2024 Albums of the Year - Rich’s Definitive List
1. MJ Lenderman -
Manning Fireworks
MJ Lenderman’s fourth solo effort is a 35 minute angst-ridden, guitar-fuelled tour de force that harks back to Zuma-era Young, early Adams (not Bryan) and the heyday of Wilco. Heartbreak lonesome tales for the bedsitland generation.
2. Nick Cave -
Wild God
It seems as if Nick Cave’s late career from Skeleton Key, through Ghosteen and Carnage has all been leading up to this essential epic of quasi-religious grief-inspired explosion of rapture as the choir urge his public to join in the highs and lows of his quest for redemption in the wake of the tragedy of loss.
3. The Cure -
Songs of a Lost World
I stand to be corrected but Neil Young has released about twelve new studio albums since the Cure’s last effort hit the stores. Robert Smith does things at his pace and this is relected in this wonderful late-period work that allows his avid followers to join him on the inevitable road to mortality. At times sensational.
4. Waxahatchee -
Tiger’s Blood
How do you beat a classic album like Waxahatchee’s 2020 masterpiece Saint Cloud? Answer: You don’t. But here on Tiger’s Blood she makes a fine attempt crossing her alt-folk roots with a little touch of alt-pop. Tracks like Right Back to It and Lone Star Lake maintain little Katie Crutchfield’s hitherto excellence. The veritable shining star of the 2020s.
5. Bright Eyes -
Five Dice, All Threes
If brass band backings, singalong choruses, whistling or harmonica intros all combined with guest appearances from vocal legends such as Matt Berninger are your cup of tea, then look no further than the magnificent return to form of Conor Oberst with his Bright Eyes collective! Their best since the classic 2005 album I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning.
6. The Black Keys -
Ohio Players
The Black Keys (Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney) hit the heights recently with their 2021 tribute album to Hill Country Blues, Delta Kream. Not ones to stay typecast for long, this latest effort pays homage to sixties soul, with outstanding singles grammy-nominated “Beautiful People (Stay High)” and the William Bell classic “I Forgot to be Your Lover” among the standout covers on parade here.
7. The Decemberists -
As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
When a band bring out an album that makes you realise why you enjoyed them so much 15 years earlier it is indeed a time for celebration and this is undoubtedly the case with The Decemberists latest, replete with tales of yore. Colin Meloy’s brand of lyrical alt-folk could come from sixties Byrdsland. Dig those horns, strum those guitars. They are back!
8. Hurray for the Riff Raff -
The Past Is Still Alive
‘We don’t have to die if we don’t wanna die’ sings Alynda Segarra in the opening line of this career peak offering, countering the rather morbid statements emanating from the Cave/Smith albums mentioned earlier. Leaving school at 15 didn’t harm Segarra’s career at all. A gem of American music.
9. The Vaccines -
Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations
Catching the Vaccines live whilst touring their new album was a highlight of the gigging circuit last year. The album is cut in the style of their debut album Whatever Happened to the Vaccines? The resounding answer: Still producing unrivalled Spector/Ramones-style three-minute bouncy pop tunes!
10. King Hannah - Big Swimmer
On their second full length album, this Liverpudlian duo have made their breakthrough with their unique brand of alt-rock à le Lou Reed. A nod to John Prine on the sublime closing track rounds off the entertainment in fine style. Worth checking out live before they get too big.
11. Ray LaMontagne - Long Way Home
He’s been making albums for the best part of twenty years and the soulful New Hampshire native still comes up trumps with his mix of Sam Cooke and Van Morrison acoustic balladry. You’ll be hooked from the opening chords.
12. Muireann Bradley - I Kept These Old Blues
What kind of precocious 17 year old acoustic country blues guitarist thinks she is already good enough to cover blues standards performed by the legends of the genre over a one hundred year timespan? Little Muireann Bradley, that’s who! And what a debut this is! Exquisite picking and singing!
13. Brown Horse - Reservoir
East Anglian sextet pay their Americana alt-country respects on an album of gorgeous beauties with which to while away a coastal weekend. Fiddles, harmonies, slides and guitars combine to reveal serious new players on the alt-country scene.
14. Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir
He may have changed his name but this is pure top-class Sturgill Simpson, one of America’s finest purveyors of roots rock country music. Always worth a listen!
15. Ezra Collective - Dance, No One’s Watching
2023 Mercury Prize-winning London-based jazz quintet provide the pick of that genre’s releases for 2024! Marvellous blend of sax, bass, vocal and drum. Essential.