Back in July this year I noticed that I hadn't been keeping up with this year's new music, much less listen to the "hits" as they had their "rotations" of radio play. So I listened to some albums, the best of them being The Smile's Wall of Eyes and Green Day's Savior. They're both very good, but as far as standout tracks are concerned, only three made a deep impression on me...that was in July: click HERE to read the article I wrote about it on July 9th. I never did go deeper into current album releases, what with tragedy and medical crisis permeating my life for the remainder of 2024. But those three songs remained strong and meaningful for me, and now that I can instantly call them up to play with my Amazon Music account, I have listened to them many, many times over the past few months. So there won't be any long list of my top favorite songs of 2024: just three. At #3, it's Read the Room by The Smile. As I wrote back in July, this is a British alternative rock band composed of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with drummer Tom Skinner. Wall of Eyes is their second album...and they must all dig their little group because they just released a third studio album. Read the Room has cryptic lyrics...that's all right since many of my favorites over the years were pretty difficult to understand as well. It's the musical counterpoint going on here that drew me to it, especially during the complex instrumental ending. At #2, it's impossible not to understand the words to Green Day's lyricist and vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong's powerful The American Dream is Killing Me, which pretty much sums up my own thoughts as to the course of our society as it has largely degenerated over recent years. Finally, my favorite song from 2024 is also from The Smile: I Quit. I quickly found myself attached to it not only for its incredibly blunt and pertinent lyrics about making a permanent transition and taking a new path, but also for its haunting and very complex music. Below are some of the words...
Wild ghosts
Wild feelings
Leaning windmills
A dead drop
This is the end of the trip
A new path
Out of the madness
To wherever it goes
To wherever it goes
And wherever it goes
And wherever it goes
And wherever it lies
And wherever it lies
I liked this song before learning of my son's passing and not long thereafter deciding to retire. It reminded me of the ending to Lord of the Rings, when aging Bilbo Baggins utters the following line as he is about to board the boat to take him on to the Grey Havens: "I think I am quite ready for a another adventure!" May your own new adventures bless you...sometimes, though, they come whether you're ready for them or not...
As my father got older he and I used to have conversations about what lies in front of us as we start to wind down our lives. I would tell him that I thought of death as life's greatest adventure, a step into the unknown and something that I didn' t find distressing to think about. I didn't remember that line from Lord of the Rings, but it has been 50 years since I read it so I'll forgive myself for that particular memory slip. I wish you and Melissa peaceful hearts in this new year that's ahead of us.
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