Year End List: 2024's Honorable Mentions
Records that got nudged off my list just because I had to keep it to 50 LPs long.
In prior years, I’ve often added my honorable mentions at the bottom of my list as a near-afterthought. Here’s some albums to check out if those other 50 weren’t enough. But no descriptions or ways for that list to be useful.
This year, I figured why not compile my list into one with my reviews from 2024 (or snippets of reviews, or new blurbs for things I listened to without reviewing)?
So here’s that list, a lot of bangers on here but that just goes to show you that 2024 was a killer year for great music. I hope that you find something you dig!
As always, please reach out on the hellsite, the better site, or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
Yu Ching 黃雨晴 - The Crystal Hum (Night School)
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia, Ambient Pop
Very cool stuff; kind of an ambient, distant, atmospheric and obscure pop record. Vague hooks and a lot of reverberating textures bouncing off one another. At times it resembles dream pop and other times it feels more like trying to grasp at an airy mist (non-derogatory.)
There are touchstones - the guitar on "Thunder in Heaven" might bring to mind early Wild Nothing. "The Song of Summer" might remind you of an interlude off a proto-chillwave record that doesn't exist. "John John" has a kind of neo-dub bounce to it. But these comparisons don't really make sense, even if they do pop into your mind.
Dummy - Free Energy (Trouble in Mind)
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Pop, Krautrock, Baggy, Ambient Pop, Dream Pop
Bands that play this sound - basically Stereolab-core - often live or die by an unexplainable element. So why does Dummy work for me? I dunno, but it sounds great, feels good. It's a pastiche of sounds you've heard before, but never dips too far in any direction (I'm so tired of the Shoegaze revival sound that I'm happy to hear they aren't going too far down that road.)
Terminal Nation - Echoes of the Devil's Den (20 Buck Spin)
I listened to Holocene Extinction enough in 2020 that today I was surprised to realize that it wasn't included on my year-end list. They narrowly miss my year-end list again, but I did like this well enough. They've stretched their style a little to its breaking point on some of these songs, as I look at Holocene Extinction and remember that they had more peppering of sub 2 minute songs on there for quicker blasts of intensity. I feel like this is a band that are circling around making a masterpiece, but I like them for what they’re doing regardless.
hey i'm outside - hey i'm outside (Self-Released)
Genre: Indie Rock, Alt-Country
Discovered this via Instagram thanks to the band HEDGE posting about them. Had I prioritized getting something with a twang to it on my list, I think this might have made it. Great record for the car, too. Good indie-meets-twang stuff and a nice 90s slacker vibe to it as well.
Real Bad man & Lukah - Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. (Old Soul)
Genre: Conscious Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Jazz Rap
Real Bad Man came on my radar as a result of helping Kool Keith put out their first top-to-bottom strong album (Serpent) in years. On that strength alone I figured I need to check out more of their production work and so I reached for Temple Needs Water. Village Needs Peace. even though I'm unfamiliar with Lukah's output.
This is really strong stuff, hampered by the fact that it's an hour long. Really starts to drag coming out of the middle stretch, even if the rapping and production remain high quality throughout.
There's a 30 - 40 minute album in here that would land on my year-end list, because I really do think that this is a great pairing of producer and rapper.
RADAR - RADAR (Dead Broke)
Genre: Pop Punk, Garage Punk
Garage punk rock with power pop hooks and multiple singers. Definitely has a "people from other bands emulating a sound they really love" vibe which adds an endearing element. Features members of Adult Magic, The Backup Plan, Giant Peach and The Meltaways. I think I over-index on this kind of thing and that’s why it missed the list, ultimately.
Cosmic Joke - Cosmic Joke (Hardlore, Triple-B)
Genre: Punk Rock
Exactly what an album released by people standing by a storage locker wearing Bad Religion and Ramones shirts would sound like. Even at 15 minutes it's a bit repetitive but like a lot of this stuff it'll hit the spot when you're in the mood. See also: what I said above about over-indexing on this kind of thing.
The Softies - The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter)
Genre: Twee Pop, Jangle Pop
This one was tough for me, because I absolutely love everything about The Softies, but I just didn’t come back to the record enough to get it in the upper-echelon of my rotation this year. Still, an incredibly rock solid reunion album from this now-legacy act. That’s great to me.
HarleyLikesMusic - 2.0 (Data Airlines)
Genre: Chiptune, IDM, Footwork
Really sick, noisy chiptune electronic music with footwork/dnb elements and some of that modern bass-drop wub-wub or (whatever you'd call it) aesthetic merged with the classic crunchiness of the chip/tracker genre. Reminds me of Ultrasyd circa Chipsters EP, which is a huge compliment imo. Cracked up when I realized what "That's a Ten" is sampling from (before I looked at the name of the song to be fair, lol.)
Tim Heidecker - Slipping Away (Bloodshot)
Genre: Americana, Soft Rock, Country Rock
Probably the most consistent album that Tim Heidecker has put out yet. Although consistency means that nothing on this album hits the highs of something like "Work from Home," "When I Get Up" or "Buddy". Regardless, this is 34 minutes of soft Dad country/folk rock and it's a really cozy listen. This might also be compositionally their most mature sounding album, with their lushest set of songs.
Donato Dozzy - Magda (Spazio Disponibile)
Genre: Progressive Electronic, Ambient Techno, Minimal Techno, Ambient
Very soothing ambient techno or spaced out electronic or whatever you want to call it. It's long-form, droney electronic with just enough variation to remain interesting but not so much that it doesn't function as background music. I found this very nice all around and will likely return to it throughout the year so that's a compliment for sure.
Rain Recordings - Terns in Idle (Trash Tape)
Genre: Indie Folk, Slacker Rock, Midwest Emo, Indie Rock
Scrappy emo and indie-rock with some influence from 00s era blog indie rock (aka sometimes they use glockenspiels or clarinets or horns or whatever haha.) This is really well rounded, very nice stuff through and through. Retains enough of the guitar rock elements of 90s indie while leaning into the emo influences as well. You could pinpoint something like Built to Spill as an influence here as much as you could Elephant 6 bands or The Most Serene Republic while also sitting alongside modern emo acts like Oso Oso, Options, etc. It straddles a lot of different lines well, is what I'd say.
Hello Mary - Emita Ox (Frenchkiss)
Genre: Indie Rock, Noise Pop, Math Rock, Experimental Rock
Pretty sure I listened to and enjoyed Hello Mary last year, but that it narrowly avoided being on my list of favorites of the year. Here, they are continuing their exploration of capital "I" indie rock, with soft-loud dynamics, noise-pop guitar and emo-adjacent approach to melodies and song structures. It's a fine line between "you've heard this before and it's average" and "you've heard this before, and it still really works" but this is definitely the latter for me. Can imagine this will get a good amount of play from me this fall, in the car on drives, etc. since it has a lot of shifting tones and vibes to it. Very enjoyable.
Mister Goblin - Frog Poems (Spartan)
Genre: Indie Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk, Emo
I appreciate that this expands on Mister Goblin's sound a bit with some further reaches into more atmospheric indie rock but ultimately I like them most in chunky rock-riff mode and there's a bit less of that here than usual it feels like. Thinking this is a good case for something that will grow on me over time because when it does kick in it hits pretty good and I can see this coalescing together well, but I’m not quite there yet.
cupcakKe - Dauntless Manifesto (Self-Released)
Genre: Hardcore Hip Hop, Pop Rap, Jersey Club Rap, Funk brasileiro, Trap, Experimental Hip Hop
I think my main complaints here would be the pacing ("Connect 4", "Water Balloon" and "Rock Paper Scissors" suffer being placed directly after such an enormous banger) and length. This feels a bit like it is trying to make good on the long wait (6 years!) by being 16 tracks and 45 minutes. The back-half of the album keeps the energy pretty high and so it feels more engaging as a result. "Dementia" and its skittering beats is a late-album highlight for sure. Closer "Cruella" is probably their most overtly political song as well and it ends the album on a high note.
Alvilda - C'est déjà l'heure (Static Shock)
Genre: Power Pop, Jangle Pop, Punk Rock
Another one I went back and forth trying to figure out if it landed on or off the year end list. Very fun power-pop stuff from France. A lot of bands are trying to do this sound, but there's something here that works more than other attempts from 2024. Really well produced and played stuff, has a good indie/jangle aspect to it alongside the expected vintage power-pop instrumentation.
Celia Hollander - Perfect Conditions (Self-Released)
Genre: Progressive Electronic, Chillout, Art Pop, Post-Minimalism, Ambient, Electroacoustic, IDM, Field Recordings
Interesting and engaging progressive electronic with art pop and glitchy or IDM elements. Hard to pin down, but there's a lot of cool textures going on here. Sometimes it's kind of synthy and ambient with percussive arps ("Fire / Fire") and other times it's more straightforward with vocals ("Air / Fire"). Approaches that new age-y nature-y electronic vibe at times without fully becoming a parody too. Probably released a bit late in the year and so I didn’t get to spend a ton of time with it in advance of the year end list.
Mammoth Penguins - Here (Fika)
Genre: Indie Rock
Very nice, cromulent indie rock slash indie pop from this UK act. They cycle through some good energy levels but never get too snoozy or too overwrought or over-arranged. Simple stuff, but effective and breezy.
Marcel Wave - Something Looming (Upset the Rhythm)
Always interested in what members of Sauna Youth are getting up to, a) because Distractions is an album that has really stuck in my mind over the years and b) I enjoyed that Wicketkeeper record which was produced by Lindsay Corstorphine. Sounds like an Sauna Youth adjacent project; noisy and buzzy post-punk guitar rock, etc. Definitely enjoyable for fans of the sound but didn’t stick into my rotation, despite having a strong impression when I revisited for year end time. Will come back to it now and again, for sure.
Other Half - Dark Ageism (Big Scary Monsters)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock
Another album I felt like would be a sleeper and grow on me, but I don’t feel like I gave it the time to. Usually bands like this get more and more accessible over time, and it's not to say this isn't accessible but there's something about it that makes me feel like existing fans will like it more than new ones. They're still mixing Dischord-esque post-hardcore and noisy-yet-melodic indie rock here, maybe with more space in-between for textural quirks than previously. I am still on team Other Half for sure.
Virginity - Bad Jazz (Smartpunk)
Listening to this, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the band uses a pseudo-Weezer "V" logo on their merch. I noticed this was released on Smartpunk Records, which has been good to me in the past for above average punk (see: American Television, Reconciler, etc.)
This has that subdued pop punk thing going on, with a hefty dose of big-W power pop. Very reminiscent of stuff like Rozwell Kid. Might not be the most memorable thing in the world, or the most original, but generally have a lot of time for this sound so I had a good time listening to this and imagine that I will reach for it again when I'm driving around and want something in that vein.
The Dreaded Laramie - Princess Feedback (Smartpunk)
Genre: Power Pop
Power-pop indie-rock breakup record with big hooks and big guitar harmonies. Produced and engineered by someone who worked with PUP so it has that big, big sound for sure. I'm a sucker for the huge riff hook-laden power-pop thing so this lands on the higher end of above average for me.
Rejoice - All of Heaven's Luck (Delayed Gratification)
Genre: Metalcore, Hardcore Punk, Black Metal
Solid stuff and I like that they don't always default to "faster/louder" when they want to get really heavy. This has some good varied moments throughout and a solid amount of groove in the foundation. You can definitely hear the punk elements and metallic hardcore riffs in here. Not something that bowled me over but a nice way to spend 17 minutes.
Drug Church - PRUDE (Pure Noise)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Alternative Rock, Melodic Hardcore, Grunge
There's nothing technically wrong with this album - it is more of the same from Drug Church - but this is the first time I've felt a little fatigued/uninterested with one of their new releases. This hits all the marks you want from a DC album, but again its the first time that it has felt familiar in a middle-of-the-road way instead of familiar in a "hell yeah, here we go again" way.
"Yankee Trails" is a good example of "sounds like a bunch of other DC songs, in a good way" moment on the record for me. "Myopic" was a good pick for single because it's a stronger example of them doing what they do as well.
A lot of times when I feel this way, it just means an album is a grower and over time it'll dig its hooks into me. I like it still, and will definitely crank this up in the car, but this is their first album that didn't immediately hit me in the gut in a satisfying way.
Mandy - Lawn Girl (Exploding in Sound)
Genre: Indie Rock
Great indie rock that borders on power pop and emo throughout. Kind of a good grab bag of sounds and textures without being disparate or unorganized. Only 23 minutes, which is a bonus but also maybe why I didn’t spend a ton of time with it over the year, raw data wise.
Regional Justice Center - Freedom Sweet Freedom (Closed Casket Activities)
Genre: Powerviolence, Metalcore
Have never heard much of this band but saw a lot of press surrounding the release of their latest so I dove straight in on new release morning. Not a whole lot to say about the style of this - it alternates between hardcore breakdowns and faster blasts of classic powerviolence intensity. As dewtaylo over on Rate Your Music wisely points out, this is just a moshable hardcore album that speeds up here and there.
It amuses me that in the RYM comment box there's complaints about the rap moment, when there has always been an intriguing link between powerviolence/grind and rap (hell, SPAZZ had a Kool Keith drop on one of their records.) All said, this is just an effective bit of heaviness that scratches an itch and gets out in under 14 minutes. Sometimes that is all I need.
Dog Day - A T-shirt with Writing on It (Fundog)
Genre: Indie Rock
Dog Day have always been a reliable band. Over the course of 17 years they've released a lot of really strong, consistent material that bounced around in genres and tones. In some ways, "A T-shirt with Writing on It" feels more like a comfortable blanket than an album. I know these voices and I know these types of songs even though these ones in particular are new to me. They remind me of a certain time of my life circa 2011, when I was living in Toronto, seeing 3 or 4 concerts a week, and listening to their first three records a whole lot. Maybe there's something distinctly Canadian about the nostalgia that this album pulls out of me?
Even as the album takes a sad turn ("I Messed it Up" into "Way to Go" ends things on a gloomy note [not surprising for a band self-described as "gloom pop"]) it's feels good to have them back after 4 years.
oso oso - Life Till Bones (Yunahon Entertainment)
Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop, Emo-Pop
oso oso has long had a good amount of power pop in their emo/indie rock sound, so this isn't a new thing, but Sore Thumb continued down that path and on life till bones it's another full step into that sound. Hey, no complaints from me, I love power pop. When coupled with Jade Lilitri's knack for sweet, sugary melodies this goes down real easy as always.
This won't convert anyone who has already written oso oso off as same-y or lacking in the crunch of their earlier work, but if you liked their previous record this is more of the same (in a good way.)
Necrot - Lifeless Birth (Tankcrimes)
Genre: Death Metal
I had a lot of death metal and death-adjacent stuff on my list this year, and it’s not like I didn’t think this album ripped, but someone had to slide off the bottom of the list unfortunately and it was Necrot. This album rules, though.
Ninth Cage - Ninth Cage (Death Binary Records)
Genre: Emo
Melodic emo-rock from members of Year of the Knife and Execute.
Crunchy hook-forward, with a very modern take on the power-pop influenced side of second wave emo stuff. This shows a lot of promise to me, I like really melodic mid-tempo emo-pop and that's exactly what this is. "I'll Never Know" also dips into that emo power-pop-punk sound of the late-90s early-00s too. Lots of little emotive melodic lead lines and dumping octave chords on top of everything. Includes the token acoustic number to round out the tracklist.
MEMORIALS - Memorial Waterslides (Fire)
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia, Post-Punk, Experimental Rock, Indie Rock, Krautrock
At first glance, I though this would sound like most any neo-psych sorta-Stereolab-or-Broadcast post-punk influenced album. I think what makes this stand out in a sea of bands that have the same foundational sound is how experimental it gets. Lots of extended "let's just explore this texture/vibe" segments of the record that were effective for me. A lot more of a sound collage vibe than you might expect from the genres this exists in, or at least compared to a lot of modern takes on the neo-psych/post-punk/etc. thing.
Sovereign - Altered Realities (Dark Descent)
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Technical Thrash Metal
I’m a broken record, but another one that just settled off the list because I was over-indexing on death/thrash stuff and a few of them had to give.
This is labeled as death thrash with hints of technical thrash but I feel like the latter might be a little overstated in the sub-genre tag. There's a gut-level heaviness going on here as opposed to that brainy technical vibe tech stuff usually has. People on Rate Your Music seem to be arguing about a Vektor comparison and I'd have to say I definitely don't hear that level of thing going on here (though I've only heard Terminal Redux.)
Polinski - Meet Me by the Panamax Barricades (Data Airlines)
Genre: IDM, Drum and Bass, Progressive Electronic, Synthwave
One of the highest scored album I left off the list (usually a 4-star rating secures a spot on the list no matter what.) This mostly avoids the issues I had with Polinski’s Telex From MIDI City, where I found it slipped into cheesiness from time to time. There's less of a synthwave aura here, which is appreciated. It's basically an overlap of glitch and jungle/dnb/etc. with some widescreen atmosphere like on the 10+ minute closing track. That's where they start to lose me but it's more palpable here for whatever reason. Overall, good stuff that just didn’t fit on the list for whatever reason in my brain.
Shellac - To All Trains (Touch & Go)
Genre: Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock, Math Rock
A comfortable chair of a Shellac album. Continues doing what they do best - as Drpibisback says in the Rate Your Music comment box: "art rock songs played with hard rock swagger." It's short, it's very good, it sounds great, and listening to it makes me sad about Albini being gone all over again. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t rushing to re-listen to it over and over? Possible.
Bloody Keep - Rats of Black Death (Grime Stone)
Genre: Melodic Black Metal, Symphonic Black Metal, Dungeon Synth
Have to give it up to Abysmal Specter for consistently doing fun projects in the world of various black metal genres and sub-genres.
I can understand why this stuff won't work for some people, it's basically a gimmick and I bet you could level a criticism that this is some kind of meme-metal but... it's fuckin' fun? I'm sure it pisses off the trve black metal heads but that's fine by me. And yeah I know that "actual" melodic/symphonic black metal is a thing but something about the Grime Stone Records mix of synthy carnival ass melodies and black metal vocals works for me much more than something that takes itself overly seriously? Probably would have landed on the year end list had I left Spotify more often to spin this on Bandcamp. That’s my bad.
Big Ass Demo - Big Ass Truck (Self-Released)
Genre: Beatdown Hardcore, Metalcore, Novelty
Sent this to the Tied Down festival group chat before our trip to Detroit and we were all laughing the whole time whenever we passed big ass trucks on the road. I dunno why I find this shit so hilarious, but it's wildly amusing to me. Yeah, it's bargain bin ignorant dumb guy hardcore beatdown shit but add in the novelty of them singing about big ass trucks and dropping truck horns on the intro and I'm game.
Cloud Nothings - Final Summer (Pure Noise)
Genre: Indie Rock, Emo, Power Pop, Post-Hardcore
Didn’t pay close attention to Cloud Nothings discography after Life Without Sound, not because their albums were bad or anything but I just lost interest in keeping up I suppose. This sounds like a Cloud Nothings album! And feels about as consistent as you'd expect one to be as well. "Final Summer" hits really hard and it's a bit tough to match it but the rest of the songs are good and the melodies are above average on the memorability scale. I say it a lot but this is very well rounded. Good riffs, solid hooks... nice.
Dancer - 10 Songs I Hate About You (Meritorio)
Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Punk, Math Pop
I have to admit, part of me leaving this off my main list was probably a bit of “making room for a lesser heralded record” because this seemed to land on a ton of year end lists that I saw. Felt bad about doing it, though.
The thing that strikes me about this album is that it doesn't sacrifice catchiness for the post-punk attitude and sound. I feel like that gets forgotten in certain strains of post-punk indebted indie-rock but this is really catchy right off the bat.
John Davis - JINX (Lost in Ohio)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Power Pop
When I first reviewed this, I was getting ready to describe this as Superdrag-esque power-pop alt-rock with a bit of twang before I realized that hey, John Davis is the Superdrag guy, lol. If you like Superdrag and are craving some more in the same vein, this will do the trick. Good stuff, a little in-one-ear-out-the-other but generally this sound is something I gravitate towards. Very well-rounded.
Tearjerker - This is All We Really Need (Self-Released)
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock, Dream Pop
I'm probably very biased because I've been reviewing and enjoying Tearjerker releases since Strangers in 2010. This is their first effort since 2019 and honestly, not a whole lot has changed since their early work. It's hazy, featherweight shoegaze / dream-pop / indie-rock stuff. I've always admired their textures and they are still pretty spot-on. I think they're incredibly consistent and this is more of the Tearjerker I enjoy and admire.
At 25 minutes including at least three little interlude-style songs this lives up to being called featherweight, but I've always felt like they have something intangible that stops them from coming off same-y even though I'm sure you could point to a bevvy of other acts doing this exact thing.
This is Lorelei - Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Double Double Whammy)
Genre: Indie Pop, Alt-Country, Bedroom Pop, Neo-Psychedelia
While this still feels like a grab-bag of stylistic exercises in the vein of many long-running highly-active bands/side projects, it does land some really good, more accessible moments that hold it all together. "I'm All Fucked Up" feels like the one people will be reaching for the repeat button on, I think, so makes sense it was a single.
Some of this is a bit alt-country, some of it is very Elliott Smith-y ("Two Legs"). Generally the melodies stick and I like these kind of all over the map pop albums so this is in my wheelhouse anyway.
Emilíana Torrini - Miss Flower (Grönland)
Genre: Art Pop, Downtempo, Indie Pop, Trip Hop
Nice album with an interesting story (songs based off the letters from various would-be lovers found in an old friend's mother's belongings after she passed). Skirts around between near-spoken-word electronic stuff, lightly dancable pop ("Black Lion Lane"), instrumental piano ("A Dream Through the Floorboards"), atmospheric trip hop and others. I'm a big Emilíana Torrini fan and I'll always check out what they're up to as I think they're a once in a lifetime talent when it comes to singers.
I do think that they've never quite hit it out of the park when it comes to capital A "albums" (though in their own right, Fisherman's Woman, Me and Armini, Tookah and their collaborations with The Colorist Orchestra are all worth listening to as a whole.)
This is another really solid, well rounded effort to add onto that pile of really solid, well rounded records that dabble in different styles and are all anchored by a beautiful and gorgeous voice.
Cognizance - Phantazein (Willowtip)
Genre: Technical Death Metal, Progressive Metal
I love me some tech death and this is a good slab of that. Incredibly crisp, lots of riff variety and unpredictability. Doesn't sit still very long, but it does manage to whip up a sense of melody and tasteful solo passages that let this stuff sink in. I think I just have a predilection for stuff like this, so I had a good 40 minutes and can imagine coming back to this again soon.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Great list, and as you noted a testament to just how good of year 2024's been for music fans.
Dummy's "Free Energy" spent a lot of time in heavy rotation at my house. Alvilda will be on my honorable mentions list, with Dancer & Cloud Nothings *just* missing the cut.
And I somehow managed to miss hey I'm outside releasing a new record, so thank you for getting that on my radar!