2024 - Album of the Year: Daphne Guinness - Sleep

Daphne Guinness' "Sleep" is an album that I deeply loved upon first listen. Helped in part by my eventual Song of the Year, "Burn", it was easily my most played release of 2024! And it wasn't just "Burn" that pulled me back. The entire album is solid and full of POP! perfection! Opening track "Hip Neck Spine" pulls you in immediately with its dramatic strings and sets the vibe for the rest of the album. Album closer "Time", whose Hercules & Love Affair remix was the first thing I heard from the album, is another one of my top tracks of the year. Perfect closer! In the middle, you have so many other POP! masterpieces: the pulsing-synth of "Volcano", the cheerful chorus of "Bedazzled", the hard-hitting truths of "No Joke"! "Love & Destruction" and "Dark Night of the Soul" are also wonderful! I love it all!!
Thank you Daphne Guinness for this album! Here's to more POP! soon! Much love from Ooberus Oblivious!
PS. If you love it too, buy it here!

2024 - Song of the Year: Daphne Guinness - Burn

I've been addicted to this song since I first heard Daphne Guinness' latest album "Sleep". The chorus is perfection and makes this song a complete earworm. Plus we got a fantastic reimagining with Hercules & Love Affair! What more could I ask for? Nothing! This song is perfect and I am proud to announce it as my 2024 Song of the Year!

Best of 2024 - Albums

24 of my Top Albums of 2024!!  Album of the Year coming Tuesday!

Buy these albums if you can (links provided)!! Support these artists!  Support MOST artists!!  

2. AURORA - What Happened to the Heart?

3. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

4. Telenova - Time Is a Flower

5. Allie X - Girl With No Face

6. Neon Space Men - Neon on My Naked Skin

7. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk

8. The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy

9. Red Sleeping Beauty - Diary

10. Moto Boy - Drown Out the Noise

11. Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless

12. Meyverlin - Therefore

13. Camera Obscura - Look to the East, Look to the West

14. Bubble Tea and Cigarettes - We Should've Killed Each Other

15. ionnalee - Close Your Eyes

16. LEATHERS - Ultraviolet

17. The Marías - Submarine

18. Petracovich - This Is Easy, This Is Love

19. Michelle Gurevich - It Was the Moment

20. Ginger Root - Shinbangumi

21. The Death of Pop - FLOG

22. Tei Shi - Valerie

23. Cigarettes After Sex - X's

24. Sassyhiya - Take You Somewhere

25. St. Vincent - All Born Screaming

 

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part 5

The last bits of POP! goodness before my Song of the Year is revealed!!

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part 4

Just a few more amazing POP! nuggets for your listening pleasure!

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part VANESSA

The most significant moment in ALL of music this year was the resurfacing of POP! Goddess VANESSA!! She gave us THREE new 2024 versions of three of her biggest hits! She played live a couple times (AND I GOT TO SEE ONE OF THOSE!!!!) She made thie year even more magical! All three of her 2024 versions are in my top songs of the year, obviously!! VANESSA, I LOVE YOU!!

So Good - Give Me My Presents Vol. 3

Well I can't think of anything better to share today! I don't like this...I LOVE IT!

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part 3

Here's another handful of 2024 POP! goodness for you!

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part 2

Another group of my fave songs of 2024, featuring: AURORA, Telenova, Amber Mark, Moto Boy and Lo Moon!

Best of 2024 - Songs - Part 1

A handful of my favorite songs from 2024!! Featuring: Telenova, Red Sleeping Beauty, Tatyana, Julia Holter and El Perro del Mar!

Best of 2024 - EPs of the Year

My short list of best EPs of 2024!

Amber Mark - "Loosies"!

Beauty Queen - "Low Life"!

Mini Trees - "Burn Out"!

Ibibio Sound Machine - "The Black Notes EP"!

Amor Butano - "Te noto cambiada"!

Primer - "Round and Round"!

Ooberman - Mary Grows Old

One of my favorites off the final Ooberman album "Carried Away", this song has been stuck in my head for days! Features one of my life mantras: "If life and precious time is gone so quickly / Find love in every day before you die"

Franz Ferdinand - Audacious

I'm way behind on this one, but I like it! Franz Ferdinand's new album "The Human Fear" will be out Jan 10th!

Celeste - This Is Who I Am

New track from Celeste featured in the show "The Day of the Jackal"!

Haute & Freddy - Scantily Clad

Youtube suggestions doing it right! I can dig this VERY much! New song from Haute & Freddy ... clicking the FOLLOW button NOW! Their track "Anti-Superstar" is also fantastic!

Double Mixte & Farah - Witchcraft

Nothing better than some witchcraft to bring in the holiday spirit! New collab single from Double Mixte & Farah!

Baths - Sea of Men

New from Baths who releases new album "Gut" on Feb 21st!

Club 8 - Nervous at Heart

Club 8 have been dropping monthly tracks (just like other faves Red Sleeping Beauty) and it has finally culminated in their new album "A Year With Club 8"!

Other People's Children - On a Clear Day

Just because they popped in my mind today...a delicious slice of indie synthy pop from Other People's Children!

El Perro del Mar - Ox and Lamb

El Perro del Mar releases a haunting new song for the end of the year!

Silent Poets - Don't Break the Silence (feat. Virginia Astley)

Just because I love Virginia Astley's voice so much! Here's a track from Silent Poet's 1997 album "For Nothing" where she's featured!

A Flock of Seagulls - Him

Latest single from A Flock of Seagulls off their new album "Some Dreams", out Dec 13th!

The Cure - Wrong Number

I realized I didn't post anything today and I heard this song on my way home from the airport and it brought me such joy!

The Shortwave Set - Is It Any Wonder?

The Shortwave Set released two wonderful albums of psych pop goodness. Their debut, "The Debt Collection", from 2005 featured this awesome track!

See Venus - Each and Every Word

Here's a lovely little song by See Venus from Miami. To my knowledge, they only released one album "Hard Times for Dreamers" in 2004.

Dlina Volny - Flair

Great new track from Dlina Volny!

Miss Lily Banquette - My Secret Love

Amazing song from Combustible Edison songstress Miss Lily Banquette off the soundtrack for 1996 film "Grace of My Heart". The track was co-written by Lesley Gore! I need to watch this film again as I haven't seen it in years!

Marine Research - Chucking Out Time

I've given so much love to Heavenly over the years here but never given any attention to their short-lived, post-Heavenly project Marine Research! They only released one excellent album in 1999, "Sounds From the Gulf Stream" and it features this excellent track along with so many other goodies!

Yah-Yah Littleman - All Over the World

Yah-Yah Littleman was a band from San Francisco who released the gem of an album known as "The Orange Album" in 1994. I picked it up randomly at a small record shop in Davis in 1997 and fell immediately in love with its energy. This wonderful album closer was featured on one of my earliest compilation cassettes "The Tape of Love".

A Smile and a Ribbon - Bobby Pin

Here's a 2007 classic from short-lived Swedish indie popsters A Smile and a Ribbon! They only released on album, "The Boy I Wish I Never Met", and it is wonderful!

Superheroes - Someone Else

Just playing some random tracks in my library and heard this gem from 2003. Superheroes' self-titled final album is a pure joy!