Favourite Albums of 2024

Author

Eddie
December 28, 2024

I’m old enough that I still listen to music in albums when I can. Here are 15 records out this year that I particularly liked. I’ve put a bandcamp link (or in Hamish Hawk’s case, a YT link; he doesn’t seem to have his latest album on bandcamp) to a song from each album so you can get a sense of whether you might like it.

Brama - S/T

I did not pick an Occitan electro folk band with prominent hurdy-gurdy being one of my favourites of the year, but here we are - credit to the pretentious folks at The Quietus for drawing my attention to this record. La Bruma contains actual funk, and S'enraija combines idioms from folk, rock, and the music of the Sahel to great effect over 8 minutes.

Cower - Celestial Devastation

The side project of 3 guys from well regarded noise rock bands; this is their exercise in pure goth nostalgia and it's great. Cure & Siouxsie to the fore, but also a distillation of much of the music to the left of the dial from the era; goth, post punk, a few synths, and a hint of metal. Lyrics filled with existential dread, songs full of hooks, overall an excellent, entirely sincere, gothy good time.

DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water

I've liked pretty much every record DIIV has put out, and this is one of their best. Not-quite-shoegaze, the immediate point of comparison for me (this may not mean a lot outside New Zealand) is the incredible, underappreciated Jean Paul Satre Experience (from the late 80s/early 90s). Fuzzed out, melodic, occasionally loud.

EELS - Being Dead

Mamas and the Papas meet scuzzy 70s garage rock. There is absolutely nothing not to like here. Melodic with enough of an edge to make it interesting.

Marika Hackman - Big Sigh

I've enjoyed most of Hackman's back catalogue but this, her first in a few years, is my favourite. Just consistently good, downbeat songwriting and affecting lyrics for the whole album. Hugely impressive.

Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand

Scottish Morrissey sans the far right sociopathy. Arch lyrics, solid songwriting, mannered but powerful vocals and, very importantly, unrestrained faggotry. Hawk really is quite clear about what his (ex?) partners liked when they were alone, and it hits surprisingly hard to have that stated as explicitly as Hawk does. Always liked what Hawk serves up, but this is a step up.

Hovvdy - S/T

Slacker, low-fi indie stalwarts go... slightly less low-fi, slightly more structured songwriting. And it really works for them. Breathy vocals duck in and out of each other, guitars tangle, and it all comes together in Bad News, at the end of the album; one of the best songs of the year.

Hurray For the Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive

Scrappy Americana with an edge. I don't think there's a weak song on the record. The grammar of Americana being directed towards queerness and queer community is really nice to see, and the band and studio team chief Riff Raff Alydna Segarra has assembled to support their songwriting is impeccable. Really impressive.

Los Campesionos! - All Hell

Gareth et al's transition from 2000s twee pop to, in the 2020s, early 2000s emo band is complete. And boy does it sound good on them. Gareth David is a hell of a lyricist, and the songs in behind are some of the best the band has done in ages. Impressive to be producing work this good almost 20 years into their career.

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

A hardcore band plays (largely) pop music. Not perhaps as groundbreaking as when Husker Du did it in the early 80s, but it's still an incredibly effective approach to songwriting, and Mannequin Pussy are very good at it. And punctuated with enough actual punk songs to remind us that this band does, indeed, have an edge.

Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch

Pratt is simply one of the best folk songwriters working today. Not a note out of place, her oddly stylised but pure vocals doing exactly what they need to do, and hugely compelling lyrics. She really does a great deal within a quite narrow aesthetic range.

Nala Sinephro - Endlessness

I'm an longstanding fan of ambient music, but nothing more than a dabbler in jazz. Sinephro's superbly composed ambient jazz record here has been a great way to dip my toes in. Core of ambient harp and synths, with classic jazz instruments like sax making the occasional entry to keep things from getting weightless and remind you that despite the ambient bits, this complex music also rewards close attention.

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

Katie Crutchfield is incapable of making a bad album and, improbably, she somehow keeps getting better. If her turn to the roots rock idiom wasn't so successful here I'd miss the scrappy indie rock of her early records, but it is, so I don't. Well written, well performed, and an artist who seems to be in a good place in her life, while producing the best work of her life.

Yasmin Williams - Acadia

Williams is a virtuosic guitarist, working mostly in the modern acoustic space. She's also an increasingly confident songwriters, and in Acadia she expands her horizons somewhat. Drifts between new age, folk, and jazz idioms, even bringing in a bit of electric work. Her playing remains hugely impressive, her choice of collaborators impeccable, and the whole effect is a truly impressive collection of songs:

Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor

A very distinctive guitarist and vocalist gives us her best collection of songs thus far. Relaxed (without lacking tension), unflashy but note perfect, I just enjoyed pretty much everything on here.