Music Review Madness 1

I was not exactly a prolific blogger the last half of 2024. I think this was forgivable, I spent most of my mental energies on my recovery programs and writing my thesis (the latter of which I did eventually turn into my longest blog post so far!). I’m not sure how much this will change in the next year, but it has made me feel a bit self-conscious, and maybe lowered my bar to releasing blog posts that are more experimental. And what I did spend a lot of time on last year was listening to music.

For some reason, after finally getting sober, music became much more important to me than it ever had been before. Maybe because my taste changed and opened up a bit while I was still struggling (I especially listened to lots more cathartic music like emo), maybe because it made more logistical sense for me to listen to music with all the time I was spending on my computer working on my thesis, maybe because I was able to focus on subtleties of the music in a way I couldn’t while I was drunk, maybe because I just have an obsessive personality that randomly latched onto something new.

Whatever it was, I started listening more almost immediately, but at some point I also started roping other people into it. Starting around April I would accumulate big lists of albums I was interested in listening to, and then send them to a few chats for people to vote (approval voting of course) to determine what order I should listen to them in. I didn’t do anything special to get these lists, they come from some combination of Spotify recommendations, Wikipedia rabbit holes, Progarchives, random music articles, personal recommendations, and albums I’ve known about forever ¹. At some point, I started writing little reviews of my favorite album or two of the last round to send along with these votes. These were more for fun and a sense of feedback than lengthy thought-out critical reviews, but I figure, while I’m willing to experiment a bit with writing about different things, I could write reviews for the past rounds, edit the newer ones, and shove them all together into something resembling a music review listicle.

These are not my favorite albums out of the 230 considered here – there were some albums from really great rounds that didn’t win their round, but I liked better than winners of worse rounds. I liked “Tea for the Tillerman” better than “Pretty. Odd.”, I liked “Mirage” better than “Les Cinq Saisons”. These are not my favorite albums of 2024 – most of them aren’t even from 2024. These aren’t my favorite albums I listened to in 2024, I listened to some of them in 2025, and there are albums that I loved which didn’t make these lists for one reason or another, like “In Case I Make it”, “Never for Ever”, “The First Glass Beach Album”, and “To Shatter All Accord”. It resembles a listicle, but this post is functionally just a random set of quick reviews of albums I liked. Despite this I will attempt to provide a ranking of them at the end so that you know which ones are good boys and which ones are reeeeally good boys.

My taste is dominated by rock, and particularly weirder, more experimental, more dramatic, and darker rock. I have prejudices in favor of emo, psychedelic rock, and especially progressive rock. I have more minor prejudices in favor of post-rock, math rock, musical theater, power pop, industrial, and grunge. I have prejudices against hip-hop and electronic, but for this reason the S-Tier of these genres has been wide open to me while I’m left scraping the bottom of A-Tier for genres I like better, so both genres still make a good showing on these lists. There’s also lots of metal, punk, pop, indie, alternative, and folk on these lists. I don’t really have a particular opinion on any of these genres, but they often cross-over with genres I do like, and they also all make good showings on these lists. If you agree with some portions of these takes, maybe you will like the albums I review here as well. I hope you enjoy what I have to say about them.

Round 1 (not listed in any particular order):

“Destroy Erase Improve” by Meshuggah

“The Diary of Alicia Keys” by Alicia Keys

“Pretty Hate Machine” by Nine Inch Nails

“Pretty. Odd.” By Panic at the Disco

“We Had Good Times Together, Don’t Forget That” by Sewerslvt ²

“St. Vincent” by St. Vincent

“I Against I” by Bad Brains

Considering this was the first round of voting, I was a bit disappointed by it - I didn’t dislike any of it, but I didn’t really love any of it either. The one I liked the most was probably “Pretty. Odd.” By Panic! At the Disco. In 2005 this band debuted with “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” - their messy, wordy, electronic/cabaret theater-kid-emo masterpiece that made the band the last undeniable addition to the pantheon of third wave emo legends. Three tumultuous years later they made a serviceable ELO imitation. This album doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere, it doesn’t have a ton of internal variety, it’s missing most of the elements the band was best at in its debut, and the genre it switched to, while a favorite of mine, has had more edge and ambition since the Beatles. Insults out of the way, I can’t lie, if any song off of this album came on in isolation I would crack a huge goofy smile. The sound they achieve doesn’t make for a phenomenal album, but it makes for some really joyful songs. The album’s radio hit “Nine in the Afternoon” is great, “the Piano Knows Something I Don’t” is great, “Northern Downpour” is great, beyond that it’s hard to even list because there isn’t a bad song on the album - maybe the cutely apologetic first track is a bit of a miss, but I was so starved for something unsafe by the end of the album that I like it too by contrast. The songs are all lush cozy fantasies and the worst thing about them is that they follow up one of my favorite albums of the decade, the fact that they don’t make for much of a 49 minute listen all put together is only second worst.

Round 2:

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” by Lauryn Hill

“MTV Unplugged in New York” by Nirvana

“When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” by Billie Eilish

“War All the Time” by Thursday

This was a short but good round. The best album was a sort of boring pick, “MTV Unplugged in New York” by Nirvana. Despite the fact that this artist obviously doesn’t need my praise, this album is a bit out of left field, and works way better than it should. Live music is fantastic, but live albums tend to be poorly recorded and hard to hear. This album seems to have been very professionally recorded, all the instruments and vocals are crisp, and the only real difference is the echoey distant quality recording outside of a studio provides, which enhances many songs. There isn’t anything wrong with acoustic instruments, but if a song was originally recorded in a different way it was probably for a reason. The more acoustic sound on this record actually improves many tracks - the combination of crisper instruments and fuzzier vocals really bring out the blues elements of Nirvana - an impression not hurt by the fantastic Lead Belly cover the album closes on. The covers on this album are generally killer - you almost feel sorry for the artists these songs previously belonged to, Nirvana straight up robbed Lead Belly and Meat Puppets on this record. They also improve on previous songs of their own - the “Something in the Way” recording in particular is gorgeous, I think the highlight of the album for me. What can I say against this album? For all the traps it avoided, it can’t avoid the unoriginality. No song on this album came from this album, and it limits how much praise I can give it.

Honorable mentions: “When we Fall Asleep, Where do we go?” By Billie Eilish and “War All the Time” by Thursday.

Round 3:

“Angel Dust” by Faith no More

“Fontanelle” by Babes in Toyland

“Act II: The Father of Death” by Protomen

“Past Lives” by L. S. Dunes

“Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones

“Freedom Flight” by Shuggie Otis

“Big Mess” by Danny Elfman

The best album of this round was “Fontanelle” by Babes in Toyland. Grunge is maybe one of the biggest humiliations the 90s served to the 80s, because it often sounded heavier than the tryhard intensity of thrash metal, just by returning to the slower heavy blues and acid rock sounds of metal from the 60s and 70s. “Fontanelle” is maybe a perfect example of this - it came out between “Nevermind” and “Rage Against the Machine”, it shows in its sound, and it goes harder than Megadeth’s entire chronology. I think it’s an easy mistake to view it only in terms of 90s metal though, the noise rock and hardcore punk elements remind me at least as much of more underground 80s metal like early Swans or late Black Flag. It takes the raw, grinding experimental sounds that these bands droned for five plus minutes and turns them into an alternative, better version of what 80s metal could have been by condensing them into a collection of tight two and a half minute punches to the face. Where this could be overwhelming or repetitive if it was done poorly, the album explores the full range of its sound, from the gentle folky “Quiet Room” to the screeching, evil sound of “Jungle Train”, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. This isn’t just a metal album, but it borrows cleverly from every decade of metal of the 20th century, and winds up with a sound that still makes cohesive sense.

Round 4:

“The Powers that B” by Death Grips

“Liar” by the Jesus Lizard

“Les Cinq Saisons” by Harmonium

“Odelay” by Beck

“Throwing Copper” by Live

“Whitney Houston” by Whitney Houston

“Is the is are” by DIIV

“Lick my Decals off, Baby” by Captain Beefheart

This round was slightly disappointing - this was back when there weren’t that many albums per round, and while I often got lucky, this time none of the albums impressed me that much. That said, there was definitely good material, and the best album was “Les Cinq Saisons” by Harmonium. This album is on the softer side of the symphonic rock spectrum – more Renaissance than ELP, which puts it at substantial risk of dragging. It does a bit, but it is an above average symphonic rock record working in the least forgiving end of the genre. In its best moments it sounds like the most haunting parts of early Pink Floyd, early Genesis, and especially early PFM - particularly its gorgeous mellotron and flute. I don’t want to ding it for being in another language, but for my own experience it means the lyrics don’t help the music along when it does start to drag ed note: Confession: I sometimes read-along the lyrics to songs I’m listening to for the first time.. The superficial premise is the seasons - with each song representing a different one (plus an extra non-existent one). Translated it starts to look, especially in the later seasons, more like a political album. This album was made less than five years after the October Crisis in Quebec, and it’s clearly on Harmonium’s minds. I don’t know if there’s an official interpretation (I’ve heard of a prog blogger who broke down a broadly endorsed interpretation, but I can’t find any archive of it, and sadly at this point I can’t even find the forum post that mentioned the post to begin with), but I think the fifth season represents freedom and reconciliation - independence and peace in Quebec. They don’t even try to save the plodding parts of this piece with lyrics, but fortunately it’s the most gorgeous track on the album, and takes up the full second half.

Round 5:

“Mad River” by Mad River

“Blink-182” by Blink-182

“The Devil Isn’t Red” by Hella

“Mirage” by Camel

“Man on the Moon: the End of Day” by Kid Cudi

“Hi How Are You” by Daniel Johnston

“Lives Outgrown” by Beth Gibbons

“Diary” by Sunny Day Real Estate

The best album from this round was “Man on the Moon: The End of Day” by Kid Cudi. Whenever I try to think of hip hop albums I can compare this thing to, they almost all came out after this. Much of what was good in hip hop in the 2010s was some combination of anticipated by and outright influenced by this record - it is the missing link between Cudi’s tragic mentor Kanye West from his more stable days in the aughts, and a host of artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Brockhampton, Tyler the Creator, and, well, West himself in the 2010s. It’s an intimate concept album about the dreams and nightmares, especially nightmares, of Cudi’s self-insert as he navigates his desire for spiteful short-term freedoms, particularly through drug use, as mechanisms for putting off his increasingly murky long term desires for personal connection, self-control, and “making it”. The sound itself feels like some of the artsier moments of classic rock - buoyant psychedelic synthesizers, high-hanging guitar chords, piano melodies, raw fuzz. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and especially Pink Floyd is obvious, and it fits in with a certain style of retro-alternative rock from this period better than many of its hip hop contemporaries - especially with its never-quite-rap vocals which I’m sure annoy hip-hop purists, but is just the spoonful of sugar a hater like me needs to stay as engaged as the record kept me.

Honorable mentions: “Blink-182” by Blink-182 and “Mirage” by Camel.

Round 6:

“Absolution” by Muse

“Kimono my House” by Sparks

“Hellbillie Deluxe” by Rob Zombie

“Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff

“Mystic Familiar” by Dan Deacon

“Queen II” by Queen

“Since I Left You” by the Avalanches

“Pet Sounds” by The Beach Boys

“Marquee Moon” by Television

“All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison

A tight round, but I wound up settling on the less adventurous pick - the best album was “Queen II” by Queen. I say this pick was unadventurous for obvious reasons, Queen doesn’t need my endorsement anymore than Nirvana did, but this album does sound like a very critical point in their history. The broad conceit of this album was that its first half was written by Brian May and it’s light, and its second half was written by Freddie Mercury and it’s dark, as represented by the shift in its cast of fantasy characters. Despite the fact that neither side actually has a particularly different tone in my opinion, there is an obvious difference in the music. The first half sounds like a The Who cover band with a harrowingly tryhard singer and guitarist. The second half is moody but bright, technically unimpeachable pop prog - it sounds, well, like Queen. The highlight for me, unsurprisingly, is its prog epic, “The March of the Black Queen”, but despite the obviousness of the comparison, it doesn’t remind me that much of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. May is much less important here than Mercury, the vocals are catchy but extremely complex in a way I rarely see pulled off like this outside of Kate Bush or Cardiacs. The album sounds like the story of Queen’s growth into its musical identity as a band, but in moments like this it has an identity all its own.

I also want to give an honorable mention to “Marquee Moon” by Television. This is exactly the sort of album that would alternately be called either proto or post punk by critics entirely based on when it came out. As it stands it’s right in the middle of the two periods in a way that illustrates how artificial the supposed distinction is. Beyond this it is an album with excellent emotional range - the band sounds so at home with both the youthful romantic cheekiness of “Venus”, it’s hard to picture it would sound equally at home six songs later with the exhausted, soulful mourning of “Torn Curtain”.

Round 7:

“WZRD” by WZRD

“The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and the Whipping Cords will Serve you More than the Ropes Will Ever do” by Fiona Apple

“Biophilia” by Bjork

“The Bedlam in Goliath” by the Mars Volta

“Awesome Science” by Humanfly

“Sjukdom” by Lifelover

“In my Head” by Black Flag

“Petrushka” by Igor Stravinsky

“At Action Park” by Shellac

“Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” by SOPHIE

“Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair” by La Dispute

This round the best album was a tie, between “The Bedlam in Goliath” by The Mars Volta and “Biophilia” by Bjork. Two extremely different albums most united by the fact that both of them have a relatively consistent sound, but because of the versatility and uniqueness of these sounds, I didn’t need more variety out of them. “The Bedlam in Goliath” is an overwhelming progressive metal album that, for its intensity, is not particularly “heavy” sounding. What gives it its intensity is relatively low volume contrast and relatively high speed contrast between the instruments, all executed with a technical precision and energy that makes it feel like all parts want to dominate the sound. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds like every part of “21st Century Schizoid Man” being played at once - the Howling vocals, slow dominating guitar riffs, and panicky jazz section. “Biophilia” by contrast is extremely focused and minimalistic. Despite using novel and electronic instrumentation, the closest I can come to describing it is the solo sections of a classical music composition. Many of the songs in some way concern the beginning of the world and the beginning of life, and the minimal, experimental instrumentation really does sound like occasional objects lighting up the dark with little pieces of order. Neither album is an entirely enjoyable listen, rather both are memorable for the unique effects they achieve and how well they explored the space of their own niche alien music.

Round 8:

“Illusory Walls” by the World is a Beautiful Place & I am no Longer Afraid to Die

“To Bring You my Love” by P J Harvey

“Iridescence” by Brockhampton

“Bone Machine” by Tom Waits

“Aratamemashite, Hajimemashite, Midori Desu” by Midori

“The Dreaming” by Kate Bush

“Spilt Milk” by Jellyfish

“Indigo Girls” by Indigo Girls

“Survivor’s Guilt: the Mixtape” by Kennyhoopla and Travis Barker

“Over” by Peter Hammill

“13” by Blur

“Walk Among Us” by Misfits

“August and Everything After” by Counting Crows

This was a really great round, but there was a decisive winner. The best album of this round was “Illusory Walls” by The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. I’ve heard previous music by this band and wasn’t as impressed, but this album was something different - a near perfect execution of emo, prog, and post-rock styles. The first half is the more “normal” one. The longest song is under seven minutes and most are under four. You get a taste of the recurring themes - this is not a politically neutral album, it is overtly socialist, and from what I can glean most likely anarchist as well - typical punk politics but executed with unusual tenderness. There is lots of discussion of the woes of shrinking and deindustrializing working class towns, with particular interest in drug prices, unemployment, pollution, housing insecurity, and the loss of unions - paired with more existential interests in things like fear of death, loss of religion, and family bonds. The second half is a different story. It is almost its own self-contained album consisting entirely of two songs that are each over 15 minutes long. It feels much bigger than the first half and it is gorgeous. I want to include the song immediately before these two, “Trouble”, as an honorary member of this mini-album. It opens up the ideas of the first half of the album to the sound of the second half. Frankly it sounds much too big for its size - bursting with giant slow guitar layers, which the longer songs would spend most of their lengths slowly building up to. These songs explore similar themes, but with different valence - while “Trouble” has a similar anger and anxiety to the rest of the album, “Infinite Josh” feels more grieving and even a bit hopeful, while “Fewer Afraid” slowly builds up this hope to a tone of almost triumph. I was worried at the end of “Infinite Josh” during my first listen because it sounded like a perfect closing epic, and I wasn’t optimistic that “Fewer Afraid”, the longer song on the back of it would earn its place. It does and then some – “Fewer Afraid” works as a 20 minute encore that comes right on time and lasts as long as you want, the conceptual and musical climax of the album, and a reprise, not just of the rest of the album but the rest of the band’s discography. All three of these songs are gorgeously cinematic to listen to at their crescendos, and they feel earned on the back of the rest of the album. It’s a very satisfying album, my favorite off of any of these rounds, and it might also be my favorite album of the 2020s so far.

Honorable mentions: “Aratamemashite, Hajimemashite, Midori Desu” by Midori, “the Dreaming” by Kate Bush, and “Bone Machine” by Tom Waits.

Round 9:

“Ocean” by Eloy

“Agaetis Byrjun” by Sigur Ros

“Animals as Leaders” by Animals as Leaders

“Crying Laughing Loving Lying” by Labi Siffre

“Philosophy of the World” by the Shaggs

“Ants from up There” by Black Country, New Road

“Hellmode” by Jeff Rosenstock

“The Road to Escondido” by J J Cale and Eric Clapton

“Tank Battles” by Dagmar Krause

“Born Under a Bad Sign” by Albert King

“Brat” by Charli XCX

“He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms” by Silver Mt Zion

“Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons” by Blonde Redhead

My favorite of this round was a tie between “Hellmode” by Jeff Rosenstock and “Ants From Up There” by Black Country, New Road. In a way very different sounding albums, but in retrospect they have some notable similarities - both are 2020s albums that sound more at home in the 90s, both have an intimate and even confessional tone that always verges on but never entirely gets whiny. “Hellmode” is more overtly 90s, and despite having the intensity of aughts pop punk, it reminds me much more of the sort of normie/geek-rock sound of predecessors to this sound like Jimmy Eat World and especially Weezer. Every song has a sort of teen-rock anthem ambition, but with the mature restraint of a musician who has learned how to age well, as Rosenstock clearly has. “Ants From Up There” definitely has a 90s post-rock aspect to it, especially early 90s Swans, but it most reminds me of Peter Hammill’s solo material. The low, throat-forward vibrato singing, with a big band jazz-rock style of backing that is much more accessible than their first album – especially the less experimental, more expressive brass section. It probably has better songs on average than “Hellmode”, but it has less range which makes even its best songs blend in more than they could. Maybe it’s just in retrospect because of the mental health departure of the lead singer after this album, but it feels a bit more pessimistic than “Hellmode” too – while both albums are interested in resolving their anxieties through connection to loved ones, “Ants From up There” is gentler throughout, but it doesn’t allow itself even one song with the actual restfulness of “Healmode”. Overall the two are really close for me, and highly recommended for anyone.

Round 10:

“Doomsday Afternoon” by Phideaux Xavier

“Sit Resist” by Laura Stevenson

“Downward is Heavenward” by HUM

“Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)” by the Wu-Tang Clan

“Smile! :D” by Porter Robinson

“Pitfalls” by Leprous

“Flash Desire” by Yabujin

“Honky Chateau” by Elton John

“Follow the Leader” by Korn

“Four Minute Mile” by the Get Up Kids

“The Black Album” by the Damned

“John Barleycorn Must Die” by Traffic

“Terria” by Devin Townsend

“Drones” by the Display Team

I had a lot of difficulty figuring out my favorite from this round. I think I’m going to go with “the Black Album” by the Damned. A well balanced sort of gothy post-punk record, like a more interesting “Unknown Pleasures” (okay, that’s a bit of shade at “Unknown Pleasures”, but otherwise just accurate to the sound). “Silly Kid’s Games” sounds like the 60s, “Curtain Call” sounds like the 70s, “The History of the World, Pt. 1” sounds like the 80s, “Sick of This and That” sounds like the 90s or aughts. It’s similarly ambitious in structure – a double album that definitely takes some cues from prior decades. The first half is a pretty standard album, but the second half is split between a side-long track and a set of live recordings - it doubled up because the mad thing couldn’t decide whether to be “Ummagumma” or “Meddle”.

I’ll also give an honorable mention to “Drones” by the Display Team. I like the attempt - it’s mostly a Cardiacs clone that sometimes grafts on Mr. Bungle or early Panic! at the Disco sounds, but it never settles down long enough to make anything resembling a “song”. Although it’s very interesting, that grates after 42 minutes.

Round 11:

“Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” by of Montreal

“Your Arms are my Cocoon” by Your Arms are my Cocoon

“Demons Dance Alone” by the Residents

“Live Through This” by Hole

“Vessel” by Twenty One Pilots

“Fetch” by Melt-Banana

“Exuma” by Exuma

“Luck and Strange” by David Gilmour

“Icon for Hire” by Icon for Hire

“Fancy” by Idiot Flesh

“Sinner Get Ready” by Lingua Ignota

“I Love You Jennifer B” by Jockstrap

“Madvillainy” by Madvillain

“No New York” by various artists

“The Normal Album” by Will Wood

This was a really good round, and I regularly had the experience of being convinced an album would be my favorite, only to run into a new one that was better. Overall though, “the Normal Album” by Will Wood handily wins. This is one of my favorite albums of any of these rounds – the whole thing has the sort of proggy theatrical composition I like in any genre, but builds it with a really broad musical vocabulary – old favorites of Wood’s like jazz, Latin, carnival, and avant-garde metal, with doo-wop and swing elements pretty unique to this album to just really hammer in the faux normalcy. It has the wordy musical theater sensibility of Bo Burnham, the panicky borderline-emo vocals of Say Anything, and the self-deprecating comic sensibility of both. Everything I’ve heard by this artist is kind of confessional and miserable, but on this album the tone is cut with a conceptual focus more ambitious than any other album I’ve heard from Wood – it pulls off being the thoughtful strange masterpiece about identity and mental health that “Self-Ish” attempted before it with less success. There’s discussion of struggles and failures to locate the self in personal history, gender, social conformity, mental illness, relationships, and metaphysics. The ending song about death is outright fun and light-hearted after the intensity of the rest of the album. The lyrics of this album are brilliant and effortless, the music is brilliant and effortless, and it benefits from relistens. Highly, highly recommended.

Honorable mentions: “I Love you Jennifer B” by Jockstrap, “Fancy” by Idiot Flesh, “Sinner Get Ready” by Lingua Ignota, and “Vessel” by Twenty One Pilots.

Round 12:

“True” by Jon Anderson and the Band of Geeks 

“Flood” by They Might be Giants

“The Astonishing” by Dream Theater

“A Promise” by Xiu Xiu

“People Who Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World” by Andrew Jackson Jihad

“Sky 2” by Sky

“Glow On” by Turnstile

“Any Shape you Take” by Indigo De Souza

“A Crow Looked at me” by Mount Eerie

“I’m Your Man” by Leonard Cohen

“Crossings” by Herbie Hancock

“Savage Sinusoid” by Igorrr

“Plastic Death” by Glass Beach

“The Lost EP 2008” by Rose Kemp

“Vacuum” by Entropia

My favorite album from this round, was probably “Plastic Death” by Glass Beach. A shockingly tight prog album for a band changing styles so much from their last record on an album this long. The mathy musical accompaniment and alternative vocals remind me of a certain era of late 90s/early aughts prog revival, some Radiohead and Tool in there, but especially Porcupine Tree. I wish there was more of the anthemic, sardonic punk theater that made me love “The First Glass Beach Album” - this album sounds less unique, but more consistent in quality, and just as technically accomplished. It’s a great and unusually accessible prog record I can recommend to anyone.

It’s too short and a bit too obvious for me to win, but I also want to give an honorable mention to Rose Kemp’s “the Lost EP 2008”. It, and its last two songs in particular, really give a quick sense of what her musical identity in this period was when you drain away the metal elements. You still feel the patient intensity, the sharp vocals tingling down your spine. It’s soft, but it isn’t gentle.

Round 13:

“Weidorje” by Weidorje

“Strength in Numb333rs” by Fever 333

“Ten” by Pearl Jam

“Peaceful as Hell” by Black Dresses

“Ferried Away” by Stay Inside

“Crime of the Century” by Supertramp

“Spirit Phone” by Lemon Demon

“Continuum” by John Mayer

“Face Tat” by Zach Hill

“For the Girl in the Garden” by S J Tucker

“Out of the Coma” by Comus

“Portal of I” by Ne Obliviscaris

“There Existed an Addiction to Blood” by Clipping

“Buy” by Contortions

“Ghost Tapes 10” by God is an Astronaut

My favorite album from this round was a surprising hip-hop win, “There Existed and Addiction to Blood” by Clipping. This is one of the most brutal albums I’ve ever heard. It won’t please someone looking for a gentle album, but it won’t really please people looking for the cathartic extremophilia of other horror albums either. Instead you get the sense of looking back over your shoulder in the dark. Death Grips is its most obvious point of comparison, but its backing music is much more minimalistic and its vocals much less minimalistic, a flip that adds to the effect of panicking in the dark. The songs themselves have vicious final scenes, but are more often scenes of chase - human predator, human prey. Some of them like “Run for your Life” and “Story 7” also seem to have a recurring element of feminist subversion – perhaps in recognition of the unkindness horrorcore often shows women. It ends with an 18 minute recording of a piano burning, and the cover is black with only images of the ends of nails, like it’s imitating nails hammered out towards the listener from behind. It’s shocking to me a hip hop album won considering my usual taste, but this thing is too darkly thoughtful to ignore, and it will stick with me.

Honorable mentions: “Out of the Coma” by Comus, “Face Tat” by Zach Hill, and “Ferried Away” by Stay Inside.

Round 14:

“Mezzanine” by Massive Attack

“Did you Know that There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd” by Lana Del Rey

“Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up” by Oceansize

“The Gereg” by the Hu

“Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum” by Tally Hall

“Twin Galaxies” by Delta Sleep

“James Blake” by James Blake

“Spiral Bound” by Rebecca Sugar

“Philomel” by Milton Babbitt

“Deep Cuts” by the Knife

“I Hate Jazz” by Mike Krol

“Talking Book” by Stevie Wonder

“Air Conditioning” by Curved Air

“Souls at Zero” by Neurosis

“Evolve” by Ani DiFranco

This round was tough, less because so many were stand-out unambiguous greats, as that all were at least a slight cut below what I was hoping. Overall though, I’m going to go with “Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum” by Tally Hall. Another in a long line of modern attempts to make a new Sgt Pepper, this one retains a refreshing amount of the humor and prog elements, rather than playing it safe with basic upbeat psychedelic pop. The default sound is probably most similar to Jellyfish and (especially on “Two Wuv”) Weezer, but the individual songs vary a lot more, with highlights including the Cardiacs moments in “Good Day”, the ELO in “Taken for a ride”, and the Genesis in “the Ruler of Everything”. The songs are well done and to my taste, but I still can’t help but ding it for its lack of cohesion, and its moments of unoriginality.

Honorable mentions: “Did you Know that…” by Lana Del Rey, “Self-Preserved While…” by Oceansize, and “Evolve” by Ani DiFranco.

Round 15:

“Bon Iver” by Bon Iver

“Raw Power” by the Stooges

“The Whirlwind” by Transatlantic

“Just Got Back From the Discomfort we’re Alright” by The Brave Little Abacus

“A City Dressed in Dynamite” by That Handsome Devil

“Chromakopia” by Tyler the Creator

“The New Sound” by Geordie Greep

“Traveling Without Moving” by Jamiroquai

“Post Human: Nex Gen” by Bring me the Horizon

“Homeland” by Laurie Anderson

“Attosecondo” by Alphataurus

“Undestroyed” by Free Salamander Exhibit

“Blonde” by Frank Ocean

“Samen” by oOoOoOoOoOo

“X Infinity” by Watsky

My favorite from this round is a tie between “Homeland” by Laurie Anderson and “the New Sound” by Geordie Greep. “Homeland” can’t seem to decide whether it’s a political album or an existentialist one – there is definite interest in universal themes of time, memory, birth, and death, but Anderson also wants to make absolutely sure you know that this came out at moment of intersection of the forever wars and the financial crash of this century. The lyrics often have the awkward false starts and repetitions of improvised lyrics, but also drift into some beautiful and damning lines almost out of nowhere - “And you who can be silent in four languages”. Musically there are common elements, but it can also be as unpredictable as the lyrics – “Transitory Life” sounds like Jarboe, “Only an Expert” sounds like Lemon Demon, “Another Day in America” sounds somewhere between guided meditation and villain monologue. “The New Sound” has some similarities, but is more focused. The Black Midi in it is recognizable, but there is less focus on elaborate instrumentals and more on elaborate lyrics, which actually works better for me. The lyrics are mostly about anxious self-aggrandizing men slowly boiling themselves alive in their own unreasonable fantasies. Considering how tragic and how grotesque much of it is, it’s also damn funny a whole lot of the time. Two unapologetically unsettling albums from masters of their craft.

Round 16:

“Gami Gang” by Origami Angel

“The Human Equation” by Ayreon

“Songs the Lord Taught us” by the Cramps

“Mirror Starts Moving Without Me” by Pom Pom Squad

“Twin Fantasy” by Car Seat Headrest

“Fishmonger” by Underscores

“Remission” by Mastodon

“Thin Black Duke” by Oxbow

“Fine Art” by Kneecap

“Hadestown” by Anais Mitchell

“Do not Disturb” by Van Der Graaf Generator

“Chaser” by Femtanyl

“Midnight Marauders” by a Tribe Called Quest

“Curse Words” by Jeff Savlon

“Jubilee” by Japanese Breakfast

This round was a tough one and I have had lots of self-doubt over it in retrospect, but I wound up going with “Thin Black Duke” by Oxbow. Most of the songs on this album sound like they would be at home on “Lark’s Tongues in Aspic”, vast, almost distant orchestral sounds shot through with long angular guitar licks that wander while keeping clean. If it isn’t exactly Fripp’s style, his fingerprints are all over it. If there’s a big difference, it’s that the vocalist is much more relevant to the sound than King Crimson’s ever was. He reminds me most of Michael Gira, but he also likes to do this creepy, whisper singing in places that I can only describe as ASMR Tom Waits. While all of this makes for an unsettling and intimidating sound, it never goes as far down this path as it could, and many of its songs stumble into uplifting beauty almost as if by accident. Easier listening than many contemporary prog albums, but every song is a bit slow-paced. It is an intense, but not an energetic listen, so unless you are in the right mood, it can be slightly dull. Overall though, I think it is still a great record and probably the best album last round.

Honorable mentions: “The Human Equation” by Ayreon, “Gami Gang” by Origami Angel, and “Mirror Starts Moving Without me” by Pom Pom Squad.

Round 17:

“Appetite for Destruction” by Guns N’ Roses

“Brat” by Nnamdi

“Mirrored” by Battles

“Cosmogramma” by Flying Lotus

“The Reality of my Surroundings” by Fishbone

“Tea for the Tillerman” by Cat Stevens

“Fire of Freedom” by Black 47

“Nonagon Infinity” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

“Letter to Self” by Sprints

“20 Jazz Funk Greats” by Throbbing Gristle

“The Wozard of Iz” by Mort Garson

“Food House” by Food House

“The Runners Four” by Deerhoof

“Songs for the Deaf” by Queens of the Stone Age

“Goo” by Sonic Youth

This was another tough one - many very good albums and no stand-out great albums. I’ll keep it broad with another tie, between “20 Jazz Funk Greats” by Throbbing Gristle and “Songs for the Deaf” by Queens of the Stone Age. “20 Jazz Funk Greats” is a late 70s album that sounds like a 90s album. You can hear the darker, more sardonic take on new wave beats some of the greats of the early 80s played with, but more minimalist and alien. All the while slipping occasionally into beats that sound more like hip-hop, or into sounds more similar to their 90s industrial descendants Nine Inch Nails - it sounds like the whole album is being played through an unfriendly smile. Despite this it is not heavy, just creepy. “Songs for the Deaf” is an album from the early aughts that sounds like a record from the 70s. Where Throbbing Gristle reached beyond its decade, and a bit beyond its ability at times, this is a learned album, in a style of vaguely bluesy vaguely hard classic rock that must have been sorely missed by many fans. It is a much friendlier and much cleaner record than the Throbbing Gristle, but it’s a bit of a risk on its own to make a record this safe this long. As a quick aside the best song off of it is the hidden track, “Mosquito Song”, which is kind of a great flex in itself.

Round 18:

“The Long Dark Blue” by Swain

“Warriors” by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis

“The Record” by Boygenius

“Blue” by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson

“Keeping Secrets” by Kicking Daisies

“Muppets: the Green Album” by Various Artists

“Scream from New York, NY” by Been Stellar

“…Because I’m Young Arrogant and Hate Everything you Stand for” by Machine Girl

“Act I: the Lake South, the River North” by the Dear Hunter

“Dedalus” by Dedalus

“Billy Talent” by Billy Talent

“Hope” by Klaatu

“Man Behave” by Flirta D

“Unquestionable Presence” by Atheist

“Tweez” by Slint

My favorite album of this round was probably “The Long Dark Blue” by Swain. It feels much more like what alternative rock was in the 90s than the 2010s, and at its best moments it recalls the master angsters of the era – Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Sunny Day Real Estate, and especially Nirvana. It’s about as cheery as this sounds, not always in a very sophisticated way, but it has a couple quite resonant images of depression - I’m especially fond of the “Creep” dead-ringer “Never Clean my Room”. For all this it probably reminds me most of all of “Fontanelle” by Babes in Toyland. Not just because of the unpolished noise punk element of the album, but also the punchiness. The album is barely half an hour long and the average song is under two and a half minutes. It’s easy to make an unsatisfying album like this, but there’s enough exploration of the range of the band’s sound and ideas that it feels like it’s said enough even as you come away wanting more. Really solid record, especially for fans of alt-rock’s golden age.

Round 19:

“Mahashmashana” by Father John Misty

“The Other One” Babymetal

“A Gradual Decline in Morale” by Kim Dracula

“Doppelgänger” by The Fall of Troy

“Absence” by Dalek

“Captives of the Wine Dark Sea” by Discipline

“Merriweather Post Pavilion” by Animal Collective

“White Light/White Heat” by the Velvet Underground

“The Way Out” by the Books

“Come Away With me” by Norah Jones

“Come In” by Weatherday

“Richard D. James Album” by Aphex Twin

“He’s Not With Us Anymore.” By Casio Dad

“Absolute Elsewhere” by Blood Incantation

“Clockwork Angels” by Rush

My favorite album from this round was “Mahashmashana” by Father John Misty. My favorite albums out of all voting rounds so far were “Illusory Walls” and “the Normal Album”. This album isn’t as good as either, but for that it sounds a whole lot like a cross between them. Thematically it’s a bit closer to “the Normal Album” with its obsession with mental health and identity, fittingly since I found it off of Will Wood’s playlist. It has the Christian apostate angst and maybe a little of the leftist political sentiment of “Illusory Walls” too, but it especially has a similar musical grandiosity. The sound has a lot of orchestral, big band crooning - like “What a Wonderful World” but with the apocalyptic, yearning intensity of Swans. Huge slow pads of sound, with luxuriously smooth transitions between one another, I feel myself sinking back into these songs like a bath of oil. There are songs with a much different musical direction like “She Cleans Up” and “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All”, which are good, but on an album with tracks like “Mahashmashana”, “Mental Health”, and “Screamland”, I can’t give them a higher compliment than I’d give croutons - they contribute some extra texture. This is probably my favorite album of 2024 - a high compliment in an impressive year for music.

Honorable mentions: “Clockwork Angels” by Rush, “A Gradual Decline in Morale” by Kim Dracula, and “He’s Not With Us Anymore” by Casio Dad.

Devin’s final rankings:

1. Illusory Walls

2. The Normal Album

3. There Existed an Addiction to Blood

4. Fontanelle

5. Mahashmashana

6. Ants From Up There

7. Hellmode

8. The Long Dark Blue

9. Queen II

10. Man on the Moon: The End of Day

11. MTV Unplugged in New York

12. The New Sound

13. Homeland

14. Plastic Death

15. Songs for the Deaf

16. 20 Jazz Funk Greats

17. The Bedlam in Goliath

18. Biophilia

19. Thin Black Duke

20. Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum

21. The Black Album

22. Les Cinq Saisons

23. Pretty. Odd.

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