blank mood picks for 2024
_____ mood. made it through a second year of monthly episodes featuring new and old shoegaze, dream pop, ambient and related music genres - yee haw. My 2024 list of music picks is different than last year in that I focussed on full albums and picked just six this year. They are listed below in order of release.
As I mentioned at the end of 2023, lists are a dime a dozen, as are shows like this one, so I appreciate that a few of you continue to listen and read what I put together. I also appreciate the effort that people put into their creative products, so I try to put some effort into explaining why I like them. Not because I think I’m all that, but because I wish there was more friendly dialogue about music - especially for un-expert, non-technical people like me.
One thing I’ve learned directly in talking to people about their music for blank mood, for better or worse, is that many don’t make music for others and don’t necessarily care what fans think or feel about it. As a fan and music consumer who feels like there is a constant stream of hawking of goods, this zero care factor towards listeners hits a bit weird. At the same time, I think I get it and can understand. Kinda tricky.
I enjoyed a lot of lives shows and new music releases this year. Thank you for that. A lot of you put so much of what you have into making music, putting on shows, creating artwork, taking photographs, selling the stuff, etc.
Okay, so here’s my blank mood picks for 2024.
//wendy
New Classic
Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day
Whitelands
[Sonic Cathedral]
The band I was most excited about in 2023 did not disappoint in delivering an exceptional album in early 2024. Rough Trade put this at number 64 on their Albums of the Year 2024 list, but really, shouldn’t it be higher up the list?!
Whitelands seem to have gone from strength to strength this year and their blend of emotional music is both personal and political while shimmering with beauty and depth.
“It has a much bouncier twinkly-emo math-rock feel to it…I really wanted to convey this sense of frustration and repetition, and it seemed to match the melodies really well.”
Etienne Quartey-Papafio on “Setting Sun”
blank mood Q+A with Etienne Quartey-Papafio of Whitelands
Psychedelic Summer
Perseids
somesurprises
[Doom Trip Records]
Listening to Perseids for the first time was like a laid-back magic carpet ride - or what I imagine one to be: heading off with sure speed to another dimension then slowing down to enjoy the colours and happenings. “Ship Circles” is the furthest point in the journey, where you feel a bit worried, but the magic carpet does indeed turn around and bring you back.
“This song’s title refers to a large cruise ship in the Occupied Hawaiian Kingdom that circles the islands in perpetuity called the Pride of America. I think those lyrics are about the danger of spinning your wheels so much that you never commit to a direction. It’s about the fear of letting indecision, time, aging, and death decide your fate instead of your own real mind and heart.”
Natashal El-Sergany of somesurprises on “Ship Circles”
blank mood Q+A with Natasha El-Sergany of somesuprises
Dark and Delicate
Dreamweaver
Trentemøller
[In My Room]
Vocalist Disa Jacobs lends a soft and gentle aura to many of the songs on Dreamweaver, blending effortlessly across all of the sounds that Trentemøller creatively combines in his characteristic way: sustained guitars and waves of synth with quirky electronica, dashes of goth and the dramatic stops and starts of an orchestra enshrouded in fog. The Dreamweaver Tour show this year was also something to behold, just as the shows from the last album’s tour Memoria - an incredible group of musicians who put on an amazing show.
Phantasmal Friend
Only Hinting
Clinic Stars
[kranky]
Described as a “pitch-perfect fusion of downer-pop balladry and featherweight shoegaze,” I like Only Hinting for what feels like a lightweight requirement of the listener. There to commiserate in a ghostly mist of thoughts, but not taking you down too far or deep. Many songs carry traces of early Low and Cocteau Twins, though you can also think of the sound of younger acts like White Flowers.
Sweetly Menacing
avant demain
Turquoise
[Freaksville Records]
As I’ve said before, I love the sweetly menacing synth pop of Turquoise. avant demain opens with the sexy, triumphant “fugace” then hits you with “paranoïa”, a tune that illustrates their combination of punchy synth pop and goth-stricken shoegaze guitar sounds. “lumio” and “avant demain” deliver more of this, along with vocalist Sarah Boom’s beautiful voice singing in French.
“lumio” is a song about finding light and strength in ourselves when everything seems dark and hopeless by clinging to happy memories of past relationships or mental images of reassuring and luminous places, out of time.”
Sarah Boom of Turquoise on “lumio”
Just as Robert Smith Said…
Songs Of A Lost World
The Cure
[Polydor]
A quote from Robert that goes back to May 2022. If I had to use one word to describe Songs Of A Lost World, it would be exactly that: relentless. The sounds and lyrics add up to an unrelentingly heavy mood. If you’re not looking to go there, as noted above, listen to Only Hinting by Clinic Stars instead! My favourites on Songs Of A Lost World are opening track “Alone” and closing track “Endsong”. Buttressing the opener “And Nothing Is Forever” starts off worryingly sappy, which on first listen made me think, ‘oh dear, where are we going to?’ but within a minute a crunchy peaked-out guitar reassures that you’re not in the middle of a commercial for Hallmark greeting cards. “All I Ever Am” is another favourite, with an unrelenting undertow, more of that buzzy guitar, and the catchy refrain of self-aware frustration and fear, “I lose all my life like this…I waste all my world like this…”. But most of all, I love the end of “Endsong”. Again, relentless in letting you go, until emphasising twice, “nothing” across four final heartbeats.