Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2024. Our next list is from DJ Willie McDonagh.

For your appraisal: a list of ten records in alphabetical order by title.

The Blind Banister by Timo Andres, Metropolis Ensemble, Andrew Cyr, Inbal Segev (Nonesuch)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Pianist and composer Timo Andres said this of The Blind Banister, an album of three of his compositions: “It’s increasingly rare, impractical, and untenable to record an orchestra in this level of detail, in a studio environment; this may very well be the last album I make in such a way.”

I thought the scope was worth the trouble. The title piece was written for the pianist Jonathan Biss to be performed alongside Beethoven's second piano concerto, though Andres's piece owes more to the 20th century. I hear the grand declarations of Charles Ives and the ringing airiness of John Coolidge Adams.

Despite the work's chromatic excursions and evasiveness, it builds a great, imposing wall like the art music of old. It oozes unease and tells me it's unfriendly, but I only want to know it more before it recoils. I'll return to this for a while. Also on this disc are the solo piano work Colorful History and the cello concerto Upstate Obscura.

Bright Future by Adrianne Lenker (4AD)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

This makes me unpretentious and happy. Many of the tracks sound like home recordings, and the charm of communal musicmaking shows through. I have seen the word “confessional” associated with Lenker's music, and it can seem like a dirty word, probably because it isn't the right word. It implies shame, which I don't hear here. Throughout are personal memories in partial view, and these resonate with many folks for many reasons.

Speaking of resonation, the guitar and piano on this record are both fighting against their intrinsic limits on sustain. Alternate tunings give Lenker plenty of open strings to let ring, and the piano makes frequent use of the sustain pedal. But when all else fails, there's a fiddle. Like a baseball game, a note on a fiddle could theoretically go on forever. Maybe on the next record.

Chippi Tuyoppi (revision) by Tenniscoats (7 e.p.)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Married couple Saya and Takashi Ueno have been making strange and mellow music for 20 years, and they remain a delight while doing it all themselves. In a video from their YouTube channel uploaded earlier this year, they improvise a song while sitting on a beach under cloudy skies. A forgotten basket, now beach trash, lies between them. It's special. On Chippi Tuyoppi, seven-year-old Chippi contributes splendid vocals and lyrics to the album, bolstering the argument that more children should release albums (see also The Children of Sunshine). The sound palette is full of burbles and echoes, though the music doesn't meander—there are some hits here!

Hydra by Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary (Under The Arch)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Kennedy (flute, vocals) and O'Leary (mandolin, vocals) take it slow, playing and singing mostly traditional ballads. I'd like to say that old ballads ground you and calm the nerves, but sometimes history feels at hand, and you have to confront that feeling, imagining all the singers who sang the song, lived to see others sing it, and then died. And now there's you, and sometimes you don't even think of any of that, because it's just a song, really. In “The Dark-Eyed Sailor,” a lady fair doesn't initially recognize her lover, Willie, who she thought was long-drowned in the sea. While we end in a tearful reunion in which Willie shows her half a ring to prove his identity, I've begun to wonder if the sailor is another, passing himself off as Willie. Did this impostor kill poor Willie? If I know ballads, I'm sure that variant exists.

#ko?l?ysankidla?s?wiata by Sutari (Audio Cave)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

The Polish folk trio Sutari plays #lullabiesfortheworld on this record. They sing in harmony, and they pluck their stringed instruments just as often as they bow them. It's all very hushed and careful so as not to wake the listener. There are tracks that are solidly traditional and others that seem to be right out of their heads. A couple of these might lead to nightmares, but they only promised sleep, nothing more.

Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman (Anti-)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

I jumped on the Lenderwagon after hearing the first chorus of "She's Leaving You.” Lenderman draws out a large web that joins Men In Black and your uncle's basement and your dim memory of your First Holy Communion. He offers an alternative to the manosphere—one where sports are rad but you don't have to be angry all the time. Mostly though, it's sharp country rock that got more listens from me than anything else this year.

Mi Latinoamérica Sufre by Meridian Brothers (Ansonia)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Eblis Álvarez, who alone creates the studio versions of Meridian Brothers music, described Mi Latinoamérica Sufre as “a Caribbean-Colombian soukous. It's like after-highlife.” Álvarez, who's from Bogotá, is interested in African music on this record, but it's idiosyncratic in execution. The interlocking guitar parts are bizarre, and I don't even want to know how it was constructed, just that it's here now. The lyrics are surreal, but the concept of the album is a concrete one with a main character. It's always still dance music with plenty of cumbia rhythms, and it's easy to get lost in this fantastical story.

Singeli Ya Maajabu by Sisso, Maiko (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Singeli music comes from Tanzania, and when I was reading about it, lots of folks remarked on how fast it was. Fast it is, but more immediately I'm drawn to the frenetic use of samples, some of which cycle through in a flash. Most of the tracks are quite short, but they’re bursting with ideas. Vocal samples and drum machine loops interact with live keyboards in a way that is probably extemporized, then edited down. You can and should watch videos of this pair DJing. It's totally unpredictable.

To All Trains by Shellac (Touch And Go)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

There's a lot of empty space on this record despite its brief runtime. It's sparse and dry to the extreme, taking advantage of the trio as a true ensemble. Each part is considered and interesting. Sounds turn on and off in a flash. "Tattoos” is a highlight for me, and Steve Albini's guitar expresses multitudes with only a few musical words. Albini will be greatly missed, and while he has a huge body of work to be remembered by, this record will now always have an outsized importance for me.

Woodland by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (Acony)

BUY: Reckless / Amazon

This pair is as wistful as ever in outlook, but the music channels that emotion into something filled with more optimism and light. I like songs of the wide open plain and hard living (and there are some on Woodland), but hearing Welch and Rawlings approach Fleetwood Mac is a different kind of nice. They managed to avoid breaking the spell despite adding lots, which I really never should have doubted. Time (The Revelator) is there whenever you want it, but songs like "The Day The Mississippi Died” and “The Bells and the Birds” blew me away.