You know I'm frankly unaware of all the ways in which that is supposed to move me

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

#26 : Deeper Well - Kacey Musgraves

After her mostly underwhelming foray towards pop for 2021’s Star-Crossed, forged in the chaos of divorce, Musgraves found more stability in her life and headed back to the “spacey Kacey” cosmic country sound she found so much success with on 2018 breakthrough Golden Hour. The lyrics are full of trees, birds, fireflies and moonlight, all fecund with life as new love takes root, and it has her wondering about how it all came to be (The Architect) and whether wealth and success are pointless: “I’d burn it all to keep you warm,” she decides on Lonely Millionaire.

This is the fourth album on the list I've previously listened to and the first we've already got a write-up for - in summary, I thought it had some nice tunes on it, but was overall a bit underwhelming and I haven't revisited it. But I guess I could be tempted to give it another go...

I think I'd say my opinion hasn't overly changed - it's all very lovely sounding, but the good tracks still stand out from the pack. I'd also also call out "Too Good To Be True" which I didn't mention last time but "The Architect" is streets ahead of the rest for me. There's also some absolutely lovely guitar playing throughout the album, but I still feel a bit disappointed by the overall result.

And, apart from noting that it got to #2 in the US, I've got nothing else to add to the original post.

#25 : Patterns In Repeat - Laura Marling

Her previous album was Songs for Our Daughter, written for an imaginary child – and the follow-up ended up being about the real thing. It’s testament to Marling’s skill (which seems to deepen with every release) that even the most strenuously unsentimental listener will be moved by the way she writes about her newborn daughter. Although bathed in the bewildering glow of new life – there’s even a bedtime lullaby, called Lullaby – there’s also a fierceness in Marling’s promises of protection, and in how she asserts the importance of being present for one’s child.

Straight on to the fifth album I've heard - I mentioned it in passing and said "She's very Joni Mitchellesque on this - it's not quite my thing, but it's all well put together.  And, then in the middle of it all, there's a weird instrumental track, "Interlude (Time Passages)", which is very different and I really quite liked it". Which feels worthy of a re-listen.

Oh yes - it's very Mitchellesque with some stellar vocal and guitar work on it. And, I think it grew on me a bit on second listen - and I can imagine that multiple visits would continue that process. There's an awful lot of skill, beauty and love on this album - I will attempt to remember to revisit it. And "Interlude (Time Passages)" is still a bizarrely enjoyable track.

Wikipedia tells us this is her eighth album, written after the birth of her daughter - somewhat peculiarly her previous album was called Song For Our Daughter but was written before she was even pregnant. The critics were very nice about it and it charted at #13 here, #85 in Ireland and #126 in Belgium.

"Customers also listened to" Soccer Mommy, The Staves, Tucker Zimmerman and Amyl & The Sniffers - although I'm not sure too many Laura fans will be all that into Amyl. But I think this album could convert plenty of people into Laura fans - it's a very accomplished piece of work indeed.

#24 : Eternal Sunshine - Ariana Grande

In the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, two young lovers sought the services of a dodgy psychiatry company to delete the other from their minds post-breakup – then attempted to outrun the memory erasers when they realised they were still in love. Refining her R&B luxe sound, Ariana Grande’s seventh album dwells in forgetting, both in how embracing new love requires the optimism that everything might work out this time, and in how quickly elements of the public turned against her when she split from her husband to date her recently separated Wicked co-star. “I’ll play whatever part you need me to and I’ll be good in it too,” she taunts on True Story, but the beauty of Grande’s own Eternal Sunshine lies in its complex, self-scouring songs about living with the reality of the heart.

Straight on to another album I've listened to (the sixth) and written up - my opinion was that it was lightweight and mildly annoying. Others obviously disagreed with me because it's the first album on this list to have made it to #1 but, controversially, I'm not going to revisit it to give it a second chance. 

And if you're not happy about that Ms Grande, I have two words for you - Cat Valentine. 

#23 : What A Devastating Turn Of Events - Rachel Chinouriri

There’s a generation of Black British female singer-songwriters shrugging at the limitations made for them: Tiana Major9, Pip Millett, Cat Burns, Poppy Ajudha, Cleo Sol and more could never be neatly tagged “R&B” or “soul”, even if people still often try. Rachel Chinouriri was also frequently miscategorised, but her debut album is a reminder of how boring – and permeable – genre boundaries are, from strutting new wave to squalling alt-rock and shuffling funk-pop to shivering acoustic ballads. But what really lights up this album is her strength of feeling as she takes people (occasionally including herself) to task for not being the best version of themselves. It’s intensely relatable and righteous – no wonder Sabrina Carpenter has invited her on tour next year.

Seeing as we pretty much skipped over Ariana, let's complete this mini run of albums I've previously listened to (all from female artists, as well), taking us up to seven in total so far. Once again, this was mentioned in passing in a post and my comment was "I wanted to like it but was a bit meh about it" - so that definitely warrants a re-listen.

Well, I'm still a bit meh, but I'm also a lot more positive - I'd say it's some form of R&B which isn't really my thing (more on this later), but I made more of an effort to listen to it and it sounds well put together. I'm not entirely sure I'd go with "intensely relatable and righteous", but she's certainly got something to say and she's not afraid to say it. It's not quite there for me, but I can quite understand why people would like it - I also think it's a great album title, which is something I rarely comment on.

Wikipedia tells us its her debut album and Rachel herself tells me very firmly it's not R&B, but it's indie rock - I obviously don't want to argue with her and I certainly noticed indie vibes in places, but I'm looking forward to seeing if she goes a bit indie-r on later releases, because I reckon I'd be up for that. There's an interesting section on the album artwork and her choice of the English flag bunting, for which she faced some criticism - which she acknowledged whilst pointing out that growing up black in a white neighbourhood definitely shaped her and also saying "if art kind of makes you turn your head a little bit, it's doing the right thing", which is very much a vibe I can get with. The critics were pretty nice about the album and it did OK commercially, getting to #17.

"Customers also listened to" Subculture, Mac Wetha, Sophie Lindinger and Bea & Her Business - another clean sweep of ignorance on my part! This is very promising debut though and I feel a bit guilty for not liking it as much as I think I should - I'll certain be checking out what she gets up to in future.

There's a lot to love from the ladies in this round - the best tracks for me live on Kacey's album, but I think Laura has the best overall offering, despite the obvious Joni Mitchell vibes usually being something that would scare me off.

#29-27 - A varied mix
#21-18 - Four fine albums