Top 10 Best Albums of October

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, finding interesting releases was sort of difficult last month since a lot of underground artists dropped new projects and kind of cluttered AOTY.org with random stuff. HOWEVER, October has seen some really good new releases and once again, I‘m going to be ranking my favorites.

10. TAKE CARE- BigXthaPlug (8.1/10)

R&B, Southern hip hop, trap

15 tracks, 31 minutes

Best tracks: Mmhmm, Law & Order, Take Care

Worst track (???): Words from WALLO267 (interlude)

BigXthaPlug’s sophomore album is a short, sweet, and soulful project, employing wonderful storytelling, chill production, ok-good instrumentals, and a nice flow/cadence from BigX himself.

9. Cutouts- The Smile (7.9/10)

Art rock, ambient pop, krautrock

10 tracks, 44 minutes

Best tracks: Zero Sum, Eyes & Mouth 

Worst track: Tiptoe

Although not very interesting for the first few tracks, the second album this year from Radiohead’s side project The Smile is far more mysterious and intriguing than meets the eye, becoming more dense and atmospheric as the tracklist goes on.

8. Glimmer of God- Jean Dawson (8.1/10)

Alt pop, art pop, synthpop

15 tracks, 42 minutes

Best tracks: Darlin’, Die For Me (ft. Lil Yachty)

Worst track: Murciélago

Glimmer of God is a warm, psychedelic art pop album with insane production, wonderful vocals, and spacey instrumentals that essentially make this look like a lesser but good version of Frank Ocean’s Blonde.

7. LYFESTYLE- Yeat (8.2/10)

Rage, industrial hip hop, trap

21 tracks, 1 hour & 2 minutes

Best tracks: LYFESTYLE (with Lil Durk), SO WHAT, GEEK TIMË, ORCHESTRATË, GO2WORK (with Summrs)

Worst track: BE QUIET (with Kodak Black)

Rage and plug titan Noah Smith’s 2nd album of 2024 packs quite a punch, with grinding production, fun lyrics, interesting experimentation, and assistance from Kodak Black, Don Toliver, Summrs, and an autotuned Lil Durk.

6. Spiral In a Straight Line- Touché Amoré (8.2/10)

Screamo, post-hardcore, melodic hardcore

11 tracks, 31 minutes

Best tracks: Goodbye For Now (ft. Julien Baker), Disasters, Mezzanine 

Worst track: Force of Habit 

One of screamo’s most influential groups has dropped their 7th album overall. Spiral In a Straight Line features a more melodic and atmospheric feel to it, while also retaining the band’s distinctly heavy instrumentals and hard-hitting lyrical content.

5. MG Ultra- Machine Girl (8.4/10)

Digital hardcore, DnB, synth punk

13 tracks, 44 minutes

Best tracks: Sick!!!, Until I Die, Psychic Attack, Interface

Worst tracks: House of Mirrors (interlude)

The dynamic duo of programmer Matt Stephenson and live drummer Sean Kelly’s latest release happens to be their most aggressive as well, featuring loud vocals, unhinged instrumentals, and extremely weighty production.

4. Absolute Elsewhere- Blood Incantation (8.6/10)

Progressive death metal, space rock, Berlin School/kosmische musik, technical death metal 

6 tracks, 43 minutes 

Best tracks: The Message [Tablet III], The Stargate [Tablet I)

Worst track: N/A

Absolute Elsewhere is an album that makes the most of its short tracklist, with its ridiculously fun blend of kosmische musik (an electronic subgenre originally developed by the German group Tangerine Dream) passages, slow-burning, Pink Floyd-esque space rock jams, and increasingly technical death metal hitters  that remind me heavily of groups such as Gojira and Between The Buried and Me. It’s probably the most peculiar metal album of the year so far.

3. Cool World- Chat Pile (8.8/10)

Sludge metal, noise rock, gothic rock 

10 tracks, 43 minutes 

Best tracks: All

Worst tracks: N/A

The sophomore album from Oklahoma City-based angry music band Chat Pile ditches the pure lyrical shock factor and excessive cursing of their 2022 debut, God’s Country, replacing it with genuine interest and concern for the subject matter being discussed. Covering topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the military-industrial complex, the horrors of PTSD, chattel slavery/involuntary servitude, and the US military's now-overturned "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, everything about this album, from the production to the vocals, is gritty and terrifying. It mercilessly throws you into the most disturbing parts of the modern world that the media and mainstream society don't want you to see. 

2. “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD”- Godspeed You! Black Emperor (10/10)

Post-rock, chamber music, orchestral, drone

6 tracks, 54 minutes 

Best tracks: All 

Worst tracks: N/A

GY!BE’s look into the ongoing war between the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas, and its allies serves as a horrifying reminder of the atrocities committed by Israeli forces against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip and, most recently, Lebanon. It’s entirely instrumental aside from samples, yet it proves that actions (in this case sweeping violins, reverb-heavy guitar solos, ambient drones, and somber bagpipe melodies) speak louder than words. It really is just an insane listen overall.

1. The New Sound- Geordie Greep (10/10)

Jazz-rock, progressive rock, avant-prog, jazz fusion, Latin rock

11 tracks, 1 hour & 2 minutes 

Best songs: All (but particularly Motorbike (ft. Seth Evans), Blues, The Magician, Holy, Holy) 

Worst tracks: absolutely positively n/a at all

Geordie Greep’s The New Sound, as well as being AOTY’s 2nd highest-rated album of the year, is also one of the best albums of all time according to the same site. It’s a whimsical journey into the mind of the former Black Midi frontman, whose incredible voice and deeply emotional lyrics weave together with wonderfully textured and charming instrumentals to create a beautiful sonic palette that makes King Crimson and Pink Floyd look boring. It‘s absolutely stunning and I just can’t wait to see what he drops next.

This has once again been my top 10 for October, come back next month for more hot takes!