It’s the time of year when I commit myself to naming my favourite albums of the year for no other purpose than to remind future me about things I used to like. As is the custom for end of the year lists, I have ten albums. No more and no less.
Kayla Painter – Fractures One of the things about this year is how Bluesky has introduced me to so much more electronic music than I would have normally listened to. Which means I’ve come across a lot of people that I’d never heard of before. This Kayla Painter album is more upbeat then most of the ambient stuff I’ve been listening to and is great.
Kessoncoda – Outerstate A little bit jazz, a little bit electronic. This has been an album I’ve gone back to week after week. I almost went to see them back in October but got caught up sitting on the settee, and it was raining. Here’s a link to their Bandcamp page
Mdou Moctar – Funeral for Justice Mdou Moctar has been around for years and is by far one of the most creative and interesting guitarists about. This album, apparently, rails against the injustice that is pretty common across the Sahel. I admit not being able to speak French means I missed most of that.
Fieval is Glauque – Rong Weiknes Every time I listen to this album I feel like it is going to fall apart at any moment. Quite a lot of it doesn’t make sense but holds itself together in a way that is truly surprising. It’s challenging but worth the effort.
BIGHEADMODE – Return! Of the Hellcat BIGHEADMODE are almost local with one of them living in Birmingham the other in London, which is obviously not local. This is a fantastic mix of jazz and electronic stuff. They clearly have a lot of friends who were willing to contribute to a really varied album.
NIA Archives – Silence is Loud This album absolutely should have won the Mercury Prize this year. It was absolutely robbed. An amazing debut album.
Floating Points – Cascade And this is my favourite album of the year. I really liked the Floating Points collaboration with Pharoah Saunders in 2021 but this seems to be getting back to the stuff that I remember from 2017. That’s a very good thing.
That’s all of them. All ten of my favourite albums of 2024.
