5 Songs I Didn’t Review in 2024…
…but I wish I had
Everyone should know by now that I’m really trying to tone down the music journalism these days, but I can’t help myself a lot of the time when there’s interesting material coming out. In order to make things a little easier for myself, at the beginning of the year I was doing a monthly article on the coolest singles that had come out, but by summer I had more or less stopped because I wanted to focus on other things. As such, the second half of the year had a few epic tracks that came out that I didn’t shout out because I was trying not to do so much music journalism.
Do keep in mind that I didn’t include anything from the albums I reviewed, so there were amazing songs on “Time II,” “Smalltime Players,” “Yesterwynde,” “Sorrowbreaker,” “Sorry for Nothing,” “Green Divine,” and other albums, but you’ll have to read the reviews to learn which songs were my personal highlights.
With that in mind, here are a few songs from 2024 that I feel deserved reviews even though I never got around to writing them up.
Lasse Soundblaster - “PVC 1999”
Of course, I know Lasse best from Pihka Is My Name, but it seems that his partner-in-music, Henna Helasvuo, got a school placement in Berlin, so some solo music is in order while she’s away for studies. I think it took a few listens for this song to click with me, but when it did, I couldn’t stop playing it, over and over. It’s so catchy and fun, plus I agree with the sentiment that I miss 1999 in many ways. He’s released two more singles since this one and they’re equally fun, so keep an ear open for his solo album in 2025!
Delain - “Dance with the Devil”
I know there’s been a lot of… what I would call needless controversy about the split between Delain and its band members. As someone who would rather not compare apples and oranges, I just wanted to say how delighted I was by this song, which feels like Delain felt back when “Lucidity” and “April Rain” came out back in the day. It’s nice to hear bands going back to their roots!
Marko Hietala - “Frankenstein’s Wife”
When it comes to fun, catchy songs that’ll get stuck in your head immediately, look no further than “Frankenstein’s Wife” by Marko Hietala. Good grief, the regularity with which this banger was stuck in my head this year was out of this world. There’s a wee bit of Goth darkness still lurking in Marko’s music, but with more of that hard prog that he’s getting a bit more known for. I can also recommend his newer single, “Impatient Zero” and all of the covers he did for the most recent season of Väin Elämää. It’s been a good year for this guy!
Ott ft. Balkan Bump - “Muggy Boneheads”
I got into Ott to a degree in 2022 when I was listening to a lot of psychedelic music, so when an album came out called “Hiraeth”—a word that basically encompasses the BBEG from my children’s book series, I had to devour it immediately. Of all the songs, “Muggy Boneheads,” which features Balkan Bump, was the one that I had to keep stopping to put on repeat, largely thanks to that incredible funky beat provided by the brass. This was easily one of my favorite songs of 2024!
Let it All Burn - “Afterall”
There’s something a bit funny about a band that keeps releasing songs that are a little too on-the-nose on a personal level and the latest single, “Afterall,” by Let it All Burn, as well as one of its predecessors, “Closure will Prevail,” have been exactly those sorts of songs, which has led me to keep an eye on them. “Afterall” shows off a nice bit of djent paired with melodic vocals and a really well-made music video. While there is something perhaps slightly too-familiar about the leading melody in the chorus, I’ve yet to pinpoint what it reminds me of, and the lyrics are a different take on loss than I’m used to, which was refreshing. I really hope these guys are able to release an album in 2025.
