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falloutbradreviews · 5 months ago

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It’s The End Of The Year As We Know It (And I Don’t Feel Fine)

Wintertime is here, folks, and that means a few things: Christmastime, as well as the various things that are associated with this time of year, and what’s come to be known as “list season.” This is my favorite time of year, because I love looking at people’s lists, since everyone is guaranteed to have such a different outlook on what their favorite albums have been throughout the year. I know that my list is not going to be exactly the same as nobody else, because I listen to a lot of different music at different times, but that’s the fun of it. I love seeing what everyone listened to throughout the year, as well as what everyone hated, too. I’m not as negative as I used to be, but I still love seeing a worst of list. You’ll see mine, too, and I decided to do it this year because I listened to enough bad albums that I didn’t expect or anticipate to be just that.

This list, however, is going to be the stuff I really enjoy! I tried to keep my lists small this year, and challenge myself by highlighting the best of the best (and what really stuck with me throughout the year), so aside from a top ten, I also wanted to highlight a handful of honorable mentions. I only have another 14 albums in my honorable mentions, but when I say these are the best of the best, these truly are the best of the best, folks. I’m going to start with those, and they won’t be in any order, but they’re all still worth hearing, nonetheless.

Honorable Mentions

Rain City Drive - Things Are Different Now

Starting with an album I didn’t expect to have on this list at all, it’s the new Rain City Drive album, Things Are Different Now, and this record isn’t the most innovative or most unique sounding, but they really hit their stride with this one. They perfected their R&B meets Octanecore sound, and if I had to pick a few albums in this vein to check out, this would be one of them.

Green Day - Saviors

Speaking of another band I didn’t expect to highlight here, Green Day’s new album, Saviors, is an album I surprisingly enjoyed quite a bit. It’s also nothing special, but Saviors is Green Day doing what they do best, and coming back to their punk roots by knowing what works within their sound. Now I’m not quite a diehard fan of these guys now, but I really enjoy it, nonetheless.

The Story So Far - I Want To Disappear

Pop-punk seemingly had a bit of a turnout on my list this year, because there are weirdly a lot of pop-punk records, especially when I’ve gone on record to say that I’m not the biggest fan of the genre anymore. With that said, most of the albums on my yearend list are either from bands I already like, or in the case of The Story So Far’s I Want To Disappear, this is their best album (especially for coming out six years after their last). It’s more or less an alternative album with some pop-punk influence, but it’s a lot of fun.

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

I hate to say this, despite being a big metal guy, but I don’t have a lot of heavy metal / heavy music on my list. One exception, however, is Judas Priest’s Invincible Shield, which is also their first in six years. This record, like 2018’s Firepower, it shows them operating on all cylinders, even if it doesn’t do anything that they haven’t done before. It’s just impressive that these guys are in their 60s and 70s, but they’re still putting out awesome stuff.

Usher - Coming Home

Usher’s back with a new album, too, and this time it’s his first in eight years (six if you don’t count an EP from 2018), but this is a great mix of classic R&B, pop, and hip-hop. It’s not quite his best album, but at the same time, Usher’s voice hasn’t gotten any less fantastic. His voice is what steals the show, and if you enjoy that, you’ll surely love this album.

Fluorescents - Scream It At Me

Another pop-punk album on the list, but this time it’s a debut album from Chicago band, Fluorescents, entitled Scream It At Me, and these guys remind me of the 00s “neon pop-punk” scene, complete with bright synths, catchy melodies, and a 2010s scene aesthetic. This is one of the most fun albums I’ve heard all year, and it just radiates joy every time I listen to it. If you love that kind of sound, you’ll absolutely love this album.

The Ghost Inside - Searching For Solace

Metalcore has had a pretty cool year, and I got a handful of those types of albums on the list, but The Ghost Inside’s second album after their six-year hiatus. Even then, this is their first album in four years as well, but this record is a fun, engaging, energetic, heavy, and catchy metalcore album. Sure, it’s got a bit of an Octanecore feel to it, but at the same time, this album is solid for what it sets out to do. I kept coming back to this album throughout the year, and it’s a great and cathartic album for metalcore fans.

SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Coup De Grace

If I had a nickel for albums released this year with the title Coup De Grace, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Too bad one of those albums isn’t good, and I’ll mention it on my worst of list, but the good one is the new SeeYouSpaceCowboy album. I’ve loved this band for years, but this album is the culmination of their sound. This record is an amalgamation of 00s alternative music, including elements of metalcore, post-hardcore, pop-punk, and even dance-punk. If you loved and grew up with 00s alternative music, like I did, you’ll instantly feel like you traveled back in time to that era, but in the best way.

Denzel Curry - King Of The Mischievous South, Volume 2

Rapper Denzel Curry came back this year with one of my favorite albums of his, King Of The Mischievous South, Volume 2, and this reminds me a lot of his 2019 album, ZUU. That album was a love letter to Florida, and the 90s and 00s influences that Curry has from his home state, but this record is a love letter to the south in general. Mainly serving as a bandleader, so to speak, he brings aboard a slew of southern artists, as well as southern adjacent artists, to have a lot of fun and pay homage to the 00s southern hip-hop sound.

Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible

A metalcore supergroup featuring every member of Every Time I Die, except for Keith Buckley, and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Better Lovers’ debut album, Highly Irresponsible, was one of my most anticipated albums, but it delivers. This album is kind of predictable, because if you’ve heard either band, you’ll know what to expect, but at the same time, it’s done well, so I really can’t complain. If anything, maybe their next album will be more interesting and push boundaries, but this debut is still quite good.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby - The Future Is Our Way Out

The debut album from Brigitte Calls Me Baby probably wins for most unique album of this year, especially for its brand of rockabilly meets 80s post-punk meets modern indie rock. Their vocalist reminds me of a mix of Morrissey (without the pompous attitude and racism) and Roy Orbison. It can get a bit messy at times, especially where their sound is a mish mash of stuff, but it has a really cool foundation, so I bet their next album is going to iron out those kinks in their armor. In the meantime, this is a really solid and unique album that surprisingly works really well.

Neck Deep - S/T

One of the final honorable mentions is the latest album from Neck Deep, which is just a self-titled album. This album came out in January, weirdly enough, but it was something I kept revisiting throughout the last handful of months. I mainly came back to this when it was warmer out, and the weather was perfect for pop-punk. This is one of those albums that isn’t anything super unique, but their sound ultimately goes back to their roots, yet they have a wiser mentality this time around. For that reason, I really enjoy this album, but with pop-punk having a real good year, I didn’t want overload my top ten with nothing but pop-punk albums.

Justin Timberlake - Everything I Thought It Was

The comeback Justin Timberlake album, Everything I Thought It Was, is one of those albums that came and went without much fanfare. It wasn’t hated, but at the same time, JT’s star power has faded over time. He isn’t the big name he was a decade ago, but this new album is still a quite good. If anything, he does what he does best, which is upbeat and catchy R&B, soul, and funk. The album does drag a bit by the end, and the lyrics aren’t very good most of the time, but I’m also not listening to a JT album for its lyrics. This album has some of my favorite moments from him, and some of my new favorite tracks, but it’s a shame that people don’t quite care about him as much anymore.

Now that the honorable mentions are out of the way, it’s time for the meat of the list, but these are the best of the best from 2024. A lot of times, I like to reflect on the year as a whole, and this year is no exception. I think it’s safe to say that this year was full of ups and downs for people, but it was a rocky year full of tragedy, political uproar, and negativity that we just need to escape from (and also fight against). These are my top ten favorite albums of this year, and these are the albums that I either went back to the most, I thought about the most, or that made some significant impact on me this year. There are no prerequisites for genre, sound, style, or type of artists I have here. They range from pop-punk to rap and hip-hop, but I love all kinds of music. With that said, let’s get into this, starting with…

10: Out Of/Into - Motion I

This is the most recent addition to the list, hence why this album is at number ten, but this band is a jazz band featuring some of the brightest and most talented musicians in contemporary jazz today. Specifically on the legendary Blue Note Records, these musicians almost all recorded other albums, but came together for this one. Originally called the Blue Note Quartet to celebrate the label’s 85th anniversary, they changed their name and dropped this banger of an album. This is some of the most fun, energetic, and unique jazz I’ve heard in 2024. A really great album that I wish came out sooner, but an album I needed to mention, nonetheless.

9: Bilmuri - American Motor Sports

Country has had a good year, too, although I didn’t hear too many country albums I loved. I heard a handful that I really liked, but the only one that came close was the new Bilmuri album, American Motor Sports. Bilmuri, known for his work with Attack Attack in the mid-00s and early 2010s, went on to form this band, but this is my favorite introduction to his work. This album is a country and metalcore hybrid, and you’d think this would be a joke or parody project, but it surprisingly isn’t. Bilmuri plays it straight, especially with the lyrics being very heartfelt and quite good for what they’re doing. The breakdowns are crispy, the hooks are catchy, and the twang is great.

8: Lil Dicky - Penith

Lil Dicky dropped his first (and only) album in 2015, and while he was still around, he didn’t release any projects since. I think he should have dropped more stuff, because it would have made his star power even higher, and he would have remained relevant even longer. He isn’t irrelevant, per se, but Penith is his first album in nine years, and it’s also off the heels of his FX comedy, Dave. Starring himself as a fictionalized version of Lil Dicky, the show is a great example of how Internet culture and hip-hop culture intersect, as well as what it’s like to be a viral star trying to be taken seriously (Lil Dicky himself was a viral star when his debut came out).

The album serves as a soundtrack to the show, so the songs on the show are on the album, and that ultimately makes the album better for me, but the album is a lot more poignant and mature than his debut. The songs are also catchier, and more relatable, because they’re more about him as an artist, and who he is, not just the jokes he can make. It’s more introspective, but I can see why people wouldn’t like this; the album does make more sense in conjunction with the show. The show puts a lot of context into these songs, and they hit harder for that, but they’re also really, catchy, and poignant in a few spots.

7: State Champs - S/T

I had a lol of pop-punk albums on my honorable mentions list, but aside from one coming up later, my favorite pop-punk album of the year is the self-titled State Champs album. I loved their last album, Kings Of The New Age, because it had a youthful energy that I hadn’t heard too much in the genre lately, even if it was rather generic in spots. This new album, however, takes that youthful energy and combines it with a world weary and wiser sound, at least lyrically, while also pulling from the 00s. This thing is super tight and catchy, all the while remaining poignant and interesting.

6: Lupe Fiasco - Samurai

Lupe Fiasco’s a rapper that I hadn’t listened to in years before Samurai came out, but this album is a masterclass in making straightforward and easygoing jazz-rap with some fantastic bars and rhyme schemes. Lupe sounds amazing, per usual, but this record is really short and sweet, ultimately making for a memorable listen that I always want to go back to. This record has hooks and lyrics for days, even if it doesn’t do anything that I haven’t heard before. Sometimes that’s all you need, because it rules.

5: Knocked Loose - You Won’t Go Until You’re Supposed To

In the beginning of this list, I mentioned that albums on here will be ones that I went back to quite a bit, that I thought about, or that had some kind of impact on me. The new Knocked Loose album, You Won’t Go Until You’re Supposed To, is one of those albums that I haven’t gone back to much this year, but it falls into the latter two categories. I’ve thought about this album a lot, and when I do go back to it, I love it. This album has made an impact on me, because it’s the one heavy album I heard that really did something unique and different, versus being the same things I’ve been hearing for years. This album is their heaviest and most unrelenting, but it’s also most interesting conceptually and musically. They opt for a darker sound, as well as darker themes, but it works insanely well. This isn’t a super accessible or catchy album, but it’s a damn good one.

4: Childish Gambino - Atavista

Donald Glover, otherwise known as Childish Gambino, not only dropped two albums this year, but he also had a TV come out (Mr. & Mrs. Smith was that show, and it was one of my favorite shows of the year). I didn’t care too much for the second album he put out this past summer, Bando Stone, but I liked the first one a lot. That was Atavista, which was a finished version of a record he quietly put out in 2020, including some new songs and reworked songs, but this thing is a great journey through R&B, soul, and hip-hop. I hate to say this, but this is what Kanye West should be sounding like in 2024, not whatever he’s been doing.

3: Bayside - There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive

My favorite pop-punk album isn’t really a pop-punk album, because it has elements of hard-rock and alternative rock, but that’s the new Bayside album, There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive. I’ve been a fan of these guys for a long time, especially with 2007’s The Walking Wounded, and this album comes close to that for me. It has a diverse sound, the hooks are great, the vocals are top tier, and the guitar riffs are crunchy and heavy, so this has all the makings of a solid Bayside album. The lyrics are a bit lackluster in spots, but they’re fine. The hooks and the vocals really make up for it, especially when this band has gotten on my nerves for making the same album over and over again in recent years, but this is such a step up.

2: Kendrick Lamar - GNX

When I first put together my list a few weeks ago, Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album was only just a couple weeks old. GNX totally shocked people, myself included, but I absolutely love it. This record served as the victory lap for Kendrick, even after the amount of embarrassment he caused Drake in 2024. It’s a good thing that I waited so long to post this, too, because I’ve spent a lot of time with this album, so I’ve been able to let it simmer more. I put it lower on my list for the same reason I have Out Of/Into’s debut at ten, because I didn’t spend a lot of time with it, yet I do quite love it, but I’ve been listening to this religiously. Songs like “Luther” and “Blue Dodger” absolutely rule, and I can’t get enough of how fun this album is.

1: Linkin Park - From Zero

My favorite album of the year is something I never thought would happen. Well, two things, actually: Linkin Park getting back together with a new singer, and said comeback album being something I truly connected with. Linkin Park announced a reunion seven years after Chester Bennington passed, as well as a new album, entitled From Zero. The name represents two things: their name before they became Linkin Park, and the fact they were starting from zero. With new singer Emily Armstrong, of Dead Sara, the band dropped From Zero, and this album is a master class in how to move forward while also honoring your past, and this is the album that truly got me into Linkin Park.

I never quite got into the band growing up, and over the past decade, I’ve struggled to really get a grasp on them, but listening to this and their whole discography showed me that I quite respect and love this band (some albums more than others, but I respect their experimentation). This is the cream of the crop, though, and I absolutely love it. From the razor sharp hooks, the dual vocals that work so well together, and the lyrics that are broad yet relatable enough to get into, and the diverse sound that pulls from a lot of their albums, including Mike Shinoda’s debut solo album as himself from 2018, it just all works so well. It’s also a tight 32 minutes, so it’s such a short listen, and because of that, I want to keep listening to it over and over again.

Worst Of The Year

Something different that I wanted to do this year, and it’s something I haven’t done in maybe a decade, which is a worst of list. I like highlight the good music that came out, but bad music is out there, too. Just like with the best of list, this is personal. Out of everything I listened to this year, these albums were the worst. If you love them, great, but don’t whine to me about it. These albums aren’t good, and whining about how much you love them won’t change my mind. I got a few honorable mentions to kick things off, because I wanted to have a top ten (plus one honorable mention) but I still wanted to highlight a few other albums, starting with…

Honorable Mention: Kerry King - From Hell I Rise

Earlier this year, Kerry King put out his debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, and I enjoyed it for what it was. It was a solid, albeit generic, thrash album with some pedigree behind it. Having former and current members of Slayer, Vio-Lence, and Death Angel is impressive, but at the same time, it didn’t amount to much to when Kerry King wrote the songs. King is a decent guitar player, but this sounds like the last few Slayer albums after Jeff Hanneman passed away.

If I liked this album when it came out, why is here now? Well, in a lot of cases, I end up going back to stuff more and more, but I’ve gone back to this album less and less, although I wouldn’t say this album is bad, per se. It’s just generic and bland, especially when I can get better thrash elsewhere. I really liked it when it came out, but the more I thought about this album throughout the year, the less I was enthusiastic about it, so I wanted to put it as a late honorable mention on the list, versus actively putting it on there, because I don’t think this album is that bad, but it’s really forgettable.

Bastardane - Catatonic Symphony

Bastardane is the brainchild of James Hetfield’s son, and these guys have a pretty cool sound, but this album just isn’t it. Their debut was pretty rough around the edges, but it was an interesting mix of sludge metal and thrash metal, although it was nothing special. It was fine for what it was, but Catatonic Symphony is way too long with no sense of focus or direction, and it just doesn’t sound good. Maybe third time’s the charm, but this album left a bad taste in my mouth.

Capstan - The Mosasic

You can copy and paste the same thing with the new Capstan album, The Mosaic, because this record is a huge mess, as well as being way too long. The difference is, however, I really enjoyed their last album. It was a cool mix between pop-punk, math-rock, and post-hardcore. This album, however, really tries to force in a lot of other sounds that aren’t needed. It has a few cool moments, but there are some genuinely baffling and awful choices on this thing.

Cassadee Pope - Hereditary

Singer Cassadee Pope is a pretty good singer, all things considered, but her first rock album since her time in Hey Monday with the late 00s, Hereditary, just isn’t good. Truthfully, this album isn’t the worst of the year, but it sounds so lazily put together, haphazard, and boring, I just didn’t like it. I wish it was better, and a few songs are kind of interesting, but it sounds so uninspired, this record felt like it was put together by AI.

Okay, onto the list proper, and this is gonna get bad, so if you need to take a break or step away, be my guest. These are the worst albums I’ve heard all year, starting with…

Kittie - Fire

The biggest crime of Fire, which is the comeback Kittie album (their first in 13 years), is that it’s so boring, bland, and forgettable, it has no reason to exist. That sounds harsh, but they didn’t update or modernize their sound whatsoever. It’s straight out of 2004, but in a really bad way that makes me question why I even listened to this in the first place.

Powerflo - Gorilla Warfare

This is the newest album on the list, as it just came out within the last month, but Powerflo is a supergroup with some prominent guys from 90s and 00s rap-metal bands, including Downset, Fear Factory, and Biohazard, as well as a member of Cypress Hill. The pedigree is there, but the quality is not. This is their second album, and while listening to this, I kept wondering why this was made. This is super generic rap-metal, first off, but the lyrics and vocals are some of the worst I’ve heard all year. There are a few cool songs, which keeps it from being higher, but this album was so painful to listen to.

Katy Perry - 143

Katy Perry’s had a nosedive of a career falloff within the last handful of years, especially with her last couple of albums not doing the same numbers her first few did, but 143 is such a massive misfire. This album is another AI-generated album, but it’s so bland, forgettable, boring, and lackluster that it kind of hurt to listen to. Not to mention, there’s a painful “feminist” track on this album that sounds like it’s both ten years too late and trying so hard to pander to women. If anything, this record shows how she’s fallen out of public favor.

Jax - Dear Joe,

Remember that insufferable song with the lyric “I know Victoria’s Secret,” and it was about how men actually control the beauty industry, but it was by an artist named Jax. I forgot all about it until she dropped her debut album, and it’s some of the worst pop music I’ve ever heard. It isn’t the worst album I’ve heard all year, partially because what she talks about here is good, it’s how she talks about it that isn’t good. This is just some of the cringiest pop music I’ve ever heard, especially with how dated a lot of the songs immediately are for their Gen Z slang and meme references. If you needed an example, the album referenced the “hawk tuah” meme right when it first got popular.

Nothing More - Carnal

Nothing More is one of my most hated bands, both because they’re just not good, and because they’re a pretentious band that acts like they’re more interesting than what they are. Their new album, Carnal, exemplifies all their worst qualities, whether it’s throwing in stupid and pretentious samples of speeches that have nothing to do with the song or content, lyrics that are just as pretentious, or a sound that isn’t anything special, but they act like it’s super unique and innovative. Spoiler alert: it’s not. The first third of this album was cool, and it was slightly interesting, but the album devolved into a pretentious mess, and it completely lost me.

Skillet - Revolution

This is another one of the most recent albums on the list, but I hate Skillet. Even aside from frontman John Cooper becoming weirdly Christian and looking like a youth pastor trying to appeal to Gen Z, they’ve almost always been bad. Some of their early stuff is fine, but they’re just the epitome of bad hard rock. Revolution is the kind of album that has no reason for existing, as this thing is 35 minutes of hard rock that sounds like it’s from 2014. This thing sounds dated as all get out, complete with lyrics about revolutions and “rising up,” and generic riffs and choruses that all sound like stuff you’ve heard before. This album isn’t so much outright bad, as it is lazy, but that in turn makes it bad.

Hardy - Quit!!

Look, I liked Hardy’s last album, the overly long The Mockingbird & The Crow from 2023, but even then, I knew how ridiculous some of that was. I liked it, because it had some good hooks, and didn’t take itself too seriously, but Quit? Man, this thing is just awful, whether it’s from the title track that has Hardy complaining about how his haters told him to quit all those years ago, and he, well, won’t, to songs that are obnoxiously terrible and featuring Fred Durst, of all people. This album sucks, and I don’t know how his sound could get any worse, but here we are.

Eminem - The Death Of Slim Shady

Speaking of artists I hate, Eminem sucks, and let’s stop pretending that he’s still an influential and important rapper in 2024. He isn’t. The Death Of Slim Shady is a record that clearly wants to have his cake and eat it, too, by “killing” his most revered character but all the while revisiting and utilizing that shtick in the first place. What’s the point of killing that character when most of this album features him? There are also a lot of really awful, tone-deaf, mean-spirited, and unfunny bars that make fun of random kinds of people. Yeah, he makes fun of everyone, but he’s 50, so why? This album should have been “okay, boomer,” because Eminem’s age is really showing here.

Falling In Reverse - Popular Monster

If it isn’t Ronnie Radke, the metalcore wannabe Eminem (or Tom MacDonald, depending on who you ask), but I’m not surprised a new FIR album is on the list. Popular Monster isn’t even a proper album, because most of these songs are from the last five years, so he only put this out to appease his record label, and actually give them an album. Go figure, though, this thing sucks. It’s got everything you expect from new Falling In Reverse — awful white boy rapping, generic metalcore, lyrics about how misunderstood he is, as well as lyrics that are about “cancel culture” for some reason, because Radke has turned into a conservative mouthpiece in the last handful of years. This album is just bad, but who am I kidding? I knew that before the album even came out.

Aaron Lewis - The Hill

And Popular Monster isn’t the worst of the year, it’s Aaron Lewis’ new album, The Hill. I knew as soon as I heard this album that this would remain unchanged for the worst of the year. This album is a hilariously sad attempt at a country album from a guy that isn’t even from the south, but has been making bad country music for the past decade or so. Only now, he decided to move into the MAGA territory, and the lyrics on this record are as bigoted, racist, and xenophobic as ever. The music itself is just as bad, but it’s the lyrics that take the cake for me. This album is just pure trash in every sense of the word, especially for its blatant racist ideas and lyricism.

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