On repeat
The best album releases of 2024 (so far)

In less than a weeks’ time, we’ll all be – believe it or not – halfway through 2024. Wrap THAT around yer melon. Some days, it feels like it’s barreling by at an incomprehensible speed, with little regard to my place in the cosmos. Which makes sense given our individual insignificance. Other times, it’s as though I’m at the nexus, and the heat of an over-exhausted ecosystem has me firmly tarred in place, held at an utter standstill. Usually it is the former – and at this moment, especially so. Time just zips by, and I tend to use records as place markers and reminders of my recent-ish past. 

Years ago, prior to compiling our year-end retrospectives, my good friend and colleague (and an *actual* music journalist) KDUR Station Manager Bryant Liggett and I discussed (devised?) a method for such an undertaking. We posed the question: “Will I still be listening to this record in 10 years?” It’s been my barometer and relative true north ever since. Well, that, as well as whimsy and an aggregate of what I’ve given obsessive listens to over the specified period of time. The following are an amalgam of a few of my favorite releases of the year to date.    

• BEAK> “>>>>” - A trio out Bristol, England, surprise-released their fourth LP in late May via the English label Invada Records and here in the U.S with Brooklyn’s Temporary Residence Limited. An instantly addictive listen of gloom beats, neo psychedelia, krautrock and paranoia-noir, the record is dense and complex, conceived “in the fallout from the weirdness of the Covid.” With no advance press or singles, front man Geoff Barrow (formerly of Portishead) said upon release, “at its core we always wanted it to be head music (music for the ‘heads,’ not headphone music) – listened to as an album, not as individual songs.” 

• Cindy Lee, “Diamond Jubilee” – I’m hesitant to draw more attention to this release out of their seeming aversion for the limelight they’ve been thrust into since April. Yet, it would be disingenuous to *not* include it. Patrick Flegel (aka Cindy Lee) fronted the Calgary post-punk band Women in the mid-aughts with their brother Matt (who, after an acrimonious onstage breakup went on to form Viet Cong/now Preoccupations).

“Diamond Jubilee” is the seventh release since 2012 under the drag/alter ego Cindy Lee , and it’s not on any of the widely regarded streaming services, save You Tube as a single two-hour, two-minute track. For those willing to put in the ,extra steps to hear it, you can download the double album as WAV files via Cindy Lee’s GeoCities site (www.geocities.ws/ ccqsk/) and pay what you’re able. Now a quintessential summer record, it’s chameleon lo-fi retro doo wop and pop of the late ’50s and ’60s, surf guitar tones, early The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Julee Cruise (of Twin Peaks fame/aesthetic).

• Kim Gordon, “The Collective” – At 71 years old, Kim Gordon is still the epitome of chic iconic cool. Perhaps best known as the former bassist and vocalist of the defunct rock band Sonic Youth, Gordon has released a slew of solo and collaborative records since the early ’80s. She’s an artist in a multitude of mediums: music, fashion, literature, film, et al. – and once a fan, forever a fan. Her latest release on the beloved major indie label Matador Records is caustic, discordant, chaotic, gorgeously abrasive, bombastic and in-your-face all at once. The backing live band of Camilla Charlesworth on bass and keys, Sarah Register on guitar and keys, and Madi Vogt on drums seems like a lineup not to miss.   

Other releases from 2024 worth repeated spins and upvotes include: Armbruster; youbet; Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats; DIIV; American Culture; Girl & Girl; Charley Crockett; Winged Wheel; Ride; SPRINTS; Shawn Hess; Thou; Yummi Wisler Guitar Combo; CLASS Rick White & The Sadies; Gauzuncho; Shallowater; and whatever you’ve got queued for me. I’m always down for suggestions, so send them my way. And, as always, reach out with questions, comments and gripes. Especially the gripes. KDUR_PD@fortlewis.edu