Each day of December this year, I’m highlighting one of my favourite albums of 2024. Counting down the list, we start with #31 on December 1st and go all the way down until we’ve reached #1 on December 31st. Today, #17 on my Album of the Year list: Folly Group – ‘Down There!’.

The first album to make it on the Album of the Year long list this year was Folly Group’s long awaited debut ‘Down There!’ (12th of January). These long lists always prove to be a useful way of collecting my listened to albums to avoid the risk of forgetting about them. Particularly the ones released earlier on in the year are prone to be forgotten about. And that would be a shame, especially if they’re as good as this one.

Ahead of this album, Folly Group released some stellar singles such as ’Strange Neighbour’, a weirdly brilliant and relatable song about the depletion of – in this case – London’s neighbourly friendliness. Bonus points for the peculiar music video. Also ‘Big Ground’ and ‘I’ll Do What I Can’ still put a smile upon my face, the latter standing out as a straight-up post-punk banger that wouldn’t have been out of place in between some of the biggest 80s classics within that genre. Probably my favourite tune on this album. Anyway, all these three singles sound completely different from each other but simultaneously match up with Folly Group’s approach to this album. On this all-encompassing debut, the Brits have a crack at many different styles. There’s post-punk, indie rock, experimental. Even some goth gets thrown in the mix. Folly Group’s ability to fuse all the sounds together in a well working way is quite remarkable to say the least, especially given the impressive instrumentation featured on ‘Down There!’. I will always tip my hat for drummers who take on the vocalists role as well but in the case of bands like Folly Group and Squid, both excelling at intricate and experimental indie rock, my adoration increases significantly than in the case of, let’s say, Phil Collins. Therefore, frontman Sean Harper deserves all my praise.

Further down the album, the authenticity continues. Each song is its own separate entity and while the albums lyrical topic’s are all quite aligned, the music continues to be ever so interesting. It’s without a doubt one of indie’s most interesting and diverse releases of 2024 and I bet everyone who’s into some sort of alternative music will take a liking to at least one song on this album. I can highly recommend listening to this one.