Reflecting on the year that was 2024 as we stare down the barrel of another Trump presidency, it sometimes feels difficult to see the goodness in things. It’s pretty clear Joy Oladokun feels the same, if this year’s ‘I’d Miss the Birds’ is anything to go by, anyway: as she fantasises about living off grid to escape a modern life that often feels like a fever dream, Oladokun is sure that “this world on fire still has good to discover”, and while she wouldn’t miss “the traffic or the runaway trains”, and would be all too happy to get away from “the Proud Boys and their women” who just make her feel “out of place”, she sees the positive around her, knowing that despite everything, she would “miss the birds and the music that they make”.
Unsurprisingly, Oladokun is one of my first picks of the year with “Observations From a Crowded Room”, a prescient and moving collection of songs that continue to mark her out as one of the most interesting voices in Americana. Madi Diaz put out a record so strong with “Weird Faith” that even Grammy voters finally sat up and took notice, but then with a lyric as fantastic as, “Do you think this could ruin your life? / Cause I can see it ruining mine”, how could they not? It has received a nomination for ‘Best Folk Album’, while her starry single ‘Don’t Do Me Good’ with Kacey Musgraves has itself been put up for ‘Best Americana Performance’. Musgraves herself was back with “Deeper Well”, a gentle, folky album packed with raw confessions, a very welcome return to form after the somewhat confused “Star-Crossed”.
This year, Katie Pruitt followed up her near perfect 2020 debut with “Mantras” and it was just as good as its predecessor. “Clinging to any meaning you can find / We’re all desperate to feel something divine / Always looking for a sign,” she sings on ‘All My Friends’ of the exhausting, neverending search for meaning that we are all engaged in. As far as strong follow ups go, Stephanie Lambring hit it out the park with “Hypocrite”, which might be even more achingly honest than the wonderful “Autonomy”, with songs like the incredible ‘Good Mother’ able to bring you to your knees.
Orville Peck put out ‘Stampede’, an album of duets that was undeniably pop in places – Kylie Minogue, Elton John and Miley Cyrus’s sister Noah are on there – but if you are OK with that, there are some truly great tracks featuring AUK heavyweights like Molly Tuttle, Margo Price, Allison Russell, and even Willie Nelson. The brilliant but vastly underrated Jared Deck put out his third album, “Head Above Water”, and the title track, a rip roaring anthem of perseverance, is exactly what you would hope to hear from someone who is the Democratic Oklahoma State Representative as well as a musician.
A couple of my new favourite discoveries from 2024 that I’d say just about squeak into the Americana category are Caity Krone and Loren Kramar. Krone put out a quietly affecting – and sadly overlooked – album in “Nose Job”, where she speaks of a lack of self belief and the impossible standards women are held to, but also that tells of the ongoing trauma caused by her school days in a way that hits home achingly closely. As for Kramar, his debut album “Glovemaker” is a lush treat – something like Rufus Wainwright meets Father John Misty (who, interestingly, Kramar has opened for) – that finds him showing his vulnerability whilst also taking on celebrity obsessed Los Angeles.
Speaking of Josh Tillman’s alias, he was back with not only his “Greatish Hits” (which, you get the feeling, was mainly released for those people who wanted ‘Real Love Baby’ on vinyl after its viral TikTok success), but also a whole new album in “Mahashmashana”, a welcome return to his “Pure Comedy”-esque best form after 2022’s polarising (and self described “fake jazz” album) “Chloë and the Next 20th Century”.
Ruminating over the last 12 months in new releases has got me more sure than ever that Oladokun knows best because the simple truth is, whether the music is made by animal or man, we would miss it because it transports us, lifts us and it heals us, and I think that, at least, is something worth celebrating.
