Like las January, I am beginning the year in this newsletter with my favorite culture of 2024. For those who are not as acquainted with me, I am a very voracious consumer of books, films and music, and I make a list in these three genres. I do not write about television, since I do not like television shows and I rarely watch them beyond the third episode because they require too much time investment for the payoff, at least for me. Living in St. Louis, it is also difficult to talk about other arts. But in the three categories I privilege, I can confidently say that I watch, read, and hear enough to have a solid opinion, hopefully useful.
Because this is the internet, I just want to clarify that my lists are not “best of” but “my favorite,” which means they are purely grounded on personal preference. I share because I do learn a lot from other people’s lists and I hope that my deep dives into stuff help others find something that is out of their radar. I love debating why I like something or not, but this lists are not up for litigation, because I make no claims of absolute value. This is the disclaimer.
I begin with music, because at this point I have very clear favorites from the year. I am still working on some final films and books to define those lists, which will come in a few days, hopefully no later than the 15th (although I have learned to not make promises about this newsletter!).
Because favorite albums and favorite songs are two separate questions, I provide two lists in this post. In these lists, you can find my favorite songs and albums that I heard for the first time in 2024. Pretty much everything in the list was released in 2024, but I did make a couple of exceptions for stuff released in 2023 which I discovered this year. The albums list is divided by the languages I listen to the most—English, Spanish and Portuguese—with a fourth category for instrumental and classic. Singles are all in English or Spanish. I offer the lists organized by language and roughly alphabetized by either band name, act name or the last name of full-named individual artists, with possible imprecisions. I also offer my top five in both lists, marked with asterisks. As far as the order of the rest, that can vary by the day.
I keep a tally of all music I listen in the year. In 2024, I heard for the first time 268 albums, including a few EPs, and 181 standalone singles not tied to an album or EP. Of these, roughly 200 albums and 150 singles qualify for this list (the exact number is a bit a matter of quibbling but this is a good estimate). Of these, I settled for twenty-five albums and twenty-five songs. In the case of the songs, I only have one song per artist, including collaborations, which pushes me into making real choices in some cases, particularly those coming from great albums.
In terms of albums, this is my list.
ALBUMS IN ENGLISH
1. Gracie Abrams. The Secret of Us.
2. Aurora. What Happened to the Heart.
3. Beth Gibbons. Lives Outgrown.
4. Charli XCX. Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. *
5. Clairo. Charm.
6. Cindy Lee. Diamond Jubilee.
7. Angus and Julia Stone. Cape Forestier
8. The Warning. Keep me Fed.
9. Nilüfer Yanya. My Method Actor.
ALBUMS IN SPANISH
1. Ca7triel y Paco Amoroso. Baño María. *
2. Daniel Me estás matando. Como arruinarte la vida (con una herida prohibida)
3. Elsa y Elmar. Palacio
4. Mabe Fratti. Sentir que no sabes.*
5. RaiNao. Capicú.
6. Girl Ultra. Blush.
7. Kany Garcia. Garcia.
8. Super Disco Pirata. De Tepito para el Mundo 1965-1980
9. Young Miko. Att.
ALBUMS IN PORTUGUESE
1. Luiza Brina. Prece. *
2. Carminho. Portuguesa
3. CéU. Novela.
INSTRUMENTAL OR CLASSICAL
1. Harry Allouche. Los colonos (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
2. Eiko Ishibashi. Evil Does not Exist (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
3. Gabriela Ortiz x Los Angeles Philarmonic. Revolución Diamantina.
4. Maya Beiser x Terry Riley. In C. *
My absolute favorite album of the year is Mabe Fratti’s “Sentir que no sabes.” Fratti is a Guatemala-born, Mexico-based cellist, who performs music mixing a dazzling range of genres, from avant-garde chamber music to pop to jazz and others. This album presents her at the top of her game. The album is beautiful, raw and experimental in all the good ways and I could not stop listening to it.
In terms of my Spanish-language list, it continues to be dominated by the category I call “pop fresa” which is basically Latin American alt-pop, mostly from Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. This was an astonishing year for Mexico-based music in this genre, which includes Fratti and Elsa y Elmar, born elsewhere (Elsa y Elmar is Colombian) but active in Mexico. It would be easy for me to list fifteen or twenty albums in this area (and I may write a future post on my pop fresa loves), but I settled for Fratti and Elsa y Elmar, plus another mainstay, Girl Ultra. Of note here is a sub-trend of Neo-bolero, represented by Daniel Me Está Matando (which is also a luxury edition of an album with a few different versions), classic but current. The Warning, in the English list, is also part of the alt-rock scene in Mexico, one of the bands revitalizing rock and metal. It is an amazing album that rock fans should run to hear.
There are some interesting albums that would have made it in another state of mind: Luisa Almaguer’s “Weyes” and Lao’s “Chapultepec” would earn honorable mentions. Sanje’s “De Repente Otra Vez” and Benjamin Walker’s “Libre” are getting high marks, but I don’t think I have processed them enough to become favorites.
Beyond Mexico, Argentina has a lot of amazing artists that I genuinely love, both in urbano and in pop fresa. Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso produced a truly spectacular album, which is my second favorite album. It has a great sonic range and it is perhaps the avant-garde of urbano music in Latin America.
Puerto Rican artists are very strong in my list this year. I loved Young Miko last year and there is no surprise that I adored her first full album. RaiNao was a discovery to me, fascinating and infectious music. But the standout is Kany Garcia, whose album is a set of incredible collaborations with Mexican artists and some of her compatriots. Perhaps her best work so far.
A fun oddity is De Tepito Para El Mundo, a weird compilation of cumbias that circulated in the famous street market of Mexico City, done by Analog Africa, a label out of Germany that compiles really great historical soundscapes from Africa and Latin America. You can check them out here.
My favorite album in English was Charli XCX’s Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, which is two albums in one as it includes the originals and the star-studded remixes. The album is fun and conceptually ambitious, and I think that what turns it into a masterpiece is the remixes, which shows Charli XCX is really a center of gravity for the pop in her generation.
The two albums I heard the most this year, in part because they are part of the soundtrack for my writing time, are Clairo and Angus and Julia Stone, both artists I have loved since their early work, and who are among my favorite singer songwriters. Gracie Abrams is another one I am coming to love, her songwriting is truly skillful and choosing from her songs for one favorite was very difficult. Aurora is another mainstay and I think her new album is not quite her best, but still better than most music out there.
What I think is significant to me is the pop albums not in my list. I did not love the Billie Eilish album although it is very good. I did not like Sabrina Carpenter beyond the very good three first singles. I love Chappell Roan, but I did hear her album last year and it had yet to grow on me. If it had been released in 2024, it may be in this list. I also will admit that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is truly brilliant (and I am very happy it got Shaboozey into the light) but it is not my cup of tea and I appreciate it more conceptually than at the level of actually listening to it. But it was also a year of artists I usually like who released albums I did not like, including Dua Lipa, Camilla Cabello (I do not know who told her to do hyper pop), Ariana Grande (a good conceptual album beneath her performing abilities), Taylor Swift (an album with good songs but kind of bloated and flat), among others.
Predictably, my list includes Beth Gibbons, which I think was liked almost unanimously by people my age. Kim Gordon’s The Collective is great but a bit too corrosive to be a favorite for me. There are other albums that the xennial press has really put forward that I enjoyed, including Mk.Gee’s “Two Stars and the Dream Police,” Jessica Pratt’s “Here in the Pitch,” and MJ Lenderman’s “Manning Fireworks,” three fine representations of US alternative music that would easily be favorites in another mental state.
There are two real discoveries for me. One is Nilüfer Yanya, whose album is full of rich vocals and a fascinating guitar performance. The other one is Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, a deep cut. The album is completely unavailable by choice from Spotify and Apple Music, and was released guerrilla style by Lee in this very vintage looking website. It’s a triple album that has the feel of 1990s alternative, pre-internet culture, something that could be featured in a punk zine and circulated clandestinely in riot grrrl scenes. It can be streamed on YouTube, bought for download (Which can then be added to Apple Music if you have iTunes Match), or pre-ordered in CD and vinyl. There is nothing like it and very worth listening to.
This past year I reconnected to music in Portuguese, in part because of going to see Carminho, a great fado performer, whose albums made the list in part because of this concert. But the one that really caught my error and is in the top five is Luiza Brina’s Prece. This is an enchanting album of secular prayers, which includes fantastic collaborations, including one with the great Silvana Estrada. I also include CéU, a favorite artist continuing the Bossa Nova Tradition.
I listen to instrumental music more haphazardly, but one of my entry points are film soundtracks and there are two great ones this year: Harry Alouche’s for Felipe Gálvez’s Los Colonos, and Eiko Ishibashi for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does not Exist (both will feature in my favorite films list). Not strictly instrumental, but there were two more soundtracks from favorites films in my shortlist: I Saw the TV Glow and Trenque Lauquen.
I do follow Mexican symphonic music and a true masterwork came out this year: Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución Diamantina, recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. It includes three works that powerfully engage with three topics: the heritage of the Maya, the disruptions of COVID-19 and the horrific question of femicide in Mexico. Really incredible stuff.
My favorite instrumental album of the year is the performance of Terry Rileys in C by Cellist Maya Beiser. I love cello and I love minimalist. I do not know that it is better than my other three choices, but I gave beauty and comfort to my spirit in very important moments of this year.
In terms of songs, here is my list. Apologies for not doing a Spotify playlist because I do not do Spotify, but here is an Apple Music playlist if it is your platform.
SONGS IN ENGLISH
1. Gracie Abrams. That’s So True.
2. Aurora. Some type of skin
3. Leon Bridges. Laredo.
4. Sabrina Carpenter. Please Please Please
5. Charli XCX and Billie Eilish. Guess.
6. Clairo. Sexy to Someone.
7. Dasha. Austin.
8. Hozier. Too Sweet.
9. The Last Dinner Party. Nothing Matters *
10. Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. Die with a Smile
11. Maggie Rogers. In the Living Room.
12. Chappell Roan. Good Luck Babe
13. Olivia Rodrigo. Obsessed.
14. Shaboozey. A Bar Song (Tipsy)
15. Angus and Julia Stone. Cape Forestier
SONGS IN SPANISH
1. Daniel Me estás matando y Elsa y Elmar. Yo nunca te mentí.
2. Ela Taubert and Joe Jonas. ¿Cómo pasó?
3. Kany Garcia y Young Miko. En Esta Boca. *
4. Karol G. Si antes te hubiera conocido. *
5. Mabe Fratti. Enfrente.
6. Majo Aguilar y Santa Fe Klan. Luna Azul
7. Paloma Morphy y Gera MX. Todo a Medias. *
8. Sofia Reyes y Danny Lux. El 100. *
9. Ximena Sariñana. ALV.
10. Tokischa y Nati Peluso. De Maravisha.
There are seven songs in here that come from favorite albums. To avoid repeating myself, I just will bite that Kany Garcia’s collaboration with Young Miko, “En Esta boca” is one of the my five favorite songs of the year. “Yo nunca te mentí,” which is only included in the specific version of the album that I list above, is really the best Mexican bolero I’ve heard in years. “Enfrente” is only one of the Fratti songs, but really any song in the album could be in this list. The songs by Aurora, Gracie Abrams, Claire and Angus and Julia Stone are the reason why I got into their respective albums and one of the reasons why they became favorites of the year.
There are more songs in English than in Spanish but frankly the only song in English in my top five is “Nothing Matters”, an infectious and perfect song that I really listened in nearly every playlist this year. In terms of Charli XCX, Girls, featuring Lorde, is probably the best song but I love quality Eurotrash and Guess is a real ear worm. Of the Sabrina Carpenter singles, I think “Please Please Please” is perfect and superior to the other two. Although I did not love Cowboy Carter, I did listened to Shaboozey and Leon Bridges in search for more black country and these are two really brilliant songs. I usually do not like country but Dasha’s song was in my head all year. Maggie Rogers is another great singer songwriter that in my mind is adjacent to Gracie Abrams. Although Olivia Rodrigo did not have an album, “Obsessed” to me is better than many songs of people who did have albums. Regarding Bruno Mars, I chose his wonderful collaboration with Lady Gaga but in a different day I would have preferred APT, his song with Rosé. Like everybody else in the world, I was really into Chappell Roan and Hozier’s tops singles.
I think there are less singles in Spanish because I tend to listen music in the language more through albums. But the pop fresa rules very strong here and some of my favorite songs are standalone by artists who do not have an album yet. This is the case of Mexican Paloma Morphy, whose songs are great, and who cracked my top five with her collaboration with the rapper Gera MX, a great song by any measure. It is also the case of Colombian Ela Taubert, who released an amazing song, later remixed with Joe Jonas. I do prefer the remix version. In any case, I look forward to their debut album.
My favorite songs of the year were a tie between Karol G’s “Si antes te hubiera conocido”, my song of the summer and really a perfect pop song by any metric, and Sofia Reyes’s and Danny Lux’s “El 100,” a collaboration between two of my favorite Mexican artists, and one of those sad but fun songs that Latin American artists really excel in writing. They are somewhat idiosyncratic and light choices and by no means the best songs of the year, but they carried me through a tough year.
A random music note is that this year really reconciled me with concerts, which I started attending once again last year after years of not doing so. There was a lot of Mexican nostalgia, including traveling to Indianapolis to see Café Tacuba and Caifanes (truly amazing) and to Chicago to see Fey. Fey is a bubblegum pop star from the 90s whose songs are better than people credit her to be, and her performance chops are unparalleled. She danced and sang with no pause for two and a half hours notwithstanding the fact that she is fifty years old. I am younger and would probably have collapsed ten minutes into that stage. Lila Downs came to St. Louis, which was wonderful, and she was incredible. I also loved seeing Bronco although their show is a bit more manufactured. Carminho, mentioned before also came to St. Louis, apparently the first fado show in town in over a decade. Also in St. Louis, that Mexican OT, with Drodi and Maxo Cream, a show so rowdy that the venue smelled like weed and four fights broke out. But it was really badass. The real banger in town was Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, part of the emotional soundtrack of many people in their mid-forties, performing live their two great albums, Transatlanticism and “Give Up.”
To look forward in 2025, I already have tickets for Elsa y Elmar in Chicago and Bright Eyes in St. Louis, and, oddly, the Mexican Ballet Folklórico is going to be in town too. Thank you for reading, best books of the year is next, in a few days.