Best Music of 2024

Music writer Grant McPhee offers his best albums, singles and books of the year.

ALBUMS

Snowgoose 

Artist: Snowgoose
Album: Descendent
Label: Violette Records

An album reminiscent of Trees or any of those beautifully produced but very expensive early 70’s Vertigo Swirl albums, late 60s West-Coast studio pop bands (think Gary Usher, Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends etc); all with a hint of Scottish 80s indie guitar Pop. Crystalline vocals sitting gracefully with clean separation between gorgeous exotic instrumentation makes for a refreshing nod to post Pet-Sounds Sunshine Pop. This is an on-point, modern and timeless record This will not just warm your hour, it’ll bring happiness to your day and that alone is reason to listen. 

Port Sulphur 

Artist: Port Sulphur
Album: Meta Guru
Label: Creeping Bent/LNFG

Utterly marvellous mix of glam-motorik reinvention of pop, led by the hugely talented Douglas MacIntyre and pals. And what pals they are – Vic Godard, Paul Research, Davy Henderson, James Kirk, Katy Lironi, Samuel Joseph Smith, Paul Turnbull, Amelia Lironi, Fraser MacCallum, Naomi Mackay and Campell Owens. Essential album of the year.

Ian Donaldson 

Artist: Ian Donaldson
Album: Dreams From Tenement Land
Label: Last Night From Glasgow

Ian Donaldson was one of Scotland’s first-wave punks with his band Skroo, formed in the very earliest days of 1977. Those credentials would follow on to his next band H2O, who would achieve chart success with the extremely classy I Dream To Sleep. 

At its heart this is about the experience of youthful highs and lows and Ian’s past. Fundamentally though it is underpinned by well crafted, evocative pop writing which make for an incredibly strong work rather than a mere homage to the past.

Marco Rossi –  Since Returning From The Moon

Artist: Marco Rossi
Album: Since Returning From The Moon
Label: Last Night From Glasgow

A wondrous gift for people interested in any of the following descriptions of late 60s into late 70s pop: ‘clever’, ‘eccentric’, ‘complex’ and ‘melodic’. In many instances, all four descriptions are applicable to a single track on this album. If you’re a fan of extremely rare late 60s UK underground pop, psych and prog, with a healthy dose of smart post-punk then do yourself a favour and listen to this astonishing record.

Nick Power/ Mark McKowski

Artist: Nick Power/ Mark McKowski
LP: Throat
Label: AV8 Records/Deltasonic Records

The gloriously dark The Coral off-shoot,‘Throat’ from keyboard player Nick Power alongside Irish producer and songwriter, Mark McKowski. This is a really special album that’s often challenging to listen to but like many such albums is hugely rewarding.

J Spaceman and John Coxon 

Artist: J Spaceman and John Coxon
Album: Music for William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton
Label: Fat Possum Records

A supremely controlled musique concrete miasma of sampled voices, raggedy blues and New Orleans jazz, all held together by a contained steady beat. Echoes of The Perfect Prescription era Spacemen 3 abound which is clearly a great thing.

It’s hugely rewarding to experience J Spaceman return to and further explore this rawer sound than he has during the last 30 years of making music with Spiritualized. Coxon’s blistering and soaring guitar elevates this sonically and directly to the sun. It’s a wonderful and rare experience to feel the skill of these performers tread the tightrope of chaos and dexterity. A perfect companion to the controlled madness of Alex Chilton’s Like Flies on Sherbet, another release which owes a debt to Eggleston.

Emma Anderson 

Artist: Emma Anderson
Album: Spiralee (Pearlies Rearranged)
Label: Sonic Cathedral

A lovely collection of floating, melodies balanced with joyous, bouncy rhythms. It was a stroke of genius to have an already excellent album be reinterpreted by such a variety of differing artists. This, refreshingly goes against the grain of cheap ‘remix’ albums to become something remarkably cohesive, despite the plethora of diverse artists involved, a move not too dissimilar to the creation of Screamadelica.

Chrysanths

Artist: Chrysanths
Album: Leave No Shadow
Label: Chemikal Underground

A stunningly beautiful, richly textured fusion of a sunny autumnal walk in the woods and a night in a smoky Parisian café. C’est fab! If you’re a fan of high quality chamber-pop then this is most definitely for you.

BMX Bandits 

Artist: BMX Bandits
Album: Dreamers on the Run
Label: Tapete Records

After nearly 40 years BMX Bandits have produced their greatest album yet, full of energy, melody and beauty. A remarkable achievement in all respects. If you are a fan of heartwarming Scottish pop and decide to buy just one album this year, make it this one.

REISSUES

Yachts – Missing in Action – The Lost Tapes 1980/81/ 4BE 4BE Records

Sandwiched between Deaf School and Big in Japan are Yachts, the central act in the holy trinity of Liverpool’s musical revival of the mid 1970s. Variously described as ‘New-Wave’, ‘Quirky’ or more accurately ‘Punk Cole Porter’ they produced two gorgeous albums containing some of the best pop-music to leave the city before splitting. This essential archive release is a set of demos for what was to be their third album, which sadly never came to be. Lovingly restored and like their previous release an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in perfect- if strange- pop.

But here.

Roots, Rock, Rebels – When Punk Met Reggae 1975-1982. Cherry Red Records

Mike O’Connor, the proprietor of the Scottish Post-Punk social media pages has gathered together an expertly curated – and much needed – archive collection from when punk and reggae crossed-over. Littered with big names such as The Clash and Specials it also delves into the further reaches of the period to shine light on some hugely collectable obscurities. If you don’t have a spare £10K to go hunting through Discogs, and/or you want a genuinely refreshing chronicle of an often turfed-over period then this is for you.

Mark Wirtz – Dream, Dream, Dream: The Anthology. Cherry Red Records 

Mark Wirtz’s most famous creation is the joyous 1967 UK No.2 hit ‘Theme From a Teenage Opera’ and this box-set collects virtually everything else he recorded.Taken individually, the vast majority of tracks featured within this exhaustive anthology offer as fine a summary of the skill and range achieved in 1960s pop as anything by contemporary producers such as George Martin. As an entirety though, the box becomes a portal into the world of one of music’s true visionaries and demonstrates this is more than merely ‘Toytown’ psychedelia. The depth, vision and uniqueness contained only really become apparent when experienced on this large scale and it’s a testament to project creator, Steve Wilson, that this secret is now finally made available to the rest of us. 

Meat Whiplash – Collected. Silvergirl Records

A superb package, beautifully put together to collect the entire works of East Kilbride’s Meat Whiplash. Best known for releasing one great single, Don’t Slip Up on Creation Records and being the support band at the infamous Jesus and Mary Chain London Poly ‘riot’ gig in 1984 they are, in their own right an important part of Scotland’s 1980’s ‘indie’ story. This collection is an exemplar of the DIY aesthetic and that working class kids can simply go out and make worthwhile art on their own terms. Gorgeously packaged in “Raspberry Ripple’ coloured vinyl only adds to this fine collection.

Buy it here.

SINGLES

Dean and Britta and Sonic Boom – Snow is Falling Over Manhattan

Edgar Jones – Here’s to the Holidays

wor_kspace – CCTV

Looking Glass Alice – Season of the Witch

The Cords – Festive Time 

MUSIC BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Johnnie Johnstone – The Secret History of Josef K. Jawbone Press

“Josef K are the great lost post-punk band. Taking their name from the haunted protagonist of Franz Kafka’s existentialist novel The Trial, they posed for photographs before brutalist and gothic architecture and produced visionary, often incendiary music that felt like the product of perpetual anxiety. And it really was.

Through The Crack In The Wall is the first ever biography of the band, tracing their story from their origins in the leafy suburbs of Edinburgh through to their untimely implosion four years later.”

Buy if off of Rough Trade here.

Katy Lironi – Matilda in the Middle. Into Books

“Katy’s story is first and foremost, a musical, family memoir. Both parents come with their own lives immersed in the Scottish music scene of the 1980s – Katy enmeshed in everything that was Edinburgh-based C86 indie pop, while her bandmate and future husband, Douglas MacIntyre, embraced the Scottish post-punk era.”

Buy here.

Luke Haines – Freaks Out!: Weirdos, Misfits and Deviants – The Rise and Fall of Righteous Rock ‘n’ Roll. Nine Eight

“A brand-new book by Luke Haines, The outsider artist par excellence turns his caustic eye to the rise and fall of alternative rock ’n’ roll heroes.

In his first book for thirteen years, author Luke Haines – visual artist, writer and musician most famed as the founder member of the Auteurs and Black Box Recorder – chronologically explains how ‘freaks’ infiltrated modern culture, and almost won the rock ’n’ roll wars, only to lose to the rise of Cool Britannia and TV ‘talent’ shows that turned the strange and the outsiders into fodder for laughter.”

But it here.

Jane Duffus – These Things Happen: The Sarah Records Story. Tangent Books

“This is the definitive history of Sarah Records; the Bristol-based label that signed the acts no major label would touch but who you wanted to hear.

Sarah put out a board game, produced cut ‘n’ paste fanzines and stuck two fingers up to the mainstream music industry. Sarah was your secret world and it was located in the heart of Bristol. Sarah Records lasted for seven years, nine months and 11 days.”

Buy it here.