Released in 1983, Fuuyuu Kuukan is an album ahead of its time. Yes, it’s got its moments of era-appropriate city pop, but other times, it sounds like it could have been made in 2024.
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess
The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess was released in September 2023, but it didn’t really take off till 2024. Part of me really wants to include this album in the Favorite Edition 2024 list, but I will abide by the letter of the law and call it one of the best catalog finds of the year.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
The music in this boxed set is thoroughly vetted, and I’ve even come around to THIS ARMOR, which I didn’t actually like at the time of release.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
John Zorn doesn’t usually talk to the press, but he did speak to Rolling Stone years back about how his ensembles have influenced heavy metal and vice versa. Zorn pushes his collaborators to do things they can’t picture themselves doing, and the resulting performances brim with nervous energy that always sounds confident. All that is on display with Simulacrum.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
The path from Kraftwerk and Roxy Music to the Human League and Duran Duran runs through Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Princess Goes, Come of Age
Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum has truncated their name, and on this second album, the songwriting has gotten tighter. The band’s debut THANKS FOR COMING felt a bit scattered, but on this outing, they’ve created an album that holds together from start to finish.
SZA, CTRL
Yes, yes, I’m a late-comer to SZA, which all you all have known about for the past seven years. (I gave SOS a shot on the streaming services, but I never gave it a second listen. Maybe I should.) The remarkable thing here is that I bought a used copy of the vinyl record. It’s harder to find recent hit albums like this one as used CDs.
Shannon, Let the Music Play
The title track of this album is a classic, but it cast such a long shadow that the album from which it came gets overlooked. No, the remaining tracks aren’t as strong as “Let the Music Play,” but they aren’t complete filler either.
Xenakis Minor, XM1
There is some ferocious piano playing on this sprawling three-track EP, which clocks in at 41 minutes. (I’m not making the rules here. That’s what they call it.) And it’s prog rock. Actually prog rock on a piano, no guitars. Sit with that for a while.
Men, are you OK? You haven’t released an album I could consider a favorite all year. Perhaps by the end of the year, you will be shut out. One can only hope.
Shiina Ringo, Hojoya
Shiina sounds energized with other women to collaborate on Hojoya. My favorite, of course, is her collaboration with Nocchi because it’s really nice to hear Nocchi without a ton of effects.
Beyoncé, Act II: Cowboy Carter
The ambition on this album is on par with Shiina Ringo’s Shousou Strip. I’m just a tad frustrated it’s taken more than 20 years for an American artist to reach that level.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
I’m not usually moved by music from the Romantic Era, but Tiffany Poon’s enthusiasm for Robert Schumann spurred me to learn pieces from the Album for the Young. I can understand why she loves Schumann so much.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
I think I would be more interested in clipping if their albums sounded more like The Collective.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
I would probably put this album on par with No Cities to Love.
Cocco, Beatrice
The storm clouds of Rapunzel seems to have returned.
Reissues
Utada Hikaru, SCIENCE FICTION
I’m not sure I’m on board with re-recording some of the early songs, but as someone trying to salvage some of my own 20-year-old project files from bitrot, I wouldn’t be surprised if some practical decisions went into some of these re-done tracks.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL First Code -2000-2003-
I don’t mind that Onitsuka Chihiro’s various labels have tried to mine this fertile period of her career.
Nakamori Akina, CRUISE (2024 Lacquer Master)
CRUISE came at a time of personal turmoil for Nakamori Akina, and the narrative surrounding this album seems to have doomed it as a lesser work among critics. It’s the first album of hers I owned, so perhaps I have a soft spot for it. But there’s a melancholy to this album that feels genuine.
Catalog
Aran Tomoko, Fuuyu Kuukan
It astonishes me this album was released in 1983. Even in 2024, Fuuyuu Kuukan has some unhinged moments that feel more at home on a Shiina Ringo album. Aran Tomoko has a versatile voice, rocking out on one track, then becoming demure on another. If it were released in 2024, Fuuyuu Kuukan easily competes with Cowboy Carter, brat and Hojoya.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
John Zorn’s Simulacrum ensemble could have easily filled out this portion of the half-year retrospective because only Zorn could bring out the heavy metal in organ improvisation. But this first outing pretty much sums up what you’ll hear on the group’s subsequent albums.
Tyler Childers, Rustlin’ in the Rain
Not gonna lie: this album show up on this list on the strength of “In Your Love” and the accompanying music video. But the rest of the album is also good, and at a running time barely 28 minutes, it’s no-nonsense about delivering those goods.
Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR
It’s clear Olivia Rodrigo is descended from the music DNA that gave us Avril Lavigne, and for some reason, I’d much rather listen to Rodrigo. Rodrigo has the cleverness and grit that I never got from Lavigne, who always struck me as a pastiche of a rocker grrl.
Haim, Women in Music, Pt. III
Oh, so that’s why everyone loses their shit over Haim.
Brian Fennell, Safety Songs
Youthful works from the guy who would eventually launch Barcelona and SYML.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
For years, I’ve been told that Yellow Magic Orchestra has been “influencial,” but I never encountered an explanation of why that’s so. Then I picked up Naughty Boys and could see the connective tissue between Kraftwerk and the many ’80s bands that dominated the airwaves in my youth.
Cocco’s first four albums loom pretty large over her discography, so it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing her subsequent works to that early corpus. That said, Beatrice harkens back to the storminess of Rapunzel and has some of the catchiest songs she’s written since Emerald.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
Leave it to John Zorn to devise a hardcore jazz ensemble consisting of organ, guitar and drums, with the organ part played by John Medeski or Medeski, Martin and Woods.
Tyler Childers, Rustlin’ in the Rain
I’ll admit the video for “In Your Love” drew my attention to Childers, but I also love the concept behind this album: pitching modern day songs to Elvis Presley.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
No era of Onitsuka Chihiro’s career has been as thoroughly mined as her first three albums. With each jump to a new label — from EMI to Universal to Victor — a new compilation comes out to remind listeners what Onitsuka produced in those early years. This latest boxed set compiles Insomnia, This Armor and Sugar High along with B-sides and non-album singles. I didn’t pick up This Armor when it was first released, so it’s nice to have a physical copy.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
It seemed like the band wandered a bit after Janet Weiss’ departure before finding their footing again on Little Rope. It sucks that it came in the wake of tremendous loss for Carrie Brownstein.
Ms. Dynamite, A Little Deeper
I remember seeing this album all over the UK press back in 2002, and I understand now why that was so.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
Poon has such an enthusiasm for the works of Robert Schumann that it spurred me to take out the Album for the Young and learn a few of the pieces geared for adults. Beethoven’s shadow looms over Schumann, but his works have fleeting moments of spice that hint at the coming dissolution of harmony later in the 19th Century. But Poon is not concerned about that future past. She just wants listeners to love Schumann as much as she does.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
I love that Gordon wanted to make this album more “beat-oriented.” I wonder sometimes if this album is what clipping ought to sound like.
Descendants, Milo Goes to College
How much more punk can you get with a 15-track album that totals 22 minutes in length? None. None more punk.
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