Cosmicosmo's Top 5 Albums of 2024
T h e O n l y C o r r e c t O p i n i o n ™
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Maymung's debut is titled with a self-deprecation it completely fails to earn. What gets me about this record is how structurally confident it is for a first album, like every track already knows exactly where it lives and why it's sitting next to the thing beside it. The whole thing builds toward something without announcing that it's building, and then it's over and you're already hitting play again.
Nothing is going to top To See the Next Part of the Dream (an album that caused several aspiring shoegazers to pivot to instagram infographic posting), and honestly I don't think Sky Hundred is trying to. It feels like a deliberate step sideways. Same emotional density, same wall-of-sound instincts, just a different room. The complexity is all still in there, it just takes a few more listens to find it. Worth finding though.
In an era where genre-blending often feels more like genre-smashing, Fetus has accomplished something remarkable with b1 b2: creating an electronic album that serves both as a master class for the initiated and an inviting entry point for the uninitiated. It's a record that understands its lineage; from early trance to contemporary drum and bass; while refusing to be constrained by it. Each track feels like a carefully curated museum exhibit of electronic music's potential, but one where you're encouraged to touch everything with your sticky fingers. The atmospheric qualities aren't just window dressing bullshit either; they're load-bearing structures supporting an experience that DEMANDS and REWARDS full immersion. In short, even if you have determined that you absolutely hate computer music, you should give this your full attention from start to finish. (This also isn't the only TREKKIE TRAX entry on this list, which means run, don't walk, to go listen to their entire fucking catalogue.)
Virtua exists in your memories of your school's computer room, loading up Encarta 95 or Thinking Things 3 for educational (???) purposes. The artist formerly known as Ringtail (who released on Hyperpop no less!) has created something that transcends mere pastiche, delivering a love letter to educational software soundtracks that somehow avoids feeling like a cheap novelty. The opening track sets up what could have been a one-note joke but instead blooms into a real and earned emotional journey. In just six tracks, trndytrndy manages to capture both the wide-eyed wonder of discovering multimedia computer CD-ROMs and the bittersweet recognition of how those moments shaped us. It's an album that shouldn't work as well as it does, yet here we are.
In a year where electronic music's old guard seemed content to rest on their laurels, Fellsius's Blue arrives like a bolt of lightning, illuminating just how stagnant electronic dance music had become. It's the kind of record that makes you re-evaluate your relationship with electronic music as a whole. Each track is a masterclass in sound design that somehow never loses sight of its emotional core, a rare feat in a genre that often prioritizes technical prowess or marketability over feeling. The question "how did he do that?" becomes less relevant than "why hasn't anyone done this before?" It's the kind of album that feels like it's simultaneously paying respect to and completely reimagining its genre, and it does so with a confidence that makes innovation feel inevitable rather than forced. (Side note, but this album art reminds me so heavily of a parallel universe where Myst was developed in Japan; I often find myself staring at it while I listen to the album, as if I'll unlock some deeper meaning or enter the 'age' of the cover itself.) If I could, I'd make this required material for anybody who wants to speak with me, just so we could gush about how incredible this album is.
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