The 10 best EPs from emerging artists in 2024
It’s estimated that each and every day, over 60,000 songs are added to Spotify. That means that by the end of the year, close to 22 million songs join the swift-swelling masses demanding to be heard. A person can try their very best to keep up, but it’s impossible; some greatness will slip through the cracks. However, these ten EPs deserve to be discovered.
While the world often focuses on long-play projects, an EP often feels more like a package of promise. An album is an act stabbing a flag into the ground and proclaiming who they are and what they’re about with their first full-length, fully crafted project, but an EP is an interesting glimmer into the future.
Some EPs are simply the first step out into the music world. Artists will typically start out here, cutting their teeth with a bitesize project that becomes an establishing moment as they put their best foot forward and introduce themselves. But sometimes, an EP is a short, sharp burst in time. There is something about them that comes across as more immediate, allowing an artist to focus on a certain story, style, or single feeling and explore only that, leading to a fascinatingly focused concept piece.
EPs certainly feel like the realm of the rising stars. Whether they’re simply an early presentation of their blossoming artistry or a view at their current interests, these shorter projects can help establish one-to-watch status by leaving fans hungry for more. In the case of these ten projects, we’re ravenous.
The 10 best EPs from up-and-coming artists in 2024:
10. Baggy$$ – Fcukers
If Confidence Man are just slightly too optimistic for you and you need a little more pessimism in your party, Fcukers provided an angsty soundtrack for that. With the same inspiration as they scan over the full history of club music from house music to trip-pop, Fcukers approach things from a different angle, offering an interesting new take on the sound that defined 2024 as Charli xcx led the charge to bring club classics to the masses.
Shannon Wise’s light, airy voice beautifully contrasts with the different shades of instrumentation. Paired with bassist and keyboardist Jackson Walker Lewis and drummer Ben Scharf holding down the beat, their makeup is tight, meaning that even their widest points of experimentation are handled expertly on Baggy$$.
9. Brògeal – Brògeal
2024 has been a big year for the resurgence of traditional music. Bands like Lankum and Mary Wallopers have been bringing Irish instruments back to big stages. The New Eves have been spearheading a pure folk revival. And up in Scotland, Brògeal are leading the charge of Celtic punk as they merge historic sounds with a new, outrightly youthful edge as if the great leaders of indie band music picked up banjos and mandolins instead.
Really, Brògeal are a band that needs to be seen live as their energy up on stage is absolutely infectious, turning the typical gig crowd into a ceilidh. But their debut self-titled EP goes some way in bottling the atmosphere as ‘Roving Falkirk Bairn’ is a homage to their origins while ‘Girl From NYC’ is a promising sign of where they’ll go.
8. Oxford Gardens – Devon Ross
Music got a new it-girl in the form of Devon Ross. For a long time, Ross has been a figure of infatuation for cool girls everywhere. As a model and an actress, she’s been solidifying that status for a while, but finally, in 2024, she stepped into her true passion when she released her debut project and proved herself to be one of the finest up-and-coming guitarists around.
Inspired by the greats like Keith Richards, Robbie Robertson, Tom Verlaine and more, Oxford Gardens navigates all the corners of her influence from grungy punk tracks to blue-laddened rock tunes. Backed by Thurston Moore’s label, it’s clear that Ross has plenty more up her sleeve, with 2025 hopefully moving her from a cult obsession to a bonafide rising star.
7. Can I Miss It For A Minute? – Nell Mescal
What makes Nell Mescal’s debut EP so special is tricky to pin down. Obviously, the musician has an incredible voice with a stunning range that becomes velvety and rich in its lower register especially. But there is something about the specificity of Can I Miss It For A Minute? that’s intoxicating. It feels like a look into Mescal’s diary as she teases and reveals some information as the songs sit in conversation with one another, each one digging further into its story about the breakdown of an important relationship. But there are also moments where the listener is kept in the dark when her own codified images and descriptions build out this world that is clearly deeply personal yet still leaves space for relatability.
It’s also packed full with some anthemic moments that point to a bright future for Mescal as a songwriter and performer sure to level up as ‘Killing Time’ is especially worthy of bigger and bigger stages.
6. Now Leaving West Feldwood – Ellie Bleach
Inspired by all the great concept pieces that have come before her, Ellie Bleach was channelling David Byrne’s True Stories on her new EP. Creating a fictional town and packing it full of fictional people, each track zeroes in on a local celebrity, digging into their salacious lives or normal feelings as she jumps from character to character.
“I think local celebrities are fascinating. It’s dying out more and more with the internet and the general growing lack of community, but every small town has these characters that everyone knows or families that own businesses that everyone gossips about,” she told Far Out about the inspiration behind the project and across the six tracks, each figure gets their own theatrical moment in the spotlight.
5. Cardinals – Cardinals
Following in a similar vein, Cardinals are another act merging the classic guitar band set-up with more traditional instruments. When watching the Cork-based band live, it’s impossible to pull your eyes away from Finn Manning’s accordion playing. But behind the mic, it’s his brother Euan Manning who adds another interesting mix-in as Cardinals have a distinct Lou Reed energy to them.
Combining big, catchy instrumentals with traditional elements and then an overwhelming angsty, slightly art-rock flare, it makes for something so unique that it demands to be heard. With a growing cult of fans, including the boys from Fontaines DC, it seems that there’s no doubt that they’re a band set to keep on rising, so it’s best to get on board now.
6. The Death Of Summer and Other Promises – Etta Marcus
For truly beautiful songwriting, Etta Marcus’ latest EP has to be on the to-listen list. A distinct Lana Del Rey flair is met with a more gothic edge as she writes tracks that feel like they could soundtrack Laura Palmer’s life or some other angsty anti-hero in a Sofia Coppola flick. Especially on ‘Dog Eyes’ and ‘Lovesick Boy Prays’, Marcus writes songs like movies with a real cinematic flair.
Her voice is also gorgeous enough to set her apart. By now, the music world is oversaturated with tenderly written, downtrodden indie tracks, but Marcus brings something fresh and elevated. Her vocals are infused with real old-timey feeling, which are paired with her unique phrasings or even the booming instrumentation of ‘Theatre’, and the result is something special.
3. Face In The Picture – Picture Parlour
Picture Parlour first appeared on one-to-watch lists a few years back when a run of shows in December 2022 suddenly sent them skyrocketing through the Chinese whisper chain of new bands to note. After wowing crowds at Brixton’s Windmill, there was already an insane amount of hype surrounding them when their debut single, ‘Norwegian Wood’, came out in 2023.
However, the band majorly benefited from taking things slow. Taking a beat to work on this debut project has meant that Face In The Picture is of incredibly high quality and is populated entirely by new tracks rather than prior singles, showing that they aren’t a group to rest on their laurels. Powered by Katherine Parlour’s unique voice that feels tailor-made for rock stardom, the nostalgia-dripped songs are bold and interesting to match.
2. Ten Of Swords – Mouse Teeth
Ten Of Swords feels less like an EP and more like a full, immersive album. Borrowing inspiration from the tarot card that represents a person at their lowest with several things pinning them down, Mouse Teeth’s debut navigates choppy emotive waters and the big topics of chronic illness, disability, sexual assault, grief and beyond, but with a nuance and singularity of vision that is unrivalled.
Weaving between songs and poems, it’s a perfect start-to-finish listen as each track rolls into one another like one extended piece of art. However, a stand-out moment that deserves to be heard before the end of 2024 as a true contender for track of the year is ‘Playing The Hermit’. What begins as a balladic musing on the need to be brave and vulnerable suddenly builds and builds and then bursts open as Mouse Teeth reads a poem. Beginning, “These days I’m in the business of love,” the piece articulates the complexity of joy and optimism so beautifully. It’s goose-bump-inducing as the music swells around the piece that dares to look towards the beauty in life despite it all.
1. Cloud Work – Pem
In June, Pem released what is undeniably one of the most evocative releases of the year. Not only is each track stunningly sung with her unique timbre flitting across each song, but that, paired with the lyrical and instrumental build of all five songs, makes for a deeply emotive listen that hits on every level.
Written in the throes of grief, Cloud Work deals with the topic from each angle but maintains a hyper-specific lens. Even using field recordings from nature that connect Pem to the life and loss of her father, the EP feels like a breathtaking box holding so much heart. Representing the messy, difficult, devastating and yet sometimes beautiful feelings connected to loss, Pem’s ability to articulate and make art out of it all is awe-inspiring.
