The Pop Corporation

Arbitrary lists are no good, really. However, it is nice to praise musicians and the work they’ve done. They may never see the praise on a site as small as this one, but if we send good vibes out into the ether and at least some of you give them a listen, and maybe buy the vinyl or pay for a Bandcamp download, that’s good for the artists, record shops, and the rest.

This means these things are worth doing.

Of course, there’s been a huge amount of marquee releases and cultural sensations in marketing – who could forget the virality of Brat? The fuss over Beyonce being ignored by the country music awards? Oasis and their dynamic ticket pricing, and Taylor Swift becoming a billionaire? Most of these things will be forgotten in 2025, but we should at least vow to keep listening to smaller bands just as much as the bigger ones.

In fact, collectively, we need to make a concerted effort to support smaller venues, artists, music publications and fanzines, by chipping in wherever we can. Go to a weird underground club night. Buy a t-shirt. Get a cassette even though you don’t have a tape player. All these things keep our favourite thing alive.

Now, let us look at some of our favourite bits of music. Some will be albums. Some will be moments. Some will be single tracks. Let’s not stick to rigid formats like boring old newspapers. We can do whatever we want, and of course, we’ll stick a Spotify playlist at the end if you can’t be bothered reading a load of words and rather flick through some songs, which is what this is all about.

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ALBUM OF 2024: THE JUNIPERS

We reviewed The Junipers newest LP in full here, but for those who don’t want to click a link, in what ended up being a quite difficult decision thanks to the strength of the pack, we decided that Kendrick’s album may have been influenced by some recency bias, it was a straight dogfight between Dina Ogon’s ‘Orion’, and Fabiana Palladino’s self-titled debut, and our eventual winner, The Junipers.

Pure sunshine and inventive playfulness throughout, The Junipers once again reminded everyone that there’s simply no-one else like them. Uplifting melodies, everything and the kitchen sink approach and more hooks than a fisherman’s shed. Absolute perfection, top to bottom.

OUR MOST LISTENED TO SONG OF 2024: FONTEYN ‘JODIE’

If Fonteyn had an album out in 2024, we would have almost certainly had it at the top of our list. However, in the absence of that, she gave us the most perfect single of the year in the shape of the utterly gorgeous ‘Jody’.

Straddling the line between the rich melancholy of The Carpenters and the soaring pop of Todd Rundgren and Paul McCartney in his Shed Pop years, the single was on near constant repeat, and our favourite song of the year by a country mile. We eagerly anticipate any future album from Fonteyn, and until then, we’ll keep playing her magical debut ‘Trip The Light Fantastic’.

MOMENT OF 2024: KENDRICK’S BACK TO BACK DISS TRACKS

Look, rap beefs are usually ugly affairs, but outside of a health insurance CEO being gunned down in New York, Kendrick’s dismissal of Drake earlier in the year had everyone feverishly hanging on every word, every internet message thread, YouTube reaction video and everything else between like nothing else.

Even non-rap fans were hooked on the petty drama of it all, dissecting lyrical broadswords and vicious accusation. Of course, Drake played his part in the whole thing too, let us not forget, but Kendrick not only made one of the great diss tracks of all time – remarkably, it became the song of the summer, culminating in a pop-up show where he invited half of LA on stage with him, seemingly summoning the ghost of Tupac in the process.

ELECTRONIC ALBUM OF 2024: LOGIC1000

While JakoJako’s ‘Modus’ was probably our most listened to dance track of the year, with an impossibly sleek version of tough techno, in long-player terms, it was Logic1000’s album that had us pressing the repeat button. Review here if you want it, but a varied, emotional take on good-time dance music.

It’s been quite the renaissance for dance music in recent years, but no-one quite hit us in the heart like Logic1000 did. Masterful LP.

POP ALBUM OF 2024: MAGDALENA BAY ‘IMAGINAL DISK’

We were waiting on Jade Thirwall dropping an album before the year was out, but no matter, because it was a pretty stacked year for pop. Remi Wolf’s LP was a bouncing, joyful affair, but pipping her at the post was Magdalena Bay with the inventive, screwy ‘Imaginal Disk’. Electro, City Pop, ’80s R&B and anything they could throw at it, Magdalena Bay made one of the most fun and peculiar pop LPs of the last decade and there’s a lot more to come from them, you suspect.

Akini Jing’s ‘Villain’ also gave ‘Imaginal Disk’ a run for it’s money with a pure evil take on pop music. All of the aforementioned, absolutely worth your time.

MUSIC BOOK OF 2024: ‘1984: THE YEAR THAT POP WENT QUEER’ BY IAN WADE

Through tales of Frankie Goes To Hollywood appearing on Top Of The Pops and asking about “when you wanna come”, the shitty Thatcher years, Jimmy Somerville, Pet Shop Boys, Wham!, Madonna, Hi NRG, Judas Priest and so much more, Ian Wade’s book is a joyful, whip smart, funny book that is a beautiful love letter to one of the more defining years in pop music.

Wade makes those who opposed any of the above look like painfully grey dullards, and celebrates the utter joy to be found in music from the period. If you care about pop music at all, this needs to be on your shelf at the earliest opportunity. Effortlessly easy to read, and an explosion of all that’s great about being a music fanatic.

INDIE ALBUM OF 2024: THE LEMON TWIGS

The Lemon Twigs are not shy of a brilliant pop song or two, but lately, their albums have felt more focused and, even better, more evenly weighted between Brian and Michael D’Addario. ‘A Dream Is All We Know’ picked up where ‘Everything Harmony’ left off, and throughout, it is packed with power poppers and kaleidoscopic popsike. If you like Sagittarius, The Raspberries, 10cc, Todd Rungdgren, and ’60s girl group pop, then this is the album for you. While we’d normally baulk at calling it ‘indie’, the jangly guitars of ’80s indie make it feel right here.

PSYCHEDELIC ALBUM OF 2024: BAB L BLUZ

There’s been a lot of great psychedelic records released in 2024 – Nick Waters’ ‘Wither’ was filled with pocket symphonies, La Luz brought hectic fuzz rock, and Nice Biscuit nearly stole the 2024 crown with their ‘SOS’ album filled with groovy psych-dancers and honey-dipped melodies.

However, it was Moroccan-French outfit Bab L’Bluz who absolutely blew our heads off with their magnificent marriage of smoking acid rock and North African folk music. Start to finish, it’s absolutely bursting with ideas and molten riffs. Don’t sleep on it.

Full review of their ‘Swaken’ album here.

YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US ALBUM OF 2024: COCO & CLAIR CLAIR ‘GIRL’

You can read our review of the Coco & Clair Clair album here, but for brevity, this pair occupy a lane that no other artist can get into. They’re mean, they’re achingly hip, they’re as much meme as they are cutting edge hip. By all accounts, they should be infuriating to listen to, but instead, they’re making some of the most brilliant, quirky music of the year.

For those that love them, they’re already borderline obsessed – and Coco & Clair Clair know this. It’s your turn now.

JAZZ ALBUM OF 2024

This gong is a dead heat between two superb LPs – Jeff Parker’s ‘The Way Out Of Easy’ and Amaro Freitas’ ‘Y’Y’. Both intricate, spacious, technical and supremely listenable albums.

Parker’s LP focused on four freewheeling live performances, filled with nods to dub and Chicago post-rock, while Freitas’ mined indigenous Brazilian music and melded it with modern jazz. If you’re looking for some new jazz records that have all the panache of classic records from the ’50s, but with new ideas and choices, you need to hear these two.

Amaro Freitas review here, Jeff Parker here.

BLEW OUR HAIR CLEAN OFF OUR HEADS MOMENT OF THE YEAR: PUNITIVE DAMAGE ‘BAPTISM OF FIRE’

As funny as it was, having Knocked Loose frightening all the parents in the US with their appearance on Kimmel Live!, the two bands that kept flipping our wigs off were Gel, and the mighty new EP from Punitive Damage called ‘Hate Training’.

Mixing modern thrash punk with ’80s hardcore, this is a track we couldn’t stop wrecking our ears with.

SURPRISING REIMAGINING OF THE YEAR: JOHN LENNON ‘MIND GAMES’ MEDITATION MIXES’

Lennon’s Mind Games Meditation Mixes really flipped what was possible for a heritage act like The Beatles, on its head. While the various cleaning up and modernising of classic LPs is good, it is fair when people feel a little ripped off buying back albums they already owned. Whatever, this new take on Lennon’s album is a fresh and cool thing.

We’re not much into meditating as it all feels a bit too much like a Ponzi Scheme to us, but we do like ambient records. These long, formless tracks are as light as a feather landing on a kitten’s nose, and there’s some seriously fancy versions too, some on invisible 180g vinyl, others housed in beautifully designed box sets. A huge surprise in this year’s releases.

HIP HOP: CUZZOSx5

While Kendrick has been taking all the headlines of late, the song we listened to most was his West Coast pals Cuzzos, and ‘IKUWI’ is an essential slab of potty-mouthed party rap that electro flourishes and the kind of bass that’ll rattle the windows in your car.

Just press play, then go listen to everything they’ve released.

COUNTRY TRACK OF 2024: KACEY MUSGRAVES ‘CARDINAL’

While we only just heard about MJ Lenderman and his brilliant music, we have to give the plaudits to the return of form for Kacey Musgraves. Country music has obviously had a spurt this year, and while much of it has been stadium-shaped stuff, Kacey paired it down and brought about a modern twist on Cosmic Country, with introspective lyrics, pop hooks and gently woozy instrumentation.

The stand-out track from the album was the ’60s Bakersfield country-rock of ‘Cardinal’, which sees chiming guitars and a irresistible harmonies showcase a country we’ve been pining for.

OBLIGATORY PLAYLIST FOR 2024