POST #50: TOP OF THE POPS 2024!
RECORD REVIEWS: The LPs that were played the most and had the biggest impact on me in 2024, regardless of whether or not they were released this year...
I get a bit sick of year-end Top 10 lists. There’s rarely a surprise secreted within what are far too often stock genre roll calls, so I decided to do something a bit different. How many times will we see the same four or five LPs listed over the next few weeks? Nick Cave, The Cure, Amyl and The Sniffers and Fontaines-fucking-DC have never had it so bum-lickingly good.
So I have listed the records I played most, made the biggest impact on me, or made me go “Cor!” - whether they’re new releases or Ancients from The Vault.
My campaign to undermine The Cult Of The New begins here.
Records are for life, not just for Christmas.
It was an interesting process. I was surprised by the subtle genre variety and historic nature of the list - and especially, actually, the honourable mentions - who didn’t quite make the Top Ten but nevertheless knocked me for six in some way over the course of the year.
Let’s start with them - and a quick reason why they’re included.
Ghost: Impera (Loma Vista, 2022)
If ever I hanker after a Total Pop Fix, I immediately reach for either Ghost or The Carpenters. Impera isn’t flawless - Side Two is far weaker than the first side, but the album still displays some of the best, hookiest writing in rock.
So much so that Ghost have more in common with Abba than Abbath.
I love them. Their singles, especially, are wondrous, and I had an intense month or two of full-on Ghost addiction in the early part of the year.
Patti Smith Group: Radio Ethiopia (Arista, 1976)
Patti has had something of a renaissance with me in the latter part of 2024.
Previously, I only owned Easter, which I enjoyed, but wouldn’t ever call it iconic or even important, to me. I only really owned it for Because The Night, one of my favourite 45s ever.
But then I got Horses, Wave and Radio Ethiopia secondhand, for next to nothing, and my ears finally opened to the genius of those first four LPs.
Radio Ethiopia, especially, is raw, angular and - some might say - even proto-noise rock. I was surprised at how contemporary it sounded.
Patti is now firmly entrenched in The Vault as one of its notable artists.
Anti Cimex: Absolut Country of Sweden (CBR, 1990)
I love me some D-Beat. Bands like Tragedy, Martyrdöd, Disfear, Wolfbrigade and Skitsystem far exceed the impact that their inspiration made on me.
So it’s a bit weird that I never picked up any Anti Cimex.
That changed this year, and I’m really glad it did.
*Chef’s kiss.
Jackie McLean: Let Freedom Ring (Blue Note, 1963)
I started properly getting into jazz as a personal project over lockdown. I needed to at least understand it, even if I didn’t like it.
It was like learning a new language and I learned to really love it.
Jackie McLean is a favourite of mine. He straddles a more traditional, melodic post-bop approach with elements of off-kilter awkwardness that challenge your ears in the most awesome of ways.
Let Freedom Ring was reissued this year and so I picked it up to fill a hole in my Jackie collection and many hours have drifted away while engaging with it.
Entombed: Uprising (Music For Nations, 2000)
Archetypal Death ‘n’ Roll.
Went down a wonderful woebegone well and pulled their entire discography out again.
‘Nuff said.
You can add Slade, Cows and Darkthrone to this list in any order you like.
Meanwhile, the actual Top Ten LPs that affected me the most in 2024 (in reverse order) are:
10: Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld: Still Smiling (Spècula, 2013)
As will be evidenced later in this list, 2024 has been the year of Einstürzende Neubaten, for me.
They are the band that fundamentally connect my girlfriend and I - and that fact alone has heightened their presence with me this year. We both went on a really deep dive with them, even venturing to Berlin to seek out historic avant-industrial landmarks.
Part of that dive was discovering the work Blixa has done with Italian classical musician, rock monster and soundtrack artist Teho Teardo, of which Still Smiling is the monumental best. Every song feels momentarily perfect. It’s a rich, melodic and beautiful journey into masterful instrumentation and lyric writing.
Entirely beautiful and, in many ways, as far as it’s possible to be from what you think Neubauten sound like.
9: John Cale: Fear (Island, 1974)
Of course, the Velvets are foundational. But as I get older, in fact, probably for the last thirty years, if I’m being honest, Lou Reed and John Cale’s solo work has meant more to me, gets played far more regularly, and has overtaken their initial collaboration in terms if its influence upon me.
New York is my go-to Lou LP. Fear is my favourite John Cale album. Both are pillars of excellence in overwhelmingly comprehensive catalogues.
Fear is comprised of back-to-back bangers - except maybe for final track Momamma Scuba.
Fear’s songs stay with you - pop enough to be ear-worms, odd enough to surprise you. I love it.
Long live my second favourite Welshman.
8: Today Is The Day: Willpower (Amphetamine Reptile, 1994)
In 2017, a documentary was released called The Man Who Loved To Hurt Himself.
Named after a great song by an amazing songwriter; the non-bionic wrestler, Steve Austin.
His band, Today Is The Day, have been the major outlet for his extremely emotional, noisy and lawless songs. Blast beats and distorted screams give way to quiet acoustic passages and enough misery and wrath to shame even Timmy Mallet into questioning his own existence. Truly progressive.
They’re always accompanying me on my own journey, but my fruitless quest for a UK outlet to stream or buy the documentary threw me down a rabbit-hole where I landed on Willpower for the first time in a while.
Spectacularly horrible.
And it was only their second LP.
Wonderfully, there’s a dozen of them these days.
7: Årabrot: Of Darkness and Light (Pelagic, 2023)
Årabrot remain one of the most exciting guitar bands in Europe. Their live performances are awe-inspiring and their prolific releases are all essential - packed tight with great songs, driving riffs and, as they evolve, hooky-as-fuck choruses.
Part Bad Seeds, part Swans, part Unsane and part Pure Rock Monstrosity, they’re Grammy winners in their home country of Norway, but are, shockingly and unjustifiably, still playing to small audiences here in the UK.
That is bound to change - and with this LP especially, you’ve got to wonder why the hell they’re not dominating the circuit and sales charts.
It’s Årabrot simultaneously at their most commercial and powerful.
The most exciting thing is that we MUST be due a new release in 2025, which makes me drool with anticipation.
Full review here:
6: Spectral Wound: Songs of Blood and Mire (Profound Lore, 2024)
Montreal’s Spectral Wound are distinguished in the endless tide of new Black Metal releases by their melodic suss. As each of their three LPs have been released, we’ve seen more and more intricate melodies appear beneath the harsh cold blasting. Better playing, better writing, heightened drama.
There are riffs on here that echo some of the most addictive At The Gates playing - yes - that good - but reframed as Black, not Death Metal.
No doubt, they are now far too “successful” for the purists. I’m sure they are decried as sell-outs by the frostbitten, self-declared Black Metal Gatekeepers, purely because they play to more than seven people a night.
But, I say more power to them - Songs of Blood and Mire has the potential to stretch the definition of their chosen genre. So the dismissive hardcore can stick their inverted crosses up their collective bottoms - Spectral Wound are painting outside the lines and creating something fresh in a genre that too easily celebrates its own stale and desiccated traditions.
5: The Only Ones: Even Serpents Shine (CBS, 1979)
I will happily die on this hill: Another Girl, Another Planet, by The Only Ones, is the perfect seven inch single.
It’s what the format was designed for and its apex was reached with this song. And yet, their LPs always left me slightly cold. They didn’t deliver the energy or the anthems I was hoping for. They fell a bit flat, and that one single felt like an exception instead of a rule.
But this year I sat down with the albums, figuring there must be more to them, and I was being dismissive because of my expectation - rather than because of the music they contained.
I’m glad I did, because this, their second long-player, especially, rewards the investment - you just need to give it a few successive listens and its hooks will snag your big fishy lips and draw them in for a sloppy kiss.
Perhaps even sloppier than Another Girl, Another Planet…
Turns out that Even Serpents Shine is very near flawless new wave, articulate pop. Just as billed. The writing feels disarmingly light but it’s some of the most erudite composition you’ll ever be privy to.
Elevated to an all-timer.
4: God Bullies: As Above, So Below (Reptilian, 2024)
The worshipful noise of God Bullies made a welcome return this year, after 30 or so years away.
And how.
Stacked with powerful riffs, hilariously anti-everything lyrics, dynamics to… erm… die for and more personality in a single chord than is contained in the entire catalogue of 90% of the dross that 2024 has “gifted” us.
Sometimes, the old ones really are the best.
As Above… is God Bullies’ strongest ever release and I urge anyone reading this to check it out. Even if you’re only half-interested in the stuff I normally cover, you’ll have more than a fleeting love for this record.
Seriously.
Full review here:
3: Thou: Umbilical (Sacred Bones, 2024):
And this I swear to you: Thou are incredible.
They’re on tour next year. Go and see them. They will lift your heart, stub it like a cigarette butt, roll it up and relight it with the next titanic, sludgy and disgustingly rancid riff.
Umbilical feels like the most lucid release from a band that is more prolific than most, with a spiraling catalogue of singles, splits, comps and LPs.
It’s impossible not to engage with the weight and sinister tension that the album brings. Especially if you’re digging down into the lyrics alongside the noise.
Thou are foul - but there’s a beauty and delicacy within their festering dirge that makes them addictive, awe-inspiring and your new favourite band.
Although snaffling up their back catalogue will cost you an arm and a leg, do it regardless. It’s worth going bust for.
I can’t wait to see them in April.
You can’t, either.
Full review here:
2: The Fluid: Glue (Sub Pop, 1990/2024)
The Fluid really mean something to me. They are foundationally important; a discovery on a whim, at a pivotal point in time, that really paid off.
And Sub Pop has remastered and reissued their entire indie catalogue.
Full review here:
Glue is magical. Six tracks of imperfect perfection.
A kick in the teeth, a punch in the nuts and a cuddle afterwards.
The band’s entire catalogue is unimpeachable, FWIW, but Glue is their crowning glory. They were grunge before grunge. They are The Stooges incarnate. They are Denver’s finest exports… and yet you don’t know who they are.
Change that.
No excuse now, because five records have been re-released in loads of Loser colours.
So stop fucking about. Go get Glue.
And then the others.
Reissues of the year.
No contest.
1: Einstürzende Neubauten: Rampen (Potomak, 2024)
As I alluded to earlier, 2024 has been the year of Neubauten for me.
Actively encouraged by her contagious enthusiasm, we both jumped joyously back into the whirlpool of inspiration that The Greatest Teutonic Cabaret provides.
Whether that’s Blixa’s sardonic lyricism or Alexander Hacke’s multi-instrumental growling, or the delicate self-made instrumental beauty, where once only a clanging cacophony rang - there are so many points of interest to excite you in the contemporary incarnation of Einstürzende Neubauten.
When our re-visitation began, I was firmly entrenched in the concrete Neubauten of yore, but now, I’ve grown with them.
Since the mid-90s, there’s been an artistic decadence to their compositions that dares to be avant-garde at the same time as revealing a fragile sensitivity which makes for a truly compelling sound.
That makes Rampen a work of utter genius. It embraces age, wisdom, sarcasm and resignation in equal measure.
That the album’s secondary title is Alien Pop Music reveals the band’s self-deprecating humour and ultimate ambition. They know, of course, that in another universe Neubauten are not The Beatles, but still, Blixa suggests just that, with such earnest conviction, your response has to be “but why wouldn’t they be?”
Neubauten have always pushed boundaries and found new ways to achieve their goals with indefatigable drive. And that just makes Rampen’s existence all the more compelling and utterly indispensable.
Full review here:
Ave, Ultras!
Thank You so much. I enjoy this zine. It’s exactly what I’m looking for. I will have to find some The Only Ones records. They are right up my alley of late 70s, early 80s bands like Television and Magazine.
Great list! Thank you for using bandcamp links.