2024 was another year when many great albums were released. Here’s a list of my top ten favorites from the year (not ranked). Hopefully you’ll give them a listen and purchase some of the albums at a local independent record store.
2024 was a mess, but musically it was exceptional, especially if you error on the side of shoegaze, as I do. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say I veer toward the side of shoegaze. At least a third of my top 10 albums for the year ventured into that territory or are shoegaze-adjacent.
When I’m not verring (or erring) in that direction, I’m a sucker for some catchy melodies and harmonies. There were no shortage of them this year.
When the ground falls away beneath you and you’re hovering, suspended in mid-air like Wile E. Coyote before he falls, don’t look down. Just wrap yourself in music and let it float you over to the other side.
There are a ton of records from this year to keep you floating for a while. These are the ones that held me the most.
I've never been one for nature documentaries*. Sorry, folks, but animals are not captivating figures to yours truly. They graze, they run around... but mostly they sleep, right? Of course, I haven't spent much time with animals outside of my dinner plate. For the most part, they make me a bit uncomfortable, such that I reflexively pull my hands towards my chest when passing dogs on the sidewalk. Young Kevin was never, ever interested in feeding sheep at the petting zoo. Why tempt fate by sticking one's fingers anywhere near a creature's mouth?
[*Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man is the exception here, but really, it's a film that's more about the kooky protagonist than the bears he was enamored with.]
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about the year-end list season where we list our favorite albums of the year in an attempt to gain external validation for our superior music tastes despite rapidly approaching midlife where we should probably have more important things to worry about.
Man, I really told on myself with that last sentence, didn’t I? In all seriousness, I love year-end lists because I love seeing what my fellow CHIRPers and other musically-inclined friends have been listening to throughout the year.
I am always looking for new music to check out and sharing music with others is one of my biggest love languages. I have always been in awe of music’s power to bring people together and a sense of community is especially needed today as technology continues to isolate us.
I’ve listened to roughly 100 new albums in full this year and have heard bits and pieces of way more from my DJing and AMD duties. Here’s a list of the albums that were a cut above the rest.
Throughout December, 
Welcome to