2024 was a strange year for music. Despite an avalanche of music being released, especially in the last few months, things felt a bit lacking. A lot of bands that I’ve been really excited about put their new albums out, and they did nothing for me. On the plus side, there are always so many acts to step in and take their place, and as always, I’m delighted to see a bunch of acts who are new to me on this list. It’s always good to keep things fresh with your music listening.
I’m getting more concerned that there are two prog albums on here this year, but it may be a bit “the gentleman protests too much.” Still, it’s weird.
Unfortunately life has gotten in the way of me being able to do my usual full write up. I was going to just ditch this post but seeing as these yearly round ups are how this blog first started it, didn’t feel right. So just to warn you, it’ll just be a bit rougher and or shorter than usual. So apologies for that.
Oh, the blog runs December to November, which is why Volkor X is eligible.
Album of the Year
Overhead, the Albatross
I Leave You This
Post Rock / Electronica
It might seem a bit odd to have an album from mid November in an end of year list, but to have it as my album of the year must seem a wee bit overzealous.
Although this album was only released a few weeks ago, I managed to buy a copy at the band’s London gig back in September.
I didn’t know the O,tA that well and only went to the show because their song, Your Last Breath had such a big impact on me. During the show the band said that they were selling CDs of the new album after the show and I was so blown away I was first in line at the merch stall after the show. There was just no way I could wait over two months to hear the songs I’d just see performed again.
And somehow, amazingly, it was everything I hoped it could be.
I Leave You This is a heady mix of imagination, creativity and daring. No one has ever fused post rock with electronica the way O,tA has. The first half of the album is very creative post rock, using bands like God is an Astronaut and maybe some hints for Public Service Broadcasting as inspiration. But as the album progresses, the band slowly morphs into a dance act. By the time we get to the song At Sea, you can hear O,tA setting controls for the heart of the sun and they just go for it. There’s hip hop beats, Asian and African vocal samples, spoken word sections, pretty much anything the band can think of is thrown in here and they, somehow, make it soar.
This is music as joy. I’ve connected with this album in a way I haven’t in years, and everytime I finish listening to it I just want to start it again. I’m in danger of getting a bit too florid here, so just have to ask you to trust me. This album is pure gold.
https://lynkify.in/song/paul-lynch/ZDhHyuLT
Final Coil
The World that we Inherited
Prog / Metal
Sometimes it can be difficult to put why you like an album into words. If this happens, I’ll normally just scrap the review and act like nothing happened, but on two occasions I’ve recommended the act anyway with an apology and a bit of an embarrassed shrug. The first was Julia-Sophie, who I got to make it up to by reviewing her amazing debut album. The second was Final Coil. I just couldn’t get my love for their album into words back in the dark of last winter, but hopefully I can now.
There was something cold about this album that I couldn’t explain. It was a bit too forbidding for me to get my head around, to explain to people why they should listen to The World that we Inherited. With a bit of distance and some more time listening to the album, it became blindingly obvious that what I was having such a hard time describing was the band’s Industrial feel.
The World that we Inherited comes in softly, a low piano that slowly shifts into an Exorcist sounding tune (Yes I know that’s Tubular Bells) as the song introduces its low, threatening guitars, and sets up the first half of the album. This is going to be thoughtful, moody, and heavy.
I had to raise an eyebrow at the track title for the song Chemtrails, but luckily you won’t be needing your tinfoil hat here, just an appreciation of fine riffs.
The album is a mix of different styles that somehow manages to keep its mood and tone so it doesn’t get jarring. By Starlight, introduces the electronica that will come to the foreground in the middle section of the album. Stay With Me is closer to Darkwave than prog, however, as we get to the albums back end, Out of Sorts announces the albums return to heaviness with a great proggy solo as the band closes things out with some crunchy guitars.
So apologies to Final Coil for not being able to express my thoughts back in January and I hope this makes up for it. This is an exceptional album that really doesn’t sound like anyone else.
https://lynkify.in/song/chemtrails/FudgbFo8
The Cure
Songs for a Lost World / Songs for a Live World
Guess
I made a decision that I wasn’t going to add any of the more successful bands into my top ten this year. They don’t need me cheering them on and I’d rather spend my time trying to get some more ears on bands who could do with more support. Life is rarely that simple and The Cure went and released a really good album. It may actually be great but it feels a little too early to call that. Seriously, this is the best album that the Cure have released in over thirty years! Another good Cure album is something that I couldn’t even dare dream of but Rob has really delivered.
Songs for a Lost World plays the amazing trick of sounding just like The Cure. Like an album you’ve known all your life but somehow, still sounds fresh.
From the first notes of Alone, you can feel the Disintegration touchstones in the music but it’s not a retread, it’s familiar but new. The album closer, Endsong is already a classic and I can’t wait to see it live at some point and I thought I was finished going to see The Cure.
I’ve added the Troxy live album because I think it’s the better version. The studio album has some production issues, especially how hard they hammer the bass, but the live versions of the songs come out so much better. It showcases just how good a live band the Cure are and Rob’s voice is still, somehow as good as it’s ever been.
Somehow this is only the Cure’s second number 1 album and it is so well deserved. Welcome back lads, great to have you on form again.
https://lynkify.in/song/endsong/3QnpI5DD
Dawnwalker
The Unknowing
Prog
Dawnwalker have really changed direction with their new album. Mark Norgate recruited a new group of people to work with and decided to go Full Prog, throwing out pretty much everything I’d loved about the band. Mainly the blackened post metal.
I was not, to put it mildly, impressed. It was honestly a struggle to get through the album on first listen. But, I’m too big a fan not to give the album a few more tries and pretty quickly it went from “what the hell is this?” to “This is pretty good actually” to “This is easily one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.”
So what got such a reaction? As of writing this, I can’t remember. Maybe it’s just how different it is compared to their older material and I wasn’t able to get on board, I’ve never been great with change. However, I’m still not convinced that the incorporation of reggae worked that well in the song Capricorn. But if you’re not willing to try to experiment should you be identifying as a prog band? And experiment they do. And there is a flute. Which really works and that’s something that probably isn’t going to stop surprising me any time soon.
It feels a little mean to say that the heaviest two songs on the album are the best, but DW really save the best for last. Fall to Earth and The Law take the band’s new sound and merge it with some of the old Human Ruins album feel to great effect.
Somehow, this is my third post about Dawnwalker in 2 months and I promise not to bring them up again for a while, but I am doing it for a reason. This is a great album and worth banging on about.
FYI, Dawnwalker aren’t on Spotify but are on all other streaming platforms.
https://dawnwalker.bandcamp.com/track/the-law
Halina Rice
EVOLVE
Dance
I’ve been following Halina’s work for a while now and it has been a delight to see her progress, how she just keeps honing her art and getting better and better with every release.
EVOLVE is everything I love about dance music. Fast paced (mostly) music that never sits still. Rice moves quickly through lots of different genres on the album and it’s with great skill that the album just flows, and without a sniff of filler.
EVOLVE is an album that is going to stay in rotation for a long time to come. Easily my favourite electronic album of the year.
https://lynkify.in/song/sequence-test/m0Djbcc3
Volkor X
The Loop (Instrumental)
Synthwave
It takes an impressive album to stick in your head almost a year later. In an oversaturated market with new music being available every Friday it’s easy for an album to just get lost in the churn. But there was always something to The Loop that stayed with me.
The original album version has narrative passages and tells a full story, and I really recommend it. It’s a great sci-fi adventure, but it only has a limited shelf life. There’s only so many times I’m going to listen to that kind of album. Thankfully, this instrumental version was released and gave the whole album a new lease of life.
And what a lease of life it is. This is a towering sci-fi soundtrack that paints cosmic vistas, interplanetary travel and some pretty sneaky evil. (If you know the original story.) If I was going to try to sum this album up in one word, it would be soaring. It’s such open music and you can project the universe into it. It’s uplifting in the same way good post rock, or early M83 albums are. Things get pretty progtaciluar on the synths in places, the track Float especially, but on an album who’s concept involves interplanetary travel, you’d be upset if there wasn’t.
The Loop is steeped in the atmosphere of low budget 70’s and 80’s sci-fi films, but while other synthwave albums of this kind can feel like a cheesy pastiche, The Loop feels like it’s own thing, something original built on the shoulders of the past. It’s embracing this music, not winking knowingly about its inspiration.
A year after its release, The Loop still gives me goosebumps. It makes me feel like I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tannhauser gate and how can you not love something for that?
https://lynkify.in/song/expanse/UVCnHWvN
Goodbye Meteor
We Could Have Been Radiant
Post Rock
Every now and then a band approaches me to review their album. Which is lovely. I’m a very small fish in a very large pond. But it always makes me a bit anxious. What if I don’t like the album? This person, who has poured their heart and soul into, and has asked what I think, it can give me The Fear. Luckily, with Goodbye Meteor it became obvious, very quickly, I had nothing to worry about.
We Could Have Been Radiant is a perfect example of how there is still lots of life left in post rock. Using just guitars and drums, with no other bells and whistles (I think) they have made a life affirming, transportative album that, while very pretty, has more than a little bite to it when the band unleashes the distortion.
The album blurb on Bandcamp says that this is a record to point towards a better tomorrow and somehow, it delivers that promise, even in these dark days. Curl up into their music and Goodbye Meteor will take your hand and lead you to a better place.
https://lynkify.in/song/destructuration/fTzppNC5
Cold in Berlin
The Body is the Wound
Goth
There really is nothing that hits quite like some good old fashioned goth rock to light up my blackened heart. Goth is making a bit of a comeback these days, and while many newcomers are getting all the headlines and accolades, CiB dropped The Body is the Wound and out did all the upstarts. In four songs.
Maya’s vocals are the heart of the band, cutting across the doomy goth heaviness that the band deliver like no one else. There’s more drama on this ep than most bands manage in a career. Dark and more than a little mischievous, The Body is the Wound delivers with a knowing smirk and delightfully melodramatic atmosphere.
If you’re drawn to the dark side of the music spectrum, wrap yourself in the dry ice and hide in the strobe lights. This ep is for you.
https://lynkify.in/song/found-out/6bwSH9N6
The Fauns
How Lost
Electronica / Shoegaze
Released in January, How Lost was a beacon of warmth and fun in the dark of winter. There’s just something so inviting about the club adjacent mood of this album that just draws me in.
The Fauns are an interesting mix of styles. There’s warm synths, breathy vocals and a detached sense of cool that reminds me of Ladytron while being able to switch into some beautiful shoegaze without ever jarring the listener. It’s an album that still gets regular play despite being released what seems like a lifetime ago.
https://lynkify.in/song/mixtape-days/9sGGUMxX
Iress
Sleep Now, in Reverse
Alt Rock / Doomgaze
Iress have been called Doomgaze (Big doomy metal riffs meets shoegaze prettiness and walls of noise) band and while that may have been a good description of their older albums, the band have moved on from that with Sleep Now.
There’s not much going on in the way of metal for the first half of this album. Sleep, now is a very good alternative / shoegaze album that reminds me of some of the 90’s 4AD records. However, things start to get heavy half way through the album, where The Remains introduce the loud guitars, while Knell Mera has some great doomy riffs.
Michelle Malley’s voice is the band’s not so secret weapon making the band stand out so far from the others making this kind of music. Her ability to switch between a sweet vocal, adding a hint of gravel and some diva-esque high notes completely changes the band’s vibe and makes them shine all the brighter.
This is an album that effortlessly walks the line between alt rock and metal and hopefully will help the band get the recognition they deserve.
https://lynkify.in/song/the-remains/ym2K1YbH
The ways of exile 