2024 :: Q4
Welp… what is there left to say?
Quite a lot I’m guessing, but the intense dread that beleaguers me every single day has really put my brain through the mincer this past couple of months, which is normally my favourite time of the year courtesy of both the spooky Halloween season and that sweet spot where the winterwear is dusted off as the wind blows briskly and the sun shines bright for what little time it can afford itself.
Alas, no such wintry reprieve was to be found, just the resigned acknowledgment that 2025 will likely be even worse for all of us, 2024 managing to spring over its megalodon into a fearsome vortex whose only assurance is that it is definitely happening.
Still, it’s more important than ever to reconcile and resolve rather than ruminate, to get things in order and make sure your immediate community around you is looked after the best way that you can think of how, be it a private message, a donation, or even a link to a song…
Or at the very least, make sure to stock up on as much toilet paper as possible again.
ANYWAY, with that lame attempt at justifying this blog’s very existence, it’s time for me to make the last quarterly stop-gap in my eleven-month listening schedule to chart The Best Of The Rest That 2024 Had To Offer…
A Late Submission From Q3 2024
Studio by Monolake
Commemorating thirty years of audio output, electronica mastermind Robert Henke returned to the fray in September with the tenth album from his Monolake project, an outlet for electronic music composition that has been held in high regard amongst the more intellectual end of the genre’s spectrum, not least since the oeuvre no doubt inspired both Henke and former project member Gerhard Behles to create one of the industry’s most popular music composition tools, Ableton Live.
As is to be expected from one of Germany’s more revered musical über-mensches, Studio plays like a masterclass in what tensions and textures can be explored within electronic music, enveloping the listener with atmospheric soundscapes derived from Henke’s intimidatingly extensive catalogue of synthesizers and samples that offer seductive grooves, shuddering beats and steely sound design detailing a thrilling excursion into its creator’s febrile process, fine-tuned to such an intense degree that not a single bass wobble or electronic squelch sounds out of place.
But what about ten more albums that I managed to get away with listening to in a more timely fashion, eh?
My Preferred 10 Albums Of 2024 Q4
Acadia by Yasmin Williams
Providing the most sterling proof that Guitar Hero 2 was quite the inspiring program actually, composer Yasmin Williams has been honing her prodigiously inventive finger-picking craft since she was a teenager, training herself by ear to play guitar proper and courting plenty of justified praise in not just their dexterous playing but also their incorporation of non-Western instruments such as the kora into their body of work, thereby enhancing their sound with a richer sense of heritage and influence.
With her third album, Williams effortlessly cements her status as one of the more luminous contemporaries in the Americana scene, enlivened further by a roster of collaborators that allow her to experiment with more instruments with which to run the swoonsome gamut to heights that at times feel almost spiritual, standouts amongst equals including Allison de Groot on the fabled banjo and Immanuel Wilkins bringing some smooth swag with his saxophone.
Brahms & Schubert by Alexandre Kantorow
Yet more similarly mercurial young talent this way plays, this time via the intimidating world of classical piano performers and one of its brightest stars, who between avoiding Timothée Chalamet lookalike contests has found time to join the fierce ivory tinkling company of the likes of Igor Levit and Piotr Anderszewsky and become the most recent honouree of the prestigious Gilmore Artist award, as well as doing his pays d’origine proud performing at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony this year.
To complete the victory lap, Kantorow has taken it upon himself to make gorgeous work of some of the trickier sonatas to be composed by luminaries Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert, displaying the kind of virtuosity that envelopes the listener so vividly that you forget you are listening to a single instrument being played so masterfully.
Chromakopia by Tyler, The Creator
Next up, we have Tyler Gregory Okonma continuing to divine his own ribald path to the top of the alternative hip hop stratosphere with his eighth album taking a more confessional route after the Grammy winning success of his previous Call Me If You Get Lost campaign, eschewing that work’s roster of guesting producers to rely on his own smarts behind the decks with admirably grander ambitions and themes to explore than ever before.
Punctuated throughout by his mother’s tough love remonstrations concerning life and love (including practicing safe sex, because good parent!), Okonma attempts to reconcile his past as a young pre-fame teenager with his hard-won success over the past decade, mixing old-school jazz, soul and g-funk bounce with spikily paranoid missives that never forget to give you something dirty and playful enough to nod to despite the neurosis on display.
Fragments Of Us by Midland
Harry Agius’ debut LP under his electronic music moniker is one that has been at least twenty years in the making, which makes sense upon listening not just because of the fine-tuned grasp of deep post-disco synthery on display, but also how movingly assured he is in being able to craft such wistfully danceable atmospheres concerning the darker side of gay life in the 1980s and 1990s that manage to hit home in your heart and gut as well as your feet.
Sampling archive interviews with the likes of Arthur Russell and David Wojnarowicz as well as contemporary artists such as Stereogamous and Horse Meat Disco, Agius does incredibly well to honour those loved and lost by finding as much joy and celebration as he does contemplation and sadness, giving 2024 one of its most cerebral dance records that has the intelligence to treat the double-sided sword of nostalgia with the rewardingly complex weight it deserves.
Last Leaf On The Tree by Willie Nelson
Now the last remaining member of The Highwaymen after fellow musician Kris Kristofferson passed away earlier this year, Mr Nelson is still continuing to wave the outlaw country flag with as much lightly-spoken-yet-gritty-as-fuck authority as ever on his seventy-fifth album, which is his second to be released this year.
Essaying songs from the likes of Beck and The Flaming Lips for inspiration this time around, Nelson’s latest collection explores themes of regret and rumination over choices made and opportunities lost as curated by his youngest son Micah, who also produces the entire project with a refreshingly modern approach that tastefully renders a transportive ambience infused with the most wistful Americana you are likely to hear this year.
Live Wire by Tom Rasmussen
It’s always nice that despite my lofty pretensions there’s nothing quite like a shot of pure unadulterated queer joy to remind me that sometimes life can just be about simply enjoying the moment bestowed in front of you, of which many constitute the warm, buzzing currents that flow throughout Tom Rasmussen’s second album.
Playing like the sonic equivalent of a warm embrace lit with hot pink neon, Rasmussen balances synth-pop archness, subversive sexuality and trance-like euphoria with consummate ease, their operatic vocals able to ascend to clandestine authority, saucy transgressions or arch humour, whichever state needed to provide a safe space to dance, laugh, cry and fall in love, often all at once.
PRUDE by Drug Church
The New York post-hardcore outfit’s fifth album is one of the year’s best blasts of raucously fresh air, bracing and direct but lent an elemental integrity both by vocalist Patrick Kindlon’s Lemmy-like delivery and the unabashedly consistent good-time thrash emanating from the rest of the band, a concentrated blast of sure-footed punk spirit that plays like an open invitation to any and everyone to join in and mosh their worries away.
And yeah, not much else to say other than that really; get it played!
Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht by Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal & Rafael Payare
Another return to the classical repertoire now, this time courtesy of Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare once again conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, this time to the tunes of both of Arnold Shoenberg‘s symphonic poems of the title to celebrate what would have been the illustrious composer’s 150th birthday with typically subsuming results.
Songs Of A Lost World by The Cure
Well, you knew this was going to get on here, didn’t you?
In one of the most bittersweet cases of “This Was Exactly The Album That I Needed To Hear When I Did”, Robert Smith and his cohorts returned to the fray with an at-times beautiful treatise on the galvanising trauma engendered by loss and the resonance found in picking up what little pieces are left, lamenting how wonderful the past often was and soldiering on with as much resolve as you can muster, awash with reverb-drenched guitars, soaring synths and Smith’s inimitable voice, which is ironically still as beautifully broken as it ever has been.
They Kept Our Photographs by Snakeskin
And we finish up This Particular Top Ten Of 2024 with some experimental dream-pop from Lebanon, a collaboration between singer/songwriter Julia Sabral and producer Fadi Tabbal whose sessions were soundtracked by the start of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians in neighbouring Gaza in so-called recompense for the terrorist attacks and abductions on October 7th 2023 only to eventually be released just after their home country would suffer their own similarly needless escalation.
No doubt inspired by the conflict to incorporate more industrial elements and foreboding ambience to offset Sabral’s angelic vocals amidst the arrangements, the music itself is bestowed of an uncommon chill of heart-piercing profundity, at once comforting and disconcerting, but never less than spellbinding; as a testament to the resilience of art in the face of utter devastation, 2024 is lucky to have such a capsule to capture this specific frightening moment in time.
Further Listening
If you insist on getting your ears around yet more fancies worth your time, please do consult the list below and thank me later…
For The Hipsters
First up, we have Yorke/Greenwood/Skinner 2024 Album Number 2, which isn’t as good as the previous one but still pleasantly diverting enough to rise above most others; there is also the sixth album from Josh Tillman, everyone’s favourite crooner of all things wry and trenchant going for a more emotional jugular this time around; and there is the long-awaited solo debut of alternative rock icon Kim Deal, who whilst not quite making the definitive last splash for 2024, still offers plenty to fawn over.
Cutouts by The Smile – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Mahashmashana by Father John Misty – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Nobody Loves You More by Kim Deal – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For The Divas, Divos, And All That Lieth Betwixt
If you happen prefer the royal box of the opera house to the beer-soaked stalls of the corporate-sponsored arenas, then there is more to enjoy in both the contemporary sphere via the debut collection from composer Tom Coult as played by the BBC Philharmonic; or the first installment in Spanish four-piece Cuarteto Casals’ series on Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets; or for the aria-heads, you have Kateřina Kněžíková making fine work of Strauss’ reportoire alongside pianist/conductor Jakub Hrůša.
Coult: Pieces That Disappear by Tom Coult, Andrew Gourlay & BBC Philharmonic – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Shostakovich: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-5 by Cuarteto Casals – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Strauss: Tag und Nacht / Vier letzte Lieder & Songs With Piano by Kateřina Kněžíková, Jakub Hrůša & Bamberg Symphony Orchestra – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For Those Prone To Highs, Chemical Or Otherwise
Should the stuffiness of the antiquated concert halls not be your bag as much as the sweat-stained walls of the warehouse, we also have quite the bevy of wunderkind debuts to trawl through including the R&B-flecked electroclash of TAAHLIAH, the Middle Eastern-influenced soundscapes of Lara Sarkissian and the bouncy future-pop stylings of UK duo Two Shell to sweeten the mood, and we will throw in the latest from French braindance DJ and producer Maelstrom in there for good measure too.
Gramarye by TAAHLIAH – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Remnants by Lara Sarkissian – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
The FM Tapes by Maelstrom – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Two Shell by Two Shell – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Not forgetting about those whose electronic tastes are on the more esoteric/chin-stroking side, you can wind down with either the afterparty chill-out zone soundtracks provided by Perko Records founder Fergus Jones’ short-and-sweet trawl through the electronica diaspora, or the double-album-shaped compilation courtesy of the exceptional Nicolas Jaar and his curated collection of galvanising works originally composed from a five-hour radio play concerning colonialism and genocide.
Ephemera by Fergus Jones – Spotify / Apple
Piedras 1 & 2 by Nicolas Jaar – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For The Speakerboxxers And/Or The Lover-Heads
In terms of R&B and hip hop offerings, there is the latest album from singer/songwriter Mustafa Ahmed, rising from the his behind-the-scenes assignments for the likes of Jonas Brothers and Shawn Mendes amongst other multi-media projects to deliver a sterling collection of up-to-the-minute soul; there’s also the surprise long-form release from Kendrick Lamar, because an actual album was the one thing that man didn’t do to cement his clout as one of the greatest rappers in the world right now; and for those who prefer their hip hop a little more underground and gritty to the point of surreal, we have the latest form Elucid to furl your ears around also.
Dunya by Mustafa – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
GNX by Kendrick Lamar – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Revelator by Elucid – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For The Blue Notes
Two albums from opposite sides of the Atlantic make the grade for a more polite showing this month from the jazzified idioms; one being the darker underbelly of the Deep South being explored by poet Johnny Coley’s latest collection of experimental blues; and the other consisting of the diasporiffic explosions found via Swiss collective OTPMD, whose genre-defying exultations on their sixth album provide the best kind of “something for everyone”.
Mister Sweet Whisper by Johnny Coley – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Ventre Unique by Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For Those Obsessed With Lore
As in the folkey kind, not the latest buzzword used to illustrate just how much overthinking you have done on your favourite sci-fi/fantasy IP, just so we’re clear…
And with that out of the way, please enjoy either the timeless Americana as evoked by Silkroad Ensemble and Rhiannon Giddens’ collection of folk songs from across the world; alternative folk songwriter/producer Phil Elverum sifting through wreckage both emotional and physical to ascend a higher spiritual plane on his behemoth of a new album; and Laura Marling, who is as practically perfect as ever.
American Railroad by Silkroad Ensemble & Rhiannon Giddens – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Night Palace by Mount Eerie – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Patterns In Repeat by Laura Marling – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
For Those Who Like Guitars
For the last cadre of album recommendations, we can highlight some niche rock moments that deserve to break through from their sub-genre confinments, specifically new headbang-friendly tomes from sludge-metal outfit Chat Pile, alternative-punk maven Meryl Streek, and the frankly gorgeous new album from progressive metal gods, Opeth.
Cool World by Chat Pile – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Songs For The Deceased by Meryl Streek – Spotify / Apple
The Last Will And Testament by Opeth – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Q4 Top 5 EPs
Before we sign off completely, if anyone is still bereft of the dancehall tunes of the more hardcore-pummelling variety ahead of the New Year in particular, here’s a handful of shape-throwingly good extended plays to discover…
Homecoming by Madam X – Spotify / Apple
Marchadair by Abadir & Nahash – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Meaning’s Edge by Djrum – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Multiply Your Absurdities by Helena Hauff – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
Plot Twist by CCL – Spotify / Tidal / Apple
And for the final time, here’s a cheat-sheet for all of the above, courtesy of The Worst Of All The Streamers…
And now, onward to giving 2024 the dressing down it verily deserves; until then, keep up the good fight, everyone…
xxxo
