Consuming 2024

Accolade time! Here’s some of what made the Earth habitable this past year for yours truly. (Click here for previous years).

Tunes

I’ve heard it said that if you listen to pop music long enough, all roads lead back to either the Grateful Dead or Steely Dan. I’m not sure that’s true, but I am sure that 2024 was the year Steely Dan finally got under my skin. The yacht rock documentary certainly helped — SD being the “primordial ooze” from which all yacht rock derives — but the road to Becker-Fagen had long been paved. Arguing for anything redemptive here would be a stretch (unless Michael McDonald’s divine-like presence counts!), as bad vibes are kind of the point when it comes to these guys. Still, talent is talent, and the grooves don’t lie.

Other than delving into Danfandom, I spent a lot of time in the ’90s, reacquainting myself with the music that soundtracked my high school experience. This was thanks to the 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s podcast — a series so tailor-made for someone of my precise demographic and personality that it almost feels like a prank. Thankfully, 2024 was also the year I took a deep dive into the wonderful world of Kirsty MacColl, which balanced out all the grunge on my Spotify Wrapped a bit.

Speaking of Spotify Wrapped, the other major development in my audio life these past twelve months had to do with the final collapse of the false gods of coolness or credibility. Only took 45 years! I relayed the details on the most recent Mockingcast, but let’s just say Billy Joel played a key role in bringing me to my knees, and I’m thankful.

For a sampling of the above, plus a ton of other gems, I’ve compiled a playlist of 20 Favorite Songs Discovered in 2024.

Fortunately, there was also a slew of amazing new music this past year. Here’s a playlist of 20 Favorite Songs Released in 2024.

My personal Album of the Year is Albion by Harp. Fans of the Texas indie legends Midlake will recognize the inimitable tenor of Tim Smith, the onetime leader of that group. He left them in 2012 and has been working on this record ever since. The level of attention and care is evident on every track on Albion, a fully realized vision if ever there was one. The chief inspirations, according to the interviews Smith has done, are the movie Krull and Faith-era Cure. Not coincidentally, Albion makes a fantastic listen while writing a book, an undertaking that occupied a great deal of 2024 for me.

The rest of my personal Top Five Records Released This Year would be Songs from a Lost World by The Cure, Iechyd da by Bill Ryder-Jones, Moon Mirror by Nada Surf, and Like Unto Lambs by Luxury. Oh and the main one I missed last year — which has tons of Mbird resonance — was søn of dad by Stephen Wilson Jr.

Favorite Devotional Record: Headwaters by Andrew Osenga. Just gorgeous, “Hold On To Me” being a special fave.

Screens

I watched less TV this past year than ever before. That mainly has to do with the aforementioned book, but also with what feels like an increasingly confusing proliferation of platforms. Course, that doesn’t mean I didn’t come across some high-quality programming.

Top Mockingbird-Resonant Television By a Landslide: Fargo. It’s easy to forget that season 5 ended last January, but some of us still haven’t recovered. Those closing minutes rank up there with the most profound, well-earned, and well-executed grace notes I’ve seen televised this side of Friday Night Lights.

Other Shows I Enjoyed: Shogun, Colin from Accounts, Dalgleish, Penguin, and the finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Favorite Viral Video: Nick Cave on Colbert

Top Five Favorite Movies Released This Year: Furiosa, Inside Out 2, The Outrun, Longlegs, and Alien: Romulus.

Four More Released This Year That I Suspect Are Great But Haven’t Watched Yet: A Real Pain, The Substance, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, Sing Sing, and … Megalopolis.

Movie Released Last Year That Made Me Laugh Hardest: Dream Scenario

Movie Released Last Year That Made Me Abreact Hardest: What Happens Later

Grace-in-Practice Documentary of the Year: Daughters. So. Many. Tears.

Runner-Up Grace-in-Practice (Short) Documentary of the Year: The Turnaround. Can anything good come from Philadelphia?!

Favorite Music Doc: Eno

Runners Up: Flipside and Yacht Rock

Pages

Book of the Year: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. It’s very rare to watch a work of nonfiction have a demonstrable, constructive effect in real time, but here we are. I don’t know a single school of any persuasion (secular, Christian, public, private, left, right, center) in my surroundings that hasn’t embraced what Haidt is saying. I honestly thank God for this book and the hope it represents, not just for kids and parents but for society itself. Far may its message reach.

Most Compelling God Writing of the Year: Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield. The older I get, the less interested I am in books addressing intra-Christian concerns. Far more attention-grabbing are those which attempt to speak about God/Jesus/spiritual-reality-period in language and tone that contemporary ears stand a chance of hearing, Christian ears included. Given the despair and decline (and noise!) in which we live, it’s hard to imagine a more pressing task. Well, no one did a better job of it this past year than Elizabeth Oldfield. That’s part of why I’m so jazzed she agreed to speak for us in NYC this coming May. Be there or be square.

Favorite Genre Fiction I Read This Year: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams. Talk about sticking the landing! I wept. Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination was a wild ride too.

Most Forwardable Newsletter for the Fourth Year Running: The Red Hand Files from Nick Cave. Starting to feel old hat at this point but really, truly, the RHF is one of God’s best gifts this past decade. See here, here, here, here, or here.

Most Indispensable Cultural Exegesis (That’s Also a Newsletter): Brooding by Kathryn Jezer-Morton in the Cut.

Top Single Substack, Religious or Otherwise, So Good It Almost Made Me Never Want to Write Again: “Anti Majestic Cosmic Horseshit” by Some Guy.

Other Substack Entries that Gave Me/Us Serious Mileage: “You Need To Be Cringemaxxing” by Mary Harrington, “The State of the Culture, 2024” by Ted Gioia, and Freddie deBoer’s “Selfishness and Therapy Culture.”

Favorite Long Reads: Christian Wiman’s “Music and Mystery” in Harpers, followed by Linden Smith’s “Creation Myths” in the Point.

Most Encouraging Testimonies: “The Autonomy Trap” by James Wood in Plough, “Letters from Prison” by Ben Spencer in Comment, and “The Shock of Faith” by David Brooks.

Most Touching Obituary for a Saint: “The Generous Genius of Jürgen Moltmann” by Paul Zahl in Christianity Today.

Favorite Interview: Zadie Smith talking to Ezra Klein.

Wisest Memoir in Recent Memory: Life’s Work by David Milch.

Social Media Post about Church Trends That’s Stuck With Me All Year: Shifts I Never Saw Coming 15 Years Ago by Dan White, Jr.

Most Helpful Resources for Processing an Election Year: The Church in Dark Times by Mike Cosper (particularly the abundant Hannah Arendt material), this passage from Thomas Merton’s Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, and this Onion video.

Best and Most Unexpected Definition of Grace: This passage from Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!

Jokes and Miscellany

Funniest Skit: Late to the game but nothing made me laugh harder than the Zip Line Sketch from I Think You Should Leave. Colin From Accounts was the funniest actual show this year.

Funniest Comedy Podcast: James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. Basically anything this guy touches cracks me up, be it his take on Magic The Gathering or the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The man writes hilarious mediocre poetry, too. You can thank me later.

Grace in Practice Podcast Episode of the Year (Not Hosted by Mbird): “When Do You Know It’s Time to Stop Drinking?” from Search Engine.

Favorite Humor Discovery: Muppet Movie test footage.

Funniest Instagram Reel: Mike Tyson speaking with JazzysworldTV.

Instagram Feed that Always Brings It, Gospel-wise: Who Else?.

Most Clever Bible-Related Tweet: This One.

Most Reliable Humor Site: Reductress. Favorite headline was probably “Woman Brings Running Shoes on Vacation in Case She Has Time to Become a Completely Different Person,” but this one still makes me chuckle.

Favorite Onion “Study”: Crows Intelligent Enough To Steal Trinkets, But Foolish Enough To Think Material Goods Will Solve Problems. Not a study but another highlight from that publication was “Raygun’s Apology To Breakdancing Community Sparks Outrage From Apology Community.” My fave Onion discovery this year, however, was the Kafka Airport clip below.

The King of Cartoonists for the Second Year in a Row: Asher Perlman. Prime examples being this one, this one and this one.