Clash's Albums of the Year 2024

Arooj Aftab’s star-making 2021 album *Vulture Prince* was marked by a distinct and undeniable sadness—a chronicle of grief following the death of Aftab’s younger brother Maher, whom the record was dedicated to. Despite its many contributors, *Vulture Prince* felt nearly monastic in sound and focus, conjuring images of someone processing pain alone and amidst the cosmos, and since its release, the Pakistani American singer and composer has opened up her sonic world to increasingly thrilling effect. *Love in Exile*, released in 2023, found Aftab expanding the jazz side of her sound in collaboration with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, and now her fourth solo album *Night Reign* reflects her biggest leap yet. It’s the kind of record that makes you realize that Aftab can, when it comes to songwriting and style, do pretty much anything—from smoldering balladry à la the late Jeff Buckley and Sade’s endless-sounding quiet storm to trip-hop’s shadowy iridescence—without losing an ounce of raw emotion. Similar to *Vulture Prince*, *Night Reign* features a bevy of notable musicians pitching in throughout: Moor Mother delivers raw incantations over the foreboding structure of “Bolo Na,” while Iyer’s keystrokes are deeply felt across the patient tapestry of “Saaqi” and guitarist Kaki King lends her considerable talents to the refracted jazz-folk of “Last Night Reprise.” But it’s Aftab’s voice—rich, resonant, malleable, and instantly recognizable—that provides the true gravitational pull at the center of *Night Reign*’s universe, echoing through the sparse rustling of “Raat Ki Rani” and shimmering on the surface of the devastating closer “Zameen.” In the press materials for *Night Reign*, Aftab expresses a desire to “make music with and for everybody,” and this record is undoubtedly the fullest realization of those aims yet, revealing new contours in her songwriting and further cementing her as a singular talent in popular music.

When Leon Bridges made his debut in 2015 with *Coming Home*, critics and peers alike were amazed by his velvety retro-soul stylings reminiscent of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. Widening his horizons, his third album *Gold-Diggers Sound* showcased a different side of the Texas crooner, leaving behind the ’50s and ’60s vibe that helped propel him to stardom for a mix of ’80s and ’90s R&B mixed with lush, jazz-inspired live instrumentation. “I kind of always felt like a lone wolf in the industry, and yes, my music is under the umbrella of R&B, but I’ve always felt like I was never fully embraced in that community,” Bridges tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And so it was kind of a thought that ‘Leon’ is the genre, and as far as the whole album is kind of like a window into who I am.” Now, with his self-titled album, Leon Bridges is ready to reintroduce himself and invite his fans into his world. *Leon* is an intimate and revealing love letter to the singer-songwriter’s hometown, his upbringing, and the stories that helped shape him into the artist he is now. “Prior to this one, I’ve definitely scratched the surface of it,” he says. “This one digs into a lot of my experiences as a kid growing up in Fort Worth, and it really talks about the things that I’ve valued most in this life, which are family and home.” Bridges is vulnerable as he faces his fears on the smooth and serene album opener “When a Man Cries,” while on the breezy, guitar-laced track “Panther City,” he is nostalgic, reminiscing on hazy summer days growing up, with references to Nintendo 64 and going down to the local community center. Bridges pays homage on the downtempo and rocksteady track “Laredo,” which details a fleeting night in the border town that left a memorable and lasting impression on him. “That’s What I Love” highlights some of the things and moments that Bridges holds near and dear to his heart: “Bourbon, Cadillacs, blue denim, makin’ love on the beach in the mornin’/Springtime on the Trinity River, gold jewelry, all-black penny loafers,” he croons on the opening verse. His favorite things aren’t only material and sensual in nature, but he also mixes in romance while singing about his partner. “Peaceful Place” finds the singer confident in this version of himself and his music, while reassuring himself that he’s exactly where he needs to be: “I’m in a peaceful place/I’ve found something no one can take away.”

Cat Burns knows just how turbulent—and transformative—your early twenties can be. “I think there’s a saying that says, ‘When you are 18 you think you know everything; when you’re 22 you realize you know nothing,’” the South London singer-songwriter tells Apple Music. “It’s such a formative time in everyone’s lives.” Those early adult years—and all the chaos, clarity, and, often, pain they can bring—provided the fuel for Burns’ debut, the simply titled *early twenties*. “I think I’ve always had a fixation with growing up—even the first little EP I put out when I was 16 was called *Adolescent*,” she notes. “I knew I wanted to have my album speak about age.” (Unfortunately, she adds, a certain other British pop star already came up with the concept of naming your albums after specific, life-altering ages, so *early twenties* it was.) But, if this record delves into classic territory for that time of life—youthful love, heartbreak, discovering your own character traits and flaws (see the unexpectedly upbeat “people pleaser”)—*early twenties* also finds solace in the certainty that you and your mates are all going through it together, and that one day the turbulence will pass. It’s what lies behind the jubilance of “live more & love more” or “know that you’re not alone,” and the wisdom of the India.Arie-featuring “healing” or “boy crazy,” a woozy love letter to Burns’ younger self before she realized she was queer. It’s an honest listen, but always with a message of hope and resilience. “One of my main whys of making music is always to make people feel less alone and \[make\] people feel seen,” says Burns. She wants you to “feel all of your feelings, but don’t dwell in it because there’s going to be another song to help you come out of it.” Read on as Burns talks us through her moving, cathartic debut—one track at a time. **“alone”** “I wrote ‘alone’ with Steve Mac, who is a legend \[he’s had a hand in the 30 different UK Singles Chart-topping songs\]. I was apprehensive about the session, because I don’t really tend to write the best songs with people who have had massive hits. But we got along really well. I just started word-vomiting to him about my friends who have said, ‘We’re about to be in our mid-twenties; I’m enjoying life by myself, but everyone’s talking about this romantic connection and love that seems to be really lovely, and I have yet to experience that.’ I liked the idea of it feeling like a really dramatic song—I think Gen Z just are quite dramatic! I wanted the drama to begin and grip you and then take you on a journey.” **“go”** “‘go’ probably will always be the most important song to me because it changed the speed and trajectory of my career. It’s not a song that I ever want to forget. Every time I perform it, I’m reminded that it’s not my song, it’s the people who have listened to it, it’s the people who’ve related to it. I wanted to put it quite close to the beginning just to be like, ‘This is me and this is what you are probably waiting for. So here you go, now enjoy the rest.’” **“boy crazy”** “I wrote this with Jonny Lattimer \[songwriter, producer, and musician who’s worked with Ellie Goulding, Tom Grennan, and Rina Sawayama\]. He started playing the bass part on the guitar, and this song just flew out of me. I thought, ‘This could be a really lovely love letter to my younger self in the style of this old-time, prom dance type of song.’ My generation and maybe older queer people didn’t get to have, really, that sort of prom night, where you’re allowed to be with who you want to be with. I think it was quite healing for me. I wanted to make a really lovely, wholesome song for people to think back to their younger selves, but also for younger queer people to hear and think, ‘Oh, actually I do identify with this.’” **“this is what happens”** “I wrote it with \[producer and songwriter\] Yakob in LA. I was there for two weeks, and this was my last session and I was like, ‘I miss working with the Brits. I just want to go home.’ But we met and got on really well. I was in a new country, everything was loud, everything was big, everything was sensory overload, and I just felt so overwhelmed. So I was like, ‘Why can’t I make a song about being anxious?’ It’s such a fun song even though it’s talking about something sad. Two things can be true at the same time: You can be really anxious and not want to leave your house and still want to have a dance to this song.” **“people pleaser”** “I went into the studio with \[producers and songwriters\] Jordan Riley and Gerard O’Connell and said, ‘I really struggle to say no to people.’ Jordan started playing some chords and I was like, ‘This could be quite fun.’ The song just wrote itself. The lyrics and chorus are quite sad. But again, I wanted it to be a happy-go-lucky sounding song to have a juxtaposition to make it not feel like it’s the end of the world.” **“live more & love more”** “I went into the session with the same guys as ‘people pleaser,’ and I was like, ‘I would love to make something that is just quite inspiring, that could get people to want to try something.’ Essentially, what the chorus says, if there is something that you want to try and do, just do it because we only get one life to try things, so there’s no point living with regrets. I wanted to do that in as non-cringe a way as possible.” **“jodie”** “I wrote ‘jodie’ with an amazing writer called Simon Aldred. I wanted to write a timeless love song—a ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ vibe. Simon came up with the chords and the lyrics flew out. I could draw upon my first love—I just wanted to make a really lovely love song for her because she was love personified for me, but also to showcase queer love, especially at the end where it says, ‘Our love goes rings around the sun, and they try and slow it down.’ This was a love song for the person—but also for the community, a love letter to queer love, and the beauty of how pure and natural it is.” **“you don’t love me anymore”** “It’s actually not about anything specific, but a concept that I’ve always wanted to write about. I think the uncertainty of love is such a big thing for a lot of people. And I think a lot of people have that fear that someone will just leave them because they don’t love them anymore—that swift change is really unsettling to think about. I wanted to make a song about that saying, ‘I’d actually rather you have met somebody else than just saying you don’t love me anymore, because I don’t really know how to get closure from that.’” **“no more”** “This is actually about a friend who came out of a longtime relationship, where he didn’t feel seen at all, he didn’t feel like any of his efforts were respected or valued. I thought that was a really interesting concept. It’s going, ‘OK, well, you didn’t see that so you won’t see me again.’ It’s a short and sweet song—only two minutes. Once I’ve said this twice or three times, that’s it. That’s the last time you’ll hear from me and see me.” **“happier without you”** “It’s about a friend, again, who came out of a long-term relationship. I remember I was there for her quite a bit through her realizing that she did not want to be with him anymore and this was not the right relationship for her. I wanted to make a song that’s sad and somber, but hopeful at the same time.” **“healing” (feat. India.Arie)** “I’ve loved India’s music since I was young—she’s one of my biggest inspirations. I covered a few of her songs back in 2020, and she heard one of them and followed me, and said, ‘I think you’re really great. Anything I can ever do to help or just be a part of your journey, I would love to.’ Nothing came of it until I wrote ‘healing.’ I could really hear India on it—she makes healing, purposeful, intentional music about feeling close to yourself and feeling centered within yourself. I sent her the song and she loved it. When she sent over her verse, I was like, ‘This is the most perfect way to end the album.’ People in their early twenties, we always end up getting advice from people older than us who say, ‘You will be fine.’ You find it really dismissive, but they have gone through this probably multiple times, and they’ve come out the other end each time. The fundamental thing is everything is going to be OK and it will pass, and we’ll go into the next stage of our life. So that’s why I ended it with that song.”

“It’s quite a strange album,” Nia Archives tells Apple Music about her debut, *Silence Is Loud*. The award-winning artist, producer, and DJ—credited with spearheading a mainstream revival of jungle music—is the first to acknowledge that the sonic landscape of the album is an eclectic departure from her early sound. While elements of the production will be familiar to fans of Archives—including jungle pioneer Goldie and global superstar Beyoncé—*Silence Is Loud* rings with Britpop, Motown, and alternative rock influences, resulting in a wholly original listening experience that exposes the unconventional edge to her artistry. Co-produced with rising talent Ethan P. Flynn, whose credits include FKA twigs and slowthai, the record is beholden to the late-’90s/early-2000s era of organic, experimental pop dominated by William Orbit—albeit charged with the frenetic energy of drum patterns still firmly rooted in jungle. While tracks like “Cards on the Table,” “Crowded Roomz,” and “F.A.M.I.L.Y” see Archives explore recurring themes of loneliness, self-acceptance, parental estrangement, and love—both unconditional and unrequited—with her characteristic lyrical candor, *Silence Is Loud* leaves fewer places for the intensity of her words to hide behind. This reality is most clearly evidenced on the reprise of the title track, which strips away her typical percussive camouflage. “Jungle is so chaotic and intense that nobody really pays attention to the lyrics that much,” says Archives. “The drums take up a lot of space in the music—they’re like the heart, and when you take that away, it’s like the brain. Which is a bit much sometimes.” For all the risk Archives has taken in releasing a body of work that resists the urge to chase trends in favor of presenting a true reflection of her own journey, *Silence Is Loud* succeeds in alchemizing its disparate parts into audio gold. “I played in a pub in London the other day and the people were singing along so loudly it made me think this isn’t just a viral-TikTok-moment album. It’s an album that people have to listen to, and then listen to again to take it in…\[because\] it’s something weird and new,” she says. “But I think I’ve got good taste in music, so that gives me a little bit of confidence in myself.” Read on to find out more about each track in Archives’ own words. **“Silence Is Loud”** “I wrote this song about my little brother, who is my little baby. He’s getting older and our relationship has changed so much. He’s changed so much, I’ve changed so much. I wanted to write about how I love him no matter what, and that is what unconditional love is to me. There’s no ifs or buts, it’s just pure love. I wrote it in bed and then I took it to Ethan. It’s the first song we made together. One of my favorite albums is *Aha Shake Heartbreak* by Kings of Leon, I’m so inspired by the lo-fi \[sound\] in their music. I really wanted a Kings of Leon-meets-Radiohead moment because *In Rainbows* is also one of my favorite albums.” **“Cards on the Table”** “I wanted to make a really hardcore Britpop jungle tune. It’s quite stripped-back breaks. I was hugely inspired by Blur, Pulp, Oasis, all that kind of vibe. I love Damon Albarn. If there’s anyone I would love to listen to the album, it would probably be him. Again, I wrote this in bed—I had a bit of a situationship with an Irish boy I met after a show in Dublin last year, so it’s a real story and my first time writing a song like this. I don’t really write love songs, but I was trying to have a bit of a Natasha Bedingfield moment. I’ve really tried to think of all the best songwriters to come out of the UK and focused on studying a lot of people. This was the first time I wrote a song and I felt like it was a ‘proper’ song.” **“Unfinished Business”** “This is the only song I’m worried about having to sing live because I’d just come back from a festival and I’d lost my voice, which is why it sounds so hoarse and rock ’n’ roll—I don’t know if I can re-sing it like that. I wrote it about realizing that everybody else has their own life before they’ve met you. Before you even say hello, they’ve already had so many experiences that have shaped them as a person. That’s actually quite positive. The production is quite four-four because I’ve been making loads of four-four music recently. And I also really wanted to make a Foo Fighters-inspired jungle tune because I loved the Foo Fighters when I was 14.” **“Crowded Roomz”** “We made this in the studio and it was a bit overwhelming. I was talking about loneliness—chronic loneliness. I feel like a lot of people my age experience loneliness. For me, with what I do—where it’s really high or low—it’s so heightened and you experience that a little bit more. And it was like, ‘Oh my god, this is actually a bit much, I can’t listen,’ because we listen to the same song on loop for four hours and it’s an intense one to listen to over and over again. The next day, we were like, ‘Oh, this is actually really good.’ I’ve been playing this one out and everyone screams the words, so I’m hoping that will be the vibe across the album. More of my sets have turned from hardcore jungle to a pop concert, which is cool.” **“Forbidden Feelingz”** “I feel like there’ll be a lot of people discovering me \[through this new sound\] and I really want them to hear where I’ve come from and how I got to this point. This is a nice moment for a switch-up, to be like, ‘I do this as well and, if you want, you can go back and discover all that stuff.’ I can never recreate this song, it’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever made, so I didn’t want it to not be a part of an album that will hopefully shape the next few years of my life.” **“Blind Devotion”** “This is the longest project I’ve made in my life. I’m usually a 20-minute person, max. Towards the end I was like, ‘Oh my god, for an album to be an album it has to be 35 minutes, I need three \[more\] minutes to complete this thing, let’s make one more song.’ It’s one of the only new songs with the ‘old me’ sound, where it’s really clubby. We were going for that Massive Attack kind of vibe. We made this one at my studio and mine’s not got a lot of equipment. I try not to spend money on too much stuff. I’ve got 10 plug-ins, which is really weird as a producer, but I’d rather be the master of what I’ve got than have everything and not know how to use any of it. As a creative, you want a challenge and to feel like, ‘I’ve only got this, how do I make it sound interesting?’” **“Tell Me What It’s Like?”** “I said to Ethan that I wanted to make a song a bit like The Cranberries. The middle section, which is so happy, comes from another beat—the only song that didn’t make it on to the album. The rest of the song is quite dark and it was Ethan’s idea to put the two together. It’s about unrequited love, but not necessarily in a relationship sense, more related to my own life, but I guess people will take it however they want to take it. When I wrote it, I was inspired by Natalie Imbruglia’s kind of vibe. I sampled this voice note that Goldie sent me, because he sends me voice notes every week. He’s been a great listening ear and a real supporter. He’s someone I’m so inspired by and look up to—not just as a musician but as a person. He was quite gassed about it when I sent it to him.” **“Nightmares”** “I had my heart broken in Tokyo, which is hilarious and random. It’s like something out of a film. I came back from Asia and I was really sad, and the only way I can process my emotions is by making music. I wrote this song at home and then Ethan’s label let us use their spare studio, and he brought his guitar. I’d been listening to loads of Fleetwood Mac to get over my upset and I wanted to make something with that vibe. I thought ‘Nightmares don’t just happen when you’re sleeping’ was quite a funny play on words because what was happening felt like a real-life nightmare, which is so dramatic. This is the only song I kind of regret. I’ve never been really mean on a song in my life and the person I wrote about hasn’t heard it. I hope they don’t hate me because we’re kind of friends again now. But it’s a good song, so what can you do?” **“F.A.M.I.L.Y”** “I wrote this about my personal experience and my relationship with my family. This song is the end of that era, for me. I’m 25 this year, I feel like there’s only so many times you can be so caught up in things that cause you stress or upset you, so I really just wanted to say my piece and that’s it. There’s a little bit of acceptance within the song, understanding this is just the way things are and that’s OK, I guess. It was quite therapeutic. We recorded it in Ethan’s flat with me screaming and Ethan’s friend Felix \[Stephens\] playing the viola. My main inspiration was Estelle, ‘1980.’ There’s just a feeling I get when I listen to that song…I don’t know how to explain it. Even the video, where she’s sat on the stairs. It’s just a whole vibe I really wanted to capture with this song. It’s quite theatrical and I feel like the production reflects the drama.” **“Out of Options”** “I’d just been to the Motown Museum in Detroit for the first time and it was amazing. I love Motown. All the productions they made, just with what they had in those times, is actually crazy. It was such a booming Black industry that I’ve always been so inspired by. And I love The Ronettes, one of my favorite girl groups of all time. So I was really intensely listening to that kind of music and wanted to explore that sound. It was the only song I wrote on the spot and didn’t really have much that I wanted to say, but it was really fun recording how they would have recorded—standing in different spots in the room to create that big sound.” **“Silence Is Loud (Reprise)”** “Ethan suggested we do a reprise and I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that. Feels a little bit weird.’ But I trusted his gut. This was the only song we didn’t make in the UK. I was in L.A. on tour, and I hate making music in L.A., but we were at Sound Factory and we had all kinds of equipment and he was really having fun with the sound design. Throughout this album, I wanted to have loads of voice notes and anecdotes from people who mean something to me. So the voice talking at the start is my brother. In the middle, it’s loads of different voice notes from my friends, my friends’ parents who have become a really big part of my life, and my manager Tom, who’s my best friend. At the end is a sample of a video of all my friends from my birthday dinner. It’s quite emotional actually.” **“Killjoy !”** “I had a really nasty interaction with somebody who was quite close to me and this was me expressing that. It was the first time I was trying to think about how to make the words interesting and I love the way I wrote it. I made it at home and took it to Ethan, and what he brought to it was so cool—Massive Attack vibes with a bit of old-school IDM and jungle.” **“So Tell Me…”** “Another moment from a previous project. If I didn’t make \[2023 EP\] *Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall*, this song would have been on the album anyway—it felt like a good end.”