I. Had to be released as a single on streaming in the U.S. in 2025 (buying more albums in 2026!)
II. Had to sound good to me (be aware, I have niche tastes!)
III. Wasn’t also a track on one of my Top 10 Albums (coming soon!)
10) “Acid Rain” – Greywind
There’s a certain vibe—you know it when you hear it—to Aughts alt-rock that contemporary acts carrying a torch for the era can struggle with: not just mad and sad but keening, wistful, and apt to equate despair with some ruinous natural phenomenon. 2017’s brief Afterthoughts was admittedly just that for many moons, yet in what’s been teased so far, Greywind’s pending trip to Severed Heart City is poised to whip up a whole new storm.
9) “Hurry Up, Darling, We’re Going to Miss the Crucifixion” – First & Forever
Who was the first band to do the whole “sardonic long song name” thing? I’ve always assumed Fall Out Boy, but it’s fun to imagine some similarly verbose predecessor. In any event, First & Forever have been dropping downtrodden tracks for a while with no full-length in sight, but in their latest batch, they’ve arrived at a promising flourish: medieval melancholy meets bangin’ riffs. Toss on a title that’s irreverent in every sense, and this might just be my favorite F&F not led by Vin Diesel (although, just imagine…).
8) “Let it Out” – FlickN
Hey, do you miss vintage Blink? The fellas in FlickN do, and with cheeky moniker in tow, they spent 2025 cranking out one skate-punk homage after another. That I came to learn of them through a fellow attorney acquainted with one member might’ve tilted the scale (without giving away too much, I believe they’re from the area), but I suspect I’d relish hearing this sound come back ‘round regardless. Looking forward to that freshman album!
7) “Better Days” – Yellowcard
An embarrassing anecdote is that, growing up, I didn’t know Yellowcard had a violinist. I was introduced to them by “The Takedown” in Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009), where I just assumed—sandwiched between saintly Eddie solos—I was miming really fast strumming. While I arrived at their full catalog too late to embrace every minute of this year’s titular album, then, the band’s resurgence at the crest of the “When We Were Young” wave is a welcome call to positivity, Blockbuster-bound music video and all. No, it’s not too late!
6) “Oh No!” – All Time Low
It’s the aging emo’s dilemma: If I finally, for serious this time, clean up and turn that frown upside-down, am I still me? All Time Low was always bubbly even for “pop punk,” but when decades-strong frontman Alex Gaskarth frets about whether, now “over the rain clouds,” he’s as appealing as back then, it’s hard not to relate, even without merch sales to monitor. I’d like to be known as happy and well-adjusted… but what if it is the madness in the man that makes the music?
5) “Please Me” – Coven Dove
Gotta rep for local talent! Coven Dove, in their own words, makes “witch-pop stories from the pit,” and having attended a hometown concert earlier this year, I can confirm the classic-meets-cryptic appeal firsthand. If you like smooth tunes for an evening in or at the bar, this is an outfit to watch out for.
4) “6SPEED” – Rematch
The cross-pollination between hip-hop and punk rock always intrigues meeven as it tends to go one way, with rappers copping a guitarist and new flow. Rematch, however, picked a fitting name twice over, coming back from years of sporadic singles with their first record proper and this gear-switching centerpiece. With its pity-party chorus and nod to weeping at G-notes, “6SPEED” is a sure shoutout to scenehood, and yet it’s also cocky and self-referential, singer Matt LeGrand spitting boasts about stacks of cash as his “boys” blast through fangirl speakers that feel spiritually at home in the club. It may claim to be Nothing Like You Wanted, but this blend of flavors is just what I needed.
3) “100%” – New Found Glory
Yeah, it’s all gonna be about self-improvement from here on. The hit-to-eh ratio on NFG’s (many) LPs has always been a bit too bottom-heavy for me to identify as an outright fan… so if I saw them in concert and have a pennant of theirs on my wall, that’s just because when they’re good, they’ve glorious indeed. I may not always reach that coveted full quantity, but I aspire to this attitude, this goal, and with the same jubilant insistence that’s kept these dudes going strong since ‘99.
2) “Kept Me Alive” – Grayscale
Here comes a technicality, since only a variant with Slowly Slowly from a deluxe reissue of The Hart made it as a single, but it’s my self-imposed gesture at music critic conventions and I’ll bend it if I want to. Bend and break, really, as this gale-force tribute to a loving partner became the latest installment in a small, unwritten playlist of ballads I can’t carpool-karaoke along to without welling up. Pining for unrequited love may be the cornerstone of many songs, but celebrating someone who’s already there for you, and always has been? That’s bedrock.
1) “Lose Your Way & Find Yourself” – AS IT IS
In the early months of 2024, I sought mental health services for the first time. The circumstances aren’t relevant, suffice it to say that I worried I’d be a hazard to myself if I didn’t phone a professional. Therapy followed (“professional growth coaching,” rather—tomayto, tomahto) as, by coincidence, my boss decided I had enough potential that it was worth bankrolling me seeing someone who could loosen up a few interpersonal kinks. And with their powers combined… well, it worked. I’m still not perfect, but I’m better than I was five years ago, and I want to keep improving. As I always try to remind myself, regret is cheap. There’s infinite things we all could’ve done, but there’s just as many things we still can do. I won’t turn my back on the past like I once did, but I’m also ready to move from reaction to action. I won’t let the future just come—I’ll bring it toward me. I’ll still get scared, sad, anxious, and angry sometimes. But when it happens, with eyes on the horizon, I won’t let that pain haunt me.
I like music — my artists of choice are rarely high art, and often either super-mainstream or trivially niche, but I think it’s the most efficient form of storytelling, and for that I’ll forever treasure the medium. As a sailor man who’s going into public domain next year once said, I yam what I yam! With that in mind, here’s my top ten albums and singles of 2024:
TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2024
10) Daggers, Dreamkid
This year, I started writing my first fantasy novel, Neon Bonfire. The story takes place in a world akin to 1980s America but completely uncoupled from our reality, like how typical fantasy occupies medieval-era trappings—think Game of Thrones, but with tape decks and blocky phones alongside the magic and monsters. As with all creative projects, I made a semi-official playlist, the predominant genre being synthwave—and the main theme being the propulsive, defiant title track from Dreamkid’s latest LP. As in their debut, the artist’s palette paints in familiar tones of Day-Glo, static, and melancholy, but once you’ve heard wistful, glittering numbers like “Take Me on Tonight” or “Hometown Memories,” driving home while the sun sets will never quite hit the same again.
9) Birdwatching, CLIFFDIVER
Art is both contagion and medium: Without spreading, it can’t thrive. It’s in that spirit that I have a friend to thank for knowing about CLIFFDIVER, as hearing them belt out “New Vegas Bomb” at a karaoke night in 2023 put the goofy group on my radar. While the rest of their last record, Exercise Your Demons, was just serviceable for this critic, 2024’s Birdwatching won me over with its high spirits, irreverent song titles (see “black lodge breakfast burrito (limited time only)”), and ever-more identifiable passages about being a dork in your mid-thirties. “Team fight tactics” in particular is relationship goals—and I don’t even watch football!
8) American Motor Sports, Bilmuri
Speaking of musicians introduced to me by a loopy single at karaoke! Even after knowing about them for at least a year—and seeing a live performance at The Showbox in Seattle—I still don’t know how to describe this tongue-in-cheek lunk’s punk-meets-Nashville-meets-comedy niche. “Y’allternative”? “Divorced dad rock”? “Memecore”? Whatever the subgenre, the result is cuts like “EMPTYHANDED,” where our singer bemoans a one-sided relationship before agitated guitars pause en route to the breakdown for a Kevin James sample. If the Hot Topic crowd are to age into country fans the same as our forefathers, I could think of no better entry point than the beer-chugging, lawnmowing stylings of Bilmuri.
7) Haven, Marianas Trench
The rules are simple: A new Marianas Trench record comes out, I put it on this list in a second and make it my personality for a month. Once more game for a concept album befitting their roof-raising sound, Haven sees the Canuck quartet soar across thirteen tracks inspired by The Hero’s Journey, the duality of man, and—as their “Force of Nature Tour” (a proud attendee!) foregrounded—the elements themselves. “Lightning and Thunder,” “Now or Never,” “Stand and Fight,” “Turn and Run”… one could get déjà vu scrolling down the track list, but as ever, the band bounces between new wave, funk, and suites befitting a Broadway stage with a verve which flaunts the influences worn on their bedazzled sleeves yet nevertheless drowns out most contemporaries. In a year where I finally made peace with my place in the world, lithe and loud lead Josh Ramsay shouted it best: “In the end, I don’t belong inside a normal life!”
6) From Zero, Linkin Park
Chester Bennington. The name hovered over another Linkin Park project ever since the iconic singer tragically passed in 2017. Initial reactions to the appointment of Emily Armstrong were thus mixed: A woman! Scientology-adjacent! Who asked the family!? But the show must go on, and From Zero is an album which, while perhaps slight, still taps into the group’s trademark ire with a relish not seen in years. Gone are the club-friendly compositions of preceding records, replaced with returns to form like “The Emptiness Machine,” in which Mike Shinoda spits fire which continues to burn for nine more tracks, and “Two Faced,” where Armstrong scorns a deceitful opponent with eardrum-splitting intensity. Maybe I’m just an easy mark for rocker chicks, but while my sympathies go out to the Benningtons, I can’t wait to see what LP L.P. puts out next
5) A Dream Through Open Eyes, The Strike
Rock outfits founded on ‘80s appreciation are a booming business, but there’s a fine line between those who paint a new picture with the era’s vibes and those content to just, say, paraphrase Huey Lewis & The News. It’s my pleasure to report that The Strike plants a flag in the former category, and I got outta some serious funks this year for it. From the jubilant “American Dream” to plaintive closer “Until the Lights Go Out,” and reckless ballad “The Getaway” in-between, A Dream Through Open Eyes is just that: the sound of days gone by, yes, but in service of aspiration and love. Headed into 2025, we could use a whole lot of both.
4) Neck Deep, Neck Deep
As it was with The Maine in 2023, so shall it be with Neck Deep in 2024: a belated self-titled which confirms that, oh yeah, this is what this band is about and why I dig them. The Welsh pop-punkers allow for zero skips, to the point that it’s a struggle to not just go full Fantano and break down every track. Self-deprecating opener “Dumbstruck Dumbfuck,” political call to action “We Need More Bricks,” post-dumping paen “Heartbreak of the Century,” even Mulder-mode “Take Me with You” from last year’s Top Singles list—it’s all good, it’s all fun, it’s all a mood. It’s been a long, lonely December, but with Neck Deep on the aux and in my soul, I’m never really alone.
3) POST HUMAN: NeX GEn, Bring Me the Horizon
If music can be a form of therapy for the musician, then Bring Me The Horizon has been controversial frontman Olli Sykes’ appointment for some time now—the stage his couch, the audience his doctor. Fortunately, BMTH go big yet go dorky, so while tracks like “Kool-Aid” are kinda just a retread of the cult commentary from 2019’s “MANTRA,” we also get the irreverently titled screed “Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd,” despondent tantrum “n/A,” and a home at last for the most a song has ever sounded like a 1-800-273-8255 call, “LosT.” Here’s hoping Sykes keeps it together enough to finish off this gaming-influenced chapter of the band’s saga, but while I sympathize with folks who see “POST HUMAN” as a glorified mixtape series, I know no better way to encapsulate the fevered dissonance of mental unwellness than an hour of screaming, snark, and asides about wanting to make love to a chainsaw.
2) THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, Taylor Swift
Look what she made me do. For four album cycles in a row now, Taylor Swift has entered my Top Five—but for the first time, I have no reservations. I identify as a writer, and having penned poems since I was at least six years old, a poet in turn. As such, framing her first bona fide double LP as an assemblage of intimate, long-winded verses is the closest I’ve come to seeing America’s sweetheart validate my own approach to the medium. Yes, some anecdotes are cringe (“you take my ring off my middle finger and put on the one people put wedding rings on”— hey Taylor, you mean… the ring finger?), but I can only envy the clout it takes to trauma-dump for 30+ tracks to a fanbase larger than some countries and walk away all the bigger for it. The title track paints a searing portrait of a fractured relationship, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” embraces the starlet’s drama-queen history with scream-queen zeal, and “I Can Do it with a Broken Heart” makes radio-ready pep of weathering industry pressure. Pending how things pan out with Travis, it’s anyone’s guess what the next phase of Ms. Swift’s career will be… but if she’s ever in town, I’m happy to become a liner note.
1) Glass Half Empty, VOILÀ
I don’t make music. I’ve always wanted to, I can, and I should, but I don’t. Even if I never do, though, I’ll rest easy knowing the music I’d want to make was already made by VOILÀ. Fashioning themselves not as singers or even artists but rather “magicians,” Gus Ross and Luke Eisner blend the dissonant sounds of my coming-of-age—emo and sensual electro-pop—into a package that made me kick myself for not clocking them upon their 2019 emergence. A feature by The Ready Set led me to the first act of Glass Half Empty, upon which I relished their back catalogue full of bangers like scene girl ode “My Type” and the flagrantly erotic “So Hot That it Hurts,” but it was the belated joinder of this album’s back half that made me decide my recency bias was justified. I like clever, I like cacophonous, and I like knowing that someone else feels as deeply as I do about the heart and hereafter. “Hope That I Go First” says the quiet part oh-so loud in treasuring an aging partner, “WAR.” unapologetically equates infatuation with the masculine urge to do battle, and when “The Treasure (6 Feet Under)” caps a career fixation on memento mori with a reprise of lyrics past, I knew I was in the hands of connoisseurs of the craft. In enjoying this debonair duo, my glass is not just half full—it runneth over.
Top 10 Singles of 2024
10) “Classical,” Vampire Weekend
Yep, these guys are still around… but so am I, here to treasure wry, baroque ruminations on culture and the human condition the same as I did in high school!
9) “NO FUN,” blink-182
While One More Time was too nostalgia-mongering and, well, mixed like crap to earn space on my 2023 list, the industry-standard second wind of tracks dropped this year made for a pleasant surprise—this B-side in particular. Tom’s autumnal laments may ring like inside baseball, but as an outsider, the sentiment remains relatable: so hey, fuck me, and fuck you too.
8) “TRENDSETTER,” Glorb
I’m serious as a stroke when I say that this anonymous YouTuber doing obscene gangsta rap in the AI-enabled voices of SpongeBob characters is my favorite new find of the year.
7) “Aim for the Bushes,” Silhouettes
Personally, I’d never have chosen to combine dialogue from The Other Guys with emo grievances, but whoever’s behind this Washington-based project with only two singles to their name still has me among their dozens-strong IG followers as a result.
6) “You’re So Ugly When You Cry,” The Funeral Portrait
Do you want to get mean, dark, and a little theatrical? If so, The Funeral Portrait is for you, this collab with The Used frontman Bert McCracken in particular.
5) “Lithonia,” Childish Gambino
After his latest album—a premature soundtrack to sci-fi comedy Bando Stone and the New World—Donald Glover said he’s done playing Childish Gambino. Fair enough if so—after Atlanta, “This is America,” and Lando Calrissian, where does one even go but back behind the curtain? Hell if I know who Codi LeRae is, but were the artist to bow out with this single, I’d take its wailing about the futility of love as a suitable swan song.
4) “JOYRIDE,” Kesha
I like when Kesha does that thing with her voice. Which thing? Oh, all of them.
3) “Girls,” The Dare
I won’t pretend I’m unique in stumbling upon a new favorite song after seeing an inordinately high stream count and going “hmm.” Even still, The Dare’s “Girls” supplanted comparably named tracks by Mayday Parade and The 1975 for me this year with its breathless, lascivious lines that read like the diary of a dude three weeks into a fraying vow of celibacy. Arctic Monkeys may’ve moved on to piano noodling, but “indie sleaze” is back in action!
2) “Cold as Hell,” Dance with the Dead
When I said earlier that Dreamkid’s “Daggers” inspired my novel Neon Bonfire, I lied by omission a little. This track, part of a soft comeback from dark synth collective Dance with the Dead, was the real impetus, infusing me as it did with such badass energy (if only upon mishearing the chorus as “it’s cold as hell under us”) that I was helpless to not imagine my own cool fight scene set to its icy strains… stay tuned!
1) “Russian Roulette,” Porter Robinson
It’s easy to contemplate self-harm—we all have a reliable “off” switch, in the form of the nearest sharp or blunt object propelled inward at sufficient speed. It’s more rewarding, however, to recognize that the flicker of nihilism occasioned by a spate of self-doubt or a stranger’s snide remark is nothing compared to the buoyant, shining promise which the future still holds. From Porter Robinson, such observations might come off as first-world problems, but the acclaimed musician’s delivery is one for the ages, as bemoaning imposter syndrome gives way to a recognition of all that life still has to offer, followed by a triumphant EDM breakdown and, finally, words of wisdom from a Stephen Hawking-alike which conclude with a curt but essential mandate: “Don’t kill yourself, you idiot!”
False alarm – I got a bit to say about my Top 5 Albums and Top 5 Singles of 2022 as well! Trying to keep my YouTube channel chiefly focused on film and videogames, though, so I’m sticking with the classic blog format this time:
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ALBUMS
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5 – It Was Fun While it Lasted, Sueco
As someone who barely listened to anything outside my parents’ music collection ‘til the end of high school, I missed pop punk’s mid-Aughts heyday. Still, call me a late bloomer, but I’ve coveted its idiosyncratic blend of youthful indignation and radio-ready chords ever since! It’s been interesting yet invigorating, then, in recent years, to see the scene resurrected with an injection of hip-hop—and as albums like It Was Fun While it Lasted by Sueco prove, the procedure can produce striking results. Granted, there’s a bit more misogyny and fixation on substance abuse here than I’d prefer, but every swift song crackles with snotty, infectious energy, especially when elder statesman Travis Barker clocks in for a feature on “SOS.” Elsewhere, “Loser” gets points for mixing self-deprecating malaise with manga nods (“If I had a Death Note, I would write my name on every page”), while “Drunk Dial” had me singing along before the end of my first listen. It’s crass, it’s mopey, and it’s riding Machine Gun Kelly’s ratty coattails from the first note to the last, but damned if I won’t still have it on repeat when I’m either feeling real good or real bad. What else is the subgenre for?
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4 – Midnights, Taylor Swift
Lover and Folklore were my favorite albums of 2019 and 2020, respectively, so it’s with a somewhat heavy heart that I put Taylor Swift’s latest record comparatively low on this list. However, while Midnights may be moodier and less focused than its predecessors, it’s still full of outstanding tracks that further boost the singer’s climb back from the insecure Reputation era to the throne of the Queen of Pop. Jack Antonoff continues to be an ideal co-writer/producer, aiding in an introspective vibe which befits both the titular setting and Swift’s matured delivery. I like the apt little blinging noises on “Bejeweled,” I like that we’re keeping shades of red going as a theme with “Maroon” and “Lavender Haze,” and I especially like the standout single “Anti-Hero,” which feels like a follow-up to “The Archer” in its fretful confessions, even as it contains one of the worst verses I’ve heard in recent memory (with all due respect, ma’am, no one else has ever felt like “everybody is a sexy baby”). With a “3am” edition that practically adds a bonus EP, we got a whole lotta Taylor this year, but you’ll never hear a complaint out of me!
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3 – Dreamkid, Dreamkid
From a certain point of view, it doesn’t take much to make a latter-day “synthwave” album: a palm tree here, an electronic keyboard riff there, sprinkle in some cyberpunk or John Hughes references, and you’re golden. As a fan of the genre—nay, the lifestyle—though, one learns to discern artists who nevertheless put their all into a sincere spin on the sound—and I’m here to report that Dreamkid, with their self-titled debut, is the genuine article. With track titles like “America,” “Game Over,” and “Night Ride,” there’s one particular group whose neon-lit shadow hangs heavy over this project. But while The Midnight explored ballads and Eighties rock this year on Heroes, Dreamkid stakes their claim with a combo of cozy and pulse-pounding instrumentals layered with vocals uniquely evocative of Eiffel 65. From gaming anthem “Restart” to the plaintive refrain of “Parents” (“Mama said, ‘I’m sorry, but I gotta go—your daddy and I still love you so’.”), this is nostalgia incarnate—and sometimes, a little comfort goes a long way.
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2 – Dawn FM, The Weeknd
Few artists make music suited for both the bedroom floor and bathroom floor like The Weeknd, who followed up 2020’s outstanding After Hours with another torrid, time-centric LP: Dawn FM. A concept album presented as transmissions from a fictional, fantastical radio station, the sixteen core songs explore love, loss, and all the little pains in-between as that light at the end of the tunnel grows ever-brighter. Jim Carrey, of all people, plays a soothing DJ in several interludes, and even closes things out with an existential poetry reading. Along the way, “Gasoline” is a nihilistic banger, “Take My Breath” spins that three-word plea into another eminently hypnotic danceable track, and I still can’t decide whether my favorite line in “Here We Go… Again” is “make her scream like Neve Campbell” or Tyler, The Creator aggressively intoning “you gon sign this prenup.” If I’m looking to keep a smile on my face, I’ll probably keep Dawn FM out of my stereo, but when the sun is down and you’re short a plus-one, there’s no better soundtrack.
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1 – Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind, Coheed & Cambria
For the longest time, Coheed & Cambria was a band I liked in concept more than execution: a prog outfit whose discography is 95% concept albums set in an elaborate sci-fi universe, with the visuals and bombast to match. That changed with 2018’s Vaxis I: The Unheavenly Creatures, which embraced not only a new cast of characters unmoored from the alliterative couple but also shorter, poppier songs. The wait was agonizing, but 2022 finally brought us Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind—in this humble listener’s opinion, their best album yet. “The Embers of Fire” cranks the riff from Vaxis I’s “Up in Flames” to eleven, an opener sure to give even first-time listeners goosebumps, before delivering a dozen more tracks of straight fire indeed. Older C&C fans maybe bemoan the arena-rock production and new emphasis on electronic instrumentation, but for my money (spent on not only VIP concert tix but also the ultra collector’s edition), it’s only fitting for a band this nerdy to finally sound the part. The actual “story” is as thinly sketched as ever—most lyrics pull double duty as vague glimpses into a dysfunctional relationship—but after experiencing this many propulsive earworms under one cover, Vaxis III can’t enter our galaxy soon enough!
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SINGLES
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5- “emo girl,” Machine Gun Kelly & WILLOW
I already know I’m not getting invited to a party at Anthony Fantano’s any time soon, so I’ve got nothing to lose by saying I actually really liked “emo girl” by Machine Gun Kelly. The encircling album, Mainstream Sellout, unfortunately let me down in comparison to 2021’s surprise guilty pleasure Tickets to My Downfall—the hooks were weaker, MGK wastes a Bring Me the Horizon feature, and at least on the stream I listened to, the vocals were mixed like crap. Smack dab in the middle, though, comes this loud, boneheaded duet with WILLOW (easily having the best 2022 among Will Smith’s family), about the helpless appeal of a gal in fishnets and a Blink-182 shirt. Who else can relate?
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4 – “EDGING,” Blink-182
Speaking of Blink-182: Tom’s back! After 2019’s NINE saw Matt, Mark, and Travis kinda just going through the motions to fill time, what a joy it was to hear “EDGING,” the band’s lone 2022 release, get the band back together for the second time in… twenty years? Good lord. You can say the boys are still on autopilot here, but if only til the next album drops, two-and-a-half minutes of catchy, classically irreverent Blink is all it took to get in my top five.
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3 – “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,” Muse
I never know how to feel when Muse puts out a new album—from piano rock to glam, to dubstep, to synthwave, the troupe has constantly reinvented its sound while also not-unjustifiably being accused of copying their peers’ homework, all while maintaining a tinfoil-hatted persona that’s often more cringeworthy than cerebral. This culminated with 2022’s Will of the People, a distressingly aimless record that careens wildly between literal and figurative tones in search of a standout moment it never finds. At least, though, with an early-autumn street date, we got the delightfully groovy, creepy “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween,” which scorns an abusive partner while also being a certified spooky bop. For the holiday, one is usually stuck with “The Monster Mash” and some Danny Elfman tracks, but count this one amongst my annual October playlist from now on!
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2 – “Emergency Contact,” Pierce the Veil
There’s not much to report about my number two slot, except to say that it’s another classic emo group triumphantly returning to the airwaves: Pierce the Veil with “Emergency Contact.” While I wasn’t crazy about “Pass the Nirvana,” their other single from earlier in 2022, this tune gives me exactly what I look for from Vic and company: a portrait of chaotic yet enduring romance, with a chorus that won’t easily leave your head once it enters. If this track is any indication, the pending Jaws of Life LP will make for a worthy followup to 2016’s Misadventures!
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1 – “Don’t Let the Light Go Out,” Panic! at the Disco
As has been a theme with this list, the full album from which my top single of the year emerges left me lukewarm in sum: on Viva Las Vengeance, Panic! At the Disco pivoted from the brooding and/or operatic tenor of previous albums to functionally generic rock ‘n roll, buoyed only by Brendon Urie’s incomparably hyperactive voice. Indeed, the man likes to shout—but on “Don’t Let the Light Go Out,” he channels that gusto into the beseeching of a man laid low by heartache. When Brendon wails “you’re the only one that knows how to operate my heavy machinery,” the guitar seeming to beg along with him, it’s a peculiar yet immediately understandable metaphor, one which only grows in intensity with every repetition. To me, some of the best songs are the kind that sound as raucous and desperate as true love feels. P!atD may have long since have become a solo project, but when its frontman gets theatrical, I’ll always tune in to belt it out to the cheap seats—or just an empty passenger seat.
Notes&Sketches 