Experimental quartet Open Head piece together snippets of discordant, angular, and off-tune notes to create a tapestry paying tribute to NYC’s no wave and noise-rock scenes on their new record, What Is Success (Wharf Cat). Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
Mapped out in accordance with the five stages of grief, LA-based artist zzzahara’s third LP serves as an instruction manual on how to cope while also expanding their bedroom-pop palette. Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
FLOOD recently released its list of the top 50 albums that the outlet’s contributors determined mattered most in 2024. Expect it, once again, to be regarded as one of the more authoritative and reputed chronicles of the year in music.
What follows are my reviews of releases on the list, and a related interview to boot, that FLOOD published this year:
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds‘ Wild God review (published 12.10, FLOOD)
• Kim Deal‘s Nobody Loves You More review (published 12.2, FLOOD)
• Touché Amoré‘s Spiral in a Straight Line review (published 10.11, FLOOD)
• Sleater-Kinney‘s A Little Rope Goes a Very Long Way feature (published 4.10, FLOOD)
• Brittany Howard‘s What Now review (published 2.9, FLOOD)
Infinite thanks for your support, and that of my invaluable editors at FLOOD and other outlets that tolerated my contributions, in 2024. It mattered this year more than ever before.
For my pre-2024 writings on the aforementioned artists and many more than appeared on other top 10 lists this year, go to my Interview Index and Reviews Archive.
Lastly, stay tuned for The Bad Penny‘s annual Top 10 Albums of the Year list for 2024. (That is, if you place any value in rundowns like those.)
John Dwyer reteams with OG Oh See Brigid Dawson for 70 minutes of messy, bootleg-quality live material mirroring their early lo-fi collaborations. Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
No one–and I mean no one–expected Kim Deal to pull one of the best albums of the year out of her pocket. But that’s exactly what the tragically self-deprecating, perpetually under-appreciated and divinely talented artist has done. With Nobody Loves You More, the first album released under her own name, the pride of Dayton, Ohio, stupefies us for–stupidly–not giving Deal the level of respect that she’s deserved since 1986. Read my full, bittersweet review of her towering work of art on FLOOD‘s website.
Juxtaposing a love of sewing with 13 minutes of whiplash-inducing, eardrum-destroying atonal assaults, Venus Twins’ latest EP is yet another confounding manifestation of twin telepathy. Read my full review of the Brooklyn duo’s \/\/\/\/ (no, that’s not a glitch) on FLOOD‘s website.
Thank’s a lot, as the Leeds pranksters prove on their second album. I Have a Physical Body That Can Be Harmed is a mixed cocktail that deviates from traditional proto-punk by lacing songs with ’80s synth lines. Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
The fifth and final record by Colorado heavy rockers Planes Mistaken for Stars exhibits their broadest sense of appeal, ranging from aggressive noise rock to catchy post-hardcore hooks. Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
At various turns haunting, alluring, catchy and confident, Florida’s Leaving Time deliver a well-considered debut, Angel in the Sand (Sunday Drive), that introduces the shoegazers with aplomb. Go to FLOOD to read my review in full.
Climbing out of the black-metal pigeonhole, Portugal’s Gaerea sound more confident and creatively unrestrained on their fourth album rather than merely louder. Read my review of Coma on FLOOD‘s website. (While you’re at it, check out my interview with the band’s mysterious vocalist on New Noise‘s website.)
