It’s rare to hear good albums. In the modern era, so many artists put out absolute slop or the dumbest overbearing trend-chasing bloat that’s forgettable after one day. We’re in the era of chasing singles, logging soundbites, and unoriginal nepo babies leading the culture. Instead, on Friday a handful of artists put out some of the best full albums you’ll hear all year. I spent the entire weekend going through my “Excited to Listen” list while building a kitchen island, and I’m happy to share a handful of my thoughts about this eclectic bunch.

Apple Music // Spotify
First of all, I listened to this on International Women’s Day. Did you? Hm. There’s few artists that can stop the world in it’s tracks with a release. Lady Gaga tops that list in a few of my social circles, a true box-office superstar in every way. She’s spent the better half of a decade making songs I would describe as “boomer singer-songwriter” stuff, acting (word to Oscar-bait ‘House of Gucci’), and really establishing herself as a traditional pop artist. That’s always been a portion of her career — see You & I off Born This Way or Speechless off The Fame Monster or any of her records with Tony Bennett, but her recent music has come at the expense of booming club tracks so many of us were raised on. When Abracadabra debuted on a Grammy commercial, I thought it was the best Gaga single since G.U.Y, over a decade ago.

Mayhem attempts to combine Gaga’s lust for a ballroom and the club. Mostly, it accomplishes it wonderfully. There’s some really fantastic tracks on here, with Zombieboy being my favorite — an extremely goofy dramatic tribute to a former friend that’s laid over a exaggerated disco club melody. If you’ve followed Gaga for the 17+ years her career has spanned, Mayhem’s got something that will scratch your ‘bump-it-in-the-club’ itch you’ve had, and if you’re a karaoke regular you can find something new to sing on here. The only real low-points on the record are Killah (produced by Gesaffelstein), How Bad Do You Want Me (the most 1989 song ever released not by Taylor), and Blade of Grass. A 24 year old Lady Gaga would never have allowed Gesa to submit that terrible ass beat, Gesaffelstein’s gotta get his ass back to France and figure it out. There’s a fun push-and-pull where the first half of the record is classic Gaga, and the second half takes so much influence from the nu-disco/house sounds that are huge right now. While it never flies as high as Chromatica’s peaks, or ARTPOP’s insanity, we should all be blessed she’s still making good music rather than going out in a sad state of affairs like some of her peers. I will be watching the Coachella set at like 4am EST.

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Apple Music // Spotify
The 2020s have been a slight resurgence for metalcore — it’s either a total slopfest of certified garbage or one of the best albums released in the genre (Knocked Loose’s record last year, as an example). There’s not many peers for Spiritbox, a woman-led metalcore outfit that’s cracked through the noise of the misogynistic-rife fan-base of the genre. It helps that Courtney LaPlant is one of the most talented metal singers I’ve personally ever heard — previously fronting iwrestledabearonce.

Tsunami Sea is one of the best metalcore albums ever recorded. There are breakdowns and riffs on here so grueling you’ll recoil from it. The song structures remain extremely surprising. Songs are gorgeously lush full of texture. Every listen you will notice something new. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a masterpiece this album is, and the metalcore scene is so blessed to have Spiritbox.

Many years ago, August Burns Red and Parkway Drive were essentially in a rat race to out-release each other. Both bands had a string of albums that are absolutely classic, and it feels like Knocked Loose and Spiritbox are doing the same right now.
August Burns Red: Horizons (2007) -> Deep Blue (2010) -> Atlas (2012)
Parkway Drive: Messengers (2007) -> Constellations (2010) -> Leveler (2011)
Knocked Loose: A Different Shade of Blue (2019) -> A Tear in the Fabric of Life (2021) -> You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (2024)
Spiritbox: Eternal Blue (2021) -> Tsunami Sea (2025) -> ????

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Apple Music // Spotify
If you know me, you know I have a very specific flavor of indie-rock. I want hard bass, booming & loud choruses, I want you to incorporate other genres like shoegaze/punk/jangle/dance. Boston’s very own Vundabar has previously made some high stroke plucky indie, typically famous at NYU and in coffeeshop-totally-not-in-a-warehouse. Surgery and Pleasure is NOT that.

Surgery and Pleasure is Portugal, the Man meets Foster the People meets Bloc Party meets Franz Ferdinand meets AM. This album is sensational. This is such a specific itch to scratch, where a band hits dance punk x indie rock x shoegaze. My first listen gave me goosebumps. The 6 song stretch to open the record is unbelievable. Crashing drums, thumping bass, melodic guitars, and captivating vocals — it’s like they wrote an album specifically for me. Beta Fish is such a cool song, it opens like a post-punk song of the 60s and then turns into jangle pop and then it’s a soaring-flying-sing along. For so many albums, this would be the peak of the album — yet Surgery and Pleasure has SO many memorable moments it’s hard to pick just one. It probably has to be Spades, but that’s beside the point — the vocals are delivered like a Joy Division song while the rest of the band is each playing a different genre of music. It’s insane. What a record.

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ONLY RIGHT WAY TO LISTEN TO THIS IS ON SOUNDCLOUD WHERE MY CLOUD RAP FANS AT???? Goofy ahh emo rapper named a March record “October Country”

Lil Peep left this world in November of 2017. I am a firm believer he would have released at least 1 classic by now (even though his catalogue is more bad than good), but we’ve been feeling his influence for a while. Ghost Mountain’s October Country is DRIPPING in it. I get it if that’s not your style, but this dark emo esoteric cocaine auto-tune laced with BOOMING 808s sound really cannot be replicated anywhere else. This project dances around the auto-tune, on a fantastic push and pull where it feels like there’s 3+ people contributing to the vocals. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the people that like this type of stuff will love it. I happen to love it.

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Apple Music // Spotify
Last year was the year of insanely good debut records from random British groups. Drive to Goldenhammer clears all of them. Cannot believe how refined this emotionally haunting album is. Being alive is full of a range of emotions, from anger to joy, from yearning to lust, and from exuberant happiness to wanting to feel nothing. Drive to Goldenhammer isn’t an easy listen, but it’ll explore each and every one of these emotions with extremely memorable instrumentation. It’s the first album this year that brought me to tears. I wouldn’t be shocked if this Capitol Records UK release gets a TON of press throughout the year (it’s gotten like a dozen reviews already), or if it simply gets nothing. At minimum, I listened and I recommend you do too.

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Other stuff that came out that I will not be writing more than a sentence about:
1. JENNIE of BLACKPINK put out a solo record, people like it
2. YoungBoy Never Broke Again put out a 20-song slopfest, I will not be there.
3. Zeds Dead put out a boring EDM album
4. Black Soprano Family (all of the dudes from Griselda) put out a 14 song record with like 50 features on it, idk if you’re into Buffalo hip hop you can have fun with that

I don’t know if we’ll have a single day as good as this for the rest of the year. These first few months have given us a few fantastic springcore albums, and the song of the summer (thanks @ Rebecca Black). The next few months have a new Black Country, New Road album (their first w/o Isaac Wood), a Deafheaven project, and the return of Carseat Headrest — all 3 bands made my top100 list!