The Top 10 Electronic Albums of 2024

The Electronic albums list covers music that is less organic than what is on other lists, without being pop music. There is a little more button-pushing this year but balanced out by songwriting rather than just cool sounds thrown together. Also, we have a little mix of synth wave, TRIP-HOP, and new wave projects leaning albums. These are not the coolest electronic albums, but the best, fuck what other blogs say. 

  After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of 2024. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Electronic albums of 2024.

10-Master Boot Record- "HARDWAREZ" 

 11 full-lengths into this project, things are getting bigger and more polished. How could they not? The mastermind behind this project is producer Victor Love, who after playing with a live band on tour decided to use actual live guitars in the studio, rather than just over-driven synths. Sonically this album works off the themes that fans are familiar with, some of the songwriting feels more mature 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/master-boot-record-hardwarez.html

9-EIVØR : "ENN" 

There is a difference between exploiting and embracing your culture. This Nordic siren might sing in her native tongue of Faroese, but she is not pulling out folk instruments to play Viking. She owes more to the ethereal darkwave acts of the 80s than any neo-folk. Ironically she is on tour with Heilung who are marketing geniuses despite their primitive shtick. The ambiance is thick, though she is not just about capturing a sound, she is capable of writing songs. It's closer to the dance floor than Enya, but there is a slight new-age meditative quality, even to the more sultry moments

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/eivr-enn.html

 

8-Haunted Plasma- "I"

This Finnish band features members of a guest Oranssi Pazuzu and Grave Pleasures, which was enough to lure me in for a listen, Their sound broods in the realm of darker synth music but has enough melody in its drone to appeal to me. Not the kind of music you are quick to associate with Finland, but the album works to capture the  intended mood 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/haunted-plasma-i.html

 

          

7-JUSTICE- "Hyperdrama" 

This slick button-pushing take on disco is almost too happy for me. But respect what these guys do as songwriters and it made me willing to give the album a chance. Maybe this is what gay clubs are playing these days. If not it should be. Not only was this better than expected it is also one of the better electronic albums I've heard this year.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/12/justice-hyperdrama.html

 

6-Kite- "VII" 

This grandiose synth duo from Sweden has released a lot of singles but has yet to produce a full-length album despite having been an ongoing project for the past 16 years, They have assembled their singles and compiled them here into this album. They are highly skilled at grooves and big sprawling atmospheres, so those skills are showcased here. The vocals are oddly androgynous but work well on the anthemic  jams. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/gothtober-kite-vii.html

5-Ulver- "Liminal Animals" 

Rygg is back on the tip of the smooth groove, making music that comes close to the 80s homage synth-wave bands are making these days. But with a dusky winter haze cast as he coasts down the beachside highway of life, these songs are cruising. Lyrically things are getting darker and more dystopian. He has been watching the news. Took time to grow on me but sunk in. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/ulver-red-light.html

 

4-Amiture - "Mother Engine" 

It's an odd blend of 90s styles that in some ways reminds me of the  Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, as electronic beats are set against more organic melodies.  The vocals have a great deal of emotion to their croon, and the atmosphere draped around the song is thick. I like all the sounds that are in play here. This album feels dark, but not in a goth sense, it is possessed by the loneliness of a solitary road trip. If Luscious Jackson had been a depressed man who wandered the open highways of upstate New York a similar feeling would have been invoked. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/08/amiture-mother-engine.html

 

3-Underworld - "Strawberry Hotel" 

The 11th album from the British electronica icons feels like everything you expect from them. The familiar way they build their songs but then find them incorporating new sounds and dynamics into that formula, which is really all you can ever ask for from an artist like this.I appreciate their willingness to try new things even this late in their career. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/underworld-strawberry-hotel.html

 

2-Chelsea Wolfe -" She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She"

Wolfe's 8th album, yes we are counting "Mistake in Parting" finds her diving into more of a trip-hop feel. That is a trip-hop that is thicker on the trip than the hop. It is propelled by slinky electronic beats and it captures a great mood, though I did prefer the songs on this album when she presented them in her stripped-down ep "Unbound" 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/chelsea-wolfe-she-reaches-out-to-she.html

1-Snow Strippers -"Night Killaz 2" 

producer Graham Perez, and singer Tatiana Schwaninger. have totally killed it here, sonically it's almost like a cross between Charli XCX and Grimes, but on old-school techno drugs. This glitched-out more experimental take on electronica finds the emphasis is on the beats and soundscapes being woven here. Tatiana is not the greatest singer, but the secret to this album lies in how her voice is presented. She has her own charisma in her persona. An infectious listen that got as much playtime as faves like the Cure and Taylor Swift. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/snow-strippers-night-killaz-vol-2.html

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