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Today, we’re talking about music, specifically all of the good CDs that came out this year that I forgot to write about last week, plus some YouTube videos that I liked. Let’s rock!

It’s Thanksgiving week, so rather than writing a full-ass post, I’m adding to last week’s post of the best albums of 2024 by adding in all the albums I forgot to put on the list. They’re all just as good as the records on that list, it’s just that I’m an idiot and forgot to put them on that list. 

Additionally, I am presenting you with a list of the best music-related YouTube videos I watched this year because that seems like a fun thing to do. And yes, the list does include Hurricane Chris. 

Best albums of 2024 part 2

Diiv — Frog in Boiling Water

Cool website, even cooler record. 

Cavalier — Different Type Time

This is just a really good rap album and Cavalier is a really great dude. 

Machine Girl — MG Ultra

I have no idea what’s popular and not anymore. Did people like this? Did no one listen to it? Probably both? This is one of those albums that is all music at once. 

Christopher Owens — I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair

Hit by a truck, dumped, fired, moved into a camper connected to his car only for somebody to steal the camper (plus the cat and guitar inside of it) so then lived in the car itself, lost his friends plus JR from Girls, went from playing Pitchfork fest to busking for tech bros getting back on his feet through the power of love and then making this album: The Christopher Owens Story.

Babehoven — Water’s Here In You

The kind of record that’ll make you say “fuck it” and go live on a farm somewhere upstate (or in Lancaster County if you live in Philly). 

KP Skywalka — Back To Granny’s

Self-assured soulful DMV Crank, come for the raps stay for the beats.

Heems — Lafandar 

Heems had me from the second he rapped “Raymour & Flanagan.”

Nourished by Time — Chasing Chickens EP

Erotic Probiotic 2 was so good that I became terrified that Nourished by Time would sign to a major indie, have a big recording budget foisted upon him, and then lose all the garage-studio fairy dust that played such a role in helping them blow up. They did indeed sign to a major indie (XL), but they spent whatever budget made available to them making some parts of the songs sound clearer and others sound even more like they recorded them inside a tin can. It’s all just more than last time, actually, and also Marcus from Nourished by Time is a communist and that is cool.

Xaviersobased — Keep It Goin Xav

Music that makes your brain feel all squiggly.

Future — Mixtape Pluto

Its release coincided with, and helped drive, perhaps the last good night ever on Twitter.

Best music-related YouTube videos I watched this year

Hurricane Chris — “WhippaFlippa (Live From the Block)”

Every few years I remember to get back into Hurricane Chris, because the dude raps insanely hard and never really got a fair shot.

JMB Juvie — “Wicked (Live From the Block)”

Keeping this to two Live From the Block videos, but honestly these things are a big part of my YouTube diet.

Russ LeRoq — “I Just Wanna Be Like Marlon Brando”

This is a new wave rockabilly song that Russell Crowe made before he got famous, and it’s about exactly what you think it’s about. This is why YouTube exists. 

“Show Me the Way to Go Home (The Jaws Song)”

Rewatched Jaws a few weeks ago; top five movie maybe? The shark is a great metaphor for basically whatever, here’s a Frederic Jameson essay that talks about the movie too.

The video of Trump “Mak[ing] it into a music”

This was a total-ass “Media Event.” A thing that happened, the evidence of which offers a rich text that’s rife for discussion. The fact that Trump has pretty good taste in music is one of my recurring fascinations. Wrote about Trump here. 

MGK & Jelly Roll — “Lonely Road (Official Music Video)”

If someone asked me to explain 2024 in a single music video, I would send them this. I wrote more about it here as part of a larger post I did on Jelly Roll.