The best albums of 2024: Scotsman critic Fiona Shepherd names her top ten

Sharleen Spiteri of Texas with Spooner Oldham

Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown (Domino) There is something both earthy and elemental about Beth Gibbons’ debut solo album yet, despite its ethereal blues, its music is no cathartic conjuring. Lives Outgrown has been a meticulous ten years in the making, its songs of motherhood, menopause and mortality carved and whittled from experience to produce a memento mori for the trip-hop generation.

Chrysanths: Leave No Shadow (Chemikal Underground) Chrysanths is a new project from Modern Studies singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emily Scott. Leave No Shadow is as beautifully conceived as anything in their catalogue, rich with swooning string arrangements, ravishing vocals and painterly lyrics like brushstrokes implying a sensual world. The sultry accord of Rising combines jazzy inflections, tremulous harmonies, dancing strings and slight dissonance on keyboards into an intoxicating whole.

​Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: Woodland (Acony Records) The symbiotic creative relationship of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings has produced ten albums under one or the other of their names, but they officially brand their partnership on Woodland, named after their Nashville Studio. Welch exudes the blues on Empty Trainload of Sky. Her gift is in painting a full scene with a few choice words – here, the trigger is a freight train. Rawlings leads with Neil Young-like vulnerability on the luscious easy listening country of What We Had. The Bells and the Birds recalls Jefferson Airplane’s more plaintive minor key moments, while their intertwined vocals on The Day The Mississippi Died are pure Dylan and Baez.

Father John Misty: Mahashmashana (Bella Union) Singer and showman Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, is an old hand at the caustic crooning and goes Nelson Riddle big band bonanza from the off on his latest psych country opus Mahashmashana, with an expertly marshalled title track which grows to an almost hysterical climax. She Cleans Up is a funky pop maelstrom with a cameo reference to Scarlett Johansson riding around the Scottish countryside in the cult sci-fi film Under the Skin and Screamland is a cathartic ride on a diabolic funfair, contrasting with the languid melancholy of Summer’s Gone.

Ari Tsugi: Simultaneity (Rebecca’s Records) Glasgow-based international combo Ari Tsugi are another band who know where they are going, even if the route is subconsciously scenic. Their debut outing, Simultaneity, is a journey through the seasons as conceived by the core trio of bassist Clement Gaud, drummer Joe Weisberg and guitarist/vocalist Mashu Harada and decorated with the inspired contributions of guest vocalist India Blue, trombonist Liam Shortall and saxophonist Mateusz Sobieski, ranging from the swirling psychedelics of Mezame to the exultant fusion jazz of the title track.

Hifi Sean and David McAlmont | Rob Martin

Hifi Sean & David McAlmont: Daylight (Plastique Recordings) Among the vast array of pandemic-birthed collaborations, one of the most glorious was the sublime partnership of Hifi Sean & David McAlmont. Their debut album Happy Ending was essentially Scots expat Soup Dragon-turned-DJ/producer Sean Dickson meets torch song supremo and art and architecture academic McAlmont at the top of a London tower block for some urban soul romance. Follow-up Daylight puts the sampledelics and trip-hop on the backburner in favour of sleek euphoric dance pop.

Willie Nelson: The Border (Legacy Recordings) Willie Nelson is 91 years young and an estimated 152 albums into his career. The Border Album is another gem to add to the bumper collection. He showcases his outlaw spirit and supreme storytelling gifts on the opening cover of Rodney Crowell’s The Border, a gentle Tex Mex reproach for those who would exploit immigrant tensions which sounds like it could have been written by or for him. Nelson also celebrates his home state on the playful western swing of Made In Texas and rolls out the droll humour over impish pedal steel on What If I’m Out Of Mind.

Snowgoose: Descendant (Violette Records) Snowgoose is the sublime collaboration between Soup Dragons/BMX Bandits guitarist Jim McCulloch and Anna Sheard, an entrancing vocalist who combines California breeziness with English psych folk qualities in her pure tone. Supported by guest players including Teenage Fanclub guitarist Raymond McGinley and Belle & Sebastian keyboard player Chris Geddes, they layer on forlorn trumpet and synth arpeggios to Down the Line, dapple the Laurel Canyon amble of Sorrow with electric piano and infuse Bewildered Dance with the soulful keen of pedal steel to create a vibe (no other word will do) that is both mellow and heady.

Texas & Spooner Oldham: The Muscle Shoals Sessions (PIAS) The FAME Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, is a sacred place for music. It was here in January 1967 that Aretha Franklin turned around her career, cutting I Never Loved A Man (The Way That I Love You). Present at the session and instrumental in creating the hit arrangement was pianist and songwriter Spooner Oldham, whose electric piano bleeds the Memphis sound. Sharleen Spiteri is wise to this southern soul lore and you can feel her rapture at recording as Texas & Spooner Oldham on his turf. He is not a showy player; rather he is all about the vibe, which is in full effect on this selection of Texas tracks reworked in that so-southern style.

Gruff Rhys: Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade Records) Former Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys optimises his strategy for “shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness” on his consistently delightful album Sadness Sets Me Free via the medium of whimsical Lee Hazlewood-style country folk, floaty retro backing vocals and lavish strings – and that’s just the opening title track, which changes pace to become a soused country waltz in the last 90 seconds.