Not Another Top ’24 Music Post
Another top ’24 music post
The year stumbles toward its clumsy conclusion, and we would all like to get very drunk. In the meantime, there will be music.
Some recommendations from this year; see last year’s recommendations here.
Sault, Acts of Faith
If you like: Earth, Wind & Fire, Funkadelic, jazz fusion, celestial elevator music
Two of the year’s most notable albums bypassed major music streaming platforms. One is Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee. The other is Acts of Faith by Sault. The former is available on Bandcamp; as of this writing, the only way to listen to the latter is on YouTube.
Despite Acts of Faith being their eleventh album, I’d never heard of Sault until a few months ago. Granted, I am not cool, so it makes sense that I’d never heard of a semi-anonymous British R&B collective that’s only performed live once. (I say R&B, but Sault freely trades in jazz, gospel, and classical, among other genres.) Inflo, a multi-instrumentalist who regularly collaborates with Adele, is the group’s leader, but the rest of the lineup is something of a mystery.
As for the music — what to say? Do you have a heartbeat? A soul? Do you believe in anything, at all? Fear not. Acts of Faith has testified yes on your behalf.
Effectively an extended gospel jam composed of nine distinct parts, this is the sort of music that might — in all sincerity — make you a better person, if only for thirty-two minutes. (Seriously! Music can do that!) My wife recently started going to something called Dance Church, which from my understanding is pretty much what it sounds like: a hundred people dancing nonstop for an hour in an abandoned rail depot. I don’t know what kind of music they play. It doesn’t matter. They should stop and play this on a loop instead.
Mannequin Pussy, I Got Heaven
If you like: bands with names like Mannequin Pussy
Every rock band must be able to do one of three things: melt faces, inculcate desire, or scream. This band does all three.
The Smile, Wall of Eyes
If you like: oldies
Wall of Eyes is one of two albums The Smile released this year. When I mentioned Wall of Eyes back in February, I said it reminded me of Amnesiac, Radiohead’s b-side followup to Kid A. As it turns out, the recently released Cutouts is a b-side followup to Wall of Eyes. Cutouts does include “Zero Sum,” a guitar-hero high-wire act in which Thom Yorke sings about Windows ’95, but Wall of Eyes is the better album of the two.
Anyway, my witness here is not necessary. Do you like Radiohead? Cool. Listen to this.1
Sour Widows, Revival of a Friend
If you like: Sun Kil Moon without the pretension, boygenius without the just-so-ness
I thought this band’s name was Sour Windows for a while, which was confusing. What makes a window sour? Age, environment, chemical degradation? Was the band referring to an actual flavor profile? Several window panels on the front of my house are smeared with the saliva of children and dogs, so I couldn’t rule out that the name was intended literally. Then again, I thought, maybe the name was a metaphor. Sour Windows. I liked it. Imagine what those windows must have must have endured.
The band’s name is Sour Widows. They’re great. Crisp arpeggios and clever harmonies. Sour, but not too much.
Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future
If you like: Joni Mitchell, Karen Dalton, songs with titles like “Sadness as a Gift”
To be honest, I did not listen to this album very much. I just want to make sure people appreciate Adrianne Lenker, probably best known as the lead vocalist for Big Thief (whom I wrote about here). Is there a better singer-songwriter in the world? I guess it’s possible. When a critic at Rolling Stone suggested that Lenker’s voice “may be an acquired taste,” Robert Christgau justly noted that the same “could also be said of Billie Holiday’s.”
MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks
If you like: per Rob Harvilla in 2022, “This guy was described to me as ‘Jason Molina with an Athletic subscription,’ which is the weirdest musical recommendation I’ve ever gotten in my whole life, and the most accurate, too.”
Spencer Kornhaber wrote a good essay in The Atlantic that summarizes a lot of my feelings about MJ Lenderman. In short, I really like MJ Lenderman, but I have no idea why he’s inspired so much hype. I also prefer his other band, Wednesday. Listen to Wednesday!
Still I wonder if Lenderman’s success as a solo artist reinforces two fundamental laws of culture. First, good artists steal, in part because originality is an illusion, and in part because audiences want artists to steal: Lenderman plays indie rock and alt country, and people like that stuff. The second law is that people like to laugh, and Lenderman is funny. Manning Fireworks may sound like Neil Young, but the lyrics are a wry combination of Nate Bargatze, Steven Wright, and Stephen Malkmus.
Sometimes Lenderman sings about losers who know they’re losers:
Kahlúa shooter, DUI scooter
Or:
Burdened by those wet dreams
Of people having fun
Just as often, though, he sings about losers who don’t know they’re losers (commonly known as douchebags):
You can put your clothes back on, she’s leaving you
No time to apologize for the things you do
Go rent a Ferrari and sing the blues
Believe that Clapton was the second coming
So, this is a yes, and: yes, Manning Fireworks is a good album, and you should check out Lenderman’s other collaborations, not the least of which includes...
Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood
If you like: alt country, folk harmonies, unimpeachable songwriting, music in general
I’m fully aware that not everyone will enjoy or even appreciate my music recommendations. De gustibus non est disputandum, etc. Having said that, anyone who remains unmoved by Tigers Blood, a near perfect album by any measure, should be cast into the outer darkness. This was my favorite new music this year, and it was not especially close.
I am placing this button here because Substack encouraged me to. I don’t expect anyone to gift a subscription this holiday season, but wouldn’t it be a funny gag if you did? Imagine the recipient’s confusion. “What?” “Why?” “I don’t want that.” “I don’t need that.” “That sucks.” “You suck.” “But it’s also just…free?”
I can’t think of a better way to express ironic disdain for someone. “I love you, lol.” Lol.
At the risk of inducing a medically irreversible eye-roll...is Radiohead underrated? If you follow Steven Hyden’s logic and include side projects like The Smile within the group’s discography, the question sounds less like bad podcast fodder and more like a legitimate inquiry.