The Lists That Nobody Asked For

My Top 5 Albums, Films, and Things of 2024

A lot of people on the internet say that you should embody the person that you aspire to be. So, for example, if you want to be an artist, you should live the life of an artist. This consists of blocking out time every day to be creative, enter competitions, to showcase your work as if you’re already recognised. The idea here is that the rest will come.

In the spirit of this, I’m going to compile my ‘Top 5’ lists as if people care about my preferences - as if my opinion bears some weight in the cultural milieu. I like the idea of people caring about my preferences and using them to inform their own opinions about the world.

I say this, rather egocentrically, while also understanding the ease with which anybody with a Reddit account can pick apart my lists and claim that I’m merely a Pitchfork-a24-Libtard without any real opinions of my own.

And maybe they’re right.

So, with this in mind, but also foretelling the eye-rolls I’ll induce if the list is an ambient-filled, alt-doc-littered, contrarian practice of intellectual masturbation, here are my Top Fives of 2024.

My favourite albums of 2024

5. Kim Gordon - The Collective

There’s is nobody else who could pull off what Kim Gordon seems to achieve on every record. In fact, if you haven’t heard the album - or, less likely, haven’t heard of Kim Gordon, I dare you to play the album with no context other than the fact you’re listening to a 71-year-old woman. Without the context that she fronted one of the most impactful and lasting noise rock bands in history, and the knowledge that she’s been at the cutting edge of sonic and fashion culture for five decades, you might be surprised to hear a 71-year-old woman talking about cultural disintegration and phone addiction over laconic trap beats that could’ve easily been produced by lil ugly mane.

To create an album that sounds so fresh and relevant after making music for over 40 years is no easy feat, and Gordon achieves it effortlessly here.

Best tracks: The Candy House, It’s Dark Inside, Dream Dollar

4. Hayato Sumino - Human Universe

Again, I’d like to write about an album that I have no qualification to write about. Before listening to this album, I had little to no interest in classical music. I knew it was significant, and I knew that some pieces made me feel something, but that is all. After listening to Hayato Sumino’s ‘Human Universe’, however, I felt a yearning to learn more about this impenetrable genre, often hidden behind dense and lofty vocabulary that shuns the layman.

‘Human Universe’ consists of a series of recognizable and popular pieces reimagined by this virtuosic Japanese wizard. Featuring pieces composed by the likes of Hans Zimmer, Chopin, and Bach, it’s instantly accessible while teasing a depth that you have no option to explore. The album ends with ‘7 variations on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”’, which was one of the most enjoyable surprises I’ve ever encountered on an album.

Best Tracks: 7 variations on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, Nocturne I, Clair de lune

3. Idles - Tangk

Probably the most commercially successful album on the list, Idles’ Tangk is more than just a roll of the dice. It’s a complete diversion from what people know and love them for while still retaining that pure essence of who they are and what they represent. ‘Idea 01’ opens with Joe Talbot almost crooning a delicate love song while you feel the instrumentation climbing to a climax that never quite comes, something that many of those who’ve suffered heartbreak can relate to. It just fizzles, but with a thump that promises something else. In the second track, we get exactly what Idles always seems to deliver: strong basslines, blood-pumping drums, and political lyrics that feel easy to spit in the face of authority. A lot of people hate Idles for their politicization, but at least their consistent in their message.

It’s an album full of pleasant surprises, and hearing Talbot talk about the influence of his daughter, and writing about this complex love that comes out of parenthood, seems integral to producing an album that’s so much more than class-hatred, anti-monarchism, and rebellion.

‘Dancer’ is a highlight. I noticed the LCD Soundsystem feature as I looked over the tracklist and it was eyebrow-raising, to say the least, but what a treat it is. It’s an album of tracks that make you want to dance, whereas Idles’ previous albums have been more about breaking stuff. It’s incredibly listenable, and has had me returning time after time this year.

Best Tracks: Dancer, POP POP POP, Jungle

2. Nala Sinephro - Endlessness

I don’t quite know how to write about Nala Sinephro’s ‘Endlessness’. I don’t have the vocabulary to talk about classical-jazz-electronica and there are probably dozens of outstanding reviews that exalt praise in a far more articulate way than you’ll find here.

In spite of this, I do feel qualified to talk about how Nala Sinephro makes me feel. She pulls me out of my day and lifts me above whatever troubles I’m facing. Her music, and this is the same on the outstanding ‘Space 1.8’, completely transports you to a world of supreme sonic satisfaction. It’s hard for me to overexaggerate how beautiful her blend of jazz and electronica really is. It’s one of those albums that I can’t wait to listen to when I’m home from travelling and have the privilege of investing in a great sound system. I want to roll around in this record, to bathe in it and let it wash over me. I feel like ‘Continuum 1’ is like the music you’d like to hear as the lights go out on a life well-lived. ‘Continuum 2’ begins like elevator music, but it’s performed by angels in the lift up to paradise. The next track is bathed in harp-like instrumentation that seems to signal your arrival in a place where you feel instantly at home.

It feels harsh not putting this at number one, but I feel like the next one just spoke to me personally a little bit more.

Best Tracks: Continuum 2, Continuum 7, Continuum 10.

1. Okay Kaya - Oh My God - That’s So Me

I must admit, there’s a bit of a theme with this list. Kim Gordon, Nala Sinephro, and Okay Kaya are all artists whom I was familiar with through a few isolated tracks. My playlist of ‘liked tracks’ has featured Gordon’s ‘Paprika Pony’, Okay Kaya’s ‘Mother Nature’s Bitch’, and Sinephro’s ‘Space 1’ for years. So, with each of their new releases, I owed it to them all to give them a full listen. Each of them demanded my attention and I instantly went back and listened to everything they’d put out.

Okay Kaya is like the driest stand-up I’ve ever heard. Lines like ‘One must imagine the rock happy, he wants to be like his daddy, a rolling stone’ are just gut-punchingly funny while being both dense and light at the same time. ‘Help, I've been put into context!’ pokes fun at humanity’s eternally doomed quest for understanding, and ‘Oh Minutiae’ is a soft love song to the things oft-overlooked.

This album is packed with observations I wish I had written, melodies that fit those observations like your favourite pair of socks, and a vibe of effortless cool. When I listened to ‘Tangk’, on a bus from Vienna to Bratislava, I remember playing it back instantaneously because I enjoyed it so much. With ‘Oh My God - That’s So Me’, I listened to it every day for a whole week. It just hit me in a way that’s so rare and magical, which leaves me no other option than to place it at number one.

Best Tracks: Oh Minutiae, Picture This, The Groke

Best of the rest

Choosing just five albums feels kind of cruel. It’s inevitable that there will be outstanding candidates who don’t make the list, so here are the ones that could’ve just as easily broken into the top 5 with more attention.

• Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

• Grandaddy - Blue Wav

• Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal

• Geordie Greep - The New Sound

• Charli XCX - Brat and It’s Completely Different But Still Also Brat

• The Smile - Cutouts

• Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor

• JPEG Mafia - I Lay Down My Life For You

My favourite films of 2024

I must confess that these are not all films released in 2024. Due to my globetrotting tendencies this year, I haven’t quite had the opportunity to watch dozens of 2024 releases. I’ve been to the cinema just three times this year. I saw Perfect Days in the beautiful Neues Off Kino in the first days of the year. I witnessed the artistic projectile vomit that is Poor Things in a cinema next door to our Airbnb in Prague and I watched Dune: Part Two with Hungarian subtitles in Budapest - not a great idea when half of the film is in the Freman’s mother tongue, Chakobsa. I still don’t know a word of Atredies’ rousing speech at the climax.

5. Anatomy of a Fall

This was great fun - well, as much fun as a French murder trial can be. It baited with subtlety so that you never quite knew what the outcome would be until close to the film’s end. I kind of hated every character except Snoop, the dog. I can’t wait for his next cinematic appearance.

4. Navalny

I watched this just a couple of weeks ago, despite its’ 2022 release. It’s a documentary that I think everybody should watch, with urgency. Navalny’s brutal murder at the start of the year demonstrates the realities of going up against one of the world’s most oppressive dictators. His courage to return to his country must be admired and it’s devastating that Russia has lost this national hero in such demotivating circumstances.

When you see real people from a country that has become a pariah, it reminds you that they are not so different from us. This, alongside ‘20 Days in Mariupol’, were the hardest-hitting documentaries I’ve seen this year, both casting a much-needed spotlight on a region where heroes operate out of sight and without reward and some of the world’s wickedest men enact unpunished and unseen brutalities.

3. The Holdovers

Released in the winter of 2023, The Holdovers is my favourite Christmas film of recent times. Watched in a Da Lat hostel on the 19th December, it was exactly what I needed as the churn of homesickness of Christmas rippled through my guts. As I scroll through an Instagram of Christmas parties and winter walks, slapping mosquitos on the back of my sticky neck, I find it so easy to relate to characters without a home during the festive period.

The film has the same easy-yet-poignant style that I loved so much about Sideways, and Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph's fantastic performances matched Giamatti's brilliance.

2. Conclave

Without a doubt the most fun I’ve had watching a film in 2024. I’m a fiend for Fiennes and his portrayal of a firm-but-fair Dean of Cardinals was both astute and campy at the same time. The snapshot of the cardinals having a cigarette, or scrolling through their phones, revealed a slice of reality that obviously exists, but I’ve never seen before, in-person or on-screen.

The film removes the pedestal from these men and shows them for the flawed humans that they clearly are. They’re spiteful, they gossip, they’re ego-driven. While some might argue that it’s over-the-top, it only adds to a drama that isn’t too far from the reality TV that sucks us in and spits us out feeling ashamed and sorry for humanity. Only, because this is beautifully shot and the costume design is outstanding, it tricks us into feeling above the Love Island crowd.

1. Perfect Days

My first and favourite film of 2024. I watched this, along with most of these films, with El. What made it so satisfying was that every time a new track came on, we’d look at each other with wry smiles, self-satisfied by the excellent soundtrack. Patti Smith’s Redondo Beach was a particular treat.

But the film itself is so beautiful in its simplicity. Despite being shot in one of the world’s biggest and densely populated cities, I can’t help but remember the film’s focus on quiet moments in nature. Koji Yashuko plays the part of Hirayama perfectly, and despite his characters’ simple and repetitive life, it’s easy to see the satisfaction that can come with such a humble existence. As the film progresses, the ripples of the actions of others divert his quiet course, and he’s faced with the unsettling realities of change. All of this plays out in a relatively low-stakes, marvelously shot film that flirts between the lightness of cautious social commentary and the heaviness of universal existentialism - it’s like my dream three-way.

Best of the rest

• Poor Things (2024)

• The Substance (2024)

• When the Wind Blows (1986)

• Heretic (2024)

• Her (2013) - I know, I can’t believe I’ve only just seen it either

• Society of the Snow (2023)

• 20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

• I, Daniel Blake (2016)

My favourite things of 2024

5. Willy’s Chocolate Experience

Yes, that was this year. This is not the list’s only cautionary tale. We mustn’t trust everything we see on the internet - especially if every single image is gargled up and spat out by the very worst AI-image generator online.

The photos from the event were dreadful, the videos were even worse, and the full revealer by the Experience’s very-own Willy Wonka was hilarious.

4. Africa

After spending around half of the year there, I feel as though I’ve left a piece of myself on that crazy continent. Admittedly, I can only speak of East and Southern Africa, but wow, what a place. The people, the animals, and the energy of the place are like nothing I could’ve imagined. I arrived with a bitter dislike of Afrobeat and left with a love of the genre. I used to hate lateness, whereas now I roll with the punches. I used to feel awkward speaking to people I didn’t know, but now I’m the first to strike up a conversation with anyone. Dealing with the stares of strangers is also something that feels almost natural. I already know that I’ll return several times over the course of my life.

3. Apple Music

In September, I made the decision to leave Spotify after over 10 years. It was a hard decision and I heard Daniel Ek make an audible gasp when I switched my account from Premium to Free, but it was long overdue. The app is virtually unusable if you care an iota about genuine and satisfying music discovery. The playlistification of music had basically removed albums from my homepage and having podcasts and music in the same place was just a mess.

While not quite as user-friendly, Apple Music (and Podcasts) keeps it simple. I’ve already discovered a ton of albums and I’m regularly being recommended obscure albums, b-sides, or EPs from artists that I love or have recently found. Its ‘mixes’ section is also excellent. Being able to listen to all the Warehouse Project mixes in lossless audio is a win, and the radio shows aren’t too bad either. We’ll see how I feel after the 3-month trial ends, but I think I’ve found my new favourite streaming platform.

2. Julian Assange’s Release From Prison

This might seem strange, but if you care one bit about freedom of speech and the rights of journalists everywhere, this was a monumental moment. After being held in Belmarsh for just over five years, and spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before that, this was the first time in 12 years that he was actually free.

For most people, Assange is simply somebody who snoops on top secret information and publishes it on WikiLeaks to the frustration of Western governments, but he is so much more than that. For decades, he has stood on the side of the oppressed and held powerful states to account. He created the perfect platform for people to anonymously blow the whistle on human rights abuses, atrocities, and cover-ups. He has done all this while knowing that the most powerful states in the world would put a target on his back and he was facing 175 years in a U.S. federal prison before he took a plea deal in Guam.

In October 2024, in his first public statement, he said the following, “The criminalisation of news-gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere. I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking for, receiving and publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe.”

As we descend deeper into a bizarre hall of mirrors, where free speech champions like Musk and Farage inevitably guide us towards fascism in fancy dress, voices like Assange’s must be protected and supported.

1. Raygun

From one hounded Australian to another, Raygun comes in at number one. I know what you’re thinking, “How can this laughing stock of a breakdancer come ahead of Julian Assange?! How can she top AFRICA?!”

Well, her moves certainly aren’t as impressive as the most average of East African dancers, and her relevance was a mere moment in a year of constant flux. But What baffled me the most about the entire Raygun experience was a) the fact she actually progressed to represent her nation, however unserious, in an Olympic sport and b) the sheer audacity of her to flop around like a five-year-old putting on a show in the adverts of Britain’s Got Talent for their encouraging parents.

I have never, in my life, seen anything like it. It’s one of those things that people should be forced to remember, like the Second World War, so that we all ensure that it never happens again.