Great Grandpa Four of Arrows |
| Beautiful, wonderfully varied, and catchy as all get out with the substance and songwriting chops to back it up-a total winner, this one. |
| Havukruunu Tavastland |
| Heavenly Blue We Have The Answer |
| Honey Harper Starmaker |
| Hop Along Bark Your Head Off, Dog |
| Ill Considered Liminal Space |
| Imperial Triumphant Goldstar |
| Infant Island Obsidian Wreath |
| Injury Reserve By The Time I Get To Phoenix |
| Jockey Bleak and Colorful |
| Johnny Foreigner The Sky and Sea were Part of Me (or I was Part of |
| Insanely based that we get 2 Los Campesinos albums in one year, I thought the other one was better tho |
| KEN mode Null |
| La Dispute Rooms of the House |
| La Dispute Panorama |
| Lady Gaga Mayhem |
| Life In Vacuum Lost |
| Lorna Shore Pain Remains |
| Los Campesinos! All Hell |
| Midwife (USA) Luminol |
| Where the drone on Forever could feel flat and dejected (by design, made amidst the grief over a close friend), this release finds Midwife taking what was so special about Like Author, Like Daughter and building upon what worked in Forever to deliver a flat out stunning AOTY contender. These songs have such stark and simple skeletons but there is so much life and texture and detail in the margins. A deeply stirring masterpiece from a singular and evolving artist. |
| Miles Davis Sketches of Spain |
| Misthyrming Með hamri |
| MJ Lenderman Manning Fireworks |
| Nala Sinephro Endlessness |
| Narrow Head Moments of Clarity |
| New Buffalo The Last Beautiful Day |
| No Devotion No Oblivion |
| nouns While of Unsound Mind |
| Origami Angel Gami Gang |
| Parannoul After the Magic |
| Proper. Part-Timer |
| Really From Really From |
| These low ratings are insane, this is an intriguing new sound for the entire genre of emo done stunningly well |
| Respire Hiraeth |
| Saba Few Good Things |
| Sampha LAHAI |
| Saya Gray Saya |
| Shame (UK) Drunk Tank Pink |
| Shannen Moser I'll Sing |
| Ingenuity trumps innovation on a collection of songs endlessly charming and deeply felt. Beautiful stuff. |
| Sierra Ferrell Trail of Flowers |
| Sign Language (USA-OH) Madison and Floral |
| Smidley Here Comes The Devil |
| Somewhere South of Here Leave Me for the Crows |
| Sorry Anywhere But Here |
| Sprints Letter to Self |
| Static Dress Rouge Carpet Disaster |
| Sufjan Stevens Javelin |
| Svalbard The Weight of the Mask |
| Tenue Arcos, bóvedas, pórticos |
| The Afghan Whigs How Do You Burn? |
| The slightly ineffective red herring opener aside, How Do You Burn? is a dense, textured and dynamic experience that also finds the Whigs writing the biggest hooks of their career. There's a little bit of everything here: the dusky and dramatic cinematics of the best Twilight Singers material, noisy and meticulous semi-ballads like those found on Dulli's latest solo outing, and a surprising amount of straightforwardly beautiful 90's alternative country/rock (A Line of Shots in particular sounds like a lost Counting Crows hit filtered through the distinctly confrontational Dulli's musical language). This is an exciting and unexpected melting pot of influences and songwriting styles that holds together as a (perhaps too) slick, catchy and enigmatic album of intricate and versatile rock and roll music. |
| The Beths Expert in a Dying Field |
| The Callous Daoboys Celebrity Therapist |
| The Church Seance |
| The Holy Ghost Tabernacle Choir Slow Murder |
| The Smith Street Band Life After Football |
| The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site |
| This is Lorelei Box For Buddy, Box For Star |
| Tierra Whack World Wide Whack |
| Tiny Moving Parts Pleasant Living |
| think this will probably grow on me. Van Beers is fucking phenomenal, too. |
| Torres Torres |
| Touche Amore ...To the Beat of a Dead Horse |
| Touche Amore Stage Four |
| Valleyheart Heal My Head |
| Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City |
| Villain of the War Oxen |
| Wednesday Twin Plagues |
| Yellow Eyes Master’s Murmur |
