We’ve reached the end of 2024! Although I’m not yet ready to share publicly about the big plot points in my life this year, 2024 has been good to me. I stayed true to myself this year, had some new experiences, caught up with some old friends and spent quality time with some new ones.

I just skimmed my “Hello, 2024” post to see what was on my mind at the beginning of this year, and I did nearly none of those resolutions I listed out. No wonder I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolution person. But, I weathered my quarter life crisis exceptionally well, to the point of even forgetting that that was something I was so focused on a year ago. Good for me!

There aren’t going to be big “what happened this year” and “what are my goals for 2025” sections in this post – like I mentioned, I’m keeping my cards closer to my chest this year. I can write about some music I enjoyed, though.

Music

First some notable concerts, then the albums I listened to the most this year.

Concerts

This list is short because I did not follow through on my resolution to see more concerts this year at all. I still managed to see some good ones, though.

  • I had a blast at New Colossus Festival, as you can certainly tell from the excessive amount of writing I did for this blog about it across these two posts. Really hoping to go again this year.
  • I saw Mannequin Pussy in May, which I also wrote about for this blog. This was my most highly anticipated concert of the year, and the same goes for the album, and MP really delivered.
  • At the very beginning of the year, I saw Zowy, Anna Altman, Pleaser, and Gemma at Bar Freda in Queens. Everyone rocked, except for the sound guy, who was pretty rude.
  • This was the year I finally saw Mdou Moctar, but I can’t remember when, specifically. My girlfriend and I saw them on the Funeral for Justice tour. We were very disappointed to miss him play Central Park’s summer stage last year, so when the Funeral for Justice tour dates came out, we grabbed tickets right away. One of my favorite and most anticipated concerts ever – nobody does it like Mdou Moctar.

New Albums

In order by artist. I think trying to precisely rank albums is futile. I really like all of these, else they wouldn’t be on the list.

You’ll notice a lot of overlap with the “concerts” section – not surprising.

  • Leon by Leon Bridges. Perfect. “Panther City” has been on repeat since this album came out.
  • I Got Heaven by Mannequin Pussy. As mentioned, this was the album I came into this year really looking forward to, and I was right to.
  • Funeral for Justice by Mdou Moctar. The other album I was really looking forward to.
  • Different Place and Time by Mr. Floyd Larry. I hadn’t heard of Mr. Floyd Larry until I saw them at New Colossus in March. I love this album and have alreday recommended it on this blog. It only came out at the tail end of this year and yet it might be my most listened album of the year? I haven’t checked. Great vibes, and unlike most music, I’m able to listen to it while I work.
  • All the Girls in the Room Say “Sorry” by Pride Month Barbie. I try to keep up with at least some of the music Get Better Records puts out, so I stumbled across Pride Month Barbie browsing their website. Lucky me!

New-to-me Album from 2023

  • Con lo Bueno y la Pena by Airu. I hadn’t heard of Airu until I heard “Coloco los Pies” on the New Colossus playlist prior to the festival, but I’m so glad their music is in my life now. The first three tracks from this album have been aggressively on repeat for the past few months.

Revisited Album

  • As discussed in the blog post I wrote after seeing Mannequin Pussy, I’ve been really into Remember Sports this year, particularly Like a Stone and Leap Day EP. Their music resonates with me on a very deep level. I hope to see them live again sometime.

My New Year’s Eve

This might be the fastest I’ve ever written a blog post – in one thirty-minute sitting. I’m doing New Year’s Eve solo this year, so I thought I would want to spend a lot of that time reflecting and thinking about the year ahead. But now that New Year’s is here, I just don’t, or not right now, anyways. I thought I would make this quick blog post and then journal privately, too, but instead I think I will play this video game I’ve been hooked on – Road 96, which is good, but to be honest, nothing super special. Later, maybe I’ll take a late-night walk through Central Park, or even take the subway down to Midtown and see how close I can get to Times Square before every fiber of my being screams at me to go home (my assumption is, not very close).

This is the first time in several years I’ve had no New Year’s plans – normally I end up at some kind of very small gathering, with family as often as not – but such is the nature of being a transplant in my 20s. Almost all of my friends are off with family. I’m happy to be in NYC for New Year’s, even if it’s not exactly what I’d imagined, and I’m glad to not be risking catching Covid during the post-holiday-travel wave, anyways.

Mostly, I’m feeling thankful for 2024 and excited for 2025. I’m very lucky to be able to say that I love my life and the people in it, including myself. Happy New Year!