The music of 2024
To close the year, and to inaugurate in haste a new incarnation of this online essay collection, here's some of the music that stood out to me in 2024.
January
Nils Frahm, Sheep in Black and White
Listening to this always transports me back in time. Frahm is one of these artists who's tied to a period in my life. The fact that his melodic landscapes are consistently melancholic and pensive across the many albums he releases helps with this. There's not much change here, neither in the music itself nor in the oeuvre. When I listen to his music I'm back on my bicycle crossing through meadows before dawn, on my way to my university office to prepare my 10am lecture.
February
Yaeji, For Granted
I'm not sure where PC Music is at these days, but I think I came across Yaeji while dipping into their hyperpop scene. This track, For Granted, is actually rather sweet, and I like the DIY-vibe. It struck a chord also because it reminded me of Olga Bell's music, which I haven't listened to at all the last three hundred and sixty-five days.
March
Matmos, Lend me your ears
They've been going on forever, it seems. This is from Matmos' 2023 album Return to Archive. I try to keep up with their releases, which always manage to give a new spin on the poetic principle of music: putting the right sounds in the right order.
April
Jamie xx, It's So Good
The low, pumping synths kept me playing this track over and over again. The methodical approach to implementing the song's melodic theme has a 1990s vibe; think of early Daft Punk or Fatboy Slim.
May
Soffie, Für immer Frühling
In the first months of the year large crowds took to the streets of Germany to protest the rise of the far right. Most of this was directed at the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a deeply racist and nationalist party. Soffie's bubblegum protest song was appropriated as an anthem for the anti-fascist movement. It's lyrics are idealistic, verging on the naive. The fact that the song doesn't touch at all on Germany's support for Israël's genocide in Gaza shows that 'anti-fascism' in Germany has a rather narrow meaning, and that far right politics is only a problem if it comes too close to being a revival of the Nazi party.
June
Smerz / GAEA, Når det blåser, velter over
A new album by Smerz was cause for celebration. Their first album (EP) Okey contained a depressive flavour of electropop. But over the years Smerz continue to change, with this newest collaboration filled with choral vignettes and apparent folk-tales.
July
Chumbawamba, Smashing of the van
Alongside a more general appreciation of resistance movements, I've become more aware and supportive of the Irish resistance. This song by Chumbawamba (whom you no doubt know for the poppy extreme of their repertoire) is about the Manchester Martyrs, three Irish comrades living in England who were executed for smashing up an English prison van that transported two Irish rebel leaders in 1867. Though the three were hanged, the liberated prisoners remained on the loose. The entire album, English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 is well worth looking up and playing.
August
Donna Summer, I feel love
This song is so brilliant it hardly needs any comment. Except for repeating: this track came out as early as 1977.
September
Noname, Rainforest
It's rare for me to get sensible music tips from people from the world of academic philosophy. (Though I discovered Mononeon this way too.) This song contains some spot-on political analysis wrapped in a mellow swing.
October
Max Romeo/The Upsetters, I Chase The Devil
To many people this track will be familiar only because of the way it was sampled, in the 1990s, by British jungle pioneers The Prodigy. This included myself, and it was only when I was delving into the history of reggae that I came across the full original. It's impossible to unhear the later use of its chorus lines.
November
Philippe Jaroussky, Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen
I've always associated Jaroussky with Monteverdi and Vivaldi, together with his excursion into French chansons. But now Schubert turns out to be on his repertoire as well. Here's him singing one of my favourite Schubert songs.
December
De Kift, Nauwe Mijter
This is a classic for me, and recently I was once more reminded of De Kift's existence. It's quite idiosyncratic music, and especially the lyrics (in a Dutch local accent) have withstood the years since this was released (2001). Stories of a farmer's life cast in a surrealist poetic.