Right then, let's wrap this misbegotten year up in the acceptable fashion. As usual it's one per artist, otherwise it gets silly, and yes, we know a couple of them were released right at the end of 2023 but we either discovered them on a 2024 album or they came too late for that year's reckoning. Sorry for the Ek-toadying, haven't got the wherewithal to do a playlist on any other streaming service (anyone?)
Adrianne Lenker - Fool
Amber Mark - Sink In
Anna B Savage ft. Anna Mieke - Agnes
Anna Erhard - Botanical Garden
Arab Strap - Bliss
Arooj Aftab - Aey Nehin
Astraba - Sink The Moon
Beth Gibbons - Floating On A Moment
Bolis Pupul - Spicy Crab
Buck Meek - Beauty Opens Doors
Campfire Social - Swim Swam Swum
Caribou - Come Find Me
Caroline Says - Faded And Golden
Cassandra Jenkins - Delphinium Blue
Charli xcx - Girl, so confusing featuring lorde
Cheekface - Flies
Clarissa Connelly - Give It Back
Cold Specks - How It Feels
Cornelius - MIND TRAIN
Dana Gavanski - Ears Were Growing
Dancer - Didn't Mean To
Deerlady - Bounty
ELUCID - THE WORLD IS DOG
Emma-Jean Thackray ft. Reggie Watts - Black Hole
English Teacher - Albert Road
Fat Dog - Running
Field Music - The Limits Of Language
Fightmilk - No Souvenirs
Fold Paper - Nothing To Report
Fontaines D.C. - Favourite
Gemma Cullingford - Early Hours
Geordie Greep - Holy, Holy
Girl And Girl - Hello
Good News - Orange Juice In The Shower
Gurriers - Des Goblin
Hamish Hawk - Men Like Wire
Hayden Thorpe - He
Heartworms - Jacked
Hello Mary - Three
Holiday Ghosts - Big Congratulations
The Horrors - The Silence That Remains
Isobel Campbell - 4316
Jim Nothing - Raleigh Arena
John Glacier - Found
Johnny Foreigner - Orc Damage
Julia Holter - Spinning
Julia-Sophie - numb
julie - clairbourne practice
Kim Gordon - I'm A Man
King Hannah - Big Swimmer
La Luz - Strange World
La Sécurité - Detour
Laetitia Sadier - Une Autre Attente
Lambrini Girls - Company Culture
Laundromat Chicks - Cameron
Laura Marling - Patterns
Les Savy Fav - World Got Great
Little Simz - Mood Swings
Loose Articles - Are You A Welder?
Los Campesinos! - Holy Smoke (2005)
The Lovely Eggs - Memory Man
Lutalo ft. Claud - Running
Mammoth Penguins - Species
Mannequin Pussy - Loud Bark
Man/Woman/Chainsaw - EZPZ
Maria Uzor - What U Need
Maruja - The Invisible Man
mary in the junkyard - marble arch
ME REX - Canada Water
M(h)aol - Pursuit
Memory Of Speke - Wife Once
Minor Conflict - Glue
MJ Lenderman - She's Leaving You
My Best Unbeaten Brother - Slayer on a Sunny Day
Neutrals - That's Him On The Daft Stuff Again
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God
Nightshift - Phone
Nilüfer Yanya - Like I Say (I runaway)
O. - Green Shirt
The Orchestra (For Now) - Wake Robin
Okay Kaya - The Groke
Overhead, The Albatross - Your Last Breath
The Pill - Bale of Hay
Project Overload - Second Chances
Punchlove - Screwdriver
Sailor Honeymoon - Fxxk Urself
SAM MORTON - Double Dip Neon
Sky Ferreira - Leash
Slow Fiction - Monday
Sophie Jamieson - I don't know what to save
St. Vincent - Broken Man
sunnbrella - have your say
Trust Fund - The Mirror
The Tubs - Freak Mode
Tunde Adebimpe - Magnetic
Ugly - Icy Windy Sky
Vampire Weekend - Classical
The WAEVE - Song For Eliza May
WILLOW ft. Kamasi Washington - wanted
Y Dail - My Baby's In The FBI
Monday, December 23, 2024
Friday, December 20, 2024
Top 50 albums of 2024: 10-1
But first, a reminder:
50 Lip Critic - Hex Dealer
49 New Starts - More Break-Up Songs
48 Isobel Campbell - Bow To Love
47 Drahla - angeltape
46 TORRES - What an enormous room
45 Magana - Teeth
44 Hello Mary - Emita Ox
43 MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
42 Nightshift - Homosapien
41 mui zyu - nothing or something to die for
40 Clarissa Connelly - World Of Work
39 St Vincent - All Born Screaming
38 Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
37 Caroline Says - The Lucky One
36 Cheekface - It's Sorted
35 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
34 Julia Holter - Something In The Room She Moves
33 Keeley Forsyth - The Hollow
32 Anna Erhard - Botanical Garden
31 Shellac - To All Trains
30 Neutrals - New Town Dream
29 King Hannah - Big Swimmer
28 Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
27 Deerlady - Greatest Hits
26 Niamh Bury - Yellow Roses
25 Laetitia Sadier - Rooting For Love
24 ELUCID - REVELATOR
23 Geordie Greep - The New Sound
22 Fontaines DC - Romance
21 Mammoth Penguins - Here
20 Dana Gavanski - LATE SLAP
19 Laura Marling - Patterns In Repeat
18 Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand
17 Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free
16 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
15 Dancer - 10 Songs I Hate About You
14 The WAEVE - City Lights
13 Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
12 Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath
11 Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍
10 English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
The definition of an assured debut, taking on the post-punk tag and hammering at its parameters amid shimmering, cracked melodies and meaningfully elusive lyrics
9 Chemtrails - The Joy Of Sects
Psych-garagers go menacing glam-apocalyptic, indelible bubblegum melodies and surf riffs for the end of the world by whatever means
8 Trust Fund - Has It Been A While?
Ellis Jones returns and strips down to autumnal English folk, largely strings and fingerpicking, while considering what memory and ageing does to you
7 Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor
Yanya's confidence continues rising, with this establishing her place as avatar of scratchy anxiety and dynamics used in service to self-reflective peaks and depths
6 Overhead, The Albatross - I Leave You This
Belfast post-rock returnees mine an emotional core based on loss and celebrating life through mostly instrumental electro, sample and beats infused soundscapes
5 Fightmilk - No Souvenirs
Finding their calling as strident power-pop riff monsters and cathartic lyrical cues in social pressures and interpersonal vulnerability. Should be big room ready if things were just
4 Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future
Nobody else has Lenker's sense of ease with the profound or turning the meditative into something to hang on to even when her transportative guitar playing is stripped back to countrified airs
3 Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Gibbons' solo debut traces a weighty woody path from the Rustin Man albums into a sparse, unsettling sound somewhere around celestial folk, affected by ageing and loss
2 Johnny Foreigner - How To Be Hopeful
Back! Back! Back! And sounding absolutely re-energised hanging on with the usual everything-pop-emo-punk-at-once abrasion to the rollercoaster from chaos to depth to enlightenment that coincides with and then rejects the world's bonfire. There's even love songs!
1 Los Campesinos! - All Hell
Yeah, our number one is a band returning after 7-8 years away who've been an absolute STN favourite for not far off the entire twenty-years-next-April (of which more at the time) of our existence, whose album holds off from the top a band/record we would describe in ABSOLUTELY THE EXACT SAME WAY. But LC! with the whites of their eyes ablaze is a special thing, and we find them on a speed run taking elements of almost every previous album to produce a dynamic whole against which to project pinpoint personal anxieties and world crumbling, often resorting to new angles on the old regular lyrical concerns - yes! Chalk off a Gareth reference to xG! - seems that much more urgent yet also that much more worn down by the ageing/maturing/surely I'm too old and too far gone to still be doing this band? process that's been the underlying driver of their development throughout
Top 100 tracks on Monday!
50 Lip Critic - Hex Dealer
49 New Starts - More Break-Up Songs
48 Isobel Campbell - Bow To Love
47 Drahla - angeltape
46 TORRES - What an enormous room
45 Magana - Teeth
44 Hello Mary - Emita Ox
43 MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
42 Nightshift - Homosapien
41 mui zyu - nothing or something to die for
40 Clarissa Connelly - World Of Work
39 St Vincent - All Born Screaming
38 Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
37 Caroline Says - The Lucky One
36 Cheekface - It's Sorted
35 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
34 Julia Holter - Something In The Room She Moves
33 Keeley Forsyth - The Hollow
32 Anna Erhard - Botanical Garden
31 Shellac - To All Trains
30 Neutrals - New Town Dream
29 King Hannah - Big Swimmer
28 Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
27 Deerlady - Greatest Hits
26 Niamh Bury - Yellow Roses
25 Laetitia Sadier - Rooting For Love
24 ELUCID - REVELATOR
23 Geordie Greep - The New Sound
22 Fontaines DC - Romance
21 Mammoth Penguins - Here
20 Dana Gavanski - LATE SLAP
19 Laura Marling - Patterns In Repeat
18 Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand
17 Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free
16 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
15 Dancer - 10 Songs I Hate About You
14 The WAEVE - City Lights
13 Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
12 Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath
11 Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍
10 English Teacher - This Could Be Texas
The definition of an assured debut, taking on the post-punk tag and hammering at its parameters amid shimmering, cracked melodies and meaningfully elusive lyrics
9 Chemtrails - The Joy Of Sects
Psych-garagers go menacing glam-apocalyptic, indelible bubblegum melodies and surf riffs for the end of the world by whatever means
8 Trust Fund - Has It Been A While?
Ellis Jones returns and strips down to autumnal English folk, largely strings and fingerpicking, while considering what memory and ageing does to you
7 Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor
Yanya's confidence continues rising, with this establishing her place as avatar of scratchy anxiety and dynamics used in service to self-reflective peaks and depths
6 Overhead, The Albatross - I Leave You This
Belfast post-rock returnees mine an emotional core based on loss and celebrating life through mostly instrumental electro, sample and beats infused soundscapes
5 Fightmilk - No Souvenirs
Finding their calling as strident power-pop riff monsters and cathartic lyrical cues in social pressures and interpersonal vulnerability. Should be big room ready if things were just
4 Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future
Nobody else has Lenker's sense of ease with the profound or turning the meditative into something to hang on to even when her transportative guitar playing is stripped back to countrified airs
3 Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
Gibbons' solo debut traces a weighty woody path from the Rustin Man albums into a sparse, unsettling sound somewhere around celestial folk, affected by ageing and loss
2 Johnny Foreigner - How To Be Hopeful
Back! Back! Back! And sounding absolutely re-energised hanging on with the usual everything-pop-emo-punk-at-once abrasion to the rollercoaster from chaos to depth to enlightenment that coincides with and then rejects the world's bonfire. There's even love songs!
1 Los Campesinos! - All Hell
Yeah, our number one is a band returning after 7-8 years away who've been an absolute STN favourite for not far off the entire twenty-years-next-April (of which more at the time) of our existence, whose album holds off from the top a band/record we would describe in ABSOLUTELY THE EXACT SAME WAY. But LC! with the whites of their eyes ablaze is a special thing, and we find them on a speed run taking elements of almost every previous album to produce a dynamic whole against which to project pinpoint personal anxieties and world crumbling, often resorting to new angles on the old regular lyrical concerns - yes! Chalk off a Gareth reference to xG! - seems that much more urgent yet also that much more worn down by the ageing/maturing/surely I'm too old and too far gone to still be doing this band? process that's been the underlying driver of their development throughout
Top 100 tracks on Monday!
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Top 50 albums of 2024: 20-11
20 Dana Gavanski - LATE SLAP
Twisting guitar-pop melodies until they don't quite feel right, capturing the skill of musical optimism and lyrical hollowness
19 Laura Marling - Patterns In Repeat
Motherhood suits Marling's meditative side, intimate and homely whilst considering what her new life looks like
18 Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand
Bookish, raffish and full of theatrical introspectiveness (yes, it's possible), self-critical as much as it takes others apart
17 Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free
The 25th album Gruff has been involved with launches into his baroque era, widescreen strings decorating lounge-pop on heavy topics
16 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
After the experimental, grief-laden phase, a return to full band enormity with strings and choirs as if trying to force rapture
15 Dancer - 10 Songs I Hate About You
Jittery, strutting and friction-free, the closest Glasgow gets to the second coming of Life Without Buildings without being slavish imitators
14 The WAEVE - City Lights
Coxon and Dougall's Scary Monsters-meets-motorik-meets-English folk-meets-Broadcast act goes widescreen, now with added Roxy Music sax
13 Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
Nocturnality proves the perfect setting for the depth and delicate breadth of folky-jazzy soundscapes with room for surprises
12 Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath
Narrating her own breakdown pushes the intimate electro-gothic of Kitchen Sink into new meaningful dimensions, even soulful in places
11 Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍
Their eighth might be their best album; it might also be their darkest as Aidan Moffatt bares his fangs over digital atrophy and hostility
Twisting guitar-pop melodies until they don't quite feel right, capturing the skill of musical optimism and lyrical hollowness
19 Laura Marling - Patterns In Repeat
Motherhood suits Marling's meditative side, intimate and homely whilst considering what her new life looks like
18 Hamish Hawk - A Firmer Hand
Bookish, raffish and full of theatrical introspectiveness (yes, it's possible), self-critical as much as it takes others apart
17 Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free
The 25th album Gruff has been involved with launches into his baroque era, widescreen strings decorating lounge-pop on heavy topics
16 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
After the experimental, grief-laden phase, a return to full band enormity with strings and choirs as if trying to force rapture
15 Dancer - 10 Songs I Hate About You
Jittery, strutting and friction-free, the closest Glasgow gets to the second coming of Life Without Buildings without being slavish imitators
14 The WAEVE - City Lights
Coxon and Dougall's Scary Monsters-meets-motorik-meets-English folk-meets-Broadcast act goes widescreen, now with added Roxy Music sax
13 Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
Nocturnality proves the perfect setting for the depth and delicate breadth of folky-jazzy soundscapes with room for surprises
12 Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath
Narrating her own breakdown pushes the intimate electro-gothic of Kitchen Sink into new meaningful dimensions, even soulful in places
11 Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍
Their eighth might be their best album; it might also be their darkest as Aidan Moffatt bares his fangs over digital atrophy and hostility
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Top 50 albums of 2024: 30-21
30 Neutrals - New Town Dream
Glaswegian transplanted to California gets to examine the human stories of tenement life from afar in an agit-janglepop setting
29 King Hannah - Big Swimmer
A big step forward for a second album, narrating a diaristic candour as the guitar explodes the languorous meditation states
28 Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
A recalibration based on taking stock of previous ideas and twisting them into new dramatic shapes
27 Deerlady* - Greatest Hits
(* also referred to as Mali Obomsawin, Magdalena Abrego)
Stately, harmony-laden folk songwriting "about intimacy under colonialism" injected with shoegaze noise to great effect
26 Niamh Bury - Yellow Roses
A dark horse from the Irish scene, Bury's plaintive, poetic folk and pure voice feels fully formed on arrival
25 Laetitia Sadier - Rooting For Love
Sadier's first album since Stereolab reformed refines their various forms of Marxist space-lounge pop while not overlooking the acid
24 ELUCID - REVELATOR
The so far less celebrated half of Armand Hammer goes hard and heavy, challenging a hostile world over pummelling industrial noise
23 Geordie Greep - The New Sound
If Donald Fagen got really into King Crimson, tropicalia and mescaline...
22 Fontaines DC - Romance
And suddenly things go stratospheric at the same time as they go ambiguous, borrowing from electronics, chamber strings and janglepop alike
21 Mammoth Penguins - Here
Melodic power-pop dynamos rawer than ever as Emma Kupa tries to work out where she stands and what being in a band in 2024 actually is
Glaswegian transplanted to California gets to examine the human stories of tenement life from afar in an agit-janglepop setting
29 King Hannah - Big Swimmer
A big step forward for a second album, narrating a diaristic candour as the guitar explodes the languorous meditation states
28 Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us
A recalibration based on taking stock of previous ideas and twisting them into new dramatic shapes
27 Deerlady* - Greatest Hits
(* also referred to as Mali Obomsawin, Magdalena Abrego)
Stately, harmony-laden folk songwriting "about intimacy under colonialism" injected with shoegaze noise to great effect
26 Niamh Bury - Yellow Roses
A dark horse from the Irish scene, Bury's plaintive, poetic folk and pure voice feels fully formed on arrival
25 Laetitia Sadier - Rooting For Love
Sadier's first album since Stereolab reformed refines their various forms of Marxist space-lounge pop while not overlooking the acid
24 ELUCID - REVELATOR
The so far less celebrated half of Armand Hammer goes hard and heavy, challenging a hostile world over pummelling industrial noise
23 Geordie Greep - The New Sound
If Donald Fagen got really into King Crimson, tropicalia and mescaline...
22 Fontaines DC - Romance
And suddenly things go stratospheric at the same time as they go ambiguous, borrowing from electronics, chamber strings and janglepop alike
21 Mammoth Penguins - Here
Melodic power-pop dynamos rawer than ever as Emma Kupa tries to work out where she stands and what being in a band in 2024 actually is
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Top 50 albums of 2024: 40-31
40 Clarissa Connelly - World Of Work
Copenhagen based producer/composer's rich voice drives brooding piano-led experiments in Celtic-aligned folk hauntology
39 St Vincent - All Born Screaming
Stepping back into a daze, harsh beats rubbing against vulnerable self-consideration amid nods throughout to previous highs (i.e. not Daddy's Home)
38 Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
A reckoning with James Smith's self in the wake of lockdown fame with the new aid of strutting post-LCD synths
37 Caroline Says - The Lucky One
Intricate, sometimes countrified folk vulnerability and heart-scouring, tackling the nature of lingering and evoked memories
36 Cheekface - It's Sorted
More original compositions from America's local band, idiosyncratic post-TMBG wryness in the remains of late stage capitalism
35 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
Alynda Segarra returns to Americana roots and imbues them with nostalgic imagery and hope for something
34 Julia Holter - Something In The Room She Moves
The unstable melodies Holter has made her own blossom even as they settle into something ruminative and meditative, and jazzier
33 Keeley Forsyth - The Hollow
*That* voice pierces even further against her most ethereally foreboding backing yet, almost elemental when big strings and brass appear
32 Anna Erhard - Botanical Garden
Entertainingly wry Courtney Barnett-ish indiepop vignettes with electronic underlining from Swiss-born Berliner
31 Shellac - To All Trains
Steve Albini's last stand is also his band's best album in quite a while - taut, skronkily noisy and with no longform experiments
Copenhagen based producer/composer's rich voice drives brooding piano-led experiments in Celtic-aligned folk hauntology
39 St Vincent - All Born Screaming
Stepping back into a daze, harsh beats rubbing against vulnerable self-consideration amid nods throughout to previous highs (i.e. not Daddy's Home)
38 Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
A reckoning with James Smith's self in the wake of lockdown fame with the new aid of strutting post-LCD synths
37 Caroline Says - The Lucky One
Intricate, sometimes countrified folk vulnerability and heart-scouring, tackling the nature of lingering and evoked memories
36 Cheekface - It's Sorted
More original compositions from America's local band, idiosyncratic post-TMBG wryness in the remains of late stage capitalism
35 Hurray For The Riff Raff - The Past Is Still Alive
Alynda Segarra returns to Americana roots and imbues them with nostalgic imagery and hope for something
34 Julia Holter - Something In The Room She Moves
The unstable melodies Holter has made her own blossom even as they settle into something ruminative and meditative, and jazzier
33 Keeley Forsyth - The Hollow
*That* voice pierces even further against her most ethereally foreboding backing yet, almost elemental when big strings and brass appear
32 Anna Erhard - Botanical Garden
Entertainingly wry Courtney Barnett-ish indiepop vignettes with electronic underlining from Swiss-born Berliner
31 Shellac - To All Trains
Steve Albini's last stand is also his band's best album in quite a while - taut, skronkily noisy and with no longform experiments
Monday, December 16, 2024
Top 50 albums of 2024: 50-41
50 Lip Critic - Hex Dealer
Intense 32 minutes of full-on New York electro-dance-punk, like DFA's circuits overheating
49 New Starts - More Break-Up Songs
Darren Hayman's new band in the long shadow of Hefner, all Velvets chug, power-pop dynamics and map-of-the-heart lyrics
48 Isobel Campbell - Bow To Love
Fleabitten queen of the hushed reckons with the modern world in low-key dream-folk tones
47 Drahla - angeltape
Leeds abstract art-rockers return after five years still embracing the deadpan angular instability
46 TORRES - What an enormous room
And Mackenzie Scott, having settled into herself at last, is going to fill it with chunky alt-rock that veers just left of centre
45 Magana - Teeth
Jeni Magana steps away from backing Mitski live to imbue her "witchy rock" with electronic and orchestral elements and self-reckoning
44 Hello Mary - Emita Ox
Intricate 90s college rock throwbacks dissolving into and evolving through noise and dissonance
43 MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Drily literate clssic country-rock character pieces and modernist guitar heroics
42 Nightshift - Homosapien
Shifting Glaswegians embrace swooning, shifting, deliberately awkward slackerdom and the prospect of hope in darkness
41 mui zyu - nothing or something to die for
Eva Liu's second solo album approaches the void from several angles, one moment reflective ambient, the next detuned lo-fi pop
Intense 32 minutes of full-on New York electro-dance-punk, like DFA's circuits overheating
49 New Starts - More Break-Up Songs
Darren Hayman's new band in the long shadow of Hefner, all Velvets chug, power-pop dynamics and map-of-the-heart lyrics
48 Isobel Campbell - Bow To Love
Fleabitten queen of the hushed reckons with the modern world in low-key dream-folk tones
47 Drahla - angeltape
Leeds abstract art-rockers return after five years still embracing the deadpan angular instability
46 TORRES - What an enormous room
And Mackenzie Scott, having settled into herself at last, is going to fill it with chunky alt-rock that veers just left of centre
45 Magana - Teeth
Jeni Magana steps away from backing Mitski live to imbue her "witchy rock" with electronic and orchestral elements and self-reckoning
44 Hello Mary - Emita Ox
Intricate 90s college rock throwbacks dissolving into and evolving through noise and dissonance
43 MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
Drily literate clssic country-rock character pieces and modernist guitar heroics
42 Nightshift - Homosapien
Shifting Glaswegians embrace swooning, shifting, deliberately awkward slackerdom and the prospect of hope in darkness
41 mui zyu - nothing or something to die for
Eva Liu's second solo album approaches the void from several angles, one moment reflective ambient, the next detuned lo-fi pop
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