Top Albums of 2024: Finale

My 6 favorite records of the year

Happy End of the Year!

There are lots of personal things I could type here and journal about but I don’t think that’s really on the table for this post.

I am once again telling you I am planning to listen to a lot less NEW music in 2025, but my brain, being wired the way that it is, has already started brainstorming a million insane listening projects in lieu of that - which is not a good thing either!

Here we are - last post of the year. Thanks for coming along for the ride, hope you come back for more in January!

Below we have the 6 records I gave FIVE STAR ratings to this year. 3 of them are archival releases, 3 of them are new music. All of the new ones are vocal-less. 2 of the archival ones are. It’s been that kind of year. Regardless, these are all amazing and you should love them the way I do.

If you have gotten through these 3 posts and want to see MORE albums I really loved from this year (there were hundreds), you’re welcome to peruse my top choices over on RYM

---

3 live archival releases:

Alice Coltrane
The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!)
Incredible band rip through an incredible setlist

Two pieces from one of my favorites records of all time (Journey in Satchidananda) and two expert renditions of classics from her husband. Alice, Pharoah, Archie Shepp, Cecil McBee, Jimmy Garrison, Ed Blackwell - an absolutely insane band of musicians that perhaps better than any others can balance incredible serenity with blast-off-your-face free jazz. A truly captivating performance, finally in full. I’ve seen reviews discredit it due to some recording issues (mostly on “Shiva-Loka”) but if that is stopping your enjoyment from this once-in-a-lifetime performance, you gotta be trying too hard.

Bessie Jones, John Davis & the Georgia Sea Island Singers with Mississippi Fred McDowell & Ed Young
The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)
1965 concert from Gulla-Geechee group of African field songs, spirituals and traditional blues

I’ve been saying for a few years now that Smithsonian Folkways is, in my opinion, the best record label of all time and it is recordings like this (amongst hundreds and hundreds of others) that prove that to me. I haven’t done my due diligence and read the entirety of the liner notes (an awesome online inclusion on all of their releases), but from the first time I heard this record I knew this was a truly special concert. Very powerful vocal music, country blues, cane fife playing and a crowd that is absolutely awestruck at the power on stage. What a wonderful thing to be unearthed and given to us.

McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson
Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’ (Blue Note)
Real jazz heavyweights play a small club in 1966 and unleash perfection

This came out only a few weeks ago and I only listened to it for the first time a week or so ago, but the performances on this disc from all 4 men involved (honestly, DeJohnette might be the MVP) was immediately a classic to my ears. I’ve listened to it 4 times in the past week and I can imagine it become one of my go-to’s for the style (not quite “out” jazz) for some time to come. One of my absolute favorite pianists & one of the first Sax players I got heavy into co-lead a band in the rambunctious Slugs’ Saloon, allowing them to STRETCH a bit more and boy do they. This isn’t an easy thing to listen to, but it’s also not far-out, it’s just awesome awesome shit.

3 new releases:

Amaro Freitas
Y’Y (Psychic Hotline)
Prepared piano pieces that build on one another and have no equal (in my experience)

I said this back in March and it likely still holds true right now - this is probably my favorite record of the 2020s. If I ranked all of the albums from this year, this would be #1 and I don’t think I’ve doubted it since the second time I heard it. I understand why this doesn’t resonate with people but I really did expect it to be on MORE year-end lists and score super high with the people who do mess around in this world. But while I think basically everyone who hears it likes it, I’m surprised I seem to be one of the few calling it a true masterpiece. Sometimes music is like that, though. You can’t always explain what is going to stamp it’s mark on your soul - but this year, no record burned hotter for me than this one. Everything revolves around a piano here, from traditional playing to plucked strings from inside. Some tracks sound ambient, some distinctly latin jazz, some like Steve Reich. It’s still an album I have trouble describing but it is an ALBUM and the way it builds and builds - this is the kind of thing you tour in this exact order for decades. An incredible piece of music that I anticipate staying with me until I can no longer hear.

Gerycz / Powers / Rolin
Activator (12XU)
Transcendent Americana-tinged instrumental rock

“Ambient Americana”, “Cosmic Country” - these genres that have existed (perhaps without a name) for decades have really become a big thing in independent music in the past few years. There have been some amazing records in the general vein already on this list (and more on my RYM list), but for my money - this is the single best document of the overarching “sound” of the genre to date. I knew Jason Gerycz from the Cloud Nothings but have never heard this trios stuff. I knew Matthew J. Rolin from a release of his I loved from a year or two ago and I know Jen Powers from only this, but the trio on this record combine percussion (whether full on bombastic drums or handbells), dulcimer, found sounds and beautiful guitar workouts to just outstanding heights. It gets really loud in places, exploding into more psychedelic, less EITS post-rock, but it’s just such a pleasant, awesome 40-minute foray into a sound field of transcendence. I didn’t expect a ton when I listened to this and I was kind of quickly going through some other releases in the greater genre, but this stood out and continues to do so.

Qais Essar
Echoes of the Unseen (Worlds Within Worlds)
Virtuoso Afghani rabab playing

I was unfamiliar with Qais Essar before this record, despite the amount of releases he has online. One of my favorite things, though is that on Qobuz (my streamer of choice), you can click the record label of a record you’re listening to and find other things on the service (chronologically) they have released. Worlds Within Worlds mostly releases neo-classical music from countries like Afghanistan, India and Iran and after someone told me to check out the newest Niloy Ahsan record, I wanted to browse what else the label had. Everything I heard was good, but the one track from this record that was available at the time had me hooked. I saved the album and kept checking back to see when it would be released it full. Once it was, it was devine. Perfect rabab playing, starting off slow, with gentle plucked strings that build into Part 2 of “Basking In Morning Light”, where things really pick up. The album is sequenced by and deals with the light of the day from sunrise to afternoon to dusk to moonlight and over 30 minutes, these 7 songs have been a near constant companion for me to reset, unwind and just breathe. Just beautiful, comforting music.

And that’s it! That’s 2024 all wrapped up in a nice little bow for you.

Thanks for reading as always, have a great new year and see you soon!

---