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The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
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This year’s selections include some returning veterans at the top of their game as well as some fabulous newcomers
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 1. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but rich seams of originality and quality are certainly here to be enjoyed. Peruse away …
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Angel Olsen and various: Cosmic Waves Volume 1
New album: A novel form of “compilation reimagined as a dialogue” LP by the acclaimed, serene-voiced American singer-songwriter, showcasing five different lesser-known artists on Side A, and then covering other songs by them on Side B
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Native Harrow: Divided Kind
Album review: Released in September, classy, meticulously crafted, intelligent, warm Americana mix of folk, rock, pop and country by the Philadelphia duo of vocalist Devin Tuel and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Harms in this sixth LP
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Clarissa Connelly: World of Work
Album review: Originally released in April, this beautiful, sensual, mysterious, mystical alt-folk release by the Scotland-born, Denmark-raised and Copenhagen-based composer and singer is filled with long, rapturous notes, piano, strings, church bells, and themes of solitude and death, and evocative of sparse Scandinavian landscapes
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Aisha Badru: The Sun Still Rises
New album: Simple, soothing, gently philosophical but also emotional songs come with the breathy, tender voice of the New York singer-songwriter in this second album of lovely acoustic folk-pop, following 2018’s Pendulum, as well as several EPs
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Juanita Stein: The Weightless Hour
New album: This fourth solo album the the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Australian indie band Howling Bells deals with heavy subjects with a light touch, a sparseness of style, and emotional potency
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Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad
New album: The latest in the Nashville singer’s projects with an international collective of musicians interprets traditional creates new folk songs, themed the tough history of the US rail frontier that was mostly built by Irish, African American, Chinese and Japanese immigrants
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Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp: Ventre Unique
New album: Wonderfully energetic, rhythmic stylish, inventive and witty sixth album by the 12-piece experimental Geneva collective who sing politically in French and English, their music decorated with oodles of of clever brass, violins, double-bass, marimbas, percussion and more
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Fie Eike: Water
New album: A delicately beautiful distillation through fluid subject in different contexts by the Copenhagen-based artist composer and singer, Anne Sofie Strandheim Eike, with Norwegian roots, creating a soundscape from piano, electronic elements and natural field recordings
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Haley Heynderickx: Seed of a Seed
New album: Delicious, intelligent, playful, gorgeous, witty folk with a country flavour by the honey-voiced Oregon singer-songwriter, packed with lyrically vivid images and perceptive, humorous lyrics, with fabulous finger-picking guitar, with added cello and trombone
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Fionn Regan: O AVALANCHE
New album: A gorgeous, sun-dappled, atmospheric seventh album recorded in Spain by the Irish singer-songwriter with a cinematic concept of songs of different sequences, moving backwards and forwards, and featuring actress Anna Friel on guest backing vocal
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Fievel Is Glauque: Rong Weicknes
New album: A beautifully quirky, unique cross-genre, melodic, meandering experimental release of surreal lyricism of jazz-folk-pop by the Belgian-US duo of Zach Phillips and Ma Clément joined by an ensemble of six other musicians
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One True Pairing: Endless Rain
New album: A strikingly beautiful new LP by the Kendal singer-songwriter aka Tom Fleming, formerly of Wild Beasts, whose tender, high voice soars and also brings hushed tones across a gorgeous set of autumnal-feel songs, accompanied by inventive sounds on various acoustic instruments
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Laura Marling: Patterns In Repeat
New album: The popular British indie-folk singer-songwriter returns with her eighth studio LP, one of of gentle intricacy and delicate acoustic beauty, particularly reflecting on newly becoming a mother, as well as ideas and behaviours inherited down generations
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Half Waif: See You At The Maypole
New album: Ethereal, shimmering, poetic, sensual delicate experimental folk and synth-pop in this substantial 17-track sixth LP, following 2021’s Mythopoetics, by the New York singer-songwriter and producer Nandi Rose Plunkett, with lingering release about pain, grief, but resilience and beauty
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Marysia Osu: Harp, Beats and Dreams
New album: Truly gorgeous experimental work by London’s Trinity Laban-graduate harpist of Polish parentage, who as well as conventionally rippling the strings of instrument, creatively uses it with other effects, adds sea other nature sounds with electronica, with magical sprinkles of guest vocals, cello, woodwind and percussion
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Goat's latest album is titled ... Goat
New album: The mysterious masked Swedish collective return with their third LP in as many years with a heady new dose of primal prog, funk, folk and psychedelic rock sitrred in a pot of guitar pedals, flutes, drums and ritualistic-style vocals
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Hayden Thorpe: Ness
New album: The former Wild Beast singer’s new LP is a beautiful, experimental release inspireed by Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name, an ode to the Suffolk coast’s mysterious ten-mile long shingle spit at Orford Ness, the now wilderness but former Ministry of Defence weapons development site
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Naima Bock: Below A Massive Dark Land
New album: Wonderfully delicate, deliciously paced, lo-fi indie folk by the British artist of Greek-Brazilian heritage and former member of Goat Girl, with her second album, following 2022’s Giant Palm
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