Have we really reached the pinnacle of 2024 already. ‘Twas August but a moment ago. It’s been quite the year, a plethora of my favourite bands and artists have returned, some incredible gigs and festivals, Oasis tickets debacle, elections a plenty, and a general feeling of resignation that we are hurtling towards the end of mankind.
Still, always look on the bright side of life.
Choosing my albums, tracks, EPs, gigs etc has been tough this year. Feels like it blew 2023 out of the ruddy water.
Albums first.
My top two. It’s not a top two. It’s a co-top one. Desperate Journalist are written down on top by dint of D coming first in the alphabet. So, Thus Love, it’s your fault for picking a name that starts so low in the completely irrelevant order of the letters that we use to make words. Meaningless bureaucracy. They are inseparable. There is but a cigarette paper between them. Not one of your regular papers either. The thinnest variety you can buy. So minuscule is the thickness it is imperceptible to the naked human eye. It is virtually air. Like smoking a Silk Cut Ultra Mild.
In a year with scant precedent for the huge swathe of brilliant LPs, there are casualties.
LPs
1) Desperate Journalist – No Hero
2) Thus Love – All Pleasure
3) Enjoyable Listens – Trapped In The Cage Of A Hateful Bird
4) Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat
5) Lime Garden – One More Thing
6) New Dad – Madras
7) Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes
8) Father John Misty – Mahashmashana
9) W H Lung – Every Inch Of Earth Pulsates
10) Dactyl Terra – Fee Fi Fo Fum
11) Home Counties – Exactly As It Seems
12) Annie Dressner – I Thought It Would Be Easier
13) The Cure – Songs For A Lost World
14) The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy
15) Sprints – Letter To Self
16) English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
17) Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
18) Projector – Now When We Talk It’s Violence
19) Chris Helme – World Of My Own
20) Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – Skinwalker
EPs
Half Happy – Conversation Killer
Mary In The Junkyard – This Old House
Bored Marsh – Idiot EP
Slate – Deathless
Library Card – Nothing, Interesting
Strong EP game this year too. These are interchangeable depending on mood, and by dint of being the latest release, Half Happy is getting spun a ruddy lot. My two favourite songs of the year are on this five track EP. Stunning stuff. They were one of my final gigs of the year too.
Speaking of Tracks of the Year.
1. Half Happy – Bloom/Well Done Honey
2. Desperate Journalist – Consolation Prize
3. Thus Love – All Pleasure
4. Mary In The Junkyard – Marble Arch
5. Bored Marsh – Alright, OK
6. Slate – Remoter Heaven
7. Home Counties – Uptight
8. Enjoyable Listens – Tear Up The Picture Of My Kids
9. Ain’t – Oar
10. CMAT – Aw, Shoot
11. Man/Woman/Chainsaw – Ode to Cleo
12. Laura Fell – Run
13. English Teacher – Albert Road
14. Divorce – My Room
15. Korda Korder – What Have You Done
16. Michael Kiwanuka – Rebel Soul
17. Father John Misty – Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose
18. Amyl and the Sniffers -Jerkin
19. Sorry – Waxwing
20. Clara Mann – Stadiums
A very short shortlist. Only twenty when you can name fifty. I have found that quite a few album tracks end up being my favourites (Thus Love’s ‘All Pleasure’ was my favourite on the album before it was released as a single) which might be because I played all the singles to death.
I’ve probably ended up being a bit more selective about gigs this year, apparently there are only 26 on my list which seems ridiculously low. I must have missed some off. There were also three festivals in Rockaway Beach, Focus Wales and Victorious which were all markedly different to each other, one at a holiday park, another scattered across a city, and the other on a big common by the sea.
Without thinking too hard about it….
Enjoyable Listens – Paper Dress Vintage, Hackney, London – 11th April
Mary In The Junkyard – Corsica Studios, Elephant and Castle, London – 27th March
Ultrasound – Moth Club, Hackney, London – 23rd February
Thus Love – Oslo, Hackney, London – 28th August
Desperate Journalist – Jericho Tavern, Oxford – 1st October
Slate – The Windmill, Brixton, London – 5th June
Divorce – The Face Bar, Reading – 9th October
Laura Marling – Hackney Church, Hackney, London
CMAT @ Victorious Festival, Southsea – 23/24/25 August
Half Happy – Two Palms, Hackney, London – 10th December.
Hadn’t appreciated how many gigs in Hackney I had been to this year, and at five different venues too. Which is obviously a good thing that there are so many gigs in such a tiny radius around Hackney Central station. A thriving area. Plus there’s a great pub called The Cock Tavern on Mare Street near them all.
As (almost) always, there is an album that managed to pass me by from the previous year or years. In 2024 it was the incredible second LP from CMAT from 2023, CrazyMad, For Me. Such brilliantly observed and funny lyrics and absolutely belting tunes.
That’ll do. On to 2025. Proper futuristic shit. Kicking off with a jaunt around the country following my favourite band around on tour. May even try and get a ticket for Oasis that doesn’t require going in to debt the size of a small European countries GDP.
Have a good one everyone. Happy Christmas you arse, pray God it’s not our last.
