Even Better Asks: Best of 2024 Rapid Fire
Music is power, movies are wow
You’re reading Even Better Asks, a recurring series where the head honchos at Even Better come up with an open-ended question for our extended web of pals to answer in blurb form. Last time, we talked about the scariest songs we’ve ever heard. This week’s prompt is actually several, so many that we won’t bother to type them all out up here. In the aftermath of dozens upon dozens of year-end lists, we’ve asked our crew a bunch of quick-hits on their favorite albums, songs, music moments, live shows, and movies they took in this year.
Nick Adams
Favorite album: After years as an admiring but casual fan of Los Campesinos!, their latest album, All Hell, finally got me fully on board. A dozen different lines could be considered the lyric of the year and I can’t tell you how often these songs get stuck in my head. It’s energetic rock with emotion at its core and top-notch melodic songwriting—that’s the winning formula for me.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Sequel songs don’t quite have the cultural legacy of sequel movies, but this year NLE Choppa blessed us with two superior iterations of his 2022 single “Slut Me Out.” Pure horny fun, the big beat maximalism of “Slut Me Out 2” never failed to hype me up, and ”Slut Me Out 3” upped the ante with its absurdly catchy hook chanted by Carey Washington (although some of the lyrics are frankly too disgusting for my taste).
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Addison Rae’s scream heard round the world on the “Von Dutch” remix.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: I’ll go to bat for Guitar’s Casting Spells on Turtlehead, a 19-minute punch of off-kilter homemade fuzz from my home of Portland, Oregon. Brings to mind Pleasure Suck-era Spirit of the Beehive, which if you know me is the highest possible compliment. (Speaking of another underrated album from this year...)
Lyric of the year: “And what if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?” - Mannequin Pussy, “I Got Heaven”
Favorite live show this year: I was lucky enough to see Cindy Lee perform in April, which turned out to be a limited time offer in the project’s breakout year. I was skeptical about how the out-of-time songs would translate live, especially with a backing track in place of a band, but the compositions are just so strong that it was completely enthralling. A short and sweet set, I hope more fans have the chance to see it soon.
Favorite film you watched this year (does not need to be a 2024 release): After years of putting it off, I finally watched Barbara Loden’s Wanda and loved it. I had heard it was depressing, which made me worried my emotions would be manipulated, but Loden’s minimalist mise-en-scène is expertly calibrated to be almost otherworldly and Wanda’s journey, while by no means uplifting, exists more in a liminal space than I expected. And Loden’s lead performance is completely transfixing. She only directed one movie but it’s an all-timer.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The home invasion in The Beast.
Chris Bench
Favorite album: Romance, Fontaines D.C. (also Imaginal Disk, Tiger’s Blood, Hovvdy, The Pit)
Favorite specific music moment: the final instrumental explosion on Dog Pact’s “Damned”
Lyric of the year: “Inside, my love is the same old razor blade” (Crush Me - Dog Pact)
Favorite film: MEGALOPOLIS
Favorite scene: TIE: MEGALOPOLIS: The entire circus set piece. The Beast: Time distorting as incel George McKay asks Lea Seydoux to not open that door.
Michael Brooks
Favorite album: Nala Sinephro—Endlessness
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Hovvdy “Forever”
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The six minute drone that ends the MJ Lenderman album
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: twikipedia “Cardboard Boxes”
Lyric of the year: Wild Pink “Disintegrate” (“There must be a long ass German word / For when you’ve destroyed something good”)
Favorite film you watched this year (does not need to be a 2024 release): Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The courtroom scene in Red Rooms (if you know you know)
Gianna Cicchetti
Favorite album: Romance by Fontaines D.C.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: "Is This What Love Is?" by Wasia Project
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The "Over Now" section of "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE" by Billie Eilish
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: "Ice Cold" by Waxahatchee
Lyric of the year: "I think I was born bored / I think I was born blue / I think I was born wanting more / I think I was born / Already missing you" - "Claw Machine" by Sloppy Jane & Phoebe Bridgers
Favorite live show this year: Julien Baker at Brooklyn Steel with an opening set from Lucy Dacus
Favorite film you watched this year : I watched When Harry Met Sally for the first time this year and that really propelled my love of the romance genre in both film and literature. There's a reason it's an all-timer and part of that is just how much swag Billy Crystal exudes the entire movie.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The hostage scene in Anora, I love how much power Mikey Madison's character can take over the men in the room even while being physically restrained.
Devon Chodzin
Fav Album: No Depression in Heaven - Midwife
Favorite Song Not On A Favorite Album: “Love Me JeJe” by Tems
Musical Moment: viral clip of Jitzeh rapping in falsetto
Song or album I’m sure I like more than others: “Signals” by Pallbearer. I’ve been told that’s “pillow and blanky metal.”
Lyric of the year: Eartheater’s vocalizations in the background of “EUSEXUA”
Favorite live show: Spiritual Poison @ Roboto
Favorite film I watched this year: Conclave
Favorite scene: June Squibb discharging a gun in Thelma
Shawn Cooke
Favorite album: Hovvdy — Hovvdy
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: besides “Diet Pepsi”...well, maybe it’s just that. Also Charly Bliss “I Don’t Know Anything”
Favorite specific music moment of the year: “four, three, two, one” → end of Porter Robinson’s “Knock Yourself Out XD”
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: It didn’t seem like many other people thought this latest Cassandra Jenkins was a masterpiece or her best work, which felt true to me right away
Lyric of the year: “The freedom fries were served proudly/The year he finally retirеd from the court/Soon after that, the Montrеal Expos went to DC and Baltimore fans never really got on board/Nothing lasts forever,” Wild Pink on “Eating the Egg Whole” (my president of indie rock sports fandom). Cassandra Jenkins’ whole “Stick figure Sisyphus” verse on “Only One”
Favorite live show this year: U2 at the Sphere :)
Favorite film you watched this year: probably Inland Empire or My Night at Maud’s
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: the end of Juror #2, the end of The Beast, conference room Zoom call in Do Not Expect Too Much at the End of the World, Challengers hotel makeout
Elliott Duea
Favorite album: DIIV - Frog in Boiling Water
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “Like I Say (I runaway)” - Nilüfer Yanya
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The noisy build up and thumpy beat switch in Kim Gordon’s “Dream Dollar” (:40-1:00 in the song)
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: “Cash & Cobain” - Puddle of Mudd - If you know the dude I run this website with well at all, you know he has a deep fascination with actor/singer/renaissance man Jeremy Renner. I’ve held a similar yearslong fascination with the post-grunge band Puddle of Mudd’s lead singer Wes Scantlin (go read his incredibly extensive “Legal issues and controversies” section on Wikipedia for a truly wild time). One of Puddle of Mudd’s latest singles has Wes, now 52, singing some of the lamest lyrics of all time in a music video with a style I’ll describe as “high school rap video” that goes buck wild with no-budget visual and text effects. It’s pretty horrible. I love it so much. A late career Scantlin masterclass. Rock ‘n’ roll will never die.
Lyric of the year: “Treat Myself” - Chief Keef
“Diamonds shinin’ off my charm, I think I Christmas tree’d myself.
I start wearin’ yellow diamonds, it’ll look like I peed myself.”
Favorite live show this year: U2 at the gd Sphere with my family and my dear friend Shawn Cooke
Favorite film you watched this year: John Ford’s The Quiet Man and Edward Yang’s Mahjong
Scene from a 2024 movie: The ending of The Beast, the basement dwelling hanging with the boys scene featuring Dan Licata in Rap World, every shot of Tsai Ming-Liang’s Abiding Nowhere
Eli Enis
Favorite album: Charli XCX - Brat, duh.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Ken Carson - "Overseas"
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The way Mindforce play the breakdown of All Out War's "Resist" just a teeny bit slower and bouncier than the original version during their FYA set in January:
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Resentment - Left Behind to Suffer
Lyric of the year: "She must've graduated, only seen her in a gown." — YT, Lancey Foux - "Black and Tan"
Favorite live show this year: FYA 2024 in Tampa
Favorite film you watched this year: The Departed (not as good as it was when I was 15, but still good)
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The Challengers makeout scene, duh
Patrick Haynes
Favorite album: Father John Misty - Mahashmashana. Josh Tillman has been one of my favorite musicians going for a decade now and this is one of his best works. Dude leaves the dreadfully serious sound of his last few albums behind (I like them despite saying this) and has fun for the first time in a while and it fucking rules. I want more.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Friko - “Where We've Been.” I didn't personally care about this record quite as much as seemingly everyone a decade younger than me did but, man, what an opener. Maybe a top five song for me this year off an album that probably wouldn't make my top 50. The last minute is just perfect.
Favorite specific music moment of the year: I don't particularly love either of The Smile's LPs from this year, but when the distortion kicks in at the end of "Bending Hectic" off the first LP they released this year, Wall of Eyes, it felt genuinely thrilling. I would never consider Thom Yorke or Jonny Greenwood to be "sludgy" musicians, but they got deep in the sludge on that song and it fucking rules. More of that and less meandering versions of songs you wrote better versions of a quarter-century ago, guys.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Liam Gallagher & John Squire - Liam Gallagher John Squire. I can really and truly only be me. If no one else has the courage to put this on their EOTY list, I will be the one to do it.
Lyric of the year: Johnny Blue Skies/Sturgill Simpson - "Scooter Blues." "Spend my mornings making chocolate milk and Eggos/My days at the beach, my nights stepping on Legos/Gonna wave to the world screaming hasta luego/Everybody back home will say where the hell did he go." What needs to be said, the dude rhymed Eggos and Legos, a king among charlatans.
Favorite live show this year: Instead of going with Sturgill again, I'll go with Dead & Company at The Sphere in Las Vegas. I'm not a true blue Deadhead, I like them plenty, but I don't have the sets to different volumes of Dick's Picks ready to go off the top of my head or anything. I had a blast seeing the band. I honestly barely remember any of the set (I was stone cold sober believe it or not!!!) and this is mainly because I was basically watching the screen at The Sphere more than I was looking at or even, occasionally, listening to the band. The Sphere is so cool it made Knicks fans forget James Dolan sucks shit for, like, half an hour.
Favorite film you watched this year: Blue Velvet. Prior to 2024, I had seen painfully little from David Lynch. I've been watching his movies along with the Blank Check miniseries on Lynch's filmography and, while some of his films were a whiff or at least underwhelming for me, Blue Velvet was a huge success that pretty much instantly catapulted into Letterboxd Top 4 territory for me. There's images from that flick I don't think I'll ever get out of my head.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: My favorite movie of 2024 — with plenty of catchup to come — is Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man. Respect to Sebastian Stan, I was unfamiliar with your game. My favorite scene is from a movie that couldn't be more different tonally: the Phone Call Scene from Hit Man. Two people being hot and hamming it up with Richard Linklater dialogue. What more can any of us really ask for?
Hannah Lynn
Favorite album: The Past is Still Alive by Hurray for the Riff Raff
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: "Angel of My Dreams" by Jade
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Lorde's verse on "Girl, so confusing"
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: "She Looked Like Me!" by Magdalena Bay
Lyric of the year: "Look at that horse, look at that horse, Look at that horse (look at that horse)" on “Sweet Honey Buckin'"
Favorite live show this year: The magician Mat Franco at the Linq Hotel in Las Vegas
Favorite film you watched this year: Conclave
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: June Squibb trying to hack into the computer of the guy who stole her money in Thelma
Brendan Menapace
Favorite album: Honestly, might be Sabrina Carpenter. One time I went to Scotland and tried Irn-Bru. I didn't like it and threw it away. Then about a block later I wished I had it back and wanted more. That's how I felt the first time I heard "Espresso," and then the rest of the album turned out to be fun as hell, too. I'll add Fontaines D.C., Mannequin Pussy, Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, Liquid Mike, Vampire Weekend, Wunderhorse.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: "Coffee" by Hinds. I like that new Hinds album, but maybe not enough to put it in my top, top tier. "Coffee" stands out for almost being one big chorus. It also has the same thing that the Menzingers' "In Remission" has in a really great hook that they use exactly once and then not repeat in the "Stop calling" part.
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Atom Willard's drumming on the new Alkaline Trio album. He's the best. Every album he's on is better because of him. He is to the snare drum what Stewart Copeland was to cymbals.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: I'll say I'm happy that this new Green Day album wasn't as corny or embarrassing as some of their recent output. I think they're cemented as my Favorite Band of All Time, and you can't shake that. I used to not get why my dad didn't like later albums by Rush but still say they were his all-time favs. I get that now how two things can be true at once.
Lyric of the year: I know I'll be echoing others, but it's hard to top "I got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome." Just a great funny line, and I liked referring to Citizens Bank Park as the Himbo Dome.
Favorite live show this year: Gaslight Anthem with Joyce Manor at the Fillmore in Philly was fun.
Favorite film you watched this year (does not need to be a 2024 release): Bottoms. To quote that Disney Channel kid from the viral clip, I also love cracking up at the movies. And this movie made me crack up pretty consistently throughout.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: Every "I Was Made for Loving You" needle drop in The Fall Guy.
Cody Naglich
Favorite album: GNX; told some buddies that “wacced out murals” is the Ichiro of album lead-off songs.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “lightspeed,” Max Fry. Sounds like he's singing into an empty soda can while the recording equipment is in the neighbor's garage.
Favorite specific music moment of the year: PSA, blatant cheating ahead, but this could also apply as a song-bit I'm pretty sure I like more than anyone else: The first minute of “Untitled” by Interpol. Was one of my top tracks of the year according to Spotify, and has had a place on my Wrapped™ every year for the last few.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Bando Stone and The New World, Childish Gambino; feels like a decent mix of the narrative parts of Camp with the lyrics of Because the Internet and the heavy bass parts of "Awaken, My Love!"
Lyric of the year: "In the panopticon // they never turn the cameras on // the guards and the narcs went home" - “Mental Health,” Father John Misty
Favorite live show this year: DIIV at The Neptune (w/ the MF boys)
Favorite film you watched this year: Megalopolis.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: Cesar Catalina's recovery after the assassination attempt in Megalopolis; the shawl over his head, the shrieking and crying, no notes. Honorable mention: "Look at this huge boner I got" (also Megalopolis).
Joy Naglich
Favorite album: Brat
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “Not Like Us”
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Kendrick & Drake beef
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: The Challengers Soundtrack
Lyric of the year: "You walk like a bitch/when I was ten someone said that"
Favorite live show this year: Sweat Tour (Charli XCX & Troye Sivan)
Favorite film you watched this year: Mad Max: Fury Road
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The final point in Challengers
Aidan O’Neill
Favorite album: I mean, it's GNX but that's a boring answer. So instead I'm going to shoutout two constantly underrated artists and their great 2024 albums: Where the Butterflies Go in the Rain by Raveena and Dark Times by Vince Staples. Honorable mention Born in the Wild by Tems.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: "Add Up My Love" off Charm by Clairo. It's a decent album too but I go back to this song specifically rather than the full project so it's a better fit for this answer.
Favorite specific music moment of the year: I'm not excited to be referencing "the beef" twice already in my first three answers, but the beat drop (like I'm JOE okay) on "Euphoria" is the moment when I realized we were actually, finally getting a real Drizzy/K Dot matchup after years of relative stagnation in hip hop and burst into a huge smile at 10am on a Tuesday while staring at my work laptop. For those early tracks I cared less about whose side I was on and was just so happy it was happening in the year two thousand and twenty four.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Bit literal for a year-end review, but "Ready '24" by J. Cole ft. Cam'ron. Just love the beat, reminds me of early 2000's Killa Cam but Cole has the better verse. Almost the whole rest of the album is good too, but "7 Minute Drill" was such a lame note to end on that it keeps it out of my top few favorites.
Lyric of the year: Almost any line from the first verse of "Treat Myself" by Chief Keef, but I'm partial to "Diamonds shinin' off my charm, I think I Christmas tree'd myself / I start wearin' yellow diamonds, it look like I peed myself." An unserious song with a (mostly) nice message about self love. Love Sosa.
Favorite live show this year: My girlfriend and I skipped out of work early on a Friday to drive 2 hours to Cheyenne, Wyoming and back to watch T-Pain and Ludacris perform at the town fair's Frontier Days. The silliness of this plan and of seeing those two in that setting made it an even better show, and it was already pretty good.
Favorite film you watched this year: Finally watched My Neighbor Totoro after never really getting into anime before, and now I want to see everything Studio Ghibli has ever made.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: I didn't expect much going into a movie musical where they cast a popstar in the second to lead role. But you guessed it, I ended up enjoying Mean Girls a lot. The opening scene/number ("This is a Cautionary Tale") sets a tone that somehow made me nostalgic for high school — chaotic, communal, and over-dramatized.
Miranda Reinert
Favorite album: Horrible Occurrences by Advance Base
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “Over and Out” by Allegra Krieger
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Addison Rae scream on the Charli XCX
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: "Radar & Leda" by The Hold Steady. I'm tapped into new Hold Steady songs in ways the average Hold Steady fan couldn't even imagine.
Lyric of the year: "If nobody knows what you're talking about then neither do you, my love. Woo!" - fantasy of a broken heart "Tapdance 1"
Favorite live show this year: Sinai Vessel, Little Kid, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at The Hideout
Favorite film you watched this year: Drugstore Cowboy
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: I saw a movie called The Becomers where a pair of aliens who are in love take over the bodies of various different humans trying to find each other again on Earth after their planet is destroyed or maybe they got kicked off I don't really remember, but there is an arc where they have taken over the bodies of a couple who have fallen into a sort of Q-Anon-esque cult that is going to kill the governor of Illinois. There is one scene where we and the main characters find out the humans whose bodies they've stolen have the governor trapped in their basement and it's really funny. The looks on their faces, the bizarre food they give him. Later there's a scene that's basically sketch comedy where the aliens don't know they're meant to be naked under their cult robes and it throws off the filming of the execution of the governor. Really silly stuff. Not a very good movie, but silly.
Grace Robins-Somerville
Favorite album: Imaginal Disk by Magdalena Bay
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “rare animal” by glass beach
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The hyperventilating at the outros of both “Starbusrter” by Fontaines D.C. and “DENIAL IS A RIVER” by Doechii. Listening to them back to back gives me a very cool sense of accidental synchronicity.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Palm Wine by YATTA
Lyric of the year: It's a three-way tie and they all include references to other artists!
"Time will come when we know that we oughta
drive to the horizon of American Water
Bankrupt, a frozen donation thermometer
Grab you by the hips and say it's you that I'm grateful for."
(Los Campesinos! "Feast of Tongues")
"While I was singing Steely Dan
Crying "shake it!" in the wind
Yeah a loser never wins
And I'm a loser, always been"
(This Is Lorelei, "Dancing In The Club")
"Bitch pop a perc think she Saoirse Ronan"
(RXKNephew, "Saoirse Ronan")
Favorite live show this year: Carly Rae Jepsen at Pitchfork Fest
Favorite film you watched this year: The Holdovers
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The ending of Challengers
Emily Schweich
Favorite album: Rationale by Glitterer. Ned Russin’s meditation on purpose clicked with me in new and unexpected ways throughout the year as I considered my own.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: "Good Luck, Babe!" by Chappell Roan. When I first heard this song, I was driving, and the slow down at the end came on just as I got off the highway, which was incredible.
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Cassandra Jenkins and her mom talking about stars in “Betelgeuse.” There’s something so beautifully intimate about sharing the massive universe with someone special.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: "disappoint u" by Nyxy Nyx and the whole star album. Quintessential “Philly shit.”
Lyric of the year: "I've got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome and a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone” from MJ Lenderman’s “Wristwatch.”
Favorite live show this year: Wednesday and Hotline TNT at 9:30 Club.
Favorite film you watched this year: Anatomy of a Fall (2023). I had a ball catching up with Oscar nominees this winter.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The scene in I Saw The TV Glow where Owen walks through the high school hall to “Starburned and Unkissed” by Caroline Polachek while the episode summaries scrawl on the screen. I also love the scene where Maddy and her friend Amanda are sitting on the couch talking about guys they like. “What about Evan Dando? I mean, he’s cute, but he’s so tortured. I’d have to, like, save him every day.” Art is so beautiful.
David Sexton
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Statik by Actress. I went deep into his back catalogue this year and found this one particularly arresting. it just works!
Lyric of the year: I only listen to microtonal string music now.
Favorite live show this year: Neil Young & Crazy Horse, May 2024, at "Jiffy Lube Live" in Northern VA. Maybe one of the last CH shows ever, for actuarial reasons and otherwise. It took hours to get in and out of the venue, downpours were frequent and totally spontaneous, and I think I spent $30 on a pretzel and a beer. But the moment it kicked off with “Cortez the Killer”..............................Greatest of all time!!!!
Favorite film you watched this year: Pacifiction but only because I watched as a double feature with The Insider.
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: When Wayne Diamond shows up to berate his long-suffering brother for missing a baptism in Eephus.
Dan Sostek
Favorite album: Passage Du Desir - Johnny Blue Skies
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “Loud Bark” by Mannequin Pussy
Favorite specific music moment of the year: The guttural breakdown on “Sunrise” by Young Jesus "Shit/I look like a million bucks/I think I'll take the bus/down to New Orleannnnnnnns/I think I'll buy some drugs"
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: The Illiad and The Odyssey and The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Lyric of the year: "Oh my/good lord"- Shaboozey (Real answer: Don't know how many switches I flipped/I flipped a switch and then the thing just don't exist/But my stupid ass is always searching/Hoping for a pearl when I open up my fist from “Eating the Egg Whole” by Wild Pink)
Favorite live show this year: Tie between Creed and Indigo De Souza
Favorite film you watched this year: Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: Legitimately might be the teaser at the end of Horizon: An American Saga Part 1 that teases the next part that will probably never be released
Matt T
Favorite album: Tomorrow’s Coffee - Jimmy Montague
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: “Not Like Us” (this will probably not be the only time someone picks this)
Favorite specific music moment of the year: “Gratitude” by Foxing, towards the end when the synths kick in and Conor’s voice starts glitching and blending into the synths. Magical
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: I only used Spotify until August and was still a .0005% listener of Toro y Moi’s “Tuesday”
Lyric of the year: BUMPIN THAT
Favorite live show this year: Saw Goose for the first time and they covered not 1 but 2 Kenny Loggins songs
Favorite film you watched this year: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - wasn’t expecting much but they nailed it
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: the opening to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, not spoiling the cameo but it made me hoot n holler
Josh Terry
Favorite album: Hannah Frances, Keeper of the Shepherd
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Ty Segall, "My Room"
Favorite specific music moment of the year: 1:42-2:11 of "Fortress" by Closebye or the entirety of the Greg Freeman / Golomb show this summer.
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: Of the writers in this roundup? I'll bet Goose, Live at the Fox Theatre
Lyric of the year: Basically the entirety of "Soft Rock Band" by Good Morning.
Favorite live show this year: Dead & Company at Sphere (5/16-18/24)
Favorite film you watched this year: Happy Hour (2015)
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: The community meeting in Evil Does Not Exist.
Margaret Welsh
Favorite album: Dan Spencer, Return to Your Dark Master.
Favorite song that wasn't on one of your favorite albums: Cindy Lee - “Dracula”
Favorite specific music moment of the year: Sabrina Carpenter’s vocal affect in “Please Please Please”
A song or album you're pretty sure you like more than anyone else: “Scooter Blues,” from Passage du Desir by Johnny Blue Skies (a.k.a. Sturgill Simpson). Probably lots of other people like this song as much as I do, but I personally don’t know anyone else who does. Funny little song about escaping all extra-familial obligations and living on the beach. Kinda reminds me of “Margaritaville” without the irony.
Lyric of the year: “Why Do I Keep Fucking Up?” - Neil Young, “Heart of Steel (Fuckin’ Up)”
Favorite live show this year: Tie: Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Forest Hills Stadium and Styrofoam Winos at TV Eye
Favorite film you watched this year: Burden of Dreams, Les Blank
Favorite scene from a 2024 movie: I should be ashamed to admit it, but I loved every minute of Shia LaBeouf’s performance in Megalopolis.