Honorable Mentions of 2024

Hey, hi, and hello, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. It's time for the start of 2024 List Week.

The best of the year, the worst of the year, the albums, the EPs, the tracks, and everything in between. I mean, just really that stuff for the most part. And we always kick off List Week with a hardy helping of honorable mentions – basically, a bunch of albums and projects that didn't quite make my top 50 albums list, but I still thought were very much worth mentioning because I enjoyed them or they were some significant cultural highlight at some point in the year.

So, yeah, that's pretty much what we are going to get through. Links to reviews and other relevant information on these projects down below. Also, shout out to Austen, who has also done a year-end list of her favorite records of the year, which is also going to be linked down below, so you guys can check that out for yourselves.

And without any further ado, let's get into the Honorable Mentions.

Starting with the Fat Dog album, WOOF.

This band's debut record was incredibly impressive, really showed them to have some fantastic ideas and a killer, undeniable groove moves within the goth rock and post-punk field, some amazing vocal performances as well. It's a little scant, and there are some filler cuts here and there, but still a very impressive first step for Fat Dog, and I'm going to be excited to see where they take their music in the future off this record for sure. So if you're looking for something wild, dark, explosive, check this album out.

Also want to give a shout out to this Kneecap album, Fine Art.

While this album may not be perfect per se. It is incredibly creative, a bold release for an Irish rap trio, and a lot of great story songs in there. A cool song-to-song flowing narrative concept throughout the entire thing. A lot of great politics within the record as well. It's bold, it's in your face, it is unrelenting in terms of its messaging. It's got a lot of personality, too. And yeah, It's not often that you get an amazing breakout Irish rap record, but here we freaking are, Kneecap, Fine Art. There we have it.

Next honorable mention is going to Touché Amoré, who is sounding a solid as ever with just so many records, so many years under their belts collectively as a band, really still putting it down for the post-hardcore scene, for the Screamo scene with this new record. And this album, narratively, is just really all about fighting your way through a depression. It's really cool to hear the band going back to more of a narrative and thematic concept on this Spiral in a Straight Line.

Really loving the storytelling, liking a lot of the vocal performances. There are some awkward moments here and there where I feel like they try to veer out of what they're typically known for, instrumentally and musically. But still, band is sounding ambitious and fantastic to this day on most of the cuts here.

All right. Shout out to The Smile, Wall of Eyes, second album, and the first of two records to drop this year from this side project, which is now getting main project levels of focus from Thom Yorke and company.

And yes, while this album may not have had as many rocking or hard-hitting moments as the releases they put out immediately before and after, this is easily the most cohesive and immersive and eerie album The Smile has done so far. Long term, it has not stuck with me quite as hard as some other albums I loved earlier in the year. But if you are looking for an art rock experience that is very spacy, very abstract, and really explores vast, vast, vast amounts of atmosphere, this is for sure going to be the record for you.

Also digging on this ScHoolboy Q album, BLUE LIPS. There were some overwhelming deep cuts on this record to me, but Top Dog Entertainment was on quite the run in 2024. Project after project after project after project.

And ScHoolboy Q, I think, was the most impressive of all of them with him still to this day, operating very functionally within that mix, very unique mix of gangster rap and also experimental abstract hip hop, too, with the types of instrumentals he tends to favor. Very few artists on the West Coast, and this includes Kendrick Lamar, has quite the odd ear for beats that ScHoolboy Q does. That continues to marry with his very gruff and brash rap style in a super unique way, which is pretty much what made this album special and one of the better and most breakout hip hop records of the year.

All right, we also have Nia Archives. Silence Is Loud is the record Nia Hails from the UK and had a very impressive debut this year. She's really bringing back that jungle, bringing back that drum and bass, but with a lot of soulful vocal leads on top. Of course, this is a sound and a vibe that has always held strong in the UK in some form or fashion. But it's been a while since we've had an artist who's had that level of international breakout that Nia has had lately. It's not hard to see why.

Not only because a lot of the production on this record goes quite hard, but the singing for the most part, is great. And the songwriting across the record is super solid, too. Regardless of whether or not you are specifically a fan of these genres, it's really the songwriting that I think ends up being the major selling point of the record at the end of the day. And yeah, hopefully you guys enjoy this one as well if you have not had the time to give it a shot this year.

All right, next on the list, that would be the new Justice album. Hyperdrama is the title.

While this is not necessarily on the level of Cross from back in 2007, this is handily the best thing the French house duo has put out since Cross. It's just really great to hear them heading back in that French electro as well as synthwave and new disco and then synth funk direction. I think it's really where they should have maintained their focus all along. And while in comparison with their debut, it may still lack some punch of your production, lack some teeth. For the most part, this is like classic justice return to us. Maybe a few vocal features held it back just a touch, but it still goes hard and was quite happy to, again, hear them sounding like they are just back on their shit with this record.

All right, next we have Jean Dawson, Glimmer of God.

Big switch up on this album, big switch up from the boy. If you are at all familiar with Jean's previous work, you know his production and his songwriting run a bit punky, a bit alt-pop, very bedroom, very alternative. But Glimmer of God takes things in much more of a moody direction, a synth-pop direction, even a slight goth direction at some points. It's an eerie record. It's a personal record. It's a beautiful record from Jean, maybe the most emotional emotionally raw and I would say introspective and vulnerable he has ever been for the entirety of an album. I think he took a big risk on this record, and while it may not have necessarily been his strong suit per se. I think he mostly came out ahead on this album and proved himself to be just a super versatile artist who was going to continue surprising us regardless of where he goes and what he does. So yeah, Glimmer of God, really enjoying this one quite a bit. Shout out to that one.

High on Fire, Cometh the Storm. If you like your doom metal, if you like your sludge metal, you're going to want to listen to this.

And most likely, if you're a fan of those genres, you have heard this album already and have most likely enjoyed it because High on Fire is one of the most classic bands in these styles, and they are still holding it down in these genres with massive riffs, with gruff vocals, with some quality songwriting, too. While I think it does blend into the greater High on Fire canon at this point, you can't really deny that they're sounding still to this day as solid as ever. And a few bands are going quite as hard as they are on these riffs and with just some of the thickest, nastiest production out there today in sludge. So yeah, High on Fire. Still doing their thing. The storm has cometh.

Next a shout out to Hiatus Kaiyote.

Their new record here, Love Heart Cheat Code, might be a little choppy on the flow side, but it has some of the best material the band has put out so far, and they just continue with this wholly unique, almost impossible-to-describe blend of soul and funk and psychedelic music and alternative RnB, too. As well as some touches of progressive and even experimental rock on this new album. This album is a wild ride, and what it lacks in overall cohesion and flow for many, I imagine, it just makes up for with raw musical talent, like in terms of the drums, in terms of the bass and guitars, the vocal range that is also brought to the table. The band is just mind-blowingly good. Just such good playing all over this album, and on top of it, just really awesome band chemistry throughout the record, too. But yeah, there's a reason why these guys continue to be one of the most talked about groups out of Australia, and there is no sign of them stopping with the intensity of this new album for sure.

All right, next on the list, that is going to be Doechii.

You may notice I didn't rate this mixtape particularly high, but I feel like I still have to come back and praise this project because of the immense and incredible year that Doechii has had off of this project. And what I feel has proven interesting about this tape is that, for the most part, it seems like Doechii, instrumentally and lyrically, was just trying a little bit of everything, and based on the reception of the project through her performances, through her promotion, has really been leaning into, creatively, what worked on the tape the best and what people responded to the most intensely, and I'm liking that. I think this is just, creatively speaking, Doechii planting a lot of seeds. She's doing a lot. She's experimenting. She's trying a bunch of stuff out, seeing what the best way for her to move forward creatively is. I honestly think that she is going to be the new big torchbearer rap-wise for TDE in this oncoming generation. This is her just like, she's laying the groundwork. She's laying the groundwork here. Even though I'm not coming back to this entire project, there are tracks that I am. In the wake of this project, every single time I catch a performance, a clip, anything, I love it. Now, I don't want to miss it because she's definitely more and more becoming somebody to watch off of this project, and it's just exciting to witness it.

All right, moving on from there. Shout out to The Cure. Songs of a Lost World is the record.

The band has come back after over a decade of studio album silence, and they are sounding fantastic on this new album, especially in terms of the songwriting and the vocals. The production can be a little rough here and there on the record, but it's still a very impressive album, especially on the lyrical side as well, because there is a lot of consistency in terms of an overall focus on end times and a lot of allusions to the band's time in music and their impact culturally being over. In some ways, this record feels like not necessarily their last album, per se. It's not a final album. It's not a final album. It's not meant to be intended to be a final album, but It does seem like an attempt at, let's make maybe what's going to be our final most paid attention to artistic statement here. There is a sense of finality to the writing and just what seems to be Robert Smith's perception of his own artistic shelf life. I'll say that. So it's very meta. It's quite dark, quite moody, and quite good. Very impressive for The Cure to come back with an album that, frankly, went this hard after so many years of them just being on hiatus, essentially.

All right, next. A shout out to Colin Stetson with this album, The Love It Took to Leave You, one of his darkest and oddest projects to date.

The lone saxophonist returns with some interesting experiments and mic placements, and of course, his amazing continuous breathing technique that leads to these immense and just powerful, massive sax pieces that are just unlike anything else that you are going to hear outside of the Colin Stetson discography. While I do think in that catalog, especially with him having come out with another record that was very good recently, this one does pale in comparison, shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of other records I think he's made. Maybe there are some elements of this record I think he could have let ruminate or grow a little bit before he released the album. But still, some of his most out there and most challenging and most powerful and heavy pieces to date, especially that 20-minute track in the midst of the record, are on this album. It is most definitely something to behold in its best moments, that's for sure.

Next, giving a shout-out to, of course, the one and only Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft, one of the better pop releases of the year for sure, with some absolutely gorgeous and moving songwriting throughout.

Her and Finneas really went in a super subtle, super strict back direction on this record, maybe to the point where the sound wasn't as engaging as like her debut. But still, if you're looking for something very moody, dark, low-key, hitting in the most subtle of ways, this is an album to spend for sure.

And finally, also an album that I think appeals big, big, big, big on subtlety, that would be this Arooj Aftab record.

Just such a beautiful, delicate, gorgeous, nocturnal, moody little record elements of folk and jazz and chamber pop, I guess you could say as well. The harps, the upright bass, the instrumentation on this thing is so pretty. It's so rich. Arooj's vocals are very smoky and transing.

And that is going to be my last shout out in Honorable Mentions. Thank you guys very much for watching. 2024 has been a pretty intense and busy year for music all around, as you can tell from this pretty dense list of Honorable Mentions. And I still have 50 albums to go through for my top 50 records of the year. So let's get this list week started. Let's finish off 2024 right. Thank you for coming through.

Anthony Fantano. List Week. Forever.

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