2024! 2024 ushered in such a fruitful year for music. The early 2020s have seen what I feel to be a reshaping of the music scene. Noisy, genre bending, internet nerd loving albums have slowly found their way into the mainstream. With the general listening community open to more weirdness, artists have not been making compromises. As the year was wrapping up, I found myself particularly excited to make the annual mad dash of listening to all “the best” albums of the year. This exercise is tedious, frustrating, and confusing at times, creating lots of larger questions. How can a publication with so much funding and staff really think that album was worth mentioning? Why do we feel so protective of our own music tastes and almost offended at differences? Does objectively good music exist? Why are there so many internet tastemaker yelling their favorite things into the void? Well, I’m not too sure, but I was left with a craving to shout my opinions and give the precious Glyptodon readers a 2024 albums of the year list.
THE LIST:
Meaning’s Edge
Djrum
Genre: Electronic
You will not be bored listening to Djrum’s Meaning’s Edge. From chaotic breakbeats to windchime hymns to head banging bass sections, Meaning’s Edge drifts across decades of electronic music with its own unexpected twist. There’s a perpetual feeling that each track will break into nothingness and lose its thread, but over and over again some magical sound will pull the instrumentation together and give the listener direction. With much of the modern electronic scene blending and sticking to basic formulas, Djrum provides a refreshing mix up, exploring a broader range of emotions than typically offered by the genre. This one will definitely be staying in my rotation. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s feeling a bit bored with the current state of electronic music and looking for a glimmer of hope.
All Kinds of Days
Good Sad Happy Bad
Genre: Indie/Alternative
All Kinds of Days evokes a nostalgia for the current moment. The album is an ode to the mundane, creating a dream-like realm out of basic life occurrences. GSHB is not afraid to experiment with song structure. Each song feels like an unexpected discovery. The batch of songs is not as much a statement but an attempt by the band to work through concepts in real time with the listener. GHSB has grown in their sound, and ideas from their 2020 album, Shades, are continued and expanded on. As horn melodies layer over warm and fuzzy guitar riffs, All Kinds of Days is a journey through the new sounds coming out of the London indie rock scene.
Eels
Being Dead
Genre: Rock
I’ve had a hard time not listening to Eels on repeat recently. Being Dead created a crunch with this one that has me quite addicted. Their brand of rock feels timeless, evoking du-wop sounds of old while feeling very new and aggressive. Each track builds on the dream world that Being Dead lives in where imagination exists as reality. Of course, Being Dead being composed of Austin locals builds my personal allure to this album. I can’t help but insert the album as a backdrop to my year. I hear a lot of my home city throughout, and it just feels right to cruise around Austin blasting the album’s second track “Van Goes”. Compared to their past works, Being Dead’s weirdness is pointed and mature. I’m really excited about the direction they’re going in; I hope to see them around the city and give each member a respectful hand hug.
QWERTY II
Saya Gray
Genre: Indie Pop/R&B
I’ve always found Saya Gray’s music interesting and fresh but for some reason or another was never inclined to give her past works much listening time. While browsing some internet hole in my cubicle (my preferred doom scroll locale), I saw a recommendation for QWERTY II and gave it a shot with little expectation. Fast forward and my most played songs of the year are the first three songs of the album in order. QWERTY II is in its own lane, mashing together what seems like most imaginable instruments tinged with ad libs done by members of Saya’s family. The work plays through as a continuous story of personal growth and anger. Sounds from the latter half of the album reference earlier tracks, and a feeling of desperation with acceptance is present throughout. Saya feels fed up, creating the work out of pure necessity. I simply love this album. Maybe its more of an EP, but I don’t care. It feels complete to me….
I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU
JPEGMAFIA
Genre: Rap
“If I was an NBA player, I’d be Dillon Brooks, but worse.”
Peggy comes in hot, very hot, with the newest addition to his universe. I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU is a celebration of success, personal diary, study of internet culture, and general dis to society. The instrumentation from song to song is totally unpredictable but just makes sense. Many of the songs approach Death Grips territory while being totally JPEG and staying beautiful. The album is one of the few examples of hip hop and rock being used to build on each other rather than cancel out. The beginning of the album has a consistent high energy but keeps me head banging in new ways. Also, the features are perfect. Bringing on Vince Staples and
Denzel Curry, Peggy anoints the contemporary rap trinity (of course King Kendrick stands on his own). After the hype of the first half of the album, the tone switches and “either on or off the drugs” finds Peggy introspective and melodious. The back half of the album continues in this way as Peggy reflects on his career and relationships. My personal relationship with this album is heightened by the experience of seeing him play live earlier this year. It’s a rare opportunity to see an artist play at the prime of their career, and Peggy had the crowd in the palm of his hand. This album will not be soon forgotten.
Some honorable mentions:
I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy
Great Doubt - Astrid Sonne
Twice Around the Sun - Ugly(UK)
The Sunset Violent - Mount Kimbie
Cascade - Floating Points
Oh, Brat and GNX were pretty good too.