Album Reviews ‘24

Each year I like to post an open poll on my Instagram story asking for any album recommendations. Any album. I’ll listen to it the whole way through. I’ve done this for the last three years and occasionally yields joke submissions like extremely long albums or nearly unlistenable albums¹. But I remain true in my commitment to listen to them all. And then, what makes it most fun, I will post a 1-2 sentence review back to Instagram of each album over the coming few weeks as I’m able to listen to them all.

This is a retrospective, nearly 9 months later, about the most memorable suggestions of the bunch.

The Known

A few albums I knew well already, and took the opportunity to relisten with a more careful ear. Buzz by NIKI was one of those. NIKI was an artist who was introduced to me in a past year of album suggestions. Unfortunately, I do think that Buzz underperforms her previous album Nicole by almost every metric. I enjoyed the album, but don’t think it added anything really new.

The Ones I Really Liked

Keep Your Cool by Riley! is an album that I should’ve had no business liking. Most of my music preference sticks to easy listening and poppy. However something struck me about the punk/screamo album that kept me listening to it way more than I expected. Maybe it just took me back to being 12 years old listening to All Time Low.

Old Hobbies by Frances Whitney definitely deserves notoriety here as well. I truly love her voice and it matches very well with her poetic lyrics. She offers quite a pared down backing that makes for very easy listening and I’ve returned to it moderately frequently.

A similar voice but taking a more indie/alternative direction to that is It Hurts by Bad Bad Hats. Every time it’s a lesser known band I try to give it more attention and this band really struck me. I have since sought out Bad Bad Hats other albums and have become a certified fan.

The Ones I Should’ve Liked More

Every year there a are a few albums that I think that I really should like but for one reason or another I’m not drawn to. This year Imaginal disk by Madalena Bay and Big Ideas by Remi Wolf topped that list. Not even to say I don’t like them (I saw Remi Wolf in concert earlier this year and she was fantastic live) but these are albums that I usually hear a lot about or end up seeing around that just don’t click for me like they seem to for others. I recall Imaginal disk being a little too atonal for me and Big Ideas had a few hits but on the whole

Then finally there are a number of albums that I really enjoy listening to, but they fall far enough outside what I’m used to that I only come back to them on rare occasions. Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, and Together Through Time by TWRP stand out there.

Closing Thoughts

One of the biggest things I get out of this “project” is a true diversity of genres. Putting up the first instagram story I emphasize that anyone, regardless of how well they know me – should suggest album. People I used to go to high school with, college friends who I do not keep in touch with, and people who I remain close with, all get to pitch in. Because of the nature of music discovery in the year 2025 much of my music taste is dictated by algorithm and once it finds out what my music taste is, it can be difficult to get out of the bubble. ²

But for 3 exciting weeks, I listen consciously based off of real human recommendations. So so many genres: funk, disco, rap, alt, country, punk, and more! I listen unshackled by my algorithm!

All the Submissions

There were a total of 54 albums that I listened to, here is the whole collection if you’re interested (ordered by time of submission):