My 120 favorite albums of 2024
Bludgeoning hardcore, fried internet rap, warped shoegaze, and Brat.
Welp, here it is. At first, it was just going to be just 100 albums (paltry, I know). But when I started assembling all of the releases I enjoyed this year, 100 just didn't cut it. I had to squeeze in 20 more albums, EPs, mixtapes, demos, etc. that brought me some form of joy in 2024. So now it's 120. I don't think a longwinded preamble about What Music Meant to Me this year is necessary. I listen to a lot of music. Out of everything I heard this year, my 120 favorites are ranked accordingly below. I'm already finding new things that could've feasibly made it on here if I heard them earlier in the year (the new Aphex Twin comp, for instance). So it goes.
If you want to listen to a detailed analysis of my top 10 albums of the year, you can check out the latest episode of Endless Scroll, linked below.
If you'd like to hear me talk about my 10 favorite hardcore albums/EPs/demos of the year, you can listen to the newest episode of Violent Treatment, linked below.
If you'd like to read about my 20-ish favorite shoegaze songs of 2024, you can read my annual State of the Shoenion address over at Stereogum.
And if you'd like to read a ranked list of my 120 favorite releases of 2024, then you can keep on scrolling below.
Thanks to everyone who subscribes to this newsletter – and especially those who generously toss me $5 a month to keep this thing going. Writing is my full-time job, and while most of my effort is currently being put toward my shoegaze book, I'll be keeping Chasing Sundays active in the new year and continue to publish the type of music criticism that's getting harder to come by on a deteriorating internet. If you enjoy what I have to say on this blog and are able to subscribe, I thoroughly appreciate it. Cheers.
120. No Reason to Live - The Price of Disloyalty
Hulder - Verses in Oath
The Goin Nowheres - Hot Moonlight record
Glitterer - Rationale
Friko - Where We’ve been, Where We Go From here
Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt
Amiture - Mother Engine
03 Greedo - Hella Greedy
Various Artists - Virtual Dreams II: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999
Canal Irreal - Someone Else’s Dance
110. Condition One - Another Hopeless Prayer
Ezra Feinberg - Soft Power
Taraneh - New Age Prayer
Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
Samlrc - A Lonely Sinner
Direct Threat - Endless Siege
Upon Stone - Dead Mother Moon
Drook - The Pure Joy of Jumping
Ted Williams - Demo
03 Greedo - Crip, I’m Sexy
100. Tyler the Creator - Chromakopia
Godspeed You Black Emperor - No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
Noah Kesey - Holding Hands Around the World
Roc Marciano - Marciology
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Trauma Ray - Chameleon
Inner Peace - Floorbreaker
Ex Pilots - Motel Cable
The Hellp - LL
Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
90. Necrot - Lifeless Birth
Jezter - For the Amusement of You
Candy Apple - Comatose
Oso Oso - Life Til Bones
Gong Gong Gong, Mong Tong - Mongkok Duel
Nails - Every Bridge Burning
Kuru - re:wired
Fallen God - Dismembered Thoughts and Memories
Kinoue64 - 半永久機関
Her New Knife - nightcore+++
80. Collateral - We Still Know
6arelyhuman - Internet Famous
Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
Hooky - Mirage
Contention - Artillery from Heaven
Alovesopure - You’ll Be a Memory
Speed Plans - D.U.I.
Destroy Lonely - Love Lasts Forever
Little Kid - A Million Easy Payments
Balmora, Since My Beloved - Six Pacts Etched in Blood
70. d0llywood1 - This Is Just a Dream (and soon I will awake)
Nettspend - Bad Ass Fucking Kid
Omilgop - a trail of fading
Drug Church - Prude
Upsammy - Strange Meridians
Dummy - Free Energy
Xaviersobased - Keep it Goin Xav
Floating Points - Cascade
Dimension Six - Remain
Fcukers - Baggy$$
60. Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Sematary - Bloody Angel
Xcelerate - All I See Is Hate
Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud
Boldy James - Penalty of Leadership
The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick - The Iliad and the Odyssey and the Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Blushing - Sugarcoat
Hindsight - Demo ‘24
Big Nick - Dope Music
Advance Base - Horrible Occurrences
Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor
50. Sex Week - Sex Week
Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate
What Counts - Hoosier Style
Future - Mixtape Pluto
Touché Amore - Spiral in a Straight Line
Young Jesus - The Fool
Total Vacation - TV
A.G. Cook - Britpop
Invertebrates - Sick to Survive
Polo Perks, Ayooli, Feardorian - A Dog’s Chance
40. Thou - Umbilical
Sinister Feeling - Sinister Feeling
Kriegshog - Love & Revenge
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
Skaiwater - #gigi
Greg Mendez - First Time / Alone
454 - Casts of a Dreamer
Camila Cabello - C,XOXO
Ka - The Thief Next to Jesus
DIIV - Frog In Boiling Water
30. Glaring Orchid - i hope you’re okay
If It Rains - Demo
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Ekko Astral - pink balloons
Chief Keef - Dirty Nachos
Human Garbage - Valley’s Most Hated
Splitknuckle - Breathing Through the Wound
Candy - It’s Inside You
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
20. Resentment - Left Behind to Suffer
They Are Gutting a Body of Water - Swanlike (loosies 2020-2023)
Twikipedia - for the rest of your life
Doris - Ultimate Love Songs Collection
Four Tet - Three+
Couch Slut - You Could Do It Tonight
Faye Webster - Underdressed at the Symphony
Wild Pink - Dulling the Horns
Being Dead - Eels
Fatal Realm - Demo
10. Sunshy - I don’t care what comes next
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild
Foxing - Foxing
Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Bladee - Cold Visions
Midwife - No Depression in Heaven
Chief Keef - Almighty So 2
Belong - Realistic IX
This Is Lorelei - Box for Buddy, Box for Star
1. Charli XCX - Brat