Weekend Plans Post: One Single Good Song in 2024
One of those guys who changes his handle all the time on Twitter tweeted out: “if someone can show me one good song from 2024 i’ll give you a million dollars“.
Now, let me say this right now: I don’t think that he was making a legitimate offer as much as complaining about stuff like “being old” and “there not being an MTV anymore” and “the pop music stations are just playing animal noises” with a small hint of “even the classic rock stations only play the same 400 songs and they don’t even play Zeppelin anymore”.
I assume anyway.
Maybe I’m projecting.
In any case, I only knew of *ONE* song in 2024 that was… well, I wouldn’t call it “good” as much as I’d say “it got stuck in my head”. The first time I heard it, I laughed and said that it was the dumbest song I’ve heard since a co-worker introduced me to the music of Yung Gravy.
Content warning: it’s a hyperpop song that relies heavily on the “B” word.
See? It’s stupid. But you may find yourself singing it to yourself when you’re in the kitchen making a grilled cheese.
Maybe I’m projecting again.
As for serious songs, I didn’t really encounter any until earlier this week when this one was playing on the Public Radio station and as soon as it ended, I called Maribou and asked her to go to the CPR webpage and please please please look up what song was playing 3 minutes ago.
I mean, holy cow the vocals were smooth and the beat got behind my brain and the base groove went into my cerebellum and I was afraid that I’d never learn the name of the song and so I got on the phone immediately.
Everything Is Recorded – Losing You (feat. Sampha, Laura Groves, Jah Wobble & Yazz Ahmed)
Even now, I listened to that song three times as I wrote this post and, dang… that is a *TIGHT* song.
So I wanted you guys to hear it. Well, and the other one too, but that’s more of a dumb song that will get stuck in your head. The second one is the one to seriously listen to.
This weekend is two things: A gaming weekend (Chicken Wings and D&D) and a THREE DAY WEEKEND! So I’ll be able to squeeze in a little bit of vacation that might feel a little bit like the gulf of days off that I enjoyed a few short weeks ago. Oh, and Costco. We’re out of paper towels.
So… what’s on your docket?
My favorite song of 2024 was “Friend Of A Friend” by The Smile (Thom York, Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner)Report
While it is debatable about best or favorite song of the year was, the most impactful and “biggest” song of the year – and it wasn’t remotely close – was Kendrick Lamar ‘Not Like Us’ which has Universal Music group embroiled in lawsuit against one of their own distributed artist, an international incident between the US and Canada, single-handily destroyed the public perception and branding of one of the biggest music stars of the last decade in Drake, and got Kendrick the Super Bowl gig.Report
I listened to about 30 seconds of it and I’m pretty sure that there aren’t 10 seconds of it that could be played during the halftime show.Report
These days they might as well have a Metallica / Judas Priest halftime show. Actually that would rule, I want that for real now.Report
“Rob, we will allow you to play the riff from Raining Blood, once. That’s it.”Report
What’s more American than accusing a Canadian of foul deeds, and the Super Bowl is nothing if not a celebration of American excellence…Report
“Jaybird, what song are you thinking about doing for Karaoke night?”
“Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’, why?”Report
Weekend plans are sticking close to home because (a) the polar vortex is going to make it cold and possibly icy and (b) I’m just worn out from the first week of classes. More so than normal because my building is (supposed to be: no workers have shown up yet) under renovation and we can’t use any of the classrooms, so we are exiled to different buildings on campus – so I am using unfamiliar rooms with unfamiliar tech, in departments that are more or less welcoming to a bunch of STEM weirdos showing up and asking about things like “can we change the tables from “seminar arrangement” to “rows”?
Also it’s a lot more flights of stairs* than I am used to, and yes, my knee still gripes me. I tell myself all the stairs will make the muscles stronger and I suspect that’s true, but some days it hurts to go down the stairs after class to get back to my car. I’m going on one year since the injury – the cartilage damage will always be there unless I do surgery BUT I’ve had enough people tell me to persist with the PT because that may be enough, and it seems to be most days
(* Yes there are elevators but they’re very old and shaky and the department chair of one of the departments in one of the building has openly said he does not “trust” the elevator, so I continue to take the stairs, since I remember getting stuck in an elevator in the library when I was in college….)Report
That sucks about the knee… will you have to rearrange the rooms each time you use them?
Maribou and I both prefer different showerhead settings. So the first thing either of us does when we get in the shower is change it back to the right way.
Will it be a semester of that?Report
When Donald Trump tells us that the weekend crowds in DC were the biggest ever, anywhere, in the history of the world… it will be (at least partly) because my eldest daughter is getting married in DC. I’m trying to work an inauguration joke into my toast, but no luck so far; best I can do is a bad pun.
We’re all thrilled to be tooling around DC looking for places to stay, park, and dine inauguration weekend; DC, which in the most sedate and off-peak hours, I’d charitably describe as ‘barely operational’. There are also rumors of snow. Everything will be fine.
At least the wine will be good as we’re technically licensed for a day as a vendor, so I could work my wine connections and hand-pick the wines and pay discounted retail prices rather than inflated restaurant/caterer prices. There’s even a special case of the good stuff for sharing.Report
“This wedding isn’t a small deal. It’s a big deal. It’s the best deal in the history of deals.”
I mean, no politics.Report
My list of songs I like that were released in 2024 is currently 62 hours and 33 minutes.Report
Share the best ones, please!Report
I’ll try to drop some in later, but for now you can listen to the whole thing here (I recommend shuffle):
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/16DoIbNw0mO65tFKal7Juc?si=VuwaziEQSsqPfsCfnxC45w&pi=wBi0nY-BTfSplReport
Let me also add that both Everything is Recorded and Sampha are great. “Losing You” was also released last week on a 3-song single that features collaborations with mary in the junkyard, Noah Cyrus, and for us Xers, Bill Callahan. All 3 tracks are good, though Losing You is definitely the best of the 3.
Sampha is featured on a single released this week by John Clacier, Ocean Steppin’: Sampha’s voice is as divine as ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDRFn2jUQAM
So we’ve already got good songs in 2025, too.Report
The first video for the song I found was dated Nov 20, 2024, but I’m thrilled that they released it as a single. I want a 10 minute remix that focuses on that beat.Report