Now Playing
Current DJ: Chris Siuty
André 3000 Something Is Happening And I May Not Fully Understand But I'm Happy To Stand For The Understanding (Chapter IV Awakening) from TRAИƧA (Red Hot) Add to Collection
The CHIRP Blog
algabor writesCHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Al Gabor
|
|
#1 Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman (Anti-)
|
#2 The Past is Still Alive by Hurray for the Riff Raff (Nonesuch)
|
#3 Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee (Realistik Studios)
|
#4 Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee (Anti-)
|
#5 Funeral for Justice by Mdou Moctar (Matador)
|
#6 Connie Live by Low Cut Connie (Contender)
|
#7 Not God by Finom (Joyful Noise)
|
#8 My Light, My Destroyer by Cassandra Jenkins (Dead Oceans)
|
#9 World Wide Whack by Tierra Whack (Interscope)
|
#10 Bite Down by Rosali (Merge)
|
Throughout December, 
Lenderman’s sly, self-deprecating humor and his killer songwriting chops add up to the album I kept coming back to all year. Lots of great lines here, but the one that sums up 2024: “It gets dark, we all got work to do.”
The past is not only alive but revived in vivid storytelling. Alynda Segarra builds on the strengths of 2022’s Life on Earth and delivers another masterwork.
Have you ever fallen asleep with your headphones on? The music sounding like it’s coming from another planet, or maybe beneath the sea seven fathoms deep. Diamond Jubilee sounds both familiar (hints of glam rock, 60s girl groups, doo-wop, folk-rock, and more) and wobbly strange. But all two hours of it are utterly beguiling. 2024’s best music surprise.
Katie Crutchfield takes a long, clear-eyed look back before moving on. Not a weak song on the album.
Funeral for Justice is Mdou Moctar’s response to the 2023 Nigerian coup. The group’s desert rock is fiercer, more incendiary and more urgent than ever.
Sometimes cheesy and greasy beats musical innovation. A terrific live band ripping it up.
The duo of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart (formerly performing as Ohmme and Homme) knock it out the park here. Quirky, often funny tunes showcase amazing harmonies.
In “Delphinium Blue,” the best headphone song of 2024, a worker in a flower shop drifts through the days in a romantic reverie. While the wordless chorus soars, she tethers herself to the quotidian with mental post-it notes: “Chin up/Stay on task/Wash the windows/Count the cash.” The celestial beckons to the earth bound.
Not the lark that 2018’s Whack World was. The musical inventiveness is still present, but the lyrics are dark, dealing with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. But these themes don’t emerge until after a few listens, after you’ve been drawn in by the entrancing melodies and beats. A deceptively complex album.
North Carolina-based Rosali has described Bite Down as “Velvet Underground covering Fleetowood Mac.” That may sound weird, but the combination of her honeyed vocals and the distortions and squalls of sound provided by her backing band, Omaha’s Mowed Sound, make for compelling listening.Next entry: CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Mauricio Reyes
Previous entry: CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2024: Tony Breed