UPDATE: Here are some playlists with a selection of great songs from the year. Why not check them out? (P.S. Tidal pays artists way more than Spotify. Please use Tidal if you can!)
In last year’s post, I said, “Especially right now, when the world seems to be in flames all around us, it’s comforting and even inspiring to know that great music is still being made.” That’s even more true now as the trend toward fascism and oppression gains even more sickening pace. It might seem frivolous to spend so much time listening to music, but it’s truly a survival tactic for me and maybe for you, too. So, with that in mind, here are some words about some of the music that helped me during 2024. First a top ten, then an unranked 11-25, then another unranked 26-50. Here’s a YouTube playlist with a song from each of the Top Ten:
Here we go (asterisks indicate an artist with Canadian bona fides and a bold L means I’ve seen the band live in 2024):
1. *Ducks Ltd. (L) – Harm’s Way
I’m so proud of these hometown janglers. For their second album, they decamped to Chicago to work with members of Ratboys and Dehd, and the results are excellent. Even though this came out last February, its songs have had staying power and its spot at or near the top of this year’s list was never really threatened. I appreciated the continuity of uptempo jangle songs like “The Main Thing” but also that the band stretched into new musical territory, like the melancholy closer “Heavy Bag.” Seeing the band live again also brought these songs to life. If the Ducks come to your town, I highly recommend that you obtain some tickets!
2. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Still just 25 years of age, MJ Lenderman entered my peripheral vision a few years ago with his album Boat Songs. I loved the combination of humourous lyrics and guitar hooks on songs like “Hangover Game,” but I didn’t spend a lot of time with that record. This year’s Manning Fireworks didn’t really register until about a month ago when I began to see it popping up on Best of 2024 lists. Mark Jacob Lenderman is having quite a year, it seems. He plays guitar in the band Wednesday, and also guests with Waxahatchee. He sings backup and plays guitar on one of Waxahatchee‘s best songs from this year, “Right Back To It.” As a songwriter, Lenderman has a remarkable gift for combining memorable music with lyrics that are both funny and poignant. On “Wristwatch,” he’s the kind of sympathetic loser who might have been writing a song about his Bluetooth headset about 15 years ago. “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome, and a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone, and a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own.”
3. Eggs – Crafted Achievement
This Paris quartet make music that feels like it’s come from somewhere in the American Midwest. Frontman Charles Daneau sings in English, for one, but the music has a sort of nonspecific American indie sound, perhaps from the ’80s or ’90s. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that guitarist Margaux Bouchaudon and saxophonist Camille Fréchou are also members of En Attendant Ana, another of my favourite French bands. Whereas their previous record “A Glitter Year” drew comparisons to the Dunedin indie pop sound, this one has been compared with bands like The Replacements. It’s no coincidence since one of the songs (“Bob Stinson’s Song”) actually pays tribute to the Minneapolis’ band’s departed guitarist.
4. Christopher Owens – I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
One half of the late band Girls, Christopher Owens has a dramatic life story. Raised in the Children of God cult, he broke away as a teenager and drifted to California, where he eventually met Chet “JR” White, and they started making music together. Girls released two well-received albums between 2009 and 2011, and were known for their excessive drug use almost as much as for their music. Owens broke up the band in 2012 and got sober in 2014. Unfortunately, White continued to struggle with his addictions and died in 2020. Owens released a few solo albums but then hit a rough patch that lasted several years. He lost his record contract, ended a long term relationship, and was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. This is his first musical release in nine years, and it feels like a well-earned if unexpected gift. Album opener “No Good” reveals an older, wiser Owens on lines like this: “No, not another love song, not one more song where I’m pretending everything will be okay.” It’s haunting and beautiful, and it’s impossible not to wish Owens a long period of peace and happiness, whether or not he has more music left to share.
5. *Laughing (L) – Because It’s True
Laughing is from Montreal, a city whose music scene continues to thrive. The Wesleys follow in this list at #6. Other bands from that great city that didn’t crack the Top Ten include Feeling Figures and Corridor. There’s definitely something in the water in Montreal, or more likely, the cheaper rents are allowing creatives to thrive without worrying about keeping a roof over their heads. In any case, Laughing has a sweet jangly vibe that’s mixed ever so slightly with something more akin to country or folk. I can hear The Byrds, Dinosaur Jr. and even The Flying Burrito Brothers. It’s notable that all four members take lead vocals, and there is no real frontperson. I’ve seen them live twice now, and the songs are definitely stronger than their live show, but that could be more an indication of the smallness of the rooms they’ve played so far. In any case, Laughing is the real deal.
6. *The Wesleys – The Wesleys
Every year, there seems to be one album that crashes my Top Ten in the final days of the year. I usually see it on some end of year list. It’s almost always something I haven’t encountered at all until then. This year, it was Montreal band The Wesleys, on the 27th of December! Thank you, Exclaim.ca! This hits the perfect sweet spot between jangle pop and garage rock and just has some extra secret sauce that I can’t quite put my finger on. All I can say is that I have been playing the hell out of this one for the past few days. I’m eager for them to return to Toronto to play live. So eager, in fact, that I’ve reached out to them on Instagram. This is an exciting new record that I don’t think I’ve seen on any other lists, so give it a listen and see what you think!
7. *Little Kid – A Million Easy Payments
I was very happy to discover yet another great Toronto band this year. Little Kid have been quietly putting out music for the past 15 years, but apparently so quietly that I hadn’t heard anything until 2024. Centred around the songwriting of Kenny Boothby, Little Kid make music that could be described as folk, but infused with a bruised spirituality that really connects with me and my own experiences with faith. Don’t let that put you off; this stuff is gorgeous no matter how you feel about the lyrics.
8. *Motorists (L) – Touched By The Stuff
I saw Toronto’s Motorists live this year, which made it much easier for me to click with their new album. Three years ago, I’d seen 2021’s Surrounded on a bunch of year-end lists, and it came with a label (“power pop”) that I usually vibe with, but for whatever reason, I didn’t spend much time with it. Since then, I’ve come to really love that album, and so when 2024 brought new music from this trio, I rolled out the welcome mat. Labelling Motorists as power pop is actually pretty limiting. Though there is some jangle, and some harmonies, Touched By The Stuff covers a lot of musical ground in its 12 tracks. To me, this band sounds like a new generation’s Sloan, with maybe a little bit more twang.
9. Blushing – Sugarcoat
I’ve been a fan of the music once denigrated as “shoegaze” (allegedly due to band members being too busy looking at their guitar effects pedals to make eye contact with the audience) ever since the early 1990s, and although there are lots of revivalists plying their trade these days, not many really capture my attention the way that Blushing has over the past few years. The band, who are from Austin, Texas, put out an excellent record called Possessions in 2022, and this year’s Sugarcoat has surpassed it. Just listen to “Tamagotchi” and see if you’re not transported back to the ’90s. Or, if you weren’t around in the ’90s, just enjoy some excellent swirling guitars and great voice harmonies.
10. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
I first heard the song “I Don’t Know You” from this album and was charmed by its exploration of having a crush on someone. The rest of the album is much more forceful, both musically and thematically. Many reviews call the album “horny” and that’s accurate, as singer Marisa Dabice sings of her desire in songs like “Loud Bark,” “Aching,” and “Split Me Open.” Although I love the hardcore crunch of some of those songs, it’s the delicate and vulnerable lyrics of “I Don’t Know You” that bring me back again and again. “I know a lot of things, I know a lot of things, but I don’t know you.”
Notable (Unranked 11-25)
- 2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosions
- The BV’s – Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures
- Dancer – 10 Songs I Hate About You
- Dummy – Free Energy
- *Feeling Figures – Everything Around You
- Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd
- *Heaven for Real (L) – Hell’s Logo’s Pink
- Jagged Baptist Club – Physical Surveillance
- Mo Dotti – Opaque
- Mo Troper – Svengali
- *Mustafa – Dunya
- Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
- Split System – Vol. 2
- Sprints – Letter To Self
- Sharp Pins – Radio DDR
Worthy (Unranked 26-50)
- Beige Banquet – Ornamental Hermit
- Bermuda Squares – Outsider
- *Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
- Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel
- *Corridor – Mimi
- The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
- *Daniel Romano’s Outfit (L) – Too Hot to Sleep
- DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water
- Hamish Hawk (L) – A Firmer Hand
- Honeyglaze – Real Deal
- *Jeremie Albino (L) – Our Time in the Sun
- Jim Nothing – Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn
- julia – my anti-aircraft friend
- Khruangbin – A La Sala
- Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More
- Klapper – High for No Reason
- Marcel Wave – Something Looming
- Negative Gears – Moraliser
- Neutrals – New Town Dream
- Pleasant Mob – Pleasant Mob
- Quivers (L) – Oyster Cuts
- Torrey – Torrey
- The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend
- Uranium Club – Infants Under the Bulb
- Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood
EEPEES
- Billy Tibbals – Nightlife Stories
- Plexi Stad – Siren Dance
- Highschool – Accelerator
- *Apollo Ghosts – Amethyst
- Nag – Fear
- *Accelerant – Accelerant
- The Girls – Cuntry Music
- Softjaw – Softjaw
- Guiding Light – Guiding Light
- *Fold Paper – 4TO
- Citric Dummies – Trapped in a Parking Garage
Most Anticipated 2025 Releases
- Ex-Vöid – In Love Again
- The Laughing Chimes – Whispers in the Speech Machine
- *Motherhood – Thunder Perfect Mind
- *No Frills – Sad Clown
- The Tubs – Cotton Crown
As always, music helped me through this year’s highs and lows, reinforcing my belief that music is as essential to my life as food, oxygen, and love.
Just for fun, here are some of my previous lists:
- My Best of 2023
- My Best of 2022
- My Best of 2021
- My Best of 2020
- My Best of 2019
- My Best of 2018
- My Best of 2015
- My Best of 2014
- My Best of 2013
- My Best of 2012
- My Best of 2009
- My Best of 2008
- My Best of 2007
How about you? What were some of your favourites?