As the old saying goes: If you want to sculpt a statue of an elephant, you just get the biggest granite block you can find — and chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant. I am trying to take the same approach to my year-end lists. I start with the giant slab of music contained in The Long List of everything I heard; then I chip away more than half the releases to form this massive, woolly mammoth of everything I wanted to hear again; and finally, I whittle that down to a still-elephantine Short List of ivory-pure excellence that you’ll never forget. Read on:
Kaiser Chiefs
Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Almost two decades in the game, and armed with an extensive back catalogue of stadium belters and record-breaking success, Kaiser Chiefs return with their new album, the aptly titled Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album.
Produced by Amir Amor (Rudimental), the album sees the Kaiser Chiefs return with a fresh, bold sound. From the Nile Rodgers co-write of Feeling Alright to the frantic Beautiful Girl, the horn-laden throwback Job Centre Shuffle and the joyous gut-punch of Jealousy, these 10 tracks are a statement of intent from a band that continue to deliver the goods again and again. Where 2019’s Duck straddled the tide between Northern Soul euphoria and early ’00s antithesis, 2024 will see Kaiser Chiefs stepping into a renewed spotlight; a hook-heightened universe in which frontman Ricky Wilson, Andrew “Whitey” White (guitar), Simon Rix (bass), keyboardist Peanut and Vijay Mistry on drums, come together to once again create what they craft best; breakthrough belters for the world’s dance floor.”
Kandle
Danger To Dream
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Danger To Dream is the definitive Kandle record. On her fifth studio album, influences of trip-hop, rock, and soul share a drink, meditating on the state of the world with cheeky nihilism and a dash of sultriness. It’s to be expected, having spent most of her life in an industry better known for breaking dreams than granting them.
Alas, not all is as it seems. While moonlit melodies have become a signature of Kandle’s sound, we start to see the light on Danger To Dream. Not a holy white glow, but a raging flame, ready to burn its path to enlightenment. In truth, Kandle has returned to form in every possible way. Back to her chosen hometown of Montreal, back to her roots of dark and moody rock, back to her signature slinky vocal delivery reminiscent of both a late-night jazz singer and pop diva. It is arena-sized rock via the cozy confines of a home studio. Danger To Dream sees Kandle as a fully realized artist, achieving the finest balance of both mastery and ingenuity.”
Khruangbin
A La Sala
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The title makes it clear. A La Sala (“To the room” in Spanish), the fourth LP by Khruangbin, is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and do so on your own terms. It extends the air of mystery and sanctity that’s key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music.
Yet if 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio album Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record whose ensuing post-lockdown tour enhanced the band’s musical reputation far and wide, A La Sala is the measured morning after. It’s a gorgeously airy album made only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It is a porthole onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind. It is also a response to the unique moment Khruangbin finds itself in now: Following a decade spent cultivating extraordinary music paths, beginning a year when they’ll perform for more people, in more iconic spaces, staging a live show that pushes a creative envelope peculiar to them alone. 2024 feels like both marker and pivot, cementing Khruangbin’s stature as a commercially and critically successful group that continues to be guided by creative possibilities.”
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
That Delicious Vice
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “It’s a new lineup,” landlord of the avant-garage Kid Congo Powers exclaims of The Pink Monkey Birds responsible for That Delicious Vice, the fifth studio full-length of their 19-year recording career.
“We’ve gone from a four piece to a three piece,” continues Kid, whose unique guitar style has been at the center of some of the most forward-thinking bands in punk and garage: The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Knoxville Girls, to name a few. “Because Mark Cisneros (ex-The Make Up) is playing guitar, sometimes we have songs with two guitars. And then sometimes, he plays bass on a bass six (an electric bass version of the mariachi bajo sexto). So, that is a new development. We lost a member and decided to try to do it as a three piece — more space, you know? I’m not sure if living in the desert is making me want more space in music or not,” laughs Kid, a Tucson resident for a few years now. “Maybe I’m turning into a desert stoner rocker. But I’m not a stoner, so that’s not happening.”
Kid Kapichi
There Goes The Neighbourhood
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Kid Kapichi’s There Goes The Neighbourhood is their third album in as many years.
More to the point, it’s a statement of intent from one of the U.K.’s hardest-working bands — a band that preach a message of urgency. Even more to the point, it’s a record that does what Kid Kapichi does best — make a real connection in the here and now, running the gamut of love, loss, and what it means to be alive in Britain today. “I know it’s a cliche, but this really is our best work ever,” says frontman Jack Wilson. “We put everything into this record, but actively decided not to stray too far from the path of Here’s What You Could Have Won, as we felt there was still more ground to be covered and honed in on that vibe. Lyrically and musically, it’s more concise, meaningful, and deliberate, which ties everything together really well; it feels like a collection of songs from the same family.”
Will Kimbrough
For The Life Of Me
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Folkies, even the ones with a good dose of country in their sound, tend to create quiet, introspective songs that are designed to pack a subtle but no less potent punch. Revered, multi-talented folk-Americana artist Will Kimbrough doesn’t quite fit that mold, and it is most evident on the 11 tracks that comprise For The Life Of Me, his eighth solo album. Here, Kimbrough crafted a batch of anthems with engulfing choruses and stinging musicianship. These songs rush into your consciousness and rattle your insides.
Kimbrough, a longtime collaborator with the late legend Jimmy Buffett and the co-writer of his posthumous single Bubbles Up, produced For The Life Of Me and recorded it primarily at Blackbird Studio in Berry Hill, Tenn., with engineer John McBride. Additional recording took place at his own Kimbrough Super Service Studio and Skinny Elephant Studio in Nashville. Kimbrough takes care of vocals, guitars, and keyboards on the record, while Chris Donohue handles the bass and Bryan Owings is on drums and percussion. “This album is not afraid to closely examine the wreckage and ruin of the past and the present,” says Kimbrough. “But it also expresses gratitude for every breath, for those we love, those who are still here, and those who we have lost. In the end, it’s just another expression of love.”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Flight b741
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For their 26th album, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard swap the widescreen concepts of their recent albums for the intimacy of six good friends collaborating on the most bonhomie-laden set they’ve yet committed to wax. For Flight b741, bandleader Stu Mackenzie says King Gizzard “wanted to make something that was primal, instinctual, more ‘from the gut’ — just people in a room, doing what feels right. We wanted to make something fun.”
Tapping into the country-fried ’70s American rock on which they were all raised — along with the ornery garage-rock roots from which their mighty discography sprang — Flight b741 is lightning caught inside a bottle. Across its 10 ragged, glorious barnburners, King Gizzard flesh out rough skeletons of songs with their inspired improvisations, inimitable grooves and a unique pass-the-mic approach to vocals that saw every member of the band raise their voice and sing. “We’re having a lot of fun, but we’re often singing about some pretty heavy shit,” Mackenzie adds, “and probably hitting on some deeper, more universal themes than usual. It’s not a sci-fi record, it’s about life and stuff. But the record is like a really fun weekend with your mates, you know? Like, proper fun.”
NOTE: The band also released about three dozen live albums in 2024 — a complete chronicle of all their North American performances. I listened to them all. And enjoyed them all. So they also belong this list, but I didn’t include all the titles because they would take up a ton of space.
Michael Kiwanuka
Small Changes
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Small Changes is the followup to Michael Kiwanuka’s eponymous third LP, the Mercury Prize-winning and Grammy-nominated Kiwanuka.
Small Changes was produced alongside Danger Mouse and Inflo, the team behind the globally acclaimed Kiwanuka and its equally acclaimed predecessor, Love & Hate. The new record was recorded between London and Los Angeles. The core trio of Kiwanuka and his trusty co-producers expanded into a wish-list ensemble that featured legendary bassist Pino Palladino (D’Angelo, John Mayer, Beyoncé) and Jimmy Jam of the iconic songwriting and production duo Jam And Lewis (Janet Jackson, Prince). Small Changes markes a welcome return for one of Britain’s most talented of songwriters, most recognisable of vocalists, and most virtuosic of guitarists.”
Kronos Quartet & Friends
Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Individually, Kronos Quartet and Sun Ra are two of the most groundbreaking names in contemporary music. The former are the legendary San Francisco string quartet that laid a blueprint for what concert music could become, working with the likes of John Cage, Tanya Tagaq and Astor Piazzolla. The latter was a singular jazz and avant-garde bandleader, as well as a philosopher and poet, who honed an extraordinary strain of cosmic experimental music from the 1950s until his ascension in 1993.
As a capstone to Kronos Quartet’s 50th anniversary, they have joined forces with the Red Hot Organization for the new album Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra. It’s stacked with some of the most innovative artists active today — everyone from multidimensional electronic musician Jlin, to Moor Mother and DJ Haram’s radical noise / rap project 700 Bliss, to abstract hip-hop luminaries Armand Hammer, to avant-garde hero Laurie Anderson, to minimalist pioneer Terry Riley.”
Kula Shaker
Natural Magick
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Kula Shaker’s new album Natural Magick finds the band harnessing the power to cast their most potent spell yet, incorporating blazing psychedelic sermons, raga rave-ups, stardust-coated pop pearls and mood-enhancing mantras. “This chapter in the band’s life is very much driven by live energy and that spiritual connection with the audiences which comes with it. We all agreed that the songs should be no longer than three minutes. There are no epics,” says Crispian Mills.
Reformed permanently in 2021 due to the return of keyboard wizard Jay Darlington, reuniting all four members of the band’s classic lineup for the first time since 1999. The band became U.K. chart-toppers with 1996’s debut album K; ’99’s followup Peasants Pigs and Astronauts saw them push the creative envelope prior to their premature dissolution. Having made a welcome return in 2007 with the self-funded Strangefolk, Kula Shaker have built towards the sonic summit. The band’s seventh studio album, Natural Magick finds the original four members — Mills on guitar/vocals; Darlington on organ and keys; Alonza Bevan on bass; Paul Winter-Hart on drums — delivering the wild energy that we know and love, while creating a technicolor sonic pathway towards a more enlightened state of mind. There is kinetic energy coursing through every second of Natural Magick that is planted firmly in the rolling 24-hour news-feed mind-mash that is today’s Planet Earth.”
Kendrick Lamar
GNX
There are a limited number of artists who can drop an album out of the blue without any sort of press release or promo activity. Grammy, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar is one of them. Why? Because he consistenly and dependably makes albums as fantastic as this. Because everyone in the world knows it. And because he knows we know.
Miranda Lambert
Postcards From Texas
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Postcards from Texas captures country siren Miranda Lambert’s freewheeling, funny, at times feisty take on swing, shuffles, bluegrass and ballads with unbridled gusto. Co-produced with Jon Randall, Postcards delivers Lambert’s glorious, wild Lone Star freedom.
Lambert remembers of the day she, Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby hit a creative streak and came up with the jaunty, tumbling single Alimony. “We were out in my barn; I was showing Shane and Natalie the horses, and I asked if he had any other titles. He said he had one, and I was like, ‘What is it? Because your last one was Looking Back on Luckenbach, which I didn’t think you could top. He said, ‘Well, ‘If you’re gonna leave me in San Antone, remember the Alamo-neeeee…’’ Natalie and I were like, ‘Alright, Shane! Stop showing off.’ “We went back to the house and got the guitars, and I specifically was like, ‘I want a shuffle, man.’ I love to shuffle so much, and this record needed a shuffle! I knew I wanted one in my set, because I haven’t done one in a while — and everybody loves a shuffle.”
Ray LaMontagne
Long Way Home
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ray LaMontagne — the celebrated Grammy-winning singer-songwriter — has opened the next chapter of his storied career with his Long Way Home.
The core of Long Way Home reverberates deep into LaMontagne’s youth — at 21 years old, in a small club in Minneapolis, he recalls seeing Townes Van Zandt perform live. A line from To Live Is To Fly has stuck with him ever since; Van Zandt sang, “When here you been is good an gone, all you keep is the getting there.” LaMontagne reflects, “Thirty years later it occurs to me that every song on Long Way Home is in one way or another honoring the journey. The languorous days of youth and innocence. The countless battles of adulthood, some won, more often lost. It’s been a long hard road, and I wouldn’t change a minute. It took me nine songs to express what Townes managed to say in one line. I guess I still got a lot to learn.”
Jim Lauderdale
My Favorite Place
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “At any given time, you’re likely to find Jim Lauderdale making music, whether he’s laying down a new track in the studio or working through a spontaneous melody at his home in Nashville. And if he’s not actively crafting new music, he’s certainly thinking about it.
“It’s a constant challenge to try to keep making better and better records, write better and better songs. I still always feel like I’m a developing artist,” he says. This may be a surprising sentiment from a man who’s won two Grammys, released 34 albums, and taken home the Americana Music Association’s coveted Wagonmaster Award. But his latest release Game Changer is convincing evidence that the North Carolina native is only continuing to hone his craft. Operating under his own label, Sky Crunch Records, for the first time since 2016, Lauderdale recorded Game Changer at the renowned Blackbird Studios in Nashville, co-producing the release with Jay Weaver and pulling from songs he’d written over the last several years. “There’s a mixture on this record of uplifting songs and, at the same time, songs of heartbreak and despair — because that’s part of life as well,” he says. “In the country song world especially, that’s always been part of it. That’s real life.”
Left Lane Cruiser
Bayport BBQ Blues
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Bayport BBQ Blues is the new studio album by Indiana’s favorite blues duo Left Lane Cruiser, featuring Freddy J IV on guitar and vocals, and Brenn “Sausage Paw” Beck on drums, washboard and trash kit.
The album blends Freddy’s commanding, gritty vocal rasp and positively nasty hoodoo slide guitar work with Sausage Paw’s rhythmic stomp to make for a heady fire-starter for your next house party, backyard barbecue or juke joint get-down. Bayport BBQ Blues is dedicated to the memory of the late Chris Johnson, creator of the Deep Blues Festival.”
The Lemon Twigs
A Dream Is All We Know
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Following the release of Everything Harmony, which garnered acclaim from Questlove, Iggy Pop and countless others, The Lemon Twigs — the New York City rock band fronted by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario — have returned to once again capture the attention of the music-listening public.
Set for release less than a year after their last album, A Dream Is All We Know is a joyous affair. As the title suggests, it’s less of a sober look at the darker side of life, and more a hopeful sojourn into the realm of dreams. The tone has shifted away from dreary melancholic ballads and moody power-pop. Brian and Michael are revisiting their 1968 sound. This album feels closely related to Do Hollywood, but their songwriting and recording techniques have vastly improved over the course of five albums. The brothers combine elements of Merseybeat, the California harmonies of The Beach Boys, and even a dash of bubblegum to create a unique collection of pop nuggets. (They claim it’s part of a new “Merseybeach” movement that’s sure to catch on, though that fact remains to be seen.)”
MJ Lenderman
Manning Fireworks
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “No one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third album released under the name MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-year-old guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, N.C.
But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21, Lenderman — then making more money through state unemployment than he had serving scoops — enjoyed the sudden luxury of free time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates and best friends would drink and jam in their rental home, singing whatever came to mind over their collective racket. Some of those lines stuck around the next morning, slowly becoming 2021’s self-made Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo and then 2022’s Boat Songs, recorded in a studio for a grand. Boat Songs became one of that year’s breakthrough LPs, a ramshackle set of charms and chuckles. Suddenly, people were paying a lot of attention to what Lenderman might make next. The answer is Manning Fireworks. Coproducing it with pal and frequent collaborator Alex Farrar, Lenderman plays nearly every instrument. It is not only his fourth full-length but also a remarkable development in his story as an incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humour always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness.
The Libertines
All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The Libertines’ fourth studio album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade is their first new album in nine years. On this long-awaited comeback, the quartet of unlikely lads have gathered from newfound homes in France, Denmark, Margate and London to solder a strongest-ever internal bond and scale new creative heights — resulting in the best music of their extraordinary career so far.
The story of the making of All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade goes like this — in September 20222, Libs glimmer twins Pete Doherty and Carl Barât decamped to Jamaica. Away from any distraction the chemistry between the infamous songwriting partnership began to bubble in earnest. Fast-forward to February 2023, when Peter and Carl regrouped with rock solid knaves to the rhythm — bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell, at The Albion Rooms. Says Doherty: “We really came together as a band. It was a moment of rare peace and unity, with all the members contributing.”
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets
Indoor Safari
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Six years ago, the revered British artist and songwriter Nick Lowe had almost abandoned the idea of making another album. The realities of the marketplace and the expense aside, Lowe was enjoying the more immediate “camaraderie and rewards” of touring with Los Straitjackets, the masked marvels who’ve been his fellow musical voyagers for the past decade. Together, they’d released a handful of EPs and singles. But Lowe saw those mostly as “souvenirs to let people know the store was still open.”
But now Lowe is back with his first LP in over a decade — Indoor Safari. So what changed his mind? “We’ve really got a style together now,” Lowe says. “When it started out, it was just to do shows. We had no thoughts of recording, really. But after a while, we started to attract an audience — and a much younger one. When we started noticing the younger fans, I realized my fate maybe wasn’t to just keep playing the same old songs to the same old tubby ex-pub rockers (laughs). Suddenly, the whole thing started to get some bounce to it. Like, ‘Wait a minute, this is really something.’ ”
