End of the Year Tiers

Even more 2024 albums to write about...

Everyone has their best-of lists out already, but I’m still listening to as much as possible and trying to figure it out. Outside of what I’ve already written about, I want to touch on a variety of albums that fall into different tiers:

Albums I Slept On

American Aquarium/The Fear of Standing Still - I listened to this a couple times when it came out in July and it didn’t stick for whatever reason. I came back to it again a couple weeks ago and realized I’d shortchanged it. It opens with a barnburner, “Crier,” which ranks amongst their best songs. The next song, “Messy as a Magnolia,” is more Americana and very catchy. The first half of the album is more up-tempo than the second, which was maybe part of why it didn’t stick. The more you listen, however, the more you realize how strong those songs are too. Other highlights from the album are “Cherokee Purples,” an ode to grandmothers, “The Getting Home,” another rocker that’s about life on the road, and “The Curse of Growing Old,” which is both brutal and lovely.

X/Smoke & Fiction - I listened to this a couple times when it came out in August and liked it, but it somehow dropped off of my radar. Thank goodness it’s back on it now. “Ruby Church” is an opening blast, a mix of twang, punk, and power pop. Really, the album doesn’t let up from there, offering 10 songs in 28 minutes. “The Way It Is” backs off the throttle a bit, with a earworm of a riff and some great harmonies from John Doe and Exene Cervenka. Part of the beauty of X is those dual vocals, weaving in and out of each other, sometimes at odds and sometimes perfectly together. I love the way the drums pound on the title track; it also has a perfect guitar solo. “Face in the Moon” has some in-your-face guitar accents and a grinding feel in the verses before switching to more power pop in the chorus; it works very well. This is their last album and they go out on a strong note.

Albums I Just Discovered

Fontaines D.C./Romance - I’ve certainly listened to Fontaines D.C. in the past, but never went all in, so while I marked this album’s release in late August, it wasn’t a priority. One of my friends at work remarked how much she liked it, but I still put it off. Oops. The opening title track is very dramatic and then things get wonderfully weird with “Starburster” - the rapid fire vocals, the layering of new instrumental touches, and that gasping breath which shouldn’t work but somehow does. “Desire” sets a mood with those dying strings at the start and builds up into a nice slow churn. “In the Modern World” is driven by a call-and-response and a play on the Be My Baby-beat. They may have saved the best song for last with “Favourite,” which is the poppiest track by far. If I had started listening to this album when it came out, it would have a real shot at my top 10 for the year.

Joy Buzzer/Pleased to Meet You - This one came out at the end of October, but didn’t hit my radar until the end of November. If I don’t have a couple power pop albums in steady rotation, then you know something’s wrong. Opener “Judy Judy Judy” is a good indication if you’ll like the album; there’s definitely Cheap Trick in its DNA and it has a catchy chorus and active bassline. They also have a song called “Jeanette,” which might tell you all you need to know about where they’re coming from. I dig the harmonies of “Mamaroneck” and the drum fills on the rocker “You Don’t Even Know My Name” and the solo on “Vicky Loves a Garden.” “Try Not to Be an A*****e for a While” is just fun. Really, that’s what the whole album comes down to…31 minutes of fun that makes you want to sing along. What more can you want?

Honorable Mentions: Chuck Prophet/Wake the Dead and Ed Ryan/Along for the Ride

Slow and Steady Plays

John Davis/Jinx - I’ve been giving this a couple plays a month for a while, turning to it when I want to hear something punchy and short (10 songs in under a half hour). You may recall I fell under Davis’s spell with Superdrag’s In the Valley of Dying Stars earlier this year; this album is more compact, but has the same power pop punch. “Please Be My Love” features power chords and earnest pleading, plus a sharp guitar solo. “Wildfire Love” reminds me of both Bob Mould and his latter-day bass player Jason Narducy’s Split Single at the same time. “Cold Advice” is a little sludgy while “Free to Fall” feels like it could be sequenced right after “Sucked Out” on Superdrag’s Regretfully Yours. By the time you get to closer “I’m Sorry”’s soaring chorus, you may be ready to press play again.

Wyatt Flores/Welcome to the Plains - I almost wrote about this album last time around, but left it out in the interest of getting that post finished and published. This was on my radar due to my friend Keith, who was a fan of Flores’s earlier EPs. I guess he’s classified as country, but he falls into the Americana category for me (what’s the difference, you ask). The album starts with the title track, which is a rollicking number. It’s followed by “When I Die,” which has some great pedal steel and fiddle supporting very reflective lyrics from someone so young. “Oh Susannah” is maybe my favorite track with a very strong chorus, some gang vocals, and a great bridge (“I was a problem”). If the instrumentation was different, “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight” could be power pop; as it is, it rocks pretty hard. “The Truth” is another standout, a ballad with passioned vocals and the best guitar solo on the album in the outro. The fact that the album has 14 songs both works for and against it; it can be a lot to take in, but it also allows for new songs to rise to the fore after repeated listens (“Follow Your Voice” doing that for me on this listen). Flores also did a Tiny Desk Concert recently and it’s well worth a watch.

Tim Heidecker/Slipping Away - Keith (hey, him again) played “Dad of the Year” on his radio show and I dug it enough to give the whole album a listen; however, it didn’t do much for me. I gave it a listen again and liked it much more and by the third listen, I was in. “Well’s Run Dry” comes in like Sky Blue Sky-era Wilco and in other places I’m reminded of Bonny Doon (who, you may recall, had one of my favorite albums last year). I like the false ending of “Trippin’ (Slippin’),” which leads to a rave-up. The afore-mentioned “Dad of the Year” is funny and sweet, with a nice hook to bring you in. I find “Bottom of the 8th” endearing, with its story of a dad taking his daughter to a ballgame. The whole album is full of songs that will worm their way into your brain, but I’d like to quickly shout out the melancholy “Something Somewhere,” which has a cool outro, and closer “Bells Are Ringing,” which swells as it unspools and ends with a children’s choir.

The Successful Failures/Enemy Sublime - I almost wrote about their album Wrong Together last year, but it ended up in the same slow and steady category and I left it out of a couple posts. I’m not making that same mistake with this album, which might be even better. It opens with “Worried All the Time,” a mid-tempo tune that rocks pretty hard with a riff that’ll lodge in your head. The next three songs all hit that same mid-tempo rock without sounding alike. “Future Employers” is much moodier before building to a guitar workout that comes crashing back into the chorus. After that, things take a twangy turn for a few songs and it works just as well. “Alone in Texas” puts some blues and grit into the twang, while also working some twin lead guitar line magic. The penultimate track, “High End Handbags” is another winner and has a chorus so catchy that they start the song with it.

Honorable Mention: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings/Woodland

New Albums for November/December

Father John Misty/Mahashmashana - While I didn’t really get into Chloe and the Next 20th Century (2022), I absolutely loved God’s Favorite Customer (2018). So, I was hopeful that this would hit me more like the latter than the former. Well, it did that and then some. The title track opens with strings and a stately drumbeat, but employs great fills along the way as well as a saxophone; it’s perfectly overblown. Next up is “She Cleans Up,” which is the funkiest FJM has even been. “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose” is effortlessly cool and self-deprecating with some Sea Change-esque strings. The first time I heard “Screamland,” I wasn’t too sure, but now I anticipate the blown speaker chorus, especially juxtaposed against the relative sparseness of the verses. “I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All” is a sprawling 8 minutes plus, dancey and funky but almost structured like something off of Dylan’s latter day works and with fantastic lyrics - “Go and serve your client notice/That of all the young gods I have known/Yours is easily the least famous/To turn down the cover of The Rolling Stone.” Right now, it’s my favorite song on the album and maybe my favorite FJM song period. This album is his absolute pinnacle and if it had come out early in the year, I’m sure it would have more plays than any other album. If you haven’t listened, please do yourself that favor.

Michael Kiwanuka/Small Changes - I was a big fan of Kiwanuka, his 2019 album, and very much anticipating this one. Pressing play on “Floating Parade” puts you right back into his soundscape - soaring strings, a chorus of voices, great bass work, and more. The title track has some amazing reverb on the keys, tasteful drums (in a good way!), and solo that both works with and against the melody. The bass is once again prominent on “Rebel Soul,” acting as a counterpoint to the steady piano, which is again augmented by strings and perfect percussion. The transition from “Lowdown (part 1)” to “Lowdown (part ii)” is really cool, downshifting into an airier feel with some lovely guitar. “Stay By My Side” is another standout, taking the same elements from the rest of the album, but making it new. I guess that’s the heart of Kiwanuka’s music and why he’s so compelling. Small Changes is a perfect album to play in your classroom while you’re preparing for the students to arrive and also in your headphones late at night.

Wussy/Cincinnati Ohio - Wussy is a band I’ve always liked, but I think I missed their last album from 2018, What Heaven Is Like. This is their first album since then and also follows the death of guitarist John Erhardt. It opens with the anthemic “The Great Divide,” led by the vocals of Lisa Walker. Chuck Cleaver take the lead on the next one, “The Ghosts Keep Me Alive,” and it’s definitely a haunting track, unspooling at a stately pace. “Sure As the Sun” starts with “Time is an assassin/And when it finally tracks you down/You can’t tiptoe around it/Or conveniently skip town,” which, ouch, but also so well done and the music churns underneath and it’s great. The shambolic and wry “Please Kill Me” is followed by the warped and woozy “The Night We Missed the Horror Show,” both with Cleaver on the lead. This set of songs isn’t afraid to be dark and pretty and melancholy and gloriously alive.

Honorable Mentions: Kim Deal/Nobody Loves You More and Martin Devaney/Blueprint for a Ghost