Fastball... a name I swear I thought I'd never see that name again. Interesting. I saw Whiskeytown open for them way back in "The Way" days. Interesting, I'll have to give this a listen. Thanks for the list!
Well done, guys! As some of you know, I don’t tend to do rankings, so I cannot imagine how difficult it must be, especially if you’ve been enjoying a significant number of new releases.
I’m curious to know — if you collect vinyl (as I for sure know at least two of you do), do you try to get these records, your new favourites, on wax?
Oh that’s great! Must be a great way to make the shortlisting process a bit easier. The albums you cared enough about to get them on vinyl were surely more meaningful than the ones you enjoyed but didn’t get round to buying.
I have zero space to add any records at the moment, so I'm sadly streaming new music. My 1500 or so LPs are essentially my archive from the 60s-80s with a dash of '90s and a smattering of 21st-century records. Also, today's prices are out of my salary range. I come from the days when new releases were 7.99 and most stuff could be gotten used for 4 dollars or less. Convert to Euros as needed.
Nice to see this collaborative end of year feature returning! Many of these albums made their way to my ear this year, but there are definitely some previously unknown albums here for me to enjoy!
Aluminum’s “Fully Beat” definitely feels worth exploring based on the selected song.
Wow, the inclusion of Fastball really made me sit up and take notice. I was one of those that always considered them a one hit wonder (in the same way that I’d incorrectly labeled Nada Surf) and I enjoyed the track I heard here, more investigation required!
Five of my top forty albums are reflected here as well, a couple of which are in my top ten.
Stay tuned for my lists, the first one’s right around the corner!
Happy to reunite Fastball with the masses, as they were unfairly relegated to the has-been bin. They know their way around a curveball or two. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
I take it that you saw that my post has song links added?
Just read your list, Mark. Will respond soon after I check some of the artists I've never heard of out...
I did see the song links on your post, but thanks for checking! Looking forward to hearing the whole album. Presumably you all see my comments so it didn’t make sense to comment on everyone’s posts. Interested in your thoughts on my picks whenever you have a chance to work your way through them.
This is such a great list Mark! I also have Khruangbin on my honorable mentions and also had considered Idles and Hurray for the Riff Raff. Your list is thorough with some ones I'm looking forward to doing a deeper dive on. Thanks for sharing!!
If I really wanted to go buckwild, I'd have 20 albums on my honorable mentions. It was pretty much my top 3 were solid with 27 albums vying for my bottom 7 spots in my top 10.
Thanks Jami, glad you enjoyed it! That Khrangbin album is lovely. They’ve been pretty consistent and most of their albums have made my top 50. Probably their high water mark for me was 2022’s “Ali”, a collaboration with Vieux Farka Touré, the son of legendary Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré. If you’ve never listened to that album, I’d highly recommend it.
This group project is a blast. As much as i'd like to portray myself as cool and detached, the truth is I was really excited to see the email from Steve asking about doing it again.
Your Honorable Mentions list was a great read! Looking forward to seeing what your other picks are.
I mean, you think about jackpot and Indiana when I pop up, right? Right?
I love how varied these lists are. I never really warmed up to the St. Vincent album, but absolutely love the Jack White. I like that Fastball album and this inspired me to go back to it. And what a gift the new Cure album is.
Great to see Bonny Light listed (ty Steve, you are now my favorite music writer of all time until the next one writes something I agree with).
I've been an Anais fan since way back and have never been disappointed swooping up whatever new project she's on. I have a new appreciation for Eric D and Josh after seeing the band live this fall in Vancouver. Eric D doesn't mumble as much on stage and Josh got to spread his wings outside the studio.
(I'm ready for them to go their separate ways though. They evolved from reworking traditional songs to writing their own and I think that puts a nice exclamation point on it. There's nothing more to do except more mooning about love, which would get tiresome.)
Considering everything is impermanent, I'll take a temporary "favorite music writer" status. As a life-long mumbler, I appreciate Eric D's less-than-clear pronunciation (and other marble-mouthed singers, such as Michael Stipe). Let me work for it, I say!
I might be in agreement about BLH going their separate ways for now, especially as we have essentially 4 albums to listen to, until they reunite in 5 years to do folkified version of Black Flag tunes.
Fastball... a name I swear I thought I'd never see that name again. Interesting. I saw Whiskeytown open for them way back in "The Way" days. Interesting, I'll have to give this a listen. Thanks for the list!
I’m here to highlight the old folks still kicking it and rocking out. It’s a gem.
I never thought I'd see it, either (outside of maybe a cut-out bin), but here we are. That's part of what makes all of this exciting, I think.
Can already predict there's more overlap in our lists this year than last year.
That’s cheating. You’ve already seen the lists!;)
I wasn’t even referring to our top 5 haha
Great minds think alike!
Added Astrel K, Wishy, and Aluminum to my library based on the descriptions; I have high hopes!
Right on! I hope you dig 'em!
Well done, guys! As some of you know, I don’t tend to do rankings, so I cannot imagine how difficult it must be, especially if you’ve been enjoying a significant number of new releases.
I’m curious to know — if you collect vinyl (as I for sure know at least two of you do), do you try to get these records, your new favourites, on wax?
In my case, I absolutely try to get them on vinyl. I think I have 6 of this year's 10.
Oh that’s great! Must be a great way to make the shortlisting process a bit easier. The albums you cared enough about to get them on vinyl were surely more meaningful than the ones you enjoyed but didn’t get round to buying.
I have zero space to add any records at the moment, so I'm sadly streaming new music. My 1500 or so LPs are essentially my archive from the 60s-80s with a dash of '90s and a smattering of 21st-century records. Also, today's prices are out of my salary range. I come from the days when new releases were 7.99 and most stuff could be gotten used for 4 dollars or less. Convert to Euros as needed.
Pound sterling, not euros, as with so many other things, we’re an island off the coast of Europe 🤣
I hear what you say about space and prices, especially as new releases are hard (if not impossible) to get second-hand.
I hear ya. I definitely spend a lot of time crate digging in the used section.
100%
Nice to see this collaborative end of year feature returning! Many of these albums made their way to my ear this year, but there are definitely some previously unknown albums here for me to enjoy!
Aluminum’s “Fully Beat” definitely feels worth exploring based on the selected song.
Wow, the inclusion of Fastball really made me sit up and take notice. I was one of those that always considered them a one hit wonder (in the same way that I’d incorrectly labeled Nada Surf) and I enjoyed the track I heard here, more investigation required!
Five of my top forty albums are reflected here as well, a couple of which are in my top ten.
Stay tuned for my lists, the first one’s right around the corner!
Looking forward to reading/hearing the top five!!
Happy to reunite Fastball with the masses, as they were unfairly relegated to the has-been bin. They know their way around a curveball or two. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
I take it that you saw that my post has song links added?
Just read your list, Mark. Will respond soon after I check some of the artists I've never heard of out...
I did see the song links on your post, but thanks for checking! Looking forward to hearing the whole album. Presumably you all see my comments so it didn’t make sense to comment on everyone’s posts. Interested in your thoughts on my picks whenever you have a chance to work your way through them.
I’m looking forward to seeing your list Mark! ❤️
I posted my Honorable Mentions last night: https://open.substack.com/pub/joyinthejourney/p/2024-honorable-mentions
This is such a great list Mark! I also have Khruangbin on my honorable mentions and also had considered Idles and Hurray for the Riff Raff. Your list is thorough with some ones I'm looking forward to doing a deeper dive on. Thanks for sharing!!
If I really wanted to go buckwild, I'd have 20 albums on my honorable mentions. It was pretty much my top 3 were solid with 27 albums vying for my bottom 7 spots in my top 10.
Thanks Jami, glad you enjoyed it! That Khrangbin album is lovely. They’ve been pretty consistent and most of their albums have made my top 50. Probably their high water mark for me was 2022’s “Ali”, a collaboration with Vieux Farka Touré, the son of legendary Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré. If you’ve never listened to that album, I’d highly recommend it.
This group project is a blast. As much as i'd like to portray myself as cool and detached, the truth is I was really excited to see the email from Steve asking about doing it again.
Your Honorable Mentions list was a great read! Looking forward to seeing what your other picks are.
Enjoyed the list, and oh man do I love the new Cure LP. Shout-out to anyone who adds Straw Man Army's "Earthworks" to their top five.
I mean, you think about jackpot and Indiana when I pop up, right? Right?
I love how varied these lists are. I never really warmed up to the St. Vincent album, but absolutely love the Jack White. I like that Fastball album and this inspired me to go back to it. And what a gift the new Cure album is.
P.S. You know I'm down with Wishy, Kevin.
Lol. Absolutely!
Great to see Bonny Light listed (ty Steve, you are now my favorite music writer of all time until the next one writes something I agree with).
I've been an Anais fan since way back and have never been disappointed swooping up whatever new project she's on. I have a new appreciation for Eric D and Josh after seeing the band live this fall in Vancouver. Eric D doesn't mumble as much on stage and Josh got to spread his wings outside the studio.
(I'm ready for them to go their separate ways though. They evolved from reworking traditional songs to writing their own and I think that puts a nice exclamation point on it. There's nothing more to do except more mooning about love, which would get tiresome.)
Considering everything is impermanent, I'll take a temporary "favorite music writer" status. As a life-long mumbler, I appreciate Eric D's less-than-clear pronunciation (and other marble-mouthed singers, such as Michael Stipe). Let me work for it, I say!
I might be in agreement about BLH going their separate ways for now, especially as we have essentially 4 albums to listen to, until they reunite in 5 years to do folkified version of Black Flag tunes.