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Chris Siuty writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Chris Siuty
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2024 has been a helluva year in a lot of ways, but musically it has been very good! I seem to be buying more and more music -- old and new, but what's below is a list of my favorites of 2024. It was a bit hard narrowing it to just ten, but there's honorable mentions, EPs and demos, etc at the end, so enjoy! |
Medicine by Medicine (Laner Archival Service)
Across all his projects -- Medicine, Amnesia, Electric Company, and his solo modular synth squiggles -- I don't think he's ever put out a bad album. Every record is a crafted thing of beauty and this album is no exception. In the greater lexicon of Medicine's output, it has always been a progression forward. You never knew what you were going to get next. If forced to compare, this is probably most close to their second album -- The Buried Life -- than anything else. The band has come so far from its early comparisons to My Bloody Valentine that anyone still towing that line just flat out hasn't been listening. |
Mucho Mistrust by Fake Fruit (Car Park)
For some reason, my brain describes the guitar playing on the record as "wobbly arms," a description I've used for Gang of Four, the 3Ds and Brainiac. It's just so good and while it reminds me of a lot of other things, it's immediately identifiable as Fake Fruit. This was in heavy rotation for a good long time while commuting to work and running errands for about a month. For that alone, if this were ranked, it would be up towards the top of the list. |
Escape Forever by Soft Kill (Cercle Social Records)
The record itself is both nostalgic, but also modern. Some tasteful samples and introspective, personal lyrics. My favorite track on the record is Joy Is A Crime, whose lyrics proclaim "joy is a crime when you act your age," a sentiment most aging punks and new wavers no doubt can relate to. This is likely my favorite local release of the year. |
Guided Tour by High Vis (DAIS Records)
Post punk, hardcore, shoegaze, jangle... it's all there, wrapped around the beauty and chaos of an exceptionally good punk band. |
Fully Beat by Aluminum (Felte)
I listened to this album a ton when it came out, forcing it on pretty much anyone within ear shot. All killer, no filler. |
Someone Else's Dance by Canal Irreal (Beach Impediment)
Listening to this record, once getting past the post punk leanings, the chorus pedal on the guitar and the production, you have that "Chicago sound." It's comforting like ducking into an L train from a cold, snowy platform, or the familiar sounds of a block party going on a couple two/tree blocks over. It feels like splitting a six pack of Old Style with your old man and a neighbor or two in the backyard of your two flat. It's the sound of all seasons. It's both melancholy and optimistic like a Chicago autumn. It's gritty, wild and untamed like a basement show but also introspective and honest like a city worker's kid who spends their time reading Vonnegut. It's that feeling of driving through the Damen tunnel at 2am or the feeling you get from the amber street lights illuminating the alleyway. To paraphrase vocalist Martin Sorrondeguy, it's Medusa's and Club Naked, hard house music and punk shows is where he's at. I can romanticize this record all day. It's an effin' perfect punk rock record if there's ever been one. Just don't ask me about the fish. |
Behind the Concrete Veil by Lost Legion (Self Released)
This record is like a punch in the face that you can't forget. At times it reminds me of classic American Oi/hardcore bands, like Judge, The Trouble or Agnostic Front, while digging into the roots with bands like The Business, The 4-Skins or Blitz. If heavy, catching hardcore punk is your bag, this is up your alley, no doubt. Also, solid guys. |
Prude by Drug Church (Pure Noise)
For a better idea of what this record sounds like, it's comparable to bands like Turnstile and Fiddlehead, but I feel like they're much more in tune with their record collections than their contemporaries. This, their third record is absolutely fantastic. |
Synthesizer by A Place to Bury Strangers (DedStrange)
The deeper they dig into their sound, the less they sound like themselves. This has always been the case. They're so unmistakably who they are, but no two records sound the same, but you always know its them. They keep pushing their envelope, pushing their ceiling, stomping on their floor, smashing their guitars and abusing their synths to make more, to make it bend, see how long before it breaks? It doesn't matter. This record is brilliant. |
Did You Get Better by Babe Report (Self-Released)
It's catchy, fuzzed out punk rock and it's likely going to be in heavy rotation this summer. Chicago right now has so many great bands that it's almost impossible to keep up with them all. Babe Report is absolutely one of those great Chicago bands. |
Honorable MentionsNo Descriptions or Comments: EPs, 7"s and Demos -- Reading List From This Year -- Television - Parenting Win of 2024 -- Record I loved in 24 that came out in 23 -- Record Collection Rediscoveries of 2024 - That's it! See y'all on the radio. |
Throughout December, 
Another piece of beautiful, dissonant, dreamy noise pop. This is their 11th? 12th? full length? Are we counting the two covers records? It's a ton of output for any band and I can't honestly think of any one artist other than Prince who has a discography as large, varying and of such high quality as Brad Laner.
Possibly my favorite band from the current "New Wave of Post Punk." Noisy, jarring, weird, danceable, but highly and entirely fun and listenable.
Local Chicago post punk that brings me back to being a sad boy in the late 80s/early 90s, listening to mope rock, pining over whatever it is fourteen year olds pine over.
I really don't have much to say about this record. It's just really solid post punk and I listened to it a bunch. It's the third album from these British punks who keep pushing the boundaries of what can be considered "punk."
I'm a product of my generation. Fuzzy, blurry guitars, dancey beats, dreamy vocals -- these make up the stuff that makes me happy. All of that is represented here.
Maybe I lied.... I think THIS is my favorite local release. I don't like this pressure. There's something very classically "Chicago" about this album, aside from its pedigree of Chicago punk elder states-people (Crudos, Limp Wrist, Sin Orden.)
This is in your face, ballsy American skinhead oi. It goes without saying that these are anti-fascists and it also goes without saying that the heaviness of this record is complimented by the melodicism and hooks.
As far as modern hardcore punk goes, Drug Church is probably up at the top of the list. Taking as much influence from bands like Modern Life is War and Bane as they do from The Pixies and Hot Water Music.
They never quit. Just keep pushing further through the underground. The further they get from their influences, the more you hear them.
This one squeaked in right at the end here, but I can't quit this record! I just keep listening to it. At times, it reminds me of so many punk bands I grew up listening to and at other times, seemingly out of nowhere, the song is full of huge Veruca Salt-esque guitar riffs.Previous entry: CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Mike Bennett