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2024 saw the release of MGMTs fifth full-length studio LP Loss Of Life, a charismatic and charming follow up to 2018’s Little Dark Age.
The album is just as explorative, calm, and dreary as it is playful, weird and explosive. MGMT has never stuck to a formula or demanded a certain sound and that is what keeps this album special.
It’s a smorgasbord of sounds expressed on previous albums, even if just for brief moments, but expanded upon greatly and shifted sonicaly in yet another entirely new direction. Channeling the soft rock of the ‘70s and lacing it with psychedelic tendencies and 80’s synth pop ballads.
Loss of Life is an intriguing look inwards for a band us 2000’s kids have grown up with in one form or another.
Top 3 Tracks:
"Dancing in Babylon"
"People in the Streets"
"Loss of Life"
Following the release of The Ballad of Dood and Juanita, Sturgill Simpson kept true to his promise of only releasing five studio albums under his name and bowed out of the public eye seemingly for good, a massive loss for fans of real country music.
But after a small break away from the music scene, traveling around Europe and Asia, and a stint in Mexico alongside Bob Weir and other surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Simpson shed his skin and dropped upon us one of the best return albums in country music history with Passage du Desir.
This album saw Sturgill dropping his given name and adopting the persona of “Johnny Blue Skies,” and in it, gave us some of his best work to date.
Sturgill, er, “Johnny,” seems more comfortable on this album than he has in years. It’s slow burning, stoned out and slightly psychedelic. It’s care free and fun, but serious and raw. He checks all the boxes on this album.
Through its long drawn out jams and rolling accordion to its beautiful string pieces and searing lap-steel guitars, Passage du Desire opens us up to an entire world of sound at the hands of Simpson and his band, more sharpened than ever before.
For the unexpected return, what we get is some of his best music to date—some of his most honest—all while stripping away the name he’s always known and delving into the person that IS “Johnny Blue Skies”.
Top 3 Tracks:
"One For The Road"
"Mint Tea"
"If the Sun Never Rises Again"
Bright Eyes made their return in 2021 with “Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was,” a stunning and introspective return to form laden with a darkness somehow unmatched in energy before, and Five Dice, All Threes is somehow a stark contrast while maintaining the same energy as its predecessor.
It’s celebratory and outward but all the while uncertain and introspective. This is a solid example of how a band should progress, a true culmination of many of the sounds and expressions used by the band in the last twenty-six years, stirred up in a big melting pot and served to lifelong fans on a big silver platter.
Top 3 Tracks:
"All Threes"
"Real Feel 105"
"Spun Out"
This year was a great year for fans of 2010’s pop-punk giants, seeing releases from The Story So Far AND Neck Deep. While the latter didn’t quite make the cut, the California-based outfit’s fifth LP I Want to Disappear certainly did, and for good reason.
I Want to Disappear feels like a return to form; a circle back to the band we grew up with and the sound that solidified their spot in our hearts, but it’s different. It’s a bit more polished, similar in that way to 2018’s Proper Dose, while still maintaining a sense of moving forward.
This record feels like their most solid effort since 2015’s self-titled release. This, paired with the incredible energy of the 2024 tour used to back this album, solidified its spot on this year’s OOTB Top 5.
Top 3 Tracks:
"Watch You Go"
"Jump the Gun"
"You’re Still in My Way"
This year saw the long awaited return of The Cure with an 11-song LP that climbed the charts with an impressive, but not entirely unexpected quickness.
For most bands, a decade or more gap between albums often leads to disappointment and a feeling of being underwhelmed (see TOOL, Fear Inoculum); however, for a class act like The Cure, it is more than obvious it was for good reason that we waited sixteen staggering years.
What we got with Songs of a Lost World is a dark dive into the life and mind of Robert Smith, a poise and graceful examination of growing old and watching the world you knew fade away as the ones you love slip into oblivion. But, as common for the English goth-rockers, it’s not ALL dark and down.
While this album doesn’t necessarily contain a pop-radio hit, it does have some moments that look upwards with tracks like “And Nothing is Forever” which, despite its title, is quite an uplifting love song about holding one another closely, accepting the mortality of one another, and it builds up both beautifully and cinematically as the song moves onward.
When it does get dark we get some of the saddest and darkest moments we have seen since 2000’s Bloodflowers. “I Could Never Say Goodbye” captures and embodies that feeling of losing a loved one unexpectedly, in this case, Smith’s brother.
The ending track “Endsong” is a nearly 11-minute song with a 6.5-minute long intro that builds the drums and synth in such a mesmerizing manner. The first time I heard this track on the night of its release it felt like watching myself die, it was like lying in a coffin and watching myself get lowered into the dirt with a small moment of consciousness left to reflect on an entire life lived beforehand. This track alone solidified the No. 1 spot, with all ten tracks building tension leading up to this incredibly divine moment.
Top 3 Tracks:
"And Nothing is Forever"
"Warsong"
"Endsong"
Good List Here. Tho released later in the year, I like The National new album. Sturgill is a Favorite. Glad to see on here.
ReplyDeleteLove THE CURE! Waited years for this album and it’s just as good as desintugratikn!
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