And now, the music of my year.
With as hard as this year has been, I’ve had to choose my battles. A lot of music that I’d normally sample or gravitate to was set to the side as I neither wanted to ruin things with my negative moods nor could I find the energy to concentrate on anything that took more than a moment of effort. Additionally, I’m dealing with geographic loss in that I’m no longer in proximity of live music without outside help or paying for shit I can’t afford, so I’m not exactly up for dangling more lost potential in front of my face. I’ll eventually get back to some things, but for the moment, I needed to heal.
For what got lost in the anxiety and grief, some things, fortunately, didn’t. Here’s my attempt to type about what I heard this year. And I mean attempt. I started writing this weeks ago and kept, repeatedly, getting derailed by pain in my right hand so I couldn’t stay focused on writing when I felt most able to. This is very much not my best writing, and for the lack of time and wanting to move on from this year already, I have not said all I could have said. I encourage you to listen to this music – I’ve provided links where it makes sense to.
Let’s begin with what I both didn’t listen to and don’t have much to contribute on just yet. This isn’t literally everything I heard or meant to hear this year, but it should cover some bases.
Quickies and Excuses
Blood Incantation. Didn’t hate it and gave it a full listen to see if I was missing something somehow, but that was one long 43 minutes.
Gnome. Bringing silly fun back to the stoner rock genre. If you haven’t seen any of Gnome‘s videos, this is your sign.
1000mods. Love this band and Repeated Exposure is one of my favorite albums ever, but I prefer that sort of stonery sound and that was a handicap trying to hear the new album. Back in the days when I was listening to Red Fang a lot, I would have liked this more. Maybe in time I’ll have a moment with the album and it suddenly makes sense.
CastleRatEarlyMoodsCryptSermonWhores. A haiku: working for these bands / it’s hard to be objective / go see them live pls. I did give Whores a fair amount of time and will be back. Glad to see them recognized in Rolling Stone (wtf) 14 years after everyone else with ears said they were cool. Finger on the pulse!
The Jesus Lizard. Listened straight through and nothing stood out. I will probably be disowned now.
Nails. I got excited about this one but upon release my head was somewhere else entirely.
Ils. Still one of my favorite vocalists. I’ll get back to abrasive music soon enough.
Chat Pile. I am confused why this band in particular has hit the hype machine train. What about them reflects whatever about the general music-loving population? Anyway, I didn’t listen to it after the initial couple of singles/videos.
Dopethrone. Ditto. Which is weird because I probably wore my Dopethrone shirt more than any other this year. Life was killing me, hardy har har.
Dua Lipa. I was on board for this, earlier songs appealed, and then its release fell flat.
Eagle Twin & The Otolith. The album The Otolith put out in 2022 was a favorite thing, so I shouldn’t be surprised that “Crossway” was a favorite song this year.
Greenleaf. Another case of poor timing. “Breathe, Breathe Out” is a fantastic song.
Psychlona. The first couple of songs remind me a lot of why I heart stoner rock. I’m sure I’ll be listening to this more in the upcoming months.
Hermano. There’s only two studio-recorded songs here, and they’re both great. I’m not generally a fan of live recordings.
King Buffalo. How ’bout just the one song? It sounds like King Buffalo, yes.
St Vincent. Captured my attention with “Broken Man” and then the ADD took over.
Sumac. Totally forgot this happened and only just heard it.
Anciients. This came out a bit late for me to spend any real time with it, but I plan to get around to listening eventually.
Orange Goblin. I did not hear a single note of this album. Who am I anymore? I’ll get to it in time.
Ministry. I also did not hear a single note of this album.
Fu Manchu. I heard a single note and promptly decided I could not continue.
White Hills. I’m just saying the same thing over and over now.
Human Impact. RIP me.
Goat. Funeral’s on Tuesday.
Melvins. Please bring flowers.
Brume. Listened to “Jimmy” a bit early on but soul said nope. Listening to the song now, wow, I think my subconscious brain might have been trying to protect me.
Kim Gordon. The early songs were working for me but on album release, yet again, my brain was elsewhere. Despite me joking, I have yet to stop by the 3oz section of a store to recite “travel shampoo, c o n d i t i o n e r“.
Necrot. Simply fantastic cover art.
Gnod. Love the band but they put out a lot of experimental music and Spot Land didn’t work for me. Oh well, next time. The White Hills split is just around the corner.
High Desert Queen. “Ancient Aliens” was a fun video. Didn’t listen after that.
Black Pyramid. Yet another album I forgot I was listening to, but “Bile, Blame & Blasphemy” is lovely.
Slomosa, Spaceslug, any other stoner/doom/heavy album you can think of. Either I didn’t hear it, went to hear it but crapped out before it made any impact, or I didn’t know it existed. Plenty of albums that came out this year will make a better mark on my 2025.
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft
Some other year I might have been able to explore this album more in depth, but it released at a moment where feelings were too much and my brief listening of “Chihiro” (a fantastic song) quickly led to Emotions Time and I had to quit while I was ahead. There’s too much breathy mood going on here for me at this time. Hope the next album is more fun.
Charli XCX – Brat
Didn’t expect that name, did you.
I’ve known her likeness for some time now but hadn’t listened to her music until this year. Is it really “me”? Mostly, I’d say no. I can handle bright pop in small doses but it quickly blends into the background like capitalism’s elevator music. But the first full song I heard on account of her collaboration with Billie Eilish about did me in. Ah yes, of course, a song about having an underwear fetish. That feels real familiar to something here, hmm, can’t imagine what.
Winners have been “Guess“, “Mean Girls“, “Sympathy is a Knife“, and “360” if I want to immediately think of TikTok. The album itself as a whole is more difficult for me, making me think of the artificial fun of a DJ-led dance club, and ennnh, not my thing. But it has its moments.
Unrelated to music, the “brat” aesthetic is almost exactly the same as a website I made in 2002. A groan of tedium escapes me, startling the fearful. /jokes no one but me understand
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Dumb Riffs
Speaking of “Brat“.
I, too, love bass.
This band is the right level of stupid to transcend genre-listeners, and for that, I am concerned that their popularity will gradually align with a crowd of zero-empathy fuckfaces I want nothing to do with. Boohoo me. We can never have nice stupid things.
Anyway, I LOVE “Body Bag” and “1-800-EAT-SHIT” has been stuck in my head since I first encountered the band via The Obelisk.
RIYL Primus.
Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
Yes. Yes this.
It took me a bit to digest past “I Got Heaven” but once I did it was apparent that this album was headed into Album Of The Year territory. Such competition. Does it have to be? Well, for my preferences and interests and habits and history, it’s clear that Mannequin Pussy is hitting a lot of the marks that a lighter pop album would not. But they’re saying similar things at the same time, and hmm. Is today more drag queen or more rebel girl? Why not both. At the same time. With the underwear fetish and everything. 1-800-FK-YR-DCK. 1-888-LOL-NO-JK. 1-666-NOT-2DAY.
“OK? OK! OK? OK!” has easily been one of my favorite songs of this year. Have I mentioned I love bass before? It’s so wonderfully abrasive. And powerful! That’s nice, for sure. In practice I’m into compassionate equality, but in theory, futile begging sounds quite appealing, especially in a social-political sense. We’ve had a good run on the whole capitalist patriarchy, everyone suffers but the 1% thing – time for women to run the world. For the moment, how ’bout those 1% do the begging.
If you like that one, its relatively chill counterpart is “Loud Bark” with a more transparent message.
Their up-tempo and feministic takes really hit the spot, but more recently I’ve been stuck on “I Don’t Know You“. Sounds about right for all the things that have occurred in recent history. Will healing commence upon our perpetual sadness? Given I’m still sad about shit that happened decades ago, guessing no.
I can’t finish this piece of writing without pointing out the line “and what if jesus himself ate my fucking snatch”. I did it. There you go. Where do we go from here? I automatically thought of PornHub being blocked in Florida just there because of age verification laws. Is RedTube blocked? Let’s make this happen, internet. Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Utah – they’re counting on us to deliver the targeted porn of their dreams. Bring ever-desired holy cunnilingus to their awareness and end the backwards trek from progress. Implode those tiny minds and free us all from their burden.
Idles – Tangk
The early videos all very much hit the spot. The one for “Gift Horse” especially. Stop that boogie dancing and pet the fucking bull, dude!
Turns out I didn’t like the album so much on release… but man, those early weeks. I was so excited for this one. I was certain it would transcend all. Don’t get me wrong; it’s good, but the whole thing didn’t even sort of match my repeat plays of those first songs and then my soul said no, fuck you, it’s sad time.
Given it took time for their other albums to really settle for me and they’re one of my most-played bands of the last half decade, I imagine this just needs a bit longer on the stove.
Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight
Heavy, abrasive, screaming nonsense I don’t understand: check, check, check. This was one of the few sludge albums I gave more than a millisecond this year.
“Ode To Jimbo” is song of the year material. What would Couch Slut sound like if they were sober? What a question. Alas, I don’t think we’d have songs like this, nevermind “The Donkey” which feels like a string-of-consciousness report on an evening gone awry. The song totally reminds me of “The Three Little Pigs” by Green Jello/Jelly. You ever have a 30 year old earworm that affects your interpretation of things going on right now today? One of these days I’ll get new references. Anyway, if you’re 40-50, you’ll understand. In the interim, why aren’t all stories told like this? I would go to a slam poetry night that sounded like “The Donkey”.
Screaming.
Crying.
Ufomammut – Hidden
I’ll have you know this came out, began to make a mark, and somehow I inexplicably completely forgot it existed. Given the timing of its release and the title, well, makes sense to me. My mind was elsewhere. I wish I had more to say than “sounds like Ufomammut”, hence why I’ve sectioned them off, but… ugh. I don’t know. If you like psychedelic doom, stoner-doom, heavy stuff generally, and you don’t know Ufomammut, here’s my terrible “review” to convince you of absolutely nothing. Eventually I’ll have a working short term memory not easily affected by thinking too much of irrelevance again.
Justice – Hyperdrama
I was pleased as punch to hear the new Justice album. The first few songs were really hitting the spot, especially “Generator“…
…and then I crapped out and even the early good songs weren’t really making much of an impact anymore, either. Glad there’s more Justice in the world.
I wish that was a pun. Alas, it is not.
Heavy Temple – Garden of Heathens
Have I mentioned I like doom yet? How about bass?
Heavy Temple caught my attention with 2021’s Lupi Amoris. I heard the album kind of late but have spent a good portion of the last 2-3 years listening to it on repeat. I didn’t build much in the way of expectations for the next album, but if I had any, they were met.
To answer the question posed in the song “Hiraeth“: therapy. I’ve known people who are overly well-described by the lyrics, and what tedium it can be trying to simply speak to them on a mechanical level. Be real; fake, self-hating people are exhausting and, in my precious opinion, easy to take advantage of.
Life lessons aside, yay heavy shit!
Gojira – “Mea Culpa“
Well that was fucking weird.
Seriously. People who openly, actively turned their nose on the band and made fun of Gojira fans years ago suddenly boiled up from the depths to claim awe and congratulations for the band. The fuck. I’m never trusting anyone else’s opinion again. You’re all on watch.
Good for these guys, anyway. Gojira is responsible for the best live experience I’ve ever had, so I’m glad people outside of the scene got a chance to know them. Glad metal in general got a brief moment in the sun on such a big, international stage, too. Hope that means good things for this band and perhaps metal in general. Unfortunately it probably means I’ll never be able to see this band without paying a million dollars to get a nosebleed again, but maybe now I won’t have to argue with idiots as much about music I like. ha ha. Good one. This whole post is like “omfg how dare she.”
Iota – Pentasomnia
This came out in March? The hell? Could have sworn that was three years ago.
If you’ve known me in a musical space long enough, you’ve read many an instance of me talking about how “Dimensional Orbiter” is one of the best songs ever. It’s been 15+ years of Please Sir, May I Have Another. We got Dwellers, so that’s cool, but it still wasn’t Iota. Hearing Iota had secretly gotten together again to create music and it was coming out this year was day-makin’.
Of course, I was expecting more psychedelic stoner rock and less blues, so I was a bit nervous when the first song on the album sounds so much like Dwellers. People change creatively over the course of a decade and a half, of course, and it’s not like I dislike Dwellers, but… Iota.
And then the second song happened and I breathed a sigh of relief. The album still feels like a blend of the bands, but the emotionally neutralizing psych specificity is something I wanted more of, and that’s what’s here. I’m not certain the sound of this album would have made good sense to me 10-15 years ago, but in context and with space (pun?) and age, it works quite well, and I ended up listening to it a lot on release.
I feel like I haven’t said enough, so: if you missed Iota in the 2000s and you like stoner rock, heavy rock, psychedelic, bluesy heavy music just generally speaking, you should try this. Their earlier music is more straightforward, upbeat stoner rock with a mild doom sensibility (think Red Fang and Houdini-era Melvins), so if that’s your thing, go forth and do.
Elephant Tree – Handful of Ten
Maybe the Lowrider/Elephant Tree split should be here, but…
I got completely stuck on “Try“. It took me RIGHT back to the spring of 2020. “Long Forever” from the split had a similar result. How does a band’s sound feel so strongly of an exact moment in time? I was listening to the band before then – another case of one of the best songs of all time – why 2020? But the time had a sadness to it, and when Elephant Tree leans more into the breezy sound over the doomy one, my brain thinks “this is fucking sad” and I’m inclined towards dark nostalgia, grief, missing. The song “Try” is actually about someone masking to get along and losing themselves in the process. While technically still sad, that doesn’t sound like the emotions I got from it out of the gate. But there the feelings sit, anyway.
Sabrina Carpenter – Short n Sweet
How did I go from all heavy all the time to this? I’ve always had variety and been curious in some way even when I was resisting if not disgusted by top-40 music, but metalisms became part of who I saw myself. With years like this one where I spent a lot of time with music led by women in pop, I wonder if that identity is more fractured in extremes. I could also throw this entire line of thinking in the garbage and just slap “eclectic” on my preferences.
Clearly this year’s mood wanted for some brighter sounds, and “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” had their moments. It was my first time hearing her music, so it was actually 2022’s “Feather” that caught my attention and most stood out. It’s a song about a break-up, and yep. What more do I need to say about that (give it 25 paragraphs…). I like her humor, at least, and her VMAs performance was pretty fun.
Haunted Plasma – I
It finally happened! I already knew it was going to be passably good from watching them do their thing for internet-Roadburn three years ago, but this was fantastic for my old Nine Inch Nails fan turned heavy music nerd ilk.
The first two songs are perfection. “Machines Like Us” feels like it belongs in a rainy driving scene through a dark city featuring a cape-wearing, The Crow-meets-Batman android goth kid having an existential crisis after a catalystic loss. Is it too late to get them soundtracked on Black Mirror?
The album got lost like a lot of music did once the summer hit, but it was on the road to becoming my favorite thing this year back in the spring.
REZN – Burden
I got to know REZN with 2020’s Chaotic Divine. I wrote about the album at the end of that year in a tone of gratefulness but, somehow, did not expect 2024’s album to so quickly and easily work for me. Not only that, its release was perfectly timed so that I gave it enough space without distractions. I knew pretty quickly that it was an album of the year contender.
If it weren’t for the High on Fire because-duh album or Slift capturing my attention, I wouldn’t have to question whether this was my favorite heavy thing in 2024. Like I’ve said already, this doesn’t have to be a competition, and it really isn’t – more heavy for me, please k thanx – and, besides, it’s nice to have more good things.
And yes. This was good. To spare yet more pain in my fingers from typing shit no one is going to read, I’ll focus attention on “Chasm“. Remember when I was making fun of Russian Circles for making a “fuck you, dad!” album two years back? Russian Circles’ guitarist contributed another piece of rebellious noodling to this doom trod into psychedelic existential crisis. Those lyrics: uhhh you don’t know me, stop reading my diary.
The wonder doesn’t end at the one song, and I’ve listened to this album start to finish more than most this year, so… you know… go listen to it.
Allie X – Girl With No Face
The first half of this year was all about Allie X.
I believe I was teased elsewhere first but it was “Weird World” that completely sold me. That video is fantastic… and then it was soon apparent that, spinning included, all of her videos are fantastic. “You Slept On Me” indeed. How’d I miss her music before this year? (Rhetorical. I know I get stuck in my heavy music.)
While “Weird World” felt familiar, “Off With Her Tits” felt autobiographical. I clearly remember being 12-13 really wishing I hadn’t been cursed with the imminent horrors of boobs and hoping it would never happen to me. And then it didn’t for another decade, but that didn’t stop the objectification for being Female In Public anyway.
Much of the album gives off 80s electro-goth vibes, which is hammered home with the “Black Eye” video, so if you like it dark but want to remain in a pop space, you just found your next favorite artist.
High on Fire – Cometh the Storm
Doooooooom. (Or, for that specific track: “Proceeds the Weedian, Nazareth!”)
What more do I even say about this band anymore? You want shirt jokes? Toe jokes? How bout the one about cross-dimensional twin baby Jesus? I might even be able to conjure up some Motorhead slapstick.
The facts are, as amusing as it may be to poke fun of High on Fire and Matt Pike, there’s a lot of love here. The heavy is so good. “Burning Down” was immediately Song of the Year. Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it have been? It’s made of the exact formula that made me quit trying to appeal to relative normies and exclusively pursue music in 2007. One of my favorite guitarists, bassists (baglamaists? bards?), and drummers, all doing their unique thing(s) and making the exact breed of heavy stoner-doom I love. Like, duh. Of course I like this. Add in eastern-inspired songs like “Karanlik Yol” that remind me of 2007’s “Khanrad’s Wall” and yep, this, too, is why I started Song of the Day all those years ago.
While it’s got some amazing songs, the album has points in it that lead to me spacing out for the wrong reasons. Having done the HoF thing for so long, I know that’s what’s to be expected. I appreciate the speedier attitude, but the heavy shit is where it’s at for me.
For my own selfish reasons, I hope these guys are lifers, because I can’t imagine a world without more High on Fire in it. Hope Coady sticks around for another album or two, too! Though, I’ll totally take another Big Business album first…
Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
2020’s album was my favorite of that year. It was probably my favorite of the next, too, because I was still listening to it a whole lot, but I’m sure I said something else. Anyway, I was EXCITE for this. Sure enough, this album delivered the exact mood I was ready for. Did someone say… SATAN?! Nope, I said nothing at all, but I’ll take it.
You know when you’re in a car driving 60+ on the freeway and you open the window just a hair? Add in a lot of sacrificial screaming from the backseat (“Billy won’t stop touching me!” “Stop touching your brother!” “I. DIDN’T!”), and that’s what this album sounds like. Even relatively chill “Hautatuuli” is just idling at a stoplight, talking the kids down before another round of Shoulda Listened To My Mother.
My first listen of “Valotus” Very Much Appealed to my ridiculous horror sensibilities. We went from past-the-brink psychosis to a portal suddenly opening up, releasing an extremely displeased demon. Me being me, I laughed my ass off at that sudden switch-up. We, collectively, need to take more artistic chances into potential comedy because, that, was, awesome. It’s been months and the track still punches the gut and puts me right at the edge of “wow, that’s really something” tears.
Time hasn’t moved normally for years now, so I feel like I’ve only been listening to Oranssi Pazuzu for a few minutes and therefore I’m not qualified to discuss their likeness for anything but tour dates that aren’t happening (RIP america), but they’ve released multiple excellent albums in a row here and I feel like just maybe they’re one of the best bands going approximately right now. My biases are showing despite me intentionally setting aside other work bands, but, you know. So good.
Bongripper – Empty
Who here needs a vacation from thoughts? Talk about dooooooooooooom.
This was another album I giggled at when, during the title track, the band suddenly woke up from their doom nap to worship STHATAN. (Impatient? It starts at 8:30ish.)
Slift – Ilion
Slift has been sort of like a unique side dish in a musical buffet set-up for me, but I think this year changed things. I CONSUMED this album the second it came out and didn’t stop for like a month. At that, it had a rare amount of time given exclusively to it, no insane distractions, and me feeling relatively alright for the first time in a while and the last time for, also, a while.
This thing is a ride. You have to be prepared to listen to over an hour of music in one, complete go to contextualize the whole thing. I would recommend listening to it exactly as delivered. But, I immediately fell for “Confluence“. My personal history promptly connected it to the Myst series of games & books. I still can’t pin down exactly what about Myst it’s reminding me of, assuming it’s not a misremembered thing altogether, but its essence generally reminds me of the atmosphere of ending up in the dark red bedroom of an imprisoned son. It’s very “serious“. Slift’s song is more than background soundtrack material, having more going on generally, nevermind 30 years separating one-step-above-midi music vs doom’s shirt-wearing cousin.
Words fail me after that, so it’s appropriate that “The Words That Have Never Been Heard” follows as another go-to. Maybe it’s the lack of identifiable words or strong mental photos that drew me to this album. The reason I listened to Kyuss so much years ago is specifically because their music was like abstract art during a time when I was repelled by intention, depth, and “meaning” in music due to grief, so it seems appropriate that I would want the same out of my stoner rock journey 20 years later during similar circumstances. Perhaps this means I could have taken on classical music, but, nope, sign me up for more psychedelic tinnitus please.
Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
I have now cried because of “Good Luck, Babe“.
I feel like I’ve been listening to Chappell Roan literally all year. First it was “Pink Pony Club” and “Red Wine Supernova” recommended by YouTube after they were on Stephen Colbert. Both songs cemented just prior to the Tiny Desk Concert video in March that took an “I think I like this” to an “alright I love this”. I remember getting emotional hearing the Tiny Desk “Casual” and “Picture You” because their essence mirrored what I’d been going through. Little did I know that feeling would get worse over the course of the year.
I soon ended up gravitating to “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” in effort to take me away from myself. Defaulting focus to women isn’t a logical option for me, but in the abstract I can get on board with the fantasy of throwing men in the trash. “He didn’t ask a single question” starts the song, and good fucking god, yes, exactly. What the fuck is it with men (and boys years ago) who might bother themselves with a cheap “what’s your favorite band” but after that, nothing, zero effort. Did the men attempting to flirt at me this past year even consider me a human being? What about “my mom just died and I’m about to be homeless” did not compute? What’s the fucking point? I swear I remember I used to have meaningful conversations with people who put in real, consistent effort to be present once upon a time. Now it’s like they think they showed up and they’re obviously fantastic “just because” (no, prove it) so they’re owed attention, feelings, dates, photos, sex, and unearned trust all meanwhile ignoring that I said I don’t want to talk to drunk people ever, pretending things I’ve said or posted aren’t worth time or attention in return, throwing me into some one-dimensional fetishistic box, pouting when they don’t get their way, ignoring messages and emails, and being evasive if not straight up giving me the silent treatment because I asked for the complex emotional horrors of an honest, transparent response to a question or request even if the answer is as simple as “I’m busy right now and will get back to you later”. Wha… What do you mean NOT lie and NOT manipulate you with “secrets” & magic tricks & make-believe gifts & false charm and NOT toy with your emotions?! Fuck you, I already had a mom! And then I’m watching a married gay couple build a house talking to each other with such respect and love even in their frustrating circumstances thinking I wish I had that, realizing what I’m actually dealing with, and wanting to fucking strangle every man who ever talks to me with “intentions” again. If only it were as simple as choosing something else, but there isn’t anything else. Yes, I, too, would like to leave the planet.
What’s extra aggravating is that Chappell Roan is 15 years younger than me, echoing experiences that she was processing younger than that age gap, that I was experiencing similarly at the same age and still seem to be doing now. It’s not a one-for-one copy, but what the fuck. And then I think of an older woman whose quietly conservative, sexually judgmental weirdness complained to me about men when I was younger than Chappell Roan’s age, and I suspect not much has changed for the 50-60 year old crowd, either. It’s just a sea of toddlers, incapable of empathy, forever on the search for undeserved pre-dinner cookies peppered in cross-armed “you’re not my real mom!” outbursts. Or, in my most recent stand-out case, stonewalling then silent treatment. They didn’t want cookies ANYWAY!
And yet for my anger, disgust, and disappointment, hearing “Good Luck, Babe” reinterpreted through my heteroromantic lens, there are tears. I want there to be a day that these immature fucking dumbasses wake up and realize how badly they fucked up – not once, but repeatedly – for years. Their refusal to grow up, take accountability, be honest, and/or go to therapy, all leading to losing what could have been, and for what? In an honest space there could have been room for flexibility in addition to emotional connection, but instead they made their childish choices. I’ll now forever be pissed off and distrustful of these people because they couldn’t manage to be real with me and chose, instead, manipulation and evasiveness. But the fantastical image in my head of connection, sharing, potential futures of trust, hanging out, trips, building lives together, it’s just… there, like a wilted plant. Alone again, starving of sunlight yet again, while some adult two year old pretends like it never happened and waters any other plant in the world with his fake, empty, no-effort bullshit. Gotta feed that narcissism. I want – like Chappell Roan – karma to come in. Show them the suffering they delivered pls k thnx. And yet, still, the tears.
At least “I got a wand and a rabbit” is still a fun line. At least the drag sensibility throughout the album and its promotion feels exactly right. I’m not one for YMCA dances, but “Hot To Go” is wonderfully catchy. “I want non-fiction” – yep, yep, yep. As things are, I think we’re stuck with wigs and smut.
Long story short, Chappell Roan soundtracked my entire year.
Did you need a simple top-ten album list? Alright, here’s an attempt before I change my mind again:
- REZN – Burden
- Slift – Ilion
- Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
- Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
- Allie X – Girl With No Face
- Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
- High on Fire – Cometh the Storm
- Iota – Pentasomnia
- Haunted Plasma – I
- Heavy Temple – Garden of Heathens
And these are the songs that Last.fm said I listened to (read: tracked, since it doesn’t record offline or YouTube listens) the most this year. Songs from 2024 in bold:
- All Them Witches – “Tiger’s Pit”
- Mannequin Pussy – “I Got Heaven”
- Chappell Roan – “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”
- Mannequin Pussy – “OK? OK! OK? OK!”
- Paramore – “Hard Times”
- Allie X – “Lifted”
- Frankie and the Witch Fingers – “Empire”
- Frankie and the Witch Fingers – “Burn Me Down”
- Slift – “Confluence”
- Idles – “Meydei”
- Mannequin Pussy – “Loud Bark”
- Nine Inch Nails – “Less Than”
- Vitalic – “Poison Lips”
- Ashnikko – “Toxic”
- Sabrina Carpenter – “Feather”
- Them Crooked Vultures – “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I”
- King Buffalo – “Mercury”
- All Them Witches – “Enemy of My Enemy”
- High on Fire – “Burning Down”
- High on Fire – “Karanlik Yol”
Now bring on 2025! Unless it sucks, then fuck you and take me back to 1997 or something.
