Music of 2024
My annual round-up of albums and tracks is a little late, mostly because of the enormous amount of decent stuff that came out last year. As always, this is my personal taste from all the new music I listened to in 2024. At the end, I’ve listed a few albums that would normally find their way here, but did not. Some are by bands I love and have been listening to for 20+ years. If it didn’t resonate, it didn’t make it. I see lists where established bands are added by default just because they’ve released something that year. If you think my list loses credibility because I didn’t add Nick Cave, tough. For me, his ‘Red Right Hand’ blog is more entertaining than his new music.
I also don’t partake in the ‘wrapped’ mania, but do track my listening habits via LastFM as I use multiple services, and Spotify on its own doesn’t tell the full story. According to LastFM for 2024, I listened to almost 18000 songs across 6543 different artists (of which 37% -or around 2000- were new artists I’ve never heard before). I’ve been on LastFM for 19 years.
I would usually embed videos for each album, but for some reason YT (or the specific artists’ videos I want to embed) don’t allow it. Please check out the Spotify, Apple, or Deezer playlist links at the end of the piece for the mentioned tracks. Check out the albums if you find a track you like.
All 21 albums in no particular order.
Jessica Pratt – Here in the pitch
Somewhere between Nancy Sinatra and Dusty Springfield.
Track: Better hate
DIIV – Frog in boiling water
Sombre and dreamy. Some shoegaze, but not all the time.
Track: Soul-net
Julie – My anti-aircraft friend
If the ‘Pod’ era Breeders and ‘American Thighs’ era Veruca Salt ever got together
Track: Feminine adornments
Innocence Mission – Midwinter Swimmers
Despite owning their first album on vinyl since the early 90s, I had no idea I liked them until a few years ago when I re-discovered them via their 2018 ‘Sun on a Square’ album (which I just re-discovered again going through my old lists). There’s too much music out there.
Track: This thread is a green street
A Place to Bury Strangers – Synthesizer
A distorted wall of sound force of nature one can dance to on a particular kinda floor.
Track: Disgust
Kali Malone – All life long
Sacred music mostly for droney/sustained organ. It might as well be released on ECM. Not for everyone, but I could listen to this all day.
Track: No sun to burn (for organ)
Anja Huwe – Codes
After decades of silence comes a solo album from the criminally underrated X-Mal Deutschland’s singer. If Le Club Thursdays were still going, this would be floor-filler.
Track: Rabenschwarz
The Cure – Songs of a lost world
The last Cure album I grudgingly purchased was ‘Mixed up’ on tape in 1990. I was mildly disappointed then. After the atrocity that was ‘Friday I’m in Love’ from ‘92, I’ve managed to successfully ignore them (even when they played in JHB), and I’m not sorry either. This new album, with its moody intros and shoegaze sensibilities, is a triumph! It’s a long way from all the joyous jangly shit, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
Track: Endsong
Blue Vow – Death of a big black dog
Glacial, introspective…they remind me a bit of Medicine Boy. Wait, they’re also from Capetown? Proudly one of the 20 listeners from Johannesburg.
Track: Body is Blue & We must scream
Deerlady – Greatest Hits
Sad melodies and distortion. ‘Believer’ was on repeat in a parallel universe.
Track: Believer
Chelsea Wolfe – She reaches out to She reaches out to She
‘A gothier version of Portishead’ one American reviewer spewed forth…they classify Berlin and Marc Almond as goth over there too, and think The Cure are super sad.
Track: House of self-undoing
King Hannah – Big swimmer
Quiet and loud, sometimes sound like Tortoise fronted by PJ Harvey or St. Vincent. Sharon Van Etten features on two tracks.
Track: Somewhere near El Paso
Whispering Sons – The great calm
Belgian post-punk near Interpol HQ.
Track: Try Me again
Bleib Modern – Bleib Modern
Darkwave/Postpunk from Berlin
Track: Everywhere I go
Desperate Journalist – No Hero
I love them. They’ve been on several of my year end lists over the years.
Track: Unsympathetic Parts 1&2 and Silent
Drahla – angeltape
If ESG and Bauhaus had a lovechild
Track: Default Parody
El Perro del Mar – Big Anonymous
Crepuscular soundtrack music. The album also has my favourite track of the year.
Track: Suburban Dream
Transa – Various
A 46-track compilation of covers, re-interpretations, and originals by a diverse group of artists and songwriters in support of the trans community. Highlights include Sade (yes, that Sade), Perfume Genius, Grouper, Sharon van Etten, and Julianna Barwick.
Midwife – No depression in Heaven
If you’ve got this far, you’ll understand why this on my list. I’ve been on a Midwife catalogue mission since discovering her.
Track: Killdozer
Joyce Kwon – Orange Hour
I had to check this wasn’t an AI pisstake (prompt: Korean soundtrack to Twin Peaks Season 4). Happy to report that she appears to be real. Reports of a fourth season of TP are highly speculative.
Track: Future History
Shellac – To all trains
Steve Albini died two weeks before this was released. Used to spin ‘Dog & Pony show’ from their first album at Thursday Le Club and buy albums blind just because he recorded them. RIP
Track: Chick new wave
Songs of 2024
These are some great tracks I came across over the year. Some were from albums I didn’t get fully into or have time to listen to properly. Some were just singles. All below plus the key tracks from the albums above are spread across two playlists:
BLOOM for the upbeat. DECAY for the not-so-upbeat*
Marika Hackman, TR/ST, Faerybaby, Father John Misty, The The, Sleater-Kinney, Claire Rousay, St. Vincent, Fine, Mount Eerie, Being Dead, Beth Gibbons, Clinic Stars, Sprints, Tasha, Lady Blackbird, The Weave, Thee Oh Sees, Land of Talk, Curtism, Camera Obscura, Arinn For, Beige Banquet, Betty, Bnny, Chalk, Cigarettes After Sex, Couch Slut, Crow Baby, Dandy Warhols & Frank Black, Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys, The Do Do Do’s, Dyr Faser, Ederlezi, Einstürzende Neubauten, Elliot & Vincent, Future Islands, Getdown Services, Idles, Jane Weaver, Joy Shannon & Emily Jane White, J.R.C.J., Liminana’s, Magic Shoppe, Max Richter, Mhaol, Misha Chylkova, MJ Lenderman, Midwife & Amulets, Paranoid London, Party Dozen, Reds, Pinks and Purples, Roy Montgomery, Martha Syke Murphy, RVG, Secret sisters, Slow Hollows, Tashaki Miyaki, Tess Parks, Trentmoller, Tristwch Y Fenywod.
There were a couple of new albums I really tried to get into, but couldn’t:
Smashing Pumpkins
Nick Cave (It was rain and pillage in the retirement village)
Kim Gordon’s hip hop album
Low’s Alan Sparhawk singing through a whole album with autotune on
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings’ Woodland
Kim Deal’s Nobody loves you more
Mercury Rev’s Born horses
Orville Peck’s Stampede (Sorry Orv, it’s over-produced rubbish)
PLAYLIST LINKS:
Thanks as always to my wife for the fabulous banner
*I do lot of research and writing so tend to lean to sad introspective soundtrack type of music, especially when deep in it. Trust me, I leave most of it off these lists.