Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2024. Our next list is from Assistant Music Director and DJ Craig Reptile.

First, my methodology, in an attempt to improve my recollective abilities since trying to assemble my “best of” for 2023: This year, beginning in November, I went through all the LPs and EPs that CHIRP had added to our on-air new music “Rotation,” beginning in January 2024. I assembled a playlist of 1-15 tracks per album (depending on if I had all of the songs, or just a sampling of two or three tracks). I originally had a playlist that was well over two thousand songs and about seven days’ worth of material. As of 12/28/2024, I had cut it down to (or expanded, depending on what I had also stumbled upon since) to 1,846 songs and just under a length of five days. I sorted this playlist alphabetically by artist (in the hopes (soon dashed) that no artist had two releases in 2024). I then started listening to all of the songs, deleting the songs from albums that I knew would not make the cut. Two days before the deadline, I was still deep in the weeds in the letter C. Only 23 more letters to go, yay! If there’s some bizarre focus on acts that begin with the letters A, B, or C, blame the alphabet, and not me. My rules for inclusion: no tributes, no greatest hits, no reissues, no records I didn't at hear all the way through at least once (which means a lot got left behind-- sorry).

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