BEST OF 2024: SHOEGAZE DEBUTS
My favorite debut albums and extended plays from shoegaze, dream pop, and alternative artists.
Welcome to my Best of 2024 newsletter!
I listened to a lot of new releases this year, and my Spotify playlists are obnoxiously large with my favorites from 2024. But I am going to do my best to pick some standouts, and deliver them to you by genre/vibe.
Today, we’re gonna discuss come great debuts that have elements of shoegaze, nu-gaze, and dream pop.
6. Night Swimming - No Place To Land (EP)
For Fans Of: dream pop | indie | Softcult | Warpaint | Slowdive
Release Date: September 2024
From Bath/Bristol, a great dream-pop extended play to check out for the darker months, for people who like bands like Cocteau Twins and Wolf Alice.
5. Wishy - Triple Seven
For Fans Of: shoegaze | midwest emo | Hotline TNT | Tigers Jaw | Ovlov | Drop Nineteens
Release Date: August 2024
Blending indie rock, emo, dream pop, and shoegaze, the debut album from this mid-western band includes a great mix of guitar-heavy (ex: “Sick Sweet”) and dreamily-melodic (ex: “Triple Seven”) tracks.
4. Wolfschmidt - Cosmic Joke (EP)
For Fans Of: alternative rock | shoegaze | The Mysterines | Fleshwater | Wolf Alice
Release Date: September 2024
The Swedish band delivered an EP that is a good mix of guitar-forward and dreamier, shoegaze tracks. Be sure to check out their epic 8-minute finale.
3. MOP - Secrets
For Fans Of: indie rock | shoegaze | swim school | Laveda | omat
Release Date: January 2024
This a really powerful album from Oakland’s MOP. I stumbled across them organically through the track “Poison”, but I automatically fell in love with the strong female vocals and distorted shoegaze guitars.
2. Shower Curtain - words from a wishing well
For Fans Of: fuzzy rock | shoegaze | Sorry | julie | DIIV
Release Date: October 2024
This Brooklyn group delivers a highly impressive (and self-produced!) debut with a blend of fuzzy guitars and pop vocals, and tracks centered on themes of anxiety, existentialism, and self-reflection.
1. julie - my anti-aircraft friend
For Fans Of: shoegaze | alternative rock | Sonic Youth | bar italia | DIIV
Release Date: September 2024
If you’re a shoegaze fan, you probably have already encountered this album if you’ve been keeping up with this year’s releases, but I was hard-pressed not to put it in the number 1 spot. It’s popular for a reason. This young group from L.A. has mastered the sound, mixing grunge and shoegaze influences to produce a standout debut album.
If you want to check out my full, running list of the Best of 2024 debuts, you can find that playlist here. If you check out any of these artists or have suggestions for me, I’ll meet you in the comment section below.
x Erin
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shoegaze is my absolute favourite genre so this is a gift - love Night Swimming, thanks for the introduction 🙏
I listen to a lot of music. Most of these are new to me. Thank you! Adds to queue.