Complex Distractions Presents : Favorite Albums Of 2024(25-16)

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but we’re a mere couple weeks before 2024 makes like a tree and leaves. A year that began with the hope that it would stay on track, offer up new and exciting things, and see us all making the most of those 365 days. I’m sure that was the case with a lot of you reading this, and in certain instances it seemed that way for me as well. We started the year out with a winter storm that dropped the temps down to -20 and -30 over Martin Luther King, Jr Day weekend. February saw our oldest move down to Indianapolis to an apartment and a job at a concert venue. There was lots of concerts -some great and some not- that filled weekends and weekdays. It was a pretty massive year for concerts. Maybe the most we’ve seen in one year in probably over two decades.

Despite the ups 2024 seemed like pretty much a downer for us here at Complex Distractions headquarters. I’ve gone over those ad nauseum so I’ll save you the reader from having to rehash all of it. It ended on two of the biggest, being having to put our loyal and loving four-legged friend Otto down, then less than a week later our daughter was in an automobile accident with her dog on the way home from work. Fortunately she and her pooch Celeste were not hurt at all, just really shook up. But her 2014 Honda Civic didn’t fare too well. We’re waiting on the final call from insurance, but we think it’s totaled.

But hey, we’re here to talk about music. And there were some incredible albums released this year. Two of my favorite records of the year were released in the last couple of weeks. If there was a genre of music that filled my ears the most in 2024 it would be jazz and jazz-adjacent albums. As I get older I’m just more in tune with jazz. The musicianship, the improvisation, the feats of musical prowess, and just the exploratory nature of jazz has completely captured my head and heart.

But of course I’m all over the map when it comes to what I listen to. There’s all sorts of vibes on my year-end list, which you’ll see shortly. So without further adieu, here’s Complex Distractions’ Favorite albums of 2024. Let’s start out with 25-16.

---

25. Antoni Maiovvi : Psychonaut

One of the big surprises for me this year was this late year album drop from the great Antoni Maiovvi in the form of Giallo-esque disco slasher banger Psychonaut. Maiovvi is one of the OGs of the imagined soundtrack genre, and a major supporter of electronic artists via his Giallo Disco record label. He’s recently been putting out amazing albums as Jason Priest, but he hasn’t forgotten how to make down n dirty hard electro. Psychonaut has it all; early NIN vibes with a tinge of leather clad club bangers, as well as moments of quiet ambient soundscapes. If you haven’t heard this one, get on it.

24. Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea : Reveries

Few bands have opened my head and heart to the world of ambient music quite like Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea. Gauzy, ethereal soundscapes made with electronics and guitars, processed into walls of sonic bliss. 2020s Liberamente was the door that led into their musical cathedral, echoing gorgeous melodies and aural peace. The band consists of artists  Zach Frizzell, Marc Ertel, and Damian Duque, and each have released copious amounts of gorgeous ambient music via labels Past Inside The Present, Azure Vista Records, zake drone recordings, and Sonic Cathedral. Their lastest Reveries was released by the latter and it’s another stunning sound world made for meditation, contemplation, and peaceful, thoughtful wandering.

23. Uniform : American Standard

Few albums this year were as heavy, gut-wrenching, and personal than Uniform’s American Standard. Extreme metal, art rock, and soul baring all coming together in a heavy-handed slap in the face and kick to the gut. It’s an unrelenting sound that has the “fuck you” attitude of hardcore and the chugging riffs and pummeling drums and bloodied screams of heavy metal. One of the most singular metal albums of the year. And I implore you to listen to Nightmare City, a companion album which has all the guitars removed and what remains is ethereal synths, pedal steel, and ambient sound that is more Tangerine Dream than extreme metal by a mile.

22. Idles : Tangk

Idles left their post-punk teeth rattling sound behind for their new album Tangk. In it’s place is a more dance-punk vibe(“Gift Horse”) with moments of genuine, thoughtful melodicism(“Grace”). Singer Joe Talbot still comes across like he’s pulling words and phrases out of the ether right in the moment, and sixth Radiohead member Nigel Godrich adds his production skills to the band’s already tight sound. Tangk has been on repeat for most of 2024.

21. Zombi : Direct Inject

Masters of prog/synth Zombi returned this year with their follow-up to 2020’s 2020 in the form of Direct Inject. This album feels like a back-to-basics, return-to-form LP that captures the fluidity of albums like Escape Velocity and Surface To Air, but without feeling that they’re leaning on the past. There’s still movement, progression forward in stunning workouts like “Kamichi & Sandy”, as well as the sultry, sleeky vibes of “Sessuale II” with some seriously great saxophone courtesy of Steve Moore. Direct Inject sees Steve Moore and AE Paterra locked in and offering up some seriously chromed-out vibes.

20. The Smile : Wall of Eyes

The first of two releases in 2024 from the Radiohead side project The Smile – which includes Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner -is the low key Wall of Eyes. Less aggressive than the band’s 2022 debut, Wall of Eyes sees the band leading with more piano and moody works that lean into Greenwood’s orchestral side. That’s not to say this is a lesser release. In fact, it steps further away from Radiohead-isms showing this band as a singular project. Songs like “Read The Room” and “Bending Hectic” lean into heavier territory, but this album also touts one of this project’s best songs in this album’s Beatles-esque “Friend Of A Friend”.

Basically, this band can do no wrong.

19. Sermons By The Devil : Exorcismo Electr​ó​nico

Sermons By The Devil, the all-hardware electronic music project of Tom Hall, has been building and honing it’s sound over the course of a few years. Touching on imagined soundtrack vibes early on, Tom has found a singular voice for Sermons By The Devil. Using all hardware and intentions and ideas for the music to follow, Hall has given a beating heart to his circuits and patch cables(be it an electronic one.) His latest is Exorcismo Electr​ó​nico, a tour-de-force in analog composition and conceptual intent. There’s a hard edge in the percussive end, giving the music an almost hip hop rhythm, while also almost going into dub territory with repetitive melodies and hypnotic movement. The perfect album for the impending apocalypse.

18. The Cure : Songs For A Lost World

16 years is a long time to wait for a follow-up record, especially when the band we’re waiting on is The Cure. Songs For A Lost World is the follow-up to The Cure’s very disappointing 2008 release 4:11 Dream. Maybe Robert Smith needed all those years in-between him and that album, I don’t know. But that follow-up needed to be something pretty special in order for the rest of us to forget 4:11 Dream. Fortunately Songs For A Lost World did not disappoint. It’s an album that feels almost like being visited by the ghost of a loved one after years of their absence. Both a hello and a goodbye. “Alone” and “And Nothing Is Forever” are big, lush, and beautifully-orchestrated songs that follow in the tradition of Disintegration and Bloodflowers. They set the mood for the album. I do wish there had been some more playful tracks like “Why Can’t I Be You” or “Close To Me”, but I’ll be happy with this.

And let’s hope Robert stays true to his word and there’s a lot more coming before his impending retirement at 70.

17. Jonas Munk : Mirror Phase

The great Jonas Munk returned this year as a solo artist with his gorgeous, wavering LP Mirror Phase. A master of ambient music, Munk has explored the world of ambient music for years now honing his work from the Krautrock/Berlin School sounds of albums like Pan and Absorb Fabric Cascade to the slow-moving sound worlds of Minimum Resistance and Altered Light. Not to mention his amazing work with Jason Kolb in Billow Observatory.

Mirror Phase sees Munk continuing his journey into the sparse, minimalist realm of ambient/new age. Meditative songs that slowly open into grand orchestrations of sincere contemplation. Another stunner from Jonas.

16. High On Fire : Cometh The Storm

The mighty High On Fire returned in 2024 with Cometh The Storm, their first album with new drummer Coady Willis. It’s also a churning, chugging, metal masterpiece filled with all the breakneck riffage and drumming we’ve come to know and love from Matt Pike and company. Pike Vs The Automaton was a nice place holder in-between Electric Messiah and Cometh The Storm, but the real goods are with High On Fire. “Lambsbread”, “Trismegistus”, and “Sol’s Golden Curse” will hit you like a blaze of nails into your skull, shredding your psyche with ease. When High On Fire are on, there’s nothing quite like them. Truly unbelievable.

---

25 to 16 down. 15-6 coming soon. Stay tuned.