20 BEST BALLADS OF 2024
ALL TOGETHER
TRACK BY TRACK
Band: THE MYSTERINES
Who: Impassioned powerhouse pop indies from
Liverpool fronted by ravishing voice Lia Metcalfe.
Track: SO LONG
From their 2nd LP
Afraid Of Tomorrows.
Haunting femme fatale tragedy.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: BILL RYDER-JONES
Who: Singer-songwriter who was co-founder
of Merseyside heroes The Coral.
Track: THIS CAN’T GO ON
Piece from his 6th solo LP
Lechyd Da.
Choral magnificence.
Instagram – Spotify
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
Track: WILD GOD
Title song from their
18th full length.
Orchestral grandeur.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: T BONE BURNETT
Who: Legendary American songsmith and lauded producer who worked
with many greats (Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, John Mellencamp and many
more) and scored movie soundtracks all through his long career.
Track: WAITING FOR YOU
From his intimate and warm
longplayer The Other Side.
Goosebumps beauty.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: FAT WHITE FAMILY
Who: Notorious UK squad, led by the charismatic
voice/songwriter/author Lias Saoudi.
Track: RELIGION FOR ONE
From their 4th and best LP
Forgiveness Is Yours.
Enigmatic tearjerker.
Instagram – Spotify
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Peter Murphy – photo by Jolene Siana / Boy George – photo by Dean Stockings
Artists: PETER MURPHY and BOY GEORGE
Bauhaus maestro and Culture Club voice/face.
LET THE FLOWERS GROW
The song was originally written by Boy George with its initial message being
“one of
personal acceptance about being gay. As the song developed, it took on a more expansive and universal scope with its lyrics extending beyond sexuality and embracing race, gender, creed and religion.”
Epic.
Boy George – Peter Murphy
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: PETER PERRETT
Who: Former frontman of legendary British new
wavers The Only Ones (1976–1982, 2007–2017)
Track: FOUNTAIN OF YOU
Song from his 3rd solo album
The Cleansing.
Still a romantic at heart.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: HEARSING
Who: Long-time American
musical friends.
Track: SILICON PRAIRIE
Opener of the tandem’s 5-track
debut EP Pastoral.
“The song incorporates themes of longing and desperation I felt in my own
life at the time that found a home in anecdotes of the desert and its characters
experiencing these feelings for reasons far removed from my reality.”
Americana tristesse in motion.
Press photo by 📸: Dean Chalkley
Artist: RICHARD HAWLEY
Who: British master of melancholia.
Track: HEAR THAT LONESOME WHISTLE BLOW
Reverie from his 10th LP In This City They Call You Love.
Fanciful idealisation.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artists: THE GLASS HOURS
Who: American songwriters Brad Armstrong and Megan Barbera.
Their music blurs between Sunday afternoon country-folk and
the golden age of the 1970s.
Track: SAME OLD YOU
From their heartfelt
self-titled debut LP.
Bittersweet country magic.
Website – Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: KAT KOAN
Who: Entrancing songstress
from Berlin.
Track: DREAM GIRL
Whispering nightclub sensuality.
.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: KIM DEAL
Track: ARE YOU MINE?
Song from her solo debut album
Nobody Loves You More.
Captivating love song for her mother.
.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: THE BLACK KEYS
Track: ON THE GAME
Song from their 12th, bluesy dream pop,
longplayer Ohio Players. Stellar record.
Spellbinding.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: OLIVER HOHLBRUGGER
Who: Norwegian songwriter.
Track: BLACK CANVAS.
“It’s about that someone you’ll never be with and that you allow to remain
inside you as a perfect unspoiled thing, yet still you measure and hold your
real relationship up against it. It’s a dream, an illusion, an unfair fantasy.
Nothing and therefore able to be perfect.”
Yearning amorousness.
Linktree
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: THE SMILE
Who: Two radioheads – Thom Yorke and
Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Track: Instant Psalm
Highlight from their 3rd and
best full-length Cutouts.
Vintage Thom York blues.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: MGMT
Who: Psych-pop star duo
from Connecticut, US.
Track: PHRADIE’S SONG
Composition from their 5th LP
Loss Of Life.
Candlelight sensibility.
.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: MONOSCOPES
Who: Italian psych-pop act.
Track: HEY ATLAS
Cut from their notable 2nd full
length Endcyclopedia.
Starry-eyed nostalgia.
.
Instagram – Spotify
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: JOHNNY CASH
The immortal country icon.
Track: HELLO OUT THERE
One of the 11 self-penned songs from 1993 that weren’t
released until now, on the new longplayer Songwriter.
Affecting as ever.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: RINGO STARR
No pension for 85-year beatle.
Track: TIME ON MY HANDS
Starr goes country again. New LP
Look Up out early next year.
Little drummer boy.
Instagram
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Band: THE VEILS
Who: New Zealand‘s guitar-pop veterans
centered around singer/songwriter Finn Andrews .
Track: THE LADDER
From new, upcoming 6th LP Asphodels
that will arrive on January 24th.
Endearing moments.