2025: Residual 2024 Listening
- kevpalowe8
- Mar 21
- 6 min read
Originally posted Feb 2025.
So, a reminder of my 2024 summary. I concluded that modern pop music was shorter, more eclectic, focused less on melody but more on rhythm, and, most importantly, whilst there ARGUABLY has been a decline in quality over the years it is MASSIVELY overstated by the grumps.
My listening was largely tracks and albums that made the UK top ten. My single of the year went to Jade with “Angel Of My Dreams”
and my album of the year was The Last Dinner Party's “Prelude To Ecstasy”. My made up award ‘Kev's Pop Medal’ went to Gracie Abrams for being an underdog who very stealthily became one of the most successful acts of 2024........ a fact that still seems to have alluded many.
Moving into 2025, although I included Rose & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” as one of my top singles of 2024 it probably should have been in the top 3.
Lola Young’s “Messy” entered the top ten at the very end of 2024. It was slightly too late for me to include it in anything. If I had, I would have said ‘M’eh’...... but I’ve changed my mind now (see below) and that should have been amoung my singles of the year. It has been #1 for 3 weeks so far in 2025. Its the 1st single since I started this project that I’ve been actively rooting to get to the top spot. That’s something I hadn’t done since the mid-90s. It was a nice feeling.
OTHER RESIDUAL SINGLES:
Myles Smith “Nice To Meet You”
It’s great that this eventually got in the top ten. I also much prefer it to his bigger 2024 smash “Stargazing”.
Chrystal “The Days”
This is curious. I quite like it but I am surprised others do so much. Its has a stark arrangement and an unusual ‘arch’ structure to it (A-B-C-B-A sections). The bass emphasises this by changing as the central section ends and the structure begins to reverse.
PAWSA “Dirty Cash”
This is interesting to me as I remember the original well from 1989 (big in 1990) when I was just starting to move away from my parents record collection to paying attention to then-modern pop. It was very ultra-modern sounding then. Brcause that sticks with me, it’s kinda strange to hear a fairly remix of it now as if its a ‘classic’....... which I guess it sort of is. That’s just weird.
RESIDUAL ALBUMS:
These albums were on my ‘alternative listening’ playlist but didn’t get round to listening to. The ‘alternative’ part of the project was albums that did NOT make the top ten or even chart at all interesting many cases.
cumgirl 8 “the 8th cumming”
I got distinct Human League/OMD vibes from this but with an electro-punk edge. There were lots of other 80s signposts. Compositionally, it was quite Joy Division and some of the calmer guitar work was very later-era The Cure. Vocally, there were nods towards Lene Lovick & Nena. I really liked it in general but nothing really grabbed me for immediate re-listening and it didn’t quite achieve high levels of brilliance. 6
Dua Saleh “I Should Call Them”
Falling very loosely within the R&B/Rap spectrum but clearly not troubling themselves with ‘genre’ too much. This actually seems common these days and held even some of the greatest acts of the past back in some ways. Its an interesting listen and I hope Saleh continue to make music as I detect massive potential. 6
Fat Dog “WOOF.”
Mixing techno influences with rock sounds. Its high energy and kind of chaotic/jarring. I really liked this one. They will probably need to move on a bit to avoid becoming ‘samey’ – I don’t think I could listen to another full album of the same thing. But this, stand alone, is brilliant. 7
Gut Health “Stiletto”
Basically punk – but they play around with it a bit. They seem to be a good band with great energy. I don’t really have loads to say about it other than ‘it’s punk’ and ‘it’s good’. 6
Heriot “Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell”
Heavy Metal. That’s a great title isn’t it?! It’s a kind of ‘tour-de-force’ of heavy metal and it’s sub-genres and does this very well to be fair. I much prefer it to other modern heavy metal groups I’ve heard from in 2024 or that album by Soft Play. 6
KNEECAP “Fine Art”
Irish and not hiding their accents – which I love. I guess that’s largely a political move as much of the lyrics seem to gear towards Irish Republicanism – also great with me. Its definitely within the hip hop genre but messes around with it brilliantly. Really brilliant. An observation (I cant work out if it’s a criticism) is that the backing music is far more interesting than the vocal work, for the most part. One of my beefs with the hip hop and associated genres is that albums seem to regularly go on for far too long. This one doesn’t. 7
Lola Young “This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway”
Lola Young started gaining some real attention right towards the end of 2024. The single “Messy” climbed into the top 10. I kinda saw the appeal in a sense. It was quite different from anything else we were getting in the UK top 10. However, I wasn’t massively impressed. I checked out a couple of other tracks. They were alright but I still couldn’t see what the rising fuss was all about..........
I was wrong. I eventually listened to the album. Refusing to fit firmly in any genre (although R&B, soul and folk come through quite commonly throughout), varied and creative song writing, and with a great attitude/edginess to boot. I really loved it, although I felt it got a little weaker in the last 2-3 tracks, and perhaps the whole 2nd half of the album wasn’t quite as impactful as the 1st. I’m also not sure what to make of “Outro”. Its spoken word dialogue performed by Lola Young about a young person, presumably herself, trying to find meaning in life and explaining their love for music and what this album means to them. The final sentence is the title of the album. I found it a bit ‘cringe’ on 1st listen. However, I changed my mind a little with subsequent listens. I’m not a fan, for the most part, of artists explicitly telling you stories about themselves through songs. I suppose art is about expression, and self-expression is almost bound to come through regularly..... but I’m still not a fan of explicit ‘selfness’ (to invent a word) . I lose interest if there is nothing left to interpret. I’m not a big fan of someone picking up a guitar and saying ‘listen to what happened to me last Wednesday afternoon’. I guess I feel it’s self-indulgence dressed up as art. So, if you’re going to do it, why dress it up? Why not just have the spoken dialogue? I think I’d still rather do without it given the choice. But, I sort of respect the idea as it answers my criticism of it. 7
Nemahsis “Verbathim”
Really brilliant! A Palestinian Canadian singer-songwriter and clearly a brilliant and creative one. A really inviting/intriguing voice with a style somewhere right between Dua Lipa and Kate Bush i.e., pop vs creative. If I had a criticism, it would be that, at times, the melodic construction is quite limited – however, as I’ve discussed before, views on melodic writing seem to have changed and I’m becoming unconvinced by my own preoccupation with it as a result. 8
Tems “Born In The Wild”
This was OK. However, it was one of those albums where it turned out that I heard everything I needed to hear by about 20% in. 5
TripleS “<ASSEMBLE 24>”
I had heard about TripleS and was excited to hear this album. A South Korean outfit with multiple members who will supposedly produce music as requested by fans and switch between a full unit, solo artists, and subgroups again as requested by fans....... fascinating. But its just an OK pop album. 5
Two Shell “Two Shell”
Kind of a tour de force of subgenres of dance music. It’s definitely worth a listen. I couldn’t help but feel all the way through that it could be better but wasn’t quite getting there........ but I can’t offer anything further constructive to explain that. 6
See ya 2024.
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