Nite Songs Top 70 Albums of 2024 - Part 4 (40-31)

 

Jump for joy, it's Top 40 time - cue Whole Lotta Love/Yellow Pearl/The Wizard/your TOTP theme of choice...

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40.    THE MARCH VIOLETS - "Crocodile Promises"

The return of the March Violets to the fray in recent years was a bit of a surprise with longtime frontman Si Denbigh being sidelined by illness but with Crocodile Promises, his bandmates led by Rosie Garland, came up with a release which may just be the best album of their career so far. Keeping plenty of that goth mystery which was the calling card of their best material but always knowing when to rein things in to stop things getting too overblown, the likes of Hammer The Last Nail and Kraken Awakes prove that this band very much remain a force to be reckoned with.

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39.    HIS LORDSHIP - "His Lordship"

Two blokes on guitar and drums kicking up a racket? It's a formula that's certainly been trod many times in recent years but His Lordship do it with such a pinpoint ferocity that it's impossible not to sit up and take notice. Blasting through in under half an hour, this self-titled debut sees them well and truly kicking out the jams to thrilling effect on the likes of Buzzkill and Jackie Works For The NHS, laying down their marker as a band well worth keeping an eye out for in the years ahead.

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38.    SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS - "Revelations"

Another band who I discovered pretty much by accident this year, Sarah (now River) Shook and their band are now on their fourth album and if, like me, this is the first you've heard of them then listening to it will make you quickly want to make up for lost time. Mixing the winsome country strum of prime time Tom Petty with a bratty indie-pop insouciance, Revelations mixes sugar (Criminal, Nightingale) and spite (Jane Doe, You Don't Get To Tell Me) to great effect. Give this band a listen now. 

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37.    X - "Smoke And Fiction"

If this really does turn out to be LA punk veterans X's swansong then rest assured they've gone out on a high note. A more than worthy follow-up to 2020's storming comeback Alphabetland, it sees them throwing everything from old-school punk fury (Ruby Church) through greased-up rockabilly (Struggle) and some more reflective almost countrified moments (The Way It Is). A fitting full stop for a seminal band.

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36.    EROTIC SECRETS OF POMPEII - "Mondo Maleficum"

So how does the idea of a three-way collision between Roxy Music, XTC and Cud grab you? Well, that's about the best description I can find for Bristolian alternative types Erotic Secrets of Pompeii. While song titles such as Osiris at the Large Hadron Collider and Faustina Filmed In Psychodrama might hint at this being pretentious style-over-substance, the reality is anything but and Mondo Maleficum is one of those rare albums which throws in everything but the kitchen sink but has the hooks to lure you back in for repeated listening to spot new things every timem.

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35.    THE LOVELY EGGS - "Eggsistentialism"

While (whisper it quietly) it isn't quite as good as its predecessor, This Is Eggland, Eggsistentialism is still a worthy addition to the Lovely Eggs’ impressive back catalogue. From the scuzzy lo-fi punk of Death Grip Kids to the slow-building paranoia of closer I Am Gaia, Holly and David are both on good form here. The Eggs continue to be a band defiantly marching to the beat of their own drum and long may it be so.

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34.    FEROCIOUS DOG - "Kleptocracy"

Still doggedly (see what we did there?) sticking to their guns five albums in, Derby folk-punks Ferocious Dog are as angry as ever on Kleptocracy, railing against current injustices (Witch Hunt, the title track) and retelling the tales of the struggles of those who came before us (Merthyr Rising, Iron Mike Malloy) with the same punchiness and hooks as always. In these increasingly desperate times, it's good to have bands like this still around.

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33.    AMYL & THE SNIFFERS - "Cartoon Darkness"

It seems these days that Amyl & the Sniffers have very much become a Marmite band - either the most vital punk group around or the ultimate case of hype over substance depending on your opinion. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Is Cartoon Darkness the best album of the year? Nah, probably not. Is it the sound of a three chord thrash punk band who, admittedly, don’t really do anything you won’t have heard before but are quite simply very good at what they do? Yeah, I’d say so. And that’s why it’s on this list. End of.

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32.    BLACK GRAPE - "Orange Head"

If you mostly know Shaun Ryder these days from sitting on the Celebrity Gogglebox sofa with Bez then Orange Head was a much needed reminder that he’s far from a spent force musically. Veering from the gonzo joyfulness of Button Eyes to the dark and sinister In The Ground, it’s a welcome reminder of Ryder’s musical skills with his co-accused Kermit being on good form here as well. Welcome back lads.

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31.    RICHARD HAWLEY - "In This City, They Call You Love"

Certain things in life you can rely upon and Richard Hawley producing another good album is one of them. The title tips its hat to Hawley's home town of Sheffield and the stories in the songs here weave a complex web in their own right, verging from the menacing opener Two For His Heels through the gentle I'll Never Get Over You and the epic Deep Space to the optimstic closer 'Tis The Night. In This City, They Call You Love is the sound of a master of his craft on top form. 

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Join us again tomorrow when it's Top 30 time. Or, as we like to call it, the bit where we start to get to the really good stuff...