Operation Manatee Music Prize: Top 5 Albums of 2024
This has been a year!
As always, the amount of excellent new music being released is just overwhelming. I’m lucky to spend a lot of time with headphones on, sifting through every release that comes along. Sure, there’s plenty of mediocre (or just bad) drivel, as well, but I’m willing to put in that work to find the gems. And they’re always there.
The rules to make it to this list are simple:
- Must be released this year
- Must be at least 20 minutes of material
- No compilations
- No reissues
- Must be interesting
Below are my picks of the year. Seek them out, have a listen, and please support the artists you like by purchasing their work! Musicians have bills too. 😉
Click an album to go right to its Bandcamp page.
#5 Julie Christmas - Ridiculous And Full Of Blood
This is a wild album! It’s heavy rock and metal, sort of, but it’s also kind of not. It’s a highly musical heavy rock album; full of screaming, vocal harmonies, tricky arrangements, killer drumming, tasteful synth, and all the other stuff you might expect from an excellent release in this genre, but it’s also kind of unlike anything I’ve heard before. I couldn’t name another artist or band that sounds quite like this and I feel like that’s only more impressive as time goes on. Rock and metal (although not exclusively) seem to produce a lot of same-sounding mainstream stuff, but this album is way outside of that box. It’s weird, it’s creepy, it’s artistic, it’s so addictive. I keep getting lost in these swirling, heavy spirals of insanity, and I’m having so much fun doing it. Knowing that Christmas’ day job is an elementary school teacher adds an extra layer for me. This album is so brooding and heavy, but it’s fun and silly at the same time. I wonder what goes through the students head when they hear Ms. Christmas screaming her head off. Personally, this would be my favourite teacher. It’s hard for me to put this album on in the background and half ignore. I recommend turning this way WAY up and listening to the whole thing, top to bottom, each time.
Fave track: End Of The World
#4 Galliano – Halfway Somewhere
You’d be forgiven for not having heard of this nearly 40-year-old, UK-based, dubby acid space jazz funk band. After all, they did take a 28-year break. Over the years, numerous other projects have taken place with various members, and while I don’t know the full story on why they decided to get back together, I’m glad they did. This album is full of funky, dub goodness. The heavy grooves, weird synthy blips and blops, cool as hell vocals, stories, and all these little surprises – like every other track being a few-seconds experimental break make this such a fun listen. It makes you want to dance into outer space. This record is best enjoyed at great volume, with incense burning, a cup of tea, and a blunt of something really nice!
Fave track: In The Breaks
#3 Devon Walsh – Come With Me If You Want To Live
I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but so often the cover of an album is what draws me in for a listen. That was certainly the case with this one. The muscled, shirtless self-portrait holding out his hand among the ruinous surroundings… I mean, come on. Who wouldn’t want to hear the music behind that? What I heard took me by surprise though. I kind of expected a Casio keyboard album recorded to cassette on an old Magnavox ghettoblaster, but what I got was a very cool mix of dark electronica, breakbeats, and vulnerable lyrics. One whole second into the fist track, the first thing you hear Welsh exclaim is, “This is just the burning wreck of something that I wrote,” followed by a quick, driving beat. I’m hooked. When you keep listening, though, the album just keeps being excellent. The vibe, the lyrics, the music is all just really really good.
Fave track: That’s What We Needed
#2 Caribou - Honey
There are a few artists I enjoy enough that I pre-order their new releases as soon as I hear about them – sound unheard. Caribou is an easy artist for me to get that excited about. His work is always good. In fact, his last two albums have made my Top 5 lists! I clearly have some bias, but I can’t help it. His music just hits the right way. This new album is super dancey, really fun and playful. Apparently he’s taking some flack for using some AI tools, to modify his voice to sound like someone else, for example, but I’m not hearing anything that doesn’t have his personal creative input. I mean, maybe it’s a little cringy when he uses it to sound like a rapper, but he’s not telling big, bad AI to generate a song. He’s using it to mess around with his art. If I hadn’t read about people complaining about it, I’d never have known. This sounds like a Caribou album. This album was on heavy rotation in my headphones while I travelled abroad this year and it just made such an incredible and surreal soundtrack to navigating a foreign country. Listening to this album just makes me so happy!
Fave track: Honey
#1 Mustafa - Dunya
Once in a rare while someone comes along with music so personal, so vulnerable, and yes, so powerful, that it stops you in your tracks, makes your heart ache, and your eyes well up. Mustafa started making this album after suffering multiple unthinkable losses in short succession and a soul-searching trip to Egypt, followed by even more loss. Despite options afforded to him by his recent success as a writer for pop stars, he made the album with close friends he trusted because of how personal the songs are and I think it shows. Dunya beautifully explores Mustafa’s relationship with his faith and his family through these wonderful Eastern-influenced folk songs. While the album is full of longing and introspection, it’s also so light and calm. ‘Make sure my killer has money for a lawyer. Make sure they bury me next to my brother.’ I genuinely don’t know how Mustafa ended up with final takes of these tracks where he isn’t just bawling his eyes out. This isn’t something to put on for road trips or washing dishes. This album requires and deserves your full attention. I highly recommend making a cup of hot tea, putting on headphones and really immersing yourself in Dunya. It’s one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.
Fave track: I’ll Go Anywhere