I’ve known for some time that Ariel Sharratt & Matthias Kom’s Never Work is my Album of the Year. This lividly witty, no-filler take-down of workplace servitude arrived on vinyl in May. The creation of two Canadian indie-folkies (from The Burning Hell), it’s my most-played album of 2024, containing my most-played songs, the title track and the poignant, “The Rich Stuff”, the latter a call to revolution themed around The Goonies.
One big problem. I just discovered Never Work came out in 2020. Was it a vinyl reissue? Who knows!
With its disqualification I scrabble about. A couple of monster rock-outs stand out. The eponymous debut from Hastings’ Wytch Pycknyck is a rip-roaring, 37-minute, hash-stoned, biker-punk juggernaut. Absolute Elsewhere, the fourth album by Denver’s Blood Incantation, is more experimental, space-rock psychedelic, death metal that sprawls towards everything from reggae to Seventies synth wizarding. It’s a great listen.
So, in a very, very different way, is The Great Impersonator by 30-year-old American singer Halsey. The conceit is that each song channels the spirit of a female singer, from PJ Harvey to Marilyn Monroe. This could have resulted in trite pastiche but, beleaguered by a life-threatening pile-up of immune disorders, Halsey renders a vital, existential, eclectic reflection on a life lived, illness and death.
Mostly I’ve listened to female singers, cherry-picking their albums, skipping the duff (as even with Halsey’s – can’t stand “Ego”). At the top of the pile are… the spicy Latin electronic pop of Kali Uchis’s Orquídeas; sharp, baroque singer-songwriting on Zurich-based Israeli Ella Ronen’s The Girl With No Skin; peppy Dolly Parton-esque mainstream country’n’western on Miranda Lambert’s Postcards From Texas; heart-delighting Afro-Cuban stylings on Dutch-American singer-percussionist Natascha Rogers’ Onaida; weird bedroom-pop originality on the Chinese-British Mui Zyu’s Nothing or Something to Die For. And then there’s Chappell Roan. But, of course, she’s not allowed either. Despite owning 2024, her debut, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, appeared last autumn.
Liverpudlian singer Luvcat’s debut album might have been the year’s best… but she hasn’t made it yet, only three wonderfully theatrical singles. One to watch. Talking of songs, “Blue Sky & The Painter” by Bastille, who I generally avoid, is a belter. Not sure about his voice or the production but the song itself is a galvanizing two fingers to blue funks.
In the end, though, ukulele-strumming Middlesbrough folk singer Amelia Coburn’s debut, Between The Moon and The Milkman, has a special charm, old-fashioned yet modern. Her voice is the sweetest instrument and, accent intact, her songwriting skills match the timeworn with the brightly new. In a cynical, meta-obsessed world, her music is wide-eyed, guileless and fresh.
Three More Essential Albums from 2024
Halsey The Great Impersonator
Wytch Pycknyck Wytch Pycknyck
The Last Dinner Party Prelude to Ecstasy
Musical Experience of the Year
I could say Glastonbury – highlights Gossip, LCD Soundsystem, The Last Dinner Party – but let’s go back to the week before, instead. On Friday 21st June the duo Xylaroo played my local, the Cellar Arts Club in Worthing. One of my favourite bands, and one of the most underheard of this century, they are lackadaisical about their career (debut album 2016, new one endlessly “coming soon”). They rarely play live, but proved that when they do, the pin-drop beauty of their music, lyric and harmonic, is still 100% intact. That gig was 40 people. The next night was Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium where 88,570 (mostly women) gave everything to the three-and-a-quarter hour Eras show. Singing and dancing along with absolute commitment to every song, it’s the only time in my 40-year gig-going career I’ve had an inkling what it might be like to have seen The Beatles in their prime. It was also huge heartfelt fun. Those two consecutive nights neatly illustrated to me that the joy of live music can exist equally on the micro and the macro scale. Albeit, these days, one needs to support the other.
Track of the Year
Ariana Grande “Yes, And?”
Below: Watch the video for "When the Tide Rolls In" by Amelia Coburn
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