More Best Albums of 2024; Honorable Mentions, Surprises, Disappointments, etc.

 

More Best Albums of 2024; Honorable Mentions, Surprises, Disappointments, Cover, etc.

Honorable Mentions: More very good albums

Having already covered what I consider the very best albums of 2024 (my favorites) in the previous post (here), I continue on with many more very good albums that just didn't quite make the top 40 list. This was a really good year for new music, so these are all still really good. I've separated them into Prog and Prog-related and Other music categories. Short descriptions of each were provided in the previous quarterly posts, so I am just going to list them without further comment here

Prog-related:

Frost - Life in the Wires

Kyros - Mannequin

David Gilmour - Luck and Strange 

Haven of Echoes - Memento Vivere

Von Hetzen Brothers - In Murmuration

The Tangent - To Follow Polaris

Neal Morse - The Restoration: Joseph Part 2

Trojka - Strobemorke

Isbjorg - Falter, Endure

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - Fight b741

Jupiter Fungus - Garden Electric

The Winstons - Third

Dilemma - The Purpose Paradox

Myth of Logic - Light at the End

SJS - Sequence of Mistakes

Kalandra - A Frame of Mind

Monkey3 - Welcome to the Machine

Karfagen - Messages From Afar: Second Nature

The Samaria of Prog - The Time Machine

The Samaria of Prog - Quiet Town

Mesa Verde - All is Well

Sleepmakeswaves - It's Here But I Have No Names For It

Sykofant - Sykofant

 

Non-prog:

Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All We Know

Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood 

Mark Knopfler - One Deep River

Nick Lowe - Indoor Safari

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

More Good albums worth checking out

These are pretty good albums, ones that have some really good to great qualities, but also have some issues that detract from the overall whole, but are still well worth checking out.

The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

Everything Everything - Mountainhead

Dawes - Oh Brother

The Coward Brothers - The Coward Brothers

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

Deep Purple - =1

Pearl Jam - Dark Matter 

Avett Brothers - Avett Brothers

Nektar - Mission to Mars

Motorpsycho - Neigh! 

Focus - 12

Blitzentrapper - 100's of 1000's

Norah Jones - Visions

Weather Systems - Ocean Without a Shore 

Inner Prospekt - Unusual Movements

The Aristocrats - Duck

Drifting Sun - Veil

Ellesmere - Stranger Skies

WIZRD - Elements

Caligula's Horse - Charcoal Grace

The Smile - Cut-Outs

The Mommyheads - One-Eyed Band

Karfagen - Land of Chameleons

Maya - Fading Tomorrow

The Windmill - Mindscapes

Hourglass - Voids & Visions

Rendezvous Point - Dream Chaser

Ice - Man in the Moon

Bent Knee - Twenty Pills Without Water

klark.sound - What is Music 

 

Biggest Surprises

There were several albums from bands I was not familiar with that were great, but they were not really surprises, just great new finds (such as Barock Project, Albion, IZZ, and Bend Sinister). These were the albums that were most surprising, in that they were much better than expected. Thus, most of these came from established artists that I knew pretty well, but that really surprised me with just how good these albums were. Some from legendary but aging artists that have come back in a big way with these latest albums. 

 

Circe Link and Christian Nesmith - Arcana

Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks - True

Burton Cummings - A Few Good Moments 

Crowded House - Gravity Stairs

 

Best Album Cover

Oddleaf - Where Ideal and Denial Collide 

 

 

 

Runner-ups:

Kalandra - A Frame of Mind

Versa - A Voyage A Destination part 2

Big Big Train - The Likes of Us 

Beardfish - Songs For Beating Hearts

 

 

 

Disappointments

These were not necessarily bad albums, but were disappointing in that they were from really good bands and represented weaker albums that followed especially strong albums

 

Dawes - Oh Brother

Motorpsycho - Neigh! 

Acclaimed? Really?

Lastly, there are several bands/artists that have been highly acclaimed and appear on many of these best of the year lists, but which do nothing at all for me. I just don't get them, or don't see the appeal. I can't really call them disappointments because I didn't expect much from them, but have been really surprised that they have been ranked so highly by others. These include:

 

Nick Cave - Wild God 

Opeth - The Last Will and Testament

Geordy Greep - The New Sound

The Smile - Wall of Eyes 

Still to Come - Best Songs of the Year