Favourite albums 2024

2024 offered many musical highlights, with cracking new releases from long-established performers like The Cure and Underworld, to promising new music (and a Mercury prize) for English Teacher, uncompromising debuts by Kneecap and Big Special, and much more ...

Warmduscher, Too Cold to Hold (Strap Originals)
I caught Warmduscher when they headlined Edinburgh's Hidden Door Festival in 2022, on the back of 4th album, At The Hotspot. They opened with a raucous slice of garage rock, 'Big Wilma,' from 2nd album, Whale City, (memorably described by music review site, Too Many Blogs as "dangerously debauched, infested with twisted riffs"). Images from that brilliant gig are reproduced below (eagle-eyed viewers might be able to spot a certain son of Muirhouse amongst the revellers in the movie clip!) Two years on, 5th album, Too Cold to Hold, showcased a band continuing to go from strength-to-strength. Past collaborators injecting the twisted layers of funk and post-punk have included Iggy Pop; this irresistible long player opens with Irvine Welsh describing a DMT trip. "I was at once, God-like, but also just one mere atom in a universal pool of beautiful energy." This narcotic prelude kick-starts an album brimming with hypnotic vibes and arresting melodies. From the quirky piano-driven title track to 'Cleopatras,' featuring an offbeat drum 'n' bass rhythm and guest vocals by French DJ/producer, Coucou Chloe, track after track invites the listener to succumb to its mesmerising soundscapes.

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A post shared by Mark Fleming (@markfleming_embra)

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Kelly Lee Owens, Dreamstate (Dh2)
Back in 2017, the Welsh maestro of electronica's debut album, Inner Song, was fabulously described by Pitchfork as "a message in a bottle that's come bobbing back from somewhere in the future." For 4th album, Dreamstate, en route to Mother Earth, said bottle has detoured via raves on distant planets where civilizations have evolved harmoniously rather than tribally. Owens herself has focused on the introspective element of her music, admitting to receiving the supposedly unflattering epithet 'daydreamer of the year' from a schoolteacher. This is clearly a plus rather than a minus when it comes to effortlessly producing dance music which can be deeply reflective, but also communal and euphoric (and on this outing, with her beautiful vocals to the fore). Owens was handpicked by Depeche Mode as support for 2023's arena tours of Mexico, finding herself performing to crowds of over 75,000 at Mexico City's Foro Sol on three consecutive nights. That much of her material had been composed in her bedroom gave her a particular sense of achievement! 

Related blog:
Mental health walks, Seafield sunrise, soundtracked by Kelly Lee Owens' Inner Song

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Scorpio Leisure, Audio Pleasure (Last Night From Glasgow)
Scorpio Leisure are purveyors of swirling, multi-layered, sensual art rock, skirting a fine line between trip hop (albeit far more trippy than hip hop) and psychedelic pop. They hit the live circuit running in 2023, their personnel including veterans of The Fire Engines, Boots for Dancing, Gin Goblins, Opium Kitchen, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, not to mention Josef K and Orange Juice (courtesy of guest guitarist Malcolm Ross), while they're named after a  onetime sauna on Albion Road familiar to thousands trekking to Hibs at home. Scorpio Leisure's debut album presents pulsating grooves - 'Running on the Spot,' 'Feral Life,' 'Pulsebeat,' 'Parasite,' 'Apology' - revolving around charismatic chanteuse, Hettie Noir, her sultry tones reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux, Nadine Shah or PJ Harvey, against a backdrop with shades of Unloved (see the Killing Eve soundtrack). Percussionist, Rusty Burn, once of 1977 Clerrie punks The Dirty Reds (alongside brother Tam Dean Burn, Davy Henderson, and Dave Carson) demonstrates how decades in the capital's music scene can still instil unbridled enthusiasm for fresh, invigorating sonic adventures.

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Been Stellar, Scream from New York H, NY (Dirty Hit)
The New York 'post-punk' scene of the early 2000s saw the likes of The Strokes, The Walkmen, and Interpol seize the day (a day originally snapshotted at the city's CBGBs club by Blondie, Talking Heads or Television 30 years before). A similar timescale has elapsed since the chiming guitar pop/rock of Is This It? and Turn On the Bright Lights, yet the rich seam of Big Apple alt rock seems just as ripe for mining. Scream from New York, NY is a fine debut, its collision of swirling anthems grasping that post-punk baton, injecting it with shimmering Nothing-style shoegaze,  and careening onwards.

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Fontaines D.C., Romance (XL)
If the Dublin band's first three albums saw them championing their home nation and its exuberant culture, their 4th has let go that mooring rope to embrace more expansive themes. Lead vocalist Grian Chatten may claim Dylan Thomas as an influence and draw comparisons with the intense vocal delivery of Ian Curtis or Mark E Smith, but the band as a whole are gaining in confidence every time they pick up their instruments, springboarding way beyond post-punk. Guitarist Conor Curley cited Bristol trip hop like Massive Attack and Portishead as one influence, while drummer Tom Coll also featured on West Belfast rappers Kneecap's debut album. 

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The Last Dinner Party, Prelude to Ecstasy (Island)
The London alt-rock quintet's debut single, 'Nothing Matters' was everywhere upon its November 2023 release, and rightly so. An assured, triumphant song, melding heartfelt lyrics with punchy melodies and a sublime guitar solo, here was gauntlet of ambition tossed into an already crowded ring. The album offers a cocktail of elements, sometimes bombastic, other times melancholic, always arresting. This is certainly no indie by numbers, but a supremely confident first album, with shades of Kate Bush, Warpaint, Wolf Alice, Florence and the Machine, along with the influences they themselves cite, St Vincent and Lana Del Rey.

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English Teacher, This Could Be Texas (Island)
The Leeds-based band have been garnering attention for some time. A series of emphatic live shows consolidating singles heavily praised by, amongst others, BBC Radio 6's Steve Lamacq, culminated in their debut album receiving 2024's coveted Mercury prize. Post-punk seems too underwhelming a label for a band capable of conjuring a dizzying variety of soundscapes,  from prog tinges to pastoral pop, propelled by charismatic vocalist, Lily Fontaine's wry lyrical pictures.

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Floating Points, Cascade (Ninja Tune)
From composing ballet scores to remixing Basement Jaxx, Sam Shepherd has retained a supremely confident approach to his eclectic projects. The 5th studio album released under his Floating Points alias marks a return to the unconventional but anthemic floor-filling club culture which has always been closest to his heart.

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Future Islands, People Who Aren't There Anymore (4AD)
Ten years ago, an enigmatic performance of 'Seasons (Waiting on You)' during their TV network debut on Letterman showcased Future Islands' assured synth-pop. Over subsequent releases, a bit like The National with keys rather than guitars, they've simply consolidated what they do best, conjuring catchy and catchier songs. Dropping their 7th album, including one track, 'Shadows,' where charismatic frontman Samual T Herring duets with Debbie Harry, Future Islands remain a class act.

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The Cure, Songs of a Lost World (Polydor)
Their first studio album in 16 years was an example of a band and its main songwriter still oozing in confidence. At times deeply personal ('I Can Never Say Goodbye' is Robert Smith's heartfelt paean about the loss of his elder brother, Richard), the tracks overflow with maturity and confidence

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The Smile, Wall of Eyes (XL Recordings)
Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner may be 66% Radiohead, but as in The Smile's debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention, this is a double-headed sword. Obviously, the R-word is most prevalent in Greenwood's guitar chimes and Yorke's plaintive octave-leaping vocals. The Smile also endeavour to steer far beyond past glories.

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The Waeve, City Lights (Trasnsgressive)
With swirling saxophones and no end of inspired, inventive guitar lines, Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougal's second album is brimming with gorgeous songwriting.

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St Vincent, All Born Screaming (Total Pleasure Records)
The seventh album from Tulsa-born Ann Erin Clark is another batch of guitar-driven angst that instantly gets under your skin. Literally so, as in one track, 'Flea,' love is likened to an infestation.

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The Mysterines, Afraid of Tomorrows (Fiction)
Guitar pop is as old as the hills. But even as sequencers and dance beats have reinvented the careers of everyone from New Order to Radiohead, the tried-and-tested formula of blistering six-string anthems shows no sign of abating. I first heard the Liverpool garage rockers when Steve Lamacq championed their 2020 EP Love's Not Enough, its title track containing one of that year's most irresistible chorus hooks. That Lia Metcalfe has one of the most infectious voices in alt rock, her husky tones switching from breathless to bombastic, means this band will always arrest attention.

Related blog: The Mysterines - Love's Not Enough

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Pixies, The Night the Zombies Came (BMG)
Black Francis' grunge pioneers released their 9th album, another quality collection of loud/quiet loud classics.

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Nadine Shah, Filthy Underneath  (EMI North)
Nadine Shah will always have a place in my heart as the first performer I saw post-lockdown (supporting Suede at Edinburgh's Usher Hall on their own Coming Up 25th anniversary tour in November 2021). Having endured difficult personal struggles including bereavement, the South Tyneside-born singer/songwriter turns more introspective for her 5th album, employing an array of  influences, from Iranian disco to glam rock.

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Port Sulphur, Metal Guru (Last Night from Glasgow)
The third album released by Port Sulphur unashamedly plunders the past, from its title paraphrasing glam innovator Marc Bolan to featuring longtime post punk collaborators Vic Goddard (Subway Sect) and Dave Henderson (The Fire Engines, Win, Nectarine no 9, Sexual Objects). One track, Bill Nelson, features a sublime guitar line (and electronic violin) courtesy of Edinburgh's post punk guitar legend, Paul Research. But like the music produced by all the aforementioned, the soundtracks are vital and contemporary, 'Caleno' kickstarts proceedings as an instrumental with a fabulous guitar hook, reprised later as 'Exploding Clockwork', with Davy Henderson supplying vocals in his own inimitable style.

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Kneecap, Fine Art (Heavenly Recordings)
Hip hop originated as street protest music on the other side of the pond, but here, rap collides gloriously with rave culture in this joyous riot of an album. Hearts worn on their sleeves, the West Belfast trio are defiantly proud of their culture, emphasising the Derry not Londonderry attitude in a scattershot of music defying anyone but the most ardent 'the Earth is 7,000 years old DUP bigot' to furiously tap their toes. Effortlessly switching from English to Irish, Kneecap transcend mere political sloganeering, throwing a dizzying array of instrumentation and production into the mix. So much more than 'a band,' Kneecap took the UK Government to court for blocking an artistic grant, and won. They split the proceeds between youth organisations working within disadvantaged Protestant and Catholic communities.

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Kim Deal, Nobody Loves You More (4AD)
The former Pixies and The Breeders bassist and vocalist Deal released her debut album. Far removed from abrupt loud/quiet alt rock, she delves into emotional soundscapes, experimenting with dance rhythms and offbeat guitar riffs, overlaid with her beautiful voice.

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Idles, Tangk (Partisan)
Idles are renowned for incendiary live performances, cranked up guitars and Joe Talbot's vocals demanding attention like whirling dervishes with attitude. Talbot has insisted his band are so much more than the lazy label 'post punk,' (despite covering Gang of Four in their set), and it's true enough. Album no 5 sees the Bristol band introducing a more chilled but still self-assured vibe.

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Field Music, Limits of Language (Memphis Recording)
Field Music, revolving around David and Peter Brewis, the duo behind some of the most innovative music to fall under the sometimes-lazy catchall post-punk/art rock pigeon-holes, released album number nine in almost 20 years, and it's one of their finest and most listenable yet. Ironically, given the album's title, their creativity shows no sign of waning. With angular song structures and layer-upon-layer of dazzling instrumentation, Field Music are one of a slew of bands who've been compared to peak XTC (at other times hinting at artists with little connection to the post-punk zeitgeist, such as Peter Gabriel!) So, not so much like the Swindon band who last performed in 2006, but how XTC might sound in 2024, continuing to balance inventive, off-centre song structures with the catchiest of pop music.

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Jane Weaver, Love in Constant Spectacle (Fire Records)
Weaver's work is a kaleidoscope of psych pop, folk, and experimental rock, and the 14th album by this hugely prolific, unsung songwriter encompasses all of these influences, and more. Sometimes veering into Krautrock repetition, on other occasions shimmering with lush dream pop melodies, the tracks flit around the different styles to produce another irresistible aural cocktail.

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Underworld, Strawberry Hotel (Virgin)
30 years ago, Underworld's entry into the zeitgeist couldn't have been any more ubiquitous, their anthem 'Born Slippy' hitting cinema screens when Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting went stellar. They've never rested on their laurels - 2018's hugely ambitious Drift project saw them committing to a new release every Thursday for a year. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith's 11th album might fall under the umbrella title of a 'concept album,' the tracks reflecting the moods within the different rooms of the titular hotel. But rather than a traditional haven for travellers offering a full continental breakfast, this is a retreat awash with psychedelic backdrops, and instead of lift musak, pulsating dance grooves (with acapella versions thrown in)!

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Big Special, Post Industrial Hometown Blues (So Recordings)
"Obviously I fucking hate the Tories, I fucking hate Keir Starmer ... The working class might as well be completely fucking invisible." This sense of us and them, of communities betrayed by entitled overseers, is no offhand comment. It's a statement of intent by Black Country duo, Joe Hicklin and Callum Maloney this blistering debut wears like a brand. Melding industrial post-punk, blues, and hip hop, with searing spoken word rants thrown into the mix, this uncompromising debut goes way beyond sloganeering, shining a light on working class neighbourhoods to tell gritty but love-infused stories, like a musical alternative to a Shane Meadows script.

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Yard Act, Where's My Utopia (Island)
While there have been any number of bands cited as 'the next best thing' on the post-punk circuit, the Leeds band nailed it again with this follow-on to their sparkling debut, 2022's The Overload. Seizing their moment, vocalist James Smith continues intoning deadpan observations, like Mark E Smith's rascally nephew from the other side of the Pennines, while the band grows in confidence, exploring many different, and highly danceable, musical styles.

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A Certain Ratio, It All Comes Down to This (Mute)
I first saw ACR in Edinburgh, at long-converted into student flats Valentino's nightclub, 43 years ago. They'd just released their masterful 3rd album, Sextet, on Factory, and I was suitably blown away by their meld of funk and atmospheric post-punk. 2024 saw them release album number 13, and in no mood to wind down. Propelled by taut percussion and Jez Kerr's effortlessly hypnotic basslines, the reliably danceable melodies cascade across 10 tracks.

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