HYLI - Patrick's Best of 2024 (The Normal One)
Here are some of my favorite releases of 2024...only a few of them are metal! Enjoy!
2024 was a mostly good year for me right up until the end when it fell off a fucking cliff. Everyone is fine, everyone is good and together and we’ll be okay but my family had a bit of A Tragedy this last week which has, frankly, just made me a bit miserable the last few days. I’ve spoken about it elsewhere (don’t be a weirdo about this) and I am okay to talk about it but, like, there’s just A Gloom in the air. Music has been a nice distraction. Music is always a nice distraction. Spending most of my time lately either with family or writing three blogs (three!!!) this week has been good for me. Music has mostly been good this year. I think it was a year that maybe didn’t have the one or two albums that will stick with me for seemingly a decade+ like the last few years have had but there are maybe more albums I feel very strongly about than usual? A low ceiling/high floor year, to borrow the parlance of sports. To touch on one record that I didn’t know about until the last day or so that isn’t on my list, I really like that Sunshy record. Shoegaze is a genre that I love tremendously but, even with it really having A Moment right now, most of the new stuff in the genre is stuff I’m fairly ambivalent about. The Sunshy record reminds me a lot of the reason I like the genre. Thank you to Eli and Miranda of Endless Scroll for shouting it out so it made its way to my ears. Think of that one as my honorable mention. Probably would have made the list if I listened to it more but it would be a bit strange to include something I’ve heard for maybe two days on my list. Oh well. I’m rambling. Enjoy my list of 35 albums that I loved from this mostly decent year. Take care of yourselves and enjoy your time with your families and Andy and I will return in a few weeks.
Patrick’s AOTY List 2024
35 - 26: Public Opinion - Painted On Smile; Being Dead - EELS; Fentanyl - Fentanyl; Liam Gallagher & John Squire - Liam Gallagher & John Squire; Young Scum - Lighter Blue; A Place for Owls - How We Dig In the Earth; Charli XCX - Brat; Mdou Moctar - Funeral for Justice; Trace Mountains - Into the Burning Blue; Shellac - To All Trains
Patrick: I’m lumping this group together. Andy did 25 albums for his list and, while I’m not holding myself to the same restriction, I will try to focus most of my blurbing on my top 25. I guess you could also consider these some honorable mentions though, in reality, there’s very little difference between my 35th favorite and 25th favorite this year. They’re all great! I like this group a ton. Some good punky hardcore in Public Opinion and Fentanyl, one of my GOATs making his best solo album in Liam Gallagher & John Squire, another GOAT releasing his final album in To All Trains, and a handful of other records in the retro pop (Being Dead), current massive world-conquering pop (Charli XCX), power-pop (Young Scum), emo (APFO), heartland rock (Trace Mountains) and world music/blues (Mdou Moctar) spaces. All shit I really enjoy that I might not come back to as often as the albums below but that at other points in the year were in frequent rotation for me.
Andy: Being Dead needs to get sued for false advertising. Patrick got me hooked on Fentanyl. Patrick hasn’t shut up about the Oasis reunion since it was announced and I think he has tickets to every single show (Patrick: stop) so I’m very happy for him. Young Scum was fun - reminded me of something that would be on Guitar Hero for some reason. A Place for Owls had a dumb name but not a dumb song; woulda rocked with this in High School (Patrick: rude). Multiple friends have been like “Oh I know you don’t like pop music but you’ll probably like all this ‘Hot Girl Summer’ pop music!” and you know what? I really don’t! Mdou Moctar might have been the best non-Fentanyl band in this group but it ended up being Shellac. I love when guitars sound like that. I get why people like it when they sound clean and nice but they should always sound like the inside of a dying lawnmower.
Sabrina Carpenter - Short n’ Sweet
Touche Amore - Spiral in a Straight Line
Los Campesinos! - All Hell
METZ - Up on Gravity Hill
The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet
Patrick: Sabrina Carpenter put out the most fun, and therefore the best, pop record this year. Bop after bop. These aren’t my favorite Touche Amore or METZ records but I love those bands so it’s a tall order and these are very Respectable records from both. This is my favorite Los Camp record and I don’t fully love that band (my wife does!) but this one has sort of reinvigorated the band for me in a way I didn't expect. The Hard Quartet rules. A great supergroup of That Guys in the the indie rock space. To pull from The Rewatchables podcast, we have a true blue star in Stephen Malkmus and a bunch of Dion Waiters types. I really love about half the songs on this album. The other half are also Songs on this Album but the songs I really love are near my top songs of the year. I look forward to more from them.
Andy: I am not a pop girl summer person please stop trying to make me (Patrick: grow up). Touche Amore is a band that every time I listen to I’m like “this goes hard I like it” and then I never press play on my own accord again. I don’t know why. Great song - I’ll give the new album a listen. If I heard Los Campesinos! on the radio I’d try to Shazam it (which would undoubtedly fail because somehow that service is worse than it was in like 2010) and then text Pat “Hey this seems like a ‘you’ band.” METZ was great - will give that a full listen for sure. The Hard Quartet was fun as well.
Quivers - Oyster Cuts
MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive
Gouge Away - Deep Sage
Jimmy Montague - Tomorrow’s Coffee
Patrick: Quivers was one of my favorite first-listen discoveries this year. Just massive hooks that feel like they’ve been around forever and you’ve heard them a billion times in your life. MJ Lenderman put out a record similar to the Hard Quartet one for me in that half of the songs are among my favorites of the year (“Wristwatch” might be my song of the year) and the rest are just kind of … there. Great songs can lift an otherwise somewhat disappointing record to still making this list because great songs are Great. I love doom and Pallbearer continues, as always, to make great doom but this time they expanded their sound a bit with some saxophone - that’s sick! Gouge Away put out my second-favorite post-hardcore/hardcore-ish record in a year with a ton of records like that. “Maybe Blue” perfect song. We discussed Tomorrow’s Coffee here earlier in the year and I still love it. James of Jimmy Montague is one of the best songwriters going.
Andy: We had covered MJ Lenderman last year and this track scratched a similar itch. I enjoyed this Pallbearer record but not as much as Carnwennan. Everything is better with a Saxophone - doom metal included! I think Gouge Away is a band my buddy Chris (Patrick: our buddy??? he isn’t just your buddy???) really likes so I think I actually heard this album in his car this year. Anyway, it’s good. We covered Jimmy Montague on this earlier in the year and my thoughts remain the same: good music.
Thou - Umbilical
Jack White - No Name
Squint - Big Hand
Young Jesus - The Fool
Mount Eerie - Night Palace
Patrick: Thou puts out riffs that sound like Alice in Chains with the sickest vocals you can imagine and Umbilical is, for my money, their best non-collaborative record to date. Jack White’s solo stuff usually ranges from deeply embarrassing to Fine but No Name is the first one that scratches the White Stripes itch since that band broke up. Squint put out the single best hardcore record this year and that’s a tall order. Poppy and hooky, yet harsh and something I’d imagine makes the pits go wild (I hope to find out someday in 2025). Young Jesus is a project I never thought would be something that clicked for me and the evolution fully into a singer-songwriter project with some of the best vocals you’ll hear all year fully works for me. Night Palace is Phil Elverum’s best record since A Crow Looked at Me and his easiest to listen to since prior to that. He brought some of the rock and even metal energy back to his sound while remaining one of the best lyricists going. Any other year and it could have cracked the top five.
Andy: How did I miss a new Thou record? Apologies, I’ll correct that ASAP. I’ve never really listened to Jack White but I think I like him? At least I like his guitar for sure. Squint was fun as shit, thanks for never recommending it idiot (Patrick: okay). Young Jesus is less exciting for me but deff very Patrick. This Mount Eerie track was great. I liked them when we discussed them a few years ago. The opener threw me back to this band called Slingshot Dakota (Patrick: Slingshot Dakota!!!!! yes dude!!!!) that I was super into in college. The second half of the song is *nothing* like that but still heavy in its own right.
10. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
Patrick: If “Wristwatch” isn’t the Song of the Year, it is because “Crowbar” is. Katie Crutchfield continues to reinvent herself in the mold of a Lucinda Williams type and the results work better here for me than on the previous record, Saint Cloud. The duets with MJ Lenderman also really sell this record and bring melodies out of MJ that I wish his own album had more of. But even if it was a replacement-level backing singer on the duets, these songs would rule because Katie continues to write the hell out of a song.
Andy: Well “Crowbar” isn’t song of the year cause Spectral Voices “Sinew Censer” is song of the year but this can be second, sure (Patrick: great insight and commentary, Andy).
Tyler, the Creator - CHROMAKOPIA
Patrick: I’m a bit more checked out on rap than I was at the beginning of the decade for no real reason other than the bigger releases being the only ones that break through to me these days. Tyler continues to evolve from someone you couldn’t have paid me to listen to when he started to an artist that I now stop everything to listen to the second he releases something. CHROMAKOPIA doesn’t top Flower Boy for me but few albums do.
Andy: I am incredibly ignorant to rap (Patrick: wow so Andy hates pop AND rap, so cool dude). This was decently fun? I’m much more into these type of beats than what was normally on the radio when I was growing up - so I vibed with it for sure.
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
Patrick: Jesus christ! A new The Cure record! And judging off the production and the sound of Robert Smith’s vocals and guitars, they haven't missed a beat in the 16 years since their last album. It seems like they have more material in the chamber and, if Songs of a Lost World is any indication, I couldn’t be more excited.
Andy: Would love for Patrick to FaceTime me when he reads this response. I basically know nothing about The Cure other than “Friday I'm in Love” and I’m positive I’ve heard my friend Cheyne sing that song more than I’ve heard the actual song itself. I also think of that photo of Robert Smith where he looks like he got run over by a bus (seems like that is most photos tbh). Anyway, I rock with it? Its fun? Give me a The Cure album for HYLI?
Ducks LTD. - Harm’s Way
Patrick: The catchiest album of the year. Massive hook after massive hook played faster than just about any other band this year. Saw them live and almost every song was somehow played faster than on the record. A freight train of earworms.
Andy: Patrick says things like “played faster than just about any other band this year” which is just a straight insult to like half of the entire genre of metal (Patrick: the bpm of this song is objectively faster than a lot of metal, it just isn’t relentless blast beats sure). Ducks LTD. is a dumb band name but the song was not dumb. Actually one of catchier songs on this playlist.
Merce Lemon - Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild
Patrick: We just discussed this record in depth a week ago, so I won’t rehash everything I said there but this record really won me over. Every dude making Americana music tried to sound like Neil Young this year and Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild accomplished that in a way seeming effortless.
Andy: Brother I felt so nice and warm and cozy when this came on. I felt safe. This album has definitely buried its way into my brain after discussing it the other week. Great stuff.
Wild Pink - Dulling the Horns
Patrick: Another one we hit up recently and is, for my money, the best record of one of the best bands going. Wild Pink injected some noise in their sound with the fuzzed out guitars and it fucking rules. I really hope to hear these songs live next year.
Andy: Injecting fuzz into this band is the best thing they could have ever done. Fun track, fun album. What have we learned here? Fuzz > Clean. 100% success rate, no notes.
Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
Patrick: I think this is one of only two records Andy and I share on our lists, alongside Fentanyl’s self-titled. Andy likes to say every year is the Year of Death Metal and, while I don’t agree for 2024, this death metal record is absolutely one of the best of the year. A massive, towering mix of ‘80s synth, ‘70s psychedelic rock, and absolutely brutal riffs. If more albums sounded like Absolute Elsewhere, I’d probably be a metalhead freak like Andy.
Andy: I love listening to the sci-fi dialogue in The Stargate [Tablet II] with Tangerine Dream’s electrosounds. Such a great song. I’m almost positive I run it back at least once when listening to it. An all time death metal classic in the works here people.
3. Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) - Passage Du Desir
Patrick: The album that for the longest period of time this year was my AOTY. For over four months of the year, Passage Du Desir held the top spot. Sturgill went back to rock and left the bluegrass behind but went for a more bluesy/classic rock sound as opposed to the outlaw country rock that he started his career with. Seeing this live only hardened this record as one of his best to me. Just a dude plugged right into his amp ripping riffs. “Scooter Blues” has the most fun riffs of the year. Dude rhymed eggos with Legos with hasta luego. Undefeated.
Andy: For a while, Patrick had Blood Incantation as his number one of the year, and I said something like, “Above even Sturgill?” and he said, “Yes.” Then, a week later, he was like, “No, you were right.” Come on. We all know Patrick loves a riff, but he’s a blues/classic rock/boring music guy at heart (Patrick: I don’t think this is correct really at all in general I think I just really like Sturgill lol). I’m happy he is happy!
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
Patrick: I really feel bad for the weirdos who still root for Drake. Just having to sit through an entire year of a short king beating the brakes off their man. Kendrick hates Drake so much that he decided to make bangers for the first time. Insane! GNX isn’t his best record but he’s probably the best rapper going and it has his best production, best hooks, and most fun songs. It doesn’t reach the artistry of GKMC or TPAB but it’ll the job, quite well in fact.
Andy: Ya’ll ever think it’s wild that the best song of 2024 is Kendrick just straight up calling Drake a pedophile? Like the bop of the year has everyone going “certified pedophile! wop wop wop?” The beef was sick. Drake took a big fat L. “squabble up” (amongst other tracks on this record) is extremely fun.
Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
Patrick: The only artist who can give Sturgill a competition for my favorite artist of the last decade. While Stu is more consistent than FJM, Mahashmashana is Josh Tillman’s best record and I don’t think I can say that about Passage Du Desir for Sturgill. The songwriting here is next level and we see FJM trying on sounds we’ve never seen him do before, with M83-styled almost shoegaze on “Screamland” and alternative rock on “She Cleans Up.” Most of all, for a dude who started his career seemingly poking fun quite a bit, the last few records haven’t felt fun at all. They’ve been good, but they aren’t something I tend to reach for a ton. Mahashmashana brings the fun back. I haven’t stopped listening to this thing since it dropped last month and I don’t think I’ll be stopping anytime soon.
Andy: I wrote plenty on this the other week so please read if you’re really curious about my thoughts on Patrick’s favorite record of the year. It was more good than bad for me but a few real stinkers. The sax rips. “John Tillman and the Accidental Dose” rules. It is a good fun album in a genre that (for me) needs more good fun albums. It is extremely Patrick so there is no surprise it is his #1.