#Also I always stop myself putting in soundtracks because then that'd be the whole list but I had to include one

[gryith]

My Favorite Albums This Year

I’m not a big music person, but I still have opinions on music, so here they are for this year. I’ve decided to go with full albums because if I was doing favorite songs of the year I’d hit Tumblr’s character limit, so here we go, top ten albums (if it was 11 there’d be Laurel Hell in here too fyi but what can you do):

LEVEL SELECT - PIZZA HOTLINE

A chill little EP with vibes of the ps1/dreamcast and early ps2 era, and I think every single person born between 1997-2003 has a lot of nostalgia for that vibe.

World Wide Pop - SUPERORGANISM

Whilst not as good as their debut album, this is still a great entry, and the halved size of the band brings a little more musical cohesion at the expense of some of their unique sound. This was, however, the first gig I went to post-covid (I think), so it was a big deal for me and really helped me like the album.

Nisemono - Ginger Root

It’s a short EP but every track is like something playing on the radio in a good memory.

DISCO4::PART II

HEALTH have gone full dark synthwave in the last few years and I couldn’t be happier, and whilst I wasn’t in love with the first album, this one really hits right, thanks in part to the incredible and talented musical guests. 

I Love you Jennifer B - Jockstrap

After being introduced to, and loving, Wicked City earlier in the year I was looking forward to this, and whilst I wasn’t disappointed, I do wish it was as intense as Wicked City, though this is definitely a better album on a technical level.

THEIR MONEY IS YOUR MONEY - 1 800 PAIN

I like when things are good, this is good, don’t fight back on this.

Ants From up There - Black Country, New Road

With the drawn out, progressive structure of bands like The Mountain Goats, the repetative, rhythmic sounds of more experimental artists like Colin Stetson, and the vocals and subject matter of a contemporary indie band like MGMT (not a coincidence that all three of those have made three of my favorite albums), this is a fantastic journey that’s storyful and emotive, and I’ve listened to it countless times since it was introduced to me.

Digital Spool - Jazz Emu

Despite the fact they’re just silly comedy albums, I enjoy Jazz Emu’s new album when it releases every year, and it’s insane how much improvement he’s had musically in just the last three years. Even moreso than the last album; ‘Humilis’, this album has a lot of self-analysis. Many of the songs on the album ask ‘it’s not right that people don’t take my music seriously on a technical level just because the lyrics are silly’, and that’s made clear from the prologue. It becomes more clear during ‘tonally inconsistent’, which introduces that actually you can have comedy tracks and serious tracks on the same album. we then end with Hummingbird, a fully serious ballad about a pastoral type of innocence that’s simple and understated yet subtly beautiful, then the titular song which states the thesis; ‘do you really hear my music? or do you just hear setups and punchlines?’ it’s his best work yet musically, with some great comedy tracks and leaves him in a place where he can go anywhere he wants on the next album.

Mr Morale & The Big Steppers - Kendrick Lamar

When I first heard this album, I remember thinking ‘nah I’m not as into this one’, but then a few weeks later I was overcome with the urge to play it again, and I liked it a lot more, then a few more weeks later the same thing. As always this is an introspective and simultaneously macrospective analysis of people and person that knows when to be aggressive and when to be soft. Absolutely one of the best of the year.

LABJAMS - Michael Whyckoff

Normally I don’t like to include soundtracks in these lists, despite them constitutuing a good 30-50% of what I listen to, and it has been an extraordinary year for soundtracks; from Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nope, Turning Red and Everything Everywhere all at Once to Immortality, the bad guys and Paradise Killer, but BONELAB’s official soundtrack was so good that it transcends just being a score. Featuring several fully vocalised tracks on top of atmospheric tracks and regular score tracks, this album is at the same time cohesive yet jumps around so many styles and tones and feels, it’s a genuinely impressive feat of music and a genuinely great album (scoring a genuinely great game) and I highly recommend it!