October 2024 Release Radar
The final pieces are FALLing into place
The end is in sight for 2024. We’ve got just two months of releases left!
Albums On Deck
September wasn’t kind to me in terms of time. But I still got through all of the songs which were in my backlog when I posted my September Radar. I’ll take that as a win.
Missy Higgins - The Second Act
George Strait - Cowboys and Dreamers
Nada Surf - Moon Mirror
Oceans of Slumber - Where Gods Fear to Speak
Miranda Lambert - Postcards From Texas
Amy Allen - Amy Allen
Nightwish - Yesterwynde
Charlotte Wessels - The Obsession
Seether - The Surface Seems So Far
The Waeve - City Lights
Nina Nesbitt - Mountain Music
Missy Higgins is an Aussie songstress best known for her incredible 2007 single, “Where I Stood”. Spoiler: on this new album, she still excels at that deep, intimate emotionality. I’m looking forward to doing a final deep-dive on this one.
The Oceans of Slumber album is likely my most anticipated release, even ahead of Nightwish for the last half of 2024 — including everything which we have announcements and dates for currently.
Amy Allen is the artist whose name appeared as a secondary songwriter and producer for every track on Sabrina Carpenter’s exceptional Short n’ Sweet. I sampled the opening track while writing that review, and couldn’t resist adding the album. I’m excited to listen to it in full.
Charlotte Wessels is the ex-Delain vocalist who has launched into her solo career with zeal and enthusiasm. She has a great voice, and I really enjoyed the sophomore effort, so I’m hoping that she has continued evolving and improving.
Most folks should be familiar with Seether. I’m sure they’re near their expiration date, but I really have a soft spot for this group. I’ve been a fan since 2007’s Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, which is definitely in my top 100 albums of all time.1
The last two releases from September were both from the UK, and both are artists I’ve never heard before: The Waeve should be giving us some light Folk Rock, and Nina Nesbitt should be something in the realm of Indie Folk Pop? I’m very curious about both.
October Release Radar
Thirteen more albums are flagged below for October, which should be the last heavy month of releases for the year.
10/4
Coldplay
The Smile
A Place to Bury Strangers
10/11
Ad Infinitum
Dragony
Chat Pile
10/18
Tungsten
Kylie Minogue
10/25
Devin Townsend
Bastille
Cries For Colour
Halsey
Okay, yes, Coldplay has been the butt of many jokes. And I confess I’ve laughed at those. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re a legendary group at this point — a status they’ve earned. Their atmospheric style is an excellent bridge into most Post- genres (except Grunge; Post-Grunge isn’t Post- anything).
Joining them on the first Friday of October are The Smile (Alt Rock, Post-Punk) and A Place to Bury Strangers (Shoegaze, Space Rock). The Smile is a Radiohead spin-off project — and, yes, they did also release an album earlier this year.
I should also mention that Timo Tolkki, the man behind the creation of Stratovarius, is set to drop a new solo album on October 4th. He has sworn off of streaming services, however, meaning that the album won’t be readily available outside of purchase. It should be up on his Bandcamp, but otherwise I can’t be certain of how to listen to it. Tolkki is talented, and if you like Symphonic Power Metal, this might be one you want to look into.
The three releases on October 11th are all in the Metal sphere. Ad Infinitum is still a rather young Symphonic project, and this will be my first experience with them. Along with them are Austrian Power Metalers Dragony, who we last heard from in 2021 (that album received a Green rating, so I’d like to see them step it up a bit this time around).
And then there’s Chat Pile. I have limited experience with Chat Pile, but they’re a blend of Sludge Metal, Noise Rock, and Punk. And I really just like their energy and attitude.
The 18th will see another entry from a mid-tier Power Metal band in Tungsten, who had a decent album in 2022; and Kylie Minogue is back for an encore with, reportedly, a sequel album to 2023’s Tension. Tension ranked 22nd for me last year, so I have high expectations for any sequel album.
Finally, October 25th will be the last Friday of the month, and I’ve bookmarked four albums that day. Bastille and Halsey should be pretty familiar for most folks, as their music always gets lots of play and attention. Devin Townsend, though, will only be familiar in Metal circles. He’s 52 years old, and already a living legend, with more diversity in his pinky finger than most artists have in their whole discography. And he’s showing no signs of slowing down, having just released three solo albums between 2021-22. And Cries For Colour is a small Prog Rock project I’ve had my eye on, masterminded by the same artist who was behind another small Prog project called Atumatu. CFC released a debut album in 2022, and it was good. I’m excited to see what they’ve put together for this one.
Be/Hold! A Soundtrack!
Those who pay close attention to these posts (so probably nobody?) might have noticed that Be/Hold’s Godspeed fell off of my list during the month of September. If you didn’t see my last Radar post, Be/Hold is a small Synthwave artist I found via TikTok who was creating some gorgeous material. So when I saw he had an album out, I added it.
Well, in listening to the album…I felt it fell a bit flat. It sounded like excellent background/soundtrack music, but it didn’t really stand on its own. And in doing research, I found the above BandCamp link, which includes a little note below the track listing:
This album was written as a soundtrack for Orbital Blues: Afterburn by SoulMuppet Publishing
So, hey! I was right! But the way that I generally approach albums doesn’t work well with that sort of project. The goals are misaligned. I would have rated it a Yellow, at best, and I don’t think that would be fair to what Be/Hold has created — which, to be clear, is a phenomenal blend of Synthwave and Western that matches the Space Western setting of Orbital Blues: Afterburn (this link is to the Kickstarter page; SoulMuppet’s webstore is down at the moment, with a note indicating that it will remain down into 2025 as they rework it).
So I decided to refrain from reviewing the album. It’s a neat conceptual blend, though. And if you’re ever running a TTRPG that needs Space Western vibes, check this out for background music.
Missing in Action
There are still two releases which I’ve been expecting this year that haven’t come to fruition or even had firm release dates announced:
First, I don’t expect many folks to care, but Brad Paisley has a project called Son of the Mountains in the works, and it’s been fairly high-profile, from what I can tell. The first four tracks of the album released in September 2023 as an EP with the same name, and the full album was slated to follow in early 2024, but nothing has happened all year long.
Second, and more importantly, we still have absolutely ZERO info on RTJ5. For the uninitiated, Run The Jewels is a hip-hop duo comprised of Killer Mike and El-P. Their albums release as sequentially-numbered self-titles, and the fifth album is due.
And I do mean due. For two reasons:
While their first two albums released in 2013 & 2014, RTJ3 came out in 2016, and RTJ4 in 2020. Both Presidential Election years. And the duo’s lyrics have always been intensely political. The timing of 3 and 4 was very intentional. Reason stands that RTJ5 would follow the established pattern.
In an interview in mid-2023 that the album was basically finished:
“The album is literally two days away,” he says excitedly. “I have to go in tonight and change two lines on a song. I’m just waiting for some drums from [producer] No ID and we’re done.”
So, yes, the album is due. I’m hoping that, as we have no news, we’ll get a surprise release — an October Surprise. And, yes, I’m holding my breath.
Beyond October
The full radar is always available, and lists offerings which are still months away. Here are five things to expect in the coming months:
Opeth have moved their album release from October 11 to November 22. I haven’t seen any reasons why, but we’ll have to wait an extra month, and they’ll be one of my last reviews of the year.
Another old favorite Country act of mine is releasing an album in November — you have a Dwight Yoakam review to look forward to!
I keep hearing about Father John Misty recently, and he, too, is releasing an album on 11/22, so I guess I’ll see what all the fuss is about.
November is typically when I begin my review period on my Masterlist. There will be a number of albums from smaller artists added to my review pile throughout the month. I’ll do a full rundown of those artists once the review is complete.
At most, we’ll see one or two new releases in December. Mostly, that month is for catching up and beginning to sort out my Teal and Lavender buckets.
I’ve reviewed approximately 550 albums, to-date, since beginning this little project in 2019, and I’ve listened to I-don’t-know-how-many prior to that, so I feel that “Top 100” is statistically significant.