Top Ten Albums of 2024 – Cathy Brown

Our regular Music/ Theatre writer Cathy Brown takes us through her favourite albums of the year.

10. Lemons, Limes and Orchids – Joan As Policewoman
On her twelfth album, Joan Wasser has stripped things back, to allow her striking vocal to take centre stage nestled amidst lush, relaxed instrumentation. A consistently rewarding artist, these songs combine lyrical depth with musical sophistication to creative an immersive and unforgettable sound.

9. Viva Hinds – Hinds
During Covid, Hinds were dropped by their label, dropped by their management and lost two of their members, but you wouldn’t know it from the joyous, playful sound that they have produced on this, their fourth album, which marries a garage-rock swagger with the catchiest of pop tunes.

8. Heavy Metal – Cameron Winter
Geese frontman Cameron Winter is only 22, but on his debut solo album he sounds like a wearied old crooner giving it all one last shot. Heavy Metal is, it is fair to say, quite bonkers – as histrionic, ambitious and jarring as it is beautiful, evocative and thoughtful – but Winter has crafted a sound that is all his own, featuring hallucinatory imagery and bizarre leaps of style. Reminiscent of artists like Captain Beefheart, or Tom Waits, Winter remains completely true to his own wonderfully odd vibe.

7. Nobody Loves You More – Kim Deal
Kim Deal might be best known as an indie-rock icon, but on her first proper solo album, she embraces a baroque orchestral pop sounds to great effect. Her distinctive vocal is a strong as ever and her clutch of songs are melodic masterpieces, arranged with a sense of fun and brought together with perfection by the late Steve Albini.

6. Sentir Que No Sabes – Mabe Fratti
Sentir que no sabes (Feel Like You Don’t Know), is the third album in eight months from Guatemalan-born, Mexico City-based cellist Mabe Fratti and is slightly less experimental than what has come before. She blends avant-garde, funk, jazz, electronica and much more to create a unique and spellbinding sound that is all her own.

5. My Light, My Destroyer – Cassandra Jenkins
Cassandra Jenkins’ sophomore record My Light, My Destroyer has the same elegance of her 2021 debut but a greater depth of sound. Complex, vulnerable and sophisticated these songs feature collages of recorded sounds, ambient arrangements and 90s synth sounds to mark Jenkins out as one to watch.

4. Tigers Blood – Waxahatchee
Katie Crutchfield, the musical artist known as Waxahatchee, is a master of gut-wrenching alt-country, and on her sixth studio album, Tigers Blood, demonstrates her skill in moving from country to indie-rock to Americana through a series of songs that sound like instant classics from the first listen.

3. Light Verse – Iron & Wine
Light Verse – Sam Beam’s seventh studio album –showcases an artist at the top of his game, pushing the boundaries of what contemporary Americana can be. Light Verse retains Beam’s unmistakable Iron & Wine sound –layered vocals, plucked guitar and evocative songwriting – all of which provide the foundations for a generous, up-beat vibe and create a playful work of joyous virtuosity

2. Lives Outgrown – Beth Gibbons
Thirty years after Portishead’s debut album and 22 years after her own debut solo album (2002’s Out of Season), Beth Gibbons released her second solo album and it’s safe to say it was worth the wait. Dealing with themes of grief, loss and ageing, the subject matter might be gloomy but musically this is a rich, beautiful and frequently challenging work of real talent.

1. Midwinter Swimmers – The Innocence Mission
The married duo of Karen and Don Peris returned with their 13th album made to evoke ‘the half-remembered singalongs of our 1970s childhoods’. Packed full of warm sensory songwriting, obtuse yet comforting lyrics and Karen’s ethereal voice, Midwinter Swimmers is an album of quiet beauty.