My yearly collection playlist always has a name, and this year was obviously “2024 Sucks OK.” Which, obviously, it did. Every year sucks in its own way, but man, was 2024 a doozy. Disappointment, the realization that stasis of post-pandemic living, awful politics, genocides, unending wars. Your idols are dead and your enemies are in power. Everything feels too Weimar for its own good.

Still, there were good parts to the year, as there always are. Great books, great movies, some stellar albums. There were a lot of great records this year, actually. I could have done 200 for this entry if that weren’t such obvious overkill. I managed to know 40 entries on the Quietus’ year-end list. Usually I only know single digits – This despite listening to an average of 1100 albums a year.

Also I managed to get six short stories published this year, which is pretty good if you ask me.

Here are the 100 albums that best exemplify this year, this moment, this lifetime.

Continue reading