Every week, I check the schedule of new albums coming out and listen to the ones that catch my ear. Then I make a note throughout the year of the ones that made a strong impression. And then to finalize my Best Albums of 2024 list, I re-listened to everything on that shortlist to confirm whether or not I did in fact like them enough to enshrine them among the crème de la crème.
As for my favorite new songs of the year, they can be hard to find, since I live in a city with reliable public transportation, and thus rarely drive, and thus rarely listen to the radio. So I hope that I’ll encounter some good ones on the albums that I seek out, or that they otherwise reach me via pop cultural osmosis. Also, I try to stick with songs that were released as singles, but it’s okay if they weren’t.
Anyway, here’s the music that happily stuck with me in 2024:
This moment will be stapled in my mind forever (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky”1 theme.
Former SNL cast member Kristen Wiig joined the Five-Timers Club last week, and now the next new episode features some returning favorites in the guest lineup, with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Chris Stapleton. When the April shows were announced, I wondered if this would be a once-in-a-lifetime case of two five-timer inductions two episodes in a row. But in fact, this is only Gosling’s third host outing. (I guess his previous appearances just loom inordinately large in my memory.)
This is also Stapleton’s third time as the musical guest.
Since one of Gosling’s most notable accomplishments in the past year is his performance of the song “I’m Just Ken” in the motion picture Barbie and on the Oscars stage, I will be reviewing each sketch with the format “I’m just…”, in which I proclaim how each segment made me react in stark, forthright terms.
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Dream Scenario (Theaters)
–It’s a Wonderful Knife (Theaters)
–The Marvels (Theaters)
TV
–The Curse Series Premiere (November 12 on Showtimes, Premieres Early November on Paramount+ with Showtime)
–Whose Line is it Anyway? Season Premiere (November 14 on The CW) – Although according to Wikipedia, this is actually a continuation of the season that began in the spring.
–Ghosts UK American Premiere (November 16 on CBS) – The inspiration for the American version, now on the same channel.
Music
-Cat Power, Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert
-Cold War Kids, Cold War Kids
-PinkPantheress, Heaven Knows
-Chris Stapleton, Higher
This review was originally posted on News Cult in January 2018.
NewsCult Entertainment Editor Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.
Love It
A Message From the Former President – This is one of the most masterful impressions of all time because it is just bursting with ideas. “The ‘W’ stands “wassup?!,” “Washington, Lincoln, and I want to say, Kensington,” “Shoe me once once, shoe’s on you. Shoe me twice, I’m keeping those shoes” … I could go on forever! And amidst all the goofy bonhomie, there is also a strong clearheadedness about what points are being made, most prominently being: the main reason liberals are now romanticizing the George W. Bush presidency is because at least his disasters were a lot sillier.
This review was originally posted on Starpulse in January 2016.
If “SNL” is going to book Adam Driver, then he is going to be called upon to do two things (assuming the writers are not suffering from temporary insanity): reference “Star Wars” and utilize his famous intensity. Surprisingly enough, the former is used sparingly; meanwhile, the latter is taken advantage of throughout the episode (which, depending on your opinion of the “SNL” team’s mental state, is either very much expected or totally shocking). This is the right decision. “Star Wars” is bigger than Driver (or any one person), and reliance upon intergalactic material could have been a distraction, but the character conviction he brings is comedy dynamite if deployed properly.
6th Republican Debate – The standard clown car jokes about the GOP field have mostly exhausted themselves, and Darrell Hammond’s legacy Trump impression is really the only performance here that has a strong enough default mode to run on autopilot. Thankfully, Ted Cruz gifted the comedy world a notorious moment with his “New York City values” comment. Instead of just repeating that jibe (which this sketch could very easily have gotten away with), Taran Killam’s Ted makes it just a little bit absurd by pairing it with “Seinfeld” references. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough to get by. B-
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