Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you are doing well. It's time for a Great Albums video. Probably the last great albums video of the year, as it is the end of November and next month, we're only going to have a few more weeks left before we get List Week, and I'm going to be compiling all of the best albums of the year. But still, I would like to shout out the best records of the past month or so.

And honestly, this video is still worth doing, even with List Week around the corner, because 2024, musically speaking, is actually ending off very, very, very strong. There's a lot of great releases coming out all over the place that I don't want you guys to miss out on. I don't want to slip through the cracks on you. I mean, Kendrick just dropped a project out of nowhere. I haven't even had time to listen to and process that for this video. I guess we'll see whether or not that makes it on my year-end list.

But for now, what I can say is every project that I mention in this video right here, I think is great, I think is worth your time, depending on if it's your vibe, if it's your style. But some of these you may have heard of already. Some of them you may have not heard of already. So just want to do a shout out to these projects, links to reviews and all that for them down below. So without any further ado, let's get started. These are the records.

Let's start off by shouting out the last album from the great Brownsville rapper, the late Ka, The Thief Next to Jesus. What an excellent record for Ka to drop and to be his final album. Obviously, such a unique and creative rapper that you never want to see somebody with this influence and this artistry go at any time, frankly. But if tragically, Ka had to leave us on a final note here, this is a super strong one. Not only is it pretty much everything that made much of his catalog fantastic already, his trademark delivery, his incredible lyricism. But his beats on this record are absolutely killer. I totally, totally, totally love the amazing concept that he has running throughout this album, where he makes a lot of assessments and criticisms of established religion and the mythology of Christianity, and gets into some personal struggles around that as well.

Again, all around great album. If you've never heard of Ka before, please make this your first entry into his catalog because this record, I think, isn't really a bad place to start for his music as well. Just excellent writing, excellent rapping. But the thing that makes it special and unique is that it's so subtle, it's so quiet, it's so low-key. Ka was really like a master of approaching things in that way, but still making music that is killer engaging and just having a sound that's frankly one of a kind. Because even some of the other more low-key, very understated rappers out there that operate in a similar realm, I feel like, are incomparable because Ka brings or brought so much more to the table than that with his record. So shout out to aa. Many great albums in that catalog if you dig back through it. And again, this is a really powerful and amazing one to end off on.

Next – Chat Pile. Oklahoma band coming through with another sludgy, noisy, heavy, killer assembly of songs. It feels almost like a bit of a continuation of much of everything that made the band great on their last record, though maybe a bit less frightening and bone-chilling at points.

But again, look, this is still very much a heavy, grim album that is such a reflection of the very bleak times that we live in. If you're looking for something that is really going to show you that reflection back of the ugly existence that we're in the midst of, the sarcastically titled Cool World is that record. It's a very cathartic album too. Some amazing riffs throughout this thing. If you're like a Melvins fan, that sort of thing, Jesus Lizard fan, you're going to get a lot out of this record for sure, for sure.

All right, moving on from there. Also loved this new Blood Incantation record, Absolute Elsewhere. Totally killer album, progressive death metal with a lot of different genre blends and passages, including some progressive electronic, too. There's even a Tangerine Dream feature on this record, believe it or not. A cool narrative flowing throughout the album as well. It's very intergalactic. It is very sci-fi at points. This is just a great offering from handily one of the most unique bands in death metal at the moment. So unique and so creative.

Really, their appeal transcends beyond the death metal realm, a genre of music that usually does everything that it can to scare away outsiders, anybody who might not be in for the vibe. I love that Blood Incantation is bringing a heavy, killer, fast, aggressive, grim sound. But also attaching a lot of musical ideas and progressive genre fusions that are frankly very thoughtful and unique.

All right, moving on from there. Geordie Greep of Black Midi fame. First solo record here, bringing together elements of prog rock, of Bossa Nova, of jazz, attached to a very interesting narrative surrounding a guy who just seems to be a bit of a power hungry, douchey, incel type who's paying for women in a sugar daddy context. It's very unique, it's very odd, it's very funny, it's very tongue in cheek, but also like the writing, the performances are absolutely killer. Lots of skilled musicianship on this record, a thrill of a listen, if you will.

If you've enjoyed Greep's very eccentric singing, very over-the-top performances, and very heady prog rock contributions to the Black Midi canon up until this point, you're going to love what the new sound has to offer because it's all of that plus all of these jazz elements and Brazilian music elements. It's really a unique listen, and it definitely lives up to the title of the new sound. That's for sure.

All right, next. Mount Eerie, Phil Elverum, singer, songwriter, home recorder extraordinaire, coming through with a new album, the very lengthy Night Palace. And yeah, on this record, he's really, I think, returning to form in a lot of ways. I mean, big fans of The Glow Part 2, who I think will get a lot out of this record. But a lot of the performances and writing on this record have a direct punchy visceral slacker rock vibe to it. Phil has long been openly a big fan of projects like Eric's Trip, for example. Sebadoh, I would say, to an extent, too. The influence of those projects, Built to Spill. I don't know if he's so much a Built to Spill guy, but if you're into that lofi indie, again, a lack of rock energy. There are a lot of tracks on this that indulge in that.

And beyond that, you have a lot of thoughtful songwriting that deals in his experiences now as a father, his thoughts on the state of the world. And he continues to speak on things like impermanence and nature and comes to a very big philosophical revelation toward the very end of the album that I'm not going to spoil, is certainly very interesting if you're a long-time Mount Eerie and the Microphones listener, and you know the typical narratives and things that Phil tends to sing and write about.

All right, next. Godspeed, You! Black Emperor. No title on this one. As of the time of, I guess, the creation of the record, February 2024, the death count in Palestine, in Gaza, the death toll is the title of this record. I did a review of this album. What is there to say? Godspeed continues to be an essential, amazing, and important music project when it comes to shedding light and drawing attention toward the horrors of the world, the horrors of imperialist Western military policy, of a lot of things.

Frankly, it's really what the band's music has always spoken to, ironically with no lyrics, has always spoken to with the most power and focus and impact. They continue to do so on this new harrowing and moving collection of songs that I think is, frankly, one of their best collections of tracks in a very, very long time, really since they reformed, honestly. So really loving this as well, though it's hard to express the same love for a record like this that you would any other album, considering that it's obviously so clearly and closely connected to one of the greatest horrors that we've had to collectively witness and still continue to collectively witness in the modern age, this genocide.

Next, Laura Marling, Patterns in Repeat. Amazing, fantastic, singer-songwriter record. Laura is absolutely smashing it on a new, very straightforward, barebones set of tracks with amazing guitar and string work all over it. Great lyricism, great balladry, and some of the best vocals, in my opinion, on the singer-songwriter circuit today. It is intoxicating, it is relaxing, it is beautiful, it is moving, and lots of stellar songs about just motherhood as well as a longing for love and a host of other things, too.

But yes, really a great follow-up to her last record. A lot of the same vibes, aesthetics, and everything really feels like a continuation in many ways. And considering how great that Song for our Daughter record was, that wasn't a bad move on Laura's part, frankly. So just an incredible record from her.

And finally, quick shout out to a Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia, the record in the bunch that I think all of you are probably most familiar with. I reviewed it and enjoyed it quite a bit myself for reasons that should be obvious to everybody who has heard this album up until this point. A really great and a thoughtful conceptual record from Tyler with many a focused lyrical song in the bunch. Aesthetically and musically, it feels like a combo of his past couple of records, a little Igor, a little Call Me If You Get Lost here and there, some great bops in the mix, like "Sticky", obviously, and some very powerful and heart-wrenching low-key moments as well, where Tyler is diving into these feelings of paranoia, as well as coming to grips with the connection that he missed out on with his father. Really one of Tyler's most vibrant and personal records yet, that's for sure. It's just been amazing to see him grow and progress as an artist over the years.

A couple of shoutouts to some shorter records. This one Soul Kiss album. It is a collab EP between Haru Nemuri, a Japanese underground experimental rock queen, and Frost Children. Really a crossover that we saw coming out of nowhere. What? How does this even happen? I mean, if you're familiar with each of their catalogs, and I would hope to an extent you are, I've championed the music of each of these artists for a minute now. This is not really a crossover I either would have imagined or could even imagine working, and yet it works so fantastically.

You get everything that makes the music of these two artists, these two acts. It's respectively interesting. You get bits of noise pop and J-Rock, and Frost Children are back doing their electro clash and electropop thing. It is frantic, it is catchy, it is passionate, it is intense, and very colorful, and thrilling. It's just a very unexpected, but also very well-groomed and put together marriage of their sounds on a handful of tracks that are punchy and incredible. So Soul Kiss, just great EP, frankly.

And shout out also to Alice Longyu Gao, Assembling Symbols into My Own Poetry, a new EP/mini-album from them. You guys might remember that Alice made my EP of the Year when she dropped her last one. But yes, this follow-up project sees Alice flirting a lot more with just some more straightforward, less disorienting song structures, really going in more of a pop direction, but it's still a very creative, eccentric, one-of-a-kind experience and listen as Alice's very cutesy creative approach to lyricism and one-of-a-kind personality continues to shine through on this batch of tracks, even when they're taking, I would say, a more traditional, more like, conventional approach to the assembly of these songs.

Again, lots of cute and fun and interesting highlights, whether it's the "Lesbians <3" track or the "yAPPER" track, or even this really cool collaboration with Danny Brown, of all people, which jumps into a lot of different genres in a very short span of time, with some allusions to shoegaze and Bjork and a host of other things. The Danny Brown contribution to that track is great as well.

So yes, killer little project from Alice, who I'm continuing to be impressed and wowed by and definitely looking forward to bigger things down the road.

And that is going to be a great albums, everybody. Great albums and projects to recommend to all of you. You all are the best.

Anthony Fantana. Great albums. Forever.