There's admittedly not much variety to this record, but it captures the process of accepting that someone you thought was going to be a big part of your life won't be. And maybe that doesn't have to be very complex or varied, as long as it's done well. Herring's incredible emotion is shown in his voice, especially in dark tracks like "Give Me The Ghost Back." And might I dare say that "King of Sweden" is one of the best tracks of the decade so ... read more

Rosenstock returns with his best-produced album since WORRY. and it does not disappoint. The variety present in this record shows that Rosenstock knows what he is doing not just in his comfort zone of garage-pop-punk, but in calmer genres like "HEALMODE" and epic, long songs like "3 SUMMERS" (which I guess we already knew through "We Begged 2 Explode" and "USA," respectively, but still!)

Favorites: WILL U STILL U, LIKED U BETTER, FUTURE IS DUMB, LIFE ... read more

Easily LCD's worst record but that's not saying much with such a cool band. By 2017 their sound has matured and become slower than it once was in the "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" era. The Talking Heads sound comes through more than ever through tracks like "other voices," and Murphy channels "Somebody's Calling Me" while improving to create "how do you sleep?"

Favorites: oh baby, american dream, how do you sleep?, tonite, call the ... read more

This is LCD Soundsystem's record that best embodies what they do. There's Sound of Silver-esque tracks in "I Can Change" and "Dance Yrself Clean" but also tributes to Talking Heads through "Home" and in my opinion a tribute to New Order's "Blue Monday" in "You Wanted A Hit." Somehow after putting out Sound of Silver, Murphy delivers yet another record without a single bad song and several 10/10 songs.

Favorites: Dance Yrself ... read more

Such a... groovy... album while still extremely well-written and emotional at times. "North American Scum" → "Someone Great" → "All My Friends" has to be one of the best three-song runs ever, right? And there's not a single weak song on the record. Unlike some of LCD's other albums there aren't a ton of obvious tributes to other songs, meaning everything sounds so extremely James Murphy. "New York I Love You" ending off the record ... read more

I saw someone online describe Only God Was Above Us as whimsical, and I think that's the best adjective there is for whatever cohesive insanity this record is. Every song sounds like a jumble of twenty instruments together in a way that you would never think would sound good (see "Connect"), but every song sounds good! It's the most Vampire Weekend record there is.

Favorites: Ice Cream Piano, Connect, Mary Boone

Phenomenal album from Charli, I don't know if I can say anything here that hasn't been said a thousand times before. I really just love the sound that this album has throughout the whole record while simultaneously switching from arrogant—or dare I say bratty—tracks like Von Dutch to melancholy ones like So I. Not often is an artist able to capture the culture of a time so perfectly and gain widespread popularity while also diving into slightly more avant-garde songs. ... read more

Sounds basically like Disintegration but I'm always fine with more Disintegration. Honestly this is not an album that I will come back to very often, but I'm still really impressed that Smith can sing like that at age 65! And there's no bad songs at all, just most of them aren't the absolute best The Cure has put out either.

Favorite: Endsong

With all the praise Imaginal Disk is getting this year, I thought I should check out Mag Bay's other album. On my first listen I actually liked it more than Imaginal Disk. It's very easily digestible and even has a progressive house track?! I'm a big progressive house fan so that was a welcome surprise. It hasn't grown on me as much as Imaginal Disk but a great album nonetheless!

Favorites: Mercurial World, You Lose!, Chaeri

My first listen I would've given this like a 70. Then like an 80. It gets better every time I relisten! Mica's voice is so fucking good and the mixing on every song is perfect but also changes quite a bit throughout the album which I love. So far this is easily my favorite album of 2024.

Favorites: Image, Death & Romance, Vampire in the Corner, Watching T.V., Tunnel Vision, That's My Floor
Least Favorite: True Blue Interlude, but really it works well in the context of the ... read more

Jeff Rosenstock—I wanna let you know while you’re alive, because everybody loves you when you die, but when it matters, they’re not there. So this is my love letter to WORRY. WORRY. is arguably my favorite album ever, and I just discovered it a few months ago. Rosenstock perfectly encapsulates the feeling of anxiety in modern America into 37 minutes and 17 songs. And that’s one of the album’s best features—most of the songs are super short, allowing the album ... read more