These lists are never definitive, I always miss a few but there's a lot! More than last year!

If something is bolded it means it was reviewed on this site. I'm only including releases that are over 50% instrumental. Big thanks to Kevin Kamphaus and Nestor Burma for helping me fill in some gaps.

EPs

My definition of EP is between 2 and 7 songs. Some 7-song records might be classified as an LP if there are longer tracks. I did not track singles (as in one track releases) because it starts getting out of control.

The Gremmy Awards are Storm Surge of Reverb's yearly awards recognizing some of the most oustanding surf and instro albums of the year. Keep in mind that Storm Surge of Reverb is really just one person, and so for the most part these are just the tastes of one idiot. That idiot has listened to an awful lot of this music, but certainly not all of it. I try to balance it out a little bit by contacting a few people that I know are big surf superfans and whose opinions I respect and having them write Guest Gremmys. Also, these awards are really supposed to be the cream of the crop.

There aren't too many people doing awards for surf music which makes me very self-conscious about my choices. The Gremmys are just my opinions and some albums that didn't make an impact for me meant a lot to others, not to mention ones that I loved but just didn't make it to the top tier. So here are some other voices from people that I know are listening to a lot of surf and whose opinions I respect, and hopefully they'll cover some of the ground that I didn't.

When I do this deep dive into the past year of surf there are inevitably other things of note that simply listing the top albums can't really cover. That's what this is for.

There are some records that clearly stem from surf but that have gone so far into a new direction that they feel like they shouldn't be considered next to actual surf records. That very fuzzy line is basically up to my whim.

This category is for albums that are unmistakably surf, but would not be mistaken for vintage. This was a tough category this year and it was tough choosing a winner. A lot of these were also really pushing the envelope, and it was hard to decide what belongs here and what belongs in the Way-Out Instro category.

This is my own terminology for surf music that's more punk-influenced, with a focus on speed and force before anything else. I like it because it rhymes with Trad. It's not necessarily about who's the loudest and the fastest as much as it's about who's the best at being loud and fast.

After 50 years, surf music has morphed and evolved in many ways, but some groups strive to tap into the sound and feeling that it all came from back in the early 60's.

I’ve heard a lot of great surf records behind terrible album art, but some good art can not only draw you in but shape your listening experience. And in a style of music that is so attached to kitschy paraphernalia, it’s interesting to see how bands can either harness or subvert those associations to stand out and even shape instro culture.

As far as I know, the Gremmys are the only surf/instro awards out there, which puts a lot of weight on my whim. Too much.

So I reached out to a few respectable folks that I know are on top of this music to try to bring a few more opinions into the mix.

Everybody has been given carte blanche as to how they want to present this. No "rad", "trad", "modern", "way-out" here.