The Plague Nurse’s Year in Rop and Pock: 2024

What a strange year it’s been, part 2

J.P. Williams
5 min readDec 29, 2024
The Plague Nurse. Illustration by author.

As remarked in “The Plague Nurse’s Year in Heavy Metal and Hard Rock: 2024,” it was a strange year. Pop and rock, pazz and jop, rop and pock, whatever you want to call it, some of that strangeness leaked into the Plague Nurse’s imbibement of music. Here are some of her favorite new discoveries or rediscoveries.

1. Send Away the Tigers by Manic Street Preachers (Columbia, 2007)
Rock

The Plague Nurse ranked this Welsh band’s The Holy Bible among her favorites last year, and the band has come through again. Frontman James Dean Bradfield and company continuously show that alt-rock can still be creative and affecting. The standout here, enough to put a smile on my face and a lump in my throat every time is “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” featuring The Cardigans vocalist Nina Persson.
Also recommended: Futurology by Manic Street Preachers

2. L’Arc-en-Ciel’s Kiss (Ki/oon, 2007)
J-Rock

Kiss catches attention with pop-minimalist cover art, like Roy Lichtenstein forgot to add the dots, and holds that attention through upbeat and engaging pop-rock with all the dressing: four guys in a band plus a long list of musicians on everything from winds and strings to keyboard and accordion. If this album is any indication, this once ridiculous offshoot of visual-kei has spent its extensive discography maturing.
Also recommended: lead singer Hyde’s hard rock/heavy metal album Faith

3. Michael Jackson’s Number Ones (Epic/Sony, 2003)
Pop

A strange year indeed if the Plague Nurse enjoys Michael Jackson. Revisiting the King of Pop’s hits, one is struck by how much he could rock. He loved a good guitar solo, as evidenced by Eddie Van Halen on “Beat It,” and toward the end of “Bad,” he snarls bits of lyrics like he’s lost control and breaking shit. Another favorite is “Blood on the Dance Floor.” It all ended in ignominy, but the music was thrilling.
Also recommended: Michael Jackson’s King of Pop for the inclusion of “Scream” with sister Janet Jackson

4. Symbolic by Voodoo Glow Skulls (Epitaph, 2000)
Ska Punk

As if it wasn’t enough that punk had to get up everyone’s noses, it had to go and add a horn section. The ska here is tight and the vocals only marginally better than your average adolescent with too much free time alone in his room with a tape recorder, but sometimes what society needs is a strong upbeat and a good blat! This six-piece’s sixth is irreverent, upbeat, unhinged and among the best of its kind.
Also recommended: Mixed Nuts by The Skunks

5. Al Green’s Lay It Down (Blue Note, 2008)
Soul

The Plague Nurse picked this up years ago for the production by The Roots mo’ megamind Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, but for no good reason it took until this year for her to notice the guest vocalist on “Take Your Time.” When she did, it was a moment that demanded the cessation of all other activities until the bearer of that glorious instrument could be identified: Corinne Bailey Rae. Linger indeed as every honeyed elocution, every warm moment enwraps you.
Also recommended: Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Sea

6. Raphael Saadiq’s Stone Rollin’ (Columbia, 2011)
Rock-and-Soul
The Tomtits, the other guest contributors to this account, once ripped Tony! Toni! Toné! three new ones for House of Soul, but one of that trio’s founding members has turned out at least one solo album of the utmost caliber. Stone Rollin’ is pure blue-funkin’ joy from start to finish, the rockingest live band at a school dance pre-Rubber Soul, Marty McFly back from the Eighties to rock the past via incipient sensibilities: It’s a perfect album.
Also recommended: Wagner Love’s Everything About¹

One of the Tomtits. Illustration by author.

7. Shawnna’s Worth tha Weight (Disturbing tha Peace/Def Jam, 2004)
Dirty Rap

In a more enlightened, tasteful universe, Jurassic 5’s Quality Control would be here, but six dudes listening to a tree stump simply can’t beat tha sheer waves of fly radiating off Rashawnna Guy, hip-hugger jeans forgetting to hug, cap so cocked it might as well be photoshopped on (poorly) — so we have a winner, and every bit as aesthetically on-point are the beats and rhymes. Hell, even reviews have style when it comes to this one. Check this from K.B. Tindal on HipHopDX.
Also recommended: Nate Dogg’s Essentials

8. George Michael’s Older (Virgin/Aegean, 1996)
Sophisti-pop

Pop stars are supposed to stay young forever, so it isn’t often that one of the biggest sex symbols ever comes out and says, “I’m older.” For George Michael, this is a Major Statement, from the Diamond Life cool of “Jesus to a Child” to the urban swelter of “Free,” what stands out most is the jazz infusion. The man had depth, but that should come as no surprise. Just listen to him show up Morrissey when discussing Joy Division on the BBC in 1984.
Also recommended: Madonna’s Erotica

9. The Impossible Leap in One Hundred Simple Steps by From Monument to Masses (Dim Mak, 2003)
Post-rock

The Plague Nurse hasn’t enjoyed mostly instrumental music with political sound bites this much since Sūrya’s Solastalgia. That was doom metal drawing on English poet William Blake and No DAPL protestors. This is jammy experimentalism nicking bits of the news, war hawk George W. Bush, leftwing public intellectual Noam Chomsky and Morpheus of The Matrix. From monuments to masses: May more of the former be to the latter.
Also recommended: Phish’s The Story of the Ghost

10. David Gilmour’s Luck and Strange (Sony, 2024)
Rock
The Plague Nurse can’t shake the feeling that Pink Floyd mainstay David Gilmour has traded countercultural psychedelia for fatuous late-night talk show appearances, millions in net worth, a trophy wife and the right to ensure your progeny joins the upper class. No doubt at least some of that is unfair and the argument could be made that the man has earned it. No one familiar with The Division Bell or Rattle That Lock would be surprised by the meditative ambience here, but who from the Sixties is still making music this fresh? McCartney? No. Dylan? Maybe.

With Manic Street Preachers releasing an album next month, there’s at least one new release to look forward to next year, but new releases are a luxury when there’s already so much music out there worthy of attention. What were your favorite discoveries or rediscoveries in 2024?

Footnote:
[1] The editor would like to offer a dissenting opinion and replace Wagner Love’s Everything About with Franz Ferdinand’s Always Ascending. It’s equally danceable and far less bland.

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J.P. Williams
J.P. Williams

Written by J.P. Williams

Writer and translator. Some scheduled posts may go up, but I'm barely here at the moment.

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