2024: The Year In Review (Deluxe Edition)

One of the many facets of my musical obsession is spending an ungodly number of hours each year constructing a year-end best-of mix. I've got double-CD compilations dating back to 1966, the first year of my existence on this cursed plane. (Yep, I still remember being an infant when that first year-end rolled around, barely old enough to crawl, carefully cobbling together the finest of the Beatles and Byrds and Stones on my first CDR-burner.)

[You can find Spotify versions of all of them right here--enjoy!]

However, the last few years I've largely stuck with single-CD mixes. That was partly due to a shortage of material, partly just plain laziness. But I'm circling back now to flesh these out (having since picked up additional music I didn't necessarily have at the end of the year). I've just spent the weekend expanding my abbreviated 2024 mix into a deluxe 2-disc edition. I actually had enough decent music for 3-4 discs, but made a few cuts (including some personal favorites, like Wussy, which I omitted because I try to keep these on the more upbeat side for car listening)... but you can still find my longer playlist here.

A few of the tracks don't stream--both King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and, more recently, Vanessa Peters have pulled their music from Spotify (Peters recently posted a lengthy explanation, and good for her for following her conscience; wish I had the willpower)--but you can find most of it below.

BTW, my favorite new addition here, that I only stumbled across after completing the original shorter mix at the end of the year, is "All My Fault" from country rock supergroup Fantastic Cat. Great country song for those of us who don't listen to country songs (and amazing video to boot)!