Q2 Albums That Make 2024 Less of a Dumpster Fire
or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Deez Bombs
As regular readers recall, each and every weekend I wade in the murky waters of new album releases. My favorite albums list of 2023 is still in the mix, especially these five hot drops from Chi-town folks. Though it’s hardly a competition (...or is it?), 2024 is shaping up to best 2023.
While my female-dominated Best Albums of Q1 of 2024 is on repeat (including this short playlist of the songs I wrote about), as we wrap up Q2 and slide into summer, I’m eager to share more.
But before I do, I feel obliged to remind you that I’m not so keen to write about music. Even if I was, there are people who do that for a living and I’m content to leave what’s left of music journalism to them.
My effort here is simply to share. I just want you to feel as curious and alive as I do when I listen to fresh stuff, hot off the presses. I’m not saying this stuff is timeless; but it feels timely. It does something for me, I hope it might do something for you. So here I share.
We begin with The January Album, the fourth LP from Adam and David Moss, twin brothers from Peoria, IL who play under the banner The Brother Brothers. The January Album is named for its month-long recording in January 2021 during the intense and intensely quiet few months of Covid lockdowns in NYC. The timing of the thing might lead you to believe that it’s a somber endeavor and at times it is. The more crepuscular tracks feel infused with the ghost ofJohn Prine, who was the first person I was aware of to die of Covid. But much of the album is playful. Buoyant. Innocent. There’s even a singsong diddy about a bouncy brown dog. It’s a thoroughly American Americana album, including a bluegrassy track about the Illinois River. Many of the tracks (Supermoon, Lonesome) evoke Paul Simon's lyricism. Some might criticize that the Paul Simon footprint is troublingly omnipresent on the album. Phooey. I’ve heard people bemoan that an album sounds too much like the Beatles. And this is a problem how exactly? This brother jives with The Brother Brothers and can hardly wait to cue it up when I’m driving my daughter through cornfields from Chicago to Iowa in July. Road trip album of the year?
In 1985, despite Apartheid, frankly to spite Apartheid, Paul Simon traveled to Soweto, South Africa to meet Ladysmith Black Mambazo and to see if they could jam and maybe make a record. Graceland was released in the summer of 1986. I was 10. It was the album of the year. By far. It’s timeless, despite contemporary criticisms of cultural appropriation, for which I have little patience.
In the fall of 2024, PJ Morton, who first came to my attention with his pitch-perfect cover of the Bee Gees’ How Deep is Your Love, traveled from Capetown to Cairo to play gigs, listen closely, and record an album steeped in modern African sounds. I’ve not yet heard anyone accuse American-born and raised Morton of cultural appropriation. Phew.
Cape Town to Cairo is a cross-cultural expression of gratitude; sometimes churchy, always soulful. Morton goes big. Lush sounds. Vast landscapes. Heavy, lilting polyrhythms. Like the best Stevie Wonder albums, Cape Town to Cairo teems with hope. You’ll hear Stevie’s influence most clearly on tracks like I Found You. Stevie doesn’t guest on this as he did on a previous Morton release. But half the tracks feature artists Morton connected with on his pan-African journey, my favorite of which is Made Kuti (son of Femi, grandson of Fela). Despite clocking in at a tight 28 minutes, the LP leaves you lifted, the final track at church with the Soweto Spiritual Singers. But if Cape Town to Cairo leaves you wanting more, go get more! Morton is touring this album now.
Also on tour this summer (mostly with Blues Traveler, 4th of July at Red Rocks) is JJ Grey and Mofro, who just dropped their tenth album, the first in almost a decade. The album opens with The Sea, with strings reminiscent of Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic before sliding smoothly into a steaming cauldron of horn-infused Memphis stew. It has Nashville recording vibes but was laid down in Florida, from where the band hails. Wonderland is the most “clap your hands and stomp your feet” track. Free High has some Sly Stone vibes. Olustee is a rich album, a vast tapestry. It goes places. But if you really want to be transported by JJ Grey and Mofro, see ‘em live! They’re a proper band. Horns. Strings. Backup vocals. No costs spared, no holds barred.
From blue-eyed soul to AfroCountry one of my fave albums of Q2 is Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going by Shaboozey. I first heard of Shaboozey a couple months ago when he guested on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter mega drop. His feature track was alright (he was on a track with Linda Martell, the first commercially successful black female country music artist), but I like his name, so I looked him up. Collins Obinna Chibueze was raised in northern Virginia by his Nigerian parents. I teach a class that focuses on Nigeria so I mentally bookmarked him. Two months later he popped up on my radar with this release, which opens with Horses and Hellcats, which in turn opens with the whinnie of a stallion. Aaaaand we’re off. The lyrics are steeped in whiskey, wranglers, and tired travelers which are brought to fruition by weeping guitars all over the mix. We got nods to spaghetti western vibes that would make Sergio Leone crack a bullwhip. Lots going on. Relentless production. My Fault featuring Noah Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray, sister of Miley) is a beautiful heartbreaker. I know, I know. Y’all are frustrated by this Nigerian-American appropriation of white, southern music. I kid, I kid.
Honorable Mention: Arooj Aftab, Night Reign. Raised in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before Berkelee at age 19, Arooj Aftab is cordially invited to appropriate whatever the fuck she wants. IMHO. Bebop meets Pakistani folk music, mostly in Urdu, some English, this album will transport you. But only if you let it.
To transport my groovy hippie kids: Khruangbin and Circles Around the Sun both released compelling work in Q2.
Chicago’s Lalah Hathaway, daughter of Donny, dropped a hottie.
And the album of the Summer of 2024 is…drum roll please………
Lake Street Dive’s Good Together You heard it here first!
Done.
I might note here that when I sat down to write about these albums today, the appropriation discourse was not on my mind at all. But as I kept pecking away at the keys, my boxers got bunched up. Then I got all snarky and shit. I hope you’ll be graceful with me, dear reader.
Again, my effort here is to share joy and perhaps offer a reprieve from the indignities of modern life. To facilitate that, here is a short playlist of just the songs discussed here. If you’re all in, here is the Best Albums of 2024 playlist (so far).
I’m wrapping up the school year over here. 25 years in the books. Gettin’ younger every year. Woot!
Little ginger and I are Declaring our Independence and hopping a flight to ORD, in time to awake in the Chi on the 4th of July.
We’ll spend the first week or so with the Kosher Sausage of Chicago, Santa’s Little Helper, the Floppy Dog himself, cousin Todd Greenstein, who turns 50 years old today. The world is a better place with this old man. Three Cheers for Chicago’s Finest!
Happy Listening and Happy Summer,
-DL