best of 2024 • Hurray for the Riff Raff • Buffalo

Linktreelinktr.ee/hurrayfortheriffraff

Following a performance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Hurray for the Riff Raff has released an official music video for their song “Buffalo.” One of many highlights from The Past Is Still Alive, the 2024 Nonesuch album that Pitchfork just declared one of The Best of the Decade So Far, “Buffalo” is a love song about survival, patience, miracles, and memories of real people and places that bandleader Alynda Segarra (they/them) experienced during trips to New Mexico. In the video, directed by The Past Is Still Alive collaborator Jeff Perlman, Segarra takes over the Field Museum in their brand new home of Chicago, roams alongside a herd of wild buffalo, and shines a light on extinct and endangered species. none

best of 2024 • Shining Bird • No Silver Lining

https://linktr.ee/SHININGBIRD

best of 2024 • Devarrow • Likewise

http://www.devarrow.com/

Check out ‘Likewise’, the memorable new single written, produced, and performed by songwriter Graham Ereaux, also known as Devarrow.  Blending folk and indie influences, Devarrow has created a hugely compelling song, featuring a gorgeous melody and a sense of sonic urgency in the performance.  When writing songs for his new album, Ereaux discovered this amongst old demos and breathed new life into it.  He took the infectious, energetic outro, which stuck in his mind, and rewrote it as a dynamic chorus.  The end result is breathless and hugely likeable. AMUK

best of 2024 • hey, nothing • Maine (Live in Maine)

The group describes the message behind “Maine” as “an apology to those hurt by your distance but an acknowledgement of the pain you experience without it.”

Rough at the edges, the song is brutally honest and packed with experience — something that couldn’t be created from imagination alone. With lyrics like “I can’t wait not to go home, so far away from everything I know,” Tyler Mabry and Harlow Phillips use their pain to create a safe haven for themselves and everyone who’s felt the crippling guilt of leaving home and feeling better off because of it. luna

best of 2024 • Little Kid • Bad Energy

On Little Kid’s new album and Orindal Records debut A Million Easy Payments, the urgency in Kenny Boothby’s voice matches the stakes of his lyrics, epic ballads and reveries that come at life from all angles and exposures, driving at and a little over the limits of self-reflection. The band’s lilting folk rock arrangements carry Boothby’s stories, occasionally lifting them skyward with flurries of cello samples, pedal steel, flute, and electric piano. It’s a record of depression and frustration that doesn’t stew in piety or aestheticize pain, that also explodes with life. Fragile and abundant. It’s a record with blood in its veins.

littlekidmusic.com

in occupied palestine

near the birthsite of christ

caught some footage that you wouldn't believe

that night on channel 7

ran a slanted segment

through the midwest on the mid-middle east

but you’ve told me how

you keep your volume down

cause all that's coming from your humming tv

is bad energy

“Bad Energy” is a song with many verses. Each verse talks about the concept of “bad energy” from a different angle. My overall goal with this song was to implicate Christianity – or, at least, the twisted, Americanized version of it that I grew up with – in a lot of the evil going on in our world: war, genocide, rape culture, capitalist greed, resource exploitation, climate change… There is some personal stuff in there, and some pretty universal stuff.

I was pretty preoccupied with form when I wrote this one (and the other long ones on the record), and I think I was pulling a lot from Bob Dylan’s approach to his longest, most repetitive songs. David Byrne summed it up well: Dylan lifted the style of his “epic songs… from old folk ballads with their many many verses, but then he added a genetic mutation to the form — surreal imagery and metaphors rather than the traditional narratives of the old ballads” (from this Stereogum feature on Bob’s 80th birthday). I think Gillian Welch’s “I Dream A Highway” (my favourite song) might do this even better than Dylan’s best ones did. StereoGum

best of 2024 • Nap Eyes • Passageway

I had the last verse of this song written for a long time, along with a bunch of earlier verses that I didn’t like as much that I eventually discarded. One quiet day when I was not doing too much of anything, I started to come up with the lyrics of the earlier verses — just in my head without an instrument or speaking them out loud, which is unusual for me. So the song was generated by this out-of-the-ordinary writing method, but I think this resulted in a song that is pretty different from anything else I’ve written to date. 

https://www.napeyes.com/

These songs are poetic, and not just because the words are poems. Their poetry lies in the music itself: Chapman’s reserved but powerful delivery, their lulling, hypnotic repetitions, the avian chorus of squawking guitars and chirping synths. This marriage of words and music captures something ineffable that lies between thought and expression (to borrow a phrase from Lou Reed), and with it, Nap Eyes have produced a beautiful, literary, aspirational, and inspiring work. post-trash

On the parade ground across the great divide

I saw 1000 candles flickering

And through a peasant’s eyes I saw a green-clad man

Ringing blue bells of offering

Beside him, astride, in neon fuchsia robes

And more beautiful than anything

A woman the sight of whom changed his mind

In a permanent way

Well, as for me, I rode the three miles north

Back to old York town

And lodged my horse in a stable there

Before walking to the castle grounds

Strange to make a parade so far away

Where there were so few others around

But I let the thought drop from my head

And that night my sleep was sound

When I awoke, I knew not the hour

But it seemed all the people had fled

I returned to my room and where the mirror had been

I found a blue doorway instead

Bracing myself against a bone-chilling wind

I wrapped my scarf around my head

And entered down a rainbow crystal pathway

Strangely compelled to follow where it led

Well, ever since then I’ve been in this gem-sea land

Where the night is as warm as the day

People talk on phones and they drive down roads

To places many miles away

As for me, I remain by my edge-of-town home

Watching the ocean’s peaceful sway

I’ve been drifting in and out of a mysterious dream

Of that old-time passageway

Is this what I get for listening to “Iris”

At nine o’clock on a Monday morning

In the shadow of the foreboding sculpture

In the diamond circular saw ring?

Far away, the dawn-bright dew

On some blue fields sparkling

In the deep mind, in the well,

In the heart of things

best of 2024 • Nemahsis • Coloured Concrete

https://www.nemahsis.com/

Its latest preview, "coloured concrete," arrives alongside a music video directed by Hasan's frequent collaborators Norman Wong and Amy Gardner. 

With a steady pulse that crescendoes in the chorus as the artist sings hooky vocables and lyrics reflecting on dreaming of a certain unattainable lifestyle growing up, it's a prime example of Nemahsis's poised, thought-provoking and effortlessly catchy alt-pop approach. exclaim!

best of 2024 • Zack Keim • Battery Lane & Better Days (Live & Direct at Social Hill)

https://zackkeimmusic.com/

Zack Keim moved to the Washington DC area in the hope that new surroundings might help him discover the person he wanted to be. “Battery Lane had a mystic, almost timeless vibe,” he explains. “The building wasn’t fancy—built in the 1920s, with worn floors and old fixtures. But something about its age and character made it feel like a place where I could truly find myself.” Only just as he was finding his feet in the new area, 2020 arrived and with it inevitable disruption.

“That year forced many of us to look at our lives differently, and I was no exception,” Keim continues:

My relationship ended, my grandmother passed away, and I lost my record label. The weight of it all was overwhelming, but every loss and every mistake forced me to look deeper into myself. Within the walls of Battery Lane, I picked up my guitar again. Music had always been there, but now, it became the one thing that kept me grounded. It was in those quiet moments alone that I realized music wasn’t just a part of me—it was my one true love, the constant I needed. VF read more…

ifitbeyourwill Podcast Backtrack 2024

best of 2024 • Mammoth Penguins • Here

The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

You know that it's the right thing to do

We've got the chance to achieve something new

And I will be here

It's alright to have doubts

There's always new things to find out

But I will be here

Picture the first wedding in four weddings and a funeral. A marquee. It’s the end of the night and the band have finished but not packed down yet. I go and pick up a guitar and start singing this song. Slowly the band come back onstage and join in. joyzine

best of 2024 • Cracker • Sick of Goodbyes (Re-Record with Members of Drive-By Truckers)

https://www.crackersoul.com/

“To the uninitiated, Cracker might seem to be just another ’90s alt-rock band. However, fans recognize that they are much more than that, having skillfully explored a wide array of styles over nearly 35 years.

Regrettably, when newcomers hear a Cracker song and wish to learn more about the band, they often start with algorithmic streaming playlists. These playlists are typically limited to the dozen or so tracks with the most streams. As a result, these playlists are dominated by a few albums from the early 1990s, the heyday of alternative-rock radio. There are also a few “greatest hits” compilations for Cracker available, but these, at best, cover only the first third of the band’s 35-year career. Both of these sources overlook some of the band’s most critically acclaimed and fan-favorite work. tini

S04E17

best of 2024 • Clem Snide • All was Revealed

clemsni.de

Barzelay describes “Oh Smokey” as “slow, sad songs about God and death” and, true to his word, the centrepiece of the album, ‘All Was Revealed’, is a delicious hypnagogic delve into that moment when a bright light beckons the soul as the body collapses. It’s a glorious song, surrounded by a gorgeous  arrangement which is delivered at a funereal pace. read more

best of 2024 • Girl and Girl • Maple Jean and the Anthropocene

Maple Jean dries of spit licked clean

And Ma and Pa are crying, once again

Ding dong, life begins

Palm fronds, mandarins

And I'm coming up, yeah life's not that bad

And I love Mum and I don't mind Dad

Oh my, how she's grown

Into her winter coat

We must let her go

There she goes, there she goes...

Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.” subpop

best of 2024 • Jessica Pratt • "Life Is"

https://www.jessicapratt.net/

“Life Is,” the album’s opening track and lead single. Despite existing in Pratt’s ’60s folk-pop comfort zone, it’s got a bigger, more bombastic sound than the rest of the record. “In a way, it’s kind of a false flag,” she says. “But I also feel like it’s a statement of intention.” As for the subject matter, Pratt explains, “Life came and went and you didn’t land where you thought you would. It’s the third act and you’re trying to climb back on the horse before it gets dark.” SG

best of 2024 • Merce Lemon • Will You Do Me A Kindness

Merce Lemon has been a mainstay of the consistently prolific Pittsburgh music scene for longer than most people can claim, or even remember – it’s where the music in her life began, and is where it’s since returned to bloom perennially. “I grew up in a house full of music, and I’ve been making songs for as long as I can remember,” says Lemon. “Both of my parents played in bands when I was kid. I had an acapella group with my sister and friends when I was nine or ten that I wrote all the songs for, and I changed the name of our band every show we played.”

I cook dinner with some friends

Tidy up the house tie up loose ends

Now the sun has yet to set

A little staring at the ceiling

Pick a book I never read

And I get lonely for a bit

Comes in waves and then it split

Like a kiss

That missed my lips

Will you do me a kindness?

Point the sun

Right into my flesh

I want

Nothing left

Will you do me a kindness?

mercelemon.com

best of 2024 • This Is Lorelei • I'm All F****d Up

you little sick thing you had your fun

you hide the dead like you always said you would

baby you can hear the bass and the pounding of the drum

yea you’re gonna bang it out cause the sick’s so good like

you hit the gas yea your heart’s all play

you cut the line baby there’s no more tears

you know some people’d wanna go yea they’d wanna run away

but you’re all fucked up and you wanna stay here with me

“‘I’m All Fucked Up’ is just me trying to diagnose/comfort/scold my younger self — an amalgamation of real experiences I had jumbled and reset in inaccurate but contextually relevant locations,” Amos explained in a statement. read more

best of 2024 • Kelly McMichael • Bomb

Kelly McMichael is an artist and producer who makes music in St. John’s, NL. A versatile multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, McMichael has toured the country with The Burning Hell, Gentleman Reg, The Hidden Cameras and Sarah Harmer. Her solo debut 'Waves' garnered a spot on the Polaris Prize shortlist, three Music NL Awards, and the ECMA for Best Rock Album.

kellymcmichael.com

best of 2024 • Laughing • Bruised

The Canadian supergroup’s debut album arrives like a progeny of Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr., and even Neil Young’s Crazy Horse all while constructing a singular, inspiring voice of its own. read more

best of 2024 Islands • "What Occurs”

There's a sense of finality floating on the sun-warmed waters of What Occurs, the tenth album by Islands, the near two-decade-old brainchild of ingenious pop songwriter Nick Thorburn. Returning to his home province of British Columbia to make a live-off-the-floor record with people facing each other in a room and exploring their instinctual, creative impulses, Thorburn seems to be signalling his unique musical voyage has perhaps come full circle. read more

The Best Show with Tom Scharpling with Islands

https://islandsareforever.com/