The Former Clarity 2024 Year-End Extravaganza
I'm not going to do some long, flowery intro given how ridiculously long I've made this thing. You know the deal, so I'm going to get out of the way and jump right into it. Hyperlinks are added for all of my top picks so you can listen and read with ease. Now, let's go.
My Favorite Records Of 2024
Kriegshög, Love & Revenge
If for some reason you follow my online musings closely, this is possibly the third time you've seen me write about this record. I did it in this very newsletter, and there's a blurb in the upcoming see/saw zine, too. At this point, I should have said all I possibly could about an eight-song, 22-minute punk record. But I haven't yet, so deal with it.
Far and away, this is the record I've listened to the most in 2024. In many ways, it's my idealized version of what a punk record should be. Sonically, it strikes the perfect balance between clarity and grime, like you pulled into a car wash and then slammed it into reverse once the lather hit your windshield. This is what I want punk records to sound like forever and always.
Then there's the songs. Jesus Christ, these songs. They're anthemic in a way few people accomplish without becoming cloying. None of this is without precedent. There are half a dozen references I could throw out here to show that this is, in fact, nothing new. But also, I don't need it to be. I'm not trying to approach music from the place of only engaging with, or finding value in, works that subvert expectations and attempt to upend subcultural traditions. I just want a punk record that makes me feel the same way I do when I listen to Scandinavian Jawbreaker or Wind Of Pain or Death Church. This record does that for me, and I hope it does it for you, too.
SUMAC, The Healer
While it may seem contradictory to follow my gushing about Kriegshög and their ability to work within established precedents with SUMAC's seeming inability to sound tethered to anything else on this planet, that's just how it is here at Former Clarity. From my first listen of The Healer I've felt that this is SUMAC's best album, and it's up there with anything its members have done in any of their previous bands. Yes, that means it's on par with records like Oceanic and We Are The Romans, and I hope that in 10 years it's talked about with the same reverence.
The Cure, Songs Of A Lost World
Wow, look at me, loving one of the most acclaimed records of the year! How daringly original and unique! Anyone who knows me even a little bit is well aware that I think The Cure is possibly the greatest band to exist in my lifetime. I don't just have redeeming things to say about every album they've put out—yes, even the most recent ones—I collect the assorted singles in a foolish attempt to have all the assorted B-sides at my fingertips. According to Discogs, I own 52 Cure releases and, sadly, that's barely scratching the surface of how much more I still need to track down.
So yes, I'm a mark for this band, but I am also self-aware enough to know when the band isn't up to snuff. Post-Wish, listening to Cure albums has mostly been an exercise in finding three to five great songs and then spacing out during a bunch of tracks that are just okay. Those great songs are legitimately worth it, but it's not been a super redeeming exercise for the non-obsessives. This is why I'm so utterly shocked that Songs Of A Lost World is resonating so deeply with people. I say this as someone who has watched people file out of Cure shows 10 songs into a set because they hadn't played anything a general music fan would know. I also saw two shows on the Songs Of A Lost World tour and it did not feel like people were vibing on these lengthy, depressive dirges.
Yet, as I write this, Songs Of A Lost World is holding strong on sites like Album Of The Year, Metacritic, and Rate Your Music, all of which are pretty useful for taking the pulse on how people are reacting to a given record. That said, I do wonder if this is going to be one of those albums whose status feels overinflated due to the narrative behind it. People love to say, "The first new Cure album in 16 years!" as if all of them were genuinely concerned about whether or not Robert Smith would make another album. But will they retain that enthusiasm even six months from now?
As for me, I love this thing. What delighted me the most about this record was that it's the first time in forever I feel like they've made an actual successor to Pornography. I've missed the era of Cure albums that were shorter and more tonally focused while remaining completely world-consuming, and that's exactly what Songs Of A Lost World achieves. I've seen complaints that the album is a bit one-note, but that's exactly what this band should be doing! There are plenty of Cure records that dash between styles and, while I love most of them, they're the farthest thing from coherent listens. Songs Of A Lost World is a full-throated commitment to making a piece of art that's focused and impactful, and it's why I'll be spinning Songs Of A Lost World for a long time to come.
Black Curse, Burning In Celestial Poison
Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere
Spectral Voice, Sparagmos
This grouping is a cheat but, whatever. My blog, my rules. Given the ties between these three Denver-based bands, I figured I'd indulge myself in a way that thematically matches their own creative impulses.
Let's start with Blood Incantation. They're most notable of the three bands I'm focusing on here and their third record is an expansive, prog-laded death metal album that's one part Nile, one part Pink Floyd, and one part Tangerine Dream. While I'm not the hugest fan of prog, I am thrilled to hear a death metal record that breaks up the sonic onslaught with warmer, richer textures as opposed to the standard-issue bleakness. This is clearly what the band has been building to for years now, and it's a joy to listen to a record that could be overwhelming and indulgent but is, instead, a whole lot of fun.
Sparagmos by Spectral Voice was an early album-of-the-year contender for me and it's not lost steam as the year has gone on. It's an all-consuming listen, and having seen the band twice on the tour in support of it, those shows felt like shamanic rituals. With the house lights turned off in both venues, the band filled the room with fog before adorning the stage with ornate candelabras and steeple-tall candles, which served as the only source of light in the venue. Throughout the set, the band members would extinguish the candles until they were playing their last song in total darkness. It was like a really, really loud sensory deprivation tank, and, as cheesy as it might sound, they were some of the more rewarding live music experiences I've had in recent memory. The fact that the record captures that aura so concretely is a genuine thrill.
Now, finally, there's Black Curse. Perhaps the most "kvlt" or "trve" of the bunch, the second album from this once-anonymous borderline war-metal band is sheer brutality from beginning to end. While I think Endless Wound still has the edge on the whole, Burning In Celestial Poison is no slouch. The knock on literally all of these records is that these dudes seem to be stretching the runtimes on their songs, with each of these albums having multiple tracks that are over 11 minutes long. Don't misunderstand me here, they are all good songs, but I hope that they don't fall victim to the Bell Witch thing of believing that the only way to progress musically is to push every song to absurd lengths. Obviously, none of these bands are inherently focused on accessibility, and I love all of these records, but there's plenty of worth in brevity, too.
Touché Amoré, Spiral In A Straight Line
Writing about art that friends make is tricky but I'm going to give it a whirl here. I've known certain members of Touché Amoré for over a decade now and, truly, I don't know if there's a nicer group of people making music and touring the country than them. So obviously, now's your chance to use this as a means of invalidating everything I'm about to say next, but…
Spiral In A Straight Line is the kind of record that's designed to get undervalued. In a sense, Touché Amoré is now a legacy act. Having been a fan since their very early days, I've watched as they've been linked to broader cultural trends in hardcore, emo, and indie-rock only to now be on the fringes of each of those genres. Those subcultures are all in different trend cycles now, yet Touché Amoré remains. If my deep dive into Motörhead this summer taught me anything, it's that, as I age, I value bands that commit to who they are without being self-conscious about it. This is who Touché Amoré is, and it's who they've always been. Why change?
On Spiral In A Straight Line, I don't hear some forced reinvention or a calculated attempt to cash in on a current trend, it's just a band doing what they do best without compunction. Plus, it has "Hal Ashby" on it, a song that has gotten stuck in my head every other day for months now. That's gotta count for something.
Planes Mistaken For Stars, Do You Still Love Me?
This is the album on this list I've listened to the least this year. While I wish it didn't, listening to Do You Still Love Me? just makes me really sad.
I've been a Planes Mistaken For Stars fan for as long as I can remember and, that entire time, I've always known how off-putting we can be. I'm sure for the average person hearing people like me say, "There's just no one else like them," over and over is pretty grating but I have never heard someone even come close to approximating what Planes does. Add in the ferocity of their live shows and it's no contest. I'm sorry to repeat these this-band-is-so-special-yet-underrated clichés, but it's just fucking true in this case.
When I eulogized Planes' frontman Gared O'Donnell in 2021, I never thought I'd hear his voice again. Technically I would whenever I played one of his records, but I didn't think I'd hear his voice in a context I wasn't already intimately familiar with. And yet, there's Do You Still Love Me?, an album written and recorded as he was dying that doesn't betray Planes' primal, feral urgency. Invariably, people will always want to compare records like this to David Bowie's Blackstar but that does a disservice to so many albums because death, though universal, is not experienced universally. Everyone's emotions, feelings, and approach to it are different. While there's some utility in comparing things of like shapes and sizes, I don't see many of these albums having that much in common, and they couldn't have less in common with Do You Still Love Me?
This record also highlights what I think was O'Donnell's most undervalued trait as a writer: his concision. There are so many haunting lines throughout his catalog and they're all short, tight phrases. There was never purple prose or ornate metaphors, he just stated things plainly and trusted you'd understand. At a time when so many would work overtime to make sure everything was as profound as possible, he spends a good chunk of "Punch The Gauge" just saying, "Fuck it, dude" over and over again.
I don't know when I'll listen to this album again. It could be months, but it could just as easily be years. But my love for Planes will always remain unshakeable.
Gauntlet Ring, Phantoms Of Dark Symmetry
I've been a devotee of the Blood & Crescent label for a long time, snagging their assorted demos, promo tapes, and albums whenever I can get my hands on them. Yet that can often contribute to the most common mistake a black metal fan can make, which is mistaking rarity for quality.
Having only landed in my mailbox a week ago, this is the newest record on the list, but it grabbed me immediately. There are still plenty more listens I need to give this thing, but it might be my favorite Gauntlet Ring release yet. While it's very much locked into the tradition of second-wave black metal, the riffs on this are so much more melodic and memorable than most bands of this ilk are willing to go. They grab your attention and break up the endless shrieks baked into the sonic assault. I can't wait to dig into this one over the winter, as it's the perfect soundtrack for frigid Chicago days.
But That's Not All: The Honorable Mentions
I've written about nearly all of these records in various ways throughout the year so, if you want a more detailed analysis, you can go back through the archives and see what I have to say specifically.
Also, if you think this list is just me naming everything I listened to once vaguely enjoyed, I paid money for every release on this list. If it's here, it's genuinely good enough for me to have spent money and added it to my already bursting shelves. They are just as valuable as anything above, but those were the ones that rated just a bit higher for me this year.
Absolut, Kang Munk Demo
Alkaline Trio, Blood, Hair & Eyeballs
Alienator, Time To Die
Arbor, Eventide Primitivism
Atheosophia, Blood & Iron
Atheosophia, …Visions Of Rebirth
Bless, Not For You
Cicada, Wicked Dream
Coffin Storm, Arcana Rising
Dissimulator, Lower Form Resistance
Fellwinter, In Night’s Eternal Grasp
Flower, “Hell of the Next” / “Physical God” 7”
Full of Hell, Coagulated Bliss
H.A.R.M., Con Safos
Invertebrates, Sick To Survive
The Massacred, Death March
No Knock, Imagine a World Without Landlord$
Oranssi Pazuzu, Muuntautuja
Pearl Jam, Dark Matter
Public Acid, Deadly Struggle
Pura Manía, Extraños Casos De La Vida Real
Reek Minds, Malignant Existence
Ripped To Shreds, Sanshi
Rixe, Tir Groupé
Septage, Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree Of Infesting Forms)
Shellac, To All Trains
S.H.I.T., For A Better World
Sonic Poison, Grinded Leftovers
Sovereign, Altered Realities
Svaveldioxid, Främmande Samtid Skrämmande Framtid
Valtatyhjiö, Kuristusleikki
Warkrusher, Armistice
Witness, Demo
Yellowcake, A Fragmented Truth
Top Three Vinyl Scores of 2024
Lou Reed & Metallica, LULU
Before we get into it, let's start by establishing some facts up top:
- LULU is the best Metallica album.
- LULU is the only good album Lou Reed has ever been involved in making.
Now that we have established these obvious, universally agreed-upon facts, let's get into how I am fucking stupid (unrelated to the above facts).
When LULU first came out, I waited for it to hit the discount bins because, aside from me, nobody liked this thing. I saw it so many times and said, "Twelve bucks? I'll wait until it's under ten." Then I just stopped seeing it in stores. Then, as is the case now, it suddenly cost $200 and I felt stupid as hell. But, on January 1, 2024, I finally acquired this record. And no, I did not pay $200 for it.
Signal Records was running a sale on New Year's Day so I trekked over to browse and saw LULU up on the wall. After talking with the owner about about it, he hit me with, "What do you want to pay for it?" I knew that "eight dollars, American" was not a reasonable answer, so I made what I thought was a fair volley back. He took a second, shrugged, and the deal was done. It took forever, but I finally landed this beautiful piece of art in my collection and I couldn't be happier.
Leatherface, Mush Test Press
I can't overstate the number of ridiculous scores I've made over the years at Reckless Records. When I was growing up in Northwest Indiana, I'd make pilgrimages up to the city just to flip through the racks and then do some quick mental math to see how I could best stretch the $20 I had in my wallet. At that time, I'd grab original pressings of Jawbreaker and Lifetime albums for $7 a pop. I distinctly remember when their standard starting point on used albums jumped from $7 to $9 and thinking it was outlandish.
To highlight just how much things have changed, when I walked into the Reckless on Belmont and saw a copy of Mush on the wall—which is, I must remind you, a perfect album—my first thought was, "Damn. $150 isn't a bad price." Then I got closer and saw it was a Roughneck Records test pressing. For you non-record nerds, a test pressing was, historically, something where there were maybe five to ten copies manufactured so the band and label could make sure there were no sonic issues before sending the album into production. It's a hyper-specific collector thing that has no real functional merit, but it is a cool artifact, like stumbling across Toni Kukoč's warm-up uniform at a local thrift store.
The fact this version came with a full cover, which is a weird, fold-over version I've never seen before, I knew at that moment I was bringing this one home with me. Though it may not be as economically remarkable as a $7 copy of 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, moments like this are why I still love digging in record stores. More often than not, I'll just flip past a bunch of things I already own or records I do not care about and would never buy. Then, sometimes, I'll find a test pressing of a 33-year-old album that I'd never have imagined I'd hold in my hands. Those moments make me feel like a kid again.
Poison Idea, Feel The Darkness
If you know me, you've likely been subjected to one of my rants about how I never want the remixed, remastered version of an album; I want the real, original thing. This is deeply pretentious, but for albums I've known for most of my life, ones that are imprinted on my brain, hearing a re-release with slightly different mastering just gives me an uncanny valley effect. It's like watching those Star Wars recuts where George Lucas decided we needed to have a scene where Jabba The Hut and Greedo play Twister. Respectfully, get that shit outta my face.
Now, there are exceptions that prove every rule, and the Poison Idea remasters that TKO Records has been rolling out have been some of the best I've ever heard. I partially attribute this to the fact that TKO's owner Mark Rainey runs Cascade Record Pressing, one of the very best pressing plants in the country, if not the world. Their releases are always of the highest quality, and they've had their hands on some of my absolute favorite pressings in recent memory. When I say that their Poison Idea remasters are done the right way, believe me, they are.
That said, I couldn't pass up a chance to grab an original copy of Feel The Darkness when one landed in Signal Records. Before it was even priced, I gave it a look and this was as clean a copy as I'd ever seen. The vinyl itself looked borderline unplayed, and the cover had barely a crease on it. I made an offer, one that felt reasonable given its status, and was happy to bring it home with me.
This is the version of the Feel The Darkness I'd first come to know and, aside from pulling up YouTube streams of varying quality, it feels nice to be able to sit with it all over again. While I think the remasters may have more sonic depth, getting to run back either version when the feeling arises is something that just can't be beat.
Favorite Show: Sniper Culture / Public Acid / Fried Reality / Cicada / Invertebrates / Marshall Stacks at Empty Bottle
As soon as this one-off show was announced ahead of this year's Unlawful Assembly Vol. 4 in Milwaukee, I immediately bought a ticket. Public Acid, Cicada, and Invertebrates all released some of my favorite records of the year and I wasn't sure when any of them would actually make it to Chicago.
Though Marshall Stacks were a curious choice to start the night, the rest of the show highlighted everything I love about this specific brand of hardcore punk. Every band got the kind of reaction that I miss seeing at shows. There was moshing, but it wasn't the heavily choreographed versions people have become accustomed to seeing from Hate5six videos and Jimmy Kimmel Live performances. Instead of spin-kicks and windmills, it was hyper-charged pogoing, stylish versions of the classic HB strut, balled-fist sing-alongs, and freeform front-flips off the lip of the Empty Bottle stage.
The fact these six bands were all playing tight 20-minute sets and treating this like a real-deal punk show just made everything about it feel totally right. Plus, Public Acid opened their set with a ripping C.O.C. cover. What's not to love?
Favorite Movie: Red Rooms
I don't write about movies much here, though I do watch a fair amount of them. Perhaps it's because I've had it beaten into me by all the film people I know that I don't know what I'm talking about. Or maybe it was the fact that looking at Film Twitter (R.I.P.) made me feel like I was speaking an entirely different language. Anyhow, though this is technically a 2023 release due to festival openings, I think it went into wide release this year so I'm counting it.
If there's one thing I love in all art forms it's tension. I love art that lingers in uncomfortable spaces and forces you to sit with it past the point of comfortability and, sometimes, even good taste. Though there are movies that I had more fun watching this year (Anora) and films that emotionally wrecked me a lot more (Robot Dreams), the one I keep coming back to is Red Rooms.
This French-Canadian film does a good job of having something to say but not being so didactic about how it makes its points. The fact that the main character's motivations are never fully articulated allows you to fill in the gaps about the reasons driving their increasingly unhinged decisions. Though I wouldn't call this a horror movie per se, its embrace of visual omission shows that writer and director Pascal Plante knows that genre's devices intimately. Pair this with the fact that Plante's characterization of the internet and its dark, fringe communities doesn't play like some lame afterschool special is a testament to his writing.
Most importantly, this is a movie that truly understands how those ugly places on the dark web operate. Generally, movies that tackle this section of the online world do so in an antiquated, cornball way. But this is about as locked in as I've ever seen a film, nailing both the broad strokes and tiny details effortlessly. That understanding of how we get sucked into online communities until they consume our real-life personalities feels as potent as ever.
I was going to do a few more categories here but we're already at a fairly extreme length. So, to put a bow on this, I just want to thank you all for sticking with me through yet another year. While I often have life get in the way, making my updates less regular than I'd like, I do still enjoy sharing art with people. My only hope is you find something here that connects with you and offers some level of enrichment. As long as you'll keep reading, I'll keep writing.
Onward to 2025!