Indie Basement: Best Albums of 2024

Indie Basement is a weekly column on BrooklynVegan focusing on classic indie and alternative artists, “college rock,” and new and current acts who follow a similar path. There are reviews of new albums, reissues, box sets, books and sometimes movies and television shows. There are also special editions like this one counting down the best albums of 2024.

There’s no such thing as a bad year for music, though this year was kind of a bad year with music. So thank goodness for music and maybe because of the kind of year 2024 was, my favorite albums tended to be the gentler kind. The calming ones, the already sad ones, the pretty ones, the ones with flutes, the sonic bath ones. (But also a few paranoid and dark ones.) I also liked a few raucous albums and continued to love dance music, though most people’s favorite in that department didn’t make my list. (I liked it too but that shade of green is not my color.) As I always say, this is not intended to a definitive list of the year’s best albums, just one Gen X dude’s favorites. Hopefully you’ll find something you’d never heard before that you like. That is what I’m here for.

Check out the BrooklynVegan Top 50 Albums of 2024 list for a much wider range of the year’s best music, the Indie Basement Best Reissues & Box Sets, and our list of 40 Great Albums by Indie & Alternative Legends. You can also browse our Best of 2024 tag for genre lists, artists lists, and more year-end coverage.

I’ve also put together a playlist featuring songs from all 40 albums here (except my #1 which is not on streaming services) plus songs from other albums and singles I liked in 2024 for an eight-hour mix. Listen to that below.

INDIE BASEMENT BEST ALBUMS OF 2024

40. Mount Kimbie – The Sunset Violent (Warp)

Dominic Maker and Kai Campos have been incorporating elements of rock into Mount Kimbie’s sound for at least a decade but with their fourth album, they transformed the duo into an actual four-piece rock band. A very good rock band, actually, where electronic music remains in their DNA. King Krule’s Archy Marshall appears on “Boxing” but his presence is felt all over The Sunset Violent, from the harmonies to the bass lines, and the very best songs here feel like mutant androids blurring the line between synthetic and organic.

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39. Four Tet – Three (Text Records)

Keiran Hebben has been making thoughtful downtempo electronic music for three decades and while his building blocks remain the same — ambient, techno, ambient, acid jazz, etc — he always finds new ways to weave them together. He remains at the top of his game on his 12th album as Four Tet, which plays like a smorgasbord of everything he does best, a greatest hits and a dream menu of your favorite flavors, reimagined so that you’re tasting them for the first time all over again.

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38. Marika Hackman – Big Sigh (Chrysalis)

One of the most perfectly named albums of the year, Marika Hackman’s fourth long-player is one giant exhale, a melancholic haze that permeates the lyrics, the melodies and harmonies, all given warm life via Marika’s breathy vocals. It’s a sweet love hangover from 2019’s very sex-positive Any Human Friend, doubting every fun, impulsive thing she did the night before. The pop melodies from Friend remain but now come with more minor chords and arrangements that have more in common with 2015’s We Slept at Last. Strings swirl around her on songs like “Vitamins,” “No Caffeine,” and “Blood” as she spirals down, trying to stabilize before hitting bottom. Spoiler alert: she makes it out alive with her best record yet to show for it.

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37. Astrel K – The Foreign Department (Tough Love)

Ulrika Spacek frontman Rhys Edwards’ first album as Astrel K (2022’s Flickering I) felt like what it was, a pandemic lockdown record made in isolation. But on his second, Astrel K feels fully-formed and intentional. The Foreign Department is 11 big swings, featuring Edwards’ take on baroque sophistipop with swaying, swaggering songs filled with grand piano, brass and string sections, swoony melodies, soaring falsetto, and more than a few waltzes. He connects more often than not with dazzling results. Astrel K is no longer a side project but an exciting new start.

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36. The Bevis Frond – Focus on Nature (Fire)

The Bevis Frond frontman and sole constant, Nick Saloman, is kind of the English equivalent of Robert Pollard, with a little J Mascis thrown in there too; an indie rock lifer who never strays far from his signature sound (punctuated by his formidable guitar prowess) and has an endless well of fuzzy earworms to draw from. Now in his ’70s, Nick doesn’t appear to be slowing down or to have lost his way with an anthemic chorus. Focus on Nature is The Bevis Frond’s 26th album, not to mention a double, with 19 great examples of why retirement is overrated.

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35. +/- (Plus/Minus) – Further Afield (Ernest Jennings Record Co)

Further Afield does not sound like the first record in a decade from a veteran indie rock band who formed in 2001. It sounds like the third album in as many years by a new band in their prime and on a continued hot streak. Songs like “Driving Aimlessly,” “Borrowed Time,” and “Calling Off the Rescue” are bright and vibrant, rooted in classic indie but sounding entirely modern with inventive arrangements and plentiful hooks. Whatever lit a fire under +/- (Plus/Minus) to bring them out of hibernation, may it continue to burn bright.

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34. Laetitia Sadier – Rooting for Love (Drag City)

While we will probably never get another Stereolab album, despite recent reunion tours, Laetitia Sadier’s fifth solo album comes pretty close to that band’s metronomic underground pleasure centers. You get drony organs, bloopy analog synths, groovy basslines, tropicalia and krautrock rhythms, flutes, strings, horns, layer upon layer of billowy harmonies, and socialist lyrical subject matter (mostly in French). But Rooting for Love doesn’t feel like regurgitation of the past; this album is alive and Sadier is moving forward.

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33. English Teacher – This Could Be Texas (Island)

This Could Be Texas is English Teacher’s debut, but the band have been together since 2016 and you get the feeling they’ve been selective with their songs and have waited until they had a collection they really liked. It’s more like a third album, with a maturity that comes with making it past the Difficult Second Album while still retaining the spirit of a debut. At the center is Lily Fontaine whose dexterous voice allows for Life Without Buildings-style sprechgesang, soaring balladry and all points in between. Neither she nor English Teacher let themselves be pigeonholed yet it all sounds like it comes from the same band. That confidence comes through in every song.

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32. Peter Perrett – The Cleansing (Domino)

The former Only Ones frontman has made his best album in decades with The Cleansing, but be warned: this is another universe from “Another Girl, Another Planet.” Lyrically this is darker than The Cure’s album: “It’s a losing battle, tryin’ to be sane / It leaves me tired and listless / If I’m gonna jump in front of a train / I’ll wait till after Christmas” is the album’s opening lines and it doesn’t exactly lighten up from there. But Perrett, who is 72, is clearly inspired and working through his problems with his art, and with a little help from Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie and Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell. He’s still got that Only Ones romantic streak, too. Bleak? Yes, but brilliant.

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31. Party Dozen – Crime in Australia (Temporary Residence Ltd)

Aussie sax-n-drums duo Party Dozen (Kirsty Tickle and Jonathan Boulet) have always created a racket bigger than what seems possible from two people, but with Crime in Australia they’ve gone widescreen, moving beyond their foundational instruments for an album that plays like soundtrack to a gritty ’70s cop drama full of drug deals gone awry, car chases and brutal gun battles. These 10 gonzo instrumentals mix punk energy, skronky no-wave, jazzy Lalo Schifrin cool, postpunk revival strut, and Morricone epicness. Crime in Australia also makes you want to dance, and hope that some filmmaker will hire Tickle and Boulet to score an actual movie.

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30. Amyl and The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness (B2B / Virgin)

Aussie hellions Amyl and the Sniffers have never had any problem cranking out barn-burners and pile-drivers and their third album has more than its fair share of riffy rippers. But on Cartoon Darkness Amyl take their foot off the gas just a little and show us new, appealing sides to the band. There’s the smoldering “Big Dreams,” the vocoder-infused, Beastie Boys-inspired “Me and the Girls,” the jangly and vulnerable “Bailing on Me,” and the strutting, confrontational “U Should Not Be Doing that.” Through it all, Amy is still in take-no-prisoner mode, not letting any fools get in the way of her and those big dreams. She just asks nicely now before resorting to punching someone in the face.

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29. Kate Bollinger – Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind (Ghostly International)

Kate Bollinger takes her time. She’s been releasing singles since 2017, toured with Real Estate and Faye Webster, directed videos for Jessica Pratt, all while being in no huge rush to record a debut album. So when it finally arrived this year, it was presented as a fully realized twee wonderland, from the songs and production to the artwork and Kate’s self-directed music videos. Owing equally to early-’70s acts (Melanie, Fleetwood Mac) and the cinema of Jacques Demy, Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind is a perfect little snowglobe world. It might not be for everyone but for those it is, you know it immediately.

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28. Yoo Doo Right – From The Heights Of Our Pastureland (Mothland)

Would this album have been this high on my list, or on the list at all, if the 2024 US election had turned out another way? Who can say but From The Heights Of Our Pastureland, released November 8, felt like a harbinger we got just a little late. The album art is a photo of a tornado looming in the distance, which is how the album starts, but by the middle of the 13-minute opener “Spirit’s Heavy, But Not Overthrown” you’re in the eye of the storm with debris flying all around you in the pitch-black clouds. Yoo Doo Right wallop you for 42 minutes with a torrential rain of komische-infected doomy post-rock, but it leaves you not with defeat but a battered, bruised — but not overthrown sense — of catharsis. Hopefully that is a harbinger as well.

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27. Yard Act – Where’s My Utopia? (Island)

One of the more ambitious bands of the recent crop of talky post-punkers, Yard Act used their second album for a high-concept examination of the disillusionment that comes with your 30s;  the realization that you may never have that dream job, retirement may never be an option and, in the case of frontman James Smith, pop star dreams may never be attainable. Yard Act do this while shedding angular guitars in favor of shiny, hi-fi dancerock loaded with hooks and Smith’s thoughtful, witty wordiness. “We just wanna have some fun before we’re sunk,” he sings on “We Make Hits,” which plays like a recap of the band to that point. Where’s My Utopia? has enough ideas for three records, but Yard Act packs it all into 42 minutes of glossy, anxious fun.

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26. Ride – Interplay (Wichita)

Ride have now been together in their second act longer than their original run — still with the original lineup! — and they’ve made nearly as many records. The Weather Diaries and This is Not a Safe Place are very good but with Interplay they’ve finally made a worthy successor to Going Blank Again. “Portland Rocks” is their best, Ride-iest song since the ’90s, from ahhh-filled harmony vocals and dueling hazy riffage of frontmen Mark Gardner and Andy Bell to its killer groove courtesy drummer Loz Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt (one of the best rhythm sections in shoegaze). Nothing else comes quite as close to heaven, but the rest of Interplay comes close enough, balancing their classic style with flights into uncharted territory, all with equal confidence and melody.

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25. Dorothea Paas – Think of Mist (Telephone Explosion)

Best known for her arrangement and vocal contributions on other people’s albums, Dorothea Paas does her most magical work on her own music. Her ethereal voice and way with layering harmonies are utterly bewitching and transportive; paired with the light jazzy melodies and nimble backing (courtesy the Toronto indie scene’s finest players), it’s enough to send 1000 ships on to the rocks and the bottom of the ocean. Water is in fact a central lyrical theme on the album: “I wish I were a diver / elegant and free / controlled and abandoned / simultaneously,” she sings on “Diver,” one of many diaphanous siren songs here. If you can’t make it to the sea, Think of Mist is also the perfect soundtrack to a long hot bath.

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24. Caribou – Honey (Merge)

For the last 10 years, Dan Snaith divided his creative energy between the more emotional, deep electronic music he made as Caribou and the more pure fun club music of Daphni. With Honey he brings both worlds together for one of his most satisfying collections that draws you to the dancefloor while hitting you in the feels. Beats skip lightly and hooks are plentiful as Snaith inhabits a space owing a lot to French Touch, 2-step, Basement Jaxx, and other late-’90s styles. While Honey didn’t come out till October, it spent most of the summer on my phone soundtracking walks around the city, making dinner, doing the dishes, etc, as I wondered who these wonderful guest vocalists were on tracks like “Broke My Heart” and “Come Find Me.” Turns out they were all Snaith, whose tech-nerd side couldn’t resist using AI to transform his voice. It’s a thorny subject to say the least, and I am generally against its use, but Dan mostly treats it like another tool in his arsenal. You can still hear his unique inflection and phrasing in this non-Dans, and Honey is too good to resist. Just don’t do it again.

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23. The Green Child – Look Familiar (Upset the Rhythm)

In the four years since The Green Child’s last album, Shimmering Bassett, Mikey Young (Total Control) and Raven Mahon (Grass Widow) moved from Melbourne to Victoria, turned the group from a duo into a full band and became a better, more interesting thing in the process. The pastoral synths and wistful melodies are still there, but what was once bucolic, folky synthpop is now propulsive rock with a healthy dose of prog and new wave. It’s a dreamy combination perfect for Raven’s airy voice that also gives them plenty of room to let it rip. When the synths and guitars are all going wild, like on standout “Year of the Books,” it’s not unlike what Brian Eno was doing on his first two albums. The Green Child have grown up and are showing brilliant new colors.

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22. Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (4AD)

As far back as The Breeders’ Pod, Kim Deal was showing her true hand — the gentle, sweet love song. As great as her bands’ raging rockers were, her voice had an angelic side that was custom built for acoustic guitars and string sections. Thirty-five years on from Pod, Kim released her debut solo album which is full of violins, cellos and heart-on-sleeve odes to loved ones. (Both records were recorded by Steve Albini, one of Kim’s best friends, who died in May.) When the strings kick in on Nobody Loves You More‘s title track, along with the rest of the orchestra, if you’re not at least a little verklempt do you even have a heart? (I’m sure you do.) Kim shows other sides as well, including ESG-style no-wave banger “Crystal Breath” and some comfort zone indie rock that would be a highlight on a Breeders album. But it’s the quiet ones, the heartbreakers, the ballads, that you’ll be singing years from now.

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21. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers Original Score (Milan Records)

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was one of the best times I had at the movies in 2024 — a frothy, sexy love triangle set against the world of pro tennis that moved with the speed of a smash serve. Much of the appeal came from its stars (Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist) and Guadagnino’s kinetic style but it was aided greatly by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ amazing techno-fueled score that made everything sizzle just a little harder. It’s loaded with bangers and they throw in loads of fun, clever tennis touches that are never pushed to the point of novelty. In a year with so many good electronic dance music records (Charli XCX, Caribou, to name two), this score holds its own and the Boys Noize continuous mix version takes things even further from the court to the club. More than anything else, it’s hard to imagine Challengers working this well — or at all — without this music. Game, set, match.

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20. Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor (Ninja Tune)

For her third album, Nilüfer Yanya has further refined her style into smooth perfection, shedding all extraneous elements. That includes most other musicians and songwriters as she and longtime collaborator Wilma Archer wrote and produced My Method Actor entirely by themselves for the first time. Nilüfer’s double tracked vocals (a moody low line paired with airy falsetto) mirroring the interplay between Archer’s melodic bass and inventive guitar chording is a recognizable style whether it’s used for grungy alt-rock, R&B jams, or delicate ballads. Adding wonderful atmosphere this time around are strings and pedal steel which bring additional lift to Nilüfer’s effervescent harmonies and skillful songwriting. It’s a fully realized world, but Nilufer Yanya continues to grow within it.

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19. Ducks Ltd – Harm’s Way (Carpark / Royal Mountain)

When Toronto janglepop duo Ducks Ltd got signed after a couple bandcamp releases, they had only played a handful of live shows. When it came time to follow-up 2021’s terrific Modern Fiction, they had toured with Nation of Language, Archers of Loaf and more, and that experience made them both stronger musicians and songwriters. “In the past when we got stuck on a song we had a tendency to look at our favorite records to see how they tackled it,” says singer Tom McGreevy. “But now, instead of asking ‘what would Orange Juice do?,’ we’d ask, ‘what would we do?” Harm’s Way betters their debut in every way, with bigger hooks, catchier choruses, more dynamic arrangements, and stronger performances. (Adding real drums alongside their rhythm boxes also helped a lot.) Ducks Ltd are still influenced to the chiming classics (The Clean, The Verlaines, Felt) but they are no longer beholden to them.

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18. The Hard Quartet – The Hard Quartet (Matador)

“This is not a project—it’s a band,” Stephen Malkmus told GQ when announcing The Hard Quartet who are also a bit of an indie rock supergroup given his bandmates are Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Jim White (Dirty Three) and Emmett Kelly (Ty Segall). But this really does seem like four artists on an equal plane where everyone contributes to the songwriting and everyone (except White) sings lead. A double album written in a week and recorded in not much more than that, The Hard Quartet’s self-titled debut is the sound of four people finding joy and inspiration in playing together and it’s loaded with great songs from everyone. Malkmus may have delivered the most songs, but Sweeney and Kelly provide the two biggest standouts, respectively, with the jammy “Rio’s Song” and the jangly, ultra-melodic “Our Hometown Boy.” The most exciting part is you can feel these four are just starting to cook.

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17. High Vis – Guided Tour (Dais)

London’s High Vis were formed by hardcore expats who wanted to play music influenced by the other records they loved, mostly of the Britpop and baggy variety. Their 2019 debut was still heavily punk, but on 2022’s excellent Blending they started to let their inner Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Oasis out. With Guided Tour, High Vis are finally sounding like themselves. The songs have real groove, whether they’re on the pile-driver or jangly / atmospheric side; more often than not, though, they fall somewhere in between, with bass-driven verses and soaring, roaring, anthemic choruses. Then there’s “Mind’s a Lie” which points to new territory they should definitely explore further. Production by Fucked Up’s Jonah Falco adds oomph previous records lack and you can just tell that though they may still be playing clubs, they write songs meant for arenas.

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16. METZ – Up on Gravity Hill (Sub Pop)

After 15 years of giving us tinnitus via unrelentingly loud noise punk, Toronto trio METZ wrapped their fists in kisses for their fifth album. Screamer/guitarist Alex Edkins had let his pop side loose with his Weird Nightmare solo project and that clearly rubbed off on Up on Gravity Hill which features eight buzzsaw earworms that weren’t afraid to still bite. Lyrically, too, Edkins was more direct, open-hearted and relatable that ever before, making “Superior Mirage,” “99,” and “Light Your Way” among their most satisfying songs to date. How will they top this? They won’t: METZ announced an “indefinite hiatus” six months after releasing this album. Up on Gravity Hill is a great way to go out.

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15. IDLES – TANGK (Partisan)

One can only shout wildly for so long. IDLES began exploring a wider range of sounds and colors on 2021’s CRAWLER, and a 2023 tour with LCD Soundsystem further broadened their horizons. But they really opened things up with their fourth album. Working with Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, the Bristol band made a concerted effort to approach things differently and chief among those was to have frontman Joe Talbot sing. He’s got a powerful, soulful set of pipes and IDLES have made a record to showcase those with songs like “Roy,” “Grace” and tender ballad “A Gospel.” Even while the melodies are getting softer, guitarist and band sonic architect Mark Bowen works hard to keep things on edge (he calls it “the violence”), and TANGK hasn’t thrown out the want to rile things up, either. Bangers “Gift Horse,” “POP POP POP” and “Dancer” offer a new way to get crowds to slam into one another. IDLES may be showing you their softer side, but it still leaves you happily bruised.

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14. Elbow – AUDIO VERTIGO (Polydoor/Geffen)

After nine albums, you’d think you’d know exactly what to expect from Elbow on their 10th: big, open-armed, open-hearted anthems perfectly suited for festival crowds. But AUDIO VERTIGO doesn’t sound like any Elbow album before it while somehow retaining all the things that make the band’s music so rewarding. The soaring melodies and the warm, inviting voice of frontman Guy Garvey are distinctly Elbow, but the way they get there — the arrangements, the instrumentation — feels new and exciting. It’s not often you get a band three decades into their career making music this bold, creative and fun.

13. Good Looks – Lived Here for a While (Keeled Scales)

Heartland rock has been on the rise for the last decade, and Austin’s Good Looks have everything I’m personally looking for in the genre: a storyteller’s attention to detail and a poet’s turn of phrase, hooky riffs and big choruses without going bombastic, and relatable themes that never fall into cliche or jingoism. Their second album, Lived Here For a While, has all that which would probably be enough for it to make this list, but it’s also got guitarist Jake Ames who clearly has a fondness for atmospheric early-’80s post-punk that puts a unique sparkle on songs like “Broken Body” and “Day of Judgement,” taking them somewhere between Manchester, England and Manchester, TN. This year had a lot of great albums you could call heartland rock, but none sound quite like this.

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12. MEMORIALS – Memorial Waterslides (Fire Records)

Verity Susman and Matthew Simms first met in the ’00s when their respective bands, Electrelane and It Hugs Back, were both signed to Too Pure Records. Both bands broke up at the end of the decade and in 2000 they began working together scoring documentaries. Two of those soundtracks officially came out under the duo’s name last year. Memorial Waterslides is their first official studio album, though, and what a corker it is. For Electrelane fans who’ve been missing Verity’s unique style, it’s all over Memorial Waterslides; the drony organs, motorik rhythms, off-kilter melodies, and amazing choir-like harmonies. Simms, who has also played in Wire since 2010, also brings a lot to MEMORIALS with shoegazy haze, wild, avant-garde soloing, and analog tape loops. Full of catchy songs and arty excursions, Memorial Waterslides feels welcomingly familiar but also brand new.

11. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World (Lost Music / Universal)

After years of promises that there was a new Cure album on the way, maybe even three new Cure albums, Robert Smith actually made good on his word and dropped Songs of a Lost World on us, a mostly unsuspecting public. We had heard some of these songs live the year before on a tour that garnered lots of good will for The Cure, but hearing it front-to-back, it still amazes that they delivered a record this good, this vital, this unrelentingly gloomy so deep into their career. Likewise, it seems like a miracle that Robert Smith’s voice sounds just like it did 34 years ago on Disintegration. Songs of a Lost World is their most cohesive since that one and their best since at least Bloodflowers (but maybe since Wish). Robert Smith keeps saying there’s another record soon on the way, and if so that’s exciting. But if Songs of a Lost World were to be The Cure’s final album, it’s hard to imagine a better, more fitting end to a nearly 50-year career.

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10. The Innocence Mission – Midwinter Swimmers (Bella Union / Thérèse Records)

Karen Peris is in touch with an inner wonder that allows her to write achingly beautiful songs that feel like Polaroids, a perfect portrait of a moment in time that captures all the magic and memories as if they were happening now, without a whiff of “remember when.” The Innocence Mission’s real gift is that she and husband/bandmate Don Peris have the ability to unlock similar feelings in the listener through songs like “This Thread is a Green Street,” “Your Saturday Picture,” and “Orange of the Westering Song,” even when the specifics are not your own. Karen paints almost exclusively in wistful, happy/sad emotions and you don’t even have to pay attention to her lovely, impressionistic prose to be moved by it, while the baroque folk melodies hit similar pleasure centers as Jessica Pratt, The Clientele and Belle & Sebastian. Midwinter Swimmers, The Innocence Mission’s 13th album, is another marvel in miniature.

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9. Jessica Pratt – Here In the Pitch (Mexican Summer)

Jessica Pratt makes out-of-time music, meticulously crafted tiny gems that sound like a lost ’60s artifact, Brill Building by way of Karen Dalton and Gal Costa, where folk, girl group sounds and bossa nova mingle at a party thrown by Burt Bacharach. Here in the Pitch is Pratt’s most lushly produced album to date with mellotrons, Fender Rhodes electric piano, bongos, and saxophone backing her and her nylon string guitar. (This is an especially transportive headphone album.) Yet the album is still as hushed as Jessica’s previous work, sounding like these songs were beamed in from a distant star where the accompaniment is half a light year behind, faint in the distance, still waiting to catch up to whatever time her present is.

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8. Bill Ryder-Jones – Iechyd Da (Domino)

“I’m too much,” Bill Ryder-Jones admits on “I Know That It’s Like This (Baby)” before adding, “but I’ll never be enough for you I know,” all while still finding the beauty in a doomed relationship. That’s Iechyd Da, the former Coral member’s first solo album in five years, in a nutshell, where joy and deep sadness are processed as one emotion. Ryder-Jones has the kind of gentle, warmly melancholic voice that is perfect for material and melodies like these—some of his best-ever songs—and it’s all made more vibrant via orchestral arrangements and even a children’s choir. In less talented hands, this could all be too much, but Iechyd Da is just enough.

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7. High Llamas – Hey Panda (Drag City)

Sean O’Hagan could’ve just continued down the same pristine path of perfect sounding, similar sounding High Llamas records — a lush mix of Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks, Ennio Morricone, Caetano Veloso and his collaborators Stereolab — for the rest of his life. Up until this year it seemed like he would, but O’Hagan had a pandemic epiphany thanks to his kids who exposed him to Tyler the Creator and Tierra Whack during lockdown. Those recordings’ forward-thinking production broke his brain in positive ways, giving us Hey Panda, the best High Llamas album since the ’90s. O’Hagan’s melodic style, the chords he uses, his distinctive vocal and string arrangements are still here but it’s now in service of glitchy R&B. He’s also discovered the joys of vocoder, autotune, and collaboration as Hey Panda features guest vocals from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Rae Morris who sings on the album’s most delightful creation, “Sisters Friends.” Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

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6. Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown (Domino Records)

More than a decade after signing a solo deal with Domino, Portishead singer Beth Gibbons finally delivered her first album solely under her own name. It was worth the wait. Made with producer James Ford and longtime collaborator Lee Harris (Talk Talk), Lives Outgrown is a treatise on mortality and aging rendered in a darkly hued palette of string-laden windswept folk. There’s not a breakbeat to be found, but Gibbons is as ever delivering sorrow and beauty in equal measure with cinematic production, masterful, nuanced songwriting and that voice that can still wreck you with just an “ooh.”

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5. Beak> – >>>> (INVADA / Temporary Residence Ltd)

Geoff Barrow, Billy Fuller and (more recently) Will Young have been exploring the furthest reaches of outer bongolia as Beak> for over 15 years, making music powered by krautrock rhythms, trancelike synth arpeggiations, godlike basslines, and perfectly unsettling harmonies. (Everything also sounds like it’s being heard through a constant state of the doppler effect which adds to the trip.) Their fourth album, which dropped unannounced back in March, is their best, Beakiest record yet, and their very specific style allows for a lot of awesome variation this time, including folk (“Hungry Are We”), Can-style grooves (“The Seal,” “Ah Yeh”), doomy prog (“Windmill Hill”) and claustrophobic synthwave (“Secrets”). While >>>> comes in at #5 on this list, it’s artwork, featuring Barrow’s late dog Alfie, wins Indie Basement Best Album Cover of 2024.

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4. Bibi Club – Feu de garde (Secret City)

Bibi Club, the Montreal duo of singer/keyboardist Adèle Trottier-Rivard and guitarist Nicolas Basque (Plants & Animals), have nostalgic melancholy running through their veins that is warm and inviting, if just a bit out of reach. At their disposal: weird synthesizers, shoegazy atmospherics and snaking guitar leads that dance around the New Order-inspired basslines and vintage drum machines. Adding to the mystery are Adèle’s breathy delivery, French-language lyrics and predilection for “oohs” and “ahhs,” not to mention their minor chord melodies and and a warbly sheen that coats everything on the band’s second album. (Fans of Blonde Redhead and The Notwist take note.) Feu de garde is one of the most alluring records of the year.

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3. Tindersticks – Soft Tissue (City Slang)

Stuart Staples has sounded weary since Tindersticks first got their start back in 1992 when he was just 27. His hangdog crooner style is essential to the band’s shabby chic charm and also what makes what they do so evergreen. Amazingly, the band find new ways to present their divey chamber pop cabaret with just about every record without altering the fit of their rumpled suits that much. Soft Tissue is Tindersticks’ 14th studio album which is injected with a high dosage of Memphis soul, complete with horns, strings, electric piano and soulful backing vocals. It would be a very different album, but you could imagine the late, great Charles Bradley singing on the whole thing, but Staples’ delivery makes Soft Tissue unmistakably a Tindersticks album, and one of their very best.

2. Fontaines D.C. – Romance (XL)

There are currently no Indie Basement Awards (though that’s not a bad idea), but if there were, Most Improved would go to Fontaines D.C. for their fantastic fourth album. Not that they weren’t already a great band — they definitely were — but Romance is a real level up, with the band swapping the drony post-punk of their first three albums for soaring, melodic, ’90s-style alt-rock and their best batch of songs to date, all without changing who they are at all. The hit quotient here is insanely high, from the breathless panic attack banger “Starburster” to jangly singalongs “Favourite” and “Bug,” the dreamy and dramatic “In the Modern World” and “Sundowner,” and the slashing riffs of “Here’s the Thing” and “Death Kink.” Romance turned folks who were previously Fontaines D.C. agnostics (including a couple of our staffers) into true believers, and judging by their shows this year, the pivot didn’t cause them to lose any fans either. This is how it’s supposed to work but rarely does: a band makes their best record by a mile and gets exponentially more popular because of it.

1. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (W.25TH)

The Cinderella DIY indie story of the year, Patrick Flegel dropped their first Cindy Lee album in four years out of the blue in March, making it only available as two massive CD-length WAV files or a two-hour YouTube stream. But the real surprise was that there wasn’t a bad apple in the bushel of 32 songs contained within. Previous albums mixed Flegel’s haunted pop with nightmare soundscapes but Diamond Jubilee is hit after hit, featuring a wide range of styles within the Cindy Lee Cinematic Universe. There’s forlorn ’50s slow dance ballads, glammy rockers, twangy surf instrumentals, chooglin’ jams, krautrock grooves, lush Beach Boys melodies, swooning soul, and more, all coated in Flegel’s unique, quietly spectacular guitarwork. The runtime might seem daunting, but listening to Diamond Jubilee is pure pleasure with new treasures to be unearthed with each listen.

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And in a 57-way tie for #41:

The The – Ensoulment
Naima Bock – Below a Massive Dark Land
MGMT – Loss of Life
Arab Strap – I’m totally fine with it 👍 don’t give a fuck anymore
Kirin J Callinan – If I Could Sing
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Gruff Rhys – Sadness Set Me Free
The Woodentops – Fruits of the Deep
Halo Maud – Celebrate
Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless
Arooj Aftab – Night Reign
Mermaid Chunky – slif slaf slof
J Mascis – What Do We Now
The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend
Corridor – Mimi
Hifi Sean & David McAlmont – DAYLIGHT
The Bug Club – On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System
Luke Temple – Certain Limitations
Quivers – Apparition
Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Motel
King Hannah – Big Swimmer
The WAEVE – City Lights
Richard Hawley – In This City They Call You Love
Fake Fruit – Mucho Mistrust
Colin Stetson – The love it took to leave you
Mystery Time – Maudlin Tales of Grief
Saint Etienne – The Night
PyPy – Sacred Times
Goat – Goat
Loma – How Will I Live Without a Body?
Mary Timony – Untamed the Tiger
The Smile – Wall of Eyes / Cutouts
Omni – Souvenir
The Jesus and Mary Chain – Glasgow Eyes
Jane Weaver – Love in Constant Spectacle
A Certain Ratio – It All Comes Down to This
David Nance & Mowed Sound – David Nance & Mowed Sound
Gustaf – Starting and Staring
The Pernice Brothers – Who Will You Believe?
Cast – Love is the Call
SAVAK – Flavors of Paradise
Les Savy Fav – OUI, LSF
Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out
Tierra Whack – WORLD WIDE WHACK
The Lemon Twigs – A Dream is All We Know
John Squire & Liam Gallagher – John Squire & Liam Gallagher
Charli XCX – Brat
Ibibio Sound Machine – Pull the Rope
Goat Girl – Below the Waster
Thies Thaws – Fifteen Days
deary – Aurelia
Fcukers – Baggy$$
Geordie Greep – The New Sound
Fievel is Glauque – Rong Weickness
Dummy – Blue Dada
2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosions
The Smashing Times – Mrs. Ladyship and the Cleaner House Boys

Here’s the Indie Basement Best of 2024 playlist with over eight hours of music that should last you till 2025. Available in both Spotify and TIDAL form:

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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