Sub-Ed’s Albums & EPs Of The Year 2024
What happened to happy music? By which I don’t mean comedy music – that’s never been acceptable. During my 41 years on this planet, and given the right time and place, of course, I’ve very much enjoyed all musical moods, but increasingly rare in recent years are those that summon euphoria or – to be honest – even raise a smile. My tastes have trended towards the serious, the world-weary, the downright bleak for a number of years now. With increased responsibility comes increased solemnity, perhaps? Makes sense, but I feel a yearning for more care-free listening experiences – could this be nostalgia? Or could this be just existential musing or more symptomatic of a slide into a grumpy middle-age? Perhaps that too, but I also feel it’s an inevitable journey for someone who listens to as much new music as I do – I care no longer for the frivolous or the facsimile, the fly-by-night or the flimsy; Specifically, I want to feel something beneath the skin … and happy tunes rarely carry such gravitas. What happened to happy music? Me, sadly. Listener beware; abandon all hope ye who enter here.
Here then is a summary of what I consider to have been the best albums and EPs of the year – those that have stood out most from that which I’ve listened to. Some are new discoveries, some former favourites back proving they’ve still got it. The dark allure of post-punk is – as ever – never far away, so too the distorted haze of the all-encompassing shoegaze revival. Dreamier, quieter moments shone through the clouds at times, more experimental sounds rounding out the roster as the year wore on.
Particular credit this year goes to Fuzz Club for having five of the top hundred entries on this list, but equally the eye can’t help but be drawn to there being the same amount of self-releases here present, a trend that started a couple of years ago, then faded, and now seems resurgent. Pros and cons, of course, to self-releasing but it’s great to see these artists’ bravery being rewarded with some great placings here. And it would be remiss not to mention Rocket Recordings also for a very creditable four releases on this list too. Other statistical analysis shows just 85% of the artists in this top 100 entirely or partially call the US, UK and Ireland, Canada, or Australia and New Zealand home. The world now just a global village, it’s especially pleasing to Russia and Belorussia feature once more (and so prominently too – no geopolitics here), Sweden also turning in a remarkable five entries this year alone. Turn over enough rocks and good music abounds everywhere.
It must be said though that, as per every year, I have only one pair of ears, a set number of hours in the day and a bank balance that is far from inexhaustible, so there are, perhaps, certain omissions from the list below. Who knows what may have been, but here is what definitely was (linked where reviewed – rough genre given in brackets):
1. Reverb On Repeat – Reverb On Repeat (Shoegaze/Post-Rock) [These Hands Melt/Anchor Lights]
An emotional hybrid of Russian post-rock and beautiful shoe/blackgaze, Reverb on Repeat is more than just self-descriptive. A mashing together of two shorter works for one incredible vinyl album, it’s a transportative take on “grief and loneliness” as heard through mournful drones, smeared vocals, and altogether transcendent riffs – the type of exquisite symphony you’d want playing when the angels come to carry you into eternity.
2. Wisp – Pandora EP (Shoegaze) [Interscope]
Near enough all of the shoegaze revival tsunami at this point, megastar-in-waiting Wisp (Natalie Lu of San Francisco) makes otherworldly distortion, crunchy pedals and gentle cooing the coolest thing on the planet once more. Something to do with TikTok, the girl is viral on an epidemic scale with tens of millions of plays of her breath-taking debut EP. Open the box; get down with the kids (again) – we dare you, and prepare to get subsumed completely.
3. Kite – VII (Synth-Pop/Darkwave) [Dais]
A compilation record that rounds up all of Swedish superstars Kite’s stellar singles from the last four or so years, VII is a slightly Gothic, nose-to-tail synth-pop banger that can justifiably be considered their debut LP despite the duo forming more than ten years ago. Good things come to those who wait, we suppose. Gloriously anthemic and glistening like a Scandinavian winter’s morning, these are superlative recordings to really cherish.
4. The Body & Dis Fig – Orchards Of A Futile Heaven (Black Metal/Experimental) [Thrill Jockey]
Regular readers of these lists need no introduction to Chip King and Lee Buford’s ever-exceptional experimental black metal; Dark electronic specialist Dis Fig, however, is more of an unknown quantity, announcing herself spectacularly on Orchards Of A Futile Heaven, an album that trawls the infernal depths at which Chelsea Wolfe’s most bleak creations dwell. Together they combine for a preposterous assault on the senses.
5. Split System – Vol. 2 (Garage-Punk) [Legless]
What a perfect little punk record! The Australian punk renaissance continues and Split System are its Michaelangelo, Vol. 2’s every well produced track a winner. Somehow improving on the magnificent first volume, the wheel has emphatically not been reinvented here, that same primitive charm, those same fast riffs and catchy choruses, those nods to the OGs and more recent touchstones all still present and 100% correct.
6. A Place To Bury Strangers – Synthesizer (Noise-Rock/Shoegaze) [DedStrange]
Not one to do things by halves, Oliver Ackermann commissioned a fully functioning circuit board to be sold along with the new APTBS record, Synthesizer, inspired by the custom-built instrument he built as its core. A treatise too on the alienation he feels by AI’s intrusion into art, NYC’s premier noise-rocker shows no signs of slowing down 20 years after exploding onto the scene, Synthesizer, despite its electronics, remaining reassuringly human.
7. MAQUINA – Prata (Industrial/EBM) [Fuzz Club]
Losing none of their immersive, live energy on record, Portuguese trio MAQUINA utilise kosmische’s precise repeats and industrial techno’s adrenaline to deliver a sweaty, pulsating experience on Prata, their second album after the economically titled “Dirty Tracks For Clubbing”. No synthesisers here though, Prata is pure guitar-drums-bass power, its suitably machine-like drums and howling vocals really shaking the bins.
8. The KVB – Tremors (New Wave/Darkwave) [Invada]
To go forwards, sometimes you need to look back. Tremors is a strong return to form for Manchester-based, coldwave duo The KVB, a “retrospective examination of their back catalogue” that chimes with ominous, cinematic “dystopian pop”, as Nicholas Wood and Kat Day themselves call it. A dynamic listen full of gotcha hooks, it’s their most grotesquely appealing in a decade and hopefully one that opens the door to more of the same.
9. Lesser Care – Heel Turn (Post-Punk/New Wave) [S/R]
Self-released but worthy of the wider exposure a label-backed release provides (their debut came on A La Carte Records), Heel Turn is a very cool dose of murky synth play and coldwave-leaning post-punk – never forget that temperatures plummet at night in Lesser Care’s native Texas. Heel Turn’s stand-out track features Tobias Grave of Soft Kill (see below) and that should give you the ballpark idea, although Lesser Care may be even slicker.
10. Blushing – Sugarcoat (Shoegaze/Dream-Pop) [Kanine]
Scratching an itch we didn’t know we had, Sugarcoat is a nostalgic, pre-Britpop, 90s love-in sure to put a smile on your face. Bringing to mind mixtapes and well-thumbed copies of the NME, Blushing’s third album bristles with all the essential touchpoints of the era: alt-rock, indie, grunge, jangle-pop, shoegaze, slowcore and beyond. If your crush handed you a copy of Sugarcoat during lunchbreak back then you’d soon be making out for hours after class.
11. Amyl And The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness (Pub Rock/Punk) [Rough Trade]
Just the right amount of crazy, the supremely snotty Amy Taylor of all-conquering Aussie pub-rock outfit Amyl & The Sniffers has been the real brat of 2024. Bigger and bolder, Cartoon Darkness is bogan culture writ large and proud. Positively strutting along the front line where once she prowled, Taylor consumes her experiences like an inferno before peppering them back out like some modified ute’s tailpipe. It’s an absolute hoot of a record.
12. Goat – Goat (Psych-Rock/Worldbeat) [Rocket Recordings]
Despite this being Goat’s third album in as many years, the Swedes appear recharged and reenergised, this eponymous effort – their best since 2014’s Commune – resolutely seeing them get their groove back on, hand-drummed tribal rhythms returning a deep funk to the band’s shamanistic and sexy psychedelia. Trace folk elements and warped beats defy easy pigeonholing too, Goat’s bubbling cauldron never more productive.
13. Negative Gears – Moraliser (Post-Punk) [Static Shock]
Taking a full five years to move on from their break-out EP, Sydney-based punks Negative Gears are not ones to rush things and their patience is now our reward as the Australians’ debut long-player, Moraliser, sees the promise of those dark, scuzzy missives entirely fulfilled. Evoking the grumbling grind of bands like Killing Joke, or more recently someone like Iceage, Negative Gears go hard, work hard, and play hard.
14. Chat Pile – Cool World (Hardcore/Sludge-Punk) [Flenser]
It all comes so easily to Chat Pile. Ever so nearly taking home the big prize in our 2022 AOTY list, Cool World may be a little more varied, arguably a shade less intense, yet a touch more terrifying than its predecessor, but that same sense of dread pervades their now tell-tale destruction, that slack, Oklahoma City drawl of Randy “Raygun Busch” Heyer truly a weapon in its own right, a tornado that rips straight through wheat fields and farm towns alike.
15. shower curtain – words from a wishing well (Alt-Rock/Shoegaze) [Fire Talk]
Amidst all things shoegaze in 2024, it seems contemporary alt-rock has been all but forgotten. Not by Shower Curtain though and it and a dash of grunge gives Words From A Wishing Well a really solid spine so lacking in many similar works. Emotionally heavy and sonically bruising, the New York band bathe in reverb to the point Victoria Winter’s enigmatic vocals practically swim down the gutters of their hometown city alongside all its grime.
16. VR Sex – Hard Copy (Post-Punk/Goth) [Dais]
A downright seedy exploration of LA’s already sleazy underbelly, Andrew Clinco’s new-waving Drab Majesty side project, VR Sex, has now swelled to full-band form and Hard Copy is an arresting mix of the melodic and the macabre that oscillates between “ripped-leather riffing and space-echo meltdown”. Always extreme, always perverted, Hard Copy is consequently a maximal synth-punk odyssey with overtly ghoulish tendencies.
17. Houses Of Heaven – Within/Without (EBM/Darkwave) [Felte]
You don’t just get to drop a Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) guest vocal and think people won’t notice. That sort of thing makes you sit up and pay attention and Oakland EBM enthusiasts Houses Of Heaven know it. Fusing early industrial drum machines with dark synth-pop, Within/Without then plays with woozy, trippy effects and hard beats, a couple more surprises up their sleeve still – the kind of music that only makes sense when the sun goes down.
18. Volksempfänger – Attack Of Sound (Garage/Noise-Pop) [Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube]
Ten impeccable record-collection mash-ups, Volksempfänger (a Nazi-era people’s radio set) are Holly Habstritt and Ajay Saggar, and Attack Of Sound has a beating heart of Girl Group pop, beehive harmonies running into clouds of dissonance, swirling Velvet Underground inscrutability, and the woozy strains of 60s psychedelia. Expect to also encounter Brian Wilson, proto-punk noise, and J&MC-style surf-punk, naturally.
19. SLIFT – Ilion (Prog/Psych-Rock) [Sub Pop]
Making the step up to Sub Pop look effortless, Slift’s latest is huge, heavy and monstrous, the French psych-rock band knowing exactly when to rev up with proggy, metal abandon and when to use the subtler arts of war. The soundtrack to “the fall of humanity and the rebirth of all things in time and space”, Slift only ever intended that Ilion be epic and mind-meltingly epic it has so proven. Strap in for one hell of a ride!
20. Girls In Synthesis – Sublimation (Post-Punk) [Own It]
Just when you think Girls In Synthesis can’t get any better they reinvent themselves and find the next level. Sublimation is the conversion of a solid directly into a gas and, although GIS’s own change of direction isn’t quite so extreme, thanks to greater keyboard prominence and stronger melodies the mood is definitely less paranoid. A shade more personable perhaps too, but no less awkward, and we wouldn’t have them any other way.
21. Tristwch Y Fenywod – Tristwch Y Fenywod (Goth/Psych-Folk) [Night School]
Translating as “Sadness of Women”, Tristwch Y Fenywod are a coven of three women making Gothic, Welsh folk music sung exclusively in the ancient tongue. Yet it sounds modern, ethereal mysticism mixing with psychedelic drones and eye of newt. Casting a hypnotic spell, the result conjures glories past from the ranks of 4AD back in the 80s as often as it does windswept pagan ceremony. Unique doesn’t cover the half of it.
22. Ducks Ltd. – Harm’s Way (Indie/Jangle-Pop) [Carpark]
Way to step it up, Ducks! Building on very solid foundations, Harm’s Way is the most accomplished and consistent work the Canadians have yet set to wax/tape. Full of pure-of-heart indie jangles and winsome melodies, everyday occurrences and local history are elevated to be the main course and what a feast it all makes. Harm’s Way is as delightful as the first snowdrop of the spring on a bright, chilly morning.
23. Thee Alcoholics – Feedback (Psych/Noise-Rock) [Rocket Recordings]
What a racket! Rhys Llewellyn has form with the similarly inclined Hey Colossus and therefore with Rocket Recordings too, but this churning, cosmic doom-punk is more than deserving of equal footing. Punishing repeats and killer riffs do the damage, clattering DIY noise mopping up any space between the peaks. It’s all oddly persuasive though as you find your head nodding to the trepanning scree. How’s that for Feedback?
24. Bleached Cross/True Faith – Columns Of Impenetrable Light EP (New Wave/Post-Punk) [Protagonist/A La Carte]
A meeting of like-minded Northern States bands, Columns Of Impenetrable Light is a dark split EP that showcases all that’s exciting about svelte, brooding synths and Gothic gloom. Propulsive yet oppressive, you find yourself surrounded before you’ve even had a chance to defend yourself, both bands as keen to help you cross over to the other side as they are to share a bed. That they remain so alluring makes them that bit more dangerous.
25. We Are Winter’s Blue And Radiant Children – No More Apocalypse Father (Post-Rock/Drone) [Constellation]
The best of a number of inevitable anti-war albums out this year, WAWBARC is chiefly Efrim Manuel Menuck of GY!BE (see below) and Silver Mt. Zion fame and his band tackle the subject sensitively, intelligently, and coherently. Musically forlorn and not far from type, while lyrically at arm’s length from the action, angelic choral parts float up through the static haze and they’re just as devastating as the subject demands.
26. Clinic Stars – Only Hinting (Dream-Pop/Ambient) [Kranky]
In lieu of a new Grouper/Liz Harris album we’ll happily take this debut Clinic Stars release – Kranky sure has a type! Classified as shoegaze by some, we find the Detroit duo’s album too nebulous, too intangible for the nomenclature. At times little more than a warm updraft of ambience, Only Hinting hovers in perfectly blue skies, a swirling daydream of crystalline proportions that carries you away on romantic, yearning vapours.
27. Still House Plants – If I Don’t Make It, I Love U (Art-Rock/Neo-Soul) [Bison]
A collection of mesmerising moments rather than special songs outright, there aren’t many more original or thought-provoking records on this list than If I Don’t Make It, I Love U. A retiring, arty affair that superficially suggests at a kinship with the likes of bar italia, it quickly spools off into free improv and spectral neo-soul, Jessica Hickie-Kallenbach astonishing with deep registers that sound almost inhuman. Listen, and then listen again immediately.
28. GIFT – Illuminator (Shoegaze/Dream-Pop) [Captured Tracks]
Calling your band GIFT is a real gimme to the critic community, as it would seem is generative AI, which – bafflingly – has run rampant around all corners of the Internet in the regurgitated press coverage of this actually very fine album. No bots here, we promise! In any case, this Brooklyn-based band’s sophomore long-player, Illuminator, is a synth-indebted, lightly psychedelic serving of catchy indie/dream-gaze that really deserves more.
29. Sprints – Letter To Self (Indie-Rock/Post-Punk) [City Slang]
The culmination of years of promising singles and EPs, the lilting Letter To Self is the debut Sprints LP and it’s a surprisingly beefy listen with nods aplenty to many alt-rock greats. Karla Chubb weaponises Irish charisma by bottling it and sending it back with a flaming rag stuffed in the neck, but it’s her literary lyricism and withering storytelling that most successfully burn their way into the memory. That Letter To Self better contain some congratulations.
30. Chalk – Conditions II EP (Post-Punk/Industrial) [Nice Swan]
Gritty neo-industrial workouts that set the sub at full throb are the order of the day over in Belfast courtesy of local rabble-rousers Chalk, their spirited yet anxious takes on beat-led post-punk/noise hitting like full-blown, breathless panic attacks. They were superb this year supporting on the Sprints tour (see above), Nice Swan and their ever-impressive roster of young talent hoovering up this stand-out second EP and bigger things surely beckon.
31. Midwife – No Depression In Heaven (Singer-Songwriter/Slowcore) [Flenser]
As a cute catch-all, “heaven-metal” (you know, like “heavy metal”) did the job when describing Madeline Johnston’s whispery, near-ambient slowcore, but it ultimately placed too much expectation on her guitar and its slow-motion riffs. There’s no longer a need for such cheap tricks; her music, as muted as it remains, now does the talking. No Depression In Heaven brushes your skin with its lips and it stands the hairs on your neck right up.
32. bloody/bath – In An Empty Space I’m Screaming (Post-Punk) [KookyToo/Eight Limb Entertainment]
It’s heartwarming to find that gangs of young, small-town lads and ladies still bother getting their hands on guitars and forming bands. Even more so when they sound like bloody/bath, whose dark, scuzzed-up dissonance is plainly delicious. In An Empty Space I’m Screaming may not quite be the all-encompassing sound of Northampton today, but it’s easily one of the best sounding things from the town since Bauhaus. No, really.
33. Elias Rønnenfelt – Heavy Glory (Singer-Songwriter) [Escho]
For around a decade the Iceage singer, Elias Rønnenfelt, has been on a journey from fiery punk frontman to some louche alt-crooner of the Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave-school. Maybe even that of Lou Reed. Heavy Glory is consequently a destination record, Rønnenfelt’s first solo LP and quite the bombastic statement as it channels golden-era rock ‘n’ roll – pianos, violin, and all. A star-turn then from a man that’s never been anything less.
34. Soft Kill – Escape Forever (Post-Punk/New Wave) [Cercle Social]
You just can’t keep a good band down and Soft Kill have had more than their fair share of ups and downs. Escape Forever is, thankfully, very much an up, this twelfth-ish album being the prolific Portland band’s best since 2018, their evolution from coldwave aesthetes through to Gothic post-punk purists and on to New Wave icons now complete. Don’t tell anyone obviously, but they may finally also be enjoying themselves too.
35. Been Stellar – Scream From New York (Indie/Noise-Rock) [Dirty Hit]
Graduating from EP hype to debut album proper, Been Stellar have weathered the storm and Scream From New York is a lot more nuanced and tempered than perhaps it has any right to be. Tackling noise-rock, shoegaze and grunge simultaneously might sound like too much for any indie band, but proving themselves ambitious and adept students of Sonic Youth is a better trick still. Follow a similar trajectory and we could be onto something special.
36. Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [4AD]
[sic] magazine’s AOTY winner 2020, Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) is no stranger to accolades and Bright Futures is another supremely intimate encounter as we voyeuristically linger by her hospital bed longer than we know we ought to. Lenker’s fractured vocal, inventive melodies and exceptional song-writing do the rest, piano, violin and gentle electronics breathing warmth into her fascinating vignettes that pass by sheer but fully formed.
37. Dantzic – The Solution EP (Post-Punk) [S/R]
Undergoing a rebrand early this year, The Solution are now Dantzic and the Goth-leaning, sickeningly informed, Manchester-based post-punk outfit and their stunning debut EP sound all the more coiled and lean for it. With elastic baselines and the most magnetic of frontmen, the young band draw from some of the more overlooked and danceable corners of the movement, always ready to pounce on the unwary, not that you’d look away.
38. Radar Men From The Moon – Vomitorium (Noise-Punk) [Fuzz Club]
Now at home in the court of Swans and Ministry, Dutch noise-punks RMFTM are long in name and tooth, Vomitorium their eight full-length to date. With a back catalogue that covers kosmische, drone, industrial techno and flat-out aural experimentation, this is an album that draws on the band’s past but is not constrained by it. Eight searing missives bound by dizzying darkness, RMFTM will help you into the Vomitorium, but then you’re on your own.
39. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (Punk/Power Pop) [Epitaph]
Caught at a crossroads, Philadelphia punks Mannequin Pussy have an uneasy relationship with success, recoiling from the limelight when it shone their way after 2019’s Patience. Settling on being a broad church for newcomers and long-time fans alike, I Got Heaven both pushes their firebrand punk into corners more furious than ever, but equally does it pivot into a colourful brand of power-pop that kinda, you know, just works somehow.
40. Shellac – To All Trains (Post-Hardcore/Noise-Rock) [Touch And Go]
Don’t go thinking the latest and last Shellac record is here for any other reason than merit. Steve Albini’s passing leaves an enormous hole in rock music’s landscape, but Albini would prefer you remember the music rather than the man and To All Trains stands testament to both. Uncompromising and defiant, trademark riffs stalk the rumbling minimalism as Albini once prowled the stage. There’ll never be another. RIP.
41. Uniform – American Standard (Industrial/Noise-Rock) [Sacred Bones]
Our go-to industrial thrash purveyors, Uniform, have done some growing up and American Standard, bereft of rhino-charge raucousness, stands totem-like in the field of industrial noise-rock and – honestly – across the spectrum at large. Literarily leaning, thematically and musically varied, it’s colossal in sound and achievement, the terrifying soundtrack to modern America as heard through the ears of its turbulent history.
42. Mo Dotti – Opaque (Shoegaze/Noise-Pop) [S/R
Dream-pop is rightly celebrated, but too dreamy and it starts to rot your teeth. You need some roughage and balance in your diet too and that’s where LA’s Mo Dotti and lead guitarist/vocalist Gina Negrini come in, their spot-on shoegaze haze run through with raw noise. More smog than mirage, Opaque’s guitars choke out flowery jangles leaving them at the mercy of pedal-line static, Negrini soothing the deliberate set-up with her calming vocal.
43. Punchlove – Channels (Shoegaze) [Kanine]
To make great shoegaze you have to start with a great melody. Sure, the pedals then make that melody next-level, but melody as a motif is non-negotiable and Brooklyn quintet Punchlove have plenty of them and they sound heavenly. Channels might latterly get clever-clever with loops, sculptured feedback and by using double bass bows on the strings and actual vibrators on the pick-up, but it’s all dressing for some brilliant pop melodies.
44. Ultra Sunn – US (Dark/Coldwave) [Artoffact]
First coming to prominence on the killer compilation Next Wave Acid Punx: DEUX, camp Belgian darkwave/EBM practitioners Ultra Sunn go from strength to strength here on their debut LP, wryly titled US (insert winking emoji). It’s sleek, precision synth-pop from the shadows, icy production and deadpan vocals set to a sexy simmer, the album really only bubbling over via an arresting “Born Slippy” redux that’ll make or break your time together.
45. Gurriers – Come And See (Post-Punk/Industrial) [No Filter]
Exploiting the same Irish industrionics as Gilla Band (Girl Band) before them, Gurriers nevertheless remain an indie band at heart, all be them one pumped up on angsty politics and lapsed Catholicism. Predictable perhaps, such an offering needs a hook to stand them out and frenzied rhythms does it here, Gurriers’ stabbing hooks dripping in entrails having run through a crowd of puny also-rans en route. Ones to watch when the shackles truly come off.
46. Lip Critic – Hex Dealer (Electro-Punk) [Partisan]
What sounds so revolutionary on record is really so simple in retrospect. New York band Lip Critic may not be the first to blend hardcore and electro-punk breakbeats, but they’re an integral part of a scene of forward-thinking artists blurring the edges of genre and stereotype. Their enthusiastic two drummers seal the deal, ensuring rhythmic rebellion and muscular mayhem in equal measure. RIYL: Show Me The Body and/or Model/Actriz.
47. TTSSFU – Me, Jed And Andy (Dream-Pop) [Fear Of Missing Out]
Seemingly the complete package, Manchester-based Tasmin Stephens has the look, the moves and the dreamiest of tunes. Also lead guitarist of messy post-punk band Duvet, she uses her TTSSFU guise for more sultry, swoonsome sounds and amongst the many ears they’ve caught are those at Partisan where she’s now signed to after this debut EP. Oozing vulnerable, Lynchian star quality on stage the only way is up for her, Jed and Andy.
48. Normans – Normans (Post-Punk/Noise-Rock) [Solid Brass]
A cacophony of noise-rock, post-punk and dancefloor industrial, these LA punks combine righteous vitriol with grinding grooves as authentically as any first waver you care to mention. Tongue firmly in cheek though, a wicked vein of satire keeps things from getting too serious, all your usual targets given an energetic working over, as well as few you might not expect. Even professional protesters have got a right to party, man.
49. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Indie/Dream-Pop) [S/R]
A landmark 2024 release, Diamond Jubilee sprawls for two hours and remains available to listen to via a GeoCities download only (vinyl edition coming next year). With no filter whatsoever, Patrick Flegel, long past his days in Women, muses on romantic FM rock, wall-of-sound harmonies, slack psychedelia, and classic scores – all toasted with tape-deck production and amplified by a bucket load of charm. There’s nothing else like it, because no one else would dare.
50. Moin – You Never End (Post-Hardcore/No Wave) [AD93]
These days it’s less what Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead (Raime/Blackest Ever Black) have to say and more how and who they choose to say it. Heavy on atmospherics, You Never End dials down the distortion of 2022’s Paste to deliver a surprisingly serene (but richly proportioned) post-everything dose of intelligent songwriting that features vocal contribution from various guests. The result is textural to the point you can near enough feel it.
The best of the rest (no particular order):
Hot Garbage – Precious Dream (Psych/Noise-Rock) [Mothland]
Eye Flys – Eye Flys (Sludge-Punk/Noise-Rock) [Thrill Jockey]
Meatbodies – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom (Garage/Alt-Rock) [In The Red]
Whitelands – Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day (Shoegaze) [Sonic Cathedral]
Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out To She (Singer-Songwriter/Industrial) [Loma Vista]
Pissed Jeans – Half Divorced (Hardcore/Sludge-Punk) [Sub Pop]
Torrey – Torrey (Jangle-Pop/Shoegaze) [Slumberland]
Gustaf – Package Pt. 2 (Post/Dance-Punk) [Royal Mountain]
The Cosmic Dead – Infinite Peaks (Psych/Space-Rock) [Heavy Psych]
Highschool – Accelerator EP (New Wave/Post-Punk) [PIAS]
The Reds, Pinks And Purples – Unwishing Well (Singer-Songwriter/Indie-Pop) [Tough Love]
Big|Brave – A Chaos Of Flowers (Doom/Post-Metal) [Thrill Jockey]
The Oscillation – The Start Of The End (Space-Rock/Psych-Drone) [All Time Low]
METZ – Up On Gravity Hill (Indie/Noise-Rock) [Sub Pop]
Melts – Field Theory (Kosmische/Psych-Rock) [Fuzz Club]
DIIV – Frog In Boiling Water (Shoegaze/Dream-Pop) [Fantasy]
The Janitors – An Error Has Occurred (Psych-Rock/Doom) [Rocket Recordings]
Cola – The Gloss (Slacker/Indie-Rock) [Fire Talk]
Flores Silvestres – Momentos Subterraneous (Psych/Noise-Rock) [BYM]
YOBS – YOBS (Psych-Punk/Noise-Rock) [Fuzz Club]
Boy With Apple – Attachment (Dream-Pop/Shoegaze) [Varo]
Gnod – Spot Land (Experimental/Psych-Drone) [Rocket Recordings]
Osees – SORCS 80 (Electro/Noise-Punk) [Castle Face]
Softcult – Heaven EP (Dream-Pop) [Easy Life]
Cigarettes After Sex – X’s (Slowcore/Dream-Pop) [Partisan]
Prize Horse – Under Sound (Post-Punk) [New Morality Zine]
Parannoul – Sky Hundred (Shoegaze) [S/R]
Polevaulter – Hang Wave (Industrial/Noise-Rock) [Dose Recordings]
Belong – Realistic IX (Shoegaze/Drone) [Kranky]
Strand Of Oaks – Miracle Focus (Heartland Rock/New Wave) [Western Vinyl]
REZN – Burden (Doom/Stoner-Rock) [Sargent House ]
Wishy – Triple Seven (Shoegaze/Alt-Rock) [Winspear]
Fontaines D.C. – Romance (Indie-Rock) [XL Recordings]
Nick Cave – Wild God (Singer-Songwriter) [PIAS]
Ben Frost – Scope Neglect (Electronica/Experimental) [Mute]
Deadletter – Hysterical Strength (Post-Punk/No-Wave) [So Recordings]
Fat Dog – Woof (Dance-Punk) [Domino]
Molchat Doma – Belaya Polosa (Dark/New-Wave) [Sacred Bones]
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [Anti-]
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat – Orchestra Hits (New-Wave) [Upset The Rhythm]
Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes (Singer-Songwriter/Alt-Country) [Dead Oceans]
Fast Blood – Sunny Blunts (Punk-Rock) [Sangre Rapida]
Coughin’ Vicars – Curses & Prayers (Post-Punk) [Venn Records]
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – No Title As Of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (Post-Rock/Neo-Classical) [Constellation]
Soccer Mommy – Evergreen (Singer-Songwriter) [Loma Vista]
Thus Love – All Pleasure (Post-Punk/Indie-Rock) [Captured Tracks]
Cindy – Swan Lake EP (Indie/Slowcore) [Tough Love]
Molly Nilsson – Un-American Activities (Synth-Pop/Singer-Songwriter) [Night School]
Black Doldrums – In Limerence (Psych-Rock/Post-Punk) [Fuzz Club]
Spiral XP – I Wish I Was A Rat (Indie/Shoegaze) [Danger Collective]