50 best albums of 2024

2024 gave us more worthy alternative albums than we can easily fit on this list. The year began at full speed, with Green Day’s January release of Saviors, an album that perfectly sums up the Oakland group’s style at its best over the last three decades. In February, we were rocked by Chelsea Wolfe’s powerful goth-folk project She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, the impassioned math-rock LP Wall of Eyes from the Smile, which earned them the bragging rights of Radiohead’s best side project.

As the year continued to forge ahead, we heard IDLES’ epic TANGK, Sum 41’s final album, the double-disc Heaven :x: Hell, experienced catharsis with Beth Gibbons, and thrashed along with Gouge Away and SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Billie Eilish and Charli XCX took risks in the often sugary pop space, meeting it with blunt honesty and raw self-awareness. Then, in the back half of the year, we received the hallucinogenic absurdity of Being Dead, meditated on mortality with the Cure, and met a newly reconfigured Linkin Park.

Read more: 24 of the most exciting rising artists to watch in 2024

For AP, whether it’s post-hardcore, pop, grunge, or an amalgam of genres — the definition of alternative is ever-expanding, and inherently inclusive. That fact is as true as ever today. That being said, we’ve rounded up 50 of this year’s best albums, though it wasn’t an easy task. Find them below.

The best albums of 2024

Rise

Alkaline Trio – Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs

Alkaline Trio’s 10th studio album has all of the sinister, macabre elements that have always made this band a standout, and feels more akin to early Alkaline Trio and Good Mourning than their more recent releases. Now, the layers of the Chicago outfit have been beautifully peeled back and stripped down, the guts of the band left sonically exposed. Less power chords, more riffage; less self-deprecation, more snarling at the world with an ominous glare. Built upon this radically raw foundation, a consistently urgent punk tempo, and truly thoughtful melodies, they dive headfirst into harmonious lyricism. Across the tracklist, they traverse further into the horrific abyss than ever before — though not in the fantastical sense. Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs peers outward, and recognizes that the reality of our world today is the greatest atrocity, and the apocalypse, to say the least, is now.

B2B

Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness

Amyl and the Sniffers offer a powerful tribute to punk in its purest form. Their style is frantic, anarchic, witty, and refreshingly old school — for which they’ve been dubbed as modern “pub punk,” referencing the sharp, no-frills Australian subgenre. However, with Cartoon Darkness as witness, this categorization deserves an update: perhaps, post-pub-punk. On Cartoon Darkness, more so than ever, the band break for melodic moments amid the chaos, the jagged guitars and the pummeling drums, a shift that has subtly refined their sound without forgoing their signature spunk. Think the Damned or the Stooges with a pinch of King Gizzard psych-rock — and a lot of anger. It’s a trip, and one worth taking.

Sumerian

Bad Omens – CONCRETE JUNGLE [THE OST]

The ambitious 26-track project, self-described as an “experimental expansion” of Bad Omens’ THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND, is the most multi-faceted picture of the buzzy rock band we’ve received yet. It’s expansive, challenging all preconceptions of their sound with a range of live recordings, reimagined fan-favorite tracks, new metalcore anthems, and features a host of massive collaborations like HEALTH, Poppy, SWARM, and more. Bad Omens are both reintroducing themselves to their listeners and showcasing their creative growth. The form that rock has taken here takes us on a charged journey through brash industrial, warped, guttural electro-punk, and pulsing metalcore — which, in an exciting, maniacal way, often veers off the map.

Memory Music

Balance and Composure – with you in spirit

Whether or not they’d call it such, with you in spirit feels like Balance and Composure’s comeback album. Working in lockstep with legendary scene producer Will Yip — informally dubbed their sixth member — the well-balanced, cohesive LP sees the emo outfit growing into themselves. And as their first full-length album in eight years, the shift feels appropriate. Yet, true to form, the record remains big and bright, personal and gut-wrenching, drawing on not only the tried-and-true strengths of the band but of the “emotional hardcore” genre itself. For returning customers, with you in spirit is a powerful and satiating experience — and an enviably toothsome tracklist for new listeners to chew on.

Bayonet

Being Dead – EELS

On their sophomore LP, Being Dead recommit to strangeness while traveling up into the darker recesses of their psyche. The album is an even greater distillation of what makes their music so fascinating and catchy, offering another sonically adventurous, unpredictable palette (countrified punk, shoegaze, etc.) that unfurls across 16 tracks. “Godzilla Rises,” sung in a wistful, doe-eyed delivery, reels with deceit while sounding like it could be stomped out at a ’50s prom. “Problems” contends with debilitating self-loathing over a ridiculously cheery backdrop, whereas “Firefighters” is told from the POV of an overworked Dalmatian who dreams of living oceanside. Of course, there are moments when realness peeks through the screen — glimpses of light on the record that make it complete.

Domino

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

Beth Gibbons approaches her solo album with the despair and desperation that her performance in Portishead has always wrought. However, on this project, Gibbons goes elsewhere when it comes to instrumentation — she’s translated folk music to her own language. Acoustic guitars and strings carry her croon, though it has a tendency to wander off, scrounging around for curious, thoughtful sounds. On one track you can hear metal spoons hitting a piano while Gibbons digs deep into catharsis. While speaking to death, motherhood, and menopause, she self-reflects with trembling, felt sorrow. The sounds swell and recede around her, flowing from full orchestral moments to beautifully bare. The raw, revelatory album easily holds some of Gibbons’ best work, and a feverish closing track that leaves a lasting impression.

Darkroom/Interscope

Billie Eilish – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT distinguishes itself from her other records in that it’s meant to be listened to in full. Influenced by Radiohead, Deftones, and Mazzy Star, its themes of intimacy and immersion are bolstered by its sleek album artwork, which sees Eilish floating underwater underneath a white door. Featuring ambitious production from her brother/longtime collaborator FINNEAS (“LUNCH,” “CHIHIRO”), raw ballads (“SKINNY”), and bittersweet yearning (“BIRDS OF A FEATHER”), the album makes good on its title by having her vulnerability throb.

Ghost Theatre

Bob Vylan – Humble As The Sun

Bob Vylan haven’t lost any of the rage and spunk that erupted on 2022’s The Price of Life. Now, however, the duo are older and wiser, using their signature grime punk to sharpen their message and leave listeners feeling just as enraged about the ever-dismal state of the world. Just as before, they aren’t afraid to tackle big topics, from toxic masculinity (“He’s A Man”) to the cost of living (“Hunger Games”), or add levity (“Reign” includes a cheeky barb at how they were robbed of the U.K.’s Mercury Prize), but it all sounds increasingly more confident, ambitious, and defiant.

Sony

Bring Me the Horizon – POST HUMAN: NeX GEn

Originally scheduled for September 2023, NeX GEn was finally released May 2024 as a surprise drop, and announced to be Jordan Fish’s final project with the group. Upon our long-awaited listen, we can safely say the album is as chaotic and urgent as its release schedule — but because it's Bring Me the Horizon, they pull it off with flying, albeit potentially seizure-inducing colors. In recent years, we’ve seen BMTH slip into a heavier and more experimental space, creating their own totally unhinged sound that fuses metalcore, digicore, electronica, and pop punk. On this album, however, the follow-up to 2020’s POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR, they’ve catapulted it all to new heights. With features from Daryl Palumbo, Lil Uzi Vert, Underoath, and Aurora, this is certainly one of BMTH’s most challenging, and exciting, projects to date.

Atlantic

Charli XCX – Brat

Brat brilliantly opens up the floor, literally and proverbially, for a contemporary generation to experience catharsis, empowerment, and relatability through sugary music with a uniquely snarky edge. Riffing on the London rave music she was raised on, with a new air of sophistication around her craft that doesn’t exclude her trademark chaos, Charli XCX combines electroclash, club music, and hyperpop. It’s a punch in the gut that you want to dance to — and the topical lyrics reflect this. Tracks touch on SOPHIE’s death, the contentious relationship between female artists, and offer raw musings on the biological and social programming around motherhood. Somehow, Charli is both championing and name-checking pop culture through the platform of gritty club music. The following slew of starry remixes feature Lorde, Robyn, Yung Lean, and more, further reinforcing the album’s undeniable impact.

Fearless

Chase Atlantic – LOST IN HEAVEN

Chase Atlantic have been on a steep ride over the past few years, showing off impressive stamina as they pack out rooms on both sides of the world. Though bandleader Mitchel Cave described their latest album, LOST IN HEAVEN, as “like pulling teeth,” the results pay off. The LP adds more layers and vulnerability to their dark, enticing sound, stuffed with swaggering anthems, references to Tahoe snowstorms, and love songs that include Easter eggs to their scrappier days. Most significantly, there’s maturity and introspection all the way through.

The Flenser

Chat Pile – Cool World

Sludgy noise-rock outfit Chat Pile hit a near-home run with their debut, God’s Country — a dirty, unsettling, avant-garde depiction of horrors close to home like addiction, homelessness, and mass murders in their home state of Oklahoma. Their sophomore album, Cool World, follows suit, but in overdrive. It’s devastating and hellish in a delicious and ravaging way — full of chugging guitars and visceral, pummeling drums. It reaffirms that the group is a true floater in the industrial, metal-adjacent arena, with a sound that sometimes feels like Korn, while others come closer to Jesus Lizard. With increased immediacy, the band lean into the suffering of society at large, and runs at it head-on, with all of the brutality and rage such an act deserves. It’s cathartic. It’s weird. It’s disgusting. It’s a tremendous album — though a skip for those who hate getting dirty.

Loma Vista

Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Chelsea Wolfe is no stranger to darkness. In fact, it’s her specialty. On the new album, Wolfe wades into its treacherous depths in the aftermath of a relationship — but this time reemerges with a newfound self-awareness and sense of hope, in spite of what may continue to haunt her. While embracing Wolfe’s trademark edge and Bauhaus-folk style, SROTS… is an honest and cathartic album, a shift reflected beautifully in its sonic landscape and eerie lyrical motifs. Thoughtfully incorporating complex references, from trip-hop to heavy-metal breakdowns, Wolfe offers us a twist on melancholic witchiness, and a clear message: “Let go of limits and doubt…I nurtured me, I came back stronger.”

Crumb

Crumb – AMAMA

To describe NYC’s beloved, jazz-infused psych-pop group in one word, playful comes to mind. It’s proven more so than ever on their latest album, AMAMA, which sees the band throwing caution to the wind, and reaping the benefits. Forgoing traditional song structure, classic music theory, and orthodox tempo arrangements, across 12 tracks, Crumb sweep you off your feet into a dizzying and joyful listen. Complex and thoughtfully eclectic instrumentals are key on this album, their density balanced by lyrics that shy on the lighter side — one track introduces a turtle hit by their tour van, another details bedbugs the band got from a motel in their early days. Experimental synth sounds alongside heavily distorted guitar are the foggy backdrop for brilliant jazz-inspired drums that flick up and down in tempo at a moment's notice. It’s a lucid, dream-like, lively listen that will certainly keep you on your toes.

Fiction/Capitol

The Cure – Songs of a Lost World

After years of sporadic teasing, it felt like a new Cure album would never get here. Yet Songs of a Lost World, the band’s first full-length in 16 years, proves that some things are worth the wait, offering a deep meditation on grief and mortality. The goth-rock group even sprinkled a few of its songs into their massive tour last year, always opening with the seven-minute epic “Alone,” where thumping instrumentals pull us in before Robert Smith ever starts singing. Towering, grim, and beautiful, Songs of a Lost World is a proper addition to their expansive, perennially excellent catalog.

Epitaph

Death Lens – Cold World

Death Lens had a giant year supporting Militarie Gun and then jetting off on their own headline tour. In between that and dealing with van breakdowns, they released their new album, and Epitaph debut, Cold World. The LP is a far cry from their early days as an instrumental surf-punk band, filled with fuzzy, hard-hitting anthems that mirror their daily lives as POC in a declining country. Death Lens have kept pushing back all year long, which ties in with the album’s statement of intent — “the desire to thrive in a deteriorating world.”

Hopeless

Destroy Boys – Funeral Soundtrack #4

As the members of Destroy Boys have grown up, their sound has followed suit. Holding onto their punk ethos and vulnerability, the group explore adulthood on their fourth album, pocketing hyper-personal narrative and broadening their perspective of the world around them. “You Hear Yes” offers a ferocious clapback at the industry’s mistreatment of othered artists, reinforced by Kat Moss of Scowl and Mannequin Pussy’s Missy Dabice. On “Boyfeel,” vocalist and guitarist Alexia Roditis stuns, channeling Debbie Harry while proudly excavating experiences of gender and sexuality nonconformity. Though the band are closer to alt-rock, Funeral Soundtrack #4 carries proper punk spirit through and through.

Fantasy/Concord

DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water

Having gone through broken friendships, mistrust, and trauma together, on the precipice of disbanding, DIIV were determined to try again and grasp at what they could to make peace and music again, not to mention work as a democracy. Not unlike the band’s own arc, the album revolves around finding hope, despite darkness, and destruction. To record, they camped out in the Mojave with guitars, and books on Zen poetry, humanity’s failures, and psychological warfare. There, they created Frog in Boiling Water, an LP as much as a manifesto on late-stage capitalism and impending societal collapse. They impart a sonic message to match, against melodies repetitive guitar parts hum — lead and rhythm anxiously passing the torch back, and forth, like a grim call-and-response, reverb and distortion flickering in and out ominously, breaking the metronomic pattern. There’s a synesthetic, tactile, depth to it all that makes clear the conversation, experience, and meaning go far beyond 10 songs on a tracklist.

Trouble in Mind

Dummy – Free Energy

Dummy, named after Portishead’s 1994 trip-hop masterclass, have been turning heads since their intriguing debut album, Mandatory Enjoyment, in 2021 — a forward-thinking combination of lo-fi noise pop, krautrock, and retro-futurism. The follow-up, their sophomore album Free Energy, offers up a change of pace that makes good on its name. Throughout its 12 tracks, Dummy have no intention of making the same record twice, turning away from the couch-locking magnetism of their debut LP and instead celebrating movement — a shift that, whether through wobbly torrents of noise, an irresistible pop chorus, or droning beats that seem to unfurl infinitely, feels profoundly gratifying. It’s music meant to make you feel more alive, sounding both slicker and more urgent while remaining completely disorienting.

Topshelf

Ekko Astral – Pink Balloons

Ekko Astral keep many things in mind. The Earth’s future, community building, aging and mortality, race relations, trans liberation... What they don’t keep in mind, however, is your discomfort — nor do they have any intention to. Their debut album drives this home. While pioneering their very own genre, “mascara moshpit” music — a pop-flavored fusion of noise rock, punk, and queercore — Pink Balloons lays bare the state of the world and its bleak landscape, without flinching, or presenting a sugar-coated message of “social justice.” Witty and wry, in production and lyricism the album mirrors its chaotic subject matter. Woven through with twisted and warped bubblegum hooks, the album is littered with cultural references that range from Dave Chappelle and J.K. Rowling to women flaunting “cheetah print pink pumps made by federal prisoners.” Moving, divergent, and undeniable — Ekko Astral have made an impressive debut.

Congrats

Elke – Divine Urge

Nashville songwriter Kayla Graninger, who records wonky art pop under Elke, returned with her great second album, Divine Urge. Co-produced by Graninger and close friend Jake McMullen, Divine Urge pops with her many influences, blending the boundary-pushing experimentalism of Brian Eno with the wit of Fiona Apple and Kate Bush. Just like her debut LP, No Pain For Us Here, Paramore’s Zac Farro assists on drums, and this time other members enter the fold, including Hayley Williams (“Standard Information”) and touring rhythm guitarist Brian Robert Jones (“One Fake Sedative”) as Elke’s enchanting vision ushers us across 11 tracks. Nature remains a central tenet, representing the space where she can be her realest self, which is reflected in her artful “Enchanté” video.

XL

Fontaines D.C. – Romance

As the name might suggest, Fontaines D.C. put their heart on the line for their fourth studio album. It’s not that they’ve entirely hung up the post-punk hat, but Romance certainly sees the group embracing reinvention, exploring emotional and sonic range, and stylistically using an entirely new palette of colors — both literally and figuratively. Though their trademark moody darkness and poeticism do prevail, the LP leans less IDLES and more Pixies — dreamier, brighter, and far more ’90s alt-rock than anything prior. Let go of expectations and it's loveable.

Deathwish

Gouge Away – Deep Sage

From the ashes of their pulsating, hardcore-infused noise rock, Fort Lauderdale’s Gouge Away returned with a new album and a new sound this year, after taking some distance and time apart during the pandemic. The sonic landscape shifted from full-on brashness, now leaning more grungey shoegaze, giving vocals some respite from the screeching wail that’s permeated their past discography as it slinks into softer ranges. That being said, the urgent chaos that is at Gouge Away’s core hasn’t bowed out entirely — these slurred, muted moments are there to uplift said screams, which pierce through more poignantly than ever. Heavy riffs on a few tracks are boosted by the foggy, lo-fi space — in many ways, the distance seems to have allowed the band to become their best selves. Deep Sage sees them chipping down the marble block, closing in on their final form.

Reprise

Green Day – Saviors

Green Day kicked off the year properly by delivering their 14th studio album, Saviors. As their first record with producer Rob Cavallo in over 10 years, their latest packs in plenty of loudness and political barbs while incorporating references to the music that shaped them. At times, it reflects Billie Joe Armstrong’s desire to make a “straight-up punk-rock record” (“1981,” “Look Ma, No Brains!”), whereas other songs get more melodic and lush (the title track, “Father to a Son”). Ultimately, though, Saviors can be best described as three Bay Area veterans getting in a room and still allowing music to be their escape.

Partisan

IDLES – TANGK

Recruiting Nigel Godrich and Kenny Beats for a softer touch, IDLES’ TANGK is quite unlike their other records. Rather than getting the crowds moving through Joe Talbot’s bludgeoning yells, IDLES take cues from dance music to make people feel good again. That’s probably best heard on its lead single “Dancer” featuring LCD Soundsystem and “GIFT HORSE,” which sink into an intense groove. By embracing gratitude and grace, the band subvert the raucous expectations of their older songs while driving their message home — their version of love songs are just as powerful as a scream.

Dais

High Vis – Guided Tour

High Vis continue to rupture hardcore’s boundaries with the arrival of Guided Tour, which simultaneously emphasizes and expands upon what’s come before. Recorded with returning producer Jonah Falco (better known as the drummer of Canadian hardcore act Fucked Up), Guided Tour embraces sweeping guitar heroics (“Feeling Bless,” the title track) alongside roughed-up club hits (“Mind’s a Lie”) and street-punk anthems (“Mob DLA”). It, ultimately, tells a bigger story of working-class backgrounds and the hope that seeps through. Guided Tour isn’t just another step forward for High Vis — it’s an invitation to join in.

Pure Noise

Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Following their Coachella throwdown in 2023, Knocked Loose returned with a record that will only make their pits more lawless and their name more revered. You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is a complete monster of an album, built for sweaty screamalongs that features both uncompromisingly heavy collaborations (“Suffocate”) and guttural bangers that prove why Bryan Garris is one of hardcore’s finest vocalists (“Blinding Faith”). All at once, it’s clear that Knocked Loose have set themselves up for a properly wild year as they prepare to head out on tour with Slipknot in August.

Polyvinyl

Laura Jane Grace – Hole In My Head

Laura Jane Grace split her time between her hometown of Chicago and St. Louis to pen her second solo album, Hole In My Head. In this new alien environment, Grace embraced unfamiliarity to anchor her new record, which resulted in standouts like “Punk Rock In Basements.” Elsewhere, “Birds Talk Too” is inspired by staring up at the sky while being “high as fuck” in Amsterdam, while the acoustic ballad “Cuffing Season” finds the strength to be vulnerable again.

Warner

Linkin Park – FROM ZERO

A few months back, Linkin Park twisted the expectations of longtime fans through 100-hour countdown clocks. The band revealed their newest members — co-vocalist Emily Armstrong, drummer Colin Brittain, and touring guitarist Alex Feder — shared the pop-punky single “The Emptiness Machine,” and announced their new album, FROM ZERO, was on the way. Marking their first full-length since 2017’s One More Light and the death of singer Chester Bennington, there was a lot to consider, and the release (which references their beginnings as Xero) makes good on their classic sound while throwing in new elements. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Linkin Park, and FROM ZERO embodies the band’s resilience and growth in the face of great tragedy.

Partisan

Lip Critic – Hex Dealer

Writhing to their bizarre and addictive beats, Lip Critic are making their way out of the insular NYC DIY scene, hooking global audiences in with an unrivaled dedication to chasing the experiment. Their sound rips through any preconceived notions around genre — though nods to electronic, punk, hardcore, and DIY styles — offering a revelatory, transcendent experience that can only be called concentrated sonic overload. It’s brash, with waging cymbals furiously meeting their match on every beat, drawing on hardcore and punk rhythms with ramped-up boldness in speed. Both friend and foe, the drums find balance with the samplers’ emotive current and distorted vocals, a twisted echo of club music that hits the inside of your ribcage.

Epitaph

Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

In the years since they released Patience, Mannequin Pussy have been operating on a whole new level. I Got Heaven sees the band set out to make a record that goes hard live but can also be listened to as a “solitary experience.” “Split Me Open,” for one, was written while new member Maxine Steen (guitar, synths) and Marisa “Missy” Dabice took acid in the woods, whereas the title track speaks of being stuck inside loneliness and grief. Live, the band “engage in the collective rage” for people looking for a release. That’s best heard on “Loud Bark,” where Dabice builds to a chilling climax until she has nothing left to give.

Nice Life/Atlantic

The Marías – Submarine

As a follow-up, Submarine is a daring but necessary departure, subverting CINEMA with thoughtful detail. The Marías’ reverence for film still exists, but the strings that made those songs so divine have slipped away as they tap into dream pop, trip-hop, and heavier electronics. Opener “Ride” takes that leap forward with full-throttled bass and Auto-Tuned vocals that sound gargantuan, launching you deep into another world. Clearly, this is not the Marías that you have come to know. This is a wickedly different experience, and band, for that matter, and they welcome you to take part in its alienness.

Mom + Pop

Maya Hawke – Chaos Angel

Through 10 tracks, Maya Hawke’s transcendent new album, Chaos Angel, comes to terms with acceptance and surrender, all within the realm most relatable — relationships. On the LP’s delicate, tender first track, “Black Ice,” Hawke, between breathy gulps, the slight whistle of air against teeth, and a fuzzy blanket of distortion, coaxes the listener into an angelic world, weaving through writerly verses and landing on the track’s charged refrain, “Give up, be loved, give up, be loved, give up, be loved…” The album is like a Victorian doily — delicate and dainty, though inherently complex and deeply, skillfully crafted.

R&R Digital

Mk.gee – Two Star & The Dream Police

Mk.gee set out to “reclaim guitar music” on his debut LP, and it seems like he’s succeeding. The enigmatic artist’s idiosyncratic style is funky genre-bending, falling somewhere between experimental indie-folk, alternative, and R&B. His sound is powerfully simple, yet challenging and complex. Through the album, Mk.gee has built a world that’s entirely his own, one which relies on the foundation of reverberating, explorative, Ry Cooder-esque guitar parts, which are trailed by his whistling, cracked tenor. There is an overwhelming humility to this sound, an unshrouded self-awareness that permeates the home-recorded album as well as his live sets. With wistful production that calls to mind Phil Collins, the experimental style of Taj Mahal, or the unabashed uniqueness of a young Prince, Two Star & The Dream Police is a trailblazing and fluid LP suited for fans of any genre.

Ninja Tune

Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor

Since her earliest days, Nilüfer Yanya has proved herself to be an alluring songwriter. Miss Universe featured eerie, dystopian interludes from the fictional health company WWayHealth (We Worry About Your Health), whereas PAINLESS drew from murky post-punk to deliver wounded, heartsick songs. Her latest, My Method Actor, mirrors the way that she performs — “stepping into the character’s shoes, using your own experiences, dredging up your own memories.” Continuing her collaboration with producer Wilma Archer, Yanya shifts her focus to the songwriting, whereas Archer helms the textured rock and unusual electronics, which results in standouts like “Mutations,” “Like I Say (I runaway),” and “Just A Western.”

City Slang

Pom Pom Squad – Mirror Starts Moving Without Me

It’s been three years since Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin made her debut with Death of a Cheerleader. Whereas that album embodied “young adult chaos,” the follow-up, Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, is shaped by a darker, edgier perspective. Co-produced by Berrin and Cody Fitzgerald, Mirror Starts Moving Without Me draws from a pile of influences, spanning horror films, Prince, Alice In Wonderland, David Lynch, and the “ghosts” that stalk around Electric Lady Studios, where the band tracked their second record. Songs like “Doll Song” and “Montauk” match that haunted feel, but Berrin still makes the album feel like a sugar rush while describing impostor syndrome, crippling anxieties, and the desire to fight back.

Sumerian

Poppy – Negative Spaces

Poppy’s sustained an uncanny ability to shapeshift since introducing herself as a playful YouTube phenom over a decade ago. She’s done bubblegum pop, nü metal, industrial rock (mostly on last year’s Zig), and, this year, participated in a pair of powerhouse collaborations (the Grammy-nominated “Suffocate” with Knocked Loose and Bad Omens’ “V.A.N.”). But beyond those songs, Poppy also returned with her own work, Negative Spaces. Made with former Bring Me the Horizon member Jordan Fish, the album balances horrifyingly heavy screams (“the center’s falling out,” co-written by House of Protection’s Stephen Harrison) with synth-pop (“crystallized”) and metal fusion (“surviving on defiance”) that prove that she hasn’t lost her sense of adventure.

XL

The Smile – Wall of Eyes

Before the Smile ever revealed that they had a second album on the way, they were road-testing new songs to hundreds of eager heads that never thought they’d see Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood share the same stage. “Bending Hectic,” released in June 2023, was an epic preview of what was to come — a car-crash ballad that builds into a towering calamity. The rest of the songs on Wall of Eyes are nowhere near this extreme, but they offer up a similar transcendence as the band wade further into psychedelia, jazz, and krautrock. It’s a softer, looser approach that’s anchored by rhythmic complexity, forgoing the rage of their debut to allow a deeper trance to take hold.

Pure Noise

The Story So Far – I Want to Disappear

These days, Parker Cannon has been spending time in his hardcore/pop-punk crossover band No Pressure and returning to the 200-cap rooms that he dominated during the Story So Far’s come up. This summer, though, the band made good on their six-year absence with their new album, I Want to Disappear. Produced by Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain), the record features an elevated combination of combustive pop-punk bangers (“Big Blind,” “You’re Still In My Way”) and more sophisticated numbers that channel the grief of losing a parent (“White Shores”). Put simply, this one was certainly worth the wait.

Pure Noise

SeeYouSpaceCowboy – Coup de Grâce

Making a true concept album is a creative feat that SeeYouSpaceCowboy eagerly faced across 12 hot-blooded tracks. With a style that has shifted from album to album, SYSC offer some of their sharpest, most mature work without sacrificing any sass. Fusing Myspace pop punk and metalcore, this project sees the band sonically self-actualizing in a space shaped by angst-ridden post-hardcore bands like From First to Last, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, and the Devil Wears Prada. Their world-building efforts have seeped into every facet of the album, guided by Connie Sgarbossa’s elegant, disquieting vocals and complex lyricism, tumbling into classic hardcore breakdowns that have been pummeled into danceability by a thudding bassline. Tracks are doused in ominous dangers, destruction, and screeching urgency — as much as lust, desire, and prevailing, non-confirming love. Coup de Grâce says it’s not always either or — it can be everything, together.

Loma Vista

Soccer Mommy – Evergreen

Soccer Mommy’s Evergreen traces the experience of grief — and all the dizzying emotions that come with it. The songs act as snapshots of the process, embodying despair, loneliness, and memory as she turns away from her electronic-leaning Sometimes Forever material. Whether through standouts “Abigail” (an ode to Stardew Valley and escapism) or “Changes,” Soccer Mommy proves that love, anger, and joy can co-exist — or sometimes be swallowed up by one another. Either way, the grief remains bittersweet.

Flatspot

SPEED – ONLY ONE MODE

SPEED’s ONLY ONE MODE comes in at a tight 24 minutes. But across 10 songs, the debut album from Sydney’s hardcore outfit really packs a punch. With real East Coast hardcore energy — reminiscent of early Trapped Under Ice and Biohazard, and a passionate whiff of Have Heart — their sound is both urgent and thoughtful, not to mention fit for first-class mosh pits. Standout tracks “CAUGHT IN A CRAZE” and “REAL LIFE LOVE” offer enough evidence. All that being said, the LP is easily best summed up by one r/Metalcore Redditor, who says, “Fucking flutes in a breakdown. Love it.”

Rise

Sum 41 – Heaven :x: Hell

Technically a double disc album, this release stands as Sum’s eighth, and final, project. Showcasing the styles that spanned the Canadian band’s career, Heaven focuses on their early pop-punk sound — think All Killer No Filler and TRL — where Hell harnesses the heavier side of Sum that ramped up around 2004’s Chuck, with Metallica-inspired guitar parts and metal-infused tempos. The final album really encapsulates where Sum 41 are today, an alt legacy looking at themselves, at their 28-year arc, and at their fans with love and respect. It might be time to move on, but they’ve made sure to leave us all with an epic Sum 41-style sendoff
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Double Double Whammy

This Is Lorelei – Box For Buddy, Box For Star

For Nate Amos, the guitarist/producer of Water from Your Eyes who records solo material under This Is Lorelei, his latest album was “a challenge to make music without getting high.” Amos made other changes, too, pulling away from his rapid writing process (one that’s yielded hundreds of self-released songs) in favor of a more intentional, traditional album structure. The resulting LP, Box For Buddy, Box For Star, is rife with more meaningful, earnest reflections that meld beautifully with his absurdist humor.

Rise

Touché Amoré – Spiral in a Straight Line

Unbeknownst to many, not every album has to see a major shift. On Spiral in a Straight Line, though the post-hardcore heavyweights haven’t necessarily handed us a reimagined Touché Amoré — they’ve dug deeper into their trademark sound, sentiment, and structure in a way that not only satisfies, but steps things up. In tandem with some of the band’s stickiest hooks — see “Hal Ashby” — Jeremy Bolm’s uniquely harrowing vocals deliver a cathartic gut punch of pain and emotion well suited for the heart-wrenching lyricism. Between bone-chilling screams, post-punk and prog references rear their heads in layered instrumentation and structure — a fusion of loud, fuzzy reverb, relentless drums, and a ghostly acoustic guitar part that permeates the album ever so subtly. It’s a thoughtful LP and a complex listen. Give the tense final track, “Goodbye for Now,” with Julien Baker a few spins for full effect.

Fueled By Ramen

twenty one pilots – Clancy

After building out an extensive world over the past near-decade, twenty one pilots returned to conclude the mind-spinning narrative that began with Blurryface. Clancy, while not as immaculately detailed as Trench or as poppy as Scaled and Icy, draws from all the varying styles that the band have pulled off thus far (reggae, rap, alt-rock, etc.). As with everything that Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun do, the details are abundant everywhere you look. Made complete with videos for every song, which are just as much a part of the story as the songs, the duo are capping off the years-long saga on a serious high note.

Columbia

Tyler, the Creator – CHROMAKOPIA

Tyler, the Creator lives in a unique space within mainstream hip-hop, where he’s well established enough to lob a softball but always continues to raise the stakes. Eclectic and boundary-pushing, his eighth studio album, CHROMAKOPIA, is another heady exploration of his psyche, digging into the messiness of living in the spotlight while trying to find yourself. Through 14 tracks, Tyler takes us through the value of self-worth (“Sticky”), exposing people (“Take Your Mask Off”), and unmissable rawness (“Like Him”) that results in a rewarding, and wildly refreshing, listen.

Atlantic

Wallows – Model

On Model, Wallows surf the waves of early aughts indie — riding on wistful, romantic music that surges from bubbly mirth and crashes into despondent blues, only to rise again. It’s both soft and energetic, with the smirking cadence of the Shins, while other tracks taste more like early Phoenix, a swirl of addictively quirky anthemic pop. The band offer us a whiff of an era where iPods were full of steady, joyful rhythm, witty lyricism, and Oxford Commas — though their ever-sharpening sound is uniquely thoughtful, solidly in the present, and has plenty of personality, three times over. It’s fun, jangly, and full of heart — an ideal summer playthrough.

Winspear

Wishy – Triple Seven

Indianapolis five-piece Wishy have proven themselves to be a standout in the contemporary shoegaze landscape. Amid a sea of bands bringing the dreamy ’90s genre back with a murky grunge twist, the band let us look at the sound through a post-millennium-inspired pop-rock lens. Their debut full-length, Triple Seven, leans into it all the more, and adds a touch of the 2000s to the mix. Laying bare the pains of heartache, the album is full of affecting, sweeping hooks, wrapped in an undulating blanket of fuzz and jangly guitars. Though their references are recognizable — the Sundays, My Bloody Valentine — Wishy’s sound remains nascent and exciting. When it comes to indie music today, this album hits all of the marks of a truly satiating listen.

Def Jam

070 Shake – Petrichor

070 Shake has been teasing her third studio album, Petrichor, for over a year, and the long-awaited LP reveals a new side to the New Jersey-bred rapper. “I would say [Petrichor is] a level up for me as far as maturity and lyrics,” Shake told us last year while in the midst of its creation — and she wasn’t lying. The album takes us through a series of unexpected pivots, introducing an ’80s pop sound with “Speed of Light” and then swerving into the hard-hitting synths of “Natural Habitat,” a crackling track that taps rapper Ken Carson.