Top8 - 12/23/24

December 22, 2024 - 09:18 PM

Welcome back to Top8. In keeping with a little-known Solstice celebration practice, I have lopped off part of my left index finger while chopping parsley. So, this whole blog was slightly painful to type out. But, because I love you, I did it.  A few of these tracks are a little older because this is a slow time of year for new music, but they aren't from like the 70's or something.

I am writing to you from the front lines of the War on Christmas. We will fight to the last gasp for freedom from holiday cheer. Send your xmas greetings to wtsq.org/contact, because god knows I don't want them.



Julien Baker & Torres - Sugar in the Tank

I want to start out with one of my favorite tracks from 2024. Anyone who follows the things I do at WTSQ knows that I am a huge fan of Julien Baker. "Sugar in the Tank" is her first major release since Boygenius' iconic 2023 "The Album". This new single finds her teamed with Torres for a straight up country song. The choice of genre is more surprising for Torres than Baker; their usual output is more atmospheric and occasionally distorted than twangy. Regardless, the choice suits both of them quite well. The result is a bright and earnest appeal to a lover to stop the singer from leaving. My witty music blog response is: "with songs like this, no one would ever need to put sugar in my tank to get me to stay."

I am using the live version from Fallon for the video here. Jimmy Fallon is terrible, but this performance is amazing.


Kate Wakefield - Without The Thought of You

If you know Kate Wakefield, there's a good chance you immediately think of her as a cellist – as the dynamo banshee voice of Lung. And while she plays the absolute shit out of the cello, there's always more to her than that. Her vocals are stunning. Kate has the kind of voice that feels perfectly poised and refined but also very honest and real. "Without The Thought of You" primarily features the piano in a sad and emotive song. I hear this lyric as dwelling on the mundane reality of daily events carrying on without even thinking about a person who is no longer there. Things are rarely so simple though and I am left feeling that the speaker in the song is suffering a desolate loneliness. The recording features a bit of musique concrete in the way of background sounds – a yawn, a creaking floor, a door closing. All of this underpins the sense of terrible silence we often feel when a person we held close is finally gone. "All the little things without the thought of you / so many little things without the thought of you."


Mandy - High School Boyfriend

They say that in the Spotify era, bands are encouraged to hook the listener in the first 15 seconds. On one hand, that is a horribly reductive aesthetic principle that is slowly killing music. On the other, it did hook me on Mandy's "High School Boyfriend." The band leads here with the crunchy guitar that I require in my daily nutrition and wraps things up with a group of people shouting the song's title. Excellent. 


Meryl Streek - If This is Life

There's something about "If This is Life" that makes me think of a suicide note. Not to say that the song suggests anyone kill themselves, but rather that it holds that kind of desperation. Streek beautifully describes the kind of world he imagines is possible, but then also talks about why it isn't happening. This is a tragic but urgent song. Rather than suggesting you throw your life away, it's demanding that we insist on better. 


The Bug Club - Quality Pints

Sometimes you just need someone to throw a fast, slightly silly, track about beers directly at your face. Bug Club is here to deliver. I dare you to spin this one and not be singing along to it before the second chorus.


Real Farmer - The Straightest Line

Real Farmer is a shouty punk band from the Netherlands. "The Straightest Line" feels like it could have been recorded at any time in the last few decades. The song is stubborn and snotty, and honestly more punk should be.  


Nihilist Cheerleader - Eternity

Nihilist Cheerleader sounds like a moody Wet Leg. And thank god for that. The band is out of Athens, Ga and mixes a lot of Riot Grrrl into their moody headboppers. The rest of their stuff is very much worth checking out, but "Eternity" made me an instant fan. 


Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess - Invisible

I've written about Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess before, but it's been a minute. The band's new track is "Invisible" and is in the grand tradition of gloomy pop punk. Emmalea does this without veering from her grungy alternative sound into something more emo (this suits me; I love emo, but punk can be sad on its own). Emmalea's voice has always been one of the things that surprises people. She can go from sounding warm and close to searingly screaming in a breath. The song delivers lyrically, and effectively paints a picture of a person sick of an unbalanced relationship with an emotionally distant person. I feel this song in my guts. 


And this week's extra innings, just a few other things I am listening to.

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Cosmic Surfin'

Willi Carlisle - The Great Depression

Helvetia - Old, New Bycicle

Finally a playlist with everything. Thank you for reading and listening.

-emily