Nightswimming's Best of 2024 (So Far)
All the Really Great stuff as well as some Very Good stuff
Does anyone even remember that Kacey Musgraves released an album this year? What about Ariana Grande? J. Cole? Does it seem like anyone is really talking about Cowboy Carter anymore?
There is so much great new music being released in 2024, even the best-selling artists are having to claw for playtime in this breakneck release schedule. It’s barely July and we already have new albums from a dozen of the most decorated musicians of this decade (and a couple of weepy voicemails from Drake).
I used to have my finger on the pulse of what was cool. From early tween-hood through college, I could predict the year-end Best Of lists with relative accuracy. Whether from a religious devotion to TRL with Carson Daly, an affinity for the iTunes Free Weekly Downloads, or the subscription to Entertainment Weekly that I begged My Mother for, from 2008-2014 or so I knew what was up.
And then at some point I became addicted to Old White Guy Music. Straight white men turn 25 and some deranged spirit injects us with Steely Dan in our sleep.
In 2024, I made a goal to discover new music again. The artists and even the record labels are making that goal easier than ever, even if the streaming platforms are trying to make it impossible!
This is probably another piece for another day but: Streaming has made it easier to play any song at all—only if, that is, you already know the song. I believe it has actually made the discovery of new music harder. The algorithm learns what you like but only ever plays other things that closely match that. And true discovery occurs when you take chances on music outside of what you are familiar with!
Anyway.
Below are my Top 11 Albums of the Year so far, ranked in order, followed by 6 more that I really enjoyed. I’ve also included some Stand-Out Tracks from albums that I wasn’t crazy about or just barely missed the cut. And at the end, a spotlight on local music here in Missourah!
11. Life on the Lawn - A Country Western (Crafted Sounds)
On their 3rd album, and 1st as more than a duo, Philadelphia DIY-ers A Country Western make strides in a more straight-ahead indie-rock direction, while maintaining the shoegaze-y, slowcore-y roots of their first 2 albums.
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.
Life on the Lawn (and ACW’s previous discography as well) is an interesting example of how musicians can be influenced by certain things, even if that sound doesn’t come through in the recordings. In a 2021 interview with Samantha Sullivan of WXPN, Garrett and Derek cite Stereolab and country western cowboy music as influences. I don’t hear either of those things in their music, but it is at least interesting to know what sort of influences musicians pick up on their path.
Fans of Midwest Emo, shoegaze, and pop punk will dig this album, but also fans of 90’s true alternative rock who like Weezer’s Pinkerton and The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa.
Highlights: Great is the Grip of the Hawk, The Spine, For A Voter
10. 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.
I still don’t think I can say it any better than the Great, the Hailed, the Iconic Meaghan Garvey said it when Pitchfork brought her back to review brat.
But to me, brat feels like an inflection point in Pop music. All at once it is an ode to Dance music of the past, a lucid representation of a current time and place, and a blueprint for the future.
Sonically, brat is both a chaotic pastiche of club, House, rave, and British beat, and a hyper-focused execution of a fresh and original style. A.G Cook is at the Production helm, in his 5th collaboration with Charli. From A.G.’s work to the vocal engineering of Hudson Mohawke and Charli’s husband George, to the 808s of the legendary Gesaffelstein (of Yeezus fame), the whole album is a powerhouse of the aughts UK electronic music scene. Here’s a great clip from Tape Notes (a Nightswimming fave) where Charli, George, and A.G. talk about their use of autotune. Fascinating!
I really love just HOW British this album, and all of Charli’s music, is. I laughed out loud the first time I listened to Everything is romantic on brat, and Charli started repeating “fall in love a-GAIN and a-GAIN”.
Lyrically, brat is a profoundly honest disclosure from a 31-year-old at an inflection point in her own life. The most stark example is the choice to follow the vulnerability on I think about it all the time (“Should I stop my birth control? ‘Cause my career feels so small”) with the Fuck It club anthem 365 (“Should we do a little key? Should we have a little line?”). On the former, the vocal effects are wiped away to highlight Charli’s bare, out-of tune human voice. On the latter, it’s back to the deep-fried auto-tune. The genius is the uncertainty of both.
Highlights: sympathy is a knife, rewind, B2b, the girl, so confusing version with Lorde
9. Pulsar - L’Imperatrice (microqlima)
French for “The Empress”, French band L’Imperatrice has been together since 2012 and has developed their funk/nu-disco/EuroPop sound primarily while playing on European festival circuits for a decade.
This is a great example of me knowing nothing about a band, but still putting on the album and absolutely loving it.
It’s clear how much of an influence groups like Daft Punk and JUSTICE are to L’Imperatrice. 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.
Absolute A+ poolside album, or one to drive around at night with your windows down.
Oh, and Maggie Rogers guest vocals!
Listen if you like: Daft Punk, Parcels, Chic, ABBA, Parliament
Highlights: Amour Ex Machina, Any Way (feat. Maggie Rogers), Girl!
8. Only God Was Above Us - Vampire Weekend (Columbia)
There aren’t many bands who can boast a 5-album-run of 5 truly great albums. Top of my head, Led Zeppelin 1 through Houses of the Holy is truly great. Rubber Soul through Abbey Road has some ups and downs, but it’s crazy that The Beatles made all 5 of those in the span of 4 years. Stevie Wonder’s Music of my Mind through Songs in the Key of Life is basically perfect. And without constant quibbling, that’s pretty much it. The fact that Vampire Weekend has a truly great 5-album-run AND it’s their first 5 albums is really remarkable.
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.
For me, the most exciting part of this album roll-out is VW making their emergence in the jamband world as a 2-set, cover song, jam vehicle live act. Ezra specifically has been well-recorded as a jamhead, especially in more recent years.
Between playing Grateful Dead’s Cumberland Blues in their country rock medley, and touring with Mike Gordon of Phish, I am greatly looking forward to the coming years of Vampire Weekend continuing to tour and surrender to the Jamflowman (sorry).
Highlights: Classical, Pravda, Ice Cream Piano
7. 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.
Rosali came up in the Philadelphia DIY music scene, but has lived and recorded in North and South Carolina since 2021. In a March 20th interview with Konstantinos Pappis of ourculture, Rosali had this to say about the blend of Philly and Southeast: “The influences are coming more from what I’m clearing up in my own head…I do feel like a big part of it is the landscape as well, a lot of inspiration is just being in the woods and listening to the birds and observing the sunlight; there are a lot of rivers near where I live, so being near water. A lot of that more internal dialogue.”
Bite Down conveys that blend of environmental influences in splendid fashion. It’s punk AND it’s folk. It’s straight-ahead rock AND it’s Americana. Rosali isn’t the first to do it, but is certainly one of the most effective. With a voice like Alison Krauss and a band that sounds like Crazy Horse, Rosali’s Bite Down is a superb entry in the ever-stronger punkening of Americana.
Highlights: Rewind, My Kind, Hopeless, Is It Too Late
6. Don’t Forget Me - Maggie Rogers (Debay Sounds/Capitol)
I, like the rest of the world, discovered Maggie Rogers when a friend sent me the video of her nervously sitting at the front of an NYU classroom studio, waiting for Pharrell Williams to weigh in on her senior thesis (“Alaska”). Where did that video come from? Why did we all see it? What entity put it everywhere back in 2017? (Also, just rewatched the video and Pharrell is wearing a hat that says “PLANT” across the front. No accusations, just interesting.)
I thought Rogers’s debut Heard It In A Past Life was a solid indie pop debut and very much matched the promise set forth by the Pharrell NYU video. I really liked it, in fact.
So when her second album, Surrender, didn’t grip me in the same way I was disappointed. Whether she and the label were searching too hard for hits, or it got overshadowed in the release schedule (Steve Lacy and Lizzo both released highly-anticipated albums in July 2022), Surrender didn’t give me what I loved about Maggie Rogers.
With the announcement of her third album, I was very excited and extremely hopeful. She absolutely delivered, and more.
Don’t Forget Me not only has a stronger lyrical focus, but a very clear sonic theme. Produced by Ian Fitchuk (another Nashville guy!) 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.
Highlights: It Was Coming All Along, So Sick of Dreaming, The Kill, On & On & On
5. Here in the Pitch - Jessica Pratt (Mexican Summer)
I cannot get enough of this album. If I could wear it on my head I would. To borrow a phrase from Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Jessica Pratt is “not in the music business, but in the transportation business”. This album makes me feel all at once like I am floating on a raft atop a gently churning Lazy River, cooking in the sun, and also curled up in a blanket on a screened-in porch on a gloomy November day.
Those Who Classify want to plant Pratt squarely in the “freak-folk” sub-genre of folk. And freak-folk she is. But Here in the Pitch is also lounge music. It’s bossa nova. It’s 60’s Brill Building Pop.
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.
As perhaps an homage to jazz singers everywhere, there’s plenty of lah-dee-dah verbal scatting and vocal vamping, but the lyrics are also devastating when Pratt wants them to be. (“I’m no longer friends with the enemies I’m so tenderly waiting for” and “I used to want for what your desolation hadn’t come by”.)
This is an album for sitting by a small fire on the beach, passing around the gentlest joint you can find, and dozing off under the moon.
Listen if you like: Joan Baez, Henry Mancini, and that one album of acoustic songs that Sinatra did with Antonio Carlos Jobim (phenomenal album, by the way, if you don’t know it)
Highlights: Life Is, World on a String, Empires Never Know
4. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT - Billie Eilish (Darkroom/Interscope)
HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is the most honest work yet from an artist who can never be accused of being too secretive. At 22 years old, Billie Eilish is perhaps one of the most over-exposed artists in a generation, and since age 14 she has been handling the media with both irreverence and aplomb. Between a half-dozen Rolling Stone cover features, aggressive red carpet interrogations, and the same Vanity Fair questions 7 years in a row, it seems Billie relishes in putting all her cards on the table. Any other teenager would have been crushed under the pressure, but Billie Eilish and her brother/super-producer/fellow wünderkind FINNEAS have grown up using the candidness as a tool.
In the now seemingly mandatory track-by-track breakdown conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe (here, in rare tolerable form) FINNEAS and Billie go long on vulnerability, developing as producers, and not knowing what to say. I highly recommend watching the entire conversation. At one point, while discussing Billie “playing a character” on the track LUNCH, Billie starts “If you’re only ever being vulnerable—“ and Finneas finishes her sentence with “—you’re not being dynamic”.
The two explore those dynamics and versatility on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. It beautifully marries the playfulness of their debut album (LUNCH, THE DINER) with the tenderness of their sophomore follow-up (THE GREATEST, BLUE).
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.
Lyrically, Billie leans into the vulnerability, particularly on tracks like SKINNY, and still has plenty to say.
Highlights: CHIHIRO, BIRDS OF A FEATHER, THE GREATEST
3. Harm’s Way - Ducks Ltd. (Secretly Publishing)
This is one of my favorite albums of the year so far because of how matter-of-fact it is, and how perfectly it pays homage to a certain sound.
It amazes me just how much this album sounds like it was released during that late-80’s/early 90’s New Wave-y jangle poppy period led by The Cure, The Smiths, and R.E.M.
With 9 tracks clocking in at a lean 27 minutes, 42 seconds, Harm’s Way is hyper-efficient but with such a specific vibe that it begs an immediate replay.
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.
In an interview with Stereogum’s Ryan Leas, vocalist Tom McGreevy had this to say about hearkening back to New Wave: “Nostalgia, and the trap of it, is I think in itself a melancholy thing. It’s an unrealizable yearning. That’s a part of us for sure. I think people might hear Ducks as bright because it’s in a major key, but I guess I don’t think of it that way. I think it’s bright and major key because it’s pop music. Pop music as a vehicle for these emotions — that’s a tension that’s built in, to me.”
Highlights: Cathedral City, Deleted Scenes, A Girl Running
2. Tigers Blood - Waxahatchee (Anti-)
By nature of where I was born, I grew up on Martina McBride and Montgomery Gentry. Friendships were divided over whether you were a devotee of 93.7 The Bull or 92.3 WIL. We were a Bull family.
Shortly after becoming a teenager, I discovered shame and became way too cool for country music. This also happened at a time when country music was getting more comfortable with pop than ever. Luke Bryan was paving the way for Florida-Georgia Line. TWO American Idol contestants (Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington) released country albums in 2007. As a teenage boy, it was my duty to hate country music now. But it is and always has been a part of me.
As I got older and into college, indie rock was at the forefront of my mind. I was devouring every release from every tattooed hipster I could find.
Waxahatchee’s Cerulean Salt (Don Giovanni Records) was one of my most-listened albums of my sophomore year of college.
Imagine my surprise and delight when Katie Crutchfield released her 5th album as Waxahatchee (Saint Cloud, Merge Records) and it was more Americana than anything she had done before, teetering damn near into a country music record.
Tigers Blood is both an improvement on Saint Cloud from a song-writing standpoint, and an evolution of her sound. Perhaps “evolution” isn’t the proper term, maybe we’ll call it a “leaning-in”.
Sonically, Tigers Blood is full-bore country rock. Crutchfield channels Patsy Cline and her beloved Lucinda Williams in her vocal performance, and does not shy away from dialing up the twang. As for the rest of the gang, Brad and Phil Cook, Spencer Tweedy, and the never-misses MJ Lenderman lay down backing tracks as strong as anything Buck Owen’s Buckaroos or Merle Haggard’s Strangers ever played.
Lyrically, Crutchfield’s themes feel warmly familiar with an added wisdom, as well as an un-clenching that comes with the freedom of playing music she is comfortable with. This is still the Waxahatchee from Cerulean Salt, just with a can of Stag on a front porch. It is fascinating to hear words like “didactic”, “reticent”, and “a paradox poetic” through the lens of Crutchfield’s Alabama-raised, Kansas City-steeped twang.
Right Back To It, the first single, is absolutely the front-runner for Song of the Year, but there just isn’t a bad song on the album. I hope you, like me, will enjoy Tigers Blood on a porch or a riverside.
Highlights: Evil Spawn, Right Back To It, The Wolves, Crowbar (does anyone else think this sounds like a lost Byrds song?)
1. Diamond Jubilee - Cindy Lee (Realistik)
When something completely foreign smacks you in the face in a familiar way, you have to stop and pay attention.
I found out about Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee from a Brooklyn Vegan tweet. A common occurrence; BV posts about an artist or album I have never heard of, I go down a rabbit hole. In this case, though, the album could only be listened to by a 2-hour-long Youtube video, or on a seemingly sketchy Geocities website. I took the bait, paid my $30, and downloaded those WAV files to convert to ALAC and get rockin’. I couldn’t believe what I heard.
Cindy Lee is the drag alter ego of Women’s Patrick Flegel, and Diamond Jubilee is their 6th project under that persona.
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.
It's 60’s psychedelia, it’s 50’s girl group Pop, it’s melodic “Nashville Sound” singles with the orchestral backing, it’s grimey techno, it’s shoegaze, it’s a spaghetti western score. Every new track takes you to an entirely different place, and there are plenty of places to go. With 32 tracks clocking in at over 2 hours, this double-album is both Epic and Odyssey. I am lately pining for artists to give us Less for More, but Diamond Jubilee is an enchanting and engaging ride the whole way through.
From jangly guitar to driving drums and bass to a synthesizer that sounds like it’s down the hall, all tied up with Cindy Lee’s gorgeously haunting (or hauntingly gorgeous) manipulated androgynous falsetto, this truly is like nothing I’ve heard before. But it all seems so familiar.
Highlights: Dreams of You, Flesh and Blood, Stone Faces, Dracula
Other Albums That Are Also Great
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
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.
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.
LAFANDAR – Heems and Lapgan (Veena/Mass Appeal India): Really cool rap album from Heems of DAS RACIST fame. Great flow, great bars, outstanding samples/beats. Written from a compelling perspective.
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.
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.
Strong Tracks on Not So Strong Albums
Liberty Print - Camera Obscura (Look to the East, Look to the West)
May Ninth - Khruangbin (A LA SALA)
Whatcha Doing - Dua Lipa (Radical Optimism)
Sadness as a Gift - Adrianne Lenker (Bright Future)
Étouffée - Vince Staples (Dark Times)
Good Luck, Babe - Chappell Roan (No album associated with this track, but I wanted to include it. I like Chappell, and I think anyone else who does should listen to Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love and Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas.)
Cool Stuff from Missouri
Domestic Bliss (EP) - Kat King (Kansas City) - Indie singer-songwriter power ballads and boppy rock with great vocals/harmonies
saturn return (EP) - honeybee (Kansas City) - y2K/late-90’s sound, acoustic-heavy singer-songwriter with unbelievable choruses
Small Favor (EP) - Hot Joy (St. Louis) - heavy guitars in upbeat indie rock, great and unique vocals
Like Crazy! (Single) - Waiiist (St. Louis) - funky, Talking Heads-y/Tom Tom Club-y percussion-driven psychy little thang
In the Presence of the Fey (Single) - Bonus Sandwich! (St. Louis) - dreamy post-rock that blends into an upbeat proggy synthy thang. These guys put on a wild live show.