It’s been another great year at Real Gone. We’ve reviewed countless albums and EPs. We’ve covered a record number of gigs (with Simple Minds and Deacon Blue being particular standouts), and gained support from a wealth of new labels and PR teams. It’s also been the first full year online for our popular Singles Bar – allowing us to take a look at various individual tracks and submissions – which has provided a massive extra stream of traffic.

It’s been a superb twelve months for music, and it’s time to shine a light on the many talents we feel have helped to make our site interesting. We’ve featured a wealth of new stuff. As usual, rock has provided the backbone of Real Gone’s musical interests, but we’ve really gone all out to try and promote some of the most interesting things from other genres, which has made picking favourites a little harder this year.

As is now traditional, our picks have been limited to things that actually got reviewed at Real Gone. We feel this is only fair, and also the most effective way of giving credit where due. We’ve covered very few “household names” among our album reviews during the year – Status Quo being the only obvious exceptions – and that’s helped our end of year favourites take a unique stance. If you’re a regular follower, most of the featured names will already be familiar to you, of course, but for the more casual observer scouring the ’net for end of year lists, we hope our choices will introduce something new, or perhaps suggest an act or two to keep an eye for in ’25.

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KEELEY – Beautiful Mysterious

Keeley’s ‘Floating Above Everything Else’ was one of our favourite albums of 2023, and we thought it would be hard to top that. 2024’s ‘Beautiful Mysterious’ actually manages that feat, resulting in the Irish dream pop band’s best work to date. Presenting another round of songs inspired by the life and tragic death of traveller Inga Maria Hauser, the work continues a strong narrative thread, but musically, is a cut above. The poppy ‘Inga Maria’ is almost as hooky as the previous record’s ‘Glitter & The Glue’, ‘Forever Froze’ takes a detour into shimmering indie sounds, and there’s even a pinch of old school glam at the heart of the brilliant ‘Galloway Princess’. This is a more varied work, but the spirit of “classic Keeley” runs solidly through its centre. [Full review here.]

SILVEROLLER – At Dawn

As far as debuts go, this EP from UK rockers Silveroller is near perfect. They’ve taken a world of classic rock influences and reworked them with a slightly soulful edge and a whole lot of style. The Black Crowes-esque ‘Come On, Come In’ is a fantastic snapshot of the still new band’s sound, and its mature approach shows off Jonnie Hodson’s vocal brilliantly, showcasing him as someone with a talent that far exceeds his years. The band saw major line up changes just after release, but there’s no reason to think that the newer incarnation of the band won’t bring equally great work in 2025. [Full review here.]

PETER ALEXANDER JOBSON – Burn The Ration Books of Love

This was probably the year’s biggest surprise. Peter was already known to some as the bass player with I Am Kloot, but this solo debut introduced everyone to his far broader talents. Showcasing a huge, deep vocal on most of the tracks, the core of the material on this record shares a kinship with Nick Cave and Tindersticks, but Jobson’s broad influences also suggest a love of Tom Waits and other great singer songwriters. Full of little musical detours, it’s a record that works best as a whole, but listening time brings guaranteed enjoyment. [Full review here.]

ROSALIE JAMES – Full of Chemicals

Rosalie’s debut was easily one of the year’s biggest musical surprises. The Cornwall based singer songwriter delivered a mighty slice of pop rock, with frighteningly honest lyrical content tackling mental health issues and other real world topics. Musically, it’s a record that’s great from end to end, too, taking in moments of acoustic folk, riffs that recall a jangly 90s style, and a confidently broad adult pop. For lovers of thoughtful, radio friendly sounds, this record is a must-hear. [Full review here.]

anocean – climbing walls

This was a late entry into our ten best releases for ’24, but this new band’s very 90s sound hit us immediately. This five track EP brings together a wealth of shoegaze sounds which transport the listener straight back to the glory days of MTV UK’s ‘120 Mins’ and to a time when fuzzy guitars and wavering vocals reigned. Although playing out like a love letter to an indie rock past, the material still shared a spark that sounded great in the present. We’re hoping these guys really hit their stride in ’25. [Full review here.]

SOFTSUN – Daylight In The Dark

This represents an amazing musical package. It’s dark psychedelia, desert rock and melodic doom combined. Yawning Balch guitarist Gary Arce has kept himself very busy over the past couple of years, but the sprawling yet accessible soundscapes here represent some of his best work yet. There’s a very natural marriage between his desert tinged melodies and Superlynx vocalist Pia Isaksen’s other-worldly tones, resulting in a heavy but very melodic album that pushes familiar genre traits into inspiring new territory. [Full review here.]

THE RATTLEBACKS – Sidewinder

“New territory” isn’t that important to The Rattlebacks on this debut full length release, but these Brighton boys rock hard and aim to give their audience the best time ever. Armed with a world of riffs that hark back to a pre-grunge era, this record is filled with sounds that mix the swagger of peak Guns N’ Roses with the bombast and groove of Black Stone Cherry, which, mixed with a pinch of Alice In Chains and Creed for a darker edge, results in something that could stand alongside the critically acclaimed Tremonti releases. It’s a great example of how fashions may change, but a strong “classic rock” sound will never die. [Full review here.]

KOYO – Onism

Sometimes sounding like The Fierce & The Dead jamming with Explosions In The Sky, sometimes sounding like a bendy prog metal band, sometimes just offering a massive hard rock crunch, this album by KOYO refuses to be pigeonholed. However, for those who love guitar driven art rock – sometimes presented with extended arrangements – it’s an album that’s guaranteed to thrill. Shifting effortlessly between moods and different rock oriented subgenres, it’s also the sort of record where your favourite track might change with each spin. [Full review here.]

THE SHADOW MAJLIS – The Arrival

This is another album that defies easy categorisation. Sometimes, this musical collective shares sounds that sound like a twist on retro goth, sometimes there’s a strong world music bent pushing their rhythmic sound forward, and sometimes they’ll drop the listener into a world of dub reggae. This is one of those records that, in time, really appeals, despite its genre hopping nature. Once the disparate elements start to make an impression, it almost doesn’t matter where you decide to dip in – a fine listen is guaranteed. [Full review here.]

THE BEDSIDE MORALE – Still Life

The couple of Bedside Morale singles that appeared in 2023 immediately signified the arrival of a great new rock band. When those tracks re-emerged as part of this debut EP in ’24, they’d lost none of their power. The four tracks on ‘Still Life’ shift effortlessly between different aspects of indie, stoner and hard rock, sometimes making the band sound like a mix of Gene and Muse, sometimes like a harder edged and more focused Queens of The Stone Age. Overall, this EP acts as a short and sharp showcase for another of the most exciting arrivals on the rock scene in recent years. [Full review here.]

In addition to those ten great releases, we’d also like to single out a few more for a special mention. At the beginning of the year, Magnum released ‘Here Comes The Rain’, one of their best records since ‘Princess Alice…’ back in 2007. The material had a more melodic stance than some of the band’s more pomp oriented works of their later years, and it was clear that a break from touring had helped Bob Catley’s voice. Just a few days before release, founding guitarist Tony Clarkin passed away, making this final studio work a bittersweet affair. Also flying the flag for old school rock sounds, Sunstorm’s ‘Restless Fight’ offered more than its share of huge choruses and great performances, despite featuring no original band members, and the Druidess EP shared a great take on a stoner/doom sound with strong Sabbath-y influences, showing that the tried and tested needn’t sound stale.

With Keeley and anocean delivering superb releases, it’s been a strong year for shoegaze inspired sounds, and Belgian band Newmoon added to a world of brilliant swirling, overdriven guitar noise with the My Bloody Valentine and early Ride influenced ‘Temporary Light’. As an album, it presented no weak links, but the lead single ‘Fading Phase’ proved that this now retro genre still had very strong legs, whilst at the lighter end of the scale, Set Feux placed the focus on the pop aspects of dream pop on a wonderful debut. Elsewhere, Britpop legends My Life Story’s ‘Loving You Is Killing Me’ shared some fine modern pop, showing Jake Shillingford’s songwriting chops to be as sharp as ever, even though the overall sound of the record had little in common with the band’s earlier work, and Strange Majik continued to add very strong funk and soul influences to a retro rock backdrop, giving his ‘NYC Animal’ a solid appeal.

Also offering a strong retro rock core, the debut album from Silver Dollar Room blended some very 90s inflected elements into a world of solid riffs and great songwriting, making ‘Gilded Echoes’ familiar and accessible, but still vibrant. German band Traum aimed to take listeners even further back on their self-titled debut which flaunted a love of stoner and space rock to create a deep psych experience that made for great late night listening, and in terms of full scale metal assault, relative newcomers HollowKin shared absolutely blistering riffs on their ‘Confessions & Failures’ EP. On top of all of that, Ria Aursjoen offered gothic and folk derived sounds on her solo debut, which shared great vocal melodies over semi bleak sounds, Collin Hegna pushed musical boundaries on Federale’s genre fluid ‘Reverb & Seduction’, a musical experience best described as Tindersticks meets Ennio Morricone. Some records almost defy easy description, and along with Peter Alexander Jobson’s ‘Ration Books’, this was certainly one of those… [Full reviews of these releases can be found behind the HTML links.]

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Before we sign off, we’d like to share a massive thank you to all of the bands and labels that have been in touch, sent new music our way, shared our words on social media and generally helped to spread the word. We’d also like to thank the dozens of PR companies who’ve appeared in our inbox, week in and week out, becoming familiar names. Most of all, though, we’d like to extend an extra special thank you to Jay @ Reaction, Shauna @ Shameless, Garry @ SaNPR, and Matt @ Cherry Red, who’ve all gone the extra mile with their support and made sure our work has reached all of the relevant eyes and ears.

If you’ve supported us in any way, even if it’s just by visiting the site a few times a week, we thank you: without the army of regular readers, we wouldn’t still be here after fifteen years.

There’s at least one more feature coming from Real Gone HQ before we wave goodbye to 2024, but it’s certainly been a year to remember. Here’s to an equally good 2025!

Lee Realgone
December 2024