{"id":10552,"date":"2024-12-01T13:32:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T18:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10552"},"modified":"2024-12-01T13:32:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T18:32:52","slug":"music-update-november-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/01\/music-update-november-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Music update, November 2024."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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\u2019t anticipate from artists I love. As always, if you can\u2019t see the widget below <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/7qVZYUvG5GfwrpCjZ1QNJv?si=cc415d2b46e44509\">you can access the Spotify playlist<\/a> here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: November 2024\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/7qVZYUvG5GfwrpCjZ1QNJv?si=ad0811d201a54083&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Michael Kiwanuka \u2013 Small Changes.<\/strong> Kiwanuka\u2019s self-titled 2019 album was <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/12\/top-15-albums-of-2019\/\">my #2 album of that year<\/a> and won the Mercury Prize the following September; his follow-up, <em>Small Changes<\/em>, came out in November and represents a big stylistic shift away from the previous record\u2019s 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 <em>Small Changes<\/em> even though I almost always go for more uptempo stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jorja Smith \u2013 Don\u2019t Let Me Go\/Loving You.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Kendrick Lamar \u2013 reincarnated.<\/strong> Kendrick\u2019s new album <em>GNX<\/em> omitted his biggest hit of the year, \u201cNot Like Us,\u201d instead delivering a motley collection of songs that vary widely in style, tone, and tempo; it\u2019s a mixed bag, led by this track (which <a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/kendrick-lamar-gnx\/\">Pitchfork\u2019s review<\/a> called \u201cunlistenable\u201d) with a fascinating call-and-response bit towards the end, \u201cGloria\u201d (with SZA), and \u201csquabble up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tunde Adebimpe \u2013 Magnetic.<\/strong> 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\u2019s best tracks like \u201cWolf Like Me\u201d and \u201cMercy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Doves \u2013 Renegade.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t expect to hear anything further from Doves after a middling response to their comeback album <em>The Universal Want<\/em> and lead singer\/bassist Jimi Goodwin\u2019s mental health struggles, which led the band to cancel the end of their 2021 tour and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cvgwj0d10g1o\">will have him sit out their upcoming UK tour<\/a> this winter. Goodwin is on this single and their upcoming album, <em>Constellations for the Lonely<\/em>, due out on Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sam Fender \u2013 People Watching.<\/strong> This title track from Fender\u2019s third album, due out on February 21<sup>st<\/sup>, sounds like a great new song from the Killers, and I mean that as a compliment. I\u2019m flummoxed at the lack of attention or popularity Fender has here in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Lathums \u2013 Stellar Cast.<\/strong> 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 <em>Favourite Worst Nightmare<\/em>. Their third album, <em>Matter Does Not Define<\/em>, comes out on March 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Rills \u2013 I Don\u2019t Wanna Be.<\/strong> Another band heavily influenced by the Arctic Monkeys, the Rills tend a little more towards the punk-pop side \u2013 and I can pretty easily see them getting lumped in with the \u2018landfill indie\u2019 subgenre of the late aughts and early teens. The Rills\u2019 debut album <em>Don\u2019t Be a Stranger<\/em> came out on November 1<sup>st<\/sup>; I found it a little flat overall, with this by far the best track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elbow \u2013 Adriana Again.<\/strong> I\u2019m becoming an Elbow fan, very late in the game, as I really enjoyed their album <em>Audio Vertigo <\/em>from earlier this year, and this new single \u2013 ahead of an EP to come out in early 2025 \u2013 is a pulsing, driving banger with a tremendous hook in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WOOZE \u2013 Good Old Fashioned Fun.<\/strong> WOOZE\u2019s self-titled debut album comes out on February 14<sup>th<\/sup>, 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\u2019ve got a great ear for a good hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Courting \u2013 Pause at You.<\/strong> Courting\u2019s second album <em>New Last Name<\/em> came out in January and will be on my ranking of the top albums of the year, but they\u2019re back already with another single ahead of the release of their third album, <em>Lust for Life, Or: How To Thread The Needle And Come Out The Other Side To Tell The Story<\/em>, due out on March 14<sup>th<\/sup>. I love their just off-center take on indie pop, sometimes called \u201chyperpop,\u201d and I find their best songs really infectiously happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>King Gizzard &amp; the Lizard Wizard \u2013 Phantom Island.<\/strong> King Gizzard only put out one album this year, August\u2019s <em>Flight b741<\/em>, which is a light year for them. This track was recorded in the same sessions but didn\u2019t make the cut; I can\u2019t even tell you if it should have made the album because they put out so much music that I find I often don\u2019t remember their albums or individual songs beyond maybe recalling the style they went after on a particular record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nice Biscuit \u2013 Desolation.<\/strong> This Australian psych-rock band released their sophomore album, <em>SOS<\/em>, on October 4<sup>th<\/sup>, with \u201cThe Rain\u201d the best track by far and this one probably my second favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Inhaler \u2013 Your House.<\/strong> The new album from this Irish pop\/rock band, <em>OpenWide<\/em>, comes out on February 7<sup>th<\/sup>; I feel obligated to mention that lead singer\/guitarist Elijah Hewson is Bono\u2019s son, if only because otherwise someone would say, \u201chey, that guy sounds a ton like Bono.\u201d He does, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Allie X \u2013 Weird World.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t love <em>Girl With No Face<\/em>, the latest album from this Canadian electro-pop artist, when it came out in February, and I still don\u2019t really \u2013 a lot of it is too deliberately weird and offputting \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lucius \u2013 Take a Picture.<\/strong> I don\u2019t include many covers on these lists, but I\u2019m 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\u2019s flat singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>White Denim \u2013 Connection.<\/strong> White Denim are fairly experimental to begin with, so their cover of Elastica\u2019s \u201cConnection,\u201d which was itself so derivative of Wire\u2019s \u201cThree Girl Rhumba\u201d that Wire sued and won, is anything but faithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Manic Street Preachers \u2013 Hiding in Plain Sight. <\/strong>The Manics\u2019 15<sup>th<\/sup> album, <em>Critical Thinking<\/em>, comes out on January 31<sup>st<\/sup>, with this the second single off the record. I\u2019ve been listening to their biggest hit, \u201cIf You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next,\u201d quite a it in the last four weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Griff \u2013 Last Night\u2019s Mascara.<\/strong> 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\u2019s U.S. tour in October. (I would argue Carpenter should be opening for Griff, but alas.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Weather Station \u2013 Window.<\/strong> This track comes off the Weather Station\u2019s upcoming seventh album, <em>Humanhood<\/em>, and gives me a strong School of Seven Bells vibe, especially from their final record, <em>SVIIB<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Wombats \u2013 Blood on the Hospital Floor.<\/strong> This is a bit more like the core Wombats sound than the prior single, \u201cSorry I&#8217;m Late, I Didn&#8217;t Want to Come,\u201d with more energy and wittier lyrics. Their seventh album, <em>Oh! The Ocean<\/em>, is due out February 21<sup>st<\/sup>. I feel like they\u2019ve settled into a predictable groove of producing solid indie-pop tracks without really ever approaching the highs of <em>Glitterbug<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Phantogram \u2013 Jealousy.<\/strong> I had no idea Phantogram had a new album coming out until <em>Memory of a Day<\/em> dropped on October 18<sup>th<\/sup>; it\u2019s very much their classic sound, although by the end of the record I\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mogwai \u2013 Lion Rumpus. <\/strong>This isthe third single from the Scottish band\u2019s eleventh album, The Bad Fire, due out January 24<sup>th<\/sup>.I\u2019ve never really gotten Mogwai, although I concede it\u2019s probably the kind of music that rewards repeat listening. This particular track is almost metal in its use of distortion and walls of sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Opeth &#8211; \u00a76.<\/strong> <em>The Last Will and Testament <\/em>is Opeth\u2019s first album in five years and their first to feature death-metal vocals since 2008, although I\u2019d argue they\u2019re used judiciously here, and singer Mikael \u00c5kerfeldt has said in many interviews that he brought the growls back because they fit the lyrics. It\u2019s a concept album about the reading of a will and the drama that ensues, and as a result highlighting individual tracks is difficult \u2013 they do blend one into another, for sure. If pressed, I\u2019d say \u201c\u00a73\u201d and \u201c\u00a71\u201d are my favorites, but the whole thing is mesmerizing, and has some surprising cameos by Jethro Tull\u2019s Ian Anderson and Europe\u2019s Joey Tempest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tribulation \u2013 Poison Pages.<\/strong> This Swedish band went from boring death metal to more traditional heavy or gothic metal with death growls to something that\u2019s barely even metal on their new album, <em>Sub Rosa In \u00c6ternum<\/em>, 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. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.angrymetalguy.com\/tribulation-sub-rosa-in-aeternum-review\/\">I\u2019m not the only person to notice that<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tungsten \u2013 Falling Apart.<\/strong> Tungsten is a Swedish band founded by the former drummer of HammerFall along with two of his sons; this song is heavier than HammerFall\u2019s typical throwback metal style, although the soaring vocals are there (with some screaming too). But if they\u2019re from Sweden, shouldn\u2019t they be called Wolfram?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019t anticipate from artists I love. As always, if you can\u2019t see the widget below you can access the Spotify playlist here. Michael Kiwanuka \u2013 Small Changes. Kiwanuka\u2019s self-titled 2019 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1374,359,1191,167,979,757,852,787],"class_list":["post-10552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2024-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-hip-hop-2","tag-indie","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-progressive-metal","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10553,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552\/revisions\/10553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}