Favorite Recordings of 2024

2024 was an amazingly great year for music. In fact, I think it was better than last year, especially if you are a fan of death metal. Sadly you won't see any death metal on my list as releases from other genres stuck with me more, with one exception. Ex-members of the mighty Cerebral Rot put together another fantastic band, called Corpus Offal, and released an awesome two song demo / EP. It almost made my list until I realized that they were working on an album for release in early 2025 and that I should give their space on the 2024 list to someone else. So that is what I did. If you want to listen to some of the other amazing death metal that came out in 2024 then listen to this album, this album, this album, and of course this album.

For this year's list I decided to exclude singles as it is getting harder and harder to rely on songs being released to stay as singles. Even in this day and age of the single, they don't always stay standalone. There seems to be return to the idea of single as a teaser for an album, like in the 90s when I was a teenager. So I said no to them this year, even though there were some great tunes such as this one, this one, and this one.

Either way, I'm babbling. Here are the nine (my favorite number) albums and EPs that were on constant rotation in my ears during the year of 2024. Along with an honorable mention thrown in for good measure.

1. Janza Slope - "How to spot a lizard in a landscape" Released: 2024-03-17 Type: Album / EP Label: Falt Listen: Bandcamp

   Note: Mark Lyken, the man behind Janza Slope, has another project called Rural Noise that also released a fantastic album this year. It is called Bird Heart Amplifier and you will love it if you like "How to spot a lizard in a landscape".

2. Teen Prime - "no. 10" Released: 2024-08-25 Type: Album Label: Teen Prime Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube Music
3. Bilmuri - "American Motor Sports" Released: 2024-06-28 Type: Album Label: Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment, under exclusive license from Johnny Franck Productions, LLC Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music
4. Sachiko M - "Sine Wave Solo at Ftarri 2022" Released: 2024-10-27 Type: Album Label: Hitorri / Ftarri Listen: Bandcamp
5. Soft Play - "Heavy Jelly" Released: 2024-07-19 Type: Album Label: BMG Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music
6. Broken Head - "The Morning Ends" Released: 2024-05-31 Type: Album Label: Sunday Drive Records Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube Music
7. Drug Church - "Prude" Released: 2024-10-04 Type: Album Label: Pure Noise Records Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube Music
8. ユウレカ (YUREKA) - "AltX" Released: 2024-01-13 Type: EP Label: Deaf Touch Records Listen: Bandcamp
9. Michaela Turcerová - "alene et" Released: 2024-11-18 Type: Album Label: Mappa Editions Listen: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube Music

Honorable Mention

On November 1st the mighty and legendary band Planes Mistaken For Stars released what will probably be their last album, "Do You Still Love Me?". I say the last because their vocalist Gared O'Donnell died in November 2021 from esophageal cancer. Unless the band decide to go on without him it is a good bet this album, recorded in 2021 while Gared was going through chemo, will be the last will and testament of a great band. It's a fantastic album, but I simply listened to the other releases on my list above a lot more than "Do You Still Love Me?". I will say this though, one of the best songs they have ever written is on this album. Rest in "Peace", Gared.