Each day of December this year, I’m highlighting one of my favourite albums of 2024. Counting down the list, we start with #31 on December 1st and go all the way down until we’ve reached #1 on December 31st. Today, #19 on my Album of the Year list: Tiny Moving Parts – ‘Deep in the Blue’.

After releasing ‘Swell’ (2018), Tiny Moving Parts gained a bit of a cult status in the Jam of Today household. As of today, that specific album might be one of my most played records of all time and I still can’t get enough of it. Whether 2024 release ‘Deep in the Blue’ will acquire that same status is something time will tell. At least the band consisting of brothers William (drums) and Matthew Chevalier (bass) and their cousin Dylan Mattheisen (vocals, guitar) put everything in their power to release another epic midwest emo record.

‘Deep in the Blue’ was one of this year’s final releases I was looking forward to. Days before its release, I came to the realisation that Tiny Moving Parts might be one of my favourite bands of all time and after taking a liking to their newest singles ahead of the album, I was excited for this mid-November gift to unwrap itself. Safe to say: it didn’t disappoint. As per the Tiny Moving Parts recipe, we get treated to two handfuls of fast, technical, and emo-heavy songs with the quirkiest guitar tapping you can think of. ‘Deep in the Blue’ lives and breaths this good old formula that the band have been utilising since 2008. Dylan Mattheisen’s iconic guitar tapping and vocals have been a staple in the midwest emo scene. This album simply confirms that fact.

With all that in mind, you can kind of guess where ‘Deep in the Blue’ is going. It’s a great album… again. There’s not many negatives on this 26-minute piece. You already pretty much know what all songs will sound like but at least that means they will be of great quality. Especially ‘Time Frame’, which quickly became one of my favourite songs of this year, and ‘Waterbed P.2’, which sounds a lot more polished than its predecessor, are standouts. ‘Deep in the Blue’ feels like we’re being wrapped tightly in the trademark Tiny Moving Parts blanket. And while the band is covering topics such as anxiety and insecurity, that’s one hell of a comfortable blanket to be wrapped in.