Nightswimming's 2024 Year in Review
50 albums, 20 tracks, What I Missed, and MORE!
At least 50% of the reason I started this blog is so that I could do an End of Year list. When I was an adolescent, I had subscriptions to Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, and I used to voraciously pore over the End of Year lists in each. I always wanted to make my own, but I never felt I quite had my finger on the pulse of current music. After ~7 months of dedication, writing over 80,000 words, and constant, consistent listening and discovering, I can confidently say I know enough about current music to have opinions with authority!
Thanks to everyone who has supported the beginning of this journey. It is merely the first step. I’m not quite sure exactly how or when, but I do have some cool things planned for Nightswimming in 2025, and the possibilities are clear!
Let’s talk about this list. Send me an e-mail, leave a comment, share with friends. I want to know what you agree with, what you disagree with, and what you discovered from my writing!
What I Missed
The nature of a weekly publication is that it’s impossible to catch everything as it comes out. There were times where I wrote about releases outside of an issue’s time period, but I mostly stuck to the previous Friday’s releases.
Here are a half dozen albums that I heard well after they were released that I really enjoyed!
When I’m Called - Jake Xerxes Fussell: a beautiful, bare-bones acoustic folk album. A classic voice and interesting guitar-playing, with the very occasional brush-shuffle drums. A gentle, calming album for the front porch
This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway - Lola Young: Profoundly British! A great, upbeat Pop album with captivating vocals, fun melodies, and bouncy beats. It’s angry, it’s full of yearning, and it carries a certain tenderness.
Two Star & The Dream Police - Mk.gee: I think I would have really loved this in high school. A mix of new school hip-hop/noise production, maxed-out reverb vocals, and indie rock guitar. This one is trippy!
CRACK A SMILE COME ON STAY A WHILE - Abby Holliday: Wispy, mournful Saddest Factory-core girly indie rock tracks with blown-out production elements. Like Phoebe Bridgers if produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon
GNX - Kendrick Lamar: In an earlier issue, I made reference to Kendrick wasting his time with diss tracks, and wishing he would release a real album again. So really you all have me to thank that one of the greatest MC’s of our generation dropped another certified classic! Super 90’s West Coast-ified hip-hop! Kendrick’s strongest since To Pimp A Butterfly!
Mahashmashana - Father John Misty: BIG orchestral solo George Harrison/Lee Hazlewood sounds. Sounds like something Capitol would have put out in 1973.
Nightswimming’s Top Tracks of 2024
Honorable mention: “Hunger Strike” by Temple of the Dog and “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” by Pearl Jam. Shout-out Eddie Vedder, man. These songs obviously came out in the 90’s, but I listened to them both so much after we lost a good friend this year. RIP CLD.
20. Fried Rice - Royel Otis
19. Archbishop Harold Holmes - Jack White
18. Jupiter's Faerie - Johnny Blue Skies a.k.a. Sturgill Simpson
17. Sympathy is a knife - Charli xcx
16. If It's Gone - Good Looks
15. Remember I Was A Dancer - Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
14. Backyard Lover - Merce Lemon
13. I Wouldn't Change A Thing - Ray LaMontagne
12. Cathedral City - Ducks Ltd.
11. Taste - Sabrina Carpenter
10. Second Nature - Clairo
9. Classical - Vampire Weekend
8. So Sick of Dreaming - Maggie Rogers
7. Inconsolable - Katie Gavin
6. Away From The Mire (Live at Moody Center, Austin TX, 6/2/23) - Billy Strings
5. World on a String - Jessica Pratt
4. Wristwatch - MJ Lenderman
3. Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan
2. Rewind - Rosali
1. Right Back To It - Waxahatchee
Here is a convenient playlist with all 20 songs in order :)
Nightswimming’s Top 50 Albums of 2024
50. Bestie - Chord Boy (Bestie Records)
“Sometimes we’re a layer of hot girl enjoying herself at a party, another layer of crippling anxiety (are all of your friends having fun? Do they secretly hate you?), another layer of love (for Shrek), and deep down under there a layer of ‘will I ever find any of the things I’m looking for?’.”
Click to read the full interview/album review in Nightswimming #11
49. Feeling Not Found - Origami Angel (Counter Intuitive Records)
“…The melodies are classic but entirely original. The riffs range from wildly heavy chug-a-lugging to precise harmonic wailing. The vocals are classically pop-punk and bring a ton of feeling to the duo’s heaviest thematic lyrics yet…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #16
48. Welcome to the Plains - Wyatt Flores (OEG Records)
”…Welcome to the Plains includes rip-roarin’ beer-soaked saloon tunes, gorgeous and sweet starlit cricket-chirping pastoral ballads, and every type of bouncy Grand Ole Opry foot-tapper in between…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #19
47. Cardinals at the Window (A Benefit for Flood Relief in North Carolina) - Various Artists
“…As if the cause were not worthy enough, or the minimum donation small enough, the songs that were selflessly contributed to this compilation are absolutely outstanding. There is something for everyone here; The War on Drugs! Rosali! Fleet Foxes! R.E.M.! Tyler Childers! Waxahatchee! Jason Isbell! Jeff Tweedy! Real Estate! Kevin Morby! MJ Lenderman! Gillian Welch! Iron and Wine!”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #17
46. Flood - Hippo Campus (Hippo Campus/Psychic Hotline)
“…It’s an evolved sound that is both patient and urgent. The album was recorded mostly live in studio, which gives the music an immediacy while elevating the songwriting. Where past works were jam-packed with fun bells and whistles, Flood is stripped back…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #15
45. The Bed I Made - The Softies
“…It’s a stripped-down, cozy sound that feels like being wrapped in a quilt, sitting by a cold fogged-up window. It’s comforting, even when the duo takes on challenging themes lyrically. Melberg and Sbragia both lost their mothers less than two months apart from each other, and that grief brought them back together to make music. It’s grief-stricken, yearning, and wistful, but still speaks of a certain bravery and determination to hold oneself together…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #12
44. Flight b741 - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard (Pdoom)
“…It is squarely a Southern Rock, swampy, fuzzed-out blues rock record. It’s where Canned Heat meets ZZ Top. It’s Molly Hatchet’s guitars on top of the Black Crowes’ melodies. The gang vocals on Flight b741 lend to the loose party vibe of the record, but also contribute to the sonic tightness that is quintessential to a KGLW project…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #9
43. Abandon - COOL HEAT (Spirit Goth Records)
”…Abandon is COOL HEAT’s 2nd album, and latest since his solo debut in 2019 after his work with experimental indie rock band Color Card. Where Color Card leaned in to spacey, almost droney, dreampop explorations, COOL HEAT brings a groove and a pep to that same sound’s step. Abandon braids together rich, synthy 80’s New Wave sounds with an upbeat jangle pop thread, reminiscent of R.E.M. and 10,000 Maniacs (on tracks like Change and Other Side)…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #9
42. how we dig in the earth - A Place For Owls (Broom of Destruction Records)
”Big, melodic emo alternative sounds couched with warm and beautiful acoustic moments. FULL of hope! Bright vocals and comforting harmonies. Upbeat and amplified enough to fit the emo/alt punk bill, but only in the uplifting and fun ways. Pick any track and put it in the climax of a coming-of-age film. Spiritual and sonic progeny of American Football’s eponymous debut album.”
This is the full review, but if you want to you can click here for Nightswimming #21 :)
41. Long Way Home - Ray LaMontagne (Liula/Thirty Tigers)
”…His signature sultry graveled-up vocals fit warmly over both upbeat soul tracks and wistful acoustic tracks. His distinct sonic blend sounds like sitting blanket-lapped on a back porch, overlooking a sea of red and orange with a bonfire burning in the distance. Maybe it’s because Gossip in the Grain came out Homecoming weekend of my Freshman year of high school, but to me a gentle croon from Ray LaMontagne is like a quilted plaid hooded jacket…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #10
40. The Faster I Run - Jessica Boudreaux (Pet Club/Many Hats)
”…We are in a real Renaissance of women-led indie rock that makes you want to crank the volume. Not that breathy sopranos making bedroom pop tracks with Ableton aren’t great, but the last couple of years have been packed with Liz Phair disciples taking charge up and down the charts…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #6
39. Live Vol. 1 - Billy Strings (Reprise)
“…I say without pause or qualification, Billy Strings is the single best live act in America right now. Since 2022 I have seen Billy and his quartet—Jarrod Walker on mandolin, Alex Hargreaves on fiddle, Royal Masat on standup bass, and Billy Failing on banjo, all 4 on backing vocals—5 times. Each time after the first, I went in knowing that I would have a spiritual experience, and each time I was still shocked. These boys play not only some of the tightest 100-year-old bluegrass standards, but Billy’s songwriting prowess in his originals is on full display as those tunes are often used as jam vehicles…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #5
38. A LA SALA - Khruangbin (Dead Oceans)
I didn’t care for this album much when it came out. Khruangbin has a distinct sound, but at this point it’s pretty much all they do. It had a few standout tracks, but didn’t blow me away. That was, until I saw them live at The Factory in St. Louis. Be it the impressive sound system at The Factory, or the 1/4th of a gummy edible I took, I was absolutely floored by the live show this band puts on. The first set was this album from front to back, and then they took a short break and came back to play the hits. One of the tightest bands I’ve ever seen!
37. Fearless Movement - Kamasi Washington (Young)
One of our greatest modern jazz musicians. This album is a bit more explosive and funkier than his last projects, he channels George Clinton (literally in a feature) on this one. Highlight track is Dream State, a 9-minute jazz exploration with Andre 3000 on electric flute.
36. PRATTS & PAIN - Royel Otis (Ourness)
A lot of people know these guys from their cover of Linger by The Cranberries. The album they released this year is very good, too. Good New Wave-y Brit Poppy stuff, a little dark, a little Goth like that one Cure song A Forest.
35. South of Here - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (Stax)
”…Some Americana seeks to pay homage to the genre while offering an entirely new take, some Americana patches together a pastiche of influences. South of Here nearly borders on the latter, but is saved by truly great performance and outstanding production. On top of it all, Rateliff has one of the most unique voices in music today—a real singularity…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #3
34. Wall of Eyes - The Smile (XL)
It’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead with a jazz drummer. If you like Radiohead, this is basically a Radiohead album. Read The Room is a highlight track.
33. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish (Darkroom/Interscope)
“…Billie has one of the most stunning feathery soprano voices in music, but here steps out of her comfort zone to belt a bit. Sonically, FINNEAS makes miracles with a dozen instrument credits and the arranging of a string quartet, plus the direction of their touring band…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
32. Pulsar - L’Imperatrice (microqlima)
”…Chunky disco beats, percussive bass lines, and generous use of the Orchestra Strike, all driven by the quad-tracked vocals of Flore Benguigui make this a must-listen for disco and funk fans…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
31. Into The Blue - Aaron Frazer (Colemine Records)
“…Into the Blue gives us a healthy mix of upbeat dancers and midtempo groovers, but it never feels overstuffed. At 11 tracks and 37 minutes, it’s an efficient work. Even if it isn’t necessarily an evolution of his sound, Aaron Frazer gives us more of what we want—a very solid Back Porch Album…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #3
30. Highway Prayers - Billy Strings (Reprise)
”…It’s important to understand the context of a former hillbilly turned bluegrass deity and his widely-hailed 3 hour jamgrass shows. But it’s just as important to understand that his studio work isn’t that. Like the great jambands before him (Phish, Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band) the live magic cannot be captured in the studio, so he doesn’t try to do that…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #16
29. Lost in a Dream - Cassandra Lewis (A Low Country Sound/Elektra)
”…Every sonic choice on this record, from the clean, quiet guitars to the drums played exclusively with brushes, is made in service to Cassandra Lewis’s voice. And once you hear her voice, you understand exactly why…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #5
28. Endlessness - Nala Sinephro (Warp Records)
“…Endlessness is an attempt to tell a sonic story of birth, death, and rebirth. At times gentle, it feels like a canoe floating on a serene lake, sending ripples of sound into the mossy trees. At times jarring, it brings previously-unheard sounds crashing down on the listener’s head like chunks of space dust. At one moment it’s the climax of a gorgeously-shot nature documentary. The very next moment it’s the crimson-lit cellar of a dingy jazz club. Sometimes it’s video game music. Sometimes it’s a harp lulling you to sleep…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #13
27. Vertigo - Wand (Drag City, Inc.)
“…A “cosmic gumbo” of psychedelic fuzz guitars, driving drums, and grimey toad-on-a-lilypad synths that is unequal parts OK Computer, Arcade Fire, and Muse with a singer channeling late-period Roy Orbison…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #7
26. Acadia - Yasmin Williams (Nonesuch Records)
“…The sounds are pastoral and rambunctious. The movements are thoughtful and improvisational in nature. The compositions spread out, but they have a destination. If I were scoring a gentle, warmly-lit animated film about a cartoon bear cub and sparrow that become friends and explore their forest for the first time together, I would use Yasmin Williams’s Acadia, unchanged…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #17
25. Short n’ Sweet - Sabrina Carpenter (Island)
“…Sabrina Carpenter has revived a crucial pillar of Pop music that has seemed absent for too long: having fun. Anyone paying a shred of attention will agree that Pop music is majorly back in 2024 in a way it hasn’t been in years. Sure, it never really went away. But for the better part of a decade Pop music has been dominated by a revenge-obsessed Capitalist robber baron who prioritizes dunking on her exes in secret code instead of writing interesting hooks…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #11
24. NO NAME - Jack White (Third Man Records)
”…Jack White has always been an enigma. He’s not a recluse or a hermit. He gives interviews. He poses for selfies with fans. But he comes and he goes. He’s here one moment and gone the next. Sometimes with a new band, sometimes by himself. Maybe he has a new look. Sometimes a pencil thin mustache and bob haircut like V for Vendetta. Sometimes a blue pompadour and plaid tweed suit like a Cyberpunk Johnny Cash…”
This review is extra funny now because the songs do have names and this album is streaming everywhere. But I was ahead of the curve, bitch!
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #6
23. Imaginal Disk - Magdalena Bay (Mom + Pop)
“…All of Imaginal Disk sounds like it takes place in a technologic liminal space—a rest stop on the Information Superhighway, or a node inside of a Blackberry’s keyboard. There are moments that sound like ABBA trapped inside of Windows Media Player. There are vice-versa moments where it sounds like Grimes doing guest vocals on a Chic record…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #11
22. Passage du Desir - Johnny Blue Skies/Sturgill Simpson (High Top Mountain/Thirty Tigers)
![Front. Passage du Désir [LP].](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!kB2z!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffb66924a-338a-48d8-8509-768de09b283a_550x550.jpeg "Front. Passage du Désir [LP].")
“…From the Wurlitzer-driven orchestra swells of “Jupiter’s Faerie”, a heart-wrenching track about a long lost friend who took their own life, to the drunken sing-a-long Flip-Flop Escapism of Scooter Blues, Passage du Desir is a veritable feast of country-adjacent genres, though none stray terribly far from the Sturgill Simpson of days past…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #5
21. Funeral for Justice - Mdou Moctar (Matador)
Every time I listen to Mdou Moctar I am blown away. Some of the most in-your-face psych/heavy rock music being made right now, in a real display of political and cultural bravery. The band was unable to go back to their home country Niger after their 2023 tour because of a political coup d’etat, but their devoted fans raised money through a GoFundMe to keep them afloat.
20. Triple Seven - Wishy (Winspear)
”…Wishy delivers on the foundation they built with their first 2 EPs—big crunchy, fuzzy guitars and dreamy textural sounds—but they do it with the melodic focus of a 1998 two-hit wonder. The vocals are Gin Blossoms. The riffs are Collective Soul. The drums are Fastball. The bass is Better Than Ezra. The feel of the music is wearing 90’s like a costume, but the music is not derivative…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #10
19. Stay Golden - Combat (Counter Intuitive)
“…Combat’s Stay Golden is the most urgent record of the year. It’s urgent both because of its ambition, and the sheer energy with which the music runs full speed into you. It’s an out-and-out punk album—none of this mucking about with sub-genres like post-punk or hardcore or whatever the hell egg punk is. It’s conceptually adventurous, lyrically bursting at the seams, and whip fast. With intros, interludes, thematic reprisals, and two colossal 8+ minute tracks replete with a string section, it’s a concept album in a genre that has been sorely missing concept albums. Or concepts at all…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #10
18. All Hell - Los Campesinos (Heart Swells)
“…It’s a sort of Belle & Sebastian approach to a punk/emo record, with a Wikipedia band personnel chart that looks like a Jackson Pollack painting, and a penchant for fun little keyboards and gang vocals. If you like emo music, Yo La Tengo, LCD Soundsystem, those types of acts…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #6
17. brat - Charli XCX (Atlantic)
“…Of all the music I feel unqualified to write about, a club/House album by a beloved yet fringe pop star who made her name on the 2nd iteration of Myspace is at the top of the list. In fact, it took me until about 75% through my 2nd listen to “get” brat. I went into it assuming that it wasn’t “for me”. I was wrong…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
16. Head Shoulders Knuckles Floor - Lobby Boxer (Lobby Boxer)
”…But their focus on strong melodies, upbeat choruses, devastating lyrics, and airtight production puts Lobby Boxer in a league of their own. The guitars are a leafblower, pointed right at your mug, blowing your hair back. The drums are a cinder block on the gas pedal. The vocals are an absolute triumph—80 feet tall and towering, but remarkably tender and full of heart. Sometimes a synth or a MIDI sample takes us to space, or under the ocean…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #19
15. Life on the Lawn - A Country Western (Crafted Sounds)
”…In an astoundingly efficient 10 track, 30 minute album ACW vacillates back and forth between tight, hooky, upbeat rock songs (The Dreamer, the lead single from this album) and long, loopy slowcore almost-ballads (The Spine).
Lo-Fi isn’t the right tag for the production style, but Life on the Lawn has the feel of a band playing live in the room together, evoking memories of being in small, DIY venues double-fisting Pabst Blue Ribbons with an unnecessary beanie on…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
14. Lived Here for A While - Good Looks (Keeled Scales)
Midwest Emo for kids who grew up on Tom Petty and Springsteen. Their guitarist somehow figured out Neil Young’s exact tone. The solos on this album sound like if Neil Young & Crazy Horse played Halo 2 together. Some of the best riffs of the year—just a good ol’ fashioned rock album.
13. Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend (Columbia)
”…Building on the sonic expansiveness of their previous album, Father of the Bride, OGWAU is equal parts evolution and callback. The band makes sounds they’ve never made before (a hard bop saxophone solo in the middle of “Connect”, whatever distorted squealing is happening on “Capricorn”) while still maintaining that plinky-plinky Columbia dorm room sound they built an empire on. Ezra Koenig’s voice, twee as always, is a beacon in the sonic expanses of this often gritty and grungy project…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
12. Don’t Forget Me - Maggie Rogers (Debay Sounds/Capitol)
”…Rogers leans on her strongest asset here: her voice. Besides straight-up belting, this album is Rogers and her band at their most y2k coffeehouse singer-songwriter. Between songs that sound like lost Natalie Merchant tracks, and the electric live performances of The Maggie Rogers Band on tour in support of the album, Don’t Forget Me is her strongest yet…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
11. Harm’s Way - Ducks Ltd. (Secretly Publishing)
”…Truly any of the tracks on this album could provide a needle drop for some late-80’s high school montage where 3 friends run around their town in a beat-up El Camino and wear cool jackets. The nostalgia soaks this album more than Ducks Ltd’s previous 2 projects, but does so in an authentic way, like the Jangle Pop and New Wave that came before it, by packing the lyrics with melancholy…”
Click to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
10. NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024, 28,340 DEAD - Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Constellation)
”…both a documentation of unspeakable evil and a plea for peace and love. It makes no hesitation to speak truth to power, and it does so with no words. Sonically, it is as effective a post-rock masterpiece as anything Godspeed You! Black Emperor has recorded. We can only hope, as we always have, that the next album is recorded and released in a better world…”
Click here to read the full review at Post-Trash! Thanks again to Dan and the Post-Trash team for hosting my words.
9. Charm - Clairo (Clairo Records LLC)
”…Clairo’s signature breathy mezzo-soprano voice, double- and quadruple-tracked like an Elliot Smith record, acts as the sonic hitching post at which the instruments are tethered, some with longer leads than others. The El Michaels Affair sews such a rich rhythmic quilt that Clairo’s revolving door of novelty keys—classic piano, a Mellotron, a Wurlitzer—are elevated to a great height…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #5
8. Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild - Merce Lemon (Darling Recordings)
”…Sonically, it evokes a certain rural warmth. A shotgun shack where the screen door slaps shut and the crickets raise a chorus to the unclouded stars. Lemon’s voice is a rich blend of the twangy Country Western of Emmylou Harris, and the edgy, gritty alt-rock of PJ Harvey. She grounds each track, delivering the lyrics a gentle lilt, but digging in and asserting herself when the band starts to rock…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #16
7. Allora - Ben Seretan (Tiny Engines)
”…If Neil Young, Thom Yorke, and Thurston Moore smashed their guitars together and someone cobbled the shattered pieces together with R.E.M.’s Murmur, you would get close to the complex, yet comforting sound of Allora. At no point is one really able to accurately predict where the songs are going. At one turn you run face-first into a brick wall of huge crunchy guitars and droning drum rattles. At the next turn you’re lulled by Seretan’s lovely Jeff Tweedy-esque timbre while dreamy synths fall in lockstep to form a sonic duvet…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #7
6. What A Relief - Katie Gavin (Saddest Factory)
”…The songs are largely reflective, but feel immediate. They serve as unfiltered dispatches from someone freshly 30 putting the pieces of their 20s together, and being both reassured and ambushed by the discoveries. Each track has a distinct feel. There’s yearning, grief, regret, hopefulness, resignation, and satisfaction. Gavin’s spectacular vocal performances and the airtight mixing/mastering elevate those lyrical themes to the stars…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #20
5. Diamond Jubilee - Cindy Lee (Realistik)
”…Diamond Jubilee is like if you found a jukebox in a dusty basement, blew some particles away from the buttons, plugged it in and gave it a kick, only to discover that every track spanning across genres was recorded by the same artist. The album brings together so many different sounds and types of music that shouldn’t fit together, but the puzzle pieces click perfectly…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
4. Here in the Pitch - Jessica Pratt (Mexican Summer)
”…Some bongos, a nylon-string guitar, and an Enya-like reliance on vocal reverb make this the one of the dreamiest tapestries woven in recent memory. It’s relaxing and engaging all at once. It begs you to slow dance in the kitchen with your honey, or to put on a pair of sunglasses and finger-snap along, Daddy-O…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
3. Manning Fireworks - MJ Lenderman (ANTI-)
”…Sonically, it’s simple; country-fied fuzz guitars, a rock-solid rhythm section, and Lenderman’s pained twangy crooning. Though Lenderman has built a signature sound on lap steel, pedal steel, and generally fuzzed out saloon guitars, Manning Fireworks expands the Asheville roots vibe with fiddles, double basses, and a screeching clarinet. You can hear the Southern Gothic ghosts in every note, like a stilted saloon on the waterfront, built from salty, warped wooden boards. It’s every bit of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, fronted by Merle Haggard. It’s music that feels designed in a lab to be heard on a front porch, drinking a Miller Lite, under 72 degree overcast skies…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #13
2. Bite Down - Rosali (Merge Records)
”…In her second collaboration with David Nance & Mowed Sound, Rosali Middleman either joins the crowd or leads the pack in the 2024 country rock movement. Whether the people who built the Nashville sound in The Aughts are now so ubiquitous in the music industry, or Bonnie Raitt is just truly that influential, about 2 dozen artists have bent their career toward country in the last few years…”
Click here to read the full review in Nightswimming #2
1. Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee (ANTI-)
”…Each track is a meal. From hopeful lover’s ballad “Right Back To It” (my front-runner for Song of the Year) to acidic lovers’ quarrel over a Byrds riff “Crowbar”, each song on Tigers Blood feels immediately familiar upon first listen. The sounds are timeless, and we can only hope this is just the beginning for the alt-country Reniassance…”
Top tracks (w playlist link!!!!) AND albums?!
You’ve blessed us
Still haven’t listened to a bunch of these! Brb adding to queue