2024 Music: Top 25 Albums of the Year

 So final post to wrap up my music listening for 2024. As usual I've made the cut off at my top 25 albums, possibly because this is the longest number of writeups I can manage both without having an aneurysm myself but also without making the list a bit too long for public consumption. So anyway, a lot of these I will have mentioned in my songs writeups or at least they've come up on the top 100 songs list, too, so if there's repetition about why I like some of these, I apologise.

25) I Am I Am - Ruth Theodore (Indie Folk)

This album was a bit of a surprise for me when I relistened for end-of-year consideration. Although it won my album of the week when it came out, I had kind of earmarked it as a potential throwaway in favour of other things. The main reason being this is unassuming, unpretentious, and feels therefore kind of 'standard' folk. But there's a broad storytelling quality to the way Theodore casually delivers her lyrics, as well as some unexpected slow-burn build-ups in the orchestration that make this really quite a profound statement of music despite seeming so simplistically charming on the surface.

24) X's - Cigarettes After Sex (Dreampop)

I've mentioned these guys as they did make my top 50 songs with the title track here, plus a second song lower down in my top 100. But what I felt distinguished this album from its predecessors (and I've heard every Cigarettes After Sex album since they debuted during the time we've been doing this music project and I loved their debut) is this album feels quite powerfully intimate. It's more overtly bedroom pop despite having that ambient, dreamy atmosphere throughout but also the lyrics here feel very intimate and personal. So it may sound weird to say this but it's a very sexy album and it feels like the soundtrack of a couple of horny teenagers embarking on their first consummation - with plenty of drugs and possibly rock 'n' roll involved as well. But also somehow, musically interesting as well.

23) Transfigured Earth - Brendan Byrnes (xenharmonic psychedelic rock)

Part II

This is actually a pair of EPs from Brendan Byrnes, who has previously been featured in my top 20 songs (#11 of 2017) and top 25 albums (specifically #25, also in 2017). There's no doubt that on the surface the second EP feels more typically him - it's more electronic, more xenharmonic, and basically more 'alien' while part I is more acoustic and guitar-driven. But I feel it works best as a two-parter, especially taking in mind what he's titled the whole thing and it feels like a transition from a naturalistic, more down-to-earth almost folk rock composition into a more alien soundscape by part II. So Part II could have made a play for this list on its own but I think it definitely earns the build-up developed in Part I as well.

22) Instant Rewards - Tides from Nebula (Polisho Post-Metal)

Another alumnus from a previous list, these guys did my #6 album and #5 song of 2019 and this was therefore their eagerly-await followup five years in the making. Being further down the list it does feel like a bit of a letdown but mainly because I felt they had gone from the experimental and fully hard-hitting instrumental work of their previous album to a more predictable prog-metal style, especially later in this album. There are still some amazingly complex layerings of guitar works but it does feel like more of a melody-driven piece rather than brutalist compounding of sounds which I loved later on - so still great stuff but not top tier this time around.

21) A circle’s round - Lunar Noon (Chamber Psych)

This is the second album I've heard from Lunar Noon but this one really grew on me late in the year (it was a fairly late release, I think mid-November, and in fact the week after Tides from Nebula's album was released). It feels like very 'adult' music in that despite the interplay between chamber instrumentation and psychedelic dreampoppy vibes, it seems to take itself very seriously. And that could fall apart if it wasn't consistently committed to and delivered, but singer-songwriter Michelle Zheng does just that, delivering a kind of jazz-infused chamber pop that's sophisticated and elaborate and it feels worth listening to every moment even if it has a contrived structural quality without a strong sense of fun or whimsy.

20) BUTU - KOKOKO! (Democratic Republic of the Congoleso Underground Electronica)

This one feels like a bit of a sore thumb in the midst of all this sophisticated, professionally-produced music, but the very raw, unrefined quality of this is exactly what makes it so compelling. This is a group of DJs and producers who formed some kind of collective on the streets of Kinshasa, and make this music which feels constantly furious as well as developing a sense of community through these energising dance tunes. It also follows wonderfully in the tradition of Afrobeat with these repeated vocal refrains and exhortations so it's both a thrilling statement of defiance and a celebration of the unifying power of music.

19) A Hellish Lazarus - Agora (experimental rap)

This one was a real surprise for me. Now as a very important sidenote I should mention that this was my album of the week the week that the new album by Hungarian avant-garde metal band Thy Catafalque was released, who in previous years have weirdly harbinged specifically my number 4 album of the year (a prophecy which was broken last year when in fact they harbinged my number 1 album of the year instead). So a bit down this year, but still cracking my top twenty with this one. This is very much a weird album, consisting of a very fuzzy and even aggressive punk-style production with similarly distorted vocals delivering a sense of despair and anguish at an impressively fast-paced tempo. It worked on me because it felt like it earned the build-ups to some pretty hefty and weighty climaxes and felt like a unique personal statement of rap music.

18) 51122 - The FMs (Queer Post-Punk)

This is one of the highest-ranked albums that only won runner-up album in its week of release (there's a very clear reason in this case, with vague references to what will be revealed as my number 1 album of the whole year lower down in this post etc), and I was pleased at how well it held up on relistening. This is a group of trans musicians who I felt only touch upon queer themes in a few tracks here (e.g. "My Sex" and "Domino") but otherwise deliver a variety of pop and rock tunes here. They do this I feel through emphasising different members of the band and their talents at various times so you get a sense of eclecticism while always feeling like it's true to their band identity and sound. Ultimately just a really entertaining album of music.

17) Kantos - Kishi Bashi (Art Pop)

Kishi Bashi is a powerhouse of the music project (My #89, #79 and #4 songs and #3 album of 2016; #33 song and #7 album of 2019; #4 song of 2020 - also my #89 song of this year) so naturally every release of his comes with a huge sense of anticipation. This one was really quite a stylistic departure from him, taking ostensibly on a baroque exploration of nu-disco music rather than his old interrogations of pop music interspersed with his virtuosity on the violin. That made for a bit of a challenge at times when it felt a bit more upbeat and less thoughtful than I'm used to, with him. But there's still so much to enjoy here in terms of his clever arrangements, skillful playing and just sheer smooth, delightful tones throughout. It feels like his most superficial collection of music but I think it's just his most purely playful.

16) Your Hand Forever Checking On My Fever - Amanda Bergman (Swedisho Folk Pop)

Amanda Bergman is the singer for a band called Amason, who did my #14 album of 2019 and who I discovered and loved the year before we started this music project in earnest (specifically 2015, or maybe late 2014). My love for Amanda Bergman's voice and style feels purely idiosyncratic though, because I find something so relaxing about her singing that carries through to the production behind her. It's kind of flawed in a good way, accented in a quirky way, and the gentleness of it feels reassuring that it's OK to be imperfect. Maybe I get overly sentimental about this kind of music because it's far from a monumental artistic statement, but I just think there's a real charm to its quaintness and simplicity.

15) Songdreaming - Sam Lee (Modern Trad Folk)

This album feels like something I'd normally dismiss but there's something utterly compelling, ultimately, about Sam Lee's voice. It's so rich and full of depth and he delivers every part of this with such passion and aplomb. There are some awesome instrumental arrangements as well (most notably in "Aye Walking Oh", my #21 song of the year) that help to elevate this above what it feels like on the surface, which is a pretty typical album of traditional folk songs. If it is ultimately a set of traditional-sounding folk, it's just an especially beautifully delivered set.

14) Born Horses  - Mercury Rev (Psychedelic Pop)

There are often albums like this in my top of the year, where bands who have been around for a long time doing the same kind of thing come on my radar for the first time, and I really like them. Mercury Rev feel like one of those groups because I can imagine this kind of theatrical, flamboyant and ultimately kind of pretentious art pop will become a bit tired once you've heard a lot of it. But this was my first taste of it and despite how heightened, stylised and 'weird' the whole thing is, I really went for it in a big way. I think it's largely because the synthpop arrangements are so elaborate and affecting so Jonathan Donahue's vocals setting the scene and telling the story over the top just provide the crowning touch.

13) The Phantom Five - AWOLNATION (Indie Pop Rock)

I feel like AWOLNATION are part of that group of alt/pop rock groups in the 2000s who did a big hit or two and have then continued to put out similar music to diminishing returns of popularity. But I've always really enjoyed these guys in particular, and this album was a surprise hit for me. It's more a collection of bangers than it is a profound singular statement as an album, but through sheer force of great songs (including my #8 and #88 songs of this year) it ended up being a no-brainer for this list. It's just forcefully catchy music based around some great motifs and bringing with it really enjoyable energy.

12) Orchid Underneath - Jane Paknia (Experimental Electropop)

This was another album that I liked on first listen but really accelerated up the list at the end of the year. If I am looking - nine years and counting into this ~1000 albums per year project - for things that surprise me and offer something new and distinctive, this album has it in spades. It's got a wonderful experimentation throughout full of complex juxtapositions that are always wildly unpredictable. But Paknia proves throughout that she can manage subtle just as well as she can do showy which means that the louder and more challenging parts of this are really emphasised and highlighted well to drive the sense of 'weird' when it's needed.

11) Sometimes, Late At Night - Jharis Yokley (Experimental Percussive Synthrock)

Two albums in a row of fairly challenging music. This is my highest-ranked album that only won runner-up of its week and in fact it's leapfrogged the album that beat it, Ruth Theodore's "I Am I Am" which I discussed earlier. I mentioned as well in my songs writeup that this dude feels like he's running where Brian Eno earlier walked in the 70s. He's got the same kind of ambient experimental rock with his rich, evocative vocal line, but in Yokley's case he focuses as well on his byzantine drumbeats underneath to deliver something that's weirdly contrasting between ambient and furiously driving.

10) Fine Art - Kneecap (Northern Irisho Hip-Hop)

This is another album I've touched on in my songs writeups as these guys also made my #15 song of the year. This whole album is a delightful exercise in chaos (Kneecap were also featured in a pseudo-documentary film this year that Jez has seen and said it's also delightfully chaotic) but it's delivered in a strangely and compellingly nonchalant way. There's a potent anger throughout their lyricism and the production and arrangements behind them but a lot of the casual delivery just adds to how unapologetically Irish (northern or otherwise) this is - there's a sense of skylarking throughout where they're pissed off at everything but still determined to have fun in spite of it all.

9) Dulling the Horns - Wild Pink (Indie Folk Rock)

Another powerhouse of the music project, this is the first Wild Pink (full-length) album that hasn't been in my top 3 albums of the year so it feels like a big demotion despite still making my top ten (just to be boring and document everything, their previous credits are: #38, #32, #28 songs and #3 album of 2018; #81, #51, #9 and #5 songs and #1 album of 2021; #96 and #67 songs and #2 album of 2022). This album was a bit of a departure for them though, which seems to have been noted as a positive in this case for many critics but for me I really liked the sentimental, dreamy and comforting feel of their previous albums. Their 2022 effort ILYSM did develop a bit more of the rock edge that's predominant here. But there's still a wonderful sense of the surreal in their songwriting here, and John Ross' voice still delivers these potent feelings while maintaining in this case a bigger, cooler presence and sense of drive.

8) BETA - Peter Cat Recording Co. (Indiano Art Rock)

This is probably the most idiosyncratic pick I have on my list, and I say that largely because - God help me - I have no idea why I love this album so much. Peter Cat Recording Co are an Indian band, and the whole premise of this album - and possibly their sound generally, this is my only taste of them so far - is this esoteric take on classic lounge jazz crooning. Think something like Perry Como or Dean Martin or Engelbert Humperdinck. But it does that interspersed with subtle but ever-present Indian folk instrumentation as well as a more modernist sense of lyricism which imbues it all with a touch of cynicism and almost undermines the overtly sentimental tone of the music. There's undoubtedly a tacky feel to this but that's part of what I find so fascinating in this, and at the end of the day I enjoy a lot of the tunes they crank out here in spite of whatever else might feel off-putting here.

7) Yummy - James (Alt Rock)

Yet another frequent appearer on these lists (among others they did my #12 album of 2018 and #19 album of 2021), James have reached their highest point yet with this, the worst-named album on this list (I've said that, if James have a particular strength, it definitely isn't choosing album titles or band names). Similar but superior to AWOLNATION, this is just an album of wall-to-wall bangers. It feels at times as catchy as the Fratellis, it feels at other times as sweeping and grandiose as U2, it feels at other times sophisticated and innovative like Elbow or Alt-J. But they are also unmistakeably themselves, and the charisma of frontman Tim Booth is central to every part of this and every part that's good. There's synth elements, there's string elements, and all of it is purposeful and thoughtful as much as it's just infectious and even exhilarating. 

6) Revelator - Phosphorescent (Art Folk)

Well you can stop being sick of hearing the name Phosphorescent (whom, like I said in my previous post, I'll be watching perform live tonight at the Factory theatre) because this is the last mention. Having made my top 100 songs of this year 4 times culminating in my runner-up song of the year, this was inevitably going to be a top ten album of the year - as was his 2018 effort as well. The unfortunate and sad thing is that this should be a #1 album of the year (as should his 2018 effort, too) but I feel Phosphorescent's curse is that because he makes such unadorned and simply constructed songs, there's nowhere to hide when the song isn't firing those feels at me. And the truth here, as it was in 2018, is that there are just some weaker songs on here that end up dragging it notably down the rankings where it otherwise should belong. And that's not to say I want him to just cut it all down to four-track EPs or something, but it's just part and parcel of being such a humanistic songwriter that not all of it's going to fire, and as such being my sixth-favourite album of the year is nonetheless a huge achievement and testament to how powerful the best of his songs are.

5) Only Love Remains - Yemen Blues (Yemenio Folk-Grunge)

As a bit of background, I do often tend to love music that has a sense of east-meets-west fusion and/or traditional folk sounds with modern styles, and this album from Yemeni band Yemen Blues is a truly exciting, electrifying album. It’s cultural fusion certainly with a vibrant, modern edge but that just feels like the starting point: beyond that it expands excitingly into an exploration of genre depths and strictures, playing with the grunt and oomph of rock, the wailing of blues and the stirring of folk. But all of that in a package that’s extremely entertaining and lively; great drive, great complexity throughout. It's kind of eclectic in its explorations but remains very solidly Yemeni in spirit and energy, and just gathers more steam as it has these side quests and variations as it goes on. 

4) Pages - Shaznay Lewis (Pop RnB)

Shaznay Lewis came up in my earlier post from today, as she made my #5 song of the year which was effectively just a highlight track from this album. But as important context it's worth noting that All Saints are one of those 90s groups that I have a weird fondness for despite them not really being my thing at the time. So Shaznay Lewis as one of their former members and songwriters branching out in solo form was a real revelation for me here. The fact is she's a hell of a songwriter, and while there are a couple of lulls between bangers on this album, everything she's made here is extremely solid and results in very trim, perfecting pop music. It's not overtly RnB in style this, but at the same time it uses her strong voice to its fullest potential a lot of these great arrangements so she's the driving force behind some incredibly efficient and catchy pop tunes. "Peaches" is a big highlight track for me here but there  isn't a bad song on here at all.

3) Warriors - Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis (Non-Musical Theatre Concept Hip-Hop)

This is potentially a controversial choice given that I feel Lin Manuel-Miranda's star has started to fall in a lot of people's opinions, and also I know this project felt to a lot of people like a weird choice for him now. But the fact is I love the film The Warriors that this is a musical reworking of, and it felt like such a great fit for LMM's style of conceptual storytelling hip-hop. In fact this album made me question why on earth nobody has yet made a musical version of The Warriors because, as this album aptly demonstrates, the camp excesses of the material is ripe for this kind of melodrama and vibrant hip-hop and song-narrating action. There's so much of this album that is exciting to me even though this isn't actually a stage production and is just the soundtrack for a hypothetical staging (that I really want to happen now), and there's so much action in this that happens from the lyrics and music alone. There's also a wonderful ensemble cast of vocal talent on here, from the featured rappers in "Survive the Night" (my #20 song of the year) to Lauryn Hill, Shenseea and, perhaps most notably, Australia's own Kim Dracula who puts in an amazing performance as the villain Luther. A potentially controversial choice maybe but a very firm lock at the top my year for myself.

2) Songs of a Lost World - The Cure (Gothic Rock)

This is not a controversial choice at all and is one area where I seem to agree with the critics who invariably proclaimed this as one of their top albums of the year (although I disagree with them strongly that Charli XCX's Brat should even be in the same conversation as this, let alone universally agreed to be the best album of the year). But worth noting as well that this isn't a case where I'm late to the band's party; I've heard a lot of the Cure's albums from the 80s although I didn't really grow up with them, but nevertheless this felt like a really powerful and frankly quite moving addition to their storied catalogue that also rises above so much of what came before it. I don't mean to be a prognosticator of doom but this really feels like the Cure's version of David Bowie's Blackstar or Leonard Cohen's You Want It Darker in being a final release before shuffling off the mortal coil. There's a palpable sense of mortality ingrained in this album, and Robert Smith's vocals still hold a lot of excellent tone and feeling but they certainly feel like there's a world-weary but also sentimental feeling creeping into them here as it feels so reflective and all-encompassing of the music they've always made together. But as I mentioned when talking about Endsong, my #19 song of the year, the other thing that's on full display here is how skillful and confident the guitar and drum work and bandwork generally are here. They are constantly on song here and the vibrancy of their playing means this is constantly weighty and heavy-seeming in keeping with the tone of gloom and finality but also dynamic and never getting bogged down in a sense of self-importance. This earns every minute it runs for and makes it come to life.

1) The Last Will & Testament - Opeth (Prog Death Metal)

But despite only coming out the second-last week of the year, there could be no other choice for my top album of the year. As you probably know if you know me, I've been a big fan of Opeth for a couple of decades now and for a long time their 2001 song The Drapery Falls has been considered my favourite song of all time. So it was quite a disappointment to me when their 2019 album In Cauda Venenum took a bit of a departure from their old death metal sound and became a pure prog album. Specifically I felt it a bit frustrating, incorporating a lot of the density of compositions that made their music so vibrant to me but lacking the potency to get down and dirty when needed, and it felt restrained and lacking as a result. So when it was announced that frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt would be reprising his throaty demonic growls for this album, that sufficed to get me far more excited about. Would that reprisal be enough on its own to make this a good album, in the end? Well obviously the point is moot and for the record I think the answer is, in fact, yes, but there's so much more to this album that makes it to my mind Opeth's absolute masterwork. I personally have long held that their second album Morningrise is their most consistently great album and partially because it has this unhinged and unrefined quality that I then felt they started to refine in subsequent albums and, in so doing, dilute a lot of their musical explosiveness. In The Last Will & Testament it feels like all of the refinements and little microtweaks they've been making over the years have come to their final fruition but there's also a new, aggressively experimental sense of freewheeling musical expression here that also makes this completely unlike anything they've done before. It seems every minute there's a switch in each song here, either ramping up the complexity or toning it back down to more acoustic and classical guitar stuff, which they've always done but here it's done so erratically that it's constantly exciting and fascinating. They're also incorporating far more of a cultural fusion aspect into the work here so there are influences coming from everywhere and that all makes for a compelling pastiche of everything that makes rock music great. This was an album that I listened to with the lights down and no distractions, and the first thing I wanted to do when it was finished was start it from the beginning again. Every time I have listened to it in the short time I've had with it since has shown me new surprises, new ingenious twists and turns in the music and new brilliant ways of connecting all the disparate parts to it together. I'm not really sure where Opeth can go from here, but whatever they do I'll be waiting it with baited breath and if this is the last new music we hear from them, what a note to go out on.

So that's it for the 2024 music project.

Next on the tasklist for this blog of course is writing up the books I read last year, and fortunately that tends to be a relatively easy task because I do the writeups as I finish each book. It will also be all in one post this year as I only ended up reading 23 books. So watch this space.

2024 Music: Songs of the Year: Top Twenty

20) Survive the Night - Shenseea, Chris Rivers, Nas, Cam'ron, Ghostface Killah, RZA & Busta Rhymes (Non-Musical Theatre Hip-Hop)

This is the opening number of Lin Manuel-Miranda and Eisa Davis' musical adaptation of Warriors (which has just been produced as an album rather than a stage production, hence my 'non-musical theatre appellation for this and another song from elsewhere in my top 100). And this is a really killer, dynamic way to kick off a brilliantly kinetic album with a lot of prominent featured rappers setting the scene for the night of violence and tension that we're in for from the whole show.

19) Endsong - The Cure (Gothic Orchestral Rock)

A slowdown for number 19; this song wraps up the Cure's beautiful latest album (which I'll get into more when I do my albums in the next post). What I love most about this song is how patient it is and how firm the instrumental control is throughout. Robert Smith doesn't open his mouth here until about halfway through the song but we're already taken on a journey through the slow build-up of guitar and strings layers and it leaves us with a devastating sense of emptiness and mortality.

18) The Wheel - UGLY (UK) (Post-Pop)

UGLY (stylised on Spotify as UGLY (UK) to distinguish them from whoever the hell has the name UGLY trademarked) were a big discovery for me this year. They combine a sense of choral harmonising with an anything-goes approach to progressive rock and this song is seven minutes of beautifully controlled mayhem that feels like The Manhattan Transfer's mad scientist cousin or something.

17) To Be Of Use - Logan Lynn (Bedroom Pop Cover)

I was really taken by the sad empty feeling of this song (it's another that falls into that 'modern power ballad' vibe) and I was surprised to learn it was actually a cover of a song by Bill Callahan. When I listened to the original for the first time it really confirmed for me that Logan Lynn's echoey production is really the key selling point here and it really intensifies the feeling of sadness and hopelessness the song imbues.

16) Karma Wheel - Night Verses (Post-Metal)

I believe this song is likely my and Jez's combined #2 song of the year, behind another song which I'll get to, as this was even higher on his list. There's a lovely sense of mindless chaos to this instrumental metal track where they have lots of different elements all moving and firing all at once. I wasn't quite as taken by this as Jez was (although obviously I love it) because it does feel a bit like a great, powerful refrain stitched together sparingly by longer quiet passages so it's not the kind of coherent heavy-hitting that could make my top ten but it's still a kickass bit of music.

15) I bhFiacha Linne - KNEECAP (Northern Irisho Hip-Hop)

KNEECAP were another new discovery this year. This song's just a clear distillation of what made their album great (which will come up in my top albums writeup), specifically how unapologetically (Northern) Irish these guys are. They spout harsh truths and foul-mouthed rants in thick accents, flitting in dynamic switches between English and Irish language lyrics and developing a rollicking sense of both carefree fun and also potential mindless violence and anger.

14) Walkins Welcome - BenBen (Gnome Rock)

From the very first week of music listening in 2024 (so actually likely a December 2023 release), this song stuck with me for the whole of the year. BenBen has a soft and quite sweet voice so the song's got a nice catchy quality intrinsically, but where he takes it with his particular 'gnome rock' quirks takes it to another level entirely.

13) Comedy - Infinity Song (Progressive Vocal Pop)

This song was remarkable for me on first listen and I've only appreciated it more on relistening. Infinity Song are a predominantly vocal group of four siblings, but here they take their vocal ranges and clever sense of unity to a weird place with this song about the desire to laugh in the face of sadness and dejection. It goes through many different stages with a lovely sense of unpredictability and idiosyncrasy.

12) Dirrpi Yuin Patjulinya - DOBBY (Filipino-Muruwari Hip-Hop)

This one is likely my and Jez's combined #3 song of the year (possibly on par with "Karma Wheel" from earlier in terms of absolute score) as we both had it in our top 20. DOBBY is an Indigenous 'drapper' (drummer-rapper) and this song combines the best of both his worlds, with a funky beat underpinning a dense and free-flowing bit of hip-hop that evokes Aboriginal legend and that connection with the land in ways that's fascinating and exhilarating.

11) Dud - GUM & Ambrose Kenny-Smith (Psychedelic Rock)

This song was another, like Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' "Frogs" that I adored as a lead single only to feel a bit let down by the resultant album. But still, this collaboration between GUM (part of Tame Impala's entourage) and Ambrose Kenny-Smith (of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and also frontman of the Murlocs) remains one of my favourite songs of the year. It's a perfect encapsulation of the grooving psychedelia that is becoming such a force in Australia these days largely thanks to King Giz. It's more groove than psychedelia but it just evokes such a wonderful rarefied atmosphere while it also slaps in the rock sense.

10) I Never Had Control - Another Sky (Indie Rock)

Another Sky have really been Jez's domain in the music listening project (possibly because I found their melting-face cover art a few years ago too off-putting to want to enjoy it) but this song really sends chills down my spine. It's largely driven by Catrin Vincent's amazing voice which she puts to extraordinary use in this track, driving higher and higher to big powerful peaks of drama that leaves me breathless in the right mood.

9) I haven't felt like me - Pronoun (Indie Pop)

I've enjoyed a lot of Pronoun's sweet pop music over the last few years but this song is a real highlight from her. It's a breakup song and a song about how humiliating and even dehumanising a breakup can feel, but when delivered in her waifish style it doesn't feel that sad; more heart-breakingly relatable and affecting, while also being catchy as hell.

8) Panoramic View - AWOLNATION (Indie Pop Rock)

Another one for the 'modern power ballad' style, I really dug AWOLNATION's whole album this year but as a lead single this was by far and away my favourite track. I interpret it as part of Aaron Bruno's dealing with his young twin boys and how it feels to have to keep an eye on everything in panoramic view, and as a result it's both quirkily self-effacing, personal and deeply sweet.

7) Seabird - Libera (Contemporary Choral)

Libera are a boys' choir who can deliver some utterly spine-chilling harmonies, but for the most part they do deliver standard choral songs that feel a bit familiar to me. So when they get an original composition like this they absolutely nail it. This song brings me a rush of joy as well as a profound sense of serenity as it evokes all the beauty and natural rhythms of the world.

6) His Altar of Silence - Kidä (Gothic Desert Pop)

Swinging violently back the other way, this track from Kidä is a dirty, kickass kind of affair. It has an ethereal vocal line with a dirgey guitar and even a filthy sax part at one point. Kidä uses her Egyptian-Arabic heritage to great effect to add a sense of east-meets-west exoticism to this incredibly dynamic tune that also evokes a sense of mystery and menace throughout.

5) Peaches - Shaznay Lewis (Pop RnB)

Shaznay Lewis is a former member and one of the chief songwriters of All Saints, and this solo album was a remarkable revelation of her as a songwriting and vocal force. This was a key highlight song for me, delivering a wonderfully layered sense of vocal harmonising with some stirring instrumental arrangements and a bit of a bridge section that strangely but aptly invokes "Pure Shores". This is definitely one of the powerhouse pure pop songs for me this year.

4) The Burning Handle - Geographer (Art Pop)

This is probably the pinnacle of this year's "modern power ballads" style songs. Geographer uses his powerful falsetto and narrative vocal style to great effect here in a song that moves wonderfully progressively through its stages so it feels like it's always building but at the same time never has a quiet or empty moment. In that sense it's kind of relentless in its drama and I think it's completely apt with the cosmological and spiritual themes embodied in the lyrics.

3) The Spark - Kabin Crew & Lisdoonvarna Crew (Irisho Kids' Rap)

This song is undoubtedly my and Jez's combined #1 song of the year as it made both our top tens (or possibly just outside for Jez). Get a bunch of Irish kids, have them rap over a fairly rudimentary but hard-hitting electronic beat, and you have a surefire hit of course. Mainly because these kids have such a wholesome spirit of joy and the result is the feel-good anthem of 2024 for my mind, reminding me of how good life was before I had to grow up and deal with ISO audits and CTP greenslips and *insert whatever else is bothering me at this specific moment in time*

2) Revelator - Phosphorescent (Indie Folk)

Oh here he comes again. Incidentally at time of writing this I'm going to see this guy live at the Factory Theatre tonight and he'll likely play this, my #2 song of the year. This was also the lead single from his album of the same name, and it's a beautiful piece of simple songwriting that just hits so many of the right notes and feels throughout. It's mostly just a sad song, but Matthew Houck has such a charisma in his singing that it feels like it conjures up the common experience we all have of sadness and facing our own imperfections. Beautiful stuff that was only just beaten by...

1) Shepherd's Carol - UGLY (UK) (Pastoral Progressive Post-Pop)

You'll remember UGLY from earlier in this very post as they've achieved the rare feat of hitting my top twenty twice (a feat also managed by Phosphorescent himself in 2018). But this song was always going to be hard to beat for my song of the year when I first heard it, because it's so utterly singular and bizarrely unique. It starts with this rolling guitar that puts me in mind of Malian luminaries Ali Fakha Touré and Toumani Diabaté, then it cuts straight across that with a power electric chord that evokes 70s The Who. Then when they get into their choral-style vocal harmonies and sardonic humour, it adds a whole heap of different dimensions to it. But the most remarkable thing about this song is despite it being this modern pastoral song (that coincidentally seems to be a piss-take on that anyway) with a clash of electric and traditional folk styles and a whole bunch of unpredictable progressive passages, it holds together as a singular vision. Even though it feels mostly like a weirdly silly song, it's so unlike anything I've heard before that it takes my top spot.

And it'll be a bit more of a task to write up my top 25 albums for another post today, but I'll aim for it nonetheless or at the latest, early next week, with books to follow.

2024 Music: Songs of the Year 50-21

50) Domwoofer - le Fatty Acide (Nouveau Big Beat)

This is a fun little song to kick off the top 50; weird acid synths with a nice dynamic dance beat and some eclectic, weird vocal samples for a bit of sprightly, mindless entertainment.

49) Cinderella - Remi Wolf (Funky Soul Pop)

This song grew on me a lot (or regrew, I guess) at the end of the year; I liked it at first but it barely scraped into my top ten songs of its week of release. But I think there's just a really solid bit of songwriting flow to make it one of the more catchy and memorable bits of pure pop, largely due to her funk soul influences.

48) Murals - Dim Gray (Norwegio Prog Rock)

Dim Gray did one of my and Jez's combined favourite songs of 2022, and this was a long-awaited followup. It's much in the same vein and therefore here it is in my top 50 again. They have a unique sound to the way they play guitars and have the atmospheric, smoky vocals giving this a pure sense of psychedelia but also impassioned music composition.

47) To Get It Right - Phosphorescent (Indie Folk)

You'll likely get sick of hearing the name Phosphorescent by the end of these writeups, as you may well have the last time he put out an album of pure original songs in 2018 (he had four songs in my top fifty that year as well). He's just an incredibly moving singer-songwriter and this song is the heartfelt, melancholic conclusion of his remarkable album. Which you'll hear more about.

46) The High Room - Storefront Church (Baroque Pop)

This is a song that's likely quite high on my and Jez's combined song list for the year as it made his top twenty. A quirky and sweepingly dramatic song full of dense orchestrations and storytelling songwriting.

45) Rogue - James (Alt Rock)

James have always been one of my stalwarts for doing great, solid rock music since I discovered them (and that was very late in their extremely long and storied career). This song's a great example of a very competent band in complete control of their sound and it's catchy and dynamic and fun.

44) We've Got You (i - Spark) - Vienna Teng (Indie Pop)

Effectively this song is kind of half in a high position on my and Jez's combined song lists as Vienna Teng did a second track as part of an EP and then a third song that combined the two previous tracks - and that resultant combination ended up very high on Jez's list. But I was a big fan of just the first part in isolation, with good orchestrations and nice progressive pop feeling.

43) Impossible House - Phosphorescent (Indie Folk)

Ah, more heartfelt folk songwriting from Phosphorescent. This song has great instrumentation and has a nice catchy hook to it so I always remember the chorus but I'm likewise always surprised when I hear it in full and realise how well the instrumentation augments the song overall.

42) X's - Cigarettes After Sex (Dreampop)

I've been a big fan of Cigarettes After Sex (the band; in reality I never, ever have sex) since their debut in 2017, and this was a highlight of their album this year, just providing an oasis of peaceful, dreamy, intimate bedroom pop in a world of chaos.

41) Jungle Full of Ghosts - Johnny Delaware (Americana Folk)

In a similar vein to all of Phosphorescent's entries here, Johnny Delaware delivered some excellent solid songwriting with a touch of Americana twang. This song's got a slight haunting vibe to it which really augments the solid folk movements.

40) §6 - Opeth (Progressive Metal)

You'll be hearing more about Opeth and their album "The Last Will & Testament" but this was my favourite track from that album. Not as diverse in the fusion elements here as "§5" which was listed on my previous post, but full of great head-banging moments and clever prog switches and tempo changes to make a really dynamic bit of metal music.

39) Only See Her - Jharis Yokley (Experimental Percussive Electrojazz)

I described Jharis Yokley, a drummer by trade, as doing the same kind of stuff as Brian Eno was doing in the 70s but with modern technology. This song's a bit off the deep end in terms of experimental structure, but his drumming keeps it driving forward and the heavy layers of production make it fascinating.

38) Balu - Elbow (Alt Rock)

Similar to James, Elbow have always been able to deliver some really excellent, solid music in a fairly conventional genre space (their Mercury Prize winner The Seldom Seen Kid I ranked as my third favourite of all the Mercury Prize winners when we did them as a retrospective, as a sidenote), and this song has some cool riffs and effects to make it really stand out among conventional pop rock songs.

37) The Curse (Blood of an Innocent Is Spilled) - Tigran Hamasyan (Armenio Electrojazz Prog)

Tigran Hamasyan delivered a pretty epic album of some kind of music that traversed the borders between jazz, modern classical and prog rock, but it was patchy and didn't quite deliver in terms of logical flow. So instead, I'd recommend just giving this one track a go because it distills everything that was cool, fascinating and epic above all about that album into a short, digestible package.

36) Astrology & Context - Winnetka Bowling League (Indie Pop Rock)

I found myself this year (and you'll hear more when I get into my top 20) drawn to the types of songs I might describe as modern 'power ballads'. And this is a key example, coming from a fairly upbeat pop album from the band fronted by Hilary Duff's husband, just taking the tempo down and producing a sad pop ballad that very much tugs at my heartstrings.

35) Sympathize - Mary Ocher & Your Government (Avant-Pop)

On the other side of the musical spectrum, this song is a quirky beat-centric piece of music that delivers a tongue-in-cheek bit of satire throughout and just feels punchy and enjoyably blunt.

34) Like the End - James Blake (RnB)

One of the last artists I expected ever to make my top 50 of the year, I generally hate James Blake's music for the simple reason that he's got a really good voice but he distorts it out of recognition through excessive post-production effects. But then naturally in this case when he's NOT doing that, instead he delivers a really powerful bit of music with some quirky electronic touches that really builds and flows well.

33) Things Will Fall Apart - Louis Cole, Metropole Orkest & Jules Buckley (Orchestral Electrofunk)

I feel like I'm pinballing between genres for these last few songs. Here we're far more in Mary Ocher territory, with a strong almost breakbeat percussive element and this big melodramatic orchestral arrangement over the top of it that all feels bombastic and excessive in a delightfully quirky way.

32) True Crime - Tom Snowdon (Dreampop)

Yep, pinballing back for more heartfelt music now. Tom Snowdon has a voice that can carry the weight of the world, and there's a lot of really impassioned, even emotion-cracking moments on this powerhouse vocal performance that leaves me feeling oddly bereft and haunted.

31) El Paso del Gigante - Kinky (Latin Funk Rock)

And swinging back to upbeat funk here; this song is an enormous amount of fun, with Latin jazz swing in its DNA but ultimately it's just a dynamic dance track based around cool riffs and beats.

30) Waku (Minaral a Minalay) - Christine Anu (Torres Strait Islandso Folk Pop)

I'd never put a whole heap of stock in Christine Anu as an artist, but this song really took me by surprise - again it's intimate and heartfelt and has a beautiful string arrangement to summon up the feelings along with its lyrical story about the prominence of tradition in her family.

29) Between Two Points - David & Romany Gilmour (Prog Rock)

I really enjoyed this collaboration between David Gilmour (the less-cooked Pink Floyd luminary) and his daughter Romany. She has a great voice for this kind of music, and David's soft, sombre guitar playing gives this great atmosphere and drama.

28) Shake Shake - Jon Muq (Ugandano Folk Pop)

A bit of sweet fun as we near the top end of my year. This song has that quality of the inclusive singalong that I love in lots of music from the African continent. Jon Muq has a clear, stirring voice and a real joie de vivre in the way he delivers this.

27) Frogs - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (Gothic Orchestral Rock)

I really wanted to love Nick Cave's full album this year after being really taken by this lead single (but alas, it didn't quite work for me). This song though has a wonderful sense of the surreal through the big string arrangements and the way it works with Nick Cave's increasingly gravelly-as-he-ages voice. Both weird and moving.

26) Crows - The Miserable Rich (Art Folk)

I just realise I have two songs in a row with titles that are just "plural animals". This song is more specifically about crows, and is right up there on the twee, quirky scale. But there's something about the staccato piano and the playful vocals here that really works for me and makes this a really fun song full of good movement and energy.

25) Glimmers - Jane Paknia (Experimental Electropop)

And, in fact, it's three songs in a row titled "plural noun" at least. This song is another one that really grew on me at the end of the year on relistening. I love its avant-garde construction and how much the production and instrumentation together with Paknia's voice deliver such a unique combination of sounds.

24) Cry Wolf - Katrina Ford (Art Rock)

This is another song that delivers some of those power ballad vibes. Less so here because it is more electropop in style but it has these big moments of drama where the keyboards just augment Katrina Ford's plaintive, defiant vocals to make a song with really killer impact.

23) One of These Days - Perry Blake (Art Pop)

I said at the time we listened to this song that if there was an award for 'bassline of the year', this song would win it. Perry Blake's songwriting style did wear thin on me a bit for his album overall, but this track remains one of my favourites because it combines his melodramatic style with cool underlying funk to make a really interesting overall texture.

22) Sanitized - Katie Gavin (Indie Pop)

This was a real surprise package for me, largely because I really didn't care for the rest of Katie Gavin's album, but I love how this song switches keys so effortlessly to start out in this uncomfortably almost dissonant style before switching to this major key chorus, and back again. It's just a cleverly written pop song with lyrics that feel amusingly tongue-in-cheek in a post-Covid world.

21) Aye Walking Oh - Sam Lee (Progressive Folk)

 This song is a real slow-build in a lot of ways, given that Sam Lee sings almost arhythmically for a lot of it, but his voice is amazing and when it really does build together with the woodwinds in his arrangements, I find it absolutely scintillating. And that's why it sits here just missing out on the very top end of the year.

So that's it for post 2. Likely tomorrow I'll take some time and write up my top 20 songs and hopefully my top 25 albums of the year as well if you're really lucky. But otherwise by the end of next week I'll aim to have all the music as well as my books of 2024 completely wrapped up.

2024 Music: Songs of the Year 100-51

 Plenty into the new year as usual but I felt like I had the time and energy this year to put together a full set of posts rather than just dumping a list of titles into one post. It's mainly late because I spent the end of last year overseas, and since coming back I've wanted to finish my last book of 2024 so I can do all of my end-of-year posts effectively in one go.

So the easiest first; from a shortlist of around 200 songs from last year, I've sorted them into a top 100 and 'the rest' which I'll share in the form of a playlist after getting through to my number 1 song, but this post is traditionally just a dump of the first 50 songs, counting down (the best order in which to count things) to number 51, then for the next post I'll jump into the top 50 with a brief writeup of each song, and then count down the top 20 with slightly-less brief writeups of each song and why it's there.

100) POP SONG - Kenshi Yonezu (Visual Kei)

99) R U 4 REAL - Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand (Indie Folk)

98) Lucky - The Bamboos feat. Bobby Flynn (Funk Soul)

97) Holster - The Strumbellas (Indie Folk Pop)

96) Wakili - Seckou Keita (Senegaleso Kora Folk)

95) Nobody's Soldier - Hozier (Soul Pop)

94) Old Bones - Them Moose Rush (Hard Rock)

93) There's Always Been a Bird in Me - Mercury Rev (Art Pop)

92) Hearts in Danger - Shaznay Lewis (Pop)

91) A Moon Behind the Clouds - Phosphorescent (Indie Folk)

90) Security Camera - Bridget Kearney (Indie Pop)

89) Icarus IV - Kishi Bashi (Baroque Pop)

88) Outta Here - AWOLNATION (Indie Pop Rock)

87) Wild Geese, Wild Love - Amanda Bergman (Folk Pop)

86) Sand - Dove Cameron (Hyperpop)

85) Frosty the Snowman - Xiu Xiu (Gothic Christmas Rock)

84) Watercolour - Ruth Theodore (Indie Folk)

83) Dark Vacay - Cigarettes After Sex (Dreampop)

82) Living on the Wall - Laura J Martin & Iwan Morgan (Alt Pop)

81) I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All - Father John Misty (Indie Folk)

80) Bad Idea - Vera Sola (Desert Folk)

79) Song to the Siren - Garbage (Gothic Rock Cover)

78) Umva - Elsy Wameyo (Kenyano Hip-Hop)

77) Under Your Wings - Giant Rooks (Pop Rock)

76) Better Day - Jamie Webster (Folk Pop)

75) Sycophant's Paradise - Chemtrails (Noise Pop)

74) Supercalifragilistic - xikers (K-Pop)

73) §5 - Opeth (Progressive Metal)

72) Alone - The Cure (Gothic Rock)

71) Wreckage - Pearl Jam (Post-Grunge)

70) No. 1 in the World - RXM Reality (Deconstructed Club)

69) Comfortably Numb - Body Count & David Gilmour (Rap Rock)

68) Going Down - Kim Dracula & Alex Boniello (Non-Musical Theatre Hip-Hop)

67) JOYRIDE - Kesha (Pop)

66) To the Bone - HiNA (Maori Folk Pop)

65) Letting Go - Hollow Coves (Indie Folk)

64) Goddamn Biscuit - Fantastic Negrito (Contemporary RnB)

63) Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter (Pop)

62) Icy Windy Sky - UGLY (UK) (Post-Pop)

61) Dead Stars - Kim Krans (Art Rock)

60) Cordelia - Flower Face (Dreamfolk)

59) Rhino - Tides from Nebula (Polisho Post-Metal)

58) POLAROIDS - CLYPSO (Indie Dance)

57) Hero - anamē & Lydmor (Downtempo Electronica)

56) Birds - GERD (Art Pop)

55) now - Little Moon (Indie Folk)

54) euphoria - Kendrick Lamar (Hip-Hop)

53) Off With Her Tits - Allie X (Synthpop)

52) Playing for Time (Bright-Side Mix) - Peter Gabriel (Art Rock)

51) Knock Yourself Out XD - Porter Robinson (Pop)

Top Albums of 2023

Same story as my top songs; it's February and I'm really only posting this because I feel like I'll struggle to keep track of my own top albums of the year if I don't post this on my blog. So no commentary; I don't have time for that I'm a busy man. But here are my top 25 albums of 2023.

25) superglue - joan (indie pop)

24) Theatre Of the Absurd Presents C’Est La Vie - Madness (Post-Ska)

23) Dislike to False Metal - NanowaR of Steel (Italio Comedy Folk Metal)

22) Anarchist Gospel - Sunny War (black Americana)

21) The Ones Ahead - Beverly Glenn-Copeland (Folk-Jazz)

20) Gardening - Siv Jakobsen (Dreamfolk)

19) Internal Working Model - Liela Moss (Garage Rock)

18) Take Me With You - Clockwise on Fire (psychedelic electrorock)

17) Racing The Storm - Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra (Icelandico-Dutcho Chamber Pop)

16) Since Frank - Amy Stroup (Countrygaze)

15) Retas - Voice of Baceprot (Indonesio Nu-Metal)

14) My Soft Machine - Arlo Parks (Contemporary RnB)

13) in|FLUX - Anna B Savage (Art Folk)

12) Everything Is going to be OK - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)

11) Chronicles of a Diamond - Black Pumas (Psychedelic Soul)

10) Reacclimate - Funke and the Two Tone Baby (DIY Funk Rock)

9) Perennial - Woods (Psychedelic Folk)

8) Stubb - Gangar (Norwegio Neofolk)

7) TZIA - Meg Myers (Indie Rock)

6) Dreams of Lands Unseen - IGNEA (Ukrainio Melodic Metal)

5) Underbelly - Kiltro (Chileano Folk Pop)

4) Javelin - Sufjan Stevens (Art Folk)

3) The Kvlt of Glitch - Vvon Dogma I (Art Metal)

2) Terror - Tianna Esperanza (Alt-RnB)

1) ÁTTA - Sigur Rós (Ambient Pop)

Top Songs of 2023

 So usually I'd be doing this in three posts: the first just counting down from 100-51, the second from 50-21 with commentary along the way, and the third counting down my top 20. But I'm calling 2023 the aberration in my tradition, due to the fact that I was moving house in December 2023 and just didn't have time to put together proper blog posts. The books were easy as I write them up as I go, but still I use this blog as my go-to reference for where particular songs and albums fell, so it will screw future me up if I don't have this. So here you go, my entire top 100 songs of 2023 in countdown order:

100) Saturnine - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)

99) C'est drôle la vie - Christophe Maé feat. Angelique Kidjo (French Pop)

98) Patience - Wilder Woods (Indie Folk)

97) Ain't That the Way - The Rough & Tumble (Folk Pop)

96) L'amour - Christophe Maé feat. Amadou & Mariam (French Pop)

95) I GOT IT - Debby Friday feat. Uñas (Electropunk)

94) Ringing in my Ears - Dan Sultan (Australio Indie Folk Pop)

93) Tempus Fugitive - Nick Harper (Anti-Folk)

92) One in a Million - Funke and the Two Tone Baby (DIY Funk Rock)

91) Tenochtitlán - Mon Laferte (Chilean Folk Pop)

90) Purple Phase - Arlo Parks (RnB)

89) Future Promise - Niki & the Dove and the Greys (Neosoul)

88) Andrá - Sigur Rós (Ambient Pop)

87) Wearing Through the Pine - Villages (Indie Folk Pop)

86) “Burial Bleak” - King Creosote (Scottish Folk Pop)

85) Hope - Green Lads (Celtic Folk)

84) Anchorite - KOAN Sound (Neurohop)

83) Strange Weather - Luke Sital-Singh (Indie Singer-Songwriter)

82) Cut It - VLURE (Electropunk)

81) Maybe Everyone Knows - Tide Lines (puirt-à-beul)

80) Accordion Song - Eliza Carthy & the Restitution (Folk)

79) D.A.R.E. - ICECOLDBISHOP (Hip-Hop)

78) I Will Follow - Billy Sullivan (Mod Revival)

77) Common Sense Civilian - The Murlocs (Psychedelic Garage Rock)

76) Breaking the Circle - Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Synthpop)

75) My Red Little Fox - Sufjan Stevens (Art Folk)

74) Tomorrow - Black Pumas (Neosoul)

73) See the World by Night - Fruit Bats (Indie Pop)

72) Wake In Might - Party Dozen (Psychojazz)

71) Anything But - Hozier (Irish Folk Pop)

70) What On Earth Is It (you Take Me For) - Madness (Ska)

69) First & First - Charlie Hall (Indie Rock)

68) Fever - RMR (Alt-RnB)

67) flowers - joan (Boyband Pop)

66) Winter's Eve - Kishi Bashi (Indie Folk Pop)

65) Soundboy Killa - Dub Pistols & Natty Campbell (dub)

64) Inner Space - Temples (Psychedelic Pop)

63) Follow the Leader - Devon Gilfillian (RnB)

62) Skel - Sigur Rós (Ambient Pop)

61) Everything You Need - Skerryvore (Celtic Folk)

60) Dear Bill - Operation Mincemeat (Musical Theatre)

59) FORMULA - Dumb Buoys Fishing Club, Merlyn Wood & joe unknown (Hip-Hop)

58) Little Blue - Jacob Collier feat. Brandi Carlile (Indie Folk)

57) Ave Verum (Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor) - Libera (Contemporary Choral)

56) Klettur - Sigur Rós (Ambient Pop)

55) SOPHIA <144> - Meg Myers feat. Nicole Perretti (Indie Rock)

54) Bear the Weight - Exploring Birdsong (Prog Rock)

53) We May Not Stay - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)

52) À tout jamais - Mylène Farmer (French Synthpop)

51) Blue Over Blue - The Clientele (Indie Folk)

50) No Reason - Sunny War (Black Americana)

49) Amokura - Shapeshifter (Cook Islands Drum 'n' Bass)

48) Through the Eyes of a Woman - Lucky Lo (Art Pop)

47) Little Black Flowers - Woods (Psychedelic Folk)

46) Lonesome Fears - Emilíana Torrini & the Colorist Orchestra (Chamber Pop)

45) Stun Like a Deadly Flower - Gabi Garbutt (Indie Singer-Songwriter)

44) One of Your Girls - Troye Sivan (Pop)

43) Gatjumak - Andrew Gurruwiri Band (Australio Indigenous Rock)

42) You Left Me In Bloom - Emilíana Torrini & the Colorist Orchestra (Chamber Pop)

41) Anpuru Maau Kutjpa - Electric Fields (Australio Indigenous Folk Pop)

40) Danny's Waltz - Snows of Yesteryear (Folk Pop)

39) feeling like dancing - joan (Boyband Pop)

38) On the Village Green - Nick Harper (Anti-Folk)

37) Gemini Sun - Black Pumas (Neosoul)

36) Oral - Björk & Rosalía (Art Pop)

35) Bad by Design - Siv Jakobsen (Dreamfolk)

34) Luxury of Self Destruction - TTRRUUCES (Wonky Pop)

33) Puirt à beul (Ho gun d' mharbh mi, Dhannsamaid le Ailean, Air an fhèill, Ged thigeadh fear le buaile chruidh) - Joy Dunlop (puirt-à-beul)

32) Vancouver Island - Skerryvore (Celtic Folk)

31) Weightless - Arlo Parks (RnB)

30) Love As Hard As You Can - Liela Moss feat. Dhani Harrison (Garage Rock)

29) Meeting the Master - Greta van Fleet (Glam Rock)

28) Can't Stop the Music - Funke and the Two Tone Baby (DIY Funk Rock)

27) Goldenrod - Jenny Owen Youngs (Indie Folk)

26) Amelia - Samia (Metropopolis)

25) BUGGIN - WHO SHOT SCOTT (New Zealand-Iraqi Hip-Hop)

24) Dorisk Reinlender - Gangar (Neofolk)

23) Can't - Anohni and the Johnsons (Art Pop)

22) Lost in the Rush - Telenova (Indie Pop)

21) Valley - Amy Stroup (Countrygaze)

20) Stick Figure Attack - IRONTOM (Art Rock)

19) Dan No Ura, Pt. 1 - PoiL & Junko Ueda (Superhero Big Beat Surf)

18) Errasuriz - Kiltro (Chilean Folk Pop)

17) Solid Rock - Goanna, Moss & Tamara Keith feat. William Barton (Australio DnB Cover)

16) Brittany - Glüme feat. Sean Ono Lennon (Experimental Synthpop)

15) Goodbye Evergreen - Sufjan Stevens (Art Folk)

14) The Nightmare - OK Goodnight (Prog Metal)

13) You're Just a Boy (And I'm Kinda a Man) - Maisie Peters (Pop)

12) Fuh Spite - KES (Soca)

11) Chupacabra Cadabra - NanowaR of Steel (Satirical Mariachi Metal)

10) The Humours of Ardnamurchan - Peatbog Faeries feat. Heather MacLeod & Gina Rae (Celtic Folk)

9) Division - Barkaa (Australio Indigenous Protest Hip-Hop)

8) The King - Anjimile (Experimental Folk)

7) Secrets of the Mind - Parrotfish (Psychedelic Rock)

6) I Just Wanna Dance - The Niro (Europop with kora for some reason)

5) Au Top - ascendant vierge (Belgian Hardcore Pop)

4) Vamonos - Dutty Moonshine Big Band (Jazz Hop)

3) Face in the Crowd - Freya Ridings (Indie Singer-Songwriter)

2) Tararua - HINA (Maori Folk Pop)

1) Terror - Tianna Esperanza (Alt-RnB)