→ March 7, 2025
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Music update, February 2025.

I always think February is going to be a lighter month for music, but that makes no sense since it will always have four Fridays, same as most months, and it’s not like December when labels do try to avoid releasing new albums. This month was pretty packed, and I’m sure I missed stuff – I’m behind on some of the full-lengths released in the last four weeks for sure – but here’s what I’ve got. As always you can see the playlist here if you can’t access the widget below.

Blondshell – Two Times. I was lighter on Blondshell’s highly acclaimed self-titled debut album when it came out in 2023, but this song, from her upcoming LP If You Asked for a Picture, is by far the best thing she’s ever done, with revealing storytelling with off-kilter harmonies over a mesmerizing guitar line.

Waxahatchee – Mud. I actually drove right by the actual town of Waxahachie on my last scouting trip to Texas, while I was listening to this song (and playlist), an extra track from the Tigers Blood sessions.

Sharon van Etten – I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way). I’ve never quite gotten the critical acclaim for van Etten, who often sings like she’s stoned, but she does have a great voice when she lets it rip, and I’ve sense a stylistic shift over her last two or three albums to include more rock and other genres and away from the minimalist arrangements of her earlier work.

Heartworms – Just to Ask a Dance. Heartworms, aka Jojo Orme, released her debut album Glutton for Punishment last month to some pretty glowing reviews. It’s a frenetic, energetic mix of gothic new wave, dance, and industrial elements, with plenty of guitars, calling back to the several points of the 1980s (there’s some early NIN in here) while managing to also sound modern and inventive.

Matt Berry w/Eric D. Johnson – Why on Fire? I didn’t know the British actor Matt Berry, who appeared on The IT Crowd and What We Do in the Shadows and voiced a character in The Wild Robot, was actually a musician first, with his first album coming out in 1995. His newest LP, Heard Noises, has gotten a ton of praise, but I actually just like this one song; the rest of it is very nostalgic, almost a throwback to the ‘60s, and not the part I particularly enjoy.

Sports Team – Bang Bang Bang. This is the best of the three singles Sports Team have released so far from their upcoming third album, Boys These Days, due out May 25th. I loved this art-rock/post-punk band’s last record, Gulp!, which had great guitar-driven hooks and witty lyrics throughout, but the previous two singles they put out didn’t have the same energy this one does.

Sam Fender – Little Bit Closer. I confess I have to listen to Fender’s whole album People Watching, but this and the title track are both outstanding roots-rock tracks from a freaking British guy who just turned 30.

Fontaines D.C. – It’s Amazing to Be Young. A one-off single from the lads to commemorate one of the members becoming a father for the first time. Between this and “Favourite,” I might almost say they’d gone pop.

The Murder Capital – Death of a Giant. This Irish rock band just released their third album, Blindness, on February 21st, featuring this track and “Can’t Pretend to Know.” I wrote in October that they’re somewhere between punk and post-punk, but this song is almost math-rock (I don’t love the term, but it fits), and definitely goes beyond their punk-ish roots.

Adwaith – Gofyn. I’ve included a few more Welsh acts in the last five years because my wife is of Welsh descent, but this band actually popped up on an American-based playlist I follow on Spotify. They sing in Welsh, and use a sort of spare, post-punk style that sounds very DIY. They just released their third album, Solas.

swim school – Heaven. I’ve seen this Scottish band described as indie-pop, grunge, and shoegaze, all of which sort of fits. I’m into their sound, whatever it is, and I bet they kick ass live. This track is very shoegazey; it’s their first new music since their “mixtape” Seeing It Now came out last April.

Preoccupations – Focus. Preoccupations does one of the best revivals of mid-80s post-punk, right down to the guitar tones, so I’m pretty much going to include any track they release on here … but come on, that guitar riff at the start is “Uncertain Smile,” right?

The Horrors – Ariel. The Horrors’ follow-up to their magnum opus, 2017’s V, comes out on the 21st. Night Life seems like it’s going to turn hard into the psychedelic and shoegaze parts of their sound, based on the three singles so far.

Friendship – Free Association. These guys are from Philly and have put out four albums already, so I’m a little abashed that this is the first song of theirs I’ve ever heard. I love the music, the pulsing percussion lines and the haunting piano and string lines, but I do wish the singer would just … sing. He’s kind of warble-talking, and it detracts from the song.

The Tubs – Chain Reaction. Probably my least favorite single of the three released so far from this offshoot of the defunct band Joanna Gruesome. Their jangle-pop sound is right up my alley, although the earlier two singles had better hooks. They released their second album, Cotton Crown, today.

Tropical Fuck Storm – Goon Show. I suppose with a name like that, you kind of have to not give a fuck about anything, right? This song is weird and witty and at some points barely seems like a song. “It’s raining cats and dogma” is a great line, though. They’re promising a new album but have offered no details, so this is just a one-off single from the Melbourne supergroup.

Brooke Combe – Butterfly. Combe’s full-length debut, Dancing at the Edge of the World, came out on January 31st, featuring this smooth ‘70s-infused R&B/pop number along with the superb “This Town.”

Self Esteem – Focus is Power. I hadn’t heard of Self Esteem, the nom de chanson of Rebecca Taylor, who was half of Slow Club, before this song, but it seems like the kind of pop banger that could easily take off with its gospel-backed chorus and its trite, vague lyrics about self-worth and being powerful. I still like the melody, though.

Little Simz feat. Obongjayar & Moonchild Sanelly – Flood. Simbi’s back, with her next album Lotus coming out on May 9th. That’ll be her first full-length since 2022’s No Thank You, although she’s put out music in the interim via EPs and mixtapes. This track features more of her frequent collaborator Obongjayar (“Point and Kill”) than it does of Simz herself, which might be a negative if it weren’t for the tremendous beat behind all of their vocals. How is she only 31? I feel like she’s been recording for fifteen years now.

WOOZE – 4 Lovely Children. WOOZE’s self-titled debut album came seven years after their first release, and it hits the mark – the songs are ridiculous, bouncy, snarky, and just all-around fun.

Bartees Strange – 17. Strange just dropped his third album, Horror, and based on the four songs I’ve heard so far he’s expanding his sonic palate substantially, although I also understand the criticism of Jack Antonoff’s production style, which tends to mute Strange’s guitar work.

Anxious – Never Said. I don’t think these guys are an emo band, but that’s how I see them labeled in the music press; they’re somewhere between hard rock and hardcore, and even with some screamed vocals it’s pretty damn good. Their second album, Bambi, came out on February 21st, and it’s in my queue.

Doves – A Drop in the Ocean. I didn’t love the new album, Constellations for the Lonely, anywhere near as much as I’d hoped after hearing the killer first single “Renegade.” It’s just uneven, in both songwriting and production, and the third single “Saint Teresa” was just a mess. Singer Jimi Goodwin doesn’t always sound fully invested in the songs, which is disappointing as his voice is my favorite of the various band members’.

Momma – Bottle Blonde. This is more like it after their last single was heavily derivative of Veruca Salt’s “Seether,” more in that lo-fi indie-pop vein that characterized their best track to date, “Speeding 72.”

Andy Bell – apple green ufo. That’s the Andy Bell of Ride, not the one of Erasure; Bell just released a solo album Pinball Wanderer that is a spaced-out psychedelic trip, nothing like his music with Ride or Hurricane #1 or Oasis, and even includes a mellow cover of “I’m in Love with a German Film Star.”

Verbian – Fruta caída do mar. I get emails from a lot of music publicists, too many to even open most of them – it’s not like this is my job – but something got me to open this one, and even though it’s not the sort of experimental metal that email led me to expect, it is novel, with the percussion especially standing out here for the way it gives the song different textures throughout.

Mekons – War Economy. I didn’t realize the Mekons were still going, but they’ve been quite prolific, at least up until the pandemic, after which they didn’t put out any new music for five years, until last month’s Horror. I also don’t know their music very well, or even their history, given how often I confuse them with the Melvins, two bands with nothing at all in common.

Raven – Can’t Take Away the Fire. I can’t believe these guys are still going; Raven started in 1974, became one of the leaders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, never breaking through commercially beyond that core audience, and they’ve never had more than a brief hiatus in their fifty years. More notable is that the band still has its two original members, the Gallagher brothers – no, not them – with John Gallagher still handling vocals and hitting the high notes at age 66.

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→ February 11, 2025
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Music update, January 2025.

This playlist is a bit late as I was finishing up the last of the team rankings, but it includes songs released between when I published my top 100 songs of 2024 and January 31st, so anything that’s come out in the last eleven days will go on the next playlist. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

SAULT – The Lesson. SAULT dropped an album with no warning, as they typically do, right before Christmas, the religious-themed Acts of Faith. It’s a more subdued effort and has less of the over social activism of their previous albums, still with several really compelling tracks even though much of the lyrical content is foreign to me.

Little Simz – Hello, Hi. A surprise drop from the Mercury Prize-winning British rapper, her first new music since the too-brief Drop 7 EP came out this time last year, although there’s no word on a new album.

Goat feat. MC Yallah – Nimerudi. I knew Goat, but not MC Yallah, a Kenyan-born rapper now based in Uganda who rhymes in four languages. She’s great, combining technical skill and a really easy flow, so I was into it even when I didn’t get the language she was using. I feel like she must have grown up listening to a lot of Queen Latifah and Native Tongues.

Skunk Anansie – An Artist is an Artist. Definitely didn’t know Skunk Anansie was a going concern, or that Skin was 1) the chancellor of a British university and 2) awarded an OBE, but I don’t know a lot of things, so there’s that. Anyway, this is the first new music from Skunk Anansie since 2022 and they’ve hinted that there might be an album coming in 2025, which would be their first in nearly a decade. I know their ‘90s output more than anything from the last 20 years, but this song is one of their most accessible – without losing any of the rage and fire that made them icons in the first place.

Doves – Cold Dreaming. Musically, this is one of their best tracks post-Last Broadcast. I wish Jimi had handled the vocals, and the opening line of “God knows, it ain’t easy” is hackneyed, taking the song down a peg, but it’s still a great sign for Constellations For The Lonely, which comes out on Valentine’s Day.

Courting – After You. Courting’s last album, New Last Name, made my list of the top albums of 2024, and they’re already back with another LP, Lust for Life, Or; ‘How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story’, dropping March 14th with this track and last fall’s “Pause at You.” I’m just a fan of their angular art-rock sound, and they seem to have an endless supply of melodies to throw on top. Plus they just always sound like they’re having fun.

Swervedriver – Volume Control. Swervedriver often get lumped in with the Britpop and/or shoegaze movements because they were contemporaries of those bands and sometimes had some similarities in the production style, but they had a harder rock edge and more blues influence. I believe this is their first new song in six years, since their last album, Spiked Flower, came out in January of 2019, and once again it has that heavier rhythm guitar and bass presence that I think brings almost a metal influence to their alternative rock vibe.

WOOZE – Running Outside with Heather. Every time this song comes on, I think it’s from one of my playlists of 1970s rock, but then it shifts gears into a sort of dance riot – which is WOOZE’s specialty.

The Darkness – Rock and Roll Party Cowboy. Not their strongest, I admit, but “I’m a rock and roll party cowboy/and I ain’t gonna read no Tolstoy” is a hell of a couplet. The guitar solo’s appropriately ridiculous as well. Dreams on Toast comes out March 28th.

Sunflower Bean – Champagne Taste. I find it fascinating that Sunflower Bean had a hit with “Moment in the Sun” and immediately changed their sound to a harder-edged, almost glam rock circa 1978 vibe, rather than leaning into the song that made them somewhat popular. Good for them.

Lambrini Girls – Nothing Tastes as Good as It Feels. This punk duo’s debut album Who Let the Dogs Out? has 11 tracks and runs just 29½ minutes, but it’s packed with witty, incisive lyrics about misogyny and gender politics. “Company Culture” is still my favorite from the record.

Heartworms – Extraordinary Wings. Jojo Orme released her debut album Glutton for Punishment in January, and it’s packed with tracks like this one that blend industrial, new wave, and goth elements but that still end up with memorable hooks.

Mourn – Verdura y Sentimientos. Mourn’s garage-rock sound hasn’t changed much over the last decade, since the early single “Gertrudis (Get Through This)” hit my radar, and I’m good with that – it’s raw, emotional, tinged with post-punk, and never overproduced. This was one of two songs they released together, with the other titled “Alegre y Jovial.”

Momma – I Want You (Fever). I like Momma, and I like this song a lot, but my God is this derivative of … well, listen to the track and sing it with me: “I want you/Fever/Can’t fight/the seether.”

Tunde Adembimpe – Drop. The singer of TV on the Radio gave his debut solo album a name, Thee Black Boltz, and a release date, April 18th, along with this second single, not quite as strong as “Magnetic” but still pretty good if, like me, you like some of TVotR’s more rockin’ stuff.

Bartees Strange – Wants Needs. Strange had my #1 song of 2022 with “Heavy Heart” off his sophomore album Farm to Table, but since then he’s just had a few scattered singles, nothing with the same energy – until this one, the first single ahead of the release of his third album, Horror, this Friday.

Lord Huron feat. Kristen Stewart – Who Laughs Last? I mean, is it a gimmick? It kind of feels like one to have Stewart read some pretentious lines over what is otherwise a strong backing track with a pounding electronic beat and a solid hook in the chorus.

Mogwai – Fanzine Made of Flesh. This Scottish experimental rock band released their eleventh album, The Bad Fire, in January. I’ve never been a huge fan because I don’t find a lot to grab onto in their songs, but I do appreciate that they’re generally pushing boundaries – their songs are interesting even if they’re not catchy.

Population II – Le thé est prêt. Population II does really old-school psychedelic/prog rock, right down to mimicking the production style; it’s an anachronism and I kind of dig their willingness to lean into the quaintness of the sound. They’ve released three albums, the first of which comprised just two songs but ran about 35 minutes; their fourth LP, Maintenant jamais, comes out on March 28th.

clipping. – Change the Channel. Not quite as strong as “Run It” but still compelling work from Daveed Diggs & company ahead of their more industrial-leaning album Dead Channel Sky, due out March 14.

bdrmm – Infinity Peaking. bdrmm’s third album Microtonic comes out on the 28th; I keep seeing them described as “shoegaze,” a label that gets slapped on everyone now, but they are way more avant garde than typical shoegaze. It’s just that they have some of that wall of distortion going on around all of the experimentation. This is where I thought black midi was headed before they broke up or went on hiatus. (I’d say that twice over for Squid, whose newest album is once again ambitious and experimental, but the lyrics are often disturbing and the music heads too far afield.)

The Horrors – More than Life. Another single ahead of the release of their sixth album, Night Life, which will be their first full-length record since 2017’s V., their best to date and one of the best albums of that decade. This is a little more downtempo than “The Silence that Remains,” the first single this psychedelic/shoegazey rock band put out from the record late last year.

Pastel – Heroes’ Blood. This British band that blends shoegaze and Britpop elements put out their debut album, Souls in Motion, last month; the best songs are mostly ones we’ve heard already and that I’ve put on previous playlists, including “Your Day” and “Leave a Light On.” This was my favorite of the songs they hadn’t released before.

The Weather Station – Neon Signs. The Tamara Lindeman-led alternative folk project released their seventh album, Humanhood, in January; I found it a mixed bag but there are a couple of standouts, including this and “Window.”

Miki Berenyi Trio – 8th Deadly Sin. This track from the former lead singer/guitarist of Lush has a similar vibe but lacks the acerbic wit of Lush’s best tracks like “Single Girl” and “Ladykiller.” Her new group will release its first album Tripla on April 4th.

Japanese Breakfast – Orlando in Love. I really need to read Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner’s acclaimed and best-selling memoir, since I like at least some of her music – although this track leans towards the lighter end of her music. Her stuff is so poppy that she’s often on that line between stuff I find very catchy and stuff that feels a bit twee.

Freckle – Paranoid. Freckle is Ty Segall plus Color Green’s Corey Madden; they put out their self-titled debut album on the last day of January, and a lot of it is mopey and boring, but this song is fantastic – you can hear both artists’ influence here, with the swirling chord changes I associate with Color Green and Segall’s brand of off-kilter melody in the vocals.

The Tubs – Narcissist. A little janglier tune this time from this Welsh band that rose from the ashes of Joanna Gruesome.

The Wombats – Can’t Say No. I’m a little concerned about the upcoming Wombats album Oh! The Ocean, due out on the 21st, as the singles they’ve released so far have a definite album-tracks feel to them, with neither the big hooks or the clever lyrics of even their last album, 2022’s Fix Yourself, Not the World.

Brooke Combe – This Town. I had Combe’s “Black is the New Gold” on my top 100 tracks of 2023, then lost track of her (no pun intended) until this ebullient song, from her new album Dancing at the Edge of the World, popped up on a playlist I subscribe to on Spotify. It’s quite different from the earlier song beyond her vocals, still in the intersection of pop and R&B but with more of the former in some of the vocals and the string arrangements.

NIJI – Mo ti délé. I’ve had a few of NIJI’s tracks on playlists over the last year-plus, but just learned that he was the organist for Knicks games at some point. The jazz pianist’s next album, Oríkì, comes out on the 28th.

Samba Touré – Assouma Kagne. Touré is a Malian desert blues guitarist, no relation (as far as I can tell) to his late mentor, the legendary Ali Farka Touré, or Ali Farka’s son Vieux, sometimes known as “Samba.” This Samba’s style is more acoustic than that of either of those two artists or of the Nigerian superstar Mdou Moctar, which to my ears makes it seem less rooted in the American blues tradition. Samba just released his tenth album, featuring this midtempo track.

Cymande – Chasing an Empty Dream. I had never heard of Cymande before this track, even though the band is older than I am, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1972. They put out four albums in ten years, broke up in 1981, then reunited to play some shows in the early 2000s after their music found a renaissance through sampling and via Spike Lee’s use of one of their tracks in two of his films. They put out an album in 2015, their first in over 40 years, and then just released their next one, Renascence, in January. It’s very old-school 1970s funk with a Caribbean tilt; I hear a lot of Commodores, Ohio Players, even some R&B like Curtis Mayfield in this particular song. Also, bassist/singer Steve Scipio was once Attorney General of Anguilla. How many bands can claim that?

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→ January 3, 2025
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Top 100 songs of 2024.

Better late than never – here’s my ranking of my top 100 songs of 2024, a list that took forever to compile in such a fertile year for great music, a process further complicated by the short break between the holidays, a brief family vacation after Christmas, and life in general. You can see my previous years’ song rankings here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012. I posted my ranking of the top 24 albums of 2024 just before Christmas.

As always, you can access the Spotify playlist here if you can’t see the playlist below.

100. Jamie xx feat. Honey Dijon – Baddy On The Floor. I’m not a big EDM guy, so I was disappointed with Jamie xx’s follow-up to his outstanding debut album In Colour; he went heavy into EDM-land rather than the hybrid, indie-dance sounds from the last record. This was the best track on his latest album, In Waves, which had an incredible array of guest vocalists and musicians but ultimately left me cold because of the monotony of the beats.

99. The Lathums – Stellar Cast. Iadmit this is music that is almost algorithmically designed to meet my tastes – the Lathums are a direct descendants of the ArcticMonkeys’ musical tree, and this is their most Alex Turneresque song yet.

98. Folly Group – Pressure Pad. Folly Group get lumped into the new post-punk movement that’s been thriving in the U.K. for the last few years, but their sound is more experimental and chaotic than that, best exemplified on this noisy, throbbing track from their debut album Down There!

97. Yard Act feat. Katy J Pearson – When the Laughter Stops. One of my favorite tracks from Yard Act’s sophomore album, the disco-influenced Where’s My Utopia?, features guest vocals from English indie-pop singer Katy Pearson (who eschews the period after her middle initial, Harry S Truman-style).

96. Ezra Collective feat. Olivia Dean – No One’s Watching Me. Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize in 2023 for their second album, Where I’m Meant to Be, but I preferred their follow-up, this year’s Dance, No One’s Watching, a more melodic (and perhaps more mainstream?) jazz record with some great vocal turns from various guest artists, including neo-soul singer Dean.

95. STONE – Save Me. STONE released their debut album, Fear Life for a Lifetime, in September, and it’s a decent first record, blending elements of punk, indie rock, rap, and even a little pop on tracks like this one and “My Thoughts Go,” although I preferred some of the stuff on their earlier EPs.

94. Swim Deep – First Song. Despite the song’s title,Swim Deephave been around for over a decade and released their fourth album, There’s a Big Star Outside, in July. It’s a shoegazey record with some bigger guitar riffs, although I found the album more interesting for its overall sound than for individual tracks or hooks. This remains my favorite, thanks in part to that big guitar line that comes in before the first verse.

93. Sampha feat. Little Simz– Satellite Business 2.0. The original “Satellite Business” was an 84-second track on Sampha’s 2023 album Lahai without any guest vocals, but this new version features a verse from Little Simz and runs nearly five minutes, taking a forgettable interstitial track and bringing it up to par with the rest of Sampha’s album.

92. Chime School – Give Your Heart Away. More jangle-pop greatness from Andy Pastalaniec, who also serves as the drummer for Seablite (and is a big Giants fans). His second album under this moniker, The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel, came out this summer and it’s full of sunny ‘80s hooks like this track has.

91. Wishy – Triple Seven. This is the title track from this Indianapolis indie-rock band’s debut album, which received pretty broad acclaim and was kind of unavoidable this fall in all the places where I typically find new music. I like their sound but didn’t hear a lot of memorable hooks on the album; this is the best track, but even here I don’t think it has a signature melody or anything specific to set it apart. It’s just a good example of their sound, which gets the “shoegaze” label like everything these days but which I don’t think applies here.

90. Elbow – Lovers’ Leap. This is the song that made me an Elbow fan, but by the time the year ended two other tracks they released this year surpassed it. I’ve said before that I’m late to this party; in my defense, I think they’ve evolved since their Mercury Prize-winning album The Seldom Seen Kid and become both more experimental and more uptempo. I love the horns in the intro here.

89. Kendrick Lamar – reincarnated. I have never been a big Kendrick Lamar fan, and even now I am probably one of the lower folks out there on his newest album, GNX. I admire his experimentation, and he did put out his best song every this year (hint: this isn’t it), but I find his music maddeningly inconsistent, and his delivery can vary widely too. When his lyrics are more driven by emotions, as on this track, his flow is worlds better than it is on some of his more mundane songs. I also happen to love the call-and-response at the end of this song, although Pitchfork’s review of GNX called this song “unlistenable.”

88. Pond – So Lo. I am pretty much a perfect mark for any artist that records an homage to Prince; Pond has certainly drawn from funk before, but the guitarwork here sounds like something that might appear out of Prince’s vaults.

87. Courting – Flex. It should be clear by now that I love Courting’s New Last Name, as it’s shiny and poppy but hasn’t lost its sharper edges with overproduction or even too many layers. I’m assuming the “now she’s calling a cab” is a Killers reference.

86. Lauren Mayberry – Change Shapes. I’d been clamoring for Mayberry to put out a solo album for probably seven or eight years, and she finally did so this year with Vicious Creature … and it’s nothing special. It’s extremely poppy, which is fine, but a lot of the lyrics are shallow and they’re extremely repetitive. Lines like “go to hell or go home/or you will die on your own” (from “Something in the Air”) make the whole endeavor feel superficial. I rather appreciated the Guardian’s mixed review of the album, which mirrored a lot of my own thoughts. This was by far my favorite track from the record, mostly for the memorable melody in the chorus.

85. Khruangbin – A Love International. Another album that disappointed me, A LA SALA is a surprisingly dour affair for a band whose previous output always pulsed with energy. Everything that worked on Mordechai, their 2020 album and first with extensive vocals, is gone here; the album feels like great background music, but that’s a letdown from their assertive work on the previous two records.

84. Corker – Distant Dawn. Corker hail from Cincinnati but sound like they should be from London, or maybe Brighton, with their clear influence from early post-punk – although the band they sound like more than any other is the contemporary group Preoccupations. They’re both more Joy Division than Wire or Gang of Four, with some of the gothic production style of Bauhaus and early Cure.

83. Crows – Bored. When I say 2024 was a good year for music, I mean that a band like Crows, whose first two albums I really liked and whose sound is very much in my personal wheelhouse, Reason Enough, came out in September and couldn’t crack my year-end list even though it is, once again, something I really like. This isn’t a criticism, but I don’t think the record pushed any new boundaries for them, which is why I ended up omitting it from my rankings. It’s also a darker record than the previous two, although that fits their hard-edged punk/hard rock hybrid style.

82. Childish Gambino feat. Fousheé– Running Around. I didn’t have Donald Glover releasing a peak emo-pop track à la Jimmy Eats World on his (supposedly) final album under the Childish Gambino name on my bingo card for 2024, but here it is – and it’s the best song on his fascinating if somewhat inscrutable Bando Stone and the New World record.

81. Hayden Thorpe – They. Thorpe was the lead singer of art-rock band Wild Beasts, who broke up after their 2016 album Boy King, which is one of my favorite albums of this century. His solo output has kept the art part but dispensed with most of the rock, so I haven’t enjoyed any of it as much as I did the work of his previous band. His third solo album, Ness, a musical interpretation of Robert Macfarlane’s 2019 book of that name, is challenging and smart and a little too quiet for my tastes, unfortunately.

80. Lambrini Girls – Company Culture. Lambrini Girls are a punk duo with strong hooks and wry, frequently off-colour lyrics that fit the left-wing roots of the genre. I assume the subject of this track is self-evident.

79. Opeth – §3. This is one of my favorite tracks from Opeth’s latest album, The Last Will and Testament, and also the most accessible song on the record for its scant use of death-metal vocals, making it more of a progressive metal song plucked from the larger and heavier album that surrounds it. It’s not Blackwater Park, but it’s good to see Mikael & company get a little heavier after a few albums that were more King Crimson than King Diamond.

78. Blossoms – Perfect Me. Gary is a more expansive album than their previous work, with more influences and more musical ambition, but there’s nothing here to match “Ode to NYC” or “The Sulking Poet” from 2022’s Ribbon Around the Bomb. This song is easily the new album’s best thanks to the earworm chorus.

77. Soccer Mommy – Lost. I’vestruggled to understand the critical acclaim for Soccer Mommy, as her often-flat singing and funereal melodies just don’t do it for me. “Lost” might be the best thing I’ve heard from her, or at least close to it, as her ,vocals are much more expressive and the melody in the chorus balances its somber lyrics with a hint of sweetness in the vocal lines.

76. Blushing – Tamagotchi. Blushing are a dream-pop/shoegaze band from Texas who sound a lot like early Lush – and indeed they covered Lush’s “Out of Control,” which led to Lush singer Miki Berenyi appearing on their second album, Possessions. Their third record, Sugarcoat, is more of the same – imagine Lush but a half-degree heavier at times, with bright vocals shimmering above walls of distorted guitars. This track and “Silver Teeth” were my favorites from the new record.

75. Kamasi Washington – Prologue. I can’t pretend to know Washington’s work prior to this song, but it was everywhere this summer – I think NPR featured it on their extensive weekly playlist – and it’s the sort of jazz I find I can understand and appreciate (which is a criticism of my own tastes, not of any style of jazz). There’s a

74. Bob Vylan – Hunger Games. The best track off Bob Vylan’s album Humble as the Sun wasn’t actually the best thing the British duo did this year, but this grime/hard rock track highlights their viciously satirical lyrics and knack for finding heavy riffs to work along with the vocals. “You are more than your take-home pay” should be a slogan for the Working Families’ Party – or the Democrats.

73. GIFT – Going In Circles. I almost ended up with three GIFT songs on the top 100, with “Later” among the last few cuts from this list. Their album Illuminator was an instant favorite for me with its blend of psychedelia and dream-pop along with a slew of extremely memorable hooks.

72. Japandroids – All Bets Are Off. I’m a bit unusual for a Japandroids fan in that I didn’t love Celebration Rock, one of the most critically lauded records of the 2010s and the album that made and nearly broke them. I liked the two albums that followed, including their 2024 swan song Fate & Alcohol, significantly more, as they polished their sound up just enough to let me appreciate the lyrics and the interplay between the guitar and drums. It’s a shame that they’re done (for now), but at least they left on a high note. I have two Japandroids tracks on this list, and I would guess this is the one that would appeal more to fans of their earlier work.

71. Ride – Peace Sign. Ride’s second act has been something to behold, as they’ve been riding (pun intended) the second shoegaze wave and brought a more mature and more melodic sound to their three post-reunion albums. They’re still recognizably Ride, but it’s like they picked up where “Chrome Waves” left off and kept right on going.

70. Fontaines D.C. – Starburster. Honestly, if Grian Chatten didn’t do that weird inhaling thing before every line in the chorus, this would have been a top ten track of the year for me. Hearing that through Airpods is a bit much. It’s a great fuckin’ song, though.

69. Beyoncé– TEXAS HOLD ‘EM. Surprised? I believe this is the Queen’s first ever appearance on one of my top 100s, but I was captured by this track immediately – and it was the only original on Cowboy Carter that I liked enough for a second listen. Her taste in covers is exquisite, of course, and I hold out hope that she will one day put out an album of standards and torch songs while she still has the voice for it.

68. Charly Bliss – Calling You Out. Charly Bliss’s power-pop sound seemed destined for a breakout album at some point, and I think they had it this year with Forever, although I barely know what constitutes success for an album in the streaming era. The album was full of bouncy pop bangers like this one, which seems to subvert the typical sounds of a teenybop artist with grungy guitars and smart lyrics, although my favorite track from the record (much higher on this list) follows a totally different template.

67. Color Green – Four Leaf Clover. Thispsychedelic rock quartet from California put out their sophomore album, Fool’s Parade, in 2024; imagine Phish, but reined in by more conventional song structures and the limits of time and space.

66. Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic. The lead singer of TV on the Radio and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew actor is working on his solo debut, due out on Sub Pop this year, and I believe this is his first-ever single as a solo artist. It’s very much in the “Wolf Like Me”/“Mercy” vein and I couldn’t be more pleased.

65. The Lemon Twigs – Rock On (Over and Over). The Lemon Twigs’ schtick does nothing for me but I concede that they do a credible impression of 1960s pop even if I don’t always love the results. There’s some Beach Boys in the vocal lines, sitting on a standard blues shuffle.

64. Nilüfer Yanya – Like I Say (I runaway). Yanya’s third album, My Method Actor, made a few best-of-2024 lists (including Paste’s, where it landed at #32), and after revisiting it at the end of the year I think I’ve underrated it, probably because her sound, with influences from her Turkish heritage, is so new I haven’t been able to pin it down.

63. clipping.– Run It. This hip-hop trio headed by Daveed Diggs (along with two producers) plans to release its fifth album some time in 2025, with this as the first single; Diggs often writes high-concept lyrics, and his delivery is outstanding, as he can use his voice almost as a percussion instrument with his rapid-fire rhyming.

62. Atlas Genius – Animals. I thought Atlas Genius had given up the ghost when my daughter, who loved their first two albums, happened to look them up while we were driving her down to college, only to see they’d just put out an album – their first in nine years. End of the Tunnel sounds just like their first two records, but perhaps a little lighter on the big hooks that made “If So,” “Trojans,” and “Molecules” hits. This was our favorite track by a wide margin.

61. Foxing – Barking. Foxing’s self-titled 2024 album was an ambitious, arduous listen with a lot of screaming and other harsh elements befitting the lyrics; I’ve said before it’s like hearing someone cracking up in album form. This was by far the most accessible track on the record, although even that probably undersells how haunting it is.

60. High Vis – Drop Me Out. High Vis blend a lot of styles in their music, but they’re a hardcore punk band at heart and that’s very evident here on the third single from their third album, Guided Tour. They twist the genre around by bringing in some dance elements and eschewing the most dissonant elements of hardcore.

59. English Teacher – R&B. English Teacher won this year’s Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas; I was disappointed in the record after they placed songs on my top 100s for 2021 (“Good Grief”, not on the album) and “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” (which is), as it moves them further away from their rock and post-punk influences and into something more proggy in a way that weighs many of the songs down. This was probably my second-favorite track on the album, ahead of “Nearly Daffodils.”

58. Elbow – Good Blood Mexico City. The track I come back to the most from Elbow’s latest album Audio Vertigo is this swirling, ebullient song that if anything ends far too soon, with a huge guitar riff that comes in at the chorus. The song is apparently a tribute to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

57. Waxahatchee – Much Ado About Nothing. A non-album single Waxahatchee released in October, this track again features MJ Lenderman on guitar and fits very much with the vibe and style of Tiger Blood; it doesn’t appear that it was a bonus track or late cut but it certainly sounds like it could have come from the same sessions.

56. Mdou Moctar – Oh France. Moctar’s pyrotechnics on guitar are front and center of most of the tracks on Funeral for Justice, but this song opens with him noodling away before hitting that two-chord sequence that leads into each chorus. It’s a fireball of pure guitar energy and makes me want to flip on my amplifier and crank up the distortion pedal.

55. The Howl & The Hum – Same Mistake Twice. I wasn’t familiar with this British group before hearing this track, which was one of their first as a solo project for lead singer/songwriter Sam Griffiths after the other three members left the band in 2023 or so. He writes earnest, introspective lyrics over traditional indie-rock sounds driven by acoustic guitars … and yeah, this song does remind me a little of The Head and the Heart, which is kind of unfortunate in its way.

54. Lotte Gallagher – This Room. A singer-songwriter from Melbourne who is around 19 years old, Gallagher just released her debut EP, A Better Feeling, in October, featuring this outstanding indie-pop track that draws heavily on sounds from the ‘90s and the aughts.

53. Hundred Waters – Towers. Hundred Waters’ four-song EP, also called Towers, was the band’s first new music in seven years, so long that I thought they were done, especially since singer Nicole Miglis put out her first album as a solo artist this year. The four songs on Towers are actually unreleased tracks from their best album, The Moon Rang Like a Bell, so they have that same sound that I loved when the LP came out in 2015.

52. SPRINTS – Heavy. This Irish punk band released its first LP, Letter to Self, last January, featuring several songs they’d put out previously, including “Adore Adore Adore,” “Up and Comer,” and “Shadow of a Doubt.” This was the best of the new songs on the record – and I think it’s my favorite.

51. The Tubs – Freak Mode. When I first heard this track, I assumed the Tubs came from the Midwest, as their take on jangle-pop seemed so quintessentially American. They’re actually a Welsh band, started by two of the founding members of Joanna Gruesome after that group called it quits in 2017. The Tubs’ second album, Cotton Crown, is due out in March.

50. Oceanator – Lullaby. I love how this track starts out like it’s going to be a late-80s metal song with heavy, crunchy guitar riffs, before Elise Okusami brings in a vocal melody that sounds like it could come from a straight pop track. It’s the best track from her third LP, Everything is Love and Death.

49. La Sécurité – Detour. A Montréal-based art punk collective, La Sécurité channel early U.S. new wave/post-punk acts like Blondie, Television, and even Devo on thisbouncy, sparse track that is their first new music since their mid-2023 album Stay Safe came out.

48. The Weather Station – Window. Tamara Lindeman’s ever-changing project The Weather Station will release their seventh album, Humanhood, in about two weeks, featuring this track that echoes School of Seven Bells in the ethereal chorus.

47. DEADLETTER – Mere Mortal. DEADLETTER’s label describes them by evoking Gang of Four and Talking Heads, but I don’t see how you could hear this track without thinking of Madness, just with more prominent guitar work. It’s incredibly catchy and the lyrics feature some clever turns of phrase, such as “Like a set of crutches set aside for optimists to walk with.”

46. Alcest – Flamme Jumelle. As with Opeth’s latest, Alcest’s new album Les Chants de L’Aurore is best digested as a whole, and some of the best tracks include harsher elements that deter me from putting them on this list; “Flamme Junelle” is the most straightforward track on the album and has the most prominent melody lines in the vocals and the haunting guitar lick that follows the verses (and reminded me, oddly, of a similar lick from My Bloody Valentine).

45. Geese* – The Bonecracker Acetates. Fun fact: This isn’t Geese, the Brooklyn-based band, but that’s how it ended up on one of my auto-generated playlists on Spotify … and I assumed it was those guys, because they mess around constantly with genres and styles, and their singer sounds different on so many tracks. This is a Lancashire-based blues/jazz/math-rock trio that also plays with genres. (I added the asterisk to their name; I assume at some point we’ll get a Geese UK and a Geese US or something to distinguish them.) Anyway, this song is built on a deep, bluesy shuffle that absolutely rocks.

44. The Killers – Bright Lights. Released in concert (hah!) with their Vegas residency, this is certainly my favorite of their tracks since “Dying Breed” in 2020 and represents the best of the Killers in my opinion – it’s big, it’s anthemic, it’s a little bombastic, and it builds to a rousing chorus.

43. The Mysterines – Sink Ya Teeth. The best track from the Mysterines’ sophomore album Afraid of Tomorrows gets Lia Metcalfe’s smoky voice front and center, and has a faster tempo with more prominent rhythm guitars than most of the tracks on their debut record. I’m still waiting for word on whether the band is still a going concern after they abruptly cancelled their fall tour in late August; they’ve had no social media activity since then.

42. The Cure – Alone. “Alone” is the critical consensus best track on the Cure’s magnificent comeback album Songs of a Lost World – and I agree that it’s great, but I have it as the second-best. This is what many people think of when they think of the Cure: dark, depressing, tenebrous, synth-heavy, ambient. That’s one of their modes, but they run deeper than that.

41. Royel Otis – If Our Love Is Dead. Royel Otis are huge in their native Australia, winning the ARIA awards (their equivalent to the Grammys) for Best Group and Best Rock Album for their debut LP Pratts & Pain, along with earning a nomination for Album of the Year. I wasn’t a big fan; I didn’t hear much in the way of hooks or other memorable lines on the record, but this track, from the deluxe edition, is a banger – and yes, it has a great hook in the chorus.

40. The Darkness – I Hate Myself. The Darkness refuse to change and I love them for it. Their music is a glorious throwback to the late 1970s and early 1980s styles of glam rock and early metal (particularly the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, popularized by Iron Maiden & Judas Priest). This single, one of two they released at the end of the year off their upcoming album Dreams on Toast, is vintage Darkness, combing a fast-driving hard-rock riff with ridiculous lyrics.

39. Jorja Smith – Don’t Let Me Go. One of two new-old songs Smith released this year, first written a decade ago but never released until this year; the other, “Loving You,” is also strong, but this track is such a beautiful showcase for her voice.

38. The Chameleons – Where Are You? The Chameleons are one of the forgotten bands of the new wave/post-punk movement in the UK that came to dominate American pop charts between Thriller and the rise of hair metal and then rap in the end of the 1980s. They broke up before the decade ended, re-formed once to put out an album in 2001, and then broke up again; that remains their last full-length LP. They put out two EPs in 2024, with the promise of an album (Arctic Moon) some time in the near future. This song is up there with the best of their early output like “Swamp Thing” and a harbinger of good things if that full-length record ever appears.

37. Kid Kapichi – Can EU Hear Me? Kid Kapichi might be my favorite band among the hordes of descendants of early Arctic Monkeys, as they combine the same sense of melody and wry, witty lyrics with more direct punk influences. This song, mocking Brexit as it deserves to be mocked, has the wonderful line “You can’t just separate a tectonic plate, mate!”

36. Miles Kane – Fingerless Gloves. I believe this is the only instrumental track on the top 100, driven by a great guitar hook by Alex Turner’s former bandmate in the Last Shadow Puppets and the former leader of the Rascals.

35. Hinds feat. Beck – Boom Boom Back. Beck isn’t on this track a ton, and I’m not sure it’s any different for his presence other than perhaps the marketing value, but it’s one of Hinds’ best songs ever, with higher production values than they’ve had before and their signature intertwined vocals that are always just slightly off from each other in time.

34. Jack White – It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking). White’sback-to-basics rock album No Name starts off with a suite of ass-kicking guitar tracks, none better than this funky, bluesy number.

33. Pond – Neon River. Stay with this song through the oddly quiet beginning, as a huge guitar-driven chorus is about to hit you square in the face just before the one-minute mark.

32. The Libertines – Shiver. I’ve said plenty about All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, and I’ll say more about it later on this list, but “the last dreams of every dying soldier” is such a great opening line.

31. Kaiser Chiefs – Reasons to Stay Alive. I know Kaiser Chiefs’ very name probably sounds passé, but they’ve had quite a few great if totally ignored songs past their “I Predict a Riot”/“Ruby” days. Their latest album had two standouts, including this one, and I think Nile Rodgers’ presence on some of the tracks helped significantly.

30. Charly Bliss – Nineteen. You don’t hear me wax poetic about many straight piano ballads, but this song blew me away the first time I heard it and it still gives me goosebumps when it comes on. Charly Bliss ought to be superstars off this latest album, Forever.

29. The Smile – Eyes & Mouth. I want to like The Smile more than I do, but too much of their output has felt pretentious and noodly to me; this track has some incredible work from Tom Skinner on percussion and a simple but highly effective riff from Jonny Greenwood on guitar. I wish more of their songs sounded like this.

28. Doves – Renegade. Doves’ comeback single and their forthcoming album – their first since 2009’s Kingdom of Rust – feature singer/bassist Jimi Goodwin, but their tour hasn’t as he continues his recovery from substance abuse. This first single from Constellations for the Lonely has the broad, spacey, anthemic sound of their best work on The Last Broadcast and Lost Souls.

27. Griff – Tears For Fun. Griff’s full-length debut album Vertigo finally dropped this year,with two songs that made my top 100 last year in the title track and “Astronaut;” this is the best of the new material. She’s a legit pop star in her native U.K. already, and opened for some pretty big names this past year including Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter.

26. Courting – We Look Good Together (Big Words). My favorite track yet from this English dance-rock-fun band, whose last album New Last Name came out in January but will see a follow-up early in 2025.

25. Japandroids – Chicago. I talked a bit about Japandroids above; this song really captures their best sound, where they blend high energy with the sort of despair that struggles to find words. They went out with a bang.

24. Sam Fender – People Watching. The best Killers song of 2024 was by Sam Fender.

23. milk. – Don’t Miss It. This Dublin band has only released a handful of songs so far, but I’m already a big fan, and this is their best track yet – a swirling indie-pop gem with a guitar line that seems very familiar (early Cure?) and a singalong chorus.

22. Kaiser Chiefs – Beautiful Girl. If this song had come out in 2006, it would have been a huge alternative-radio hit, but as I said above, I think people just dismiss Kaiser Chiefs as an artifact of the aughts even though they can still churn out a banger like this one.

21. Phosphorescent – Revelator. The title track from Matthew Houck’s latest album, his first since 2018, is the best song he’s ever written, accordingto Houck himself. I agree. This sort of modern folk-rock often misses me because it’s too slow and gentle, but that one extra chord change in the chorus is just (chef’s kiss).

20. Yard Act – We Make Hits. It ain’t braggin’ if you can bring it. I don’t know if this was an actual hit anywhere, but it should have been.

19. Good Looks – Broken Body. A handful of readers tried to turn me on to Good Looks when the Austin rockers released their latest album, Lived Here for a While; I loved this song, obviously, but it was the only memorable track on the album for me, with a jangly guitar riff that repeats for most of the song and a catchy vocal melody right from the first line.

18. Ezra Collective feat. Yazmin Lacey – God Gave Me Feet For Dancing. We’re in the part of the list where it’s mostly songs that I think should have been everywhere in 2024, but this one in particular just seems like one everyone should love. It straddles the line between jazz and jazzy, with beautiful vocals from Lacey and a great couplet in the chorus (“God gave me feet for dancing/and that’s exactly what I”ll do”) that you should be seeing on T-shirts.

17. Katie Gavin – Aftertaste. Gavin is part of the indie-rock band MUNA, but her solo debut What a Relief goes in a completely different direction, leaning more into folk and country in a way that elevates her voice, never more so than in the chorus on this lovely song.

16. Michael Kiwanuka – Floating Parade. The best track on Kiwanuka’s latest album Small Changes calls back to classic R&B from the 1970s, and like the best tracks on his previous album, it’s driven by a prominent and complex bass line.

15. GIFT – Wish Me Away. This song evokes so much of the music that I loved in the 1990s that I was almost compelled to love it, although the two strong hooks – the opening guitar riff and the floating vocals in the chorus – didn’t hurt.

14. Humdrum – There And Back Again. One of the catchiest tracks of the year came from Loren Vanderbilt III’s debut album (as Humdrum), Every Heaven, powered by a guitar line that seems straight out of 1980s jangle-pop and a tremendous hook in the chorus.

13. Fontaines D.C. – Favourite. Fontaines D.C.’s latestalbum crosses all kinds of styles and genres, taking the band well away from their punk roots, and on this standout track they play it incredibly straight – it’s almost a pure pop song, and shows how far their songwriting has come in the last five years.

12. Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well. I was never much for Musgraves’s music before this latest album, also called Deeper Well, but her sound on this record steers more into folk and a little away from country while working with sparser arrangements and production.

11. The Cure – A Fragile Thing. My favorite song from Songs of a Lost World is this dramatic, textured track that still brings the band’s trademark despair but offsets it here with an ominous piano line and then brings in a surprising guitar solo from new member Reeves Gabriels.

10. Parsnip – The Light. Parsnip calls back to 1960s power popthroughout their new album, Behold, as on this two-minute earworm powered by the vocal lines in the verse.

9. Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice. The title track from my #2 album of 2024 is another showcase for Moctar’s guitar heroics, and the fury of the music matches the tone of the lyrics (translated as “Dear African leaders, hear my burning question/Why does your ear only heed France and America?”), as the Tuareg musician was touring in the U.S. just as the Nigerien government fell in 2023.

8. Gojira, Marina Viotti, & Victor Le Masne – Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!). The highlight of the 2024 Olympics for me was the performance of this song of the French Revolution, pairing the French metal icons Gojira with opera singer Viotti contributing a verse. Nothing could match the majesty and grandeur of the live performance, with Gojira’s members standing on balconies of the Court of Cassation while Viotti, dressed as a pirate, floated into the scene on a replica of the Liberté. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance.

7. Elbow – Adriana Again. This track came out about seven months after Audio Vertigo and will be on a new EP coming out early this year; it ended up my favorite Elbow song of 2024, even ahead of the two album tracks on this list, because the chorus was stuck in my head for weeks.

6. Waxahatchee – 3 Sisters. Katie Crutchfield’s lyrics are powerful – “If you’re not living, then you’r? dying/Just a raw nerve satisfying” remains my favorite couplet on the album – but it’s how she delivers them that sets this track apart.

5. Nice Biscuit – Rain. I became a Nice Biscuit fan this year after finding this track from the Australian indie-rock band, off their second album, SOS. They draw heavily on psychedelic rock, which has been a signature part of a lot of Australian rock over the last five years, with some elements of shoegaze and other 1990s alternative music.

4. Bad Omens feat. Bob Vylan – TERMS & CONDITIONS. The best thing Bob Vylan did this year was the duo’s guest appearance on this Bad Omens track, which packs a hell of a punch in just 2:07, with two furious verses and one of the year’s most memorable choruses (“who they killing/when they makin’ a killing/conditions getting’ worse/ignore the terms and conditions”).

3. The Libertines – Oh Shit. This ended up becoming my favorite track on my favorite album of 2024, although it had some stiff competition in the 2023 single “Run Run Run” and this year’s “Shiver.” The lyrics here are fun if not as clever as some of the turns of phrases elsewhere on the album, and I have found myself walking around the house singing the chorus “Oh shit, oh shit/Let’s make some money/Just enough to get us by” more times than I can count.

2. Los Campesinos! – Feast of Tongues. Inmost years, this would have easily been the top track, but it had the bad fortune to run into the The Great Diss Track War of 2024. Los Campesinos! have probably gotten the most attention here for silly songs like “You! Me! Dancing!” and “Avocado Baby,” but this track is an anthem that should be blasted from phones and portable speakers at every antifascist protest for the next decade and beyond. The slow build and heavy drums give even more power to the couplet that closes the chorus: “When the black cloud comes, if one flame flickers/We will feast on the tongues of the last bootlickers.”

1. Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us. Could it really be anything else? I’ve never been a big fan of Kendrick’s output, especially not his earliest stuff, but this song is a tour de force – not just as a diss track, although it obviously is that, but as an ambitious and wide-reaching piece of music that blends genres and styles, and that also features some unbelievable wordplay. I’ll never hear a reference to the chord A minor the same way again – and neither will you.

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Top 24 albums of 2024.

My gimmick of ranking a number of albums equal to the last two digits of the year lives once more, although I think I may just have to cap it at 25 next December before it gets out of hand. I had plenty of albums to consider in 2024, though, as it was a strong year for albums overall and for albums that might be 1-1 worthy in any year. Some honorable mentions include Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (some brilliant music, but I just can’t do with that much of the death metal trappings), Childish Gambino – Bando Stone & the New World, Bob Vylan – Humble as the Sun, Katie Gavin – What a Relief, Parsnip – Behold, Japandroids – Fate & Alcohol.

You can see my previous year-end album rankings here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and my top albums of the 2010s. My top 100 songs of 2024 will go up some time in the next week.

24. Griff – Vertigo

Griff is a pretty big deal in the U.K. and opened for Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift this year, although she hasn’t broken through at all in the U.S. yet. I’m generally not a fan of highly polished pop music, but her brand of sophisticated pop that isn’t overproduced and that lets her powerful alto voice shine is much more in line with my tastes. Highlights include the title track, “Astronaut,” and “Tears for Fun.”

23. Wheel – Charismatic Leaders

Wheel keeps changing personnel, with only lead singer/guitarist James Lascelles left from the original lineup, but the sound remains the same. This is heavy, crunchy prog metal, driven by powerful and intricate guitar work, but never deviates into blast beats or death growls that might destroy the intense vibe of the music. I don’t think this is their best album, but it’s so much in my wheelhouse (pun intended) that I still like it quite a bit. Highlights include “Empire,” “Submission,” and “Porcelain.”

22. Pond – Stung!

Pond are all over the place yet again, and I’m good with it because the highs are high enough. They’re an experimental rock band from Australia with a heavy emphasis on psychedelic rock, but are comfortable veering into funk-pop (“So Lo”) or a mélange of 1970s hard rock and 1960s Motown rhythms (“(I’m) Stung”), or just straight-up psychedelic rock that your parents might have heard at Woodstock (“Neon River”). The album is 14 songs and 54+ minutes long, so it does wear out its welcome a bit as it goes on, so it’s a little lower here than it would have been at midyear, when I had it on my unordered list over some other titles like Ride’s Interplay.

21. HINDS – Viva Hinds

HINDS went back to its original lineup, shedding two members to become a duo again, and their first album since 2020’s The Prettiest Curse is their most assured and polished record yet. HINDS has always thrived on a bit of chaos, the question of whether these two women can really even play their instruments or carry a decent tune, only to have them pull it together with a strong chorus or wry lyrics. On Viva Hinds, they’ve tightened things up across the board but haven’t lost that sense that they’re always on the verge of careening off the track. It’s lo-fi and proud of it, but now it’s not quite so rough around the edges. Standouts include “Boom Boom Back” (featuring Beck), “Mala Vista,” and “En Forma.”

20. Foxing – Foxing

Pitchfork summarized this album by calling it “Nearer My God’s evil genius twin,” and I can’t beat that. It’s wild and weird and ambitious and despairing, the sound of someone coming apart at the seams, with death metal-style screaming, soaring and haunting backing tracks, and despondent lyrics about mortality and isolation. It’s incredible, but also a difficult listen – and, as you might guess, it’s really hard to talk about individual tracks here, although if forced I’d highlight “Barking” and “Hell 99.”

19. GIFT – Illuminator

This Brooklyn psychedelic rock band put out an album in 2022, Momentary Presence, that was largely recorded by singer/guitarist TJ Freda during the early days of the pandemic, when getting the whole band together wasn’t possible, so while Illuminator is their second album, it’s also a first in some ways – and it shows. This is a stronger, more coherent record, and it’s full of bright hooks and a blend of psychedelia and shoegaze that manages to feel fresh even though those styles date back decades. Highlights include “Wish Me Away,” “Going in Circles,” “Later,” and “Light Runner.”

18. Elbow – Audio Vertigo

I admit to being very late to the party on Elbow; I didn’t love their most acclaimed album, The Seldom Seen Kid, winner of the 2008 Mercury Prize, and kind of wrote them off as a dream-pop band that was too chill to hold my attention. That was unfair to them and probably to my ears, as they’re way more ambitious and experimental than that, which showed on their tenth album, Audio Vertigo, a wide-ranging collection of songs that go from the mellower sounds of Kid to some aggressively uptempo and progressive tracks like my favorites on this record, “Lovers’ Leap” and “Good Blood Mexico City.”

17. Ride – Interplay

Ride hit their stride here on their third post-reunion album, with a more mature sound that blends the shoegaze of their first incarnation with mellower synth-pop sounds from their influences, producing a record that shimmers enough to stand apart even with the glut of neo-shoegaze releases that have flooded the scene in the last two years. Standout tracks include “Peace Sign,” “Last Frontier,” and “Portland Rocks.”

16. SPRINTS – Letter to Self

The long-awaited debut full-length from this Dublin punk-rock band did not disappoint, and it’s one of the most true-to-form punk albums of the last few years, with spare lyrics and repeated lines over fast-paced guitar lines that mostly get out in under 3½ minutes. (Unfortunately, lead guitarist Colm O’Reilly left the band abruptly in mid-May.) Highlights include “Heavy,” “Adore Adore Adore,” “Literary Mind,” and “Up and Comer.”

15. Kid Kapichi – There Goes the Neighborhood

They’re probably never quite going to match their incredible, no-skips debut album, but Kid Kapichi keeps churning out angry yet catchy working-class anthems with a touch of Alex Turner in the lyrics but a heavier, crunchier backdrop of guitars more inspired by punk and pub-rock. Highlights here include “Let’s Get to Work,” “Can EU Hear Me?,” and the wonderfully weird “Tamagotchi.”

14. Charly Bliss – Forever

This is the album I was waiting for Charly Bliss to make, after the promising but a little tepid Young Enough in 2019. It’s mostly sunny power-pop goodness, with bigger and better hooks than their previous albums, although the ballad “Nineteen” is a stunner on its own thanks to Eva Hendricks’s plaintive vocals. Other highlights include “Calling You Out” and “Back There Now.”

13. Mysterines – Afraid of Tomorrows

I was all about the Mysterines’ earliest singles and EPs, but was disappointed when their debut album, Reeling, saw them take the pedal off the gas, eschewing some of the heavier, snarling riffs and vocals that made me a fan of the band and specifically of singer/guitarist Lia Metcalfe. This is a much stronger, more confident record, and has far more hooks than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the band cancelled their fall/winter tour at the last minute with an ominous note saying it was “due to recent circumstances,” with no further word from the band since that message on August 31st. Highlights include “Sink Ya Teeth,” “Stray,” and “The Last Dance.”

12. Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?

Yard Act’s first album, 2022’s The Overload, was my #3 record of that year, as they nailed their contemporary twist on the classic post-punk sounds of Gang of Four and the Fall; their sophomore album finds them expanding their musical palate, with more electronic and disco elements and less post-punk in the music, although that ethos remains in the lyrics. I preferred The Overload, but this one still has some bangers, including “We Make Hits,” “Dream Job,” and “When the Laughter Stops.”

11. Courting – New Last Name

Courting sound like they’re having a blast on just about every song they produce, and the result is that this album, their second full-length, explodes with joy and youthful exuberance throughout. They’ve dialed back a little of the weirdness from their debut, Guitar Music, but they’re still off-kilter in smaller ways, including some of the tones they use for the lead guitars and the often lo-fi production that contrasts with the electronic elements that seep in. Standout tracks include “Throw,” “Flex,” and “We Look Good Together (Big Words).”

10. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World

The Cure hadn’t released an album in 16 years, to the point where I assumed Robert Smith, now 65 years old, was probably done writing new material. Instead he surprised everyone (I think) with the band’s best record since their best album, Disintegration, came out 35 years ago. Songs of a Lost World is, of course, a dark and brooding record, with mortality a major theme throughout the album, anchored by the melancholy “Alone” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” although there’s more of a hint of the band’s prior melodic leanings in “A Fragile Thing,” my favorite track from the album.

9. Opeth – The Last Will and Testament

When I heard Opeth was bringing back the death growls for their first new album in five years, I had mixed feelings; their 2001 album Blackwater Park, which is a progressive death metal record that has those vocals, might be my favorite metal record of all time, but they had gone so long without visiting that style that I worried this would come off as gimmicky or outdated. That worry was misplaced – this is a fantastic, complex, rich record that doesn’t overdo the death growls and still puts their intricate guitarwork front and center. It’s a concept record where all tracks but the last one are just named with the section symbol and a number, and if you listen straight through there isn’t the typical variation between songs, although if I had to pick one or two to isolate as the best it would be “§1” and “§3.” It’s a return to form, certainly, even though I liked their prog phase for what it was.

8. Jack White – No Name

Man, I’ve been waiting for White to rock out like this for a decade, at least, and he finally delivered. This is a crunchy, loud, old-fashioned rock album. It grabs you by the throat from the start, with the first four tracks all guitar-driven riff-fests, and doesn’t really let go. It’s not a White Stripes album, but it might be the most similar thing he’s done to peak White Stripes since they broke up. Highlights include “That’s How I’m Feeling,” “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking,” and “Old Scratch Blues.”

7. Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes

Kiwanuka won the Mercury Prize with his last album, KIWANUKA, which leaned more into 1970s R&B with a dash of funk, including some unbelievable bass lines. On his follow-up, Small Changes, he goes for a much more understated sound, with slower tempos and sparse production (by Danger Mouse and inflo) that put much greater emphasis on his vocals. He doesn’t swing for the fences anywhere on the record, in his lyrics or the music, producing something that’s a little less immediate but ends up quite lovely in its own way. Highlights include “Floating Parade,” “Lowdown (part i),” and the title track.

6. Waxahatchee – Tiger’s Blood

I loved Katie Crutchfield’s 2020 album Saint Cloud, and still think that’s the superior album of the two, but she is on a heck of a run right now with those LPs and her newest single “Much Ado About Nothing.” Tiger’s Blood is a slower, more tenebrous affair than the previous record, and I prefer her music when she incorporates a little more rock or folk and works less in the traditional country lane. There are some great hooks here, though, and her voice shines throughout, perhaps even more so on the more somber tracks that don’t appeal to me as much with their music. Highlights include “3 Sisters,” “Evil Spawn,” “Bored,” and “Crimes of the Heart.”

5. Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching

This is the latest example of a band winning the Mercury Prize for an album that didn’t do much for me, only for their follow-up to become one of my favorites of its year; the same thing happened with Sampha, to pick one other case. Ezra Collective is a jazz quintet that brings in a lot of Afrobeat and other African musical traditions, and on their latest album they leaned a little more into Afropop and even just mainstream pop sounds to create an album that’s a bit more accessible and certainly more full of hooks. Highlights include “God Gave Me Feet for Dancing,” “Ajala,” and “No One’s Watching Me.”

4. Fontaines D.C. – Romance

Fontaines D.C. went from punk to something between punk and post-punk between their second and third albums, but on their fourth album, they went in a totally different musical and lyrical direction – several directions, really, delivering one of the most unusual and ambitious records of the year. Vocalist Grian Chatten is still front and center with his commanding delivery, while they go from sheer pop beauty on “Favourite” to something like nu-metal on “Starburster” to a bluesy, funky groove on “Death Kink.” There are elements of shoegaze, nods to rap, and still some vestiges of their punk origins. It doesn’t always work, but they absolutely went for it, and few bands have that kind of vision or musical courage.

3. Alcest – Les chantes de l’aurore

Alcest started out as a death-metal project for the musician who goes by Neige, then incorporated shoegaze sounds to create something called “blackgaze” that was later co-opted by Deafheaven (with whom Neige has worked), after which Alcest added a second member and released an album that was all shoegaze with no metal. They’ve varied their mix of genres on subsequent albums, but this latest one gets the balance right, as they did on 2016’s incredible Kodama. The album is primarily heavy shoegaze, with some very infrequent screamed vocals deeper in the mix, so the wall-of-guitars sound is really the emphasis. Highlights include “Flamme Junelle,” “Komorebi,” and “L’envol.”

2. Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice

Hailing from Niger, a country that has been torn by political strife including a military coup this time last year, Moctar blends Tuareg music with western rock styles, particularly psychedelic rock and blues rock, crafting indelible guitar riffs and furious solos beneath the protest lyrics (sung in his native language, Tamasheq) that have boosted his popularity in the Sahel. I caught the last show of Moctar’s U.S. tour, at Union Transfer in Philly, and he blew the doors off the place, with incredible shredding and extended jams for several of the songs he played, including jumping into the crowd for his final guitar solo. Highlights include the title track, “Imouhar,” and “Oh France.”

1. The Libertines – All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade

I ended up flipping this with Funeral for Justice because this is by far the album I came back to the most this year; if I’m pretending to be a professional critic, I probably put Mdou Moctar first, but the fact is this was my favorite record of 2024 and nothing else was close. The likely lads came back better than ever, with a slew of intoxicating and surprisingly upbeat tracks – ”Oh Shit,” “Run Run Run,” “Shiver,” and “Night of the Hunter” – that still bear that clear Doherty/Barât sound, just with better production and less breaking and entering. That this album exists at all might itself be a wonderful gift to their fans; that it’s this good is musical miracle.

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→ December 1, 2024
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Music update, November 2024.

November was a big month for new music, including three albums that should show up on a lot of best-of-2024 lists and several singles I didn’t anticipate from artists I love. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the Spotify playlist here.

Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes. Kiwanuka’s self-titled 2019 album was my #2 album of that year and won the Mercury Prize the following September; his follow-up, Small Changes, came out in November and represents a big stylistic shift away from the previous record’s rock/soul hybrid with a lot of guitar towards a much slower, folk-influenced, bass-heavy sound. I prefer the previous album, but Kiwanuka is such a great songwriter that I still enjoyed Small Changes even though I almost always go for more uptempo stuff.

Jorja Smith – Don’t Let Me Go/Loving You. Smith wrote these two songs over a decade ago, but just recorded and released them, with guest vocals from Maverick Sabre on the second track.

Kendrick Lamar – reincarnated. Kendrick’s new album GNX omitted his biggest hit of the year, “Not Like Us,” instead delivering a motley collection of songs that vary widely in style, tone, and tempo; it’s a mixed bag, led by this track (which Pitchfork’s review called “unlistenable”) with a fascinating call-and-response bit towards the end, “Gloria” (with SZA), and “squabble up.”

Tunde Adebimpe – Magnetic. Adebimpe is the lead singer of TV on the Radio, and will release his first solo LP at some point in 2025; this single has a lot of the energy of TVotR’s best tracks like “Wolf Like Me” and “Mercy.”

Doves – Renegade. I didn’t expect to hear anything further from Doves after a middling response to their comeback album The Universal Want and lead singer/bassist Jimi Goodwin’s mental health struggles, which led the band to cancel the end of their 2021 tour and will have him sit out their upcoming UK tour this winter. Goodwin is on this single and their upcoming album, Constellations for the Lonely, due out on Valentine’s Day.

Sam Fender – People Watching. This title track from Fender’s third album, due out on February 21st, sounds like a great new song from the Killers, and I mean that as a compliment. I’m flummoxed at the lack of attention or popularity Fender has here in the U.S.

The Lathums – Stellar Cast. The Lathums have always earned comparisons to the Arctic Monkeys, but this might be the most overt reference to their main influence yet; singer Alex Moore sounds more like Alex Turner than ever before, and the whole enterprise could have come off Favourite Worst Nightmare. Their third album, Matter Does Not Define, comes out on March 7th.

The Rills – I Don’t Wanna Be. Another band heavily influenced by the Arctic Monkeys, the Rills tend a little more towards the punk-pop side – and I can pretty easily see them getting lumped in with the ‘landfill indie’ subgenre of the late aughts and early teens. The Rills’ debut album Don’t Be a Stranger came out on November 1st; I found it a little flat overall, with this by far the best track.

Elbow – Adriana Again. I’m becoming an Elbow fan, very late in the game, as I really enjoyed their album Audio Vertigo from earlier this year, and this new single – ahead of an EP to come out in early 2025 – is a pulsing, driving banger with a tremendous hook in the chorus.

WOOZE – Good Old Fashioned Fun. WOOZE’s self-titled debut album comes out on February 14th, although it follows a slew of singles and EPs; their sound is over-the-top dance-pop with plenty of guitars underpinning it, and they’ve got a great ear for a good hook.

Courting – Pause at You. Courting’s second album New Last Name came out in January and will be on my ranking of the top albums of the year, but they’re back already with another single ahead of the release of their third album, Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story, due out on March 14th. I love their just off-center take on indie pop, sometimes called “hyperpop,” and I find their best songs really infectiously happy.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island. King Gizzard only put out one album this year, August’s Flight b741, which is a light year for them. This track was recorded in the same sessions but didn’t make the cut; I can’t even tell you if it should have made the album because they put out so much music that I find I often don’t remember their albums or individual songs beyond maybe recalling the style they went after on a particular record.

Nice Biscuit – Desolation. This Australian psych-rock band released their sophomore album, SOS, on October 4th, with “The Rain” the best track by far and this one probably my second favorite.

Inhaler – Your House. The new album from this Irish pop/rock band, OpenWide, comes out on February 7th; I feel obligated to mention that lead singer/guitarist Elijah Hewson is Bono’s son, if only because otherwise someone would say, “hey, that guy sounds a ton like Bono.” He does, though.

Allie X – Weird World. I didn’t love Girl With No Face, the latest album from this Canadian electro-pop artist, when it came out in February, and I still don’t really – a lot of it is too deliberately weird and offputting – but on revisiting it with the release last month of the deluxe edition, I do like this opening track, which is probably the most straightforward dance/new wave track on the album.

Lucius – Take a Picture. I don’t include many covers on these lists, but I’m putting two on this month because they are so interesting. This cover of the crossover hit by Filter from 1999 is amazing, because the harmonies in the vocals take the song somewhere completely different than Richard Patrick’s flat singing.

White Denim – Connection. White Denim are fairly experimental to begin with, so their cover of Elastica’s “Connection,” which was itself so derivative of Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba” that Wire sued and won, is anything but faithful.

Manic Street Preachers – Hiding in Plain Sight. The Manics’ 15th album, Critical Thinking, comes out on January 31st, with this the second single off the record. I’ve been listening to their biggest hit, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next,” quite a it in the last four weeks.

Griff – Last Night’s Mascara. This one-off single has existed in demo and live forms before, but Griff chose to record a proper studio version after getting a strong response from fans as she opened for Sabrina Carpenter on part of the latter’s U.S. tour in October. (I would argue Carpenter should be opening for Griff, but alas.)

The Weather Station – Window. This track comes off the Weather Station’s upcoming seventh album, Humanhood, and gives me a strong School of Seven Bells vibe, especially from their final record, SVIIB.

The Wombats – Blood on the Hospital Floor. This is a bit more like the core Wombats sound than the prior single, “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come,” with more energy and wittier lyrics. Their seventh album, Oh! The Ocean, is due out February 21st. I feel like they’ve settled into a predictable groove of producing solid indie-pop tracks without really ever approaching the highs of Glitterbug.

Phantogram – Jealousy. I had no idea Phantogram had a new album coming out until Memory of a Day dropped on October 18th; it’s very much their classic sound, although by the end of the record I’d kind of lost track of individual songs. This opener is the standout, I think, although there may be some primacy bias at work here too.

Mogwai – Lion Rumpus. This isthe third single from the Scottish band’s eleventh album, The Bad Fire, due out January 24th.I’ve never really gotten Mogwai, although I concede it’s probably the kind of music that rewards repeat listening. This particular track is almost metal in its use of distortion and walls of sound.

Opeth – §6. The Last Will and Testament is Opeth’s first album in five years and their first to feature death-metal vocals since 2008, although I’d argue they’re used judiciously here, and singer Mikael Åkerfeldt has said in many interviews that he brought the growls back because they fit the lyrics. It’s a concept album about the reading of a will and the drama that ensues, and as a result highlighting individual tracks is difficult – they do blend one into another, for sure. If pressed, I’d say “§3” and “§1” are my favorites, but the whole thing is mesmerizing, and has some surprising cameos by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and Europe’s Joey Tempest.

Tribulation – Poison Pages. This Swedish band went from boring death metal to more traditional heavy or gothic metal with death growls to something that’s barely even metal on their new album, Sub Rosa In Æternum, which features very little of those death-metal vocals and sounds a lot more like Sisters of Mercy than any of their forebears in Swedish metal. (I’m not the only person to notice that.)

Tungsten – Falling Apart. Tungsten is a Swedish band founded by the former drummer of HammerFall along with two of his sons; this song is heavier than HammerFall’s typical throwback metal style, although the soaring vocals are there (with some screaming too). But if they’re from Sweden, shouldn’t they be called Wolfram?

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→ November 1, 2024
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Music update, October 2024.

After all of that – by which I mean all the new tracks I listened to in the past month – October was one of the weakest months of the year for good new music. We did get two very strong albums that I’ve already featured on previous playlists in Katie Gavin’s What a Relief and Japandroids’ swan song Fate & Alcohol, and I’ve got a few left to work through. In the meantime, here are 24 songs that made the cut; as always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Waxahatchee – Much Ado About Nothing. A brand-new track from Katie Crutchfield just seven months after she released her latest album Tigers Blood … and this might be better than anything on the LP, which is really saying something.

Humdrum – There and Back Again. This is about as perfect a jangle-pop track as you’re going to find in this decade. Holy cow. I haven’t gotten to their debut album, Every Heaven, yet, but it’s next up in my queue.

Royel Otis – If Our Love Is Dead. The algorithms have been trying to convince me to like Royel Otis for a year, at least, but I just haven’t liked any of their songs all that much, or even remembered them. This track has a great little hook in the chorus, though. This indie pop due is huge in their native Australia, earning 8 ARIA nominations for their debut album PRATTS & PAIN; this song comes off the deluxe edition, retitled PRATTS & PAIN – It Ain’t Over Til It Ends.

The Tubs – Freak Mode. The Tubs are led by the former guitarist from Joanna Gruesome; Pitchfork’s review of their 2023 debut album Dead Meat referred to the “chiming sound of 80s college rock,” and it definitely has a lot of that sound – jangle-pop is back, baby – but this song has an incredible urgency to it that goes beyond those college-radio staples that didn’t stick except for their nostalgia value. It reminds me a little of The Dead Milkmen’s “Punk Rock Girl,” but more melodic and less annoying.

Momma – Ohio All the Time. Momma broke out a little in 2022 with “Speeding ’72,” which made my top 20 of that year, but it’s just been a few scattered singles since then. This new track is pretty solid, with a great hook in the chorus and a similar contrast between the sweet-sounding vocals and the ‘70s-style distortion of the crunchy guitars.

The Smile – Eyes & Mouth. The Smile’s third album, Cutouts, includes some tracks recorded during the sessions for their last LP, but the sound is so different – the three tracks I’ve heard so far are all way jazzier funkier, with much clearer influence from drummer Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet and less of the mopey sound that Radiohead critics deride.

Black Doldrums – Hideaway. Darkwave trio Black Doldrums released their second album, In Limerence, in October, highlighted by this Bauhaus-y track driven by a twangy guitar line that almost begs for resolution.

Crows – Every Day of Every Year. I’m a huge Crows fan, as they come in somewhere between post-punk and hard rock; they should do a double bill with Kid Kapichi, who I unfortunately missed on their U.S. tour because I was out of town. Crows’ third album, Reason Enough, came out at the very end of September.

Kid Kapichi – Newsnight. Speaking of these lads, they released this track in October, one of four new songs on the deluxe version of this spring’s There Goes the Neighbourhood.

The Murder Capital – Can’t Pretend to Know. Sitting somewhere between punk and post-punk, this Irish group are more true to their style than their more ambitious and expansive countrymates Fontaines D.C. This track comes from the ongoing sessions for their third album, release date unknown.

Corker – Distant Dawn. Corker hail from Cincinnati, and this track sounds like a mash-up of Preoccupations and very early Killing Joke, complete with vocals that sound like they were recorded through a string connected to a coffee can.

Anxious – Counting Sheep. Anxious’s debut album Little Green House was one of my favorites of 2022, but then they dropped completely out of sight for almost two years. I was thinking about how they’d vanished a couple of weeks ago, only for this song to show up on my Spotify Release Radar a few days later. Serendipity, I suppose. Anyway, Anxious gets labelled as emo but they’re sharper and more interesting than just a revival of that subgenre. Their second album is due some time next year.

Sløtface – Quiet on Set. Sløtface’s latest album, Film Buff, is their first as a de facto solo project for vocalist Haley Shea, and the good news is that it’s on par with their previous two releases. If there’s a downside, it’s that there’s nothing new here, either; it’s really catchy pop-punk with witty lyrics.

La Sécurité – Detour. This Montréal-based “art punk” group released its debut album, Stay Safe!, in 2023, and returned last month with this throbbing, dissonant, and very dance-heavy track.

The Cure – A Fragile Thing. I read somewhere that Robert Smith wanted to go back to the Disintegration era of The Cure on this comeback album, and on this track, at least, he has succeeded. I think that’s their best record, so I may be biased in my opinion here.

Pastel – Leave a Light On (Velvet Storm). The last time I included a Pastel song, one of you commented that it was a blatant ripoff of The Verve; I don’t exactly hear that, but I get the criticism, and I think it’s as pronounced a similarity this time – although I hear more Primal Scream on this track.

The Horrors – The Silence that Remains. It’s a little ponderous, maybe a little pretentious, but Faris Badwan has earned at least some benefit of the doubt at this point. The Horrors’ sixth album and their first in nearly six years, Night Life, is due out in March.

Mindy Smith – Quiet Town. Mindy and I met in second grade in 1979, and we happen to share a birthday, although I’m a year younger than she is (I was the youngest person in my class). This is the title track from her latest album, her first one in 12 years, which also features “Jericho” and “The Hour of My Departure” (the latter with Daniel Tashian). I believe we are the only two members of our high school graduating class to have our own Wikipedia pages.

Lucius – Old Tape (feat. Adam Granduciel). A one-off single, for now, featuring the lead singer/guitarist of The War on Drugs; I saw both artists in September at the Mann in Philly, at which point Lucius’s Jess Wolfe was something like 11 months pregnant.

The Wombats – Sorry I’m Late, I DIidn’t Want to Come. This is mid as Wombats songs go, mostly because I think they’re capable of much catchier tracks, but I’ll take a mid Wombats song over a lot of other bands’ singles.

Orla Gartland – Backseat Driver. I wasn’t familiar with Gartland, an Irish singer-songwriter who released her debut album Woman on the Internet (great title) in 2021, until I heard this song, off her new album Everybody Needs a Hero. It’s a bouncy slice of indie-pop, slyly nodding at teen popstars but with lyrics that belie her age (she’s a ripe old 29).

WOOZE – Fantastic Fever. WOOZE is half of a defunct band first called Movie and then called Screaming Peaches; they put out a handful of songs, including the ridiculously fun “Mr. Fist,” then split up. WOOZE’s sound is more trashy glam-rock, although there’s still a danceable beat to all of their tracks. This is the best of the three singles I’ve heard from them this year, over “Sabre Tooth Spider” and “Weapons of Mass Seduction.”

Goat – Goatbrain. One of you suggested I check out the latest album from this anonymous Swedish fusion group, also called Goat; it was a solid tip, as I do like a lot of what they’re doing, blending sounds from various global music styles into a pretty cohesive whole, although the vocalists aren’t very strong and it holds the album back.

Blood Incantation – The Stargate [Tablet II]. Blood Incantation’s latest album Absolute Elsewhere is the most highly acclaimed metal album of 2024, and it is an impressive work of musicianship, comprising two songs, each in three “tablets,” running a total of 43 minutes and running the gamut from spacey 1970s prog-rock to Spiritual Healing-era Death. That latter bit means parts of the album are just unlistenable; the combination of blast beats and death growls just turns into noise to me, and I’m really here for the guitarwork anyway. This is the one track out of the six that is largely free of that nonsense, and despite running just five minutes, it gives you an idea of the stylistic range of the album.

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→ October 26, 2024
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Stick to baseball, 10/26/24.

I spent last week in the Arizona Fall League and filed three scouting notebooks, one with some initial observations, a second was all about pitching, and a last one that wrapped up a bunch of additional position players.

I sent out another issue of my free email newsletter this week; with Twitter increasingly overrun with misinformation and white nationalists, I’m there less and less, and the newsletter or one of the Twitter alternatives (Threads, Bluesky) are better ways to keep up with my work.

I appeared on All Things Considered’s Weekend Edition on NPR to preview the World Series (before the LCS actually ended!) and then did the same on NBC Morning News yesterday. One of my tweets made this SI roundup of people mocking former Reds infielder Zack Cozart’s incredible ignorance.

And now, the links…

  • Two stories from ProPublica: Arizona’s school voucher program is supposed to help low-income families, but they’re not the ones using the vouchers – it’s wealthy parents doing so. A claimed lack of prosecutors in Anchorage is leading to dozens of cases, some involving serious crimes like domestic violence or child abuse, being dismissed without trial. Other dismissed cases include 270 people arrested for suspected DUI.
  • Thanks to Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban, a pregnant woman who learned at 18 weeks that her fetus had a very high likelihood of spina bifida had to travel to Las Vegas for an abortion and ended up recovering in a casino hotel room. Abortion is health care.
  • This week in Bad Decisions: a doctor leading a large study on transgender youth said she didn’t publish her research findings because the results might be weaponized by anti-trans forces – which, of course, got out, and was promptly weaponized by anti-trans forces, even though the key quote here is this: “Puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements, (the doctor) said, most likely because the children were already doing well when the study began.” It’s also news that the children on puberty blockers didn’t get worse. Regardless of the results, her decision to withhold the results hasn’t helped anyone at all.
  • Israel threatened a Palestinian teen reporter, telling him to stop filming in Gaza, and when he didn’t, they killed him.
  • The hypothesis that Barnard’s Star, the second-closest star to our own, might have a planet orbiting it dates back at least to when I was a little kid. Now there might actually be some proof.
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→ October 2, 2024
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Music update, September 2024.

Another month where I thought things started slow but by the turning of the calendar I found myself with 30+ songs saved and had to cut down to the ones I considered the best or most interesting. We also had a few albums come out on the final Friday that I’m still working through, so some tracks may bleed into October’s playlist. As always, if you can’t see the widget below you can access the playlist here.

Michael Kiwanuka – Lowdown (part i). Kiwanuka’s follow-up to his Mercury Prize-winning album KIWANUKA, called Small Changes, comes out on November 15th. This single, his second this year, is a lo-fi, bluesy track that recalls Jimi Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe.”

clipping. – Run It. The first true new track from Daveed Diggs & company this year, not counting their wide release of 2020’s “Tipsy,” “Run It” has Diggs’s rapping front and center again, as in the best tracks from their last full-length album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned. The noise-rap trio are working on a new LP, possibly for next year.

Ezra Collective feat. Olivia Dean – No One’s Watching Me. Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize last year for their 2022 album Where I’m Meant to Be, an album I hadn’t heard before but didn’t find that catchy. This spring, they started releasing singles from their new album, Dance, No One’s Watching, which just came out on Friday, and they’ve pretty much all been bangers. There’s definitely more emphasis here on melody, and they go well beyond modern jazz into 1970s soul, funk, Afrobeat, and more. It’s almost a full hour of music across 19 tracks.

flowerovlove – erase u. This 18-year-old bedroom pop artist had one of my top 20 songs of last year with her song “Next Best Exit,” and this song is another sunny pop gem in a similar vein. Her latest EP, ache in my tooth, comes out October 11th.

FKA Twigs – Eusexua. FKA Twigs’ third album, also called Eusexua, is due out on January 24th, which will be her first full-length LP since 2019’s Magdalene. In interviews, she’s promised a greater techno influence, and that’s certainly evident here in the backing music, but it’s not a techno song, or even much of a dance track, and her feathery vocals are by far the most prominent part.

Divorce – All My Freaks. This Nottingham quartet are suddenly everywhere, with this track getting quite a bit of media coverage for a band that won’t release its first album until March. It’s undeniably catchy, though, in a sort of alt-pop way. Also, the bassist/singer is a former actress named Tiger Cohen-Towell, which might be the most English name I’ve ever heard in my life. P.G. Wodehouse would have rejected it as too much.

Sløtface – Leading Man. Sløtface’s first album as a solo project for singer Haley Shea, called Film Buff, came out on Friday, but their sound is pretty similar to what it was before the other three band members departed: it’s witty punk-pop with strong hooks and a ton of cultural references. I’m glad she didn’t retool their sound.

Japandroids – All Bets Are Off. I just could not get into Celebration Rock, Japandroids’ big breakthrough album, but liked their 2017 follow-up Near to the Wild Heart of Life, and now I’m enjoying all of the singles from their upcoming album, Fate & Alcohol, except that they’ve announced this is their swan song. Good stuff.

Sunflower Bean – Lucky Number. Sunflower Bean’s new EP, Shake, has five songs that are mostly heavier guitar-driven stuff than what they’d been releasing, although I think if you go back to their first album and songs like “Wall Watcher” you can hear the seeds of this sound in there. “Moment in the Sun” is a great pop single, but I don’t think it’s representative of the band’s typical output.

High Vis – Drop Me Out. This British punk band’s third album Guided Tour will come out on October 18th, and this is the third single from the record, but this was actually the first track of theirs I’ve heard. There’s at least some melody lurking here beneath the shouted vocals, which at least superficially nod to singer Graham Sayle’s working-class roots.

Lambrini Girls – Company Culture. Then there’s Lambrini Girls, a straight-up punk duo from Brighton with very progressive politics and a great ear for melody even within the strict confines of the genre. They’re coming to the U.S. for just three dates, all in NYC, in early December.

Oceanator – Lullaby. I wasn’t familiar with Elise Okusami, who released her newest album Everything is Love and Death on August 30th, until hearing this and “Get Out” over the past month. This track opens like a melodic death metal song, but then veers back into more accessible hard rock territory, and you can hear metal influences throughout the album even though at no point would I call her music ‘metal.’

Pale Waves – Glasgow. I’ve never been a big fan of Pale Waves, who seemed to have better publicists than tracks, but this one from the Manchester pop/rock quartet has one of their best hooks.

Franz Ferdinand – Audacious. Franz Ferdinand peaked with their first three albums, but in the last fifteen years they’ve released just two albums – neither particularly good – and a couple of singles from a greatest-hits record, so when I say this is the best song they’ve released since 2009, that’s sort of damning with faint praise. It’s still clearly an FF song but with a song structure and tonal shifts drawn more from 1990s Britpop than their 1970s/early 1980s-influenced early work.

Blossoms – I Like Your Look. Blossoms’ last album was very Lord Huron/Head and the Heart/Ryan Adams, but this new album, Gary, is a big leap for them, a more ambitious medley of sounds that draws on new wave, notably the New York scene (I can’t hear anything but Blondie on this song);  and 1970s soul (“What Can I Say After I’m Sorry”), without totally abandoning their previous sound (“Perfect Me,” the title track). I liked a couple of songs off Ribbon Around the Bomb, but this is a welcome swing for the fences, even if they don’t all connect.

Atlas Genius – End of the Tunnel. My daughter alerted me to this new album from the Australian quartet, whose last full-length came out in 2015. The best track on the LP is “Elegant Strangers,” which they released as a single in 2021, and it also includes the one-off tracks from the late 2010s “63 Days” and “Can’t Be Alone Tonight”; this is the second-best song on the album after “Elegant Strangers.”

Temples – Day of Conquest. This track didn’t make the cut for 2014’s Sun Structures, so it’s on their upcoming EP of B-sides Other Structures, due out October 4th.

Foxing – Barking. Foxing’s new self-titled album was also self-produced and self-released, and it is the sound of a band being completely liberated from any label expectations. Opener “Secret History” starts out so quietly you might be tempted to turn up the volume, which would be a mistake around the two-minute mark when the death metal screaming starts up (is this Deafheaven?). “Hell 99” has guitarist Eric Hudson screaming “Fuck!” repeatedly in the heaviest track on the record. It feels like a window into someone cracking up, an album full of existential dread, angst, repressed anger finding any outlet to release the pressure. It’s a marvel and it’s also, at times, very hard to listen to. I included “Barking” here because it’s one of the most accessible tracks on the record, and in some way the most recognizable to fans of Nearer My God or Draw Down the Moon. Foxing’s interview with Stereogum is worthwhile reading if you’re a fan of the band.

Razorlight – Zombie Love. Razorlight were one of the original “landfill indie” bands, as Andrew Harrison coined the term in 2008 right before the release of their third album, which underperformed and put them into a decade-long hiatus.

Hinds – Mala Vist. Hinds’ fourth album, Viva Hinds, came out last month, their first new music since half the band quit in 2023, and it’s their best album yet.

Katie Gavin – Inconsolable. I couldn’t believe this was Gavin (also of MUNA), as it’s a straight-up country song and features Sara and Sean Watkins of bluegrass icons Nickel Creek. Gavin’s solo debut What a Relief comes out October 25th and all three singles to date have been outstanding.

The Aces – The Magic. The Aces return with a slightly funky pop track ahead of their upcoming, fourth album. This 2023 BBC profile of the Utah-born members’ journey, with three coming out as queer and all four leaving the Mormon church, explains a lot of the opening up of their sound since their second album came out right as the pandemic hit.

The Cure – Alone. The Guardian called this song “majestically wreathed in misery and despair,” and if I just told you that phrase and asked you to name the band, The Cure would probably be in your first three guesses, right? “Alone” is a clear attempt to bring the band back to its Disintegration peak, and is the first single from their first album since 2008, Songs from a Lost World, due out November 1st.

Wolfgang Press – Take It Backwards. Wolfgang Press were part of the latter wave of the post-punk movement in the 1980s, but really peaked with their 1991 album Queer, when they ditched most of their funereal goth vibes and went for a dance/funk sound that was unlike almost anything else of that moment because they still ultimately sounded like Wolfgang Press. Their cover of “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” was a modest hit in the U.S., and was followed by the one-off single “A Girl Like You,” which was their biggest hit, but after their next album flopped in 1995 they appeared to be done. They’re back now with their first new album in 29 years, A 2nd Shape, which came out on Friday; the members are probably about 65 years old at this point, so I’m fascinated to give it a spin.

Flotsam & Jetsam – The Head of the Snake. I Am the Weapon, the fifteenth album from these thrash stalwarts, is more of the same, and I mean that in the best possible way. They still have two members from their 1980s peak, singer Eric Knutson and guitarist Michael Gilbert, so the core sound hasn’t changed much, and I admit I’m just happy to hear anyone still producing that particular strain of thrash.

Opeth – §3. Opeth’s new album The Last Will and Testament will come out on November 22nd, and is the first Opeth record to include death-metal elements since 2008’s Watershed … but this song is straight prog-metal in line with their last four albums, so it’s clear the death growls and such won’t be present everywhere on the album. I love all Opeth, notably Blackwater Park, which is a progressive death metal album through and through, but sometimes their musicianship can get clouded out by the growled vocals. Blackwater Park is especially strong for its long instrumental passages, often comprising several movements, so that when the vocals return there’s a real tonal shift and a clear demarcation between sections. I’m hopeful based on the first two tracks that The Last Will and Testament will be the same.

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→ September 5, 2024
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Music update, August 2024.

August brought a bunch of contenders for my year-end albums list, with LPs from Jack White, Fontaines D.C., Zeal & Ardor, Tank and the Bangas, and others, plus a surprise return from Opeth, a welcome single from Olympic stars Gojira, a farewell track from one of the most influential American punk bands, and a return from a band I was afraid had called it quits. As always, you can access the playlist here if you can’t see the widget below.

Gojira feat. Marina Viotti and Victor Le Masne – Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!). You know this song already, as it was the highlight of the stunning Opening Ceremonies to the Paris Olympics; now we get a studio version that packs the same punch, albeit without the visual impact of Gojira playing on the balconies of an old castle along the Seine.

Jack White – Old Scratch Blues. White’s new album No Name is his best solo LP to date, a return to his roots in classic rock and blues sounds from the 1940s through the 1970s, highlighted by this track, “Bless Yourself,” and “It’s Rough on Rats (If You’re Asking).”

Fontaines D.C. – Here’s the Thing. Fontaines’ new album, Romance, is one of the big surprises of the year; the Dublin-based rockers have largely abandoned their punk sound in favor of a more ambitious array of influences that have them dancing around the edges of pop-rock without fully giving in to the sound. You can hear the punk roots in the background of songs like this one, but they’re in their post-punk/new wave phase now, and it’s fascinating. I still think “Favourite” is my … uh, favorite track on the record, but this and “Starburster” are also highlights.

Goat – Ouroboros. These Swedish psychedelic/fusion rockers return with their third album in three years, titled Goat, on October 11th; this is the radio edit of the album’s lengthy closing track, with a guitar riff that Nile Rodgers would approve.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Hog Calling Contest. The Aussie band’s 26th (!) album, Flight b741, came out in August, with an unusually long gap of ten months between records, and it’s more in the vein of their bluesy jam-band stuff than some of their heavier (and, to my ears, better) works.

Nice Biscuit – Fade Away. Not quite as good as “The Rain,” but we still get another strong guitar riff from this Australian indie-rock band, which marries some psychedelia with the pulsing beats of post-punk. Their new album SOS comes out on October 4th.

The Killers – Bright Lights. This one-off (for now) single dropped just a few weeks before the Killers started their residency in Vegas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hot Fuss, with all four original members playing the entire album start to finish as part of the shows. The track bridges the gap between their earliest synth-pop leanings and the more country-tinged sound of 2021’s Pressure Machine.

Chime School – The End. The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel, the second album from Andy Pastalaniec (also of Seablite), continues with the project’s 1980s jangle-pop sound, which in itself derives from 1960s pop bands like the Byrds.

Sunflower Bean – Teach Me to Be Bad. Another heavier song from Sunflower Bean, and I’m into it. “Moment in the Sun” was a huge hit, and deservedly so, but the last thing I wanted from the band was an album full of attempts to re-create it.

X – Ruby Church. X announced that Smoke & Fiction will be their farewell album, accompanied by a final tour, four years after their comeback LP Alphabetland marked their return from 27 years away from the studio. I’ve never been a huge fan of X’s music, and am certainly not a fan of Exene Cervenka’s conspiracy theory-mongering, but I acknowledge the band’s huge influence on American music from the 1980s and 1990s.

Manic Street Preachers – Decline & Fall. The Welsh trio has said this track was inspired by several artists, including the War on Drugs, and that couldn’t be any clearer. I’m also stunned that James Dean Bradfield still sounds this good at age 55. The BBC has a story on some recently unearthed photographs of the band taken shortly before lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared.

Hayden Thorpe – They. The former lead singer of Wild Beasts will drop his third solo album, Ness, on September 27th; it’s just a different sound than that of his former band, and I’m still kind of getting used to his individual style, which has some of the art rock leanings of Wild Beasts but in a quieter mode. He released two singles in August, this one and “He.”

Katie Gavin – Casual Drug Use. The second single from the MUNA singer’s upcoming debut solo album, What a Relief, due out on October 25th, is another smooth indie-pop track that borrows as much from alternative country singers like Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile as it does from MUNA’s college-rock influences.

Bananagun – Free Energy. I dug this Australian experimental psych-rock band’s 2020 debut album The True Story of Bananagun – seriously, why is Oz so rife with psychedelic rock music? – but we haven’t had a peep out of the band since. They’re back with this frenetic track, which feels like it’s almost all drum-and-bass with a little vocals sprinkled on top, ahead of their sophomore album, Why is the Colour of the Sky?, due out November 8th.

Spirit of the Beehive – I’ve Been Evil. I hear a lot of Pinback and even Polvo in this track from Spirit’s newest album, You’ll Have to Lose Something, which, like most of their albums, is interesting but all over the place.

Jamie xx feat. The Avalanches – All You Children. Jamie xx’s second solo album, In Waves, finally comes out on September 20th, nine years after his debut In Colour, which had two of my favorite tracks of the decade in “See Saw” and “Loud Places.” I haven’t heard anything quite to that level from the five singles already released from the new album, with this one perhaps the best for its more accessible EDM sound.

Tangent feat. Rakim – Get Right, Keep Tight. Rakim put out a short comeback album in July that didn’t feature anywhere enough of him; his verse here as a guest on an otherwise unremarkable track from Tangent might be the best thing Rakim has done this year.

Maxïmo Park – Quiz Show Clue. There are too many bands, part 837: I’d never heard of Maxïmo Park before this spring, only to discover they’ve been around for 20 years and are about to release their eighth album, Stream of Life, on September 27th. They’re a post-punk revival band often lumped into the “landfill indie” pile, which, to be entirely honest, kind of fits; I actually first heard of them when I went down that rabbit hole (after the Libertines’ new album came out) and found VICE’s list of the 50 greatest landfill indie songs of all time, which has two Maxïmo Park tracks on it.

Ten Fé – Space Invader. I’m thrilled that Ten Fé is back, as they hadn’t released any music since 2019’s Future Perfect, Present Tense, although this song reminds me a little too much of Keane and doesn’t quite have the hook of some of Ten Fé’s best singles to date.

Sports Team – I’m in Love (Subaru). I loved Sports Team’s 2022 album Gulp!, so I’m not sure how I feel about them suddenly deciding they’re going to channel the band ABC.

Geordie Greep – Holy, Holy. So this is a rare case where I’m including a song I don’t particularly like. Greep was the lead singer/guitarist for black midi, which announced its breakup in August (or maybe an indefinite hiatus), with Greep then releasing this single a few days later. It’s kind of a mess, although I wouldn’t expect anything other than that from a black midi member, but the problem here is more in the lyrics, which might have worked for an older singer but just come off as snotty and ridiculous here. His solo album A New Sound comes out on October 4th.

Satan – Turn the Tide. I can’t believe these guys are still together, with both founding guitarists (Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins) still in the band 45 years on, along with Blitzkrieg vocalist Brian Ross, who sang on their first full-length LP, 1983’s Court in the Act, before leaving the band until their 2011 re-formation.

Zeal & Ardor – Kilònova. Zeal & Ardor, a Swiss/American band that fuses black metal with African-American spiritual music, just released their fourth LP, Greif, in August; from the three singles I’ve heard, they seem to be drifting more towards a mainstream metal sound, with fewer of the more ridiculous trappings of extreme metal like death growls (there’s a little on “Clawing Out”) or blast beats.

Devin Townsend – Power Nerd. Townsend is a virtuoso metal guitarist whose first band, Strapping Young Lad, earned him a following but was way too harsh for my tastes. His post-SYL output, which has basically all been solo material but sometimes under monikers like the Devin Townsend Project, is a mixed bag, but this speed-metal track has a fantastic hook in the chorus.

Opeth – §1. Opeth hasn’t used death growls on any album since 2008’s Watershed, but they did on this track, the opener of their album The Last Will and Testament, a concept album due out on October 11th.  

Tribulation – Tainted Skies. Tribulation’s music wouldn’t be out of place on a mid-80s episode of Headbanger’s Ball, but they mix in some death growls and wear silly corpse paint. The music is almost comically melodic for the genre – this is metal, but it ain’t heavy other than the vocals, and it hits an almost nostalgic note for me because I listened to so much (admittedly mediocre) metal in the 1980s.

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→ August 2, 2024
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Music update, July 2024.

July finished with a bit of a bang, from a music perspective, at least, as this playlist doubled in size over the final week of the month. It also had two of my favorite new albums of the year so far, from Griff and Childish Gambino, as well as new singles from three contemporary artists I really like – from three entirely different genres, too. As always, if you can’t see the playlist below, you can access it here.

Griff – Tears For Fun. Griff’s full-length debut, Vertigo, came out this month and was a huge success in her native UK, coming in at #3 on their album charts in its first week. It’s an incredible record of lush pop tracks, replete with sophisticated melodies, the sort of record that should appeal to fans of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, etc. if American fans even hear any of her music.

Lotte Gallagher – This Room. I assume I won’t be the last person to wonder if she’s related to the Oasis boys, but she’s not; she’s a singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, which seems to be producing as much great indie pop/rock music per capita as any country in the world right now. I wish I’d come up with the comparison to Sam Fender, but I saw it in a fluffy profile of Ms. Gallagher and I can’t find a better one.

Michael Kiwanuka – Floating Parade. The first new track from the 2020 Mercury Prize winner since the 2021 single “Beautiful Life” is a gorgeous, bass-forward track with meditative lyrics about the struggles of daily life and how we seek out ways to escape it.

Sampha & Little Simz – Satellite Business 2.0. Theoriginal “Satellite Business”was an 84-second filler track with no percussion on Sampha’s 2023 album “Lahai,” but this version is blown out to 4:53 with a drum machine and a bangin’ guest verse from Little Simz. It completely reimagines the track with a big, frenetic energy that makes it one of Sampha’s best songs to date.

Jorja Smith – High. Smith appeared on Bando Stone and now returns with her first new solo track of 2024, not counting the ‘reimagined’ version of falling or flying she released in May. “High” really showcases her voice over a smooth house beat, with production that puts her vocals front and center, where they belong.

Childish Gambino feat. Foushée – Running Around. If Bando Stone & the New World is indeed the last Childish Gambino album, it’s a real tour de force and a hell of a swan song. Donald Glover bounces across all manner of genres, even going full emo on this track, in a broad, unpredictable, ambitious record by a mad musical genius. I also recommend “Lithonia,” a ballad with a great twist at the chorus; and the instrumental “Happy Survival,” featuring Khruangbin.

Crows – Bored. Crows’ third album, Reason Enough, comes out on September 27th; this lead single seems to lean harder into their punk roots, which I suppose isn’t that surprising for a band on IDLES’s record label.

Japandroids – Chicago. Japandroids released this new single off their upcoming album Fate & Alcohol with anote that this record will be their last. It’s their first new music since 2017’s Near to the Wild Heart of Life.

Pastel – Deeper than Holy. Pastel’s handful of singles so far have shown a deep reverence for the heyday of Britpop, often bridging the gap between that era’s biggest rivals, Blur and Oasis.

Primal Scream – Love Insurrection. Primal Scream’s first new music since 2016 sounds like they paired up with Khruangbin to reimagine late-1970s funk/disco. Their twelfth album, Come Ahead, comes out in November.

Los Bitchos – Kiki, You Complete Me. Los Bitchos play cumbia-influenced rock, mostly instrumental, with this particular song recalling 1960s surf rock and spy-movie soundtracks.

O. – Sugarfish. That’s about as SEO-unfriendly a band name as you can conceive. O. is a duo from London that works with saxophone and drums, but they run the sax through all kinds of effects pedals to make it sound like other instruments, including a distorted guitar. Their debut album, the appropriately titled WeirdOs, dropped in June.

Sunflower Bean – Shake. This title track of an upcoming EP from the Brooklyn trio is probably the heaviest thing they’ve ever done, driven by a single guitar riff, with Julia Cumming ceding most of the lead vocal work to Nick Kivlen.

Hinds – Superstar. This is the fourth single from the duo’s upcoming album, Viva Hinds, which drops in September, and continues a trend of cleaner production and tighter songwriting that preserves the chaotic nature of their overlapping vocals.

Katie Gavin – Aftertaste. Gavin is the lead vocalist for MUNA and will release her first solo album, What a Relief, on October 25th on Phoebe Bridgers’ label. This is unabashed folk-pop and utterly infectious.

GIFT – Light Runner. The fourth single from GIFT’s second album, Illuminator, which is due out August 23rd, is my least favorite so far but does continue in a similar vein of shimmering, layered psychedelic rock, just without as strong of a hook as “Wish Me Away” or “Going in Circles” offered.

Blossoms – Perfect Me. Blossoms’ latest album, Gary, comes out in September, and they’ve released two singles so far, with this upbeat indie-pop number miles ahead of the drab, pretentious title track.

The Beaches – Takes One to Know One. The Beaches had a minor hit last year with their album Blame My Ex and the track “Blame Brett” – I mean, with that big brain on him, who else would you blame? – and now they’re back with what appears to be a one-off single that has a similar sound to the last record, with a sunny pop-rock vibe belied by the cynical lyrics.

Alison Goldfrapp – I Wanna Be Loved (Just a Little Better). I can’t believe Goldfrapp is 58, but, then again, I can’t believe I’m 51. This is her first single on her own record label, coming on the heels of her first solo album, last year’s The Love Invention. The backing music, a new wave/disco blend, sounds like it could have been an outtake from a Yaz record, although the vocal style is obviously quite different from the other Alison’s.

Envy – Beyond the Raindrops. I was completely unfamiliar with Envy before I heard this track, even though they’ve been recording since 1998. They’re a Japanese post-hardcore/post-rock band who started out in the ridiculously-named “screamo” scene, a term that seems to mean nothing at all at this point other than that I generally don’t dig bands lumped under that umbrella. This track, from Envy’s upcoming album Eunoia, is somewhere between post-hardcore and shoegaze, with a darkly atmospheric vibe and spare vocals.

Glass Animals – A Tear in Space (Airlock). Glass Animals’ latest album, I Love You So Fucking Much, is their first since the global success of “Heat Waves,” which now holds the records for the longest stay on the Billboard Hot 100 and the longest time on the chart before hitting #1. There’s nothing on this album to rival that track or “Life Itself;” it’s consistently good, without any huge standouts. If you like Glass Animals in general, you’ll like the album.

Flotsam & Jetsam – Burning My Bridges. The second track from their fifteenth album, I Am the Weapon, due out on September 13th, finds these 1980s thrash icons just a little bit mellowed, but still thrashing away, with just two members remaining from their debut album. I prefer the previous single, “Primal,” but this is still a solid throwback to the Bay Area thrash sound that marked their first couple of LPs.

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