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Emma-Jean Thackray: Weirdo
New album: A remarkable release of experimental p-funk jazz, soul and pop by the British singer and multi-instrumentalist, exploring the ups and downs of her neuro-divergence (autism and ADHD), and playing, writing and producing everything entirely on her own in her south London back-bedroom home studio
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Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Death Hilarious
New album: Thunderous Black Sabbathian doom by the wonderfully entertaining, if deafening, Newcastle Upon Tyne heavy rockers with their fifth album, one which captures dark, uncertain times shaped by neoliberism, an exorcism of anxiety by frontman and lyricist Mark Baty, and a guest appearance by Run The Jewels rapper EL-P
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Benefits: Constant Noise
New album: Super-sharp, angry and articulate, this is striking, vivid, social and political spoken word and hip-hop on a backdrop of cinematic electronica, dance and punk by the Middlesbrough duo of Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major – a scything sonic and verbal attack on western ills at home and abroad
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Greentea Peng: Tell Dem It's Sunny
New album: South-east London’s Aria Wells returns her second album after 2021’s Man Made with a stylish, dark, smoky fusion of trip-hop, hip-hop, reggae, neo-soul, R’n’B, and indie rock, with a variety of timbres and themes, but overall one of self-renewal and change
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clipping.: Dead Channel Sky
New album: Breathlessly brilliant warp-speed hip-hop with a cyberpunk, electronica and house music soundtrack by the trio fronted by rapper and actor Daveed Diggs, set in a sci-fi dystopian universe of multiple characters and stories
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Antony Szmierek: Service Station At The End Of The Universe
New album: Named after Douglas Adams’ satirical sci-fi Restaurant novel, the likeable Manchester spoken word poet’s debut LP is an entertaining, playful, richly observational mix of Streetsy stream-of-consciousness stories inspired by his home city through the classic sounds of 90s dance music and indie
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Bartees Strange: Horror
New album: A diversely eclectic, genre-hopping, powerfully emotional LP of soul, funk, hip-hop, rock, indie, country, house and pop by the Washington DC-based artist, produced by Jack Antonoff, with songs facing fears as a young young, queer, black person in rural America, and inspired by the likes of Parliament Funkadelic, Fleetwood Mac, Teddy Pendergrass, and Neil Young
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John Glacier: Like A Ribbon
New album: The Hackney, east London producer-vocalist and model, who presents a persona as evasive, oddball, deliberately obfuscating “20,000-year old” “alien”, releases an esoteric, at times beguiling debut of offbeat trip-hop, filled with talking, stream-of-consciousness vocals mixed variously with guitar, assorted samples and electronica, also co-produced by Kwes Darko and Flume
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The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
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Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal
Mixtape review: Originally released in August, and more recently as a sample-rich, funk-jazz-sourced Flipout label edit version, this third Mixtape by the American rapper Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon is fabulously feisty, filthy and packed with clever, witty wordplay
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Tyler, the Creator: Chromakopia
New album: American rapper and producer Tyler Okonma’s eighth LP is an eclectic, electric, eccentric creation featuring his oddball masked persona, and addresses subjects such as fame, getting old, and with several songs featuring his mother Bonita Smith
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OneDay: Formula OneDa
New album: The debut LP by the Mancunian rapper and poet with a Nigerian heritage is a punchy, powerful release fuelled by female empowerment, mixing hip-hop, drum’n’bass, afro-trap, and afrobeats, heralding one of the most charismatic British hip-hop artists since Little Simz
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Killer Mike: Michael & the Mighty Midnight Revival - Songs for Sinners and Saints
Lava La Rue’s Starface
New album: A brilliantly clever, rich, eclectic concept album and debut LP by the West London multi-media artist, fusing indie-pop, funk, hip-hop and glam rock, and themed around the character of a gender neutral alien who visits Earth to explore its self-destructivity only to get mixed up in it
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Berwyn: Who Am I
New album: A candid, uncompromising, starkly personal and powerful rap-folk-R&B LP by the Trinidad-born 28-year-old east Londoner Berwyn Du Bois, who among other emotions, captures his experiences of Britain’s hostile environment immigration policy since arriving in the UK aged 9 in 2005
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Lupe Fiasco: Samurai
New album: A fluid, nimble, articulate playfully smooth ninth short, snappy LP by the American rapper and record producer with a title inspired by the late Amy Winehouse comparing rap battles to Samurai word weapons in a meta release about the joy of his genre
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KNEECAP: Fine Art
New album: Alongside their upcoming feature film, a stylish, witty, smash’n’grab, satirical, brilliant and sometimes brashly in your-face hip-hop debut by the West Belfast trio of stage names Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, who rap mostly in the Irish language
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Lip Critic: Hex Dealer
New album: A dazzlingly high-octane, white-knuckle ride of a debut album by the New York-based electronica-punk-hip-hop-hardcore-noise-rock band, who push the musical boundaries with express vocal delivery and double drummers
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Bob Vylan’s second album: Humble As The Sun
New album: The London hip-hop-punk-heavy-rock duo return with a second helping of articulate, pull-no-punches, take-no-prisoners social and political commentary, taking aim at Tory-ruled Britain, corrupt police, toxic masculinity and other social ills, but alongside righteous rage, some doses of positivity
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The Black Keys: Ohio Players
New album: With a 12th LP, the title and artwork inspired by the legendary funk band from their home state, the duo of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney return with a collaborative spring in their step, their bluesy rock stimulated by co-writers Beck, Noel Gallagher and other guests
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