Is it too late to profess my love for these albums?
Favorite Tracks: Dog Years, Excalibur, Just In Time, Ahh (This Isn't Ideal)
Third Eye Blind by Third Eye Blind, Tapestry by Carole King, The Bends by Radiohead, to name a few. A list of guilty pleasure albums for some? Sure. For me, it is a list of my go-to palette cleanser albums. The ones that never fail, no matter the mood or time of day, and put a reset on the ears. This year, Good Morning Seven joined my highly regarded list of palette cleansers.
Good Morning Seven is filled with tracks that put a ballad-like spin on indie while still having tracks that are experimentally reminiscent of older Good Morning projects. Good Morning Seven is Good Morning's most creatively diverse, yet I think it's their most cohesive and pristine album. Good Morning appears to be more intentional in vocals and writing, highlighted on tracks Dog Years and Excalibur, which is like a charming take on elevator music, featuring lush harmonies alongside dream-like synth embellishments over repeated chords. While simplistic in elements and sparse in words, it's a poster child for less, being more sometimes in music. Good Morning Seven is an album that gets better with each listen, presenting a sort of maturity that's atypical (by nature) in the indie pop scene while still holding onto that adolescent quirk.
Favorite Tracks: All in Good Time, Anyone's Game, Taken By Surprise
Throughout 2024, I had the pleasure of going on an Iron & Wine delve. Upon reading different sources, the idea that no Iron & Wine record is ever quite like the other kept being repeatedly reinforced. Despite this discovered truth, Sam Beam manages to hold true to his insightful and witty lyricism. Light Verse is playful, as if to invite being fooled by life with open arms. Beam is well-versed, though, forearmed with knowledge of the patterns of life, love, and loss, like a wise elder.
The peak of this album for me is "Tears that Don't Matter," an eerily gorgeous, spiraling drama where he treats life's fleeting moments and decisions like a minefield. The track is like a mental fight scene, capturing trepidation and performing a balancing act of care, while delivering the repeated motif of "you're only as empty as a lost and found", as if to erase all value of built up worry.
Light Verse holds fresh eyes while navigating these deep introspective themes, from the teasing twang of "You Never Know" to "All In Good Time" ft. Fiona Apple is a love story told in a heist-like manner, which can't help but be attributed to Apple's cunning yet caring voice (a personal significant collaboration of 2024). While Light Verse might sound foreign to the veteran Iron & Wine fan, I think it's an intricate sonic balance of the notable quiet acoustic of Iron & Wine and a newfound expansive sound. To me, this album doesn't aim to show proficiency or skill but instead tenure in both the art of music and living. It's abstract, but still digestible, at times fun, but full of wise quips for those who want to hear it.
Favorite Tracks: Forever, Big Blue, Song For Pete, Meant
Hovvdy was a release I was greatly anticipating in 2024, and I've come to the conclusion that if an album by Hovvdy is released in a year, it will find its way to my AOTY list. In a scene where a self-titled album aims to encapsulate an artist, nineteen tracks may appear ambitious, but this number is perfectly sufficient for Hovvdy and no feat. All the defining Hovvdy elements are present, from the lo-fi production to the constant tug at the heartstrings and the piano more whimsical than ever; the duo continues to make seemingly mundane things glimmer.
From professions of everlasting love ("Forever" is to Hovvdy as "True Love "is to True Love), to long-winded pleas searching for forgiveness and closure, Hovvdy makes rekindling relationships sound like changing the world (which in Hovvdy world, might just do exactly that). With elements tiptoeing further into the hip-hop/trap realm, dare I say (I'm looking at you, "Bubba"), this album is unlike any listen of 2024. The duo has the unique ability to rule a range of spectrums within multiple genres, a quality that will, without a doubt, continue to carry them through the upcoming years.
Where Hovvdy typically rules my Summer, I found this album resonating more during the fade out of Summer and well into Fall. Perhaps it was the reflective nature of the album, slowing down by the fourth track, taking time for deeper reflections, and sifting through thoughts in such a vulnerable way. Hovvdy is a warm whirlpool of emotions and small but grand gestures. Hovvdy has a special sentiment, like the two boys in the back of the classroom started making music on the back porch, specifically in the evening sun. A Phineas and Ferb DIY dynamic, if you will, but relatively more serious, intuitive, and...Texan.
Favorite Tracks: Heartless, South of Here, I Would Like To Heal, Get Used to the Night, Center of Me
If I had to choose one artist that ruled 2024 for me, it would, without a doubt, be Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. As many of my favorite artist endeavors began, it was an auto-played YouTube performance, followed by me doing a discography dive, even a podcast, and, subsequently, seeing them live. Through my deep dive into the band, over the years, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats have consistently proven to hold an utmost combination of lyricism, composition, and stage presence, factors that I believe reflect and define a generational artist. With Rateliff's raw, hearty vocals delivering his tribulations, triumphs, and truths over a bright brass section, he makes you believe that he truly believes what he's singing.
South of Here reinforces The Night Sweats' consistency, especially on tracks like "Heartless", "Get Used to the Night", and "South of Here", which hone in on the artistry of the group well. Watching him perform, you can't help but empathize with the emotions of oftentimes deeply personal lyrics. Nathaniel Rateliff has this passion that I think is only born by a weathering of life, which he embraces so well, putting him in the running for the "figure to have dinner with" icebreaker question. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats is a group I think everyone should see live, if not once, twice.
Favorite Tracks: Sunset Boulevard Expedition, Surfer's Journal, Southern Star
To put the pure magnificence of this album into words is simply impossible.
Leif Vollebekk manages to make this entire album a cinematic, transcendent feeling,
The sweeping album opener of "Rock and Roll" sets the tone for the album, expansive in sound with swelling instrumentals and determined in pace, as if to start the journey of the album wide-eyed and optimistic. Vollebekk successfully strives for this feeling on every single track, aiming to transport the listener to the exact frame of reference, serving as both the eyes, heart, and voice of reason. As the skilled wordsmith he is, he pulls off existing in this billowing, slightly off-kilter place, reflecting in awe, never regret, and being an unapologetic romantic for all things life and love. Revelation will have you thinking that poet might be a more fitting title for Leif Vollebekk.
As someone who spent the last four years fixated on his performance of Transatlantic Flight Live at Roy Thomson Hall, his increased utilization of strings throughout the album was far more than indulgent. With Angie McMahon (an artist who held my 2023 AOTY title) returning to provide vocals and Anais Mitchell's distinct voice, Revelation's free-flowing nature and narrative are enhanced. I'm an advocate for letting music sit before being quick to render judgment, but ever so often, I'm just floored on the first listen of a song. "Sunset Boulevard Expedition" was one of those tracks on this album, the whole eight minutes and nineteen seconds being an immersive experience featuring a children's choir, a dazzling harp, and a closing spoken monologue; it truly doesn't get more cinematic than that. (I just did it a disservice in words, but just know you must listen, it might change your life.)
Revelation takes a moment to revel in the mere quality of existence through perspectives of nature, dreams, and relationships (and the lack thereof), like fragments of a glass mosaic in sunlight. Revelation is a gorgeous, ethereal album that makes me feel greatly indebted after each listen, a reminder of what absolute magic music can be.
Honorable Mentions
In holistic loving and good listening, here are some other notable albums I had in rotation from 2024!