8. Fred Thomas – Window in the Rhythm (Polyvinyl)
On Fred Thomas‘ startling, career-peak new album Window in the Rhythm, he invites listeners to spend an hour contemplating their pasts while he does the same, and it is impossible not to oblige him, as Thomas takes us back to punk houses, lost friends, and relationships built on unsteady foundations. Chances are, if you are a fan of Thomas’ music, you have some similar experiences. This song cycle is not about coming to revelations but making peace with the passing of time, people, and situations, and most importantly, maintaining the awareness that those cycles will continue humming along and that we aren’t done.
Fred Thomas isn’t simply mining the past, looking for answers, or camping out there; he recognizes that today will also eventually become the past. We don’t always think about how we will continue this cycle until we reach the end, that the memories we hold now will sit aside (or be pushed out) by new ones. Spend a rainy fall afternoon with Window in the Rhythm, earbuds in, and a warm beverage in hand. You will not regret it. – Brian Stout
7. Kim Gordon – The Collective (Matador)
Kim Gordon‘s No Home Record and The Collective were produced by Justin Raisen, known for his work with Charli XCX and Sky Ferreira. The Collective is even denser, more unrelenting. Together, they further explore the loops and noisy guitars used brilliantly on that record. Thematically, this is an album of the times, influenced by SoundCloud rap and jumping from topic to topic. The lead single and opening track, “BYE BYE”, produced by SADPONY, is an alluring and addictive mix of stabs of guitar and drum loops. Gordon recites her packing list for a trip, and it is far more riveting than it should be as she name-drops designers and luxury items alongside mundane ones.
Who had Kim Gordon making a collection of trunk-rattling near hip-hop and industrial noise on their 2024 bingo card? The Collective is hard to pin down, but that is part of what makes it so compelling. – Brian Stout
6. Opeth – The Last Will and Testament (Moderbolaget / Reigning Phoenix)
Mikael Åkerfeldt finds a way to bridge all sides of Opeth’s increasingly expansive oeuvre into something concise, cohesive, and new, precisely what he and his bandmates have done on Opeth’s spellbinding 14th album. A Succession-style concept album centering on the will of a wealthy patriarch being read to his children in the wake of his death, The Last Will and Testament is their most focused, disciplined piece of music to date and their heaviest work in more than 15 years. Extreme metal, progressive rock, and chamber music interweave in a way that has never been done before, each seemingly disparate side feeling like a natural fit. It’s so seamless that, for all its visceral power, there’s less of a metal influence than some might think, despite the long-awaited return of Åkerfeldt’s death growl.
The Last Will and Testament is a stunning recalibration by a group that has made their palette even richer by incorporating new musical and sonic ingredients for the last decade and a half. With the extreme metal side back alongside their unquenchable thirst for all things 1970s progressive rock, this is a new high-water mark for one of metal’s most acclaimed and beloved bands. – Adrien Begrand
5. Father John Misty – Mahashmashana (Sub Pop / Bella Union)
Father John Misty has infused his songs with multi-layered, sophisticated arrangements in this latest incarnation while making pointed, blunt, brilliant, and usually deadpan observations about modern life and love. With Mahashmashana, he hasn’t necessarily broken a lot of new ground, but he seems to come as close to perfecting his artistry as anyone can. Put simply, Mahashmashana is a masterpiece.
As always, Father John Misty’s musical ambitions often stretch beyond the tight-knit feel of a small band. “Summer’s Gone” recalls the Great American Songbook vibe that informed much of 2022’s Chloe and the Next 20th Century, a full orchestra backing up the singer, who seems to enjoy simultaneously channeling George Gershwin, Randy Newman, and Serge Gainsbourg. In Tillman’s hands, this type of stylistic excursion transcends nostalgia or a need to ease into people-pleasing crooner mode; instead, he is clearly immersed in the process and the art. – Chris Ingalls
4. Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia? (Island)
Yard Act‘s Where’s My Utopia? is at once a mother lode of cool sounds, an incisive critique of late capitalism, a heartfelt meditation on the costs, promises, burdens, and futility of fame, and a forecast of apocalyptic change from Brexit to the climate crisis. Like the best pop music today, it straddles a knife edge between ironic mockery and earnest revelation. By refusing to resolve either way, Yard Act strive to puncture pop’s utopian aspirations in the same gesture that they want to live up to them. It’s an approach that wouldn’t have worked in the irony-laden 1990s they grew up in, but it’s ideally suited for our post-pandemic moment.
The results are distinguished not only by magpie sampling, talk-singing, and genre-blending but also by a new embrace of the emotional extremes offered by the coming apocalypse and the need for emotional openness and any form of consolation available. When this music works, as more often than not in the songs on Where’s My Utopia? it reminds us that art can do nothing to stop the march of destruction and that it can, somehow, more than almost anything else. Yard Act tell us that they’re not so sure this is true, but they still desperately want it to be. – David Pike
3. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World (Fiction / Capitol)
Songs of a Lost World is arguably the Cure’s darkest album since Pornography. Sure, there was the sprawling sadness of 1989’s Disintegration and the more mature melancholy of 2000’s Bloodflowers, but the tunes on Songs of a Lost World hit differently. Could it be because, in the intervening years, singer and lyricist Robert Smith experienced unimaginable loss with the death of his beloved brother, who introduced him to the music that became the catalyst for his storied career? Or the pandemic-era demise of his aunts and uncles? Or the slipping away of his parents, whom he cherished and helped incubate his musical dreams?
Songs of a Lost World has a naked rawness that can be hard to listen to at times, but somehow, the music wrapped around the sorrowful sentiments makes it not just bearable but transcendently enjoyable. The songs of this particular lost world are introspective yet relatable, dark yet rousing. These are cinematic elegies for the times. So how can Songs of a Lost World be characterized without resorting to “existential despair” cliches? You can’t. As Robert Smith rages at the dying of the light amid the sonic thunder, we are indeed “left alone with nothing, at the end of every song”. – Alison Ross
2. Being Dead – EELS (Bayonet)
Whereas some bands never want to do the same thing from album to album, Being Dead never want to repeat themselves on any song. “Firefighters” shoots out of a cannon with a fuzzed-out guitar like Ty Segall. “Dragon II” is a gentle acoustic number that would fit on Guided By Voices‘ Bee Thousand. “Gazing at Footwear” explores the eerie reaches of shoegaze. “Big Bovine” begins with nervy krautrock energy until the skies open up into a cowpunk refrain (“Dancing under the Lonestar stars, which resurfaces two tracks later). This is just a tiny sampling of the frantic journey listeners are asked to embark upon when the needle drops.
Being Dead’s EELS has received some early praise but with decidedly less fanfare than more established acts, hinting that the record could be an underground classic. In all likelihood, some lucky listeners will discover it in a few years, believing it to be nothing less than an underappreciated gem from a bygone era. – Patrick Gill
1. Fontaines D.C. – Romance (XL)
With Romance, Fontaines D.C. have opened up a new realm of possibilities in their sound, proving that they are (perhaps always were) multifaceted. Where they once were a band to watch, they now have become an act that must be followed and will likely increase in stature over the coming years. Fontaines D.C.’s previous efforts were acclaimed, and rightfully so, but Romance should be considered a high-water mark for them, a work that is equally challenging and considerably more gratifying.
The most striking aspect of Romance is its unabashed sentimentality. “In the Modern World” celebrates the sappiness of Coldplay from back when they were critical darlings while integrating the breathy vocals of Jan Scott Wilkinson from Sea Power (formerly British Sea Power). It’s hard not to be moved by lyrics like, “Seems so hard not to be free / When you walk / Right beside me” and images about kissing on the corner and going away together. Reflecting on one’s emotions, however, cuts both ways. “Horseness Is The Whatness” challenges the idea that “love” really makes the world go round in favor of “choice”, a starry-eyed reaction to romantic rejection. – Patrick Gill