052/ My song obsessions of 2024
Before we get into this, I want to plug that I made this zine: Just a Truffle Race to the End. It’s 56 pages, A5 size, including my best pieces of writing from 2024 and I’ve done 100 copies (and it’s selling pretty fast since I launched it today). You can buy copies (£4 each) on the Border Crossing shop. I admit, it’s a slightly odd stocking filler, but it’s cute and I’m proud of the writing...
This year I listed my favourite songs of 2024 in a new way: a chronological list of obsessions, which I wrote down as-and-when they occurred, through the year.
It feels like a more truthful way to list them, rather than the comparative, numbered list I’ve done previously, since it matches more accurately how I (like I’m sure many other people too) fall into songs — playing them over and over, drowning out other music (even by the same artist) for a while.
The list ended up totalling 34 songs, equating roughly to one every eleven days. Seven were older songs, so I’ve added the year they came out onto the list.
This list does seem to skew to earlier in the year, as if my obsessiveness has tailed off, particular as summer turned to autumn. I don’t know why this happened — I wasn’t checking out any less new music. Perhaps I was so overwhelmed by (and continue now to be so obsessed with) the music of Brat Summer that autumn and winter songs got less of a proper look-in. Who knows.
Anyway, here’s the big list. Each link is to a YouTube vid or performance.
Annie Dressner — ‘A Dance We Do’
Waxahatchee — ‘Right Back To It’ (feat MJ Lenderman) *
Maggie Rogers — ‘Don’t Forget Me’
Chappell Roan — ‘Casual’ (2022)
Chappell Roan — ‘Femininomenon’ (2022)
English Teacher — ‘Nearly Daffodils’
Bonny Light Horseman — ‘When I Was Younger’ *
Adrianne Lenker — ‘Free Treasure’
Adrianne Lenker — ‘Sadness As A Gift’
Adrianne Lenker — ‘Real House’ *
Mitski — ‘Coyote, My Little Brother’ (Pete Seeger cover)
Kendrick Lamar — ‘Not Like Us’
Chappell Roan — ‘Pink Pony Club’ (2022)
Charli XCX — ‘Sympathy Is A Knife’ *
Sabrina Carpenter — ‘Please Please Please’
Charli XCX — ‘The Girl So Confusing Version With Lorde’
MJ Lenderman — ‘She’s Leaving You’ *
Sabrina Carpenter — ‘Skinny Dipping’ (2022)
Donovan Woods —‘When Our Friends Come Over’ feat Madi Diaz
The Housemartins — ‘Happy Hour’ (1986)
KH — ‘Looking At Your Pager’ (2022)
Roxanne De Bastion — ‘Heavy Lifting’ (2021)
Big Thief — ‘Incomprehensible’ (unreleased, live footage only)
Sega Bodega / Dorian Electra — ‘Teenage Dirtbag [2020]’
Laura Marling — ‘Caroline' (I prefer live solo versions to the LP)
And of course, in a daft sop to numbered ordering, I haven’t been able to resist putting an asterisk * on my year’s actual top five favourite songs.
Glad I’m not the only one who got hooked on Nearly Daffodils (and you’re right about the live versions of Caroline)