The Year(s) In Music (2020 – 2024)

(By Richard Goodman, 7 June 2025)

Hello!  It has been a while since I last talked to you.  Has anything significant happened lately?  I did not plan to send you the box set of music you are holding in your hands.  It just sort of happened.  When I last sent you a Year In Music CD back in the beginning of 2020, Donald Trump was running a presidential campaign despite concerns about his fitness for office, Elon Musk was making waves in the business world and exerting his social influencer muscle, Brexit was causing turmoil in Europe, the United States exited many global alliances like the Paris Accords, weather patterns were changing and causing unprecedented natural disasters, the Kansas City Chiefs - America’s new favorite sports team - were Superbowl bound, and when someone said the word “Corona”, the first thing you thought of was a beer.

And now, um, well, all those things are still kind of true, but in completely different ways than before.  Part of the delay in sending music to you was because of my procrastination but a lot of it has been a lack of new music coming out in the last few years for some reason.  It almost seems like the world has been concentrating on other things from 2020 through 2023. 

The culprit, COVID-19, has affected public health, global supply chains, political agendas, education, social activities, and yes, even the music scene.  Since streaming music services have killed album sales and they pay out pennies to the artists in return, musicians depend on touring revenue to make a living.  Artists now release albums to help promote their tours, not because they expect to earn gobs of money from selling albums.  

Touring is needed to bring in money to pay the bills, since streaming revenue is negligible.  So if an artist can’t use a new album to generate ticket sales, many feel there is no point in releasing anything new.  When people were unable to safely gather and listen to a concert, musicians stayed at home and had to find other ways to earn a living.

As a result, there was not much new music coming out during the peak COVID years.  Heck, it seems like there were more corona variants coming out then there were hit albums.  We started with the big names in COVID - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron and then moved on to other “less deadly” variants like Epsilon, Zeta, Kappa, Lambda, and now there are so many we don’t have any fun Greek fraternity names to give them and have just started numbering them like iPhone updates (BA.2.86, JN.1, JN.1.7, JN.1.18, KP.2, KP.3, KP.3.1.1, and LB.1.)

Usually, I have no problem finding two or three CDs worth of material that I want to share but the Covid era made worthwhile new music much harder to find.  There were a few notable exceptions though.  Dua Lipa put out her glorious second album, full of insanely catchy feel-good songs that distracted us from a glum world.  Taylor Swift went in the other direction and released two (two!!) million-selling albums of comfortable, soothing, folk-leaning pop that made you want to stay home, wrapped up in a blanket, drinking a glass of wine.  A lot of us did that very thing, when we could find wine and cheese in stock at the grocery store.  Of course, Taylor Swift could release anything and it would do well- I’m looking forward to her putting out an album during the post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak.  It will probably feature a sequel to “Cardigan”, called “Kevlar Sweater”.

So for 2020 I barely found one CDs’ worth of music and didn’t feel motivated to send anything out.  Then as the pandemic dragged on into 2021, the lack of new music continued.  I explored the back catalog of artists I liked but hadn’t extensively listened to before and I re-listened to past favorites but that doesn’t really let me find unknown treasures for you.  I mean, you all know Belinda Carlisle’s songs, you’ve heard Henry Mancini before, you probably don’t care about Jefferson Starship, and you likely have heard all of Transvision Vamp’s good songs already - there are only two of them.  On the plus side, I got to fully evaluate some legacy artists to whom I had not paid proper attention, for example the whole output of The Bangles, Journey, The Cars, Foreigner, Veruca Salt, Lush, and U2. 

So 2021 also resulted in just one CDs worth of songs.  Still, that means I had two CDs worth of things I found worthwhile that you might appreciate.  It seems fitting that I would send both years at the same time because doesn’t it feel like 2020 and 2021 blurred into one long, long span of time where it was hard to tell one month apart from another and you weren’t motivated to do all the things you normally do?  Yes, yes it did. 

Then, as Covid started to wane and become less deadly and vaccines became widely available and utilized by those who understood how medicine works, I lost a couple of people that were really important to me.  My friend John passed away as did my mother.  Ironically, neither was a Covid victim but they were gone just the same and I was dealing with those losses and the emotions that went with them.  So that lethargy carried on into 2022 and 2023.  Since the music scene had picked back up again in 2023 and 2024, touring resumed and new album releases were coming out on a regular basis from people other than Taylor Swift, I figured I might as well wait until 2024 ended and include that year too and send everything at once.   

That’s not to say there weren’t some positive side effects of the pandemic.  Since everything has been anguish about COVID since it showed its’ face, I wanted to take a moment to recognize a few good things about what we experienced. This is not intended in any way to disregard or minimize the terrible death toll and the social impact of the virus but rather to celebrate the urge to look for silver linings and cheer on the adaptability that comes from adversity.

So first, traffic was amazing during the pandemic period.  It took almost no time to get to work and on days when I didn’t want to drive into the office, I could work remotely from home.  This meant more sleep time, less need for gas, and I could eat lunch from my own fridge with no need to pack a lunch or get take-out from a restaurant.  Gas prices were really low - I mean like 1980’s low.  Global emissions and carbon output dropped drastically, and some notoriously smoggy cities had clear skies for the first time in decades. 

There were no new television shows being produced so there was time to catch up on things that were backlogged on my DVR.  Clearing that backlog was bittersweet though.  Many of the episodes that I had waiting for me were the final episodes of series that had been cancelled and I was saving them because I didn’t want the show to be over because I loved it so much.  I watched the last season or final few episodes of The 100, Wynonna Earp, Last Man Standing, Agents Of Shield, High Fidelity, Silicon Valley, The Good Place, Modern Family, Brooklyn 99, and The Magicians.

Then there were the streaming services that exploded in the last four years. Everyone stuck at home, unable to go to concerts, or movies, or dinner out with friends, or sports events, or on vacations or dates, instead watched stuff on streaming services.  Yes, some of it was garbage like Tiger King but there was also The Queen’s Gambit.  I was amazed at how much I loved this drama about chess.  Everyone watched this show and talked about it, and it even kickstarted a public resurgence of interest in chess.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also loved Teenage Bounty Hunters, a dramatic comedy about some teenage girls who are, as you would guess, bounty hunters.  No one I know watched this show, which is why Netflix cancelled it, and I was crushed that I never got a chance to talk about it with anyone.  It was hilarious, heart-warming, satirical, soapy, sexy, and thrilling and no one will ever know it existed, except for me.   

People got to explore everything on streaming that they had never watched before or to revisit old favorites, which made Friends and The Office hugely popular shows again. 

Drive-in movies became a thing again.  While theaters were closed, pop-up drive-ins, um, popped up because people could isolate in their cars and still a see a movie on the big screen.  When theaters did reopen, they were not as crowded, and people could reserve their seats.  I enjoy having an audience when watching a movie, but I don’t want people in the seats on both sides of me, boxing me in and crowding my armrest.  Theaters were pro-active and enforced spacing so there were certain seats blocked off to maintain distance between patrons. 

Once COVID restrictions were lifted, reserved seating stayed.  At first, I wasn’t a fan of reserved seating because I was used to getting to the theater early and finding a good seat but I eventually came around because a little planning ahead meant I didn’t have to spend time waiting around in the theater lobby, reading a book or fiddling around on my phone.  Ever since the Merrifield Multiplex theater closed and the Area 51 arcade game was gone, I haven’t really wanted to hang out in the lobby because it isn’t as fun anymore.  Sometimes I saw a movie with friends, so I could talk to them while waiting to get seated, but about 50% of the movies I see are by myself so hanging out in the lobby isn’t that much fun post-Area 51. 

Another forced benefit of the pandemic was that buying groceries was a breeze.  Not because there was an abundance of choices but because there were none.  Supply chain issues meant a shortage of almost everything.  Because many factories are specialized, they could make commercial paper products but couldn’t quickly switch to consumer paper items like toilet paper, even assuming there were enough healthy workers to staff the factory.  If you wanted toilet paper, eggs, bread, or vegetables, you grabbed whatever was there, as quickly as you could before someone else got it and the shelves were empty again.  Shortages even extended to metal used for coins and aluminum cans.  Gone were the days where I could choose whether I wanted Cherry Coke Zero, Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero, or Minute Maid Zero Lemonade.  Coca Cola cut back to just their core products so I got to choose from Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero or nothing.

There was also a renewed appreciation for simply going outside and taking a walk.  People who didn’t normally bother doing that in the “before time”, realized how enjoyable it was to get outside for some fresh air, opens spaces, and physical activity.  When you see the same four walls for weeks on end, you learn to appreciate different views and surroundings. 

Economically, there was lots of hardship, so I was happy for the little breaks that we got.  Income tax deadlines were pushed from April until July for the first year of the Corona virus, and then we also got three stimulus checks in the next couple of years.  It was nowhere near enough to replace a salary for people who lost their jobs, but it was a nice bit of relief for those still working who were struggling with the unexpected costs arising from the difficult circumstances.  Libraries stopped charging late fees for overdue books, and that stayed in place to this day. While I have always considered late fees as a way of supporting the library system, I’m happy to do that other ways instead of worrying when I need to return a book that I haven’t finished yet.  I would much rather give them money by going to library book sales. 

Another economic break was restaurant delivery fees.  Since restaurants weren’t doing dine-in service, they relied on pickup orders and deliveries.  To encourage people to order from restaurants, delivery fees were waived.  Owners wanted your food order and weren’t going to discourage that by charging you $5.00 to deliver it.  You got to feel like a hero for ordering food and not spending time cooking for yourself.  For me, that is an amazing plus.  I could order cooked food from a restaurant and feel like I’m supporting my community and being a good neighbor.  Granted, waived delivery fees just went back to the drivers as tips because they were being even bigger heroes, by bringing the food and interacting with people they didn’t know who might be contagious with a deadly virus, and possibly not wearing a mask.

Zoom was a gamechanger because it enabled you to stay in touch with people outside your household, conduct business, attend school, see concerts, and remain connected to the world.  This remained the case after the pandemic ended, and I’m very happy that I no longer have to travel to attend meetings or do training.  People can work remotely and be productive.  The time and expense saved by conducting gatherings electronically is a major plus.    

Finally, the pandemic likely forced you to spend lots of quality time with family.  You learned a lot about them because there was nowhere to go and nothing else to do.  This forced people to get better acquainted.  Even though you sometimes got on each other’s nerves, you later appreciated the time together, especially if you lost a loved one to the virus.  I’m so thankful that all my family and friends made it through the pandemic.  Although some of them are no longer here, at least they all survived the biggest health crisis of the last 50 years.

So that is a very roundabout way of telling you why I wasn’t prioritizing the delivery of my Year In Music CDs.  Now though I don’t any such excuses, other than laziness or spending too much time watching YouTube, which doesn’t sound like a reasonable excuse.  Thus, you now hold five CDs in your hands, covering my music obsessions from 2020 to 2024.

Looking at what I had sent out in 2018 and 2019, it felt like I was a bit too inclined towards pop and dance-y songs so I checked out more rock-based artists.  I already mentioned going through the back catalog for Journey and Foreigner, and gained newfound appreciation for them, although none of their stuff is on the CDs since they aren’t undiscovered artists who need promotion.  If you look at the 2020 track list, you might say “So why is Huey Lewis on here?  We all know him (them?)”  Yes, but during the pandemic, I learned that Huey Lewis has an ear condition and is going deaf. 

As a musician, it is very hard to play or write music if you are deaf.  (Yes, there was Beethoven - 250 years ago! - but can you name anyone else?)  Huey and his band put out what may be their final album of new material.  It was a decent album and I really connected with the song “While We’re Young”, which I am not, and neither is he.  The song is about making the most of what you have while you have the chance to do so and that was a very impactful sentiment considering what the world was going through that year. 

I also enjoying Green Day’s take on a Joan Jett song, Royal Blood’s latest monsoon of rock, and an album from a long time favorite – Local H – who is long overdue for recognition of their great work since their one hit twenty years ago.  I listened to a spinoff band (liarflower) from another huge favorite (Queen Adreena), a couple industry veterans (Dion and The Fleshtones) who re-emerged to share great new music, and some mid-level artists taking the next step up in their career (Tennis, Tame Impala, Avalanches, Travis, Dua Lipa).  I found yet another great Tom Jones song, an interesting acoustic cover of a Guns & Roses song, and multiple collaborations. 

The most unusual thing I came across this year was an artist called Poppy, who started out as a You Tuber called That Poppy.  She made bizarre videos on YouTube, some involving her mannequin friend Charlotte, others with her doing performance art, like the one where the whole video is her saying “I’m Poppy”, and some which were straight up music videos of her original songs.  The music had a bubble gum pop sound, but the subversive lyrics were razor sharp satire.  Most bizarre of all were interviews I found online where she went through the interview in character as a robot pop artist.  (See  one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J5WqyJFbVs.)  Her answers, her affect and vocal inflection were as if an AI chatbot were doing the interview, but this was a couple years before chatbots and AI tools were a thing. 

There are even some reaction videos online where kids are reacting to her personae and then she reacts to their reactions, culminating in her appearing in person, inside a box to talk to the kids and the kids just freak out!  (you can see the thing here: Poppy Reacts To & MEETS Kids React Cast: The ENTIRE Saga https://youtu.be/QJORKxYYrhQ?si=n3JriiYT0z9MUQ0q).         

Even more interesting than whether Poppy is a real robot, or just a normally manufactured YouTube star, is her musical evolution.  I included three consecutive songs for this year so you can see her change from a satirical pop princess to a message driven artist, to an alternative metal singer.  Her last few albums have been very metal-edged, and the videos and songs remind me of Nine Inch Nails.  Then she will suddenly throw a curveball come out with something like “Stagger” (https://youtu.be/yp5A8awHfas).  I’ve just been fascinated watching this.  It is like a documentary of music history, or the Spinal Tap of pop music, or the blueprint for becoming internet famous.    

So that was 2020.  In 2021, I retreated further back into the past while listening to new releases.  By that I mean a lot of legacy artists put out new music.  So I heard stuff from Paul McCartney, Lindsey Buckingham, Pixies, Edie Brickell, Duran Duran, Sting, ABBA, and Barry Gibb but it wasn’t their oldies.  It was recent music that sounded like their oldies, which turned out to be a good thing.  Barry Gibb put out a covers album of his own songs done as duets with country artists.  It might sound like a weird combination, but it works.  The track he does with Alison Krauss is amazing.  While I think his vocals on the original version of “Too Much Heaven” are jaw-dropping, what Krauss does on this cover duet with him is equally magnificent. 

ABBA put out a new album some, let me check here…, FORTY YEARS LATER!  It was not worth the wait, but it was a nice bookend for their career and there were three songs on it that I quite liked.

There were a couple of throwback songs too. Ones that had been around for decades until I finally heard them this year.  I discovered Paul Anka’s “Times Of Your Life” - a sappy, over-produced, but surprisingly emotional and touching late career hit. Plus an old techno-industrial hit by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, and a Bryan Adams Christmas song that I first heard this Christmas even though it had been around awhile.

There were exciting songs and albums from alternative favorites (Pretty Reckless, Royal Blood, Dandy Warhols, Courtney Barnett, Julianna Hatfield, and a full-on nu metal song from Poppy) and newly discovered favorites, specifically The Beaches, Zella Day, and Wet Leg.  Wet Leg was the biggest surprise for me, and the most exciting find.  The reason for the surprise is because I heard their first single, "Chaise Longue", and was not impressed.  I couldn’t understand why people were digging the song so I dismissed them.  Then I heard their second single, “Wet Dream”, and loved it.  That song deserved all the praise that it received.  Then I heard a few other songs of theirs, and they were all pretty good but not as good as “Wet Dream”.  When their album was finally released, I was not expecting it to be anything other than a collection of the singles I’d already heard plus some more filler.  Boy am I glad I was wrong!

The album came out in 2022, so let’s move on to that year’s disc.  I included Wet Leg’s “Angelica” and “Ur Mum” because they were awesome – equal or better than “Wet Dream”.  Their whole album was amazing, ending up as my favorite of the year. 

Also carrying over from 2021 was Zella Day.  I liked “Dance For Love” in 2021, so in 2022 I dove into her whole catalog, finding several favorites, including this disc’s feisty “Mushroom Punch” and shimmery “Golden”.  Writing this in 2025, I know what she has done next, which is an almost a Poppy-level switch-up, but I will discuss that when I do the 2025 disc since her new incarnation will have an entry on it.    

In fact, the 2022 CD is mostly filled with surprises and unexpected resurrections.  For example, who expected Elton John to have a major hit again by covering an old song of his?   During quarantine, Elton ended up doing a duets cover album thing as well, just like Barry Gibb did the year before.  Elton teamed up with Dua Lipa for a modernized mash-up of four of his songs.  As Wikipedia puts it, “The song is a medley of four songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, as well as Andrew Meecham, Dean Meredith, Nicholas Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore, with the production completed by the latter three as part of the dance music group Pnau. Interpolating John's songs "Rocket Man" (1972), "Kiss the Bride" (1983), "Sacrifice" (1989) and "Where's the Shoorah?" (1976), the remix is an upbeat contemporary synth-pop, dance, dance-pop and pop song describing the decline of a relationship.”   Interestingly, I had also been unrelatedly listening to PNAU since they were connected to Empire Of The Sun and Sleepy Jackson, bands I found enjoyable in a slightly over the top way.  “Cold Heart” was a major pop hit for Elton John and Dua Lipa, a big surprise for Elton John fans and no surprise to Dua Lipa fans.

Another unexpected release came from Tears For Fears.  Their previous album had come out in 2004 and was long-time mainstay Roland Orzabal’s reunion with original member Curt Smith.  That 2004 album was also unexpected at the time since Orzabal had been basically doing solo work, just under the Tears For Fears name, since 1990.  With Orzabal and Smith’s exemplary reunion release being named “Everyone Loves A Happy Ending”, I expected that to be the end of their recording career, and for 18 years I was correct. 

Then in 2022 came “The Tipping Point”.  It was another new Orzabal and Smith TFT album, 18 years later.  Not quite an ABBA length absence, but still a long time gone since releasing new material.  The first couple of songs I heard on the radio were not encouraging though.  They seemed slow and melancholy.  When the whole album came out, I learned that the genesis of the album was Roland trying to work through his grief over his wife’s illness and subsequent death. 

I can understand how that would affect the songwriting process and become a more meditative work without the usual energy I attribute to them.  There was no “Shout” or “Sowing The Seeds Of Love” on this album.  After an initial listen, I set aside the album.  Later on, after continuing to think about the album and feel disappointment after such a long wait, I pulled it back out to give it another try in case I had dismissed too casually.  I listened to it again, with no expectations since I knew what it wasn’t.  After two or three listens, the songs made their way into my brain, and I appreciated what the album was and how it unwound as a slow burn and not an explosion.  The trademark TFT choruses were there, as was the impeccable production and the baroque chamber pop flourishes, and I fell for the album.  I ended up loving some five or six tracks and I really had a hard time deciding whether to include “My Demon” or “End Of Night” on this compilation since both are excellent.        

Another unexpected treat was a new Tom Jones album, with a bunch of unexpected covers that seem tailor made for Jones as an 84-year-old man, who had lost his wife in 2016.  He was unsure if he would ever perform again because she had been his rock, his love, and his emotional support for sixty years.  The songs reflected the relevant topics of aging, anguish, legacy and social consciousness he had been exploring on his last few albums in the 2010’s but this one had an extra dose of sadness.  Then there is his voice – it is still the Tom Jones voice that sends shivers down your spine.  The thing I included here is an oddity from the album.  Basically, it is like spoken word poetry in time with a rough beat.  It is too slow to be considered a rap; it sounds more like a monologue from a fervent and slightly sarcastic clergyman, and (trigger warning) it concerns a political figure.

The surprises continued this year with Gorillaz putting out a really good album after a couple of dull ones.  The Cult, Black Keys, Mitski, and Pixies did the same- a good album after a couple yawners- so I plucked a standout track from each to include here.  A magazine column from David Crosby (R.I.P.) got me to hear the Sarah Jarosz song, and I loved a super old song I heard from a 1972 Bee Gees album, released during their “lost years” phase when they were past their Beatle-ish and ballad years but before their disco resurgence, when they could not get a song or album on the charts.  After listening to this song, I just don’t understand how the public decides what to like.  This song is a banger.   

Moving on to 2023, I am mostly back in the present day, musically.  There are current songs, although from artists old and new.  Jason Mraz has a new hit, the impossibly upbeat “I Feel Like Dancing” which makes you feel just that.  Spoon, The Hives, Metric, and Juliana Hatfield- some of my favorite alternative rock artists- are back with new albums. 

Metric are icy, alternative pop, and are hit and miss but I included the album highlight.  The Hives are The Hives, which means – as they will tongue-in-cheekily tell you- they are greatest rock and rock band ever.  To describe them I would say to imagine the Ramones if they were brasher, catchier, more cinematic, and could write more than one song.  Spoon is an oddity.  When people say something is lo-fi, I imagine a guy sitting in a rocking chair playing a banjo, or a three-piece band doing one take into a small microphone in a bedroom or garage and refusing to do overdubs or multi-tracking. 

As someone who first heard music by listening to the radio in the 1970’s, a period ruled by artists like ELO, Pink Floyd, the Bee Gees, Chicago, Rod Stewart, Earth Wind & Fire, and Billy Joel, songs with a DIY feel or lack of strong production skills take some getting used to.  Granted, the 1970’s also had America, Olivia Newton John, and John Denver, which leaned more acoustic, but they were still perfectly produced.  They didn’t sound like they were sloppily recorded in someone’s bathroom.  This is why I’m surprised that I like Spoon.  They are definitely not overproduced.  You can clearly hear every instrument playing, there are no backing beats or electronic flourishes.  What makes them so enjoyable is the song construction and passionate delivery.  I read a review for the album “Kill The Moonlight” and decided to give it a try.  I went into it not expecting to be impressed but several songs hooked me and I’ve been listening to them ever since.  Every album is pretty much guaranteed to have four or five terrific tracks.          

Then there is Juliana Hatfield, an artist I have been listening to since 1992.  Every album is a treat, a present to unwrap and see what has been going through her mind lately.  On the 2021 mix CD, you got her gory and glorious “Chunks”, from her oddball, riff-y political leaning album “Blood”.  For her follow-up, she does one of her covers albums, this time focusing on Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).  Not exactly a straight line from one to the other. 

While I enjoyed the ELO covers album, I didn’t love it. It was too-straight forward and if it sounds almost like the originals, why bother.  There is no way anyone else can replicate ELO’s production.  That said, I wanted you to have a taste of the album, so I shared one of the lesser-known songs that I enjoyed.  Then for good measure, I included her cover of Neil Young’s “Lotta Love”, one of my all-time favorite songs.  It has been covered by many people and I love them all, from Nicolette Larson to She & Him to Juliana Hatfield to Courtney Barnett.  Incidentally, I feel the same way about covers of Neil Young’s "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", covered by artists such as Saint Etienne, I Blame Coco, Natalie Imbruglia, and Juliana Hatfield.

Speaking of covers, I included Dennis DeYoung’s “Hello Goodbye” which isn’t exactly a cover although it does include parts of that Beatles song. This is more of a pastiche of various Beatles songs and lyrics.  See how many Beatles references you can spot in this one song.  Similarly, I came across some mashups on YouTube by Wax Audio that combined multiple songs into one new Frankenstein song.  Those are actually on the 2022 disc but I wanted to mention them now.  Listen to “Blue Jump” and see how many songs you can hear.  I count four distinct songs that were combined into this one.

The other mashup song on the 2022 disc is “Stayin’Alive In The Wall”, a combination of “Another Brick In The Wall” and “Staying Alive”.  You might not think they go well together but once you hear the combo, you can’t imagine them not together, like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup.  Chocolate is quite good by itself but you will always consider whether you want it with peanuts or peanut butter after having had a Reese’s peanut butter cup. 

The movie “Barbie” came out in 2023, and I know that because two of the songs on this disc are from that soundtrack, which is just as great as the movie is.  First, Dua Lipa, who is having her moment in case you didn’t already realize that, had a highlight song in the movie, during the dance party segment where Barbie (a terrific Margot Robbie) asks “Do you ever think about dying?”  Then at the end of the movie, when Barbie meets her creator, the Billie Eilish song “What Was I Made For” plays.  I got a little misty eyed during that scene in no small part due to that song so how can I not include it here? 

There are two songs on the disc from the band Sorry, a recommendation from Elizabeth that I’m glad I took to heart.  They are an English band I’d never heard of, but I ended up loving their two albums.  There is a Little Steven song I’d loved since seeing the video on MTV in the 1980’s and finally got around to buying the digital single.  The video was stupid- Little Steven riding around on a bicycle- but the music was anthemic. 

What else is left?  Some songs from Therapy?, Chemical Brothers, and Herb Alpert as I worked through my accumulated backlog of albums from those artists.  A representative Veruca Salt song as I delved into their catalog via John’s collection.  A hazy, dreamy, hypnotic song from Bakar, the Dutch band The Art Company with their UK Top Ten sing-along song “Susanna” from an 80’s collection, and a pair of instrumentals from Neil Richardson that give me happy 1960’s jet-set vibes every time I listen to them, which is only when I play this 2023 collection because I don’t think they were ever heard by the general public and are near impossible to buy now.      

That leaves three more songs on the 2023 collection.  There is the Billy Joel song “Turn The Lights Back On”, written and released 30 years after his last pop album.  It is neither a good nor bad song.  It would fit in reasonably well on the “Streetlife Serenade” album.  I include it here simply because it is Billy Joel, one of my top ten all-time favorites, and I think people should listen to it and decide its’ merits for themselves.

Another all-time top ten favorite is Kylie Minogue and in 2023, she was having another moment.  These seem to come along for her every 20 years.  She burst onto the music scene in 1987 with “The Locomotion”, a top ten U.S. hit, and then the UK # 1 hit “I Should Be So Lucky”, also a top forty hit the United States.  She was then completely ignored by the U.S. (but not the rest of the world) until 2001 when “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” went to # 7, and #1 everywhere else in the world.  The U.S. went back to ignoring her again until 2023 when “Padam Padam” would become another worldwide hit, selling millions of copies, and winning her a second Grammy award.

Finally, we come to Midlake, a band that appears to have one excellent album among the half dozen they recorded.  I heard the song “Young Bride” on a Sirius channel and fell in love with the mournful, melancholy, ballad.  Even though it came out in 2017, I can imagine it being played by a guy in a tavern in coal country in the 1800’s.  It is the violin the gets me the most.  The vocals are sad and bitter but when the violin kicks in for emphasis, it just devastates me.  Let me know what you think.  I paired this song and the Billie Eilish “Barbie” song to close out the 2023 collection and leave you weeping sadly, a perfect way to end the pandemic.

By 2024, COVID was behind us, maybe not in actuality since it continues to hang around and infect several thousand people a month, but its lethality is greatly decreased, and people no longer take any precautions to protect themselves from it any more than they do to avoid getting the flu.  So we are now in the new normal, in society and the music industry.  That means concerts are going on, new albums and singles are coming out, late night shows are promoting artists, and I can hear large amounts of new music.  As a result, I ….. have retreated to the past.

It wasn’t intentional but during the pandemic, I started getting hooked on a compilation series called “Now”.  I’m sure you have heard of them since they have been popular in England for decades and about 15 years ago, the U.S. started doing their own version.  A couple of times a year, “Now” collects the biggest songs that were released since the last collection came out.  I had picked up a few of the CDs when the series first rolled out, but I stopped pretty quickly because, to sound old man-ish, a lot of the music sucked, and I was better off just cherry picking the singles I liked and buying them individually.  Paying for $3 worth of singles sounded better to me than spending on $14 to get those same songs and 14 others I didn’t like.                

In the last five or six years though, the people who put out the “Now” series got clever and started releasing a “Now Yearbook” series.  This is a four-volume collection of the biggest and best songs of a specific year.  So each year’s release had around 80 songs, and they included British hits too.  That means some of my favorite hard to find 1970’s and 1980’s hit singles like Sheila E’s “Love Bizarre”, Alexander O’Neal’s new jack swing classic “Fake”, and John Paul Young’s “Love Is In The Air” were available without having to buy a whole album just for one song.  As a plus, I got to hear what was hot in England during the same time, including a lot of songs I’d never heard before because I was not buying imports of S Club 7 or Deacon Blue.     

Even more insidious, the company started releasing a “Now Yearbook Extra” series consisting of three discs of additional and lesser-known songs from that year. I decided I would get all the “Yearbook” And “Yearbook Extra” volumes for 1973 to 2000 and then stop collecting anything before or after that since my music collection was pretty well stocked on both sides of that time period.  Heck, it is well stocked even within those years, but I was enjoying getting some of the rare selections and hearing what was on the British charts at that time. There is no pattern to the release schedule, so in a given year they might put out volumes for “Now Yearbook 1974” and “Now Yearbook 1992” and “Now Yearbook Extra 1998.  I’ll be done once 1975, 1976, 1989, and 1994-1997 get released. 

Then the bastards started a “Now Yearbook Vault” series.

It is meant to fill in the gaps in the years that are not covered by the seven volumes already released for each year.  You would rightly be skeptically of the merits for the “Vault” series.  The problem is that the five released so far have covered 1980-1984 and 1976-1984 is my favorite period of music, without question.  Can I live without them?  Yes, I could.  Did I want to have them so I could hear additional songs from one hit wonders like Dexys Midnight Runners, M, Rupert Holmes, Fun Boy Three, and Yello?  Yes, I did.  Plus getting them, I’ve built up a nice collection of hits by Shalamar, Madness, OMD, Gary Numan, Japan, The Tourists, and The Stranglers that I wouldn’t otherwise have sought out.  So I’ll wait and see how far the “Vault” series expands but unless it covers 1976-1984, I should be able to pass on those, like I have on the “Now Millenium” series for the post-2000’s years.  

This is my meandering way of apologizing for and explaining why you might recognize some older songs on my “Year In Music 2024” collection.  I’ve included several selections from the “Now” volumes, but they are likely to be new to you, like the bonkers spoken word UK song “Hole In My Shoe” by Neil, Matt Bianco’s festive groove “Half A Minute”, or the humorous female empowerment anthem that never became an anthem, Carole Bayer Sager’s “You’re Moving Out Today”.    There are also personal oldies favorites, like UB40’s cheerful “Rat In Mi Kitchen”, Paul Young’s booming vocals on “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, Robert Plant’s moody dirge “Big Log”, and Tina Turner’s “Let’s Stay Together”, included simply because it is a great song and to recognize the passing of Tina Turner during this year.

Some other older favorites here that are not from the “Now” series are included here.  Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder On the Dancefloor” had a resurgence due to being included in a pivotal moment of the recent movie “Saltburn”.  I’ve enjoyed Sophie’s music ever since randomly buying a CD of hers on a trip abroad fifteen years ago and I was glad to see her get some attention stateside.  The song is always a pleasure to hear.  New Order apparently has too many great songs to bother releasing them all.  “Touched By The Hand Of God” was released as the B-Side of their remake “Blue Monday 1988” and wasn’t released on an album except a 1994 best-of collection and as a remix on a couple remix collections.  Give it a listen and see if you think it sounds like a hit. 

Tears For Fears had a few studio leftovers from their recent album so they put them on a live greatest hits album.  The live album was okay but if it wasn’t for the four new studio songs, you could ignore it in favor of the original versions of the songs on the albums.  Of the four new songs, two are nice and two are blah.  I did give them a thorough listening though to make sure I didn’t initially ignore TFT stuff a second time in a row.  I put my favorite of the four on this compilation.

Don’t worry- there is also a lot of recent stuff too.  Billie Eilish continues to turn out touching ballads like “Birds Of A Feather” so I included that standout from her recent album.  I also liked “Lunch” but that is a bit too metaphorically raunchy to include.  When I was watching a morning show, I heard a band called Guster doing a live song that captivated me.  After playing their most recent album, I found that song and a few others that charmed me with their melodic wistfulness.  Two of them are included here and tissues may be needed since they are a little downbeat.      

Last year I shared Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam” from her new album “Tension”, and normally that means I’d have to wait another couple of years for the next album, but she surprised me and released “Tension 2” in 2024.  Kylie is often opaque with her lyrics, touching on universal themes rather than explicitly linking them to her personal experiences but “Someone For Me” sounds like she might be trying to say something about herself and that sentiment resonated with me since I sometimes feel the same way.   

The Dandy Warhols are another long-time favorite artist, possibly top 25, and after a stretch of mediocre albums, their last two have reminded of what I love about them.  Their songs have a distinct vibe, a fuzzy, slightly psychedelic, groove driven sound.  If I was a stoner, I would love these songs for this reason.  As a music fan, I love them for their unique texture and clever lyrics.  “Root Of All Evil” is representative of their recent output.  Still, nothing will match their first three albums, but this recent album is a welcome throwback to that style.    

Mysteries Of Life are an offshoot of The Blake Babies, an earlier band of Juliana Hatfield.  The two Blake Babies who are not Juliana formed Mysteries Of Life so I was curious to give them a listen and I liked the pleasant “Going Through The Motions”.  Dicte’s “You Wanna Dance” was discovered by letting Spotify play me stuff chosen by their algorithm after the album I had selected was over.  That is often a way that I find artists to check out further.  Susanna Hoffs has become a favorite artist of mine.  I love the smoky, soothing sound of her voice and generally enjoy hearing her sing anything.  Given that she either covers classics or write engaging new material, she has a high percentage of good songs.  “City Girl” was a B-side on a single but I feel it deserves to be judged on its’ own merits.              

Speaking of smooth and seductive voices, we are down to the last two songs on my 2024 collection.  Clairo is an indie-leaning artist that I just recently noticed, and I need to go listen to her previous work beyond what I’m hearing on Sirius XM but “Sexy To Someone” immediately struck me and put her on my radar as someone to pay attention to.  The song has a seductive feel while echoing the longing sentiments in Kylie Minogue’s “Someone For Me” of wishing someone would notice her.  On the other end of that scale is Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso.  She knows that everyone is noticing her, and they all want her, like a caffeine addict needing their shot of espresso. Both of the songs discuss desire but from different perspectives, but both do it with a voice so smooth and seductive that you cannot imagine either of them having a problem capturing someone’s attention.  They certainly did that with me, at least musically.  

So that has been my musical journey in the last few years.  I used the framework of the COVID pandemic to give it some form of context, but looking back at my selections, I notice some other commonalities emerging.  I see that I responded to songs about having a purpose in life (Clairo’s “Sexy To Someone”, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For”, Billy Joel’s “Turn The Lights Back On”, Paul McCartney & Beck’s “Find My Way”, Mysteries Of Life’s “Going Through The Motions” ), about death and aging (Paul Anka’s “Times Of Your Life”, Huey Lewis “While We’re Young”, Guster’s “When We Were Stars”, Pretty Reckless’ “Death By Rock And Rock”, everything by Tears For Fears), and political and social unrest (Ministry’s “Alert Level”, Tom Jones’ “Talking Reality Television Blues”, Dandy Warhols’ “Root Of All Evil”, Poppy “Time Is Up”, Edie Brickell’s “Horses Mouth”.) 

Maybe subconsciously I’m trying to find answers to these unspoken questions?  Maybe listening to pretty and catchy songs on these subjects will let me avoid thinking about them?  Maybe it is a coincidence?  I think that will be a topic for another day because this is already long enough. 

Thanks to those of you who read through to here.  Let me know what you think of the music.  It isn’t a good collection if I don’t have at least a couple of songs that people absolutely love and a couple that make them want to punch me in the arm for subjecting them to such a stupid song.  

Do you have things you can recommend to me?  It doesn’t have to be just music either.  That’s why I like doing this- I want to start conversations that are not about the serious topics I just mentioned.  Sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself and clear your head.  Since there are forms of entertainment besides music, I’ve included some recommendations below in case you are interested in the other things I appreciated in the last few years. 

So that’s a wrap on 2020 -2024.  I’m eager to see what surprises 2025 has in store for us.  I hope that they are mostly positive and that life treats you well until next time.