My Favorite Music of 2024
Kendrick Llamar, Shygirl & Kali Uchis.
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While no one comes to this newsletter for music recommendations, it is such an essential part of my process and inspiration that a year wouldn’t be complete without sharing the new things that moved me in the past twelve months.
The full Spotify playlist can be found here, but it is focused on singles vs albums.
Catchiest pop song – I Forget, (I’m So Young) by Sofie Royer
This one activates a wave of nostalgia and makes me want to dance in the living room, Hollywood style, confirming that a great pop song is always a bit melancholy.
Best track to get the party started – All You Children, JamieXX and The Avalanches
The Avalanches strike again with their genius knack for sampling from the oddest sources, this time turning a 1976 poetry album by Nikki Giovanni into the jammiest of jams. Put it on and try to sit still. I bet you can’t.
Favorite ambient album for writing – Klaus Schulze, 101, MILKY WAY
I have a specific niche for albums that inspire me to write but don’t distract my scattered mind. They are all some kind of ambient electronic, spacious and viscerally pleasant, and once I find the perfect one, I stick to it for a while. Klaus Schulze’s undulating soundscapes hug my soul with their Twin Peaks undertones and cosmic reverberations.
Favorite experimental album of ‘24 — Piedras 1, Nicolas Jaar
If you are a fan of Tim Hecker, this record will sound like pop music, but it is best described as an uneasy listen. I like taking a gummy and getting submerged into its hypnotic world of abstract textures, ghostly sounds, and the subaqueous voice of Nicolas Jaar. If Piedras 1 is a breeze to you, try Piedras 2, where things get much weirder.
Favorite R&B/Latin Pop Album of ‘24 — ORQUÍDEAS by Kali Uchis
Granted, it is the only R&B album I really listened to this year, being my least favorite genre, second only to Country Pop and Bro-Country. R&B’s polished textures have always been difficult for me, and when crossed over with melodic pop, like TLC, they become actively irritating (En Vogue being the only exception). So, when ORQUIDEAS didn’t make me annoyed at first listen and then demanded it be played again and again and again, I gave in and realized it was one of the best albums, not just in R&B, but of the year, period.
Rap Battle Winner of the Year – GNX, Kendrick Lamar
Three of my favorite rappers released albums this year: Tyler the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, and Vince Staples. I joy-listened to them back to back for months and came up with a clear winner, Kendrick. It has everything I want in a hip-hop album — West-coast inflections, comedic delivery, dark undertones, and juicy party jams. I played the most addictive track on the record, man at the garden, on repeat so much that Sasha said he will divorce me if he hears it one more time.
Best party rap track — Balloon (feat Doechii), Tyler the Creator
Classic Tyler energy punches you in the gut with its visceral dance beat, and if you are not a convert immediately, once Doechii comes in, it’s game over.
Most beautiful rap track — Blueslides, ScHoolboy Q
Also the discovery of the year with ScHoolboy Q, who I missed entirely until now. Blueslides hooked me from the first bar with its ethereal jazz melody that opens for ScHoolboys’ introspective verse. The jazz piano, sax, and a haunting voice by Lauren Santi continue bubbling under the rap track, making me emotional every time.
Most Seductive Alt-Pop Track — To the Dancefloor, Debby Friday
You are entering a smoky, red-lit basement club party, and a glitchy dance track starts playing, reverberating with apocalyptic vibes, promising the best night of the year. The lyrics are cheeky as hell, putting Debby Friday on my favorite new artists list —
I need to feel the violence
Shake my ass like a nihilist
I need to pop, I need to bang
And I need to get me some
I need the girls all to the dance floor
Favorite Alt-Pop Artist — Shygirl / Most overrated Alt-Pop Artist - CharlieXCX
2024 was the year of female alt-pop. The artist who got the most acclaim, CharlieXCX with hit album Brat, is unfortunately the most uninteresting of the bunch, but she did collaborate with Shygirl, the musician who deserves all the accolades that Charlie is getting. Shygirl is fun, catchy, vulnerable, and abrasive — everything that Brat just pretends to be. While Charlie moans about “It’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl,” Shygirl puts herself out there: “Fuck it, have me when you like,” indifferent to being called a slut and losing mass pop appeal. That’s the kind of music I like, one that is not afraid to turn people off.
That Brat became the most critically acclaimed pop record of 2024 feels like collective gaslighting. Critics praised it for being audacious, yet the most daring thing about the record is a glimpse of Charlie’s underwear on the cover. The lyrics have a generic whiff of ChatGPT trying to write a Lana Del Rey song. But unlike LDR, the Queen of public confessions, they reveal nothing intimate or even slightly embarrassing. While Lana dabbles in taboos (Fucked my way to the top, being a mistress in Sad Girl), Charlie’s biggest disclosure is “I might say something stupid, talk to myself in the mirror... I'm famous but not quite, but I'm perfect for the background.” It’s as if Barbie made an album and got praised for being Bob Dylan.
The best song on the album, Everything is Romantic, is most musically interesting, but it is still not as good as Shygirl’s delirious, 4eva.
Vote Shygirl.
Best of 2024 playlist on Spotify
Music That Inspired Me In 2023 Last year’s list.
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We don't share anything close to similar taste in music (and that's fine). But I want to thank you for pointing me to the "work music" of Klaus Schulze. I'm really enjoying it, and it's interesting to "discover" the work of someone with such a long career whose work I can really dig into.
I have just subscribed to your newsletter (being a photographer myself) and it's really nice to see you also have good taste in music.
You may know them already, but I can't resist pointing you to:
-Erik the Architect (starting with the song 'I Can't Lose') and Ab-Soul (starting with the song 'Do Better') for Hip-hop.
-'Promises' by Floating points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra and Sinj Clarke (The Height of Love) for writing music
I hope you will find some interesting.