9 New Albums I'm Recommending Right Now

I'm looking for music in all the wrong places—that's where the best stuff is hiding in 2024

I stray off the beaten path in search of righteous music you won’t hear about elsewhere.

I’m not deliberately trying to be obscure. But it works out that way. The best music nowadays comes mostly from tiny indie labels and self-produced albums. It flourishes in unexpected places—and often gets distributed without a marketing campaign, or even a press release.

That’s certainly the case with most of the albums I’m recommending below. Many of these tracks were made at home or school or an abandoned water tank in rural northwest Colorado. But we won’t hold that against them.

As always, I’m covering a range of genres, styles, and countries.

Happy listening!

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Timo Lassy & Jukka Eskola: Nordic Stew
Brave Helsinki Horn Players Hire New Orleans Rhythm Section

What happens when Finnish horn players Timo and Jukka get bored one day and decide to fly to Louisiana to hire a real New Orleans rhythm section? Our fearless Finns feel they are funky, but are they funky enough to groove on this deep, deep parade beat?

There’s no need to wonder what it sounds like, because here it is. Timo Lassy and Jukka Eskola put it all down on record in the Tremé neighborhood, and brought the tracks back to Helsinki to mix.

If this band ever marches down my street, I’m rushing out to join the second line. (Hat tip to Evan Goldfine for alerting me to this album.)

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Oscilan: Madre Tierra
Acapella Mantras from Chile (with Occasional Raps)

Amazing things can happen in your bedroom—and I’m just talking music. One person created this album at home in Chillán, Chile. I can’t tell you much about Oscilan, who operates as singer, composer, and producer here—channeling it all into a microphone. Madre Tierra blends chants, melodies, grunts, breaths, and raps in unconventional ways. But it sounds confessional, not gimmicky. Maybe you need to do this kind of sonic birthing in your most intimate space.

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Fabiano do Nascimento & Sam Gendel: The Room
Duets for 7-String Guitar and Soprano Saxophone

I’m an extreme fan of both these fringe musicians—almost at the we’re-not-worthy level of cringe fandom. But I never ever expected these two opposites to join forces.

I started telling people about Rio de Janeiro-born guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento when he first hit the scene in Airto’s band. Even back then he made the top 10 of my best-of-year list and later showed up on my list of all-time favorite Brazilian albums—although I admitted he was the “least well-known musician” in that survey. I keep waiting for Nascimento to achieve some dose of stardom, but he somehow still hasn’t found a mainstream audience.

I admire Gendel, but for totally different reasons. That desperado does crazy things, and somehow pulls them off (not always, but most of the time) through sheer audacity and sure musical instincts. He is much farther out there than Nascimento, and with an entirely different musical lineage.

Somehow these two opposed forces came together in the studio. I’m gobsmacked. I had no idea that Gendel could play with such restraint and poise. This album is worth hearing if only for his soprano sax tone—does he use some studio trickery for that? That’s a very full-bodied sound for such a tiny instrument.

But don’t ignore Nacimento on guitar. He’s at the top of his game and it’s only a matter of time before the world takes notice.

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Frances Chang: Psychedelic Anxiety
Quirky Maximalist Folk Pop Recorded at Home

Here’s another homemade winner. But don’t let the bosses hear this album. It violates all four taboos of pop radio. Frances Chang openly declares allegiance to (1) unexpected chord changes, (2) cushy vocal harmonies, (3) radical tempo shifts, and (4) acoustic real world sounds.