This is part three 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.
Sum 41
Album: Heaven :x: Hell (Rise)
Release Date: 3/29
After 28 years, it all comes down to this. The final album from Canadian pop-punk/metal legends Sum 41. Their eighth album Heaven :x: Hell combines the two genres Sum 41 are best known for: pop-punk and heavy metal, a style they’ve been pulling off since the 2010s. It’s their only release on Rise Records (Alkaline Trio, Harper, You Me At Six,) after spending the later half of the 2010s with Californian independent label Hopeless Records (Hey Violet, PVRIS, The Wonder Years.) Whether you’re a fan who’s nostalgic for their old school pop-punk days, or a fan of their modern heavy hitting metal sound, Heaven :x: Hell will be the best of both worlds.
Jon Snodgrass
Album: Barge At Will (Thousand Islands)
Release Date: 3/29
Jon Snodgrass is getting a little help from his friends. He spent the recording process for his upcoming album Barge At Will at his home in Fort Collins, Colo., and at The Blasting Room, a studio owned by Bill Stevenson (All, Black Flag, Descendents.) Stevenson played the drums, while his other friends Chris Wollard (Hot Water Music), Chris Cresswell (The Flatliners), Peter “JR” Wasilewski (Less Than Jake), and Scott Reynolds (All,) helped in their own ways. Barge At Will began with of all things, writing a new jingle for a Colorado Rockies podcast. “At the end of the podcast I said, ‘you guys need a new jingle. This thing that you have it is fucking terrible.’ So, I wrote a new jingle for them,” Snodgrass told New Noise Magazine in an interview. “Then when that happened and they aired the thing, they made a comment, ‘so this guy’s a cool guy. He says he likes making up these songs on the spot.’ Hit him up, you can get a jingle. I ended up having to tell them a week or so later, ‘you don’t have to say that anymore because I’m kind of backed up with work.’” Thus he had all these songs, and with Bill’s help, and some help from friends, Barge At Will was born. It’s good to have friends.
Dustin Kensrue
Album: Desert Dreaming (Vagrant)
Release Date: 4/5
Let me be honest for a sec. I honestly didn’t know Vagrant Records (Alexisonfire, The Get Up Kids, Reggie And The Full Effect) was still kicking. The only bit of life I saw from the legendary emo label was a 25th anniversary show last year featuring numerous alumni. So color me surprised when I saw that Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue was dropping his fifth solo album (his first of original music since 2015’s Carry The Fire) ─ Desert Dreaming ─ next month on the label. From what I’ve heard so far, it’s some classic Americana, possibly the only Americana album I’ve ever put on this list. Long live Vagrant and celebrate its history with the charming tunes of Dustin Kensrue.
Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties
Album: In Lieu Of Flowers (Hopeless/Loneliest Places On Earth)
Release Date: 4/12
The sad and miserable tale of everyone’s favorite underdog continues. Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties, the beloved character study from the mind of The Wonder Years’s frontman Dan Campbell, is back in the saddle with his third album In Lieu Of Flowers. According to a press release, ILOF “picks up”picks up where Routine Maintenance left off” and has Mr. West “tend to the wounds he’s ignored for over a decade.” I can’t wait to hear more of Aaron’s story. Possible album of the year contender right here. We love you, Aaron, you poor bastard.
Cloud Nothings
Album: Final Summer (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 4/19
It’s a new era for Cloud Nothings. First, they left longtime label Carpark Records (@, Ducks Ltd., Rui Gabriel.) Second, they joined Pure Noise Records (The Amity Affliction, Galactic Empire, Koyo.) And third, their new album Final Summer drops April 19. “We’re really glad to be working with Pure Noise. It’s exciting to be on a label with so many great punk bands, and it’s going to be inspiring to see our music standing alongside the myriad sick records that Pure Noise has released,” frontman Dylan Baldi said in a press release.
The Ghost Inside
Album: Searching For Solace (Epitaph)
Release Date: 4/19
Four years have passed since The Ghost Inside unleashed their comeback album The Ghost Inside to the world. It was worth the wait after their fatal bus crash back in 2015. In the nine years since the accident, they’ve grown closer than ever before, and have sounded tighter than ever. With this momentum, they’re pushing themselves further with Searching For Solace, the band’s sixth album. “People always ask me how I remain positive,” frontman Jonathan Vigil tells Knotfest. “I’m realizing now that there’s never really a time where you reach that point of ‘happiness.’ It’s a constant journey. I know that life is hills and valleys. You must be willing to embrace new things, stand up for yourself, and adapt. Because the goalposts just move further away. The search for solace never ends.” The comeback is over. Now it’s time to continue right where they left off.
Frank Turner
Album: Undefeated (Xtra Mile)
Release Date: 5/3
Frank Turner is truly undefeated. After spending a decade with major label Polydor (Belters Only, Elbow, The Rolling Stones,) Frank’s going back to where it all started: indie labels. His old label Xtra Mile Recordings (Beans On Toast, HalfNoise, Rob Lynch) have snatched him up to release Undefeated in early May. “After the pandemic, back in the independent world, with a new drummer, I feel proud, grateful and pleasantly surprised to be putting out a record that I love with all my heart, that I think might be one of my best,” Frank writes on his blog. “It’s a defiant, energetic record about growing old disgracefully and making peace with that. I’m still standing up, still have something to share with the world, and I’m excited to let you know about it.” Ten albums in, Frank still shows that he has a lot left to prove, and with killer songs to boot. He was influenced heavily by The Hold Steady and Loudon Wainwright III, muses he’s called “people who write about adulthood.”
Knocked Loose
Album: You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 5/10
Is it too soon to say album of the year? Knocked Loose are ready to break bones and created mosh pits again with their long-awaited third record, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Produced by Grammy nominated producer WZRD BLD aka Drew Fulk (Disturbed, For All Those Sleeping, Lil Wayne,) YWGBYST picks up right after their beloved sophomore effort A Different Shade Of Blue and their EP A Tear In The Fabric Of Life. After gracing the stages of Coachella and Bonnaroo, Knocked Loose are bigger than ever, so the album has to be equally bigger than ever. As Blabbermouth.com puts it, “[Knocked Loose] have honed in on a diverse, cohesive and savagely aggressive album that sums up the massive strides they’ve taken during their decade as a band, and asserts their boundless potential going forward.” The album has features from Poppy and Chris Motionless of Motionless In White (KL frontman Bryan Garris appeared on MIW’s song “Slaughterhouse” from their 2022 album Scoring The End Of The World.)
Say Anything
Album: …Is Committed (Dine Alone)
Release Date: 5/24
Only a band like Say Anything could make a meta record. The first track on their comeback record …Is Committed is literally titled “Introduction To The Reunion Record.” “[…Is Committed]’s a satire of everything our band was, and the idea of every emo band coming back after five years, going back to basics and grasping for the fanbase they discarded so callously by diving headfirst into their fans’ wants and needs, instead of gorging on major label cash and then still trying to be the next Animal Collective or Strokes despite what their band actually sounds like, to be thwarted every time by indie gatekeepers,” the group wrote on social media. Produced by Brad Wood (Better Than Ezra, Placebo, Touché Amoré,) who also produced their 2007 double album In Defense Of The Genre, …Is Committed was written by frontman Max Bemis, according to an interview with Alternative Press, “…during a period of such searing trauma and loneliness that not having my parental BFF by my proverbial side felt like an affront even if my mom was just trying to deal with other issues that come with being a child-soul with grown-person decisions to make.”
Mayday Parade
Album: TBA (Self-Released)
Release Date: TBA
Mayday Parade are doing things on their own terms this time with their upcoming album. For the first time since the band’s debut EP, they’ve fully independent. While no word has been officially made, the band have posted photos on social media of them in the studio. So far we have gotten a few singles as well as a collaboration with lo-fi artist Less Gravity called Mayday Parade Lofi featuring lo-fi remixes of classic MP songs.
Part four will come out next week!
Punk Goes Prenatt 