TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2024

It’s that time of the year, folks, where we reflect on the very best that was! In this feature, we’ll be looking strictly at full-length records. Most of the inclusions you’ll find on this list I’ve already reviewed in one form or another this year, so in those cases I’ll be excerpting from those reviews and linking to the original, but also adding any additional thoughts, notes, or context where relevant as well. We’ll start the list with a record that was not previously reviewed, however, and that is…

10. Contention-Artillery From Heaven

Savage, visceral debut from the Tampa straight edge metallic hardcore outfit. If you took the best of the bands Mother of Mercy and Bitter End and combined them, you’d have Contention.

9. Ski Mask the Slump God-11th Dimension

The rap album of the year for me. Some excerpts of what I said in my review of it in June (full text here):

A kaleidoscopic vision of dark trap-adjacent tracks that reach out tentacle-like across the modern rap landscape and beyond. There’s "Headrush" with a kind of "Crazy Train"-sounding riff in it, the heavily distorted trap beat of "Hulk," the unique, house fly buzz beat of "Tuk Tuk," the beat on "KillStreak" that sounds like a Nintendo console gone homicidal, and The Weeknd-like "Go!" featuring Corbin…With hardcore band brevity—only two of the twenty-one tracks even hit three minutes, and barely at that when they do—Ski Mask the Slump God rips through high energy bangers like "Full Moon" or the dripping with menace "Part the Sea" in a pretty short drive from there to a full-on mosh pit, and yet he proves he can throttle it back where necessary, too, such as on the first verse of the chilled-out ballad "WDYM," or, in moves which really evidence his talent and versatility, in showcasing his strong singing voice on that track and "Go!"—two of the best cuts on the record.

8. With Sails Ahead-Infinite Void

The New Jersey progressive/post-hardcore heavyweights come in here at the number eight spot; excerpting from my April review of the record (full text here):

One of the first things that stood out to me about this band is that they can seriously write hooks. What’s more, while there’s a clear instrumental proficiency, this never overwhelms the songs themselves. The songwriting and songcraft is clearly prioritized over showiness, and it shows. "Honey," for example, follows the playbook of most pop songwriting where the vocals drive the melody of the chorus, which pays major replayability dividends; the appearance of pulses. later in the track signals a climactic burst of aggression that has as an interesting darkness-and-light kind of interplay and is a surprising but effective resolution to the song. Another surprising and intriguing moment occurs on "Lemongrab," where the band fairly abruptly fades out and from what sounds like another room a lone acoustic guitar accompanies [Sierra] Binondo’s ethereal vocals to haunting but beautiful effect. I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises here, though.

7. Knocked Loose-You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

This band does not miss. Every record is somehow more urgent, more comically heavy, and has just enough little wrinkles to keep things interesting. Knocked Loose have gotten bigger than anyone could have ever expected for a band this preposterously heavy. For a relatively young band, they’re also already becoming massively influential—indeed, even their recording style on this album, with its hyper-compressed sound, is proving to be so. I don’t know how it’s possible for them to continue to up the ante moving forward, but they’ve managed so far!

6. Charli xcx-Brat

I’m channeling my inner teenage girl with this one, and I don’t care: what Charli xcx has done here is take Y2K-style pop and dance music and hybridize, modernize, and elevate it to pure perfection. Songs like "360," "Rewind," and "Apple" are among the catchiest tracks of the year (I’d submit "360" is the single catchiest song of the year, in fact), and bookending the record with "360" and its sonic re-interpretation in "365" was a stroke of genius. Everything about the rollout of the record and its remixed cousin Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat has been maximally effective and has caught the attention of everyone from the mainstream to the alternative.

5. Diamond Construct-Angel Killer Zero

The Australian "metal trap" monsters Diamond Construct come in for me here at the five spot; excerpting my review of the record from May (full text here):

There’s a scene in one of the Matrix films, I can’t recall which, when Neo jacks back into the Matrix to find the Agent Smith virus running amok and the entire simulation essentially coming apart at the seams. From when the opening track of Angel Killer Zero "Hashira" hits, the experience is roughly analogous (underscored by moments such as the "system malfunction" outro on the ludicrously-heavily "Delirium"), and we’re not let off this glitchy, skronky ride until the "Angel Killer Zero program [is] complete…terminating simulation" at the end of the final track "You Want That Scene Shit," itself an anguished roar that feels like it could rip the sky asunder. It's only just hyperbolic when I say my speakers can barely handle this record; there are breakdowns on this album that played at proper volume (loud) could conceivably make city skylines collapse.

4. Twin Atlantic-Meltdown

The Glaswegian alternative rock/power pop outfit Twin Atlantic sound energized and razor-sharp on Meltdown, their best album in over a decade and a half in existence. As I said in my August Shout-Outs entry:

Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic may lead off Meltdown with a riff that sounds an awful lot like Incubus’s "Privilege," but the heart and soul, if you’ll pardon the pun, of the album lies much closer to that of bands like You Me At Six. Twin Atlantic have written a number of legitimately great rock songs throughout their career, but Meltdown is their most complete offering to date, with the songs falling roughly into one of two camps: the buoyant, arena-worthy pop-rock numbers like "Get Out" and the more pensive—but no less impressive in their careful crafting—ones like "Sorry." Beyond the top-tier songwriting, the album is lyrically strong and often deeply resonated with me. Meltdown is one of my favorite releases of the year so far…

…and it has remained so!

3. Bring Me the Horizon-Post Human: NeX GEn

Bring Me the Horizon are The Clash of modern metalcore, insofar as they can be called metalcore. As I said in my Top Five Albums of the 20s (So Far) about this album:

Whereas Survival Horror was more of the global apocalypse/dystopia, NeX GEn is more of the internal one. Granted a song like "YOUtopia" carries in it a more hopeful note, but the album is mostly predominated by struggling with and looking at the dark side of mental health and addiction. That beauty and pain—often inextricably intertwined—is part of what makes NeX GEn such a resonant record, along with the exceptional songwriting that mines some hyperpop and post-hardcore, but especially emo. Indeed, frontman Oli Sykes has talked about songs like "Die4U" as part of his vision for "future emo," and that definitely comes through. A cohesive project packed with standout singles as well, songs like "Die4U" and "R.i.p. (duskCOre Remix)" evidence, to quote Tom Ewing talking about Azealia Banks’s "212," "details and decisions that suggest a scary degree of pop talent." Indeed, this band’s ability to write what are fundamentally Top 40 pop hits (or should be hits) with this degree of consistency and with this strike rate—not just on this album but across multiple records—is rare and impressive enough in its own right, but to have said songs hybridized in the fashion they have with other genres and influences while constantly evolving their sound puts Bring Me the Horizon in a truly elite, all-time tier.

2. Four Year Strong-Analysis Paralysis

For a band that already belongs on the Mount Rushmore of easycore, Four Year Strong could have easily rested on their laurels rather than spending the last decade of their career consistently evolving their sound. Like Bring Me the Horizon, for a band this far into their career to be this innovative and to sound this fresh and vital is remarkable. As I said in my August review of the record (full text here):

analysis paralysis is the logical progression from Brain Pain, building on the band’s full embrace of the decade of pastel colors and Clintonian extramarital affairs with an increased willingness to experiment and combine influences in a way that is both nostalgic and fresh…It’s also their most overtly hardcore/metalcore record so far, yet they’ve lost none of the catchiness of their career to date, nor have they punted on modernizing their foundational influences, instead incorporating yet more of them and in a combination that sounds fresh and vibrant. I’m not sure any other band could’ve pulled off a track like "bad habit": pop punk meets Third Eye Blind with a big breakdown and an anthemic chorus that reminds me strongly of—and I’m sure is intentionally meant to evoke—Steve Miller Band’s "Abracadabra," with a Bilmuri-esque "hoouh!" It’s really quite impressive. Speaking of breakdowns, the band’s decision to drop in the "Rollercoaster of Love" sample before the breakdown in "rollercoaster" is extremely advanced, on the Bilmuri/Kevin James sample tier.

1. Bilmuri-American Motor Sports (420CC Edition)

…And speaking of Bilmuri, here we are at the top spot of 2024’s best albums! Having former Attack Attack! members going 2/2 on albums of the year over the last two years (Beartooth’s The Surface was my top pick last year) was not on my bingo card, but this clearly speaks to the talent of that much-maligned group who, it must be said, literally created their own subgenre of metalcore. Hated at the time, like Limp Bizkit I do believe they’ll eventually become—are already in the process of becoming—beloved. At any rate, American Motor Sports, which was already in my Honorable Mentions for my Top Five Albums of the 20s (So Far) when I published it in July only continued to climb my rankings as the year progressed and I couldn’t stop listening to it; the 420CC Edition put it over the top with four additional tracks rounding out the (as I described it in that article) "hook-laden…bleeding edge of pop- and emo-infused country-core" proceedings, complete with a healthy dose of 80s-style saxophone, humor and self-awareness but also real depth and emotion. It’s a great record that, as previously stated, has already only matured into an even better one with the combination of time and appreciation on my end and the new track additions.

WHITECHAPEL TOUR CANCELATION, PHIL BOZEMAN, AND MENTAL HEALTH

Whitechapel recently announced they’d be backing out of a spate of tour dates with Thy Art Is Murder for frontman Phil Bozeman to focus on his mental health. While the decision must be disappointing to fans, it is commendable for the fact that not only has Bozeman chosen to prioritize his mental health, but for the manner of transparency with which he has elucidated said decision to fans. Rarely do we see artists be this real about their struggles, and I have the utmost respect for Bozeman for opening up in the way he has, knowing how unforgiving and nasty the increasingly-toxic online discourse can be. There are several things from the statement, with quotes sourced from the Lambgoat news story, I want to unpack here, after again reiterating my respect for the Whitechapel vocalist and applauding him for not just vocalizing his experiences around mental health but for confronting his demons and taking the more difficult but ultimately more life-affirming and sustainable path. From personal experience making changes and walking the road of recovery from obsessive-compulsive disorder, I know it is not, to quote Matt Codde from Restored Minds, "a journey for the faint of heart."

For context, Bozeman states:

I have had a traumatic childhood; I've been on mental health medications since I was a teenager. I started to come off of them because I wanted to. I wanted to try to not rely on medication months back. And it has had a very bad effect on me. I [have] been having mental health issues. I've been on Zoloft ever since I was a teenager. For those of you that don't know, the childhood I'm talking about is my dad passing away when I was 10 years old, and then my mom passing away around five years later from drug abuse and…Yeah, and from an early age, I was put on Zoloft. And that basically numbed me for 30 years. And I had tried to come off this medication before, and that didn't go well. I tried to stop to cold turkey, and that just did not work at all. But I tried to do it again recently, and I did it the right way. I tapered off. And, yeah, it seems as if… It it's not making me necessarily worse, but I've just haven't felt…because I've been numbed for 30 years, and coming off of it like the way I have, has been the healthy way, but it's also come with consequences. And I have not felt things that I should have felt in those past 30 years. And it [has], you know, really affected me [I'm] very, very emotional. And I'm gonna try not to choke up on you guys here…I'm just coming to you as just a normal person. I'm just a normal person, just like all of you. And yeah, I just…With the love and support of all the guys in the band, my family, my fiancée, I'm going to correct this. And [I] want to get better for not only myself, and my family, and friends, but also for you guys, so that I can continue to perform at the level that is expected of me. And, yeah, it's, you know, in this metal community, we, a lot of us, found metal because of, you know, having our own mental health issues, and that was the same for me. And yeah, it's, it's a real thing. And I encourage all of you who may be dealing with stuff like this—or whatever mental health issue that you're dealing with — is that you, you do seek help, you do talk to people you don't just keep it in. I've made that mistake a lot, and just don't make that mistake. Talk to people in your life, professionals. Mental health is the foundation of our life.

While I don’t know Bozeman and certainly can’t speak with any authority on the particulars of what he’s experiencing, I can speak to my own experience and what I know of the process of changing our relationships with thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Pain comes in many forms, whether it be emotional, psychological, or physical—indeed, I’ve come to find that these experiences are often not siloed, particularly when it comes to navigating our internal worlds in the context of mental health. Sustaining a physical injury is clearly one thing, but even then, the loss of the ability to perform likely will not come without some psychological and/or emotional cost. My purpose here is not to get into the weeds on this, but more to provide a counterpoint to the mainstream discourse around the relationships between different experiences and the relationships we can have with those experiences that is not all that useful and is often quite limiting. There is much we don’t know, and much that is not discussed or dismissed. Individual experiences will be just that—individual—and they will manifest in different ways. One area we see this intersection is when individuals in an OCD recovery context practice cutting out compulsions, they will often experience a wide array of physical symptoms and sensations as the body’s response, in addition to confronting the emotional pain and trauma that have been buried under the compulsions.

I am not a medical doctor and the inclusion of the above quotes and this discussion should in no way be taken as instruction or medical advice for the reader; one should seek out professional oversight on any issues related to medication. What I will say is that whatever method(s) people use to numb pain, including any kind of avoidance mechanisms, when we confront that pain, there will be difficult experiences we need to navigate. Mark Freeman has likened recovery from mental health disorders like OCD to an onion, and as we peel back these different layers, we will often be confronted with intense experiences; this is an opportunity for us to "confront those monsters in the wilderness," to quote Freeman, and practice changing our relationship with these experiences. This journey isn’t limited to any kind of diagnosis, though—as Freeman has stated, it’s really applicable to any kinds of major (or even minor) changes we make as we explore a healthier way of interacting with our environment, internal or external.

Dealing with traumatic loss would be no exception. If we’ve spent our lives running from pain and/or trying to mask pain, we’re essentially rejecting this part of ourselves that needs to be tended to with care and lovingkindness. Society as it is presently constructed does not only often pathologize normal human experience, but, to quote the band Torpor from my interview with them early this year, "Society in its current form is hostile to existence. We're all made to feel as though anxiety or depression are abnormal reactions to being asked to cope with the endless battles we all fight on a daily basis." This is, as Bozeman so perfectly states, where the value of community and supports can be so helpful, as we navigate all of the tumult internal and external, trying to make peace. The fundamental organization of The Angels’ Share is built around a communal space where we can come together over a shared love of music and talk about important topics like mental health in a nonjudgmental environment. It’s why I don’t do negative reviews. It’s why the focus of the site is on giving, not getting. All of this is to say I wish Bozeman well on his journey, and I commend him for recognizing the work ahead and and his generosity in sharing his most personal experiences with us when he didn’t have to. None of us "have it all figured out," so instead of tearing each other down or hiding behind a façade of cynicism, we should support each other in this thing called life. All my best to you, reader, on your journey, wherever it takes you.

THE MT. RUSHMORE OF HIP-HOP ALBUMS

"Hey! Martial arts fan! Are you ready to get your guts kicked out? Well, get ready! The Angels’ Share has just given you a dare! Dare you face the biggest karate/kung-fu blockbuster of them all?"

I’ve often wondered about "Big Fours" or Mt. Rushmores, if you will, for certain genres, be they songs, artists, or albums. In some areas, the debate is pretty much settled: you’ve got your "Big Four" thrash bands with Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer, for example. But what about other areas where there is more actual debate? Given the size and scope, I thought instead of trying to tackle these various debates solo, I would enlist expert assistance from a few friends of the site for their views, focusing here on hip-hop albums in the first of what will be an irregular series of "Mt. Rushmore" pieces. I left the question of what exactly the criteria would be for inclusion up to the individual, and I think you’ll be interested in what they settled on and why. Was it most iconic or influential? Was it more personal or genre-defining? Classic or contemporary? Read on to find out:

Tamara Harris (Kick Mag) says:

Here is my list of the four most important albums in hip-hop:

Run DMC: Raising Hell 1986

This is the first true hip-hop crossover album. They announced in "King Of Rock" that hip-hop was the new rock and roll, and they made a video replacing The Beatles' wigs on mannequins with their hats. They were letting everyone know that guitar rock was dead and hip-hop was not a fad. On Raising Hell, they proved this by collaborating with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" because it was like an honest passing of the baton and it broke rap music into the mainstream. The song is also considered to be the first rap and rock collaboration. They were also the first rap artists to have their videos played on MTV, and it started with the video for "Rock Box" from their first album. The video for "Walk This Way" was one of the most played ever on the network. A lot of Black artists could not get their videos aired on MTV.  Raising Hell is the first platinum and multiplatinum hip-hop record. "My Adidas" opened the door for the first endorsement deal between a music group and an athletic company. Rappers sell everything now, thanks to Run DMC. They were hip-hop's earliest stars and were doing arena tours at their peak. 

Salt-N-Pepa: Hot, Cool, & Vicious 1986 

The first album by a woman rap group to go platinum. Sha-Rock of the Funky 4+1 is the first female rapper (I despise the term "female"); however, Salt-N-Pepa became the embodiment of women in rap due to their successful industry career. "Push It' was controversial because people thought it was about sex. The women were told if they performed the song they would be arrested. They had to prove that it was really about pushing it on the dancefloor. They were talking about sex in the '90s and they also glammed it up. They paved the way for every woman rapper after them.  They are also the first woman hip-hop act to have a Lifetime biopic that unfortunately stained their legacy because of the DJ Spinderella exclusion. 

2 Live Crew: As Nasty As They Wanna Be 1989

The 2 Live Crew are pioneers in southern hip-hop and the issue of censorship in music. It is the first album declared legally obscene. Members of the group were arrested in 1990 for performing some of the songs at a strip club in Broward County, Florida. A store owner was arrested for selling a copy of this album. The group also had clean versions of their albums. The copyright owners of "Oh, Pretty Woman" filed a lawsuit against the 2 Live Crew and the United States Supreme Court ruled that the parody was fair use and did not infringe. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned the obscenity ruling. All this drama led up to them releasing the follow-up album, Banned in the U.S.A., for which Bruce Springsteen allowed them to sample "Born in the U.S.A." 

N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton 1988

Schoolly D and Ice-T did gangsta rap first, but N.W.A. crossed over from the underground into the mainstream, and their influence is still felt to this day. "Fuck tha Police" talked about the kind of racial profiling that unfortunately still exists. George Floyd is a reminder of this, along with the rise of Black Lives Matter. The assistant director of the FBI sent a letter to their label Priority because of this song. The police refused to provide security at a lot of their shows, which made it difficult to tour. This album was one of the first to have a parental advisory sticker. Despite being banned from radio airplay, it became the first gangsta rap album to go platinum. Unfortunately, they are also pioneers in misogyny as well. "Express Yourself" was their only radio-friendly song. 

Poetical Nadz says:

My top 4 greatest hip hop albums of all time is from a personal point of view, rather than looking at the overall contribution and effect an album had on hip-hop culture as a whole. As a nineties baby and someone who grew up in Jamaica, reggae was predominantly on the airwaves, so when I first heard hip-hop it took me by surprise and to this day, I'm still learning a lot about it!

Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - most influential in my opinion, influencing singers, rappers and producers. Definitely a no skip album, so much emotions and so much effort and passion put into every track. In my opinion the whole album is a masterpiece, there's no faults or bad songs. One that I go back to every now and then to get some inspiration. 

Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly - was genre defining because of its unique sounds. Nobody was sounding like Missy did and nobody still isn't sounding like her nowadays either! Timbaland's production also stood out to me from then till now. I always admire how he had his own signature sound and how he could add any sound, like a baby laughing or birds chirping to his productions and they would still sound great!

2Pac -All Eyez On Me - is a personal favourite of mines, very poetic, rebellious and at times playful. Presented as a double album as well just made it even better. All the tracks told a story and definitely captivated me as a listener. It's one of the albums that made me realise how powerful words can truly be to evoke emotions in others! It's a classic, it's timeless and definitely one I'll always have in my collection. 

Nas - Stillmatic- this album not only has one of the best diss tracks ever (ether) but it was released in 2001, 4 months after I arrived in the UK from Jamaica. During a time that was rough, I found solace in the wider variety of hip-hop/rap music I was now exposed to. This album is one of the many that helped to shape my awareness of hip-hop and influenced my decisions to become a lyricist/beatmaker.

Abstract Sekai says:

No Pac, No Biggie. No problem. I've never been one for controversy, but don't expect a "just kidding" after that opening line because I wasn't. I won't say much about any of these because music to me is a feeling hard to put in words, funny I say this being a musician myself, but I guess maybe that's the divide between creating and listening, so Big Four, let's get to it in no particular order:

1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

L boogie, what's there to say about this album that hasn't already been said. I'm yet to, and dare not meet anyone who doesn't at least have this gem in their top 10. As for me. Well we know it's a top 5 no brainer. A perfect blend of poetry, soulfulness and straight up rap Lauryn showed us her lethality didn't end in her Fugees days and that was no fluke ( let's be honest and admit she was the best rapper amongst the trio). Going solo was probably the best decision not for herself but for the gift she would give the world. This album continues to stand the test of time. This album will be talked about for many more years to come.

Favorite Track: Final Hour

2.  Mm.. Food

What's a list without your favorite rapper's favorite rapper, The Man, the Myth, the Legend.  I  honestly had a serious tug between Madvillain and Mm.. Food but remembering lines like " Rap snitches, telling all their business, sitted in court they be their own star witness" or "jealousy the number one killer amongst black folk" made my decision easier. This one is the unsung hero in MF Doom's catalog. Genre defining?, I wouldn't say. Influential, maybe not. But Mm.. food to me is that Gem on the B side no one expects, and because most people don't even get to the B-side...well maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Favorite Track: Deep Fried Frenz

3. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Man if Wu- Tang is for the children then consider me an infant.  Most influential Hip-Hop album? I'll vouch for it. After all we still talk about it like it came out yesterday.  The Wu-Tang Clan’s dive into cult classic kung fu movie flicks, insane and surgical deliveries from the likes of GZA, Raekwon and my favorite Method Man was a breath of fresh air at the time. No one was doing what Wu was doing, and for me that step into their own space with what was a colossal release, is the reason they still stand today. The album gave us classics like C.R.E.AM and Clan In Da Front and who can forget that blend of Hip-Hop and martial arts. This one needs no words, those do no justice.  This one you just have to plug-in,  play and listen to what a bunch of friends were up to in 1993.

Favorite Track: Method-Man

4. Dr. Octagonecologyst

Abstract you rap weird, and this is why. This one for me is personal, this one for me told me it's okay to rap Abstractly,  about anything and everything, this one for me was genre defining, this one for me was I too want to rap over trip-hop beats about science and space and all that other stuff people don't rap about. This for me was plain and simple I just want to rap. What Dr Octagon and Dan the Automator did on this beautiful solo album I'll never forget, this one I've been told is an odd choice whenever I mention my favorite albums. It never seems to fit in for most people and yet for me it's home itself.

Favorite Track: Blue Flowers (Revisited)

(You can read my interview with Abstract Sekai here)

For my personal Mt. Rushmore, Ice Cube had an incredible run on his first four albums and Common was on fire from Resurrection through Be and any of those would warrant consideration—and I also absolutely love The Coup’s Party Music—but ultimately my four would have to be Wu Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), Big L’s The Big Picture, J Dilla’s The Shining, and the fourth spot would be a hotly-contested battle between two very different albums in The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and BONES’s PaidProgramming. (Side note: after reading Tamara Harris’s contribution, I thought long and hard about including NWA and 2 Live Crew both for my personal Rushmore and the larger, genre-wide one; I ultimately swapped out one of my initial picks for the genre-wide one for NWA’s Straight Outta Compton). That Wu Tang record is like the Glengarry Glen Ross of rap albums, an all-male ensemble cast at the height of its powers. The production is menacing, grimy, and murky in all the best ways, and it served as the more sonically rough-and-tumble East Coast counterpoint to the g funk exploding out of the West Coast. For those reasons, I would also include Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) on what I’ll call the more macro Mt. Rushmore of hip-hop/rap. Big L is to me the most gifted MC of all time, one we tragically lost way too young, and J Dilla’s The Shining—another posthumous album along with The Big Picture—is a masterclass in production. And speaking of masterclasses in production, the second album I’d put on the macro Mt. Rushmore would have to be the signature g funk record that signaled a complete sea-change in the sound and culture of mainstream rap in Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, which I discuss in more depth in this Death Row Records Top Five.

My third inclusion here as mentioned above is NWA’s Straight Outta Compton, one of the first modern-sounding hip-hop records and of which I think Tamara does an excellent job explicating. For the last selection, I thought about both Tupac and Biggie and the Tupac and Biggie of the latest generation in XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD, but I’m not sure X has "that one" album, and though Juice WRLD’s Death Race for Love is a modern classic, I think for both rappers not enough time has passed for us to fully assess their legacy. There are so many great options from the pre-Chronic days like EPMD’s Strictly Business, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, or Eric B. and Rakim’s Paid In Full or from the golden era—Illmatic, Ready to Die, All Eyez on Me, Doggystyle, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx—but given its seismic impact and impressive range, for the fourth spot, I’ve got to go with Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. As Gall Mitchell writes, it "still endures as one of hip-hop’s most influential musical feats. Its melodious mélange of R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, gospel, pop and reggae provided the perfect accompaniment to the Fugees linchpin’s emotive vocals, raps and searingly honest perspectives on life’s and love’s ups and downs, motherhood and God."

WHY DOES THE ANGELS’ SHARE EXIST?

Not long after I turned eighteen, I had an experience that triggered such intense anxiety it felt like my very being was coming apart. I spent months in this state, even experiencing episodes of derealization as I struggled to make sense of what was happening and why I should suddenly have had my world upended. The exact details are relatively unimportant; what I came to learn after going to my school guidance counselor and being referred to a psychologist was that I was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. While we should not identify with a diagnosis, it was helpful to at least understand what I was dealing with. That at least set me on what became an extremely long and winding path to discovering the concept of recovery. Over the next sixteen years, though, I would ultimately leave talk therapy as it was only providing reassurance and layering compulsions. I spent most of my life toggling between internal states of intense anxiety and practicing avoidance of whatever might trigger that anxiety and "living above the neck" in a state of pseudo-detachment so I wouldn’t have to experience the brunt of those sensations. I got degrees, made friends, worked, essentially functioned as a "normal" person, but my internal environment was always driving my behavior as I reacted to or away from whatever thoughts or sensations the false alarms in my brain and body would send.

As it happened, around mid-2022, I happened upon this video and learned that: 1) what I was experiencing was actually a "kind" of OCD and most of my compulsions were happening right in my head; 2) it wasn’t any different than any other "kind" of OCD; and 3) wait…what? Did he just say someone could get over OCD? I was always told this was chronic. I spent the next half year researching and "lone wolfing" some potpourri idea of "recovery," mostly just spiking anxiety and ruminating in my head, subjecting myself to needless distress in the thought I was somehow getting better. After another episode in December of that year, I was feeling almost as bad as ever, and I said to my wife, "I can’t live like this anymore." I needed real help, and if recovery were indeed possible, I needed guidance—and thankfully I found a great program.

We’ll set that narrative down here for a second to address what exactly this has to do with a music website. I’ve talked about the genesis of the name and the impetus for starting the site a few times in interviews, such as with Tamara Harris of Kick Mag, and that is in essence the origin story. But the real driving force behind the decision was that as my journey to recovery progressed, it became about shifting the focus as Mark Freeman puts it from getting to giving. What did I want to create and bring into the world? What did I want to build rather than react to or shy away from? Certainly there would be occasions to explore the intersection of mental health and music where relevant and appropriate (such as my Beartooth and Many Eyes reviews, where those releases really resonated with me as I’ve "explored the wilderness" on my journey), and this would be an opportunity for me to share what I’ve learned about mental health and mental fitness. Beyond that, though, it’s also about having the chance to talk to and about artists I believe in, to animate my efforts with positive energy, and most crucially to both live according to my values and explore building community through the site and around music. Community and values have been crucial as I’ve moved toward recovery. It is about creating the life we want to live, one not made small by fear but nourished and grown through care and consideration; it is about moving toward the things we want to see in this world. This is why The Angels’ Share exists.