Amoeba Music

Our taste-making head music buyer at Amoeba Hollywood has put the finishing touches on his Top 50 Albums of 2024 list, and it's as awesome as ever. Read on to discover some new sounds or something already loved.

#50 SPRINTS - Letter To Self (City Slang)

I am starting my top 50 with a noisy bang this year. This Irish garage punk band has put out one of the year’s best albums of emotional and cathartic punk. A fast and sexy album perfect for letting out some aggression or having a little work out at the gym. It reminds me of some albums from the early 00’s. A good album for this year when we are facing some uncertain times. We need albums like this to escape into but also to help process the world around us.

#49 Topographies - Interior Spring (Dark Entries)
It is no surprise that I would love an album created by Gray Tolhurst. He is the son of one of the founding fathers of my favorite band The Cure after all. A dark and gloomy post punk album from this bay area band. This is always what I need more of in my life. This does not really sound like the Cure. But it is similar in its mix of catchy beats and gloomy anthems.

#48 Julia-Sophie - Forgive Too Slow (Ba Da Bing!)

Julia-Sophie would be just as popular as Billie Eilish and Robyn in an alternate world. She is my kind of dark and dreary pop princess. “wishful thinking” is one of my favorite pop tracks of the year. A catchy tune that makes me smile. This album is dark electronic pop. A perfect album for a cold winter night.
 

#47 Kontravoid - Detachment (Artoffact)

Chelsey Crowley of Nuovo Testamento is featured on the track Losing Game. That is all I really needed to get me to love this album. I love her voice and the song is instantly a catchy darkwave dance track hit. At least in my mind. This album is the kind of melancholic goth music that I keep going back to throughout my life. Depeche Mode and Skinny Puppy did this to me. I am always chasing that feeling of hearing those dark and intense records for the first time.
 

#46 Moin - You Never End (AD 93)

Whenever I listen to this album I have absolutely no idea what each new song is going to sound like. But I do know that I love this album. Most of the album sounds somewhere between a 90s indie rock album released on Quarterstick Records mixed with the Tricky album Maxinquaye. The first track is the one I keep going back to and probably the best on the album. An album for dark times that might not always make you feel better. But it is worth the journey.

#45 Tristwch Y Fenywod - S/T (Night School)

The best album of gloomy Welsh avant-rock goth music.This music is made for all witch covens and eternal goth boys like me. Deeply spooky and otherworldly. What I would imagine hearing if I came across a bunch of witches in the forest conjuring up spirits in the middle of the night. Gloriously everything I want music to be like and so happy to have stumbled upon this unique album.
 

#44 La Femme - Rock Machine (Disque Pointu)

I was a fan of their last French album so I was not sure how I would feel about this new album being sung in English. What is more French than La Femme? But they really gave us a super fun and catchy album that starts with possibly the best song on the album “Clover Paradise.” I found myself listening to that song over and over again. Addictive and over the top. It sort of feels like some long lost weird soundtrack to some movie made in the 80s but set in the 60s.
 

#43 Pye Corner Audio - The Endless Echo (Ghost Box)

Rod Serling would have certainly been a fan of Martin Jenkins and Pye Corner Audio. I always get a sort of dark and spooky panic vibe from him just like certain episodes of The Twilight Zone. I like to think of this genre as goth electronica. This new album feels like some sort of lost sci-fi horror soundtrack to some movie co-produced by David Cronenberg and John Carpenter. It is always a pleasurable escape when I get to listen to a Pye Corner Audio album.

#42 Clarissa Connelly - World of Work (Warp Records)

I love my weird lady music. There is just something about it that I can’t resist. Blame Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush for making me who I am. This is an album of experimental leaning nordic folk pop. A piano and her voice is all I really need.  Not an album for everyone but that is what makes it so special. You can delve into this literary album as deep as you want to. But it is great cathartic experience to make it through and come out the other side of it.
 

#41 High Vis - Guided Tour (Dais)

There was something familiar about this album as soon as I started listening to it. It felt like I just rediscovered one of my old favorite albums. Sitting somewhere comfortably between an 80s punk record and a 90s brit pop album. These London dudes put together a great album of  catchy post punk songs that might make you want to dance.
 

#40 The Softies - The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter Records)

Where do I begin telling you about my eternal love for this band. I can’t even imagine my life without those mid 90s Softies records. The perfect twee pop band that makes the perfect most lovely and sweet albums. Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia are back after 24 years to give us this gift of an album. They sound just as good as I remember from all those years ago. Music that soothes my soul. Thank you ladies for coming back into our lives when we all needed you most.

#39 Wishy - Triple Seven (Winspear)
I never could have imagined the current youth culture getting obsessed with 90s shoegaze. They have been creating a new generation of albums influenced by the culture but also reinterpreting it into a whole new thing. Nothing could make me happier. There will also be introspective teens and twenty somethings and I have apparently never really grown out of that stage. This music never stops speaking to these new kids and the forever kids like me. It is fascinating to me that I can now relate to a new shoegaze album that was influenced by an album that I related to when I was a teenager! I guess that does make sense now that I just said it out loud. This album is a mix of emo and shoegaze and it all somehow makes a great album. Angsty and loud but also catchy and dreamy.

#38 Oliver Coates - Throb, shiver, arrow of time (RVNG International)

Apparently this was the year of me falling in love with Cellists. I guess anyone who plays a cello is a true goth and loves their music to be dark and mysterious. Oliver Coates has been in the soundtrack world for a bit and been quietly putting out albums for a while. But this new record really got to me. Iit is a beautifully dark composition that will come and get you too. It is spooky and dark but in a whimsical cute way. Like if Casper the Friendly Ghost made an album.

#37 Christopher Owens - I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair (True Panther)

I am happy to have the former Girls frontman back in my life. He has one of those voices that made an imprint on me years ago. I just love whenever I get to hear him sing on a record now. It is hard to believe it has been nearly 10 years since his last solo album. This man had a rough couple of years but somehow managed to make a great sad pop record that feels upbeat and hopeful.

#36 Clinic Stars - Only Hinting (Kranky)

Most of my dad’s side of the family is from the Detroit area of Michigan. So I always feel a special connection to that part of the country and it makes me happy when I find a band from Detroit that I like. My old favorite label Kranky is a perfect home for this hazy dream pop band. Gorgeous songs to lose yourself in. Dream pop is really just an extension of our dreams isn’t it? This album does sound like a foggy 90s dream that you are happy to be inside of.

#35 Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate (DH2)

Kelly Lee Owens always does something a bit different with each album. But I always look forward to what sort of dance pop she is going to give us. And she did not let me down with her fourth album. A euphoric album that makes you feel like the night will never end. “Love You Got” was one of my most played songs of the second half of this year. It doesn’t get much better than this. 

#34 Ducks Ltd. - Harm’s Way (Carpark)

I really want albums to make me feel happy or sad or some combination of both. I just want to feel emotions and I need my music to get me there. I love these Toronto dudes and their brand of jangly indie pop.This album is a fun little fantastic journey. One that I always enjoy going on. A nostalgic album that makes you feel all good inside as you reminisce on your favorite memories.

#33 Corridor - Mimi (Sup Pop)

This might be my favorite album artwork of the year and I find myself staring at it often. But the album is also great on the inside! These Montréal dudes have captured a sort of electronic post punk spin on 70s soft rock. It is infectious for sure and I find myself singing along to songs that I don’t fully understand. It is easy to become a big fan of these guys after one listen.

#32 Humdrum - Every Heaven (Slumberland)

I can always count on Slumberland to bring me something to fall for every year. They are the kings of jangle rock and always seem to know what I like. Loren Vanderbilt has brought us a brilliant little piece of 90s indie dream pop jangle with his Humdrum album. Like the best of the era from Sarah & Creation Records. Irresistibly addictive and sugary sweet. An album impossible for me not to love. 

#31 Mabe Fratti - Sentir Que No Sabes (Unheard Of Hope)

Mabe Fratti gets a bit more accessible on this new album and makes a fan out of me. A dark and spooky avant-pop album that somehow works. I kept going back to this album and noticed something different every time. The best kind of weird from this Mexico City based Guatemalan cellist genius.

#30 Max Richter - In A Landscape (Decca)

It is hard to believe that Blue Notebooks is now 20 years old. But I have been loving this man and his compositions ever since then. Almost 10 years ago he gave us the beautiful gift of the 8 hour lullaby concept album Sleep. I listened to that album a bunch during the pandemic. This new album is more of the great same stuff we can expect from Mr. Richter. Cinematic sweeping orchestral compositions that pull at your heart strings. I will never get over this man and nothing makes me tear up quite like the strings in a Max Richter song.

#29 Adam Wiltzie - Eleven Fugues For Sodium Pentothal (Kranky)

Indie ambient classical superstar composer Adam Wiltzie has given us such great projects like Stars of the Lid, Dead Texan and A Winged Victory for the Sullen. It always makes me happy to still have such important people in my musical history making new albums. This album is truly a gorgeous way to spend your day and escape into. I do love being in that state of happiness where you want to cry. Just coming out of a state of despair and sadness and realizing that you will be OK. Adam captures that mixed feeling of darkness and happiness perfectly. This could be the soundtrack to your favorite Wim Wenders film.

#28  Molly Lewis - On The Lips (Jagjaguwar)

Most of my albums I like sit somewhere between what John Waters and David Lynch would like. It is not a bad standard to set. This jazzy album full of dreamy atmospheric whistling is something I could see performed in the lodge in an episode of Twin Peaks. I could also see it featured in a weird scene in a John Waters western film. I can’t help but smile every time I listen to this album. The best sci-fi Ennio Morricone vibes.

#27 Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown (Domino)

Beth Gibbons and Portishead had such a big impact on me and a whole generation of alternative kids in the 90s. Portishead was like nothing like anything we had ever heard and I couldn’t get enough of Dummy. It has been a long while since we have had a proper album from her and I will say that the time was right. The album is full of grief and anxiety and all the things we all have to deal with as we get older. But like all good albums this helps me cope with what life threw at me these last couple of years. It is always nice to not feel alone in your feelings and have a voice as heartbreaking and beautiful as Beth Gibbons to help you process them.

#26 Blushing - Sugarcoat (Kanine Records)

I was always surprised there was not more shoegaze that came out of the United Stated in the early 90s. We had Medicine and The Drop Nineteens and that was pretty much it. But now we are still getting bands like Blushing actually doing the genre right and expanding upon it. They have had decades since to be influenced by all sorts of other bands over the years. Blushing sound like somewhere in between bands like Curve and Smashing Pumpkins. This Austin band does a more grungy sort of shoegaze and I like it. 

#25 TR/ST - Performance (Dais)

Robert Alfons has one of those distinct singing voices that I was instantly drawn to. His debut album as TR/ST is still one of my favorite albums of the last couple decades. Dark and brooding and goth as you could imagine. But also super catchy and danceable. He writes songs that stay with you. The kind you find yourself singing in your head days after hearing them. This album took more time for me to get into but the first three songs are all fantastic. This man is a gift to us all and we should cherish him like the fantastic little goth unicorn that he is.

#24 Kim Gordon - The Collective (Matador)

This album took me a second to get into but once I was in the right mood for it I became hooked. There is truly nobody cooler than Kim Gordon and I have loved her for so long now. This woman is 71 years old and still managed to put out an excellent and relevant album that is perfect for this year. The super cool mom we all wished we had. Love you Kim and thanks for another weirdly gorgeous album.

 #23 Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor (Ninja Tune)

Another great third album from this fantastic UK singer. She always has a cool vibe about her that seems effortless on her albums. This album is somehow soothing even in its louder and heartbreaking moments. She is like a perfect mix of Sade and Everything But the Girl. Like a modern version of the 90s sophisti-pop that I came of age listening to.
 

#22 Being Dead - Eels (Bayonet Records)

It did take me a couple months to realize this was not some weird Eels reissue but in fact a band called Being Dead. It wasn’t until my coworker made me give it another listen that I truly started to love this record. They are like a 90s indie rock version of The Mamas & the Papas. Great harmonies and catchy beats make for some great little songs on this album.

#21 Profit Prison - Gilt (Avant!)

This was actually somehow one of my most listened to albums of the year. I even surprised myself how many times I listened to this album. It sort of became my nighttime driving home album. The album reminded me of my love of bands like The Soft Moon. Spooky dark goth dance songs that get inside my brain and refuse to leave. 

#20 julie - my anti-aircraft friend (Atlantic)

I am excited every year to hear what some new bands come up with for their interpretation of shoegaze. It never gets old for me and really gives me life. Los Angeles band julie have created a loud and rambunctious record full of that signature shoegaze guitar sound. The 90s truly never ended and this band is proof of that. A great album that reminds me of bands like Veruca Salt or the Breeders but with a shoegaze twist.

#19 Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (Epitaph)

I love an album that can make angry and angsty rock sound so delightfully listenable. This is one of the albums that caught me by surprise this year. They finally made me a fan on their fourth album. I had not really connected with them until now but I am so glad that I did. The album reminds me of the brilliance of Hole that combined angry punk with great lyrics and a beautiful vulnerability. The album sort of became my friend after a couple listens and helped me feel some rage which is not something I can always do with ease. Thank you Mannequin Pussy.

#18 Geneva Jacuzzi - Triple Fire (Dais)

Geneva Jacuzzi has long been one of the many LA weirdo artists that makes this city more interesting than people often think that it is. She reminds me of my artist friends in SF from the late 90s and early 00s. I was obsessed with this album as soon as I heard the song “Laps of Luxury.” She captures the darker side of new wave and synth pop perfectly with this new album. Take all the darker songs of bands like Human League and Animotion and you get something like this fantastic new album. This album should be a bigger deal to everyone. But I guess that is part of what makes it so very special. 

#17 Aluminum - Fully Beat (Felte Records)

Aluminum sound like a fully formed band at their peak. A great full length album debut from these San Francisco shoegazers. This album really does travel through lots of influences. I hear elements of bands like Throwing Muses, Jesus & Mary Chain, Elastica, Catherine Wheel, Swervedriver, & The Boo Radleys. They also remind me a bit of the  Raveonettes. I’ve had a lot of fun with this album and look forward to what they come up with next. 

#16 GIFT - Illuminator (Captured Tracks)

I am sure bands are sick of being compared to Ride and Lush. But those bands were so great and put out some of my favorite albums of the 90s. If you put out a good shoegaze album you are going to get those comparisons. Captured Tracks always manages to find us great new bands like GIFT. This album is full of dreamy great songs like “Going In Circles,” “Later” & “Glow” but my favorite song is the closer on the album “Milestones.” A great cohesive album that kept me coming back all year.

#15 Fennesz - Mosaic (Touch)

I always absolutely need a couple instrumental and ambient records to get me through each year. They are sort of like a musical palate cleanser to help divide up all the music I listen to all year. But they are also like having a really good therapy session with yourself. There are times you need to talk to somebody but there are also those times when you just need to be alone with a really good album like this one. Fennesz creates vast electronic worlds with these albums that really allow you to dissolve into these records and imagine a whole new world. These albums are so powerful at activating imaginative parts of your brain that you sometimes forget exist. Fennesz has given us another dreamy sci-fi soundscape album that is just stunningly gorgeous.

#14 Mount Eerie - Night Palace (PW Elverum)

Phil Elverum has been slowly breaking my heart for decades now. He started putting out albums as Mount Eerie in 2003 after releasing albums as The Microphones for nearly a decade. He tjen gifted us with the brilliant album Clear Moon in 2012 that remains one of my favorites. Night Palace is another brilliant album full of the mysterious and dark sort of indie rock he has become known for. You can sort of feel the Pacific Northwest seep out of all his songs. I can imagine just camping in a forest somewhere and going on a walk and stumbling across Phil and his guitar and portable electronics and just sitting down and watching him play for hours. It would be the best cry of my life. 

#13 Fine - Rocky Top Ballads (Escho)

There is some sort of secret formula that exists for bands like this to come out of nowhere and become one of my favorites of the year. I never know when to expect them or what shape they will take. This is one of those albums I fell in love with quite suddenly. I always look forward to this experience. That intimacy of having time alone with a new album to get to know it. This album is just simply gorgeous. She reminds me at times of Hope Sandoval and Mazzy Star. Fine captures that cool vibe that combines country and folk elements with a modern take on dream pop. Excited to have this new artist from Denmark as one of my new favorites.

#12 The Fauns - How Lost (Invada Records)

“Bristol-based shoegaze ensemble” is really all I needed to know about this band before I knew I would love them. An album of lady whispers and pulsating shoegaze is all I ever need to make me a happy dude and get through another year on this planet. My favorite genre that seems to never go away. “Mixtape Days” is one of my favorite tracks. Who doesn’t love the days of mixed tapes! I never could have imagined  that a cover of the 80s track “Doot Doot” would be one of my favorite tracks of the year. But the Fauns do a great little cover of that song on this album and I do love it.

#11 Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Loma Vista)

Chelsea has been putting out her brand of dark moody rock for over a decade now. I always look forward to when we get a new Chelsea Wolfe album. She is sort of  like the gothier version of Portishead. If you can imagine getting more goth than that. I was bound to love an album influenced by Depeche Mode’s “Waiting For The Night To Fall.” Sometimes I almost think that her albums are going to be too dark and dreary. But they are always just the right amount. Another perfect album from Chelsea. She bares her soul for us so we don’t have to. Artists like this do more for their fans than they will ever know.

#10 Astrid Sonne - Great Doubt (Escho)

Two albums on the label Eshco ended up in my top 20 this year! Clearly they are doing something right. I hope these albums find a larger audience because they sure do deserve it. I suddenly became a fan of Danish experimental music before I could even control what was happening. This album felt completely new and different to me but was very comforting as well. Like a big warm experimental blanket just waiting to take care of me. This album really takes you on a journey through different moods and sounds and genres. Is is an interesting and fulfilling ride to take along with her every time I dive into this album. Sort of hard to explain. You just need to experience it for yourself.

#9 Erika de Casier - Still (4AD)

Erika somehow captures that early 00s American R&B sound and improves on it. I would have been obsessed with this album if it came out back then. But I am still obsessed with it now. Artists like Aaliyah and Missy Elliott created a futuristic sexy R&B sound just as we were transitioning into the unknown waters of the 00s. Erika is continuing that tradition all these years later. An impressive achievement  for this Portuguese-born Danish singer. “Lucky” is a highlight among many on this, her third album. I am now a forever fan of Erika de Casier.

#8 Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer (Dead Oceans)

Yet another new artist for me this year. I hadn’t really listened to her until this third album came along. I had not expected to like it as much as I did. It does feel like a sophisti-pop album produced by Annie Lennox or Suzanne Vega. A beautiful mix of a weirdo futuristic new age album and some soft rock hit you would hear on the radio in the 70s. I love the pleasant surprise of finding an album like this. I really had so many of them this year. I can’t wait to delve back into her previous albums and hopefully many more to come. Sophisticated pop doesn’t get much better than this.

#7 Fontaines D.C. - Romance (XL)

This Fontaines D.C. album was for sure one of my top 5 surprises of the year. I had not had the time to sit down and actually listen to them until a good friend told me they were one of his favorite newer bands. I listen to hundreds of albums every year but had just skipped this one since I thought they sounded like something completely different. The fourth album by this Irish band is the one that got me. I am such a fan of them now and I have been listening to it every week since I first heard it. It reminds me of a big brit pop album that I somehow never heard. The album features some mighty big indie anthems. Bands like this don’t really exist anymore. Imagine a better version of Oasis mixed with some shoegaze and 90s grunge. 

#6 Chanel Beads - Your Day Will Come (Jagjaguwar)

This album artwork is another one of my favorites of the year. It perfectly gets you ready for what this weird little dreamy album has in store for you. His Name is Alive and some of the more experimental 4AD artists are a perfect comparison for Chanel Beads. Shane Lavers took me on another one of my favorite journeys this year with this album. It takes you through dream pop and hip hop and everything in between. At times it sounds like an album by Dean Blunt. Then it feels like Laurie Anderson singing for an emo band in an experimental sci-fi movie. One of my favorite discoveries of the year that I won’t soon forget.

#5 Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood (ANTI-)

Waxahatchee is another artist that took me a good long time to get into. I have had many friends in to Katie Crutchfield and Waxahatchee since her first album Cerulean Salt in 2013. I guess the time was finally right for me to dive into this new album. I saw her perform songs from this album on a rainy night in Portland earlier this year. A perfect album of alternative country music. This album really should be winning all the awards. Not sure what took me so long but I am so glad I finally allowed myself to love all that is Waxahatchee.

#4 Milan W. - Leave Another Day (Stroom)

This album is tied for album cover of the year but also was one of my most played albums of the last couple of months. Milan W. is like the weirder cousin of Kurt Vile. This album has some fantastic arrangements that just melt my heart away. He really is one of my favorite new singers of the year. Like I seriously can’t get enough of his magical voice and these songs. Sometimes an album just takes complete control of me and this is for sure one of them. My obsession of 2024. I could listen to “All the Way” and “Days in My Arms” all day long. This is an album that will stay with me forever. The best albums are albums like these that sort of transform you. I can’t really put into words why I love it so much. You just need to give it a try and experience it yourself. 

#3 The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World (Capitol)

I never would have thought a new album by The Cure would ever end up in my top ten again. They are one of my absolute favorite bands that have been with me for at least four decades now and have put out some of my favorite albums of all time. But we all know this. What we didn’t know is that Robert Smith and company had another album this good in them. I had heard a couple of these songs at recent concerts so I had a feeling this album might be great. And it sure is. It is what us Cure fans deserved for being such loyal fans for so many years. The Cure still put on some of the best concerts I have ever been to. A national goth treasure that none of us really deserve. Thank you Robert for finally putting out this album!

#2 Jessica Pratt - Here In The Pitch (Mexican Summer)

I have liked Jessica Pratt for a while now and her last album also ended up in my top ten of the year. But this really is the year of Jessica Pratt. The album is as big and grand as she has always deserved. She really takes you back to another period in music from decades before now. But it never sounds retro and like somebody just doing covers. This is another album that sounds like some lost 60s record you find in your parents collection. A record you can’t really believe exists. A record you can’t believe everyone is not talking about. She creates her own unique sound that really sounds like nothing else I listen to. This entire album is somehow only 27 minutes long. But I usually just listen to it on repeat since I never want it to end. I also got to see her perform this album live earlier this year and it sounded even better live than I ever expected it to. If I meet anyone else that loves her as much as me I immediately have a special bond with them. You either get her or you don’t.  A perfect album that really could not be any more perfect.

#1 Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (W. 25th)

I was a little unsure what would be my favorite album of the year when I started compiling this list last month. It quickly became obvious when I finally gave this album the time it deserved. I only ever put albums in my top 50 that have actual physical releases and I was never sure this was going to get one. But when it was announced it was finally coming out on vinyl I decided to really listen to it seriously. I had many friends tell me how great it was but I really had to decide for myself. It honestly feels like nothing else I have ever heard. Like I just stumbled into some super small venue in some super small town and came upon the most magical human to ever exist. The album sort of sounds like you are just listening in on somebody’s perfect little once in a lifetime live performance. But lucky for us it was recorded and we do get to listen to it again! Patrick Flegel has been around for a while in the Canadian band Women. And he has released a couple of albums already as Cindy Lee. But this album is really something special. All 32 songs and 2 hours and 2 minutes of it. It is hard to pin down this album in a genre of even a decade. It has elements of girl groups from the 60s and garage rock from the alternative 90s. It like Patrick put all these different genres in a blender and somehow came out with the perfect hauntingly beautiful album. Imagine Julee Cruise produced by Phil Spector but in somebody’s basement in the 90s. There are stand out songs for sure like the title track, ”Flesh & Blood” and “If You Hear Me Crying.” But the whole album is just one magical masterpiece. It may take you a couple listens to fully fall in love with it. And it certainly won’t be everybody’s favorite album. But it is just one of those albums I couldn’t resist or deny from my life. An undeniable choice for my album of the year. An album that will forever be tied to 2024 and one I will be listening to for the decades ahead.