Top 24 Albums of 2024 (1/4)
Part One of a Four-Part Countdown for my AOTYs
Even before the days of Spotify Unwrapped, I’ve always liked to reflect upon my favorite releases each year and what they meant to me. Also, I am a person who loves to make lists. It comes naturally and can be helpful to organize the chaos in my life, though I typically tend to make them about my favorite things instead. Sometimes I settle for leaving these lists in my head, but it’s always much more satisfying to be able to write them out and share them with people. Every year I make a list for my favorite releases of the year, and it’s time to do so for 2024, which has been an absolutely kickass year for music in many different genres. Here are six of my favorites so far…
Les chants de l’aurore by Alcest
Descriptors: post-metal, post-rock, shoegaze, blackgaze, dream pop, atmospheric
Release date: 21 June 2024 / Country of origin: France
I remember hearing a lot of positives about Alcest’s earliest releases years ago, Souvenirs d’un autre monde (2007) and Écailles de lune (2010), for which they were hailed for their dreamy and atmospheric blend of shoegaze and post-metal with black metal influences, which prompted me to discover the band as a teenager and finally listen to their music. I was amazed by how they were able to use inspiration from more aggressive genres to elevate their lush, lighter sound. I haven’t been the best at keeping up with their releases over the last decade, but excitedly listened to their 2024 release.
While Alcest was very innovative in the late 2000s and early 2010s as they paved the way for blackgaze, they’ve mostly stuck to their sound since then and have not done any more pioneering. I do not blame them, as it is a wonderful sound, and they play it wonderfully to this day. “Améthyste” is a lovely example that could easily fit into any of their earlier releases. One thing I love about this band’s music is that they capture the feelings of hope and innocence while not seeming forced or overly childish. It’s a soundtrack I love when I want to daydream.
Every Bridge Burning by Nails
Descriptors: grindcore, metalcore, hardcore
Release date: 30 August 2024 / Country of origin: United States
Nails has a pretty clear formula present on every album they’ve put out so far; their 2024 release is no exception. Basically, they always give us approximately ten short but extremely brutal tracks that meld together on an album that is less than twenty-five minutes long. A special delivery of grindcore on a small but flavorful platter that you can easily digest if you’re into the genre. You wouldn’t want it to be any longer, really. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of this type of music, but Nails allows me to see the appeal, as they’re one of the best and most popular acts of the genre. I especially love their sound when I am feeling angry and want to burn everything down. They are masters at intensely translating the emotions of rage and hatred into music. Also, shout-out to this album cover.
Charm by Clairo
Descriptors: chamber pop, singer-songwriter, soft rock, indie pop
Release date: 12 July 2024 / Country of origin: United States
I’m not the hugest fan of “bedroom pop,” but I do like something chill and feminine once in a while. Clairo is one of the higher quality, more sophisticated acts of the genre, and she really shines in her third album, released this year. In this album, she plays intimate and authentic music that not only sounds like she could have recorded it in her bedroom, but honestly gives off vibes of just chilling in the bedroom, where one is comfortable. The album is also quite sensual in its sound and lyrics, making it potentially great background music for certain bedroom activities. All of the songs here are simple and palatable, but that does not make any of them brainless or even boring, at least not to me. Basically, this is the type of music I would look for just to vibe and relate. I’m not always in the mood for it, but it’s an album I need at certain times, like a nice sunny day, when I want to relax.
New Wave Order by The Foreshadowing
Descriptors: gothic metal, doom metal, darksynth, post-punk
Release date: 15 November 2024 / Country of origin: Italy
I would consider The Foreshadowing to be one of the most underrated gothic metal acts, and their album Days of Nothing (2007) is somewhat of a masterpiece to me, in which they perfected the atmosphere of desolation and hopelessness with interesting guitarwork and well-written lyrics delivered by deep vocals. Nothing else they’ve released afterward has compared, but I was certainly excited to find out that they were releasing a new album this year. It has some high points and very catchy songs, and while it isn’t my favorite of their works, I think it’s a solid album from start-to-end, with more post-punk influences than they typically have, though I think it still adds to their gothic sound while offering something somewhat new to their discography.
Tastes Incredible by Flagman
Descriptors: alternative metal, nu metal, funk metal, avant-garde
Release date: 14 June 2024 / Country of Origin: United States
You could say that this band rips off a lot of other bands. (Primus, System of a Down, Korn, and Red Hot Chili Peppers immediately come to mind.) But somehow, they do so in a way that sounds refreshing and novel. Maybe it’s because they’re new meat in a genre that is basically dead. This album is a hell of a ride, and can be listened to fully in less than thirty minutes, so it does not drag or get a chance to become boring.
Flagman’s aesthetic is incredibly off-putting to me, you can see it in their album covers. I must also say that sometimes the music itself is ugly, and if it had a smell, it would be rather odorous. Dissonant and not in a classy way, with off-key vocals at times. So why do I enjoy this album so much? I hear a lot of creativity, and they pay homage to bands that I love. For instance, I hear a lot of Korn in "Hot Off the Log," and a fuckton of SOAD in "Bombs Away.” Even so, they have quite an avant-garde influence on top of all this, I can hear elements of Mr. Bungle, and dare I say it, The Dillinger Escape Plan, in their musicality.
Bellum II by Aquilus
Descriptors: modern classical, symphonic metal, black metal, atmospheric, dark folk
Release date: 3 May 2024 / Country of origin: Australia
If you walk into this album expecting typical atmospheric black metal, that’s not what you’re going to get. You won’t be getting your average symphonic black metal act, either. A better way to describe Aquilus is modern classical music played with black metal instrumentation. Yes, the music does switch between purely progressive metal elements as well as softer acoustic passages, but it seems like the composer Horace Rosenqvist puts more emphasis in making music with classical themes rather than conventionally metal musical structures. Aquilus just doesn’t care about giving you riffs that you can bang your head to. The songwriting is extremely technically intricate throughout, though sometimes the flow of the album doesn’t quite blend perfectly. It isn’t an album that I will be playing on repeat, but it’s probably the release this year that most blew my mind in terms of composition.