Thanks to the contributions of musicians, DJs, event coordinators, visual artists, and fans across the community, it's been an undeniably outstanding year for furry music. More than ever, music can be found at the forefront of our community—in our conversations, our social media feeds, and our conventions.

Here at indieAnthro, we've discussed how furries, therians, and others are using music to mediate and celebrate their identities in an ever-expanding array of genres, moods, and styles. Or simply: furries are making some damn good music. With this list, we want to shine a light on 15 of our favorite releases (though there are so, so many more we want to mention!) from November 2023 to November 2024. We hope that everyone in the community can find something here to connect with—musically, emotionally or otherwise—and continue to lift up furry music.

Stick around after the list for the year's top 10 releases as decided by you, our readers! Thanks so much for supporting indieAnthro and hope to see you next year! <3 -iA Contributors

Note: Our list is unranked. Records are presented in alphabetical order.

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Five years after their last album, Eagle Creek, Ashley Ninelives returned this past summer with Cheshire Days – their boldest record yet. This album is a striking reintroduction for them. It sees them leaving behind the noisy guitars of their previous work in favor of lush, mesmerizing electronic psychedelia. The production here is layered, and the sounds are textured and dense. You can just get lost in these songs. 

They craft sounds that range from suffocating to glitchy to groovy and everything in between. Ashley covers so much sonic ground over the album’s 27 minutes while never making anything feel awkward or misplaced. Every detour within this flurry of psychedelia just feels like part of the experience. This album is a fantastic display of Ashley’s talents as a producer, but their songwriting is also refined here. These jaunty melodies make way for some intoxicating hooks, ones that still manage to leave a big impression even when obscured by the smothering electronica. Cheshire Days is filled to the brim with exciting ideas, one of the most dynamic albums from the scene this year. -Caleb

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One of the first lyrics you’re presented with on Bałtyk’s 2024 record is “You asked me to change and all I did was laugh”, a sentiment that shot straight to my core. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is one thing, tearing it out of your chest and throwing it onto the stage is another. “The world’s a stage and I’m the star” from “Lucky Stars” says it perfectly. Intimacy in both the lyricism and the feel of this project will break you down and put you back together. The meticulous layering of synth and electric guitar leave so much room for doubled vocals, usually falsetto and baritone sprawling across the mix. There’s a certain eeriness I can’t grasp no matter how many times I revisit tunes like “Cut It Out”. Drums during the chorus exist, then are quickly taken out of existence by a noise gate. Subject material like self-harm, existence, purpose and lonesomeness are put against a longing to be a part of something greater. Wanting and actually being wanted is a duality that permeates every bass line, every piano pluck of this release. 

“Is anything I do right in any way? / Tell me baby tell me tell me please” because it’s my werewolf blood. Thank you Michał for delivering one of the most cathartic moments of the year. -ceej

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Lo-fi vocals put against sweeping string arrangements, a narrative examining love as persistent hope, queer deer—when I try to pinpoint the individual aspects that make herdbound unique, I can't help but feel I'm painting a picture of a band with good intentions but a jumbled vision. What makes the album so impressive is not just that bit depth bring these unlikely elements together, but that despite my difficulty in defining it, the result is so effortless and free from pretense. That sincerity is in part thanks to vocalist arps' exploration of storytelling as a device for vulnerable songwriting. herdbound picks up themes from the band's previous releases, like the anxieties of young adulthood and blooming romance, and approaches them with more candor and confidence. In the same way, bit depth have grown into their signature "garageband-core" sound, blending virtual instruments with real ones in the dueling MIDI guitars of "antler crimes" or the stirring post-rock outro to "world of white". herdbound's soaring highs are built on humble foundations—a testament to the ambition and creativity of furry DIY. -Teague

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Sutured Self by deerxing is a winding, spiraling album that pushes its way through emotional brambles of shame and self-reflection. It has so much to say for itself through its many emotional high points and sonic profiles.

Besides its fantastic electronic production and pumping electronic beats, it never grits the texture to the point of losing the beautiful orchestral/piano arrangements beneath every song. I love the album’s variety. I love the powerful compositional elements like the dissonance on “Trouble”, the re-interpreted 6/8 pulse throughout "Mirage Mirror", and the astoundingly beautiful piano and strings on "Building". It’s all so captivating in its many moods and sides while still feeling so cohesive in its artistic voice.

Every word is crafted delicately, backed by Rich's captivating and vulnerable vocal style. "Creature Feature" joyously fluffs about creating an identity, “Trouble” feels like a call for frightened animals to flee and each other. "Bright" so expertly highlights the crushing feeling of unattainable expectations going into adulthood. These lyrics feel so uniquely situated to target furries like myself who are fresh from coming-of-age, and have given up some of ourselves in an attempt to fit into the rest of the world. This was a milestone in the world of furry solo releases. You won't find anyone that does it quite like deerxing. -Ember

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The Circus Egotistica is a dense, cavernous trek through the collective consciousnesses of a band bursting with things to talk about. Nary a moment goes by without the primary vocalist of any given track pouring their heart out over lyric and sound—the type of emotional outpour that's only properly expressed through psychedelic waves and building passages. Songs range from the abstract to the sobering, no less so than songs like "Ideaspace" and "Wallflower" which directly reconcile with becoming a plural system and the psychological fallout that it comes with. Fittingly, each track accompanies the cerebral depths of confessional lyrics with grand, saturated and colorful effects that make each song feel like an explosion. Though thickly layered in guitars, the album has its fair share of riffs and breakdowns that ring out in massive supernovas, using loudness and distortion as a weapon for catharsis like no other. It's constructed in a way that feels built to fall apart, emblematic of the stories told in it. -Melissa

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I Love It Here, I Have Everything I Need, and All My Friends Love Me is the 13 track, blissfully disorienting album by Ben Heinz’s Floridian Homicide Unit.  Muted by false acceptance, Ben strips this socially imposed burden from his soul—putting it on display throughout this anxiously ambitious emotional and sonic odyssey. With Ben handling every aspect of this album, the production always matches the jaded themes of alienation and isolation—always managing to capture the glimpses of light in this surreal melancholic state of being. Frolicking through the contradicting cycles of emotion that comes from self-doubt and wanting more for yourself, I Love It Here… has Ben accepting who he is inside—not only accepting, but loving his truth. Journeys of self discovery are unique, varied, and happen when you need them pushing your life in a direction you are proud to represent. Circumstance is something you find yourself in, but doesn’t represent you. That’s your decision. Floridian Homicide Unit uses fuzzy ambient pop canvases to paint the world of I Love It Here… to send this message of individualism and self-advocacy to the listener, as a relatable reminder that you have to keep it pushing. -Clementine

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On glass beach’s sophomore release plastic death, sparkling, twinkling guitars spiral relentlessly around an instrumental landscape paced with significant math rock and fifth wave emo chops, interwoven with the sensibilities of jazz rock and prog. Utilizing dizzying tempo and alternating time signatures, this record remains equal parts accessible and smartly experimental. Brilliant lyricism leads us through intricate themes and social commentary helmed by singer J McClendon, whose vocal style, sometimes whispering and sometimes hoarse, is always right where it needs to be and the perfect antidote against a deceitfully pretty soundtrack. plastic death is one of the most beloved and universally praised releases by furry musicians to date and it's immediately easy to understand on first listen by its myriad of hooks, catchy riffs, and sheer range of instrumental variety. -Cam

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ilysm joins forces with rapper CREEPYSUSIE and producer roughpatch in an explosive and ambitious send-off to niche internet music collective CRASH BLOSSOMS. Bomb Squad is a hilarious and robust showcase of just how witty and synergetic the trio is. The musical DNA of Bomb Squad lies in roughpatch’s ability to create a dusty and swirling landscape of groovy samples, chunky drums, and, oftentimes, tastefully clipping 808s for the vocal members of the Squad to lay their flows and punchlines on top of. All these pillars are sandwiched between a plethora of DJ drops and tags to help gel the chaotic nature of the group together.

The members feature CREEPIESUSIE, whose trademark off-kilter and seemingly run-on-sentence style of rapping feels so at home on top of the SP-404 adjacent production, alongside ilysm with wonderfully cool and collective flows filled with combative lyrics. Both songwriters tend to fill the tracks with quotables such as “When I look in the mirror I see Jeff Bezos with my dick in my hand”. All this while also featuring colorful guest appearances from the likes of lulamoon, zombAe, and more. If you were looking for a furry rap project with great beats, flows, and plethora of personality, look no further than the squad. -Gabu

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Lulamoon’s self produced 2024 album opal finds the Austin based artist at her best. It’s a record that I find myself reaching for often on early mornings; its hazy boom bap sound taking me back to weekend apartment cleanings, hip hop playing on my stepdad’s speakers while I flip through his CD binder. Opal deftly blends this classic sound with a mix of analog and digital distortion, the overall effect placing Opal firmly in the present. Sparkling chimes, sampled horns and piano, and abrasive electronic blips serve as a backdrop to lulamoon’s lyrics. Throughout opal’s runtime, lulamoon moves fluidly through personal experiences growing up queer and trans, delivering bars that are at times humorous (“PayPal look like Elvira, it got big stacks”), defiant (“You rapping dog whistles / kill yourself”), and self-assured (“my style and my flow nasty / my eyes and my clothes baggy / my swag faggy / she in the mood and practically attack me”). 

lulamoon’s opal absolutely shines. This perfectly looping set of tracks hits hard on first listen and only grows on you with time. One of my favorite records of the year. -Will

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mammalfriend is the musical project of Varg, an NYC based furry musician that can also draw, and who said that is his late November ‘23 album, the second to be released under the name mammalfriend. 

The main mode of the record is simply guitar and voice, and both are wielded with a simple assuredness that supports the lyrics wholly. Other elements such as synths or percussion come in as special treats. “N.B.F.” is chock full of special treats, and is also the tune that I find myself singing while I make my morning omelette. While I’d say the overall sound color of the record is on the dark side, this one shines with a unique treble mixing, especially in the wet and layered vocals, that compliments the infatuated theme of the lyrics.

I get the impression that Varg’s mind must be a peaceful and quiet place while singing and playing guitar for these songs, because I feel as such while enjoying this record. Each listen I’ve had has left me feeling softer. Varg is tuned into what’s really real and I’m so humbled and grateful to be in the same scene as them. -Para

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It’s hard to express just how furry this album feels. In the vein of most of Patricia Taxxon’s recent works, Bicycle comes across as almost tactile; every sliver of sound, however brief, dances across the stereo field in wondrous, vivid detail. Patricia has said that Bicycle was made with species euphoria in mind: “Every percussive sound on Bicycle is a physical sensation on a furry body & every tonal sound is an animalistic vocalization”. Claws, cheek tufts and whiskers can be easily pictured listening to the delicate, kinetic grooves in “Furry” and “Brotherhood”, while the churning lead in “Boys” and the galloping synths in “Cavalry” suggest feelings much more visceral.

Closing track “I Do”, as straightforward as it is, feels monumental. The callback to “i” off Foley Artist, the 17-minute ambient track that parted the clouds on an otherwise suffocating album about gender dysphoria is poignant: what was once a lonely synth line struggling against an industrial soundscape now resurfaces as the backbone of one of the year’s most life-affirming songs. 

Bicycle is pure, undiluted dog music. It’s wind through fur, paws on gravel, howls echoing through empty fields. To some, it might feel like a revelation. -Jay Snow

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A Lonely Sinner was the surprise hit of this year, releasing to high praise on music cataloging sites Album of the Year and RateYourMusic; it’s hard not to see why. It’s rare for a musician to arrive on the scene as fully formed as samlrc. From the opening “baa”s of "Lamb Theme" to the closing drones of "The Beauty of the Present Moment", there is not a wasted second of music on the LP. A Lonely Sinner is at once a massive hurricane force of emotion and a timid breeze that wisps through the treetops. Delving into sounds of post-rock and metal, shoegaze, indie rock, ambient, electronica and folk, samlrc’s songwriting blends these sonic explorations together so seamlessly you’d be forgiven for missing where one song ends and the other begins. Just listen to how naturally the crushing weight of "Storge" transitions into the noisy indie rock of "Sheep Theme", and the latter into the chamber music of "For M." Absolutely exquisite. This is the type of record that truly excites me, an album that shows us an artist with something truly important to get out into the world. -Vomen

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Spring Silver’s latest album is an emo-pop delight, Don’t You Think It’s Strange? adding smatterings of shoegaze and electronica into their already solid indie pop formula. It’s an instant boost to the strength of their sound, pushing them into ambitious post-rock territory (“Gold Star”) and bubblegum power pop (“Another Perfect Day, Another Perfect Night”) without losing the core of their artistry in the process. It’s an exciting step forward for them and leads to some of the most fun pop songs this year, Spring Silver more confident in their musicality than ever while keeping the charm and playfulness of their songs intact.

With all these new developments, their lyricism has gotten a boost of confidence too, dipping into more abstract and dreamlike territory that instantly adds more color and intrigue to their alt-rock stylings and bringing their artistry to a new high point. By shifting their music into a higher gear, Spring Silvers’ music only continues to become more delightfully and uncompromisingly authentic, a bigger and clearer window into the magic their songs bring into the world. -Lurien

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SOPHOMORE SLUMP CALLITHUMP is a twisted alien expansion on the internet cabaret emo STOMACH BOOK perfected with her debut, pushing her song structure skills and sonic experimentation even further on this surrealist audio diary of an album. Nothing ever stays still inside these soundscapes: what sounds like a haunted house flash game soundtrack morphs into casual boom-bap, MIDI flutes give way to morse code and amen breaks, a sample of random Italian children's choir explodes into a frantic paranoid chorus, but you don't even notice how fast it's all happening because the music's so goddamn catchy. 

The writing on this project dives head-on into immediate personal territory here - "Playing Pretend" deals with the grief of leaving loved ones behind and ends with a noise jam that sounds like a nuclear bomb going off at a carnival. The final track, "December 10th 2021, 11:57pm", written immediately upon hearing of her mother's passing, starts off sounding like someone taking a chainsaw to your ear and subdues itself into background garnish for pillowy blown-out acoustic guitars and gentle shell-shocked childlike watercolor couplets - "Now I'm standing here alone in my Sunday shoes / This will always be the last time." It's powerful stuff. -Ashley

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This Is the Glasshouse, the project helmed by Ezekiel Dukart, builds on the momentum created by their sophomore album from last year with a record that painstakingly refines and reinvents every aspect of their sound. In the Bandcamp description of the album, Dukart detailed the obsessive creative process behind this album, stating that it “nearly killed [his] love for making music.” That passion, while unhealthy, certainly comes through in this record. Every aspect of this album has so much conviction. Every word, every melody, every piece of instrumentation feels intensely personal. Dukart’s lyrics are soul-bearing and they also position him as a cartographer for Canada’s Yukon Territory, the 867 area. Through these stunning, sprawling songs, he makes every landmark of his home region feel fabled. He projects his meditations and emotions onto these places as much as they reflect onto him, it’s cyclical. They’re made even more captivating by the incredible musicianship on display.

This record is eclectic, there’s everything from abrasive industrial soundscapes (“Before Machinery”) to third-stream, Latin-influenced jams (“867”). Above all its many strengths, the highest praise I can give to 867 is that it feels born out of necessity. It’s a true passion project in every sense of the term. -Caleb

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Readers' Picks

Over 120 of you shared your thoughts with us! Here are the Top 10 indieAnthro Readers' Picks alongside some of your comments.

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Brilliant adventurous production, sonically covers more ground in 27 minutes than most albums double that length. The first 50 seconds of "kittycat heartthrob" are like a rocket ship blasting off into space. -Reader

ashley has somehow managed to sound both intricately planned and bracingly, thrillingly improvisational at the same time and it brings a powerful "aliveness" to this whole album -Reader

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it's the perfect album to put on during a party. so good, never fails to make the entire house shake. -Reader

The album really focuses in on an atmosphere of "having fun despite everything." RAVEPOP cultivates this through its playful sampling, y2k rave aesthetics and its excellent track sequencing that gives the record the momentum and feel of a DJ set. However, i think what really endears me to it is that the record does more than just being nostalgia-fueled escapism and does tackle themes of loneliness, artistic struggle, and the want to express oneself truly. -Reader

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insanely proficient and accomplished album, and frankly can go toe to toe with anything from the experimental rock scene this decade. . . the level of vulnerability Waved displays lyrically on tracks like "January" and "Robinson" is beautiful. it's a challenging, daunting record, but within this scene it truly feels like a landmark statement. -Reader

My God, the production; the performances; the songwriting and lyricism. This is a monolithic, dense labor of love that is so harrowingly powerful it often feels like I'm being eroded by the winds of a cataclysmic storm. Its more downtempo segments are equally powerful in their keen insight and poeticism. Such a crazy record, it's unbelievable. -Reader

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The first time I heard the transition between "gabe's song" and "contend", I felt a euphoria that had been missing for a long time. Was it because I had been crying for the entire song prior to that? Maybe. But what I know is that the day I get to scream these songs in a live setting is the day I'll truly know happiness. -Reader

yearning mood yeag -Reader

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I've always had a thing for noisy and loud music. STOMACH BOOK's screams are absolutely beautiful and gut wrenching. The whole album is incredibly emotional and my favorite of the year. -Reader

Still not sure what a callithump is, but this album pulls no punches with the grooves it locks you into. Tell me you didn't sing the chorus to "Anarchy" to yourself at least once after giving this a spin, if you're a dirty liar! -Reader

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i adore sutured self because its unabashed furryness is not just incredibly endearing, but vital to the work as a whole. . . it’s such a uniquely personal exploration of the messy way that us animals piece together our identities. -Reader

This is such an emotional rollercoaster of a record: so genuine and heartfelt, and so honest. The production and songwriting is eclectic and honed to a sharpened edge. I think about this record often, and its unique soundscapes help inspire my own work. -Reader

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Pastoral atmospherics, shoegaze drones, post-metal breakdowns, and recontextualized samples weave together for a 50min experience far greater than the sum of its parts. This album's "furriness" serves a troubled trans allegory with sparse interpretive lyricism. The Chirin's Bell sample at the end of "Storge" never fails to give me chills and bring me almost to tears. -Reader

A Lonely Sinner has such a grand and foreboding sound. It feels dreary, scared, angry, and eventually hopeful. . . Once you've gone past the fence though, gotten over that seemingly insurmountable, but ultimately minor obstacle that's kept you here, you see life doesn't have to be bleak. I sympathize with that feeling so much. -Reader

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This project just oozes personality, ambition, and above all else, love. The compositions feel so rich and lively to a point where its several glaring flaws become strengths. This is phenomenal. This is a mess. This is a masterpiece. This is the MIDI Bunny LP. -Reader

It’s f!$&in’ bonkers!!! -Reader

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this feels like you took a classic but forgotten indie rock album from the 2000s and immersed it in a digital soup. it's so full of color and texture and fun while also inspecting really interesting themes of queerness, online spaces, and personas/fursonas/the self. -Reader

Complex in every sense of the word imaginable, there's so much to dig into on this one. Struggling with art in a world that feels like it's eating itself, the themes grabbed my heart immediately. And yes, it is definitely a furry record. -Reader

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God it’s such like, a perfect rock record and the lyrics are both easy to consume yet can hit very hard. I love this band so much and anticipate their future projects -Reader

I've been a fan of Keep It Together since they released Lost Dogs, which I found through mutuals talking about it on Twitter, and I think that their leap in quality and scale going into Gate 23 was amazing! -Reader