Owen Osborne/Director: “Mid Spiral” by BADBADNOTGOOD
At the start of 2024, I set out a goal to listen to more new music. I averaged an album a day and listened to so many different types of music. With how many new releases we saw this year it is very difficult to condense all those choices into one. What makes an album the best? Some might rank on complexity, experimentation, or the cultural impact of an album. For me, my album of the year is one I got the most mileage out of: the (mostly) instrumental jazz album “Mid Spiral” by BADBADNOTGOOD.
Since its release in late July, I have woken up and fallen asleep to this album almost every day. While I can’t swear that every track is a 10/10, this album brings enough variety and quantity that most people could walk away with one or two songs added to their liked song playlist (if not every track).
Jazz is one of those genres that revolves around technical complexity, modern jazz is usually driven by (albeit typically snobby) discussion about music theory and how tracks might push/stress test our musical palette. While I am all for some intense experimental freeform saxophone (“The Love It Took to Leave You” by Colin Stetson was my third place album from this year), “Mid Spiral” isn’t the epitome of complexity, and honestly does little in attempting to reinvent the musical wheel. Think more bossa nova beats, really hype elevator music that occasionally has complex elements to rein your attention back in.
My top track off the album is “Your Soul & Mine.” While this is one of the more repetitive tracks, I find that to be its strength. The main “chorus” returns four separate times on this four minute track, each time returning with additional instruments and even more energy than the last chorus. While some might find this obnoxious, I find it endearing, like the track is being built in real time. I disliked it at first, but with each iteration, I found the blaring horns growing on me, to the point where I was anticipating and excited for the next chorus.
There is no overarching story or cohesive message in this album, but it has themes it attempts to represent within the music. “Mid Spiral” is presented as a three disc album (despite being a direct release to streaming), and each disc carries its own theme: Chaos, Order, and Growth. I can’t speak to the message this is attempting to communicate but it corresponds with the instrumentals. The tracks in the Chaos section are louder and overbearing. They sometimes introduce odd background instruments I wouldn’t expect to find on a jazz album, being unpredictable and emulating abstract chaos. The tracks in Order have a consistent and standard rhythm section with occasional solos. This section of the album does not attempt to break away from the traditional sound of smooth jazz, maintaining jazz order. Lastly, the Growth portion features songs with a consistent structure, most tracks starting with stripped back instrumentals that progress into more complexity with the back ends of the tracks typically having multiple instruments playing over one another. The energy, complexity, and volume all grow as the track progresses. While I lack the knowledge and understanding to fully articulate the message of the album, the theming is communicated and consistent in vibes.
Regardless if you’re about the complexities of the music and all that jazz, BADBADNOTGOOD has matured their sound with this release, curating a slower and more laid back energy than their past releases. It’s worth a listen, at least in the background of your day, as I’m sure you’ll find a track you’ll like!
Charley Fox/Producer: “Fauzllennium” by TV Girl
This year was fantastic for music and terrible for me, but we’re not talking about that today. I started this year as a longtime Spotify user, then transferred to Apple Music for inexplicable reasons, and ended the year back on Spotify. However, one band has stuck with me regardless of the situation or streaming platform: TV Girl. I have a fuzzy memory of dunking on the band’s last album “Grapes Upon the Vine” in kentcore’s 2023 Album of the Year article, but I’d like to state that the album has since grown on me. I didn’t expect to talk about TV Girl this year, but a contender for my album of the year has stepped up to the plate in the eleventh hour. A collaborative album featuring George Clanton, TV Girl’s “Fauxllennium” moved me in such a way that I planned a spontaneous trip to New York to attend the record release party in Brooklyn.
The pair had released two singles at the tail end of summer, one aptly named “Summer 2000 Baby” and the other “Take a Trip”. Admittedly, I am often surprised by music releases, occasionally pretending to live in the 20th century where I wouldn’t have access to information such as upcoming albums or song drops. So I had no idea a full album was coming. Thank Christ I happened to be on Instagram to see that there would be a record release party in the first place. I thought the singles on their own were fantastic. “Summer 2000 Baby” is a super fun mix of TV Girl’s classic sampling choices and Clanton’s vocals. Both are very talented producers and lyricists and I was intrigued to see them working together. The singles have a very upbeat, hypnotic and groovy feel, and that energy carries through the full album. Essentially, it’s an album that makes you want to dance.
The record release party was held in a bar/concert venue in Brooklyn, NY, called Baby’s All Right, and baby, it was more than alright! The setup on stage was interesting, with big light bulbs that flashed in reds and whites behind a booth in the middle where the pair performed. Since there was no need for a full band, TV Girl’s lead singer and songwriter, Brad Petering, and Clanton, stood alone on stage and played the laptop, which is an incredible instrument. The pair did a small DJ set unrelated to the album, which was silly but pretty good, and then hit the “play button” note, which turned the room into a dancing frenzy scored by the mesmeric masterpiece that is Fauxllennium. It was awesome, and I didn’t even care that it eventually turned into an accidental hump-fest as the dance floor grew more crowded because those were truly my people, and we all kind of had the same outfit on.
In any case, any TV Girl album that is released will most likely always end up being my album of the year because I ride for them and I’m in too deep to stop now. However, circling back to my “great year for music” statement, I would be remiss not to talk about other album releases from this year. It was a big year for women, to say the least, and if I’m not going to D-ride TV Girl, I’m gonna V-ride my good sis Megan Thee Stallion. Her self-titled album “Megan” was released in late June to much applause. Not only did her single “Hiss” fundamentally change the game (and kick off Drake’s downfall), but she found great success with “Mamushi” and “B.A.S” which were some of her most popular songs off the album. For me, “Hiss” and “Cobra” were my favorites as I found them to be powerful, impactful and brilliantly written. Megan Thee Stallion’s continued courage, bravery, intelligence and confidence have motivated me for years. I genuinely wish her nothing but success, love and happiness for the rest of her life. I also hope that Nicki Minaj continues to flop forever, amen.
As we move forward into 2025, we will look back on 2024 with musical fondness. So many wonderful artists, both new and old released music this year. It was dramatic, fun, scary, intense and full of dancing. We made it another year, and we did it with a great soundtrack. Cheers!
(P.S. Anyone got a Frank Ocean ETA?)
Sio Parker/Host/Columnist: “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
When death tolls have reached a point that can’t be counted and it feels like no matter what you, or anyone else do, the world is going to implode from greed and violence. One can feel completely crushed. Goodspeed You! Black Emperor’s album, “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead,” gives the listener space to contemplate the immensity of the Israel-Palestine death toll while still looking towards a future of peace, no matter how bleak it may feel. “No Title’s” heavy soundscapes seep into your skin and force you to come to terms with the holocaust occurring in front of your eyes, yet Godspeed You! Black Emperor finds an instrumental cry to rally forth, not despite the violence, but to end it.
The greatest triumph of “No Title” as a release is how much it can say from pure instrumentation. The statement of the title and album cover say so much already and it’s quite impressive how Godspeed can make an album as conceptual as this one with minimal sampling as opposed to most of their other classic releases, such as “Lift Yr Skinny Fists” and the “Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada EP” which are defined by the monologues chosen to fill the soundscape. “All No Title” has to offer is one poem. Thus the beautiful instrumentation has to do even more heavy lifting. Obviously, this is not an issue for the Post-Rock master that is GYBE. They perfectly walk the line between making statements and letting you sit with them through pure songwriting excellence, placing you in the middle of the conflict and forcing you to look at what you see.
My favorite song off the album is “Raindrops Cast in Lead.” I have interpreted the poem it presents as a sort of thesis for the album. The poem depicts the deaths of civilians who never knew peace once in their lives, as war is what they were born into. Thus creating a never ending cycle of martyrs to a cause. While their early release, “F#A#∞,” would see this world and give up, “No Title” sees this and decides to view this reality and push toward hope instead of apathy. Which is a beautiful statement for the album and the track as a whole.
This resilience defines the album and allows “No Title” to retain GYBE’s depressive look on war and still look for hope, thus cementing “No Title” as a remarkable feat in the late GYBE creative cannon and my album of the year.
Lochlan Lemke: “Chromakopia” by Tyler the Creator and “Alligator Bites Never Heal” by Doechii
In 2024, many artists stepped away from their famous personas and entered the booth. The results were several very raw albums and pieces of work. Tyler the Creator’s “Chromakopia” is tied for my album of the year. I found myself listening to the entire album over and over without skipping a single track. Frankly, I was hooked since the track “Noid” was released. The faster, harder, tracks are filled with so much energy it becomes contagious. The slower songs are filled with so much emotion and relateability. The first three tracks blend into each other in a way that scratched my brain.
The Tyler character, Saint Chroma, appears inspired by Chroma the Great from Norton Juster’s fantasy novel “The Phantom Tollbooth.” In Juster’s novel, Chroma the Great is tasked with orchestrating the colors of every day. St. Croma makes his first appearance in the “SORRY NOT SORRY” video, the final track from “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale.” The headless dark green uniform leads Tyler’s alter ego to the museum-esque display where Tyler kills them. This is one of the first clues to the nature of the new album. It almost feels eerie to rewatch the video and realize Saint Chroma has been lurking and orchestrating this whole time.
The album was written and produced by Tyler the Creator, and it is his eighth studio album. In “Chromakopia”, Tyler seems to step out from behind his personas and the message feels deeply personal. In stark contrast to Tyler Baudelaire, a representation of Tyler’s ego reveling in fame, Saint Chroma is scared, vulnerable, and even relatable.
The album’s instrumentation elevates “Chromakopia” to a whole new level. Jackson State’s marching version of “Sticky” and the subsequent TikTok trends brought a sense of engagement within Tyler’s fanbase. The vocal support in the album is by far my favorite of Tyler’s works, from features to background vocals. The Zambian rock band (Ngozi Family) sample in “Noid” made its way into my top five favorite Tyler samples. My favorite supporting vocals include Donald Glover’s background vocals in “Judge Judy,” the three women from Atlanta doing the adlibs in “Sticky” and Lola Young’s feature in “Like Him.” Young isn’t the only artist featured on Chromakopia who blew up on TikTok. My favorite feature on the album is Doechii’s verses in “Balloon.”
The track “Balloon” brings me to my second album of the year, the mixtape, “Alligator Bites Never Heal” by Doechii. Her feature in “Chromakopia” was my first introduction to her music. The animation in her vocals and her energy reminded me of old Nicki Minaj. Even in her short feature, Doechii shows off her incredible breath support.
I stumbled across Doechii’s Tiny Desk concert at NPR and my eyes were glued to the screen. Her set featured tracks from her third mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” including all three singles. I could tell from the “breathing exercise” at the end of “Denial is a River” that Doechii is incredibly talented. The live performance of “Boiled Peanuts,” and the tenor sax player sealed the track as my favorite. My other favorites include “Nissan Altima” and “Bloom.” I heavily relate to the message in “Bloom” and getting stuck in the cycle of trying to give yourself grace while remembering you gotta get shit done. The mixtape features 19 songs, each acting as a sort of diary entry. The different tracks show off the range and diversity in Doechii’s vocals and musical style. The album has everything: amazing vocals and flow and of course, her signature growl.
Doechii’s interview with Naurdwar at Camp Flog Gnaw is my favorite from 2024. There was a great mix of thoughtful banter, meaningful gifts, and-of course-deep lore. I feel like we are seeing more and more sober rap artists. Doechii’s transparency in her lyricism and her interviews about her struggles with addiction and fame add depth to her album. I’m glad to see her Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist” (one of four women under 30 in the nominee list). While this mixtape is not perfect, I think it is a great start. Doechii’s career is still new and I cannot wait to see how she grows as an artist.
