I think I consumed more content this year (with the sole exception of books; I’m embarrassed by how far from my goal I am closing out the year) than I have in a very long time. I figured instead of doing just books or just albums, which is what I’ve done in the few years I’ve done a year-end recommendation, I’d do the top five albums, books, and TV shows of this year. The albums all came out in 2024, the TV shows all had one season come out in 2024, and the books have all come out before 2024 but I read them all in 2024 and I make the rules so it counts.

Albums

5. Fauxllennium by TV Girl and George Clanton

This seven track album, right off the bat, is one that rewards multiple listens. The first time I listened to it, honestly, I wasn’t really sure I’d be listening a second time. I got into TV Girl pretty much entirely via their first two albums which, if you’re a fan of them you’ll know, are pretty different from their more recent albums. They’ve branched off into almost a more techno, less vocal, remix-based sound which I almost never enjoy listening to unless I’m drunk at a bar, and only then do I like it if I know the words and can sing along. But TV Girl has taken that sound and vibe, and made it into something entirely their own, and they did a damn good job, too. This album is a pretty stark contrast from their first, and my favorite, album French Exit, but it’s still pretty damn great. I can’t really put my finger on why, but a track like “Butterflies” for example, is a song I probably would actively dislike if it were produced and performed by any other artist. Maybe because it comes after a fantastic three track start to the album, “Summer 2000 Baby,” “Everything Blue,” and “Fauxllennium,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if that song became one of those songs that comes on while I’m drunk at a bar, and I can’t wait to sing along when it does.

4. Aghori Mhori Mei by The Smashing Pumpkins

The only reason I don’t feel like I can claim The Smashing Pumpkins as one of my all time favorite bands is because I’m not entirely familiar a number of their albums, especially some of the more recent ones. There’s actually an album of theirs that I only know from the times I’ve been at home in Michigan and my dad has played it in the car. That said, I do absolutely love The Smashing Pumpkins, a lot, and in my list of 500+ of my favorite songs in order, there are probably three or four Pumpkins songs in the top 50. I haven’t updated it in a minute, but I think upon my next update, though it may not break the top 50, I think “Who Goes There” could very well become the next Pumpkins song to break the top 100. The Smashing Pumpkins were actually the last concert I saw before Covid, which isn’t that big of a deal now, but in March of 2020 I thought that very well could’ve been the last concert I ever saw. I went with my dad, and we had GREAT seats, like fourth row, and I vividly remember watching James Iha, eyes closed, just fucking jamming on guitar. I would’ve loved to watch him perform some of the songs on this album live. I think that’s a really strong indicator of a great album: if you see a band live before the album is released, and you wish the album was on their setlist of that show. Even if I see them again, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recreate that feeling of watching James Iha, being so close that I could actually see his facial expressions. That experience most definitely changed my views as a Pumpkins fan; before, I would’ve considered myself a fan largely due to Billy Corgan’s vocals and his distinct sound as a frontman. Now, I would consider myself a more complete fan so to speak, as much a fan because of each and every musical component (though now I’m partial to the guitar) just as much as Billy’s voice. This is probably my favorite Smashing Pumpkins album of the 2000s—I think it’s a great showcase of the talent that exists within the entire band.

3. Songs Of A Lost World by The Cure

Robert Smith has definitely still got it; this album fucking delivered. The Cure has always been one of my loose favorites; I don’t think I’d put them in my top five, but they’d for sure be a contender for my top ten. I wouldn’t say I’m intimately familiar with their entire discography, but I’ve listened to every one of their albums at least twice, and I can honestly say this record holds up with the rest of them. Every one of the eight songs on this album is great, even “A Fragile Thing,” which I didn’t love at first but has since started to grow on me. At 65, Robert Smith sounds just about as great as ever, showing off his melodic vocals especially on what might be my favorite song on the album, “And Nothing Is Forever.” I remember when my dad told me they were coming out with this album I was a little skeptical. Having been scarred from blink-182’s truly awful 2023 album, I’m now pretty skeptical about one of my favorite bands coming out with an album decades after their prime. That said, I think the consistency in quality that The Cure has shown on this album is enough to restore my faith.

2. Evergreen by Soccer Mommy

My number one artist for this year, and for good reason. I’m surprised I didn’t see more of her in Instagram stories on Spotify Wrapped day. Apologies here because I know this is a controversial statement, but Soccer Mommy deserves the spot in pop culture that Chappell Roan has taken up. I think Soccer Mommy absolutely deserves way more press and popularity, and if everyone would look away from Chappell for just a second (which she has actually implied that she wants) they would recognize that there are artists out there with similar sound, and who deserve the same amount of praise and accolades. Evergreen is her sixth studio album, and man did it deliver. “Driver” is one hell of a banger if I’ve ever heard one, and “Abigail” is a song I definitely could have used a solid ten years ago, but better late than ever. Her vocals transcend her previous ceiling, and while I still think Color Theory is an unbeatable album, I think Evergreen is a close second. I’ve been listening to this album on average once, maybe twice a week since its release in October, and I foresee it staying high up in my rotation well into 2025.

1. The Way It Goes by Ella Galvin

I’ll be honest and say my bias is showing here, but even if she wasn’t one of my best friends I’d still recommend this EP to any and every music lover I know. In fact, I have a friend whose Spotify Wrapped boasted a whopping 300 minutes of listening, and I’d recommend her EP to him, too. Ella’s sound is unique, unlike really anything that’s out there today. She draws inspiration from Amy Winehouse, Ella Fitzgerald, and Etta James, the likes of which I just simply have not seen in any other modern artist of the 2020s. Her soulful voice has depth, and she utilizes instruments and sounds which I had never been exposed to before I met her. The EP is only six songs, but they are 18 minutes of fucking magic. The opening track “Pink Shoes” features an entire verse of rap, and it’s good rap, contrasted by an acoustic ballad, “Spare Me,” on which she plays guitar—a jack of all trades, indeed. Very near to my heart is the track “Don’t Look Ahead,” which I heard Ella play live, kind of on accident, in April of last year. Apparently, after the show, I went up to her and told her that was one of my favorite originals I’d heard her play. I don’t remember this, but she told me she was actually gonna get rid of that song, it wasn’t finished and she was ready to abandon it. I told her she should absolutely not fucking do that, and here it is on the EP one year later, still one of my favorites. The EP closes out with another one of my favorites, “Passing the Time,” which features another multi-talented artist and friend of mine, Lady Di Mega Diva (check out the music video for her single “Saved You For Later”). All in all, in trying to view this as objectively as possible, I think this EP is justifiably my number one recommendation from this year.

TV Shows

*Disclaimer: I know most people would do movies here, and while I do absolutely love movies, I haven’t seen that many new movies this year and I definitely watch way more TV than I do movies

5. I Kissed a Girl

No shame, I am a sucker for good reality TV, and I am a firm believer that trashy does not equal trash. Some of my favorite reality TV shows are about as trashy as they come, and I think that just adds to their charm. I Kissed a Girl is a much needed reality show, that is actually a new, authentic, and original concept of a dating show (at least from what I’ve seen; I’ve heard it’s similar to Love Island but I wouldn’t know because I’ll never spend a minute of my time on that homophobic trash [not trashy—trash] show, but I digress). This show is the first of its kind, and I ate it the hell up. It’s a bunch of really hot British lesbians staying at an Italian Masseria for a summer, and each week they engage in a ‘kiss-off’ where they have to decide if they are going to kiss the girl that they are currently seeing, or if they’d like to kiss someone else. If both girls want to kiss each other, then they get to stay another week, but if one of them doesn’t turn around to kiss the other, then they are both at risk of leaving for the summer lest they kiss one of the remaining girls. I’m well aware that there is some bias here, too, as this is the first show of its kind and the queers are hungry for trashy reality show representation. Though I do wish this show was a little bit trashier, because as it stands it’s actually pretty wholesome—which isn’t a bad thing at all when it comes to dating shows, as I’ll get to when I discuss the #3 show—I think I Kissed a Girl certainly delivered when it comes to pioneering a new wave of queer reality TV.

4. Abbott Elementary

Aside from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this is the funniest sitcom on TV right now. Like there must be something about Philadelphia because Philly-based sitcoms are something else. The characters are likable, the premise is great, and it’s about time they made a workplace sitcom in an elementary school. Plus, and I won’t stay on my soap box for too long I promise, this show is the pinnacle of representation. The vast majority of the characters are Black, they’ve got a gay guy who may or may not be Jewish, and an Italian woman. I’m loosely working on a ranking of the greatest sitcoms post-Seinfeld, and having watched every single episode of over 15 sitcoms, with part of my criteria being that it had to have at least five seasons, I’ve spent a LOT of time watching. What I’ve noticed is that even in the most diverse of casts, none of them are even 50% straight and white—they’re all more than 50% straight and white. Abbott Elementary has put that ratio to shame, with only two white cast members, and one of them is gay. Now, aside from the fact that Quinta Brunson did that, this show is damn funny, and this season has been arguably the funniest season yet. What’s more, the show deals with real life problems and issues that are happening right now; it’s political without being overtly political, which I think is the greatest way to convey a message. It’s timely, it’s heartwarming, it’s relatable, and it’s bingeable. I can honestly say that when a Wednesday night rolls around and there isn’t a new episode, I get legitimately sad.

3. The Golden Bachelorette

The Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises are about as trashy as they come, and I’ll admit that that’s part of what makes them so great and why I love them so much. The Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette franchises, however, couldn’t be less trashy if they tried. And that’s exactly why I love them so much. I can say with pretty much absolute certainty that there was not a single episode of The Golden Bachelorette that didn’t leave me teary-eyed at one point or another, and the finale had me fucking sobbing. As heartwarming as Abbott Elementary is, The Golden Bachelorette is about 100 times that. Watching these 60- and 70-year-old men, some of whom have endured some of the greatest tragedies that life has to offer, get first date jitters, absolutely giddy when they received a rose and fall in love, both with the golden bachelorette and with each other, was about the purest form of entertainment I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. The thing about the Golden bachelor franchises is that they don’t need to edit and produce in order to create a villain to keep people coming back week after week; these people are in the latter stages of their life and are quite simply opening their hearts to romantic and platonic love in a way that many of them never thought possible again in their lifetimes. The two hours that this show aired every week was truly an integral part of my year. Not only as a form of entertainment, but as a lesson in hope and in life. I know this probably sounds insane to say of a reality dating show, but trust me on this one. There is a lot to be learned and a lot to be loved from this show.

2. Only Murders in the Building

I’ve been an avid watcher and fan of this show since the pilot premiered. It does require some suspension of disbelief, because it’s now heading into season five and the audience is supposed to believe that there has been a new murder in the same building every single season. But once you get passed that, it’s actually a pretty great play on a classic whodunnit. Easily the best part of this show is the star-studded cast; Martin Short, Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, Meryl Streep, and Paul Rudd, with guest appearances from Cara Delevingne, Melissa McCarthy, Tina Fey, Jane Lynch, the list goes on. It’s almost like a prolonged SNL skit written by the Coen brothers with a million cameos around every corner and how much of a clusterfuck it. Despite the premise being murder, I actually think I’d describe this show as a feel-good show. It’s a quick binge, it’s funny, and it breeds a whole host of conversation if you watch with friends. If you’re not watching this show, or at least planning on catching up before the season five premiere next year, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

1. Bad Sisters

Anyone who knows me knows I have a slight obsession with Bono (and I use the word slight intentionally because 1. It’s partially a bit, and 2. I definitely have some obsessions that are much stronger than this one). That obsession has grown beyond just Bono, and has extended to his kids, both of which are wildly talented and are both relatively close to my age. His son Elijah fronts the band Inhaler, which I absolutely love, and his daughter Eve stars in the Irish Apple TV original, Bad Sisters. And let me tell you, she is fucking awesome. This whole show is fucking awesome. I didn’t think there was gonna be a season two, given that the premise of season one didn’t really lend itself very easily to more follow up, but season two, which is still in full swing, was a very pleasant surprise. This is one of the more compelling dramas I think I’ve ever seen. People are talking a lot about Jake Gyllenhaal’s Presumed Innocent which is a miniseries on Apple TV and has a loosely similar premise, and while that show was definitely worth a watch, it doesn’t hold a candle to Bad Sisters. I always love it when I don’t recognize a single member of the cast—and I didn’t recognize Eve Hewson as Bono’s daughter until I saw her name in the credits of the intro a few episodes in—and it’s still a fucking incredible show. In contrast to Only Murders in the Building with a cast that is its biggest strength, this show is a testament to how much talent is out there even without big names.

Books

*Disclaimer: None of these were published in 2024, but it wouldn’t be a year-end recap without the best books I read this year, and books are timeless obviously.

5. Her Here by Amanda Dennis

I got this book for free at a writer’s conference in 2022, and I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted not spending money on something, especially knowing how little of said money would go towards the creator of that thing, but man do I wish Amanda Dennis got the few cents’ worth of royalties from my owning this book. Published by a small press, I do feel as though I read this with a little bit of a bias, as I desperately want to do my part to keep small presses alive, but I’ve also read a lot of books that were published by small presses, and I can’t say that all of them captured my attention and felt worthy of a recommendation quite like this one. Part of what makes small presses so great is that they recognize talent and high quality writing, and they prioritize that over commercial marketability. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly some beautiful prose floating around the commercial book market right now, but so much of what the majority of people read nowadays is plot driven stories designed to keep the reader’s attention. There’s something to be said about pure, artistic writing, and while the plot of this book is definitely still a doozy—dualing storylines of a girl who went missing in Thailand and another girl trying to find her with nothing but her journals as a guide—it’s Amanda Dennis’ lyrical mastery of the written word which makes this book so compelling.

4. The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

A cheesy romance which I probably never would have picked up if it weren’t gay, but to be fair, that’s the case with most cheesy romances that aren’t either critically acclaimed or written by Nicholas Sparks. This one, though, is honestly the dream. The main character is a little plain I’ll admit, that is until she concocts an elaborate lie that results in the most adorable fake-real-fake romance in the history of the lesbian fiction that I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot. I breezed through this book, primarily because that’s what happens when I pick up a book with a lesbian main character, but also because it’s the perfect beach read. It’s light, it’s fun, it’s cute, and it keeps you engaged the whole time. No disrespect at all to Alexandria Bellefleur (I will absolutely be buying and reading each and every one of her subsequent novels) but this book is exactly the kind of marketable fiction I’m talking about, in the best way possible.

3. Stay True by Hua Hsu

A close friend of mine recommended this book to me, and she doesn’t remember this, but she told me she was hesitant to lend it to me because it’s the kind of book that I’d want to own. As someone who does, in fact, like to own all the books they read, I simply said okay and I purchased the book myself. She wasn’t the only friend to recommend this book to me, so I went into it with pretty high expectations. I won’t say they weren’t met, because here I am saying it was the third best book I read this year, but what I will say is that I have pretty high standards when it comes to memoir, and upon finishing this book, I wasn’t entirely convinced. It was a great book; I thought that from the second I closed it for the last time. It was engaging, well-written, and reckoned with a lot of themes that touch all of us in a way that felt both personal to Hua and relatable to his broader audience. But there seemed to be something missing for me that I couldn’t quite place. Until a bunch of months went by, and I found myself still thinking about Stay True. This book is one that grew on me with time. I hardly ever re-read books, but I think this one could be one that I read a second time at some point in my life. I feel like I owe it to the author and to myself to read it again, but even still, I would highly recommend it. In the time since I read it, this book has given me a whole new perspective on my relationships, and the people in my life who are important to me. What I’ll leave you with is the fact that if you’re going to embark on the journey that is this book, make sure you’re in a stable place mentally, because it will stay with you for quite some time even after you finish it.

2. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

As I said, I hardly ever re-read books. But on one of my trips home this year, I made my family go to Schuler Books, a local, independent bookstore that had recently opened up in my home town. There hadn’t been a bookstore in our town since Barnes and Noble closed when I was probably in middle school, so I was pretty excited to learn of not only a new bookstore opening up, but a new independent bookstore opening up. My mom got me the second two books in the border crossing trilogy, of which All the Pretty Horses is the first. I first read All the Pretty Horses for a class in undergrad, and it was the book that introduced my to one of my favorite writers, Cormac McCarthy. I figured if I was gonna read the rest of the trilogy, a refresher couldn’t hurt, so I reread All the Pretty Horses. It held up, and in fact, I think I even liked it more the second time. McCarthy is such a wordsmith, it’s almost hard to believe that an ordinary man can produce such art with his words. One of his trademarks is a severe lack of punctuation, which is something many other writers have tried and haven’t quite mastered the way he has. It’s funny, I usually don’t like Westerns, like at all, but All the Pretty Horses (along with a couple other Western and Western-esque Cormac books) might be one of my favorite books of all time. I’m very glad I reread it, and I’d definitely recommend it to readers who do and don’t like Westerns alike.

1. Girl A by Abigail Dean

I got this book from Book of the Month a few years ago, and it’s almost made it’s way into my ‘currently reading’ on Goodreads a handful of times, but I just kept deciding on another book first. Usually the books from Book of the Month are on the lighter side, and even if they’re not (much like this one, which is dark and heavy as can be) they’re still pretty quick reads. I’d just finished The Crossing which is the second book in the Border Crossing trilogy, and it took me much longer than expected. I was falling way behind on my Goodreads goal—which I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even meet a third of this year, and I blame Atlas Shrugged for that, but irrelevant—so I needed something quick to get me back into a routine and closer to my goal of a novel a week. I decided to finally pick up Girl A, and I’m so glad I did. This book was compelling as shit. I’m not sure if the story is actually based on the Turpin family or not, but it bares an uncanny resemblance to their case, the main difference being that Girl A takes place in the UK. The story follows Lex, the second oldest of seven children born to a couple who verbally, mentally, and physically abuses their seven children until Lex, Girl A, escapes the house and finds someone to call the police, resulting in the seven kids’ freedom. It’s a raw, emotional, and riveting story that hooked me from page one. It takes place in both the past and the present, and with the way Abigail Dean tells this story, it’s truly a wonder that this book didn’t gain more commercial success.