2024: The Year in Songs

December 30, 2024

Kevin’s Songs: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

Stanley’s Songs: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal

Firstly, thank you everyone that’s gone along the ride with us this year! Thank you for reading, for listening. For our end of the year playlist we decided to do something a little different. While we typically do one, combined playlist each month, this time we made separate playlists — comprised of 50 songs — highlighting some of our favorite tunes from the year. Below, Kevin and I reflect on some of favorite songs from the year and what spoke to us about them.

Kevin

The end of the year. Somehow, right. This year in music is where I recognized how to talk and feel about music. I now appreciate music as a place for emotions, ideas, and freedom/play. I really learned that I need places and spaces to slow down. Identify my emotions. Music really solidified this as a space for me. And this approach doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. This is how I learned to respect artists and what it takes to create/share your being and ideas with others.

So my favorite songs of the year try to embody that somewhat - just this idea of capturing that emotional language. The artists on here do that in a variety of ways.

Some standouts among the favs:

Habits — Gary Clark Jr.

“I got habits that I just can’t break.”

“I know nothin’ is for sure”

Stand Tall — Rapsody

“You gon’ shine or fade to black as a result of all your damages.”

What Speaks — Fana Hues

“What speaks to you? What speaks?”

The Heavy Loop — Jonah Yano

My 30 min reset.

Euphoria + Reincarnated — Kendrick Lamar

Our GOAT. Finally being recognized as such by the public without question.

Stanley

Learning — Jordan Rakei

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on Learning — the seventh track from the London-based composer, producer, and songwriter, Jordan Rakei’s latest album, The Loop — particularly the song’s first verse. Rakei sings:

When all the people of the world have a dream
As they've always longed to live in meritocracy
Where leaders of the free, aren't who they claim to be
Still one of those sad, sad, mysteries
We saw borders classify all those foreign lands
In a war where families bled through those summers sands
So to keep one's soul alive, they must conquer and divide
With no apologies to rectify their state of mind, mm-hmm

Learning aptly captures the moment we live in: the crisis that borders produce, genocide and its denial, empty gestures toward “progress” by political leaders and so on. The song has also brought me to reflect on — what Black studies scholar, Bedour Alagraa has called — the interminable catastrophe. Which is to say, the notion of catastrophe, or crisis, is not a stand alone event, but “a structural condition, and a way of life imposed as a form of political and social domination, beginning with the New World colonial encounter(s).” We did not arrive at this moment by chance, nor is this moment an outlier.

Organized in two movements, Learning uses stringed accompaniment and subtle piano, bass, and drum parts in the first movement. As the song builds, in its second movement, the instruments once in the background come to the foreground. The vocals throughout are haunting — sounds like it could be a choir — and the drums and bass lag a bit, a subtle nod to Rakei’s influences. It’s a brilliant piece of writing on a stellar album.

Blues Blood — Immanuel Wilkins

At times, I’ve found myself listening to MATTE GLAZE — the opening track from Philadelphia-born saxophonist and composer, Immanuel Wilkins’ third, studio album, Blues Blood — repeatedly. MATTE GLAZE feels like a calm, slow wind blowing: steady and all encompassing. June McDoom, the first voice you hear, is patient, setting the stage for others. Wilkins’ saxophone feels both part of the composition and separate, weaving in and out of the central melody, creating a beautiful tension.