One unbelievable thing about this Amazon Music experience is how the app did not already know my taste in music. I have purchased a decent amount of music from Amazon over the years, and my profile still has all of those mp3s. So you would think the algorithm already has my years of data to work with and would recommend songs based on that history. Nope! I think it has still, 7 months later, never played me a Neil Diamond song despite having purchased three Diamond greatest hits compilations, which are still in my Amazon Music library.
On the first day, I listened to an REM greatest hits album (from their IRS Records years), the new St Vincent album, and the The Last Dinner Party album before trying the “My Soundtrack” feature to see what the algorithm offered me. It played me THREE Smiths songs and one Morrissey song despite me never searching for those artists, never owning anything by them, and never clicking the thumbs up for their songs.
This year’s soundtrack is available on YouTube. Spotify. And Amazon Music.
Previous year’s soundtracks are in the archives.
1. IDLES - Gift Horse
I had a work trip to Minneapolis while I was finalizing the content and order of this playlist. On the first day, I had a nice walk through downtown to my old neighborhood, a quick look at the Spoonbridge and Cherry, a short ride on my old #6 bus, some meandering through skyways as the sprinkles turned to rain. This playlist will remind me of that day, and two nights later. Happy hour ended, local friends and peers excused themselves, and I readied myself for the walk back to the hotel in the cold with a wintry mix of precipitation. I had my winter coat, but I forgot my gloves and warm hat back at home. The only thing to keep my ears warm were my wired in-ear headphones. I hustled and made it to the hotel by track 6, even after stopping to take a picture.
2. George Harrison - Wah Wah
In my writeup last year, I wrote, “Who are you to want new music? Are you too good to go dig up the great works of the past?” That was my inspiration to listen to All Things Must Pass in January.
3. Suki Waterhouse - Blackout Drunk
Amazon Music made me aware of Suki Waterhouse, possibly because I listen to the “Fresh Indie” playlist at times. I had no idea who she was, but the algorithm served me two singles, Supersad and My Fun, and I liked them both. Memoir of a Sparklemuffin was one of my favorite albums of the year. This song is my favorite – I love the quirky vocal melody – but check out the rest, too.
4. Sprints - Literary Mind
This album is great. I heard about this band through a detailed Stereogum feature article, but that article could have read “This is a good Irish punk band” and it would have been enough for me to check them out.
5. Lorde - Take Me to the River (Talking Heads cover)
From a Talking Heads cover album to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense. Did you know this song is originally by Al Green? So it’s technically an Al Green cover. My daughter and I drove together for several hours on Thanksgiving, so I made a long playlist, no special theme, some different decades and genres. I included Genius of Love by Talking Heads spinoff Tom Tom Club and she recognized it and mentioned it was still in her head the next day. A timeless groove.
6. The Smile - Friend of a Friend
New Radiohead put out two albums this year. Good for them! It’s nice to see old people staying active. Calling themselves The Smile did trick my brain enough to accept this style of music as it is, rather than some lesser version of stuff I loved 30 years ago.
7. Clairo - Sexy to Someone
A really great song on an album that otherwise makes me sleepy. We’re getting to the time in the soundtrack where I don’t have a lot to say about the songs, so I’m going to talk about things that happened this year. I went to DC for a conference in January, brr very cold, and stayed at the Omni Shoreham. That hotel is famous for hosting the “funny” political humor piano music of Mark Russell (my family watched his PBS specials), and presidential inauguration balls. It’s a filming location of the 1987 political thriller No Way Out, which I watched a few months after my stay, wherein Kevin Costner attends the ball, quickly seduces Sean Young, and they leave together and bang in the back of a limo. That happens in the first 10 minutes! Four stars!
8. Alice Phoebe Lou - Halo
In March, Janet and I drove to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home. We did not pay to go inside his small boyhood home because I value my hard-earned money. That thrifty instinct paid off big time when we watched a free short film in the library that showed us the interior of the home. Thanks, suckers! A highlight for me was the old water fountain in the library - call me Bobby Boucher (aka The Waterboy) because that was some high quality H2O. When we left the museum to drive to the world’s biggest belt buckle and grab a late lunch, Janet asked what she was hearing on the radio. It’s THE AGRIBUSINESS REPORT, Janet! How else are we gonna know the price of hogs or wheat futures at the Chicago Board of Trade if the agribusiness reporter doesn’t update us over the airwaves several times every day?
9. St Vincent - Violent Times
Later that same March, I was in Oklahoma City with the boyz to watch the Thunder take on the Jazz. I enjoyed many earthly delights, like steak for breakfast, playing HORSE in a driveway, and one of those days when you realize you have not drank any water all day because you have been constantly sipping from beer cans. I ate the biggest and best pancake I’ve ever had.
10. Fontaines DC - Starburster
It’s tough to pick one song from Romance, but I went with Starburster. The song I enjoyed most when seeing them live in October was A Hero’s Death, which I did not expect. This year I also attended concerts for Neko Case, Alvvays, and Mates of State. Ben Folds was playing a free open-air concert in downtown Pittsburgh while I was there for work. I was eating some great Thai food al fresco, and could hear him playing and tried to catch which songs were bouncing off the buildings into my ears. My coworkers and I walked the few blocks over to the show after dinner, and took in several songs before continuing to walk across the fine bridges of the Steel City. Ben Folds playing solo doesn’t appeal to me anymore, the man needs a band.
11. Mary Timony - Untame the Tiger
My movie theater app won’t show me my past purchases, so I have to look up the 2024 box office data to see which films I watched at the cinema. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. My son wanted to see them fight each other, and they definitely did. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I saw this with the same dad movie friend that I watched Mad Max: Fury Road and the John Wick movies with. And that’s it! Two visits to our town’s Regal Theater for me this year, which means I have saved my family hundreds of dollars by not joining them for viewings of The Garfield Movie, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, The Wild Robot, etc etc.
12. Haircut 100 - Lemon Firebrigade
The Amazon algorithm played this song for me. Sometimes I give it one new wave era song to play and then let the automatic shuffle based on that song play out. This is a good song to break up the playlist, right? Now we’re all set for the home stretch.
13. The Last Dinner Party - Burn Alive
I probably heard about this band from Stereogum. I remember going to Bandcamp to give them a try, and seeing their “About” page:
We are an art-pop five-piece that drawn (draws?) on maximalism and theatricality. We like to dress up and be free with everything within our music. So imagine my surprise when I liked these guys, and listened to this album quite a bit.
14. Blondshell feat. Bully - Docket
This rocks. The app suggested a Blondshell cover of Sheryl Crow’s If It Makes You Happy and I listened to that plenty as well. A lot of the early part of this year was yelling at alipete that her ignorance of Sheryl Crow’s catalog is unacceptable.
15. Cobrah - Brand New Bitch
This is the song that Emma Stone’s character dances to in the 3rd part of the Yorgos Lanthimos triptych fable Kinds of Kindness. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do, you have my permission not to watch all three parts of the movie in one sitting. Break it up, it’s fine. You know what I love? I love hitting my couch at 9:45 pm and turning on the TV and trying to remember if I am halfway through a movie or not. If I am not, great! I get to pick out a new movie. If I am, awesome! I already know what I’m going to watch and I’ve only got a little bit left before I’m done!
16. Laura Veirs - Drink Deep
I heard this song in the movie Hello, I Must Be Going, where Melanie Lynskey has a romance with a younger man. Three stars! It’s one of many, many movies I watched after returning from Pittsburgh with covid, and the 3rd movie in that covid watching period that featured relationships among people of different ages – The Idea of You (also three stars!), Miller’s Girl, (one star, what the hell is this neo southern gothic sexual spin on Whiplash?). All of these star ratings are taken from my Letterboxd diary. I decided I needed to track my movie history when I was searching for something fun and stupid, with nudity, to watch for me and Floyd’s joint birthday Zoom movie party. Blame It On Rio where Michael Caine has sex with his friend’s daughter, have I seen that before? I gotta start tracking this stuff. So, check me out on Letterboxd. If it’s 2.5 stars it’s meh, if it’s above that it’s worth watching, if it’s below that it’s not. Do I sometimes make little jokes about the movie in my review? I do, here’s examples:
We watched Hot Dog…The Movie for the birthday bash and while it is an important cultural document of 1984, I cannot recommend it, 1.5 stars.
17. Fontaines DC - Favourite
It’s tough to pick one song from Romance, but I went with Starburster AND Favourite. Two songs from one artist and album on the same playlist? It’s unheard of, it’s a breakdown of norms in America. I will not go back and research, but I know I’ve had back to back songs from the same artist, and perhaps I’ve bookended a playlist with the same artist, but not this. Never this.
18. Elastica - See That Animal
It’s never a bad time to listen to Elastica’s stunning debut album. Here’s a list of significant health care issues this year. Boy had his first broken bone, a broken arm with no complications, and he healed in time for his first summer baseball game. Total out of pocket cost for one broken arm? About one thousand dollars. From the same Sunday pickup basketball games that previously gave me a sprained ankle and a broken thumb, I got 6 staples in the top of my skull from falling backwards into the basketball pole. Then I had a pinched nerve in my neck that persisted for about 8 weeks.
19. mxmtoon - the situation
I don’t know anything about this band, but thank you algorithm for this offering. What did I read this year? I read three nonfiction books that I will not discuss. I read Station Eleven, and then watched the HBO Series based on that book. I read It Never Ends, Tom Sharpling’s memoir, because I listen to his podcast sometimes. I purchased and read Hate To Fake It To You and Blood Sisters because I know those authors personally; since I publish this very popular and successful blog I think of them as my writing peers.
20. Oso Oso - stoke
A Stereogum recommendation, thank you website.
21. Gus Dapperton - Everything She Wants (Wham! cover)
Didn’t realize this was a Wham! song, thank you Wham!
22. Vampire Weekend - Mary Boone
I didn’t make it to this concert because I would have had to drive to Kansas City twice in a week. Can you imagine? I am tired of this album now but we had some good times together in 2024.
23. Waxahatchee - 365
The lead single, Right Back To It, was in my head for five consecutive days and that took all the momentum away from this album for me. Then I finally picked it back up and the sound quality bothered me. At times, the vocals max out into the red. Old golden ears over here with my tinnitus, complaining about the finer aspects of sound mixing.
24. Wang Chung - City of the Angels
This is from the soundtrack to the film To Live and Die in L.A. Wang Chung did all the music. Willem Dafoe is good at counterfeiting money, can William Peterson and Paul Reiser’s friend on Mad About You bring him to justice? I also enjoyed William Peterson in Manhunter and The Contender this year. 4 stars, 4 stars, and 3.5 stars!
25. Gene Krupa & His Orchestra - Drum Boogie
I elected not to watch any election coverage on election night. I watched Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire, where she plays a nightclub singer and sings (lip synchs) this song with Gene Krupa. A screwball comedy from Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder, looks like the whole dang movie is free to watch on YouTube right now. Four stars! Then I spent the following morning only listening to big band music. The app has never recommended another big band song to me, the algorithm has dismissed that day as a moment of weakness or a mental breakdown.
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