Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess
She won me over on “Femininomenon,” when she asked: “Um, can you play a song with a fucking beat?”
Charli XCX, brat
I admit that I actually didn’t like brat on my first few listens. It didn’t have the same ebb and flow as The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess, which is probably not a fair comparison. It just felt limited.
Which is exactly the point. And it took a version of the album redone in Mario Paint Composer to confirm these limitations and also transcend them.
brat succeeds because it spins an epic out of the barest of material.
sungazer, Against the Darkness of Night
I could make a joke that sungazer is what happens when music theory becomes a real boy, but Adam Neely and Shawn Crowder are too good at what they do to make that snark stick. In a video preceding the album’s release, Neely pointed out that Perihelion, the band’s first full-length album, didn’t translate as well in a live setting. So for this second album, they set out to make music to get people moving. Of course, they couldn’t just leave a 4/4 time signature well enough alone. All the rhythmic sorcery of the first album returns, but mission accomplished, guys — this album moves.
SYML, LIVE AT HANGAR 30
I just like hearing Brian Fennell sing.
Johnny Blue Skies, Passage du Desir
Sturgill Simpson the person killed Sturgill Simpson the brand, so to continue making music, Johnny Blue Skies was born. In yet another shift, Simpson has entered his Gram Parsons era, lacking only Emmylou Harris to complement this set of 70s-influenced country rock.
Boredoms, Chocolate Synthesizer
Yamantaka Eye is so tightly coupled with Naked City in my mind that I almost thought this album would sound just like Naked City. Nope. There’s still a lot of noise-making, but it actually feels less chaotic than Naked City.
Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow
I remember seeing this album all over the place in my early college days, but I didn’t feel compelled to check it out. But somehow, it’s managed to exist in the periphery, showing up regularly in thrift shops and used CD bins as years wore on. Curiosity finally got the best of me, and yeah, younger me was a dolt for not following up way back in the early 1990s. But then I wouldn’t have avoided news of singer Jim Ellison’s death by the decade’s midpoint.
Death Waits, Burn Everything Xenakis Minor, XM1
Meta launched Threads in 2023 to fill a void left by the site formerly known as Twitter, and early adopters of the service quickly formed a tight-knit group of independent musicians. Followers of the Music Threads tag will probably encounter posts by Xenakis Minor (@xenakisminor) and Death Waits (@666death_waits666) at some point.
Death Waits is a raucous band that could easily fill the void departed by Torche. Burn Everything, in fact, reminds me a lot of Torche’s final album Restarter. Xenakis Minor, on the other hand, proposes a reality where piano, not guitar, is the main driver for prog rock. XM1 is billed as an EP, but with a running time of 41 minutes over the course of three tracks, that’s just trolling.
I have no clue why city pop became such a niche interest in 2024, but I support any trend that gets Nakamori Akina’s early albums into more ears. Aran Tomoko was an impulse purchase because someone had sold a vinyl reissue to Sonic Boom Records, and I bought it because … hey, it’s Japan!
It’s become one of my most-played albums of 2024. This album is so much more than city pop. It bends genres and indulges in experiments, all the while hewing to the confines of Japanese pop music. It predates the adventurousness of Shiina Ringo by two decades.
Beyoncé, Act II: Cowboy Carter
My immediate reaction after hearing Cowboy Carter for the first time was: “This is the closest an American artist has come to making a Shiina Ringo album.” If Renaissance felt symphonic, Cowboy Carter is operatic. (It helps that Beyonce quotes Tomasso Giordani on “Daughter.”) I’m not even going to get into whether this album is “country” — country is far too restrictive a genre to encompass the ambition on this album. To make a comparison only long-time readers might understand, Cowboy Carter operates on the level of Shousou Strip.
Shiina Ringo, Hojoya
It does seem Shiina has been releasing albums just to compile the last half dozen of singles, but Hojoya is something different. Perhaps borrowing from Beyoncé, Shiina announced the album just days before its release. Half the tracks feature collaborations with female singers, and Shiina sounds positively energized by it.
Nocchi from Perfume sounds unrecognizable without Nakata Yasutaka drowning her voice in effects, but she more than holds her own on “Ui K.O. Kachi.” Ai’s husky voice makes for a great contrast with Shiina on “Shuusha no Koushin.”
Not since Tokyo Jihen’s Sports has a Shiina Ringo album sounded so focused. It’s her best writing in years.
Haim, Women in Music, Pt. III
If I had to judge a band by their press photos, I would have pegged Haim as being an indie folk outfit. So I was surprised to hear they’re way more pop.
La Bouche, Sweet Dreams
Sweet Dreams was a huge hit in my last years of college, but I was too busy trying to get imports of John Zorn’s Masada to pay attention. The title track is indeed a banger, but the rest of the album is no slouch.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
This album is my first encounter with Yellow Magic Orchestra. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long.
Brian Fennell, Safety Songs
Before there was SYML or Barcelona, there was an album with a fresh-faced Brian Fennell going by his own name. Safety Songs is essentially a proto-Barcelona album. Even at this early stage, Fennell’s writing chops already feel well-honed.
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.
I’m enough of a rockist snob to turn my nose up at Christmas music, so imagine my surprise at seeing a fucking Christmas album as a year-end pick. But Matt Rogers takes a piss out of the genre, offering a set of songs sung as earnestly as any pop star with Broadway pipes, but throwing equal measures of irreverence toward religion, gay culture and whatever else the zeitgeist deems important. But if these songs were just straight-up pop extracted from the seasonal theme? Fire. Absolute fire.
Right Said Fred, Up
Yes, Right Said Fred is a one-hit wonder, but this album is pretty solid. No, seriously.
The American Analog Set, For Forever
AmAnSet returns after 18 years with an album that doesn’t sound like the AmAnSet I remember from the 2000s. For Forever is uncharacteristically extroverted if your perception of the band is as frozen in time as mine.
Helmet, LEFT
I read a number of reviews that pointed out the last track on the album was jazzy without mentioning it was a cover of John Coltrane’s “Resolution.” These reviews were on metal-themed sites, so … OK? The rest of the album is a lot more tuneful than the Helmet I remember, a perception admittedly stuck in the early-1990s.
OK, I confess: I started listening to Brian Fennell because he showed up in my social media feed, and thought, “Oh, he’s really cute.” So yes, there may be a halo effect to my becoming a stan. But Fennell has had a diverse career so far. As part of the trio Barcelona, he sang powerfully in front of a driving guitars. By the time he released the self-titled debut album as SYML, that rock vocabulary expanded to include electronics. SYML and Absolutes are the best of Fennell’s early works.
Soundtrack, Star Trek Voyager: The Caretaker
I’m ambivalent about Star Trek as a whole, but do not doubt my devotion to Star Trak: Voyager. Most of that fandom was driven by a crush on Garrett Wang, but I really liked how Voyager felt grittier than other series in the franchise. Jay Chattaway’s scores for the series did their job girding what was happening onscreen, so subconsciously, I perceived there were some avant-grade gestures going on. I didn’t realize the extent till this soundtrack laid it all bare. So much so, Jerry Goldsmith’s theme song feels anachronistic next to it.
Vagabon, Sorry I Haven’t Called
This album is the first of three I’m anticipating in 2023. The others are Water Made Us by Jamila Woods and LAHAI by Sampha. I don’t get the impression Vagabon strayed too far from what made her previous album appealing, and that’s fine with me.
Explosions in the Sky, End
Seven years have passed since the previous Explosions in the Sky album, and they too have made made drastic renovations to their sound, similar to labelmate Eluvium. End actually has some conventional song structures — shocker! — and electronics figure much more heavily this time around. The album starts of strong, but it does flag in the second half.
Jason Isbell, Southeastern (10th Anniversary Edition)
I could go on about how the the live and demo versions of this breakout album provides context and whatever else reviewers prattle on about, but I am a gay man who is not above listening to music performed by an attractive guy. And Isbell is a smoke show on the updated cover of Southeastern.
The Replacements, Tim: Let It Bleed Edition
Hey, you know the guy who produced Living Colour’s debut album Vivid? He updated the mix of the Replacements’ major label debut, and it sounds pretty damn good.
Thomas Frank featuring Airplane Mode, “Burn the Sails”
I don’t usually pay attention to singles, and Thomas Frank is more known for his YouTube videos about productivity and the web app Notion than for music. But Frank, who previously released guitar instrumentals, took singing lessons and applied them to this single. And it’s impressive. I hope he has the gumption for an EP, at least.
Eluvium, (whirring marvels in) Consensus Reality
The last few Eluvium albums felt like they could be interchangeable, but this one? Not so much. Matthew Cooper has expanded his sonic vocabulary to include bona fide string arrangements. This albums feels uncharacteristic of the Eluvium M.O., but in very welcome ways.
SYML, The Day My Father Died
When I was younger, I would spend more time with albums, playing them weeks on end, even the ones for which I felt ambivalence. I don’t do that any more. So it’s rare that an album dominates my media devices the way this album has. Brian Fennell has a gorgeous voice, but he also knows how to tailor his songs for his voice. And they’re really good songs. They kept playing in my head long after the playback stopped. I can’t remember the last time an artist did that for me.
Natalie Merchant, Keep Your Courage
I think Merchant took her own advice with this album title because I don’t think I’ve heard her so confident.
NUMBER GIRL, Mujo no Hi
I didn’t realize NUMBER GIRL’s influence would have enough staying power to bring the band back together for fans who never saw them live in the first place. It was weird enough coming across a video of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION covering “Toumei Shoujo,” which NUMBER GIRL played four times on this final concert of their reunion tour. And they sound every bit as fierce as they did nearly 20 years ago. Paint me a little disappointed that a new album didn’t result from this reunion, but I’m glad the newer generations of fans got to see NUMBER GIRL in their element.
Kesha, Gag Order
Good on Kesha. Drag them.
Danish String Quartet, Prism V
Danish String Quartet’s Prism series paired works of Beethoven and Bach with composers who came in their wake, ranging from Felix Mendelssohn to Alfred Schnittke. Do I totally buy the connections Danish sees between the two B’s and Bartok or Shostakovich? I like the fact the Danish even tried to forge one. The final installment of this series pairs an early string quartet by Anton Webern with Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16, Op. 135. The Webern quartet is a post-Romantic work with an unstable tonality but still fairly lush compared to the austerity his later works took on. Here, the connection with Beethoven is much more apparent.
Sufjan Stevens / Timo Andres / Conor Hanick, Reflections
I read user reviews complaining this album as nothing but modern classical garbage, so I took a listen myself, and no, it’s not garbage. But it is definitely modern classical, perhaps even post-modern. I have a few of Stevens’ indie rock albums, and I find them unoffensive. But this side of Stevens? I can get behind it.
Jake Shears, Last Man Dancing
Shears’ solo debut left not a single impression with me. But this follow-up is — what is that term the youngs use today? Oh, yes: FIRE.
Sugababes, Angels with Dirty Faces
I remember not having enough savvy about pop music to give this album an ambivalent review when it came out. Now that I’ve had a number of decades to reflect on this album and its predecessor One Touch, I have to say it’s a solid work. And it’s an essential album for anyone who wants to get a sense of Sugababes at their finest.
The Donnas, Early Singles 1995-1999
I learned of the Donnas right on the cusp of their signing to Atlantic Records, so I was unaware of their punk bonafides, which these early singles definitively establish.
I’m at an age where I’m not as willing to get past a first listen if I don’t feel an immediate connection, and I nearly gave into that instinct with Raven. But I gave it another listen, and something took hold. Every subsequent listen hooked me further. Now I’m predicting Raven will end up in the year-end favorite list because it just seeped so deep into my subconscious.
Robert Palmer, The Island Records Years
Robert Palmer’s first albums are seriously underrated. He starts of singing blue-eyed soul, but then pivots multiple times throughout his career — first to new wave, then to the hard rock of The Power Station. This boxed set of his Island Records albums stops just past his breakout hit, “Addicted to Love.” And if your perception of Palmer is a dapper guy singing in front of models, then you need this set to get the fuller picture. Palmer always had a great voice, but his curiosity was his greater asset.
Daryl Hall and John Oates, Private Eyes
Hall and Oates had all those great singles that radio pummeled to death. I would like them at first, but after a while, I would want to hear nothing more from the duo ever again. Enough time has passed for me to re-evaluate that legacy, and I have to admit — this album is all kinds of catchy.
Queens of the Stone Age, Like Clockwork …
I like Queens of the Stone Age, mostly because I think Josh Homme is a handsome man. But I do like those early albums up to Songs for the Deaf. But as a casual fan, I can’t say I followed the band much after 2003, so when Like Clockwork … came out in 2013, I wasn’t entirely sold on the favorable critical consensus. Boy, did I miss out.
Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen
This album should have ended up in the 2022 Favorite Edition list as an honorable mention. Natural Brown Prom Queen scratches that reptile part of my brain that digs pop music that takes its shot.
Luscious Jackson, Electric Honey
I’ve only ever owned one Luscious Jackson album, and it’s Electric Honey. I spun this album so much that I actually went to see the band on tour, unfamiliar with the two albums that preceded it. Then I had to sell it for cash when I got caught up in the economic downturn of 2000. But I picked it up again at the thrift shop and marveled at how I could have ever let it go.
I don’t know if Taylor Swift has a Dirty Computer or Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana in her, but it feels like she’s tip-toeing in that direction. I doubt she’d ever go fully weird because her branding is too big to fail.
Judy Tenuta, Buy This, Pigs!
I’ve known about Judy Tenuta since high school, but my media consumption somehow managed never to cross paths with her stand-up. YouTube has since rectified that, and upon hearing the news of her passing, I felt compelled to seek out her comedy debut album, which has so far never been reissued on CD or fully digitized on a streaming platform.
Huey Lewis and the News, Picture This
Sports is the 800-pound gorilla in the Huey Lewis and the News oeuvre, but Picture This is no slouch either. I rather thank it’s been unfairly overshadowed by its immediate descendant.
Hajime Chitose, Shima Kyora Umui
It’s taken me 20 years to purchase an actual physical copy of this album. Hajime’s major label career has mostly ignored these earlier youthful recordings, but they’re super informative on her singing style, let alone how well she adapted it to a pop setting.
Royal Wood, What Tomorrow Brings
Wood calls this album the first he’s didn’t abandon, paraphrasing the quote: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” It definitely shows. He makes some slight but adventurous tweaks to his sound, incorporating more synths and drum machines without losing his folk crooner vibe.
Miami Sound Machine, Primitive Love
The singles from this album were ubiquitous at the time, which dissuaded both my brother and me from staking claim on it. Enough time has passed to reveal those singles to be incredibly durable and fitting well with the album on the whole.
The Dismemberment Plan, Emergency & I
You kinda need to have this album if you remotely like Changes.
I don’t hang out at gay bars, but I’m assuming most of this album is pumping through the PA system of every gay bar on the planet right now.
Ty Herndon, Jacob
I never want Ty Herndon to go through the hell that inspired this album ever again, but holy frak, this album is the most honest art he’s ever produced.
Perfume, PLASMA
I really enjoyed the singles preceding the release of this album, and given that a lot of Perfume albums just collected those tracks into an album, I knew I would like PLASMA. Or perhaps this album is Future Pop: The Apology.
Don Caballero, Singles Breaking Up
Wait, hold up. This is a compilation of singles? Feels like a solid album to me.
Martika, Martika
Radio stations in Honolulu played the hit single from this album, “Toy Soldiers”, to death. So I never perceived much more of this album than that single. How unfortunate. The rest of this self-titled debut is quite the keeper.
Donna Summer, 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection
Donna Summer existed on the periphery of my musical upbringing. Yes, I heard her songs on the radio, and of course, I could recognize her voice anywhere. But I never felt much compulsion to explore her work. So this collection of hits reveals a big honking hole in that upbringing. And my 7-year-old self had no idea “Love to Love You Baby” was that naughty.
Missing Persons, Spring Session M
And here’s another hole in my musical upbringing, despite the fact I do like Warren Cuccurullo (and not just because he posed for a Brazilian gay magazine.)
easy life, Life’s a Beach
Who’s the music director for Kia car ads? It’s because of Kia that I own Black Sheep’s A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and now this album. I stopped short of LMFAO, though.
Omar Apollo, Ivory
Frank Ocean, WHERE YOU AT? Oh, I guess dating Omar Apollo?
Freedy Johnston, Back on the Road to You
I could never quite get into Freedy Johnston’s more boisterous work, but on this album, he’s borrowed just enough from his quieter works to make this rocker of an album quite appealing.
I remember this album causing a bit of controversy among my record store co-workers at the time of its release. Cave In had recorded a number of metal albums till Antenna, which was the band’s major label debut. Antenna does not hide its commercial ambitions, and some of those said co-workers did not like this change in creative direction. Listening back to it, I have to say I really like it, which probably means I would not be the target market for their more metallic work.
Kraftwerk, Techno Pop (a.k.a. Electric Café)
You would think I would already have owned the entire Kraftwerk discography by now, and yet, they are the first band in decades that I’ve discovered through used vinyl instead of used CD. Yeah, I’ve dabbled with downloads of their albums in the past, but I’ve taken an earnest interest in them now. Techno Pop, a.k.a. Electric Café, is one of my favorites, mostly because of the Saturday Night Live skit Sprockets.
Bell Biv Devoe, Poison
When Poison showed up on the Record Store Day 2022 List, I immediately launched Spotify to determine if it were something for which I would want to budget. I was a teen-ager at the time of the album’s release, and I distinctly remember dismissing it as something cooler kids would like. I have since grown to appreciate new jack swing, and yes, I bought this album when RSD rolled around.
Manu Chao, Clandestino
I sold a lot of copies of this album when I worked at Waterloo Records, but I had no curiosity to find out why it was so popular. A few months into the job, I quickly sensed that Austinites on the whole did not like the same things that I liked. But I picked it up for $0.10 at Lifelong Thrift Shop, and I understand now why it’s still a popular album. Chao threads a lot of genres into his music, but he doesn’t get too clever, lest he falls into the Sting trap.
Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and the Right Steppers
The entire album is great, but “We Cry Together” is fucking devastating.
The Linda Lindas, Growing Up
“Racist Sexist Boy” could have just been a flash in the pan, but oh damn, the Linda Lindas got that righteous indignation down pat.
TwoSet Violin, Fantasia
Eddy Chen and Brett Yang are common period guys through and through. I don’t look to them to advocate for Brian Ferneyhough or Peter Sculthorpe. So this EP of original music composed by Jordan He is absolutely on-brand for the duo — contemporary but rooted very much in the 18th and 19th centuries.
![[Chappell Roan - The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ChapellRoanTheRiseandFa335317_f.jpg)
![[Aran Tomoko - Fuyuu Kuukan]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2022333105HAO8_f.jpg)
![[Cocco - Beatrice]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Cocco2024323255D5L1_f.jpg)
![[The American Analog Set - For Forever]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/amanset-for-forever.jpg)
![[Thomas Frank - Burn the Sails]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ThomasFrankAirplaneMode311716F3GX_f.jpg)
![[Kelela - Raven]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/KelelaRaven2023309483DJHX_f.jpg)
![[Taylor Swift - Midnights]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/TaylorSwiftMidnights2022305009_f.jpg)
![[Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BeyoncRENAISSANCE2022303045_b.jpg)
![[Cave In - Antenna]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CaveInAntenna2003286962_f.jpg)