Happy New Year one and all! I hope everyone's had a good one. Today's blog is to celebrate the music that made my 2024 a lot more bearable and gave me some fantastic memories that I'll cherish forever.
2024 has been one of the best years I can remember in recent times for music. I keep a list on my phone throughout the year of songs and artists I'm enjoying to make sure they get a mention on the end of year blog and 2024's was more of a scroll 😅 no complaints there!
In last year's blog I enthused about how excited I was for Green Day's 'Saviors' album due out at the start of the year (I also enthused about how excited I was to be seeing them live too but sadly I couldn't go which was utterly heartbreaking as the tour was also celebrating the 20th anniversary of American Idiot one of my favourite ever albums 😭😭😭😭💔💔💔) so it only seems right to kick off with them.
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Green Day - Saviors
I was absolutely right to be excited for Saviors as I love it. In my opinion it's a real return to form as I was a bit lukewarm about 2020's Father of all ... Although there are 16 tracks on it the songs are short, sharp and to the point meaning that the album never feels overlong. Thematically it does remind me a lot of American Idiot (hardly surprising in these times!) especially in songs such as Living In The 20s and The American Dream Is Killing Me (also my favourite song on the album). The album is absolutely fantastic and it was so close to being my album of the year but (through no fault of it's own) I'm still too heartbroken about not being able to see the songs played live this summer so listening to it has been a bit difficult. I'm keeping positive that they'll tour again soon. Some of my other favourite songs on the album are -
One live music experience that I did manage this year was seeing my favourite band 30 Seconds To Mars for the 20th time! As I said in last year's blog, I didn't love last year's album It's The End Of The World But It's A Beautiful Day and they did only play a couple of songs from it in the show, however Stuck and Seasons do work really well live.
The show was absolutely amazing! I was at the side of the stage (hey it's not every day that a girl sees her favourite band for the 20th time) so I got a great view -
The highlight of the whole evening for me was GETTING ONSTAGE! The band always invite fans up onstage for the final song of the show and I couldn't believe it as I was ushered up too 😀. I can't describe the feeling of being onstage at the bloomin O2 Arena with my a band who's music has seen me through the lowest lows but also the highest highs. I did however manage to hide from the camera as no-one deserved my mug on the massive screens 😂
I have a blog about the show with loads more photos and videos of what was an amazing night. In the last couple of days Jared has posted photos on his Instagram of being back in the studio recording and hinted that new music will be coming this year so 🤞they'll be appearing in 2025's music blog.
Whilst I only went to 1 actual concert it wasn't the only musical 'event' I attended. Last year my friend Helen got me into Ghost and in the summer their Rite Here Rite Now show streamed in our local cinema.
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Describing Ghost is quite hard, they're kind of symphonic metal mixed with hard rock and quite a lot of tomfoolery on the part of Papa IV actually one of the best descriptions I heard of them was 'Satanic ABBA' referencing their Swedish roots 😂 Joking aside they seem to be amazing live and Helen and I are seeing them in April and in the meantime are 'practicing' by watching their live videos on YouTube. There's the promise of new music to go along with the tour and we got an inkling of what it might sound like with the track The Future Is A Foreign Land which gave me Doors-esque 60s vibes.
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Little Monsters had a lot to be excited about in 2024 as Mother Monster dropped some new music for the first time since 2020. First off we had 'LG 6.5' with the release of Harlequin a concept album tied into GaGa's role of the same name in the Joker movie. It was made up of show tune covers such as Smile, Get Happy and The Joker that all showed off her amazing voice.
It was followed up by the release of a duet with Bruno Mars Die With A Smile a country vibed song. Then just before Halloween the first single from LG7 (and my favourite song of 2024) dropped ...
I immediately adored it and in fact 'may' have listened to it 10 times in a row .... It's GaGa back to her dark pop best (apparently she's described her upcoming album as 'dungeon pop') with lyrics about fighting with your demons (hi there). If the rest of her album is as good as this then 2025's album of the year is already awarded!
I'm bending the rules for the next entry on the list as whilst the single technically came out in 2024 the album is a couple of years older. And in a shocking instance of not living under a cultural rock I got into this artist at the same time as everyone else. I am of course talking about ...
Chappell Roan - The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess
I first heard about Chappell Roan from her single Good Luck Babe at the start of 2024 and really liked it but didn't 'follow up' on listening to any of her other music until the end of the year. The album actually came out a couple of years ago (Good Luck Babe was added as a bonus track when she started to 'break' at the start of 2024 apparently) but my blog my rules! Other songs I really like on the album are Pink Pony Club , My Kink Is Karma and Guilty Pleasure.
Some other albums I've enjoyed this year -
Taylor Swift - Tortured Poets Department (obviously) with standout songs - Fortnight, Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me? and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn . My favourite song on the album is Kool Aid (one day I'll manage to see them live again!)
Next up are a couple of soundtracks I've loved. First up we have a series I watched on Amazon this year.
Hazbin Hotel follows the story of Charlie the princess of hell (daughter of Lucifer and Lilith) and her attempts to set up and run a hotel in hell where souls can be redeemed. There's so many fantastic characters and the soundtrack is broadway-worthy. Some of my favourite songs on it are - Poison and Happy Day In Hell.
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There's absolutely no way that Wicked wasn't making it's way onto the list after I saw the movie. I've wanted to see Wicked onstage for years and after seeing the film it's made me even more determined! I knew Defying Gravity but now knowing how it fits into the story, it felt like a battle cry to break out, be yourself and live in the way that you know is right. As a practicing witch it fit right into the way I try to conduct myself and use the power the universe gives us all. Other songs I loved from the film were Popular and Dancing Through Life. I can't believe that I have to wait all the way until November for part 2!
Before I get to my album of the year here are some songs I've enjoyed -
The Warning - S!ck (I'm really looking forward to hearing more from them)
Yungblud - Abyss (From Kaiju No 8)
Black Country Communion - Red Sun
NXCRE & The Villains - Twisted
And now for my album of the year ......
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Delilah Bon - Evil Hate Filled Female
In a year of so much amazing music it was this album released in the autumn that has *just* pipped the others to #1. The album felt like a breath of fresh air with it's themes of female and LGBTQIA empowerment and, more interestingly, society's reactions to this request. Songs such as The Internet and the title track Evil Hate Filled Female reflect this perfectly. The 'revenge on bullies' anthem Finally See Me is the music I wished I'd had at school (along with artists like Delilah, Yungblud, Gaga et al) is balanced by more 'fun' tracks I Am The Best (Just Ask Your Momma). There are more delicate songs such as the stripped back Volatile and the heartbreaking stand alone single Not The President.
It's hard to describe her sound and best to let her YouTube bio of 'BRAT PUNK SCREAMIN RAPPER' cover it. In my humble opinion in this world as women and the LGBTQIA community we need voices like Delilah's rallying cry to bring us together to fight for our rights. I'm excited to see her in a couple of months time to scream along ...
That's it for my 2024 music wrap up! If you made it all the way through then wow 😱. Thank you as always to those lovely people who do read my blogs and comment your support.
Love Jen
XxxX
Ps if you're interested in previous year's music blogs they can be found here -
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