Hello, one and all! Welcome to the fifth annual edition of Rosy Overdrive’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Today, albums 51 through 100 are being posted, and tomorrow (Tuesday, December 10th), the top 50 will be revealed.
Once again, thank you to anyone reading this list, anyone who has shared Rosy Overdrive with others, or anyone who even just makes it a part of their music life in some way. I am grateful, and it’s been a pleasure to share new music with everyone all year long. I put a lot of work into this blog in 2024, because I believe in the music that you’ll read about below and think somebody ought to be writing about it. I want something like Rosy Overdrive to exist, so I’ve done my best to make it real. I fully intend to keep Rosy Overdrive going strong into 2025!
Here is a playlist featuring all of the records from this list that are available on streaming services: on Spotify, on Tidal. As with last year, separate lists for EPs and compilations/reissues will go up over the next couple of weeks. To read about more music beyond what’s on this list, check out the site directory, and if you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. And you can also be part of the blog’s year-end rundown by voting in the Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll! Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to the list.
See also:
Part Two (75-51)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)
Playlist links (Spotify) (Tidal)
100. Grr Ant – Once Upon a Time in Battersea
Release date: April 26th
Record label: Crafting Room
Genre: Jangle pop, lo-fi pop, power pop, indie pop
Formats: Digital
British musician Grant Gillingham has made no secret of his love of 80s underground indie music–post-punk, C86 indie pop, college rock–and Once Upon a Time in Battersea reflects this, pulling together all of these influences ambitiously and successfully. One key wrinkle to the first record from his solo project Grr Ant is a bit of wide-open Americana in its jangly indie rock–recalling a bit of the British-Invasion-via Midwestern basement rock of early Guided by Voices, or modern GBV-inspired bands. The end product is something like a British person’s conception of an American’s conception of British pop-rock music–if this is the sound of Grant Gillingham taking us full circle, it’s very enjoyable to listen to. (Read more)
99. Bacchae – Next Time
Release date: July 5th
Record label: Get Better
Genre: Punk rock, post-punk
Formats: Digital
Washington, D.C.’s Bacchae unfortunately broke up this year, but not before delivering one last full-length statement. On Next Time, Bacchae incorporate their different sides a bit more seamlessly–rather than doling out furious punk rockers, spiky post-punk tracks, and polished pop songs one at a time, the band triangulate everything at once. Although the disjointedness of their last album, 2020’s Pleasure Vision, was part of its charm for me, this level of evolution works very well for Next Time, a record that’s nervous, fiery, and spirited as the band’s steady but forceful hand guides us across a unified LP. Bacchae will be missed, but Next Time cements them as a key D.C. punk act for the duration of their existence. (Read more)
98. Motorists – Touched by the Stuff
Release date: May 24th
Record label: Bobo Integral/We Are Time
Genre: Power pop, jangle pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Toronto trio Motorists introduced themselves as punchy understudies in a vibrant Toronto power pop scene with their debut album, Surrounded, back in 2021, which was an impressive collection of college rock and jangle pop-inspired music with a surprisingly tough post-punk backbone frequently rearing its head, too. For their sophomore album, Touched by the Stuff, the group display a subtle but palpable sonic evolution as well: the post-punk edge is less pronounced and more seamlessly baked into the sound, as Motorists embrace being a straight-up, rollicking power pop group more than ever across Touched by the Stuff’s dozen tracks. (Read more)
97. Weak Signal – Fine
Release date: September 20th
Record label: 12XU
Genre: Psychedelic rock, garage rock, 90s indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
New York’s Weak Signal have rode a distinct mix of chugging psychedelic rock, precise, fuzzed-out garage-y indie rock, and post-punk rhythmic excellence through four albums now. The ten songs on the trio’s latest album, Fine, continue Tran Huynh, Sasha Vine, and Mike Bones’ ability to feel streamlined but unhurried, forming an effortless-sounding mix of seediness and transcendence that’s musical comfort food to a certain subset of indie rock sickos. Even the moments on Fine that don’t adhere to Weak Signal’s signature propulsive, electric rock and roll feel perfunctory, like well-curated detours before hopping back on the highway. (Read more)
96. Biz Turkey – Biz Turkey
Release date: May 31st
Record label: Third Uncle
Genre: 90s indie rock, lo-fi indie rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
If you like the less jammy side of Built to Spill and the more guitar-based music of Grandaddy, I’ve got great news for you with regards to what the self-titled debut from Maine group Biz Turkey sounds like. Biz Turkey may be a new band, but the quintet is made up of several longtime collaborators, and their first album establishes them as having a clear handle on their specific style of pessimistic-feeling, pop-friendly electric indie rock. Biz Turkey captures the moment where the basement indie rock of the 90s started transforming into something larger and more aware of the concept of “the outdoors”. Vocalist Graham Wood sounds lost but still alert in the midst of these wandering instrumentals; sometimes Biz Turkey sounds quite driven, but Biz Turkey sound great when they’re groping about in the darkness too. (Read more)
95. The Dreaded Laramie – Princess Feedback
Release date: July 5th
Record label: Smartpunk
Genre: Pop punk, power pop, alt-rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
In the first lyrics you hear on Princess Feedback, the debut album from Nashville’s The Dreaded Laramie, lead singer M.C. Cunningham prays for the painful death of an ex–and in the very next line, Cunningham sings “I don’t need you to tell me I’m pathetic / I understand what I’m doing”. Musically, The Dreaded Laramie are power pop/pop punk mercenaries, zeroing in on the mainstream side of 90s alt-rock revival and blowing it up with unabashed classic rock/Weezer-y guitar solos–Prince Feedback is as huge and polished-sounding as its inner contents are messy and uncomfortable. A nice, big giant explosion obliterates everything in its vicinity, so why not toss your least favorite parts of yourself right in its epicenter? (Read more)
94. Hill View #73 – Night Time Is the Grace Period
Release date: March 15th
Record label: Trash Tape/9733
Genre: Lo-fi indie rock, experimental rock, fuzz rock, noise pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
Night Time Is the Grace Period is the debut album from Hill View #73, which is the project of Atlanta, Georgia’s Awsaf Halim. Halim gets plenty of help on their first LP (including from members of Dwaal Troupe, Deerest Friend, and Post Office Winter), but Hill View #73 is pretty clearly Halim’s project–they wrote all ten of these songs and play most of what you’ll hear on the record. Night Time Is the Grace Period has a familiar yet distinct sound, with Halim proving quite capable of switching between noisy fuzz rock, Alex G/Jeff Mangum-ish bedroom folk, and bright, vibrant synth-colored pop–sometimes within the same song. Halim pulls together noise and pop music together with the skill of much more well-known and well-established indie rock acts throughout Night Time Is the Grace Period, establishing the singer-songwriter as one to watch. (Read more)
93. The Reds, Pinks & Purples – The World Doesn’t Need Another Band
Release date: September 5th
Record label: Burundi Cloud
Genre: Jangle pop, folk rock, singer-songwriter, indie pop
Formats: Digital
Last year, Glenn Donaldson’s The Reds, Pinks & Purples was the only project to appear on Rosy Overdrive’s favorite LPs, favorite EPs, and favorite compilations/reissues lists. The prolific Donaldson generously added to the Reds, Pinks & Purples oeuvre again this year–including the Slumberland-released “proper” album Unwishing Well, the outtakes/covers collection This Is Adult Art School (and the similarly-themed Restless When You Sleep EP), an expanded vinyl edition of 2022’s Still Clouds at Noon. My favorite one is a self-released digital-only album called The World Doesn’t Need Another Band. It’s a bit more “rock”-focused than Unwishing Well, and feels kind of like a more informal companion to last year’s The Town That Cursed Your Name to me. Soaring anthems like “Park Statues”, “My Toxic Friend”, and “Unloveable Losers” are as good guitar pop songs as any that Donaldson’s penned, and there’s at least one show-stopping piano ballad in “New Market Space”.
92. Dominic Angelella – God Loves a Scammer
Release date: August 30th
Record label: Dumb Solitaire
Genre: Folk rock, power pop, alt-country, country rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
God Loves a Scammer, the fifth LP from Philadelphia fixture Dominic Angelella, is a refreshingly timeless-sounding record, one that balances a predilection for offbeat, attention-grabbing songwriting from its frontperson with a casual, laid-back vibe from its players (who’ve played with everyone from Boygenius to Illuminati Hotties). Angelella is an indie rock songwriter who takes cues from the likes of David Berman and John Darnielle, but who is wise enough to understand that the lessons to be taken from them are primarily attitudinal. The music from the Angelella backing band is anything but an afterthought, accompanying their leader’s clear-in-the-mix vocals through rambling alt-country slingers, unrestrained rockers, and quiet and tasteful numbers. (Read more)
91. Lunchbox – Pop and Circumstance
Release date: May 10th
Record label: Slumberland
Genre: Indie pop, power pop, twee
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
At this point, Lunchbox’s Donna McKean and Tim Brown could be considered Bay Area indie pop godparents–it took the rest of the region a couple of decades to catch up to the 90s-originating group, but when their moment came, Lunchbox was ready. The dozen pop songs on Pop and Circumstance (the group’s second album thus far to come out of their 2020s resurgence) come from people who live and breathe vintage pop rock of the 1960s and 70s–bubblegum pop, mod, psychedelic pop, and soul, delivered with ample experience and honed knowledge. Pop and Circumstance sound fresh and free because of McKean and Brown’s decades of practice at the craft, not in spite of it. (Read more)
90. Dancer / Whisper Hiss – Split
Release date: October 4th
Record label: HHBTM
Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, dance-punk, punk rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Both groups on HHBTM Records’ latest split full-length album are post-punk bands that know their way around a pop hook, but they’re fairly distinct to me–Glasgow’s Dancer are the irreverent, offbeat Brits who mix new wave-y art punk with fluffy indie pop, and Portland, Oregon’s Whisper Hiss are the heavier, more serious Americans who certainly have listened to their fair share of Dischord and Kill Rock Stars records. Both of them get six songs on this album to make the case for their version of indie rock, and both bring strong material to the table. Dancer even brings a bit of power chords and fuzzed-out indie rock into the mix, and Whisper Hiss mixes indie pop into their death-rock and punk, meeting each other halfway. (Read more)
89. Hit – Bestseller
Release date: October 25th
Record label: One Weird Trick
Genre: Experimental pop, noise pop, art rock, art punk, prog-pop, psych pop
Formats: CD, digital
New York quartet Hit is something of a sibling band to Miracle Sweepstakes (it features half of their lineup), but up until Bestseller, we’d only heard the group in brief, chaotic single bursts. In order to translate those early Hit songs (which merged Brainiac-like noisy post-punk with snatches of heavenly guitar pop) to a larger setting, the band were going to have to get even more creative. And Bestseller is creative, alright–adventurous and exhaustive, too, I’d say. Hit careen through zany, bonkers prog-pop, underwater-sounding psychedelic pop, and something that I can only really describe as “jangle-prog” across the album’s length–if you’re looking for an unpredictable pop album, here’s Hit. (Read more)
88. Fred Thomas – Window in the Rhythm
Release date: October 4th
Record label: Polyvinyl
Genre: Folk rock, experimental rock, ambient rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Spanning seven songs in sixty minutes, Michigan singer-songwriter Fred Thomas’ first solo record since 2018 is a spacious double album. Thomas and his guitar build a spindly but firm foundation for Window in the Rhythm, which sounds like nothing else Thomas has released before. As the tracks unspool, some of them get louder and more ornate, but Window in the Rhythm uses vastness and absence as a weapon for a good chunk of the hour it takes. It’s a very natural-sounding record, and it still sounds like a Fred Thomas album–his voice and writing guide us through the double LP, still recognizably the ace sing-speaking pop musician even as we enter a world of ten-minute songs with no choruses. (Read more)
87. Ylayali – Birdhouse in Conduit
Release date: October 16th
Record label: Circle Change
Genre: Fuzz rock, experimental, lo-fi indie rock, lo-fi pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Philadelphia musician (and 2nd Grade drummer) Francis Lyons pieced the latest album from his Ylayali solo project together from 2022 to 2024 at home, and the resultant Birdhouse in Conduit is Ylayali at their most exploratory (especially compared to the last album from Lyons’ solo project, 2022’s relatively accessible Separation). There’s still pop music to be found in Birdhouse in Conduit, but it sits alongside ambient and droning fuzz passages, experimental electronic instrumentation, and blasts of noise. None of this gets in the way of the “core” sound of Birdhouse in Conduit, and is in fact a key part of it–distortion and static have always been important to Ylayali, and this record is no different in shaping these elements into something just as emotional-sounding as the indie and folk rock hidden intermittently between them. (Read more)
86. Uranium Club – Infants Under the Bulb
Release date: March 1st
Record label: Static Shock/Anti Fade
Genre: Garage rock, post-punk, egg punk, garage punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Infants Under the Bulb is a massive, thorny way to return after a half-decade absence. The Minneapolis Uranium Club was maybe the most emblematic group of the late 2010s “egg punk”/“Devo-core” phenomena that swept the Midwest, and while entire bands have risen and fallen in the five years since 2019’s The Cosmo Cleaners, the garage punks’ long-awaited third LP reaffirms their position as a cornerstone act in a particularly dingy subsection of rock and roll. Dread, anger, seriousness, goofiness, and curiosity all collide in a pile-up of surf-rock guitars, squealing horns, and vocals that’ll restore one’s faith in “speak-singing”.
85. Deep Tunnel Project – Deep Tunnel Project
Release date: April 5th
Record label: Comedy Minus One
Genre: 90s indie rock, punk, garage rock, noise rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Deep Tunnel Project is the debut album from a band with plenty of indie rock experience between them; the Windy City indie rock supergroup features John Mohr and Michael Greenlees (both of Tar) as well as Tim Midyett (Silkworm, Mint Mile) and Jeff Dean (Her Head’s on Fire, The Story So Far, The Bomb). Deep Tunnel Project is all Chicago, from the geographically-informed lyrics to the band and album name to the music, which is a garage and punk-influenced take on workmanlike Second City underground rock music. Deep Tunnel Project is part of a grand and ever-expanding tapestry being woven by its creators and many others like them–but it sounds pretty damn good in its own right, too. (Read more)
84. Styrofoam Winos – Real Time
Release date: September 27th
Record label: Sophomore Lounge
Genre: Folk rock, alt-country, singer-songwriter, country rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
It’s quite satisfying to listen to Real Time and be able to hear the growth that Nashville supergroup Styrofoam Winos has made together almost immediately. The group’s self-titled debut was the work of a band with three distinct songwriters adding their own touch to the songs, but Real Time is a different story; Joe Kenkel, Lou Turner, and Trevor Nikrant meld together here more than ever before, creating a cohesive album that sounds relaxed and comfortable as a whole. It’s not like “laid-back country rock” is new territory for Styrofoam Winos, but the way that they do it here–effortlessly passing the torch between the three of them, creating a singular vibe across these ten songs–is a palpable leap. (Read more)
83. Marcel Wave – Something Looming
Release date: June 14th
Record label: Feel It/Upset the Rhythm
Genre: Post-punk, indie pop, garage rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
London’s Marcel Wave put out a demo EP back in 2019, so their debut album Something Looming has presumably been in the works for a while. It’s a confident, polished, and accessible first statement that follows in the grand tradition of British “post-punk”/“indie pop” records, balanced on both sides of the spectrum by vocalist Maike Hale-Jones’s delivery and a well-seasoned cast of instrumentalists. Something Looming is “catchy” in some form for pretty much its entire length, but sometimes it’s more traditionally so than others; in all cases, Hale-Jones’ sense of rhythm and force of personality are a great fit for Marcel Wave’s musical playfulness. (Read more)
82. The Ekphrastics – Make Your Own Snowboard
Release date: August 3rd
Record label: Harriet
Genre: Indie pop, 90s indie rock, singer-songwriter
Formats: CD, digital
Described as “a collection of short stories about doing one’s level best”, the eleven songs with words on Make Your Own Snowboard are all self-contained works that encourage close listening. Frank Boscoe led underground indie rock bands like Wimp Factor 14 and The Vehicle Flips in the nineties, but as of late he’s found a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) life with The Ekphrastics. With only a passing familiarity with Boscoe’s previous work, I was immediately drawn in by his latest album, a fantastic exercise in storytelling with laid-back, folk-y indie pop as the fruitful vessel. There’s something very inspiring about Boscoe’s writing, the casualness with which he unpretentiously digs from history rather than lean on what we already know and understand to be common reference points. (Read more)
81. The Sylvia Platters – Vivian Elixir
Release date: April 26th
Record label: Grey Lodge
Genre: Jangle pop, power pop, indie pop
Formats: Cassette, digital
At eight songs and 24 minutes, Vivian Elixir is on the shorter side, but The Sylvia Platters consider it more than just another EP–it’s their first “album” since 2015’s Make Glad the Day, even as the Vancouver-based power/jangle pop quartet have remained fairly active in the interstitial decade. And when you’ve got a bunch of songs that are as strong as these are, you can call it just about whatever you want. The Sylvia Platters continue to assert themselves as one of the best guitar pop bands going with Vivian Elixir, offering up power pop songs of varying stripes but consistent in quality and catchiness–about half of the cassette is “gigantic tune that could’ve been the lead single”, and the other half gives Vivian Elixir some extra character and helps it feel more like a proper album. (Read more)
80. Simon Joyner – Coyote Butterfly
Release date: November 22nd
Record label: Grapefruit/BB*Island
Genre: Folk, singer-songwriter
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
Simon Joyner is already one of the most rewarding, most decorated, and most secretly influential folk artists of the past three decades, so a great album from the Omaha fixture is hardly a surprise. Referring to Coyote Butterfly as merely a “late-career triumph” doesn’t capture the difficult impact of this album, though, which is a tribute to Joyner’s son Owen, who passed away in 2022. The most viscerally emotional experience I had this year was hearing “My Lament” for the first time, something I’m not sure how to describe. Simon Joyner the excellent folk songwriter is still present in Coyote Butterfly, with songs like “The Silver Birch” and “There Will Be a Time” reaching for the same winning tools he’s used in previous great songs. Be it Joyner’s writing or the departed figure at the center of the record, there’s a poignancy to every link to the past on Coyote Butterfly.
79. Ben Seretan – Allora
Release date: July 26th
Record label: Tiny Engines
Genre: Art rock, psychedelic rock, noise pop
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Upstate New York musician Ben Seretan has released a lot of music, but Allora is the singer-songwriter’s first “rock” record in four years. Recorded in Italy over three days after the collapse of a European tour Seretan had booked, Allora is an energetic and forceful return–compared to 2020’s relatively delicate Youth Pastoral, Seretan and his band sound much more immediate here, with the rockers aiming louder and higher and the quieter moments displaying visible seams. Even though the embrace of electric rock music is the most immediately noticeable feature of Allora, it’s just as impressive that Seretan, Nico Hedley, and Dan Knishkowy still find ways to inject the singer-songwriter’s spacey, experimental side into their “power trio album”. (Read more)
78. Supermilk – High Precision Ghosts
Release date: August 9th
Record label: Specialist Subject
Genre: Power pop, post-punk, indie punk
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Jake Popyura has been leading Supermilk for a while now, but it’s the London band’s third album, High Precision Ghosts, that finds the quartet truly gelling as a sharp indie rock group. Now far much more than a Popyura solo project, Em Foster, Charlie Jamison, and Jason Cavalier (as well as producer Rich Mandell of ME REX and Happy Accidents) help turn High Precision Ghosts into a polished, dynamic rock album that still works well as a Popyura songwriting vessel. Supermilk’s distinctly British mix of hooky post-punk revival with muscular power pop, alt-rock, and even punk takes High Precision Ghosts into some surprising directions, but the band never wander long enough to waste time on the lean, sub-thirty-minute LP.
77. EggS – Crafted Achievement
Release date: November 1st
Record label: Prefect/Howlin Banana
Genre: Power pop, college rock
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Parsian collective EggS got my attention with 2022’s A Glitter Year, and their boisterous, party-friendly, saxophone-heavy version of vintage college rock is still very potent on their follow-up LP. Crafted Achievement doesn’t flag for a second–it’s only eight songs and twenty-three minutes long, but every moment of it is thrilling. Bandleader Charles Daneau’s vocals–in English and front-and-center throughout the album–reach melodic perfection through sheer force, shouting hooks among the tuneful maelstrom of the EggS band to complete the ingredients for a perfect hurricane of catchy indie rock. (Read more)
76. Yea-Ming and the Rumours – I Can’t Have It All
Release date: May 24th
Record label: Dandy Boy
Genre: Indie pop, jangle pop, folk rock
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
The latest record from Oakland’s Yea-Ming Chen and her band, The Rumours, doesn’t reinvent their sound–Chen is still a sharp, 60s pop-inspired songwriter and a striking vocalist, and the band give these songs a polished but utilitarian, classic college rock reading. What makes I Can’t Have It All feel so full-sounding and like a career highlight is the well-earned, quiet but palpable confidence Yea-Ming and the Rumors display throughout the entire record. Every song on the first half is a “hit” in its own way, and once you get on their level, you can appreciate how The Rumours skip through twee-pop-rock, folk-country, dream pop, and slowed-down girl-group-influenced pop with a steady helping of zeal. (Read more)
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Part Two (75-51)
Part Three (50-26)
Part Four (25-1)
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