Billy Strings – Highway Prayers

I rarely listen to modern music anymore as I find a lot of it instrumentally bland and lyrically corrupt. So, when my mom played me a few funny songs from Highway Prayers a couple months back, I was hesitant to discover the rest of the album. It was only until a couple months later that I gave this album a chance, to which I was pleasantly surprised! Highway Prayers by Billy Strings is a fantastic display of bluegrass instrumentation, and Billy really shreds on some of these songs, like on “Escanaba” and “Malfunction Junction”. Man, he’s got the fastest fingers around.  

There are some great stories and lyrics here. “Gild the Lily” is a beautifully inspired piece of music that makes me feel like I’m lying on a hill in the summer soaking up some rays. “Catch and Release” is a fun story about getting pulled over on the highway, with a good lesson to boot. There’s a great video on YouTube for the entire album, and I’d highly recommend scooting over there and giving Highway Prayers a listen. 

-Carson Chittick, Music Staff

Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere

For the past few years rock music, and metal in particular, has felt particularly stale. It seems the best riffs ever written have already been played and the best hope for a metal album these days is that it can show great qualities while not being entirely derivative of past masterpieces. However, the album Absolute Elsewhere has given me hope for a better future for metal music. This album is special, and I hope many more people unfamiliar with this band get to experience the most exciting and innovative metal album post-2010.  

What makes Absolute Elsewhere special is the shear amount of artistry on display across its 44-minute runtime and its innate ability to cover new ground that has barely been explored in a largely discovered genre frontier. This album is a melting pot that somehow manages to combine the best parts of electronic music, psychedelic rock, and death metal into a cohesive project. There are electronic passages like in “The Stargate [Tablet II]”, and even a song reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon with “The Message [Tablet II]”. Despite experimenting with various genres, this album’s greatest accomplishment is managing to strongly maintain its identity as a metal album with epic trashing tracks such as “The Stargate [Tablet III]” that go as hard as anything else in the genre.  

To put how awesome this album is in words, listening to Absolute Elsewhere feels like traveling to the outskirts of the galaxy with aliens at light speed. With a larger-than-life sound and immaculate mixing and production, Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere is an enjoyable project that combines the song structures of progressive rock and metal in creative ways leading to a completely novel musical experience. 

-Maurice Crawford, Editorial Staff

Cosmo Sheldrake – Eye to the Ear

They tell you to touch grass, but never to make music out of it. That’s the simple mindset shift at the core of Cosmo Sheldrake’s sound. It’s the idea that humans, birds, insects, marine life, fungi, and all manner of other species can collaborate with one another to make art. His newest album, mid-April’s Eye to the Ear, is his reflection on the role that nature plays in his music and his life, with songs about youth, decay, melancholy, greed, and exploration all accompanied by various chirps, hoots, and burbles sourced directly from Earth itself.  

There are 21 tracks on this album, making it impossible for me to talk about them all, so I’ll just shout out a few of my favorites. “Old Ocean” is an homage to the wide and briny sea through a modern political lens. While thanking the ocean for its comfort, he uses his lyrics to rip at climate change deniers saying, “Whether truth or just a story/You can’t pick and choose/Whether blunt or whether thorny/It’s not up to you.” “Flora’s Pond” features sounds collected on a hydrophone from a pond Sheldrake and his wife dug in their backyard. It’s calm and meditative, and the perfect instrumental to break up the album. “Interdimensional” is my favorite song on the album, reminiscent of his past hits like “Rich” and “Come Along”. The richly layered backing track of heavy drums and choral accompaniments from HOWL throws me into a whimsical world that begs for a big adventure. 

I love Eye to the Ear because it feels at once enormous and miniscule. Sure, it encompasses the artist’s entire life — his love for nature, his wife, his musical career — but it is also no bigger than the newts at the bottom of “Flora’s Pond” that contributed their own backing vocals. This album encapsulates the beauty of nature. It is big, but also infinitely small. 

-Bailey Vergara, Music Staff

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee

This kind of seems like the consensus pick from everybody who takes the music ranking thing too seriously, but it’s towards the top of people’s lists for good reason. 

Diamond Jubilee begins slowly gleaming like the red and orange embers of winter sunlight along the flat horizon of the yellowed dead Manitoba plains. From there, that beauty never ends, instead ruminating outwards into the great beyond. It’s manifested through smooth, warm guitars that sear in the right spaces, shimmering cascading riffs, bass tones transuding through the essence of being, and silky falsettos that whisp in the wind. All this is presented in vintage undertones, like with the springiness in reverb or the cracks that break out when certain parts peak the audio. It shows primarily in the surfy acid pop compositions that align with Patrick Flegel’s ‘60s inspired stage alias Cindy Lee. 

This album is bloated. At two hours and two minutes long, there are some songs that lull. However, these parts are few in the overall runtime, and the glitzy allure of Diamond Jubilee is lingering. It lingers in the pit of the record’s soul that encapsulates the feelings of heartbreak, loneliness, and isolation. It pierces in “Dreams of You” with a wail to the stars. It wallows in “If You Hear Me Crying” asking just for someone to listen and understand. It smolders in “Stone Faces” in a trotting indignance towards everyone’s remissness. It flutters in “Kingdom Come” calling out to the distant emptiness for someone lost that was once so close. It also resides in all the gleaming textures in between.

This loneliness buzzes in the air around as you stare off into the horizon contemplating every person that has come and gone. Drifting around like ghosts in your mind, thinking why it happened and what could’ve been done to have kept it from happening, if anything could have been done at all. It’s those sounds and those sentiments that reside inside you while you listen, wandering through the plains. 

-John Glab, Editor-In-Chief

Dj Smokey, Varg² – Psychological Musical Warfare

Emerging from the bowels of Bandcamp, Dj Smokey and Varg²’s collaborative mixtape Psychological Musical Warfare is a drug addled phantasy of trance, trap, and experimental techno. Willfully wild and unabashedly abrasive, this meeting of minds between Canadian producer and Internet enigma Dj Smokey, and the genre bending Swedish EDM artist and frequent Drain Gang collaborator Varg², results in a collection of tracks that oscillate between the ecstatic and the sardonic.  

It is totally hedonistic, with songs that center on drug abuse and conspiratorial government mind control. These topics are presented like sonic shitposts, but the ambitious production explodes with creativity as it throbs and rapidly accelerates to its own reckless tempo. Populated with voice samples that proclaim “I HATE MUSIC” and lyrics like “I LOVE PRESSED PILLS/BUGS IN MY BRAIN/NUKES ARE LEGAL/I ATE A BUG/I LOVE INSECTS/I LOVE PRESSED PERCS/FENTANYL IS GREAT I HAVE A HORRIBLE HEADACHE,” the mixtape is able to flourish in its own irresponsibility and create an acidic grandeur for itself, reminiscent of some of Memphis rap’s greatest underground stars.  

This mixtape is entirely its own beast as it maneuvers through, and excels at, its own overwhelming aspirations of energetic deep dance music. At six tracks, it is a concise and ominously apocalyptic vision of swag rap and boyish nihilism from some of the Internet’s most idiosyncratic artists. Highlights on this project include “Taste the Poison” and “Fent Party – I Just Escaped Rehab HaHaHa Mega Mix”. 

-Ben Romero, Editorial Staff

Grey Factor – A Peak In the Signal

While the contents of A Peak in the Signal were recorded over 40 years ago, in 2024, these live performance audios were first recovered and compiled this year for the preservation of Grey Factor’s work. Before this, there was very little recording of the band’s short lifespan. The album contains ten songs, with tracks 1-6 featuring all of the original band members, Jeff Jacquin, Joey Cevetello, John Pospisil, and Paul Fontana. These first six tracks come from the archives of the Eldorado Recording Studio dated to April of 1979. The second half extends to include the work of John Cevetello and Anne Burns, with a lack of Paul Fontana who left in 1980 at the time of the second half’s recording. 

The album is a glorious time capsule of eccentric and diverse electronic music. At the time when the band was still around, Grey Factor’s work in electronic music and post punk was pioneering and revolutionary. I couldn’t sacrifice my top spot for album of the year to anything but this incredible find. 

-Lee Nienhaus, Editorial Staff

Hozier – Unreal Unearth: Unending

I took a class during my junior year of college about Quests & Travels in the Middle Ages and one of the texts that we focused on was Dante’s Inferno. Most people didn’t know much about the original text, but we referenced the newly released Hozier album, Unreal Unearth. Building on his own unique brand of soulful lyricism from his self-titled debut, along with his jazz and blues influenced sophomore album Wasteland, Baby!, Unreal Unearth is a triumphant blend of Hozier’s craft as a lyricist and a musician. Since the release of the album, Hozier released Unheard and Unaired in a complete album called Unreal Unearth: Unending. 

Following the Inferno as a framing device for the whole album, Hozier takes the listeners through each layer of Hell. The pairing of the reflective melancholy and the aggressive pop rock of the opening tracks “De Selby (Part 1 & 2)” paints the album as one of contrasts. The beauty of love and transcendent spiritualism splendidly mix in a song like “Francesca” directly referencing the figure from the original text from the perspective of her persistent lover. Aside from the obvious Dante references, there’s many other literary and cultural references, especially to Hozier’s home of Ireland. “Butchered Tongue” and “Empire Now” allude to the tumultuous history between the Irish and the British over their own use of the Irish language, as just one example.  

The tracks outside of the original album are more ‘experimental’ with “Wildflower and Barley” mixing a Latin jazz sound with Hozier’s more earthy roots. Hozier’s #1 song, “Too Sweet” and the recently celebrated “Nobody’s Soldier” bring the loud energy and Hozier’s decorated lyricism to the mainstream. Unreal Unearth: Unending is a spiritual tour de force that allows us to celebrate the harmony and discord that life brings as a journey worth taking.

-Griffin Polley, Editorial Staff

Jamie xx – In Waves

Sleek, sophisticated, and meticulously constructed, English producer Jamie xx delivered another spectacular project this year with In Waves. Released nine years after his Grammy winning solo debut In Colour, the new album triumphantly captures the rich duality of a big night out. Hype and bombast like in “Baddy On The Floor” accompany introspection and yearning as found on “Daffodil”, emphasizing the rich, tangled emotions evoked by the dance floor.  

These contradictions, longing and loss, euphoria and melancholy, often collapse into each other within a song. This unfolds in the album standout “All You Children”, which features The Avalanches and an inspired sample of “Dance Poem” by American poet Nikki Giovanni. “All you children, gather round,” proposes Giovanni over the song’s recurring vocal loop and affective synth chords. “We will dance and we will whirl/We will dance to our own song/We must spin to our own world/Won’t you dance with me?” Giovanni’s spoken word poem offers the album a thesis Jamie xx gratefully grasps and majestically threads: building another, better world through community, comradery, and dance. As the album’s second song urges, “All we’ve got to do is treat each other right.” 

-Glenn Houlihan, Editorial Staff

JPEGMAFIA – I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU

I LAY MY LIFE DOWN FOR YOU by rapper and producer extraordinaire JPEGMAFIA lives up to the legacy he has set with his previous albums. As KRUI’s resident Peggy fanboy, I was pumped for this album. He has shown again and again that he is unwilling to conform to typical styles, pushing boundaries in a way that I love. When I first listened to the album and heard the opening track “i scream this in the mirror before i interact with anyone” I knew I was in for a typical Peggy masterclass.  

JPEGMAFIA seamlessly blends rock and rap on tracks such as “Exmilitary” and “vulgar display of power”. The features on the album are also great, with standouts from Vince Staples on “New Black History”, which is over a sample that he himself sampled in the fantastic song “Senorita”, and Denzel Curry on “JPEGULTRA!”.  What I did not expect was the introspective themes that came on the album. It is not that JPEGMAFIA has never been one to be emotional, for example his cover of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, but he just has never done it so well. Tracks such as “either on or off the drugs” and “i recovered from this” are introspective and discuss relationships, the end of them, and how that has impacted his mental health. All in all, this album was one of the best of the year. 

-Mason Dunn, Programming Director

Lechuga Zafiro – Desde los oídos de un sapo

The Uruguayan electronic musician, Lechuga Zafiro (aka Pablo de Vargas) on Desde los oídos de un sapo delves into the idea of what would it be like to live music as a toad, which he carefully conceives from a wide collection of field recordings that ranges from hits on tree stumps, splashing water, chirping birds, rocks crashing, and a lot more. Those field recordings are then carefully arranged, distorted, and shaped into pieces of electronic music that are rhythmic in nature and exudes Latin American excellency.  

De Vargas made outstanding journeys around the world that allowed him to record in inconspicuous places that in one way or another, only a toad would be interested in. Nevertheless, it presents an innovative way to showcase field recordings rather than raw expressions of a certain location. These are sounds exclusively collected, curated with intention, and presented with other-worldly sound design.  

Water never sounded so good as it does in “Agua de Vidrio” where rain, streams, and splashes are given life in a percussive nature. Metallic hits accentuate the perceived brittleness of these splashes, while we hear the sub frequencies being filled with what I can best describe as tree trunks being hit. The title track can be perceived as an outlier but rather poses as a cinematic piece that places the rest of the work and the concept of the album into context. The chances of being a toad are few, depending on what you believe. There is a probability that it sounds as bleak and dreary as the title track does, and the fact that Lechuga Zafiro was able to conceive that allows the listener to be closer to embodiment of the amphibian more than ever before.

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

MGMT – Loss of Life

Making their Mom+Pop Label debut, psych rock duo Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser attempt to address modernity and mortality by taking their listeners on a gorgeous, almost spiritual journey. Over the course of nearly two decades now, MGMT has continued to develop one of the most interesting and consistently timeless discographies in 21st century pop music. Their latest project Loss of Life represents their most intimate and sonically organic vision to date and is arguably their most impactful. With themes so grand and interconnected it begins to resemble a similar drug induced concept album that attempted to tackle the woes and optimism of their respective contemporary zeitgeist: The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

The album contains a healthy and diverse mix of tracks like the shiny and sunny folk opener “Mother Nature” or the noisy and heavy banger “Bubblegum Dog”. In a statement about the former single, MGMT stated that the track “outlines the archetypical MGMT mythology of one hero attempting to get the other hero to come on the journey that they ‘must’ go on.” French singer and songwriter Rahim Redcar makes an appearance on “Dancing In Babylon”, making it the first feature on one of their official albums. The track sounds like a slick Kate Bush ballad pulled straight from the 80s.  

“People In the Streets” is so sincere and clichéd it makes me cry, and its chorus has been an ear worm that’s invaded the vocabulary of anyone in my vicinity this year. “Nothing Changes” was my runner up for song of the year and serves as an existentialist crescendo that spawns the kind of mental imagery you might see flash before your eyes right before death. The following track “Phradie’s Song” sounds like the soundtrack to a dream with its androgynous and youthful vocals accompanied by jazzy electronic special effects.  

The album’s last track wraps up and summarizes the ultimate point about mortality. By the time of that final song and title track, I’m following every lyric like its gospel. They stick the landing beautifully and wrap up their ultimate point about coming to terms with mortality in a kind of absurdist tradition ending with the line “When the world is born and life is ending, then you learn to love your loss of life/When that moment comes and life is over/Anyone can love, anyone can love.” 

-Amman Hassan, News Director

Mount Eerie – Night Palace

Mount Eerie’s most recent album Night Palace follows a five-year artistic hiatus by Phil Elverum who is also behind the project The Microphones. Perhaps less devastating than his past records, Night Palace revolves between noisy and subdued, both gentle and biting. It feels both removed from the psyche, and altogether aware of the emotions of both the individual and the state of the collective. The lyrics on the record are poetic and deeply personal, all while the accompanying sound glitters and oscillates between moods and colors. Mount Eerie delivers another record of a calming wave of hand strung sound and emotion. It’s an altogether haunting, loving, and gentle catharsis. 

-Pauly, Music Staff

POLO PERKS <3 <3 <3, AyooLii, FearDorian – A Dog’s Chance

For those with their ear to the pulse of the underground hip hop scene, particularly revolving around sample drill and the general sprawling Surf Gang extended universe, it’s likely that you were familiar with at least one of the three artists behind A Dog’s Chance. POLO PERKS <3 <3 <3 is a veteran New York rapper and standard bearer of the sample drill wave with his 2021 release Punk Goes Drill+**. That record is a creative and off the wall project featuring his trademark deep voiced inflections, unique ad-libs, and most of all, blatant and generous sampling of material likely to pique many listeners’ ears. Be it “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol, or “Maps” by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the combination of new and old creates a unique and exciting listen.  

AyooLii is a young up and coming representative of the burgeoning Milwaukee low-end, easily differentiating himself on any given track by his high energy screamed vocals, frequently hilarious bars, and explosive bombastic beats. Finally, FearDorian is a young (having yet to turn 18 as of this article’s writing) but prolific and increasingly in demand producer, operating in a similar manner to POLO PERKS <3 <3 <3’s vein of sample drill. Needless to say, the combination of these three artists was entirely unexpected, and represented an unprecedented collaboration between sounds. The result? One of the most exciting projects underground hip-hop has seen this year.  

Combining elements of each artists’ respective style, the result is an explosive mix of prominent sampling bordering on outright covering songs. With jerk percussion consisting of beefy snares, bass, and hand claps akin to xaviersobased, A Dog’s Chance sounds like a marching band performing trap remixes of pop punk songs. It’s an unexpectedly and excitingly fresh hybridization of each style brought to the table with each MC bringing their respective talents in an immensely complimentary manner. Polo’s driving but understated flows fit perfectly into the grooves, and AyooLii’s screams serve as a palette cleanser of sorts, simply delivering ridiculous but impassioned lines.  

Beyond that, each MC is not only in their element, but also demonstrate a clear sense of chemistry. Both Polo and AyooLii shout one another out in their verses, as well as including interspersed field recordings of the three of them seemingly just geeking out about working together. Furthermore, this album also features instrumental contributions from indie staples Current Joys and Teen Suicide, only furthering the colorful chemistry on display. Ultimately, A Dog’s Chance is greater than the sum of its parts. It serves as a reminder that music, and art broadly, is a collaborative effort, and one that can reflect the joy of the makers in its creation. It provides an exciting new path for underground hip-hop to expound upon in the coming years. 

-Evan Raefield, Training Director

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Opus

As his cancer developed into Stage 4, the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto emptied his exemplary creative journey on a recording done for a film directed by his son Neo Sora. Opus, as the word denotes, may not be enough to describe the magnificent pieces of music we have been gifted on this record. Exploring the five decades of music he has let out, Sakamoto reconvenes with pieces from early in his time with Yellow Magic Orchestra on “Tong Poo” to more recently like with “20220302 – sarabande” from his album 12 released in 2023.  

The listening experience is intimate, as Sakamoto’s breath can be heard as he gently plays the evocative notes of his catalog. The piano pedal allows for a closer relationship of the listener to the instrument, opening to Sakamoto’s position as he performs. Sakamoto understands that emotional evocation lacks perfection and is well exemplified by the inclusion of the sounds that only those in the room could hear.  

Personal stand out pieces include “Andata”, from his album Async released in 2017. The incredible ambient and classical piece reworked on piano serves as a staple for this album, making it hard to even go back to its original composition. Lastly, but no less important, is “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence”, my favorite non-Christmas Christmas song that serves as the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. It’s a celebration of Sakamoto’s life. Overall, Opus is a wonderful and important piece that is worth your time, over and over and over again.  

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

smiling broadly – for a moment i saw myself as inexorably beautiful

I originally found smiling broadly (fka twinkle park) because Hazel, the creator of these projects, makes YouTube essays about anime and console games. I have always had a deep connection to her music, especially her use of electronic instruments and vocal synthesizers. Everything has this warm fuzziness to it that makes me feel the same way I felt at age 11 looping “Angel with a Shotgun” nightcore.  

This album, for a moment i saw myself as inexorably beautiful, is crazy. Like “I don’t even want to describe it because it will ruin the magic of hearing it for the first time” crazy. Basically, Hatsune Miku just slammed four Monster Energy cans, has now played through all of Cruelty Squad, and probably owns a CD copy of “Wispy, No Mercy” by Citrus. 

-Sidney Bakker, Music Staff

Various Artists – Hosono House Revisited

Released on November 1st under Stones Throw Records, Hosono House Revisited is a celebration of an all-time classic album. It contains 14 tracks worth of covers dedicated to Haruomi Hosono’s influential 1973 record. Hosono released the original Hosono House after his previous band had disbanded, the Beatles inspired HAPPY END, and before he went on to pioneer electronica, forming Yellow Magic Orchestra with comrades Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi later in the ‘70s. In 11 tracks, the folk rock and psychedelia infused Hosono House had greatly influenced his contemporaries and future artists alike. Artists like Mac DeMarco, Jerry Paper, Pearl & the Oysters, Akiko Yano, and Cornelius all contribute renditions from Hosono’s now 51-year-old album. 

“Hosono is my hero, I love all of his music, I am eternally at his every beck and call, it is my honor to be a part of this compilation,” DeMarco says in a Stones Throw blog article. He keeps his cover faithful and his influence in full force during “Boku Wa Chotto”. Sam Gendel performs “My Love is Peach-Colored” as a sonically introspective, intimate English rendition of Hosono’s “Koi Wa Momoiro”. mei ehara’s synthesized makeover of “Jusho Futei Mushoku Tei Shunyu,” hits some shibuya-kei and indie pop cues akin to fellow Japanese outfit Lamp. These tracks and many more bring the original 1973 tracks into a new generation. Hosono House Revisited proves the importance of good, timeless songwriting, no matter the genre, no matter the language. If a tune, or 11 of them, is good people’s ears will follow, even more than 50 years after the fact.

-Harry Ginsberg, Music Staff

Witchz – LIFE

I’ve been a huge Witchz fan since I discovered him on TikTok in 2022, and he’s gone from a small artist I thought I could keep to myself to amassing 1.6 million followers on the platform. He just had his first US tour, is about to have his first European tour, and released his album LIFE this past September. LIFE keeps true to Witchz signature style, with dark electronic instrumentals and hard-hitting lyrics. The music has the right amount of heaviness and is simultaneously something I can lip sync and dance to alone in my room, but also something I can have blasting in my earbuds at work or when I’m trying to write in a coffee shop. 

The songs all have themes revolving around the highs and lows of life where it feels like Witchz bares part of his soul to us. He sings about love, loss, spirituality, and what seems like some veiled references to the media and capitalism. There’s little I love more in music than meaningful and relatable lyrics, and this album achieves all of that with lines like “I create this life with no ceiling in the end/Gotta kill the rage/Coming from inside with no feelings in the end” or in the track “Ashes” with “And I’m fucking stressed/In my eyes, in my bones, in my soul they’re feelin’ less,” and “I feel possessed/Layin’ on the floor in this horror and I need some rest/Motherfucker in my heart did I die?” in the song “Possessed”. The album is packaged with cover art of a double-headed snake, taking on the shape of an infinity sign, which contributes to the overall aesthetic of the album.

-Amanda Moy, Editorial Staff

Other Positive 2024 KRUI Album Reviews

Boldy James – Penalty of Leadership

Bedbug – pack your bags the sun is growing

Kim Gordon – The Collective

Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us

Denzel Curry – King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2

They Are Gutting a Body of Water – swanlike

Her New Knife – chrome is lullaby

Two Words – Double Vision

Origami Angel – Feeling Not Found

The post KRUI Staff Favorite Albums of 2024 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Armand Hammer – “Doves“

In the wake of their critically acclaimed 2023 release We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, despite both of their unrepentant proliferation, I don’t think anyone was expecting further work under the Armand Hammer name anytime soon. Both artists, Billy Woods and ELUCID, would likely return to their bustling and increasingly demanding solo careers. However, many listeners found that at the end of February, an 8 minute 45 second song was released. Now, I think that the culture surrounding ‘bonus tracks’ is a general regard for them being throwaways. Songs that didn’t make the final cut tacked onto the end for the fans. That being said, Armand Hammer is no average group, and this is no average bonus track.

In conversation with Armand Hammer, you wouldn’t think it to be the staggering composition it is, with easy humbleness from the two veteran MC’s simply seeing it as business as usual. However, the product is unprecedented. Beginning with an eerie, echoing sample of throat singing buried under a haze of vinyl crackle, the track patiently develops with weary guitar lines, then echoing piano meandering like staircases to nowhere. Then complimented by contemporary blues artist Benjamin Booker’s whispered rasps, the song expands, crackles, and wavers in the cold air. Blasts of harmonic noise appear and decay, stabbing through and then collapsing in on themselves.

When Billy Woods finally appears, he is reticent, yet remorseful from his decrepit hideaway. He easily delivers one of his weightiest and brooding verses from an album of weighty and brooding verses. By the time ELUCID’s echoing vocals enter, the stabs of noise have returned, gathering for a moment behind his harmonies before the entire song begins to fall inwards, accompanied by increasingly panicked cries of “Great day!” “Doves” is undoubtedly a peak in a career of towering achievements and one of the most evocative compositions I have heard in my life.  

-Evan Raefield, Training Director

Charli xcx, Lorde – “Girl, so confusing featuring lorde“

If you haven’t heard of the album brat by Charli xcx it is likely that you have been living under a rock for all of 2024. The electronic dance pop album went viral with its minimalist album cover and unorthodox promotional tactics, essentially revitalizing mainstream pop music. While the album is loaded with hits from front to back, there was one track in particular that stood above the rest of the pack.  

That song was “Girl, so confusing” centered around a tumultuous relationship with another singer. This song highlighted one of the biggest flaws in mainstream music that starts with industry politics and often trickles down into obsessive fanbases. For some unknown reason, there always has to be a particular “it girl” in pop music. Some people would argue that it’s Charli xcx, others will make arguments for stars like Beyonce or Chappell Roan. To a casual fan like myself, it feels strange that an industry rooted in feminism thrives from pitting its biggest stars against one another.  

This is perhaps why the “Girl, so confusing remix featuring lorde” feels like the most monumental moment of pop music in a long time. This remix version of the song not only answers the questions posed by the original, but also adds perspective with Lorde’s stellar guest verse which addresses the toxic effects that industry politics has on artists and subtly pleads for unity amongst women in music. One can only hope this song serves as a turning point where pop stars and labels realize that there is enough money and critical acclaim to support multiple superstars and create an environment where the new norm for artists is to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. 

-Maurice Crawford, Editorial Staff

Cosmo’s Midnight, Franc Moody – “Fantasy“

A match made in nu disco heaven, Australian electronic duo Cosmo’s Midnight teamed up with British dance duo Franc Moody for their groovy single “Fantasy”. Released in February 2024, “Fantasy” continues to be in heavy rotation for me ten months later, making it a clear choice for my song of the year. Why? Well, there’s the sonically perfect opening, with a space laser giving way to funky drums, bass, guitar, and falsettos.

There’s the infectiously flirty chorus: “You’re my all night safari/You keep gettin’ me wild.” Then there’s the perfect instrumental pause for the start of the second chorus: “Joyride,” they harmonize before the instruments kick back in, “we can take it slow/Exhale, unwind, enjoy your time.” The song’s brilliant music video, featuring trains, chain mail, and a bath full of oranges, further exaggerates the carefree vibes. Glossy, upbeat, and above all else danceable, “Fantasy” is the ideal song to blast during a ride at “Cali sunset time.”

-Glenn Houlihan, Editorial Staff

gabby start – “Boys“

I genuinely can’t stop listening to this song. gabby start is an artist that I’ve been a fan of for a while, but something about this one is different. I really like lyrics that are kind of vague, and the only thing I truly know about this song’s content is that it references Interpol and hooking up in a car, and that’s really all I need. The line “I’m obsessed with the boys, but it’s not like that, it’s never been like that,” has rattled around in my brain ever since I heard it.  

“Boys” begins with a slow build up that feels like you’ve stepped into something new. I’m pretty sure gabby start writes all their songs to take place in a fictional world, which adds to that feeling even more. The synths of this song are absolutely insane; sharp, metallic, and peppered with spaceship noises, exactly as music should be. This bass tone could easily be part of a Skrillex song, also exactly how music should be. I’m glad that I live in a world where “future bass” is a term used to refer to music, and that one of those songs references Interpol and hooking up in a car and makes me think about gender a bit too much. 

-Sidney Bakker, Music Staff

Ikkimel – “KETA UND KRAWALL“

Summer 2024 was defined by one hyperpop artist, and that was Ikkimel. I first came across her music at the Euro 2024 Fanzone in Berlin, which was right in front of the Reichstag, on a day when there were no matches being played. Instead of showing games they had musicians playing on a stage. When I walked in, she was performing. Ikkimel had the wooden pallets placed over the muddied ground bouncing with pseudo techno beats and clashing electro synth sounds, all in a magnetic allure. Every single body was moving, caught up in the vivaciousness of her music.  

After one song, it ended. I got there late. What followed was some wannabe Drake style rapper singing in English that sucked all the energy from everyone who then just lingered there listless. The one song I did get to hear from Ikkimel though was “KET UND KRAWALL” that came out ahead of her HAT SIE NICH GESAGT EP, which defined much of the remaining year. Her style is very provocative and assertive, with a patronizing attitude to everything around her, often making fun of macho culture. She has popularity in Germany, but it feels like she belongs as an icon in the global zeitgeist. “KETA UND KRAWALL” will insert life into anything in whatever place it’s played. 

-John Glab, Editor-In-Chief

Joost Klein – “Europapa“

In short, “Europapa” by Joost Klein is an absolute bop. It is the most fun dance tune to come out of this year, but there are bigger reasons why it should be on a list of the best songs of 2024. The song was written in tribute to Joost’s parents, particularly his father, both of whom he had lost by the age of 13. It is also an ode to the European Union, speaking to the freedom of movement and personal experiences Joost has had. 

Europapa was the Netherlands’ submission to the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest which has significant impacts in terms of international relations. However, Joost was unprecedentedly disqualified from Eurovision hours before the final competition due to later dropped allegations from Israel. Europapa was projected to be the winner before Joost was disqualified, and his removal from the contest sparked a massive discussion around Israel being permitted to participate in Eurovision, as well as wider discourse around the genocide in Palestine and Gaza. People protested in person outside the contest, on social media with #FreeJoostKlein, and even inside the contest, booing and singing Europapa over Israeli contestant Eden Golan’s song. 

When asked to think of the best song of 2024, for me it had to be Europapa. Not only is it a fantastic and meaningful song, but it was one of the most politically powerful songs to come out of 2024 that sparked genuine discussion. 

-Amanda Moy, Editorial Staff

Kim Gordon – “BYE BYE“

Sonic Youth vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kim Gordon proves boomers still got juice in them with her genre bending release The Collective. Exploring trap and hip-hop styles through the lens of her industrial noise rock background, she creates a truly novel and badass experience. Specifically, its opening track left me in awe the movement I heard it and continues to stay in rotation.  

Structurally she contrasts huge wailing guitars and walls of sound around her deadpan vocals that feels like she’s seemingly just reading off a to-do list before her upcoming flight, hence the title “BYE BYE”. This track is the definition of hard and the fact an artist in their 70s is dropping mosh worthy bangers to compete with the likes of Death Grips and Soul Glo should serve as some kind of inspiration. 

-Amman Hassan, News Director

Objekt, DjRUM – “Ganzfeld (DjRUM Remix)“

As a way to showcase his new label, the Berlin based producer Objekt calls some of his favorite fellow producers to remix a re-release of one of his most acclaimed tracks, “Ganzfeld”. DjRUM is on the list. The extraordinary musician from the United Kingdom is characterized by his intricate productions and DJing. The resulting track we received can be described as a sonic, dreamlike odyssey, one that begins like any other great story.  

Echoing snares and stunning tambourines follow with an incredible piano progression over the wonderful percussion that characterized the original track by Objekt. The track then falls apart into a chilling half-time percussive section, that then becomes increasingly convoluted and frightening, yet doesn’t lose any of its engaging sound design. The track reassembles, combining those frigid sections with beautiful ones, creating a contrasting image on the story and resolving its conflicts into the finishing string and piano chords that formed the beginning. This remix is a masterpiece of electronic music composition, one that shows complexity and story building like none other.

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

Sabrina Carpenter – “Bed Chem“

While I originally wanted to give my spot for top song to Amyl and the Sniffers’ “Going Somewhere”, I couldn’t let Sabrina Carpenter’s success this year go untalked about. Her album Short n’ Sweet made a difference in my year for the better, especially the song “Bed Chem”. The song’s bright chords and grooves are unforgettable to me. The storytelling ability of the track and its early 2000s R&B influences make this one of the best pop songs of the year, if not the best. There’s just something about “Bed Chem” that is irresistible to dance along to. 

-Lee Nienhaus, Editorial Staff

Tom Cardy – “Transcendental Cha Cha Cha“

On particularly bad days, being asked to dance at the club fills me with a crippling fear of the expansiveness of the universe. It’s then that I listen to this song. Cardy steps out of his usual lane, musical comedy about flipping people off and the seminal 2009 classic film Human Centipede, to deliver this well produced ode to classic cha-cha and existential dread.  

Though he maintains his signature sense of humor, he dials down the funny to turn up the chaos, layering in a dense electro pop backing track with several unique percussive and piano features. His freewheeling lyricism adds to the madness, spinning the listener into an alternate universe where a lone human clubber in an intergalactic discotheque puts aside their existential fear and joins the room in a dance. Optimistic in its dread, “Transcendental Cha Cha Cha” is a certified club banger, club destroyer, club rebuilder, and every other reality in between. 

-Bailey Vergara, Music Staff

Verraco – “Godspeed >“

Once again Verraco, the Colombian who co-founded the label TraTraTrax, appears on my favorite tracks of the year, this time on his residency at Timedance, the UK label lead by Batu. As part of his Breathe… Godspeed EP, that includes tracks that also deserve to be in this list, especially “Sí, idealízame”. “Godspeed >” is an exhilarating piece of music that is made to be heard on large speakers at full volume with a crowd surrounding you.  

The track starts rather minimalistic with a dembow rhythm, and a vocal sample taken out of Dj Babatr’s notebook modified to sound other-worldly. A sliding bass comes in not too long after, teasing the party goer, to then be blown out of proportions with an organ like synth that calls for battle, and percussive elements to bring it all together. Truly a party starter, front to back. 

-Andrés Mora Mata, Music Director

Zookraught – “Red Hot Summer“

For the past few months, I’ve had Red Hot Summer — particularly, the attack of its syncopated main riff — stuck in my head. Released as a single ahead of their debut LP Vida Violet, this track is an all-hands-on-deck effort from each member of the Seattle dance punk trio. Featuring Baylee Harper’s electrifying drumming, Sami Frederick and Steph Jones’ full-force vocals, along with their respective guitar and bass to boot, all give everything in a steamy five minutes.  

The lyrics’ passion infected me with an energy best suited in the basement of a house show, much like the one they played in Iowa City last fall. The switch ups, especially towards the bridge, are to die for, and the chorus alone gives a brilliant payoff. If I died right now and went to punk heaven, Zookraught’s “Red Hot Summer” better be playing in the mosh pit. 

-Harry Ginsberg, Music Staff

The post KRUI Staff Favorite Songs of 2024 appeared first on KRUI Radio.