The second annual Rosy Overdrive Reader’s Poll has now been summed, tallied, and assembled! We asked you about your favorite albums, songs, EPs and label of the year, and we got fifty-seven different responses! These ballots included 377 different albums, 394 different songs, 87 different EPs, and 33 different record labels. Just like last year, this year’s results once again demonstrated the excellent taste of Rosy Overdrive readers; I’m looking forward to filling in my personal blind spots with the ones on here I haven’t yet checked out.
Your top choices are revealed below; for more detailed and complete results, here’s a spreadsheet with everything that got at least one vote on it. For albums, your top choice got ten points, second place got nine, et cetera (for songs, it was twelve points for first place); ties were broken via number of ballots something appeared on and number of first-place votes received.
Here’s a playlist of every song that either A) appeared on multiple ballots and/or B) got a first-place vote (Spotify, Tidal).
If you’re looking for more new music, you can visit the site directory to see what else we’ve written about lately. If you’d like to support Rosy Overdrive, you can share this (or another) post, or donate here. To anyone who participated in this poll, or even if you didn’t, if you shared the blog or even just regularly read it in 2024: thank you very much. On to 2025!
Your Top 50 Albums of the Year:
49. [TIE] This Is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Double Double Whammy) / Why Bonnie – Wish on the Bone (Fire Talk) / Francis of Delirium – Lighthouse (Dalliance)
48. Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (Mexican Summer/City Slang)
47. Nada Surf – Moon Mirror (New West)
46. Beachwood Sparks – Across the River of Stars (Curation/Sludge People)
45. Mo Dotti – Opaque (Self-released)
44. Christopher Owens – I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair (True Panther)
43. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk (Mom + Pop)
42. The Jesus Lizard – Rack (Ipecac)
41. The Softies – The Bed I Made (Father/Daughter/Lost Sound Tapes)
40. 2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosions (Double Double Whammy)
39. Arab Strap – I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore 👍 (Rock Action)
38. Virgins – Nothing Hurt and Everything Was Beautiful (Blowtorch)
37. Aluminum – Fully Beat (Felte)
36. Sharp Pins – Radio DDR (Hallogallo/Perennial/K)
35. English Teacher – This Could Be Texas (Island/Nice Swan)
34. Charli XCX – Brat (Atlantic)
33. Wishy – Triple Seven (Winspear)
32. Las Nubes – Tormentas Malsanas (Spinda/Godless America/Sweat)
31. Fin del Mundo – Hicimos crecer un bosque (Spinda)
30. Fake Fruit – Mucho Mistrust (Carpark)
29. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (Epitaph)
28. Mt. Misery – Love in Mind (Prefect)
27. Father John Misty – Mahashmashana (Sub Pop/Bella Union)
26. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead (Constellation)
25. Bedbug – Pack Your Bags the Sun Is Growing (Disposable America)
24. Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel (Slumberland)
23. Bad Moves – Wearing Out the Refrain (Don Giovanni)
22. Humdrum – Every Heaven (Slumberland)
21. Teenage Tom Petties – Teenage Tom Petties (Safe Suburban Home/Repeating Cloud)
20. Ahem – Avoider (Forged Artifacts)
19. Combat – Stay Golden (Counter Intuitive)
18. 22° Halo – Lily of the Valley (Tiny Library)
17. Shellac – To All Trains (Touch & Go)
16. Yea-Ming and the Rumours – I Can’t Have It All (Dandy Boy)
15. The Hard Quartet – The Hard Quartet (Matador/Beat)
14. Rosali – Bite Down (Merge)
13. Dummy – Free Energy (Trouble in Mind)
12. Mint Mile – Roughrider (Comedy Minus One)
11. Ekko Astral – Pink Balloons (Topshelf)
10. Ducks Ltd. – Harm’s Way (Carpark/Royal Mountain)
9. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (Anti-)
8. Perennial – Art History (Ernest Jenning/Safe Suburban Home/Totally Real)
7. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World (Polydor/Fiction/Universal)
6. Mount Eerie – Night Palace (P.W. Elverum & Sun/7 e.p.)
5. Liquid Mike – Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot (Self-released)
4. The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend (Slumberland/Tough Love)
3. Rosie Tucker – Utopia Now! (Sentimental)
2. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (Realistik/Superior Viaduct)
1. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (Anti-/Dear Life)
Your Favorite EPs of the Year:
3. [TIE] Girl Scout – Headache (Human Garbage) / Red Pants – Pale Shadows (Painted Blonde)
2. Bon Iver – Sable (Jagjaguwar)
1. Pardoner – Paranoid in Hell (Convulse)
Your Favorite Record Label of the Year:
Slumberland
Also receiving more than one vote: Candlepin, Comedy Minus One, Exploding in Sound, Feel It, Get Better, Meritorio, Repeating Cloud
Your Favorite Songs of the Year:
20. Fin del Mundo – Vivimos lejos (Spinda)
19. Lambrini Girls – God’s Country (City Slang)
18. The Umbrellas – Gone (Slumberland/Tough Love)
17. Pardoner – Over the Moon (Convulse)
16. Liquid Mike – Town Ease (Self-released)
15. The Cure – Alone (Polydor/Fiction/Universal)
14. Peel Dream Magazine – Lie in the Gutter (Topshelf)
13. Mt. Misery – Hey (Prefect)
12. Ducks Ltd. – Train Full of Gasoline (Carpark/Royal Mountain)
11. Las Nubes – Pesada (Spinda/Godless America/Sweat)
10. Pedro the Lion – Modesto (Polyvinyl/Big Scary Monsters)
9. The Cure – A Fragile Thing (Polydor/Fiction/Universal)
8. Anna Erhard – Botanical Garden (Radicalis)
7. Fontaines D.C. – Starburster (XL)
6. Kim Deal – Coast (4AD)
5. Kendrick Lamar – Reincarnated (pgLang/Interscope)
4. MJ Lenderman – Joker Lips (Anti-/Dear Life)
3. Rosie Tucker – Suffer! Like You Mean It (Sentimental)
2. MJ Lenderman – She’s Leaving You (Anti-/Dear Life)
1. MJ Lenderman – Wristwatch (Anti-/Dear Life)
Artists You Thought Should’ve Been on the Song of the Year List, But Couldn’t Settle on a Track:
The Hard Quartet (Rio’s Song, Six Deaf Rats, Earth Hater, Our Hometown Boy, and Hey all received a vote)
Bad Moves (Eviction Party, Hallelujah, Sorry That I’m Not Better, and Let the Rats Inherit the Earth all received a vote)
Mint Mile (I Hope It’s Different, Interpretative Outlook, Sunbreaking, and S c ent all received a vote)
Adrianne Lenker (Free Treasure, Sadness As a Gift, and Real House all received a vote)
Chime School (Giving Your Heart Away, Wandering Song, and Desperate Days all received a vote)
Father John Misty (She Cleans Up, Mahashmashana, and I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All all received a vote)
Rosali (Hopeless, Rewind, and Hills on Fire all received a vote)
Waxahatchee (Right Back to It, Ice Cold, and Crowbar all received a vote)