Best Chicago albums of 2024

...out of albums I came across

Short updates:

1. I’m on Bluesky regularly now (with the handle satoruinoue.com). I still check my Twitter/X account where I post in Japanese¹, but it stopped being a place to discover something new on the internet 2+ years ago—that’s a big reason why I started writing here.
   
   There’s definitely a lot more food content on Instagram², but otherwise Bluesky is looking promising.
   

   Fair warning: I’ve already exhausted my Rolling Stones takes.

   

2. It looks like the former Ramen Takeya space in Fulton Market, which became a Korean pub with the same owners, is turning back into a ramen place. I’ll need to check this out, but tentatively, this is again part of my top 5 ramen places in the city of Chicago.

This being my wrap for the year, I should first go over my Spotify Wrapped, a few weeks late. Here are the top artists and songs that I played on Spotify this year:

I’m happy with how much I was able to reflect my actual listening habits in this newsletter.

1. I wrote about the kora master Toumani Diabaté, who died this year.

2. I wrote about Pearl & The Oysters in my last post. “Big Time” is their song.

3. I wrote about Selton, my favorite Brazilian band in Italy. “Sangue Latino” and “Café Pra Dois” are their songs.

4. I wrote about MUNYA from Montreal, whose Jardin might be my favorite album from 2023. “Caramel” is something from French opera that she reimagined.

5. I wrote about “Hello” by Girl & Girl, an Australian garage rock band.

6. I did not write about the jazz electronica group cosmic collective. I’m guessing they got in there because they are prolific and I listened to most of their releases.

One thing to note is that we have a separate Spotify account for our toddler, so that his music doesn’t mess up our recommendations.

My best of 2024 playlists

I keep a number of “best albums” playlists on Spotify, where I add good albums as I encounter them, and organizing them by some (usually geographic) criteria. It helps me keep track of music scenes that I’m interested in, and it’s also a way for me to make sure I see where the music is coming from when I like something³.

I’ll talk a bit more about the Chicago playlist below, but here’s a short rundown of some of the other ones.

• Best African albums 2024: Out of albums that I haven’t already talked about here, Musow Danse by Les Amazones d’Afrique was a highlight.

• Best Australian albums 2024: I really like this whole playlist, but Grace Cummings might be more obscure than others.

• Best Brazilian albums 2024: Pique by Dora Morelenbaum is my favorite here.

• Best Italian albums 2024: I would highlight the 2 Italo disco albums, Città Futura by Bassolino and The Napoli Exchange by EX GENERATION.

• Best Japanese albums 2024: Ogre You Asshole is a really good krautrock band with a bizarre name.

• Best Montréal albums 2024: Bon Enfant and Mon Doux Saigneur are my favorite bands in here.

And here’s my 6 favorite Chicago albums from this year, in the order that I discovered them. I did not specifically go looking for music from Chicago, so I've surely missed out on a lot. Let me know if you know good albums that are not in here.

Valebol by Valebol

I wrote about this album back in April, and I’m OK calling this my favorite Chicago album of 2024. I occasionally get “Netuchepa!” and “Row Row Row” stuck in my head.

The Light Up Waltz by Minor Moon

This is alt country with apocalyptic sci-fi lyrics. I love the “Blue Timing/I Could See It Coming” sequence. V.V. Lightbody, who is one half of Valebol above, contributed vocals and flute and some production work.

Mestizx by Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly

Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti (Bolivia/Brazil) and Frank Rosaly (Puerto Rico/Chicago) are both based in the Netherlands, but recorded this in Chicago. This album is very genre-fluid, with latin, jazz, punk, electronica all in the mix. “TURBULÊNCIA” and “MESTIZX” are my favorite tracks.

Currents / Volume 3 by Third Coast Percussion

Third Coast Percussion is a great classical percussion ensemble, and their Currents series is where they collaborate with composers who aren’t used to writing for percussion to make new music. I especially liked “Tree Songs”, the last 4 tracks.

Bamako*Chicago Sound System by Nicole Mitchel & Ballaké Sissoko

Now that Toumani is gone, Ballaké Sissoko is the one great living master of the kora (West African harp). This came out a month after Toumani’s death, and it was such a gift. Nicole Mitchell is a jazz flautist who was based in Chicago for a long time, with serious avant garde cred, but I think this music is very approachable. Apparently the recording for this album happened way back in 2017.

Composers Collective: Beyond The Jukebox by Marquis Hill

Here’s a more straight-up jazz album. If you have Joel Ross on vibraphone, I already know I would probably like it. There’s a lot of music here, written by a bunch of people, with a bunch of guest artists. I still need to re-listen and digest it.

So that’s it for 2024. I wish you all a great new year.

1. Most Japanese users don’t really care what Elon Musk does, and given the huge network effects, it will take an even more serious deterioration in the functionality for them to leave in large numbers.

2. The problem there, though, is that I mostly want the opposite of what’s good on Instagram.

3. I sometimes see criticism of Spotify for not letting users find out too much about the background behind the music. I agree that Spotify isn’t a great tool for finding more about where the music came from, but I also think the only good platform for that is Bandcamp, and Spotify is better for finding something new to begin with.

I can be convinced otherwise.