Records we ❤️'d in 2024. A 150 song mixtape stream. A thank you.

Plus stray thoughts on the year in music.

Nia Archives Silence Is Loud

First: a big thanks to all subscribers, with special thanks to my paid subscribers. You quite literally make this newsletter happen — I could not produce it otherwise. For six months I’ve posted one plump newsletter a week, sometimes more, as well as streaming playlists. It’s a lot of work. But enough of you have jumped on board that I’m encouraged to keep going.

Please consider levelling up to a paid subscription, if you’re able. If not, thanks for checking it out and hopefully spreading the good word. I’ve included a best-of-2024 streaming playlist here for paid subscribers, cherry-picked from my favorite LPs, plus singles and other loosies. I was interested in flow, so it’s not strictly in order of preference, and since we all flow differently, you might enjoy it on shuffle, too.

Notwithstanding my early-bird rough draft, I waited to post my year-end list, as usual — to have maximum time to catch up on things I missed, and so I didn’t miss late releases (e.g. Aphex Twin’s Music From The Merch Desk (2016 - 2023)). With that, let’s get to the list. Happy holidays, and best wishes for all of us in the new year.

Cheers, sláinte, peace,

Will

Albums I loved in 2024

Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood

Yes, I know, I’ve written about this record a lot this year, here and elsewhere. But it really is that good. I recognized the single “Right Back To It” as a classic the first time I heard it — January 9, 2023, the day it was released. When I reviewed the album for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition a couple of months later, my producer and I suspected it would be our favorite of the year. It was for me.

Charli XCX, Brat and Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.

Tough to choose from the two (three?) versions of this LP. Either way, there was no more fun to be had in the pop world this year than raging along with Charli’s endless party — on social media, in arenas, at major intersections, in remote upstate New York sculpture parks, in her LP design, on her recordings and remixes. There were guest stars, and backstories. And the songs? Very good, but just part of the gesamtkunstwerk.

Charli XCX at Storm King. Kirsty MacColl. Arooj Aftab w/ Khruangbin & Cécile McLorin Salvant.

MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks

I’ve also written about Jake Lenderman a lot this year. In a New York Times profile, I considered the characters he sketched in these superbly-built songs, “[they] might be described as Questionable Dudes. ‘Wristwatch’ is a droll sketch of a braggart inspired, Lenderman explained, by Andrew Tate and ‘this idea of alpha males gaining popularity. People spend thousands of dollars thinking they can learn how to be the “perfect man” or something. It’s embarrassing.’ Lenderman describes the lyrics of the title track as ‘kind of a laundry list of what makes this character a jerk,’ one that builds from the couplet ‘One of these days you’ll kill a man/For asking a question you don’t understand.’ The album is a flipbook of misshapen masculinity, toxic and otherwise.” Plus: the guitar riffs crush.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland

I reviewed this fine LP here when it came out: “[Welch’s] alto remains marvelous, by turns billowing and liquid, sweet and tart, sly and heartbreaking. Rawlings has a warm, subtly expressive voice that often reminds me of James Taylor. Their lead vocals here are equally beguiling, the compositions are all co-writes, and their harmonies remain exquisite. But maybe the biggest surprise on Woodland are the arrangements, at times supersized with strings, steel and brass conjuring but not mimicking ‘70s soft rock — Harvest-era Neil and Sweet Baby James, Carole King and Bonnie Raitt, Seals & Crofts, Loggins & Messina. There’s Dylan, certainly, in “North Country” and “Turf The Gambler,” recalling “Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts” with its harmonica-laced storytelling, with modern abstractions. “Hashtag” does something similar, joining a roster of handsome eulogies for touchstone Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark — revered for introducing a generation to mad dog margaritas, among other things.” I had more to say about Rawlings remarkable guitar work. And the show I caught earlier this month was maybe the most transporting I witnessed by anyone this year. If they come your way, don’t miss ‘em.

Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future

It took me a while to fully fall for this record, maybe because I was so besotted with Lenker’s work in the context of Big Thief. But I ultimately fell hard. Some of these performances rank with her best ever. “Sadness as a Gift” is Exhibit A.

Rosali, Bite Down

I caught Rosali Middleman and her band twice this year, most recently at the wonderful Woodsist festival, an annual September gathering in upstate New York at the Arrowood Farms Brewery. But it was the band’s set at the Kingston, NY gemstone Tubby’s (America’s best music bar?) that converted me. The guitar weave between Middleman and Jim Schroeder was glorious. And side 1 of this LP is song-for-song as perfect as any I dropped stylus on this year. Middleman’s likened the band’s approach to “the Velvet Underground covering Fleetwood Mac,” which certainly works for me.

Nia Archives - Silence Is Loud

I love drum’n’bass, love jungle, love rhythm tracks built on sped-up breakbeats literally or spiritually scissored from The Winstons’ “Amen, Brother” — the b-side of a 1969 single whose a-side was “Color Him Father,” a minor American soul hit that became in turn a minor country hit for Linda Martell, a major breakthrough for a black woman singing country, and one whose profile was boosted this year when she appeared on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter LP. Nia Archives, a 22 year old DJ singer/songwriter from Manchester, England, is part of this historical ecosystem, making 2024 pop zhuzzed with a subgenre of fin de siècle British club music seeded by high-speed “Amen” breaks. Or as she once put it: “making soft-hearted lo-fi jungle for introverted extroverts.” Her early evening set this May on the roof of Elsewhere at the edge of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, was one of the most delicious gigs I attended this year (see below, when she dropped her remix of “Off With Their Heads” by hometown heroes The Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Silence Is Loud is a thrill ride all the way through — the great ’00s pop-jungle breakout, arriving 20+ years late, but arriving, in fittingly time-warped style, just when we really needed its buoyant buzz. My unlikely come-to-Jesus jungle moment came during a heady Midwest night with UK DJ Shy FX and his crew in a dank Minneapolis basement in the mid-’90s (my pal Terri Sutton can verify this). Discovering this record flashed me right back to it — so hard, in fact, that I mail-ordered a Nia Archives “Emotional Junglist” t-shirt.

Nala Sinephro, Endlessness

I wrote about this beautiful record earlier this year. Prismatic, deeply calming, this is avant-garde music in the most inviting sense. I’ve walked into more than one room this year to discover this recording, always to my surprise, coming out of the speakers — and I feel instantly at home.

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly, MESTIZX

Musical trans/post-nationalism, and at the moment my favorite of the numerous fine albums International Anthem issued this year (see Jeff Parker IVtet and SML, below). For background on the label, check part one and part two of my conversation with label co-founder Scottie McNiece. And for the backstory on this project, let me direct you to the short film embedded below.

Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee

A fever-dream of a David Lynch soundtrack channeling Lou Reed’s doo-wop collection, Tom Verlaine’s guitar worktapes, and a thrift shop full of mysterious 20th century private press singer-songwriter gems.

Doechii, Alligator Bites Never Heal

With an year-end mainstream media one-two punch (a Colbert spot and a Tiny Desk concert), Doechii alerted folks who don’t follow rap, and reminded those who do, that she already ranks with the greats, by any yardstick you’ve got. Oldsters will note nods to Tribe, Missy, Digable Planets, more. Her stagecraft and arranging remind me of Janelle Monae. No shame if you need to check lyric transcriptions; tbh, I can’t hear that fast either.

Mercury Rev, Born Horses

A welcome return. I spent some time with them in their stomping ground in the Catskill Mountains region of New York State and wrote about it.

Jessica Pratt, Here In The Pitch

First the single, then the entire album, threw me back to pre-rock/rock-adjacent ‘60s sounds by icons like Françoise Hardy, Dionne Warwick, Astrud Gilberto, Jane Birkin, Julie London, France Gall. Impeccable production, delivery, songcraft, vibes.

Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us

I chatted with Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig earlier this year for a piece I did on the album for the UK magazine Uncut, and we realized we’d never actually spoken before, though I’ve been writing about the band for near 20 years — I recall