2024, the best albums 10 - 1

So here we are, with my ten personal favourite albums of this year. As I wrote yesterday, 2024 was a year with very good to a few exceptional albums. The coming years will tell how they or if they grow on me even more.

 

 

10. Kiss Your Friends. No Ninja Am I

Sander van Munster's solo project No Ninja Am I released a new album in 2024 and it may prove to be his best to date. Sixty years of pop music come together and blend into songs that strive to perfection. Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/11/kiss-your-friends-no-ninja-am-i.html

9. Always Hungry. Soft Boy

An album that came to me by way of a independent label, Fons Records, from Belgium, by a band I had never heard of. Always Hungry was played a lot this year and deserves this spot fully. Pop and rock and some of that prickly moments Belgians bands are so good at for decades can be heard on Always Hungry.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/03/almost-hungry-soft-boy.html

8. Romance. Fontaines DC

The big turnaround album of now Londoners, former Dubliners, Fontaines D.C. Gone is the postpunk, enter doomy and mysterious music. I do not exclude that Romance may turn into a masterpiece, far exceeding the previous three albums. There's just no way I can tell yet. The fact that I mention it is telling.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/09/romance-fontaines-dc.html

7. Niemandsland. De Kift

Zo ingetogen en toch zo De Kift. Ook dit is een plaat waarvan de tijd gaat zeggen hoe goed hij echt is. Duidelijk is aan het begin van 2025, dat Niemandsland indrukwekkend is. De plaat maakt een diepe en droevige indruk. Van oude mensen en de dingen die voorbij gaan. De Kift en fans worden ouder en zien de wereld om ons heen met lede ogen aan. Gelukkig hebben we live 'Bal' nog.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/11/niemandsland-de-kift.html

6. Everyone Smiles. The Maureens

The Maureens' fourth album is, once again, a great pop album. Yet, I'm of the opinion that the songs are this much sharper, even more focused and better. As if everything came together for the band, making writing and playing perfect pop songs a natural habitat. This band should be so much better known than it is today. A household name!, is what I say.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/everyone-smiles-maureens.html

5. The First Exit. Tramhaus

The First Exit is a debut album that feels like it isn't. As if the band released several albums already, instead of a few singles and an EP. With which it already toured the world. Rotterdam's best Tramhaus has released the perfect postpunk album, in which the inner tensions and the alternative meets pop all come together in a perfect storm. If this band manages to set a next step, it may become one of the biggest postpunk acts in the world.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-first-exit-tramhaus.html

4. Cartoon Darkness. Amyl and The Sniffers

Snotty, is the right word here. Amy Taylor is more Johnny Rotten than John Lydon could be in 2024. The songs on Cartoon Darkness are addictive. There's no other word for it. Straight forward punk, some great guitar solos and a ballad or two that work as well. This album is a perfect blend but foremost punk as it's supposed to be.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/10/cartoon-darkness-amyl-and-sniffers.html

3. Wild God. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Speaking of being totally blown of my socks. That is what happened to me while listening to Wild God for the first time. Nick Cave reached for new heights and climbed there with so much ease. His career has soared accordingly, filling arenas with ease as well. Spiritual, gospel, religion, rock ballads, on Wild God it all comes together in a fantastic way.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/09/wild-god-nick-cave-and-bad-seeds.html

2. Not God. Finom

From a Wild God to Not God is but a small step in this list. The duo Ohmme returned as Finom in 2024 with an even better album. The kind that just bounces through my room and makes me bounce along with it. Not God is played out within a very tight jacket but done so superbly that the relative lack of variation is overlooked/heared, because this is the way it should be.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/05/not-god-finom.html

1. Letter To Self. SPRINTS

The album of the year was released on the first Friday of 2024. Nothing went over it and righteously so. SPRINTS catapulted itself onto the international stage with debut album Letter To Self. For me things started with the single 'Literary Mind'. A song that's totally addictive. I can listen to it all day long. Add 'Up And Comer' and I do not want to listen to anything else. Letter To Self matched the two songs and I was hooked. SPRINTS delivered my album of the year.

https://wonomagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/letter-to-self-sprints.html

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