Favorite Albums of 2024

Bon Iver - SABLE, EP - Four well-crafted songs that hearken back a bit to the band's earlier sound. Hopefully there's more like this on the way...

Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere - A great merger of their past styles (death metal + ambient synth), this is an expertly produced and engrossing record, and features some great guest work by Tangerine Dream as well. If you buy one record on vinyl this year...

Father John Misty - Mahashmashana - Like with most of the records here, this one has a lot of interesting things going on musically/sonically, and it sort of seems like a collection of his various past stylistic approaches on prior records. The writing is witty as always.

Floating Points - Cascade - A more back-to-basics electronic record after his more jazzy/ambient collab with the late Pharaoh Sanders a few years back. An impressive production top to bottom, with lots of standout tracks.

Kendrick Lamar - GNX - While I liked Lamar's past record, it did feel like a bit of a comedown from a long run of better albums. This one seems to pick up where DAMN left off and, for my money, features some of his most get-up-and-move cuts in a couple of years.

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven - I honestly thought this record came out last year and made my list then, but it is one of the best sounding heavy/poppy rock albums I've heard in recent years. A lot of the production reminds me of 90s era "rawk" (in a good way). The songwriting and lyricism is clever, confrontational, and snarky in the best ways, as you'd probably guess by the band's name.

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks - Lenderman pulls off the self-flagellation shtick well here across a bunch of folky/punky songs that remind me a bit of early Beck. Catchy tunes about shitty people.

Honorable Mention: High on Fire - Cometh the Storm, The Smashing Pumpkins - Aghori Mhori Mei, Nala Sinephro - Endlessness, Colin Stetson - The Love it took to Leave You, Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us, Thom Yorke - Confidenza Soundtrack