Nathan’s Music of 2024
It was a fantastic year of music. If I could, I would link to the hundreds of my “Liked Songs” on Youtube Music and you can go look aroud yourself, but that’s asking a bit much isn’t it?
So here it goes: a slim playlist of 16 songs, with brief summaries of this significance below:
Click here for the Spotify version of my 2024 playlist
Click here for the Youtube Music version of my 2024 playlist
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Top Two Artists of the Year
Kings of Convenience — Ask for Help
Pieces — Tan Lines
According to the YouTube Music algorithm, I listened the most to these two bands this year— the Norwegian folk duo Kings of Convenience and the Brooklyn duo Tan Lines. I listened to all of the albums by these two groups, but at the beginning of the year I became particularly enchanted with “Peace or Love, fourth Kings of Convenience album that they put out in 2021. The guitars sound magical and I love the way their voices unify into a single resonant tone. “Ask for Help” was my most-played song of the year.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Two New Genres: Vaporwave/Synthwave
Fiona Coyne — Skylar Spence
Climbing the Corporate Ladder — Nmesh
Vaporwave and Synthwave are genres that I really dove into this year, even though this type of music emerged and then died off in the 2010's. The music derives from internet-based artists fixated on replicating a certain nostalgic 1980’s sound, and then chopping and dicing it up in fun ways through remixes or new songs. I listened to a bunch of anonymous mixes people made and posted on Youtube, and made a few playlists myself. Both have songs from other genres mixed in because I’m not super strict about what I add…
Click here for my Pop Vaporwave Mix
Click here for my Synthwave Mix
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Jazz From the Continent
End of Innocence — Shabaka Hutchings
Still Waters — Jasmine Myra
Music can find you from the most random places, and that’s how I got into a lot of Northern European jazz. I was standing outside the middle school auditorium at my daughter’s school in between a dance performance, talking to another dad. The conversation turned to new age music — in response to a particular dance piece that had been performed — which led to Andre 3000’s new flute album, which in turn led this guy to mention another new flute album by the British musician Shabaka Hutchings. I went home and started listening to the Hutchings album, and it really grew on me. This led the Youtube algorithm to recommend a bunch of new terrific UK jazz artists. I don’t know how to describe it- the music here is a little more cinematic, atmospheric, and melodic than a lot of traditional American jazz.
Click here for my European Jazz Playlist
Click here for my New British Jazz Playlist
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
DJ’s and Mixes
sAy sOMETHINg — Lily Yachty
Nature — East Forest (featuring Ram Dass)
Shine On — House of Love
This was the second year that I really transitioned away from conventional radio. I haven’t given up completely on popular music, but between the commercials and the fact that outside of country and Top 40 stations (and these stations play the same 25 songs on repeat), most radio stations just play old hits, I’m not drawn to the radio anymore. But I did find a bunch of new DJ’s to play me new songs:
- Once I went to a Grateful Dead cover band and they had a DJ playing good music before the show. He was a muscular older guy with long blond hair, and his name was Johnny Basil, who you can read about here- there seem to be a fair amount of these characters floating around LA. He had some great songs that night…
- The neo-R&B artist Mayor Hawthorne hosts DJ sets on Youtube that feature a lot of good music, and while they expand my horizons, I can’t say I love them. But Hawthorne did tip me off to the Lil Yachty album from last year, which is terrific and one of my favorites this year.
- My friend Ara got me back into a lot of British and indie guitar rock. I made a few mixes of songs that took me back to the 1980’s and 1990’s, and found some new songs from that era — like the House of Love track here. We also went to music trivia nights at a local bar, where I would always come away with some cool songs and artists.
- Then I made friends with a fellow soccer player named Segundo who loves music and makes his own DJ sets on the weekend that his friends around the world can listen to on the website MixCloud. I started listening to a lot of these mixes, which are often based on electronic music but also feature other genres like jazz, folk, indie rock, lounge, and an assortment of other music. I almost always pick out a few new favorites from his setlists. The East Forest song above comes from Segu, and you can find his many other playlists at this link below:
Segundo‘s Mixes (under the MixCloud name “Live Sets and Friends 2021”):
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
The Usual Fare
Hovdy- Ruby
Head Underwater — Jenny Lewis
I still listen to a lot of what might be called indie pop-rock. But most albums have a blend of strong and weak songs, and I prefer to now make my own mixes of songs. Sometimes it’s all one artist; sometimes I mix two artists together; sometimes I put a bunch of different artists on one mix. Such artists this year included: Hovdy, Spoon, Vetiver, Duck Tales, Belle and Sebastian, Beach Fossils, Eels, and Aimee Mann.
Of course, sometimes I still listen to full albums. I listened to a fair amount of Jenny Lewis albums all the way through- most often her three most recent solo albums. Each album has some killer songs.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
And Five Final Songs That Somehow Typify My Year
Call It Dreaming — Iron and Wine This was my 2nd most listened to song apparently. I heard it during CorePower Yoga class. I get a lot of good songs from these classes- this one is gorgeous.
On Pain — Lloyd Cole I discovered recent gem after first getting into Cole’s early work. I had a month in the spring where I listened to a ton of 80’s rock and pop. To me, this kind of ballad should a huge hit all over the radio.
Cherry Blossom — Surface I played this random song so, so many times around the beginning of the year. Can’t leave it off — I’m still not tired of this diamond that no one else seems to care about.
Only One — Gilligan Moss There is a lot of dancy stuff I like that is basically too pop to be cool and too cool to be on the radio. This feels like that?
Priorities — Tyla I liked a lot of R&B songs this year, including this one, though there are so many others I could choose. In fact, while writing this I couldn’t resist going to make a little Neo-Soul Playlist that you can find here.
— — — — — — — — — — — — -
There it is — my year in music. I should note that my year in shows was a little lackluster, but I saw AJR with my daughter at the Forum and it was fantastic! Best concert of the year by far.
And so on to 2025, which I can already tell is going to be full of terrific discoveries!
