2024 has been a corker for albums. Getting to the business end of the countdown with numbers 10 to 6.
Number 10: Jack White – No Name
It took me a while to get round to listening to this one, the quality control of Jack White being quite variable in his recent output. This one though grabs you from the off – the dual talents of his always recognisable voice and best of his generation guitar skills both dialled up to the maximum. It is the solo work of his that could easily have been an at their peak White Stripes album. Blues guitar and swamp garage rock with a healthy dose of Led Zeppelin thrown in.
Number 9: Fat Dog – Woof
This year’s WTF was that album. An album that leaps out of the gate and instantly smashes you round the head for attention. Somewhere between electro-punk, frat-boy party and master’s level interpretation of the nature of the universe, dogs and slugs, lies ‘Woof’. A high energy non-stop riot. One listen and I booked a ticket for their Oxford show next year. On the basis of this it should be an absolute blast.
Number 8: Emiliana Torrini – Miss Flower
25 years on from the soundtrack of my 1999 summer, ‘Unemployed in Summertime,’ Emiliana Torrini provides the most captivating rabbit hole of any of the albums released this year. Torrini uses a cash of love letters from the deceased mother of a close friend to capture the most powerful insights into the nature of love, lust and unrequited feelings. In these words and music is trapped the spirit of a truly magnetic woman who spurned 9 offers of marriage but also captures musings and reflections on the passing of time. That the majority of the lyrics are verbatim from the letters of Miss Flower and her many admirers gives it a reality and an intimacy that most songwriting could only dream of. Full of simmering tension, yearning and what might have beens… a truly unique record.
Number 7: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – Woodland
If there is one form of music I have never got on with it is country music, so for the second year running it stuns me that a country album has snuck in so high on my list. As with ‘Far From Saints’ last year it is the exquisite and timeless songwriting combined with superb vocal harmonies that has earned it the place but this time there is no Welshman to help me pretend it is anything other than ‘country music’. Other than a throwaway reference to a hashtag this album could have made anytime between 1960 and now and would have been a classic in any of those years.
Number 6: Wunderhorse – Midas
‘Cub’ was a great debut album full of tightly crafted songs. ‘Midas’ is a quantum leap forward in quality despite musically being deceptively simple. To anyone suggesting the death of the guitar band these guys and Fontaines D.C. are the vanguard of the riposte. This is the kind of album teenagers could live inside for months, unpacking the lyrics, discussing the artwork, wallowing in the emotional lows and highs, obsessing over each new tidbit of info.
Lead track ‘Midas’ grabs you from the off. ‘Rain’ is one of several tracks that brings Bends era Radiohead to mind. ‘Silver’ is one of many tracks that is even more electric live, where they are developing a phenomenal presence. When ‘July’ lets rip it recalls Nirvana at their peak, interestingly the album was recorded in the same studio as Nirvana made ‘In Utero’ so there is clearly an appreciation there. They are currently supporting Sam Fender’s arena tour. One more album and I suspect they will be ready to become one of the biggest bands on the planet and fill those sort of venues as the headline act. Catch them in smaller venues while you still can.
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