listening to Your Favorite Songs 2024, part 15

A marathon post to wrap up this series! Yeehaw!

Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, part nine, part ten, part eleven, part twelve, part thirteen, part fourteen.

"Life Is" - Jessica Pratt
from Patrick Mahan (Carefully Curated)
"I was floored when I first heard Jessica Pratt’s nostalgic & haunting single 'Life Is' earlier this year. There was something so fresh yet nostalgic about this song, and it might end up as my favorite track I’ve heard in 2024. You’ll easily get lost in it’s 60’s inspired wall of sound & the echoing drumbeats reminiscent of The Ronettes and Brian Wilson’s productions."

Of this year's batch of faves, I feel I could put this Jessica Pratt song in a corral with "Kingdom Come" by Cindy Lee and "Kiss Of Death" by El Perro Del Mar, as a herd of early '60s pop songs unstuck from time. Jessica Pratt's voice is so cool, and her album sounds like it was buried in a time capsule, aged to perfection like a fine cheese, and restored by a team of those art archaeologist folks who rub away dust and dirt to reveal the original masterwork in all its glory. Perhaps I'm mixing my preservation metaphors here, I don't care. Here In The Pitch has a "real" sound to it, like Fiona Apple's Fetch The Bolt Cutters, and I like to listen to it as a way to ground myself in reality when I get a little too crazzzzzzzy.

“Two Feet Tall” - Ciao Malz
from Bill Gasteyer
"This is a terrific record by an emerging New York based artist."

Deeply wonky guitars that sound like they're off that 199-song Mac DeMarco album, fast verses and slow choruses, sheepish + charming vocals: what is not to love? Apparently Ciao Malz's Malia DelaCruz covered a Frog song (love Frog) last year, which led to her releasing her debut album through their label, Audio Antihero. That is neat. That is music magic in action, baby. Another New Year's resolution I have is to try to make more connections with people. I'm gonna be tagging folks in social posts. I'm gonna be sending cold emails. Might be shaking some hands too. Connectionmaxxing. You've been warned.

"EMPTYHANDED" - Bilmuri & Dylan Marlowe
from Owen Morawitz
"Y'allternative. Yardcore. Call it what you will. All I know is that this song slaps, and I have been fundamentally unable to get the chorus hook out of my goddamn head for months. Other crucial points to note (and you may wish to view the music video for these to really resonate): the American flag and eagle shirt; the wistful juxtapostion between country guitar plucking and down-tuned staccato chugs; cutting shirtless laps with a ride-on lawnmower; a Chuck & Larry-era Kevin James mic drop as bridge; rap squats. Need I go on?"

After my last brush with Bilmuri, I'm excited to get another taste. This might be my most slept-on rec of 2024, just in terms of bands doing something new and weird (my favorite kind of thing for bands to do). For most, 2024 marked a turn toward Tasteful Country, or perhaps "Americana" if u nasty. Everyone wanted to be Kacey Musgraves, including Kacey Musgraves. One of the biggest songs of the year was a very normal country song called "I Had Some Help" that is the most light beer song I have ever heard, other than maybe that collab Jimmy Buffett did with Alan Jackson.

Bilmuri are not doing Tasteful Country. They're getting a little weird with it, while remaining incredibly catchy. And I love it! Btw if you like Bilmuri, do me a favor and try the (I think defunct? Not totally sure?) party country duo YA'BOYZ on for size. They're like Jason Aldean meets LMFAO.

"Worn Out" - radical joy
from tori Danger (runs a house venue in Western Massachusetts)
"Worn Out captivated me the moment I heard it and got me hooked on radical joy. They're so good, you're really messing up if you haven't listened to them by now."

A local rec from a bastion of the local scene, hell yeah. Slightly sloppy, totally peppy power-pop-punk that gets wilder and wilder as it goes along, culminating in a blaze of dextrous guitar and shimmering synth that whips one's mind into a psychic circle pit. I love the sharp drumming on this song as well! Compliments to radical joy drummer Sean Maclure.

"Divination" - Diode
from James Patrick Carmody, local man
"Local LA band Diode's first album instantly caught my attention, very funky/original stuff, so when I saw 2 dropped this year I instantly ate it up. Divination is super good to me and for some reason reminds me of the Tarot scene in Blood Meridian despite being basically entirely unrelated. Just like weird songs with weird subject matters like this and it's very very catchy"

I love the way "Divination" combines the Game Boy bleepies with the arch, arty guitar. Synth-tinged punk with some kind of zesty 'tude is something I will never get sick of, and I'm completely unashamed to admit that my taste for it probably comes from listening to the Marie Antoinette soundtrack in high school. If your parents don't listen to New Order but you're destined to listen to New Order, you gotta get it from....somewhere...

Btw, do you guys know James? He's super cool. And I knew I could count on James for something 1) Los Angeles local 2) synth-y New Wave-y post punk-y 3) that I hadn't heard of before. One of the first times James, if you are reading this, you should start your own music blog!!

A moment for Diode's album cover...j'adore smiley faces.

"Sleepmode" - Mystery Dungeons
from Ramona Synesthesia
"It’s such pure directed energy, it’s the best version of the thing it is, and it was impossible to pick a favorite off the EP. Robyn is the sweetest person alive and I am so glad this music exists and is out in the world"

Matter of fact, let's keep those bleeps n bloops rolling with some quality emo chiptune from Philadelphia, PA. This song is a no-nonsense ode to how nutty you feel when your sleep patterns are messed up. The opening couplet—"I feel asleep, and in my semi-lucid dream / I thought of nothing else but work"—is too real. There's nothing worse than waking up exhausted because of what you did in your goddamn sleep. It makes me think of that Mitch Hedberg joke: "I hate to dream, because dreaming takes energy, it takes work. Sleeping is supposed to be a relaxing affair. I lay down on the bed, it feels great, next thing you know, I have to build a go kart with my ex-landlord."

"Dragon" - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
from Mackenzie Vargas
"KGATLW are an absurd band in so many ways. They have an infectious energy that comes through in all their music, whether it is DEVO-inspired or progressive metal. Dragon is technically from 2023, but I was lucky enough to see them play it live in 2024 and its been in the rotation ever since. Because they live-streamed every concert on their north American tour and released all the live recordings, I've been able to listen to the live versions, too!"

Mackenzie has correctly identified one of the Secret Loopholes of this blog bonanza: it's okay to pick a song that didn't come out this year, if your experience of it this year transcended measured time. Here at I Enjoy Music, we are about Experiences. The cosmic divinity of a good song experience will always take precedence over a 'release date.' The other Secret Loophole is that I'm a Gizzhead and I'll pretty much accept any Gizz song in any given year for this special countdown, ha ha.

Here's the story of how I began to enjoy King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. In 2022, I attended Coachella. Harry Styles was in the middle of headlining, and I'm so sorry to Harry but I was bored as shit. Harry was not giving what needed to be given. He was putting the "mid" in "midtempo." So I walked with a couple friends across the grounds to where King Gizzard were playing at the Outdoor stage. The crowd was sparse but committed. The band ripped my face off. Instant fan conversion. Since then I've seen them three times and they've all been amazing shows. "Dragon" was on the setlist when I caught them at the Forum this year, and I feel like it simulates what I imagine it was like to listen to metal as a teenage corndog in the 1980s.

If you like psych rock, punk rock, classic rock, metal, trance, jamming, weird guitar tunings, Australian vibes, harmonica, flute, flute-enhanced rap, dancing, moshing, crowd-surfing, pretty much any category of drugs, dressing like a reptile, generous bootleg culture...give the band a shot. I wrote them off for so long because I thought their name was stupid, which was foolish of me. Now no band name is too stupid. Might get into Hot Tuna this year.

"Hope" - Vampire Weekend
from Mikhail Klimentov (I write a video game and media newsletter called Readergrev)
"Was going to write something long and flowery here but the truth is that this song just sort of hit in the context of two devastating ongoing wars where things seem to be going about as badly as they could be and about which it feels like you can't really do anything. It is a song about the world going topsy-turvy, and losing faith in yourself and the people around you. The lyrics are clever and impish and wistful and I can't help but listen to every word when it comes on. I will be carrying the line "The enemy's invincible/I hope you let it go" with me for a very long time!"

Been seeing a lot of doom-themed attitudes about what this coming year brings. And that sense of doom is obviously valid, but nothing will change if everyone approaches the future with doomer mindset. Easier said than done, obviously, but worth a gentle nudge regardless. A motto I developed a while ago that has done me a lot of good mental health-wise is "it's always the end of the world." And just like the "you aren't stuck in traffic, you are traffic" thing, the future of the world is only as hopeful as you are.

"Third Umpire" - Baalti
from Pranav Trewn
"This clears everything on the recent Two Shell album, yet was talked about a tenth as much. I've seen Baalti a couple times in the past year, and whenever they dropped this song the dancefloor would immediately increase in intensity by five notches. Would love for more people to hear this duo's immaculate, South Asian-sampling dance music!"

Um 100% hell yeah. Baalti are a DJ/producer duo from San Francisco; I checked out a little bit of their past stuff and it's quite fresh but "Third Umpire" is a polyrhythmic, UK-club-vibed track that turns up the energy considerably. The way that bass winds through that fusillade of a beat...sensational. If I heard this song whilst out, it would turn me into a genuine freak. Not even halfway through the first listen, I started getting phantom lower back pains from dropping it too low in my mind.

"Bad Luck Bad Habit" - Alycia Lang
from Melvin Peña
"Lots of folks share lots of new music, and I bookmark or screenshot recs all the time. The number that get heard right away is small, and the ones that hit from the first listen always end up being special. One of my pals shared Alycia Lang's 'Bad Luck Bad Habit' on socials the day it dropped back in February. I was in the right spot to listen to it in that moment and it connected with me instantly.

It has the kind of soaring, gorgeous, shoutable, self-loving and self-loathing chorus that you feel compelled to listen to 10 times in a row. There's a guitar line slinking around the song that is almost like a second voice - or a supporting character - in sympathetic conversation with, or at least wryly questioning, the lyrics.

According to last.fm, I've listened to this song at least 60 times. Enough that I've caught myself more than a few times singing that massive chorus aloud, usually without thinking about it. That's ultimately how I chose it as my favorite. Of all the songs I loved that debuted in 2024, this is the one I've had the most fun with. I bought it, put it on my mp3 player, and it just never left. It's the song that has stayed with me longest and unfolded the most unexpectedly the more I've listened to it.

It's meant different things to me throughout the year as I've found myself confronting one unprecedented historical event after another. The song's central question has framed 2024 for me. Universally applicable to everything and anything from relationships to elections to climate catastrophes, I keep coming back to ask 'Is it bad luck or just a bad habit?'"

Melvin did a great job explaining the loveliness of this song but I will highlight a particular moment of magic: the ahh-ahh-ooooh harmonized vocals that lead into the chorus are cool like a breeze but warm like a fire. I also watched Alycia Lang play this for an Atwood Magazine video and it's just as nice when stripped down.

"That's So True" - Gracie Abrams
from Kiko Soirée
"alright I will not OVER-think this, but a lot of the songs I think I would suggest for 2024 other ppl will/might - my spotify wrapped was very girly pop (charli, chappell, kacey, beyonce, etc etc) but is anyone going to submit whiny, cutesy, emo-punk coded Gracie Abrams??? Lol, I guess I have to"

It's actually fascinating that no one picked any Charli!! I think everyone thought she was going to be overrepresented and went other ways. The perils of popularity...the fickleness of bumpin' that...

You know, I don't know why I should be surprised that Gracie Abrams had a moderate explosion in popularity this year. She synthesizes two key modes of (female) singer-songwriter: the lyrical maximalism, aw-shucks relatability and catchiness of Taylor Swift; and the hushed intensity, folky authenticity, and perpetual Saturn return mindset of Phoebe Bridgers. (Abrams is 25, a little early for that planetary upset, but it doesn't really matter.) She can scoop up the pure pop people as well as those who want to see an instrument in their chosen fave's hands. She is single-handedly maximizing this joint slay. She knows what she is doing! That winking pause in "Taking off your shirt, I did that once...or twice" is lethal.

"Obi Toppin (Darling)" - Heems, Lagan & Kool Keith
from a random gal who enjoys listening to all kinds of music
"What stuck out about this song, this whole album? The irreverence & joy, the samples transcending genre and generation, the lyrics ricocheting from takedowns of pickleball rackets to busting sharp turns in New York – all colliding and stretching into a glimpse of a kind of South Asian futurism that I'd like to hang in for good long time."

It's my dream to revive the I Love The [Decade] VH1 series for a new generation, because we need an I Love The 2010s, and Das Racist needs to be featured on an episode. They were a crucial link between the braggadocious club rats of yore and the hyperliterate memelords of the future. Das Racist, MGMT, Santigold: damn, what was Wesleyan putting in the food in the 00s??

Heems sounds as great as ever on this basketball-themed, soul-sampling track. My favorite part of his verse is when he goes full Continental lifestyle (traveling to London, shopping at Kiehls) with his chosen paramour before expressing excitement at linking with a legendary MC ("Yo, check me out, I got a song with Kool Keith").

"Jon" - A Beacon School
from Jarod Wilson Hamm
"Just wanted to thank you and Chris for being my source for new music, A Beacon School and bad tuner were my favorite new-to-me artists this year! On the song, it’s right in the sweet spot of dream pop with a club beat that I’m always looking for more of. If I knew how to DJ, I’d play it into Dark and Long - Dark Train by Underworld "

This is what it's all about!! Chris and I interviewed some artists about artist-type stuff on And Introducing this year, and if literally anyone discovered new music from those interviews, that's a big win. "Jon" is my favorite song off the new A Beacon School record, a gauzy soft-trance tune that I could probably listen to in at least a 3o-min loop before any shakeup would be necessary. I saw them play in L.A. recently and it sounded fabulous live too. That show was funny because a bunch of people kept starting mosh pits to what I would not necessarily consider mosh pit music. It was like they had the zoomies.

"Flatline" - Bladee
from Nora Nygard

I didn't listen to Bladee for a long spell. Just learning to pronounce his name correctly took a lot out of me. But then one of my favorite internet users tweeted some Bladee lyrics after the surprise drop of Cold Visions —"I'm up so late / I'm violently drug abusing weed"— that made me think, ok it's time, it's Bladee time. I loved this album, and listening to it led me to tweet this, which I am sorry to reproduce here but still stand by:

There is something incontrovertibly Swedish about making bittersweet music that has lyrics that sound like someone was frantically flipping through a thesaurus and then got bored of doing that. "Flatline" is so beautiful and sad, with Bladee sounding as forlorn and afflicted as Raskolnikov wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. I just want to give him a hug, and I imagine the bulk of his fanbase wants to as well.

"White Noise (Actual Noise)" - Akira Yamaoka (from the Silent Hill 2 remake soundtrack)
from Christopher Gadsden (host of the twitter space Mindful Wellness, for however much longer there is a twitter)
"My man stepped up to a song he wrote about 25 years ago and remade it. In the original, it plays over the intro to the game, in which the protagonist lays out maybe the best premise in the entire silent hill series and arguably one of the best game premises in the history of horror, so the strength of the original song was that it was kind of minimalist. He boldly added JUST enough to make it feel right when dorks revisited one of their favorite stories ever, risking the ire of the fandom, many of whom don't even like the remake just because it's a remake and you can't remake a classic yadda yadda yadda. His new version of the song is incredible and encapsulates 2024 for a nostalgia chasing nerd like me, who is woefully out of touch when it comes to COMPLETELY new music. He did, in my view, the impossible."

Just like May Rio revisited her old tunes in a new way, so did Akira Yamaoka. The remix is a true art form, and daring to remix your own work is very brave. What is learning and growing, if not remixing your prior behaviors and attitudes? Okay I'm finally getting loopy after so much blogging.

At the end of the day, this song rec represents everything I'm trying to do with I Enjoy Music. Not just because someone has already written a guest post about the Silent Hill soundtrack and how it relates to melancholy Swedish music, but also because this is pure musical experience: music experienced through a non-musical medium, music experienced over time, and most importantly, music that has personal significance to someone...significance now transferred to moi. "White Noise (Actual Noise)" would have been a pleasant and slightly eerie piece of instrumental music on its own, but knowing how much it means to someone else changes my perspective of it, and enriches my own musical experience! This type of thing is simply my favorite thing ever! What more could I ask for?

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