A Look Into Future's Classics

In this post, I want to talk about modern classics, or rather, records that I suspect will become future classics.

The past decade has seen a resurgence of genuinely great releases from some genuinely great bands. So great, in fact, that we occasionally find ourselves holding them up against the older touchstones, those records we perpetually reference and reverently praise. That got me thinking about whether any current releases carry the same weight, the kind that years from now people will look back on and call classic without hesitation.

To keep things fair, I'll be sorting these records category depending on their genre/scene that they represented. Within the range of the 2010's—preferably, post-2018. For now, let's talk about some Rock, Rap, and Metal records.

1. Rock Records

A.

There are a lot of recent rock releases that have genuinely blown my mind, and one of them is an indie rock record from the so-called kings of the garage rock revival, The Strokes. Yes, I'm talking about The New Abnormal.

The New Abnormal - The Strokes (2020)

Released in 2020, this album has since become one of my personal favorites. The Strokes themselves are already one of my favorite bands of all time, and this record only cemented that further. It feels like a grandiose return to the form they established in their first two releases, and Julian Casablancas is genuinely devastating throughout. The production is superb. There are so many highs on this record that the lows, whatever they are, barely register.

B.

Speaking of New York's indie rock scene, we have to talk about the emerging force that is Geese. With one of its members being the so-called "greatest artist of the 21st century" and "modern-day Bob Dylan" in Cameron Winter, this band has been a persistent talking point in indie rock circles for the past couple of years. Worshipped, even, by the more insufferable corners of the indie rock faithful, and for genuinely good reason, especially following their most recent release, Getting Killed.

Getting Killed - Geese (2025)

What if Julian Casablancas' vocals were so ungodly awful that they looped back around into something devastatingly great? That's the closest I can get to describing Cameron Winter's voice in Geese. These young lads mean a lot to me, and probably, to a lot of others as well. They feel like the face of modern rock, a window into what the future of the genre could look like. Geese's songwriting is remarkably unconventional, constantly breaking standard song structures with abrupt transitions between chaotic passages and goofy, off-kilter instrumentation, before dissolving into something so fluid it can only be described in the abstract. The mix and mastering on this record is another thing entirely; everything from the percussion to the guitars to Winter's vocals sits with remarkable clarity. If you haven't listened to this album yet, please do. It won't disappoint.

C.

From New York's bands, let's travel a bit and visit England. Specifically, let's talk about Black Country, New Road. Formed in Cambridge in 2018, this group announced themselves with an astonishing debut in For the First Time, a record that made them a central talking point in the windmill scene. But I'm not here to discuss that album. There's one release that rendered everything else secondary, the album that followed their debut: Ants From Up There.

Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road (2022)

"Show me the place where he inserted the blade." Arguably the best album of 2022, this is a record that will be discussed decades from now without any hesitation. One of, if not the greatest album to emerge from the windmill scene, it made me feel every conceivable human emotion, all at once. Isaac Wood's performance here demands to be studied. The way he conjures such layered, emotionally devastated vocals, you can genuinely feel something fracturing in real time; even when he's singing about wetting the bed to Charli XCX. This album is beautiful, and that is to put it extraordinarily lightly. A masterpiece that will almost certainly be enshrined as an indie rock classic in the not too distant future.

D.

I notice a consistent pattern of devastating and melancholic records here, but then again, would an album truly resonate if it didn't reach into you personally and disturb something? I have one more that did exactly that, at least for me. Album of the year for 2018 (for me): Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest.

Twin Fantasy - Car Seat Headrest (2018)

Don't you realize, our bodies could fall apart at any second? Where do I even begin with this one. I discovered this record at perhaps the lowest point of my life, and it absolutely dismantled me. I knew nothing about Will Toledo or his relationship at the time, but after sitting with this album, I felt like I understood exactly how he felt. Will excavates deeply intimate territory here: mental health, codependent relationship; the particular anguish of clinging to someone, like a dog to its master. It's so grounded, so nakedly human, that it becomes something almost unbearable in its beauty. I hesitate to call this just another indie rock album. It's closer to an antidepressant. I hate Car Seat Headrest.

2. Hip-Hop/Rap Records

To be frank, I'm not at my most informed when it comes to the current hip-hop and rap landscape. There was a time when I'd scour the deeper corners of SoundCloud just to unearth hidden gems and up-and-coming talent. These days I mostly follow whatever's being championed by other curators, and even then, only selectively.

A.

For the first entry in this category, I have to open with my favorite hip-hop artist of all time: Tyler, the Creator, and his album IGOR.

IGOR - Tyler, the Creator (2019)

As always, Tyler committed himself to exploration and experimentation here, drawing heavily from neo-soul throughout. Thematically, the record orbits a toxic love triangle between Tyler, his ex, and his ex's new lover. The production is staggering, conjuring sounds rarely encountered in hip-hop: warped synth-funk, blown-out speakers, pitch-shifted vocals, and a track-to-track narrative architecture that I genuinely believe will leave a lasting imprint on the broader rap canon. Tyler takes you on a journey through Igor's treacherous experience of loving someone who simply does not love him back. The songwriting, again, is extraordinary. From the first track to the last, the story unfolds with the propulsive coherence of a prestige drama, and the album's loop structure adds yet another layer of depth to the narrative, rewarding repeated listens in a way few records do.

B.

From Tyler, the Creator, let's visit another member of that extraordinarily talented collective, Odd Future. This time, Earl Sweatshirt. His trajectory has certainly had its share of turbulence, and his come-up story is, for lack of a better word, complicated. From an abrasive, provocative teenager he quietly matured into something nobody could have anticipated. And the album I want to talk about is Some Rap Songs.

Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt (2018)

Thematically, this record treads familiar "Earlian" ground: loneliness, depression; the accumulated weight of everything he has carried throughout the years. But what distinguishes it is the delivery. His wordplay has always been poetic, each line spelling out his grief and identity with a characteristically detached, monotone cadence that somehow makes the vulnerability hit harder. You can feel raw emotion surging beneath the fragmented, collage-like beats. Taken together, it redefines what abstract hip-hop can look and feel like.

C.

It feels fair to say that a significant portion of the current rap landscape has become oversaturated with, dare I say, slop. That particular strain of the genre is visibly waning. There is, however, another side of rap that I thoroughly enjoy, one that will likely never receive the recognition it deserves from the mainstream majority. The harsh, abrasive, and uncompromising side of hip-hop that is experimental rap. And I want to talk about one artist in particular: JPEGMAFIA, and his album Veteran.

Veteran - JPEGMAFIA (2018)

A genuinely talented artist with a fiercely DIY ethos, JPEGMAFIA crafts music that the mainstream rap audience rarely encounters and probably isn't prepared for. This record transcends his usual shock value entirely. The samples and beats are eerie, bizarre, and deliberately disorienting. Yet it isn't relentlessly chaotic either; he knows when to let the tension breathe, weaving in calmer interludes that give the listener just enough room to recover before the next assault. It is decidedly not for the average rap listener, but if you're looking to push the boundaries of your own taste, give this one a go.

D.

For the last entry of this category, another one of my favorite rap artists: JID. I've been following him ever since I caught his verse on a collaborative single called "Cereal." His flow and cadence have always drawn me in, there's something innately singular and deeply satisfying about the way he rides a beat that I find genuinely difficult to articulate. The album I want to talk about is The Forever Story.

The Forever Story - JID (2022)

He switches flows effortlessly throughout, constructing varied and unpredictable rhyme patterns alongside some of the sharpest songwriting in recent rap memory. Every track feels fresh and rewarding even after countless revisits. Thematically, the album traverses different chapters of his life with remarkable candor, one of the most compelling being the disorienting experience of sudden wealth after growing up poor in the rougher parts of Atlanta. The production mirrors that thematic range: dark and brooding in places, flecked with trap influence, occasionally spare and minimalist, then shifting warmly into R&B and soul territory. It's a cohesive record that somehow contains multitudes.

3. Metal Records

It wouldn't be very me to close this out without putting at least one metal record in here, would it? There's been no shortage of strong metal releases these past few years, but singling out which of them will age into a classic is a different kind of challenge altogether. Especially with the wave of post-metal that's been bleeding into so many bands' sounds lately, ambient textures and all. The experimental ambition is there, the artistic intent is visible, but none of it has quite gotten its hands around my throat the way I need it to.

A.

But there's a record that had me from the very first track, and of course, because I am who I am, it's a Death Metal album. I'm talking about Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation.

Absolute Elsewhere - Blood Incantation (2024)

How do I even begin to describe this without it turning into a full essay? On paper, it's a Death Metal record with Progressive Metal leanings, and you might reasonably expect something in the vein of Atheist or Cynic. But that's not quite it. The progressiveness here doesn't come from technical acrobatics; it comes from somewhere closer to Pink Floyd or King Crimson, in the way the music breathes, expands, and takes its time meaning something. I keep saying that, I know, but I genuinely can't find a better way to put it. And if the cover alone doesn't tip you off, there's a significant space-rock dimension running through it as well, vast, unhurried and oddly comforting. For me, this album is nothing short of blissful, every second of it. You'd feel the same, I could guarantee.

B.

Do any of you miss proper Thrash Metal? Not the nostalgic, going-through-the-motions kind, but the real, sharp-edged thing. Because what if I told you there's a new record that can sit in the same conversation as Metallica or Megadeth without flinching. I'm talking about Dissonance Theory by Coroner.

Dissonance Theory - Coroner (2025)

I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this has quietly become one of my favorite Thrash Metal albums, at least hitherto of writing this. Everything about it is considered and precise: the progressive architecture of the songwriting, the guitar tone and the riffs that carry it, the percussion work that holds the whole thing together without ever becoming mere scaffolding. And yet it never feels cold or calculated. There are groovy, djent-leaning sections that bring Meshuggah to mind, moments of prog technicality that carry the fingerprints of Gojira, and through all of it, a distinct voice that doesn't sound like it's borrowing from anyone so much as it's synthesizing everything into something new. That distinctness is rare in new releases, and it's exactly why, for me, this is the kind of record that gets called a classic.

C.

For the next one, there's a release that could push a well-beloved genre into something fresh, something more exciting for the old listener of this genre; the genre that I'm talking of is Atmospheric Black Metal, with the record Trisagion by Ethereal Shroud.

Trisagion - Ethereal Shroud (2021)

One hour and four minutes, compacted into three tracks. Just looking at the runtime of each one, you already know there are going to be details buried deep in there, details that only reveal themselves if you're willing to sit with it. And they're there. There's a moment in the first track where everything slows, and a woman's voice enters, singing to you like you've stumbled upon an aurora somewhere above the Arctic Circle, quiet, vast and completely indifferent to your presence. The ambience throughout is genuinely beautiful in the way that only black metal can pull off: evil and serene at once, cold in a way that feels almost geographical, like you're trudging through the middle of some unnamed Finnish wilderness fighting off an army of ice trolls with nothing but your own stubbornness keeping you upright. There's another reason this record earns its place on this list, and it has to do with the movement this band is part of, something called RABM. I'll let you look that one up yourselves.

D.

This last one is more of an honorable mention, partly because its claim to classic status is specific to a very particular corner of the metal world rather than the genre at large. The corner in question is Mincecore, a subgenre of Grindcore, which is itself a subset of metal, and we are now several layers deep. The record is Straight From the Slaughterhaus by Haggus.

Straight From the Slaughterhaus - Haggus (2020)

It's perfectly reasonable, maybe even sensible, to want nothing to do with this end of the metal spectrum. I understand, but I do, personally like it. This album is short, because of course it is, it's Mincecore. It's harsh and abrasive, the vocals are genuinely disgusting, and there is so much distortion layered into everything that distinguishing one sound from another becomes almost beside the point. That wall of indiscriminate noise just keeps coming at you, relentless and completely unbothered by your comfort. And that, precisely, is the charm. It was never meant to be approachable. It was never meant for the mainstream majority. What I think this album becomes, over time, is a landmark within its own world. The record that gets handed to newcomers first, the one that upcoming bands quietly measure themselves against.

Honorable Mention:

As I mentioned at the top, the intention was to keep this to rock, rap, and metal. And I held to that, mostly. But I've recently had the kind of listening experience that was so ethereal, and the record that's been living rent-free in my head is an EDM-fused Pop album, and I gave it one of my highest ratings. Yes. An amalgamation of two genres I largely keep at arm's length, EDM especially. The record is Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay.

Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay (2024)

I'm not going to walk you through everything it has to offer, partly because I think you should come to it clean, without a map. What I will say is this: the synth work is extraordinary, intricate in a way that rewards attention rather than demanding it, and with the bass sitting underneath all of it, the album has this quality of never dipping, never losing altitude. No dead air, no lows to speak of, just one continuous stretch of highs. The production is so considered, so full of quiet wizardry, that it occasionally drifts into Art Rock territory without ever losing the thread of what it is. It's a beautiful record, and I mean that in a very specific, almost physical sense: it does something warm to you. Turns on some receptor you didn't know was waiting to be switched on.

That's about it folks! What's your opinion, do you have any other albums you call a classic?