It’s that time of year — time to figure out the best music of 2024. Okay, that’s actually impossible, so instead let’s give you a snapshot of things that are worth a listen.

Best LPs of 2024

Tiburona / Nos Extinguimos

Some good ole Spanish head nodding, vocal-harmonizing music with a two cups of punk plus a dash of Flamenco, I could only imagine seeing them live would be the highlight of my month.

Standout songs: “Gobierno cero” and “Relación abierta” for scream-singing in the car and “Que mueras bien” (may you die well) for a good singalong

Band info: https://tiburona1.bandcamp.com/album/nos-extinguimos

Angélica Garcia / Gemelo

Originally from Los Angeles, ‘pop auteur’ Angélica Garcia explores the color of pain and grief in Gamelo, and you can’t help but notice that a banger or two might be just what the doctor ordered. I saw Garcia this year at our local music festival to a surprisingly empty venue, and while I’m of the age that singing to a background track is phoning it in, she still held the audiences attention with her pop auteur moves. I feel like the best of her music is made with deep collaboration, and I’m excited to see more of that in her future.

Standout song: “El Que”

Band info: https://www.angelicagarciamusic.net/ https://angelicagarcia.bandcamp.com/album/gemelo

Cloudbelly / i know i know i know

I don’t know if chamber pop follows me around or if I genuinely like it, or if Cloudbelly would really fit under that moniker. I’d call them songweavers. This is one of those whole-album releases, there’s something in almost every song that feels complete and moving. Their use of texture is on point, right out in front, but never in the way of the song. We saw Cloudbelly this year at our local coffee shop’s music series and for a while I completely forgot where I was, that level of musicianship just moves me.

Standout song: “Fascinated”, “November” and (if you’re looking for a pop rush) “Secret Skin”

Band info: https://www.cloudbellytheband.com/ https://cloudbelly.bandcamp.com/

Arcadian Wild / Welcome

Tried and true folk and americana with a twist of bluegrass and a high production level that seeps into the songwriting itself — this is a level most bands I like don’t get to.

Standout songs: “Lift My Head”, “Sparrow” and “Dopamine”

Band info: https://www.thearcadianwild.com/

Motel Breakfast / I Promise I’m Having Fun

Somewhat local band that I’ve always liked but really love where they’re going after seeing them at a WMSE Local Live show at our local coffee shop. I see them as a brilliant live band that records music, and the recorded stuff is great, but the live is a whole level of musicianship. Yet their stage show is bar band and I can only imagine someone writing them off while getting a beer and walking out two hours later with 3 records and a hoodie.

Standout songs: “Wonder Year”, “MB (as in Modern Baseball)” and “Fairview Ave.”

Band info: https://www.motelbreakfast.org/ https://motelbreakfast.bandcamp.com/

Katie Pruitt / Mantras

Maybe this one is too personal for me, but Katie Pruitt is telling a story of getting out of a life big religion and small minds and finding whole new forces to battle when she finally escaped. The music is solid Nashville pop, and while that’s not normally my cup of tea, her storytelling is compelling enough to keep me listening.

Standout songs: “White Lies, White Jesus and You”, “Blood Related” and “Standstill”

Band info: https://www.katiepruitt.com/

Young Jesus / The Fool

My wife currently hates Young Jesus, says he sounds Christian-y. I think he defies a lot of expectations, but this one she’s half right — he sings about religion more than most folks I listen to. But one thing constant in his work is change: each album goes a whole new path. In The Fool, he weaves short stories into song, using some of the same characters and themes in multiple tracks making a narrative arc that connects the songs to a place. I find some of the other songs harder to get, looking for meaning that’s maybe not there, but I’ve found that revisiting his work years later I find some meaning I missed the first dozen listens. Perhaps that’s some of my fascination with his work: it allows for change in the listener.

Standout songs: “Brenda and Diane”, “Two Brothers”, “Rabbit” and “Moonlight”

Band info: https://www.youngjesusmusic.com/

Hailaker / Serenity Now

Hailaker was a slow burn for me. It’s so subtle, so finessed, and so connected to this distant want, and the singers together move between one voice and two, sometimes singing over each other to tell two different versions of the same story, and all of this creates a little missing part of my own heart. Luckily they keep making amazing music, and I’m listening in the yard on a warm summer after everyone’s asleep, watching fireflies and the subtleties of all the different colors between green and black.

Standout songs: “Break Me Again”, “M3” and “Gist”

Band info: https://hailaker.com/ https://hailaker.bandcamp.com/

Hailaker / Serenity Now

Hailaker was a slow burn for me. It’s so subtle, so finessed, and so connected to this distant want, and the singers together move between one voice and two, sometimes singing over each other to tell two different versions of the same story, and all of this creates a little missing part of my own heart. Luckily they keep making amazing music, and I’m listening in the yard on a warm summer after everyone’s asleep, watching fireflies and the subtleties of all the different colors between green and black.

Standout songs: “Break Me Again”, “M3” and “Gist”

Band info: https://hailaker.com/ https://hailaker.bandcamp.com/

Aoife O’Donovan / All My Friends

Aoife makes memorable ‘new folk’ music that works tension and release into mountains and valleys, and feels like the stuff I grew up on. All My Friends is an anthem to women and suffrage and sounds like a supergroup album — so many voices by so many talented collaborators and so much instrumentation that swings between show tunes and fight songs.

Standout songs: “War Measure”, “Daughters” and “America, Come”

Band info: https://www.aoifeodonovan.com/

Burning Sun / Mystery at Sound Lake

I feel like I’m listening to AM radio coming in from Berlin when I here Burning Sun — a mix to me between 70s prog and English folk. There’s double bass drums, psychedelic guitars and a panoply of voices and sounds to make up a soundscape of what must be an incredible show should I be so lucky to see them live.

Standout songs: “Prince Matthew”, “Waiting to Fall” and “Far Away”

Band info: https://www.theburningsun.com/ https://theburningsunmusic.bandcamp.com/

Arooj Aftab / Night Reign

Sometimes you hear music that’s so so far from home and it just brings you in, and much of Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign, sung I assume in Urdu, is so mediative and minimal, so full of harps and classical piano — then bam! — switches to bass and vibraphone and jazz and English sounding like Sade. It’s a movie soundtrack to the life I wish I lived.

Standout songs: “Zameen”, “Na Gul” and “Aey Nahin”

Band info: https://www.aroojaftab.com/ https://aroojaftab.bandcamp.com/music

Lou K / L’obscurité

Lou K’s debut is between post punk and noise with enough Chanson Français to bring sonically to their home of Brussels. She wears her fears on her sleeve and screams away the fever.

Standout songs: “Sec”, “Toute seule” and “Si ça fait peur”

Band info: https://lou-k.bandcamp.com/album/lobscurit

EPs & Singles

Brand New Legs / Sick

A Manchester band with heartfelt, relatable lyrics and sometimes sparse and sometimes over the top instrumentation. Their 2023 and 2022 mostly single releases kind of felt all over the place, but Sick has really dialed in both the mix (80’s saxophone!) and the vocals that swing high and low on meaning. I love it when your favorite college band starts growing up and taking you new places.

Standout songs: “It’s worth it this time, isn’t it?” and “Sick”

Band info: https://www.instagram.com/brandnewlegs/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/@brandnewlegs

symmetrical dogs / death of a fly

I feel like I listen to a lot of down under bands, but every time I talk to someone from Australia, they’ve never heard of them. (Never heard of The Beths or Gang of Youths??) Anyway, I know very little about Perth’s symmetrical dogs, they’re pretty new and their publicist is on holiday, yet Mike, Boyd and Claire construct simple songs that go on a little long, but then the other part of your brain picks up on the joy and honesty they bring to their music. Their song ‘death of a fly’ in a sparse 3 minutes feels like a double play of punk.

Standout song: “death of a fly”

Band info: https://symmetricaldogs.bandcamp.com/

Juana Molina / EXHALO

Argentinian singer Juana Molina crosses some post / new wave lines for me and I guess I’d just call it experimental because I don’t know how to classify it. But lack of classification means she can go anywhere, and EXHALO does just that — it’s a 4 track EP of songs created during the Halo sessions of 2017. The song Hope is just arresting — I heard it while walking somewhere and I forgot entirely what I was doing.

Standout song: “Hope”

Band info: https://juanamolina.bandcamp.com/album/exhalo

Earworms — or some of the greatest songs of 2024

Elsdeer / River River

River River is one of those ‘perfect’ songs, it digs into your brain and won’t let go. When I try to deconstruct it, it gets even better because it’s so simple and minimal but the instrumentation builds intensity and percussion snaps and the base line brings the noise and takes you home. I’d love to hear a non-chamber-pop version someday. Bonus track: When You Are Old

James / Way Over Your Head

Yes, that James. Not only are they still around, they’re making even better music and Way Over Your Head is state of the art in how it threads together a hope-filled word salad and the arena anthem we all need.

Callum Orr / Dust

Callum Orr seems like a voice from a long ago county of my ancestors, but he’s modern and I have no Irish ancestors. Dust is simple yet complex, so singable yet I just take it in like a view of a foggy morning in rough craggy terrain.

Music at: https://callumorr.bandcamp.com/

Beautiful Cosmos / Midlife

I know absolutely nothing about Beautiful Cosmos — I’m guessing it showed up on a mix because I like Field Music who apparently produced it. I do know they’re from Glasgow and I’m a sucker for singers concurrently singing different parts.

Music at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwmJQ_MMQk

Best concerts of 2024?

Spotify playlist

Spotify is like democracy — the worst form of music listening, followed by every other form of music listening, alas. But that’s my discovery and listening platform, except the occasional stack of MP3s of bands that aren’t on Spotify. Either way, have a listen to the 300+ songs that make up what I’ve been listening to in 2024.

[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WNh89N9NufG2NE4QtvgzU?si=3369585bbac442cd(2024 best of contenders)]