Steven Johnson

My favourite 50 albums of 2024. Part 4: Numbers 1-9

Absolutely brilliant show by Supergrass at the Roundhouse last night playing I Should Coco in full followed by The Hits in all of their glory.

Superb show as always by Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage at the Tufnell Park Dome last night. Excellent support from The Awkward Silences and David Cronenberg's Wife also.

Shack at Union Chapel. Really good to hear those songs live and the band were great but no denying that Mick seemed a little 'worse for wear'/shakier than normal. Let's hope it was just a 'last night of the tour' thing.

Been reading a book while listening to an album (quite possibly my favourite of all time) 💙

Absolutely stunning show by Spiritualized at the Barbican last night, playing Pure Phase in full to mark the 30th anniversary of its release 💚

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Points Of Origin by Will Stratton. Undoubtedly the album I've listened to most so far this year. I cycled over to Rough Trade East recently to collect my copy. A beguiling set of songs that revel in the joy of storytelling while consistently hitting the musical sweet spot ❤️

Mercury Rev at EartH. Still capable of voyaging to some pretty psychedelic places, still able to deliver episodes of heart-melting beauty and still adept at conjuring moments of real drama and magic ❤️

Reliably wonderful show by Tindersticks at the Royal Albert Hall last night. They're such an aesthetically refined proposition these days and Stuart Staples remains one of my favourite singers ❤️

Soaringly euphoric, thrillingly high-octane show by The Hold Steady at the Electric Ballroom last night. It's very true when Craig Finn sings "our psalms are sing-along songs". Exceedingly high levels of communal joy in evidence 💥

Kim Deal with band and strings/brass at the Barbican. Last year's Nobody Loves You More album sounded great. Very exciting to also have Raymond McGinley from Teenage Fanclub make an appearance to play suitably smouldering guitar on two songs.

Mandrake Handshake in Hackney Wick last night playing the gentle motorik grooves, airy psychedelia and elegant melodies from excellent debut album Earth-Sized Worlds. They also sound a lot like Stereolab in places which is obviously A Very Good Thing.

Quite a good day on the gig ticket buying front. Stereolab, Belly & Throwing Muses all secured. I think I'm legally obliged in this scenario to say something like "18 year old me would be quite excited, as is 48 year old me" etc etc.

Found myself dipping back into this album this week. Seriously brilliant and beautiful ❤️

Wonderful show by the High Llamas at the MOTH Club tonight. The tracks from last year's Hey Panda album still beguile and enchant & it's always special to hear my favourite High Llamas song Harpers Romo played live, a song that remains magical, fascinating and gently hypnotic.

"You vetoed every one of my miserabilist movies, you bored my friends from out of town with the virtues of shoegaze" is quite a good lyric.

Excellent show by singer-poet, theatrical wordsmith, natural performer and all round likeable musical bon viveur Hamish Hawk and band at KOKO in Camden tonight. His songs have real flair, flamboyance and thrust and sounded great tonight.

Beautiful, short-but-sweet in-store show by Nadia Reid at Rough Trade West yesterday afternoon. I really like her new album Enter Now Brightness. She's so great.

The always- brilliant, always-funny, always-supremely-likeable (that's enough always - Ed.) Field Music playing from latest album Limits Of Language and more at Union Chapel tonight ❤️ @fieldmusicmusic

Really looking forward to reading this!