Best new music 2024

A nighttime photo showing the Old Customs building (built in 1644) in Bonn, Germany. Two people are walking away from the camera.

… and just like that, another year is almost over.

I’m presently in Germany to visit my mother, who — two weeks shy of 90 — continues to soldier on with poise, determination and the simple awareness that going for a daily walk is essential for good health. The picture above is of the “Old Customs” building (Alter Zoll) in Bonn, a part of the old city fortification, built in 1644. Every time I travel to Germany, I discover extraordinary new-to-me historical and cultural riches, seemingly randomly scattered throughout these old cities, many of which have pre-Roman roots. The most remarkable thing about these historical buildings, I catch myself thinking, is how unremarkable they are here — how little attention they are paid. In Canada, this would have been a national monument and a tourist destination; here, it’s “owned by the university” and hosts “occasional concerts” in the summer, according to its Wikipedia page.

Germany itself is definitely in a persistent long-term state of uncertainty and discomfort about what it wants to become. Similar to Canada, I think there are at least two Germanies now. One is a gradually aging, somewhat sclerotic society, born here, that holds on to most of the power, money, makes the rules and thinks everything has gone to the dogs. The other consists of a growing percentage of mostly younger immigrants from Syria, Ukraine, eastern Europe or Africa who, one way or the other, are clearly the future of this country. Unlike Canada, which has tried to uphold its rickety self-image of being a welcoming, multi-cultural and upwardly mobile immigration paradise, Germany makes no such attempt. Even those Germans who aren’t directly hostile to immigrants would rarely go so far as to suggest it’s a comfortable or desirable coexistence. The German state expresses this uncertain standoff by being as procedurally unwelcoming to immigrants as possible while saying that immigration is both necessary and welcome, apparently following the principle that you can hold up large-scale processes by slowing down each constituent part. The world knows German bureaucracy to eclipse all others in the performance of unnecessary complexity; the gumming-up of immigration may well be its crowning accomplishment. (And just in case anyone is uncertain about where I stand on this: this was sarcasm. Also: Not my circus nor my monkey.)

On the personal front, it’s been a year of significant change for me as those of you who follow on social media may already know. I’m entering a period of rediscovering myself and expect 2025 to be somewhat of a watershed year in terms of figuring out what’s next.

But first, a few more weeks of rest (both history and nature suggest this is the season for taking a break), and then we’ll see.

Until then, here’s what caught my ear during 2024.

Happy New Year.


Aoife O’Donovan – All My Friends: I’ve written about Aoife O’Donovan before. Her work is consistently excellent, and this new album is no exception. O’Donovan does increasingly feel like the standout “new folk” singer-songwriter, the Joni Mitchell of our time (although by necessity she shares that honour with Bonny Light Horseman’s Anaïs Mitchell; see below). Her songcraft stands out, even in an increasingly crowded field of great new folk singers. Complex, intelligent, touching music.

Arooj Aftab – Night Reign: I don’t usually struggle with words, but when it comes to Arooj Aftab’s music I feel somewhat tongue-tied. I’ve come to accept that this is at least in part the result of its sheer overwhelming musicality. There’s a primal beauty here, both in her wonderful singing and the band she’s surrounded herself with. As so often, the Guardian has a decent review. The only point I disagree with is its assessment of the cover of “Autumn Leaves” here as unsuccessful. I think it’s a perfectly good entry in the ever-evolving category of jazz covers of standards.

Ben Lukas Boysen – Alta Ripa: Like late 90s/early 2000s electronica. Touching on various types of electronic music then prevalent (ambient, trance, and tech house). But obviously a contemporary take. Yes, it’s nostalgic but it’s also very good and has real emotional depth. Whether you’re interested depends, to an extent, on whether you have a connection to the kinds of music it references.

Bonny Light Horseman – Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free: Bonny Light Horseman, the alt-folk-pop supergroup I’ve written about before, are now on their third album — and it’s lovely. If I reflect on my own “in use” reception of this, I’d say the space they’ve come to occupy is quite similar to Fleetwood Mac’s big 1970s albums (occasionally, their voices blend similarly, too). This is wide-screen, committed, intelligent music that begs to be heard live in stadiums in the summer; in cars speeding through the countryside with the windows open; or at cottage campfires everywhere. It has the kind of sound that’s instantly familiar, yet — when you decide to pay attention — you realize you’ve never heard it before. Yet it’s not a simulacrum (unlike so many other bands working today). Like Fleetwood Mac’s, these songs work at all levels of attention and engagement — they’re chameleonic: pleasant, entertaining, deep and anthemic, depending on how you come to them and what you need. I think this is a band I’ll love for many years. You might too.

Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism: Hear me out. I know you think this is me being unnecessarily pleased about trivial pop music again. But there’s real joy in this — not least because of its surgical precision. Just like her previous release, it’s an artful blend of disco bangers coupled with big pop anthems. The writing team, as before, is genuinely outstanding. Similar to how one might feel about any randomly chosen album by, say, ABBA, even the weaker tracks here are above-average pop songs that could conceivably have been hits for someone else. Is it as strong as Future Nostalgia? No. But I do love her voice and energy. She’s a classic, old-fashioned pop star in the vein of Madonna or Kylie Minogue, and as such has somehow figured out how to appeal across generations and cultures (more so than, say, Sabrina Carpenter or Chappell Roan).

Fontaines D.C. – Romance: Strong echoes of The Smiths here, but with more crunch and a bottom end befitting 2024. A modern post-punk record. I’m not up on all the ins and outs about this band, but the Guardian is.

Gracie Abrams – The Secret Of Us (Deluxe): I wrote about Gracie Abrams’ first album, Good Riddance, last year. She’s already back with her sophomore effort, and it’s a massive improvement on the debut. I suppose it could have gone either way: pop music’s history and present are littered with second albums that didn’t work out. Here, we can hear someone very, very talented finding their voice and coming into their own. Abrams, who was featured repeatedly on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, is definitely of the “Taylor Swift school” of young singer-songwriters. (It was inevitable that a force of nature as big as Swift would ultimately incubate a whole movement of people who sound similar.) Abrams, as noted previously, has the good fortune of sharing Swift’s producer Aaron Dessner (The National), so it’s somewhat inevitable that she’d sound similar. Abrams, like her mentor, is also a truly wonderful songwriter. While not as sharp-tongued as Swift, nor perhaps as funny, she’s sincere and seems to hit the zeitgeist of Gen Z. Young, yes, but capable of writing and delivering smart and emotionally resonant songs about love, loss, disappointment and asserting yourself. Where many other “newer” women singer-songwriters (e.g. Clairo, Maggie Rogers) have settled into a somewhat comfortable psuedo-grown-up faux alternative mainstream sound that frankly bores me to tears, Gracie Abrams seems to have more energy (and perhaps better luck) than that. A very good record.

Griff – Vertigo: This is the album whose arrival I was most eagerly awaiting this year. Griff’s previous EP and singles contained some of the most outstanding and beautifully-crafted pop songs of the last few years, so it stood to reason that a debut album would follow. Griff has the kind of natural pop writer’s sensibility that Robyn or Alison Moyet have. And those two might also be good “descriptive” touchpoints. This is soulful, smart electropop — danceable, emotional, often sad yet always beautiful. With many contemporary younger pop singer-songwriters, determining whether they actually write and/or produce their own work can feel like a bit of a sleuthing exercise. And while Griff now definitely has a team of professional co-authors, if you look at her Youtube channel where she occasionally films herself recording a fully-produced cover of a well-known song in a single hour, her innate musicianship and production chops are abundantly obvious. Hers is an uncommon sound in today’s pop landscape. Her unusual but powerful voice, coupled with her resolute commitment to a kind of dark but often euphoric electropop, make her a natural antidote to the Sabina Carpenters of this world. (I should add that I don’t specifically have anything against Sabrina Carpenter. And I’m aware that Griff was invited to open for Carpenter on her recent tour. But I think their sounds are very different, and Griff’s music feels far superior in my estimation.)

Jean-Guihen Queyras – Bach Complete Cello Suites (The 2023 Sessions): Queyras is one of the world’s best cellists, and this is his second full recording of Bach’s famous suites. The first, about 20 years ago, was revelatory: historically informed and wonderfully well-judged, it emphasized the dance-rooted nature of many of Bach’s movements and so propelled the music forward, making it not only profound but also very listenable. This version, with another 20 years of practice and reflection under his belt, reveals further depths and elegance. It’s no less engaging but entirely different. It could be a fun project for you to compare certain pieces between the two versions. If nothing else, it’ll reveal why there can never be enough great recordings of major classical works (and, if you’re not typically a classical music listener — maybe you’re the sort of person who thinks that any recording of a work is fine — the exercise may prove a useful point).

Joan As Police Woman – Lemons, Limes And Orchids: In 2021, Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman) released a collaborative album together with the late Tony Allen and multi-instrumentalist Dave Okumu that equipped her above-average indie songwriting with an unusual, experimental, Afrobeat-electronica sound signature that elevated it to a new realm. Although it got little attention, I thought it was a career best — although perhaps slightly abstract, a musician’s album. Her latest effort is less of an outlier but retains some of the funky musical ideas and connects them with her core indie singer-songwriter sound. The result is something truly special and highly listenable. I’m occasionally reminded of late career efforts by Talking Heads, not because that’s what this sounds like but because it has the same kind of combinatory intelligence and courage. Unusual, smart grown-up music.

Kaia Kater – Strange Medicine: Quiet, literate, poetic folk from a young Canadian. Her voice is lovely — an expressive alto that can, depending on the subject matter, be sharp, soothing or mournful. This is her fourth album, and even though she remains a bit of a musician’s musician, she now gets big collabs (Aoife O’Donovan, Allison Russell & Taj Mahal all make appearances).

Kasey Chambers – Backbone: Australia’s greatest country singer-songwriter by some distance is back with a beautiful new album after a lengthy absence. Every track is a reminder that Kasey Chambers should be one of international country music’s very biggest stars instead of an “outsider” who was mostly rejected by Nashville despite her best efforts. Unlike Australia’s other big country star, Keith Urban, I suppose Chambers was never interested in kissing any rings or drinking any Kool Aid. Good on her. For those in the know, she’s one of the reigning queens of alt-country, a peerless songwriter who’s never really written a wrong note. This album starts with a ballad that hooks you entirely — who does that? Too many great tracks to describe in any detail. But wow, what songs. At the end, the weirdest, most delightful outlier: a live country rock cover of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” that’s made the rounds on Youtube and social media. It’s nearly unrecognizable and yet somehow manages to elevate what’s already a timeless classic a notch or two. Kasey Chambers is amazing, plain and simple.

Lankum – Live In Dublin: While their previous studio album (very well reviewed everywhere) left me interested but vaguely underwhelmed, this live album blew me away. What a band, what an odd project, what great songs — and what an excellent live show, captured well on record. In November, they came to NYC and I went to see them there. I found the evening somewhat arduous (the venue, the Warsaw in Brooklyn, has no seating, I’m old and was fairly tired from flying in earlier that same day…), but they were quite brilliant. The show has evolved slightly since the album was recorded, but not much. They know what works, and work it does.

L’Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar – Wonder Women: For about a decade now, there’s been a trend in certain quarters in so-called classical music to produce programs and records that seek to be both appropriately “classical” (i.e. technically serious and challenging performances) and entertaining. Particularly long-term and ongoing developments in our understanding of historically informed Baroque performance practice have revealed that music performed in the 18th century was far more ornamented and improvised than the written versions we received would suggest. Today, classical musicians spend considerable time training how to ornament and improvise in ways that are appropriate to the music. The result is that the possibilities of how to play this kind of music have really opened up. Christina Pluhar is a mandolin/theorbo player and ensemble leader whose group L’Arppegiata offers programs that combine Baroque “classical” music with “folk” music played in styles that are appropriate to the Baroque, thus illuminating the connections between art and vernacular musics that we’ve always suspected were there. This lovely new album is an excellent example of one such program.

Mali Obomsawin & Magdalena Abrego (Deerlady) – Greatest Hits: I think this is my favourite album of the year. Obomsawin is a young Indigenous musician and composer who performs at an equally spectacular level when playing jazz (she’s a bassist with her own ensemble; I saw them play a largely improvised set last year and they were incredible) or rock (this band). The album came out under “Mali Obomsawin & Magdalena Abrego” but they soon after re-christened the project “Deerlady.” Obviously, “Greatest Hits” is tongue-in-cheek as it’s a first studio album. Nomenclature confusion aside, this is just quietly brilliant. It’s a classic indie record with echoes of — and nods to — everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to Phoebe Bridgers. But it’s also an album that thinks and talks about colonialism, and there definitely aren’t enough of those. It’s compositionally and musically tremenduously accomplished: warm and powerful and tight and approachable. I fell in love with it on first listen and have not been able to stop putting it on since. And it came out in January! (“Masterpieces,” the song, is a bona fide masterpiece. It’s also the emotional and musical centre of this album. Abrego’s tightly controlled, understated rager of a guitar solo is a thing of rare beauty.)

Mari Kvien Brunvoll & Stein Urheim with Moskus – Barefoot In Bryophyte: This is delightfully weird. It amuses and pleases endlessly. The territory is surf rock shoegaze psychedelia with a jazz base. Oh, and some of it is in Norwegian. I don’t really know much about it, but these people do. You should definitely check it out.

Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath: Nadine Shah is always impressive — a literate, tough, funny, political, feminist singer-songwriter from the UK. The band is outstanding: they play a muscular, precise, math-y post-rock that’s incredibly well judged throughout. A bit like a cross between Tori Amos and late Bowie with a smattering of Talking Heads? This is really strong and cool music. I’d also encourage you to go backwards through her back catalogue — it’s all excellent.

Ndidi Onukwulu – Simple Songs For Complicated Times: I’ve had a soft spot for Ndidi Onukwulu’s modern roots music for years. Cut from a similar cloth as Frazey Ford, she has a powerful voice and writes consistently excellent songs. It’s unfortunately the sort of music that has a hard time getting any sort of traction with a wider audience today. (If nothing else, this shows exactly the combination of skill and good fortune it takes for someone like Allison Russell to break through to something more like “mainstream” visibility.) Ndidi O has been fighting the good fight for — what should we call it? Modern alternative blues? for years. Her new album continues to do so at a very high level. Make an effort to hear this Canadian artist if you like roots music. She won’t disappoint you.

Nick Cave – Wild God: The long-term, profound spiritual transformation of Nick Cave, always a highly skilled songwriter and peerless performer, has been widely discussed in the media and written about, including by Nick Cave himself in his excellent book of interviews with Irish journalist Séan O’Hagan. His music has become much more emotionally direct over the years while losing none of its gothic theatrical appeal. After a family tragedy, his music took an almost unbearably direct and raw turn for a couple of albums, but this new record strikes a terrific balance, giving us a Nick Cave fronting a big, powerful full-band version of the Bad Seeds but playing songs that achieve a breakthrough level of poetry and resonance. Might well be the best record he’s ever made, but who knows what’s still to come?

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique: Open the Stereolab cookbook. Pick one of the songs sung in French. Add in the horn section from a really good 90s ska revival band. Now, turn the “energy signature” dial-o-meter from Stereolab’s default “Cool Indie” setting about halfway towards “Joyous and Overcooked.” The result is Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp. They’re weird and great. A total riot.

Post Malone – F-1 Trillion: Long Bed: When I first read about this, I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t like it. I mean, another entry in this year’s string of releases by all sorts of people suddenly going country — and particularly one by this guy who struck me as a musical non-entity at the best of times — didn’t sound terribly appealing. And so, yes, it’s kind of bloated, and unnecessarily mainstream, and big, and has all sorts of “legitmizing” cameos from “real” country singers on it. But it’s also surprisingly fun, in the way that a Bryan Adams or John Mellencamp record from the 80s is fun. It can prove hard not to get swept up by it. I’m not necessarily saying you’ll love it. But you might, and I’m suggesting you could do worse than to see what happens.

Sierra Ferrell – Trail Of Flowers: Ferrell plays music that technically qualifies as “alt country” but mostly by virtue of not being considered “mainstream” Nashville radio country (I suspect these distinctions are already past their peak and on their way out, the way things have been going — although the uniquely American cleaving-down-the-middle of country music along political lines remains troublingly common). Genre subtleties aside, this is a perfect country record. Every song is a standout. I hear echoes of Emmylou Harris and Michelle Shocked in equal measure. I know that may not make any obvious kind of sense, but if (“alt”) country music appeals to you at all, you should definitely give this a shot. It’s rollicking. It’s like the antidote to all the 2024 country poser-dom.

Sturgill Simpson (as Johnny Blue Skies) – Passage du Desir: Sturgill Simpson is one of country music’s very finest songwriters, plain and simple. His songs carry emotional depth charges like few others’. Their effortless, familiar elegance belies how carefully detailed they are, how finely crafted. Simpson’s music has, over the years, taken various turns: sometimes in a rock direction, more recently into bluegrass, but his most prevalent sound signature is an elevated, literate, slightly retro alt-country with occasional Muscle Shoals R&B tinges (keep in mind that Aretha’s famous backing band essentially consisted of country music studio musicians). For this outing, he calls his project “Johnny Blue Skies,” but it’s the same Sturgill Simpson. A beautiful record. Several of the finest songs of his career.

Underworld – Strawberry Hotel: Well, who’d have thought it? This is like “old” Underworld but not in a nostalgia act type of way. Obviously Underworld have remained a going electronica concern ever since they first came to co-define mid 90s radio-ready techno in the UK, not least through their ubiquitous hit, “Born Slippy,” from the Trainspotting soundtrack. I devotedly loved their first two albums (well, actually their second and third records but only nerds like me remember the first), dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest in the Infants. These were groundbreaking efforts that worked equally brilliantly for dancing, listening, working to, and so on. Era-defining and taste-shaping music for me. Now, this new record is neither of those, but it’s not not close. There’s much good music here. “Denver Luna,” for me, is the standout piece. It has a truly beautiful multi-tracked vocal break in the middle that’s the sort of thing that reminds you why you love music in the first place.

Vera Sola – Peacemaker: I really like this. I think it’s clever, atmospheric and interesting. Everything else you need to know is in this short review by the Guardian.

Zeitgeber – Fellow Prisoners Of The Splendour And Travail Of The Earth Part 1: An Australian instrumental duo (really, it’s mostly written and played by one guy, Evan McGregor) that plays music that lives, comfortably, somewhere along the continuum between jazz and prog rock. I initially came for the math-y, prog-y polyrhythms. I stayed for the finely written and played instrumental music. This is definitely a keeper. Additional tip ‘o the hat to an Australian outfit calling itself Zeitgeber.

Zsela – Big For You: Zsela is a young R&B singer whose previous EP I mentioned a few years ago. Here she is now with a tightly produced, really well written, highly musical debut album. The base profile is contemporary “alternative” R&B, but there are plenty of guitars and other nontypical moments here to give it broader appeal. She has a dark, lovely alto voice that carries these songs with real emotional authority. Unlike Charlotte Day Wilson (voice in the same register) whose recent work has become a little… boring?, Zsela brings a crisp energy to this kind of sound and manages to bypass the “jazz fusion” pothole it could easily disappear into. And it has enough odd, leftfield musical moments that you just know this is one to watch.


The following albums are also worth hearing:

Arab Strap – I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore

Ballaké Sissoko & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch Feat. Emile Parisien – Radicants

Bridget Kearney – Comeback Kid

Danish String Quartet – Keel Road

Diane Birch – Flying On Abraham

Dream House Quartet – Sonic Wires (Deluxe)

Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn – Quiet In A World Full Of Noise

Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well

Kali Malone – All Life Long

Kelly Lee Owens – Dreamstate

Leana Song – Orisha Love Songs Vol. 2 – Oru Cantando Électrique

Leyla McCalla – Sun Without The Heat

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me

Mishka Rushdie Momen – Reformation: Keyboard Works by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Bull & Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Nils Økland Band – Gjenskinn

Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor

Peggy Gou – I Hear You (Limited)

Shabaka – Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace

Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us

Vijay Iyer – Compassion

Waaju Feat. Majid Bekkas – Alouane

Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood

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