Mark Whitfield, AUK Editor’s Top 20 songs of 2024: Part One, 20-11

As I often remark these days, or these years, where once my musical life was all about albums, I along with apparently everyone under the age of 65 now have the attention span of a goldfish and so I count my weeks and months in individual songs. And the thing about the humble song, it just feels like it’s a constant through the ages – as a medium, it was around way before the album and will be around for an eternity after it. All that said, there were some albums which really impressed in 2024 from Icarus Phoenix, Nada Surf and John Canning Yates among others, and it was bookended by two in particular – Grandaddy’s “Blu Wav” at the start of the year and Merce Lemon’s “Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild” which was released over the summer but only landed in my in-tray a few weeks back. Both albums epitomise to me everything I love about Americana, the fuzzed-out edges of the genre which give it its alternative vibe – there’s no chance either of these two acts will ever be invited to perform on C2C and what a relief that is. Oddly and maybe eerily, this is the first year in a long time that some of my favourite albums have also appeared on The Guardian’s end of year list. Maybe Americana is having another moment. Anyway, here are my top 20 songs of the year. As a reader commented this time last year, “soft and samey” – which will probably be the epitaph on my gravestone.

20. Chime School “Wandering Song”

San Francisco’s Chime School do the kind of Teenage Fanlcub-y indie-West-Coast-pop thing so well and their latest album “The Boy Who Ran Paisley Hotel” deals thoughtfully with issues such as gentrification and the destruction left in its wake. Highlight of the record for me is ‘Wandering Song’ which city-native Andy Pastalaniec said “is about the energy we expend distracting ourselves from the crises unfolding around the world; how we tend to turn inwards when our only chance to survive them is through collective organizing”. And we are always up for a bit of a collective organising around these parts.

19. Jason McNiff “Song of Everything”

If you cut AUK in half you would find among accidentally swallowed marbles, micro-plastics and other things London-based Americana singer-songwriter Jason McNiff at our core. His ninth album “Everything’s a Song” was released earlier this year and while there was nothing which would have been a surprise to long-term fans, he has a record of absolutely killer first-tracks of which this is yet another fine example, effectively the title track of the album. It really reminds me of the epicly good ‘Blow Up the Bridge’ from his second album but is slightly less Knofpler-esque with some really nice Spanish-type guitar.

18. Britti “Keep Running”

I am not a fan of bombastic overwrought Americana and when you read the bio for the new album by New Orleans’ Britti as being “inspired by luminaries from Diana Ross to Dolly Parton and contemporary legends from Beyoncé to Sade”, it probably didn’t tick my boxes (sorry I know this is sacrilege but I still find most of Dolly’s output unbearably mawkish) but this is such a strong track, actually not histrionic at all and hopefully a sign of more to come in the future. Her debut album “Hello, I’m Britti” is produced The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and well worth checking out.

17. Bleachers “Rollercoaster”

You have probably heard more songs by The Bleachers than you think you have, given frontman Jack Antonoff’s involvement with Taylor Swift’s music – as great as his band’s own songs are they’re probably as we say normally “not the right fit” for AUK. But then he went and re-recorded their 2014 debut album “Strange Desire” as an acoustic more folk-leaning collection of songs by adding a letter D to the title, with some nice slide thrown in on occasion, the way he would have originally recorded them he says if he’d had the bollocks – as he described them “all 11 tracks reimagined without the armour”. It’s a textbook example of how to re-record an album – with tracks such as ‘Rollercoaster’ completely transformed, it allows the songs to speak for themselves.

16. Paul Kelly “Taught By Experts”

In my humble view Australia’s Paul Kelly is in the top 5 songwriters alive today, and someone who’s had a major impact on Americana in ways you may not be aware of – for instance, his song ‘Everything’s Turning to White’ which was based on Raymond Carver’s story “So Much Water So Close to Home” was what started off Willy Vlautin writing novels according to Vlautin himself. The song “Taught by Experts” has been around for decades now, appearing in recorded form originally on his “Live, May 1992 album” but has been recorded for his latest album “Fever Longing Still” which with the full band sound brings it to life like never before. And what better riposte to Michael Gove?

15. John Canning Yates “Riches”

Many years back there was a kind of indie-americana Liverpool-based band called Ella Guru who supported Midlake in our dear little city and who blew me away at the time, although their debut album despite the rave reviews was sadly destined to be a one-off. So it was a Christmas present come early to see lead singer John Canning Yates return with an album of the year for me, “The Quiet Portraits” which is one of the most sonically layered engaging records I’ve listened to in a long time. This closing track for some reason reminds me of a more Americana version of Pink Floyd’s ‘High Hopes’ – it just resonates with such emotive weight and evocative imagery.

14. Icarus Phoenix “High Tide”

I adore Utah-born Drew Danburry’s music in whatever form it takes but particularly when it’s recorded by his long-time band project Icarus Phoenix who are on to their fourth album now “I Should’ve Known The Things You Never Said” which following a relationship break-up is a difficult, brutally honest but hugely rewarding experience. ‘High Tide’ is apparently a hard song to play but thank the Lord they persisted – it’s everything which makes the band’s music such an essential listen. The fringes of Americana for sure, but Danburry’s talent for a combination of melody, lyrics and arrangements (not to mention the amazing artwork) is overwhelming at times.

13. Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman “Right Back To It”

Waxahatchee aka Katie Crutchfield is one of those rare artists who both gets played on mainstream radio these days and is also well known to americana-audiences here in the UK. It’s four years on from her debut “Saint Cloud” that follow-up “Tigers Blood” landed which continued her penchant for country-leaning songs with an indie-vibe: highlight of the record was this track recorded with soon to be bigger than Jesus MJ Lenderman who feels like the new Ryan Adams without the baggage. The song was apparently inspired by the tradition of country duets and Crutchfield finished the song’s arrangement before opening for Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell. As someone noted (not us sadly) it will be a song which you can imagine soundtracking some of life’s key moments to come.

12. Sean Stemaly “Smoke in the Sky”

Kentucky-born Sean Stemaly is a US country singer who apparently taught himself to sing while driving a tractor, possibly the most country thing ever (other than if he’d run over his dog in the process) – he cites Tyler Childers as an influence which is apparent on this track taken from his acoustic album “4 Wheel Low” which is crying out for a full band version at some point. For now, if you’ve ever wondered what ‘Wonderwall’ would sound like if it was adapted into a country song, prepare to wonder no longer. I played this to my metalhead dad while we were on holiday over the summer in August and he said it was “quite good really” which is praise indeed.

11. Dylan John Thomas “Feel The Fire”

I hate key changes in songs so for a song to make my end of year list which has a very obvious key change bang in the middle of it says something about its strength. Thomas is an up and coming Glaswegian singer-songwriter who has supported Gerry Cinnamon and Liam Gallagher on tour previously and who said: “The reason I got into guitar was through listening to Johnny Cash.” There’s nothing worse than British musicians faking accents to fit a vibe (well other than world hunger, etc.) but Thomas is the opposite, with a clear accent as he sings proudly demonstrating his roots. This is technically an old song from 2021 but it only appeared on an album (his debut) for the first time in 2024. Would it be a better song without the key changes? Yes, probably, but then ABBA would probably disagree.

You can find numbers 10-1 here.