Top fifteen records of 2024: Listening notes
Rather than shoehorn genre labels into sentences, this year's schtick is that the list will instead include "listening notes," akin to wine tasting notes - a few words summarizing what one can expect to hear if checking out one of these records. And this year I'm also forcing myself to include one, and only one, song to check out with each entry.
Before
we begin, as always: a few records of note from 2023 that I didn't
mention in my 2023 list because of lack of my listening to them in 2023.
Adjy - June Songs, Volume I
Buffalo Nichols - The Fatalist
Danny Brown - Quaranta
Grace Potter - Mother Road
KNOWER - KNOWER FOREVER
On
to 2024, then. Now, this year was an embarrassment of riches for my
musical tastes. I don't know if I'm just better at hunting down metal
that I like, or it was a uniquely good year, but when I already had
fifteen hopefuls for my list by June, I knew it'd be a special twelve
months. I didn't even get to do as much genre hopping as I usually try
to do, as I just didn't have time to dabble much in mainstream
pop, hip-hop, country, etc. There was so much rock and metal that was
so good, and I could barely keep up.
I have
this precedent that fifteen, and only fifteen records make my year-end
list - otherwise it's too much music to absorb. Because I'm a silly
person, I then agonized about sticking* to this totally arbitrary rule.
How could I possibly not include [record X]? It physically hurt me
(figuratively, not literally. But almost literally) to leave some off
the list.
So, before I even get to the top
fifteen, here are some more to get us to thirty. I liked a lot of music
this year. I especially liked the records listed below. Almost any
one of them could have made the top fifteen in a weaker music year.
They are wonderful and I love them.... just very slightly less than the
ones that made the main list. Special apologies to Frozen Crown, who
were this damn close to being top-fifteen, and who I'm still questioning leaving off.
FIFTEEN RUNNERS-UP (alphabetical by artist)
Fellowship - The Skies Above Eternity
Sleater-Kinney - Little Rope
The Smile - Wall Of Eyes
Transit Method - Othervoid
Unleash The Archers - Phantoma
WILLOW - empathogen
Witherfall - Sounds Of The Forgotten
Without further ado, the actual list:
15) Midnight - Hellish Expectations
Listening notes: Harsh, visceral, raw contempt in musical form
Comments:
After a few records of almost but not quite putting Midnight on my main
list, they're making it this year. I kept trying to bump other records
past it (I'm sorry, Frozen Crown!), but in the end, when you just want a
pounding guitar riff paired with a raspy singer snarling at someone to
fuck off, this record hits the spot. Define "heavy" as in "heavy metal"
however you want, Hellish Expectations feels heavy in a way that few can manage.
Pick a track: "Expect Total Hell"
14)
VOLA - Friend Of A Phantom
Listening notes: Bouncy, touch of djent, touch of prog
Comments: VOLA won me over pretty thoroughly with 2021's record-o'-the-year Witness and its off-kilter songs that're clearly electronica-infused rock/metal but don't sound quite like anyone else. Friend Of A Phantom dips into more or less the same bag of tricks as Witness. I like those particular tricks way too much not to love this.
Pick a track: "Glass Mannequin"
13) The Last Dinner Party - Prelude To Ecstasy
Pick a track: "Caesar On A TV Screen"
Listening notes: Straight ahead guitar songs, brevity, the sound of malaise
Comments:
The best records have an identity, putting the listening in a place.
My Michigan compatriots in Liquid Mike have come up with a batch of
two-to-three minute songs that perfectly exude the boredom of early
adulthood, full of hangovers without highs.
Pick a track: "Town Ease"
11) Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
Listening notes: Folk-pop, country in name only, approachable
Comments:
Sometimes there's nothing like hearing your perennial pop favorites get
a little older and ?wiser?. Kacey hasn't figured everything out yet
and not every track hits, but the winners here are some of the absolute
best songs she's ever written.
Pick a track: "Cardinal"
10) Mythbegotten - Tales From The Unseelie Court
Pick a track: "The Heedless Horseman"
Listening notes: Hard-hitting tunes, arena-rock, nakedly sentimental
Comments:
Do Pearl Jam still "have 'it?'" They do. I envy some musician's
ability to reliably produce quality music that stays fresh. A good PJ
record feels like exactly the right record for its moment in time.
Pick a track: "React, Respond"
8)
Myranth - Karma
Listening notes: Power metal, melody, big soaring choruses
Comments:
I did my usual thing where a bunch of catchy guitar-heavy stuff hovers
around the lower top tier but doesn't get top honors. That runners-up
list is full of power metal. This style requires a little extra sauce
in order to be elite. In the case of Tunesian stalwarts Myranth, the
songs are just there. Hooks upon hooks, and vocalist Zaher Zorgati sells them with the total conviction that they require. Just writing about listening to Karma is making me feel inspired.
Pick a track: "To The Stars"
7) Brothers Of Metal - Fimbulvinter
Listening notes: Power metal, dueling vocalists, shtick that takes itself seriously
Comments:
So if Myranth are the champions as far as straightforward takes on this
subgenre, how can that be topped? Brothers Of Metal write incredibly
catchy songs too, and they have a few bits of extra sauce of their own.
One, having multiple vocalists is always a plus, especially when one of
them is
Ylva Eriksson; she's preternaturally skilled at commanding a song whilst
harmonizing perfectly with her co-vocalist "brothers." Two is perfect
straddling of the line between comedy act and metal band - Fimbulvinter's
tracks move their tongue in and out of cheek so as to create variety.
The band are hitting you with something deeply silly one moment, pumping
you up the next, and tugging on the heartstrings the moment after
that. Within their narrow niche, this is versatile stuff, and it rocks.
Pick a track: "Rivers Of Gold"
6) Sgàile - Traverse The Bealach
Listening notes: Prog-metal, atmosphere, concept album
Comments:
As someone who has little hope humanity's future and who often
fantasizes about a long-distance hike in Scotland, I had a natural "in"
to this story about crossing from one end of a post-apocalyptic Scotland
to the other, on foot. I'm sure I've mentioned that prog-metal is
something that I tend to like more in theory than in execution. The
happy exceptions are the records that manage to weave pop hooks into the
nooks and crannies of their pulsating riffs.
Sgàile have given us a work of art that's moody yet (ironically) full of life.
Pick a track: "Silence"
5) Alestorm - Voyage Of The Dead Marauder
Listening notes: Pirate shtick, lively folk melodies, addictive
Comments:
And after an arty pick, a reminder of how basic I am. As long as
Alestorm keep Alestorming along, they're almost guaranteed a top-ten
spot for whatever they release. This is an EP, not a full record, but
even within the narrow confines of fast guitar-and-accordion-or-keytar
ditties about being pirates, VOTDM gives you a three-vocalist epic
featuring Patty Gurdy, and then an absolute banger in the classic
Alestorm mold that's somehow about landlocked Uzbekistan, and then an
Arrogant Worms cover, and then a surprisingly pretty instrumental track
played entirely on chiptune sound effects. (And one song that's all
dick jokes.) Take my #5 slot, you perennially overachieving weirdos!
Pick a track: "Uzbekistan"
4)
Jerry Cantrell - I Want Blood
Listening notes: Grungy, swampy, riffs, more riffs
Comments:
Jerry's solo career outside of the Alice In Chains label is quietly
becoming something really special. Coming off 2021 list inductee Brighten, I Want Blood takes
a totally different and more intense tack and is equally great. I
normally favor vocal melody over guitar noodling, but that's just
because few people can build a song around gritty, nasty guitar lines
like Jerry can. I Want Blood landed on first listen and also just kept growing on me.
Pick a track: "Villified"
3)
MEER - Wheels Within Wheels
Listening notes: "Progressive pop orchestra," big and open sound, strings, dynamics, dueling vocalists
Comments: A masterpiece that lives up to their last masterpiece (2021's Playing House).
It seems that every song starts as an approachable folky number and
ends as an epic. MEER aren't the loudest band on my list, but they just
might be the most intense. If there's a record on my list that keeps
giving the most, and rewards repeat listens the most, it's this one.
Pick a track: "Something In The Water"
2)
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Listening notes: Kitchen sink approach, electronics, avant-garde as fuck
Comments:
Zeal & Ardor, the brainchild of a Swiss/American biracial guy
called Manuel Gagneux, started with a simple down to earth mission of
incorporating elements of African-American spirituals into black metal.
So, just a normal little project. And I previously enjoyed their
self-titled release an impressive slab of Rage Against The Machine
adjacent, uh, rage. Now that Manuel is willing to get personal, happy,
and sentimental in turns, GREIF (not a typo for "grief." It's
named after a gryphon) is leaps and bounds beyond anything I've heard
form this band... or from anyone, really. The metalheads seem to hate
this band's new direction, whereas I've never been so excited to see an
artist evolve beyond the confines of its original style. Z&A are
too good to not do absolutely everything. No style or mood is off
limits to them anymore, but the song composition is so tight that it's
ear candy no matter how dissonant they get. I don't want to make it
sound like it's pure noise, though - the poppy songs are aggressively
poppy, and the slower songs are achingly beautiful ("To My Ilk" is one
of the most moving compositions I've ever heard, and it's not even the
one I picked as my standout track!). I discovered GREIF in
October and was stunned at how quickly it rocketed up my mental list.
I'm gung ho on finishing this list right now, but otherwise I'd want to
go listen to GREIF right now.
Pick a track: "Fend You Off"
1) Spider God - The Killing Room and Possess The Devil
Listening notes: Raspy black metal, somehow full of pop hooks, tribute to true-crime
Comments:
Yeah,
I'm cheating here. I'm listing two records in place of one - they're
two sides of a coin, so I'm allowing it. The first, The Killing Room,
actually came out at the very end of 2023, but it's honorary 2024 for
me. I have no shame about any of this. Spider God bill themselves as a
mix of pop and black metal with a splash of metalcore, which sounds
like word salad until one actually listens to it. By the end of my
first listen to "s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d." I'd gone from "haha, okay, don't
think this is for me in the slightest!" to "hmm, this is actually
catchy," to "can I listen to that song ten more times now?!" in record
time.
I cannot emphasize enough that
there is no reason at all that this should work. A monotone
throat-shredding rasp that never really varies in cadence should not
make me want to sing along. The fact that I can't even make out half of
the lyrics, let alone follow the convoluted narrative (a fictional
story spread across the two records that's kind of a love letter to
true-crime entertainment), ought to be a demerit. The relentless attack
of the blistering music ought to at least be exhausting by the end.
All I can say is that this young UK band have absolutely mastered the
art of making a note drop in at exactly the right time to perfectly
follow the previous measure, creating exactly the chord my ears wanted.
With my favorite music, I lose whatever ability I ever had to use words
to describe a sound. So, I'll retreat to a simple statement: when I
wanted to just put on music for pleasure this year, the thing I wanted
to listen to most frequently was Spider God. That's why these are my
(co) favorite record(s) of 2024. If I could explain it better, I would,
but they're writing music with chess pieces while I'm blogging with
checkers here.
Pick a track: "s.p.i.d.e.r.g.o.d"
Finally,
a few other isolated songs - either they're from records that didn't
make either of my lists above, or the songs are not attached to a record
at all right now - that I feel like highlighting:
Beyoncé**
- "AMERICAN REQUIEM
Beyoncé
and Dolly Parton - "TYRANT"
Eluveitie - "Premonition"
Ghost - "The Future Is A Foreign Land"
Harry Mack x Coast Contra - "Acapella Cypher"***
Japandroids - "D&T"
Kendrick Lamar - "reincarnated"Linkin Park - "The Emptiness Machine"
Scardust - "My Haven"
Sonata Arctica - "A Monster Only You Can't See"
The Smile - "The Slip"
Triumpher - "Athena (1st chapter)"
Well, 'till the end of 2025...
*sort of
**Open tip: If you want to get on my personal
top 15 and do have some really great songs, no matter how big an icon
you are, learn to self-edit!
***"Hey, Benjamin, using only your taste in hip-hop, say you're a giant nerd without saying you're a giant nerd!"
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