Masterlist Audit 2024
Here's what we missed!
The review is done!
If you’re new here, all you need to know is that I have a spreadsheet. It helps me track things. Every year, about November/December, I run through it and update which artists released albums, check for upcoming releases to get a start on my radar for the new year, and ensure that I haven’t missed any albums that I want to include.
That last one is the biggest thing. Smaller artists have difficulty being heard over the noise of everything else. So when I find a small artist I like, I make sure they’re on the list. I may not get to their album anywhere close to release, but at least I’ll get to it. And while I’m still not a big platform, I am getting more traffic since hopping onto BlueSky, and every little bit helps. Right?
Currently, my masterlist holds 432 artists (that’s down two from last year) after the edits I made — I pulled off several artists who I decided I don’t care to hear from again, or whose inclusion is problematic (we don’t platform toxic ideas or people here), and added several others who are recent discoveries.
Sampler Playlist
I maintain a big ol’ sampler playlist, as well. Every artist on my spreadsheet has at least two songs on this list, taken from different albums as often as possible, and hand-picked whenever I have the confidence to do so.1
Sure, you could intentionally search for songs to sample for an artist you’re interested in. But if you’re not sure what you’re interested in, you could just pop this monstrosity on shuffle and see what comes up. You may find something new that you didn’t know you were interested in.
The goal, ultimately, is to further break this down into genre samplers of at least fifty songs each to help illustrate each genre’s (current and historical) defining traits. But that’s a long-term project.
Now…on to the important things!
Found Albums
And now, the main reason for this post: the list of albums discovered during the big audit. There are 18 total, and, as of the time of this posting, two have already been reviewed.
Charlie Curtis-Beard - Love in LA
Dvne - Voidkind
Ernesto Schnack - Narratology
For All We Know - By Design or By Disaster
Glyph - Honor. Power. Glory.
Hourglass - Voids and Visions
Isaiah True Weaver - Born on the Base of a Mountain
Janet Devlin - Emotional Rodeo
Lauri Porra - Matter and Time
Phantogram - Memory of a Day
Rachel Platten - I Am Rachel Platten
Rendezvous Point - Dream Chaser
Shireen - Elytra
Sturgill Simpson - Passage du Desir
Sunburst - Manifesto
The Smashing Pumpkins - Aghori Mhori Mei
EIGHTEEN ALBUMS. That’s more than any one month gave me2 over the course of the year, I believe. I was hoping for like 10-12, tops. But then, clearly, I hit a streak of one per letter of the alphabet for the first ten letters. Which was weird.
Axxis (German Power/Heavy Metal) and Beth Hart (Blues Rock) already have reviews posted, so please feel free to go read those reviews if you want to know more.
Charlie Curtis-Beard is an excellent lo-fi rapper based in LA. We found him on TikTok. His catchphrase or vocal tag is “Oh my!”, and he frequently includes nerdy references in his songs, like play Smash Bros., and his last album had a track called “Anime & Chardonnay”. I am to have his review out by the end of the week.
Other virtual unknowns here are Ernesto Schnack, a Panamanian guitarist; Glyph, a Power Metal band who, I believe, was referred by a friend of mine; Hourglass, a Prog Metal band who haven’t been active since the aughts and weren’t well known then, either; Isaiah True Weaver, an Indie Folk singer/songwriter who released his first two albums last year, and shows incredible talent; and Sunburst, a Prog Metal band whose one existing album I stumbled on and absolutely loved.
I didn’t actually think we would ever get another Hourglass or Sunburst album. They were long-shots among long-shots.
Along with Sunburst, Shireen (Witch Rock), Phantogram (Electronic Rock, Dream Pop), and For All We Know (Symphonic Metal/Rock) ticked checkboxes on my 2024 wishlist, which now stands at 7/20 obtained:
There are others here that I should have caught. Dvne (Prog Metal) and The Smashing Pumpkins (Alt Rock) have enough name recognition (at least in their respective genres, for the former) that it’s weird that they slipped my notice. I’ve also been watching for Janet Devlin’s newest album, both excited and terrified because she’s talented and underrated but also on the Country Invasion bandwagon.
All in all, there’s a lot of good shit waiting here. About half of these will have already gotten their first listen by the time this posts (I’ve managed to create a buffer, so I’m working days ahead).
Does Not Include
I want to note that there are several high-profile or potentially amazing albums that I haven’t included in the last several weeks. With the amount of overrun I was looking at, I had to limit my picks for November, December, and what I grabbed from my research. These include albums from:
Rosé
Ice Cube
WizKid
Snoop Dogg
Marilyn Manson
Mary J. Blige
Technically, yeah, there was also the new Linkin Park, but eeeehhhhhh….
Other artists, such as OneRepublic and Snow Patrol had releases, were on my masterlist, and were ignored because I just don’t think I care anymore, especially not with so many others to pay attention to. But I wanted to mention these acts here, just in case somebody reading this does want to know about those releases.
Going Forward
The goal is to have all of the reviews done and published by the end of the year. That may not happen, but in pursuit of it I may opt for brevity when possible, especially for any that happen to be unimpressive. Once these are all rated, I’ll filter my temporary buckets to assign final ratings, then set about creating my Top 40 list.
Somewhere in there, I’ll update my Most Wanted lists for 2025, as well.
As always, feel free to jump in and start discussions in the comments of anything I post. I’m always happy to chat about music (which is why I write these reviews). Feel free to promote your own AOTY below.
The first release radar of 2025 will post on Jan 2nd, and currently the first releases I have flagged are all on Jan 24th.
Happy Holidays, all!
Just because I’m tracking them for new releases doesn’t mean that I’m intimately familiar with their music.
At a glance, the closest was March at 17.