NNWNF Top 100 Tracks of 2024: 20-1
So here it is,..it's the festive season, everybody's having fun! (Apart from those working in the retail and service sectors, treat them kindly guys). I thought I might as well try and join in with the season of goodwill and embrace what little human warmth there seems to be left in the world - so here is my final ill-thought-out gift of the year to you*.
*Unlike stockists of an unwanted Bath bombs , we don't take returns.
In the most calculated and protracted countdown of 100 of the best things of a thing committed to a blog this year, this one takes the absolute mince pies. We're finally down to our top 20 tracks of the year. So take a read of why we chose them, have a listen to each track and and then you can go and crack open a beer with a plate full of sprouts. We hope you enjoyed the countdown and found some songs that passed you by over the last 12 months or merely confirmed your already impeccable taste. Knowing you lot, it's probably a bit of both.
See you later Agitators.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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20) Dactyl Terra - Cheeseburger
The first of the acts on our top 20 emerging from Cardiff's creative and blossoming underground is Dactyl Terra; a band determined to leave their sonic footprint on the surface of the moon. 'Cheeseburger' was the first single from their FEE FI FO FUM album and it was mission accomplished for the spacey four piece. The infectious groove, choppy guitar lines and idiosyncratic lyrics are a highlight of both the album and their explosive live set.
19) Eyesore & The Jinx - No More Nails
Once upon a time, it almost seemed like Liverpool's Eyesore & The Jinx would never get their 2024 album Jitterbug into our ears. Thankfully, sanity prevailed and their unique take on the Post Punk blueprint took flight. The lead single 'No More Nails' tells a story of compulsive behaviour that we are often unaware of to some wonderfully skewed, yet insanely catchy riff. Enough to make you want to celebrate biting your nails and avoid eating cornflakes for years to come.
18) Wunderhorse - Midas
Not too many bands have had as big as year in growth as the excellent Wunderhorse. Initially a solo project of ex Dead Pretties front man Jacob Slater, the band turned up the heat on this record; the title track being the perfect case in point. It's a fine blend of Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Rocking in a Free World intensity and Slater's lyrics channeling his inner Dylan and Springsteen. A fine statement of intent.
The allure of the streets of New York City continue to produce some of the most intriguing bands and artists in modern music. One of the finest to emerge this year was Slow Fiction, and band with creativity coursing through their veins. The opening track from their top tier Crush E.P is the dark and brooding 'Monday'; A vivid journey through the troubled minds of twenty-somethings trying to make sense of a life distorted and corrupted by "..Daddy's capitalism".
16) Campfire Social - Patsy Decline
They made us wait. They made us yearn for more. They finally delivered. Campfire Social are a band that never fail to raise a smile or produce bittersweet tears in seemingly equal amounts. It barely seems real that They Sound The Same Underwater is their debut album, but they got there in the end. Crammed full of treats, an album highlight is the stirring 'Patsy Decline' that makes use of the bands glorious use of vocal harmonies. A song that feels like a giant hug in times of need and arguably the best song title of the year.
15) Astral Swans - The Coward
A band that were new to us here at NNWNF before catching them at 2024's FOCUS WALES were Canadians Astral Swans. The band take their ques from the songs of front man and multi instumentalist Matthew Swann. Limited release single 'The Coward' is a great example of experimental pop music at it's finest with Swann letting us into a new world that has shades of The Beach Boys if Sparklehorse had come first.
Yard Act's debut album 'The Overload' was always going to be a tough act to follow. So when the band released second effort 'Where's My Utopia' earlier in the year it inevitably took time time for the songs to settle and find their place in the band's catalogue. For the most part it was a mixed bag, but the highs rank as good as anything they had committed to tape to that point. Album highlight 'When The Laughter Stops' - with Katy J Pearson guesting in fine style - is a track that combines the best of the band's new sharp turn, with James Smith's brilliantly written sardonic lyrics about the highs and lows of the lower echelons of the entertainment industry.
13) English Teacher - I'm Not Crying, You're Crying
Last year English Teacher topped our Top 100 countdown with their incredible 'The World's Biggest Paving Slab' single and now they're gatecrashing the top 20 again. The band's incredible album This Could Be Texas cemented their status as critical darlings and made Lily Fontaine a leading candidate for the unenviable tag of 'Voice of a Generation'. No mean feat for a band that started in Leeds' thriving and competitive music scene. I could have picked most of the songs on this Mercury Prize winning album - it really is that good - but it was 'I'm Not Crying, You're Crying' that hits hardest with it's faint echoes of The Smiths in their pomp and defiant gang vocals making it an essential song in their cannon.
12) Amyl & The Sniffers - Jerkin'
Some bands just seem to click into gear at exactly the right time. One such band surely has to be Melbourne's Punk titans Amyl & The Sniffers. 2024 saw the band release third album Cartoon Darkness; an album that saw them shift gear to a more pop influenced direction. It might be hard to think that when you hear the album opener 'Jerkin'', which takes aim at misogynists in the street and on the internet and their lewd behaviour towards singer Amy Taylor. The result is fabulous concoction of Rated R era Queens of the Stone Age and a sweary re-interpretation of 'My Humps' by Black Eyed Peas. Extra points scored for the lyric:
You are fucking spiders, I am drinking riders.
11) Mary Shelley - You Look Just Like My Mother
Who said the second album had to be difficult? I'm not entirely sure, but I AM sure that Mary Shelley didn't get the memo. Even if they did, they probably discarded it with disdain whilst eating a plateful of delicious tacos. You'll understand that joke more if you listen to our interview with the band on The Partisan Contingent from earlier in the year (LINK HERE). Anyway, the band dropped second album Bloodhounds and two tracks made our top 20 last year due to being singles in 2023 ('She's a Star' and 'Goin' to the Beach'). It was tough choice from the previously unreleased tracks, but summer single 'You Look Just Like My Mother' has arguably the bands' catchiest hook to date, with hilariously dark lyrics about excruciating dates and self sabotaging to the Nth degree.
10) Sham Family - Modern Myth
You can't let the cynicism settle for too long or the love will start to wain. I was at that stage earlier in the year when I came across Sham Family and their blinding album A Deaf Portrait of Peace. The Toronto four piece produced a debut album of thought provoking, intelligent post punk that aimed to transport the energy of their live shows to tape. The first single from the album was the soaring 'Modern Myth', which has remained a favourite since the summer. The sonic intensity of the track has a way of producing the kind of goosebumps that can only be provided by the cultivated contrast of tension and release. Sham Family get it bang on here and repeat it just enough for it to not wear thin. It still hits as the first time I heard it.
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9) retropxssy - All The Things
Another returning member from the class of 2023 is the talented, up and coming London based rapper and singer retropxssy. An electric live performer that has made people sit up and take notice in the Capital, her knack for writing punchy earworms continued in 2024 with 'All The Things'. Based around a laid back soul loop from producer Tony Bontana, it allows her to showcase her love of mimimalist Hip Hop, but also puts her smooth vocals at the forefront. The video deals in surrealist imagery as a girl strives to be a mermaid whilst a malicious fisherman looks for his next catch and adds an extra element of intrigue to her eccentric identity.
8) The Jesus Lizard - Cost of Living
There can't be too many bona fide, grade A legends left to reform can there? I didn't think there could be and then The Jesus Lizard reformed and I realised I was very, very wrong. It's something that I've learnt to live with. New album Rack was the noise rock pioneers first in 26 long years; I was barely out of High School at the time and many of you were barely a twinkle in your Dad's eye. Probably. Full of the kind of much-needed frantic, nervous energy that can't be taught, with ferocious riffs and David Yow's unhinged vocal performance back to it's menacing best, it's hard to believe 'Cost of Living' wasn't even on the album. The boys are back in town.
7) Sprints - Ticking
The Irish renaissance has been really coming out with the goods in recent years. Bands like Fontaines D.C have become massive and those under the surface have been reaping the rewards with Dublin now under the cultural microscope. Sprints are a band that had several singles and E.Ps under their belt and their trajectory meant debut album Letter To Self was met with a warm response early in the year. Opener 'Ticking' is the expansive start that the album builds it's peaks and troughs around, setting out their stall from get-go. The build up is tense and repetitive, but never grates as the pay-off is just around the corner in explosive fashion. If you don't feel like being thrown around in mosh pit by the time that occurs, then you're probably not doing it right.
6) MJ Lenderman - She's Leaving You
The delicate balance required to make the best alt country imaginable is not any easy thing to achieve. Too much country and the universal elements of it wain and too much alternative and the country twangs seem like an afterthought. An album that got the nuances right this year was MJ Lenderman's Manning Fireworks, which has been poured with critical acclaim since it's release. The track that showcases the songwriting talent of Lenderman the most, is the bittersweet, yet euphoric 'She's Leaving You'. The track is brought together by the Lenderman's strained vocals that sound exasperated but determined to change, underpinned by a band that sound tight and focused. By the time the female vocal emerges at the end, the track fades and the dawning realisation that she has left brings the song to a powerful conclusion that leaves an indelible mark.
5) Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us
When Kendrick Lemar surprise released his sixth studio album GNX in late November the internet went into it a state of meltdown that few artists can influence in Hip Hop. It wasn't the first time he had managed it in 2024 after a series of diss tracks that went back and forth between him and Canadian rapper Drake. The best of this series - perhaps the most controversial too - was the savage 'Not Like Us'. Taking aim at Drake and the rumours about his private life straying into illegal activities, Lemar showed just why noone in the game can come close to his impeccable wordplay and delivery. It was enough for Drake to take legal action, which will play out in 2025.
Not to mention that A Minor lyric..
4) Slate - Shade in Me
Debut E.Ps very rarely introduce a band as seemingly perfectly formed as Slate. Another group coming from the vibrant Cardiff scene, Deathless came into the world in May on Brace Yourselves Records and gave an exciting insight into a young band with a fresh take on old ideas. There's a swagger that stays on the right side of arrogance about the songs on the E.P and 'Shade in Me' is a prime example. The lyrics are inspired by a monologue from a Chinese film where a character complains that others can always find shade from the absurdities of life, whilst he can never get out of the full force of the sun. Singer Jack Shephard produces a powerful vocal perfomance, with ghostly guitar tones that are accentuated by the seamless interplay of drums and bass. This band are going the distance.
3) O.Wake feat Shelby Cook - You're Dead?
January seems like a lifetime ago, especially with the sheer quantity and quality of albums that have surfaced in 2024. One of the strongest offerings early in the year was O.Wake's extraordinary debut Unfamiliar State. It's an album that started life as far back as 2018 with songwriter/visual artist Ofer Shouval writing and developing the songs in the intervening years before making the project a fully fledged band. The album probes the absurdities of modern life, the news cycle and the culture of fear that divides us all. 'You're Dead' is a track that makes you sit up and take notice almost immediately with it's spiralling guitars and unpredictable nature. Shelby Cook guests, and her stream of consciousness, performance poetry about the relentless anxiety of the 21st Century - from targeted instagram ads to protesting to reopen Disneyland - make for deeply unsettling listening as the guitars get more frantic. Exceptional stuff.
2) Tapir! - Swallow
There can't be too many odder records this year than The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain, the other-worldy debut from the enigmatic Tapir! The London-based outfit makes the kind of music that takes time to get you in it's grips, but once there, refuses to let go of your soul. Taking their ques from acts that forged their own strange folk-tinged odysseys like Neutral Milk Hotel and Beirut, they write songs that combine the natural world with the supernatural. Combining a electronic beat with acoustic and woodwind instrumentation, 'Swallow' tells an engaging story of communicating with an injured bird that can talk backwards and realising a great truth about the world. It's almost as if Haruki Murakami found solace in freak folk and retreated to the hills for inspiration.
1) METZ - Entwined (Street Light Buzz)
So here we are, our Top Track of 2024. It should be practically impossible to narrow this down and choose the one that had the biggest impact continually since its release earlier in the year, but here we are with a band going out on a high.
METZ formed in 2007 in Ottawa in Canada, before moving their base to Toronto and unleashing their brand of adrenaline fueled punk rock on the world. Extensive touring followed and the band produced and released 4 albums before releasing their fifth album in 2024 Up On Gravity Hill on Sub Pop.
Later in the year, the band - comprising of Alex Edkins (guitar/vocals), Chris Slorach (bass) and Hayden Menzies (drums) - decided that time was up on the project. An indefinite hiatus was announced citing a fresh start and the chance to spend more time with family. Age catches up with us all eventually. As swan songs go, it made quite the impression.
I'll be honest, METZ always been hit or miss with me, but the current album is up there as their crowning glory. One track in particular was difficult to ignore. 'Entwined (Street Light Buzz' is a perfect encapsulation of what makes them tick. A love of melody, pockets of swirling noise and a rhythm section that elevates the track to another level entirely. The band are masters of dynamics, of the tension and release; this song proves it with relative ease. The lyrics opine about the importance of human connection, even after death; a fitting tribute to a band going out on their own terms.
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