Swim Into The Sound's Staff Favorites of 2024
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Early on in 2024, I put out a call for new writers thinking that a small handful of people might want to join our team to write about emo music and under-the-radar indie rock. What actually happened is roughly 60 people applied, and I was overwhelmed for weeks sifting through all of these super thoughtful responses from incredibly talented people who wanted to be a part of Swim Into The Sound.
Over the course of the year, some of those people naturally dropped off or had other obligations come up, but a majority of them stayed on to write reviews, retrospectives, premieres, and interviews. This year more than any other, I felt a sense of community form around this silly little website as the self-dubbed Swim Team spent 2024 turning out one fantastic piece after another, lifting each other up, and shooting the shit in our Discord. It’s really amazing.
I’m just some guy who writes about music online; all of these people who make up our team (including all the older writers who were on board before 2024) have set the tone, pace, and tenor for what Swim Into The Sound actually is, and that’s an incredible thing to find myself at the helm of.
With all of these new people jumping on board, I had to be more of an editor than ever before, but it was all in service of sharing music we love. Over the past twelve months, we’ve published 128 articles containing a collective 170k words. That’s staggering to me. There were some stretches where we published an article every day for a week, and while that wasn’t entirely sustainable for me as an editor, it was thrilling to feel like a cutting-edge publication for a little bit.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m incredibly proud of these people and all their work. They’ve helped shape Swim into something far grander than I ever could have conceived, and it’s an honor to write alongside them, to edit their work, and to share it with the world. This has been a banner year for Swim Into The Sound, and I’m already excited to see where we collectively take things in 2025.
Without any further blabbering or maudlin reflecting, I’d like to turn things over to the Swim Team to allow each writer to talk about their favorite album of 2024, plus any other secondary favorites they might have. Below, you’ll find 36 recommendations from 36 different people, an eclectic snapshot of what 2024 had to offer. You can also access every one of these albums in this Spotify playlist if you’d like to listen as you read or save them for later. As usual, I hope you discover something new and exciting here to love; I definitely have.
Britta Joseph | Touché Amoré – Spiral In A Straight Line
Rise Records
Touché Amoré creates albums that feel like diary entries - entries that we, as listeners, are unsure we should even be privy to. The melodic hardcore giants’ sixth album, Spiral In A Straight Line, chronicles the grief and shock that accompany devastating change. The first time I listened to this album, I was sitting in my living room, tears silently streaming down my cheeks as each pain-laced line of poetry pierced me through the heart. Jeremy Bolm hands us a record capturing a new chapter in his life, allowing a moment of connection and humanity, though it comes at a great personal cost. Heavily referential, brutally emotive, and sonically challenging, Spiral In A Straight Line is a beautiful tribute to heartbreak.
Other stand-outs for 2024:
EP of the year goes to FlyOverStates’ Ghosts (a brilliant post-hardcore release that feels like it’s straight out of the early aughts)
Cover of the year goes to Anthony Green’s rendition of “Numb, But I Still Feel It (Live at Nomad)” by Title Fight (bittersweet and simple; I was lucky enough to hear this on his spring tour this year)
Song of the year goes to Truman Finnell for the haunting single “Palm of Thorns” (visceral, atmospheric, brilliant; an incredible piece of art)
Caro Alt | Johnny Blue Skies – Passage Du Desir
High Top Mountain Records
As I write this, I am standing in a sprawling crowd to see Johnny Blue Skies, a.k.a. Sturgill Simpson. People are craning their necks just to get a better view of the stage setup; everyone seems to be in flannel, and I waited in line for 10 minutes to get a beer. That’s how excited everyone is to hear his latest record and my album of the year, Passage Du Desir, live. It’s clear to everyone in this room that Sturgill Simpson is the closest thing current country music has to a legend. For five albums, Simpson has become a larger-than-life musician who blends the more traditional sounds with metamodern tricks, produces contemporary country staples, plays in other artists’ bands, and even starred in a Scorsese movie. For these reasons, Simpson had to kill Sturgill.
Under the guise of an altar ego, Simpson created a new, stripped-down world for his latest album. Compiled during his time in Paris and recorded with essentially just a guitar and an amp, the record grapples with private love, mundane misery, and suffocating grief. One of Simpson’s strengths as an artist has always been making his guitar speak for him, and in just eight songs, Simpson’s musical compositions create his most heart-aching stories yet. I still lose myself in the depth of “Jupiter’s Faerie” and “Right Kind of Dream.” I’m finishing this write-up after the concert and was reminded how, in an interview about the new name, Simpson suggested that it’s easier to release vulnerable albums under a pseudonym. After hearing the crowd sing those same lyrics with him, it’s hard not to be moved by the window of vulnerability this album created for not only himself but all of us, too.
Other Stuff I Liked:
- Compilation Album: Cardinals at the Window: A Benefit for Flood Relief in Western North Carolina ft. Various Artists
- Live Album: Live at the Rio Market by Horse Rider
- EP: I’d Think I Know by Oldstar
- Song: “Favourite” by Fontaines DC
Rob Moura | Haley Heynderickx – Seed of a Seed
Mama Bird Recording Co.
When I first acquired my Apple Watch, I spent almost a week in its possession. I only ever took it off to charge it. In between, I took remote pictures of myself like James Bond, downloaded more notes apps than I had words to fill them, and pulled the compass out to let it direct me north, which at the time was toward a billboard advertising airplane food. In the summer, my skin paled underneath the band, a pallid ring of flesh revealing itself upon every removal. One day, in the forest, a dime-sized hive blossomed under the aluminum carapace, and though the welt grew so itchy it seemed made of electricity, I still refused to take it off. Greater was my desire to have my steps tracked, proof I had taken them.
Haley Heynderickx’s Seed of a Seed is perhaps not the greatest album I’ve heard this year, but it is the one that has impacted my life the most. It is the one that offers the most kindness. Too many invisible voices insist on music - that which has been absorbed into a gummy hypnotizing media amalgamation shorthanded as “content” - as a distraction or a tool for someone’s avaricious intentions. Seed of a Seed is of a different breed. The guitar is gentle and hearty, and Heynderickx’s voice soothes like a poultice. It reminds me “to pull the fuck over, just to stare at purple clover off the highway.” Maybe it’s not a coincidence that my watch sits on its charger, dormant for over a week now: a parasite successfully pulled from the fold.
Bits and Bites, Faves and Craves:
- Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch (transcendental folk transmission)
- DoNormaal & Welp Disney - PALMSPRINGA (hip-hop from the chaos rift)
- Zookraught - VIDA VIOLET (clamorous queer dance-punk)
- Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (heavier than heaven?)
- The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know (scraping the ceiling of pop-rock pastiche)
Nick Miller | Mount Eerie – Night Palace
P. W. Elverum & Sun
I don’t remember where or how old I was when I first heard one of Phil Elverum’s songs, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say that I was probably about 16, sitting at the desktop computer in my childhood bedroom. Since then, his projects Mount Eerie and The Microphones have become a recurring presence in my life, not exactly on repeat, but always around. Night Palace is the first new Mount Eerie album in five years, and while it was just released in November, it has instantly cemented itself in my mind as one of Elverum’s best releases.
Across the album’s 81 minutes and 26 tracks, Elverum covers familiar ground and explores new genres, including screamo on “Swallowed Alive” and straightforward rock on “Empty Paper Towel Roll.” The album’s lyrics cross equally vast territory, with standouts like Elverum’s imagined conversation with a fish on the aptly-named “I Spoke With A Fish” and a touching meditation on depression with “Wind & Fog, Pt. 2.” There are noticeable callbacks to his previous work, but none of it feels forced or corny. Instead, Night Palace feels more like a culmination of everything that came before it.
Other Favorite Albums of 2024:
- Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman
- YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING by SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
- Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee
- GNX by Kendrick Lamar
- Lived Here For A While by Good Looks
Russ Finn | Callahan & Witscher – Think Differently
Post Present Medium
Throughout their careers, Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher have released experimental electronic music under their own names or monikers, like Die Reihe and Rene Hell. On Think Differently, their debut album as the duo Callahan & Witscher, the two avant-garde musicians execute their ultimate musical experiment—pop accessibility.
Think Differently is an experimental concept album about making experimental music. Callahan & Witscher duet on every song with back-and-forth auto-tuned choruses and dry, spoken-word tales about the struggles of being touring experimental musicians who share deeply personal art to an indifferent world. In “Boiler Room,” for example, Witscher tells the tragicomic story of the time he played his music at a Boiler Room set where everyone was expecting “techno DJs.” On “Columbus,” Callahan “bares his soul to thirteen people who he’ll never meet” at a show in a laundromat.
Callahan & Witscher couple their self-deprecation and ennui with late 90s and early 2000s pop-rock stylings. Sugar Ray, Beck, Linkin Park–it’s all there, mashed together with samples of Taco Bell bongs, dueling banjos, and a calculated use of “listen to this track, bitch.” Though the jokes never stop, it would be a disservice to call this a comedy album. Think Differently is funny in the same way hanging out with your best friends is funny–you’ll crack jokes but still make room to lift each other up and have serious discussions.
The album is loaded with humor and a persistent jadedness toward the music industry, but the album isn’t a bitter, irony-poisoned piece of juvenilia. Think Differently is a sweet album that challenges musicians and artists to never give up on doing what they love, and it’s the most fun I’ve had listening to an album in a long time.
2024 releases deserving more attention:
- Tinker Bell’s Cough by F.G.S.
- Twisted Teens by Twisted Teens
- The Circus Egotistica by Floral Tattoo
- Hope and Fear by Stella
Caleb Doyle | Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood
ANTI-
Katie Crutchfield’s arc as a musician is well familiar to middle-of-the-country people like me who grew up on Martina McBride and Montgomery Gentry; we rejected country radio as teens by turning to indie rock and then let the hometown twang seep back in as we got older. Waxahatchee is bona fide 2010s indie rock royalty, and yet Crutchfield has had the bravery and curiosity to follow what’s felt good down the Americana dirt road.
Tigers Blood is both an improvement on Saint Cloud from a song-writing standpoint and an evolution of her sound. Perhaps “evolution” isn’t the proper term; maybe we’ll call it a “leaning-in.” Sonically, Tigers Blood is full-bore alt-country rock. Crutchfield channels Patsy Cline and her beloved Lucinda Williams in her vocal performance and does not hesitate to dial up the twang. As for the rest of the gang: Brad and Phil Cook, Spencer Tweedy, and MJ Lenderman lay down backing tracks as strong as anything Buck Owens’s Buckaroos ever played.
Lyrically, Crutchfield’s themes feel warmly familiar with an added wisdom and an un-clenching that comes with the freedom of playing music she is comfortable with. This is still the Waxahatchee from Cerulean Salt, just with a glass of sweet tea on a screened-in front porch. It is fascinating to hear words like “didactic,” “reticent,” and “a paradox poetic” through the lens of Crutchfield’s Alabama-raised, Kansas City-steeped twang. The warm country tones are a deep comfort amid nakedly human lyrics about grief, self-consciousness, and trying to make love work.
Each track is a meal. From hopeful lover’s ballad “Right Back To It” (my front-runner for Song of the Year) to acidic lovers’ quarrel over a Byrds riff “Crowbar,” each song on Tigers Blood feels immediately familiar upon first listen. The sounds are timeless, and we can only hope this is just the beginning of the alt-country Renaissance.
The rest of my Top 5:
2. Rosali - Bite Down
3. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
4. Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
5. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Elias Amini | girlsnails – california kickball
Self-released
Of all the records that came out this year, from sumptuous screamo delights to achingly delicious alt-country jawns, I never thought that girlsnails’ six-song mathy emo album-length EP would have the unshakeable grip on me that it does. I first broadly gestured towards my favoritism for the band earlier on in our Q1 Roundup, where I could certainly say I was excitedly picking up what they were putting down. Then, this year happened. I buried friends and family alike, I struggled with my own mental health, I lent what strength I could to my comrades and loved ones. Through all this, california kickball did something miraculous for me: it just made more and more sense. The grappling with oneself, your shortcomings, your longing, your aches and scrapes and bruises and fractures. Every warble of pain felt reflective of something in my life; each pining for release I saw as flickering images of passed-on loved ones. And as powerful or elated, or melancholy or crazy as so many other projects from this year made me feel, none made me feel as seen as girlsnails did. It’s wild how an album about struggling through love and bad breakups became my philosopher's stone for digesting and metabolizing a huge amount of grief. But I suppose that is the most remarkable thing about music, isn’t it? This alchemical quality to become what you may need at a given moment in time and have it basically change a piece of you in the process. How wonderful that a batch of songs about clunky, dissolving connections and abstract longing could give me such peace. I don't know what girlsnails has up their sleeve next, but I can only hope whatever wondrous form it takes that it makes itself a home for anyone willing to listen.
Other releases I loved from this year:
- Obsidian Wreath by Infant Island
- We Have the Answer by Heavenly Blue
- Quarto Vientos Cinco Soles by Massa Nera and Quiet Fear
- Sweethearts, a split by Aren't We Amphibians and Just Let Me Go
Josh Ejnes | Sinai Vessel – I SING
Keeled Scales
One reason that Sinai Vessel’s I SING hit so hard for me is that, at its heart, it is an incredibly angry record. Though it doesn’t display many of the sonic hallmarks you might expect from angry music (it’s not particularly loud, not particularly fast, not particularly explosive), the simmering undercurrent that drives things throughout is the kind only born from a battle between rage and resignation. It carries the anger of the overthinking and over-observant, a brand of emotion that hits close to home for me, especially this year. On first listen, I remember being particularly struck by the opening of “Challenger,” which starts: “Loved snow til you realized it’s / Rain that sticks to the ground / The weight prix fixe of consciousness / Does not fuck around.” There are so many lyrics like this where I felt equally seen and punched in the gut, always sung beautifully over masterful arrangements ranging in style from alt-country to bossa nova and heartland rock. There’s just so much that works here. It’s an amazing record that came right when I needed it, and to me, it’s the best of the year.
Other Releases I loved:
- Flesh Tape - Flesh Tape
- bonus - was a dog
- Bad Moves - Wearing Out The Refrain
- bedbug - pack your bags the sun is growing
- Ekko Astral - Pink Balloons
John Dietz | Lucy (Cooper B. Handy) – 100% PROD I.V.
Ulyssa
If you listen to only one Lucy project from this year, make it this one. It’s a collaborative effort with producer i.v., who’s worked with a remarkable assortment of artists ranging from Shed Theory’s Tek lintowe to ambient folk musician Kaho Matsui. It’s hard to make any generalizations about the sound of Lucy’s work, mostly because he’s explored so many different styles and worked with so many producers, but 100% PROD I.V. feels truly unique. I’m struck by the sparseness of the songs, the fragility of the interlocking synth melodies, the way the MIDI guitar riffs and hi-hats complement Lucy’s double-tracked vocals.
One highlight for me is album opener, “Make My Bed,” kicking off with a bright MIDI guitar sound that features prominently throughout the project. Accompanied by an understated, smooth bassline, his lyrics flow back and forth between inscrutable couplets like “I used to think I would fall off / But the dog’s fur is so soft” and utterly sincere confessions: “I heard when you said / That things are gonna get better / That's why I wake up in the morning, and I make my bed.” Lucy’s writing and persona feel especially welcome now when a lot of songwriting seems to feel increasingly wry, tongue-in-cheek, or despondent. His Instagram features lots of little aphorisms like “If you’re reading this ur smart+lucky+loved” and “TurnUp - Tune Out - Drop In.” He ends many of his posts with “HMU ILY.”
As I continue to explore his massive discography, I’ve realized that maybe what I love most about Lucy is his long-running habit of interpreting pop songs, refracting tunes like “Beauty and the Beast” and “All You Need Is Love” through his unique brand of off-kilter pop. 100% PROD I.V. includes maybe my favorite example of this to date, a cover of 2000 chart-topper “Breathe” titled “Faith Hill.” A lesser, more cynical artist might use this as a chance to jab, poke fun, mock — but Lucy and i.v.’s stripped-down version of the pop country hit feels entirely earnest. MIDI guitar riffs and glittering synth lines give way to a sparse, trap-inflected drum pattern and Lucy’s double-tracked vocals as he croons, “I can feel the magic floating in the air / Being with you gets me that way.”
Here are some other albums I really enjoyed this year:
- Endlessness by Nala Sinephro
- Here in the Pitch by Jessica Pratt
- The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble by Cime
- Cold Visions by Bladee
- Real Home by Kiran Leonard
Ben Sooy | Pedro the Lion – Santa Cruz
Polyvinyl Record Co.
I’ve been tracking David Bazan’s music since the year of our Lord 2002, and his most recent record is, in my opinion, his best work. Santa Cruz is part three of five planned albums, each chronicling an era of Bazan’s childhood and adolescence. Bazan is kind and tender to his past self, his family, and all the complicated and heartbreaking things that happened to him. The magic thing about this record is how much of myself I see in Bazan’s story. Our childhoods certainly have parallels, but it’s not just the stuff we have in common. Like all great autobiographical storytelling, the more specific the story gets, the more universal it feels.
On paper, a musical autobiography could have had self-indulgent, cringeworthy music-theater-bullshit energy, but instead, these albums feel like the rock music equivalent of East of Eden. In the same way Steinbeck’s book was tied to place and family history and the implications of how faith gets inherited, these records feel like that sort of literature. And the songs are well-crafted rock songs. Simply amazing.
Other albums that are very good:
- Stay Inside - Ferried Away
- Elliott Green - Kintsugi
- mealworm - mealworm
- Sinai Vessel - I SING
- Flight Mode - The Three Times
Lillian Weber | Punitive Damage – Hate Training
Convulse Records
When confronted with genocide, how close to your conditions does the other need to be for you to start caring? How close to you does it need to be before you do something? Will it take until there is literally blood on your hands?
Punitive Damage’s new EP, Hate Training, grapples explicitly with these questions as they relate to the ongoing genocide in Palestine (“raze the strip, cleanse them / accept their fate, it’s how it is”), those with power who try and convince you what is happening before your eyes is fine (“my word is truth / so swallow the shit”), and those who willfully buy into the lie that their comfort doesn’t come on the backs of the oppressed (“find comfort in their chains / basic needs- a cause of shame”).
Hate Training also serves as a rallying cry. The gang vocals shouting “I won’t beg” on the highlight “Humanity Upon Request” remind us that asking nicely of those who hate us to please, treat us with respect, will never work. In the face of genocide, we will not prostrate ourselves, we will not be told how brave we are for speaking up, we will make our own world possible.
OTHER NOTABLES:
- Gouge Away’s excellent comeback LP, Deep Sage, is a comfort blanket.
- Black Button’s Internal Life is what my panic attacks sound like.
- Crush Fund’s New Fixation x100.
Cassidy Sollazzo | Coco & Clair Clair – Girl
Nice Girl World
What other 2024 album has lines like “Write a hit song then I read a big book / I’m all about the lovin’ you can call me bell hooks” and “You’re a wannabe heartthrob, broke ass with no job / Grown ass Thingamabob, no TP at his spot”???? The answer is none of them. Only Coco & Clair Clair’s Girl, the follow-up to their 2022 breakout, Sexy. The term “sophomore slump” doesn’t even exist in the Atlanta duo’s vocabulary, with their lyricism wittier and nastier than ever, dripping in confidence and begging for confrontation. This album has lifted me from the depths of various breakdowns and depression pits like no other. When I hear the opening synths of “Martini,” I can literally feel my soul transcend to a different plane, and “My Girl” is the perfect song to strut (commute) to. Who else would have the sheer gall to make a synth-trap cover of CSNY’s “Our House”?? Two girls who do not give two fucks.
Girl also gets points for being the only album I’ve ever sent in my group chat that actually ended up in everyone’s rotation. Now we’re all obsessed. My best friend crashed her car while blasting “Kate Spade” (the song the pair calls their ‘magnum opus’), having the type of listening experience God (Coco & Clair Clair) intended. I got to see the duo at Irving Plaza with said friends at the beginning of November, and it was the most I screamed, danced, and sweated at a show since my days riding the rails at One Direction concerts. This album is cunty, hot, brain-scratchingly synthy, and the best mood booster I’ve ever encountered. It’s helped me push past insecurities and quiet feelings of existential dread, it’s soundtracked pregames and girls nights, it’s the most likely thing to be playing through my headphones at any given moment, and it is my absolute favorite album of 2024.
Some other albums I’ve loved this year:
- Liana Flores, Flower of the soul
- Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal
- Shaina Hayes, Kindergarten Heart
- Brittany Howard, What Now
- Rosali, Bite Down
David Gay | Water Damage – In E
12XU
On one of their shirts, the band Water Damage describes themselves with the following mantra: “Maximal Repetition, Minimal Deviation.” In 2024, when there were so many things to be stressed out about, In E, an album that features “volume, repetition, volume, repetition,” became a refuge for me from the day-to-day pressures and an antidote to life’s complexities.
Getting lost in a piece of art is a special experience. Whether moving as one with a crowd at a live concert or being completely enthralled by a character’s story in a movie theater - it’s rare when I get to turn my brain off and truly let go for a period of time. Each time I listen to this band, and this album in particular, it provides that escape. No matter what circumstance I am in at a place and time, I could always rely on “maximal repetition” and “minimal deviation” to at least get me through 82 minutes. I’m thankful and grateful for that, and that’s why it’s one of my favorite albums of 2024.
Some of my other favorites:
- Stay Golden by Combat
- Dulling The Horns by Wild Pink
- Sentiment by Claire Rousay
- Pink Balloons by Ekko Astral
- “Ghost” and “Soul Planet” from the 8/4/24 Phish show in Noblesville, Indiana
Logan Archer Mounts | Mary Spender – Super. Sexy. Heartbreak.
Self-Released
At this time of writing, I have yet to finalize any placements for my favorite albums of the year, so I’m using this space to talk about what I believe will be the least-talked-about album that will likely land in my top 10. Mary Spender is a singer-songwriter from Bristol who I’ve been following for a number of years via her YouTube channel. She’s put out a handful of gorgeous singles like “The Great Wave” and “Primrose,” and last year saw the release of her double album Songbook, which she doesn’t technically consider to be her debut as all of those songs are strictly acoustic recordings. Turns out that it was a bit of an intentional teaser to Super. Sexy. Heartbreak. as almost all of the songs were originally included on Songbook.
Her full band renditions of songs like “Getaway Sun” and “I’ll Stay Quiet” were absolutely worth the wait, acting as the culmination of years of growth as a musician and online personality. I still can’t quite nail down a particular style or subgenre to describe Spender’s music, which is part of the reason I love it. She’s cited artists like John Mayer and Suzanne Vega as influences, and there are certainly notes of what used to be called “adult alternative,” but her proficient guitar work puts her in an instrumental class adjacent to math rock and progressive-emo artists like Closure In Moscow, Delta Sleep, or The Reign Of Kindo. Her music is profoundly British, which is just another one of the many things I love about this album while having plenty of lyrical references to her time spent in Chicago and Los Angeles. All of that is accented by Spender’s beautiful, soulful voice, which she shows off strongest in songs like “Church Bell” and “I Blame Myself.” Super. Sexy. Heartbreak. is one of the year’s most distinct singer-songwriter albums that everyone should be giving a chance.
The real AOTY was the friends we made along the way
Ben Parker | A Place For Owls – how we dig in the earth
Broom of Destruction
Once I learned of its existence, I knew that once how we dig in the earth was released, it would be my album of the year. What I didn’t know, however, is that this album would be something that would carry me through potentially the heaviest grief of my life. I have never felt more hope than when I listen to this album on repeat, and I have sadly had to come back to it far too many times this year. Each time the final notes of “help me let the right ones in” play, I am left sitting in the dark, listening to my own breathing and understanding that hope truly is a weapon. A Place For Owls have crafted an album that is full of heart. This record comes to you as a warm hug from a lost friend that, as soon as you touch, the memories flood back into your brain.
Other Important Releases:
- Garden Home - S/T
- Combat - Stay Golden
- Excuse Me, Who Are You? - Double Bind
- Barely Civil - I’d Say I’m Not Fine
- Leisure Hour - The Sunny Side
Alex Couts | Lifecrusher – In Death, We All Rot the Same
Side 2 Side Records / Inhumano Records
Blistering, relentless, and unforgiving. Lifecrusher’s 2024 effort In Death, We All Rot the Same is a 23-minute celebration of decades-old hardcore tradition, adored and interpreted with a fresh cultural lens. With the incoming tsunami of Sunami-style-rip-off-acts popping up around the globe, it can feel easy to put young hardcore bands in a box, but Lifecrusher is demolishing borders across Europe with friends at their side. The band conjures frenetic and participatory live shows with the likes of Deconvolution, XOXO., Wonderful World, and SLOPE, delivering 8KHC across Europe and next: the globe. If you desire the kinesis of formative acts like Cross Me, Soul Search, and Mindforce tied together with deep vocal incisions of Amygdala and Code Orange Kids, you should tune into Lifecrusher before they become the coolest band on the planet. In Death, We All Rot the Same is simply another stepping stone on that journey for Lifecrusher.
Other notable releases:
- State Power – Year of the Harvest
- Wonderful World – Universal Tension
- Big Ass Truck – Big Ass Demo
- Logic1000 – Mother
- No Cure – I Hope I Die Here
Samuel Leon | Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Pure Noise Records
With regards to having a metal album as your AOTY in 2024, is this a “basic” choice? Sure, but there is a reason Knocked Loose has gotten so much praise and sold out larger headlining shows than their contemporaries. Every second of You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To feels like a wrestling match between your listening device and the Oldham County quintet to see if they can successfully break your speakers. Songs like “Piece By Piece” and “Don’t Reach For Me” prove Knocked Loose is at the top of their game right now, and they have no plans of slowing down.
Honorable Mentions Include:
- Songs of a Lost World: The Cure
- Imaginal Disk: Magdalena Bay
- Glimmer of God: Jean Dawson
- All You Embrace: One Step Closer
- Self-Titled: Foxing
Kirby Kluth | Memorial – Redsetter
Real Kind Records
Could you do me a favor? The next time I think about getting off social media, I need you to stop me and read aloud from Swim Into The Sound’s Staff Favorites of 2024. All of the potentially harmful effects of exorbitant screen time and my declining attention span have been completely outweighed by the time Lomelda’s Instagram Story told me she and her brother helped produce Memorial’s sophomore album, Redsetter, and that I should listen to it. My year has been one of deep grief and tremendous joy, and during all of the in-between times where the growth comes, Redsetter offered comfort and a leg for me to stand on. The whole album is coated in warmth. Jack Watts almost always sounds to me as if he is smiling while he sings. It's drums and finger picking provide a pattern to nod my head along to, and there are moments scattered throughout that give me chills and well up a momentum within me. Hannah and Tommy Reed’s fingerprints are all over this record, making Redsetter feel like a home from the first listen. They lent Memorial their sound in ways that work to deepen the record. Redsetter is full-bodied, endlessly kind, and my favorite album of 2024.
2024, according to Kirby:
- NTS Radio
- A slew of new-to-streaming The Sundays singles
- Big Nick - DOPE MUSIC
- Hovvdy - Hovvdy
- Nourished by Time - “Hell of a Ride”
- Faye Webster’s discography
Braden Allmond | Charly Bliss – Forever
Lucky Number Music
For reasons known only to my unconscious mind, hearing good power pop makes me philosophical and thankful for this century of human history. The third album from Charly Bliss is a good reminder to participate in your life–not to just wake up and shuffle to work, but to open windows and breathe with the world, to make time to watch the sunset, to learn constellations with someone you love, to ask your coworker how their kids are. This album is a reminder that the news cannot stop you from living your life. Fireworks in March, cowbells in an unsuspecting field, an indescribable cappuccino at 3 PM, a welcome-back-to-the-continent kiss, whatever makes your heart beat, you have to find and deliver yourself those experiences. I spent most of my year searching for comfort and found an infinite source here. Enduring brightness, childlike hope, teeth-hurting sweetness, teenaged desire, and unabashed happiness, Forever by Charly Bliss delivers all of this on every front.
Other 2024 releases I particularly enjoyed and think you should listen to:
- Ogbert The Nerd — What You Want (The only emo band from New Jersey)
- Knifeplay — Pearlty (2024 Remaster)
- I Love Your Lifestyle — Summerland (Torpa or Nothing)
- ANORAK! — Self-actualization and the ignorance and hesitation towards it
- Lobby Boxer —Head Shoulders Knuckles Floor
Nickolas Sackett | Sam Wilkes – iiyo iiyo iiyo
Self-released
2024 has been a weird year for me, one awash with hues of pain, financial hardship, health scares, travel, and love. Since the day I chanced upon its serene shade of blue, iiyo iiyo iiyohas been a constant source of comfort that has soundtracked countless cooking sessions, sleepy drives home from my girlfriend’s apartment, and late-night Balatro sessions in bed. It’s strange that a live-jazz album I chanced upon flicking through Instagram Stories would eventually become so prevalent in my life- but then again, is anything so strange? If I asked a certain person, they might even tell me that the universe wanted me to find the album, that it was all preordained, and that there was no way I wouldn’t find it. Someone else might tell me I’m on that damn phone too much. Whatever your take is, iiyo iiyo iiyo is a wonderful recording of a brilliant show. It’s hard not to marvel at it all with music like this.
Brandon Cortez | Macseal – Permanent Repeat
Counter Intuitive Records
The Long Island indie-emo quartet drops listeners into snapshots of nostalgia on their second LP, Permanent Repeat. Having built their success off of their 4th/5th-wave emo hits such as “Cats” and “Next to You,” Macseal lean into their hook-infested indie soundscape this time around. Even with a five-year gap between albums, they manage to pick up exactly where they left off, plus some. Track two, “Golden Harbor,” sets the stage for reminiscing as the listener is heaved through memories of the group's early days–all set to the backdrop of Golden Harbor Authentic Chinese Cuisine, nestled in Champaign-Urbana. I could write indefinitely about this album, however, I’d be remiss not to focus on the album’s titular track, “Permanent Repeat.” In my humble opinion, this song should be crowned as the group's magnum opus. Coming in at a just-right three and a half minutes, the song hits everything we’ve come to know and love from Macseal. Soft, emotional lyrics that all lead up to an unbelievably catchy chorus which is preceded by a jarring guitar solo to yoink the listener out of their perpetual yearning. Permanent Repeat has been just that; on an endless loop whenever I find the time. Even when the album is not sonically present, it’s the never-ending soundtrack to my daydreaming. A love letter to the way things used to, and could be, Permanent Repeat leaves listeners nostalgic for moments that haven't yet happened.
Other 2024 favorites:
- Kerosene Heights - Leaving
- Mini Trees - Burn Out
- Ben Quad - Ephemera
- Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties - In Lieu of Flowers
Noëlle Midnight | Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible
Sharptone
Formed by three members of the now defunct metalcore outfit Every Time I Die, plus vocalist Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Will Putney (Fit For An Autopsy), Better Lovers’ debut LP comes out swinging, ensuring listeners know that nobody here is wasting time merely trying to recapture the past.
With Highly Irresponsible, Better Lovers deliver Southern-tinged metalcore that’s bursting at the seams with anger and accusations. It’s hard to listen to this record without thinking about how the end of ETID transpired, with vocalist Keith Buckley being abruptly removed from the band, ultimately resulting in a full collapse. From that context, we see Puciato screaming, “Can you believe you thought yourself sophisticated,” the alternating lyrics of “We all look blameless” and “We all look guilty,” followed a few songs later with “You want your flowers, but you threw out the seeds.” A narrative, whether intended or not, begins to form as we see what appears to be the pain of a bad breakup.
Musically, if you liked the Southern riffs that defined much of ETID’s sound, you’ll find yourself delighted by tracks like “Drowning In A Burning World.” Pair that with choruses brought to life by Puciato’s incredible alternation between a variety of vocal techniques to create texture that is all too often missing from mainstream metalcore releases. It’s hard to listen to this record without singing along to the impeccably written choruses and repeated vocal themes and frankly? I wouldn’t want to.
Some of my other favorites:
- Santa Cruz by Pedro The Lion
- Leap of Death by Left to Suffer
- empathogen by WILLOW
- Winter by Strelitzia
- Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party
Aly Eleanor | Kali Malone – All Life Long
Ideologic Organ
All Life Long is Kali Malone’s fifth “record,” roughly speaking both in terms of number and what defines a body of work. If you only focus on the big stuff, that could entail over 100 minutes of pipe organ drones, Éliane Radigue homage, three hours of sine waves, or even shoegaze. Her latest unfolds across a suite of melancholy, arranged for brass, organ, and voice — it’s a dense, dynamic chunk of liturgy that nevertheless holds a glacier’s worth of beauty within. As I revisit “No Sun To Burn” and “Fastened Maze,” once again greeted by the biting grasp of winter winds, it is easy to be struck by how heavy they sound. Malone’s compositions are weighed down by their stellar core, a glowing resolve frozen underneath the icy surface. All Life Long leans into the furrows of her electroacoustic eclecticism and produces the closest thing to what a minimalist could call a “crossover hit.” It holds the odd distinction of being my fourth favorite Kali Malone record while still being my favorite record of the year. Set aside some time to immerse yourself.
Nick Webber | Apples with Moya – A Heave of Lightness on the Ground
Den Tapes
Apples with Moya found me nestled in the covers of a guest bed during the Minnesota springtime, slowly returning from dreamland. As I pressed play, I was casually familiar with the band as part of the Great Grandpa extended universe, but I wasn’t at all prepared to be swept away so dramatically in those 32 minutes laying next to my sleeping wife in the early morning light.
A lot of what makes this record (and Great Grandpa) special to me has to do with the melodic sensibility; it feels rare to hear folks really going for it when it comes to writing compelling and catchy tunes, especially when “vibe” often seems to get more shine than songcraft in buzzy music as of late. LaFlam’s vivid and often mercurial lyrics land in captivating ways, oscillating between the impressionistic and the earthly, nestled in unabashedly gorgeous arrangements. Sometimes Sufjanesque, sometimes power poppy, always memorable, A Heave of Lightness on the Ground is an album shot through with humor, movement, bracing specificity, and revelation. It feels like the sort of music that can only come out of the Pacific Northwest, and it’s the only album I know of that name-checks both Pedro the Lion and Montucky Cold Snacks. To a guy like me, this stuff is magic.
Wes Cochran | Foxing – Foxing
Grand Paradise
Many 2024 albums have inspired me or brought me comfort, but none have lit a fire under my ass like Foxing. In the decade-plus since the release of their modern emo classic The Albatross, the indie rock quartet have amassed a cult following for frontman Conor Murphy’s expressive vocals and the band’s restless evolution. From the sounds of it though, all that hard work has left them exhausted and without much in the way of material gains to show for it. After one last swing for the rafters with their previous full-length, any and all guardrails came off on their self-funded, self-produced, self-titled, and self-released fifth album. The band makes hairpin turns between everything from disaffected dream pop to vicious hardcore, sometimes within the same song. The mix can go from perfectly balanced to completely blown out (I’ve probably done permanent damage to my ears listening to “Gratitude”), and each member has several moments across the record where it sounds as if they might lose control at any given moment.
As someone “liked-but-didn’t-love” the band going in, I spent my entire first listen feeling like I had been sucker-punched. Not just at the sonic mayhem I was subjecting myself to, but the emotional intensity of Foxing. If I had to summarize the thematic crux of the album, it would be a crisis of faith - in music, love, your country, God, or anything else you’ve devoted a significant portion of your life to, only to realize you may not believe in it anymore. You’re forced to search for purpose again in an endless cultural vacuum of regurgitated ideas, view and sales counts, and just general suffering. It may sound like I’m describing the “feel-bad Album of the Year,” and on some level, I am, but no amount of words can describe how awe-inspiring and thrilling it is to actually hear that search on Foxing. After all, how many albums will I ever be able to say started a chain reaction that led to me picking up my guitar for the first time in more than a year and trying to create things again?
Throughout a stressful final quarter of the year that included but was not limited to: my car being totaled, death and illness within my family, and the American presidential election, I caught myself repeating the refrain of “CONSTANT FATIGUE!” from “Hell 99,” but recently I’ve decided to literally change my tune. I’ve spent far too much of my life wallowing and waiting, and it’s gotten pretty old - it’s time to rally. To put it in Foxing’s own words: “Make your mother proud, you’ve got to sharpen those dead dreams.”
Here’s some more music that made my 2024 that much more fulfilling:
- Everything Everything - Mountainhead
- Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
- Haley Heynderickx - Seed of a Seed
- Los Campesinos!, just Los Campesinos! as a band
- Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk
- Mount Eerie - Night Palace
- Vince Staples - Dark Times
David Williams | Wishy – Triple Seven
Winspear
The Indianapolis five-piece cinched the title “Rookies of the Year” with their debut record, Triple Seven. The music is a love letter to their indie rock predecessors, creating a well-thought-out alternative rock experience delivered with the confidence of Larry Bird shooting jump shots in his backyard. The melodies are intoxicatingly addicting and will be swirling in your head for hours, days, months, maybe even years after first hearing them. “Love On The Outside” will have you in a Ving Rhames-like chokehold, packing a wallop of a chorus that somehow rises to match the stadium-level guitar riffs. If you’re not blasting the record at maximum volume that could potentially result in hearing loss or a surly neighbor, you’re not listening to it properly.
Other albums that restored that feeling:
- MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
- Kendrick Lamar - GNX
- Wild Pink - Dulling The Horns
- Charli XCX - Brat
- Ducks LTD. - Harm’s Way
Lindsay Fickas | Hovvdy – Hovvdy
Arts & Crafts
2024 was an odd year where I was constantly clinging to any glimpse of nostalgia I could find. I needed a reminder of a time when things didn’t feel as though they were marching steadily into darkness. I found it in Hovvdy’s self-titled release. The album brings a fresh take on an older sound, delivering songs that could have fit in comfortably on a 2011 indie folk album sandwiched between Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. At times, the songs feel new and electric, utilizing effects and jaunty hooks to pull you in. Other times, they’re stripped-down and bare. If a John Steinbeck character pulled out a guitar around a campfire and played “Song for Pete,” I wouldn’t dare question the authenticity. And while many of the songs feel as though they’ve emerged straight from a Pitchfork Editor’s Pick 15 years ago, they never veer toward pretension, opting instead for full-throated sincerity with off-the-cuff lines like “Goddamn, I swear I will always love you.” It’s a warm and gorgeous record at a time I need it most.
A few other favorites:
- Foxing - Foxing
- Ekko Astral - Pink Balloons
- Friko - Where we’ve been, Where we go from here
- Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
- A Place for Owls - how we dig in the earth
Ciara Rhiannon | With Sails Ahead – Infinite Void
Self-released
Prior to this year, With Sails Ahead's discography had been a concise collection of singles and EPs that have each operated as a window into the influences and ambitions of the band, but we haven't seen the full magnitude of what they have been building towards – until now. Infinite Void is not only the first full-length album by With Sails Ahead; it is a testament to everything they have learned so far and the effort they’ve put in as a band. The work that goes into creating an album is intense, especially an album that accomplishes as much as Infinite Void – from its staggering instrumental range to its subtle references – all imprinted onto this record by each individual member. It’s difficult to think of many debut albums that are this technically impressive and ambitious straight out of the gate. You can genuinely feel the way this band collaborates and informs each other’s abilities across every single track on Infinite Void, and the result is one of the most staggeringly cohesive records I have ever heard.
Honorable Mentions:
- CLIFFDIVER - birdwatching
- Zach Benson - Music For You And Your Friends
- stop.drop.rewind - stop.drop.rewind
- Hey, ily! - Hey, I Loathe You!
- Eichlers - IKE WORLD
- Ekko Astral - Pink Balloons
Joshua Sullivan | MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
ANTI-
Two weeks before the diluvian Helene radically transformed the town, I was visiting friends in Asheville, North Carolina. Manning Fireworks had just come out, and as we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway listening to “Joker Lips,” I found myself in deep gratitude – here is a record that feels like it was always with me and always will be. As I spent the ensuing weeks in horror of what close friends and family experienced during and after Hurricane Helene, the album became a balm – which might be surprising, given the content of the record.
The fractured, predatory world of modern masculinity runs deep throughout MJ Lenderman’s understated, assured, and altogether brilliant album. The stories of cocksure failsons or manosphere marks update the cadre of fools found in Steely Dan songs for a new world. It’s a world that sets us up to fail, that dunks on us when we’re down – but was it the strong headwinds or the shorts full of sand that sank the bird in the end? This downtempo collection of double entendres, ending in a blissful seven minutes of meditative feedback, is a sanctuary for the soul, stuffed full of dumbasses and cowards. We laugh at them, but it can often feel like self-defense. Because, as Lenderman tosses off in the great “She’s Leaving You”: “We all got work to do.” The roads in Asheville are crumbled while the failsons continue to ascend. We all got work to do.
Honorable Mentions:
Magdelena Bay – Imaginal Disk | Jimmy Montague – Tomorrow’s Coffee | Carpool – My Life In Subtitles | Color Temperature – Here For It | Mach-Hommy — #RICHAXXHAITIAN
Jason Sloan | Climax Landers – Zenith No Effects
Gentle Reminder
Will Moloney has spent the better part of the 21st century as one of the New York underground’s most quietly influential figures; Bandcamp once crowned him “the Best Indie Rock Songwriter You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of.” Now, after twenty years and almost as many monikers, he’s perfected his blend of wry non-sequitur and shaggy grooves with the apotheotic Zenith No Effects. “Play It Cool” weaves defunct Brooklyn venues, superhero pornography, and Styx into an anthem for all those too weird to ever work a room. And I’m not sure there’s a better thesis for Moloney’s whole oeuvre than “Blessed by health and love and weed / Find the truth dialectically” from “Ad Hominem.” But the dual parenthetical bookend tracks are Zenith’s crowning achievements: a two-part tale of the Climax Landers literally riding in to save an oppressed city-state through the power of collective unity and rock and roll. In lesser hands, it would prove unbearable, but the winking delivery and Charlie Dore-Young’s buoyant bassline are too infectious to scoff at. By the time the album’s triumphant saxophone outro comes around, you’re right there with them, liberated and ready to seize your one chance to dance.
Joe Wasserman | Young Jesus – The Fool
Saddle Creek
Young Jesus himself, John Rossiter sings like I’m the only one listening. His voice almost replaces the one that narrates my thoughts thanks to the intimate production on The Fool. With songwriting full of parables, I often feel like I’m sitting at the bar hearing an old-timer drop nuggets of wisdom that I have to parse through. All the while, though, I’m enraptured in their story. There is a yearning and mourning in Rossiter’s voice (e.g., “Rabbit,” “MOTY,” “Dancer”) that is hyper-specific in description, but universal in emotion. In addition to the impeccable arrangement, The Fool is sonically textured and layered. Despite an emphasis on naturalistic vocal deliveries, there are digital glitches, noise-gated distortions, and delays galore here. Somehow, it all fits together. Sure, you can name a few songs as singles with their hooks and accessibility, yet it’s the album as a whole that overwhelms me every time I hit play on “Brenda & Diane.” Thematically, The Fool offers a compelling, progressive look at masculinity in 2024. Rossiter laments love and family; you can hear his heart breaking and fighting to stay in one piece on every track. This is an album that is as fun as it is incisive and insightful. The Fool is ultimately just fascinating in its depth and rewards repeated listening.
Connor Fitzpatrick | Christopher Owens – I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
True Panther Records
I used to be neighbors with Christopher Owens when we both lived in San Francisco. After Girls disbanded and his solo career seemed to dissipate, I’d see him around from time to time. Sometimes he’d be playing his guitar, but more often than not, he was just another dude in the neighborhood. I wondered occasionally if he’d ever make more music, but eventually, it seemed as though things had moved on. But now he’s back after nine years with a new solo album, the breathtaking I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair. In many ways, this feels like a long-lost Girls album with its deep yearning, gorgeous melodies, and background gospel vocals. It’s a massive triumph from Owens as he sings about heartache, loss, and loneliness, but also about the beauty in life and that, through all of the hardships we face as humans, life moves on and is worth living. Owens is at the top of his game on the album, and his guitar solos have never been lovelier. The album ends with what might be the best song he’s ever written, “Do You Need A Friend,” a seven-minute colossus that climaxes with Owens lamenting how he’s “barely making it through the days” and “the loneliness is always the same.” It’s a harrowing listen, but his vulnerability is so powerful and defiant because, despite all of it, he’s still here with a song to sing.
Dishonorable Mentions:
- Fontaines D.C. - Romance
- Rosali - Bite Down
- Schoolboy Q - Blue Lips
- Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still The Same
- Nap Eyes - The Neon Gate
