Well hullo there…

Yeah, even though I’ve spent far too much of my free time listening, compiling, reconciling and finally writing all of these thoughts down for you to peruse through, I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to take a look back at the year that was/most certainly wasn’t in any regard whatsoever.

However, if I am ever going to see anything through to the finish this year, it will at the very least be putting this foolishly huge act I’ve given myself a proper send off, even if it is just my frail sense of pride that will yield any such minuscule goodwill from it.

Quick Recap: I have spent the last eleven months listening, re-listening, rating and compiling as many new music releases as I could get my ears around using the following publications in an effort to get as wide-reaching a cache as possible regardless of genre, profile or (especially) quality:

Pitchfork > everything tagged in the Out This Week and Best New Music sections, as well as anything in the Reviews section rated 8.0 or over, not including retrospective articles or spotlights on reissues.

This was a good starting off point in terms of having a wider vantage of sub-genre entry-points that I would have otherwise missed, particularly in hip hop because someone had to keep up with Future’s output…

The Guardian/The Observer > everything spotlighted in its Album Reviews section, which came in handy mainly in terms of keeping up with folk, jazz and especially classical releases, both contemporary and, well, classic (though seeing as one half of it has since been bought by a questionable media company, let’s see how long this particular avenue will stay available…)

Resident Advisor > everything listed in both its Albums and Singles Reviews section, which kept me in touch with all things electronically diverse the world over, and not just those breaking through every once in a while on a more generalised review aggregate site.

Speaking of…

Metacritic > everything album listed on its New Album Releases By Date page, to get a broader aspect of what other publications were actually raving about/shitting over.

Album Of The Year > everything listed on its 2024 page, which had many overlaps with the others but did keep a keener eye on more things rock-oriented, specifically metal.

And if that doesn’t seem like an over-subscription of listening, it doesn’t include personal recommendations from friends both real and virtual, all in all helping me to cram in over 1500 different campaigns in total.

On average, that’s about 30-35 a week, which given my real-life work in data entry didn’t tax me too much, only when my social life got in the way with holidays and stuff, but lest I get too personal I must not dwell on that.

So, was it all worth it?

Well, going by what End Of Year lists I’ve managed to scour, it turns out I still didn’t manage to listen to absolutely everything, so revision in the sourcing will certainly be addressed next time I try something like this (probably next year, given how valuable a world-muffling sandbag this whole exercise has been, and 2025 all but promises more of the same worst things)…

But I will bear that Notch Of Disappointment with utmost pride, because discovering even more music than ever before has been honestly terrific.

Granted, this bewildering rate of consumption is certainly endemic of the current music business model, where the tsunamic deluge of content, as galvanising as it is for listeners, leaves the creators themselves committing to more left field business models to keep their careers sustainable, with some more questionable than others.

In fact, The Internet’s (Second) Busiest Music Nerd made typically good light of this recently…

What I take from this though is that as consumers we embrace our rights to herald and lambast when and wherever appropriate, and that this seemingly futile activity is ultimately the best avenue I can explore so as not to feel completely helpless in a world I despair at but continue to try and find good in.

Still here? Great, let’s get to it and send 2024 out to the sea as best we can, eh?

A Tribute To The New Guard :: The Best Debut Albums Of 2024

So get this; despite the music industry being as dauntingly miserable to new/small/mid-level/anyone-who-isn’t-selling-out-stadiums-with-little-more-than-an-acoustic-guitar-and-a-pedal artists as it ever has been, we still have plenty of acts setting out their stalls in earnest for the first time to offer anyone who listens a little respite, joy, venting or commiseration, depending on the context of course.

In terms of which persons I thought did particularly well in this regard, please see below:

Noise And Cries 굉​음​과 울음 by bela :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Ironically, South Korean multi-media artist bela’s debut is one concerning death and suffering; playing a lot like if one of the zombies from Netflix period drama Kingdom decided to come out with a dance music album, the Berlin-based musician both honours and rejects their native sense of patriarchal tradition in a treatise where guttural rasps and ornate instrumentation fight for space amidst modern and tribal percussion signatures.

I AM JORDAN by I. JORDAN :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

I. JORDAN had been tempting their rapidly burgeoning fanbase for some time already with some very well-received EPs, and their debut album chock full of faster-faster-still queer rave does not disappoint in its delivery, finding time to bring some new and old friends along for a ride that provides the listener the chance to witness first-hand the thrill of acceptance and openness one finds in a safe space where they can truly be themselves, especially in the middle of a hot dancefloor.

Two Shell by Two Shell :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

The somewhat-secretive London duo finally commits to the art of the longform in splendid style after previously casting a uniquely-online spell with their mercurial brand of sample-heavy, tweaked-out techno that feels like it is being created in an information vacuum right before your very ears, going a little softer perhaps than their previous singles but being no less buzzily blissed out because of it.

Selected Worlds by Daniel Inzani :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Split into three album-sized chapters named “Form”, “Lore” and “Play”, the debut collection from contemporary classical composer Daniel Inzani is an entertainingly prodigious behemoth of a calling card that was twenty years in the making, diving into the realms of the romantic canon, avant-garde classicism, cosmic jazz and improvisational bebop alongside his trusted band of players with elan and grace to spare.

Letter To Self by Sprints :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

It says something about the quality of the Irish garage-punk quartet’s debut LP that despite being released on the very first Friday of the year it still retains a well-earned spot rubbing its shoulders amongst the finest efforts that their peers of 2024 had to offer, their star-quality undeniable as the band thrashes alongside frontperson Karla Chubb’s forlorn essays of angst and doubt with a catharsis that doesn’t feel either overwrought or underplayed.

What A Devastating Turn Of Events by Rachel Chinouriri :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

For anyone missing the ironic genre-smashing optimism of the late 2000’s indie-pop scene, Rachel Chinouriri’s premier disc of tunes is probably the closest you are going to get to represent you this year, especially in how whip-smart, sweet and effortless the whole thing sounds, its creator channelling the likes of Santigold and Yeah Yeah Yeahs in that soon-to-be-fabled decade with the required amounts of consummate ease and winsome cool.

Fabiana Palladino by Fabiana Palladino :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Stepping out from her legendary bassist father Pino‘s prolific shadow to take a stab of her own at a performing career, Fabiana cuts an impressively confident rug throughout her debut album of choice R&B-flecked pop gems, co-writing and producing each track alongside her father and Jai Paul among others to deliver a sultry bit of Prince-inspired business on every song showcasing a mellifluous vocal full of character, sass and vulnerability.

Postindustrial Hometown Blues by Big Special :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

A charismatically disaffected duo from the West Midlands whose blend of blues, spoken word and post-punk rock has garnered them plenty of worthwhile praise, vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney’s caustic Black Country charms are present and correct across every track of their debut longform, hitting hard and fast with humour and heart as their impishness gives way to poignant observations of working class life that resonate without feeling exploitative.

Fragments Of Us by Midland :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

If I. JORDAN’s first disc was a passport to the best present-day hedonism dance music has to offer, DJ/producer Mark Agius’ decades-plus-in-the-making debut works as an intelligently composed counterpoint that offers a poignant look back to queer UK electronic music’s past, one filled with sublime post-disco synthery that pays fond remembrance to the loved and lost whilst making a point of never losing its priority to bounce throughout the rumination.

Chapultepec by Lao :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

A DJ and producer hailing from Mexico City, Lao is a mainstay of the queer Latin club scene of his casa metropolita, so it makes sense that his transportive first album honours said scene via exploring the history and genealogy of its largest urban park that gives the tome its title, an epic of deconstructed downtempo beats that offer as many opportunities for introspection as they do shape-throwing liberation as it looks towards the future with a view to keep tradition, identity and more crucially its environment intact.

As noted earlier in this article, 2024 was a year what one would certainly call “a lot…”, so in response to such a consistently varied and variable year, I’ve gone ahead and tried to isolate more highlights storied via the means of bluntly-implemented genre designations, proving that I am indeed one of those people who upon being asked what kind of music they like responds with a mutter of “someone who listens to everything”.

True, compartmentalisation in accordance with both genre and taste highlights any single person’s own biases and stereotypes, and as much as I am afraid that everyone will find enough evidence here to convince themselves I am indeed a bit of a free-listening charlatan, at the very least I can stand by each of these choices as being good enough to merit a first-hear anyway, regardless of your own proclivities towards said classification and its idioms.

But hey, what do I know, I’m just someone who listened to far too much music this year…

Hip Hop… Or Something Like It :: The Best Hip Hop + Rap Albums Of 2024

We kick things off with the genre I fell consistently short on in terms of retaining much goodwill beyond the first couple of listens; admittedly, I am more of a melody mood-boarder than a lyrical luvvie in terms of musical appreciation, but even that handicap wasn’t enough to prevent me from wincing through most of the albums that came to be this year, especially the disaffected diatribes from rappers barely out of their teens wheezing their way through tomes about the customary cliches of misogyny and drugs with beats so dead-eyed and soulless that it was like the acrid weed smoke was being pumped directly into your brain. Honestly though, seeing as the genre itself seemed dogged by either bitter feuds further isolating talents from one another with escalating nastiness and yet more allegations of sexualised horror than ever before from its elder statesmen, maybe this vein of fashionable misery was what many felt like the best way to go about things for hip hop fans this year…

But still, there were enough highlights for this woke, white asshole to fill out a thoroughly good roster of recommendation this year, including what turned out to be the bittersweet swansong from underground superstar Ka; an enjoyable piece of high concept work mixing hard sci-fi and pop culture academia from Logic; razor-sharp intellectual discussion and industrial punk rabble from both sides of the Atlantic ocean via the latest from Angry Blackmen and Bob Vylan; diversification in beats, structure and storytelling from the inimitable Heems and the devilishly rambunctious JPEGMAFIA; and two fellow Los Angeles natives who capably became the biggest wordsmiths of our current time, firing up their discographies with paeans to their home city with ribald wit, soul and invention, whilst easily batting away attacks from any and all who are “not like them”.

Lafandar by Heems & Lapgan :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

GNX by Kendrick Lamar :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Humble As The Sun by Bob Vylan :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Ultra 85 by Logic :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

The Legend Of ABM by Angry Blackmen :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

The Thief Next To Jesus by Ka :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

I LAY MY LIFE DOWN FOR YOU by JPEGMAFIA :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Chromakopia by Tyler, The Creator :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Traditional Modernity :: The Best Contemporary Classical Albums Of 2024

If I didn’t get in over my head in terms of my consumption of hip hop and rap, I certainly spent more time than ever before trying to bone up on my appreciation of all things classical, which at the very least meant listening to a lot more opera than I ever thought I could. Being the uncultured swine that I am though, I have had to reign in the ratings here to solely include efforts composed by artists solidly in our time of aliveness rather than sift through all of those double-disc recitals from the best musicians in the world again and pretend to know what I’m talking about, even if it sounded enormously pretty most of the time and I started to forge a path towards more modernist composers from previous generations, and as I mentioned I am listening to a lot more opera now, so I guess am definitely getting that much older.

Keeping it strictly contemporary though, there was still plenty of swoonage to be found, not least from the aforementioned Daniel Inzani certainly making his presence known with his decades-long curation of original works; frequent Sufjan Stevens collaborator Timo Andres collaborated with the Metropolis Ensemble to deliver spellbinding renditions of three self-composed pieces; and lastly, we have two equally beautiful piano-led longforms from female composers, one from Turkish artist Beyza Yazgan that works as a plaintive tribute to those lost and found in the recent earthquakes that ravaged her birth country, and the other from Kelly Moran, utilising the most sophisticated pre-programmed piano in the world to deliver duets with herself that sound a lot more full-blooded and lovely than such an academically lofty description would appear to allow.

The Blind Banister by Timo Andres :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Human Cocoon by Beyza Yazgan :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Selected Worlds by Daniel Inzani :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Moves In The Field by Kelly Moran :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Could Not Give Two Folks, Honestly… :: The Best Country + Folk Albums Of 2024

No offense to those who take pride in bejewelling all of their denim attire with rhinestones and such, but country music in particular did elude me in terms of what new wares it offered this year, most notably down to the hard-rightwing influence that seemed to bolster more morally cretinous artists’ profiles during a crazier-than-ever election year in the US, but there were also disappointments from stars who had previously enjoyed crossover success such as Kacey Musgraves and Zach Bryan, not to mention Orville Peck distancing himself further from the gorgeous queer outlaw country of his earlier work by trying to convince the mainstream to like him with an often bland duets album.

That being said, the folkier end of the spectrum yielded some audible fruit as tangy as it was twang-ey, particularly from the alt-rock stylings of Hannah Frances; the typically-lovely Laura Marling revealing yet more growth and confidence in her brand of beatific folky nestling; Phil Elverum‘s Mount Eerie project releasing its most epic compilation of forlorn loveliness yet, full of fuzz, ambience, dissonance and amusing observations; Willie Nelson using his seventy-fifth album (and second this year) to delivery rueful covers concerning lost loves, lives and opportunities with his rarefied outlaw air; Danny Kiranos bringing in the kill figuratively and literally on his latest album of distressed murder-folk ballads; and finally, we have Yasmin Williams bringing together the worlds of jazz, folk and Americana into an effortlessly prodigious set for her third album of virtuoso guitar instrumentals.

Keeper To The Shepherd by Hannah Frances :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Night Palace by Mount Eerie :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Patterns In Repeat by Laura Marling :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Last Leaf On The Tree by Willie Nelson :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Yours Until The War Is Over by Amigo The Devil :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Acadia by Yasmin Williams :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Alternative To What-The-What? :: The Best Alternative Albums Of 2024

Aaahhhh, “Alternative Music”… is there nothing that lazy catch-all descriptor cannot accommodate?

Well, on the terms of my own broad estimations anyway, it certainly can include an exciting crop of multitudes, such as the Latin-infused avant-electronic musings of Mabe Fratti; Josh Tillman grandly bringing down the final curtain on this latest phase of his career in glorious, ineffable style; the double-disc embarrassment of ghostly alt-pop riches that emanated throughout Cindy Lee‘s rabbit-hole of an album (extra pretentious-cool points for the non-release strategy on this one too!); a customary appearance from an industry stalwart via Nick Cave finding almost maniacally happy splendour in abject misery; Trip Hop’s O.G. Mother striking out on her own with a gorgeously mournful collection of alt-folk chamber pop; a batch of epic instrumental jam sessions collated for an epic sprawl through Americana-soaked vistas on the first Cowboy Sadness record; devastatingly timely dream pop about humane disasters as rendered by Lebanese duo Snakeskin; and last but not least, a goth-folk-metal goddess embracing her inner Veronica Electronica for what could be one of the best pop albums of the year, if the less-offended-by-the-occult types were in charge anyway…

So, yeah, probably not that much really…

Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee :: YouTube

Something In The Room She Moves by Julia Holter :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Sentir Que No Sabes by Mabe Fratti :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

WILD GOD by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Mahashmashana by Father John Misty :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Selected Jambient Works, Vol. 1 by Cowboy Sadness :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

They Kept Our Photographs by Snakeskin :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She by Chelsea Wolfe :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

The Power To Move And Be Moved :: The Best Dance + Electronic Albums Of 2024

Similar to my sweeping categorical strokes in my attempts to classify that which may be counter-cultural in terms of popularity, sub-genre clarions and movements are negated in my terms for both Dance and Electronic music, mainly out of fatigue in trying to keep up with the latest trends within such an expansively evolving idiom, but also because it better displays just how deep, vast and overwhelmingly disparate modern electronic music can be, whether it’s at a hush-hush rave, an art installation, a spiritual retreat, or absolutely anywhere else in the world you can imagine.

And this year was no exception in terms of the power of electronic music’s global reach, including South Africa’s DJ Lag building on the hype of his debut with another brash blast of Africanised house music; returning to his homeland of Japan, Masayoshi Fujita brought a bracing electronic modernity to the classical realm by exploring ambient soundscapes via his signature vibraphone and marimba; Germany was still bringing the state-of-the-art electronic noise thanks to both down-techno extraordinaire Skee Mask and the co-inventor of Abletone Live, Robert Henke; talking of established geniuses, Nicolas Jaar‘s two-disc-shaped compendium of works composed for his radio series “Piedras” offered chin-strokers something to copiously fawn over; as discussed previously, the debuts of both Midland and Lao proved to be both sonically and emotionally transportive in their respective atmospheres; and the UK music scene was definitely spoiled for choice in terms of dancey chicanery, including progressive hard-techno from established pummeller Perc, old-school drum-and-bass and jungle from the collaborative project of Tim Reaper and Kloke, and Sam Shepherd taking time out from composing orchestral suites for a ballet to go hard at the club with a new album loaded end to end with shimmeringly sweaty house mastery.

Piedras 1 & 2 by Nicolas Jaar :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

THE REBELLION by DJ Lag :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

The Cut Off by Perc :: Spotify / Apple

Migratory by Masayoshi Fujita :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

In Full Effect by Tim Reaper & Kloke :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Fragments Of Us by Midland :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Resort by Skee Mask :: Tidal

Studio by Monolake :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Cascade by Floating Points :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

Chapultepec by Lao :: Spotify / Tidal / Apple

But wait, there’s more! Only, it’s not quite here yet.

Just need a little bit of a breather first, if you don’t mind?

See you in Part 2/2… xxxo