BEST ALBUMS OF 2024
Welcome all to the first of this year’s Tracksuite end of year blogs for 2024. As always kicking things off with the best albums of the year review. Regular readers will know that this is not a top 50 or anything like that but instead an undetermined number of albums that only make it into the list if considered to be complete productions of no filler perfection. This year has been a bumper crop with 15 albums to explore and enjoy. Thank you for finding your way here today, whether you’re looking for new listening ideas, stocking fillers for loved ones or maybe just want to challenge me on my choices, happy reading! I’d love to know what you think.
Les Amazones d’Afrique - Musow Danse
Les Amazones d’Afrique are a supergroup of superwomen, singers and activists from the West African region of Mali in 2014. Originally Mamani Keïta, Mariam Doumbia (of Amadou and Mariam), and Oumou Sangare, the group has blossomed to welcome many other African female artists over time, including Angelique Kidjo, Nneka and Rokia Kone. Convened by French music-industry veteran Valerie Malot, the collective came together through a shared goal of championing gender equality and eradication ancestral violence. They do this through bold and provoking subjective matter and beautifully crafted music, exquisitely producing three incredible albums that have reached much critical acclaim, many best album roundups and even an Obama playlist.
This year’s Musow Dance (Women’s Dance), reaches new heights, the output more than a sum of its considerable parts. Keïta, from the group’s original line up remains, joined by Fafa Ruffino and Kandy Guira, Dobet Gnahore, Alvie Bitemo with Nneka returning as guest vocalist. Behind the scenes this time is Irish super producer Jacknife Lee, who made his name as a legendary electronic producer, first with his own alt dance gems, then working with names like; Run-DMC, Blur, Radiohead , REM and Kraftwerk among many others. This punchy blend of Lee’s synth smorgasbord and Les Amazones stunning songcraft and strength in performance really elevates this album. A western electronic backdrop, where we are used to hearing more traditional folk sounds behind African voices, is nothing new but this feels more and more now like a natural union of ideas rather than a forced bond. These tunes feel like a harmony of ideas, something that was meant to be.
Highlights are two of the album’s electro heavy dancefloor bangers; ‘Amahoro’ and ‘Flaws’, and it’s impossible to ignore the bombastic single ‘Kuma Fo’ for Tracksuite’s Best of 2024 playlist. For the bigger picture of this collective’s range, check out the sweet beauty in ‘Espérance’ and ‘Kiss Me’.
Nadine Shah - Filthy Underneath
Just one week after the release of Musow Danse, came ‘Filthy Underneath’ the incredible fifth studio album from Tyneside’s queen of dark indie pop Nadine Shah. There are similarities here between these albums with heavy use of synth back up, not shying away from from directly addressing visceral subject matter. Still very much a dancefloor filler, the rhythms most definitely catch you but it is perhaps less swept up in the tribal intoxication and more infected by a darker and deliberate force. There’s a tangible uneasiness to the tone of these songs, a foreboding sinister essence that might be interpreted as bleak or nihilistic but instead feels like a venomous warning from someone who has seen and experienced things almost as sacrifice for others.. Shah has always endeavoured to take her listeners on an alternative ghost tour of the seedier and lurid edges of the world as she sees it. Filthy Underneath not only continues in this dark vein but this time Shah is exorcising the demons from perhaps the worst few years of her own life. She is open about the loss of her dear mother from lung cancer during the pandemic and the dissolution of a difficult marriage, when her mental health dropped to a suicidal level. Shah survives fights on and has turned her struggles into a poignant and purposefully pointed listening experience.
The song that brought me to the album,the tribal percussive led anthem ‘Greatest Dancer’ - is heavy on the B-movie horror synth riffs and tongue in cheek pandemic nostalgia. Like the other early album single release ‘Topless Mother’, they are less like the rest of the album, joyous in their anthemic abandon, a cathartic release from the controlled poise. Tracks like ‘See My Girl’, a tender ode to her mother sits on a knife edge of holding it together and breaking down completely. ‘Keeping Score’ shines a light on the wounds that never heal in the name of love. And the closing track, the aptly named ’French Exit’, uses the same ominous synths that once again set an unsettling tone around a series of thoughts and diary entries from her time in rehab. It is not an unchallenging album but, as with the best of things, it’s a wholly rewarding one.
Aziza Brahim - Mawja
Keeping with the theme strong women’s voices, Aziza Brahim released this also her 5th studio album, on the same day as Shah. Saharawi songwriter, musician and activist, she also uses the platform to process traumatic life events on ‘Mawja’, released on by the Glitterbeat label, that demonstrates once again the trademark willingness to support cultural explorative work
Brahim was born in a refugee camp in Algeria, in a region known to the Saharawi as Hamada after her family and the majority of Saharawis, were forced to leave Western Sahara following the Moroccan and Mauritanian invasion in 1976. Since 2000 she has lived in exile in Spain. Her musical output reflects her roots in this conflict and tragedy. 'Mawja’ also speaks of a recent anxiety, exacerbated by the covid pandemic, further clashes in Western Sahara and the death of her beloved grandmother. Two songs on the album; ‘Duaa’ and ‘Ljaima Likbira’ are both heartfelt tributes to her grandmother, balancing a tenderness of the love she held for her and the strength of her character beautifully.
The traditional rhythmic roots of her Saharawi culture, ‘Haul’ fusion, alongside the external influences of Iberian and Cuban sounds have always been present in her music. Her ever present tabal, and long-term musical associate Guillem Aguilar, who continues to provide multi instrumentalism with co-arranging and co-producing, are still key to the sound. But to be brutally honest , all of these things are minor players, a vast array of elements in service of one thing - her voice. A voice which is extraordinary. Her ability and control of this instrument, which dances and mesmerizes, coats every tune in passionate expression, united with an expansion of percussion sounds from around the globe, elevates these sublime songs even further. It is difficult to pick a standout for the top 50 but the opener ‘Bein trab u lihjar’ ( which translates as ‘Among stones and sand’ about a game she played in the refugee camp as a child) grabs you immediately with the power of the voices and when joined by the percussion will not let you go.
Revival Season - Golden Age of Self Snitching
A follow-up to their calling card, the 2021 mixtape ‘Outernational’ Atlanta duo Revival Season, aka ’Brandon “BEZ (Be Easy)” Evans and producer Jonah Swilley, released their debut album ‘Golden Age of Self Snitching’, a suitably brilliant title for a fresh subversive sound.
They cite artists like fellow Atlanta collective Dungeon Family, the branch project Outkast and, naturally, Beastie Boys as some of their main inspirations. The latter is definitely the most apparent. The term Rap Rock is hugely reductive but technically they belong under that large umbrella. As Swilley says, about taking cues from Handsome Boy Modelling School and Paul’s Boutique, [these records] “showed me you can incorporate rock’n’roll with rap and it not be like Linkin Park”. Indeed, this is thankfully a very long way from the likes of Linkin Park, more cleverly fusing styles and challenging norms along with contemporaries like clipping, Death Grips and Paris Texas. As bands like Rage Against The Machine did before, they are acknowledging the roots of the scene while forging a new path. Even the process is being reinterpreted. Where rap vocals are commonly expressed over pre determined beats and production, Revival Season have worked this backwards. BEZ produces an array of isolated vocal recordings, which you might assume would have the feel of a kind of maddened mind dump on first listen, and then the track would be built up around selections made, the raps treated, suitably, (like a solo instrument would be traditionally) and then the rhythms brought around it. Whether it is this new approach that makes them so exciting, or the coming together of two determined minds to shake up things up, or very probably all that and more, all power to them.
The most significant part of such an impressive new project, and the reason it’s included here, is the quantity of the quality. There are not just snippets of the future sound these guys are going for, it is already here in a complete tracklist of absolute fire. “The Path” Tracksuite’s choice for the best of playlist is a blisteringly punchy techno driven track, featuring rapid fire raps. ‘Last Dance’ picks up the baton and increases the pace. ‘Boomerang’ and ‘Pump’ take it old school with bass heavy boom bap swing. ‘Propaganda’ drops down and leans back into a reggae vibe and ‘Chop’ is a relentlessly pounding message of vitriol to scene fakes and pretenders. The whole thing comes at you fast and furious, and you may be forgiven for needing a breather afterwards.
Iron & Wine - Light Verse
A couple of months went by, then on April 26th, Iron & Wine, aka American singer songwriter Sam Beam released his/their seventh studio album, ‘Light Verse’ ,on Sub Pop the first solo album since ‘Beast Epic’ in 2017 which was followed by ‘Years to Burn’ a collaboration with Calexico from way back in pre pandemic 2019. Anyone else find it interesting that our new international measurement of time is pre and post pandemic? Regardless, that period played a significant part to Beam in this album. He says the title came from the process, which he says, "felt like coming out of a tunnel into a kind of light.” He has clearly used this ‘kind of light’ with this beautiful new material and the themes of passing time and life reflection that are a recurr throughout these songs. The ‘tunnel’ of the pandemic also seemed to serve him, as it did all of us, a moment in time to blank out the relentless grinding noise of the world and a chance to take stock. That said, don’t be fooled by the title into thinking this album lacks substance. Yes, there’s a breezy, casual feel here but the thoughts being provoked are weighty and totally deserving of your time.
There’s a new team on board for this record too, including bassist Sebastian Steinberg and multi-instrumentalist David Garza as well as featured voices including Fiona Apple, who guests on the stand out track ‘All In Good Time’, one of four tracks to feature a 24 piece orchestra, an anthemic vocal play of dialogue between two lovers reminiscing on time spent reaching the highs and lows of their lives together. It’s not clear if they remain together but the pathos reached in the depths of this somewhat uncertain relationship, is visceral. ‘Taken By Surprise’ is a gorgeous swaying number about another of Beam’s lost loves and a pondering on just how much one human heart can take and, when much water has passed under the bridge, how we reassess what we want. ‘Sweet Talk’ feels like something very new, compared with the Iron & Wine we know, a bouncy pop tinged beauty that sparkles with positivity that seems to suggest once this moment of reflection is done and ghosts suitably exorcised, a new dawn and fresh sound beckons for the ever captivating troubadour.
Big Special - Postindustrial Hometown Blues
Soulful punk poetry blues is not a description much used in contemporary music, but it’s the closest you might get in attempting to describe Black Country duo Big Special. Vocalist and poet Joe Hicklin reputedly used the song ‘This Here Ain’t Water’, a rootsy anthem with fire in its belly, to convince drummer Callum Moloney to create the band with him. It is hard to imagine anyone not being roused into action on hearing it. Thus one of the most exciting new projects to emerge from these humble isles was born and the debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues finally got a release through SO Recordings on 10th May this year. On the face of it, with Hicklin’s self deprecating humour and biting social commentary, the album can appear to be a quite bleak overview of the current state of affairs in the north of England, wider Britain and indeed possibly the whole world right now, but delve underneath the scathing punk vitriol and what appears, surprisingly, is a hopefulness of better times to come. They use a wide and contrasting sonic palette to convey a dizzying array of messages. They seamlessly merge between kicking against the pricks with spit and bile, to lifting spirits with stunning soulful melodies, to dropping completely out with blunt but acutely penned monologues of crippling vulnerability. There are some some easy ‘go to’ comparisons with bands like Sleaford Mods, Idles and Yard Act, bands that don’t shy from confrontation and lean heavy on the use of humour in spoken word over a post punk groove. However, as much as I must determinedly encourage you to check out Big Special I offer words of caution, not to expect alt chart bangers like those aforementioned others might serve up. This is an arguably more challenging and more satisfying experience.
The pounding and soaring ode to their homestead in ‘Black Country Gothic’ is an intoxicating opener. The heavy alt rock grooves of ‘Desperate Breakfast’ and closer ‘Dig!’ are pained but powerful expressions of working class toil. ‘Shithouse’ is a joyous release against oppressive surroundings and ‘iLL’ is a despairing paean to stoicism with an interestingly new romantic tint. The track that first demanded my attention from this exciting new band is the incisive and compelling ‘Black Dog / White Horse’. It takes on the subject of destructive mental health and, as they seem to continually and cleverly accomplish, juxtaposes sorrow alongside inspiring confidence to strike out and strive towards ownership of our odds. This feels like an important record.
Bab L’Bluz - Swaken
French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L’Bluz (which translates from Arabic as ‘gateway to the blues’), very intentionally shook the foundations of the North African music scene with the release of their debut album ‘Nayda’ in the summer of 2020. Named, at the tail end of the first wave of the pandemic, after the Moroccan youth movement for change that emerged early in the new millenium and the goals of which the band embodies, the album was a huge success and picked up a 2021 Songlines Award. They released their new album ‘Swaken’ (another on 10th May) on Real World Records. The band was co-founded in 2018 by Moroccan born vocalist and awisha player, Yousra Mansour, and French guitarist, bass guembri lute player and multi-instrumentalist Brice Bottin. They create an exhilarating high energy sound that’s rooted in psychedelic blues, rock and funk, reminiscent of many legendary (and lesser known) greats of the 60s and 70s, but masterfully intwine this with with mesmeric North African rhythms and sounds. The word ‘Swaken’, linked to Chaabi street music, means experiencing parallel dimensions. The popular themes of the psychedelic movement concerned with liberation of mind, enlightenment and the opening of the doors of perception are strongly adopted by Bab L’Bluz to reflect the Nayda cause. They use their intense, hypnotic, wall of sound to awaken change in people, to force them out of a psychological cultural slumber. Nayda means ‘up’ in Darija and that’s where the band want the people, up on their feet dancing, up in defiance of oppression, and waking up in their awareness of themselves.
The incredible opener ‘Imazighen’ is an introduction to this hotly anticipated album and they kick swiftly on from where they left off and push boldly forward. It’s a celebration of the rich ethnic diversity found within the band’s cultural history, sung in Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh, Mansour's ancestors. It is a wider welcome to embracing diversity in a changing world. The pick for the playlist here is the passionate and provocative ‘AmmA’, a feminist war cry to shake of the shackles of patriarchy. ’Iwaiwa Funk’ is another highly infectious groove, stepping away briefly from the heavier subject matter and just encouraging a freedom of spirit, to seize the moment for yourself, to dance, to enrich the soul and body, which is cleverly on message. The album closes with ‘Mouja’, a hard hitting guembri riff rocker on the subject of existential threat and the need to appreciate life. Hell yeah!
Lip Critic - Hex Dealer
This New York four piece first came together while studying at Purchase College in 2018, and can claim Mitski among their alumni. Their reputation started early amongst their mostly indie rock producing peers, when their raucous practice sessions would cause mass disruption to all attempted learning nearby. This is not music conducive to any gentle jam session and undoubtedly their creative edge feels like it is the result of deliberately orchestrated chaos. In the best possible way, it feels that these guys do not ever fully know what sound they’re trying to produce, and instead rely on a tumultuous technique of just smashing all the styles they like together, as loud as they can and seeing what’s pushed through the other end of the grinder. The resulting mayhem, the debut album ‘Hex Dealer’ released 17th May on Partisan Records is a highly satisfying aural adrenaline shot.
Opener ’It’s The Magic’ takes a minute to get the engine warmed up with a gothic alt rock build up but very soon the beats start to break, the punk rap vocals start to snap and, before you know it, you’re in the getaway car ripping away from the robbed bank, caught up in the Hex Dealer thrill ride. The project, a collaboration by vocalist Bret Kaser and Connor Kleitz, backed by erratic sampling and breakbeats of drummers Danny Eberle and Ilan Natter, is not for the faint hearted and clocking in at just over 30 minutes, it’s adrenaline that will get you through if you let it. Once you’re in, the second track, and picked out for the playlist, ‘Love Will Redeem You’ really lets loose. An abrasive techno punk pulverising experience, very reminiscent of Death Grips, this is the exhilarating Lip Critic at their finest. Following immediately and breathlessly after comes ‘The Heart’, a genuine threat to the physical health of any listener’s actual heart, coming at you with hardcore techno speed and feeling somewhere between a panic attack and an overdose of marching powder, or indeed both. There’s a bit of respite after that, although I use the term loosely and very much with the context of the album in mind. They never really let you up for air, and why would you want that?. The following manic mash of hip-hop, drum n bass, ska, electro and other genres pulled in all directions is a freaky, playful bounce around that make you feel less you’re being attacked and can settle into the creativity on show. It’s a definitely danceable mania but you will have to be pretty committed to that approach. Maybe the ‘beginner in mosh pit’ approach of going limp and letting whatever happens happen would be a better idea. It’s like the very best fairground rides, where you just don’t know what direction you’re going in next. When crunchy closers ‘In The Wawa’ and ‘Toxin Dodger’ finally conclude, you’ll emerge bruised and battered, with the biggest widest grin on your face.
Bad Nerves - Still Nervous
Five piece garage punk band Bad Nerves from Essex, have finally delivered a follow up to their brilliant self titled debut album from 2020, and it does not disappoint. ‘Still Nervous’ was released on Suburban Records on 31 May and weirdly comes in at almost the same length as previous album in the blog, Hex Dealer. This has the same freneticism, giving truth to the phrase ‘that which burns twice bright burns half as long’, only in this cases it’s more like a firework, an industrial strength, illegal, bring down the neighbourhood type firework. They proclaim their sound as powerpop but I struggle a little with that, this sound feels too unhinged and homegrown to quite fit that term. It is a classic fuzzy speed rock, in the smoke fuelled spirit of the mighty Ramones and every musical homage that has come since. Think Sheer Mag, Fidlar, The Strokes and Hanson Brothers. Green Day are also an obvious influence and singer Billie Joe Armstrong has made his feelings about Bad Nerves clear by calling them ‘the best band in England right now’. Vocalist and writer Bobby Nerves has honoured his fanbase on this second album by making sure not to stray too far from the genius of the first. The winning formula is still there; the riffs are mighty, the hooks on point and the feeling is these guys are having an absolute blast doing what they do.
Bobby Nerves was asked by PunkNews.org recently to say a few words on each of the songs of the album. Perhaps some insight into the process, the bands influences and experiences, that sort of thing. I’m not sure if they got what they were looking for, see what you think. On opener ‘Don’t Stop’ he said 'It’s an observation of the grey sludge that oozes from all corners of a society run by cash cow psychopaths. It’s Monopoly on speed, fed through a meat-grinder and shoved down your throat. It’s a call to action to peacefully oppose the status quo before it turns us all into jellified pulp’. Take the man at his word. Follow up ‘Antidote’ is ferocious punk perfection. As is ‘You’ve Got The Nerve’, both tracks played at neck breaking, brain mushing speed perfectly suited for every lucky bastard who gets anywhere near the pit when these guys are playing. Pick for the playlist is ‘Plastic Rebel’, a catchy as all hell homage to guitarist Will Power straight out of the 70s playbook. ‘Sorry’ is, according to Bobby, ‘about accidentally dipping your butter knife into your best friends mum’s homemade Diana-Memorial strawberry jam and ruining the whole batch. Sorry Sue’. You should be starting to get the idea of what these guys are about by now. This is ageless rock energy, packed with all the angst, sleaze and snide wit you could wish for. .
Moby - Always Centered At Night
Mr Richard Melville Hall, known commonly to the world as Moby, (his late father’s nickname given to him as a baby), has been a name synonymous with electronic music for over 30 years. A prolific producer who has often been on the receiving end of some unfair criticism possibly due to his level of popular appeal, has released his, believe it or not, 22nd studio album ‘Always Centered At Night’. Released on the 14th June through his own label of the same name and Mute Records, the label he can call his second home. The purpose of the label ‘Always Centered At Night’ was to allow Moby the chance to produce projects and indulge in interesting collaborations that can develop an audience more organically without the unwanted pressure of certain commercial expectations. Similar to the 2023 album Resound NYC, there are featured vocalists on every track here but maybe, aside from a few names including late writer and musician Benjamin Zephaniah, there are fewer big names like Gregory Porter and Ricky Wilson and more focus on lesser recognised voices (at least to me anyway) that really deserve the airplay like Danaé, India Carney and Akemi Fox. It’s an extremely well balanced long listen, book ended by gorgeous spiritual ambience starting off with ‘On Air’ featuring Serpentwithfeet and finishing beautifully with Jose James and ‘Ache For’. In between is a carefully crafted flow of perfectly poised tracks from chilled out neo soul, dub techno, sunrise balearic, to sweeping drum and bass and more. Tracks feel less 2024 and more reflective of the recent past. Returning readers of this blog will know that’s not a problem for this writer, who can still remember Moby’s first release with frightening clarity. I’m going to make the assumption that the feeling of soulful nourishment through music is still the same, so that post club time when you experience a depth of human connection is still valid and that’s where this album feels like it sits - ego free, comforted and truthful. The title may be in reference to club culture and a scene where Moby has spent a lot of his time, and to his meditative practice. To be centred is a term used in transcendental circles to describe a mind (or more accurately a self) at peace. This clever double meaning sums up the fully enriching and rewarding experience in this album. Highlights are the heavy trip hop beauty of the single ‘Dark Days’ featuring Lady Blackbird and the hazy laid back brilliance of ‘Sweet Moon’ featuring Choklate. The pick of the crop for the playlist is ‘Medusa’, a stunning classic drum and bass style gem featuring Aynzli Jones.
The Decemberists - As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
Also released on June 14th on YABB Records, six years since their last release, came the ninth studio album ‘As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again’ from Portland indie rockers The Decemberists. Produced by frequent collaborator Tucker Martine, their go to producer since the album ‘The Crane Wife’ from 2006, its the longest gap in between albums for the band and has resulted in the longest album they have ever made. That’s not the only win for fans , this is a real return to form.. There’s less of the recent foray into more synth led production and a healthy return to the folky chamber pop that made their name. Led by the distinctive sound of iconic singer songwriter Colin Meloy, the band have always played against the grain of populist sound since they began in 2000. Their schtick of folk whimsy and prog experimentation is fed through the filter of historical referencing and folkloric drama, even going so far as to re-enact sea battles and historic tales relevant to whichever audience they find themselves with. The band name refers to the Decembrist Revolt, an 1825 insurrection in imperialist Russia. I think you can see where they’re coming from.
It is difficult to look beyond the opener ‘Burial Ground’ for pick of the bunch. An extremely catchy singalong number that feels like it wouldn’t be out of place on a crackly copy of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Featuring James Mercer of The Shins on backing vocals it’s a beautifully playful number that bounces along with the kind of youthful spirit that Meloy is singing about, with darker undertones , with characters a hanging out in a graveyard. I recall a moment in a Billy Connolly stand up show where he talks about about someone from his native Glasgow spotting him in the street once and shouting to him ’Haw Big Yin, you’re like us, you’ve drank wine down the graveyard!’ To which Connolly replays that he looked a little confused as to what they guy meant. Then he finishes by saying ‘I have had sex in a graveyard’. He was playing for that line I think but he knew exactly the context. No disrespect to the dead but as a secluded, quiet place to retreat, its obvious why a graveyard has been the first choice for thrill seeking kids throughout popular recorded history. For much the same reason, this time played as a shadowed warning, with the dark folk ballad ‘Don’t Go To The Woods’ is the band on sparkling form. ’Born To The Morning’ is one from leftfield. A pulsating psychedelic glam rocker that really sees the band flexing their creative muscle and and hinting at a possible exciting new direction. Just before they they go there,, the small matter of the closing 20 minute prog epic ‘Joan In The Garden’ brings a building, swooping storm of everything this band are in one hugely satisfying saga.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - South Of Here
‘South of Here’ is the fourth studio album from Denver’s indie folk rocker Nathaniel Rateliff with his soul packing band The Night Sweats, released June 28th on the legendary Stax Records label. Now, an early warning to those of you who may come to this album looking for the same roof blowing heavy rhythm and blues sound of their debut self titled album from 2015: the likes of their huge hit ’S.O.B’ is not to be found here. Instead, as we’ve heard over time with this band, is a gradual bridging of the gap between the maximalist sound they’re known for and the more stripped back soul searching sound of the band leader’s solo work. This is far more mellow fare, but I assure you it is no less satisfying. Rateliff continues to dig deep into his own anxieties and recent life trauma to produce a collection of heartfelt songs balanced perfectly between introspection and playfulness. What we’re got here is a more languid road trip through southern rock, folk and Americana with a reassuring delicate sprinkling of signature soul throughout. It’s delivered with warmth, maturity and sincerity reminiscent of classic Van Morrison, Springsteen and Jason Isbell.
It opens with a lively simple McCartney sounding keys riff on ‘David and Goliath’. Think of a slightly less frantic ‘Mr Blue Sky’ and you’re on the mark. It is a brilliant mood setter, especially when the minor keys start to drop in-between the cheery bounce, and you immediately reconnect with Rateliff, to the heart of the person, whatever musical artistic guise he may be wearing. It’s followed by the album’s lead single ‘Heartless’, a classic rock strummer that properly settles the tone. It’s pretty straightforward but effortlessly infectious with the Night Sweats’ horns life affirming sound . Another single is the unapologetically southern ‘Get Used To The Night’, the band again refusing to let Rateliff’s brooding drag things down but instead lifting him to a revitalising confident refrain of the song title. There are no single stand out tunes, such is the consistent quality throughout. I do keep coming back to ‘Cars In The Desert’ more than others, another track that appears to be overly weighted by meditative egoism yet still delivers a super catchy feel good factor, an underlying theme throughout. It is the most Van Morrison-esque turn and also reminds me of The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Not till the closer ‘Time Makes Fools of Us All’ do we start to hear more of something like the band’s original rockier output. The pace comes up and the sound swells and perhaps this is a hint to a future return to that sort of flavour, which would never be unwelcome. I for one have loved this rich sojourn.
AJ Lee & Blue Summit - City of Glass
The second half of the 2024 felt little less fruitful than the first, in terms of releases on Tracksuite’s radarbut it was not without its yield. On 19 July came City of Glass, the debut album from Santa Cruz folksters AJ Lee and Blue Summit. Although they had previously self released two albums, City of Glass is their first label release on Signature Sounds. De facto band leader Lee cut her teeth with The Tuttles, the family band of grammy award winning Americana star Molly Tuttle, father Jack and brother Sully, who plays with Blue Summit. The song ‘Can’t Find You At All’ serv as a reunion of the band, written by Jack and Sully and featuring Molly. Lee and Blue Summit met as teenagers, jamming together at local festivals, Lee on mandolin, Jan Purat on fiddle and guitarists Scott Gates and Sully Tuttle. Then one day at the annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival held in the Sierra Nevada foothills, someone declared them a band and they stuck to it because it felt to them like the most natural thing in the world. This comfort zone of friends who enjoy playing together lends their music a most assured confidence, without anything unnecessarily demonstrative about it. The tracks are a playful selection of old time, Americana and bluegrass numbers ranging from straight up beautiful country love songs like ‘I Still Think Of Her,’ to cutting satire with ‘Solicitor Man’ and ‘Sick On A Plane’, probably the only song I can think of about sitting next to someone being ill on a flight. There’s such an ease with which they play these simply joyous but deceptively complex songs, flitting around sassy blues, crooners and waltzes with a grounded self assurance that feels like you are sitting with them on yet another late night jam session. Much credit for that sound has to be given to producer Lech Wierzynski of the California Honeydrops, who has shown a deft of craft here and brought a couple of tunes to the table. He wrote and features on the seductively wistful ‘Bedroom Window’ and suggested a cover of the 1971 soul classic by Candi Staton ‘He Called Me A Baby’.. Most songs are sung by Lee but on his song ‘Seaside Town’, Sully takes the mic, which begs the question, why he doesn’t sing more? Backed by fellow Californian folk soul trio The Rainbow Girls, his voice is an underused weapon in the bands armoury. It’s not only the track picked out for the playlist and woudl be a very good shout for best song of the year by anybody who considers such things. Its a simple enough strumalong on the duality of love in people and in places and is a faultless, perfectly executed gem that fans of The National, Shearwater and Calexico must hear.
Jack White - No Name
No Name is the sixth studio album by American garage blues rocker and founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather, Jack White. It was released on July 19 in a typically unorthodox manner, as a gift to customers of the label Third Man Records stores as white label vinyl. I say typical because this is the guy who, before global success and when working as an upholster, used to hide 7 inch records inside the furniture. People caught on pretty quickly as to what this surprise gift was, with his style being so recognisable. The full release of the album came on August 2nd aclever ruse but this record didn’t need the boost, it is a stunning return to his rock roots that would have been very well received how it arrived. It’s already nominated for best rock album at the 67th annual grammy awards early next year.
It is written, recorded, and produced entirely by White with contributions from his wife Olivia Jean on bass and drums as well as his daughter Scarlett, who played bass on two tracks. For fans of The White Stripes there’s a lot to like here. Right out of the gate comes the opener ‘Old Scratch Blues’, a straight forward rocking riff and kick that tells you White’s more recent sound experimentations have been returned to the back burner in favour of more raw immediacy. For those who’ve been missing the mosh pit pleasing chops, the AC/DC like ‘Bless Yourself’ follows to really rattle your old bones. Once described as the ‘Willy Wonka of Rock’ (I’m not entirely sure why but I’m also not denying it is a spot on description) has wiped his slate clean and seems to be actively enjoying the freedom to express his love of classic rocking. Tracksuite’s tune of choice is the incredibly hooky ‘Archbishop Harold Holmes’ with White adopting the fire and brimstone style persona of an old testament preacher with a crossover style of half rap - half evangelising. Maybe it shouldn’t work but it really does. Worth bearing in mind is that although this work is more stripped back and straighter shooting, this is still Jack White and it still plays to his idiosyncrasies . The vintage sounds referencing the greats but may disappoint those seeking boomer rock sentimentality however there is no denyingthis is a master craftsman at work and he’s back in a very comfortable zone. The album continues to blast your socks right off and all the while White is at the centre of it all, owning it in all his scuzz and fuzz weirdness, baring all in the name of more great art to gift to the halls of legendary rock.
The Heavy Heavy - One Of A Kind
The Heavy Heavy followed up their 2022 debut album ‘Life and Life Only’ on 6 September with the highly anticipated ‘One of A Kind’ on ATO Records. Brighton based, you would be forgiven for believing them to be a product of late sixties California. Their sound is a sublime blend of folk rock, psych and sunshine pop, all bleached in 60s Californian soul. Heavily referential with billowing plumes of nostalgia consistently wafting through, all very deliberate and never cheesy or knock off. Instead it feels like artistry, lovingly paying homage to a golden era, while still producing breezy gems that could be great undiscovered songs of the time. Led by lifelong musicians Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, recorded mostly in Turner’s Brighton studio, this is the kind of work that doesn’t necessarily feel experimental but more the direct result of extremely determined, talented people with a very direct intent to bring brilliantly produced, contemporary technology to bear and breathe new life into a vintage vibe. If there’s a section of your collection kept specially for the likes of The Byrds, The Mamas and The Papas and Creedence Clearwater Revival, then you will to want to make a little space in it for this album.
The title track opener ‘One of A Kind’ smashes into a heavier guitar sound than could be heard on their folkier debut, bringing with it more influence from closer to home and the British Invasion bands. This is followed by the bright and shining beauty of lead single ‘Happiness’, which, despite lyrics that are bittersweet, musically serves up precisely that. Although it suggests a currently sour situation it is inspiringly optimistic about finding the happiness (of the title) in times ahead. It was the first song I’d heard from the band so into the playlist it goes. It’s got all the sweeping joyfulness and gorgeous layered harmonies that give all of us who don’t live there that idealised feel of Californian living. ‘Wild Emotion’ has a similar polished classic pop sensibility and is blessed with a chorus that would challenge even the most hardened cynic not to joyfully sing along. ‘Cherry’ cuts a groove that Marc Bolan would be proud of and ‘Dirt’ would not be out of place in an original Woodstock ‘best of’ selection. It closes with the expansive ‘Salina’, the longest track of the album and probably the most experimental. It swims in an ocean of dazzling Beach Boys style hooks and harmonies and crowns the album as deserving of a place amongst the legends it so affectionately alludes to.
The remaining months of the year failed to offer up any more albums befitting the list but it is the most I’ve ever included in one list so I’m happy to call it there. If you still need more, please see below for a selection of albums still well worthy of your attention. Thank you for your precious time at this always busy time of year and happy listening.
Look out for Tracksuite’s Best Tracks of 2024 Playlist coming very soon.
Big Love
D@Tracksuite.
