2024 or – how we should not accept the inevitable
by John Wohlmacher
Pessimism is not my strength. Quite the opposite, I generally try seek out unshakable optimism. But the past few months have made me consider if, possibly, we are finding ourselves in some sort of societal moebius strip. A recurring movement that seeks out our worst tendencies and rewards horror. For the record, and my future self: we are experiencing multiple genocides – depending on where you live, it might be forbidden to call them as such, a recurring acceptance of hitlerian politics and naive disengagement with active involvement to seek change. Most people I know favour to invest in financial ecosystems instead of confronting the oppressions which have them slide further and further towards dissolution. Fatigue sets in. Depression – pessimism.
In a year that seems to have the broad public just stare at the daily news with a sense of bewilderment – a collective shrug – I found myself confronting my own mortality and battle it out with the question whether we are all, well, doomed. Facebook and its tentacles announced social media will soon be mostly AI profiles camouflaged as real people, to boost engagement. Elections push for candidates who are so disastrous, they’re confronted by their own inabilities and infighting before even touching the throne. It’s a mad world, all the while the music business industrial complex drifts out of touch. Their investments in white millennial miserablism makes massive coin, but it also seems destined to fail.
Consider this: The Tortured Poems Department is probably the most sold record within its year of release – easy, given it’s now got what, 50 or so versions on the market. Yet the record was met with lukewarm reception among critics and fans. As a Swift archeologist, it was interesting to observe this sway, the Reddits and forums slowly drift towards a consensus that maybe all the clowning was not justified. Obviously I will continue reading and writing about Swift – but the business machine that made her second spring with folklore seems to have entered a modus of cannibalism.
People grow out of pop – it happens! Drake lost… to Kendrick, who absolutely bodied him! BRAT-summer failed, as Kamala lost to Trump, both running disastrous campaigns – according to the media, Taylor Swift’s endorsement should have made a difference. What stays from yesterday’s discarded discs?
In the UK, 2024 saw CD sales outdo those of vinyl records – even tho the vinyl market continues to grow. But so do prices: 40 bucks seems to slowly become a normal price tag for a product Anarcho-Punk would boast should not cost more than 2.50 on their covers. These aren’t new developments, but it’s noteworthy to see them all become normalised, be met with a hopeless response of “well, guess it’s ok.” Considering the memes on egg prices and €10 Döner dinners, the gap between personal luxury and life necessity grows.
Maybe that’s why so much truly incredible music this year came from outsiders that operate outside of industries. Cindy Lee released their album on a geocities-type website for download – it’s still not on Spotify! The Smashing Pumpkins released their best album in a long time via Billy Corgan’s own label. Vylet Pony, samlrc, sonhos tomam conta, Animal Ghosts and Trhä all self released incredibly charismatic records that you won’t see reviewed much, as they are self-released.
Even the brilliant independent label drops of Uniform, Couch Slut, Burrrn and ELUCID got only moderate attention, as mainstream music discourse still won’t seek out important voices that lack major distribution. Not to mention that the most conscionable voices within music are now confronted with really stupid ridicule. You won’t see Lana discuss Gaza, will you…
Maybe that’s why I was most comfortable this year with images that could almost have originated within the Weimarer republic, with silent era gestures. If words and messages become so confused, if evident cruelty must not be named, then maybe beauty can only be without restraint in poetic movements. Dune 2 and Megalopolis did not need dialogue to be striking… and maybe, in the case of Megalopolis, it’s better to ignore some of the clunkier dialogue delivery… They’re stories with confused characters, and confusing politics. They’re dark and uncompromising, but what can they teach us about ourselves? Our future?
I almost saw them mirrored in two very opposing visions: Kim Gordon’s sinister The Collective and Nala Sinephro’s Endlessness. Gordon went for post-modernism, refracturing trap into post-no wave-noise rock, whose acidic gestalt was complemented by, at times, naive (and very old fashioned) dialectics. It was about pain, and cynicism. Sinephro abandoned modernism for an almost futurist interpretation of cosmic jazz, seeking a genuine healing energy. Between those two, Halsey’s incredible The Great Impersonator struck like a falling comet: music from somebody who reckoned she would not live to see it released – it’s angry, fatalistic, tender and deeply meta pop music, unmasking how superficial and necrophilic the industry is. A Warholian statement – of course, people didn’t get it.
I can’t untangle 2024, just as much as I can’t untangle the confusion and anxiety this year spawned. Some things just leave scars. And sometimes, these scars come with the harsh realities of state sanctioned mass murder. Revolutions are made up of rioting masses, of genuine upheaval – not collective submission. But when one man shoots a CEO profiting off (and often causing) the death of thousands, the leading voices call him a terrorist. Maybe the countercultural figureheads of the past, a Bowie, Dylan, Fassbinder, or Young would have the right things to say to start a fire – but they’re either old, or gone.
No, I can’t change things. But I can give you this playlist – maybe the songs within can guide you through the night. They did help me, like fireflies.
Thank you for reading, and as always: I love you.
My 50 favourite albums of 2024
1. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
2. Nala Sinephro – Endlessness
3. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
4. Mount Eerie – Night Palace
5. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
6. Elucid – Revelator
7. Uniform – American Standard
8. Adrianne Lenker – Bright Future
9. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven
10. English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
11. Burrrn – Without You
12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead”
13. The Smile – Cutouts
14. Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown
15. Halsey – The Great Impersonator
16. Geordie Greep – The New Sound
17. Vylet Pony – Monarch of Monsters
18. Vince Staples – Dark Times
19. Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight
20. DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water
21. R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura – The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap
22. Chat Pile – Cool World
23. Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
24. samlrc – A Lonely Sinner
25. Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us
26. Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch
27. Ka – The Thief Next To Jesus
28. Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes
29. The Smashing Pumpkins – Aghori mhori mei
30. Meaningful Stone – Angel Interview
31. St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
32. Denzel Curry – King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2
33. The Smile – Wall of Eyes
34. Moor Mother – The Great Bailout
35. Xiu Xiu – 13″ Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto
36. Kim Gordon – The Collective
37. Animal Ghosts – Swell
38. Kendrick Lamar – GNX
39. Fontaines D.C. – Romance
40. Mach-Hommy – #RICHAXXHAITIAN
41. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
42. Charli XCX – Brat
43. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk
44. sonhos tomam conta – Corpus de água
45. Bar for Lashes – The Dream of Delphi
46. Julie – My Anti-Aircraft Friend
47. Cuntroaches – Cuntroaches
48. Hana Vu – Romanticism
49. Willi Carlisle – Critterland
50. FLO – Access All Areas (tied with: Nick Cave & The Bad Sees – Wild God)
