i listened to 621 albums from 2024; here are a bunch i liked

i am unwell and here is the evidence

i spend a lot of time listening to music. i spend so much time listening to music that on the rare occasion i accidentally find myself sitting in silence, i will think to myself, “huh, i should do this more often.” but i don’t, because i am deranged and insatiable. i am even kind of hard on myself about my listening habits, i tell myself i should listen to fewer albums more times. connect with them, let them sink in, get their teeth in me.

you ever encounter an idea that hits like a revelation and then immediately seems like it should have been obvious from the jump? i was reading a piece of music writing about the (so good) new fennesz album this week that included this bit of wisdom: “the value of a piece of music shouldn’t necessarily come from how often you play it.” this was in reference to streaming and compensation for artists, but it struck me as important context for my own relationship with music. if music is how we decorate time, my style is far from minimalist. but then, neither is the way i decorate my home. it’s eclectic, crowded, lived in, cozy. there is stuff everywhere, but it all has its place. it’s full up with curiosities. and everywhere, there is music.

here, there is music, too. a bunch of it. i’ll put three that i really loved and know i will always love at the top, and the rest of it in loosely categorized sections below. unranked, much loved. forda Heads.

where i listen from

WAXAHATCHEE - TIGERS BLOOD

saint cloud was, is, and always will be a monumental album for me. i remember the first time i heard “can’t do much” when it was released as a single and preordering that record with the quickness. i remember the pandemic hitting and listening to the LP over and over and over again at home with portia. we were home all the time, so we were together all the time, so we heard those songs at the same time all the time and so we became close to those songs together. they became a fixture in our lives. when we got married and couldn’t do it in the classic style because vaccines still weren’t a thing yet, we made a video and set it to “can’t do much.” when things got hard between us, i remember listening to it in my car, choking on the words, wondering if we would ever enjoy singing them together again. and i remember missing the concert because i didn’t know if it was a good idea to be there with my wife. and when we split for real, i never stopped listening, and my relationship to the songs shifted and deepened and became more complex. a lot has happened since then. if all this seems sad, it’s not to me.

so when tigers blood was announced and “right back to it” was released, i didn’t know what to expect, neither from the music or from myself. i played the video and was easily won over by the song’s languid beauty. “this is nice,” i thought. and then mj lenderman’s harmony hit and i started crying, bowled over by the sense that saint cloud would always represent a profound and difficult stage in my life, and that tigers blood would come to represent something new, and that the time in front of me would come to reveal what that was. it spoke of possibilities. it felt like evidence of the distance i had come and the work that i had done to step into this new phase, where i am whole and happy and well, and i knew the album would be a companion.

and then it came out and when the group harmonies came in on “tigers blood” i cried. and when i saw her live in may and the opening act joined the band on stage to sing those harmonies i cried again. stop making me cry, katie!

anyway, i’ll love these songs forever. “crowbar” is a revelation every time i hear it; i’m not allowed to listen to it around other people because i can’t sing it but i also can’t not sing it. no matter how much wordless weirdo music i listen to, i will always be an alt-country boy at heart. thank god for waxahatchee.

JEFF PARKER ETA IVtet - THE WAY OUT OF EASY

‘I have no fear about my music being too way out. My goal remains the same. And that is to uplift people as much as I can, to inspire them to realize more and more of their capacities for leading meaningful lives. Because there certainly is meaningful life.’

- John Coltrane

my obsession with jazz really kicked off when i started poking around outside the confines of what i had perceived jazz to be and to sound like. of course alice coltrane was the gateway. it really cracked my head open. i wasn’t just moved by the music; it took me further than that. i was, maybe, changed by it? in any case, it was the first truly spiritual music to ever stir spiritual feelings inside me. sitting in the dark, i was astonished to feel myself not only in the presence of something greater, but a part of it.

'There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are. But to do that at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror.’

so jazz changed my perception of what was possible both in music and in the universe. i was also doing ketamine therapy around this time, which was another place the idea of “oneness” really took hold in me. and the thing about jazz is there is you will never catch up with all the ideas and expressions and the ways that it can move you. and there are those who continue “cleaning the mirror.” jeff parker is that dude.

i found the deep, long, hypnotic grooves of jeff parker’s 2022 album mondays at the enfield tennis academy transportive and addictive (i felt similarly about last year’s beautiful natural information society album since time is gravity). i could listen to it while cooking dinner or while going deep or zonking out. for being here or being somewhere else.

this performance is the definition of “locking in.” the first time i listened to the way out of easy i fell so deeply into the experience that i saw myself on stage with them, felt the communal nature of the music so thoroughly that contributing to it with claps or yawps or hums seemed wholly natural. once again reminded that i am not a separate thing, but a part of a beautiful, welcoming whole.

as someone who is also devoted to making sure the music i hear sounds good, i have to point out that this is part of what makes such a transcendent experience possible:

The engineer Gonzales is well known for the high-end audio gear he builds as Highland Dynamics, and even designed a custom mixer to be able to record the ETA IVtet, specifically, while only taking up a single space at the bar. In his liner notes for The Way Out of Easy, he colors his process and approach: “There are many different ways to make recordings and they all have their place. But for this band, the most important thing to consider is: not doing anything to get in the way of what they are saying to each other.” He refers to the simple schematic he used for capturing these performances – “basically only 4 level controls for one microphone per player” – which allows us an incredibly pure, honest, transparent and transporting experience of the music as it unfolds and is created in real time.

DJ SABRINA THE TEENAGE DJ - SORCERY + HEX

TWO ALBUMS! oh my GOD sabrina, how do you keep doing this, how do you do so much of it, what have we done to deserve such bounty, such pleasures? these songs are pure feeling. beautiful, ecstatic, sincere, fun, and overwhelming. i think she said most of her songs have around 100 samples on them; she piles the hooks on top of each other to dizzying effect, injecting that which may otherwise seem corny (dialog from hallmark movies, soft rock saxophone solos, positive affirmations) with such depth that it must surely be a magic trick (sorcery, you might call it). sabrina has the power to make you feel anything she wants — we live in gratitude that she only uses that power for good.

[SAX SOLO]

i don’t know anything and not to sound like an old guy but it seems to me like most pop music is just sad and dour and unromantic nowadays, and most dance music is slick and self-consciously cool, and that’s not inherently bad, but we need other options. sabrina’s music is free, because it is sincere. if you let your fear of being cringe go, it will bring back feelings you thought you would never feel again. nostalgia is dangerous when used as escape, but for all it’s earnest youthful yearning and nickelodeon naivete, sabrina’s music is moving not because it looks backwards, but because of what it suggests is possible if you are brave enough to look forward.

but those are just flowery words that can only obscure the essence and appeal of this music: it feels so good to listen to. it’s like flossing for the brain. it’s like snorting pop rocks. some of the sounds seem impossible (try and figure out what the hell is going on in hex’s “hold on,” a 13-minute epic that sounds like it is both coming together and falling apart the whole time).

it seems impossible to me that she will not be some kind of Big Deal someday (ideally this will involve some kind of high-profile collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen), and there are countless joyful hours to spend getting ahead of the curve. dancing, driving, cooking, walking, exercising, doing drugs, and making out: all greatly enhanced by stepping into the Other Realm with sabrina.

SONGS MODE

waxahatchee - tigers blood
mj lenderman - manning fireworks
dummy - free energy
wishy - triple seven
jessica pratt - here in the pitch
cindy lee - diamond jubilee
hurray for the riff raff - the past is still alive
myriam gendron - mayday
nilufer yanya - my method actor
caoilfhionn rose - constellation
milan w. - leave another day
loose koozies - passing through you

JAZZ MODE

jeff parket EVA IVtet - the way out of easy
anna butterss - mighty vertebrate
nala sinephro - endlessness
the sorcerers - i am a stranger
kahil el’zabar quartet - open me, a higher consciousness of sound and spirit
ari tsugi - simultaneity
work money death - people of the fast flowing river
cosmic tones research trio - all is sound
jj whitefield - the infinity of nothingness
lifted - trelis
sam wilkes - iiyo iiyo iiyo
SML - small medium large
greg foat - the glass frog
fuubutsushi - meridians

DANCE/ELECTRONIC/POP

dj sabrina the teenage dj - hex
dj sabrina the teenage dj - sorcery
caribou - honey
photay - windswept
dar disku - dar disku
charles a.d. - west pontoon bridge
lava la rue - starface
kali uchis - orquídeas
ezra collective - dance, no one’s watching
naemi - dust devil
loidis - one day
donato dozzy - magda
lars bartkuhn - nomad
saphileaum - exploring together
magdalena bay - imaginal disk

PSYCH/WORLD/INSTRUMENTAL/AMBIENT

rich ruth - water still flows
phil geraldi - AM/FM USA
emergency group - mindscreen
yaryu - for damage
keanu nelson - wilurarrakutu
more eaze - lacuna and parlor
frunk29 - drifting horses
kali malone - all life long
infinite body - my bright abyss
fennesz - mosaic
earthen sea - recollection

WORLD/COMPS

emahoy tsegue mariam gebru - souvenirs
virtual dreams ii - ambient explorations in the house and techno age, japan 1993-1999
can - live in keele 1977 / live in paris 1973
soFa - elsewhere CC
etran de l’aïr - 100% sahara guitar
kankawa nagarra - wirlmarni
baba zula - İstanbul sokakları
jorga mesfin - the kindest one
tidiane thiam - africa yonti

blessings, all.