Yesterday we counted down numbers 20-11 in our top albums of 2024 and noted that we’ve been sent so much that it’s often difficult to keep up but that 2024 undoubtedly contained future classics which people don’t yet know are classics. Imagine the challenge then in narrowing it down to 20, and not just chosen by one person but by 30 odd. We have to give a shout-out here to the superb new album by Danny and the Champs “You Are Not a Stranger Here” which was released quite late on in the year and which many of our writers haven’t yet heard. Do check it out (and our interview yesterday!) Today, we count down numbers 10-2 and announce our number-one album for 2024.
10. Sarah Jarosz “Polaroid Lovers”
If four Grammy Awards, including Best Americana Album in 2020 with “World on the Ground”, weren’t enough to make her stand out from the crowd, Texas-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz’s seventh full-length album certainly does the job. Fresh, accessible, and universal, “Polaroid Lovers” represents a departure from Jarosz’s usual writing style in that it is her first co-written album. More confident in her musical identity and, therefore, with the knowledge she could stay true to herself. Overall, it’s a beautifully blended production. And, as for the questions asked in ‘Good At What I Do‘ (Jarosz/Hemby): “Am I good at what I do / Do I live up to the kings / Will my words go on forever / When my voice no longer sings“, the resounding answer has to be “Yes!” (VF)
9. Robert Vincent “Barriers”
Those readers of a certain age will remember when any new half-decent songwriter came along the press of the day would more often than not tag them as the new Dylan. This supposed compliment was more often than not a millstone around the hopeful artist’s neck for the simple fact that no one could replace Bob Dylan, and being compared to him meant they had to work even harder to establish their own stylistic credibility with the listening public. If anyone has any lingering doubts about Robert Vincent’s standing as one of the best British songwriters then a listen to “Barriers” should banish those doubts forever. He has shown another facet to his songwriting and has had the courage to broaden his sound which fits perfectly with the more personal approach to the songs. Existing fans will be pleased that he has continued to develop as an artist and hasn’t simply tried to repeat himself, “Barriers” is also of the quality to bring Robert Vincent to the attention of new listeners who are not necessarily fans of americana and folk, but appreciate quality songs beautifully performed and sung. Oh and he’s from Liverpool too which gets him a thousand bonus points. (MJ)
8. Elles Bailey “Beneath the Neon Glow”
“Beneath the Neon Glow” is many things to multi-award-winning Elles Bailey. Having released her first three studio albums as an independent artist, Bailey recognised that she was “a victim, in all the best ways, of her own success” and that to be able to fully concentrate on writing, recording and performing “without worrying about shifting boxes of records” she needed the support of a label. Signed to Cooking Vinyl towards the end of 2023, it’s her fourth studio album and her first release as a signed artist. However, she makes the point that she already had the album written before she was signed, thus assuring her loyal fans that this album is, together with her various co-writers, all her. Bailey explains how she loves the idea of a neon glow and being “Beneath the Neon Glow” is, to her, “all the hidden things that you try to keep down and put in their place. It’s the chaos beneath what everyone else sees”. It is fitting, therefore, since this is an album of very personal highs and lows. (VF)
7. John Moreland “Visitor”
After the bells and whistles (synths to be more precise) which populated his previous album “Birds In The Ceiling”, John Moreland has returned to his rootsier roots on “Visitor”, an album he recorded at home, playing most of the instruments himself in an attempt he says to make “A natural sounding folk rock album.” The album was recorded during a period last year when Moreland went “off-grid.” He took, he says, “a year-long break from touring, in an attempt to regain my sanity, I stopped using a smartphone for 6 months, and wrote this album.” Away from such distractions, Moreland had time to contemplate the world around him, a world in which he says on the closing title song he considers himself a visitor, numbed by a constant barrage of doom and gloom. For all his doubts and soul searching, Moreland’s time out didn’t find his muse deserting him and on “Visitor” he has delivered a striking and thoughtful album. (PK)
6. American Aquarium “The Fear of Standing Still”
B.J. Barham’s storytelling is once again front and centre on “The Fear of Standing Still” – American Aquarium’s tenth album – and all the little fish are rocking the tank swimmingly again after the band’s more subdued “Chicamocomici” from 2022 didn’t cast as many hooks. This record came out worn in and ready to wear like vintage clothing, familiar yet freshened, like when the waitress tops off your water glass. Barham is at his most compelling when embracing his family’s history as a reflection of a shared humanity, and no song cogitates on this better than ‘Southern Roots.’ In some ways, this album reads like a rough draft of William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury,” where all the greed, addiction, racism, tragedy and, yes, sometimes joy, interrelated with life in America’s South are examined. Haunted by its history, Barham realizes: There’s a great responsibility / That comes with this geography / So right here I’ll plant a brand new seed / And watch it grow. Another terrific track that fits comfortably within the band’s wheelhouse is ‘The Curse of Growing Old.’ Here is one of Barham’s pet topics, the lingering feelings of grief exemplified by finally seeing his father shed tears upon the death of his wife/BJ’s mom. The only other time was in ‘01 at Daytona when Senior died (Dale Earnhart, for those unfamiliar with NASCAR racing). To Barham, the only thing more terrifying than dying is learning there’s a price we all must pay for another day. And that price is change. (DN)
5. Peter Bruntnell “Houdini And The Sucker Punch”
While there’s no such thing as a poor Peter Bruntnell album, “Houdini and The Sucker Punch” finds him in rude health with the album being compared to his classic “Normal For Bridgewater”. From the perfectly crafted opening title song to the glorious contemplation of the last number, ‘Jimmy Mac’, Bruntnell doesn’t put a foot wrong. His admission of being a bit of a slacker who can’t get out of his bed of a morning on ‘Out Of The Pines’ is classic Bruntnell while the retro psychedelic sounds of ‘Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump’, a song which reminds one of Revolver era Beatles, is quite immense. We go back to that comment that his songs one writer made that should be taught in schools – not on the curriculum yet but we will continue to lobby. (PK)
4. MJ Lenderman “Manning Fireworks”
MJ Lenderman is a superstar within the genre. At once immediate and compelling the songwriting rips up the rulebook and allows Jake (for that is he) to detail small-town anxieties and universal truths whilst either shredding his guitar or perching the listener on top of the most delicate of melodies both of which break your heart everytime you listen. Musically, it’s urgent and ragged, both heavy and soft, tight and loose, always teetering on the edge of falling apart. ‘You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In’ has lo-fi bedroom beats, matched with a warbling clarinet, invoking recent Bonnie “Prince” Billy experiments. Lenderman curates his own world—aloof but alive. But beneath all the sardonic humour, there’s a heart in there, wrapped up in the struggle..(KH/TH)
3. Hurray for the Riff Raff “The Past is Still Alive”
Hurray for the Riff Raff’s front member Alynda Segarra started recording “The Past Is Still Alive” a month after the death of their father in March 2023. The album emerged from a period of “personal grief” and pulled inspiration from “radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art”, as well as works from Eileen Myles and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. It’s such a sombre but still hopeful album. Using their past as a starting point on many of the tracks, they have to keep moving forward touching the flame in this terrible world. After the US elections, we will need people who will be prepared to do that more and more. Seeing them play live only cements admiration for them. Such an important artist with so much to say, every track is a cinematic gem. (RT)
2. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings “Woodland”
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have been presenting their brand of love songs for the loveless since Welch first eased into the folk landscape in 1996 on her “Revival” album. She and Rawlings have since teamed up for ten albums, though several are under her name alone. This latest was recorded at their Nashville studio, Woodland, also the title of the album, recently released on Acony Records. “The past four years were spent almost entirely within its walls, bringing it back to life after the 2020 tornado and making this record,” Welch offered. It does seem to carry a hint of cabin fever folk. Welch and Rawlings’ albums come around about as often as a flower blooms in winter (seven years in this case), but the infrequency of their records does offer fans an opportunity to fully savour the old-time country songs about misfit outcasts and poor people resigned to asking little from life. (DN)
1. Bonny Light Horseman “Keep Me On Your Mind/Set You Free”
There can be a tendency when reviewing albums to become overzealous in reaching for the superlatives when describing that which has impressed. However, with “Keep Me On Your Mind / Set You Free”, Bonny Light Horseman have produced an album that is worthy of the highest praise, stuffed full of modern folk songs, all laced with a heady mix of glory and chaos. From Ireland the trio, Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman, returned to their spiritual home of Dreamland Studio in upstate New York, to complete the recording, which had also been the venue of choice for their first two albums. Now, whereas their eponymous debut had delivered a modern twist to a collection of predominantly British folk songs and their follow-up “Rolling Golden Holly”, which consisted totally of self-penned numbers, were both rooted within the familiar traditional song framework, this third offering displays a collective desire to stretch and push those musical boundaries. More daring in song structure, more open and vulnerable lyrically, it reveals a musical unit at the very zenith of its creativity. In truth there are no weak songs, such a rarity in what is fundamentally a double album, with every track warranting its place on this audacious sprawling masterpiece. Rarely has an album felt so accessible and immediate, and yet still continue to reveal something new over repeated listening. Most of all this album is the ultimate triumph for three dynamic and sensitive artists empowered and enriched by one another. (GT)
