12 Good Ones

Although 2024 mostly felt like a year of holding strong on familiar musical favorites with only a few notable new-to-me artists (at least ones that had new releases during the year), these twelve tracks — and their accompanying albums probably best sum up the previous 365 days for me.

1. In Front of Me Now — Nada Surf. This early single from Moon Mirror has been on high rotation all year and really encapsulates ideas that have been on my mind, something that Matthew Caws seems unusually good at doing with each Nada Surf album. It sounded great live too.
2. Joan in the Garden — The Decemberists. A meandering 20+ minute Pink Floyd-esque epic full of basically everything that draws me in to songs — great musicianship, strong lyrics, and interesting song structures. A strong finish for their latest album.
3. Scattered — David Gilmour. It was a bit tricky to pick one song from this album because there’s a lot of them, but this one gets the pick for some solid guitar soloing and lyrics — A man stands in a river, pushes against the stream, time is a tide that disobeys, that disobeys me. It might be because I’m on the cusp of turning 50 that a line like that hits home so deeply.
4. Waiting for Stevie — Pearl Jam. This track kicks right into full gear out of the gate almost immediately and holds strong throughout. A tight, almost militaristic, syncopated-feeling Matt Cameron drumming track that I suspect would be a ton of fun to improvise over.
5. Crawling Back to You — Kathleen Edwards. I’ve never been a huge Tom Petty fan, but other people’s covers are a good path to appreciation in my experience and Kathleen’s version is no exception. I’m glad she played this when I saw her in November and made me appreciate it all the more.
6. Wild God — Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I’m a late bloomer when it comes to Nick Cave, but this album has me sold. Wild God is just one of several standout tracks. Watching the short making-of film added another level of enjoyment to this album — the studio where this was recorded is nuts.
7. Knife Fight — Elbow. “I woke up thinking about the knife fight…” is a great first line to a song. This slow dirge of a track has that low-key The National groove where there’s not a lot of highs or lows musically but is easy to lock into rhythmically.
8. Alone — the Cure. I love a good plodding Cure track and Alone and the other seven tracks on Songs for a Lost World do not disappoint in that regard. Sad, mopey Robert Smith is the best Robert Smith.
9. Confront It — Caroline Spence. A standalone single from an artist who caught me by surprise with a previous duet with Matt from The National. Solid pop structure and strong melodies and lyrical themes make this one stand out.
10. Say You Love Me — Wilco. This particular track stands out as a perfect pop gem that could easily have been on the band’s last full release Cousin. It encapsulates all the things I love about Wilco — good, often surprising lyrics, interesting melodic structures, and great all-around musicianship.
11. Broken Man — St. Vincent. Strong early Nine Inch Nails vibes all throughout this track and album. Bonus points for a lot of distorted fuzz guitar and Dave Grohl on drums.
12. Afterlife — Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory. I’m not sure yet what to make of Sharon Van Etten’s new “band” project but I’m on board based on the single releases which suggest something a bit more synth-y and sonically punchy which is a departure in some ways for her.