OOPS! 50 of 2024 / #20-16: Two Indie Icons, Red Flags and Bubbs

We are now in the top 20 and nearing the end of our OOPS! 50 of 2024. It has been a pretty good OOPS! series this year. Lots of icons putting out great music, some new bands to get excited about and some wonderful surprises. I love music.

20. Brittany Howard: Red Flags

The vocal powerhouse behind the Alabama Shakes is working solo. She still brings that soulful punch that ricks you to your core. A song about not stopping for red flags and reaping the consequences for that has an urgency to it, which borderlines on frenetic. Her vocal is such a force of nature. This track is an experience not to be overlooked.

19. Father John Misty: Josh Tillman and Accidental Dose

Father John Misty, a.k.a. Josh Tillman, loves to break the 4th wall with his mix of folk and indie drug psychedelia. Nothing can exemplify that more than this Beatles-esque track about his own drug use and cynical view of the music industry / celebrity. In a very Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream way, Misty takes us down one of his acid doses into a voyage through his mind. His wall of sound, expert song writing and languid folky vocal all come together to create a complex track that will burrow itself into your mind.

18. Laura Marling: Patterns

This quiet unassuming song has a fragile beauty to it with its acoustic guitar and lovely harmonies. This song is about the passing of time and seeing patterns in life and nature. I love how she likens children to flocks of birds and branches in the wind. Marling’s work is folk songwriting as its best and what I love about Joni Mitchell and Courtney Barnett, which is the ability to elevate the everyday into beautiful art. This is a beautiful song that should have been top 10 on the top 50 of 2024.

17. Hovvdy: Bubba

In this Postal Service meets Bon Iver electro indie folk track Hovvdy sings about grief, feeling inadequate and love. Electro beats and keyboard match a beattifully raw and emotional vocal. The track itself has the feeling of being done in one take with the raw emotionality of the vocal and little pops and clicks in the background. I don’t know much about this band, but this track has really gotten to me and I look forward to seeing what else they come up with.

16. Anohni and the Johnsons: Breaking

Anohni has been around the indie traps for a long time. Anohni’s vocal is unique and remarkable. The amount of depth and texture they get on their vocal is unlike anything you will hear. Anohni mainly sings about identity, gender, love and the power of emotions on the human soul. This track is no different as Anohni sings about the debilitating power of witnessing destruction as they dream of beauty being swept away into nothing. This is a powerful track sung by a powerful artist.