This is part two of four. If you haven’t read part one yet, check it out here.
In 2024, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2024, in no particular order.
Bleachers
Album: Bleachers (Dirty Hit)
Release Date: 3/8
Back in 2022, Bleachers mastermind Jack Antonoff tweeted that a new album would be dropping that year. Clearly that didn’t happen. Instead, during that time, the eight-time Grammy Award winner was doing his production work with Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, and Lana Del Rey, left Bleachers’s longtime label RCA Records (Cage The Elephant, Latto, Sleep Token) and signed to the UK’s Dirty Hit (Beabadoobee, Deaton Chris Anthony, The 1975) in August 2023. Three months later, we officially got word of the new Bleachers album, titled Bleachers. And from what’s available so far, it’s fantastic.
Too Close To Touch
Album: For Keeps EP (Epitaph)
Release Date: 3/8
I don’t put EPs in this category for reasons, those being an extended play is not an album. But for this special occasion, I’ll let it slide. In 2022, Kentucky post-hardcore trio Too Close To Touch suffered a massive tragedy with the sudden passing of frontman Keaton Pierce due to complications brought on by acute pancreatitis. Some bands would soldier on with a new member, and others would call it quits to honor their memory. TCTT are doing the latter, but are dropping this EP to honor Pierce’s legacy. The EP For Keeps takes its name from Pierce’s nickname “Keeps”. Eight songs fill this EP, featuring the former frontman’s swan song “Hopeless” with The Word Alive’s Telle Smith lending his vocals to complete the piece. Rest in peace, Pierce.
Gouge Away
Album: Deep Sage (Deathwish)
Release Date: 3/15
Six years have passed since post-hardcore troupe Gouge Away dropped an album. So with all this time passing, it has to be amazing. Deep Sage has been in the works since 2019, a whole year after their last record, Burnt Sugar. However the pandemic put their plans on hold. Years passed and the group relocated to Portland, Ore. just before 2023 began to finish what they started five years ago. Produced by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Home Is Where, Jeff Rosenstock), Deep Sage was recorded entirely on tape, which vocalist Christina Michelle told BrooklynVegan that it “…creates an intense environment where we have no choice but to feed off each other’s energy. We have to get it right in one take and if anyone messes up we all have to start over, so no one wants to be that guy. It adds an element of risk and excitement. We don’t want to sound beautifully polished or perfect anyway. We want to sound like the five of us being human, and no one is better than Jack Shirley when it comes to capturing what it feels like in the room.”
Spaced
Album: This Is All We Ever Get (Revelation)
Release Date: 3/22
Future Prenatt’s Picks band (hold me to this) Spaced are one of the newest faces in the world of hardcore. The Queen City has birthed many incredible hardcore acts like Snapcase, Every Time I Die, Better Lovers, Smash N’ Grab and Union. Now, it’s time for Spaced to shine. Signing with legendary hardcore label Revelation Records (Big Laugh, Ignite, New Found Glory) last August, Spaced wanted to show off their influences with their new album, citing bands such as Gorilla Biscuits, The Rival Mob, and Swans. In a press release they shared, “This release is our most confident work yet, and we feel stronger in what we’re doing with every facet of the band. We want the riffs and vocals to hit and impact anyone who listens—whether you’re discussing the record or a live setting—while adding reverb, flange, and delay in sections to fulfill the ‘SPACED’ sound. We’re continually shaping what that means for us, and look forward to keep developing our sound in the hardcore space.”
Carpool
Album: My Life In Subtitles (SideOneDummy)
Release Date: 3/22
Another (kinda) local band sneaks their way onto this list, this being Rochester’s very own Carpool. Joining Californian label SideOneDummy Records (Big D And The Kids Table, CLIFFDIVER, Plasma Canvas) back in November, Carpool are hoping to wow you with their sophomore album My Life In Subtitles. Recorded by Jay Zubricky (Every Time I Die, Pentimento, Save Face), My Life In Subtitles will probably be one of those emo albums that slips under everyones radars. That’s why I’m adding it to the list in hope that someone reading this will check it out. Go support your local acts and buy their EPs, tapes, demos, albums, and whatever else they drop. Show some love to the finest emo act this side of the Flower City.
Bayside
Album: There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive (Hopeless)
Release Date: 4/5
As the years have gone on, Queens punk legends Bayside have been getting darker and heavier with their sound and style. And with that, their ninth studio album There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive sounds like it’ll be their heaviest yet. Their past albums had them dipping their toes into post-hardcore, but this time they’re fully submerged. You may have heard this sound with their latest EPs Red and Blue (all six songs are on TAWTTBA), but with new songs like “The Devils” and “Castaway”, they’re highlighting how hard they can truly go. Even metalheads will embrace this album.
Owen
Album: The Falls Of Sioux (Polyvinyl)
Release Date: 4/26
Mike Kinsella is an emo legend. Whether you know him from American Football, Cap’n Jazz, Owls, Joan Of Arc, Their / They’re / There, or The One Up Downstairs, or his solo project Owen, Kinsella is a highly respectable figure in the genre. His eleventh under the Owen moniker, Kinsella teamed up with S. Carey and Zach Hanson, who helped work on his last two albums. The album, as stated in a press release, “…follows the refined, spacious musical landscapes of 2020’s The Avalanche, which shied away from Kinsellla’s trademark sarcasm and wry humour and instead offered a winking dismissal of negative thoughts, took songs into even darker places.” The three have grouped up to make the finest Owen songs to date. Do not sleep on this one when it drops late next month.
Microwave
Album: Let’s Start Degeneracy (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 4/26
Just like Bleachers, Microwave made the list last year as we were waiting for the follow-up to 2019’s Death Is A Warm Blanket. But positive news came late last month when the Atlanta trio announced their fourth album Let’s Start Degeneracy. The three songs that came out during the wait (“Circling The Drain,” “Straw Hat,” and “Ferrari”) will be featured on the album, as well as the album’s main single “Bored Of Being Sad”. As I said last year, “Maybe the grunge or post-hardcore stylings will continue on their next outing.” Seems like I was right.
The Early November
Album: TBA (Pure Noise)
Release Date: TBA
No word yet has been made on the newest TEN album, but a teaser was made two days ago prior to publishing. Alternative Press did state back in October that a new record would be dropping sometime in 2024. All we can do right now is just wait.
Yellowcard
Album: TBA (Equal Vision)
Release Date: TBA
Yellowcard’s comeback album is still in the works. Their third release with new label Equal Vision Records (House Parties, Mae, Texas In July) follows their EP Childhood Eyes and the collaborative album with Hammock A Hopeful Sign. Sometime this year, we will officially be getting the true follow-up to their “final” self-titled album, which dropped in 2016 via Hopeless Records (Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties, Hey Violet, TX2).
Part three will come out next week!
Punk Goes Prenatt 