As promised, two different playlists and two videos for the last Friday before Christmas.
We begin with the 11 songs that just missed making my Favorite Songs of 2024. That list isn’t completely done – I just moved a couple songs around before I started typing this – but the songs are locked in. Here are the remnants, presented in no particular order.
“If It’s Gone” – Good Looks
This band put out a great album and a terrific two-song EP. Pretty good year!
“Boombox” – Morgan Harper Jones
There is a slightly better song somewhat similar to this thematically that made my Favorite Songs list. No shame in landing between 21 and 31.
“Annihilation” – Wilco
One of my favorite Wilco songs in a decade or more.
“Come To The City (Live…Again)” – The War On Drugs
TWOD put out their second live album this year and were kind enough to include my favorite of their songs. There are better versions of this out there – the guitar in the third verse (“Rolling out for the one I love, and I been down by the sea…”) is too low – but this one is damn good.
“Room At The Top” – Eddie Vedder covering Tom Petty
Bad Monkey was a pretty good show. Having other artists cover Tom Petty for the soundtrack was a pretty good idea.
“The Last Words Of Sam Cooke” – Barry Adamson
What a concept to base a song on!
“No Good” – Christopher Owens
Wildest story about an artist’s life this year has to go to Owens. Look it up.
“Dead Plants” – better joy
Great song. And if it wasn’t sexist and I was 30 years younger, I would have a big crush on this band’s lead singer.
“Vanish” – Blueburst, Marty Wilson-Piper
OK, here’s where it started getting tough, so I guess these last three songs are numbers 21-23. Had I discovered this tune a little earlier in the year, it may have had enough steam to crack the top 20. Since the album actually came out in 2023, I guess that saves me some embarrassment.
“Mother Mary” – Late Bloomer
On January 19 I said this was the first song of 2024 to grab me and not let go. However, another song I shared a week earlier ended up sticking with me longer. You’ll read about it next week. I’m not 100% convinced this shouldn’t be in the top 20 with it.
“Favourite” – Fontaines D.C.
Man, was it tough to leave this one off the list. FDC changed their sound for the latest album. I didn’t always love it, but others did, as it has landed high on most Best Of lists. This song, though, I was perfectly fine with.
“I Would Die 4 U” – Prince & The Revolution
We end the greatest year in pop music history with another huge debut by the biggest artist of the year. In just its second week in the Hot 100, the latest Prince single was already at #32. This would become Prince’s fourth top 10 single from the Purple Rain soundtrack, but would stall out at #8 for a single week in February.
“Do They Know It’s Christmas” – Band Aid
It’s always a big deal in Britain what song is #1 at Christmas. Artists craft songs with that goal in mind and time their release to give them the best chance of achieving it.
Last week I watched a terrific new documentary about the making of “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” In it George Michael mentions how he had just recorded his own Christmas song, which he had expected to be Wham’s fourth-straight UK #1. But he realizes at the Band Aid sessions that “DTKIC” would keep “Last Christmas” from being the Christmas #1 for 1984. He was correct, although “Last Christmas” was #1 for Christmas 1985 thanks to a second release. Forty years later, you can’t NOT hear both of them during the holiday season. Feed the world.