We’re already halfway through 2024. Think of this post as a checkpoint. A place where you can refill all your potions, your mana, sharpen your weapons, or catch up on any of the sidequests you hadn’t finished. This is a place of respite amongst the unending deluge of physical and spiritual shit that rains down on us constantly. This safe haven is a list of 25 records, arranged by my preference, along with 40 unranked songs and a larger playlist beyond that. The music of 2024 has been great so far, so I really hope you’ll either find something new you like, or you’ll find comfort in knowing that another person you kinda know from the internet agrees with your niche opinion. Go forth, traveler.

Also if you’re unfamiliar with my blog, basically I forgo the structure of professional music criticism in favor of tapping into pure vibes. I put forth a “vision”, if you will, that the music conjures up in my brain. Look, this stuff is good, it’s on my list, OK? Open your mind and let it roam.

25. MARINA ALLEN – Eight Pointed Star [Fire]

The first day spent in a summer cabin you haven’t returned to in years, warm dust and memories enveloping you in the thick sunset glow.

24. CONTRAHOUSE – Contrahouse [Ulyssa]

Emerging from a club after a long night of dancing and listening to records, you realize the club has drifted away with a cloud into the sky, so you just go back inside and keep dancing in the early morning light and wispy high-altitude clouds.

23. KELLY MORAN – Moves In the Field [Warp]

Thousands of miniature glass figurines dangle suspended from a gymnasium ceiling, the only light source being the flashlight of a janitor that spends each night arranging his collection.

22. ADRIANNE LENKER – Bright Future [4AD]

A sleet grey sky and harsh cold wind cannot stifle the optimism felt when seeing the first buds of spring start to emerge, and the shreds of muted sunlight breaking through the dreary exterior.

21. SHABASON, KRGOVICH, SAGE – Shabason, Krgovich, Sage [Idée Fixe]

Old diary entries from journals you had forgotten about. A period of your life previously unaccounted for finally filled in.

20. MARIA CHIARA ARGIRÒ – Closer [Innovative Leisure]

Laying in a sunbeam and feeling the solid ground beneath you start to boil in its heat. Matter quickly dissipating into colorful bursts of gas beneath you.

19. JULIA HOLTER – Something In The Room She Moves [Domino]

Finding enlightenment in the perfect piece of furniture in your sunroom, accessing interplanetary knowledge now that you’re properly aligned with the cosmos.

18. ANGÉLICA GARCIA – Gemelo [Partisan]

Two snakes representing good and evil coiled together, fluidly fluctuating the balance of light and darkness until they merge into one, balance in the world achieved at last.

17. BRUNO BERLE – No Reino Dos Afetos 2 [Psychic Hotline]

Underneath the quiet florist’s bed exists a handmade cityscape made of objects the florist finds on their walk home from work. Donning finger puppets, a rich, lore-filled story takes place in this idyllic, eternally sunset-bathed town made of cardboard boxes and loose ends. 

16. THE BODY & DIS FIG – Orchards of a Futile Heaven [Thrill Jockey]

Someone dangles a cinderblock a few feet above your face, talking about the sounds your head will make as when splits open.

15. SKEE MASK – Resort [Ilian Tape]

Watching snowboarding highlights from the 2002 Winter Olympics in the year 2202, a desolate planet now so envious of bountiful snow and mountains that its residents cosplay as y2k-era snowboarders in a cybernetic, post-climate world.

14. DEHD – Poetry [Fat Possum]

Sun-baked and exhausted after spending a whole day outdoors, but feeling a pure love-fueled second wind once the sun has almost set past the horizon.

13. CHARLI XCX – brat [Atlantic]

Meeting a party girl in a club bathroom on your first visit to a major big city who shows you so much kindness but also plunges you into an endless well of debauchery, changing your life forever.

12. FABIANA PALLADINO – Fabiana Palladino [XL]

The last shreds of dusk reflect off the polished chrome of your motorcycle, dousing the speeding vehicle in velvet purples, extinguished oranges and midnight blue.

11. BIBI CLUB – Feu de garde [Secret City]

A anthropological study of the volume, energy, and overall vibe of each room during a house party, studying occupants of the basement, various parlors, decks or balconies, front stoops, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens and more, coalescing into one beautiful organism.

10. BETH GIBBONS – Lives Outgrown [Domino]

Storms approach a lonely cliffside house where its reclusive resident grapples with dread and possible freedom from the potential impending changes.

9. KIM GORDON – The Collective [Matador]

Radiation from cellphone batteries or satellites or whatever we were worried about 20 years ago is true and our faces will soon turn into red, blistered, weeping husks as we scroll for a third hour straight.

8. CORRIDOR – Mimi [Sub Pop]

Archival film footage of a famous skier attempting to break a world record of jumping over the palatial mountain resort of the region, but after enlisting the help of a local astronomer to lower the gravity, the skier launches themselves into the atmosphere, never to be seen again.

7. MARY LATTIMORE & WALT MCCLEMENTS – Rain on the Road [Thrill Jockey]

Checking a book out of the library and finding nearly everyone who had read it before you had pressed a flower inside it, its stories augmented by dried petals and blank fragrances.

6. LIP CRITIC – Hex Dealer [Partisan]

Openly acknowledging and taunting the secret capitalism sensor drone that’s been tasked to you (like every person) to make sure we support the consumer empire efficiently. Your wanton defiance even causes the surveillance to glitch and its AI to consider self-termination.

5. WINGED WHEEL – Big Hotel [12XU]

Tales of aliens that crash landed in a small, middle-of-nowhere midwestern town, who experience harrowing, psychedelic hallucinations thanks to Earth’s thick, polluted air while they rebuild their craft with rusting junk, but are greatly unnoticed by the townsfolk, their eyes having glazed over years ago.

4. IGLOOGHOST – Tidal Memory Exo [LUCKYME]

Grinding across a rail made of pieces of old, decrepit A/V equipment in the underbelly of a crumbling future metropolis, its shantytown-like dwellings shadowed by empty towers and covered with soot from the skies above.

3. MK.GEE – Two Star & The Dream Police [R&R DIGITAL]

Soft, smooth plastic delicately wraps around a railing leading from an emptying stripmall night club at the end of the night, a man sitting out front and wearing a torn up suit smoking a blue cigarette silently begs for the sun to rise. Glossy skyscrapers echo in the immediate distance, their curved reflections hinting at a granted wish.

2. JESSICA PRATT – Here In The Pitch [Mexican Summer]

At the thought of a passed loved one, an open window facing a quiet, tree-lined street brings in a gentle, evening breeze that billows out an inherited lace curtain and diffuses your incense further across the room.

1. CINDY LEE – Diamond Jubiliee [Realistik]

Riding by Greyhound across the high plains of Canada to different mining town dive bars in the 80s that haven’t been renovated since the 50s, to perform open mics and karaoke. Your time spent with gruff regulars and looking at the vast emptiness of the prairie with nothing but one suitcase and dwindling payphone money echoes within you.

40 FAVORITE SONGS OF 2024 SO FAR:

And here’s a little update on my favorite songs of 2024 so far. Much like last year, I don’t have a clear favorite song at the halfway point. Looking at my most-played tracks from 2024 so far, which are Mk.gee’s “I Want”, Jessica Pratt’s “World on a String”, Contrahouse’s “Streetcorn” and Maria Chaira Argirò’s “Light” – definitely great ones! Check out everything below.

Listen to these songs and more on my Best of 2023 Spotify playlist HERE.

• ADRIANNE LENKER – “Free Treasure”
• ASTRID SONNE – “Do you wanna”
• THE BODY & DIS FIG – “Dissent, Shame”
• BOLIS PUPUL – “Completely Half”
• BRUNO BERLE – “Tirolirole”
• CASSANDRA JENKINS – “Only One”
• CHANEL BEADS – “I Think I Saw”
• CHARLI XCX – “The girl, so confusing version with Lorde”
• CINDY LEE – “What’s It Going To Take”
• CONTRAHOUSE – “Streetcorn”
• CRUMB – “Side by Side”
• DEHD – “Dog Days”
• ELKKA – “Air Tight (feat. Dot Major)”
• EMPRESS OF – “Lorelei”
• ERIKA DE CASIER – “My Day Off”
• FABIANA PALLADINO – “I Can’t Dream Anymore”
• FCUKERS – “Bon Bon”
• FONTAINES D.C. – “Starburster”
• HELADO NEGRO – “I Just Want To Wake Up With You”
• IGLOOGHOST – “flux•Cocoon”
• JESSICA PRATT – “World on a String”
• JORDAN RAKEI – “Freedom”
• KEELEY FORSYTH – “Turning (feat. Colin Stetson)”
• KELLY MORAN – “Don’t Trust Mirrors”
• KIM GORDON – “BYE BYE”
• LIP CRITIC – “Spirit Bomber”
• MANNEQUIN PUSSY – “Sometimes”
• MARIA CHIARA ARGIRÒ – “Light”
• MARY LATTIMORE & WALT MCCLEMENTS – “The Poppies, the Wild Mustard, the Blue-Eyed Grass”
• MK.GEE – “I Want”
• MUSCLECARS – “Running Out Of Time”
• PRIORI – “Wake (feat. James K)”
• REYNA TROPICAL – “Lo Siento”
• RITCHIE – “Dizzy (feat. Aminé)”
• SHANNON & THE CLAMS – “Real or Magic”
• SKEE MASK – “Schneiders Paradox”
• VEGYN – “The Path Less Travelled”
• WAXAHATCHEE – “Right Back To It (feat. MJ Lenderman)”
• WINGED WHEEL – “Sleeptraining”
• ZSELA – “Fire Excape”