I experienced a lot of personal development over the last year, fortunately due to taking chances on creative endeavors and being more vulnerable. It’s led to me knowing more people and being more truly known by the people I care about. In many of those cases, I had songs like the ones I’ll share below to inspire me in one sense or another.
Spring is Coming With a Strawberry in the Mouth - Roger Doyle/Operating Theatre
I had to double-check to make sure that I discovered this song last year, because at this point it feels like I've known it forever. Likely of the first crop of songs that I listened to in 2024, and now forever the song that will usher in the thaw of spring for me, "Spring is Coming..." is absolutely entrancing. When I heard it come on, it immediately pulled me from whatever I was doing. Very 80s, and yet composed in such a way that feels very modern, and a sparse mix of spoken word and ethereal vocals from Elena Lopez. The cover by Caroline Polachek is also worth calling out, as it's great in it's own way.
Dancer - IDLES
Saw the thumbnail for this song's music video pop up for me, and when I saw LCD Soundsystem was featured, I couldn't ignore it. Listened to it and like most IDLES songs, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I couldn't shake it afterwards, and I kept thinking about it, and when I played it for my girlfriend later in the day, she had the same reaction as I was coming to the realization that I really, really dug it. It just crackles with energy and a sort of euphoric abandon. This year is bound to have some deeply challenging, draining moments, and it's important to remember that you can still dance in the midst of chaos. You have to have joy to fuel resistance.
Times - Wu-Lu
Man, this song hits hard. No matter how much is going on in it, it all works together. It's both noisy and melodic, messy and composed. Brings me back to the late 90s in some way. I don't know what else to say about it, it just rules. Recommended pairings: Sunset drive through the city; walking to get coffee; mowing your lawn.
Choke Throat - GOON
If the metric for song of the year was the number of times I listened to it, Choke Throat wins by a mile. When it first played, it was at a lower volume in the background and I made a note to listen to it later with headphones because it sounded interesting. When I did, I was immediately swept away. There's this unplaceable wistfulness, or haunting nostalgia to it that I found myself wanting to live in for a time, not just listen to. Try to imagine what it felt like as a kid waking up from a dream that you couldn't understand. Not a nightmare, just where things aren't right and you aren't sure where your mind went to find those things.
Easy to Be Around - Diane Cluck
This one entered my orbit late into the year, otherwise it would have probably been in stiff competition with Choke Throat for song most listened to. I guess I'm a sucker for songs that have a haunting quality to it, but where Choke Throat conjured something dreamlike, Easy to Be Around conjured being with someone you're madly in love with as you sit by a fire or walk through a forest at night. It's both a rebuke of the material world and a celebration of being with someone that permits you to be yourself, and it's so utterly beautiful and appropriately strange.