Album Cycle For 9-6-2024 (Best Week Of New Music In 2024?)
Includes Full List Of Albums Released, My Thoughts On Many Of Them And This Weeks Playlist
Hey! Gonna do things a little differently this week and see how it goes. Instead of me ranting on a couple albums I will put out short thoughts on all the albums on the curated weekly playlist. The full album list will be below also. Maybe this will help people zone in on tracks they might be more interested in. It was truly an incredible week for music, one of the better ones of 2024, so maybe I just want to talk about more of them this week. HERE is the weekly playlist on Spotify, and HERE is the weekly playlist on You Tube. You are going to find more than one thing you love on the playlist this week. I am confident of that.
Venomo is @marcus-manner
Ant – Collection of Sounds: Volume 1-good instrumental hip-hop and beats from Ant of Atmosphere
Arrested Youth – Too Late to Start Over-Mainstream indie pop from Kentucky’s Ian Johnson
Bremer/McCoy – Kosmos-Danish duo doing meditative dub jazz…it’s a chiller, obviously, but a nice one.
The Dare – What’s Wrong with New York? -Young producer and artist who shows that we might end up with a generation of new artists that are influenced by LCD Soundsystem. Sleazy, dancey, bratty, and fun.
Denitia – Sunset Drive-sophomore album from country singer-songwriter this one is pretty good and will get some more listens.
Dummy – Free Energy-fuzzy, shoegaze, dream pop, math, indie, and all of that. Everything you might like rolled into one band's debut album. Easily one of the best albums out this week.
Fat Dog-Woof-oddly enough, this is their debut, and it is very much in the same vein as The Dare album up there. Just a little more jokey and obnoxious. Not as good, but still fun.
Fred again.. – ten days-Fred again is a UK producer, and he is massive! This is his fourth album and has collabs from Sampa, SOAK, Anderson. Paak., Four Tet and….Emmy Lou Harris? Yup, It’s an EDM album, but somehow he makes this stunningly beautiful and really captures some moments and emotions. There are many head turning twists and turns also. If you haven’t felt the need to listen to an EDM album in a long time or ever, this might still do something for you. This is an absolute must listen. Really got to me.
George Strait – Cowboys and Dreamers-Big George Strait fan. I held on until about 2010, and then things got a bit too phoning it in. Pretty much what is happening here, but holy hell he does the song “Rent” written by Guy Clark and Keith Gattis, and even does a spoken intro tribute before the song. That song and performance is amazing and worth looking up. The whole album isn’t bad, just doesn’t really make me want to listen again.
Hinds – VIVA HINDS-fourth album from Hinds. I really liked 2020’s Prettiest Curse. Fun femme indie pop, a touch punky, but mostly indie pop. Sometimes raw, sometimes layered, never too serious. Grian from Fontaines DC. makes an appearance.
Deslondes-Roll It Out -the New Orleans Americana band is back with album number four. All the members take turns at songs, and that gives the album a lot of variety. I just saw them live not that long ago, and so some of these songs are also familiar. Great listen for Americana music fans.
knitting – Some Kind of Heaven-really good straight ahead slacker indie rock music from Canada. Going to dig into this some more as it will take repeated listens. Lots of potential here.
LL Cool J – The Force (Frequencies of Real Creative Energy LL goes old school and enlists Q-Tip to produce, and it works. Like really. It’s pretty damn good. Tons of guests, but the most important one is Q-Tip. Shockingly good actually.
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks-MJ Lenderman is from a band I love called Wednesday. It seems he is even more popular as a solo artist. This one is a solid slacker indie rock songwriter album with a tinge of twang, Americana and classic rock guitar. Will be a fave on year end lists I suspect.
Midwife – No Depression in Heaven-Madeline Johnston continues her work at Midwife with a stunning collection of songs with breathy vocals back in the mix that cause you to really have to listen-the music is lush, dark and it won’t be for everyone, but there is some powerful stuff here.
Claude Fontaine – La Merpopular-they call her an American girl with a French name. She does do some songs in French on here. It’s classic reggae, bossa nova, and more, with breathy vocals that remind me a bit of Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne. This is kind of similar to the albums Hollie Cook has been putting out. It is a very pleasant listen, and I have done it a couple times already and will more. Check it out.
Молчат Дома-Belaya Polosa-That is Molechat Doma if you want to search them. They are from Minsk, Belarus and have been us synth darkwave nerds go to for awhile now. They are one of the bands that do cold wave, dark wave, synth, goth, and all of that well, and it sounds relevant and current in 2024. It’s not a happy listen by any means, but it’s pretty incredible if you are one of our kind. They are coming to Steelhouse Omaha next year, which is wild. Who would have thought?
Nala Sinephro – Endlessness-this is fantastic. It is spacy, almost ambient jazz. So be aware of that. Great meditation music for sure. Nala plays harp, piano, and synth and truly creates interesting spaces in the works on this album.
Okay Kaya – Oh My God-I liked her 2020 album Watch This Liquid Pour Itself. The singer-songwriter does a lot of straight forward songs, but will color outside the lines also, and there is a lot of wonderful use of space musically in her compositions, and her songs truly play out as compositions.
Pale Jay-Low End Love Songs -third album from Pale Jay. He does classic sounding soul songs in his falsetto. He has been pumping out albums. I don’t know much about him, he covers his head with a red ski mask, so maybe he doesn’t want you to know. This is good, sounds good, and is a short and pleasant listen.
Prim – Move Too Slow-Fuzzy indie rock that fans of guitar driven alt indie might dig. Simple and raw with plenty of moments. Maybe for fans of Superchunk?
Sybris – Gold On Hold-The Chicago indie rock band is back after around fifteen years? Sounds good-raw guitar driven rock music.
The The – Ensolument-this is one of my favorite artists of all time. Matt Johnson and his various collaborators over the years made what I consider one of the top ten albums of all time with Mind Bomb in the 80’s. He has also made two other albums I consider to be some of the greatest albums of all time with Dusk and Soul Mining. He has made a lot of other great music as well. It has been 25 years since he has released a new album, and it is mind blowing to me how he has captured that past sound. It is an incredible album that The The fans should be overjoyed with. I will listen for a 13th time later today.
The Rest Of This Weeks Albums
40 Watt Sun – Little Weight
The Airborne Toxic Event – Glory
Ashe – Wilson
Baekhyun-Hello World
Banco De Gaia-Trauma
Black Sun – Black Sun
Boston Manor – Sundiver
Caleb Hearn – Left of McKinney
Conner Youngblood – Cascades, Cascading, Cascadingly
The Crane Wives – Beyond Beyond Beyond
Curse the Son – Delirium
David Gilmour – Luck and Strange
David Luning – Lessons
Elephant Tree – Handful of Ten
Future Palace – Distortion
God Is An Astronaut – Embers
The Heavy Heavy – One of a Kind
The Howl & The Hum – Same Mistake Twice
Infrared – Manifestation
JHAYCO – Le Clique: Vida Rockstar (X)
Jeffrey Foucault – The Universal Fire
Jessie Murph – That Ain’t No Man That’s The Devil
Jordan Rudess – Permission to Fly
La Doña – Los Altos de la Soledad
Lollise – I Hit the Water
Luke Winslow-King – Flash-A-Magic)
Many Eyes – The Light Age
Max Richter – In a Landscape
Mercury Rev – Born Horses
Monolake – Studio
Nicky Jam – Insomnio
Ninajirachi – girl EDM (disc 1)
Paris Hilton – Infinite Icon
Party Dozen – Crime in Australia
Public Opinion – Painted on Smile
Rex Orange County – The Alexander Technique
Roy Blair -Graffiti
Sarah Kinsley – Escaper
Shovels & Rope – Something Is Working Up Above My Head
slenderbodies – the sugar machine
SUUNS – The Breaks
Tall Juan – Raccoon Nights
Tamar Berk – Good Times for a Change
Toro y Moi – Hole Erth
Three Quarter Skies – Fade In
Vestige – Janis
Webb Chapel – World Cup
Whisper States – Whisper States