Best-of-the-Year Lists: 2024

it's beginning to look a lot like end of year

December 30, 2024


I feel like there should be some sort of intro to this, but I’m already exhausted from writing all the lists, so I’m not really gonna bother. (I don’t know what part of me insisted that all titles must be in italics.) I’ve got two lists for music that came out this year, a list for music that I listened to for the first time this year, and a list for video games I played this year, regardless of when they came out.

Bob, hit ’em with the fancy layout.



Top 5 Albums/Eps of 2024

5. Vylet Pony - girls who are wizards

girls who are wizards sees Vylet return to the early days of EDM, clearly drawing inspirations from artists like Savant and early-2010s Skrillex. This isn’t the style of music I prefer from her (I don’t even like old-school dubstep all that much on its own to be honest), but Vylet’s having so much fun with this album that it’s difficult not to enjoy it. I mean you really can’t take it that seriously when the songs have names like The Story of DJ Goober.

In particular, the stretch of songs from tracks 7–11 are back-to-back bangers, each for wildly different reasons. You might even say it has a little something for everyone. I also have to give a shoutout to The Queen is Back; I did not know she could do modern day bass music that well.

4. Sharks - Viridescent Tears

Essentially a collection of unfinished songs made public before Sharks went on hiatus, it’s surprising to me how many of those songs feel like complete visions. Obviously the mixes aren’t finished, and the limiter-slamming does bother me a little, but I think some of these could’ve been sent over to labels or other artists for finishing touches in order to be legitimately released.

Regardless, each song on here carries that distinct Sharks flavor of color bass that he’s polished over the years, and I still can’t get enough of it. There’s an abundance of 145 BPM, riddim-y type songs on here, which is kind of a shame, since I think the ones that don’t fall under that umbrella are some of the best things he’s written, but I suppose that’s what burnout will do to you. Hope you return to the scene someday, Sharks, but for now, get some well earned rest.

3. Singto Conley - …But You Must Live

I didn’t get to listen to this one as much as I wanted to, but it’s currently in the race with Overgrown for Singto’s best album. I’ve often described her style as a combination of dance music with sleeping on a bed of clouds, and this is no exception. The big hit here is Peanut Allergy, which I could easily see blowing up in the same way “Honeydew” did several years back.

There’s a good chance that how much you like this album will be determined by how much you like Moon Jelly’s vocals, considering they’re featured on five out of the 12 tracks, and are sampled throughout the rest. Her voice definitely has a sort of anime quality to it, which might be grating to some, but I’ve always found it to be a perfect fit for Singto’s instrumentals.

2. Intervals - memory palace

I found this album thanks to the song with an OBLVYN feature showing up in my Spotify Release Radar. There are a few producer features on here, and they each complement the guitar in such a unique and natural way. I don’t really have a lot else to say, it’s just a really solid instrumental rock album.

I’m not gonna lie, when I first heard this, I thought the guitar was the only live instrument on this album, but apparently, that’s not the case. The drummer is just so skilled and the kit just sounded so clean that it sounds like a programmed drum track.

1. South Arcade - 2005

Not to sound too sanctimonious, but I’ve been trying to be more deliberate about the media I consume this past year. With the overbearing prevalence that invisible algorithms have on the entertainment we decide to invest our attention into, I don’t want to allow myself to become fully complacent with being “fed” “content”, especially when much of it is created not for the sake of art, but to game the system for maximum profit. That being said, though, every now and then TikTok will throw something like this at me that I never would’ve found otherwise, and I’ll think, “y’know, maybe there’s something to this media distribution slot machine.”

I found this EP during its hype cycle when it had three tracks on it, and I thought it was a complete project. Then the band announced a fourth single and released it as a new EP along with the previous three singles, which sort of threw me for a loop. I respect the hustle I guess, but it just makes things kind of confusing for someone like me who really takes care of their personal music library and doesn’t want duplicate songs in their playlists. Their social media presence feels kinda forced as well; the TikToks and reels feel like they were made by a marketing expert in their 40s who thinks they’re “with the times”.

All of that does detract a little from the music itself, but said music is so good that it barely matters. Regardless of whatever perils the current music industry holds, 2005 is an extremely catchy, extremely energetic pop punk EP. I can see it being a little too over-produced for some, especially when it comes to Harmony’s vocals, but in my eyes, that gives it a certain character that I haven’t heard anywhere else.

Honorable Mentions:



Top 7 Songs of 2024

(in no particular order)



Top 5 Albums/EPs I listened to this year

5. Limbo - Cloud Nine

Like I imagine most people have, I found Limbo through the song Airplane Mode that went viral on TikTok in early 2020. The album it was on, Holo, was a mix of lofi and bedroom pop, somewhat reminiscent of Clairo’s early music, and it had a really home-grown sense to it. I was in the mood for that kind of music one day and decided to binge her discography. In doing so, there were two albums that stood out to me: this one, and dimension 5.

I almost gave this spot to the latter, but after some consideration, I think Cloud Nine is an overall better album. dimension 5 was largely carried in my mind by having my favorite Limbo song, can’t come back (to that reality), but it doesn’t have much else for me, whereas Cloud Nine has more songs that I really like on it. Both are extremely good though, and definitely worth a listen.

4. 2 1 8 4 - Rain Temple

On my personal Instagram I described this album as what it would sound like to live in a cyberpunk hd desktop wallpaper… and I still stand by that to a degree. I was primarily captivated by the opening song Before the Rain, but the whole album is an extremely beautiful set of soundscapes that served as ambience for many sleepless nights playing Variant Sudoku or the free NYT Games.

3. Glacci - Falling Into Forever

This is one of those albums where none of the tracks individually stand out all too much, but as a collection they make for a consistent, fun listen. It’s got everything I love about the y2k breakbeat aesthetic, from the sharp laser synth leads to the crazy drum breakbeats. I’m not even that big a fan of this style, but this album just happened to pick the elements from it that appeal to me specifically. Not much else to say, really, I just like it.

2. Michel Genest - Crystal Fantasy

My friend SÍODA used the word “reverent” to describe this album, which I think is an extremely apt term for it. A lot of early new age music has that kind of atmosphere to it, and I’ve been trying to find more like it ever since I heard the soundtrack for Hypnospace Outlaw, which I played towards the end of last year. The faux-EP from that game, Celestial Reflections by Záred (swordofkings128 in real life), almost made it onto this list actually, but I had a nice even top 5 already, and so I disqualified it on the notion that it’s not real. Highly recommend checking it out too, though, especially if you like this album.

I couldn’t find much about this guy online, but he does have several other albums up on streaming. I’m not sure if he only figured out how to put his music on platforms in the last few years, or if there’s just a really large gap in his discography from 1995–2019. Either way, some of those other albums are kind of towing the line of orientalism, but honestly those are his weakeest anyway. I think he’s much better dealing with abstract fantasy and mythos, like here, or on Gardens of the Sky and Atlantean Voyage.

1. Vylet Pony - can opener's notebook: fish whisperer

Since discovering Vylet last year, she has quickly shot up into the list of my all-time favorite artists (She was my number one most streamed artist this year on Spotify), and this album is largely the reason why. fish whisperer gets to the heart of what it means to be creative; in Vylet’s own words, it’s about …overcoming art block, being transparent about yourself, and learning to find love in every corner of life.

This was a comfort album for me for a good few months early this year, and since then, it has slowly become one of my favorite albums of all time. The cute toybox percussion sounds combined with chopped up piano and guitar phrases makes for a really unique soundscape with a surprising amount of range. Vylet’s lyricism is on point here as well, perfectly blending thoughtful prose and fun, catchy phrases, all with melodies that are super fun to sing along to.

There’s also a deliberate narrative here, presented through accompanying journal entries written by the main character, but to be perfectly honest, I didn’t feel the need to pay much attention to it; I think the album stands perfectly fine on its own. It mostly just reinforces the themes already present in the lyrics, but it is there for those who are into that kind of “lore”.

Honorable Mentions:



Top 5 Video Games I Played This Year

5. Variant Sudoku

I’m a pretty big Joseph Anderson fan, and after hearing him call Variant Sudoku his game of the year, I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s free, after all. He recommended a YouTube channel called Cracking the Cryptic, in which two professional sudoku players do puzzles and sort of walk through their thought process, and after watching one of their videos, I was hooked.

At first glance, Variant Sudoku seems like it would be more difficult than normal sudoku, considering there are more rules you need to pay attention to, but in fact, it’s usually the opposite. Those extra rules aren’t additional challenges; they’re additional clues. My favorite puzzle for introducing people to this idea is Easy Doubles, Thermo Arrow, pictured here, which uses two of the common variant rules. (Or I guess three, since it’s also a 4x4 mini sudoku grid) All you need to do is ask yourself, Where does the number 4 go in the lower-right box?

This game is different from the others on this list in that it’s kind of public domain; there are multiple apps and websites you can use to play, each likely coming with a different library of puzzles. The app I use is called Sven’s SudokuPad, which comes with like 15 normal sudoku puzzles, but lets you import others from online. I usually get puzzles from the site Missing Deck, which has a plethora of puzzles sorted into different difficulties, which is perfect if you’re just getting into it. Another good site to get puzzles from is Logic Masters Germany, where Cracking the Cryptic gets a lot of their puzzles from.

Sven’s SudokuPad is missing a lot of features, like a way to sort puzzles you’ve downloaded or an online puzzle browser in the app, which is kind of a shame, but for allowing access to an infinite amount of sudoku, I think it serves its purpose well enough. Plus it’s made by one guy, so I can’t fault him too much.

4. Slay The Princess

I haven’t even played this one, I just watched a playthrough of it, (I plan on actually playing it soon) but it might have some of the best writing I’ve ever seen in a game. It’s extremely poetic, and the monochromatic art style accompanies it very well. The narrative is extremely compelling all the way through, and, for me at least, the ending is perfect. If you’re the type that doesn’t like things to be left open-ended or up for interpretation, it might not be for you, but even if you choose to ignore all the subtext, it’s still a fun ride start to finish. This is one of those games that’s hard to talk about without spoiling things, but it makes a very strong case for “games as art”.

3. Splatoon 3: Side Order

Listen, alright, if Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree can be a game of the year nomination at The Game Awards, I can put Splatoon 3: Side Order on my list. (Unrelated, but Google tried to autocorrect Erdtree into Nerdtree, and I think that’s funny.)

Side Order might have made it on here purely based on concept alone. A Splatoon roguelike just inherently kicks ass, everything else is just icing on the cake. The aesthetics are great, the music is great—the story is only okay, but like who really cares? The biggest win for me is that they brought in one of my favorite characters from deep within Splatoon’s lore, Dedf1sh, who I never thought we’d get to see in an actual game. They don’t really have any reason to be there, but I’ll take what crumbs I can get, okay?

This one is also kind of cheating in a way, but Side Order also got me back into the online multiplayer of Splatoon 3, which is just super fun in its own right, especially with all the content updates it’s gotten since launch. I’m also sort of indirectly lumping in the Grand Fest as part of Side Order too, since it surprisingly had about the same level of quality. (Plus it kind of has similar iconography, and a color palette of white/silver with rainbow accents.) They had no reason to go as hard as they did, but they decided to create an entire venue that served no gameplay purpose other than being cool to explore, and featured live motion-captured performances by the in-game musicians. That’s not even mentioning the BIG Big Run that preceded it, or the Grand Splatlands Bowl, which is the best Tricolor stage they’ve added since the Zelda one. It was wild.

Also RIP Team Present; we were too numerous for our own good.

2. Animal Well

I know many people boil this down to the game Dunkey published, but I think it deserves a lot more credit than that. I’ve had my eye on this game since seeing it in Dunkey’s E3 2022 Video, before Bigmode became the publisher, purely because of how stunning it looked.

Where most Metroidvanias place their emphasis on combat and bosses, Animal Well focuses primarily on atmosphere, an aspect of these games that often gets lost or forgotten, and it makes for a wonderful set piece for a puzzle platformer. The water area in particular is gorgeous, especially if you decide to leave the CRT scanlines on. This game also has an edge over a lot of other Metroidvanias for actually being nonlinear. Areas will have pseudo-gates that require multiple items from other areas to get through, which means that you’ll likely visit all of them before collecting even a single MacGuffin™.

My only critique is that a lot of the post-game stuff relies too much on ARG-style collaboration, and for someone playing on their own, a lot of the puzzles can feel more like esoteric playground rumors, eliciting a feeling of How was I supposed to know to do that? Aside from that, though, everything from the starting area to the final boss is pure video game magic.

1. Tunic

That last bit about Animal Well’s post-game puzzles? Tunic does it right; it has the single best puzzle in any video game I’ve ever played, and it’s just approachable enough for most players to tackle it all by themselves. Nothing has ever made me feel as intelligent as when I found and solved it all on my own.

This game is so much more than the top-down Zelda game it looks like at first glance. I won’t say too much about it, since discovery is one of its major themes, but it has two main hooks. The first is the main collectible you find on your adventure, which is pages of the game’s instruction manual, similar to one that would come with older games. This book is multifaceted; it acts as your map, a tutorial for new controls, and will allow you to learn all sorts of little tips and tricks about the game and its world.

The second hook is that almost all of the text is written in a wholly original language, which never gets translated at any point in the game. Everything uses this language, including the instruction manual, item menu, and in-game button prompts. Even the simplest of actions often start out as mysteries, which gives them much more weight when you finally learn how to use them.

Combine those with an overworld that’s brimming with secrets, Dark Souls style bosses, and an ethereal, mesmerizing soundtrack, and you get one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. I don’t have an organized top ten list of my favorite games of all time, but I can assure you that Tunic would be somewhere on there.

Honorable Mentions:




Okay I’m really tired now. Beatles review will hopefully continue next year. See you then.

Oh, and thank you to those who listened to my music this year. It means the world. 💜

Back to Top