December 2024 Release Radar

Time is nearly up!

Eric Stephens

Dec 05, 2024

December is a time for Christmas releases and top album lists, but I’ve still got some catching up to do.

Albums On Deck

At the beginning of November, I had sixteen albums on my backlog, but I’ve cleared seventeen reviews since then!

So why is my backlog longer now?

Well, I’ve discovered twelve albums I missed earlier this year; I had a streak of one artist per letter from A to J. It was weird.

And that review is still ongoing, but should be wrapping shortly.

So I’m not going to post my full backlog just yet. I want to be able to highlight those artists more thoroughly once the review is done. But here are the next ten albums on my list:

Tyler, The Creator - Chromakopia
Airbag - The Century of the Self
Tungsten - The Grand Inferno
Dwight Yoakam - Brighter Days
Empires of Eden - Guardians of Time
Axxis - Coming Home
Beth Hart - You Still Got Me
Opeth - The Last Will and Testament
Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
Kendrick Lamar - GNX

The first two discoveries are listed here — Axxis, a German Heavy Metal band founded in the late 80s, and Beth Hart, a Blues Rock vocalist whose sultry alto will seep into your subconscious to make you feel things.

Also, it was somewhat rude of Kendrick Lamar to drop an album when my backlog is so thick, but I’m looking forward to getting to it.

Pictured: **Fish in a Birdcage**…no, seriously. That’s **Dustan Townsend** and his cat. It’s his project and I can’t seem to find any mention of other ‘permanent’ members…

December Release Radar

I’m only posting a December Radar, at all, because there is one album coming out that I’m looking forward to:

12/20

Fish in a Birdcage

That’s it. That’s all. Just the one album by an offbeat band. It will likely be the final review for the year, and hopefully I’ll get it done by New Years.

I’m on Bluesky, by the way

I made the account very early this year and let it fall by the wayside. But with the fresh wave of folks abandoning Twitter this last month, I’ve picked it up and have begun posting links to reviews there, as well.

Thanks to Flavor Flav, it’s pretty easy to grab a bunch of musicians’ accounts to follow, too! He’s vetting them as he can since BlueSky hasn’t implemented a verification process yet.

Beyond December

The full radar is always available, and lists offerings which are still months away. Here are five things to expect in the coming months:

The year-end process here at Versatone has a few steps, and it’s all just me, so you’re definitely getting my year-end lists in January.
Once the Masterlist review is done, the next major task is emptying the temporary buckets. Again, there will be a post specifically to show how the Lavender and Teal albums were ultimately filtered.
I’m also going to release updated versions of my Most Wanted Albums Lists for 2025. Click here and here for my 2024 lists.
When the Top 40 is ready, we’ll spend a week counting them down, with Honorable Mentions on Monday, then ten every day through Friday. This will likely be the second or third week in January.
No spoilers yet, but I’ve already flagged 12 albums for 2025, through mid-March. I’m very excited for several of them. The earliest, four in one day, are releasing on January 24th. We’ll likely flag a few more by the time January rolls around.