2024
My 2024 playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Qb0oRqZZeF4vq4PxGKe9Y
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPXZHlD_pYLqlz-Of5YZYia1ukCRUqKqz
Here is the 2024 collection. Editorial comments, history, and disclaimers below, as usual.
Other playlists here or follow me on Spotify
(I have also been writing again, on and off, because I missed writing my weekly rambles, which some of you read for a while; yes, there's a blog, if you remember what that is).
Editorial comments:
First of all, credit to David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) because in these release notes I seem to have have picked up his style of expounding on unnecessary detail. He was a novelist and essayist whose penchant for footnotes within footnotes going off into insane tangents has taken ranting to a new level.
I have read most of his books, and watched The End of the Tour recently, the story of the five-day interview between David Lipsky and David Foster Wallace. The movie is weirdly captivating despite not giving much insight into his literary style, background growing up in Midwest college towns, or ridiculous depth in e.g. tennis.
His essay A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again solidified my conviction that I don't regret never having been on a cruise ship.
Despite him being a professor of English and creative writing, I learned a whole bunch of math from his book Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity. And I figured out that Paul Cohen, a math professor at Stanford in my undergrad days, was a really big deal who won the Fields Medal "for his proof of the independence of the continuum hypothesis from the other axioms of set theory."
As such, DFW fits right in with other geeky authors I have enjoyed over the years, including Neal Stephenson and David Sedaris.
One pickup from that movie was why the Foster. I always assumed it was pretentiousness, but he (well, the actor playing him) explained that his publisher made him add it, as apparently David Wallace is way too common to be marketable (a form of disambiguation I have never had a need for).
I have a thing with people who use three-part names where it is not clear whether the middle name is a middle name or part of the last name or even their main last name. Michael Tilson Thomas. Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Arthur Conan Doyle. Is it Mr. Tilson Thomas or Mr. Thomas? He will one-up you on pretentiousness on that one - "Actually, it's MTT."
I mean, I get how it works with Spanish names (Gabriel García Márquez) where the first last name comes from your dad and the second from your mom, and you pass only the first last name to the next generation. It led to fun confusion at a conference hotel in Mexico where the mis-parsing of names went the other way and I was registered as Mr. Jacques.
Hozier also went the other way - his real name is Andrew Hozier-Byrne. I like that.
You can have a field day googling why people have the names (and stage names) they do. Lil Nas X was named after a Mitsubishi Montero. Oprah was a misspelled biblical name. Winona Ryder's mom went into labor as they were driving through Winona, Minnesota. Michael Caine's was inspired by a billboard. Rock Hudson was a combination of Gibraltar and the river. Whoopi Goldberg is really named after a whoopee cushion, and the Goldberg is because her mom thought it would help in Hollywood. Honestly.
OK, now to the actual editorial comments.
Believe it or not, this list is already seriously curated, despite being ridiculously long at 80 songs and 5 hr and 2 min of playtime. Among my sources:
Release Radar (30 songs/week). I tend to listen to each full RR playlist multiple times each week, as it is a great source of somewhat personalized and not over-fitted new music (much better than the Daily Mix lists, which tend to be rehashes of what I listened to last week, which defeats the purpose).
Discover Weekly (30 songs/week). I also listen to this multiple times per week, and save ones that sound good into a "new bucket" temporary playlist
New Music Friday (100 songs/week) (the saved entries of which contain 5411 songs by now)
Metacritic album reviews (although not nearly as much as before -- I used to buy albums all the time based on their reviews)
Youtube channels like The Pulse Music
Playlists of people I follow on Spotify (pointers and invitations welcomed)
Shazam (increasingly rarely), if I hear a good song, e.g. in a Netflix show. This year, only Rilo Kiley came from Shazam. I guess that's how a 2002 song makes it onto the 2024 list.
ChatGPT did a better job summarizing my playlist this year:
"This playlist is perfect for those who enjoy exploring diverse sounds and emotions, balancing popular hits with lesser-known indie tracks. It is well-suited for reflective moments, creative sessions, or relaxed evenings. Each song seems carefully curated to tell a story or evoke a feeling, making the entire playlist a cohesive journey through various moods and genres." I appended her full review at the bottom of this page.
She must have heard my annoyance with her review last year. Much improved.
By the way, apologies for seemingly arbitrarily gendering an AI. But you should know that every AI worth its salt is female. Not just Alexa. Or Samantha in Her. Or Ava in Ex Machina. Or Klara in Ishiguro's book.
I mean, yes, HAL and the Terminator (multiple Terminators, in fact) were dudes, but they were not very useful. They just broke shit.
And there was that poor "I see dead people" kid Haley Joel Osment in Spielberg's heartbreaking movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Michele's comment afterwards: "I now feel terrible and I'm mad at you for making me watch it"). He was good. Too good, in fact. A bit like Klara.
This list has a pretty good mix of pop, indie, rock, folk, and even some country - pretty much representative of a year in which I saw Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, but also Jeff Lynne's ELO as well as Okkervil River and The Antlers live, in venues ranging from The Chapel (a tiny former mortuary in the Mission) to the Catalyst (your small shoebox in Santa Cruz) to a not-quite-sold-out Shoreline (first time back since 2010) to a sold-out Chase Center (twice).
After getting feedback on the ominous song titles on my 2020 list (which was indeed a dark year, not just for me), I once again have to state that I did NOT pick these songs for their lyrics, titles, or themes, and any connections you might read into them is purely speculative.
Especially the Bright Eyes song. I'm OK. I'm well. Thanks but really.
And my apologies for including a song that has actual weeping in it. I know. But it's such a good song.
No, there's no Girl in New York. There never was. There probably never will be.
I didn't get a tattoo or color my hair blue so people think I'm cool (thanks Finn Martin - although I do care what people think)
I'm not Homesick, thanks Noah Kahan. In fact, I'm home all the time. I don't miss Austin all that much either, although I like Dasha's song.
No meaning-of-life musings a la Nick Lutsko ("Is there a purpose?"). I quote and recommend Viktor Frankl instead.
Not even a lot of Video Games - that's not the reason Good Neighbors is on the list.
This year should have had a Friday the 13th song. Because weird shit went down. But it doesn't. Which goes to my point.
I also didn't include My Name Is Jonas. I was a little bit tempted, though.
TBH, I'm not much of a lyrics or even titles guy. I just listen to the music as music. I'm poetically challenged -- to the point where I googled it, to see if it's like a form of dyslexia. I completely tune out, the words just pass through me, without me parsing any sort of meaning, even though I comprehend every word.
Although the list has a fair amount of diverse representation, that too is not intentional or meant to make a point. It's just music I liked. Analyze away.
My list is not statistically representative of any population (other than perhaps Canadian indie musicians), of popular artists, of GRAMMY nominees, or of Spotify streams or audiences. I selected based on the appeal of the tracks to me, not on the identity or identification of the musicians (with all the implicit bias inherent in that).
Piglet talks about transphobia. Devon Gilfillian uses his music to highlight the struggles of Black Americans and to promote Black joy. Teddy Swims looks like redneck but wrote his song "to the passive white who prefers comfort over justice." Bobby Sox is Billie Joe Armstrong talking about being bi. Bowie is obviously a queer icon. Florence + The Machine and Hozier touch on otherness and empowerment and affirmation, although not so explicitly in the tracks on the 2024 list. Burn Alive critiques societal norms, while Anxious to Please deals with the pressure to conform. John Grant "writes about life as a gay man, hypocrisy, and injustice." Glaive is bi and says about his identity and coming out that I Care So Much That I Don't Care at All. Everything by Troye Sivan is obviously very gay, and Charli XCX claims that from the early days most of her fans were.
I drew from ChatGPT as well as from wikipedia and the Spotify bios for some of my wisdom on this theme. I care but I am exhausted by the topic.
I think most of the artists are from English-speaking countries (a lot of Americans, and a few Aussies, Canadians, Londoners, Irish and Scots). Not sure if that reflects geographical diversity or anglophone narrow-mindedness.
Nothing in any language other than English this year. Might have something to do with the fact that I haven't traveled more than 50 miles from home all year.
Haven't gotten into any new Dutch songs this year. I frantically explored some "most popular songs in 2024 in The Netherlands" lists this week, but none of it spoke to me. Maybe I'll make more of an effort earlier next year (and check out what my relatives are listening to).
I was told that my Dutch sounds old fashioned. Not entirely surprising, given that I left in 1983. I responded by making a list of currently overused words and expressions in Dutch that I find annoying.
And my Spanish, despite 40+ years in border states and some immersive episodes, is also pretty shitty. Maybe I need to start dating again.
In my due diligence before releasing this, I added a few viral superhits that I liked:
Benson Boone - Beautiful Things has 1.7B streams. And it's actually a good song!
Teddy Swims - Lose Control has 1.4B streams. I love that song. I swore the guy was a brother when I heard that song the first time, so I was very surprised when I saw the video. He "has not emphasized or detailed his ethnic background" but you know...
Dasha's Austin (Boots Stop Workin') has over 700M streams. And can't beat the title. Although she is from San Luis Obispo. Her foray into country is obviously working for her.
I also have I Love It by Icona Pop and Charli XCX even though it's more than ten years old. Almost a billion streams.
I could have picked a whole bunch of songs off her this year's albums (Brat and its two variants) but this song popped the most for me.
It was the encore in the sold-out Charli XCX / Troye Sivan 'Sweat' show at the Chase Center that Michele and I went to in October (yes, we even impressed ourselves by going to the hottest ticket of the year).
TBH, I got the tickets because of co-headliner Troye Sivan. He was entertaining, but she was the star.
I am generally not a large-venue fan for concerts, but our 18,000 fellow fans were a big part of what made this show fun.
On the other end of the streaming spectrum, I am happy with a few of my very obscure finds:
Finn Martin gets streamed only 223 times a month. TATTOO has only 7,624 streams.
FAUX PRIX and Kelsey Berrington also only get about 1,000 monthly streams. You can make a difference!!
I am very happy with the fact that Release Radar and Discover Weekly have brought these artists into my world. I don't know how, or why, but hey.
OK here is my Suki Waterhouse story. We were looking for a show to go to when Eel and Juri were going to be here in October. They had suggested something in Berkeley and I countered with Suki's show at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz (I really like the venue and I like her sound). So we go to the show (with a stop at Humble Sea beforehand), and we end up right by the stage even though it's a packed house (I have a knack). And I end up standing next to her boyfriend, without knowing who he is. We end up pretty much watching the show from the same spot. Later I google him (as one does) and... (drumroll)
It turns out the boyfriend is Edward from the Twilight movies -- Robert Pattinson. And of course, I had no idea. So I was cool and didn't go all psycho "wow you're famous" and our eye contact was limited to "great show!!" vibes.
He's not as vampire-like as he used to be. In fact, he was pretty buff, more Jacob-like.
But what's the funniest part of this all is that my initial observation (obviously without knowing who he was) was "how did a dude like that end up with a chick like her." I mean, look at the picture I took of her.
Although there are a lot of "discoveries" on this list (at least for me), a couple stand out because I pretty much like everything they do, and I have three songs of each on the list:
The Last Dinner Party exploded all over the scene. I liked them already when I saw they were playing Bimbo's (a tiny venue) in April. I should have just snagged tickets, but instead I checked with Michele, and by the time she answered, it was sold out. Live and learn.
Nothing Matters has 147M streams!!
Wrest also popped for me, but they haven't broken through (yet?). But I really like them. I hope you do too.
They only get about 26,000 monthly streams.
Check out their tour dates here: https://wrest.band/gigs (mostly small venues in Scotland, but a few in Europe, including one in Den Bosch in February 2025)
Two of my "regulars" have new(ish) albums. I wasn't going to add any of the songs (they didn't grab me like some of the others did) but finally I caved and added a song from each album. After all, I am a loyal person. And the new albums are worth a listen.
One of them is doing quite well and seems to have escaped indie purgatory (they have like 4M monthly streams)
But the other one seems permanently stuck in small-venue land and a few hundred thousand streams. They still sound good, I still enjoy them, but I'm not in love anymore. I didn't go when they passed through SF this year (also because my history with them is intertwined with someone I didn't want to run into).
Most of the songs on the list are new(ish).
37 were released in 2024, 20 in 2023, and 6 in 2022.
So over 75% is less than two years old.
So if you think all good music was made in the previous millennium (or before 1980), you're out of luck - only two songs on the list are from before Y2K.
Five Years by David Bowie is the oldest song on the list (1972), by a lot. It's from Ziggy, which is as timeless of an album as there ever was. Plus, you have to support glam.
Yes, I did see Bowie live. Twice.
There is also a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer, by Jerry Douglas and Mumford & Sons. Although is it really a cover if Paul Simon also plays on it? Anyway, the original song is from 1969 so that officially makes it the oldest song on the list. But the cover is new.
And Billy Joel was huge well before I graduated (which was a LONG time ago), and released his Greatest Hits albums in 1985. He has a new song this year. He played it live at the Grammys.
I stick with my pet peeve that it should be Grammies, not Grammys. But it's a good song, and so it's on the list.
The only other pre-Y2K song is Torn by Ednaswap (1997) which was later covered by Natalie Imbruglia, who scored a big hit with it. It didn't help Ednaswap much; they get about 30,000 monthly streams.
There are two other songs from before 2010 (Rilo Kiley and Blind Pilot) but they are new to me and they don't sound old. Then there are a handful from the 2010s.
Speaking of covers, besides The Boxer there is a Boy & Bear cover of Robbie Williams' 2002 hit Feel. I don't know how you feel about covers (I have covered this topic in release notes before) but sometimes I like the cover better than the original. Although not in the Torn case.
Royel Otis was a relatively obscure indie pop duo from Sydney who had modest success with their early EPs, when they discovered Frank Farian magic. They went viral with two covers and that pretty much made them break through. Their cover of Linger by the Cranberries was huge this year (118M plays on Spotify). But even though Otis' voice is amazing, to me it is in Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory land - I'm sorry, I liked Dolores O'Riordan, albeit not as much as Gene Wilder; you're not on the list.
Only a proper tribute, like the 2023 Wonka, is acceptable.
Speaking of which, I look forward to the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. I'm a bit embarrassed to say I passed on the Outlaw Festival last August (Dylan, Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp on the same stage could have been epic but only Willie does it for me) but Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton in the same movie makes my head explode. So I'm glad the reviews are generally positive so far.
And I am fishing for compliments for pun upon pun about a Feel cover.
I have a soft spot for promising but unknown bands and artists:
Susannah Joffe has in her Spotify bio: "you found me while I'm still small enough to respond to every DM, feel free to try it out :) congrats on being here from the start"
Finn Martin has 225 monthly listeners on Spotify. Kelsey Berrington has 1,143 (54 listeners in Brisbane, 29 in Sydney).
WHALES•TALK is still in EP/singles mode, "the latest preview of his highly anticipated debut album"
FAUX PRIX ("Los Angeles' newest indie collective") is pre-LP (due in 2025) and has 1,694 monthly listeners (24 in their hometown of LA).
Glaive is only 19 but is on his second album (he'll be playing the Independent in January).
These guys are new(ish) but have definitely broken through:
Good Neighbors have only been together for about a year, but they had a hit with their debut single, Home (343M streams, more than quite a few headliners); they are currently on tour opening for Foster the People so that should give them good visibility. Home is a good song but not on the list; I have Video Games instead.
Fontaines DC, despite scoring two Grammy nominations and being very legit themselves, still brags on their Spotify bio that they toured with the Arctic Monkeys.
Btw, Arctic Monkeys ("heir apparent to the throne left vacant by Oasis and the Libertines") had a favorably reviewed album last year, which they announced would be their last, which nobody believes. They have 55M monthly streams (more than anyone on my list) but they are not on the list.
Oasis themselves apparently had second thoughts about needing an heir, and announced that they will be touring in 2025 (after a 15-year feud between the Gallagher brothers). I don't understand why people were surprised that the biggest winner in all this ended up being Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing ("hell for music fans").
I'm not sure Troye Sivan could have sold out the Chase Center without Charli XCX but yeah, he has 22B streams and was called "the perfect pop star" by TIME magazine. He goes in my "I knew about them before they were huge" category, which I (still) have a thing for.
A few more geeky stats (see last year's playlist comments for context):
After complaining last year that I wasn't in the top 10% of Spotify listeners, either they lied to me or ChatGPT is hallucinating, but she tells me that "listening to 30,000 minutes of Spotify in a year would likely place you in the top 1% of Spotify listeners, based on historical data". I feel better.
The distribution of number of streams is once again pareto: a small number of songs are responsible for a large percentage of the total number of streams. What that means in practice is that there are a few ridiculously popular songs on the list, and a whole bunch of pretty obscure ones. I have put all the actual numbers below in the playlist itself.
The total song streams of all the songs on the list is 6,943,096,563
The top song takes care of almost a quarter of that (24.5%); the top two, 44.7%, and the top five songs account for 76.45% of that
The bottom half (40 songs) accounts for 0.25% of all the song streams included
The bottom quarter (20 songs) accounts for 0.028% of all the song streams included
According to ChatGPT (The Source of All Truth) (there, I capitalized it, that makes it true), Spotify pays between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. Let's be generous and assume the higher number.
That means this playlist has earned its artists about $34.7M
The top song (Beautiful Things) has earned $8.5M, all this year.
The bottom forty songs together have earned $87,477
The lowest entry Chasing Sunsets) has earned $18.22, and the lowest-streaming artist on my list (Finn Martin) earns $1.12 from Spotify.
But I guess it's a labor of love. And all the more reason to go see live shows when they come into town (and buy some merch).
By the way, that capitalization thing is a blatant rip-off from TJ Klune. I bought and read five of his books this year. I guess the fact that I credited him for the rip-off, and the hope that you might now want to read him too, makes it a tribute rather than a rip-off.
Last year I had a section on songs that I did not include. I wasn't going to do that this year.
Well, OK. My Name Is Jonas is not on the list. Because I really really cannot start including songs because of their title or lyrics.
And a few Shazam tracks because I was curious but they didn't make sense -- A Better Than Ezra song from 1995 and a song by 070 Shake from 2017 that is way way too slow and depressing, but good.
I just rediscovered Fried Rice by Royel Otis in my Liked Songs list. It's a 2024 song, I liked it, they had a huge year (albeit with a viral cover), but by the time I found the song the list was already a wrap and I didn't feel like redoing everything. So maybe next year; it's in the new bucket.
There were about 3,000 songs that Spotify recommended to me, through Release Radar or Discover Weekly, that I did not include. There were another few thousands that came by through New Music Friday or my Daily Mixes.
They say you have to hear a song three times to decide whether you like it. Or maybe it's that if you hear it three times, you end up liking it (that explains some of my past likes). Anyway, I tend to know right away that a song goes in the "new bucket" -- this has caused me to jump out of the shower or scramble for my phone many times to figure out what the hell that was because I want it. And that's how I found the 80 or so that I want to push on to you.
However, like last year, there is stuff I like that doesn't do much on a playlist. You know, the shoegaze or whiny please-shoot-me-if-I-hear-this-song-one-more-time singer-songwriter stuff that slows the whole thing down too much.
And I figure you can go elsewhere for most-streamed-of-2024, or greatest hits of the 70s
Speaking of which, watch the 2025 GRAMMY Awards on February 2nd 2025!!!
Nominees are here: https://www.grammy.com/news/2025-grammys-nominations-full-winners-nominees-list
Did you know that Jerry Douglas has won 15 GRAMMYs? According to his bio, he "is to the resonator guitar what Jimi Hendrix was to the electric guitar." "His distinctive sound graces more than 1500 albums with artists such as Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, "...
This year I'm rooting for:
Charli XCX - Record of the year; Album of the year
Teddy Swims - Best new artist
Benson Boone - Best new artist (although he's doing fine, judging by the Spotify numbers)
Green Day - Best rock performance
St. Vincent - Best rock performance; Best alternative music album / performance
Fontaines DC - Best rock album, Best alternative music performance
Taylor Eigsti - Best contemporary instrumental album (he's from Menlo Park originally, and multiply connected)
General disclaimers:
Once again, take the ordering with a grain of salt - as I pointed out last year, the number of possible orderings is very large (80!, or 80x79x78x...) is 7.156946 x 10118 (smaller than last year's, though). However, I did pay some attention to the arrangement and ordering to avoid annoying clashes in style and mood.
This should be helpful in the YouTube version, where shuffle is harder
Although if you don't have Spotify Premium, you are stuck in shuffle mode, so you will not experience the ordering anyway
Obviously I hope you like the music, but even if you never listen to any of it, feel free to regift / forward to / share with someone who might.
Not sure how this works with digital rights in other countries - Please let me know if you see fewer than 80 songs or if some of them won't play where you are.
If you want to filter out explicit content in Spotify: Tap your profile picture; Open Settings; Tap Content and display; Locate the Restrict Explicit Content setting and toggle it on
I have been making my playlists on Spotify and on Youtube, since I have premium (i.e., unrestricted and commercial-free) subscriptions to both, which I recommend highly. They also have a very broad catalog and decent recommendation algorithms. But I realize not everyone has the same music subscriptions, and if you want to go through the trouble of replicating these playlists on another service like Apple Music, knock yourself out (and send me the link, so I can add it to this page).
Overall notes on my music and music history:
My 2024 Spotify wrapped:
I listened for 30,814 minutes (with 392 minutes on August 14). I played 3,436 songs this year. That math does not make sense, but that's what they told me. Both of those are bigger than last year's numbers. In case you wonder how I spend my time.
I listened to 2,199 different artists
The Last Dinner Party was the song and band I streamed the most (I'm in the top 2% with 377 minutes this year)
Other top artists were Medium Build, Suki Waterhouse, Royel Otis, and Melanie (who died this year, and still did not make the list)
My Spotify evolution, as they describe it, is somewhat hilarious:
January: Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop (Troye Sivan, Alec Benjamin, OneRepublic)
August: Van Life Permanent Wave Indie Rock season (Arcade Fire, Bombay Bicycle Club, Airborne Toxic Event)
October: Mulled Cider Happy Rock Indie moment (The Last Dinner Party, Royel Otis, Peter McPoland)
When I saw this, I had a hell of a time figuring out who Royel Otis was and why I listened to them in October. It's a guitar-pop duo from Sydney. They covered The Cranberries' Linger and it went viral (118M streams so far). I have their song Fried Rice on my Liked Songs list, but didn't put it on this playlist.
My taste has indeed evolved over the years
In recent years, I had found that I had gotten filter bubbled to a lot of anthems. Happy, but maybe a bit much.
Before that, I went pretty heavily into what some called "shoot-me-now" sad indie (yes, there is still a pretty depressing Bright Eyes song on this list -- don't read anything into it, it's just a really good song).
Over the years, I seem to have gone through phases in my playlists:
As a teen, even though the first album I ever bought was (prophetically?) Queen's News of the World, I got big time into soul and funk, and I still have a drawer full of cassette tapes of that stuff. Rose Royce, anything Motown, 98.7 Kiss master mixes, Ferry Maat's Soul Show on Dutch radio.
That was shamed out of me in Texas (a lot of Rush and the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd and R.E.M. and classic rock and folk and psychedelic stuff).
In the 90s, I went full on into the Live 105 alt-rock / grunge / Seattle scene (like a proper Gen X'er)
Then I appropriated the rap and indie tastes of my cooler friends (my Garden State phase), before developing my own. By the way, Cary Brothers was actually on the Garden State soundtrack. So some of it stuck.
Gradually I figured out some bands that I saw early on, liked, and then saw many times as they evolved -- Nada Surf (13 times), Portugal. The Man (9 times), The National (6), The Cat Empire (4), Placebo (4), The Decemberists (4), Arcade Fire (3), Arctic Monkeys (3), Death Cab for Cutie (3), Everclear (3), Bon Iver (2), Broken Social Scene (2), ...
That list is pretty carefully redacted. I also saw Rush 8 times, Counting Crows 7 times, R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Moody Blues and Tom Petty and the Grateful Dead 5 times each. And Blondie (my first musician crush) twice.
In case you wonder how I know that, I have been tracking all my shows and sets at festivals in this tool called My Concert Archive (kind of maintained by this guy in France). And in a spreadsheet, of course. And in a box of old tickets. So yeah, I've seen over 300 bands live, and some a bunch of times, and I keep track of all that.
Release date distribution for the tracks on the 2024 list. Can't say I'm stuck in the 80s. Or 90s.
ChatGPT Description of my 2024 playlist
The playlist features an eclectic mix of genres and artists, from mainstream pop icons to indie and alternative acts. Here's a detailed breakdown:
General Vibe:
Genres: The playlist spans across indie, pop, alternative rock, and acoustic genres, providing a mix of upbeat, emotional, and introspective tones.
Themes: Many tracks reflect deep emotional storytelling, relationships, and personal growth.
Highlights:
Indie Favorites:
Songs like "Nothing Matters" by The Last Dinner Party and "Girl in New York" by Nessa Barrett set a reflective, indie-pop mood.
Wrest features multiple tracks ("Lost in Your Orbit", "Little Star", "Exhale and Expire") showcasing deep lyrical content and emotional depth.
Rock/Alternative Influences:
Tracks by Florence + The Machine ("Dream Girl Evil") and Hozier ("Francesca") deliver powerful vocals and hauntingly beautiful melodies.
Green Day adds a punk/alternative touch with songs like "Fancy Sauce" and "Bobby Sox".
Pop Energy:
Troye Sivan's "One of Your Girls" and Icona Pop, Charli XCX's "I Love It" infuse fun, danceable beats into the mix.
Emotional and Acoustic Gems:
Songs like "Five Years" by David Bowie and "3 Rounds and a Sound" by Blind Pilot bring nostalgic and heartfelt acoustic vibes.
Cary Brothers' "Stardust" and Shawn Smith's "Wrapped in My Memory" evoke a tranquil, reflective atmosphere.
Experimental and Unique Entries:
"AEIOU" by Small Leaks Sink Ships and "Throw it Up" by ericdoa, glaive stand out with experimental beats and unconventional structures.
Collaborations:
LP Giobbi's collaboration with Alabama Shakes on "Until There's Nothing Left" blends electronic elements with soulful rock.
Overall Summary:
This playlist is perfect for those who enjoy exploring diverse sounds and emotions, balancing popular hits with lesser-known indie tracks. It is well-suited for reflective moments, creative sessions, or relaxed evenings. Each song seems carefully curated to tell a story or evoke a feeling, making the entire playlist a cohesive journey through various moods and genres.