Albums Of The Year 2024

2024 was fucking horrible. I hid away from it in music, as usual.

These are the new albums that kept me alive this cursed year.

(Playlists of this list on Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify.)

20 The Story So Far – I Want To Disappear

I’m old af so I still think of TSSF as being a new band. But Under Soil And Dirt came out goddamn thirteen years ago. While that golden debut remains their best album, their newie is high pop and peak punk. Catchy.

19 High Vis – Guided Tour

A storming punk record, veering all over the shop from Theatre Of Hate to the Pistols with Sean Ryder on vocals. Which, actually, would be fucking mint.

18 Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere

Six songs, forty-three minutes – this is not The Circle Jerks. This album goes from the gnarliest of chugs to soaring, Vangelissy synth solos. And, yes, I’m going with the Vang and not Wakeman because this has the formers sense of melody which delineates the distinct narrative sections. This is basically a feature film, not an album.

17 Drug Church – PRUDE

Man, I’d hate to be Drug Church’s drummer because this whole album is one pounding, relentless beat after another. Yeah, the songs are all very catchy and anthemic but that’s in front of a relentless rhythm section which makes it feel heavier than a lot of actual metal records. Drug Church singlehandedly rebirthing melodic posthardcore for a new generation of surly kids.

16 A.G. Cook – Britpop

Let’s leave all the baggage of being a genre-definer to the side and just look at this album as what it is: a sprawling, hugely ambitious one hour forty minutes of bleeps and weeps. I like that you don’t know what to expect from track to track, earnest parafolk or dancefloor demolition.

15 Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

Every time they play Counting Worms in Rock City, it’s a wonderful release to be able to scream ARFFF ARFFFF and hurt your neck/head/entire body. I hope that now they’re post-Kimmel famous, Knocked Loose have millions more curious people seek out this nervy, bulging record that sounds like undersea cables exploding in an Akira way. Yep, it’s that good.

14 Vince Staples – Dark Times

So, fully-fledged telly star Vince drops a new album. What’s changed? Well, don’t worry, there’s still stuff about where he’s from but, thankfully, he weaves in where he’s at now fluidly and never in a twatty way. Exasperated, he may be but this isn’t hobby hip hop, this isn’t some lame Netflix bro “dropping some bars.” Lyrically and rhythmically, Vince retains true to Vinceness whilst not being trapped by it.

13 Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible

Considering the pedigree of those involved I was floored that this record is soooo fucking poppy. And I know you’re thinking I’m mental but you could play this to grebs who’d never heard Dillinger or FFAA and they would love it. It’s heavy, it’s aggressive and it is adventurous but it’s fucking singalong gold. Seriously.

12 Lupe Fiasco – Samurai

Fuck me – his ninth album? I’m old, man. BUT LUPE IS NOT. HA! Nine albums and a whole load of label bullshit in and he’s still solidly punching us with impeccable imagery delivered with his copyrighted lazy precision. And, unlike some other rappers warbling, I love it when Lupe sings. Thwarted by capital, Lupe remains rudely outside of where he should be. He should be Jay-Z immense. It’s a crime.

11 Destroy Boys – Funeral Soundtrack #4

Fuck me, it’s been a great year for punk, hasn’t it? Could be that living in the current capitalist hellscape is making people inordinately fucking angry. Destroy Boys mix punk and postpunk gracefully and powerfully, the hookiness of their melodies is always well-served. Then their lyrics connect and you are fucked.

10 Allie X – Girl With No Face

I know you want me to tell you about Off With Her Tits. But I’m not gonna. But I will say that on this wonderfully free album, it fits right in. Of all the albums in this list, this is closest to the music I make myself which is fucking annoying as Allie X does it so well. She skips from synthwave, the myth of the ’80s, to actual, real ’80s synthpop. But the style wouldn’t matter without the core of X’ songs and extraordinarily emotive vocals. Dammit.

9 Kneecap – Fine Art

At this stage, everyone and their Mum should be a Kneecap fan. Well, unless you’re Kemi Badenoch. Leaving all the hype to one side, this album builds on their early template but isn’t afraid to stretch it further. Which I love – it would have been a cop-out just to repeat their initial winning formula. So, yeah, we do have bops that we can try our mangled Gaelic to but there’s also bigger, wilder spaces. I feel like they’re exploring and that can only be good.

8 Fit For An Autopsy – The Nothing That Is

Sounding nothing like Ghetts but railing against the same evils, the first time I heard Lower Purpose my head just spun. You know when you hear something so heavy it liberates you, it make you want to punch the universe in the fucking face? It says something for you that you cannot say, that you didn’t know you wanted to say. The breakdown of Weaker Wolves, the ‘from the river to the sea’ of Red Horizon, all of it is crucial, undeniable, crushing.

7 Pokey LaFarge – Rhumba Country

On his (googles) fuck me, ELEVENTH album, Pokey and playmates give us a new accuse to attempt an old shimmy. This album is all killer, zero filler and I marvel at that consistency, every song is an A song. Yes, there’s space for meditative moments, I’m not saying it’s all full on. But it is all very, very catchy. If any of these sepia-tinted tunes infiltrated daytime radio, they’d be wild, runaway hits. I can’t think of any other classic Americana / Country / Folk artist who creates the vibe LaFarge does.

6 Ghetts – On Purpose, With Purpose

The lyrical breadth of Ghetts’ new album is a sleight of hand trick. You think you know where a line is going and then, bam, here’s a puppy wearing a fez. From another rapper, this swerving might seem opportunistic but Ghetts grounds every line, every word. He cuts to the killer reveal, no messing:

“I was on the phone with a pal of mine / They asked me why they’re helping Ukraine and not Palestine / And I replied, ‘Brown skin.’”

You can can’t keep the truth out of the mouths and ears of millions.

5 Kiasmos – II

The sun’s going down, you’re curled up with your pup and it’s snoring. As the haze of rainbow flickers make you shade your eyes, you put on Kiasmos’ latest album and feel the wash of synths rise up around you. You let go of where you are as orchestral sections swim past you, smoothly and organically. You find that you are weeping. Congratulations, you are now Icelandic.

4 Bolis Pupul – Letter To Yu

Yeah, I know he’s done other stuff but the fact that this is Pupul’s debut album is quite extraordinary. This sounds like a fourth or fifth album, not a debut. From outright pop bangers like Completely Half to the soundtracky Spicy Crab, Pupul is equally confident and sure-footed. There are some wonderful timbres here, shades of Japan and YMO but not retro, if that makes sense. A beautiful album.

3 Kishi Bashi – Kantos

My third fave album this year is this slice of disco funk mad-grin-making music. I needed this album so much, I needed this power and optimism in what has been the worst year of my life so far. When I listen to Lilliputian Chop, just for that 3:37, I feel like I’m a kid watching EWF on TOTP. This album is shiny and heartfelt, it’s glossy and gritty at the same time. Unlike a lot of try-hard “funky” acts, there is always a solid emotional core to even the funkiest moments. There are songs and they are about things. And that’s why it kills me and makes me cry every time I listen to it.

2 Jennifer Castle – Camelot

The minute this album started playing, I was startled. I was woken. Castle’s voice, her changes, her lyrics are not something you hear every day. In fact, the only other songwriter I could compare her to is Michael Nesmith. Like Nesmith, Castle flits fearlessly from soft, sparse ballad to outright singalong country rocker. She does not give a fuck, she never falls nor plays it safe. And the result are songs that are absolute gems. Some Friends is destined to be a future campfire classic, for sure. Hell, they all are.

This album gives me the same vibes as when I first heard Tapestry or Bryter Layter. Yep, it’s that good.

1 Bad Nerves – Still Nervous

If you prefer your pop punk more Ramones than Blink, this is your album. There’s also something of a Duty Now For The Future vibe about the lyrics which take great glee in de-evolved shoutalongs. The only other band who meld this franticness with supermelodies and hammering guitars are Buzzcocks.

Twelve songs check in at just under thirty-one minutes and I can honestly say that I fucking love every single song. EVERY SINGLE SONG. Be honest, how often can you say that about an album?

The lyrics vary from cheeky, concise barbs, poking fun at the land of the (un)free in, er, USA to the nutkicking start of The Kids Will Never Have Their Say:

In this song, as in all the others, there’s a way with melody that just connects with me in some deep way. Sometimes, the melodies remind of listening to glam bands when I was a little kid. It’s bizarre.

I almost made this my number two record. I do love the Jennifer Castle album but in the end, the sheer ferocity of Bad Nerves could not be denied. It’s like you’re sitting on your bed, moping and then your best mate, who is a mad wanker, storms in, fireman’s you onto their shoulder and then drags you off for a night you will never forget.

Yes, I am having fun, thank you.