In a year when many music and media platforms are under threat as regards independence or indeed their very existence, we at God Is In The TV have continued stubbornly to cover artists of all stripes with dedicated research and impartial listening. It’s both encouraging and important for us to be appreciated for the work we do, so thank you for reading and reacting positively to our content throughout 2024.
Anyways, these are my favourite album of the year – in order of release. I have no favourites. Not that I’d say here anyway.
Bill Ryder-Jones – Iechyd Da (Domino)
Iechyd Da (Welsh for ‘good health’) was the first out of the 2024 starting blocks and set the bar ridiculously high for everyone else. Can’t help but be more than a bit appalled Iechyd Da didn’t get a Mercury nomination and watching Ryder-Jones at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in November playing ‘Thankfully For Anthony‘ was a handful of precious teary minutes.
You can read my interview with him if you like.
Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade Records)
A beautiful record, this. In it, Gruff offers to take our emotional baggage and lash it in a shipping container. That’s not to say Sadness Sets Me Free is a misery fest or vague; in it he explores the ups and downs and middlings of these often bleak times with bossa nova treats, psych and chamber pop, pretty piano, good humour, charm and hope.
Learn more about what Gruff told me about Sadness Sets Me Free here.
Y Dail – Teigr (Community Work)
Been waiting for this album since the days of the pandemic, so what a relief it’s bloody great. Fabulous multi-dimensional pop songs and clever songwriting. Y Dail‘s big cheese Huw Griffiths spilled his guts about the creation of the record armed with a fine listening practise and only went and won our Neutron Prize jointly with Ynys.
2024 was the year of the Y. Y? Because great records.
Laura J Martin – Prepared (Summer Critics)
Liverpool’s Laura J Martin stays loyal and fond to her beloved flute on Prepared, but allows herself to be playful and free, weaving in intelligent experimental alt-pop, electronic quirkiness and exploration with an out of tune piano, with co-producer Iwan Morgan (Euros Childs, Cate Le Bon, Gruff Rhys, Georgia Ruth). News just in – Laura composed the original music with Chloe Kent – who plays violin and strings on Prepared – for the ITV Dame Maggie Smith A Celebration documentary broadcast on Saturday night just gone. Yes you read that right – primetime telly.
Find out how Laura made Prepared by reading her GIITTV interview.
Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thompson – This Is Memorial Device: Music from the Stage Play (Geographic)
Ultimately inspired by David Keenan’s 2017 cult novel, Stephen Pastel/McRobbie and Gavin Thomson’s album This Is Memorial Device is based on the theatrical production of the book. A combination of sometimes heartbreaking – not a word to be used lightly – spoken word, specially composed music and demos from Stephen’s teenage years make this a compelling listen. For Pastels fans, there is a familiar reassurance too.
Stephen settled himself down for a very nice conversation indeed about this album.
Ynys – Dosbarth Nos (Libertino)
Well, well, well. Didn’t expect this, did we. Ynys hasn’t so much taken a step up with this the band’s second record than taken a giant freakin’ leap. Love the energy and bold spirit in these songs. Dosbarth Nos was shortlisted for the Welsh Music Prize and won our Neutron Prize jointly with Y Dail.
I put the thumb screws on Dylan Hughes and interrogated him with no mercy whatsoever here.
Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand (SO Recordings)
This brave and outstanding record sees Edinburgh’s Hamish Hawk exploring his relationships with men, sexual and platonic and otherwise. Painfully dark at times, it’s speckled with wit and cutting barbs, and Elvis gets a loving mention too. A Firmer Hand is a 6 Music album of the year courtesy of Steve Lamacq, and the band Hamish Hawk wrap up 2024 touring with Travis.
A very honest and thorough interview with Hamish is coming in January.
Tom Emlyn – Rehearsal For The Rain: Scaredycat, Vol.2
The most prolific and hardworking songwriter in Wales for sure, Tom Emlyn consistently writes and performs within the genres closest to his heart and does so quite brilliantly. This, Emlyn’s fourth solo album is coloured by psychedelia and progressive rock traditions, so much so it won a well-earned sparkling review from Prog Magazine, no mean feat for an independent artist in 2024.
Of course we heaped worthy praise on it too.
Euros Childs – Beehive Beach (National ELF Recordings)
A new Euros release is always a pleasure, but to have a tour accompany it – our cup of happy runneth over this year. Beehive Beach his 20th solo long player, and finds him in reflective mood with nostalgia, melancholy, childhood but with his unmistakable imagination conjuring up curious magical scenarios. The piano on this record is over 100 years old and the album recorded in a converted chapel – you can tell, in a way, hymnal elements in amongst the alt-pop.
Euros took the time to check in and talk about Beehive Beach here.
The Eggmen Whoooooo! – Fuzzy Eggs, Please
Members of EL Goodo, Los Blancos and Trecco Beis gathered together and made themselves a classic psych album and this is no exaggeration. It did take a while from this end to work out the egg-related puns in monikers Benedict E Frye, Gregg Boyle, Sheldon Advocaat, Thom Lett, Gwyn Ŵy and Sue Flay, due to being too busy vibing off this pick-me-up record.
Read my thoughts on Fuzzy Eggs, Please.
