Hello again!
Just a few days ago, I shared my first post in months, a reintroduction of sorts, and I offered a hint at the medical struggles with which I closed out the year. But if I am being honest, 2024 wasn’t all bad. Indeed, there was lots to like about the year.
Before everything went steeply downhill at the end, I got away for a few weekends away, spent some quality time with my lovely wife, enjoyed some biking and some hiking, and got to see some great live music. Indeed, music was a constant for me last year, much as it is every year, even if I wasn’t writing about it as prolifically as I normally do.
Yes, great music was released, so much, in fact, that I spent a lot of the year in catch-up mode, listening to albums for the first time long after their initial release date. In this way, I discovered a lot of exceptional new artists and reacquainted myself with many old friends during the last six months of the year (and a little into the new year). Some of these were represented in the post I shared a few days ago of seven excellent albums that didn’t quite make the cut.
When I first set out to make this year’s top albums list, I was expecting it to be mostly comprised of the old reliables but while some of these are certainly there, I for one was surprised at which albums and which bands made the final ten spots. I will be starting to share these today, with this post marking the start of my top ten countdown in earnest, kicking it all off with albums #10 through #6. Then, I plan to share my favourite five in five posts over the next few weeks.
With all the excellent releases in 2024, I am sure I missed out on one or two. So as we go through my own ten favourite albums, I welcome your comments and thoughts and perhaps even your own top ten favourites in the comments spaces provided.
Let’s do this.
We begin with an album that just snuck itself into my top ten favourites at the last moment. Quivers originally formed in 2015 in Hobart, Tasmania but I only discovered them six years later, in 2021, with the release of their sophomore album “Golden doubt”. By this time, the quartet had relocated to Melbourne, Australia and were attracting attention the world over for their take on jangle pop in the key of The Smiths and R.E.M. They signed with Merge Records in 2022* and this third album, “Oyster cuts”, is the first to be released there. It’s ten earworms that dig further into you with each listen, expanding their palette beyond the jangle to develop their own sound, all held together by an equal sharing of vocal duties and obvious passion for the music they all make together.
The Reid brothers, Jim and William, released this, their eighth studio album**, in the year following their 40th anniversary in a band together. Much like most of their previous albums, “Glasgow eyes” was written and mostly recorded by the brothers, who by their own admission share a form of ‘telepathy’ working in the studio together, with the sound augmented by session and guest musicians. And well, the album is awesome. It’s very much recognizable as a JAMC record and at the same time, it isn’t same old, same old. It has its noisy hallmarks and Jim Reid’s all-too-cool vocals but it also shows the brothers reinvigorated and charged electronically. If I’m being completely honest here, though, I didn’t expect to enjoy this album half as much as I do. It’s just so much fun.
I first heard the growing buzz surrounding London, England-based, The Last Dinner Party, back in the summer of 2023. I finally got around to sampling their sounds when I was in Toronto visiting my friend Tim for the Slowdive show there in September of that same year. We were going back and forth sharing YouTube videos but for some reason*** on that night, neither of us were really impressed. However, after continuing to see their name and images splashed all over social media, I gave them another chance just before Christmas 2023 and found myself reformed. By the time “Prelude to ecstasy”, the all-female quintet’s eagerly awaited debut, was released at the beginning of February 2024, I was finding myself ordering a copy for my vinyl collection. The comparisons to Kate Bush and Florence Welch for all their baroque drama and melodrama are apt but I would also throw Annie Lennox or Siouxsie Sioux into the mix for fun. However, all is not sunshine and rainbows. Indeed, there’s lots of punk angst and attitude here as well. My only hope is that it is not tamed or toned down at all by big music as time goes on.
I first got into New York City’s Vampire Weekend with their self-titled debut album in 2008, loving their energy, their blend of various world music styles with an indie rock mindset, and their often humorous song subject matter and lyrics. From there, I continued to the follow the group and loved each of their first three records. Something changed for me, however, with their fourth album, 2019’s “Father of the bride”, something I could never put my finger on, but I was never able to properly connect with the double album****. Happily, “Only god was above us” feels like a return to form. It’s a solid record that exhibits everything that I enjoyed about the group previously and there’s not one skippable track in the bunch.
Ok. I think I am finally ready to call it. I am officially a Real Estate fan. And I don’t even know why I’ve been fighting it for so long. I’ve been following the New Jersey-based indie rock band since they released their third album, “Atlas”, in 2014 and on that release then, and each since, I have found much to like in their easy-going jangle pop, seeing similarities between them and Glasgow’s Teenage Fanclub, another of my favourites. But it’s this year’s offering that’s really done it for me. It’s a moody and atmospheric piece of work that never fails to catch my attention whenever I turn it on and has me tapping my toes, my fingers, and nodding my head along through all its eleven tracks.
*A perfect home for them, if you asked me.
**And second since re-forming in 2007.
***Maybe it was too many IPAs.
****And I am fully aware that I may be one of the few who didn’t appreciate it as much as the others.
Stay tuned for album #5 on this list. In the meantime, you can check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.
Camera Obscura “Look to the east, look to the west”: The Scottish indie pop band’s sixth studio album and first since the death of keyboardist, Carey Lander in 2015, shows the group in fine form and chock full of that twee magic.
The Decemberists “As it ever was, so it will be again”: The Portland-based quintet keeps on doing things in their own particular way – esoteric subject matter dressed up in indie folk, informed by a myriad of world musical styles – on their 9th studio album and we continue to love them for it.
Desperate Journalist “No hero”: To my ears, these post punk revivalists from London, England have firmly grasped the torch let drop by Canada’s The Organ when that band split after only one great album back in the early 2000s.
Elephant Stone “Back into the dream”: The sixth album by the Montreal-based psych-rock quartet fronted by bass and sitar player Rishi Dhir, is more Beatlesque, jangle pop that is as equally relevant on a Saturday night, as it is on a Sunday morning.
James “Yummy”: One of my favourite all-time bands celebrated their 40th anniversary year in 2023 with a compilation of orchestral reworkings of many of their much-loved classics and followed it up in 2024 with their 18th (!) studio album – future classics that feature the Manchester group’s signature “big”
Linn Koch-Emmery “Borderline iconic”: Unlike her 2021 debut, “
The Vaccines “Pick-up full of pink carnations”: London, England’s The Vaccines are sadly one of those bands that I tend to forget about* – until of course, they release a new album, like this, their 6th LP offering, and I am immediately caught back up in the wave of their angular, fun, and anthemic indie-pop.
My (life in) music lists 