I'd love to drown in my new costume

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2024.

#6 : My Method Actor - Nilüfer Yanya

The heartbroken protagonist of the British songwriter’s third album is hollow inside, bleeding out; soul awol, amnesia reigning. The beauty lies in how she makes this state of desolation feel as opulent as a ruined palace. The palette is febrile and close, as humid as the tropics or as Sade’s sultriest moments; Yanya’s sidling, furtive guitar suddenly obliterated by pockets of thrashing rage, her usually poised voice betraying every wound inflicted on her. It’s one of the best-arranged albums of the year: judiciously applied strings up the sense of suspicion and devastation, and the tension and transitions trap you right up there with her on the knife’s edge. “I’m hardly here either,” Yanya sang on crushed standout Binding, but the 29-year-old’s utterly unique voice has never had more presence.

My sixteenth album I've previously met, but I have to admit I don't overly remember it - my comment back in September was "I didn't mind it at all", although it's my second visit with Nilüfer and last time I wasn't convinced by her vocal style. So, in short, who knows!?!

Yeah, I think it's her vocal style that marks it down here - the songs are decent enough but the words are just a bit too indecipherable for me. It's in the style of Phoebe Bridger or similar, so if you like her than maybe check this out but it's not quite top league for me. I do agree with The Guardian it's well-arranged though - there's a lot of work gone into this.

Wikipedia tells us its her third album and the critics liked it - and that's about it. It did chart here (#53 - which is why I'd listened to it) and in Belgium (#108). Her entry tells us she was originally invited to join a girl group managed by Louis Tomlinson and it's fair to say she was very much not up for that kind of nonsense - she's also been the support act for Adele and Roxy Music, which are two decent names for the CV I guess.

"Customers also listened to" MJ Lenderman, The Smile (a Radiohead spin-off), English Teacher and Hinds - not a selection I know loads about. As is also true for Nilufer - she feels to have potential, but isn't quite there for me yet.

#5 : Cowboy Carter - Beyoncé

Cowboy Carter was Beyoncé’s attempt to stake a claim for the Black history of country music, but it was no straightforward Nashville record. Instead, in keeping with the sprawling ambition of the auteurist albums she has been releasing for the past decade, it wrapped its arms around the entire American music vernacular. She wasn’t afraid to tackle country’s iconic moments, notably recasting Dolly Parton’s Jolene as a steely eyed warning shot, but it was her attempts to shape country in her own image and foreground its Black origins that felt especially fresh and thrilling: Parton and Willie Nelson made lighthearted cameos; more significantly, greater deference was afforded to Black country musicians. “They don’t know how hard I had to fight for this / When I sang my song,” she sings on American Requiem, about being snubbed by the country music industry in the past. The depth of knowledge and the conviction of performance on Cowboy Carter are a clear testament not just to Beyoncé’s fight, but her intimacy with the genre.

The seventeenth album I've previously met and the eighth I've previously written up - my verdict was "there's an awful lot in there, some of which works well and some not so well", which I tend to find it true for most of her stuff. I could listen to this again, but my opinion is not going to change on one further listen, so I'm not going to bother. If you were going to listen to this, you'll already have done so - and if you've not done so, then I'm not the man to convince you that you should.

No obvious winner for me in this round because neither is terrible, but neither is (for me) great - I would point out that one has been rather more successful than the other though.

#9-7 - Successful does not mean interesting

#4-3 - Two nicely understated albums