Compendiums Of Clang: 2024 Year End Pt. 1

The ten album of the year I found myself going for the most the past twelve months.

I can safely say that the two new releases of this year that I listened to the most are the self titled albums from Workers Comp and Verity Den. In a review of the record I posted in August, I called the Workers Comp LP a country rock shamble and it was my favorite album of the summer. I sold it a little short. It is a shamble and there is a lot of country-rock dust all over the place, it also gets super blown out and loud when it’s called for in 100% glorious lo-fi. ALBUM OF THE YEAR!

While I was almost constantly cranking something from the Worker’s Comp on my way to, well, work, Verity Den was the loud fluffy cloud to soothe the psychic aches that may had been dealt with throughout the day. That shoegaze battle I had with myself in a review of this album may never be settled.

Here are the other eight (in alphabetical order) that stayed up front in the current listening stack throughout 2024.

FEELING FIGURES Everything Around You • Autumn came and this soundtracked it. Bright chords, bitter bedroom pop, a bunch of basement noise, a lovely sourness in every guitar solo. Associates of Retail Simps so you know you are in good company.

LUPO CITTA s/t • There's quite a few moods on this record. All of them blanketed in a searing gauze. Original review.

DAVID NANCE & MOWED SOUND s/t • I hedged my bets that this would be Nance's year to break through to the next level (whatever that even equates nowadays.) The album didn’t quite blow up super huge but it did deserve to. Original review.

PEACE DE RÉSISTANCE Lullaby For the Debris • The first Iggy Pop solo album I ever bought new around the time it came out was Soldier. I know there are contentions and complaints about the record but I dug it and still do through almost every song. It’s the last Iggy record I can say that about, but I kept wishing that maybe just maybe he’d do something that was honestly seedy and sincerely groovy again. Something that sounds like it was recorded down a sketchy looking alley cloaked in dense fog and lit by purple and green neon. Something that sounds like it’s destitute and doubtful anything is ever gonna get better but fuck it for now, it’s nighttime so let’s dance.

A big thing on the mind of this record is just trying to keep alive. Ain’t What It Used To Be laments darkly about a neighborhood changing while sounding like draped in crushed velvet, a congested fuzzy guitar line leaves a slug trail of slime all across it making the mourning more ominous. Vintage synth heavy glitter stomper 40 Times The Rent is packed with shout-along lines about surrendering to the fact most of us will be stuck paying it all to a corporate portfolio for the rest of our lives. Pay Us More could almost be a pretty exotica piece if it was not riddled with mold and the sentiment. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a song that could pull off silver sparkly pants and a pink leather jacket and not sound corny about it. Fast Money is that song!

You get the idea.

(THINE) RETAIL SIMPS Strike Gold, Strike Back, Strike Out • Rich at Total Punk posted this on the socials. It doesn't cover everything but it is still a great summary. Canada (and the world) should embrace what a treasure this band is.

THE SHEAVES A Salve For Institution • When I first heard the Sheaves, I assumed they were from New Zealand. If not, some place like Belgium or maybe (for some reason) Poland. They’re not from amy of those places. They are from Arizona. The guitars chime a lot but they're not sunshiny and dry. They're damp and stingingly frigid. They spindle, shooting ice through the veins. Voices nasal and alien. It often feels like being at some desultory carnival right before the rainstorm starts. Legendary stars like the Fall, Country Teasers, Pink Reason and Chrome get bandied about for those who need that.

SHIRESE Hard Cricket • Shirese‘s previous album, Rose Of Smiling Faces, filled my bong rocked boogie diggin’ Crazy Horse fix good. Ever the hewers of classic rock rara avis, they seem to be diggin’ Thin Lizzy deep tracks because there are lighter liftin’ dual guitar solos and hirsute flash abounds here. Also, a lot of proto power pop given the hooks and choruses going on. That and I dunno Allman Bros at their most bong rocked boogieness (cuz I’ll probably always associate this band with bong rocked boogie.)

WEAK SIGNAL Fine • Ramones-ish. Ugh. I have not thrown out that reference outside of a very backhanded compliment or what I believe is a clever to to say “Meh” in a couple of decades now. Then I’d go on a rant about instead of aping the Ramones, Do something else by going to find what they aped and then ape that. Really, all Weak Signal is aping are the loud downstroked guitar action. The same thing the Jesus and Mary Chain and Love and Rockets (most likely) aped. Weak Signal have some similar sounds happening to those two. The rest comes naturally. Immerse it in a disaffected and drolly clever sort of NYC sense of humor (one I was led to believe didn't even exist anymore) and you've got a potion here for turning it up loud.

I am debating whether or not post my list of twenty or so honorable mentions. Would you like to read that? Comments are open.

Social Clang: insta; bluesky