One has to draw the line somewhere. A couple of days ago I posted on my friend’s Facebook wall our usual Friday evening last.fm collage of the week’s listening, then in a comment I replied to myself I put the ‘1 year’ version, my most listened-to record being Aussie post-rock band Laura’s 2006 masterpiece Radio Swan is Down. I did this on purpose because they have fewer than a thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, which I think unfortunately means they don’t qualify to get paid. I sort of, but not really, get that for random nonsense that might appear on the platform, but this is a proper band that released albums on CD and played shows (and is apparently working on new material!!!). As this is one of my favourite records, it was no great hardship making sure to keep up a weekly listen, but I did give up after October (last year Suns of the Tundra’s weekly catalogue binging made it to July). Well anyway, my friend pointed out that the year is not over. He’s right of course, not that that stops all the year-end best-of lists and Spotify Wrapped coming out before November is barely over.
As I type this, I have my spreadsheet of my 2024 Spotify playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0L7PQOCp6wTQNBAwvc0zBY?si=p894vSeuR3ytI7CSF5QgRg&pi=e-yWCsjnBzTiWg open. Of the 483 releases (a couple of EPs and singles among the LPs, but I generally haven’t counted an artist more than once, even if they released more than one thing, which a lot of the ambient folks – Warmth, Not Marshall, etc, like to do) on there, I have starred 63 as a long shortlist. There are a few records there that I would like to listen to a few more times to check how I feel about them – I spent a day last week listening to Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, and Chat Pile on repeat – but it’s now the 22nd of December and…one has to draw the line somewhere.
I’ve said something similar before, but it seems likely
that if we’ve survived the year this far and I can’t remember if I loved a
record or not, then I probably didn’t. So I should forgive myself, pour an
eggnog (I made this for the first time yesterday and am looking forward to next
time already), and bash out this list. I like to revisit my own year-end blogs
from time to time, to check what I thought about such and such an album
(particularly when there’s an anniversary coming up) and see how I wrong I was
about stuff (LDR’s NFR in 2019, for instance) – another reason not to
second-guess oneself.
Another spreadsheet I keep is a record of the gigs I
went to. The total is approaching 600, with 23 this year - the highest since 2018, when
my first daughter was born. My wife, who normally gets a mention in these
ramblings but didn’t last year (sorry, my love) will no doubt raise an eyebrow
or two when she reads that. My favourite was probably Crosses at the London
Forum back in June – a hatful of great songs and Chino on top form.
I suspect there is something of a cyclical nature to
taste. One year I won’t listen to much jazz or post-rock, say, and then a year
or two later think to myself I haven’t checked out much new jazz or post-rock
in a while, then correct that, then end up declaring that year to be some kind
of renaissance of jazz or post-rock.
As it happens, I did check out a fair bit of new jazz
and post-rock this year. My favourites of each, at least at the time of
writing, are Nubya Garcia – Odyssey and sleepmakeswaves – It’s
Here, But I Have No Names For It. Other standouts include Kenny Barron – Beyond
This Place, Fergus McCreadie – Stream, Amaro Freitas – Y’Y, Zara Macfarlane –
Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, and Jasmine Myra – Rising. And Godspeed
You! Black Emperor – NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD, Tides From
Nebula – Instant Rewards, and God Is An Astronaut – Embers.
There is always great shouty stuff. This year I think
my favourite of it was Coilguns – Odd Love. As much as I loved Knocked
Loose – You Won’t Go Until You’re Supposed To, Better Lovers – Highly
Irresponsible, Umbra Vitae – Light of Death, Gouge Away – Deep Sage, Hot Water
Music - VOWS, Thou – Umbilical, and many others, I think Odd Love featured
the greatest difference between expected and actual enjoyment. Shout out to Wasted
Death (album: Season of Evil) for having fewer than 200 monthly listeners
on Spotify and sounding like vintage Converge.
I almost lumped Balance and Composure in with
the above, but it’s not screamy, more melodic and emo. Wikipedia even suggests
‘indie rock’. But With You in Spirit struck me enough to want to listen
to it in a dark room to enjoy its, admittedly sometimes obvious, beauty outside
of the mere background.
I have mixed feelings toward string music. It depends
on the genre – no quibble for classical music, nor folk, but in jazz I find strings can restrict the front line too much (a clear exception is Stan Getz –
Focus). In pop and a lot of rock music they can be quite cheesy, but
Manchester’s ‘heavy post-rock’ Pijn have pulled it off, with From
Low Beams of Hope possibly my favourite album of any this year. I’ve
certainly been commenting on such Facebook feeds as Loudwire’s and Revolver’s
along these lines, anyway.
Edinburgh’s Dvne – Voidkind is another record
that I had no expectations for but really dug, and it scratches a prog-metal
itch that no-one has for a while – excluding Jinjer’s but not Dream Theater’s new
material so far.
Iron and Wine – Light Verse, Zeal &
Ardor – GRIEF, and Public Service Broadcasting – The Last Flight
all suffer from being excellent yet not better than what they’ve done before.
Iron and Wine I hold to an especially high standard – it’s just that he does
what he does better than most mortals, he’s like the Converge of Folk – and as
soon as I read a review suggesting he’s played it a little safe on his latest,
I couldn’t get away from that idea. All three records, and plenty of songs on
them, are crackers nonetheless.
2024 saw an absolute tonne of incredible work from
women, or where the artist’s name is a woman’s name. I think ultimately my
favourite was beabadoobee – This Is How Tomorrow Moves, produced – as I
love tediously pointing out to people – as it was by the same dude who produced
Slayer – Reign in Blood. Take a Bite and Beaches are surely two of the best
pop/pop-rock songs that came out this year. I confess I liked a lot of Dua
Lipa – Radical Optimism, but not much of Taylor Swift – THE TORTURED POETS
DEPARTMENT struck a chord. I tried Charli xcx – Brat but I don’t think it’s for
me. Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me, which I first read about in The New
Yorker, was another contender for favourite, as was St. Vincent – All Born
Screaming. Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future, Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood,
Jane Weaver – Love In Constant Spectacle, Katherine Windfeld – Aldebaran, Lucy
Rose – This Ain’t The Way You Go Out, Gillian Welch(, David Rawlings) –
Woodland, Lou Rhodes (and Kiitoto) – As Dust We Rise are all brilliant and
I hope to keep listening to them long past 1 January 2025. Of course ‘female’
ain’t a genre, and the aforementioned span several. I’d like to make a special
mention of Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown. This has sometimes found a
place as the soundtrack to late evening still working, but doesn’t suffer for
that. Oddly, or perhaps not, enough, another piece of music I sometimes do that
with is Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony. While the version with Dawn Upshaw
singing is probably the quintessential one, Beth Gibbons did one and did an
amazing job. I might have associated her generally with texture and atmosphere
and minimalism (apologies if none of these can be used to describe Portishead)
but there’s clearly a lot more to her than that. Lives Outgrown demonstrates
that quite clearly, not least through its variety, arrangements, and the guitar
work.
In terms of indie, or whatever you want to call it, I
particularly enjoyed MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (I am grateful for
that day last week when I listened to it 3 or 4 times, to confirm this), English
Teacher – This Could be Texas, and even, despite the cool and disaffected
vocal delivery which normally makes me not bother, Vampire Weekend – Only
God Was Above Us.
There was certainly no shortage of wonderful electronic
music in the year – Four Tet (Three) seems to be having another
moment (probably partly due to some collaboration with Skrillex, Fred again.,
etc), but 2024 also saw the return of Tycho (with Infinite Health),
Jlin - Akoma, RJD2 – Visions Out Of Limelight, and Protassov –
a few singles.
In terms of metal, my favourite is not an original
choice given its appearance near the top of many public lists, but Blood
Incantation really did incorporate the whole Pink Floyd keyboard thing,
alongside the death metal, absolutely perfectly in Absolute Elsewhere. (Speaking
of which, David Gilmour’s new record, Luck and Strange, I actually really enjoy;
perhaps I wasn’t expecting much more than ‘OK’ from it.) Knoll – As Spoken
was probably my favourite of the myriad of extreme metal releases recommended by
my extreme metal scientist school friend. I also liked The Black Dahlia
Murder – Servitude a lot more than the previous one, despite the new one
having a new vocalist (Trevor Strnad, RIP), and Orange Goblin – Science, Not
Fiction, Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project, REZN - Burden, and
Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God, to name but a few more metal records,
were all great too. Melvins aren’t metal per se, but Tarantula Heart,
not least the 19-minute Pain Equals Funny, is their best work in a fair while. Dale
Crover managed to release a solo album (Glossolalia) too. Chat
Pile – Cool World – also metal adjacent, also very good. I think I heard
some Korn on one of the songs in there.
Finally, I like The Cure a lot, but I only
really know the hits, and I wouldn’t normally expect to end up including a
late-career album by them as a particular favourite, but here we are. Nice
going, Songs Of A Lost World. Quite a lot of instrumental passages, but
I confess I don’t know how unusual that might be.
To those who have made it here, I thank you, I salute
you, and I wish you a Merry Christmas.
A playlist of songs from 2024:
In case unclear, my absolute subjective best favourite releases of 2024 are currently:
- Pijn – From Low Beams of Hope
- Nubya Garcia – Odyssey
- Sleepmakeswaves – It’s Here But I Have No Names For It
- Coilguns – Odd Love
- Wasted Death – Season of Evil
- Balance and Composure – With You In Spirit
- Dvne – Voidkind
- beabadoobee – This Is How Tomorrow Moves
- St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
- Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me
- Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
- MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
- English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
- Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
- Knoll – As Spoken
- The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
