Albums of the Year 2024
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2024
2024 has been a particularly good year for music. I have chosen “Wild God” by Nick Cave as my album of the year (and also concert of the year) with one major caveat: the HiRes streaming version of this album on Qobuz sounds amazing. Unfortunately, side 1 of the LP sounds really poor. Side 2 is marginally better. Avoid the record and buy the CD. It was a particularly good year for Irish bands – including Fontaines, Pillow Queens, New Dad, Sprints, Kneecap, Villagers, Gemma Hayes, Fionn Regan, Christy Moore etc.
There has been a very welcome return for several veteran artists, The Cure, Beth Gibbons, Weller, Joe Pernice, Decemberists, Radiohead (in the 2 album Smile guise), Knopfler, Mercury rev, Grandaddy, Camera Obscura, Libertines, High Llamas, Elbow, Gillian Welch etc. Favourite current band – no question – Lemon Twigs – great concert this summer. New release albums with an (A) are audiophile.
ROCK & POP
Album of the Year:
Wild God – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The rest
Songs Of A Lost World – The Cure
Lives Outgrown – Beth Gibbons (A)
Romance – Fontaines DC
A Dream Is All We Know – Lemon Twigs
66 – Paul Weller
Who Would You Believe – Pernice Brothers
Where’s My Utopia? – Yard Act
Wall of Eyes – The Smile
Cutouts – The Smile
Only God Was Above Us – Vampire Weekend
As I Ever Was, So It Will Be Again – Decemberists
The Light Fantastic – John Bramwell
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Loophole
Luck and Strange – David Gilmour (A)
Tortured Poets Department (Archive Version) – Taylor Swift
Otherness – Ferris & Sylvester
Born Horses – Mercury Rev
One Deep River – Mark Knopfler (A)
Now In A Minute – Susan O’Neill
Name Your Sorrow – Pillow Queens
Fine Art – Kneecap
Grandaddy – Blu Wav
Madra – New Dad
Sprints – Letter to Self
Look to the East Look to the West – Camera Obscura
Audio Vertigo – Elbow
All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – Libertines
Limits of Language – Field Music
That Golden Time – Villagers
Hey Panda – High Llamas
Mahashmashana – Father John Misty
Small Changes – Michael Kiwanuka
Woodland – Gillian Welch
Dance, No Ones Watching – Ezra Collective
JAZZ
Odyssey – Nubya Garcia
Eagle’s Point – Chris Potter
Owl Song – Ambrose Akinmusire
Cloudward – Mary Halvorson
Fearless Movement – Kamashi Washington
Celebration Volume 1 – Wayne Shorter
The Sky Will Be There Tomorrow – Charles Lloyd
REISSUES AND BOX SETS
I swore that I wouldn’t squander a ton of money on the Analogue Productions UHQR versions of the Steely Dan catalogue. Of course I bought them all (so far). AJA and Gaucho (AP UHQR) may well be the best sounding records that I have ever bought. I also got sucked into the UHQR 45rpm versions of Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans. Yes they sound amazing, but are they better than the Kevin Gray Craft cuts for a fraction of the price? Hmm
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to include most of the Contemporary Records (Craft) reissues for this year, having stupidly pre-ordered a pile of them, and then discovered that they would all ship when the last one had been released (around now).
Neil Young has been reissuing a staggering amount of material over the past year. I’m waiting for Archives III to drop in price, but I suspect that it is as good as volumes I and II.
Reissue(s) of the Year
Gaucho – Steely Dan (Analogue Productions UHQR)
AJA – Steely Dan (Analogue Productions UHQR)
The rest
Dialogue – Bobby Hutcherson (Blue Note Tone Poet)
Memorial Album – Clifford Brown (Blue Note)
HMS Fable – Shack
Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports – Nick Mason (Carla Bley)
Souvlaki – Slowdive (MOV)
Waltz for Debby – Bill Evans (Analogue Productions UHQR and Craft recordings)
Guitar Forms – Kenny Burrell (Verve Analogue Productions)
Feats don’t fail me now – Little Feat
Kenny Burrelll & John Coltrane (OJC)
A Night at the Village Vanguard – Complete Masters (Tone Poet)
Ole Coltrane – John Coltrane (Rhino)
No Other Sessions – Gene Clark (RSD 2024)
Quadrophenia – The Who (1/2 speed master)
Smack Up – Art Pepper (Contemporary)
Dume – Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Crosby, Stills & Nash – CSN (Analogue Productions Atlantic)
Duck Rock – Malcolm McLaren (state51 conspiracy)
Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings
1976 – Thin Lizzy (BluRay SDE)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie (BluRay surround)
Moon Safari (25th 2CD + BluRay) – Air
Box Set of The Year
Trilogy (Vinyl) – Chick Corea Trio
The rest
Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision – Jimi Hendrix
The BBC Collection – Rory Gallagher
Absolution (20th Anniversary) – Muse
7 Inch Singles 1966-71 – Rolling Stones
Southern Rock Opera – Drive By Truckers (20th Deluxe Edition)
Apostrophe (‘) – Frank Zappa
1964 US Albums in Mono – Beatles (vinyl)
Bob Dylan & The Band – The 1974 Live Recordings (The Missing Songs From Before The Flood) – Bob Dylan
How to Dismantle/Reassemble An Atomic Bomb – U2
Talking Heads 77 – Talking Heads
Now! That’s what I call music yearbook series
AUDIOBOOKS (not all released in 2024)
Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves – Nicola Twilley
3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans & the Lost Empire of Cool – James Kaplan
Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier – Patrick Grant
The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99% – Conor Niland
MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios – Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, Gavin Edwards
The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond – Chris Blackwell
Making It So: A Memoir – Patrick Stewart
Unruly: A History of England’s Kings and Queens – David Mitchell
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