Rinsing Out, Part 2: July to December 2024 in Review

The fun part about this process is that because I introduced it last week, I don’t need to do it again this week. In going through my files, I realize that I have an addition to make to the previous post. It is Mach-Hommy’s #RICHAXXHAITIAN. Mach-Hommy is one of the best rappers operating right now. His flow is out of control, and he manages to be political without being preachy about it (you could take a lesson here, KRS-ONE). You should listen to all of his music on principal, but if this is an excellent place to start if you want to understand why he charges hundreds of dollars for records and merch and it sells out.

The list following is for the last six months of the year: July to December. Again, it’s in alphabetical order, disregarding “a” and “the” because I’m still not a cretin.

Being Dead - EELS

On this album, the Austin-based trio doubles down on what made their previous great: boy-girl harmonies, surf and garage guitar licks, girl group vibes, solid rhythms, and a ever-present sense of genre exploration. This album, unlike that album, does not have the breakneck sound changes from track to track; the listen is more cohesive, and the album is better for it. It’s a wild ride for sure, but it’s phenomenal in every way as the songs are rock solid.

Bill Callahan - Resuscitate!

Bill Callahan is someone that I like quite a bit. I find his baritone is extremely soothing, even when singing about terrible things. I almost didn’t listen to this album because I don’t always listen to live albums (personal thing, don’t worry about it). My wife told me to listen to it, and I’m glad that she did. Over the course of this hour-plus-long album, Callahan and his band (a development I have appreciated since he started recording under his own name) just hit the gas and go. There are epic drones and guitar shredding. There’s western swing. There’s excellently deployed saxophone. All the while, Callahan is in the center, dictating affairs with his voice and beautiful lyrics. This experience has ensured that I will be seeing him the next time he is my area.

Brijean - Macro

I was pleased to hear about this album as I was a fan of Brijean’s previous album Feelings. They did not disappoint me in the slightest. While they dealt with some slightly heavier content in the lyrics this time around, the vibes are still correct. An excellent, funky groove for those days when you need one.

Charli XCX - Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat

There is no way that I could talk about Brat and not talk about this album. This is the other side of that barn burner. The self-doubt that lurks in the corners on Brat comes to the forefront on this rework (calling it a remix is incorrect somehow). It’s honestly really interesting to hear her working through these worries and fears in such a public, vulnerable way. I’ve always respected Charli, and this only added to it. Also, the Lorde version of “Girl, so confusing” and “Everything is romantic” with Caroline Polachek are worth the price of admission.

Clinic Stars - Only Hinting

Clinic Stars, a duo from Michigan, make music that blends the 4AD sound of the late 80s/early 90s (think Cocteau Twins, early Lush EPs) with the space rock of their home state (think Windy and Carl, His Name is Alive). Although you can hear the references, Clinic Stars are very much their own thing. This debut vibrates on its own wavelength. The songs click along at an unhurried pace, with the vocals drifting quietly as the guitars shimmer and the rhythm section keeps everything from flying away. It has a very dreamy vibe, putting it into discussion with Midwife’s No Depression in Heaven, which I discuss below.

The Cure - Songs for a Lost World

I thought The Cure were done. I could have sworn they went on a farewell tour. I guess I fell victim to the Mandela Effect because this album of all new material exists. If you like Disintegration, the extended song lengths and slow paces will appeal to you immensely. In addition, Robert Smith is somehow sadder than you would generally expect him to be, which is genuinely shocking. It is a sad, absorbing world to fall into. This is a true peak for The Cure.

Denzel Curry - King of the Mischievous South

If you know nothing about me, know this: I’m a huge fan of Memphis Rap. 8Ball and MJG, Triple 6, Project Pat, Key Glock, Young Dolph (RIP). I grew up with it in DC, and love its spaced-out lurch. This album hit me as a fan of that style as well as a fan of Denzel Curry, the Miami MC that should have a greater profile. Curry made an excellent tribute to the style while having features from legends such as King Skinny Pimp and Juicy J and contemporaries like Maxo Kream and That Mexican OT.

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal

Doechii is a rapper that I’ve known about for a while, but she was always referenced in relationship to folks like Glorilla (who is good) and Sexyy Red (who is quite bad). As a result, I never got around to listening to her. Fast forward to this year, I was listening to Tyler’s new album (which I talk about more below), and she has a cameo on “Balloon.” I stopped what I was doing and listened to the song again to hear her verse again. After I finished the album, I put her album on and was floored. This album goes. She’s funny. She talks excellent shit. Her production is on point. She is getting her flowers and she deserves every last one.

Dummy - Free Energy

The first track on this album, after a little bit of synth droning, comes in with a crisp drum machine loop that grooves just right. When that drops, you know you’ll be in good hands. This is very much the case on this album, that blends together electronic sounds, Stereolab-esque loops, and some 90s shoegaze work (reminded me of Medicine). It all works and there are even extra surprises around every corner. This one has had a hold on me since it came out.

Jeff Parker and the ETA IVtet - The Way Out of Easy

This album is constructed from live performances done at the Enfield Tennis Academy (pat yourself on the back if you get the reference), a now-defunct venue in Los Angeles. While this scans as a standard jazz album, it’s much weirder than that. For example, the first track, “Freakadelic,” takes on elements of psychedelic and funk as a core as it shifts through solos and interplay before completely shifting into something more free jazz later. It was this sonic journey that made this album so appealing to me. It was genuinely thrilling to ride along with the band as they played. It reminded me so much of what I love about being a music fan.

Johnny Blue Skies - Passage du Desir

Sturgill Simpson said that he was going to retire to from music after his last album, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita. Everyone was extremely sad to lose one of the last real outlaw country artists out there, myself included. It turns up that sadness was misplaced. Simpson, calling himself Johnny Blue Skies now, released this bomb in the middle of the summer. This album is like a George Jones album: it is absolutely amazing and you can only listen to it when appropriately braced because it is so, so sad. If you are alright being in that place, Simpson will reward you with one of his best albums in a career full of amazing ones.

julie - my anti-aircraft friend

julie is at the forefront of the new wave of shoegazers who are looking less to My Bloody Valentine and more to Duster. As I am not a huge Duster fan, knowing that they are of that shoegaze wave made me skeptical of this album. They ended up winning me over. They still have a connection with the first wave of shoegaze while also having their own perspective on the sound. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

J.U.S x Squadda B - 3rd Shift

J.U.S is from Detroit. Squadda B is from the Bay Area. This isn’t really a combination that I would have come up with, but it works stupendously. The vibe between them is excellent, and Detroit rappers can rap over anything (see the entire career of Danny Brown to this end). For even more fun, there are features from various other members of Bruiser Brigade.

Kendrick Lamar - GNX

I don’t need to say much about how Kendrick has run 2024 like a boss. After crip walking over the course of Aubrey Graham (I can’t in good faith call him D***e after what happened), Kendrick just drops this absolute thrill of an album. I saw some critics talking about how this is a continuance of that beef as well as not that deep. First, the beef is done. It was done with the video. This album is just Kendrick making a LA-centric album, and it works so well on that front. If you don’t know about the current LA sound, this album is a great introduction. Second, this album doesn’t pretend to be deep; Kendrick just wants to have fun. Can’t this man just have fun rapping again? He clearly was having fun killing Aubrey during the beef. He’s enjoying his rap again. You can hear the joy on “squabble up” and “tv off.” Let Kendrick just live.

Kit Sebastian - New Internationale

This album is a lively mix of 60s french pop, psychedelic sounds from Turkey, and film soundtracks with some 90s dance pop rhythms and jazz thrown in for fun. This album is special because on each track, you could take out the vocalist and still have an amazing instrumental. You wouldn’t want to do that though because Merve Erdem has a beautiful, breathy voice that just brings extra flair and fun to the tracks. I didn’t really expect much from this when I started, but I was greatly impressed by it.

La Femme - Rock Machine

La Femme is a French band that has been sitting at the intersection of Gallic pop, psychedelica, electronica, and krautrock for quite a while now. This new album is a worthy entrant to their delightful, eclectic catalog. Putting more guitars upfront and also writing in English, Rock Machine is a sideways take on the rock album, as it is making fun of rock music and the recording industry. A deeply enjoyable listen.

Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk

Given some of the bland music that the youngs listen to, I wonder where the true weirdos are, the ones who are doing really strange shit. Madgalena Bay cleared their throat and slid this album across the table. Imaginal Disk is a wild mash-up of various eras of pop and electronic music into an extremely listenable whole. It’s not chaos for chaos’ sake either. It all flows together and works. Mica Tenenbaum provides the necessary anchor for this affair; her gentle vocals tying everything together perfectly. I’m very curious to see what happens next with them.

Mavi - shadowbox

All of the sensitive rappers can take a lesson from Mavi here. This album is a prime example of dealing with serious shit without making your album an absolute fucking chore to listen to (Your Old Droog, I’m staring directly at you). He’s got great skills and they are matched with excellent production.

Midwife - No Depression in Heaven

Midwife turns out another stunning album of what she calls “heaven metal.” With some overdubs, effects, a synthesizer, and a guitar, Madeleine Johnston weaves a dream of evocative slowcore balladry. Her voice drifts throughout the music, sometimes sitting in front and at other times fading into the background. Her music has a very ethereal quality to it. If David Lynch was still making movies, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear one of her songs used.

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

While he, hands down, is in the running for one of the worst album covers of the year, the album is a remarkable display of excellent songwriting, fantastic band interplay, and phenomenal guitar work. While I think that other critics were a little too hyped for this album, that doesn’t mean that this was a bad album. On the contrary, it is extremely entertaining.

Mount Eerie - Night Palace

After a series of extremely sad albums where Phil Elverum contemplated his life following the passing of his wife, he comes back as Mount Eerie and puts out one of his most inspired albums, recalling his Microphones masterwork The Glow Pt. 2 while considering what life now means for both him and his daughter. It’s got some sadness for sure, but there is also a lot of hope and beauty. The reintroduction of the noisy Microphones elements brings you deeper into the difficulty of what Elverum has been working through. It is long, but it earns its run time. A fantastic album.

Nala Sinephro - Endlessness

When I saw that this was on Warp, I was very curious as to what was going on because Warp doesn’t release jazz. What I found made the connection make more sense. Sinephro, with a band of heavy hitters from the English scene (including saxophonist Nubiya Garcia, whose album I discuss below), make an album that merges traditional jazz instrumentation with modular synths. It is absolutely stunning, as it shifts in and out of rhythms and sounds. The title is not just talk; it is a representation of how this album works. The sounds loop and fold upon themselves in truly spectacular ways. Beginnings and endings are only suggestions. A truly special album.

Nightshift - Homosapien

This Glasgow-based trio hits hard with their mix of anti-capitalist lyrics and shifting post-punk melodies. The album is hypnotic while balancing really complex ideas. I was frequently fascinated by it, and that’s more than I can say for some of the albums I’ve listened to this year.

Nilufer Yanya - My Method Actor

After the very cosmopolitan sound of PAINLESS, I was interested to see what Nilufer Yanya would come up with for her next album. What we got on My Method Actor is Ms. Yanya making a very contemplative, interior album on which she explores herself and life. While it is a bit of a shift from PAINLESS, it does still feature her sharp guitar work and her excellent voice out in front. Be prepared to lose yourself in this album when you listen to it.

Nubiya Garcia - Odyssey

Nubiya Garcia is one of the leading figures in the British jazz scene right now. She takes jazz and merges it with Latin, Caribbean, and African rhythms. Her previous album, Source, is an absolute blast. She improves on a flawless debut with Odyssey, an album that takes her distinct mixture of rhythms and styles and sends it into the stratosphere. If you are someone who thinks that jazz is kind of stodgy, I would highly recommend this album to you to see what exciting directions the new composers and bandleaders are taking the form.

Office Culture - Enough

This album is a vibe, and I mean that in the best way possible. Starting with a track about not wanting to be the hat guy at a party, the band moves through a series of songs that explore various forms of brooding. The sound takes on references from trip-hop, nocturnal electronica, and art pop, putting them all into a cohesive whole that moves in its own rhythm. When you listen to this album—and you absolutely should—just let the album do its thing. Don’t fight with it. Just fall into it.

Parannoul - Sky Hundred

Parannoul, the anonymous South Korean artist, came onto the scene as a shoegaze artist. He has broadened his scope since the start, but the one thing that remains is his ability to take a listener on a journey. Sky Hundred is another addition to a growing archive of evocative shoegazed-influenced pop music.

A Place to Bury Strangers - Synthesizer

Oliver Ackermann got back with John Fedowitz, his bandmate from Skywave, and his wife, Sandra, in 2021. (The Fedowitzes played together as Ceremony East Coast, a band that is absolutely worth searching out if you are interested in loud, fast shoegaze.) As A Place to Bury Strangers had started to spin its wheels a bit, the reconnection was necessary. The Fedowitzes’s effect is immediate as APTBS put out the Hologram EP and See Through You, some of the band’s best work since Exploding Head or Worship. This streak continues with Synthesizer, which finds the trio bringing more of the noisy fury from Skywave into the moodier APTBS template. More importantly for me, they did not turn down. They play as loud as ever, and I couldn’t enjoy it more.

Quivers - Oyster Cuts

I got into Quivers through their previous album, Golden Hour. I was excited to learn that they had a new album, and I was more excited to really like it. Quivers is not a band to hide its feelings, and their songs hit the heart directly. Their lyrics are merged with classic jangling and fuzzy guitars and sung with matching boy-girl harmonies. The result is a sensitive beauty.

Ravyn Lenae - Bird’s Eye

When I first listened to this album, I wasn’t totally sure what to think. As I was gearing up for this odyssey, I listened to it again and realized that it is excellent. It is an R&B album with disco, funk, soul, and synth touches throughout. You may not feel it fully the first time, but you will know that something is there. Listen again and find it.

Roge - Curyman II

Roge is a Brazilian artist who is continuing in the lineage of excellent MPB artists like Jorge Ben. His music explores his home country’s sonic and social history with equal incisiveness. The guitar work here is amazing, and Roge’s voice is excellent. A great listen from back to front.

The Softies - The Bed I Made

After two decades away, Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia made their triumphant return as the Softies this year with an album that brought back everything that was great about them before: the dual harmonies, the lovely guitar work, and the delicate lyrics. It was beautiful and it made me want to listen to it while petting a cat, an action that they would definitely support. If you’ve never heard of them before, start here and thank me later.

Tinashe - Quantum Baby

We, as a public and with myself included, have taken Tinashe for granted. She came out of the gate with Aquarius, and everyone sort of tailed off of her. She reminded us of why we need her with this year’s album. She pulled a Daytona: 8 bangers in 22 minutes. If the efficiency isn’t enough, have you listened to “Nasty”? Even if the rest of the album is trash (which it absolutely is not; see two sentences earlier), that song alone gets this album on here.

Tyler, the Creator - CHROMAKOPIA

One of rap’s true oddballs comes back after a rather straightforward album (for him) with a conceptual album about star image and celebrity? Huh. (Checks notes). That’s correct. The production is there as it always is, but the lyrics are dense here. It took me a couple of times through to get at everything, and honestly I’m not sure I’ve gotten it all. All I know is that I was enraptured by it. It is another fantastic outing from the old Odd Future leader.

Wand - Vertigo

Los Angeles-based band Wand started in the mode of Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees, doing psych-thrash rave ups that existed only in the red. Wand has since moved on from that, and the new music is captivating. Vertigo starts with “Hangman,” a slow psych jam that starts with distant drums and synths before the rest of the band comes around. Lead singer Cory Hanson comes in with a Thom Yorke-esque vocal and off the listener goes on a strange journey for the next 40 minutes. I’ve had this album rattling in my head for months. This album has old school guitar feedback, string sections, and drifting psych, with all of it being in balance. The comparison point that kept coming to mind was Mazzy Star, a band that could alternate between pushing hard into psych feedback and atmospheric drifting with both sounding completely natural. In the case of both bands, there is a clear voice sitting on top of the mix to keep everything from tilting too hard in one direction.