As a website with a continual thirst for new music, each year brings us the anticipation of new artists that will establish themselves as favourites. Hopefully, our end of year Best of 2024 lists will consist of many names that are currently unfamiliar to us but, in the meantime, there are plenty of more familiar acts who have continued to produce enjoyable music with albums scheduled for the early months of 2024. Here are previews of some records we are especially looking forward to hearing:
Bill Ryder-Jones – Iechyd Da
Welsh for good health or cheers, Ryder-Jones’ fifth album is a record that is rooted in love, loss, pain, heartache and often a deep darkness, but also one that frequently ends up in places of profound beauty, hope and joy. The expansive initial single, ‘This Can’t Go On’, offers an impressive suggestion of its scope. (Out 12 January)
Ryder-Jones – This Can’t Go On (Official Video) – YouTube
Sleater Kinney – Little Rope
The ten songs on the band’s eleventh album veer from spare to anthemic, catchy to deliberately hard turning while examining how we navigate grief, who we navigate it with, and the ways it transforms us. Single, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ offers an idea of what to expect. (Out 19 January)
– Say It Like You Mean It (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)
Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free
His follow-up to 2021’s ‘Seeking New Gods’, his first solo top ten album, promises soaring strings and sweet melodies. Hopefully, it will maintain the standards of lead single, ‘Celestial Candyfloss’. (Out 26 January)
Rhys – Celestial Candyfloss (Official Video) (youtube.com)
The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy
It is comparatively rare for a band to have built such a buzz based on minimal recorded work. Brits Rising Stars winners, The Last Dinner Party’s debut album has huge expectations to meet but their theatrical, potty-mouthed ABBA meets prog single, ‘Nothing Matters’, suggests something very special is afoot. (Out 2 February)
Last Dinner Party – Nothing Matters (youtube.com)
London Afrobeat Collective – Esengo
Promising to be one of 2024’s most joyous releases, this multi-cultural collective combine traditional afrobeat and hi life with funk, jazz, Latin, and dub to deliver party music born of their truly global DNA. First single, ‘Topesa Esengo Na Motema’, offers a tantalizing appetiser. (Out 14 February)
Afrobeat Collective – Topesa Esengo Na Motema (youtube.com)
Grandaddy – Blu Wav
Their first album since 2017’s ‘Last Place’. As the title suggests, ‘Blu Wav’ is a mash-up of bluegrass and new wave, full of pedal steels meeting dense synthesisers, waltzes packaged in psychedelic orchestration. It’s deeply personal, full of longing and heartache, wandering and wondering, illustrated by the lovely single, ‘Cabin in my Mind’. (Out 16 February)
– Cabin in My Mind (youtube.com)
William Doyle – Springs Eternal
The forthcoming album from Mercury-nominated art-pop maverick, William Doyle, features 11 tracks in which we hear from narrators teetering on the precipice of global disaster, heartbreak, addiction, indoctrination and mental illness, until they pass into the great unknown. Single ‘Relentless Melt’ offers a tantalising glimpse of what to expect. (Out 16 February)
Doyle – ‘Relentless Melt’ (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath
A welcome return from Nadine Shah after a period of unprecedented turbulence in her life. The music has renewed emphasis on placing melody and movement front and centre. Latest single, ‘Twenty Things’, demonstrates that she maintains a way with an arresting lyric. (Out 23 February)
Shah – Twenty Things (youtube.com)
Real Estate – Daniel
One of the most understated but gloriously melodic indie pop bands release their sixth album preceded by the gorgeous single, ‘Water Underground’. (Out 23 February)
Estate – Water Underground (Official Video) (youtube.com)
Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia?
The follow-up to ‘The Overload’ promises to expand their palette beyond its post-punk leanings to include influences ranging from Fela Kuti to Ennio Morricone via Spiller’s ‘00s pop smash ‘Groovejet’ while offering lyrics that tackle James Smith’s fears and foibles (and jokes). Single ‘Dream Job’ offers a first appetising taster. (Out 1 March)
