Music Backpack: Great Albums from January 2024!
For 6 years I blogged about my favorite music released each month — I called it Music Suitcase — until I felt the need make room for other creative projects. That blog is no more. but I can’t keep myself from sharing the music I love altogether, so here’s a quick rundown!
The gameplan for Music Backpack is simple: Whatever I can share here without taking more than one hour to write it, edit it and put it altogether, that’s what I’ll publish here!
And so, here are my highlights for January:
Highest highlights:
The Smile — Wall of Eyes
It’s as moody and atmospheric as any Radiohead album and potentially alien as well, Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood’s second album with Tom Skinner on drums has a real swing to it, despite the profound abundance of odd time signatures, and gets better with each listen. First time I heard this, I thought it was more-of-the-same as the Smile’s the first album. A handful of listens in, it’s my favorite Radiohead-related album since In Rainbows! Highlights: “Read The Room,” “Under Our Pillows,” “Wall of Eyes,” “Bending Hectic”
Ty Segall — Three Bells
Until The Smile grew and grew and grew on me I saw Ty Segall’s new one as the first masterpiece of 2024; now it simply has to share that honor. The LA guitar hero and singer/songwriter’s latest is a psych rock epic, and does throw in a fair bit of grunge as Segall is wont to do. Like 2022’s “Hello, Hi!” though, it’s less garage-y and less noisy than a lot of his work. Highlights: “The Bell,” “My Best Friend,” “Move,” “Wait”
Other highlights:
Katy Kirby, Blue Raspberry
A great follow-up to her 2021 debut, the Texan folk singer/songwriter chronicles her first queer relationship. Highlights: “Wait Listen,” “Redemption Arc”
Conchúr White, Swirling Violets
A catchy indie rock debut from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, with evoative lyrics and a nice range instrumentally. My favorite of four very cool debuts I’m including this month, three of which are Irish! Highlights: “The Holy Death,” “Rivers,” “Before Ten”
Marika Hackman, Big Sigh
The half-Belgian, English artist expands from simply arranged singer/songwriter stuff to a much fuller sound and sense of sonic craftsmanship, with her 5th album. Highlights: “No Caffeine,” “Slime”
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
Pretty much the same kind of indie rock from the Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker that they’ve been doing for decades. Thoroughly decent on the whole and it’s got a few strong highlights for the best-of. Highlights: “Don’t Feel Right,” “Needlessly Wild,” “Small Finds”
NewDad, Madra
Strong debut from Julie Dawson and her Galway-based band of 90s-loving, guitar-driven indie rockers. Highlights: “Dream of Me,” “In My Head,” “Let Go”
Brown Horse, Reservoir
Another promising debut. It’d be tempting to describe these self-described “alt-country nobodies” as Britain’s answer to Big Thief, although they lean into the Americana sound enough you’d be hard-pressed to tell they’re British. (Except when he pronounces “estuary.”) Highlights: “Stealing Horses,” “Bloodstain,” “Sunfisher”
Kali Uchis, Orquídeas
The Colombian pop and R&B singer’s infectious 4th album features mostly Spanish-language tracks recorded at the same time as her mostly English-language 3rd album she released last year. Highlights: “Dame Beso // Muévete,” “Muñekita,” “Pensamientos Intrusivos”
Sprints, Letter To Self
Yet another notable debut album from Ireland, offering passionate, feminist garage punk, and sharp post-punk production by Daniel Fox of Gilla Band. Highlights: “Literary Mind,” “Heavy”
Green Day, Saviors
A thoroughly back-to-basics approach for the East Bay band. High energy melodic punk, much of which is politically oriented, much of which is just fun. Highlights: “Dilemma,” “Bobby Sox,” “Fancy Sauce”
Gruff Rhys, Sadness Sets Me Free
The Welsh singer/songwriter offers plenty of indie pop in the vein of his last few efforts, interspersed with softer, stripped down “singer/songwriter-y” arrangments and stick the landing quite well on both counts. Highlights: “Bad Friend,” “On the Far Side of the Dollar,” “Peace Signs”
That’s what I had time for this month! Additionally though, here’s a playlist of my favorite songs from January!
Here’s that image again just to help you match the album covers to my blurbs about ’em for those that are lower down:
Wanna stay connected? can join the Music Suitcase Facebook group to be notified of future posts and link up with a community of some of my favorite music nerds in the world. You can also subscribe to here on Medium and get my blog delivered right to your e-mail inbox, and that link should also help you find my previous blog entries, wherein are many curated playlists with highlights of previous years, months, etc.
Happy hunting!
