Skip to main content

2024 Year in Review

seeing porter robinson on the smile tour
seeing porter robinson on the smile tour

The true curse of end-of-year lists is that as people are posting theirs, it gives me way more things to watch/listen to/read/etc, so then I feel like I need to delay my own to be more all-encompassing of stuff that came out in the year, BUT then it just means I never post it. SO!!!!! I am simply posting it and not thinking about that!!!

What I did this year!

That Japan trip truly fixed me, in that 2024 was one of the best years I’ve had in a while. I travelled a ton more than I have previously (Chicago, seeing my own city like a tourist when Mariah and Nick visited, Montreal), went to 22 concerts, made new friends in the area, Connor moved out and Sean moved in, and fully planned our next Japan trip for next month! I restarted (AGAIN) studying Japanese, and I’m definitely the furthest I’ve ever been so far. I’ve been taking a lot more photos this year, partially because I got a new bag that fits my camera really well, so I always have it with me (next personal project, make a better photo feed on here?). For next year I really need to spend even less time on social media and more time engaging with the hobbies that I do enjoy. My friend Ian’s blog/newsletter has been so helpful in keeping me motivated and to regularly re-center what I want to spend my time on!

It was so cool finally getting to see a ton of bands that I listened to 10 years ago and didn’t manage to catch live at the time! Owen, Prawn, Joie de Vivre, Pianos Become the Teeth, Tigers Jaw, This Will Destroy You, Touche Amore, Joyce Manor, all really good shows. Also it was great seeing a bunch of foreign bands on US tours, Lamp, Bôa, Chinese Football, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, Delta Sleep, and finally getting to see Hannah Diamond!!!!!

This was a big shift in the year for media consumption (someone needs to invent a new generic word for watching/reading/listening/playing/etc that isn’t that lol) for me, it’s the least amount of video games I’ve played, the most movies watched, and by far the most books read. Getting an eReader (Boox Page, I want to write about my experience with this sometime, soon!) has been such a massive thing for me. I always admired the kindle from afar but never invested for some reason, thinking that reading ebooks on my phone was good enough and I really don’t need another single-use device that I’d love for a month and then never touch (see: every portable game console I’ve owned). Yet that couldn’t be further from what happened!!! It’s such a better reading experience than a phone, and honestly at times I prefer it over a paper book, even if just for the ability to bring some 600+ page book with me without needing to have a bag big enough to fit it.

Anyway!!!!! Onto the lists!

Music

Albums

my most played albums in 2024
my most played albums in 2024

Smile by Porter Robinson

Listen: Cheerleader

I mean how could I not. It’s not perfect (the three track run of Perfect Pinterest Garden, Year of the Cup, Kitsune Maison Freestyle is super weak compared to the rest) and it feels nowhere near as significant as Nurture, but I really appreciate what it is and what it’s trying to do, and a bunch of individual songs on here are incredible

All You Embrace by One Step Closer

Listen: Esruc

Bangers front to back, Esruc by far my most-played song of the year. Cannot wait to see what this band does next, because i’ll be there for it day one

The Anchorite by Geotic

Listen: The Lime of Stars

One of my favorites from Geotic, really gorgeous ambience with a lot of variety. The Lime of Stars is such a massive track and something I hope Geotic/Baths comes back to stylistically

メイドサントウィッチ by gaburyu

Listen: ヴレイヴイータ (IA) / Vraveater (IA)

Incredible weird electronic vocaloid pop album, super catchy melodies and songwriting across this whole thing, would love to see this live (shout out to the somunia golddisc live performance of Watermark that got me to revisit this)

Love Notes by Yuzuha

Listen: thru 7+

Really lovely EP very remincient of early 2000s Jpop/shibuya-kei/j-rock, every track is wildly different than the last while maintaining a very solid Vibe. I got this one on CD!!!

loop/boy & Retype by INU

Listen: ___

Yet another one that somehow slipped by me for most of the year but once I listened I couldn’t stop. Seconding the gaburyu comments for how great and hooky the songwriting is!! Really fun EPs

see you, frail angel. sea adore you. by Homecomings

Listen: Moon Shaped

Really wonderful Japanese shoegaze-pop/dream-pop album. I knew about them from the Insomniacs After School ED but I didn’t really get into them until this newest album, which I feel goes further into that dreamy/shoegazey direction. Definitely want to pick this one up on CD, such a good front-to-back no-skip listen

Sweet & Sour by ExWHYZ

Listen: Sweet & Sour

I had vaguely heard of this group when they first rebranded from Empire, I knew they were part of WACK, but that was kinda it! When I was looking to buy tickets to see Yuragi on my next japan trip, I saw that Haru Nemuri was playing a show with ExWHYZ, so I thought I’d check them out since I’d love to see Haru Nemuri. And I immediately got super into ExWHYZ as a result?????? Really interesting songwriting going on, obv still (alt-) idol pop, but their producer list (Seiho, KBSNK) really makes for some great tracks. Reminds me a bit of what RYUTist was doing on their last album before breaking up.

陽のかけら by inuha

Listen: 出​発​の​朝

“angelic post-shoegaze” really is a good descriptor for this!!!!!

Others I liked!

Songs not mentioned above

Movies

My Letterboxd yearly summary

I already have a bunch of stuff written up on letterboxd, so I’ll just mention a couple favorites here!

Books

I read 12 novels this year! That’s wild for me! I used to read a ton as a kid, and completely fell off by late high school into college, only really picking it back up because of The Spear Cuts Through Water (thank you Caleb Zane Huett for the recommendation). I don’t keep up with new releases at all, so this is just a few I read this year

Anime (TV)

Definitely not a big year of anime-watching for me, but pretty much everything I finished was Good, so I’ll mention it!

Games

Oh god oh no I forgot to play any video game other than free-to-play online shooters used a vehicle for conversation with my friends!!!!!!!!

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2

Wrote about this previously!!!!

Echo Point Nova

someone being really good at the game

The number of games I play, especially finish, gets smaller and smaller every year. This year I completed just four games!!!! Three of which were for my work’s game club, but the one that wasn’t instantly became one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I played this entirely in online co-op and 100%ed in 14 hours, consisting entirely of pure, high-speed, FPS euphoria. The movement feels incredible, the physics-based projectiles make the gunplay satisfying when combined with the movement, and story gets out of the way to let you just do Cool Stuff. It scratches my nightcore brain itch of needing things to be fast, with a bunch of movement tech that lets you rocket across the map at often absurd speeds, rarely ever needing to slow down. Satisfyingly difficult, I never felt like we particularly struggled playing the game, yet by the end the enemies got numerous and tough enough that you couldn’t just throw yourself at a fight without a bit of a plan, creating really satisfying moments of triumph for the bonus fights. The perk system gives you so much variance in play style, especially when you get to the bonus ones, like one that randomizes your active gun, or where only airborne kills count, I often think about going back and trying new stuff (a thing i do not do often!!!!). I dream of playing this with a full group of 4 people, I absolutely see myself coming back to this game even after 100%ing it, it truly just feels unmatched. If you like movement-based first person shooters, I implore you to play this game!!!