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In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: September/October

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Once upon a time there was a boy named Chris. Having spent years backfilling on decades gone past, in 2021 he set out on a quest to catch up on newer music. He listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked his favorites. He did the same for 2020, picking his top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And he listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun he 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 cited above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in YouTube Music:

Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:

( January February March April May June/July August )

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

Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in the 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, the top picks from 208 September and October 2024 new releases that I listened to!


1tbsp, Megacity1000– Bright, lively, and appropriately smart alecky hyper pop EDM. My sources say: 1tbsp is an indie-house project from Australian Grammy Award Nominated artist Maxwell Byrne (aka Golden Vessel). I say yay!

Alan Sparhawk, White Roses, My God– It’s glitchy! It’s autotuned up the wazoo! It’s very conscious about it! Maybe surprisingly, maybe not, it’s from the former co-lead of Low!

Amyl & the Sniffers, Cartoon Darkness– They were great on their last album, here they get lyrically sharper and musically more sophisticated without losing a bit of punch. Go Aussie punk!

Beth Hart, You Still Got Me– With the gloriously wasted affect and Slash on the backing on the opening track, I thought we were in for a particular kind of trip here. Not a bad one, just particular. But in fact, she takes us to all kinds of places- a sonically appropriate ode to wanting to be Johnny Cash, a smoky torch song, an almost vaudeville-feeling piece. : “I was totally knocked out by Beth. Here’s this lady who’s acting like I’m the cool one, and meanwhile I’m thinking, Man, she’s got it all. She’s the new Janis Joplin, Tina Turner – the real deal, you know?”[37] How have I been sleeping on this?

Bilal, Adjust Brightness– The initial preview of Bilal’s first studio album in nine years arrived only a couple of months after Live at Glasshaus. Abstract jazz, video game soundtrack, and EDM, shot through with some of the purest soul you could ask for. And that’s just on the first track!

Black Pus, Terrestrial Seethings– So, what with the group name, and the album name, I was expecting something guttural and death metally. And it was at that level of harshness but was a delightful collage of improvised music and overdubbed vocals and samples, that was treading a line between noise rock and experimental electronic. Black Pus is apparently a project of Rian Chippendale, an American musician and artist, known as the drummer and vocalist for the experimental noise rock band Lightning Bolt and for his graphic art. And I am here for it!

Bright Eyes, Five Dice, All Threes– The kids tell me I should like Bright Eyes. And, while it may be almost two decades old at this point that he’s the new Bob Dylan, I’m starting to buy it! Or at least a Gen Y/Millennial Springsteen. The intelligent ramble of the lyrics and the spare punch of the music have sold me.

Callahan & Witscher, Think Differently– I read: “The New York experimental duo gets meta on a concept album about experimental music that’s littered with meme effects and shitpost irreverence. It feels like a Discord thread set to music.” Damn if it isn’t true, and in a great way! Part hardcore, part hyperpop, part autotune glitch EDM, incredibly self-referential on making music, and with a snotty inventiveness that reminds me of a (modern, ironically detached) Beastie Boys. The two principals here have each been leaders in underground music this millennium, and the collaboration is divine.

Caribou, Honey– I’ve recently become a fan of the band, and this is as bright and fun and yet interesting a block of dance music as one could ask for!

Charli XCX, Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat– I liked Brat. I did! But these remixes, and their so well deployed guests take it to a whole new level. They really breathe that something extra into the songs and take it from a “like” to a “love”.

Confidence Man, 3 AM (LA LA LA)– Man, that is some good high energy, and suitable attitude, dynamic EDM. An electropop due from Brisbane, Australia has been kicking around for eight years now, and they’ve just kicked their way into my field of attention.

cumgirl8, the 8th cumming– Well this was a welcome surprise. Based on the name I was (not in a judgmental way) expecting something very EDM and raunchy. What we have instead is a nervy post-punk version of electropop with wickedly arch gender politics and social commentary thrown in. Both super fun to listen to, and substantive! I guess that’s what happens when you have an “American post-punk band and multi-media collective based in Manhattan” who describe themselves as a “sex-positive alien amoeba entity,” whose music functions as an “outlet [for] repressed and pent-up emotions”.

Ginger Root, SHINBANGUMI– With cited influences spanning everything from boogie and Philly soul to Japanese city pop and Paul McCartney’s Ram, it also marks his Ghostly International debut. It’s fun, light-hearted, and sublime.

Goat, Goat– This is pretty amazing- part crunching distorted hard rock, part psychedelic freakout, a little EDM thrown in. This is everything you would expect and hope for from a Swedish band Goat, though currently based in Gothenburg, claims to hail from Korpilombolo in Sweden which, according to the band’s own publicity, has a history of voodoo worship after a witch doctor came and lived there. When Christian crusaders came and destroyed the village the surviving people fled and placed a curse on the town. This has been described as “a lovely story, if possibly not entirely rooted in reality.”

Halsey, The Great Impersonator– Man, she is sharp. Like a Lana Del Ray with a rougher edge.

JD McPherson, Nite Owls– One of the joys of any JD McPherson album is discovering how he manages to further transform his ever-churning blend of vintage-inspired influences. 2024’s Nite Owls is no expectation and finds the Oklahoma-bred singer and songwriter conjuring a cooly philosophical, tube-amp-textured sound that blends twangy surf rock and baritone guitar atmospherics with buzzy, ’70s glitter rock.

Joey Valence & Brae, NO HANDS– Oh come on! Such fun, high energy, booming hip hop, redolent of the height of turntabilism. This duo of college rappers from Pennsylvania who consciously hearken back to the Beastie Boys and the alternative rap of the nineties are making fun noise.

Lady Gaga, Harlequin– This serves as a pseudo-soundtrack for the Joker sequel, with songs whose content and attitude is related to her Harley Quinn persona from that film. And that certainly does add oomph, but it’s a serving of oomph on top of excellent, and musically varied, covers of standards by Gaga. Solid fun all around!

Laila!, Gap Year!– All right. Let’s address the obvious nepobaby factor that she’s Mos Def’s daughter. That being said, you know how a basement tape from a punk group that’s just starting out and is having fun sounds? This is the hip-hop/R&B equivalent of that. Drum machines, samplers, minimal production and her soaring voice and smart attitude light this up. Give props to this 18-year-old, she’s going places!

MC5, Heavy Lifting– For a gap of several decades, and being essentially a memorial album, this still kicks out the jams and reminds you of how foundational they were.

Molly Nillson, Un-American Activities– Swedish musician Nillson leads us on a tour through various eras of Unamerican activity and various musical styles. Including HSCUAC era propaganda turned into a dance party. This is quite interesting, challenging, and fun!

OneDa, Formula OneDa– “Manchester’s OneDa is a rapper, poet, and producer with a brashly confident personality and distinctively queer, feminist, and sex-positive outlook.” yes! And between all this, it keeps you engaged the whole time.

Pearl & the Oysters, Planet Pearl– Bright, poppy, synthy, with the sound of a bedroom pop production and weird imagistic wordscapes delivered through slightly fuzzy ethereal vocals. This French American duo has been making beautifully spacy music together for over a decade, and sis still going strong.

Public Service Broadcasting, The Last Flight– First of all- this is one of two experimental albums on Earhart’s last flight that I’ve reviewed this year. (The other being Laurie Anderson’s.) That’s weird! And, like Anderson’s album, it’s beautiful, haunting, sophisticated, and experimental. It also tours through a huge range of styles along the way, which gives it an extra layer of zip and interest.

Shigeto, Cherry Blossom Baby– Modern, but a feel for “classic” EDM, and a sure meld with hip hop.

Shovels & Rope, Something Is Working Up Above My Head– Kind of country, kind of growling garage rock. I loved the last album by this South Carolina duo, and I like this one too!

Silverbacks, Easy Being a Winner– If there’s one decade that defines the sound of Easy Being a Winner, it’s the 1970s. “We realized it was probably the closest thing we were going to make to a classic ‘70s rock album, with the big guitars and the big drum sounds,” This sounds a bit like that. It sounds a bit like post-punk. Like art rock. Like seventies americana sometimes. With lovely accents, and arch lyrics. There’s a lot here to love!

Skeggs, Pacific Highway Music– A surprise! (That apparently is all the notes I took during my initial listen. We’ll both have to listen again and see what the surprise is!)

St. Lenox, Ten Modern American Work Songs– The orchestral flourishes, the dense wordplay, the driving music and vocals, the genuine import delivered with sincerity, exuberance, and humor. It’s all there, and if it doesn’t quite have the punch for me that Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for our Tumultuous Times did when it made it on to my best of 2021 list, that’s just affinity for subject matter.

Tank and the Bangas, The Heart, The Mind, The Soul– The spirit of neo-soul is alive here!

The Dare, What’s Wrong With New York?– Somebody has made heavy-drop EDM that time-warped to early 00s New York and channels the spirit of both the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem. It comes with just the right touches of sleaze, grit, and glitter, and it’s glorious. The Dare is apparently a producer in his twenties from L.A., but he’s got his finger on that era and other Coast for sure.

Thee Sacred Souls, Got a Story to Tell– Oh, these old-style grooves are warming my soul! Even the cover reminds me of an early seventies outing. retro and Latin Soul from San Diego. Some of these feel like they could legit could be outtakes from 70s Marvin Gaye sessions.

Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away– Subtler and more powerful than High School, my 2022 top pick from him, familiar, and challenging.

Tommy Richman, Coyote– What I read going in was, “Richman layers his dramatic falsetto over beats that nod to 1990s R&B, 1880s synth-pop, funk, and disco.’ And it is all true! Virginia-born L.A. based Richman started off as tik tok sensation, but this album shows that it’s for good reason. He knows his influences and works them in the best way to create a sound familiar, fun, and yet fresh.

Maybe

  • Akai Solo, DreamDropDragon– The stuttering beats, the harsh edge to the mix, and the hypnotic thump of the flow and mix all hit right. And scholarly musings on Freud and Jung’s dream interpretation theories thrown in!

  • Allegra Krieger, Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine– Oh my gosh, the smoothly languorous vocals, emotionally literate lyrics, and spot on melodies of this are on point! It’s a little one tone at times, but she’s got a good tone going.

  • Being Dead, EELS– Note, this is the album EELS by the Austin band Being Dead, and not an album titled being Dead by the band The Eels. It’s all very confusing, but also reverby, snarky, indie rock of the garage rock influence variety. So, naturally, I love it. The song “Rock n’ Roll Hurts” with top notch garage rock interspersed with peals of industrial noise and the band laughing gives you an idea of the tone of the whole.

  • Christian Lee Hutson, Paradise Pop. 10– It’s really beautiful, and well phrased. I am a little unsure of the mellowness of tone, but the lyrics and instrumentation are on point.

  • Common/Pete Rock, The Auditorium, Vol. 1– Now this is a classic hip hop flashback! Late 90s/early 00s of a certain NY conscious-adjacent but mainstream hip hop.

  • Dame Area, Toda la Verdad Sobre Dame Area– Hardcore? Industrial? Experimental Synthpop EDM? It’s not always the easiest listen, but consistently a fascination one from this group from the Barcelona dance underground scene.

  • Harmony, Gossip– The former Girlpool singer’s solo debut wants to rot your brain. It is, in many respects, insufferable. And so much nonstop fun!

  • Indi Star, eMotion Sick– I’m not really up on the world of actress/singer/Social Media Star/dancers, but apparently, she is one. What I am up on is sounds I like, and as contemporary pop-oriented with a smart independent point of view goes, this is a pretty good representation of it!

  • Jamie xx, In Waves– EDM with a point!

  • Jon Spencer, Sick of Being Sick!– Appropriately blistering proto-punk/garage rock sound from an established master at it. It’s not the newest take on things ever, but it feels fresh and alive.

  • Kate Bollinger, Songs From a Thousand Frames of Mind– There’s definitely a mood here- ethereal and slightly heliumated vocals, bright guitars with sweet melodies, hazy radio clips, birds singing in the background. This Virgina singer-songwriter has evoked a later day Laurel Canyon sound, and it’s a pleasing and buoyant listen from start to finish.

  • Kate Pierson, Radios and Rainbows– Even though she’s now more of a B-76 than a B-52 (see how clever I am?!?!?!) Kate Pierson hasn’t lost a step. You’ll hear the B-52s sound here, disco, political and social musing, and reflection on a life creatively lived. It’s really a pretty great outing and makes me realize that elder alt-80s is now a thing, just as elder-Classic Rock started to be in the eighties. Sometimes they still have something to say!

  • LL Cool J, The Force– The mélange of eras of hip hop is a little confusing, some of it almost feels like an affectation of the NY East Coast hip hop persona of the nineties. But it’s delivered so strongly and with such verve, both musically and vocally, that I can’t dismiss!

  • mediopicky, el precio de la yuca/Bexaco y rico– Es dificil. The crunching guitar and heavy dance music of the track tracks is great. The thirteen interspersed vocal skits in Spanish are more in Spanish than is easy for me to understand. And so it goes!

  • Miranda Lambert, Postcards From Texas– Sometimes cracklingly boisterous, sometimes lushly perfect, sometimes actually heart aching. Miranda Lambert has been one of my favorites from pop country in the last few years, and this ability to tap into pop and traditional form, with lyrical and vocal smoothness that doesn’t bleed out all sincerity is why. Is it an album for the ages? Maybe not. Is it the best pop country album of the year? Maybe!

  • Nick Lowe, Indoor Safari– Lowe and his sound have aged well. Which is not a surprise, as it was timeless to begin with- a hearkening back to fifties rock in a punk/new wave veneer. Not surprising or revelatory, but a darn solid listen.

  • Popstar Benny, Oasis– This had zip and occasionally even some zaniness to it!

Two more months to go! We can do it!

What Were the Best Albums of the Twenty-Teens? V2! (Part 6 of 6)

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Wait, didn’t I already review the 2010s? Indeed I did! See here for my picks for the best albums of the 2010s from that first review. But we’re not quite done, and the reason why involves 2024…

It turns out that 2024 was the 25th year of the millennium. And that is just too rich a symbolic target for me to forgo- the chance to discover the 25 best albums of the first quarter century of a new millennium! I have all the source material I’ll need: I’ve reviewed the 2000s in several venues, did the above-mentioned 2010s review, and have top 20-23 lists for 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023, with the search for 24 for 2024 now underway.

But my 2010s list is a little light comparatively. While my 2000s list from various sources sports around 60 entries, my 2010s review of 52 of the the critic’s top-ranked albums resulted in 34 picks. In order to balance that out a bit decade by decade, I’ve decided to go ahead and review the next tier down of 2010s albums per my original source lists. That will give us 36 more albums to review, which I’ll do in 6 blocks of 6. And hopefully thereby have a few more picks for my aspired Grand Review of 2000-2024!

So far we’ve had: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 And with that, let’s get on with part 5!

Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (Sturgill Simpson, 2014)– Simpson’s 2021 album The Ballad of Dood and Juanita made my top 21 list that year, so I came into this listen well-disposed. That would have been awkward if this album let me down, but in fact it’s knocked my socks off! Everything I’ve come to expect of him from his later projects is on display here- both a reverence for traditional country music, and a playful subversion of it. Picture an album that musically puts you in mind of achingly authentic honky-tonk, bluegrass, outlaw country, and the 80s neo-traditionalists. Now picture that album opening with an ode to psychedelics, including a cover of an 80s synth pop song, and being shot through with a very modern take on mental health and addiction issues and throwing in some psych rock distortion for good measure.

Red (Taylor Swift, 2012)– Damn can the girl write a song! And perform it, by which I don’t mean the extravaganza stage shows (though she does do that), but the phrasing, the delivery, knowing just when to let something out, pull back, get serious, or silly. One of the other things I look for in historical reviews is ongoing influence, and there’s no missing how a whole school of female singer/songwriters of the teens and twenties owe their approach to her. For this album in particular, I appreciate how the sound is grounded in the kind of pop country she started out with, but it goes from there to incorporate rock pop, and the techniques of electronic dance music. And every single song hits when it fires. I do find myself wondering toward the end if it’s gone on just a hair too long, but there’s no denying this album delivers.

House of Balloons (The Weeknd, 2011)– I just don’t know what to think of The Weeknd. He’s clearly artistically serious and talented. And there are times I find his songs to be so damn catchy! Then there are others when the extremely processed vocals and music gets to me and feels alienating. On the other hand, that alienation in the midst of poppy overdrive is kind of the point and many of his songs harness this contradiction and ride it. I was caught in that cycle throughout this album- feeling like I was in the midst of greatness, but then flickering to wondering if it was getting a little tiresome. So I guess, maybe?

The Monitor (Titus Andronicus, 2010)– I was a little familiar with Titus Andronicus, their 2022 album The Will to Live made my honorable mention list that year. But this, their second album, was a revelation! It’s a kind of trip-tych of New Jersey, and concept album based on the Civil War combined. Which could be way too heady a mix, but imagine all of that in the hands of a punky Bruce Springsteen. At times it’s unhinged, at times tongue in cheek, and others total in earnest, and rocking the whole way through!

Astroworld (Travis Scott, 2018)– I appreciate the minimalism of the mix, and the artistry and intent of the rhymes. But, this is an exemplar of the autotuned monotone mumble rap school of 21st century hip hop that I just cannot abide by. I’ve tried, and I just can’t!

Titanic Rising (Weyes Blood, 2019)– I was pulling for this, and it does have a lot going for it. Intelligent and emotionally sophisticated lyrics. A sometimes wickedly on target vocal phrasing. And harmonies and melodies that combine with crashing chords to make something truly grand. But, at the end of the day, there’s just too much all one energy level and tone musically and vocally for it to really come together for me.

And with that we have made it through group six of six! Of this batch, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, The Monitor and Red seem to be yeses, and House of Balloons is a maybe. So we’re done with this re-reevaluation, right?

Well, stay tuned…

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: August

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Still still on about this!

Once upon a time there was a boy named Chris. Having spent years backfilling on decades gone past, in 2021 he set out on a quest to catch up on newer music. He listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked his favorites. He did the same for 2020, picking his top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And he listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun he 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. He grew up to be me!

There are links to the albums in the posts cited above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in YouTube Music:

Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:

( January February March April May June/July )

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

Yes– This isn’t a guarantee, but it represents the albums that, upon first listen, I think could definitely be in the 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, on with my top picks from 114 August 2024 new releases that I listened to!

Amy Rigby, Hang in There With Me– Opens with a genuinely rollicking acoustic number on turning sixty. Then gets a little psychedelic/electronic on a song about being too old to be so crazy, a nineties electric guitar number on being Dubuque’s answer to Bob Dylan. And so on throughout a literate, personality filled, musical inventive and playful whirl. She is a singer-songwriter who has been making sharp indie albums since the nineties, and I am glad to meet her!

Beabadoobee, This Is How Tomorrow Moves– Rick Rubin Produced! Achingly poppy! Nineties guitar rocky and yet dancy!

Charley Crockett, Visions of Dallas– Sequel to his album from earlier in the year, which I loved, and this one is equally as good, and maybe even better with its segues into blues and folk without ever losing that country feeling.

Deerhoof, The Free Triple Live Album– Deerhoof is not only one of my favorite bands of the millennium so far, a great purveyor of challenging but melodic post-rock, they are also a really great live band. So, when I heard they’d put out this live album from a 2024 performance in Berlin, I had high hopes. They were not disappointed!

Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal– This mixtape is so full of swagger, disarming honesty, humor, raunch, beautiful liquid flow, and 80s-early 00s elements in the mix. 26-year-old L.A-based Florida native Doechii is now on my watch list!

Hamish Hawk, A Firmer Hand– In subject primarily deals with his relationships with men; not just lovers, but friends, family, and the questionable rogues his career has thrown at him. Literate and emotionally complex lyrics, doleful vocals (in the best way), 80s synth atmospherics, post-punk moodiness.

Heems, Veena– On his new solo album, the Queens rapper tackles his struggles with addiction and intergenerational trauma. His signature mix of smart-dumb humor is still there, but it no longer feels like a security blanket. Playing off his Indian heritage both in terms of lyrical material and aspects of the mix, and with significant nods to the Jay-Z school of hip hop. All around a delight.

Killer Mike, Michael & the Mighty Midnight Revival, Songs for Sinners and Saints– Backed by his live band, the rapper remixes and elaborates the autobiographical themes and gospel uplift of 2023’s Michael. And oh man is it a beautiful thing. There’s old school grooves, gospel, the best of 00s and 10s hip-hop, with an imaginative and variable mix, and engaging flow.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Flight b741– Oh, such a beautiful mid-sixties garage/psyche rock sound, with all the zany range those bands had. Listening to this, it’s almost impossible to believe it isn’t from a Nuggets compilation.

Laurie Anderson, Amelia– Laurie Anderson in high from delivering a spooky and well-delivered concept album based on Amelia Earhart’s final flight? Count me in! No, really. The best albums are often a journey, and this one literally does that.

Meshell Ndegeocello, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin– I knew between the subject matter and the artist that this would be worthy of my attention. But also, some trepidation, because artistic ambition and creative excellence don’t always make for good listening. So, what a pleasant outcome to find that the jazz inspirations, African polyrhythms, acoustic interludes, and more ethereal passages, combined with the poetry and inspiration of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and Meshell Ndegeocello’s own clarity of vision and plethora of well-deployed production flourishes, is both arresting and a musically engaging listen from start to finish.

MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks– Country feelings, shredding guitar, reverb, tremolo, and songs about trying to pick up on nurse nuns and feeling like a jerk about it. At times here he feels almost like a second coming of Neil Young. I’m not sure there’s anything here not to like!

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Wild God– Power, glory, orchestral flourish, evocative poetic lyrics and an honest to goodness story arc. You can’t shake the feeling that it’s charged with meaning, and it’s a compelling listen. This is a later-day master at work.

Osees, Sorcs 80– A sound palette driven by synths, percussion, and a horn section. In press materials, John Dwyer described the record as “sort of vacuous and maybe a bit sci-fi in sound,” and, more specifically, “sort of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners meets Von LMO meets the Flesh Eaters meets the Screamers kinda punk junk.” I could not tell you what it meant, but I can tell you that on their 28th album this San Francisco indie stalwart is making a discordant, distorted, noisy mélange as interesting and edgy as anything they’ve ever done.

Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet– Solid and fun EDM, and her snark and personality, delivered with such melodic perfection, take it to another level. At times she’s Taylor Swift but raunchier, Lana Del Ray but for a dance floor.

Shelby Lynne, Consequences of the Crown– A kind of Dusty in Memphis, Nashville Sound, rambling talk poems with a pop edm shine. It’s impossible to turn it off!

SOPHIE, SOPHIE– final album released posthumously after transgressive artist’s 2021 accidental death, it’s beautifully hyper-poppy and avant garde, sometimes on the same damn song

Spirit of the Beehive, You’ll Have to Lose Something– Impossible melodies meets hyperpop production overdrive and occasional dissonance on an electronic music outing that is consistently interesting and arresting.

Swami & the Bed of Nails, All of this Awaits You– Different people deal with grief in diverse ways. Swami John Reis, the punk firebrand who founded Rocket from the Crypt, was a close friend of guitarist Rick Froberg, one of his musical partners in the band Hot Snakes. Reis was writing material in anticipation of recording a new Hot Snakes album when Froberg died unexpectedly on June 20, 2023. powered by that, and his impeccable sense for no nonsense hard rock/garage/punk, this album roars out of the gate. Plus, there’s a song about ketchup, mustard, and relish. How can you go wrong?

The Bug Club, On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System– Imagine an excellent album had vanished somewhere in-between the late punk of the Jam and Wire, and the early post-punk of Gang of Four and Magazine and had just now re-appeared through a time-space warp as the product of a Welsh indie band formed in 2016. I can’t explain how or why, but that’s what this feels like. And I love it!

X, Smoke and Fiction– Always beware of a golden oldie who says this is their “last album”. (But also, how weird is it that X is now a golden oldie?) That being said, there’s no fat here- 10 songs in 28 minutes, and they sound tight, blistering, and incisive as ever, with just enough of a touch of world weary looking back. If this is the last album, it’s a darn good one!

Maybe

  • Bill Wyman, Drive My Car– Nothing that new here, but it is a relaxed, masterful outing. I’d listen to it again!

  • Charlie Overbey, In Good Company– He’s a Punk Rock Spy in the Halls of Honkytonk Heaven! So says the opening track, and a fair bit of it sounds exactly like that would make you think, with detours into outlaw country and Springsteen territory. It’s a little too slickly produced-feeling, but I appreciate the territory it explores.

  • Duke Robillard, Roll With Me– Back in 2005, Duke Robillard conceived a maximalist studio album based on jump, Chicago blues, and NOLA-styled R&B. Given commitments to appearing alongside Ronnie Earl on The Duke Meets the Earl and to participate in the New Guitar Summit sessions with J. Geils and Gerry Beaudoin, he abandoned work on the date but never forgot about the album. Robillard’s Roll with Me is his 37th album and the program consists of four Robillard originals and eight covers of classic R&B and blues tunes associated with Fats Domino, Gatemouth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Howling Wolf, and Muddy Waters. I’m darn glad he made it!

  • Fontaines D.C., Romance– Their usual excellent, and it even has a through line!

  • Ka, The Thief Next to Jesus– The mix and flow is appropriately dark and heavy, and the sampling unsettling for the sober meditations on the role of religion in inspiring the African American community but also in perpetuating oppression. It may be a little narrow tonally, but it’s worthy, both in and of itself, and as a memorial to the artist for his final album.)

  • Nikka Costa, Dirty Disco– As an 80s Electro fan I am flipping over this. Such an excellent spare EDM funk dance set! By its nature, a little derivative? Sure, but come on, the quality!

  • Pom Poko, Champion– Of all the quirky melodic and yet anarchic Scandinavian post-rock bands that are near and dear to my heart, Pom Poko is one of them. No, but really, there are several in this category! And this Norwegian band named for Japanese anime that reminds me of Deerhoof is a good one.

  • Sarah Kinsley, Escaper– I almost feel like I’m listening to a later-day Kate Bush. As such, it does sound a little derivative, but so well done and such a great derivation. I also think she may have accidentally invented it herself. She herself cites Chopin, Clara Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Lorde, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, Sting, the Eagles, Foreigner and Madonna as influences. Put that in a blender and mix it!

  • The Shivas, Can’t Stop Coming Around– Fuzzy garage rock with a sixties reverb/doo-wop/girl group feeling, and more than occasional flashes of the Velvet Underground. So, by definition, not the newest things, and there are other contemporary bands that mine this same vein (hello Raveonettes!) but my goodness does this Portland band do it well!

  • The Smashing Pumpkins, Aghori Mhori Mei– Musically it’s a kind of flashback, for sure, though a flashback to an era I love. But it doesn’t stop there, there is something spare and bright to many of the arrangements here. And lyrically and vocally, there is a sense here of the passage of time, of elegy. I’m not sure if it adds up, but this is what one might wish for from a Pumpkin become Tribal elder.

  • The Softies, Bed I Made– first new album in over two decades, beloved Pacific Northwest twee pop duo, and it is perfectly done sweet melodic pop rock. It does get a little same-same, but it is so well done I almost don’t mind.

  • Tinashe, Quantum Baby– Really about as pleasing a set of sophisticated enough but fun enough mid-tempo dance music as one could ask for. It’s not profound or groundbreaking, but I’ve been a Tinashe fan for a while now, and I’m going to continue!

  • Why?, The Well I Fell Into– Is this a slower introspective indie rock outing a la Elliot Smith? Or an electronic remix album? Or chilly art rock? I’d accept all of these as an answer. And in fact, Wikipedia subsequently informed me, “Why? (styled as WHY?) is an American alternative hip hop and indie rock band. The band was founded in 2004 by Cincinnati rapper and singer Yoni Wolf, who had been using Why? as his stage name since 1997.” Whatever it is that’s going on here, I kinda like it!

Onward to September/October!

What Were the Best Albums of the Twenty-Teens? V2! (Part 5 of 6)

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Wait, didn’t I already review the 2010s? Indeed I did! See here for my picks for the best albums of the 2010s from that first review. But we’re not quite done, and the reason why involves 2024…

It turns out that 2024 was the 25th year of the millennium. And that is just too rich a symbolic target for me to forgo- the chance to discover the 25 best albums of the first quarter century of a new millennium! I have all the source material I’ll need: I’ve reviewed the 2000s in several venues, did the above-mentioned 2010s review, and have top 20-23 lists for 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023, with the search for 24 for 2024 now underway.

But my 2010s list is a little light comparatively. While my 2000s list from various sources sports around 60 entries, my 2010s review of 52 of the the critic’s top-ranked albums resulted in 34 picks. In order to balance that out a bit decade by decade, I’ve decided to go ahead and review the next tier down of 2010s albums per my original source lists. That will give us 36 more albums to review, which I’ll do in 6 blocks of 6. And hopefully thereby have a few more picks for my aspired Grand Review of 2000-2024!

So far we’ve had: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 And with that, let’s get on with part 5!

Light Up Gold (Parquet Courts, 2013)– Well slap me silly and call me Susie, it’s Rock n’ Roll! More specifically, it’s an indie left of center rock that feels familiar, in a timeless way. Bits of Modern Lovers, a dash of the Voidoids, a fair sprinkle of Wire, more than a pinch of the more madcap side of Southern California hardcore, a dribble of the Replacements, etc. I could picture this band, in a certain version, in any of the 70s, 80s, or 90s. But here they are, from Texas by way of New York City, all the way in the Twenty-Teens! It may not really cover any new ground, but darned if it doesn’t do what it does well nigh perfectly!

Let England Shake (PJ Harvey, 2011)– Well that was ridiculously great. How this darkly inflected exploration of what England is and what England means didn’t make it higher on the aggregated critic’s list is honestly beyond me! It feels richly poetic. Which it turns out is not just my imagination, per Wikipedia: “Harvey began writing lyrics for the album before setting the words to music. She has cited the poetry of Harold Pinter and T.S. Eliot as influences, as well as the artwork of Salvador Dalí and Francisco de Goya, the music of The Doors, The Pogues, and The Velvet Underground and the films of Stanley Kubrick, Ken Loach and Ari Folman.” Given the subject matter, and compared to the harsh edges her music is capable of, it often feels surprisingly delicately arranged and melodically light as well. This turns out to be true as well, with early composition done on the autoharp, which she was becoming enamored of at the time. The sometime spritely beauty, though, just enhances the disquiet of this pretty, powerful album.

El Mal Querer (Rosalia, 2018)– I had been enjoying Spanish singer/songwriter Rosalia’s more recent albums in my yearly reviews, so I was favorably disposed toward this. And, indeed, there is a lot to like here in terms of combining arty song craft with catchy electronic production. It never feels totally together to me though, as an album. I’m not mad at it though!

Silence Yourself (Savages 2013)– My teenage self would have loved this album by English post-punk band the Savages! It perfectly hits a post-punk/goth early eighties feeling. My adult self also likes it a lot, but is not sure if that feeling adds up to epochal album for the twenty-teens. If you’re looking for something that’s got vibes somewhere in the neighborhood of Bauhaus, Gang of Four, Magazine, and Siouxsie though, you won’t be disappointed.

Are We There (Sharon Van Etten, 2014)– These songs are beautiful, moody, and emotionally literate. They’re also all in such a similar musical and vocal range track to track that it has trouble working for me as an album. Alas!

Soccer Mommy, Clean

Clean (Soccer Mommy, 2018)– The teens certainly had a crop of earnest young things with emotionally complex lyrics and a music that is part lo-fi bedroom pop, part grunge, and part edm effects. That influence has continued strong into the twenties, and I feel like Soccer Mommy is one of the progenitors of the sound. She got her start on MySpace, and released two indie albums, but this was her proper studio album debut, and it crystalizes a sound and an era. While languid, it has more than enough heart, wit, and musical flourish to make it work.

And with that we have made it through group five of six! Of this batch, Let England Shake and Light Up Gold are yeses, and I would say Clean is a maybe. What awaits us in the final bracket?!?!?

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: June/July

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Your first question might be: You’re still on about this?!?!?! Well yes, I am. Mostly because I really want to do the 2000-2024 top albums project, and part of the path to getting there is to finish 2024. The good news is I’m further along than might immediately be apparent, because I’ve actually completed all the listening through October releases, and am pretty far along on November. I’ve even re-listened to my January-October picks, and made my definite contender shortlist from them. If nothing else, this month-long surgical convalescence is a good chance to get this going again!

So, to continue… Once upon a time there was a guy named Chris. Having spent years backfilling on decades gone past, in 2021 he set out on a quest to catch up on newer music. He listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked his favorites. He did the same for 2020, picking his top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And he listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun he 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. He is me!

There are links to the albums in the posts cited above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in YouTube Music:

Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:

( January February March April May)

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

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

Now let’s get on with my top picks from 187 June-July 2024 new releases that I listened to!

Ani DiFranco, Unprecedented Sh!t– While there are no bad Ani DiFranco artists, many artists have an earlier that is so strong it outshines later. But there’s something stripped down, quirky, and often electronically surprising and grating here. May I be doing as well on my 21st studio album!

Bilal/Common/G/Questlove, Live at Glasshaus– A multimodal, multi-artistic hip hop, soul, and jazz symphony of voices. Those four master musicians form Bilal’s backing on the December 2023 date documented here, recorded in front of a small Brooklyn crowd. It feels like a masterclass from everyone involved.

Blk Odyssey, 1-800 Fantasy– The Texan-based artist and producer adds that the concept record draws “inspiration from early 2000s pop/rock” and “new wave hip hop, funk, and soul”— I hear the early 00s hip hop based on eighties soul and electro vibe, and nineties neo-soul. A few too many modern flourishes sometimes, but I dig this. It even has an honest to goodness through story that explores issues of fantasy versus reality!

Bones Owens, Love Out of Lemons– All Music Guide says, “Nashville session and touring guitarist and songwriter-for-hire who makes eclectic alternative roots rock as a solo artist” and suggests similarities to Jack White and Nathaniel Rateliffe. That sounds about right! I actually had a little more of a Black keys vibe (don’t tell Jack), but yes, an indie garage rock take on heartland music. It’s rollicking good fun!

Boulevards, Carolina Funk: Barn Burner on Tobacco Road– I don’t seem to have written down any notes during my actual listening session! I’m thinking based on the band and the title that there’s something rootsy and yet funkily furious going on here? We will both just have to listen to it (me apparently again) and agree how much we like it.

Childish Gambino, Bando Stone and the New World– Indie pop and soul with tinges of AM radio gold? Left field hip hop? Edgy angry post rock? Hyperpop EDM? Yes, all this and more. And if the sprawl makes it a little incoherent, it’s also testament to the talent. He says this is his last Childish Gambino album. I hope it’s not his last album period, because what he can do is amazing.

Crack Cloud, Red Mile– It opens with a stirring off kilter post-rockish anthem dedicated to the crack of life. From there it reminds me a little of the Fall, and the snottier and weirder side of 80s college rock. This Canadian collective is bridging punk, indie rock, and synth pop in a musically and lyrically challenging way, and I’m here for it!

Dave Alvin/Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Texicali– Two generations of country/americana greats playing music that is musically, vocally, and lyrically flawless in how authentic it sounds.

Earth Tongue, Great Haunting– Imagine if the Melvins (or even the original Black Sabbath lineup) were a female-led group. If this idea makes you darkly smile, this album from New Zealand duo Earth Tongue is for you!

Eminem, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)– Eminem has played the game before of distinguishing between his Slim Shady and Marshall personalities and using the later to tongue in cheek disclaim the words and deeds of the former. This go around though is fueled by the two decades between his biggest albums and his current sober family patriarch life, the genuine tension between who he is and who he was. So, there’s a lot of traction from playing with how the two might relate to each other, livened by his still peerless flow and great production.

Jack White, No Name– This wouldn’t be one of the best White Stripes albums (for one thing, no nice session drummer is going to match Meg at her best), but it would be a solidly good one. And, much as I appreciate his creative wanderings, seeing Jack White fully back in this vein is very good indeed.

Johnny Blue Skies/Sturgill Simpson, Passage du Desir– It doesn’t necessarily sound the same album to album (this one is more Nashville sound of the seventies, for example), but darned if Sturgill Simpson aks Johnny Blue Skies isn’t making some of the best straight up country out there.

Kaytranada, Timeless– Well this is a fun jaunt through EDM informed by down-tempo R&B, house, and hip hop!

Lalah Hathaway, VANTABLACK– High level consciousness, classic soul sounds, jazz inflections, hip hop that feels old school as well. Eulaulah Donyll “Lalah” Hathaway is an American singer-songwriter. She is the first-born daughter of musician and soul singer Donny Hathaway. She rose to fame in the 1990s and all these deep roots show here.

Left Lane Cruiser, Bayport BBQ Blues– A raw hillbilly punk-blues band that roars like a tweaking modal chainsaw. Amen, and it’s beautiful! Indiana band

Lupe Fiasco, Samurai– A nice old school groove, reminds me of the g-funk flow of the nineties, and 00s beats a la J Dilla.

New York, Rapstar*– 26-year-old Estonian performance artist Gretchen Lawrence and 24-year-old Senegalese American visual artist and model Coumba Samba have made something glitchy, dis-jointed, and yet oddly catchy as it ratchets back and forth from abstract to disarmingly direct.

Oneida, Expensive Air– This is amazing! Is it metal? Sonic Youth style punk overload? Experimental electronic music? All of these and more, and whatever it is, the Brooklyn experimental rock band is making mighty fine noise!

Peggy Gou, I Hear You– I mean come on- such a fun high energy club mix, with a sly wit and genuine meaning behind it. And it has the influence of House, and there are 303s in the mix. How am I not going to love it? South Korean DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Berlin, Germany

Perennial, Art History– Come on! Call and response 60s/garage punk with enough of a pop edge, intriguing electronic flourishes, and properly crunching guitar chords. When this sound is done right, it’s always fresh, and this Connecticut band brings it!

Polo Perks/FearDorian/AyooLii, A Dog’s Chance– Eclectic and melody-heavy sampling, fun and varied lyrics, shuffling and atypical flow and beats in something that’s between hip hop and hyperpop. It’s a reminder of how much music can still surprise and delight when it gets beyond genre tropes. Atlanta producer-rapper FearDorian first asked to join the NYC hip-hop collective Surf Gang six years ago began sending beats to one of the collective’s OG members, Polo Perks union with Milwaukee low-end upstart AyooLii.

The Decembrists, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again– This feels and sounds like folk standards meets indie rock. The ending 19-minute track nearly lost me in the middle, but the haunting first part, and the stadium ending pulled it out. A little too slickly produced, but the muse they’re going for here is strongly channeled.

The Felice Brothers, Valley of Abandoned Songs– I liked the last Felice Brothers album, and this one has a lot of that same sparkle. Americana and 70s AM radio musical chops, and lyrics that much more than occasionally remind me of Dylan, particularly of the Basement Tapes era.

The Raveonettes, Sing– Man, they still sound as good today as they did when I first heard them in 2003. And for this album they’ve chosen classic covers that exquisitely well fit their distortion and reverb-heavy growling and sparkly wall of sound talents.

Zach Bryan, The Great American Bar Scene– Spoken-word rambling and slow but punchy cowboy chords painting emotional stories. It often reminds me of early Dylan and Springsteen (who also guests on a track), sometimes like more contemporary indie rock in an Americana vein. This fifth album from Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter Bryan is definitely worth another listen!

Maybe

  • Billie Strings, Live, Vol. 1– All right, look, it gets very jammy (it is a live album, after all), and it lasts almost 80 minutes. I would think, on the face of it, that it would get to be too much for me at some point. Except, Billy Strings is amazing live, and his bridge of bluegrass and psyched-out rock lends itself so well to live jams. With each new track, after I would start to waver there was a moment when I realized, “okay, I’m 100% on board for this ride now, let’s see what the next one does.” So, I think that’s the very definition of “maybe”.

  • Bloomsday, Heart of the Artichoke– Beautiful harmonies and fuzzy guitars.

  • Goat Girl, Below the Waste– This has many of the charms of their last album, which I loved. The moody atmospherics, surging chords, darkly sweet melodies. Is it better than the last time? Maybe not? But does it need to be?

  • John Cale, POPtical Illusion– A times at abstract, but always interesting, this album simultaneously recalls the best of his early seventies albums and modern electronic music. It feels weirdly contemporary in that way. Not bad for an 83-year-old legend! It’s on the longer side for how atmospheric it sometimes gets, but fascinating!

  • Marcel Wave, Something Looming– Classic rockier side of British new wave vibes. I love the understated vocals, guitar-edged melodies, and wordy articulate lyrics. The post-punk revival can be kind of chilly and self-limiting, but I couldn’t deny the charm of this London band.

  • Marina Allen, Eight Pointed Star– Nice spare arrangement, highly literate lyrics. Definitely in vein, but it ventures from mellow folky to more poppy energetic often enough, with lush production extras. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter part of Laurel Canyon revival.

  • Meghan Trainor, Timeless– Meghan Trainor doing neo-standards with bossa nova club beats? About self-love and celebrating having bass? It turns out I have almost infinite capacity to welcome another album of this!

  • Odie Leigh, Carrier Pigeon– A literate wordy folky thing, with both nice turns of phrase and disarming frankness. And, though it is mostly more acoustic/folk feeling, there are surging rock and pop moments too. This is a very promising debut!

  • Remi Wolf, Big ideas– I have really been looking forward to reviewing this! Her album Juno was one of my favorites from 2022, and I’ve been low-key fascinated with her ever since. I would say this album is not *quite* as coherent as that one, by virtue of experimental forays into directions like an Amy Winehouse style ballad, a pseudo-Nirvana song, and a downright confessional piece. But it’s never less than very well done, and at its best is knockout good.

  • Rope Sect, Estrangement– 80s alt on the goth side vocals, driving drums and reverb-laden guitars. Also, for band whose Facebook page description is “Seclusion. Renunciation of society. A dance on ruins. A doomsday revel. Naked spite. Eleutheromania.”, surprisingly energetic and even uplifting. (Not a June album, but from Spin’s articreview’s list of best albums of the year so far. Gotta check it!)

  • Rosie Tucker, Utopia Now!– I would have loved the honey pop, hooky rock, and sharp-witted lyricism of this to death in the nineties! Still pretty smitten by it, but the hour is growing late… Still, I would hear more from this Los Angeles singer-songwriter… (Not a June album, but from Paste’s list of best albums of the year so far. Gotta check it!)

  • This is Lorelei, Box for Buddy, Box for Star– Wordy pop rock reminding me of the Gram Parsons school of crunching chords and lyrics.

  • Tommy McLain, Moving to Heaven– Veteran swamp pop musician becomes Catholic lay minister and produces a gospel-tinged album loaded with a kind of lo fi swamp sound gleeful in its naivete and heavy with reverb. Yes please!

  • Various Artists, Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty– I am a sucker for tribute albums, but they can go awry. The fastest route to that is overly faithful covers, and while the covers here are faithful, they do take a variety of musical approaches within the genre and feel true to the spirit of the songs. The second way these things can most often go awry is bland coverers, and these are big country names, but from several generations, and many of them left of field. Could it be a year’s best? I don’t know, but I want to hear it again!

And We are back! August/September to follow…

What Were the Best Albums of the Twenty-Teens? V2! (Part 4 of 6)

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Wait, didn’t I already review the 2010s? Indeed I did! See here for my picks for the best albums of the 2010s from that first review. But we’re not quite done, and the reason why involves 2024…

It turns out that 2024 was the 25th year of the millennium. And that is just too rich a symbolic target for me to forgo- the chance to discover the 25 best albums of the first quarter century of a new millennium! I have all the source material I’ll need: I’ve reviewed the 2000s in several venues, did the above-mentioned 2010s review, and have top 20-23 lists for 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023, with the search for 24 for 2024 now underway.

But my 2010s list is a little light comparatively. While my 2000s list from various sources sports around 60 entries, my 2010s review of 52 of the the critic’s top-ranked albums resulted in 34 picks. In order to balance that out a bit decade by decade, I’ve decided to go ahead and review the next tier down of 2010s albums per my original source lists. That will give us 36 more albums to review, which I’ll do in 6 blocks of 6. And hopefully thereby have a few more picks for my aspired Grand Review of 2000-2024!

So far we’ve had: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Got it? Okay, let’s go with part 4!

Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Lin Manuel Miranda, 2015)– Without question, Hamilton is a stupendous achievement. It brought a body of contemporary music to theater that had previously been ignored there, and recast both theater and a chunk of American history from the point of view of people of color. As an album, though, the soundtrack is probably less influential. That is to say, it brought hip hop and contemporary soul to theater, but they were already dominating pop music in the teens, and while the musical looms large, this album as such wasn’t musically influential. At least that’s how it seems to me, looking back from almost ten years on…

Pure Heroine (Lorde, 2013)– I had heard “Royals” of course, in 2014 you were actually required by law to listen to that song at least once a week. But I wasn’t otherwise familiar with this album. It turns out that the melodic synths and glitch beats that pervade the rest of the album are pretty pleasing. But the real star, by far, is Lorde’s voice, in both senses of the word. She manages to sound passionate and richly lackadaisical at the same time, and paints vivid pictures of love and life among youth on the outside- due to age, class, values, etc. So it’s a pleasure to listen to, it has depth, and it has cohesion, which is pretty darn good for a debut album from someone who was then in her teens!

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (M83, 2011)– After a lifetime of skepticism, over the past two plus years, I have been developing some considerable affection for electronic music. More old school house and techno and their immediate offshoots than the more contemporary continental Euro-version, though there are definitely exceptions to that! But French electronic group M83, or at least this album by them, does not seem to be one of those exceptions. It’s just a little too dreamy synthy bleary all-one-tone for my tastes.

Puberty 2 (Mitski, 2013)– The weirdly off metallic beats, double-entente lyrics and vocal melody of the opener had me hooked right off! And then again on track two, which felt like nineties alternative come again. In general, she seems to be on a path that several other female song-writers of the teens were tuned in to- a kind of fusion of nineties guitar rock and electronic music production in a lush pop setting, with complex confessional emotional lyrics. Generally achingly pretty, but very not afraid to get rough and ugly, in fact relishing it. On this album, she makes that mix work from beginning to end.

The Pinkprint (Nicki Minaj, 2014)– I’m more than a little ashamed to say that I wasn’t really familiar with Nicki Minaj beyond the fact of her major cultural footprint, and part of me wanted to find something to dislike here due to her recent embrace of the Magaverse. However, if there’s one thing I’m never dishonest about, it’s what I think of music, and I have to report- I utterly failed! The versatility and verve of the production is amazing, blenderizing multiple aspects of twenty-teens hip-hope, soul, and dance music in a way that feels both effortless and very skillful. No less impressive, though, is her lyrical and vocal range and the variety of personas she writes from. Heartfelt ballads of disappointed love, soul-baring meditations on loss, and sheer bawdy raunch all co-exist here in a way where none of it feels false or out of place. Sorry part of me that wanted her to misstep, but she’s amazing! I can totally see how this album ended up on this list. In fact, I’m insulted on its behalf that it didn’t rank high enough with critics to get on the original batch of 2010s albums I reviewed.

After Laughter (Paramore, 2017)– I can hear a lot of roots here- both the pop and the more quirky new wave side of eighties electro-pop, frequent appearances of polyrhythms that bring the Talking Heads to mind, and some of the confessional rawness of alt nineties female singer songwriters. It’s never less than well-done, fun, and very agreeable. Can you smell the but coming? (Sorry about that, I swear I showered!) But… I’m not sure it adds up to more than that. I don’t hear the sound of this album descending to anything after the teens, being better than the best albums of that decade in a similar vein, or being as great as their (seeming, to my ear) inspirations. Sorry Paramore, I know that’s an insanely high standard, but we’re 24 albums into this review now, and the competition is fierce!

So there we are with batch four of six of the 36 overflow albums for the 2010s that I’m reviewing! From this batch, I would say Pure Heroine, Puberty 2 and The Pinkprint are definite “yeses”. That’s a 50% success rate according to my calculations! Stay tuned to see what awaits us in albums 25-30…

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: May

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24 2 4 Number Logo Design with a Creative Cut and Black Circle Background. Creative logo design.

Once upon a time there was a guy named Chris. Having spent years backfilling on decades gone past, in 2021 he set out on a quest to catch up on newer music. He listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked his favorites. He did the same for 2020, picking his top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And he listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun he 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. He is me!

There are links to the albums in the posts cited above, but if you’d like a one-stop playlist, I’ve got that set up in YouTube Music:

Also, do you want to know a secret? The review is still going on! Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:

( January February March April )

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

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

Now let’s get on with my top picks from 124 May new releases that I listened to!

Adeem the Artist, Anniversary– It’s country, but with a sheen reminiscent of 70s AM radio, and just the tiniest hit of electronic as well. Mostly, it’s good hooks, lyrical clarity, and emotional honesty. And songs describing same sex love, advocating for trans rights, mentioning Palestine, and discussing the historic legacy of racism tell you how out of country mainstream this North Carolina by way of New York artist is.

Amen Dunes, Death Jokes– Combining a sometimes-dark psychedelia with electronic music in a very evocative way. And sure enough, AMG subsequently told me that, “The project of Damon McMahon, Amen Dunes unites folk, psych-rock, electronic, and industrial elements into an intuitive, searching whole. ” Along the way there are samples from Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and J Dilla, which gives you an idea of the scope of what the music and lyrics are going for here.

Anastasia Coope, Darning Woman– The vocal and musical loops and layers, the echoes, the stark voice, intelligent lyrics, and hint of the unearthly all steal one’s breath. Whatever it is this 21-year-old musician and painter is doing, it’s both beautiful and unsettling.

Belly, 96 Miles From Bethlehem– Spare and powerful hip hop based on the unrest in Palestine from this Palestinian-Canadian artist. In many ways, it sounds like a typical (though very good) socially conscious hip hop album in production and themes- family, faith, odes to one’s love. But in this case the family is in Palestine, the faith is Islam, and the lost love is Gaza and the West Bank. Powerful and timely.

Blitzen Trapper, 100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions– Warm, fuzzy pop with elements of singer-songwriter, psychedelia, and Neil Young-style ragged edges. Altogether, it brings to mind 70s AM radio, which is not to say that this Portland, Oregon band doesn’t feel fresh and vital. Well done Portland, Oregon band!

Crimeapple & Big Ghost Ltd, Bazuko– This collaboration between Colombian-born Crimeapple and anonymous blogger, hip hop writer and music producer Big Ghost is from another era, in several ways. Its stark mix, flow, and stories of the street feel like they belong to the late 90s/early 00s, and the subject matter largely revolves around the crack epidemic of the eighties. It doesn’t feel lost in time for all this, though, more like a great album that we all somehow missed.

F.U.N, Slum Village– J Dilla’s old group demonstrating that their excellence never was all about J Dilla. The mix is varied, metallic and urgent, the flow dynamic, and the lyrics interesting and positive. The whole thing feels redolent of the best of 00s hip hop. This Detroit group has been through a lot of changes, but they still know how to bring it!

Girl and Girl, Call a Doctor– Well, holy shit. The opening reminds me of one of Lou Reed’s story-poem songs. What follows carries on with that literate wordiness and uncomfortable emotional openness and marries it with a spare nervy rock as it sketches out the inner life of a troubled youth confronting some sort of medical crisis. An actual story arc! Delivered with equal helpings of wryness and sincerity. I’m keeping my eye on this Australian band!

Gyasi, Rock’N Roll Swordfight– Rock ‘n’ Roll Swordfight is a live album stitched together from three concerts in 2023. You could be forgiven for thinking that the concerts were by some kind of amalgam of Led Zeppelin and glam-era superstars like T Rex and David Bowie, which is to say, it is delightfully over the top rock in the best seventies fashion. Gyasi has me sold!

Hannah Vu, Romanticism– This second album from Los Angeles-based songwriter Hannah Vu certainly lives up to the title, it’s full of lush romanticism, though it serves equal parts darkness and difficulty with the sweetness. AKA it tells the truth about romance in a way that’s musically and lyrically compelling.

Ibibio Sound Machine, Pull the Rope– Such a joyful mix of multiple different strains of dance/electronic music! Fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, it is not a surprise that it’s redolent with Eurodance and Afrobeat. But what is, if not a surprise, a welcome find, is its knack for musical and lyrical hooks amidst the energy and fun.

King Hannah, Big Swimmer– Between hypnotically plainspoken vocals, poetic lyrics, and slow spare arrangements with a distorted feedback-laden guitar wall in the background, the songs here are arresting. This second album from singer Hannah Merrick has a lot to recommend it.

La Luz, News of the Universe– I’ve liked other things by La Luz, and how could I not? Their synthesis of surf music, reverb-drenched garage rock, and the sixties girl group sound is fuzzy, warm, and dark all at the same time. On this album the Seattle band is in top form, and the songs are informed by lead songwriter Shana Cleveland’s experience with cancer. It all adds up to a deep and powerful album.

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Lenny Kravitz, Blue Electric Light– Lenny Kravitz is in fine form here- 90s guitar god rock, funk, R&B, and electronic dance music all get their due, and never feel like they don’t fit together. It may not be especially new or different per his usual, but there’s genuine tenderness and vulnerability here, and musically it can’t be faulted.

Of Montreal, Lady on the Cusp– It starts off with a song declaring rock is dead, then transitions into another lamenting being too depressed to f&^%, and goes on in this lyrical arch vein supported by weary vocals, and a lively off kilter musical mix bridging the asynchronity of post-rock, impossibly stirring melodies, and the kaleidoscope mix style of electronic. Now I don’t want rock to be dead, but this 19th studio album from this Athens GA band at least gives us some hope that, if so, something interesting might replace it.

Shannon and the Clams, The Moon is in the Wrong Place– Shannon and the Clams have always been a great band, and I really love their retro garage rock/60s girl group feeling. But there’s no denying their music here is lent a terrible additional power and focus through lead singer Shannon Shaw’s wrestling with the untimely passing of her partner.

Shellac, To All Trains– While it definitely gets an added layer of import from being Steve Albini’s final album, honestly it does very well on its own even without that. This reminds me of the playful, more inventive side of 80s hardcore, and is full of clever surprises. All the way around, a fitting epitaph for one of noise rock’s greatest champions.

Sisso & Maiko, Singeli Ya Maajabu– Hello glitchy beats, over the top low-bit video game sound effects, and afro-pop exuberance! Tanzanian producer Sisso’s eponymous Dar es Salaam studio represents the forefront of the East African singeli genre. Singeli’s relentless speeds of over 200 BPM provide ample room for experimentation, which is taken further by collaboration with avant garde keyboardist Maiko. This is how the new is born.

The Courettes, Hold On, We’re Comin’– Potent garage punk combo featuring a Brazilian guitarist, a Danish drummer, and lots of cool rock & roll stomp. Amen. And an incredible set of covers ranging from early sixties pop rock to the New York Dolls to Taylor Swift. Really. Nothing but solid fun!

Willie Nelson, The Border– His 75th Album! And my goodness he’s in fine form here. A border patrol agent, a dream about being Hank Williams’s guitar, a passel of sweet love songs. Not thematic unity, but it sounds and feels like it belongs together and has a powerful intro and a sweet outro.

Willow, Empathogen– Willow has ended up on my Honorable mention list in two previous years, and for good reason- her music is inventive, brash and as smart as it is fun. She’s pushing her previous boundaries again here, with a glitchy electronic approach joined to something more like jazz, torch songs, and R&B crooning.

Young Jesus, The Fool– It feels like an anguished indie folk acoustic kind of thing, but sharper and darker than the typical outing in that oeuvre, and with surprising (and haunting, unsettling) music and vocal effects along the way. This Chicago band currently located in L.A. is on my watchlist now!

Maybe

  • Arab Strap, I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore– As Days Get Dark was on my Honorable Mention list for 2021, and this has the same things going for it- heavy shimmering wall of guitar, sometimes even slightly upbeat lyrics, and a vocal and lyrical commitment to tales of burned out bitter darkness. It doesn’t sound as fresh to me now, but it’s still a compelling combination.

  • Axolotes Mexicanos, 4ever– Of all the female lead vocalist poppy melodic fun Mexican punk bands, Axolotes Mexicanos are my favorite! Okay, they’re also the only example I know of, but I always love this band when it’s American, so I can’t help loving the Mexican version too, even if it isn’t the newest thing in the world.

  • Connie Smith, Love, Prison, Wisdom and Heartaches– Well my, my, my! Between her personal bona-fides- she was a hit-charting country singer in the 60s and 70s- and a smart selection of classics from a variety of country greats, this whole album sounds like a bygone school of country music living again. And if it’s frozen in time in that sense, it is a reminder of how grand a time that was for the genre.

  • Crumbs, You’re Just Jealous– I loved this album in the eighties! It was just the right amount of pop new wave edge on genuine punk exuberance. Now, my sources tell me this was recorded by a quartet from Leeds in 2024, so I’m not sure how I loved it in the eighties. But I know I did!

  • Dehd, Poetry– Is there room in your heart for slightly snotty, straightforwardly rocking indie rock? Then this Chicago trio might be for you! It’s solidly fun and energetic the whole way through.

  • Dua Lipa, Radical Optimism– Not quite the consistent level and energy of her 2020 big splash album, but her charms are still high, and the tracks never work less than well.

  • I.Jordan, I Am Jordan– This album brings in elements of dubstep, old school house, acid house, and is musically pure fun. As an often-instrumental piece I’m not sure if it gets in its hooks enough to be great, but it’s solidly good!

  • Joywave, Permanent Pleasure– Since my dear wife hails from Rochester NY, I always pay special attention when I run across a band from there. And this album is worth the attention- it has a bit of sleazy garage rock revival sound, a bit of EDM production/disco revival feel, a bit of 00s indie, and a bit of hazy and heavy guitar seventies. The bits all add up to a solidly enjoyable album, even if it isn’t the freshest or newest thing ever.

  • Mandy, Lawn Girl– This album has an appealing combination of 90s inspirations including grunge-pop, noise rock, and more introspective indie rock. It’s not a new thing under the sun, but it’s like sinking into a warm bath of 90s guitar-powered alt rock.

  • Mo Troper, Svengali– They were on my list in 2021, and darned if they’re not threatening to do it again! The music here is so sweetly melodic and delivered with such sincerity. Along the way you’ll hear sixties chiming, jangly eighties alt, and even electronic, and it all fits together. It would have been straight to yes, but I’m not sure about the multi-part abstract theme it ends with.

  • Pokey LaFarge, Rhumba Country– Pokey LaFarge’s blend of old school rock, swing, and dash of polka and rumba had me won over on his 2021 album In the Blossom of Their Shade, and I’m feeling it again here. Inherently not new, but damn well done and with a sincerity that makes it sound fresh.

  • Rapsody, Please Don’t Cry– Her album Eve was one of my favorites, and the poetry and power on display in that album is present here, with an extra bit of verve via wrestling with increased fame. The production tends a little often toward contemporary hip hop standard though, and the guest appearances don’t always serve the flow.

  • Shaboozey, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going– There’s something to be said for traditionalism in country music, I certainly am a fan. But there is also, in any genre, a need for artists who seek the new, and push themselves to evolve. Musician, producer, and film maker Shaboozey has my attention with this take on country informed by EDM and hip-hop. It sometimes is a little too production slick for my tastes, but also holds the various sources in reverence, and I’m a sucker for the beats and minor chords.

  • Slash, Orgy of the Damned– You throw together Slash, covers of blues and soul standards, and an array of well-chosen and well deployed guests, and you’ll get me to go along! It’s not blazingly original, but solid good fun at what it does.

  • Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross, Challengers (Original Score)– The Nine Inch Nails’ veteran provided a techno-driven score to Luca Guadagnino’s love-triangle tennis dramedy, and producer Atticus Ross then remixed it into a pumping megamix. I expect soundtracks to be abstract and orchestral, and also long- both are not true here! It has moments like that, but is a fine and dynamic electronic mix, which feels not surprisingly like the nineties. And even seems to tell a story!

  • Various Artists, I Saw the TV Glow (Original Soundtrack)– In keeping with the film’s surreal take on nostalgia, a crew of indie pop musician, including Caroline Polachek, Bartees Strange, Jay Som, yeul pay tribute to the ’90s. Between the varied choices, their individual excellence, and how well they understood the assignment, the results are pretty excellent, and cohesive without being all the same. I have some concerns about length and relative fizzling out toward the end, but still, a solid contender.

  • Yaya Bey, Ten Fold– The range is a little narrow in the neo-soul direction, but there are places it gets livened, and regardless her voice and sharp lyrical wit are pure gold.

And there we are, May out. June should follow soon! And, since I’m about to start listening to September, July and August review notes are complete and those postings should be out before too long…

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: April

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This is the true story of someone who set out in 2021 to catch up on newer music. They listened to the critics choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and picked their favorites. They did the same for 2020, picking their top 20 from the critics most highly rated albums. And they listened to new releases monthly in 2021, eventually picking the 21 best albums of 2021. That was so much fun they 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. That someone is me!

There are links to the albums in the posts cited 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 the 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 the story Well guess what? It’s still going on! Here are the previous editions of the 2024 monthly review if you missed them:

( January February March )

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

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

Now let’s get on with my top picks from 91 new releases that I listened to from April!

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Anders Osborne, Picasso’s Villa– I was inclined by the Scandinavian first name and the album title to expect something arty and abstruse. What we actually have here is an album with elements of alt country, heartland rock, and guitar squelching southern rock, with great hooks and sharp storytelling lyrics. And in fact, Anders Osborne is a Swedish blues singer and guitarist who move to New Orleans in the ’90s. The move must have been pretty successful, because he sounds like the real deal here!

Bad Bad Hats, Bad Bad Hats– High energy, redolent of new wave and power pop, but still sounding very fresh. Lead singer Kerry Alexander also often gets soulful crooning in along the way, and suitable lyrical snark, as befits her avowed love of the Breeders. This album from a Minneapolis trio is pleasing from start to finish.

Caleb Landry Jones, Hey Gary, Hey Dawn– This is really something! I started off getting strong grunge vibes, then it reminded me heavily of seventies Bowie, and along the way had Beatlesque moments of psychedelia. Texas native, actor, and musician Caleb Landry Jones has apparently been releasing this kind of music since 2020, and I’m happy to finally make his acquaintance!

Cuffed Up, All You Got– Some crunching garage rock, with just the right touch of sleazy boredom. This Los Angeles post-punk trio’s debut is a testament to their years of striving to break through, and a promise of things to come.

English Teacher, This Could Be Texas– There’s others treading this spare, post-punk yet classical, lyrically literate, vocally stripped-down UK path (think Yard Act, tuneyards, anything with yard in it). But darned if this Leeds four-piece band fronted by the hypnotic while understated Lily Fontaine it isn’t affecting!

Eris Drew, Raving Disco Breaks, Vol II– The title “Raving” gives you a clue that this is a kind of late nineties throwback. It also happens to be a dynamic propulsive DJ set with fantastic energy and interesting musical references- 80s hip-hop, nineties dance music, and classic rock including Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin all make it into the mix. DJ/Producer Drew was on my honorable mention list for Quivering in Time in 2021, and this definitely makes it on my preliminary list for this year.

Gangrene, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose– On their fourth collaborative album, rapper-producers Oh No and the Alchemist have created a stark mix, full of the dynamism of their dueling flow, great and varied sampling including aspects of the last 25 years of hip-hop, and a general feeling of import to both the light and heavy moments.

Ian Hunter, Defiance, Pt 2: Fiction– Classic rock still sometimes makes contemporary albums. And those albums are often quite good! That is certainly the case here, with former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter. Technically, he bridges both classic rock and proto-punk (or at least glam), and that’s richly on display here, with co-contributors from all over the map- Brian May, the members of Cheap Trick, Jeff Beck, members of the Foo Fighters and Stone Temple Pilots, Lucinda Williams and others all show up to help Hunter do a fine rocking romp.

Judith Hill, Letters From a Black Widow– Trading on her not so flattering nickname from having worked with Prince and Michael Jackson just before their deaths, Judith Hill comes in with a powerful album that shows why everyone wanted to work with her. She rocks, she sings the blues, she gets funky, she does straight-up R&B, she pulls out the tricks of electronic dance music. Sometimes all on the same track! Her album Baby I’m Hollywood was on my list for 2021, and I think she may do it again!

Loren Kramar, Glovemaker– He’s a slut for his dreams! So the Southern California native Loren Kramar himself says in a song from his debut album. This album lives in the realms of cinematic soundtracks, theater music, torch songs, and power ballads, and it does so spectacularly. Musically hitting on track after track and powered lyrically by a wicked wit.

LustSickPuppy, Carousel From Hell– Absolutely blistering electronic hyperpop. At times impossibly sweet, at times grating, at times just overwhelming in the number of things its simultaneously tossing out. Omasyn Hayes, also known professionally as LustSickPuppy, is an American rapper, painter, make-up artist, and model and here takes us to a realm where glitchy distorted EDM, hip hop, and noise rock are one and the same.

Lynks, Abomination– This is great! On one level, an EDM album full of contemporary production tricks, but also nods to low-bit video-game sounds of the 90s and 80s synth pop. There’s the cleverness of arrangement, but what really puts it over the top are the approachable vocals and snark-filled lyrics that explore multiple aspects of the UK gay male experience.

Maggie Rogers, Don’t Forget Me– Smart lyrics and impeccable vocals that know how to work with propulsive music. She brings together strains of 90s female singer songwriter, storytelling country, and some folktronic production. Maryland native Rogers is deservedly getting widespread acclaim.

Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department– Say what you want, girl can write and deliver a song! In all senses of that- musical composition, intelligent lyrics, sure vocal phrasing. There’s nothing here that’s less than flawless contemporary pop, technically. And smart, and I don’t fault women for talking about their emotional lives or call them self-indulgent for doing what every singer-songwriter in the seventies did, so I have no complaints. Though I did sneak off after her closing song “Clara Bow” to listen to the entirely different 50 Foot Wave song “Clara Bow”.

The Pernice Brothers, Who Will You Believe– Per AMG, the Pernice Brothers is an, “… outlet for acclaimed indie misanthrope Joe Pernice, whose music ranges from hushed to orchestrated pop.” And indeed, there is a bitter edge to the songs here, but also weary wistfulness and wisdom. Joe Pernice has been doing this since the late nineties, and apparently wisdom does come with age! So too does a fine burnishing of production touches that bring to mind seventies singer-songwriters and AM radio. Musically, it’s like flowing gold, with a dark emotional core.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples, Unwishing Well– The fuzzy echoing guitars, melancholy nostalgia, and world-weary vocals and lyrics do not fail. This is maybe the fourth Reds, Pinks and Purples album I’ve listened to too since I started this a few years ago, and they always get under my skin.

Maybe

  • Blue Bendy, So Medieval– The sprightliness of Magnetic Fields, the wordy poetic jerkiness of Modern Lovers, off kilter experimental arrangements which bring in the electronic and the psychedelic. I’m not entirely sure what this London band is up to, but it is intriguing!

  • BMX Bandits, Dreamers on the Run– Twee lives with these founders of the anorak movement. It even reminds me at times of dancehall music and the sillier side of the Beatles. It may be a little too sweet to take sometimes, but it is compelling.

  • Cloud Nothings, Final Summer– Many of the same charms of their release The Shadow I Remember which was on my honorable mention list for 2021: “Crunchy feedbacky rock with dreamy choral background, lyrical and vocal power, great way with melody-It’s really pretty delightful”? I agree with myself, again!

  • Drahla, angeltape– Jerky rhythms, grating edges, and something like a hardcore art approach, given just enough accessibility by lead singer Lucile Brown’s arch vocals. I wonder if it’s a little too grating for repeated listening, but this Leeds band is definitely up to something interesting!

  • Gesaffelstein, GAMMA– Now this is a great DJ mix! Dark and decadent in that European way, driving and serrated, but dynamic and energetic. At times it sounds very contemporary, at other times redolent of nineties techno, which I appreciate. I’m not sure if it has enough musical or thematic through line to totally succeed as an album, but I appreciate what this 39-year-old French DJ is doing.

  • Jane Weaver, Love In Constant Spectacle– an explorer of krautrock and modern psychedelia, interspersed with deft, arty touches of synth pop. A spare European electronica, ghostly vocals, synth pop, and occasionally blistering fuzzed out guitar. It sometimes feels like it’s going to lull out, but overall, it adds up to something that compels when listening, and stays with you after.

  • Louisa Stancioff, When We Were Looking– Her beautiful ethereal voice and an acoustic setting that is spare and yet uplifting power something that is somehow happy and sad at the same time. It may be a little narrow in musical and vocal tone, but with literate lyrics to add to the musical and vocal palette, Maine native Louisa Stancioff has produced an arresting debut album.

  • Old 97’s, American Primitive– Muscular chords and fuzzy guitar power this mix of country-influenced heartland rock. It’s got hooks, a way with melody, and an anthemic feeling. It got a little wobbly at the end by veering hard back into their more usual country and ending in a Spanish-themed instrumental, which were both out of tune with the main body, but there’s not a bad song in the mix.

  • Parsnip, Behold– A rocking off kilter girl group with wacky sonic flourishes is always going to be near and dear to my heart. In the case of this Australian quartet, they have a solid base of stripped-down pop punk (think early Go-Gos), sixties pop, and hints of indie electronic and psychedelic garage rock. It’s not the most original thing ever, but it’s fun, surprising, and it moves!

  • Sinkane, We Belong– Ahmed Gallab, the Sudanese-born, New York-based multi-instrumentalist behind Sinkane. The music here effortlessly mixes so many varieties of Black music- 80s R&B, afrobeat, disco, electro. It sounds a little too smoothly produced for my taste, but every track is buoyant musically and lyrically explores the pain and celebration of being Black in the global diaspora.

  • Spooner Oldham/Texas, The Muscle Shoals Sessions– What do you get when you put together a great Scottish pop band, a storied southern rock keyboardist, the venerable Muscle Shoals recording studio, and smartly chosen covers? Just about the best set of blue-eyed soul one could ask for! It’s not breaking new ground, but it is solidly well done.

  • T Bone Burnett, The Other Side– The tone is relaxed, the musical accompaniment restrained (despite a top-flight tier of guest musicians). But that’s just what this past master wanted for his first new album in 16 years. And if it feels a little low-key as a result, his songwriting, as always, is exquisite.

  • The Libertines, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade– Starts with a high energy hand-clappy piece redolent of the poppier side of UK original punk and alt eighties, and it stays in that mode. The music is maximum fun, and the lyrics are wordy and literate. The Libertines, of course, have been playing in this realm throughout the millennium. But, if it feels in a sense formulaic, it’s good clean fun the whole way though.

  • The Sunburned Hand of the Man, Nimbus– It opens with a trippy spoken word straight from the early seventies, and then follows up with instrumental and vocal-led pieces that are also joyously retro while the spoken word gets trippier and edgier, and more experimental music edges in. It turns out this Boston-based collective has been doing exploring the edges since the nineties. It’s weird and doesn’t entirely fir together, but that is kind of the point!

  • The Zutons, The Big Decider– Their album Who Killed the Zutons was one of my favorites of the 00s and I haven’t heard from them for a while, so I was curious. It turns out they still have a knack for hooky indie rock that sounds sincere but also hits the right pop notes. Not out of the park, but very solid. Well done lads!

  • X Ambassadors, Townie– Coming from an indie rock kind of place, but informed equally by EDM and heartland rock. The tone is uneven, but this Brooklyn band returns to their upstate New York roots here, and their heartfelt tales of hardscrabble small-town life resonate and ring true.

And there we are, April out sever days before the end of August, The catch-up continues!

In Search of the 24 Best Albums of 2024: March

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This is what happened: 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 was happening. Well guess what? It’s happening again! Here are the previous editions if you missed them:

( January February )

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”.

All set? Then let us get on with my top picks from 111 new releases that I listened to from March!

1010Benja, Ten Total– This Kansas City singer and producer makes hip hop and at times heartbreakingly sweet pop on overdrive. “I like that Luciferian rebellion that Muddy Waters was holding down, that you would hear from [Jimi Hendrix]…That, just, nasty stuff I guess. Unhinged. Like coming right out of the belly of the beast. Like a bat out of hell.” So says 1010Benja about what he was aiming for here, and what he achieved is a frenetic pace with a blender of references and influences and musical mix elements outside of the ordinary.

Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future– This is Adrianne Lenker’s sixth solo album (in addition to five as lead of Big Thief), and she is firing on all cylinders. The density and emotional honesty of the lyrics is perfectly paired with the unadorned vocal delivery and spare acoustic/country setting, but full of surprises that expand the pallet.

Alejandro Escovedo, Echo Dancing– Escovedo had already played a vital role in punk (with the Nuns), roots rock (the True Believers), and alt-country. For 2024’s Echo Dancing, Escovedo takes a romp through his own songbook cutting new versions of fourteen songs from his back catalog. What results is driving guitar, minor chords, reverb, and a sound somewhere in a SF & LA circa 1978 punk, LA cowpunk, and Lou Reed story poems greater universe. I love it!

Alena Spanger, Fire Escape– The music has a stripped-down simplicity with elements of new wave and new age, and the vocals have a deceptive delicacy with surprising outbursts. The sprightliness of the approach belies the emotional depth of the lyrics. Between all these elements, the spell that Brooklyn-based Spanger is weaving here definitely pulled me in.

Anja Huwe, Codes– Abstract, yet powerful, driving, and affecting, set from Anja Huwe. It feels like it has the thematic and musical unity you want for a proper album as well. Huwe was the leader of influential post-punk/goth group Xmal Deutschland for the entirety of the 1980s, and has since become a noted visual artist, as well as a television producer.

Beyonce, Cowboy Carter– This is so much more than just her “country album”. Though much of it, to be sure, is country inflected, Beyonce consciously plays with not only that genre, but picks up multiple other genres and meditations on genre itself along the way, delivering a shimmering set of varied pop songs. The results are so solid that even the guest stars (always a perilous undertaking in terms of album tone and consistency) and the 78-minute run length didn’t shake me!

Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee– We’re told that Cindy Lee is “the drag queen hypnagogic pop project of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel”. Okay, what the heck is hypnagogic pop? Apparently, it is “pop or psychedelic music that evokes cultural memory and nostalgia for the popular entertainment of the past”. More specifically, I read that this album, their seventh, is, “Built on strains of ’50s girl group pop, lush ’60s psychedelia, itchy ’70s radio rock, lo-fi ’90s clutter and sparkling production choices grafted on from some alternate universe.” I’ve borrowed a lot of words to give you a sense of the layers of excellence on display here and to justify my plug for a two-hour long album. In track after intriguing track, it really does justify the length and keep one listening!

Daniel Romano, Too Hot to Sleep– The hearkening back to seventies rock here is really well done! It’s mostly in a classic vein but does venture into a very convincing original punk and Stooges-style proto-punk as well. AMG tells me Romano is an “Eccentric Canadian singer/songwriter whose versatile stylistic range has included punk, classic pop, countrypolitan, and psych-rock” who has been releasing albums since 2010. I’ll be on the lookout for more from him!

Gary Clark, Jr., JPEG RAW– It’s got hip hop in its DNA, but the heavy guitar mix and soul feeling of the flow on the first track certainly catches attention as well. The opening track calls for a revolution, and darned if the sound doesn’t deliver- jazz, blues, booming soul, hip hop, and rock all cross paths herein a way that feels organic. It reminds me in a way of Prince and Lenny Kravitz, and with Valerie June, Stevie Wonder, and George Clinton on the guest list, the ambitious eclectic approach of this Texas guitarist is confirmed.

gglum, The Garden Dream– The Garden Dream is the full-length debut of gglum, the performance alias of London’s Ella Smoker, a songwriter who started making home eight-track recordings in her teens inspired by alternative artists like Elliott Smith, the Microphones, Phil Elverum, Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief, and Alex G. It’s guitar-driven pop with a distorted sheen, attitude, and fun.

Holiday Ghosts, Coat of Arms– They know how to jangly guitar, crack boom drum, and elemental driving rock chord progression! There’s a kind of naivete to the music, but they also turn in surprising sophistication in places without it sounding slick. This is the fifth album from this southern England band, and something tells me they’re into something good.

Kahil El’Zabar & Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit – Those of you who follow regularly know that jazz can be a hard sell for me. This jazz orchestra for their 50th anniversary put out what the leader calls “Great Black Music”: “a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonics and counterpoint, well-balanced interplay and cacophony amongst the players, strong individual soloist, highly developed and studied ensemble dynamics, an in-depth grasp of music history, originality, fearlessness, and deep spirituality.” Well, despite my jazz skepticism, and an hour and twenty run time, I entirely agree- it’s richness, variability, and yet unity of spirit carry it through.

Ministry, Hopiumforthemasses– Who would have thought that a new Ministry album would be one of the freshest things this month? It does, it’s true, sound like the nineties in the guitar crunching and dense layers of sound. It’s also focused on the present moment though, with furious dissent.

Moor Mother, The Great Bailout– Black Encyclopedia of the Air by Moor Mother, aka American poet, musician and activist Camae Ayewa, was one of my favorites of 2021, so I come to this well-disposed. What I found was a powerful exploration of the construction of racism in the British Empire, delivered with poetry and a musical mix that’s equal parts experimental, electronic, and jazz. While abstract, it gets under the skin, and compels further listening.

Sheer Mag, Playing Favorites– A lot of people this year are in the space somewhere between jangly eighties alt guitar and punk throwback. But this Philadelphia band stands out with the reverb turned up, youthful enthusiasm, a classic rock vibe on the way, and a powerhouse of a frontwoman in Tina Halladay. I love it when the kids make me believe in rock again!

The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis– “The Fugazi rhythm section with a master jazz saxophonist and guitarist” sounds like a good concept. Everything you might think of from that description is what the fuck it sounds like, and it’s pretty amazing. Hardcore jazz! Call me crazy, but I think this works!

Vial, Burnout– I love it when young punks with a hint of metal remind me why I love young punks with a hint of metal! Plenty of snark, lots of girl power, and great hooks from this Minneapolis trio.

Maybe

  • Anysia Kym, Truest– From the distorted and disorienting start you know there’s creative ambition here. Glitchy beats, kaleidoscope mix, and unexpected juxtapositions of vocals and music are all on display. If it doesn’t totally feel together, the sonic exploration is still welcome. More bright young artists like this and we might get somewhere!

  • Bleachers, Bleachers– Rollicking good fun, it sounds classic of an era that’s hard to pin down. Artsy 00s indie? Earnest 80s alt? Eighties jazzy top forty? At times it’s all of these. And if my reservation is that it sounds a little too smooth, well, as the project of songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff who has been all over the sound of the 10s and 20s, that kind of makes sense.

  • Boeckner, Boeckner!– Canadian singer and songwriter Dan Boeckner is a veteran of multiple Montreal indie rock bands and known for his fondness for the alt eighties. Here on his debut solo album, he carries that forward with sterling results- these songs sound so familiar and anthemic. Not the most original sound, but very well done.

  • Cakes da Killa, Black Sheep– Jazzy mix, fresh beats, and dynamically varied flow. “Black Sheep, Cakes’ third studio album, acknowledges that lonely position of belonging to no single tribe: too queer for hetero bar-for-bar New York rappers, too much of a rapper for mainstream queer pop. But the album is a confident compendium of breathless performances, bombastic personality, and thrilling genre collages. It is more akin to a victory lap, an unbothered mission statement from someone who knows what he deserves, and who’s going to laugh in your face as he tells you.” It’s not stupendous, but it does what it needs to, and these days that’s worth its weight in gold.

  • Charles Moothart, Black Holes Don’t Choke– Some good old fashioned sleazy glammy rock and roll from this San Francisco-based garage rock impresario. It’s not the newest thing in the world, but boy is he good at it!

  • Dent May, What’s for Breakfast?– Clever and buoyant pop, somewhere between new wave and 70s AM radio. It’s a little formulaic in that way, but well and sincerely done.

  • DragonForce, Warp-Speed Warriors– Okay, look! Yes, it’s cheesy retro metal. But so well and earnestly done, I succumbed to its charms. Someone in the UK still knows how to rock!

  • Gossip, Real Power– Rick Rubin produced this, and between that and my general esteem for the Gossip, I was in. At first, I found it lacking a little of the snap and boom I was expecting, but the charms of what Beth Ditto can do grew on me. It’s both powerful and varied!

  • Kim Gordon, The Collective– Of course I’m going to give this a careful listen. And indeed, it sounds not unlike what you might expect from one of the powerhouses behind Sonic Youth- dense, elliptical, challenging, but also dynamic and playful. It does tend more toward the abstract side of her body of work, which gives me pause about repeat listenability, but the artistry is undeniable.

  • Sao Paulo NTS, Funk.BR– Funk.BR – São Paulo, a new compilation from the label wing of London radio station NTS, brings together Brazilian funk stars and newcomers like DJ Dayeh and DJ Bonekinha Iraquiana. The twenty-two tracks, all previously unreleased, chart the rise of the mandelão sound. Brazilian Funk is one of my favorite still under the radar genres of electronic music, and this is a great sampler. Fun, sinister, hilarious, and so many fresh musical directions forward.

  • Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Revelations– Shock here delivers more of her countrified rock (rockified country?) with solid songs, hooks, and verve through such songs as one where a motherfucker is promised that they’ll get what they deserve. The band really knows how to work their reverb and minor chords as well. It doesn’t totally wow, but it works solidly from start to finish, delivers some wow moments along the way, and I’ll definitely be listening again.

  • SAVAK, Flavors of Paradise– Jangly and biting guitar, sometimes getting into a new wave or more American guitar heavy side of 80s alt. And the thing that most strikes me is the consistent energy track to track. There’s also the literate lyrics (one song titled “Will Get Fooled Again” gives you an idea of the wavelength). This Brooklyn-based indie rock outfit is a kind of “supergroup” formed out of past and present members of are bands the Obits, Edsel, the Cops, and Holy Fuck. And if it doesn’t get a lot beyond its influences, it is skillfully done.

  • Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers– As fine a bunch of bluegrass-inflected country songs as one could ask for from this Nashville musician. It’s not blazing new trails, but the footsteps are sure for the path it is treading.

  • The Dandy Warhols, Rockmaker– Still Dandy and still Warhol! On this album I feel like the garage rock revival never ended, and that’s pretty welcome given musical trends of the past few years. Not the most original thing ever, but fuzzy churning vaguely sleazy guitar songs make me happy.

  • The Secret Sisters, Mind, Man, Medicine– Americana with great hooks and shimmering vocal lushness. The tone doesn’t change a lot, and it doesn’t feel finished, but the contents are good.

  • Tierra Whack, World Wide Whack– The spare mix, and off kilter vocals and arrangements are winning. It does lean a little too much toward autotune, but in this context it’s understandable as a mix element. And it doesn’t feel totally together, but that’s part of the charm of the experimental mix. Long may she Whack!

  • Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood– I wasn’t sure this sounded materially different from her last album. Except I really liked her last album. And, as happened last timen, she kept reminding me of Edie Brickell and, unlike last time, Lucinda Williams. Does it rise above? Or is it “merely” really good? Regardless, it grew more charming as it went!

  • Yard Act, Where’s My Utopia– There’s a concept overlay to this album which I’m not sure about, but I do always admire ambition, and their post-punk version of UK rock feels fresh and snappy.

  • Yung Lean & Bladee, Psykos– Hip hop? Ornately produced bedroom pop? Left field power ballads? This duo between Swedish indie artists sounds like all of that. If it’s a little too muted for greatness, it’s consistently interesting the whole way through.

And so we have completed Q1 before the end of the first month of Q3. Onward!

What Were the Best Albums of the Twenty-Teens? V2! (Part 3 of 6)

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Wait, didn’t I already review the 2010s? Indeed I did! See here for my picks for the best albums of the 2010s from that first review. But we’re not quite done, and the reason why involves 2024…

It turns out that 2024 is the 25th year of the millennium. And that is just too rich a symbolic target for me to forgo- the chance to discover the 25 best albums of the past 25 years! I have all the source material I’ll need: I’ve reviewed the 2000s in several venues, did the above-mentioned 2010s review, and have top 20-23 lists for 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023, with the search for 24 for 2024 now underway.

But my 2010s list is a little light comparatively. While my 2000s list from various sources sports around 60 entries, my 2010s review of 52 of the the critic’s top-ranked albums resulted in 34 picks. In order to balance that out a bit decade by decade, I’ve decided to go ahead and review the next tier down of 2010s albums per my original source lists. That will give us 36 more albums to review, which I’ll do in 6 blocks of 6. And hopefully thereby have a few more picks for our Grand Review of 2000-2024 to come!

Got it? Okay, let’s go with part 3!

Get Disowned (Hop Along, 2012)– There is plenty here that’s interesting, and maybe even prescient, in its emo confessionalism married with pop sensibility and harder rock edges. So maybe it’s not the fault of an album from 2012 that so much of the 2020s sounds like it. But it does mean that it reaches my ears sounding like a lot of other things. However much it might have stood out in the teens, I don’t think it’s going to be remembered long into the 20s compared to more recent exemplars of the same sound.

James Blake (James Blake, 2011)– I mean, really? It sounds, in the main, like a lot of autotune and low-key mumbling. I’ll grant that some interesting stuff is happening with the audio mix. But despite that, which even occasionally flashes into brilliance, it just doesn’t add up to a consistent album.

The ArchAndroid (Janelle Monae, 2010)– The ambition of this debut is present from its grand cinematic start. But then, because one cannot live by orchestra alone, we are immediately challenged to “Dance or Die” on the next track. And it just gets more varied, excellent, and delightful from there. This album, if somewhat sprawling, definitely shows the promise of what was to come from her, and shows that her talent was at full force right from the start.

Watch the Throne (Kanye West & Jay-Z, 2011)– I mean, they practically defined the hip hop of the 00s. And therein lays the problem with this album. I’m not comparing it just to other outings from the teens. I’m comparing it to The College Dropout. To The Blueprint. To Late Registration. To The Black Album. On its own merits, it’s pretty good, if a tad unfocused, but I don’t know if it’s best of decade good, and it’s certainly not best of career good for either one of them. Which, granted, is maybe an unfair standard. I do feel like both of them was individually on the track of a solid album here, but the pieces don’t quite fit together. But I will give it another listen!

The Epic (Kamasi Washington, 2015)– Okay, look. I’m not the guy who’s going to well review a three hour long jazz saxophone album. I can well believe it may have been an important and pivotal jazz album in the decade. Not my genre, not going to make it on my top list, but I did like it fairly well for the first hour.

Born to Die (Lana Del Rey, 2012)– From being enveloped by her warm voice in the first track, with the whole thing undermined by the stark lyrics and traces of sonic unease in the music mix, to the bouncy pop ode to a horrible partner in the second track, there’s no let-up here. Lana Del Rey delivers lush pop perfection, dark subversion and unease, and multilayered complexity in every song.

So there we are with batch three of six of the 36 overflow albums for the 2010s that I’ll be reviewing! From this batch, I would say the ArchAndroid and Born to Die are definite “yeses”, and Watch the Throne is a “maybe”. What awaits us in albums 19-24?