(“Eclectic.” There’s that word again, the one we almost always use in sharing year-end lists from Tumbleweed Dealer‘s Seb Painchaud. We already did present Seb’s 2024 YE list during our LISTMANIA series for last year, but it turns out he overlooked a few — 16 of them, to be precise.)
How the fuck is it already mid-2025 when 2020 was just a few months ago? Yeah I slept on some shit last year, I was going through some stuff, what`s your fucking excuse for listening to the same 5 albums over and over again? YES, it’s all the title including this sentence. Haven’t you picked up on my way naming these articles yet?
So, are we really doing this again? I swore I was done with these lists as no one seems to read ‘em but god damn it, I kept discovering amazing 2024 albums I wish I had included and I made a playlist of ‘em on spotify and it’s just there, mocking me with its smugness, shoving my face into the failure that is not reporting these albums to you, the people not reading these lists.
On we go…
Hiatus Kaiyote – Love Heart Cheat Code
My drummer has been trying to get me onto these guys for years now and it just wouldn’t click until I saw them doing a live session playing “Cinnamon Temple”. I was blown away. Not that I’ve gone back and jammed all their albums, the previous one is better than their 2024 release, but it’s still solid, and the aforementioned track is their best so far.
Willow – Empathogen
Oh I can hear you all the way here, you basement-dwelling neckbeard, with your “Nepotism this” and “Sad Will Smith Meme” that. Tell me, where is YOUR collab with Kamasi Washington? Oh you don’t have one. That’s what I thought. It’s an amazing album featuring insanely talented musicians creating a fusion of genres resulting in something catchy and unique. Chris Rock was never that funny anyway.
Funky Times – Keep On Groovin’
Do you really need me to describe this? I refer you to the band and album’s names. I confirm, the time spent listening to this album WILL be Funky, and you will definitely continue to groove.
Thin Veil – Temporary Motion
More grunge than gaze and more retro than modern yet touches on all of it. Halfway between Weezer and Cloakroom you’ll find these guys wearing flannel and worshiping Cobain while listening to MBV.
Doldrey – Only Death Is Eternal
I’ve seen it called Death Punk and I’ve seen them on Stenchcore lists. Neither label really fits. Kinda shit that makes you want to crawl into the sewers and just roll around down there. Singaporean Sewercore? Whatever genre it is, it’s just absolutely disgusting and filthy while being as straight to the fucking point as a punch to the nose.
Animal Ghosts – Swell
Every year I have a “by the numbers” shoegaze album that is just so good that it has to be included regardless of how devoid of innovation it is within the genre. Sometimes you just want that familiar sound in a new package. For 2024, this is the one.
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
Kept seeing this one high on jazz lists and finally checked it out. It’s restrained, almost more of a progressive electronics album than a jazz one. It’s a tad ambient, and not the kind of thing I would’ve gotten into in previous years, but the unique atmosphere this album creates hit me at just the right time for me to connect to it.
Ill Considered – UnEvensong
I would like to retract every bad thing I have ever said about this band and their brand of free jazz that I was, obviously, just too dumb to get until now.
Joanna Gemma Auguri – Hiraeth
Chamber pop / Dark Folk. I’d actually sum it up better by saying imagine Mazzy Star making a neoclassical darkwave album. Every track on this album is nothing short of spellbinding.
Bedsore – Dreaming The Strife Of Love
I hate that with this album, simply because it was released the same year as another, more popular, progressive death metal band with ’70s prog influences, we feel compelled to compare them to each other. But, without shitting on that other album as it’s quite good, where that one was prog death with a few pink floydish moments, this album right here actually captured not only a genuine progressive rock feel in its brutal death, but it also specifically captured their country’s particular brand of it. If you’re into death metal and RPI, this is the album for you!
Kenny Segal & K-The-I??? – Genuine Dexterity
Kenny Segal has produced absolute bangers and collaborated with the likes of Billy Woods (Maps & Hiding Places), Hemlock Ernst (Back At The House), and Serengeti (Ajai) to make some of the best rap albums this side of 2015, yet why the fuck am I still underestimating him? Although I don’t know much about the weirdly named K-The-I???, he does an adequate job, but takes second place to the beats on this record that remind me of the best moments of experimental hip hop masterminds Kill The Vulture, and that’s a feeling I never thought I’d get again.
Tom Penaguin – Tom Penaguin
A beautiful EP of Canterbury style worship that doesn’t sound too dated, all made by a polyvalent multi-instrumentalist musician.
Lil Dicky – Penith (The DAVE Soundtrack)
Okay, DAVE ended in 2023. But the soundtrack came out last year and I jammed the fuck out of it. When I discovered the show I obsessively listened to Ally’s Song, over and over. Just the rip from the TV show someone had uploaded to youtube. Now I got the full album, and while most songs start by getting you to laugh, they eventually burrow their way into your brain until you’re walking around singing “No Fruits Or Vegetables” all day long. When you get past all the dick jokes this show and its music are smart. Nah, fuck that, the dick jokes are part of why this show is so smart! And the Atlanta-esque turn it took on season 3 really elevated it to art rather than just bingeable TV.
Public Acid – Deadly Struggle
This is some raw shit right here motherfucker.
Prostitute – Attempted Martyr
What if Death Grips were Arab and a Noise Band? Fucking seriously. How I missed this album all year and am just now presenting it to you is beyond me and I am seriously disappointed in myself.
Thirdface – Ministerial Cafeteria
It’s rare I can get my daily doses of violence AND weird in one spot, but these guys make experimental hardcore punk that never lets up. Who knew flangers could sound so aggressive?
Okay so I slept on a few records last year, it happens, no biggie. You know what YOU shouldn’t sleep on? My new album, out now and eagerly awaiting to be included in your 2025 top albums list. Yeah, I spined that shit like Ron Popeil hosting an infomercial (if you’re old enough to remember that, get your prostate checked).
Warmbread out.