The Top 20 Albums of 2024 : 10 to 1

 

This year I expanded what was once the Top 10 Albums of the Year to the Top 20. The Top 10  was limiting considering there are now 20 best-of-genre lists.  a Top 10 often left off ten albums that captured the top spot for their respective genres.  So we are continuing the countdown here in this second part to the top 10 albums  These are the albums I listened to most. When you take into consideration the fact I listened to over 900 albums this year, it's impressive for these albums to have endured the influx of new music that hit My inbox every morning and made me want to hear them again and again. Yes, this is the culmination of all the other lists done up to this point for other blogs and was refined down to this master list of all genres.; So here ya go...

10- Weston Super Maim- "See You Tomorrow Baby"

This band is out to crush you with their industrial-strength metal, possessed by chaotic outbursts of jarring mathematics like a grind-core version of Meshuggah. This album proves you can go to the extremes of heaviness while still having a huge sound. At times electronic sounds enter the fray. Impressive guitar work does not hinder the sheer weight this album hits you with while writing memorable songs. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/08/weston-super-maim-see-you-tomorrow-baby.html

 

 

 

9-O Zorn !- "Vermillion Haze" 

On the darker side of 90s grunge reviving, these guys kept the anthemic slant minimal, and instead cut themselves and allowed the songs to bleed from it. It is heavy with mood rather than hammering at you. This album took me by surprise and exceeded any hopes I had for it, It grew on me more than any other album becoming a staple of my weekly listening due to the honest melancholy that seeps from its pores. If you like grunge, but not the kind for jocks then this will be up your alley. Really can not sing its praises enough. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/o-zorn-vermillion-haze.html

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8-200 Stab Wounds - "Manual Manic Procedures" 

. Less than a year after the previous release, the guys have worked hard to perfect their craft, as this is more nuanced and dynamic songwriting. My only complaint about the first album was that it was so straightforward that there was little to separate it from veterans like Cannibal Corpses. Now they are really bringing it hard this time around. They give the oppressive pounding. Plenty of syncopated punches and little nuances make it clear that this operation is meticulous. Perfect blend of creepy melodic parts, and aggressive hooky riffs. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/death-is-june-200-stab-wounds-manual.html

 

             

7-DEHD - "Poetry" 

Over the years this band continued to grow on me until with this album everything clicked into pace. Their finely tuned garage pop is hookier than most pop on the radio. Some of the songs feel like long-lost classics from the early days of California garage rock, despite this band not being from California. At times this finds Beach Boys sounds colliding with the Velvet Underground. The hooks kept me listening which secured them at the top spot. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/dehd-poetry.html

  

6-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

 

 

5-Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Of the Last Human Being" 

When I place one of my favorite bands on the pedestal of what other bands should aspire to, said band must then meet these exalted expectations. If they are one of the best bands I have ever seen live then expectations are even higher. If they are coming back 17 years later, after you lived thinking their last album was the final chapter, then you can only hope for the best album ever. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum reopened in an attempt to make their best album yet. 2007's "In Glorious Times" is a perfect album, so they were wise not to take it head on but in a more mature step forward, emphasizing more of the chamber music side, while employing all the creepy dissonance they are known for. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/sleepytime-gorilla-museum-of-last-human.html

 

 

4- Crippling Alcoholism - "With Love From a Padded Room" 

This band beautifully captures a darkly honest misery. The singer's raspy voice makes you imagine what it might sound like if Tom Waits fronted Interpol. It took the top spot because the songs are uniquely engaging and this album can be played countless times without getting tired of it. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/crippling-alcoholism-with-love-from.html

 

3-Taylor Swift - "The Tortured Poets Department" 

She managed to beat Crippling Alcoholism, based on this album just being marginally more dynamic and a little hookier, as lyrically the two albums were neck and neck.  There is a reason she has a fantastical cult of fans. If we weigh her other albums again this one there might be more debate, but that is where she is as an artist, Swift only has her own work to measure things against. I think this is at least as strong as her more recent work.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department.html

2-Glassing-"From the Other Side of the Mirror" 

 This band has a history of ruling, and it's not stopping. This album was darker and more melodic, giving me more of what I wanted from them. At times, the screamed vocals offset what might otherwise be creepy bass-driven shoegaze. They get feral and deface your eardrums with their tangible sense of anguish. Though none of this is contrived or thought out from a marketing perspective by a record label this is just where they are, perhaps even angrier than the previous album though there is a wide range of emotional colors being used here making them the best metal album of the year with the inner apocalypse they project outwardly. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/glassing-from-other-side-of-mirror.html

 

 

1-The Cure - "Songs Of a Lost World" 

It's no secret these guys are one of my favorite bands, but that means my expectations were higher. While Smith and friends claiming the top spot will not be a surprise to regular readers or people who know me, they earned this one.  This album sounds like they picked up where they left off on "Wish". Amazingly, they are still inspired to create something so perfect 14 albums later. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-cure-songs-of-lost-world.html

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