16 Somethings. Alex V. Cook

This was less busy writing year at Outsideleft for Alex V. Cook, he produced records, released new Rakers material, seemed to be taking his accordion to some diner or other for a show just about every week and then... formed an additional band, Souricière, that as soon as I heard, I said to anyone who would listen, this is a band that must be heard. I'm very happy though that he got this feature under the wire. I've been working with Alex for 20 years and when he writes about music it's most likely gonna give you a reason to listen. Over to Alex... [lamontpaul]

Tindersticks - Soft Tissue
Easily the top record of 2024 for me. The sticks feel loose in their bundle, eager for the firepit. These songs barely exist. Stuart Staples’ gulped vocals barely leave his throat and their idea of disco involves Ny-quil and hearing the beat through the walls of a studio apartment. It has soundtracked the dark nights and morning commutes for me countless times this year, Godot is my co-pilot unmoving in the passenger seat.Tindersticks - “Nancy”

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
I keep thinking I might just slide away from rock ‘n’ roll and then a dude like MJ pulls me back. I love every moment of his solo career and was afraid this would be no Boat Songs, and it isn’t. It is grander, more human. The only way he’s gonna top this is by staying on my couch for a week longer than expected.MJ Lenderman - “Joker Lips”

Chris Cohen - Paint a Room
Dainty, precious, arty, proggy, immediately accessible. I have no excuses for loving this delightful record that I feel I should bristle against. But nope. Just delightful, half dreams of a dreamy half-life. It came up on shuffle all year long and I never skipped it. That and Buffalo Springfield's “I Am a Child” but I’ll let the algorithm answer for that one.Chris Cohen - “Night and Day” Buffalo Springfield - “i am a Child’

Jessica Pratt - Here in the Pitch
Channelling girl group ba-boom chick chic and not an unignorable amount of bossa nova through liberal reverb along with more bass than guitar will pretty much always do it for me, and it’s what she does here, so it does. When people are making that face at the music you wanted to play for them, play this and win back their trust.Jessica Pratt - “World on a  String”

Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
Sprawling only on Youtube and a GeoCities site, appropriately humble portals through which this ghost of a triple record arrives to haunt your life. Twinkling, vaguely soca guitar infused into a stream of dreamy pop, broadcast through the AM station of the lonely heart. It is something that sounds completely different from whatever you listen to unless you listen to a lot of John Lurie.Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (Full album, the only acceptable way to consume it)

John Lurie - Painting with John (Soundtrack)
I listened to a lot of John Lurie this year, via the homey soundtrack to the HBO series I did not make it through. It draws from Lounge Lizards, Marvin Pontiac, the John Lurie National Orchestra and all his other personae, pitching stoned drums and grizzled voiceover against tribal chants and clarinets and expertly minimal guitar. “Small Car” might be my song of the year, were it not from some other year or something but from forever right now.John Lurie - “Small Car”

King Hannah - Big Swimmer
The candlelit trade off on the Mitchell-esque title track with Sharon Van Etten - they each play the song and they are pastiched like a Subaru and a U-Haul - is worth the price of admission. The rest of the album is like a more loquacious version of the Kim Gordon Sonic Youth tracks with a healthy dose of the talky Dry Cleaning soliloquy thing. Righteous.King Hannah (with Sharon Van Etten) - “Big Swimmer”

Kim Gordon - The Collective
Speaking of, this album of glitchy electro/trap beats/dark Bj?ork with Kim Gordon also doing the Kim Gordon come on is a corker. It kinda shouldn’t work but it does, and that’s the best kind of working.Kim Gordon - “I’m a Man”

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Wild God
No album in recent memory has had a longer wind-up, including the spot-on oracle of The Red Hand Files and the bearable unlightness of Ghosteen and 1000 interviews in the Guardian. You’d have never convinced me in 1989 that Nick Cave would be the best pitchman for Christian faith AND sobriety, but he’s almost got me on the hook. So glad he let the full band back into his sanctuary.Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - “Final Rescue attempt”
Note: I nearly omitted the above song because there was no vintage super-8 footage video for it.

Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
This one I guess I will apologize for since, for some reason, an erudite, handsome smartass who is both Bernie Taupin and Elton John for these end times is reprehensible to many. Nobody has songs this good. I’ll stand on your kitchen island, CPAP machine in hand, and tell a murder of performatively mortified contemporary pop enthusiasts this. Moses with a hangover descending the mountain with your truest thoughts scrawled on Waffle House menus type ish. And, sure, it just came out, but it’s always been right here (Pats place where a heart should be.) So, I’m sorry. You’re welcome.Father John Misty - “She Cleans up”

Peel Dream Magazine - Rose Main Reading Room
Nope, still not over Stereolab and neither are they. Ripple through me, chill groove insurgents, Make me your instrument.Peel Dream Magazine - “Lie in the Gutter”

Ramsay Midwood - Manchaca Eyeball (Live From Sam's Town Point)
Goddamn I love Ramsay Midwood and when you talk about someone you love, like a Jason Isbell or whoever, I think, yeah, but would you be excited to see him sharing your shift at the lumber yard? Would you party with him after he helped you bury a dog? Would you wrestle him over a JJ Cale tape or that last taco? Doubtful. That’s why my guy is better than yours but it's not a contest.Ramsay Midwood - “Mystical Man of Sorrow”

Jake Xerxes Fussell - When I’m Called
I was prepared to dislike this on my nth listen, but it kept seeping in like groundwater into my shoddy foundation. Doing that Andy Warhol diss track from cult art documentary “The Maestro” is a particular move in my direction, but to open your record with it is a successful joust of my windmill. The rest of it is also good, disarming, nailing it. In the Martin Luther sense.Jake xerxes Fussell - “Who Killed Poor Robin?”

Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country
I feel I can add nothing to the description of Pokey LaFarge - Rhumba Country that isn’t blatantly there. Pokey LaFarge - “One You, One Me”

The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet
A super-group that is actually super! And a group! I could and have listened to this on repeat all day. It has segued from the Fall and the Grateful Dead with equal ease, and that’s where I am in life. Hope if they come my way it’s an early show.The Hard Quartet - “Rio’s Song”

The Mystery Lights - Purgatory
Remember when I said I was tired of rock ‘n’ roll? I am apparently not. I am scrawling their band name on my math folder and putting them on a mixtape I’m making for your girl. The Mystery Lights - “Sorry, I Forgot Your Name”

Alex V. Cook was the original music editor at Outsideleft. A title he still holds. Look at this list. Whynot? Main image Alex self-portrait as an early morning wolfman.