As you may have noticed Breaking More Waves is on a break at the moment. But it’s going to return fairly soon.
In the meantime you can still find plenty on new music weekly on the Breaking More Waves Spotify playlist, which is called New Music Weekly. You can find it by clicking here.
You’ll find plenty of cracking new tunes there and it’s updated almost every Friday.
Here’s one from this week. It’s Ashnikko!
Ashnikko - Itty Bitty
It’s the end of the year and that means it’s the appropriate
time to post an end of the year list. Not November. Not even the middle of
December. But at the end of the year.
So here is the Breaking More Waves Favourite Albums of 2024 list.
There’s no big commentary or no real explanation of the
records here. This is because if you are the sort of person that pays any
interest in end of year lists, you probably can’t stand any more essays on why
such and such a record is so good.
There are just 3 short points to be made about this list:
1. I only post my Top 10 records here, because as I’ve said in
previous years, who really wants to listen to an album that someone says is
their 89th favourite release of 2024?
2. However, if you do want more than 10, you can find the
Breaking More Waves Top 30 on a Spotify playlist here. 1 track from each
record.
3. Having first appeared on the blog in 2009 after releasing
the song Do It Well, Charli XCX is no stranger to the Breaking More Waves end
of year list. She previously featured in 6th (True Romance 2013),
10th (Sucker 2014), 14th (Charli 2019), 6th
again (How I’m Feeling Now 2020) and 28th places (Crash 2022). But this
time she goes higher. Brat is number 1. The album topped a lot of end of year
polls. This one is no different. It’s the most forward thinking, modern,
exciting, honest, danceable pop record I’ve heard all year and is packed full
of good songs.
Brat is also unusual in that it’s an album that has made
album artwork important / talked about again. Streaming has to a large extent
destroyed interest in album artwork which relies generally on a bigger canvas than a small square on someone's phone. With Brat, Charli has made it
important again. It’s influence has gone way beyond pop music.
Here’s the top 10. The playlist of the top 30 can be found on this link here.
Top 10 Albums of 2024
1st Charli XCX – Brat
2nd The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy
3rd The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
4th Fabiana Palladino - Fabiana Palladino
5th English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
6th Kneecap – Fine Art
7th Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft
8th Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching
9th Sprints – Letter To Self
10th Lady Blackbird - Slang Spirituals
If you are a fan of early Black Country New Road, The Delgados and what is often known as the ‘Windmill Scene’ bands but think that Black Country New Road are becoming a little too twee recently then Man / Woman/ Chainsaw may well be your cup of musical tea. Taking indie guitars and both male and female vocals as a base, the band create a bigger widescreen sound through the addition of violin and piano that gives them a broader folk-orchestral scope than many of their indie rock contemporaries. Man / Woman / Chainsaw have moments in their songs where they sound genuinely pretty but it’s often then cut with aggressive punkish outbursts. It's this contrast and not knowing what is going to come next that is part of their appeal.
Man / Woman / Chainsaw still sound like a band that are growing and developing, but that development is fascinating; where their potential takes them only time will tell.
Man / Woman / Chainsaw - Ode To Clio
The ninth Ones to Watch 2025 is Disgusting Sisters; a duo
that featured on the blog in September prior to releasing any music.
Since then they’ve released they’re debut single Killing It
and Breaking More Waves has managed to catch them live.
From that live show I can confirm that they are the new queens
of dancing in front of the bedroom mirror pop. They’re cool, sassy and fun. They
describe themselves as “Gucci Beavis and Butthead.” They probably spent their
youths listening to Girls Aloud and Shampoo. They may get you grooving like a
wolf. (Honestly). Killing It is probably their weakest song – there is better
to come. The single was released by the forever on the case record label Speedy
Wunderground.
They are the penultimate Ones to Watch 2025 on Breaking More Waves.
Disgusting Sisters - Killing It
