The Miscellaneous Record Collection of 2024
The Top 3 Albums from One Substacker's Yearly Rewind
I’m a sucker for a good song and a year-end recap, but as an Apple Music listener, I find myself left out of music discussions. My Spotify peers get entire microgenres invented to describe their taste. July might be Pink Princess Strut Pop and October could be Frog-like Tavern Bardcore.
Apple Music, thankfully, hasn’t gotten around to all that. It just gives me some interesting stats about my favorite artists (once again a J-pop band no one listens to), favorite genre (Hip Hop), and favorite song (Kendrick Lamar’s underrated diss). But this year, I’m interested in the albums.
A great album, ideally, balances two levels. Its indidvidual tracks should dazzle me, but the entire runtime should be a cohesive experience.
My top three albums not only exemplify this balance but also blend conflicting stylistic elements in their own sounds, whether that’s playfulness and pride or funkiness and pity or melancholy.
Even the years balance out, as two of my top three are brand-new releases, and one dates back to 1977.
Without further ado, here’s the music that formed the soundtrack of my year.
#3: For Fans of Hip-Hop and Saturday Morning Cartoons
To say that hip-hop had a big year is an understatement. Future dropped three projects, including two albums produced by Metro Boomin. Eminem revived his Slim Shady persona. Kendrick Lamar annihilated Drake and surprised the world with GNX.
My favorite rap album of the year is made by two men obsessed with booty and Ben 10.
Joey Valence and Brae’s No Hands is uncompromisingly fun because of its two smack-talking, bragadocious MCs. Aside from a few select features (Danny Brown!), Valence and Brae are the stars of their own show. The project perfectly distills their personalities and personas. These guys started making music because they thought it would be fun, and dammit, they’re right.
The earnest lyrics, for me, push them apart from the pack. Like other rappers, the duo hypes their skills, but they do it using their own confident nerd culture and meme-laden imagery. Brae tells us he’s a pretty boy. I believe him. Valence closes the album by highlighting his watch; it’s not a Rolex, it’s an Omnitrix.
They pair this with fast-paced and eclectic production that fuses electronica and club music with the rules of 90s hip hop. Every song evokes a wider realm of influence. “PACKAPUNCH” sounds like a kung-fu beat lurking in the shadows of 70s grindhouse. “WHAT U NEED” sounds, in the best way possible, like a peppy and exciting Bloomingdale’s. Shoutout to “THE BADDEST,” which the duo explain was inspired by 2010s party rockers LMFAO.
I hope this album inspires another wave of LMFAO-style party music and the bragging MC. If I go to a party, and they play Valence and Brae, I’m at the right party.
Listen to: “JOHN CENA”
#2: For Fans of Eclectic and Macabre Lyricism
I was shocked to see Geordie Greep release a solo project. Wasn’t he the lead singer of black midi? Surely, they were working on their next album.
Turns out, the band is on hiatus, but Greep keeps their creative spirit alive, even if he switches to a more bombastic yet less noisy approach to jazz rock.
Geordie Greep’s The New Sound is a masterclass in lyricism and storytelling. Greep places us in the minds of some pretty pathetic men and still gives us the chance to bop to bossa nova rock. I’m filled with both pity and funk, which is a hard balance to strike.
Take my favorite song, “Holy, Holy.”
In the first half, our narrator pitches himself as the ultimate casanova. Everyone in the bar knows his name. People from around the world, from South America to Moscow to Asia, know him by name. He’s wooed quite a few women into his bed.
Then he tells the call girl he’s hiring what he really wants.
He never requests sex. Instead, how much would it cost for her to put her hand on his knee? While she’s at it, can she kneel down the whole time so he looks taller? And tell him he’s a great dancer and that he smells nice? Once that’s all done, same time next week?
The structure of the song plays into the narrator’s deep loneliness, and the rich imagery and characterization of the lyrics make us feel the narrator’s pain. But I can’t stop dancing because he’s doing this beautiful misdirection over a samba with a killer guitar riff.
That’s not the story like this. “Terra” details a whole museum of suffering - aborted fetuses and starvation victims abound - but at the centerpiece is an excuse to throw a pity party for the narrator’s “punctured, bleeding heart of desire.” “Through a War” tells us about a cruel dictator who unravels due to STDs and unquenchable love.
And it all culminates in “The Magician.” Normally, I wouldn’t enjoy such a long, slow ballad, but the way Greep spells out the desires of his characters always impresses me.
I don’t even listen to music primarily for the lyrics, but a songwriter as compelling as this demands attention.
Listen to: “Holy Holy”
#1: For Those Who Want to Rediscover a Deep Cut
Gen Z has a love affair with Japanese city pop. The pandemic and YouTube algorithm may have had something to do with that, but I think this jazzy pop would have always served the generation of lofi beats.
City pop’s wistfulness creates a powerful sense of mood. Even if most American listeners don’t understand the lyrics, “Plastic Love,” “Stay with Me,” and “Midnight Pretenders” are shuffled more regularly than their 1980s debuts suggest.
For those looking to cruise down the Tokyo highways deeper into the genre, I recommend my #1 album of the year: Taeko Ohnuki’s Sunshower.
In terms of mood, this album hits the dancier side of city pop while still balancing out its often melancholic mood. The melody from one track slows, the sun sets, and before you know it, you’ve transitioned from a brisk drive down the beach to a nighttime bar, thinking about times gone by.
Ohnuki’s vocal talent plays a key role in this effect. Just spin “Karappo no Isu.”
Befitting a song about an empty seat, she holds each note to meet the lyric’s subtle melancholy. Her longing for someone to fill that seat comes across loud and clear. Even without knowing the words, and even without the musicians behind her, she creates a feeling that transcends language.
Speaking of musicianship, with songs as catchy and layered as these, I’m surprised social media algorithms haven’t caught onto Sunshower.
The album’s big band horns are backed with multi-layered and groovy percussion. The opening seconds of “Kusuri o Takusan” are the perfect example of what this sound does well. In 25 seconds, we’re introduced to drums, cowbells, cymbals. Light flute and guitars join the band. The complex percussion is able to play nicely while the melody comes in clearly.
Don’t let that fool you, though. The song keeps a sharply satirical edge, this time targeting perscription drugs.
All of these elements harmonize in the ultimate city pop mood. The playful cynicism and satire of the 70s darker art dances hand-in-hand with the best dancehall band in the big city.
It’s an album that serves as a motivation to learn Japanese because then, the music and the stories Ohnuki tells will become clearer, and my appreciation will deepen. That this album has such a powerful effect on first listen speaks volumes to the emotion it carries.
Listen to: “Summer Connection”
Honorable Mentions
Of my remaining top fifteen albums, I’d like to shout out ones that really stood out to me.
Jazz had a solid showing this year. I did a brief tour of the classics, as John Coltrane’s Giant Steps sits comfortably at #5 and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters rests at #7.
My #13 album, NANORAY’s Zapper, is incredibly fun and fast-paced internet drum-and-bass. It occupies that zone of the genre where actual genre boundaries become murky. Hardcore breaks? Breakcore? Someone call the DnB experts to help me clarify that.
Kendrick Lamar’s euphoria is in my top 10. Yes, it’s a single.
Of course, there’s a lot of great albums I skipped, missed, or never heard. The internet is a great way to find new music, but every community has their own tastes and their own two or three highlights. Let’s see if we can’t challenge that.
What were your albums of the year, and what were your honorable mentions? What should I listen to?