Category Archives: 2024

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: February

3 Replies

For those just tuning in: In 2021 I set out to catch up on newer music. I listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked my favorites. I did the same for 2020, picking my top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And I listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun that I decided to do it again in 2022 and 2023, listening each month and picking out the 22 best albums of 2022 and the 23 best albums of 2023.

There are links to the albums in those posts above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in Spotify for the 2021 top 21 and the 2022 top 22, and in YouTube Music for 23 Best Albums of 2023. (Eventually I’ll move the 2021 and 2022 lists to YouTube, because artists are asking us to avoid Spotify for very good reasons.)

Okay, so now you know what we’re doing. Well guess what? I’m doing it again! Here’s the previous edition if you missed it:

( January )

A quick word on the “yes” and “maybe” categories I’ve sorted things into, before we get going with February:

Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in running for best of the year.

Maybe– These albums have something to recommend them, but also something that gives me pause. I’m putting them in their own category, because I have found “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”.

And now, without further ado, let us get on with my top picks from 75 new releases that I listened to from February!

Allie X, Girl With no Face– The snark of “Off With Her Tits”, delivered with brisk electronic beats that sound both modern and eighties avant garde is a great indication of what’s going on here! The whole thing sounds unbound in time, and it never let me down for a single track. Alexandra Ashley Hughes, known by her stage name Allie X, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and visual artist, and is up to something pretty fascinating here.

Bear1Boss, Super Boss!– This fragmented mix of video game samples, rally horns, and autotuned pop is not only fresh, the album is held together by repeated sonic motiffs. Look, I’m just saying someone’s got to manifest new sounds to get us out of our current musical impasses, and I think this Atlanta 24 year-old could be part of that!

Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Thee Conductor, Ennoia– The combination of earnest yearning Americana, crackling lo fi, and experimental flourish here is winning. I like the Bonnie “Prince” and I like this collaboration even more.

Brittany Howard, What Now– From the bruising and soaring soul opening, to the classic yet somehow off-kilter groove of the second track, on to the more challenging and contemporary electronic beat of the third, every song here delivers sterling sound from the past few decades of soul and R&B, but keeps feeling unexpected. This excellence is no surprise- this is the second solo album from Alabama Shakes co-lead Howard, and her mastery of her craft is evident.

Corb Lund, El Viejo– He was on my honorable mention list a year or two ago for Songs My Friends Wrote, and now with a batch of his own songs (some of which were inspired by the passing of one of those friends), he’s done it again. If you want country that sounds spontaneous, sincere, and not of the current formula, this could be for you!

Declan McKenna, What happened to the beach?– Well this is a welcome kaleidoscope of sound! I went in hearing that he had Hendrix, Bowie, and the Beatles as reference points, and loved rock operas, which was all promising. And indeed, you can hear all of that here, but it undersells how varied and creative it is at bringing many decades of pop strands together. The artist has talked about how the album came from an attempt to free himself from the expectations that came with initial stardom at 15, and diving more fully and confidently into sounds he loved. It shows!

Heems & Lapgan, Lafandar– Left of center neo-psyche hip hop with a heavy South Asian influence via this Queens-born, Punjabi American rapper. It is full of social consciousness and sonic inventiveness and reminds me of the high holy days of Madlib. Which is very welcome!

Laura Jane Grace, Hole in My Head– Solo album from the lead of Against Me! Eleven songs in 25 minutes! Good old fashioned third generation punk sound! With plenty of verve, wit, and music that pushes beyond the obvious with lyrics consciously looking back on the singer’s and the genre’s history. Heck yeah!

Liam Bailey, Zero Grace– A reggae album with both a sun-kissed fuzzy 70s AM radio sound, multiple contemporary touches, and some deeply probing lyrics. This 40-year-old English singer-songwriter from Nottingham noted for his soul, reggae, and blues-influenced vocal style has produced a touching and special album.

Mary Timony, Untame the Tiger– Beautiful guitar lines reminiscent of nineties rock, and going back to 60s and 70s classic rock beyond that. There is a vocal and musical spareness to it that keeps things straight-up and feels real as the singer’s literate lyrics describing the emotional insides of relationships.

Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice– This is musically such a breath of fresh air, a stirring mix of sounds invoking classic rock of yesteryear while incorporating African influences. It ends up feeling intensely familiar and yet new at the same time. My only regret is that the language barrier keeps me from the lyrics, which I’m guessing by the album and song titles have some serious punch to them as well.

The Dead South, Chains & Stakes– Well this is a thoroughly delightful batch of short sharp country/bluegrass (North) Americana songs delivered with a rock edge and punk spirit. This Regina, Saskatchewan band has been going since 2012, and the noise is joyful!

The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy– This is really something! It reads like sometimes over the top delivery times classic theatrical soundtrack times earnest exploration of the inner turmoil of love (with a great deal of queer content as well). This London group has been getting a lot of buzz since 2021, and I think it’s well-founded!

The Paranoid Style, The Interrogator– The Paranoid Style is the DC-based rock outfit of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, labor organizer, and sometime journalist Elizabeth Nelson. That sounds like a promising start, and then i read that the album was inspired by ZZ Top’s Eliminator. Nelson explained what drew her: “Billy Gibbons’ incipient fascination with Depeche Mode and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and his desire to embroider the sound of those bands onto the Top’s inimitable Texas boogie. To me it sounds like heaven.” That is all a big up-front just to say if anything her description undersells how delightful the arch wit, no-nonsense vocals, and rocky sheen balanced by a way with melody are.

Maybe

  • Grandaddy, Blu Wav– The review that got me to listen to this said, “sort of like a weird, very post-modern take on the Flying Burrito Brothers if they owned a bunch of Flaming Lips records.” They aren’t wrong! And it is more haunting than that lets on. Sort of all in one tone sonically which is my one reservation with this indie band from Modesto which has been going since the nineties.

  • Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive– Beautiful indie rock with a strong Americana/alt country flavor. The music, lyrics, and vocals sound natural and unforced on every track, it comes out like a spontaneous classic. The back end had one big sequential slow-down that almost lulled it out, but that is my only complaint.

  • J Mascis, What Do We Do Now– Suitably weary veteran album from Dinosaur Jr. frontman Mascis, backed by a clear and crackling band. It’s full of hazy guitar yearning, and, if all a tone, it’s a welcome tone!

  • Lee “Scratch” Perry, King Perry– I am such a fan of dub in general and Lee “Scratch” Perry in particular that I have a lot of room in my soul for posthumous releases as long as they’re well-founded. This one certainly passes that test, billed as his final studio album, it’s comprised of tracks he worked on until days before his death in 2021. If the sounds aren’t the newest ever, it’s as beautiful (and often, challenging and interesting) set of dub as one could ask for, right down to the final “goodbye” on the last track.

  • Persher, Sleep Well– This is striking me like a pop screamo album. Not in the watered-down pop sense, but in the “fun, song knows how to move along” kind of way. And yet sludgy, dark, sometimes industrial, and appropriately grating. Listening to this is perhaps what stumbling across a young Nirvana might have been like. Persher is a side project of techno producers Blawan and Pariah, otherwise known as the duo Karenn, who have been working together since 2011, and while it might be a little rough listening for some, there’s magic here.

  • Pouty, Forgot About Me– Forgot About Me is Rachel Gagliardi’s debut LP as Pouty, but she has been around power-pop for a while as one half of Slutever and a collaborator of Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner and, in Upset, played with members of Hole and Vivian Girls. As you might predict from all that, I was knocked back to the 90s in a way I quite appreciated and was thereupon done for. It is by design not the newest sound in the world, but boy did I groove on it the whole way through.

  • Revival Season, Golden Age of Self Snitching– This album brings together the spirit of hip hop and rock in a way that feels like a continuation of the inventive and playful eighties experimentation. AMG says: “Atlanta rap duo whose exploratory sound blends dub, indie rock, and post-punk influences.” Yes, I’ll go along with that! And, if it starts to sound a little samey toward the end, it opens new sonic space in-between.

  • Usher, Coming Home– I kind of hate myself for loving this, but the perfect production here suits a master of 21st century pop. It’s all just too damn groovy track by track to dislike, even if I do have qualms about the length.

And there you have it, February out before the end of June! Let’s see if we can get March & April before July ends…

Election 2024: The Rematch of the Century!

Leave a reply

As of today, the General Election is 5 months out! If you’re a tl/dr kind of person, I’ll give you the headline: all the indicators today are about where they were a month ago, and it’s not great news for Biden. The main caveat to that is also the same as it was a month ago, but we’ll get more into that below.

Looking at the national polls, both the Real Clear Politics average (a straightforward averaging of various recent polls), and the 538 average (which weights things according to pollster track record and history of partisan lean, and adjusts for state polling) are both showing Trump leads, albeit within the standard 3% margin of error:

Polls of the swing states are showing a similar picture. Both RCP and 538 have Trump leading in 7 of 7. The glimmer of good news for Biden here is that the three Midwestern states are within the margin of error, and he’s narrowed the amount he’s trailing in two of them (Michigan and Wisconsin). Here are the current 538 numbers by state:

On the electoral college front, as per the swing state results, the current map hasn’t changed from a month ago, and has Trump well ahead:

Another instructive indicator is Presidential Approval ratings. Here Biden remains underwater by almost 19 points (this average is from 538):

And, as was true last month, he remains lower in net approval than the four most recent Presidents who lost after one term (Ford, Carter, H.W. Bush, and Trump):

So is it all doom and gloom? Democrats do remain ahead in the Generic Congressional ballot, although very narrowly:

And it remains true that Democrats have consistently outperformed in special elections over the past year, running an average of 5% ahead of the partisan lean of the races in question (per a spreadsheet compiled by Nathaniel Rakich of 538):

The other sign of some trouble for Trump is that Biden’s percentage in Democratic primaries is well ahead in total of Trump’s in Republican primaries, indicating that Trump may have more wavering partisan supporters to bring home than Biden:

The last area we can look at is the Presidential betting markets. Bettors are currently voting with their dollars, and their dollars think Trump is more likely to win:

So where does this leave us?

Go back up and take a look at the 538 national average again for a second. It shows two things that are, on the face of it, rather implausible: Kennedy getting almost 10%, and an implied 10% undecided. In 2016 voters disliked both candidates by double digits, and the total third party vote for all candidates was only about 5%. Add to that the fact that polls at this point before an election always vastly overinflate how many people support third parties, and it’s not unreasonable to expect that half or more of those avowed Kennedy voters are going back to one of the two main candidates.

As for the 10% who say they’re undecided, I’m equally suspicious. Both main candidates are very well known quantities at this point. My strong suspicion is that a lot of these undecideds are folks who aren’t thrilled about the choice, but in their heart of hearts do know what side of the fence they’re going to land on. They just aren’t quite at peace with it yet.

Given that national (and several of the swing state) polls are within a polling margin of error, until this almost 20 percent of the electorate sorts itself out further we really won’t know which way the wind is blowing. Especially since we have every reason to suspect things may come to tiny margins in specific states. In 2106 if 39,000 voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin changed their minds, I would be writing about who will succeed Hillary Clinton now. And in 2020, if 21,000 voters in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin had gone another way, we’d currently be seeing how serious Trump is about saying he’s allowed a third term.

Maybe our July check-in will be a little more substantive, since it will include reaction to Trump’s felony convictions last week and (if he doesn’t weasel out) the first debate. We probably won’t be on really firm ground until both conventions have concluded though. Until then, these are the factors as they’re currently aligned:

See you in July for another reading!

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: January

6 Replies

If you’re just joining us for the first time, and are wondering what the heck is going on here, in 2021 I set out to catch up on newer music, which I hadn’t really done in about a decade at that point for various reasons.

I listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked my own favorites. I did the same for 2020, picking my top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And I started off listening to new releases each month in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. I had so much fun in the process that I decided to do it again in 2022 and 2023, listening each month and picking out the 22 best albums of 2022 and the 23 best albums of 2023.

There are links to the albums in the posts, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in Spotify for the 2021 top 21 and the 2022 top 22, and in YouTube Music for 23 Best Albums of 2023. (Eventually I’ll move the 2021 and 2022 lists to YouTube, because artists are asking us to avoid Spotify for very good reasons.)

Okay, so now you know what we’re doing. Well guess what? I’m doing it again! A quick word on the “yes” and “maybe” categories I’ve sorted things into, and then we’ll get going:

Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in running for best of the year.

Maybe– These albums have something to recommend them, but also something that gives me pause. I’m putting them in their own category, because I have found “maybes” sometimes linger and eventually become “yeses”.

And now, without any further ado, let us get on with my top picks from 71 new January releases that I listened to!

21 Savage, American Dream– Dreamlike classic grooves backing glitchy beats, philosophical lyrics, and presented with a steady accessible flow. It may run with cliché themes at times, but it also never let me down for the entire 50-minute run. In the hands of this British-American artist, hip hop is not dead!

Billy Porter, Black Mona Lisa– Clear, powerful, and masterful in its feeling for the dance, R&B, and Broadway idioms it targets. That, frankly, might be enough even if it had no particular import on top of it, but in this era of bubbling danger against people of diverse races and sexualities in America, actor and singer Billy Porter leaves no punches pulled. Without sacrificing the sheer joy of the music in the process!

Charley Crockett, $10 Cowboy– I knew from the title that I was potentially in danger of love, and indeed. Suffused with a feeling for both outlaw country and the Nashville sound (and the seventies intersection of R&B & country), and songs here are musically straight up while channeling being down and out in America. As solid a set of songs as you could ask for to remind you that country can still country and thank God for that!

Cheekface, It’s Sorted– Goony new wave music! Goony new wave vocals! Goony new wave lyrics! I could have heard this on college radio in the eighties and I would have loved it. But the lyrics are about things like changes in the New England hardcore scene, drones not leaving you alone, and dark web e-mail breaches, so plenty current. There is an artlessness here that’s pure fun, and a sound that is seriously sharp at the same time as it’s being silly. Per the Wikipedia article on this Southern California band, they’ve been compared to Stephen Malkmus, LCD Soundsystem, The Dismemberment Plan, Jeff Rosenstock, The B-52’s, and Devo. Okay, plucky little band. Okay!

Eye Flys, Eye Flys– This is giving me some serious Melvins and Mastodon vibes, which if you know, tells you a lot. But if you don’t know- it is Heavy! And lumbering and sludgy, pulling you under in the best kind of way. I haven’t been this enamored of a new metallic release in a while.

Kula Shaker, Natural Magick– In this case, the cover gives you a highly accurate clue! This album has a nice rollicking sixties garage rock sound, with layers of psychedelia and Indian pop influences. It’s almost hard to believe at times that this isn’t a genuine artifact from circa 1968-1972, and also hard to find anything to not like about it. Kula Shaker made my honorable mention list for 2022, and I have a feeling they are going to be in contention again this year.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, FU##IN’ UP– Oh, I like this one! This is the lyrically and sonically dense and seething Crazy Horse that I personally can never get enough of. Per another review: “Neil Young’s latest effort with his longtime backing back Crazy Horse is both a new album and an old one. FU##IN’ UP is a spiritual sibling to their 1990 comeback album Ragged Glory, but this time repurposing each track with loose, sprawling, guttural new edges.” Even as a derivation, I can’t fault it!

SPLLIT, Infinite Hatch– I love the perfect lo-fi pop-rock as mutated by off-kilter rhythms, electronic squelches, and weird and snarky lyrics. This is a good example of how being “damn fun” renders “not necessarily profound” utterly irrelevant as an objection. Get going little Baton Rouge band!

Tapir!, The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain– Are you in the market for some beautiful, oddly anguished folky pop? I am told that, “Tapir! is a six-piece indie folk band from London. Known for their blending of folk music with genres such as post-punk and art pop.” I’ll tell you that I found this to be intriguing from start to finish!

Trevor Horn, Echoes: Ancient & Modern– The “ancient” echoes here are perhaps twofold, Horn himself, a widely influential music producer in the 80s (and founding member of The Buggles’ and power behind their single “Video Killed the Radio Star”), and the song cover choices, hearkening back to his 80s heyday. If so, the “modern” ones are surely the polished reworkings and the new power the songs draw from his touch and his smartly curated list of guest stars. I recommend this for fans of both the eighties, and fans of albums where you can see a producer show off doing their thing.

Maybe

  • Angry Blackmen, The Legend of ABM– Sharp cutting sounds, inventive stuttering glitchy mix, lyrics with weight. The vocals are a little flat, but the mix is magic, and the best songs are revelatory.

  • Bruiser Wolf, My Story Got Stories– One of my favorites of 2021 for his album Dope Game Stupid is doing it again! The hilarious verbal barrage, tongue in cheek delivery, repositioning of hip hop history and presenting himself as an OG who ought to shuffle off the stage while simultaneously not ceding an inch of it is a winning combo. Maybe not quite as sharp as his 2021 outing, but still with plenty to recommend it.

  • Ekko Astral, pink balloons– Fuzzy, distorted, properly serrated, with dense elliptical lyrics that perhaps involve anonymous burials, sexism, and never having seen Star Wars? If not totally together, it is an echo, astral in a noisy way, and thank goodness for it.

  • Loukeman, Sd-2– What I read that got me interested was “The Canadian producer laces glow-worm synths and house beats with vocal snippets culled from indie-folk gems and Billboard hits.” And indeed, it does sound like that, and very unlike other electronic projects floating out there. It sometimes drifted a little toward the abstract, which was my hesitation, but I also never wanted to turn it off. Three cheers for folks who are still out there looking for new soundscapes!

  • Marika Hackman, Big Sigh– Nuanced and textured, with an acoustic style but instrument surges reminiscent of the nineties. The deep, emotionally literate lyrics that cut in both directions are appreciated. It is a little one tone- musically and vocally, but powerful.

  • Nicholas Craven/Boldy James, Penalty of Leadership– Dense, cinematic mix and lyrics, and rich seventies soul-feeling backing. The flow is a little flat, but that fits the darkly textured picture being painted.

  • Pearl Jam, Dark Matter– We can perhaps agree there’s not going to be a “bad” Pearl Jam album. The lads just don’t have it in them! But this is not “merely” a “not bad” Pearl Jam album, it has quite a bit of verve and snap to it, and if it’s not the freshest thing ever, it is my favorite album of theirs since the eponymous 2006 album. There’s more than a bit here (without sounding AT ALL old and fogey) of the feeling of the wise and world-weary checking in that you would hope for from your veteran acts. For anyone who objects to that characterization, keep in mind that there is archival evidence that Pearl Jam’s first album came out 33 years ago, and that other albums that likewise came out 33 years ago during their 1991 debut were released in 1958. I object!

  • Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope– A nuanced album which rocks plenty hard, but also has textured depths. If it is not totally focused, and it isn’t as thunderous as my best-loved albums from them, it is about something, and has depths that repay attention without losing sonic verve.

  • St. Vincent, All Born Screaming– As darkling as any of her earlier work, but with variety, verve, and wit as well. I like it best when it’s waxing a little less meditative and a little groovier, but she does self-bill it as a “post-plague” album, so I cannot begrudge her the tone. Definitely worth another listen!

  • Ty Segal, Three Bells– I mean, you get me your fuzzed out nineties garage rock, pepper it with heavy trip 70s psych rock vibes, put it in the hands of a past master in these forms… About my only hesitation is the hour+ run time vis-à-vis how heavy it gets in parts. But regardless, rock on!

And there we have January, out in the first third of May! Let’s see what we can do with February!

Election 2024: The Rematch of the Century!

Leave a reply

I mean, given, the century is only about 1/4 done. It’s our biggest rematch so far though! Also, apologies for not picking this up again since early primary season. There have been health issues, but now that the General Election is only 6 months out, I’ve decided it’s time to start getting more regular with it.

Six months out is a long time politically, especially given some factors I’ll mention later, but it’s also not an infinite amount of time, and there are multiple indicators we can look at to see what the current outlook is. The first would be national polls, and on this both the Real Clear Politics average, which is kind of a straightforward averaging of various recent polls, and the 538 average, which weights things according to pollster track record and history of partisan lean, are telling the same story:

It should be noted that this result is well within a standard 3% or so margin of error, so it’s hardly a decisive reading. What do polls of the swing states most likely to decide the election tell us? Here again RCP and 538 tell the same story, showing Trump leading in 7 of 7. Here are the current 538 numbers by state:

Again, proper caution regarding three of these results being within a standard margin of error. On the electoral college front, as you might suspect from the swing state results, the current map has Trump comfortably ahead:

Another indicator we might look at is Presidential Approval ratings. On this front too there’s plenty of evidence of trouble for Biden. He’s currently more than 17 points underwater (this average is from 538):

Crucially, he’s also lower in net approval than the four most recent Presidents defeated after their first term (Ford, Carter, H.W. Bush, and Trump):

Not all indicators are pointing in this direction though. The Generic Congressional ballot shows a preference for the Democrats, albeit a rather narrow one:

And Democrats have also consistently outperformed in special elections year to date, running an average of 5% ahead of the partisan lean of the races in question (per a spreadsheet compiled by Nathaniel Rakich of 538):

Both of these factors indicate that it’s actually a pro-Democratic electorate out there, and there’s also another thing to consider- Biden’s percentage in Democratic primaries is well ahead, in total of Trump’s in Republican primaries:

This suggests, other factors being equal, that Trump still has a lot more of the faithful to bring home than Biden does. And given that the 2106 election came down to 78,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and the 2020 election came down to 42,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin, even a small marginal difference in enthusiasm of core voters could be decisive.

There’s one last area we can look at, which is what the Presidential betting markets are currently showing. Kind of a wonky indicator, but it is data of another sort, and crucially, a forecast people are laying real dollars on the table for. Here it’s a narrow Trump advantage at the moment:

So what do I think?

There are some good reasons to be cautious about the whole data picture at the moment. National polls are showing Kennedy with up to 10%, and state polls are showing up to 20% undecided. Frankly, these aren’t credible results, in the sense that they aren’t voters saying they have no idea what they are doing, or definitely voting against Biden and Trump. They’re voters who do have a leaning, but haven’t yet made peace with where they’re eventually going to end up. In other words, these votes are going somewhere, we just don’t know where yet.

There’s also how far out we are. To give one example of a news item that we know is coming, Trump could be a convicted felon by the time I do another update. That won’t shake the faithful, but it may certainly move some voters at the margins. And in general there are the conventions, the Republican VP pick, the effect of debates if they end up happening, and who knows how many unexpected news items between now and then.

There’s no question that if the election were held today, Trump would be a better than even favorite to win. But it’s not being held today, and for all the reasons cited above, these numbers are going to be a lot more meaningful at three, two or one month out than they are now.

So, for now what we have is the factors as they’re currently aligned, which will give us a good basis for spotting changes over time:

That’s where we are for now, and I’ll aim to do another update circa June 5th, at which point we’ll be five months out. See you then!