Foreword: apart from this paragraph, the introduction was written before putting together the rest of the post. The text introducing the songs was written on the spot, only with small editions on proofreading. I went through a whole re-listen at some point (without reading most of the texts) before finalising, so I removed two or three songs, while adding a handful of others I had forgotten to add but meant to. Fair to say, my impression at the end was completely, utterly different from what I thought it would be. The thing is, and I do mention it in the intro below, 2024 felt like a very long year where nothing (personal) happened, it dragged on, it felt rather low on emotions despite some sporadic spectacularly good days/evenings. And I thought the music would just reflect that, and I’d be stretched to select songs or would have to select too many so-so songs. But while consistent albums were, as stated and confirmed, relatively low in numbers, and some ‘good’ albums brought low emotional content or no particularly remarkable tracks (The Cure was always likely to be a special case, both as a whole album and for the quality of the individual tracks), I found that there was an actually extraordinary amount of good songs, in particular, actual ‘bangers’, immediate pop tunes you can dance to or singalong to or that simply make you go ‘wow, I like that’, instantly. It looks like I selected even more tracks than the previous years, and you know what? On that relisten, I don’t think I was particularly lax on quality control either. In fact, while one or two tracks may have just scraped through, there were at least two or three more where I really hesitated. A quick glance at my 2023 post suggests I was less demanding then, despite a more emotional year and less songs being included. So there you have it, I may have listened to too much crap, felt too empty during the year so it kind of passed me by, but if we just count great tunes I’ve heard, not albums, 2024 looks (sorry, sounds!) like it’s been a truly amazing year. It’s a bit late now, but if I were to host an end-of-year party (maybe one day I can hold a thematic Y2024 one) and man the decks, I’d possibly have enough tunes just from the year to make you dance. Listening to the whole ‘post’ in sequence has made me feel weirdly good. So, 2025 is now, I will need to ‘manage’ my music better, it probably will be tough, I hope there will be more, better things to associate tunes with, rather than just the world keeping on getting worse (sadly, I’m not THAT hopeful on that particular score), but for now, if you are reading, enjoy 2024’s selection. There’s always time to host a party.
Where do I start with 2024? A strange, frustrating years in many ways. It had absolutely none of the emotions or happenings of the previous year, so I definitely won’t bother writing a specific ‘blog’ page of emptiness. Maybe it was a year in several parts. The start of the year was mostly focussed on that half-marathon run. Which I was happy to successfully achieve. After that, from a physical point of view, I carried on but pushed my body too hard. Circumstances sometimes created the motivation but while achieving my aim of 12 half marathons in 12 months (only formed after the official one due to remaining energy gels really), and the other one of a whole year of consecutive 10k+ steps (but averaging nearly 15k per day in the process, something I had not planned to do as I wanted to rest after the HM but the weather decided me and then…might as well), I realised I’d been doing this through a lot of pain certainly for at least two months too long(also while continuing with the football), and I had to stop. In the end, two full months without any sports or even deliberate walks, and I was still hurting just when walking. I started physio, the pain eventually started to recede (with a setback following moshing at the Bob Vylan gig) and this past month I have slowly restarted runing (series of 1′, now on the series of 2′), checking the pain and so far so OK. Before that, as I was allowed to cycle I decided to buy an indoor foldable bike to try and regain/not completely lose some basic level of fitness, so there was a month of two of that before any attempt at running. Even then my left thigh was a little painful so I stopped for a week at the end of November. Anyway, so yes, very satisfactory achievement and big downs on that score. That brought a level of well-being but no real emotional happiness.
The start of the year seems so far away: was the Art School Girlfriend gig in 2024 for instance? The Yard Act album was only released this year? Etc. Seems odd. Work also felt like it was falling apart. Not bad bad, but so disorganised, we didn’t have a single team meeting this year (from the planned fortnightlies, that kept being cancelled instead of being outright scrapped, it became a ridiculous game), I felt I was at times subemployed and I don’t really enjoy that laziness but I’m not going to put myself under stress anymore. There seemed to be delegations, but not much direction, at times I felt I was doing well when given tasks, but overall, I felt rather disheartened by the situation. Important people leaving at the start of the year means next year will be full of uncertainties. Not sure how this will go/end. At some point on and off I considered quitting, and maybe try something different. It’s hard to accept all that failing in my life. I did ok at work, sometimes I enjoyed the challenge, I met lots of good people, enjoyed the missions away, but really if I had trusted myself more, I would have followed my heart when I was 20 and maybe tried to be a journalist (investigative journalism, I guess), and I somehow looked into the possibility of getting there now, but at 50, what’s the chance? Also this website shows I’m not writing particularly well, or not making the effort. Maybe a path will open somewhere.
Also, yeah, the world keeps falling apart, doesn’t it? Wars, extremism, climate catastrophe, etc.
There’s been some excellent times scattered around the year, sometimes a night out with friends, a day at the football, having friends around at home (I was glad to get a little more organised to invite people though probably not often enough), and back to the main topic of this page, a lot of excellent gigs.
However, the music on record has felt very much in tune (!) with how this year went. Saturation, very little emotion, no unity. I cannot say I truly enjoyed many records, there’s been a few good songs here and there, excellent ones even, but very few albums I enjoyed from start to finish. Again, I am not sure what is linked to music quality or to my own mostly flat and emotionless year. And then, the news appeared. The new Cure album was going to be released on November 1. Now, we quickly learnt it would be only 8 songs, and that 5 of them were played in the previous tour. So only 3 new songs really. A let down? Absolutely not. The build-up and anticipation were carefully constructed, with already known songs first aired in album versions. And so Alone was our first taste. I was on holidays at Simon’s at that time (er, not Gallup obviously!), and as he was doing stuff in the garden, I actually was lucky, with the internet connection, to be able to listen to BBC radio on my headphones for the world premiere. And the eyes didn’t stay dry, it was beautiful. There were snippets of songs, but the next one to be out was A Fragile Thing. And when I first listened to it, so many memories came back, winter of 2022-2023, so many emotions, and tears flooded. When the album was eventually released, I ordered so many different copies, and the bright idea was to order the marble vinyle from FNAC, so I got that on the day for my first listen (I then got a digital version to listen on headphones/iPod as my other copies, I mean the CDs, the other vinyles are a different matter, would be late). And you know what? The three new songs were absolutely fantastic, and the album as a whole, not too long, so intense and well sequenced, was absolutely stunning. Now I know I am biased, but it was incredible to see review after review praising it, and it making most top albums of the year list, sometimes even at number one. I was even tempted to review the album for these pages but in the end I didn’t. I might have had interesting things to say but hey-ho. Sure my two ‘least’ favourite songs remain the same, but I still don’t skip them when I listen to the album, and it’s all relative. Possibly if It Can Never Be The Same had replaced ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, it would have been close to a perfect album. Anyway, yeah for a month I mostly only listened to this album, and all Cure stuff as I revisited the whole discography. And so new music was put on hold, and I slowly caught up in December, but really mostly in the last two weeks. So some good songs that might have made an impression were less appreciated. And on Christmas Eve I simply listened to the album again, in the dark, as a treat. Not a feeling of depression, just peace and otherworldliness. Trilogy on Video on Christmas Day too, why not (while having a couple of festive drinks). Anyway and still, the impression remain that this year has been frustrating, directionless, and offering very little association of emotions and music, Cure aside.
Still, it needs to be revisited and perhaps at the end of this page, I will feel it wasn’t that bad. I don’t even know where to start, and how much of it will be informed by live music. The thing is, I feel it’s been an excellent ‘live’ year, slightly less gigs than the previous year, but many energetic ones.
I’ll consult my playlist as well as my Excel file…it’s likely to be very unstructured.
And so I see my first tune was one I actually bought near the tail end of 2023, and from an album as old as 2004. But I think it’s a good starting point, maybe there were whiffs of quiet emotion at the start of the year, maybe hope before all kind of fell apart. And so Blonde Redhead’s Elephant Woman is a soft and lovely beginning of the year, also because I was glad that after the previous year’s failure, I finally got to see them live in 2024.
I may be very much partly filling up these pages now with whatever I was listening to during a slow start to the year, but why not? As long as the music is good. Another quiet-ish one, dance track, I liked some stuff on the previous CamelPhat release, this one was the same, a few good tunes. Listening to this number now, I feel that in the right circumstances I could have felt very good and emotional about it, I really like it is the bottom line, and this is right now more a list of recommendations (hell this one was from 2023 though, but I only got it very early in 2024), rather than all emotional associations for me, in this weirdest of years. This is just a beautiful tune.
More goodness from 2023 in the same spirit of catch-up. I think 2025 will be different as I’ve accepted I wouldn’t buy every half decent record I missed out on, as I don’t really need them though I’ve marked a few as ‘would have bought’, so maybe 2025 will be only 2025, but for now, yeah, more quiet-ish but great stuff that I really like with Nabihah Iqbal’s ‘This World Couldn’t See Us’.
Maybe a couple more from 2023? Slightly more dynamic there with Pip Blom’s I Can Be Your Man. I was meant to see them live later in the year, but work got in the way (actually considering what I said above, it’s telling that I actually missed a few gigs due to work, I guess partly because they were not vital gigs, and also because I wanted to be more involved at work inbetween the long periods of boredom). Just a good tune, I still like it very much, yet very much on the edge of this list.
A last one from 2023 (I think, or at least before we start 2024 proper) with Panchiko’s Gwen Everest. It was a toss up between this and Until I Know, but I think this has a little more going for it in the end, maybe feels a little more like a positive energetic tune.
And now, finally we get to the first release of 2024 I got my hands on. So very hyped and nearly immediately followed by a gig, SPRINTS’ Letter To Self was released in January to much fanfare. Straight with a great album this year? Not quite, the start is a bit boring, and while the middle is truly excellent, the end (with the exception of the closer) didn’t really make a lasting impression. File under very good album though (especially in view of this year’s releases), and while I initially thought I would just select Adore Adore Adore for you, I think Shadow Of a Doubt, with the way it explodes mid-way through, just about edges it after all. The closing title track is worth your time too.
Hot on the heels of that release, we also got a welcome return from Sleater-Kinney. Little Rope. Underrated album, that, it may not quite have a defining tune or two, but it’s pretty good and consistent. I enjoyed seeing them live at Rock en Seine in the summer, opening a good day. On relisten though, it’s good but nothing really stands out. Maybe, in spite of myself, I am being a little too thorough and there will be no room at the bottom for the usual ‘good albums’ worth a mention. Problem still being good tracks vs. my year, but that year has felt empty so maybe I am just lowering the emotional bar. This definitely would be in the ‘good albums’ but no outstanding tracks section. Maybe we’ll see how many videos I’ve put at the end and revise the selection. But for now, I’ll still give you Say It Like You Mean It.
Etta Marcus released an interesting EP a couple of years ago, and her debut album came out early this year. Or is it still called an EP at just under 30 minutes? Either way, in the middle of mostly quiet tracks, it included this absolute banger. Definitely one of my favourite tunes of the year. Listening back, I feel that yeah, maybe I never took the time to listen to/enjoy the music enough, but mostly yes, it is an emotional context/situation that I missed, This tune really does something for me. Superb.
As I will try to put YT videos of the year in gigs, I had to double check, yes the ASG album was in 2023, and I already posted in the corresponding page. But as an aside in this page, it was a gig that for some reason left an impression on me, La Boule Noire, on my own, superb atmospherics. I loved the music and peace when I felt I needed it. Also, it triggered me to buy an eBow (or rather its more readily available competitor, Joyo), as I just loved that sound, and funnily enough I’ve only really started to try to use it right now, this week (note that it was also liberally used by The Mission in a latter gig this year). Easily found transition though, as Theodora was the opening act, and I quite liked her stuff. So I got her old album, and the new single she just played, that I quite liked. In fact, it falls under the ‘nearly there emotionally’, having a little effect but no attached circumstances. Maybe the end of winter, start of spring was just a still fairly hopeful period. I may come back to her near the end, as the ‘extended’ double EP release at the end of the year had tracks that may be worthy of inclusion. And yeah, that’s an extremeley rare French-language song in these pages!
A bit of nice Indie pop that possibly shouldn’t even warrant inclusion here, but I’m really being generous considering the year that has been. Lime Garden’s I Want To Be You. It’s a nice little melody. Actually I’m wrong, it definitely belongs here, it’s a top tune.
Some good old shoe-gazish music? They like The Cure, The Cure like them, and truth be told, NewDad’s debut album Madra was pretty good too. The best track is possibly the first on the album: Angel. Nightmares is a pretty good tune too (but you also need to check their fantastic 2022 cover of Charli XCX’s ILY2)
Talk Show. I quite liked their EP of a couple of years earlier. Now, there may be a few weaker tracks, but Effigy’s one of the albums I liked, and more than that, I KNEW they would be excellent live. As it is, they were playing less than two months after the release. I was meant to go to see NMA but decided these guys would be worth my time more. And I was right, one of the best gigs of the year. Sure last year I show I could mosh while sober, but this certainly was enhanced by a couple of pints. There’s a nice kind of sombre menace to a lot of the tracks and it just worked a treat with a live energy. The opening Gold sets the tone, although Oil at The Bottom of a Drum and the closer Catalonia are also worth your time.
Opening for Talk Show that night were a French kind of synth-dance band(I’m making up genres) and I really enjoyed them. I still can’t find their final track of the evening anywhere, but another highlight was an old single from 2021 ‘Shake Milk’ so here is this rather excellent tune. They released an EP later this year, slightly underwhelming perhaps, though it has a couple of decent tunes (Bipolar is worth a check, but it’s kind of missing an explosion of energy), so I don’t think it will warrant a further inclusion.
And now for something completely different. Is that all called ‘Power Pop’? Not sure how music classifies these days, but it’s the kind of album I liked as different from most of my stuff (but maybe file near to renforshort and the like, though with a different kind of outside look). Jazmin Bean’s Traumatic Livelihood was an early contender for actually good albums this year. And Favourite Toy is a tune, that probably a year before would have got me to book her gig as soon as it was announced. As it was, kind of wary of a few experiences where crowds were too young, I decided to hold off a bit, and I also checked her previous album (just little bits of it) which I didn’t feel I liked as much. And so I gave the gig a miss. Out of experience, though I’ll never know if I missed something great. But yeah, this is definitely a top tune worth sharing. One of the best tunes this year in fact, though it feels it was so long ago. As I said earlier, this year seems to have lasted two. And not brought much long term hope. This album had a number of other decent tunes too (Best Junkie You Adore) but nowhere near as good as this one.
The new Yard Act album, Where’s My Utopia? was a little hit and miss in parts, though mostly good and interesting, and in a kind of suitably ironic way, my favourite songs on it is actually called ‘We Make Hits’.
Live however, they were truly incredible, one of my favourite concerts of the year, due to mood/circumstances/company and….truly a great show. So I only discovered this gem of a long single I had missed from the previous year. The Trench Coat Museum was the live finale this year in April, with the support act guesting and it was an incredible riot, possibly the best live moment of the year in fact. And it’s another great video too.
Ever since Breadwinner from that EP I heard at the start of my falling in love with music again a few years ago (2018), I’ve tried to keep track on Everything, Everything. Not sure anything got me as much as that though, but they keep producing decent albums with good tracks, and so I’m selecting one here, though I’m not sure it’s really worthy of making the list, but I quite like Buddy, Come Over, from their new album, Mountainhead.
I know things here are subjective, and so often slaves to circumstances, but Francis of Delirium’s Lighthouse, released in mid-February (so why does it feel like it came much later in the year, surely mid-February is not THAT late to wonder about a first consistently good album of the year?) was the first album this year that I actually enjoyed listening to from start to finish. It may be lacking a truly outstanding song, but it doesn’t really have any weak point, and so got a huge thumbs up from me. Would it still rank in top 5 albums this year? Easily, I think.
The funny thing is that it’s a band that didn’t get very much press and I might not have paid any attention if I hadn’t seen them opening for Soccer Mommy a couple of years ago. But I liked their EPs so was glad I persisted. Very nice little live band too, as a show in Le Pop-Up proved a little later in the year (but still in the first half of the year that feels over a year ago…..there’s a theme there, so far away from everything now). I will highlight Something’s Changed. But Real Love would have been an equally strong possibility for selection. The whole album’s worth an ear though. Or rather your whole two. There are SO many good songs there, it would be pointless listing the whole of the tracks.
Sometimes during these revisit, I end up selecting a track I didn’t quite originally notice, maybe marked as good but not top. And as I was listening to Chelsea Wolfe’s excellent She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (really, that’s the title of the album) and concluding it will be worth a mention at the end but I don’t think I’ll particularly share a track, The Liminal struck me as being actually worth full inclusion there on its own merits. And so here it is. A beautiful, maybe ever so slightly gothic piece.
The now long-reformed Ride continued their series of rather decent albums that always contain some gems. Monaco’s good, but I Came to See the Wreck is just a fantastic song. At the risk (no, it’s definitely beyond a risk now) of repeating myself, it’s weird how travelling back in time makes me realise that I’ve simply not taken the time to enjoy the best tracks as there was always other things to do or new music to listen to. Maybe it wasn’t such a shit year for music. I still think the same in terms of albums (but then I may just be super demanding), but there’s really been a least a handful of superb songs, well, probably a few handfuls, even if I’m sharing probably too many on this page, but this song really is one of the top top ones. Monumental.
Something a little more leftfield, certainly not very well known, but a nice little song that I got through my mate Scotty from Arseblog. She also has a previous EP that has a couple of nice songs, but this lovely single was released in early 2024. Her name is Courtney Farren, and the song is called I’m Not Alone (I’m Lonely). Proper sweet indie, really, and I like the lyrics too.
A bit of pop. At last. While Dua Lipa’s new album was nowhere near as good as her previous in my opinion, it still had a few good songs/singles. Technically, this one was released in 2023, but I don’t see it in my 2023 page, so it shall belong here, as I like it very much. There were at least a couple of other good songs there (Falling Forever and These Walls, in fact I’m nearly putting FF first, I think other circumstances could have put it first, it’s practically a banger and a nice love song), and mostly the reminder that there was still some decent pop around (with a bigger surprise near the end of the year), and I don’t mean Charli XCX. As you can read in these pages, I liked a couple of her earlier songs, but the whole ‘brat’ hype left me completely cold. Great marketing? Maybe. Good dancey tunes? I’m not that sure, I really tried several times, even if it were just brief snippets of songs, but tried them all, and absolutely none appealed to me unlike on her previous albums. So why the hype? Summer of brat? What? Not particularly a cool tunes/danceable album in my book, but I must be the weird one there. So yeah, here’s Dua Lipa with Houdini instead.
A new Pet Shop Boys album is always an event for some. Have to admit that throughout the years, I’ve liked a lot of their singles or maybe some other tracks, but I’ve been mostly fed on their compilations anyway. This new album has a few good tracks, and my favourite was, surprisingly, not released as a single. So here’s Bullet for Narcissus from Nonetheless.
I was not exceptionnally impressed by Bob Vylan’s new album, Humble as the Sun, though it had its good moments, so this possibly belongs to later in the year if I were keeping a certain chronology that was not looking at releases. But the gig I was convinced to go to by Jed, and it didn’t disappoint. I may be tempted to include songs from previous albums, heard live (Northern Line, Pretty Songs), but I will choose to point towards the closer of this year’s album, one that I didn’t even get to hear live, but would have fitted as a set closer I reckon. Dream Big is another highlight from this year’s album.
Jumping ahead in terms of timing, but the link is the Bob Vylan gig, there was a rather excellent artist opening for him, called Hyphen. No album yet but quite a few singles (the first dating back from 2022), from which I shall select the very catchy ‘This Is Great Britain’, released at the tail end of last year. But there’s at least five others you can check.
Arab Strap released another excellent album this year, practically an unwritable title as it includes thumbs-up emojis in the title. But the songs were very good, this has to qualify as one of the best ‘other’ albums this year. A little difficult to select a track then (especially not having had any live experience with them this year), maybe Bliss then? Sociometer Blues is another candidate. As is Strawberry Moon. Or maybe the closer Turn Off The Light. On relisten, one of the very rare albums this year where there isn’t one shit track. It possibly lacks a real ‘wow!’ tune, annoyingly, but the standards are consistent and high.
I’ve grown apart from The Libertines, and didn’t particularly have much time for their previous album post-reformation, and decided to skip the gigs, but I listened to the new album this year, All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade with an open ear, and quite liked it, it could even be called a return to form, it has a few highlights, including this rather enjoyable number, Shiver. Bit of a toss up between this and Merry Old England, really, an equally worthy candidate for this year’s list.
As I am musing about what to include or not, I suspect if you read and compare with previous years, you can see there is a selection of decent tunes, but barely any association with any life event (because no event happened? again back to no emotion this year), even tracks that had potential like that Ride one above, had no particular emotional association. I repeat myself but listening through it all, it’s so draining at time, so much music, and so little life in 2024.
Still, next up, a new artist who had a brilliant debut album out : Rachel Chinouriri with What A Devastating Turn of Events. Quite a few good tunes there, and I will select Never Need Me. All I Ever Asked is quite sweet and could have been selected too, another impossible choice really, depends on your mood I guess, so check it out too, you might prefer it!
The chronology may be all over the place, but let’s have a jump (maybe) to May and the second edition of the Block Party festival, that allowed me to discover a few bands, or appreciate one or two I liked already.
First, a duo I was looking forward to and didn’t disappoint : Baba Ali. They had a new single just out, Heart Racer, so you can have a good 2024 track there. Good vibes in the small Supersonic Records venue.
The first band I saw that evening (well it was still the middle of the afternoon, really) was Library Card in the Supersonic Club. They made an immediate impression and set the tone for one of the best evenings of the year (and a busy one, jumping from venue to venue and even managing to sneak in a pint with friends at the Black Sheep, between two gigs). The Nothing, Interesting EP is packed with good songs, the slowly building opener ‘Well, Actually’ hits a particularly sweet spot.
I’m still not sure quite what to make of TTSSFU who played at Supersonic Records. It’s all quite ethereal, floating and nice, but ina= a rather absent-minded unemotional way: it doesn’t quite get me. Still, it was a decent gig, and the EP they released this year, Me, Jed and Andy has some decent tunes, this possibly slightly stands out.
But let’s face it, this is possibly the one song here where I am stretching my criteria, and I wouldn’t be selected this if I wasn’t doing a sort of Block Party Special there.
Now the real ‘WOW!’ moment of that evening came with Test Plan at La Seine Café. The minimal set-up, the ‘stage’ in a sort of cubic room, the incredibly loud sound, the relentless assault of noise, the red light, it was just incredible. They haven’t released much yet, just a few singles, but rather than any of the two otherwise excellent ones released this year (check out the claustrophobic video for Walking in a Vacuum), it’s the spectacular So Bored at Your Squat Rave from last year that I will select. Another banger really!
I’m not putting any Whitelands, not that they are not worth it, they are excellent, but I missed most of the gig, and in a way, nothing really stands out, and you’ve already had a slice of quite ethereal but not very emotional shoegaze with TTSSFU (although they are probably more accomplished and a little deeper than that).
Next, a band that has consistently produced good music and had a corking album out this year, again one of those consistent ones (so there were a few more than I recalled) : Les Savy Fav. OUI, LSF had an incredible number of good songs. It’s one of those bands I’d really wish I’d seen live, think I might have missed an opportunity last year, don’t remember them touring over here this year. Tough choice to select just one track, Somebody Needs a Hug will be it (hey, we all do!) just ahead of Mischief Night and Limo Scene. Absolutely Glorious.
The Lovely Eggs had a new album out: Eggsistentialism. There’s a lot to love about this band (from Holly Ross ex-Angelica), they’ve been around for many years now, I remember the days of myspace when I got in touch/ Their offer in this here album is both excellent and varied, and I’ll settle for this introspective beauty.
Let’s go a bit mainstream. A couple of songs that on hearing first bits I thought ‘oh yes, that’s good!’ in albums that were not necessarily all that great, although a second listen to girl in red’s I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY let me thought it was not that bad (apart from the weird idea of a meta guest introduction in mentioning how cool it would be to have Sabrina Carpenter on a song before she actually gets in.. so it’s not exactly fucking improvised, is it? shame because it was otherwise a pretty song), but really there’s only one song: New Love, a real banger, one of the top songs of the year. Also I don’t really know what is mainstream, is ‘girl in red’ actually still categorised as ‘independent’? She fills huge venues. Small remark, what’s the thing about ‘Visualizers’ now? I know it’s maybe been at least a couple of years now but are there not any more video clips? Official or not? I don’t get this terminology. I’m sure there’s an explanation, I’m not against updates or new wordings, but in this case I don’t see the point as it’s not been explained. Well, I’ve had a look now, it’s just a sub-video, less elaborated etc. So more cheap shit. I quote: “A visualizer seems to be a simplistic visual intended to accompany a song, much like a music video or lyric video, and it’s a new trend. They tend to be less developed and fully–fledged than music videos, which often have more complicated visuals or a plot and characters.”
The other one is from twenty one pilots’ Clancy (well also classified as ‘alternative’ in the Apple Music denomination, so just as little or as much), yes, another top banger of the year inside a not so great album, that would deserve a joyous moment to associate it with.
OK, there was no new Cherry Glazerr music this year, but a memorable gig in the wonderful Witloof Bar in Brussels was a chance to catch up on a few past singles I’d missed, so we go all the way back to 2020 for the excellent Rabbit Hole.
Back to 2024 and the wonderful Heartworms, who I’m looking forward to seeing live at last next year after exhaustion got in the way a couple of years ago, released another excellent single, called Jacked. New album in 2025 is one I’m eagerly awaiting. I somehow missed her releasing another single last year (May I Comply) that was equally excellent. Do check it out.
The previous AURORA album was so good (remember it was my number one that year), I wasn’t sure what to expect, and on hearing the ‘singles’ released one by one (four or maybe even five of them), I wasn’t as impressed. But I have to say that a second listen showed me there were a few growers there, and so possibly a handful of decent songs, and even a couple of excellent ones actually. My Name is pretty good, but it’s a tough choice to make between The Blade and My Body is Not Mine, I’ll choose the latter, but really it’s an impossible decision.
Now a truly special song. I’d heard a live version at the end of last year, and when this finally saw the light of day, I think it was the first song this year that touched, not a nerve, but the soul, deep inside. In fact when The Cure released their album, I always referenced this one as the only other song that got anywhere near making me feel something. Nothing really happened, so I couldn’t keep the feeling, but this is by far the most stunning non-Cure song released this year. An absolute beauty from the Miki Berenyi Trio: Vertigo. I’m looking forward to the gig next year. I’m not entirely sure if her voice is still OK live, I felt it wasn’t quite there last year, but on record here, it’s still one of the most beautiful voices in the world.
I had been left with mixed feelings after seeing Been Stellar live last year (though they were not in a great context), but when the album was released, I thought I’d check what it was about. And it’s not like it blew me away, but this was one of the rare good albums of the year, one of the better ones in fact, practically no weakness and a few top tunes to boot. To the point that I’m not even sure which to select here. There’s at least five truly excellent songs, but I think Sweet has to win, especially after hearing it live again. Actually, it’s an easy choice, it’s one of the best songs released this year, in my ‘ultimate’ 2024 playlist.
The new Gracie Abrams (The Secret of Us) was a big let down for me after two previous excellent offerings. I was not going to post anything from it, but the concluding Close To You is a candidate to the ‘bangers’ category and so worth inclusion after all.
See, the things I was saying (or was I?) about not so many great albums but very good tunes in so-so or sometimes even poor albums? I’m not sure where Goat Girl figure with their new album Below the Waste. I actually think it’s not such a bad album at all with a few decent songs, but motorway is just a great little tune.
French Music. Don’t mind if I do. It’s from 2022 though they released an album later in the year that I might still post from. I came across Gwendoline as they were mentioned to me by Jed when attending that slightly odd Dream Wife gig at Le Petit Bain. Audi rtt is probably the highlight from that Après c’est gobelet! album.
A little détour back to electronic music, there’s been a few decent releases (of course I only come across very few in the genre!), and Anna Prior’s Almost Love EP was pretty good, with this track, Fall Back, in particular, a wonderful selection in fact.
The Buoys, an Aussie band that is playing next February at Supersonic for free released a great little album in July (are we only in July? FFS how long is this page? Thanfully August is generally empty). Some brilliant songs like Subject A (maybe not ultra original but the most immediate banger here), and plenty of other very good ones really. Something in the Southern Hemisphere waters maybe, think Middle Kids (who released a new album later in the year, I’m not sure if it will figure yet). The maybe less immediate BDSM, with its driving rhythm will be my choice from this album.
Staying in Australia for a moment, while I quite immediately liked Royel Otis’ Pratts & Pain, though not that much on second listen, not to the point it had been hyped anyway, I realised when I saw them live that they probably weren’t quite a band for me. Still, I have to admit the very New Order-ish Oysters in my Pocket from 2022 is an instantly likeable song, and Glory to Glory from this year’s album is a bit of a tune too.
The very last inclusion on this list (no, you’re nowhere near the end of it, it was just a late edit, that I put in the middle) came from re-listening to some EPs for the final part of this page, and while I remembered liking Kaeto’s INTRO, for some reason I had forgotten to re-listen properly. In fact at a healthy 8 songs and 28 minutes, I’m not sure if it qualifies as an EP, probably more a mini-album (apparently this is a ‘mixtape’, whatever, things can’t be simple these days). Either way, released in the fallow middle of the summer, it is in fact one of the best releases of the year. KISS ME is the choice (though you can probably ignore the weird coda, I don’t get these weird add-ons that kind of spoil great songs, see Inhaler a couple of years ago or Desperate Journalist this year for instance), closely followed by CARRY YOU.
Nilüfer Yanya’s new album, My Method Actor was pretty good, but really it’s just this sweet track, Just A Western, that leads me to post here.
In the ‘I listened to this album and knew they’d be brilliant live and so it proved to be’ stakes, DEADLETTER’s Hysterical Strength were a dead cert. Not just the usual punk-ish indie, this was augmented quite perfectly with saxophone, and More Heat! has to be the choice tune among many others.
And in exactly the same way (though I knew from the EP released earlier this year rather than waiting for the album, but every track from that EP was included there anyway), Gurriers’ Come and See was a banker. Only more punk, less subtle and with far more physical pogo in the live room, not just moshing. Selecting a track may not be so easy. Nausea reminds me so much of test plan and is a fantastic, brutal opener, the closing title track is a more subtle and melodic suitable conclusion but I think the more varied Approachable still tops the bill overall, it’s a fantastic well-rounded number.
Going more quiet now with an album I wish I’d taken more time with, and an artist I unfortunately missed out on live, a free gig at Supersonic while I was away for work. Transparent Things is name of this superb album from Gia Ford. I’ll give you the beautiful opener, Poolside, but there’s a number of nice songs there (try Loveshot if you want a little more danceable rhythm).
Some mainstream/alternative/don’t know how to classify/famous actress-singer that I had however never heard about before. Suki Waterhouse’s album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin was actually (surprisingly?) pretty good. Is it worth inclusion here? OMG is the highlight, just about edging the quieter Think Twice, although it’s another very tough 50/50 choice between two very different tracks, picking the more immediate banger in a festive spirit. Again, it feels I am posting a lot of stuff on re-listen, that I am enjoying though I have no connection with, but it’s a bit of a case of not enough or too many tracks and not finding the right middle, but here’s some of the best songs of the year, truly.
In a re-reading of notes and a few extra listens on top of sequentially listening to all I’ve already put (and I’ve only removed a couple of tracks so far), I find myself adding a few more again. But it’s because they’re worth it. So what about a Spanish band? Hinds have some good tunes and released a more than decent album this year, called ‘VIVA HINDS’. There’s two tracks worth inclusion. Superstar is possibly a little superior overall, but I’ll go for Mala Vista, for the originality of being sung in Spanish, but, mostly for a top quality chorus.
The Smashing Pumpkins made a sort of return to form with Aghori Mhori Mei, with some good tracks perhaps reminiscent of the underrated Machina era? Either way a pleasant surprise, Pentecost in particular shines.
The thing this end of year very fast listens don’t lend themselves to is immersion in not so immediate albums/songs. And so some may remain by the wayside. However, I remember liking Ravyn Lenae’s Bird’s Eye, thinking, this is quite a good album. The good news though, while I can’t get into the whole of it now is that it actually also includes quite a catchy immediately identifiable single, so here is Love Me Not, for you.
Back for a third day of writing, hopefully last one as we just entered 2025, and before possible editions. And weirdly, I will start by including an older track from the band that started this page already not in 2024. Yes, that is Blonde Redhead. They were the single reason I booked a Rock en Seine ticket for the Saturday, although helped by various other bands I was happy to see. There were no big discoveries that day though a happy time was had and some good gigs witnessed, but Blonde Redhead were the highlight and did not disappoint. So I got an album I was missing, we’re going all the way back to 2007 there and it’s got some good tracks, including the superb title track ’23’ that they also played in the St Cloud drizzle. SW is also well worth your ears, and was another highlight of the gig. Spring and By Summer Fall? Yes, there’s quite a few good songs that were all played that afternoon, I was so glad I made my return to ReS then.
The new Mercury Rev album, Born Horses, got generally panned, and you can see why, it’s mostly spoken, there’s barely any actual singing, and the music is generally so-so. But there’s something about the final track, There’s Always Been a Bird in Me, that appeals and makes it just about worthy of appearing here.
The new London Grammar Album, The Greatest Love, was kind of more of what they’ve done before, so the appraisal is very much ‘oh it’s lovely’ but at the same time ‘meh, what’s the point of another carbon copy album?’. The chorus on The Fakest Bitch is very nice though,making it pass the cut by a bigger margin than I would have thought, it’s just beautiful.
Ahead of a new album next year, Benefits, now down to a duo, seem to have taken a new musical direction. Let’s face it, there’s only so much of what they were doing that you can carry on doing, what with all the intensity and shouting and little melody. And I like what they are doing now, starting with this first single, and pretty much confirmed by the next two they released before the end of the year. Much more ambient, kind of spacey sound, similar messages in a maybe more digestible format. Will the live show (I’m seeing them next year in London with Jez) lose some intensity? Possibly, we shall see, but it should definitely be interesting. Anyway, here’s Land Of The Tyrants as a taster. Good video, top tune and Kingsley with some hair back on his head now.
I was going to put the latest IST IST album, Light A Bigger Fire in the list at the bottom of good albums but not quite there or without a significant track, Repercussion being the highlight, but here we are again, the finale, Ghost, is just far too beautiful to be omitted, I love that type of slow-building, beautiful songs. A ‘must listen’.
Now a little detour inspired by live music again, it turned out I didn’t have all the early Mission classics as I’d missed out on The First Chapter, but the kind of funny ‘woo-hoos’ from the live version of Naked and Savage stayed a little in my mind after the gig, and it works well on record, kind of an earworm this, in fact. And yes, we’re moving back further than ever here, about four decades in fact, but they had some good songs from the start!
Desperate Journalist keep releasing a better album every time, and so No Hero was probably their best so far. And one of the best albums this year. As a band they are really purring now, and Jo’s voice is the best it’s ever been. Slightly difficult to select a track among all the goodness here. Silent is an excellent number, Unsympathetic (Part I at least, Part II feels like it shouldn’t have been included in the same track, you could have had that name but separated them), the closer is good, so a toss up between the title track and 7. I’ll go for No Hero after all for its possibly slightly superior chorus (does it even have a chorus, the bit when it soars anyway), but it’s one of these difficult choices I’ll never be totally happy with.
Quick detour to a band mentioned earlier, but once more, a gig led to buying older stuff and a track heard live that is also excellent on record. In this case DEADLETTER’s Binge from their 2022 Heat! EP, is easily equal to the best from their actual album and worth inclusion.
I think in the vague chronology, we’re reaching sometime in October when I kept buying musing and not listening to it with the eyes and ears firmly on live gigs on one side, but mostly on the soon to be released Cure album.
So, I think I’m going to keep to the listening chronology rather than the release order from there on. Meaning the end will be odd as there may be many tunes but listened to in a short period of time so definitely no time to absorb or associate. But first then, The Cure. I’ve talked a bit about the album at the start of this page, and sure I won’t post all the songs or mention the highlights too much again. So I will just first post one of the three ‘new’ songs, one of the best from the album really, a song that has pretty much everything we love about The Cure. It’s interesting that Mary pushed Robert to not have a full doom&gloom album after all as seemed to be the initial intention, and while the lyrics are still all consistent and this is a very highly self-reflective number, there is a joy underneath, something that makes me (and a few others who truly ‘get’ The Cure, judging from the reviews) feel like this is sort of an upbeat, positive, life-affirming track. Anyway, here’s All I Ever Am.
Only one song then? Nope, but the other I won’t take from the album, because after all, The Cure released a live album too. From the show played at The Troxy (I unfortunately didn’t manage to get a ticket, but somehow, I felt I wasn’t quite quite ready for it though I may have made myself it if I’d had the ticket, the way I am) on album launch day. They played the new album in full first (so some songs played live from the first time) before a more ‘classic’ show. The new album got released as live, with all proceeds going to a charity. And so I shall select another song, live version, and I think A Fragile Thing, while one of my favourites there and ever, with emotional associations from December 2022, has to be the choice (and I think this remastered version is slighty better than the one that found its way to the live album), though go on, you know you want to listen to Endsong too.
Obviously, between all the differently coloured or mastered vinyl versions I got, the digital, the live, the instrumental, I don’t know how many times I have listened to this album over the course of the last two months, never skipping a track in fact. Twenty times? At least. Maybe thirty? And oh yes, I even went to a special ‘listen in the dark on some amazing system’ session on 21/12 at Listener in Paris too, interesting if slightly frustrating experience.
The rest of the tracks below I only listened to in December, in fact probably just during the last two weeks really. But I had to not stop forever, even if I still sometimes feel, I could just live on ONLY listening to this particular Cure album. Is it their best? Probably not. Is it my favourite? I’m kind of thinking it might be, every experience is different, but perhaps I wasn’t well developed enough at the time of Disintegration, and so this is the album I have witnessed being released with the most excitment (the anticipation for Wish maybe was personally higher?), the incredible ‘return’ to form that was universally hailed and really, not a hype. It’s just an incredible album that sort of saved the musical year. The promise of more is both exciting and slightly worrying as you wonder if they can make two similarly good albums. Either way, after the rather patchy eponymous album from 2004 (who doesn’t even seem to have a definitive tracklist given the different versions), and the incredibly poorly produced, over-verbose, and mostly devoid of good songs 4:13 Dream from 2008, it was hard to believe they still had this in them, although the 2022 gigs showed that yeah, it was likely that if it were ever released, the new album would be special. Two years later, it was released, and it was, indeed fucking special.
Anyway, and regretfully, I have to move on to more music. But don’t worry, there are still plenty of good tunes to actually enjoy.
Nieve Ella’s second EP, Watch It Ache and Bleed (or first album, it’s under half an hour, so probably just an EP) had some good tunes, building up from last year’s Lifetime of Wanting. Does it warrant inclusion, especially after The Cure? Not sure, but it’s a decent buffer there before some other possibly superior tunes. It’s still very good in fact.
And moving on to something completely different again, back to more ambient/dance-ish music, Kelly Lee Owens’ Dreamstate was a little gem. Plenty of good grooves to select from there, and it’s another extremely close contest between Love You Got and Time To, but I’ll select the latter, just about. Obviously the message is go out of this page and check the other one, and in fact the whole stunning album there.
The next one is purely inspired by an unexpected good live experience. Porridge Radio’s Clouds In The Sky They WIll Always Be There For Me is underwhelming in the extreme, but I quite like A Hole In The Ground after all, if nothing else.
A live discovery (opening for Been Stellar) that I am looking forward to seeing again (perhaps one good reason to attend at least one day of the oddly revamped Block Party next May where they will be playing TWICE) is the Irish band Basht. .They sounded very good live, and their EP Dirty White Lies has three excellent songs out of four in fact. Which one should you go for? Gone Girl I’d say.
What is it with music from Ireland these days? They seem to have most of the new good bands and be taking over the world. The funny thing with the next one is as with all these very recent listens, I just earmarked a few tunes and find myself listening again and enjoying some songs more than I would have thought. For this one I thought, oh there’s a bit of SPRINTS in a phrasing there, and a little bit of CMAT in some aspects of the music, so maybe she’s Irish and indeed she is (I had totally forgotten she was). Not that I can hear a strong Irish accent, or maybe it’s just subtle. Backseat Driver is quite good, but the whole album Everybody Needs a Hero ranks among the ‘very good but maybe not top 10’ of the years, fairly consistent.
Sometimes (often?) the good surprises come from where you’re not expecting or not even looking. So in a year when I didn’t find much pop to my taste, as alluded above with the overhyped new Charli XCX, or the disappointing Dua Lipa album, the great pop album of the year (that was actually released sort of mid-year) came from…..Kylie Minogue. Now, I didn’t have anything from her, I knew she’d kind of reinvented herself (around the time of her cover of New Order’s Blue Monday?) some distance away from The Locomotion or I Should Be So Lucky, but I’d let last year’s album (I think? I remember the ‘Padam Padam’ talk but never really listened to that) pass me by, and somehow following a decent review, I found myself checking ‘Tension II’ and thought I could really like that. As it is, yes, it is a truly great pop album, and I’m struggling to decide between Taboo and My Oh My as the best track. I’d initially put the catchy first one, but I’ll go for My Oh My for the added Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo cameos. Proper club banger that! You could argue if you were so inclined that Kylie showed them young’ones how proper, melodic pop is done.
Back to a lot less frivolity with Gwendoline again. I’m not actually sure when the 2024 album, C’est à moi ça, was released, seemingly very early in the year in fact, but I only listened to it for the first time a week ago. It’s rather dark and not too agitated music-wise, but I actually very very much like the sound on that, right up my street, especially for French music, not sure where to place that, it’s a relatively untapped section of music for me. Not sure there’s going to be that much moshing/pogo at the gig (probably good while I don’t feel 100% recovered achilles-wise), but it should be an interesting and possibly quite intense live experience. A lot of reverb/delay in the guitars, it’s practically new-wave ish really there (well I see they are labelled as ‘cold wave’ so it makes sense). Pinata is great, Rock 2000 is fab and would have been the other obvious candidate, but the epic opener, Conspire, sets the scene so wonderfully it will be my pick. Huge song that I am looking forward to no doubt hearing live, should be a powerful moment.
A few releases left, that I caught up with just before end of year and worth a mention or a tune, essentially October ones in fact, so still released before the Cure,
Nearly without anyone noticing, Sorry released a new single, Waxwing. And it is absolutely superb, up there with their best. You might remember last year after a February gig (just before I got really depressed) I was wondering what would be next for them, so maybe this is a first taster before a new album next year (or rather this year, as we are now in 2025 as I write), and I am still very much looking forward to their next chapter there.
Chloe Qisha’s eponymous EP is pretty good, and spearheaded by the opening I Lied, I’m Sorry, a lovely slice of indie pop.
All I’d heard from yunè pinku since last year’s amazing Babylon EP (admittedly not a lot, maybe some collaborations and remixes more than her own tracks) left me in doubt I’d ever hear something I really liked from her again, but the Scarlet Lamb EP feels like a promising return, with more than one good tune. I’ll pick the excellent Don’t Stop over Midnight Oil and Half Alive, but they’re all good.
In the last few days of the year, I found myself with a list of maybe ten or so albums I was considering getting. But I decided that saturation was not good, and took a more critical than usual approach to my previews listening on iTunes, so there may be a few tunes missing out that could have been at least as worthy of inclusion than others than figured, but in the end, I settled for three choices, two October releases and an old 2020 release from a small band I liked. And well, quality control certainly has its values, and I found some really good music there.
A Place to Bury Strangers’ Synthesizer doesn’t necessarily sound like what its name could imply, but is a solid alternative rock album, fairly noisy, tending to industrial at time. Not necessarily a very modern song, but some pretty well crafted numbers there. You Got Me sounds good, though it sounds exactly like a DIIV song in its introduction (bit of Doused maybe, not a bad thing), which would make me wary of seeing them live now anyway, but Join the Crowd is the more interesting song there, with a great metronomic, nearly martial rhythm to boot.
Next a recent American group that got a bit of press around them, I’d heard of them playing a festival (Pitchfork?) last year, but I had not investigated though the brief snippets I’d heard had sounded interesting. So when cumgirl8 finally released their debut, the 8th cumming, I paid a little more attention and liked what I heard, so it was one of my last picks of the year, and fitted the ‘not heard it all before and is truly pretty good’ bill, so that was a happy buy. A few good tunes (mercy, ahhh!ahhh!, hysteria!), but I’ll pick girl don’t try, perhaps also a (not-so-) subtle nod to The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry, including some Cure-sounding elements.
We’ll conclude with what were technically the last releases of the year for me, both released on December 13. First a superb live album from The National recorded in Rome, and I’ll give you the wonderful I Need My Girl, possibly even more powerful in this electric version. What a beautiful song.
And finally, with also a little look back to the start of the year, as Theodora’s rather unstructured release schedules led to an extended Odyssey EP before the year’s end, that included, among other, the tracks released with Jours Heureux. The English-language ‘Wait For Me’ bearing what are trademark bass riffs that made for the best songs (in my ears) when she opened for Art School Girlfriend will be the final song for this year. Although there’s certainly a case for putting on the even more danceable Diane and its great techno breaks, another tough choice, as when that one goes, it’s really a happy dance song for end of year parties. Maybe it’s one you’d want to play at such a party, people would probably like it and ask what it is, yeah the overall may not be that amazing and there’s a slight bias due to managing to get to the end of this post and feeling good, but the more dancy bit is worth it, so check it out too!
I still need to add the traditional ‘good albums, but didn’t make it for various reasons’, but I think I will wait until ‘tomorrow’ (so 3/1) even if it means this post has been created over five fucking days, which is way too much. Good thing New Year’s Day happened in the middle of the week and I took the following couple of days off….
For this part, I am, quite obviously, just sticking to 2024 releases (even though there was a good catch up with some earlier EPs following gigs, Art School Girlfriend for instance, now I think I could/should possibly have included Bending Back from 2017 Measures EP, but I’m not going back on that now!).
So….a few EPs to start with, as has become traditional. Ones that were decent enough, but didn’t quite have a top tune worth inclusion in the main list. Some stuff I’m not sure if they qualify as EPs, but let’s have that ‘under 30 min’ rule.
-The Klittens -Butter EP. There’s some decent music that seems to come out of Benelux now, and this lot sound interesting. Recommended track: Atlas.
– Highschool, from Australia, had a new EP out, Accelerator, though the sound somehow doesn’t seem to do justice to the songs. Try August 19 any day of the year.
-A promising English new band next, mary in the junkyard had an EP and single out, marble arch from ‘this old house’ EP is probably the stand-out track, but the single ‘this is my california’ released near the end of the year suggests they are here to stay and get bigger, as it is very good.
-triage opened for bar italia at La Cigale if I remember, and their EP Fox Hours is worth a check, some good tunes, in fact the closer Fundamentally Unmatched was an outside contender to be included in the main list, it’s an excellent track.
-there has been a fair amount of ‘buzz’ around Picture Parlour, and possibly some self-aggrandising statements coming from them, it was also extremely close to get an inclusion in the main list. I’m feeling odd about it, as it’s kind of a genre that’s not totally in my normal tastes, nothing extroardinary, but there’s a lot of stuff, like Queen, Fleetwood Mac, etc, that I can never get into, not that this is anything like that, mind, which is why I’m also unsure about The Last Dinner Party despite some decent songs on a relatively good album). So yeah, the Face In The Picture EP feels quite theatrical, but I don’t know, I like it, it’s a little ‘grandiose’, fairly bombastic but well sung. The title track is not bad, Ronnie is quite excellent, but Moon Tonic wins it, reminds me of a classic I can’t quite put a name to, either could have been included, perhaps if it didn’t feel a little hollow compared to most of the tunes I have actually included.
-MOULD’s self-titled EP could be filed along all these angry new bands so popular and mostly great this year, Glow being the pick of the songs.
-I’m not entirely sure about Yannis&The Yaw’s Lagos Paris London EP (feat. Tony Allen), but the Foals’ frontman side-project, managing to include a dead musician, produced one track that may have well been worthy of the main list : Rain Can’t Reach Us.
-Adult DVD’s Next Day Shipping is definitely worth a mention, with a few good songs, and the very Yard Act sounding Doomsday Prepper the highlight. It possibly would have been included if I didn’t have two Yard Act tunes in the main section already.
-Shoegaze is definitely back big time this year, with the good and bad, as not everybody is slowdive, and so it’s sometimes tending towards ethereal sounds but a bit too ‘discarnate’ at times, like floating in the void rather than feeling its depth. I’ve given you TTSSFU above, and NewDad who are probably top of the class of new generation shoegazers along with Whitelands, so didn’t want to include too much of that, but if you like that sort of things, Night Swimming’s No Place to Land EP is a pretty solid offering (though I can’t even bring myself to tell you what the best song is, I’m not sure). As is deary’s Aurelia, where I will highlight the title song, that I actually first heard live when they opened for Cranes in London earlier in the year. But neither of these EPs has anything that would be near my ‘main list’ to be honest, however nice it all sounds.
-and the last EP to make this list is completely different and one of the best, a band I was hoping to see, for free near the end of the year, but fatigue got in the way of a midweek Supersonic gig. Eazy Peazy is the name of the EP, Man/Woman/Chainsaw the name of the very promising band. Hard to qualify them, a mix of English Teacher (with added violin) with bits of, I don’t know, Fat Dog? No, you can’t get the idea, so just have a listen. Quite a few good songs in there, but Ode to Clio has to be the pick from this lot.
And now we reach the final section, with a few albums that are good albums but with the usual caveats of possibly no track quite good enough to merit inclusion in the main section of this page, sometimes just because I was trying to be more selective, sometimes, just because these albums are good but did not quite emotionally connect. In no particular order.
-Marika Hackman’s Big Sigh came early in the year, maybe even just a few weeks too early but is a very good album with plenty of nice songs, Big Sigh is a great song, and No Caffeine came the closest to full inclusion in fact. It actually has a video, so I’m going to be generous and put it as a bonus here. I mean, it’s definitely worth its place in the ‘best songs of 2024’ list now that I listen to it again.
-Mannequin Pussy’s I Got Heaven was highly anticipated, and the gig wasn’t bad either. There are many bands that I prefer to see live than listen to on record. They are pretty much at the frontier, as the album, or the first half of it anyway, is pretty good, the open title track being the highlight.
-Whitelands are a strange case of I missed a gig I wanted to see for bad organisational reasons, I mentioned them above as classic shoegaze, and so they are, and unfortunately, like with a lot of these bands, it means I enjoyed the atmosphere a fair bit, but tunes are not always high on the agenda. Although they are defnitely among the best of these bands, and Cheer is worth a bit of time, as is How It Feels or the closer Now Here’s the Weather, but again, if you like shoegaze, you’ll love this album, if you don’t like it, don’t even bother. I’m kind of ‘hmm yeah, it’s OK for a quiet reflective day on the edge of depression’, but is it really that dreamy? It’s kind of not appealing as much as I feel it should.
-Is it worth mentioning the new New Model Army album, Unbroken? It won’t revolutionise music or how you perceive them, but it’s a solid release, so yes. Fair to say they are no Cure, and so in the grand scheme of things, it’s a bit of an insignificant if good album.
-Very much a newer artist, although already more than ten years into her career, and an album well worth your time is Nadine Shah’s Filthy Underneath. No outstanding song, but many very good ones, so not sure which to direct you towards? The closer French Exit with its chorus sounding a bit like Diamonds are Forever perhaps?
-Another interesting band, bringing the saxophone in among some classic guitar indie sounds is Drahla, and their album angeltape. Nothing stands out, but it’s a truly excellent album with plenty of good songs, zig-zag may be the choice morsel, but really it’s a very consistent collection of songs.
-keeping with interesting songs, but more on the dance side, Porij’s Teething probably shouldn’t even be in the list, but Marmite came close to inclusion so it’s worth a mention. It very much sounds like it’s from twenty to thirty years ago though, check Unpredictable for instance. Bordering on house? Not really my scene, so maybe it’s just some weird nostalgic appeal to something I’m not sure I even liked so just a time-related association.
-the new Vampire Weekend album, Only God Was Above Us wasn’t bad, though I always associate them with MGMT in terms of ‘American band who have been there for a while now, have a few ‘classic’ songs but I can’t really get into, zero emotional content’. There is no doubt that Ice Cream Piano and Gen-X Cops are good songs though.
-speaking about albums that are undeniably good, here’s English Teacher’s debut, This Could Be Texas. Lauded, (over) hyped, and you know what? It leaves me similarly cold. Don’t get me wrong, I could tell straight away it was an excellent album, and I did enjoy seeing them live, especially the first time. But I think that while I like the idea of them, and some of the very quaint aspects of Lily Fontaine’s lyrics and on-stage persona, it’s another emotionally empty album for me. It’s not devoid of charm, it’s just that I can’t connect. OK, You Blister My Paint is a beautiful song that lingered in my head after the Hasard Ludique gig, and I do like Nearly Daffodils a lot, but somehow it couldn’t get anywhere near my top albums of the year, or even get included in the top songs when you hear all the other songs that are actually in it. Still, will be interesting to see how they evolve and maybe they just came at the wrong time for me. But they’re very very good, I won’t argue with that.
-2024, like most years had its fair share of good singer-songwriters, that I could enjoy listening to, but didn’t necessarily stay long within me. Maggie Rogers’ Don’t Forget Me is probably worth a mention, The Kill and particularly On & On & On being the highlights. It all feels a bit ‘sub-Taylor Swift’ at times though.
-Bess Atwell’s Light Sleeper is another album that probably fits the same category, with a fair number of good tunes though I’m struggling to pick a favourite. Maybe Crowds.
-Something completely different, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ Dark Rainbow. I had an old Gallows album, and I knew Frank Carter had moved on to something fairly different and I’d heard many good things about it. This year I took a plunge into his new album, and I have to say it’s pretty good, with Happier Days my top choice here but there’s a handful of good songs. I was tempted to go see him and his band live (especially as The Mysterines were opening, and knowing now that they cancelled their tour later in the year), but it wasn’t possible.
-if you like your rock’n’roll a little bit on the prog/psychedelic/hint of Kasabian side, I have a couple of albums for you. Solar Eyes’ eponymous album has quite a few numbers that appeal, though again, I have too many other better things to listen to. Random pick: Roll The Dice. Similarly Melts’ Field Theory could be your cup of tea. In fact WLDNG somehow very very nearly made it to the main list as a rather monumental slice of cinematic psych-rock, but I decided it didn’t fit (and I had too many tracks, but I didn’t put a limit in the end, so that didn’t play much of a role). Figment is good too.
-Still Corners had a new album, nothing revolutionary but still perfectly pleasant, and if you need some lovely peaceful and quiet time while waiting for absolutely nothing to happen while thinking something might happen, The Dream is the perfect song.
-moving to something at the other end of the musical spectrum, what about Nia Archives’ Silence Is Loud? I first listened to it and thought ‘this is great, different’, but I’m afraid it didn’t stand the test of relistens, not a problem of quality, but more in terms of being able to enjoy it while feeling very well: it’s a little too agitated, I still like some of it, but it’s not one that I would listen to if I feel great, unless in the right party slightly fucked-up atmosphere. But yeah, it’s OK, in small doses. The title track is still good, Crowded Roomz works in its own frenzied way, and there’s actual a very nice melody to Tell Me What It’s Like. But I have to admit it’s one I think I was wise to not go and see live, would probably have felt like a waste. It definitely has its place in a ‘best albums’ list though, in the ‘interesting’ and ‘if in the right mood’ section, not in any sort of deep appreciation.
-just when you think you’ve heard all the post-punk bands in the UK and Ireland, there’s another one. I couldn’t quite fit in BIG SPECIAL in the main section, but POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES is a very good album. There’s a number of angry/energetic songs, but I’d go for the quiet BLACK DOG/WHITE HORSE, a very nice number.
-Billie Eilish’s new album. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Shouldn’t be in here? Oh yes it should. Hell, even English Teacher covered her. Somehow I didn’t manage to find a track that I liked enough to include, and I very much know it’s never going to be a personal favourite, but it’s another very solid album from her, with some new sounds, and (mostly in the second part) more usual ones from her. Very consistent and while I definitely would not listen to this all day long, I was actually impressed initially anyway, and if I have to pick a tune, maybe CHIHIRO.
-The Mysterines new album, Afraid of Tomorrows, is definitely worth a mention. Maybe if I’d seen them live, something could have made the top list, but it’s still a solid offering, though perhaps a little too uniform, and I can see how the voice will end up grating song after song. especially as the songs themselves are a little tame after highlight Junkyard Angel that was close-ish to inclusion in the main list, an excellent song, the top choice here for sure.
-after seven years, our indie Welsh friends from Los Campesinos! returned with a new album, All Hell, and it was rather good, packed with excellent guitar tunes, practically sounding ’emo’ if it’s still a thing. A Psychic Wound is the choice song here.
-a little detour to Pop with Griff’s Vertigo. Probably mainstream in fact, one likely to fill big venues, at least Zénith, there’s a few good tunes there, the title track, Miss Me Too and Tears For Fun are decent.
-if you want to file something in the ‘much lauded but I really can’t connect’ category next to English Teacher, Fontaines D.C.’s new album, Romance, sort of belongs there, albeit a bit differently. I very very much liked their previous album (one of the top albums that year if not the top, I can’t remember), but now that they have exploded into the stratosphere (and fill the Zénith) as the main lights of the new Irish scene, they sure have come a long way from their low-key debut, they are more varied in their music, and certainly allow themselves to have more fun by the look of it, the horrible artwork and the generally dubious choice of garb. Do I think the new album is good? I wrote some notes to that effect, and I’ve put ‘likes’ on more than half the songs. Yet, I’m relistening and it still doesn’t do it for me. Sure they will top a few polls, but I still think their previous one was better. I have to admit I quite like the middle section and so In The Modern World/Bug/ Motorcycle Boy sort of rescue the whole thing. But the main singles, Modern World excepted, while OK, don’t quite do it for me, even if ‘Favourite’ is kind of an instant pop song vaguely reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub. Overall I can recognise a good album here but I am fairly underwhelmed. And if the tunes don’t do it, Grian Chatten’s voice can become fairly irritating over the duration too. Maybe it’s my ‘anti-hype’ reflex but this is absolutely nowhere near my top 10 or even 20 of the year I’d say. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that, once more, I feel zero connection.
-the official cassyette debut album, This World Fucking Sucks was pretty good with a number of good tunes again. File next to PVRIS maybe? Friends in Low Places is the top choice here, maybe the most immediately accessible, least ‘metal’ song, but there’s some other very good songs like Say My Name or the very catchy Sugar Rush. Definitely sounds like PVRIS (well the music anyway) despite being from this side of the Pond.
-We’re still waiting for a new album of original songs from the Raveonettes (how long has it been?), but whether it ever happens or not, they have released an album of covers. I Love How You Love Me (originally a Phil Spector production from The Paris Sisters) sounds exactly the way you would expect the Raveonettes covering it would sound. So no surprise at all, which in this case is not unpleasant.
-Does Fat Dog’s WOOF. qualify as a good, remarkable album? They’ve built a great live reputation and while I missed them earlier, I have them booked for next (sorry, ‘this’, we’re into it for a third day now) year, because after having listened to this album, I can totally understand how they could be great on stage. Mind you, the album is pretty short at 33 minutes, so doesn’t overstay its welcome, hence getting my vote. Quite frantic, not one for your peaceful moments, but it does deserve to be here after all. Opener Vigilante, while not the craziest, over-agitated tune here, is a nice introduction to the whole thing, but if you want a proper mad highlight, go for the monumental King of the Slugs and its constantly changing pace. It’s the kind of tune that could make a year’s list easily, especially if enhanced by a live experience, so watch this space in 2025. If you want a majestic, quieter track (despite the subtle ultra-frenzied synth motif in the background), I am the King is the kind of comedown tune you need.
-I remember hearing a Raveonettes remix from Trentemoller a long while ago, and coming close to acquiring a previous album, but I had no idea how that would sound. And so here is this year’s Dreamweaver, aptly titled, overall it is dreamy atmospherics that prevail, not too many vocals, and a fair amount of Fender-VI sounding guitar (you’ll know what I mean when you hear it). Take your pick between Behind My Eyes and the purely instrumental In a Storm, it’s quite beautiful.
-The Linda Lindas, ‘older’ than for their previous release, but still extraordinarily young, produced another enjoyable slice of pop rock, No Obligation. Most of it still sounds like a fun, enjoyable racket. Favourite track? Probably Too Many Things (surely it should have been a single!).
-while not up there with the best or missing a true banger, the new Middle Kids album, Faith Crisis Pt 1 (is one to assume there will be a Pt 2?) is still very enjoyable. Dramamine may be the best pop song there, with quite a catchy post-chorus hook.
-an album that I instantly quite liked, but I’m not so sure on re-listen was NIKI’s buzz. However, I will still mention it here as ‘Blue Moon’ was a sweet song that was extremely close to making the A-list.
-and one for the road, not finishing with a bang but another lovely album from mxmtoon, liminal space. Released on the same day as Songs of a Lost World, it didn’t stand a chance of being listened to for a while, but it’s quite nice overall, and just a little is such a beautiful song to conclude this page, I think it will just about deserve a final video (sadly another ‘visualizer’, arrgh, and a pretty shit one at that) entry, it could possibly have made the main section, I just never really had the time to listen to this album well enough. passenger side is a pretty good song too.
And yes this is the end, really. Time for 2025 to start soon.