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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October's Top 10 Albums

It's time for October's top 10 albums. Staying abreast of the month's highlights might help casual readers see what they missed and check these artists out. I am not writing little blurbs on them and just linking the reviews. I am using this to organize my lists for the end of the year, by listing the genre of music the album falls under. Inclusion here does not mean that these albums have been released this month, but it is a list of new or upcoming albums I have enjoyed the most, I have albums in my in-box that are not coming out til next year so I am normally way ahead of the curve in this regard. They are ranked in order of what I have listened to the most. This month there is a wide variety from Folk to Black Metal so you may find your new favorite among them. Here are the Top 10 albums for  October of 2024.

10-Vision Video - "Modern Horror"

Post-punk 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/gothtober-vision-video-modern-horror.html

9-Seven Hours After Violet - "S/t" 

nu-metal 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/seven-hours-after-violet-st.html

8- 49  Winchester - "Leavin This Holler" 

Country 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/49-winchester-leavin-this-holler.html

7-Kite - "VII" 

New Wave 

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

6-Drug Church - "PRUDE" 

Punk 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/drug-church-prude.html

5- High Vis -"Guided Tour" 

Punk

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/high-vis-guided-tour.html

4-Nachtmystium- Blight Privilege "  

Black Metal 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/nachtmystium-blight-privilege.html

3-Chat Pile - "Cool World" 

Sludge

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/chat-pile-cool-world.html

2-DEATH KILLER - "Total Destruction of the Entire Universe" 

Industrial 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/gothtober-death-killer.html

1-Chelsea Wolfe- "Unbound" 

Folk 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/chelsea-wolfe-unbound.html

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Gothtober- 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 "Hand Out the Drugs". While their song generally pulses off the melodic theme they establish with few surprises, they are still skilled enough songwriters to muster hooks. This applies even when things simmer down to more of a ballad. 

In some ways they remind me of Sigur Rios, in how the dynamics float, but without the post-rock instrumentation and more like applying it to Pet Shop Boys like new wave sounds. This is heard pretty clearly in "Don't Take the Light Away". There is also a touch of Kate Bush in the feel of "Teenage Bliss".  I can hear how fans of Fever Ray might dig this as it shares a similar odd vibe. It gets labeled Dark Wave, but this project is goth in the same way Cocteau Twins are, the darkness is veiled in ethereal wonder. "Demons and Shame' is the first song I would say is dark. Goth in the same way Zola Jesus falls into the genre. 

"Glassy Eyes" has a touch of folk to the vocal melody. "Bocelli" finds the vocals taking on a less biting tone. This also creates another more balladic moment. "Bowie 95 " is the first time we hear the vocals drop into a lower more masculine voice. If I was DJing a goth nite it's the song by them I would fit into the mix. 'Panic Music" has a weird youthful vibe to it. Some of the synths feel like 90s house. "Losing" features Anna Von Hausswolff, it's a pretty haunting song. The vocals are really well produced. Henric De la Cour also adds his voice to the choir. "Hopelessly Unholy' is a great song title. It's the orchestral version, giving it an almost Rufus Wainwright feel. There is no doubt he is a great singer, but he does make so weird choices in phrasing. "Hum Hum' is the last song, it's not far removed from the spectrum of sounds they have indulged in so far. Less emphasis on the vocals, making it feel almost more like an outro. I will give this a 9.5, it's pretty spectacular, like taking in a movie with your ears. 

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