The 2024 Music Thread

[Schlitzbrille]

Taylor Swift as musical artist, good but not my alley at all.

Taylor Swift as transcendent god-queen of humanity, no.

[lanky316]

As far as disposable pop goes, I like Taylor Swift, not enough to have gone on a deep dive but a few of the singles have been enjoyable enough. Like many things and at the expense of drifting into Abe Simpson I don't get why she's seen as so special. It's just fine pop music with some catchy stuff, not like she's some sort of extra special talent.

Of course, when it comes to criticism for old farts who clearly aren't her target audience I'm sure she can just... Shake It Off.

[RPS]

The new St. Vincent is a grower for sure. It's on the same level as MASS EDUCATION. It's really lovely stuff.  Every song is interesting, takes a risk and tries something new. I worried with her last album that maybe she didn't have many ideas in the tank. I was wrong. 

The Nia Archives album is very good. Really listenable and the time will pass. Feels like it transports you to a club in the UK even listening on your couch thousand of miles away. 

Cakes Da Killas new album Black Sheep + is lovely. It's a mix tape in the best possible way. Influenced by deep house, it is a great 30 minute soundtrack for a run or a drink at home. 

The new Justice album sucked. Nothing interesting on it. Felt paint by numbers. 

The new Cloud Nothing was good. I doubt I'll listen to it again - I like the scuzzy, at times free flowing punk stuff they did previously. This was synthy, at times poppy. Sounds like a personal project. 

The Pearl Jam album was okay. It sounded a bit more engaged than the other legacy acts churning out albums to tour. 

 

[GoGo Yubari]

Listened to 20 of the 27 (!!!) tracks on the Beyonce album and it mostly made me miss the gimmick artists would do where they would drop two separate albums at once and just have a thematic link between them in some way. I would have rather listened to the album that felt like it was Beyonce making straight-up songs in the country/western mold for the most part than having to listen to it alongside the album that feels like a Las Vegas stage show about the premise of Beyonce making a country album.

Found the "Jolene" cover to be really corny, from bringing out Dolly Parton to be a mascot character on it to basically rewriting it into a Loretta Lynn song.

[Skummy]

I found the new Pearl Jam album to just be completely boring - plodded along at the same pace, and then I instantly forgot about it.

I'm listening to the new Pet Shop Boys at the moment, and very much enjoying that, as far as old lads still making music goes. It's very much them doing their thing, but luckily their thing is very good.

The new albums that have stood out to me so far this month are:

Paraorchestra's Death Songbook, though admittedly that's right up my street - it's a live recording made of a disabled orchestra during the pandemic, with vocals by Brett Anderson, and it's covers of songs about death and loss, with stuff from Echo & The Bunnymen, Suede, Bowie, Mercury Rev, and so on. 

Melvins' Tarantula Heart - a mixed bag, but the highs are very high indeed.

Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Absolutely loved this one, very fun, very groovy.

High On Fire's Cometh the Storm; really enjoyed this one at the time, I imagine it won't hit as well on a repeat listen, but very good doom metal.

I also had a lot of time for the new Cadence Weapon and the new A Certain Ratio, the latter especially.

The new Nick Cave single is utter dogshit.