Posted by Hi there! It’s been a while, huh? In case you’re curious where I’ve been, I got super deep into podcasting, so if you want to hear my voice, check out Gamepodular.
I started keeping track of my media diet this year, and discovered that I listened to 40 new albums this year so I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about some of them. In addition to keeping up with musicians I’m already a fan of I like going on Bandcamp, picking a genre, and picking stuff that looks cool to try. I’ve found some real gems by doing that in the past and this year was no exception.
Honorable Mention: Where Did All My Friends Go? by Mustard Plug
The only reason this is an honorable mention is that it’s from last year. I didn’t get around to it until this year and I really regret that because I love it so much. It’s hard to go wrong with some good ska punk and this might be one of the best ska punk albums I’ve ever heard. It’s upbeat, ridiculously catchy, and more socially conscious than Mustard Plug have ever been.
Honorable Mention: Madison Galloway by Madison Galloway
This honorable mention is on here because it’s a late addition to the collection. Madison Galloway’s blend of roots and hard rock kicks enough ass that I bought the album the day after listening to it for the first time, but I just haven’t had enough time to fully digest it yet. I’m really enjoying it right now but it’s possible that I won’t be listening to it anymore six months from now. Still a great album and worth listening to, though.
#5: A Frame of Mind by Kalandra
Sometimes a new album clicks with you so hard that you immediately can’t help putting it on loop for the rest of the day. This was the case when I first listened to and immediately bought Kalandra’s previous album The Line. I liked it so much that when I saw on their Bandcamp page that they were playing a live show in my city, I immediately bought tickets for it.
Kalandra make a kind of music I’d never heard before. It’s a unique combination of Nordic folk and alternative rock with a really cool crunchy guitar sound that I discovered during the concert was achieved by playing an electric guitar like a cello. It’s all rounded off by some beautifully ethereal singing that I haven’t heard done this well since Of Monsters and Men’s Beneath The Skin.
A Frame of Mind came out the day after the concert, though I had already bought it on CD at the show, and it was even better than The Line. It takes the ideas they’d already introduced and refines them. The heavier stuff is a little heavier, the political stuff is a little more pointed, and the whole album just feels a little tighter and more cohesive overall.
It is a bit of a tonal roller coaster, with some heavy songs sharing space with more straightforward folk songs. I think that works in its favor as an album though. It’s not a concept album as far as I know, but they use the order of the songs to ramp up the tension and then release it very deliberately. I don’t know how these songs would do when mixed into a playlist, but this is definitely an album that rewards you for listening to it all the way through in order. You’ll feel the emotions in their specific order, and you’ll pick up on more of the subtleties each time you do.
#4: Lovecop by Royal Republic
This album should be my permanent reminder of the fact that change can take a while to fully kick in. Royal Republic started life as a pretty fun garage rock band with some very catchy hooks. But their fourth album Club Majesty saw them moving in a funkier direction. They added some horns to their sound in a way that I was surprised I didn’t really like. I’d sort of written them off until I decided to check out some singles from their then-upcoming album Lovecop and fell in love all over again.
I don’t entirely know what changed. I do go back to Club Majesty sometimes but I still feel the same as I did back when it came out. But on Lovecop everything just feels tighter and better integrated. The songs are maddeningly catchy, really fun, and rarely fail to make me want to stand up and dance. My House, Lovecop, and Wow! Wow! Wow! next to each other starts the album off with a bang. Then a little later Lazerlove is some gloriously 80’s-style synth cheese. The album finishes on another high with the almost disco-like Sha – La – La – Lady.
I’m really happy that they’ve found a sound that clicks for me. Royal Republic has never been a super serious band but they’ve always managed to find ways of treading the line between the credible rock melodies and slightly goofy lyrics. Admittedly this new direction leans a little more to the goofy side but they haven’t crossed the line yet, and the music is still really good. I’m really looking forward to more from them.
#3: Live At Fenway Park by Noah Kahan
Like many people I was introduced to Noah Kahan when his song Stick Season made it onto the pop charts last year, and already being a fan of the kind of folk he plays immediately made him one of my favorite artists. The deluxe version of his breakthrough album, named Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Together), was in heavy rotation for most of the year. That is, until his live album came out.
The first time I finished listening to this, I felt like a different person. Kahan’s music is generally pretty sad, but hearing a crowd of thousands singing it together really reminded me that we’re all going through it and we can find strength and support in more people than we could possibly imagine.
The additions for the live performances, including a guest appearance by Gracie Abrahams, and more instrumental backing for songs that didn’t have it on the original album really elevate this as a great live album with a unique identity that sets it apart from the studio album. But the most important thing is that Kahan is clearly very happy throughout this performance. To have finally made it to the big leagues because of an album about New England, and getting to finish his tour with a live album from Fenway Park in Boston must have meant the world to him, and it really shows. The only reason that this album isn’t higher on the list is that the banter with the crowd that made it onto the album wasn’t especially interesting. I’m more than willing to accept that there was a bunch of good stuff at the actual show that wasn’t recorded, but I can only review what is there, not what might have been.
#2: Undefeated by Frank Turner
Anyone releasing an album in the same year as my favorite artist Frank Turner is up against some stiff competition. And he really delivered again with this album. Turner has been on a real upswing since 2022’s FTHC brought him back from some kind of mediocre albums in No Man’s Land and Be More Kind.
Undefeated is, in many ways, exactly what I want from a Frank Turner album. It’s got his trademark combination of folk and punk rock with his always-excellent poetic and narrative songwriting style. He always manages to keep things fresh by making his songs interesting vignettes into either life events or emotional states.
As an example, an early favorite is Girl From The Record Shop. It’s a sub-two-minute upbeat punk song that’s about exactly what you think it is. But it’s the details that really sell it: the riot grrl top; buying tons of vinyl records just to have an excuse to see her again despite not owning a record player. Nowhere in the song does he tell you how old he was when he felt this, because you can absolutely tell from that unmistakable sense of youthful uncertainty. Even in a minute and 46 seconds he can create such a complete picture of the whole situation that I feel that desperation oozing out of it.
This album has many more instances like that. Show People is a declaration that starting out as a traveling performer can really suck, but it’s 100% worth doing it if you feel inclined. There are little examples – like using your shoes as a pillow – that I can only assume are drawn from his own early years because they’re just so specific. Ceasefire just wonderfully describes feeling like your younger self would be disappointed in you, but how that’s probably a good thing in hindsight.
There are two things that hold this album back from taking the top spot. The first is The Leaders, a song I found disappointingly basic compared to the rest of the album. The other is that there isn’t really a song on here that latched itself onto my soul like some of his previous works. It’s all still very good music that made me feel things, but none of it to the degree of Get Better or A Wave Across A Bay.
#1: Signals by Goodnight, Texas
Given that I’ve been a fan of folk music for a long time now I guess it was only a matter of time until I would start exploring country music.
The atmosphere of this album is powerful. Goodnight, Texas’ combination of traditional instruments like mandolins and banjos combined with some heavier electric guitars – including a feature from Metallica’s Kirk Hammett – gives the whole thing a bit of an outlaw vibe. It’s the sound of driving into a small and dusty desert town and knowing that there’s going to be trouble. There’s just a powerful undercurrent of grit that I found was missing when I checked out their earlier work.
I think what really sets this band apart for me are the stories they tell in their songs. The album opener Dry Heat starts strong with a rollicking tale of a road trip through the desert and all the good and bad it entails. For some more emotional fare The Lightning and The Old Man Todd is a really sad story about the titular old man whose wife died in a lightning strike, and how he spends the rest of his long life cursing God and the weather for taking her instead of him, or at least not taking him at the same time. My favorite song is Among Tumbleweeds, an absolutely harrowing account of how disease ripped through a small town in New Mexico and affected its inhabitants both physically and mentally.
It’s weird to not put an album by my favorite artist at number 1, but I seriously think I spent more time listening to this album in 2024 than any other. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on Goodnight, Texas in the future because this has quickly risen to not only my favorite album of the year, but maybe one of my all-time favorites. Like with Kalandra, this was an album I only needed to hear once to know I was going to buy it. But this, more than anything else this year, is the one I kept coming back to. I kept thinking about it when I wasn’t listening to it. And I hope you enjoy it too!
HJL 