Top 40 Albums of 2024

40. Shambolics – Dreams, Schemes & Young Teams (full review)

A fine debut from the promising Fife outfit.

39. Richard Thompson - Ship to Shore

The folk icon’s consistency is showing no signs of waining.

38. Lime Garden – One More Thing

Brighton’s wonk-pop debut has left an indelible mark.

37. The Smile - Wall of Eyes

Two-thirds Radiohead and one-third Jazz drummer Tom Skinner returned with another fine offing.

36. The Rifles – Love Your Neighbour (full review)

Walthamstow’s cult heroes returned with their first album in eight years. Great melodies throughout!

35. Richard Hawley – In This City They Call You Love

Enchanting Orbison and Duane Eddy songs from Sheffield’s romantic treasure.

34. Paul Weller - 66

Gritty and majestic soul music featuring the likes of Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie, and Richard Hawley.

33. Camera Obscura – Look to the East, Look to the West

Traceyann Campbell’s vocals can still melt hearts from distant galaxies!

32. Jack Jones - Jack Jones

Step aside John Cooper Clarke, Jones is ascending to Albion’s poetic throne.

31. Gruff Rhys - Sadness Set Me Free

Recorded in just three days in Paris, Rhys twists from dark to light with a spellbinding freedom.

30. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

It beggars belief that a talent such as Gibbons has taken this long to release her debut solo album, but it was worth the wait!

29. Ride - Interplay

Bell, Gardener and co’s run form since reforming has written a joyous technicolour new chapter in their memoirs.

28. Bob Vylan - Humble as the Sun

Their anarchy has come of age on this sonic riot!

27. Junodream – Pools of Colour

Breakout performances on tour with Ride and their debut album have put this band firmly in the hearts of a nation.

26. Fightmilk - No Souvenirs

Blending emo, indie, and pop-punk with life-affirming consequences.

25. Kula Shaker – Natural Magick (full review)

The trippy pop-psyche of the 90s superstars made a surprise and welcomed return.

24. 86TVs – 86TVs

Maccebee’s Hugo and Felix White’s side project brought a fresh take to their familiar indie licks.

23. Desperate Journalist - No Hero

Strip away the album's Gothic, Smiths, and The Cure undertones, leaving you with great pop music. Add them back in, and it’s astonishing pop music!

22. Solar Eyes - Solar Eyes

Serge Pizzorno’s soul oozes through this superb Fierce Panda Records release.

21. The Vaccines – Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations

Great. Indie. Rock ‘n’ Roll.

20. Confidence Man - 3am (La La La)

Weird and wonderful rave-inspired hedonism.

19. Mick Head & The Red Elastic Band - Loophole

Head’s ever-expanding catalogue of excellence keeps the flame of ‘Forever Changes’ burning bright.

18. The Shop Window – Daysdream

Jingle-jangle heaven from the Maidstone outfit.

17. Wunderhorse - Midas

English rock music has been given it’s credibility back!

16. The K’s – I Wonder if the World Knows (full review)

There's an aching amplitude flickering needles and hearts alike throughout this fine debut album.

15. James - Yummy

The mercurial Mancunians continue their tremendous run of albums with another chameleon performance, restoring your faith in the creative process.

14. Bill Ryder Jones – Iechyd Da

The ex-Coral man’s best work since ‘A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart’.

13. Rob Vincent - Barriers

It's an enriching set of songs. Easy to see why Robert Plant took him on tour.

12. Office For Personal Development – Doing. Is. Thinking (full review)

Re-defining all that pop music can be

11. Cast – Love is the Call (full review)

Incredible return to form. On par with ‘All Change’.

10. Fontaines D.C. - Romance

The sound of a band conquering their destiny.

9. Baggio – The Dreadful Human Triangle

Indie-folk steeped in melancholy and the passing of the time.

8. Shed Seven – A Matter of Time (full review)

It is their first UK number-one album. It is a testament to their friendship as much as it is to their anthem-making.

7. Memorial - Redsetter (full review)

It's a pin-drop moment of an album. An alt-folk triumph from Brighton via Texas.

6. Meryl Streek: Songs For The Deceased

Incendiary brilliance from the Irish punk producer. Huge things await!

5. Kasabian - Happenings (full review)

Pizzorno lays the Meighan ghost to rest on this record. Pizzorno owns the record, and the record owns the night!

4. Jake Bugg - A Modern-Day Distraction

Bugg returns to his roots and his very best. Classic songwriting and endless guitars chime, and chime big!

3. Deadletter – Hysterical Strength

Wayward post-punk and feral psyche unite on this fine second album.

2. The Libertines – All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade (full review)

An ode to friendship and staying alive. From the soul-crushing to the envigorating, the likely lads rediscover form and reinvent all they were and could be.

1. The Dream Machine – Small Time Monsters

Modern Sky UK’s golden goose lay another golden egg on their second album. Magical. Whimsical. Perfection!

Top 20 Albums of 2017

20. Ride – Weather Diaries

The Oxford quartet’s first album since 1996’s ‘Tarantula’ saw them on mixed form. At it’s best though, ‘Cali’ and ‘Lannoy Point’ deliver their brand of melodic shoegaze.

19. Cast – Kicking Up The Dust

The Scouse legends deliver their best album since the 1995 classic ‘All Change’. Flitting between their free flowing blues and spritely pop numbers, John Power has hit a purple patch of song writing once more

18. Noel Gallagher – Who The Built Moon

The old mongrel shed a few coats for his latest album. When he nails it, as he does on ‘Holy Mountain’, it’s magnificent. It’s big bold and new. Alas, when he doesn’t, its because the leaps are not big enough or he doesn’t remain in his big key change comfort zone. Nevertheless, with plans to make another record with David Holmes, this could be the start of a glorious journey.

17. Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley

Those clever clever bastards have churned out the goods once more. Getting to grips with pit life in Wales this time round. The guest vocals from Camer Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell and Manics’ James Dean Bradfield were welcome additions to their sound. However, the standout track comes from the rage

16. GospelbeacH – Another Summer of Love

The West Coast veterans channel their inner Byrds spirit and deliver exactly what it says on the tin. As the cold sets in and all that’s left to eat is cold meat, this blast of sunshine will see you through to your next holiday.

15. Alvvays – Antisocialites

Molly Rankin’s sublime vocals should be saved for a long journey staring out windows at vast landscapes. Everything this band do sounds life changing or affirming.

14. Girl Ray – Earl Grey

With the single of the year ‘Touble’ on its books, Girl Ray were always making this list. Brilliant melodies, unique vocals and a sense of humour unrivalled, they are band with magic at their fingertips.

13. Tom Williams – All Change

History has always proven the poet can achieve far more than social comment. Nevertheless, the social commentary here is smothered such warming pop music vibes, it’s hard to picture this not reaching even those who disagree.

12. Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band

There is nothing we can say, that the genius John Dorman hasn’t about Michael Head already: https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/3ka349/the-british-masters-michael-head Nevertheless, we love this album, we love that Head is in a good place and long may it continue.

 11. Liam Gallagher – As You Were

To quote Jurassic Park, “clever girl”. Did anyone see this album coming? All the money was on a flailing Beatles via psyche album. What we got was, big emotive albums with remarkably honest and humble lyrics from the icon.

 10. Shed Seven – Instant Pleasures

Sixteen years was well worth the wait. All the pain and bitterness felt by band and fans alike when they were shunned by the industry has dissipated. Emerging from the fog are the unsung heroes of Britpop. This new offing is packed with great choruses, wit, and a charming underdog spirit. Business as usual!

 9. The Moonlandingz – Interplanetary Class Classics

This supergroup was always going to deliver wasn’t it? Whether it’s the Mary Chain inspired ‘The Strangle of Anna’, the Gary Numan-esque ‘The Rabies are Back’ or Earl Brutus via The Horrors ‘Black Hanz’, everything sounds so fresh!

 8. Idles – Brutalism

Wry, sarcastic and effing hilarious. This pitiless body of work will stop at nothing to take the piss and provide punk rock nirvana.

7. Johnny Flynn – Sillion

The one true genius of the nu-folk era returned from acting to prove he is still the master. No one in the folk world can touch him for sincerity of song writing. Everything he delivers has a warmth and depth of emotion to be admired.

6. British Sea Power – Let The Dancers Inherit The Party

Is this the first ‘Remainer’ album? Quite possibly. It has overarching sense of together is better and, inevitably, a sense of loss.

Forever consistent, BSP have risen their pop sensibilities to ‘Open Season’ standard and, on leadoff single ‘Bad Bohemian’, surpassed it. Despite the “half glass empty” and “what’s done is done” lyrics, it’s as defiant single your likely to hear. Effortlessly free, it tumbles and swirls with abandon.

Elsewhere, ‘Don’t Let The Sun Get In The Way’ is a sauntering rock behemoth which will stop you dead in your tracks to ponder life as you know it.

5. Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders – Scenery For Dreamers

Proving age is but number, Wylie, 59, as delivered a masterpiece. No one thought it was possible for him to ever reach the heights of the Cosmic Rough Riders’ ‘Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine’ but, this Teenage Fanclub via Neil Young offering just does that.

4. Theatre Royal – And Then It Fell Out My Head

Comfortably the pop record of the year. Smart, funny and always brave in its song writing topics. The heartfelt ‘Standing in the Land’ just grows in resonance the more the British press turns away from atrocities of Syria. To wrap such a subject in a achingly beautiful acoustic number is the very reason why so many people think Ed Sheeran is shit. This is the pinnacle of a simple song!

‘Locked Together on the Lines’, ‘Port Bou’, and ‘Will Somebody Please Write Me a Song’ ooze a carefree spirit that demands instant affection.

3. Ryan Adams – Prisoner

Mr Prolific is back, and his back with the most brutal of break up records. This is the sound of a crushing divorce and searing unseen pain. Channelled through big rock riffs and dream pop production, Adams is at his scintillating best. 

2. Wolf Alice – Visions of Life

The hottest property in the UK right now, and rightly so. They’ve combined a sense of experimentation with punk and pop immediacy on an album that is forever shape shifting in sound. Rock music might not be dominating the charts right now but, Wolf Alice have taking a big stride towards making it relevant again and, they’ve done it with the utmost integrity.

1. Trampolene – Swansea to Hornsey

What a year these boys have had. As if supporting The Libertines and Liam Gallagher wasn’t enough, all the promise from the early EPs has been followed up with an instant classic. There's the aching beauty of ‘Gangway’ and ‘Beautiful Pain, the vitriolic social comment of ‘Dreams So Rich, Life So Poor’ and William Blake poetry scattered throughout, it has it all