TVK Christmas Goose Special - Albums

Kyle Dies in Darkness

Kyle’s Top 5 Albums of 2024

5. Prelude to Ecstasy - The Last Dinner Party

As my dear friend Alex once described me, “If there’s an alt song where a woman’s singing in a high pitch, Kyle will like it.” And that rule in general holds.

The Last Dinner Party is an all female rock band that popped up on the scene in 2023; Prelude to Ecstasy is their debut album that released in February 2024. To my uneducated ears, they’ve got one hell of a unique sound, and their album is anything but samey; switching from operatics to guitar solos track to track. With a length of 41 minutes, it’s an easy sell.

Fav Song - “Nothing Matters”

4. Clancy - Twenty One Pilots

Listen I’m a white kid from the suburbs. I like Twenty One Pilots. It’s just that simple everybody. Did I go to one of there concerts one time and shut down because of how loud it was and all the lasers. Also yes. But let’s talk about the album.

Clancy is Twenty One Pilots’ sixth album, and an incredibly welcome return after releasing one of the most forgettable albums dropped during covid (I genuinely did not remember Scaled and Icy existed).

The album itself has a sort of sharp-grooviness about it. It makes me wanna slide around the kitchen in my socks while head banging at the same time - a feat I have accomplished.

In short, the band has been on the scene for a decade plus now. If you haven’t liked there music this isn’t gonna change your mind. But for those who might not have dabbled up to this point, this is probably my second favorite album of their’s and I give it a hearty recommendation.

Fav Song - “Lavish”

3. I Love You So F***ing Much - Glass Animals

If you haven’t put it together yet, this is pretty much a list of alt albums. What else did you expect?

I Love You So F***ing Much is Glass Animals Fourth album, and a welcome return after another covid album I really did not like. Starting to think maybe something was going on during that whole Covid thing eh?

Anyway to quote my friend Alex again - which by the way buddy two freaking quotes - “It’s kind of like they made the whole album out of Heat Waves.” This of course is fine by me, because Heat Waves was the only song I liked off Dreamland (their previous album.)

For a non-insular review of the album, it’s vibey as hell. As far as the overall sound, it is probably the most samey sounding of all the albums on this list; I would have a very hard time describing one song from another to anybody. But as someone who loves the sort of spacey-synth falsetto sound the band has buttered their bread with, this was exactly what I wanted.

Fav Song - ‘On the Run’

2. Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend

Paige is going to get the best review of this one: “It is… how do I say this… noisy.”

I am by no means a huge Vampire Weekend fan. After years of having the *duh nuh nuh nuh nuhnuhnuhnununh* opening guitar rift of A-Punk play as soon as I started my car (first song in the library) there was no small part of me that resented the band. There’s been a couple of singles here and there that I’ve liked - 2019’s ‘Harmony Hall’ comes to mind - but far from anything interesting enough to make me want to listen to a whole album.

Then this year 93XRT - the official radio station of the Virgin Kyle - started playing the song ‘Capricorn.’ I was like “that sounds weird as hell.” It was enough to get me to listen to the album. Boy do I not regret it. The first four tracks on this are so dang obnoxious, but in the best way. A genuine cacophony. Makes you feel like you're having stroke. 10/10 would recommend.

Fav Song - “Classical”

1. Short N’ Sweet - Sabrina Carpenter

Bet you bastards didn’t see this one coming! Shit I didn’t even totally see it coming. This was going to be number two, but then I put the album on while writing and couldn’t justify it.

I got introduced to Ms. Carpenter when my friend Andrew (who refuses to read this publication) sent me a TikTok of a Basset Hound refusing to go on a walk. The accompanying music was the hit song ‘Please Please Please.’ See rule 1.

I listened to the album driving back from D.C. this summer (same day I got my bar results), and while I thought it was good it didn’t wow me. I put it to rest in the catacombs of downloaded albums to be forgotten in my Apple Music.

Then came December first. The Economist released there list of top albums of 2024. As someone who’s really cool, I obviously read it. Lo and behold Short N’ Sweet made it on the list, reminding me of its existence. I said, “I did like that album, how about another listen.”

I don’t know what happened in the last three months, but I am now god-damn obsessed with this album. There’s certainly a degree of irony which I revel in, similar to when I got really into Lorde in high school and everyone would go “really?” and I’d go “hell ya.” But more than that it is just so much fun to listen to. For someone who doesn’t really like pop music at all, it’s the most interesting stuff I’ve heard from that genre in a minute.

Fav Song - ‘Please Please Please’

Fin

That’s it for this list everybody. Send in a picture of your reading every Christmas Goose Special for the chance to win a non-expense paid trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands!

Be Well.