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- Heathen Disco Music Newsletter #0056 (January 3, 2025)
Heathen Disco Music Newsletter #0056 (January 3, 2025)
Dissecting the 2024 best-of list of another ... how disrespectful
Happy new year, readership!
Everyone who puts out a Best Of list for a year’s worth of music needs to do quite a bit of reflection, and there’s always something I feel like I missed, or didn’t represent that should’ve gotten it. The designation is arbitrary in a lot of ways, but when the statement is made, that’s that. If you forgot something, maybe it wasn’t worth remembering.
But there are a few instances every year where I look at someone else’s list and it seems like they’ve lived in an entirely different world than I have. Music doesn’t stop because the year of its release did, but as we get further away from dates of list publication, there’s less and less of a chance we’ll ever be able to reconnect with these sounds. If I didn’t perform due diligence in this fashion, how would I know what I missed? And you, you may never have even seen the list to begin with. I don’t wanna let you down in that regard. Nobody likes a gatekeeper (unless it’s me, trying to pry $3 a month from you to keep this endeavor alive), and besides there could be some real treasures left by the wayside … or could there?
Until some newer releases drop for 2025, it would make sense to start examining some of these lists, alongside me reviewing everything that landed on my hard drive in 2024 (and we’re 1/6th done with that). And we’re going to start with a name from my past: Otis Hart, my former editor when I wrote for Dusted, who’s since built a home in editorial at NPR Music. I can thank Otis for giving my old endeavor Still Single a platform (and the reason why many of you are here in the first place) as well as foisting off hundreds, possibly thousands of vinyl records sent to him from the world over for me to dismantle every month.
I’m starting here because I was absolutely unfamiliar with most of what made Otis’s list. I didn’t tell him I was going to do this, because he’s gonna find out anyway. I’ve always respected his tastes, and he certainly doesn’t fit the “NPR” stereotype where music is concerned. If we’re lucky, that institution won’t be vaporized in the coming years so that some billionaire can become more wealthy, so might as well call more attention to one of its lynchpins here. Lastly, I’m not here to denigrate his or anyone’s opinions; if there is a disagreement, you’ll find out, and that’s that.
Anyway, here is the post (also at https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0iIyty24t/?img_index=1). If you wanna read my thoughts on these, or get quick links to stream the music, it’s all below the jump. Consider subscribing, can’t find out unless you fuck about, right?
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On with it…