My favourite albums of 2024

This album makes me sad but also hopeful; it's a lot of fun. The songs show that you can go a long way with a very simple idea. The sound and engineering is, naturally, brilliant. I love Shellac.

Neubauten have been going for more than 40 years. This album shows them not slowing down. Their supporter site is well worth spending money on. The band is completely supporter-funded since more than 20 years.

Irish fenians, unite against oppression! Also, this album is fun and funny. Imagine politics and fun in 2024: this is it.

1970s? 1970s. In a good way. This is not pastiche. This is wonderful in both terms of sound and melodies.

Xiu Xiu have just come off a very very heavy album into this one, where we have a lot more synths and fun. There's a lot of different sounds and Xiu Xiu to love. BTW, their merch is unique and a lot of fun. Go order!

This is my favourite black-metal album of 2024. Sounds like black metal married with...The Cure.

Expect virtuoso bass-playing, 303 madness, and dissonant, minor-chord brutal shit.

Finally Jon Spencer gets into a kind of JSBX mode again! This is brilliant. A trio! Two young persons and Jon Spencer, with his youthful energy; this is just kickin' music. YouknowwhatImeanriteaboutnooooooooow.

One of the most accomplished songwriters and hook-smiths, Du Blonde now churns out yet another fantastic power-pop, buzzed-guitar album. Their voice is better than ever.

Underworld, at last! Some of the songs are very good, like 'denver luna'. The album fits as a whole.

Bolis Pupul has, together with the Dwaele brothers (a.k.a. 2 Many DJs and Soulwax), made a wonderful analoge-sounding album with a lot of great melodies and weirdness. This is very, very welcoming.

This may be my favourite soundtrack of 2024. Very similar to the same makers' soundtrack to the TV series 'Devs', but different.

Great punk/hardcore that transcends the genre.

Excellent demo collection that's better than most bands' A-sides. This is experimental and dreamy.

Joy. Cave ruminates from the floor and from the sky.

GY!BE fight zionism and they do it well. This is a very good and instrumental album, like a walk through thoughts.

A modern German band that make catchy songs with grand melodies. The sound is as though this is recorded in a dank cave, 500 meters below ground, with plenty of reverb. I like this a lot.

Darkthrone, one of the most important black-metal bands so far, have gone back to their roots and created an extremely rudimentary and powerful album. The lyrics are often ridiculous, as with the best lyrics in the genre. This is brilliant!

Big Star, meet Teenage Fanclub. And add noise and few power-pop boundaries.

One of the best instrumental field-music/analogue/dreamy/flowy-tzzzz-RRROOOMMMM-y musicians has this out: finally. This is not as good as his latest albums, but it's powerful and works better as a whole than song-by-song.

One of the most extreme and hyperkinetic black-metal bands continues their journey; not as good as the album before this one, but still very good. The band sounds like a unified fight against itself.

The Jimi Hendrix of Africa appears again. Some of the songs are just brilliant melodic mainstays.

Experimental and luxurious, this is more than most fans of the hyperkinetic would care to have. Boom.

Drum 'n' bass collaboration, here we go!

Callahan's wonderful deep barytone travels well in live recordings. This is no exception. This album reminds me of what Destroyer has done in recent years.

This is perhaps my favourite compilation album of 2024: absolutely blissful selection of great songs.

The ambient album of 2024. Roach was recently the subject of a documentary, by the way. This album is made from exactly one single synth, one that Roach created with a vendor. This is a synthesis between Roach's inner and outer worlds.

The band is back. This is heavy and good stuff. Robert Smith isn't afraid of anything, it seems.

A sad-ish collection of songs following death and breakup in the life of Owens, this is far better than it could have turned out: this is a really wondrous album with a lot of great sounds and guitar work. I enjoy Owens's voice to the full. The last song on the album is great.