Well, it's that time of the year when everyone is doing their 'best and worst' of' lists, so here is mine. I'm going to list the books and movies and records I read/watched/listened to in 2024 and then pick my favourites. This isn't restricted to what was new in 2024, but what I actually watched and read and heard - some of these items might be very old indeed.
Books:
I read the following in 2024:
James Cooper – Little Boy
Olga Ravn – The Employees
Steve Shaw (editor) – Ars Gratia Sanguis
Georges Simenon – Maigret’s First Case
Andrea Schulte-Peevers – Berlin
Amanda Huggins – Signals
Yelena Moskovich – Virtuoso
Henri Pierre-Roche – Jules et Jim
Editor Eric J Guignard – Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology To The Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings In The Weird, Wide World
Daniel Church – The Ravening
Georges Simenon – My Friend Maigret
Anna Kavan – Julia And The Bazooka
Hilary Neroni – Feminist Film Theory and Cléo from 5 to 7
Georges Simenon – Maigret at the Coroner’s
Jason E Rolfe – Invisible Influences
Massimo Carlotto – The Goodbye Kiss
Brian Howell – The Man Who Loved Kuras
Georges Simenon – Maigret and the Old Lady
Vladimir Nabokov – The Enchanter
David Bevan – The Bull
Pedro Almodovar – The Patty Diphusa Stories
R M Cartmel – The White House, Holyhead
Witold Gombrowicz – Pornografia
Jeff Noon and Steve Beard – Ludluda
Georges Simenon – Madame Maigret’s Friend
Chris Beckett – Daughter of Eden
Alistair Conwell – Circadian Web
George Simenon – Maigret’s Memoirs
Michael Paul Hogan – Chinese Bolero
Primo Levi – If This Is A Man
David Swann – Season of Bright Sorrow
Alexander Zelenyi – A Test Tube Family
Jean-Baptiste Del Amo – Animalia
Megan Taylor – Waiting For The Rat
Georges Simenon – Maigret at Picratt’s
Jon Fosse – Aliss at the Fire
Nicholas Royle – Shadow Lines
Christopher Fowler – Plastic
Georges Simenon – Maigret Takes A Room
Pete Shelley – Ever Fallen In Love
Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis – Hadithi & The State of Black Speculative Fiction
Robert Stone – Spoon
Neil Williamson – Charlie Says
Robert Stone – Hole
Georges Simenon – Maigret And The Tall Woman
Giselle Leeb – The Little Ghost
Ian Critchley – Removals
Alison Moore – The Junction
Paul Auster – Invisible
Cliff McNish – Snowdrops
Charlotte Turnbull – Let’s Hang Out
Siri Hustveldt – The Blindfold
Raduan Nassar – A Cup Of Rage
Cynan Jones – Stock
M. John Harrison – Climbers
Georges Simenon – Maigret, Longon and the Gangsters
Lonely Planet writers – Portugal
Steve Shaw (editor) – Something Peculiar (Great British Horror #8)
Georges Simenon – Maigret’s Revolver
Philip K Dick – The World Jones Made
Georges Simenon – Maigret and the Man on the Bench
Kirsten Norrie – Dream of the Cactus Garden
E.L. Doctorow – Andrew’s Brain
Adam L G Nevill – Before You Sleep: Three Horrors
Ralph Robert Moore – Welcome To Me
Georges Simenon – Maigret Is Afraid
Su Tong – Raise The Red Lantern
Georges Simenon – Maigret’s Mistake
JJ Burnel – Strangler In The Light
Brian Aldiss – The Canopy of Time
Paul Auster – Auggie Wren's Christmas Story
That's worked out at 71 books this year, up one from last year's 70, so I'm happy with that. I should mention that I also proofread and copyedit and adding those novels into the mix would increase the number by about 15 books this year (those which were exceptional also making the above list).
Thankfully there weren't many books that I read this year that I absolutely hated, with most of the books attaining either three or four stars in my Goodreads round-up which is equivalent to 'I liked it' and above. Oddly, I found some shorter books more of a struggle to read, with the much praised "A Cup of Rage" by Raduan Nassar and "The Blindfold" by Siri Hustvedt failing to engage. Likewise "Pornografia" by Witold Gombrowicz (a superficially fast story which can only be read slow), also took ages to plough through. These were all a struggle for me.
Also, to my surprise, was Christopher Fowler's "Plastic", which I found totally unbelievable with regards to the actions of the main character - even within fantasy/horror there should be an internal logic to be adhered to, otherwise everything falls apart. Fowler's writing is normally quite tight, so I was disappointed by this. Fowler is very much a cinematic writer, and there were a couple of books linked to cinema that I read this year which also felt superficial. Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar's "The Patty Diphusa Stories" being no more than mildly entertaining and rather boring, and Henri Pierre-Roche's "Jules et Jim" (from which Francois Truffaut based his film) was frankly terrible, reading like an uninteresting selection of diary entries from someone who has had an interesting life but was unable to articulate it. And finally, being excited to read "The Goodbye Kiss" by Massimo Carlotto, I found this hard-hitting crime novel unexciting, ponderous and unrelentingly (unnecessarily) cruel. Not recommended.
I continued ploughing through George Simenon's Maigret novels, reading fourteen of those this year and enjoying all of them (and like last year, one more than the others). I'm more than halfway through that 75 book series and have to yet read one I haven't enjoyed. Some were only three stars, as were some other books which I'd still like to recommend. These include Anna Kavan's "Julia and the Bazooka" - a collection of stories which felt more one-note than the depth to be found in her longer work; "Season of Bright Sorrow" by David Swann (containing some tight and frequently poetic prose); the anthology, "Something Peculiar: Great British Horror 8" edited by Steve Shaw, which included some fantastic stories (Andrew Humphrey's "Hide and Seek" being a good example); and "Andrew's Brain" by E.L. Doctorow which - whilst not reaching the dizzying heights of much of his work - still had much to ponder over. Finally, "Raise The Red Lantern", by Su Tong contains the excellent title novella (made into a film by Zhang Yimou of course), but the other two novellas were quite bland.
Whilst some of the 3 star books were edging 4, there were a large number of 4 star reads this year. These included "Little Boy" by James Cooper (a great - and believable - coming of age story); "The Employees" by Olga Ravn (a workplace novel set on a generation ship); "Virtuoso" by Yelena Moskovich (I loved "The Nastashas" which I read last year, and this is equally well-written); Brian Howell's collection, "The Man Who Loved Kuras" (although I read this prior to publication, re-reading it caused equal pleasure); "Ludluda" by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard (the second in a series of which "Gogmagog" was the first and in which both gave me tremendous pleasure); the unrelenting horror novel, "The Ravening", by Daniel Church; the short novel, "The Enchanter", by Vladimir Nabokov (whenever I read Nabokov I wonder why I bother reading anyone else); "Daughter of Eden" by Chris Beckett (a very satisfying conclusion to his Dark Eden trilogy - Beckett remains one of my favourite moden SF writers); "If This Is A Man" by Primo Levi (who has the capacity of rendering atrocities so matter-of-factly but in beautiful prose); "Animalia" by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo (who, like Levi, can work with the mundane and elevate it with the highest prose); "Charlie Says" by Neil Williamson (in a departure from Neil's regular style, this 'horror' novella wears it's 1970's influences well); and "Before You Sleep" (a collection of three horror stories from Adam L.G. Nevill which genuinely had me looking into the dark corners of my room.
Amongst short stories, I read 12 Nightjar chapbooks this year, with the best being those by David Bevan ("The Bull"), Giselle Leeb ("The Little Ghost"), Ian Critchley ("Removals"), Alison Moore ("The Junction") and Cliff McNish ("Snowdrops"). And onto non-fiction, I greatly enjoyed the music biographies "Love Bites" (Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks) and "Strangler In The Light" (by JJ Burnel of The Stranglers), and also "Shadow Lines: Searching For The Book Beyond The Shelf" by Nicholas Royle about his passion for book collecting. And you can add to this section "Welcome To Me" by writer, Ralph Robert Moore, which - whilst not wholly non-fiction - contains an excellent smorgasbord of his writings and an insight into his methods.
Ultimately, however, as usual I default to Goodreads for those few books which I rated 5/5 during the year, and on this occasion there were only three which makes my final selection much easier. So, without further ado, here's my third place and then my top two favourite reads of 2024:
In reverse order:
"Maigret's Mistake" by Georges Simenon
"Climbers" by M. John Harrison
And the winner is:
"Invisible" by Paul Auster
Movies:
I watched the following in 2024:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, various directors)
Zombi Child (2019, Bertrand Bonello)
The Stranger (2022, Thomas M. Wright)
Leave the World Behind (2023, Sam Esmail)
Hell or High Water (2016, David Mackenzie)
Hairspray (1988, John Waters)
Saltburn (2023, Emerald Fennell)
The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder)
How to Have Sex (2023, Molly Manning Walker)
Pinocchio (1940, various directors)
Into the Deep (2020, Emma Sullivan)
The Loveless (1981, Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)
Into the Inferno (2016, Werner Herzog)
Lover for a Day (2017, Philippe Garrel)
Relic (2020, Natalie Erika James)
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982, Peter Greenaway)
La Jetée (1962, Chris Marker)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Jacques Demy)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, Philip Kaufman)
Le Coup du Berger (1956, Jacques Rivette)
Women Reply: Our Bodies, Our Sex (short film, 1975, Agnes Varda)
La Antena (2007, Esteban Sapir)
Le Chant du Loup (2019, Antonin Baudry)
Layer Cake (2004, Matthew Vaughn)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, Agnès Varda)
Sherlock Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton)
Enys Men (2022, Mark Jenkin)
Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)
Daisies (Czech: Sedmikrásky, 1966, Věra Chytilová)
Poor Things (2023, Yorgos Lanthimos)
Dune: Part Two (2024, Denis Villeneuve)
Calvaire (2004, Fabrice Du Welz)
Haute Tension (2003, Alexandre Aja)
The Ledge (2022, Howard J. Ford)
Death Race 2000 (1975, Paul Bartel)
Boiling Point (1990, Takeshi Kitano)
Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet)
Priscilla (2023, Sofia Coppola)
The Color of Pomegranates (1969, Sergei Parajanov)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)
Under Paris (Xavier Gens, 2024)
Bicycle Thieves (aka The Bicycle Thief, 1948, Vittorio De Sica)
The Boondock Saints (1999, Troy Duffy)
The Zone of Interest (2023, Jonathan Glazer)
The Dark (2018, Justin P. Lange)
The Dreamers (2003, Bernardo Bertolucci)
Remembering Gene Wilder (2023, Ron Frank)
Abuse of Weakness (French: Abus de faiblesse, 2013, Catherine Breillat)
The Killing (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
The Golden Glove (German: Der Goldene Handschuh, 2019, Fatih Akin)
The Cremator (Czech: Spalovač mrtvol, 1969, Juraj Herz)
Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirō Ozu)
Rollerball (1975, Norman Jewison)
The Tunnel (2011, Carlo Ledesma)
Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)
Bring Out The Fear (2021, Richard Waters)
Crimes of the Future (2022, David Cronenberg)
The Outwaters (2022, Robbie Banfitch)
The Little Mermaid (1989, John Musker and Ron Clements)
King of New York (1990, Abel Ferrara)
Un Chien Andalou (1929, Luis Buñuel)
Skywalkers: A Love Story (2024, Jeff Zimbalist)
The Last Man on Earth (1964, Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow)
Greta (2018, Neil Jordan)
The Forest (2016, Jason Zada)
Golem (1979, Piotr Szulkin)
Infested (2023, Sébastien Vaniček)
They Look Like People (2015, Perry Blackshear)
Hell Hole (2024, John Adams & Toby Poser)
Speak No Evil (2022, Christian Tafdrup)
V/H/S (2012, Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence)
A Wounded Fawn (2022, Travis Stevens)
The Platform 2 (2024, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)
Four Unloved Women, Adrift On A Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection (2023, David Cronenberg)
The Substance (2024, Coralie Fargeat)
Woman of the Hour (2023, Anna Kendrick)
Artic Void (2022, Darren Mann)
Starve Acre (2023, Daniel Kokotajlo)
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018, Julius Onah)
10 Rillington Place (1971, Richard Fleischer)
Police Story (1985, Jackie Chan)
Yannick (2023, Quentin Dupieux)
Ravenous (2017, Robin Aubert)
American Gangster (2007, Ridley Scott)
Late Night with the Devil (2023, Colin and Cameron Cairnes)
The Long Good Friday (1980, John Mackenzie)
Catch Me If You Can (2002, Steven Spielberg)
Adaptation (2002, Charlie Kaufman)
In 2023 I watched 109 movies and this year the list comes to 89. There's a good reason for this: Masterchef. We must have binge-watched almost ten seasons of it last year (including Professional Masterchef). I don't really know why, but there you go. I've gained one recipe from it. However, this is still quite a long list to narrow down to my top three, and unlike books I don't have a site equivalent to Goodreads with which to guide my memory.
As usual, however, I'm discounting movies I've previously seen. So this takes out the always admirable "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937, no introduction necessary); "Hairspray", the John Waters version, which I loved all over again; the absolutely glorious and ultimately heart-breaking "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (Jacques Demy); the not-quite-as-good-as-I-thought-it-was-oh-yes-really "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978); the brilliantly inventive Buster Keaton film "Sherlock Jnr"; "Rollerball" (1975) which I realised I had conflated with "Slap Shot" and kept waiting for the twins to appear; the sublime "Eyes Without A Face" directed by Georges Franju which had lost none of its haunting power; another Disney animation, "The Little Mermaid", which is genuinely heart-in-mouth; "Un Chien Andalou" (natch); "Arctic Void" (directed by Darren Mann, for which I have written a passion piece which will be published next year); and finally the superlative "The Long Good Friday" which has one of the best endings in cinematic history.
Those movies which I found annoying or awful are easy to chronicle, and thankfully these were few and far between, however they included "Leave The World Behind" (directed by Sam Esmail), a passable apocalyptic film where a family battle increasingly unlikely CGI. It threw up some interesting ideas but failed to catch them; "Layer Cake" (Matthew Vaughan) which I thought might be in the excellent vein of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", but was a misfired mess; Sofia Coppola's "Priscilla" which I really wanted to like, but was the kind of movie where it appeared that the director was unsure what she wanted it to be; "The Boondock Saints" directed by Troy Duffy, which must be up there amongst the worst films I have ever seen; "The Outwaters" (2022, Robbie Banfitch), following which I felt like severing my penis and disembowelling myself; "Hell Hole" (2024 - not to be confused with the excellent Polish film of the same name), which was a catalogue of shite; "The Platform 2" (not a patch on the original and utterly unnecessary); and "The Cloverfield Paradox" (the paradox being how a movie such as this could ever be made).
Whilst the films I actively loathed weren't that many, there were a large number of films that I felt relatively indifferent to, even though some of them were widely praised. Without further comment, these included "Saltburn", "The Zone of Interest", "The Substance", "Woman of the Hour", and "Starve Acre". What could be lumped in with those might be "Late Night With The Devil" (directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes), however, despite the unnecessary final ten minutes which undermined much of the film, I did get a good nightmare out of it so it certainly got under my skin. Other horror films this year well worth a mention include "Relic" (directed by Natalie Erika James) which really got into the head of dementia; "Enys Men" (Mark Jenkins) - exactly the kind of film I want to see; "Death Race 2000" which was totally anarchic; "The Tunnel" (2011) which breathed real fear into the found footage format; Cronenberg's "Crimes of the Future" (2022) which I recall really liking but which I can actually no longer recall; "Infested" (director, Sébastien Vaniček), which reminded me of "Attack The Block" but with spiders (and I hate spiders but enjoyed this a lot); and "Speak No Evil" (director, Christian Tafdrup). a truly gripping psychological horror movie that moves inexorably to its inevitable conclusion which is no less devastating because of it.
Other than the above which are all recommended, there were only a few more films that really got under my skin, and here are those recommendations: "The Seven Year Itch" (genuinely delightful); "The Loveless" (Kathryn Bigelow's and Monty Montgomery's off-hand classic); "In The Inferno", a compelling volcanic documentary from Werner Herzog; "Lover For A Day", great French cinema directed by Philippe Garrel whose films are always watchable; Peter Greenaway's totally oddball "The Draftsman's Contract"; the almost equally bizarre fable "La Antena" directed by Esteban Sapir; Dziga Vertov's revolutionary "Man With A Movie Camera" (1929); "Abuse of Weakness" (a film based on a true story with a brilliant central performance by the ever reliable Isabelle Huppert; "The Killing" (Kubrick's early - genuine - classic); "The Golden Glove" (directed by Fatih Akin) based on a real serial killer case, unrelenting in it's voyeurism; and the madcap "Daisies" (1966, Věra Chytilová) which I adored. A couple more mentions: I finally got around to watching the classic "Tokyo Story" (1953) only to realise I had been confusing it with "Police Story" (1985, which I also watched this year), and was expecting some kind of black and white Japanese hardboiled cop movie. And also "Poor Things" by Yorgos Lanthimos, which at the beginning of the year I thought would easily make my top three, but which I can now barely recall.
Anyway, whilst as usual I get the feeling that another day might produce marginally different results (certainly over the number three spot - it could have been "Man With A Movie Camera"), today here are my top three movies that I saw for the first time in 2024.
Again, in reverse order:
"Calvaire" (2004) - Fabrice Du Welz
"Calvaire" (2004) - Fabrice Du Welz
A great, weird horror film that plays like The League of Gentlemen but completely straight. It also includes what will likely be my third favourite dance sequence on film (others would include those in "Bande a Part", Laurel and Hardy's dance in "Way Out West", the long dance scene in Bela Tarr's "Satantango", and the dance to Sonic Youth's 'Kool Thing' in Hal Hartley's "Simple Men". And for the sheer exuberance of the dance here, the film appears in my third spot this year.
"Anatomy of a Fall" (2023) - Justine Triet
This is a compelling drama about two writers that I greatly enjoyed. My partner, Sophie, summed it up perfectly: "it's exactly how writers are and exactly those who aren't writers aren't". A compelling drama.
And the winner is...
"The Color of Pomegranates" (1969) - Sergei Parajanov
Records:
I listened to the following albums in 2024:
Hallan – The Noise of a Firing Gun
Blonde Redhead – 23
Taylor Swift – Evermore
Sabina Sciubba – Toujours
Aldous Harding – Party
Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers – I Love You
Charlie Megira & The Hefker Girl – Charlie Megira & The Hefker Girl
Romy – Mid Air
Bjork – Vespertine
France Gall – Ten Songs For You
Ultravox – Rage In Eden
Sham 69 – That’s Life
Blonde Redhead – Misery Is A Butterfly
Kumiso – Kabuki Femme Fatale
The Fall – New Facts Emerge
The Roches – Another World
The Anti-Nowhere League – We Are…The League
Maximo Park – Nature Always Wins
Echo & The Bunnymen – Porcupine
The Fall – Re-Mit
The Fall – Sub-Lingual Tablet
The Fall – Your Future Our Clutter
Blonde Redhead – Sit Down For Dinner
Carla Bruni – Comme si de rien n’etait
Sheherazaad – Qasr
Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath
Various artists – BIPPP French Synth-Wave (1979-1985)
Sabina Sciubba – Force Majeure
Ramones – Ramones
The Stranglers – La Folie
The Stranglers – Dark Matters
Kacey Musgraves – Deeper Well
Goat Girl – Goat Girl
Goat Girl – On All Fours
Lambrini Girls – You're Welcome
Butthole Surfers – piouhgd
Theatre of Hate – Westworld
Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle
Ramones – Rocket To Russia
Knower – Knower Forever
Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
Nadine Shah – Fast Food
Paramore – This Is Why
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poet’s Department
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poet’s Department (bonus songs)
Tubeway Army – Replicas
Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever
Snapped Ankles – The Forest Of Your Problems
Echobelly – Anarchy & Alchemy
Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra – Nancy & Lee Again
Le Tigre – Le Tigre
The Fall – This Nation's Saving Grace
Echobelly – On
Viagra Boys – Cave World
Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician
Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth
Big Black – Songs About Fucking
Amyl and The Sniffers – Amyl and The Sniffers
Amyl and The Sniffers – Comfort To Me
Soccer Mommy – Color Theory
Sonic Youth – A Thousand Leaves
X-Ray Spex – Germfree Adolescents
Butthole Surfers – Rembrandt Pussyhorse
The Damned – Evil Spirits
Viagra Boys – Street Worms
Bent – Programmed to Love
Beak – >>
Mercury Rev – The Secret Migration
Penetration – Moving Targets
Los Bichos – Let The Festivities Begin
Nina Hagen – NunSexMonkRock
Goat Girl – Below The Waste
Sonic Youth – NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Iggy Pop – Avenue B
The Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus
Baxter Dury – I Thought I Was Better Than You
Nina Hagen – Fearless
Butthole Surfers – Hairway to Steven
The Cramps – A Date With Elvis
Dwarves – The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking
Hard-Ons – Dickcheese
The Meanies – Come 'N' See
Habibi – Dreamachine
Blonde Redhead – La Mia Vita Violenta
Otoboke Beaver – Super Champon
Jane Weaver – Modern Kosmology
The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
Aldous Harding – Warm Chris
Belle & Sebastian – Tigermilk
Bloodhound Gang – Hooray For Boobies
PINS – Hot Slick
Paramore – Riot!
Taylor Swift – 1989
Hermanos Gutiérrez – Sonido Cósmico
Buzzcocks – Another Music In A Different Kitchen
Buzzcocks – Love Bites
Buzzcocks – A Different Kind Of Tension
Hugh Cornwell – Hooverdam
Bedouin Soundclash – Mass
The xx – I See You
The Stranglers – Black And White
Pete Shelley – Homosapien
The Cramps – …Off The Bone
Snapped Ankles – Stunning Luxury
Baxter Dury – The Night Chancers
Butthole Surfers – Electriclarryland
Sugarcubes – Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!
Dry Cleaning – Stumpwork
Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties
Melt-Banana – 3+5
Melt-Banana – Fetch
The Residents – Mark Of The Mole
Annie Lennox – Diva
Mercury Rev – Born Horses
Lenny Kravitz – Let Love In
The Residents – Demons Dance Alone
Maximo Park – Stream of Life
Bedouin Soundclash – Sounding A Mosaic
Sum 41 – All Killer No Filler
They Might Be Giants – Flood
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Wild God
Sum 41 – Does This Look Infected?
Radiohead – Kid A
Television – Adventure
Fontaines DC – Romance
Sum 41 – Heaven :x: Hell
Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
Pylon – Gyrate
The Cramps – Smell of Female
Blondie – Blondie
Associates – Sulk
Modern Eon – Fiction Tales
They Might Be Giants – Book
The Residents – Dookietown
Amyl & The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
The Residents – Please Do Not Steal It!
Panic Shack – Baby Shack
Plasmatics – New Hope For The Wretched
Halsey – The Great Impersonator
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
Bjork – Post
Alien Ant Farm – Anthology
Penetration – Coming Up For Air
Alien Ant Farm – ~mAntras~
Taylor Swift – Red
Blink-182 – Cheshire Cat
Warmduscher – Too Cold To Hold
Okotobe Beaver – Itekoma Hits
JJ Burnel – Euroman Cometh
Girl Scout – Headache (EP)
Throwing Muses – Sun Racket
Swans – Leaving Meaning
Gut Health – Stiletto
Big Joanie – Sistahs
Blink-182 – Enema Of The State
Hitsujibungaku – 12 hugs (like butterflies)
The Damned – The Black Album
Sztywny Pal Azji – Europa i Azja
Killing Joke – What's This For...!
The Associates – The Affectionate Punch
Adam and the Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox
FFS – FFS
Mattiel – Satis Factory
Mattiel – Mattiel
Mattiel – Georgia Gothic
Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft
The Fleshtones – Roman Gods
The Damned – Strawberries
The Fleshtones – Wheel of Talent
The Fleshtones – It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)
Suicide – Suicide
Viagra Boys – Welfare Jazz
Fugazi – 13 Songs
Can – Monster Movie
The Three Johns – Atom Drum Bop
Elastica – Elastica
The Stranglers – In The Night
Moin - You Never End
Girl Ultra - blush
That's exactly 179 albums which is 37 more than I listened to last year which I'm pleased with. Part of this was having an occasional role at work which meant I could listen to albums through headphones whilst working, which on occasion meant listening to five or six full-length albums per day; and which also led to a wider breadth of material as I was more eclectic in my choices. For the purposes of my favourites, as I've done with my movie list, I will discount anything previously listened to. And unlike movies and books (which - even with favourites - I rarely read/see more than a handful of occasions in a lifetime), music is an entirely different kettle of fish and predominantly most of these will be re-listens. I haven't done a count in previous years, but I note approximately 35% of these records were new to me which isn't too bad a percentage I feel.
Whilst I consider myself to have an eclectic taste, meaning I rarely play records I actively dislike, there were two LPs this year which were an absolute struggle to finish. I greatly enjoy the work of Charlie Megira, but picking up the reissue of "Charlie Megira & The Hefker Girl" I found this to be muddied sub-Joy Division, joyless, ennui. Likewise, having enjoyed some Fontaines D.C. I couldn't play even half of "Romance" which was like watching a baseball player missing a pitched ball on eternal repeat.
Revisits this year included old favourites such as Blonde Redhead, The Stranglers, Buzzcocks and The Fall. And as I attended 25 gigs this year quite a few of the re-listens revolved around preparing for those: so large numbers of Goat Girl, The Damned, Amyl and the Sniffers, and Mattiel have affected these figures. I've also bought quite a bit of vinyl, however haven't bought any extra time with which to play it, and so predominantly these records were streamed. My favourite piece of vinyl this year, however, was the long-awaited reissue of one of my favourite Residents' albums, "Demons Dance Alone". A response to the 2001 twin tower attacks, it's such a joyful, inventive album, full of warmth and humour, and it's first release on vinyl renders it superb.
Special mentions also to the following: "I Love You" by the well-named Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers, a girl guitar band in the mould of Panic Shack (whose "Baby Shack" EP I also liked this year); Sheheazaad's "Qasr", a sonic delight; Sabina Sciubba's oftentimes stripped back "Force Majeure"; possibly my favourite Sonic Youth record, "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" and my favourite Iggy Pop record, "Avenue B"; Baxter Dury's trippy introspective "I Thought I Was Better Than You" (which very nearly made my top three this year); the madcap Otoboke Beaver (both albums "Super Champon" and "Itekoma Hits"); Nina Hagen's glorious "NunSexMonkRock"; Polish favourite's Sztywny Pal Azji with their classic "Europa i Azja" album; and Throwing Muses' "Sun Racket" which is an absolute grower.
I also dug deeply into Butthole Surfers this year. Having always been fascinated by the band through their sublime cover of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" I'd never listened to any of their other work before, but this year I took in "Locust Abortion Technician", "Rembrandt Pussyhorse", "Hairway To Steven", "Electriclarryland", and - my favourite, although not the band's - "Piouhgd." That latter album almost made my top three this year and was certainly one of my most played records.
Onto 2024 releases. I thought there were some great albums this year, most especially Kacey Musgrave's quietly folk-pop "Deeper Well"; Vampire Weekend's "Only God Was Above Us" (a return to form after 2019's much less interesting "Father Of The Bride"); Goat Girl's quirky "Below The Waste"; Habibi's upbeat "Dreamachine"; Melt-Banana's storming "3+5"; perennial favourite's Maximo Park's "Stream of Life" (whilst not as great as the superb "Nature Always Wins", it still knocks the spots of most guitar pop); Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "Wild God" (although it grows and then it wilts, for me); Sum 41's "Heaven :x: Hell" (two LPs: one acknowledging the band's pop punk past and the second their more nu-metal side); The Resident's mini-LP "Dookietown"; Amyl & The Sniffers storming "Cartoon Darkness" (again, almost in my top three. Some blistering songs here, especially the Blondie-esque "Bailing On Me" which really cuts me deep, and "Jerkin'" which is the perfect song to play loud on the drive into work); and finally "Songs Of A Lost World" by The Cure which has some wonderful melodic moments even if they don't touch me quite where I want to be touched.
Ultimately, though, whilst a couple of records above could have made this final selection, here are my top three records (surprisingly all 2024 releases, and also surprisingly, all acts which I saw live this year) played this year (in reverse order):
"Born Horses" (2024) - Mercury Rev
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Make no mistake, this is a damn fine record. After the hot mess that I found it's predecessor, "Midnights", to be, Taylor ramps up the songwriting and produces a work of art. There's a lot to unpack here. Tonally it's quite similar throughout with these songs that feel like chapters in a novel of a relationship breakdown. Swift is a true artist, turning grief into storytelling, writing her way out, putting her experiences into her music. It's a strong record, thematically sound, which sits somewhere between "Folklore" and "Evermore". And the production and clarity of her vocal is spot on. Exceeding my expectations, it's a confident record about a fragile subject matter, and it's great to hear her grow. With this record, Taylor edged out Butthole Surfers from my top three this year.
And the winner is...
"Filthy Underneath" (2024) - Nadine Shah
So that's it, my summary of what I read, watched and listened to this year! Drop back in next year, but as has become usual I'll end with a song that captivated me during 2024 and is sufficiently quirky to deserve the final note to send off this long post. Not safe for work, here's the irrepressibly singalong song that is "Jerkin'" by Amyl & The Sniffers. Sheer joy!
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