Our Favorite Music of 2024

Summary

Dissect Podcast Episode Summary: Our Favorite Music of 2024

Podcast Information:

• Title: Dissect
• Host/Author: The Ringer
• Description: Analyzing the music and meaning of one album per season, one song per episode. Host Cole Cuchna dives deep into albums by artists like Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Radiohead, Beyoncé, Tyler, The Creator, Frank Ocean, and more.
• Episode: Our Favorite Music of 2024
• Release Date: December 17, 2024

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1. Introduction

In the season finale of Dissect, host Cole Kushna welcomes his longtime friend Camden Ostrander for their fourth annual "Favorite Music of the Year" episode. They reflect on a highly eventful year in music, marked by significant releases, memorable collaborations, and cultural moments that have shaped the musical landscape of 2024.

2. Favorite Musical Moments of 2024

Tyler, The Creator’s "Chromacopia" Rollout

Cole emphasizes Tyler, The Creator’s ambitious rollout for his album "Chromacopia," calling it "the best rollout of the decade so far" ([05:28]). He highlights the grandeur of the visuals, such as spraying "Chromacopia" on sidewalks in D.C. ([05:33]) and surprise pop-up performances on shipping containers, which kept the momentum alive post-album drop.

Kendrick Lamar vs. Dr. Dre Battle

The hosts discuss the cultural significance of Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre’s battle, which dominated music conversations throughout the year. Cole mentions how, despite the contentious nature of the battle, it reawakened interest in lyrical analysis and fostered deeper music conversations ([02:04]). Camden notes the ongoing public engagement and the lasting impact of this historic event ([04:50]).

Dochi’s Concert Experience

Cole shares a personal story about attending Dochi’s intimate concert in Oakland, where the genuine connection between the artist and her audience left a lasting impression. He describes a poignant moment where a fan cried during a performance, underscoring the emotional depth of Dochi’s live shows ([07:00]).

Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" Video

Camden praises the release of Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" video on the 4th of July, lauding its creative Easter eggs and how it elevated the song’s impact. He remarks, “How is he going to add even more to this? And then to just hit it out of the park” ([06:37]).

3. Favorite Songs Not From Favorite Albums (Lucy’s)

"Image" by Magdalena Bay

Camden selects "Image" from Magdalena Bay’s album "Imaginal Disc" as a standout track. He appreciates its catchy melody and narrative complexity, noting a key beat switch that signifies a transformational moment within the album’s story ([10:35]).

"On or Off the Drugs" by JPEG Mafia

Cole chooses "On or Off the Drugs" by JPEG Mafia, highlighting its innovative use of AI vocals featuring Future. He describes the song as a “masterclass” in production, marveling at how JPEG Mafia effectively utilized AI to enhance the track’s appeal ([13:21]).

"I Think About it All the Time" by Charli XCX

Both hosts commend Charli XCX’s "I Think About it All the Time." Cole emphasizes its emotional honesty and the intimate melodies, saying, “Every time I listen to that song, I actually tear up because it's like...” ([15:40]).

4. Album That Surprised Us the Most

"Laundry" by Matt Champion

Camden expresses his surprise and delight with Matt Champion’s solo album "Laundry" ([18:20]). Formerly a member of Brockhampton, Champion’s solo work defies expectations with its creativity and genre-blending style, showcasing his growth as an artist.

"Empathogen" by Willow

Cole was initially skeptical about Willow’s "Empathogen" but was thoroughly impressed by its sophisticated musicality and unpredictable melodies ([20:21]). He praises Willow’s commitment to musical evolution and her ability to balance complexity with accessibility.

5. Underground Albums We Loved

"Please Give Your Body a Break" by Nico Tripoti

Camden highlights Nico Tripoti’s "Please Give Your Body a Break" as an underground gem ([23:53]). He appreciates the album’s emotional depth and its role as a therapeutic response to personal hardships.

"Ask a Magnolia" by Quadrille

Camden also recommends Quadrille’s "Ask a Magnolia," drawing comparisons to Vince Staples and MF Doom for its lo-fi beats and thoughtful lyricism. He praises Quadrille’s ability to address real issues through his music, calling him “a really gifted rapper” ([25:18]).

6. Top Albums of 2024: Honorable Mentions

"Ritual" by John Hopkins

Cole commends "Ritual" by John Hopkins for its immersive 45-minute experience, likening it to a symphony that takes listeners on a hypnotic journey ([28:38]).

"Saturn Days" and "Heaven on Earth" by Blackstar Kids

Camden praises Blackstar Kids’ final projects, "Saturn Days" and "Heaven on Earth," for their strong narrative concepts and their exploration of finding joy in mundane aspects of life ([33:01]).

7. Top Albums of 2024: Official Top 3

Camden’s Top 3:

1. "Bando Stone and the New World" by Childish Gambino Camden celebrates this album for its maximalist production and emotional resonance, stating, “This is the most Childish Gambino has ever been” ([86:11]).

2. "Alligator Bites Never Heal" by Dochi He lauds Dochi’s artistic evolution and impactful performances, highlighting her ability to connect deeply with audiences despite smaller venues ([55:08]).

3. "Charm" by Claro Camden highlights "Charm" for its lyrical strength and emotional depth, particularly praising the track “Girl So Confusing” for its intimate narratives and sophisticated arrangements ([41:12]).

Cole’s Top 3:

1. "Chromacopia" by Tyler, The Creator Cole ranks "Chromacopia" as Tyler’s most complete work to date, praising its cohesive sound, innovative production, and personal depth. He remarks, “Chroma Copia has rapping and... equally as much melody and songwriting” ([64:12]-[64:40]).

2. "GNX" by Kendrick Lamar Cole is highly impressed by "GNX," highlighting Kendrick’s disciplined lyricism and the album’s consistent high-quality tracks. He states, “Kendrick is the greatest rapper of all time” ([44:33]).

3. "Ritual" by John Hopkins He appreciates the album’s hypnotic and expansive nature, encouraging listeners to experience it fully for its transformative impact ([28:38]).

8. Song of the Year: Our Favorites

"Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar

Cole firmly declares "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar as his top song of the year, emphasizing its overwhelming cultural significance and lyrical mastery. He states, “Not Like Us is the best song of 2024. End of discussion” ([70:55]).

"We Are God" by Childish Gambino

Camden selects "We Are God" by Childish Gambino as his favorite song of the year. He describes it as the epitome of Gambino’s artistic journey, merging past themes with new narrative elements. “It is the most Childish Gambino. Childish Gambino has ever been” ([86:11]).

"Take Your Mask Off" by Tyler, The Creator

Cole also highlights "Take Your Mask Off" from "Chromacopia" as a significant track, praising its thematic depth and seamless integration into the album’s narrative. He comments, “Take your mask off is a great statement, individual statement piece” ([76:49]).

9. Conclusion

In wrapping up, Cole and Camden reflect on the exceptional quality and variety of music released in 2024. They express gratitude for the artists who have pushed creative boundaries and connected deeply with listeners. The hosts encourage listeners to explore their curated playlist featuring all discussed tracks and invite them to share their own favorite albums and songs of the year on social media.

Cole hints at the upcoming Season 13 of Dissect, teasing new content inspired by recent music events and cultural phenomena. Both hosts sign off with excitement for the continued evolution of music and the artists shaping its future.

Notable Quotes:

• Cole Kushna: “Tyler has the best rollouts of the decade so far.” ([05:28])
• Camden Ostrander: “GNX is amazing.” ([44:33])
• Cole Kushna: “Not Like Us is the best song of 2024. End of discussion.” ([70:55])
• Camden Ostrander: “We are God by Childish Gambino is the most Childish Gambino has ever been.” ([86:58])

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Transcript

[Cole Kushna]

Welcome, everyone, to Dissect. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Today is our annual favorite music of the year podcast episode. I'm joined with Camden Ostrander. I think this is our fourth year doing this.

[Camden Ostrander]

This is year four. Cole. This is a lot.

[Cole Kushna]

That's great. It's been a while. Yeah, that's pretty wild. This has been an exciting music year, to say the least. We had our part one of this episode. The year was so packed with great stuff that I decided to do two episodes. One, if you missed it, last week was focused specifically on hip. We went through the Drake and Kendrick Lamar battle, and we also highlighted our favorite rap lyrics of the year and dissected those. It was a great episode. So check that out if you haven't. But today is our traditional episode where we're going to cover our favorite music of 2024, including our favorite musical moments of the year, our favorite songs, our favorite albums. We're going to do some underrated albums, some Lucy's got a bunch of categories we're going to go through. Um, but let's just open the conversation up, Cam, with. And for. For those that don't know, I should introduce you properly. Camden Ostrander is here. Uh, he was the co writer on because the Internet season, which is celebrating its 11th anniversary today as we record this. But also, you helped with the Igor season, the Mac Miller season, and the MF Doom season. So longtime friend of the show, our fourth year doing this annual episode, and we were just talking before we started recording of just how jammed packed this year has been for music. And we were reflecting on last year's 2023 episode, where we're kind of struggling for picks, and this year, it was like, man, how am I going to talk about everything that I love? This year you had the similar experience, right, Ken?

[Camden Ostrander]

Last year, we had a bit of a talk that was kind of sad. There wasn't enough good stuff. And then this year, it's too much.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, I don't. I guess all the artists didn't talk. They didn't at their union meeting. They weren't conversating. And planning this out very well for us, I guess, was what happened. But this year's been incredible.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's been a special year for a number of reasons. We had this kind of pinnacle, kind of trademark event of the year, which was Kendrick and Dre, that kind of centered music conversation, which I felt like, you know, as ugly as that conversation has gotten, and especially now, where the remnants of it feel like kind of gross, where the. It's just the Stan culture on either side still talking about it in a real, like, combative way where analysts, of course, are going to talk about it because it was a historic music event. But I do feel like the conversation around that battle has kind of trickled around and led to like, just great music conversations in general and kind of got us actively thinking about lyrics, analyzing music again. And it also happened to be that we just got incredible projects from just a handful or more than a handful. Yeah, everybody dropped.

[Camden Ostrander]

Every single person.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. So we're gonna get into a lot of those in detail later. But I thought the first category we should probably go into was our favorite musical moment of the year. I feel like I haven't remembered a year like this where we're gonna talk about songs and albums, but there's were so many kind of tangential experience, experience driven moments around the music that were just so, like, visceral and exciting and, you know, group text threads and YouTube reaction videos or just so many great moments this year. I was curious to hear. I know we got a few each. We can just kind of. If you want to just talk about all your moments and kind of nominate those. I don't know if you have a favorite, but just kind of talk about some of the music moments that you enjoyed this year.

[Camden Ostrander]

I mean. Okay, so we're gonna. We gotta not start with the Kendrick winning all year thing because it was amazing to see him win all year long, like, every time. That was great. I. I really liked, based on my fandom and my taste, Tyler, the creator and Childish Gambino. Their years starting off, like, for the two of them when they performed together at Coachella and like, they finally came together after so many years of just like a weird, maybe little tension or anything like that. Them coming together was amazing. And then we saw, like, them kind of keep working and give us little hints of eventually getting Gambino on Tyler's album. And I mean, as a big Childish Gambino fan, that also came with, like, Gilga Radio, which we had like a few episodes of Donald Glover, like, putting us onto a bunch of music, teasing a bunch of new content. Like, there's a cartoon with Zack Fox that we're gonna get that we have like a teaser from that and this. Like, he was having so much fun with, like, fake ads and a bunch of songs. Like, that was so fun. Like, that was so engaging for me at least. Like, I remember that.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So I had. Yeah, the roll. There's just been great Rollouts. I guess I'll start in that vein. I'll start with the chroma copia rollout, which was I think Tyler's best rollout. And we're talking about, I think I would say Tyler has the best rollouts of the decade so far. And this one was. Felt like his best. It was the most engaging. I felt like the clean. I mean all of his rollouts have been so clean and, and strategic and everything dropping. You know, he has everything planned out ahead of time. But this one just felt bigger in a way. I don't know if it just had to do with the visuals feeling so grand. It was sick.

[Camden Ostrander]

I walked around D.C. and I saw chromo copia at my feet, like spray painted on the sidewalk.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, that's sick.

[Camden Ostrander]

It was insane, man. It was crazy.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, the shipping containers and then even like the post rollout, the post album drop surprise pop up shows where he was just performing solo on top of the chromacopia shipping container. I thought was really great to keep the momentum of the rollout going. To ship those actual containers around as kind of these spectacle things where people got to go and touch it and take pictures with it was just so. We've never seen anything like that. We've seen versions of it, but it just felt really unique. And then I think probably the biggest statement of all was that the music lived up to the rollout. To have a rollout so grand to have a flop of an album would obviously be an ideal, but the album is fantastic and I'm going to talk a lot more about it this episode. So that was definitely just so fun. Of course we get right after, essentially right after Tyler, we get Kendrick's, I guess, rollout. He didn't really have a rollout, but we got him the whole year 2024 concept.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, it was a Kendrick concept.

[Cole Kushna]

It really was. Honestly, it was. But so we had that. Another highlight for me was the Not Like Us video. That dropping on 4th of July was so perfect. All the Easter eggs like talked about a little bit last episode, but that song was already a smash hit before the video. And to have the pressure of what's he going to do? How is he going to visualize all this stuff? How's he going to add even more to this? And then to just hit it out of the park in the way that they did was just phenomenal. So that was definitely a memory of watching that for the first. I mean all the surprise drops because obviously he's not telling us anything and he's Just dropping. And it's like the excitement of just, oh, shit, like there's something here and you gotta like scramble to go watch it. Okay. Another musical moment for me was dochi1. The interview that I did with her was of course, really special for me. It was the first artist interview that I've done on Dissect. And I couldn't think of a greater artist to do it with than Dochi. She was such an incredible interview behind the scenes before and after the interview, she was so sweet and genuine and you can just tell she's like a great person. But also her concert. I got to see her in concert a couple months ago in Oakland. And her tour for Alligator Bites Never Heal was these really small venues. I mean, the venue I saw her in Oakland was like essentially a bar that had two stories and maybe held 150 people. Maybe. Maybe 200 at most.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

And the level of performance that she gave was special. She had a whole set design on stage, her outfit changes. She had a. The DJ was phenomenal. And you can just tell the connection she has with her audience is so real and genuine. There is a woman that I was. I was sitting up on top of the balcony, so I got to overlook the stage. And the lower. I guess just the general admission seating, or not seating, standing, kind of the pit area, which was the only area because it was such a small venue. And I just got to watch those fans in the front row. And there was this one girl I kept going back to over and over because I could tell she just was so connected to the music. And on one song she started to cry. And it was just a cool experience seeing that relationship in person. There's really nothing like it. So that was maybe, to be honest, out of all the moments this year with that, that concert was like, okay, this is something I have a privilege in witnessing because she is not playing. She is on a rock. She's on an incredible ascension again. She's not going to play 150 person venue ever again. So to be able to witness that was phenomenal. So. And then, of course, we talked a lot about it last episode. But I have to mention the weekend, quote, unquote, the weekend, which was the weekend. The weekend, the Friday, Saturday, Sunday of the battle. And just getting all those songs in such a rapid fashion and everything that went around, that there's a musical moment that I don't think anyone's gonna forget if you're in this kind of culture. So I feel like we're cutting even this category short. Cause There were so many other incredible moments this year. So let's move on to our next category. We're going to talk about our favorite song that is not from our favorite album nominations. So these are the.

[Camden Ostrander]

A little Lucy.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, we call this the Lucy's. So again, it is our favorite songs that are not from. Because we know that probably our favorite songs are from our favorite albums. We're trying to shine some love on some other songs and albums that we love this year. So why don't you go first?

[Camden Ostrander]

All right, so the first one, I'm going to go with Cole. This is a song and a project that is very up our dissect alley. It's Image by Magdalena Bay off of their album Imaginal Disc. But I don't know if you've spent much time with this. I had spent some time with this album earlier in the year, like, listening, really enjoying it. I love this song. Like, I think it's just so catchy, and I love the song. And then, like, in the last, like, month or so, I was like, man, this song is really good. There's a part where she's singing about in 22 minutes, she's gonna change.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

And I was like, wow, this is really. That's really cool. I wonder why she's singing that. I guess it was just a thing. But if you look at the album and you do the dissection, there's a narrative on this album. They've put it together online and with their music videos. And like, 22 more minutes into the album, there's a key beat switch.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, shit. Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

And there's a key, like, this is the sec, the next act of the album, and it's about this, like, the main character is, like, transforming the album title. Imaginal Disc is like a double entendre for, like, an imaginary CD that's being marketed to the main character. But Imaginal Disc is also apparently, like, a thing in bugs that makes them, like, metamorphosize, okay. And transform. So it's like this double entendre for, like, this transformational thing. Image is early in the album, sets everything up. And again, I wish I had been able. I've dissected the S'moreson, but it's got everything we like, and the song's incredible. So, yeah, that's my loose one. I want to shout out right now.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. So I just got turned on to this. I can't remember when it was released. I don't know if you have it pulled up, but I don't know. Yeah, I heard about this project just loosely, maybe. I don't know. Whenever it came out, it made some noise. And then when I asked people on Twitter what their favorite project was, this one kept coming up. So I was like, oh shit, I need to. I need to.

[Camden Ostrander]

It makes sense for our listener.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. So then I listened to I just this. Just this past couple of days before we recorded this. I played it. I have image was the song that stuck out to me. I put that on repeat. Uh, it's such a.

[Camden Ostrander]

You could play forever.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's insane. It's really, really good. And that groove is just so addictive. And so I was. I was impressed with the project. And now you hearing it's got our stuff. I was going to say it's like dog whistle. I'm like getting excited. So I'm definitely going to listen even closer now because that sounds. Because yeah, it sounded fantastic. And if it has that kind of stuff, then I'm even more excited to keep listening. So. Great shout out there. Were you going to do more than one or is that the one you had?

[Camden Ostrander]

No, for the Lucy. I'm doing the one. How about. How about you?

[Cole Kushna]

I just had. I. I'll just not even describe these, but I had to. Just me. We're not going to mention them later. Let me just say the name and the song because I just wanted to be acknowledged because one, I just want to. But also I don't want people to get on our ass about not. Not acknowledging they are.

[Camden Ostrander]

You're right.

[Cole Kushna]

All the greatest. All the great stuff that everyone loves this year. So I gotta say either on or off the Drugs by JPEG Mafia me.

[Camden Ostrander]

The owner of the drugs can't hold.

[Cole Kushna]

The buzz I cannot atone Cause you the owner of the drugs aboard Incredible song. It's. I mean if you want to talk about how to use AI correct. Like that song is like a masterclass and like it's a tool that could be used for better or for worse. And JPEG Mafia, I think made it a great song using an AI vocal of future. But just. Which is just kind of crazy to say.

[Camden Ostrander]

The project is crazy. My favorite is It's Dark and Hell is Hot with the Brazilian sample.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Yeah, that one's the one. But yeah, we'll talk about more in my honorable mentions. I'm going to be talking about that album a little bit more.

[Camden Ostrander]

Okay.

[Cole Kushna]

Sweet, sweet. Speyside by Bon Iver. He put out just a little like four song EP song called Speyside. Beautiful, classic. Bon Iver. Real Love. I know we're going to talk about Childish Gambino later, but maybe real, real love. I was re listening to the album today in preparation for this and that song, I remember loving it when I first came out and it just hit so hard today. I love the it's kind of corny but it's also just fantastic and sweet. Crazier by Absol and Jid I called that out on our hip hop episode last week, but that was definitely one of my favorite hip hop songs of the year. Blue Slides by Schoolboy Q Incredible song, incredible album. Of course, gotta mention not like us euphoria like that. All the Lucy's that Kendrick dropped that we talked about kind of at nauseum last episode. Girl so Confusing by Charlie XCX and Lorde. I know we're going to talk about that more so I'll save but I had to acknowledge it on my own. And then here is my favorite Lucy. Officially my favorite Lucy is I Think About it all the Time by Charli xcx I think about it all the.

[Camden Ostrander]

Time that I might run out of time But I finally met my baby and the baby might be mine.

[Cole Kushna]

Brat is a phenomenal album. It was early on my list as it was kind of the album to beat for a long time of my favorite album this year. But this song is such an anomaly on the project and it's so perfectly placed because Brat is this like 24 hour party thing and high energy songs for the most part and just kind of just serving us all these different kind of musical looks all kind of aesthetically in the same box of like fun, energetic, great music. But then we get to, I think about it all the time and it's just, it's just one of those songs that kind of like take the mask off. It's like after the party you take your makeup off and you're, you're getting into your pajamas and it's like you get into bed and you're kind of buzzed and you're thinking about life and this is that song to me because yeah, yeah. The song is about her visiting one of her friends that had just had a child and it kind of making her reflect on her own choices of should she have a child and her kind of clock is ticking and she think, you know, she talks to her partner about if she should stop her birth control and it's just such a like honest and raw song. The melodies are great. The, the musical landscape's super intimate and it's just, I don't know, there's just like, you know, Tyler actually ends up talking about similar things on Chromacopia. But I remember thinking, like, when I first heard. I think I think about it all the time. I was like, I've never. Never actually heard a song like this. And I'm sure it's been done, but it's. To. To put it on this album by this artist stands out. It really stood out in a way that I'm like, every time I listen to that song, I actually tear up because it's like, I can feel how genuine those. It's like there's only a few decisions that you get. Like these major decisions. And it's like, yeah, they are. You get to an age where it's like you kind of have to pull the trigger one way or the other, and someone just being super honest about it. And such a beautiful song, I thought was just really impressive. And again, its placement on the album is so perfect, so had to shout that one out. So, next category, Cam, let's go to album that surprised us the most. So this is one that, just for the listeners, give them context. This is something that maybe we put on based on a recommendation or. Or just had a certain kind of expectation going in, and we were surprised by how much we enjoyed the project. So what do you got?

[Camden Ostrander]

All right. So for me, the album that surprised me the most, it came out of left field, both in the quality and in, like, the style of the album. As Mika's Laundry by Matt. Matt Champion was a part of Brockhampton. He was usually just regarded as, like, this is one of our rappers. He's just going to come in with bars. He doesn't really talk that much in a lot of the Brockhampton interviews. And, like, sometimes they alluded to, like, some of the stuff he would do behind the scenes, but, you know, he was just a rapper. At least that's what I thought. And then he comes out with this post Brockhampton album after their breakup. And this thing is incredibly creative. It is incredibly weird. He's, like, just playing with weird motifs. He's going into strange places. Like, if you think of, like, dank moss and, like, weird, organic material, it's like he's, like, harnessing that. He's got a bunch of different styles on the album. He's stretching his voice. He's obviously influenced by some of the artists who he worked with, like Dijon, who he's talked about in songs before. So we thought, like, oh, they were just friends. Like, when he comes across with all these different styles on the Album. It's amazing. And then the other thing is he's kind of kept going with this project all year. It came out early. He's, like, been, like, publishing these short stories that seem to be some of the characters on the album. He has this small project he released recently, which is, like, one of the characters has four favorite other songs, and those four other songs came out. So he's working with these very interesting concepts. And it's just like. It's because if I was gonna say, who after Brockhampton is gonna make the best album, who's gonna. I did not. I'm sorry, Matt. I didn't expect it to be, like, I did not think this was coming. And, like, I've been playing it all year in my Spotify Rapt. It was like, all of the songs were in my top hundred. I couldn't believe it.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, wow.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, I love this thing.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Yeah. I just briefly got. You gave me a heads up on this album before we recorded, and I just got to kind of skim through it. It sounded definitely, like, not what I was expecting for sure. So I'm gonna spend some more time with that. And we should. Just as a reminder, we're gonna put all the picks, which. What's your highlight song from this album you're gonna put on our playlist?

[Camden Ostrander]

I would say Aphid featuring Dijon.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

So all the picks, we're gonna put all them on a playlist. You can find it linked in the episode description. So my album that surprised me the most was by Willow, her project, Empathogen. So I was turned on to Willow by actually Dochi. So in. In the interview, I asked her, you know, what's a song or an album that you've been really enjoying in this moment? And she named Willow Willow's album. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. I've never really, you know, I think maybe I just fell into the perception that she's Will Smith and Jada Pinkett's daughter. There's a nepotism thing. Maybe she has some talent, but she's also, like, getting a treatment, you know, getting some privileged treatment, which is probably true, but one, I listened to the album, and it's just, like, really, really good. Just genuinely awesome. And the musicality is what really struck me. She is working. I don't know. I haven't done the deep dive on her band, but I also did a deep dive on her on her. And it seems like she's very talented and has really taken the study of music very seriously. And you can tell in the music. It's like she's working with odd time signatures. Her melodies are incredibly unpredictable. It still is, like, weirdly accessible for how weird and strange it is and. Or, like, just how different the music is. But it was like, talking about being surprised. I was, like, incredibly surprised with just how. Just the musicianship alone was great and. And still being kind of accessible. And she's only 24 years old, so it's like, okay, if she's already at this level, just wait, like, five more years. And I feel like, yeah, she should she. If she continues this evolution. I mean. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

So it's wild that she was sort of in, like, a pop punk realm with, like, some of her releases and, like, the anxiety, like the band with Tyler Cole, like, then to do this again, like, out of left field. I don't know. For me, at least.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things where it's like, she had a lot of attention early, and that's never. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's never who you. If you're. Whatever music you're. Whatever music you're making at 18 is typically not the music you're going to end up making at 28 or whenever you actually fully come into your own. And so I think, yeah, maybe the early perceptions of her and her music kind of shadowed over what she's doing now for some of us. But obviously she has a pretty solid fan base. So I'm going to put Big Feelings, which was the bigger song from the album on the playlist. But I would definitely just suggest everyone just check out the actual album. It's really phenomenal. Okay, so next category is going to be our favorite quote unquote underground album. I don't know what else to call this, but essentially it's like an artist with less. Less than 1 million Spotify listeners, you know, just a smaller artist that we wanted to put on and talk and highlight here.

[Camden Ostrander]

All right, I want to go first with this one. I really love this album that I'm about to talk about. It is called Please Give youe Body a Break by an artist named Nico Tripoti. This album came out, like, at the beginning of the year, and I'm gonna talk about Nico in a minute. But essentially, as I understand it, like, this album is in the realm of if people need other artists, like Mickey Dijon, like, it's in that kind of realm of style. He's mostly like a producer. I've seen him Producing some other work this year. I think the album is incredible. It is informed apparently by. He kind of experienced like massive heartbreak and then like loss at the same, like a double triple whammy happened in his life. And then this album was sort of like the response to that. And the album title, Please Give youe Body a Break, combined with the material and all the songs. This coming out at the beginning of the year just like struck a really direct chord with me and really kind of directed the way that I lived for like the first half of the year as far as just like taking rest, doing my best to calm myself down after stuff I've gone through. That one was incredible. The only reason I know about this, Nico, I think, used to work for Pigeons in Plains.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

Which is like a music blog. They've covered dissection. I've followed their stuff for like a very long time. When. Because of the Internet. When we did the dissect season on. Because the Internet, Nico was like. He reached out to me. He was like, oh, this is really cool. And like, we had some conversations about it.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, cool.

[Camden Ostrander]

So I just knew him as a guy and be like, oh, this is cool.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And then like, I saw that he put out an album and I was like, oh, I'll listen to that.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And I just was. I was just blown away.

[Cole Kushna]

That's really cool.

[Camden Ostrander]

I can't. It's an amazing piece. It's only like seven songs, but it's like. I think the thing is beautiful. I love it.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, great. I can't wait to listen because I haven't got a chance to listen yet. But that sounds really special. And that backstory is crazy.

[Camden Ostrander]

I know.

[Cole Kushna]

Does he still work there? Is he doing music full time?

[Camden Ostrander]

I think he's doing music full time because he's been constantly production on other people's albums is what I've been seeing this year.

[Cole Kushna]

Amazing. Yeah. Okay, so I wanted to highlight an artist named Quadrille. He is a rapper out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has a project called Ask a Magnolia. Straighten up the soldier but they gun you down, you don't feel the rounds yet Whizzing by your head Hear the whistle still official this the ghost of Brandywine Huntster Offsprings. It's really strong, I think. Yeah. For like, a comparable artist, I would say, like Vince Staples comes to mind in terms of like, just cut. Just in terms of maybe approach to like, cadences and like their. Their voice kind of shares a similar high pitched, nasally quality in a good way and a little bit Like Kenny Mason. Ish. Like, not so much like the singing, but just like in tone of voice when they rap. But yeah, it's kind of like lo fi MF doomish in terms of just like there's like, shorter songs. Some of them don't have choruses. But he's a really gifted rapper, really great beat selection. Just kind of hits every mark that I'm looking for in like, a up and coming rapper and artist who seems to be playing with concepts and actually talking about stuff and, you know, rapping about real things in his music. The song that I'm going to put on the playlist is called the Ghost of Brandywine. But every song is great on this project. So Hugh is the one. I think he has, like, I can't remember how many listeners. Not enough listeners, I think. Not enough people that listen to dissect. If you don't know about him already, like, you're 100% going to like what he's doing. So talk about. Check out Quadri's Ask a Magnolia. Okay, so let's. We're going to start getting into the major category, so let's take a quick break and we'll come back with our album of the year and our song of the year. All right, we are back. It is time for the big category, album of the year. So we're going to start with some honorable mentions. I know we have a couple each, so why don't we go back and forth one each of our honorable mention and then we'll get to our album of the year. Albums of the year. I guess we're going to nominate three official album of the year with one overall winner. But let's start with some honorable mentions.

[Camden Ostrander]

All right, sweet. I guess I'm gonna start for me, two of the people that I wanted to talk about here are people who released two albums this year. And I'm like, I wish they had been together. Almost like it's impossible to talk about. Kenny Mason is who I want to talk about. First he released an album called Nine and then I think a mixtape. I don't know what he's calling it called Angel Eyes. I think these things were amazing. Angel Eyes is probably my preferred one. Even though it seems like something put together after Nine, like. Cause it was the second release and it seems like something he just put out. But Kenny Mason is building narratives. He's got hits on these Hood Rat and Angel Eyes off of Angel Eyes and then jumping in off of Nine. These songs are incredible. I could listen to them forever. So Kenny Mason and I think we keep talking about that.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. I think he's come up on three out of the four.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, like he's building, he's building, he's building. The narratives are building.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, yeah. It feels like one of those artists that are just like, why isn't he big yet? And it's just, it's bubbling, it's bubbling. It's just, it's going to take one song and then people will discover the back catalog and he'll be. Well, I mean, he's already well on his way, of course, but I think we both have seen a promise in him that hasn't been fully realized. That should probably be realized soon if we're betting. So I'm glad he gets another shout out on Dissect. Third year in the row, probably. Okay, so I'm going to start with a album called Ritual by John Hopkins. So John Hopkins, Higgins is a electronic artist producer. He had kind of a breakout record in Immunity, I think was the first one. And this was like 10 years ago or something. And then since. Since more. I wouldn't say they're like traditionally classical electronic albums, but he has veered for a few years away from more like beat oriented music into like music for meditation and music for like psychedelic trips. And then Ritual was kind of a return to kind of maybe somewhere in between those more ambient driven, kind of vibe oriented, experiential kind of music and the more traditional electronic approach. Ritual, though, is like a. It's a. I think a 45 minute piece, I would call it. It's more akin to a symphony or something than a. Than an album because all the songs, it's just one song, they're broken up in a chart, in a track list just for streaming purposes. But it's all one 45 minute piece and it's like a journey. I would say if you. If I would say save this album for like a drive where you're going to be able to listen to it in full. I listen to it in full. I've only listened to the album once and I'm recommending it because I. I'm like, I'm not going to listen to this unless I have a full 45 minutes to experience the whole thing. I don't. I can't just really describe. It was a musical experience listening to the. I was driving on, driving home at night from somewhere. Maybe it was actually from. From Dochi's concert. Okay. And good headspace. Yeah, it was just incredible. It like just sucks you in. It's like Very hypnotic. And it's like. I think he said something. It's like a. It's a piece of music that it's supposed to kind of expand your consciousness and inspire thought. And that's what it really. And I, I didn't know that going in and I had this experience and then I read about what he was trying to do with it and I was like, oh, that's the exact experience that I had. So I don't, I can't really describe it except that it's like it really does put you in this state of consciousness that feels very connected to like everything somehow okay. It's just like. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's like I really can't recommend that experience highly enough. I think it's really, really, really great. So next time you have a 45 minute drive or you want to just sit down with some music and lay in your bed and just listen, this is, I'm telling you, it's incredible experience. So sweet. What's your next one?

[Camden Ostrander]

The next one is again like a double project. Blackstar Kids is kind of like alternative, hip hop, kind of pop. They've released like a lot of projects in the last like five years, but this is their final project, which kind of sucks.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh really?

[Camden Ostrander]

That this is their. This is their final. They're done. So like they're kind of, I think, splitting up and like they have. Each individual member has projects coming out this next year, I believe. But the two albums, Saturn Days and then Heaven on Earth. Earth spelled kind of like Tyler would say, right? Urf. The albums are really strong narrative concepts. Saturn Days being this woman named Maggie getting like abducted or having like a trip and going to Saturn with the concept being that Saturn is a planet just for black people. And then like all the songs kind of COVID different situations that she goes through. And the songs are great. Like the concept is great. And then in Heaven on Earth, which is like a follow up project, Maggie has passed. But like the story as it's told is like that she became like an author and she got a bunch of people to learn from the things that she learned and the impact that she made on the world. But the thing for me that's amazing about these albums is something that Blackstar Kids has done their whole career, which is like the music to me at least really solidifies finding the joy in the mundane stuff of life. Like Saturn Days is about Saturday. We go through that slog of the week and then how do you still find joy in the weekend? Like with all the Stuff going on with all the stuff that you're going through that the world is going through, Finding these joys. Cause Blackstar Kids first hit was just that life with somebody else sounded like fun on Sounds like Fun and that they've kept such a strong concept at the core of their stuff and kind of reached this with the final project. I love these two things and I love that they had to do two projects. They had to do the narrative and a follow up. I just loved it. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I got to skim through this again. It was like you put me onto it before and I. I just got to kind of skim through it before this episode. But it sounded incredibly interesting the way that they're moving through genres and it's like, it feels like like one. A line that I'll talk about again this episode. I talked about it last episode is I'm Everything by Dochi and it's.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's just live that I was going.

[Cole Kushna]

To say, like it's like it really describes so much of what's going on with these like 20 something year old artists that are been influenced by just all these different types of genres and just feel no pressure in boxing themselves in musically and just switching between genres seamlessly where it doesn't feel like a gag, it just feels like a very organic expression. And that was. That was something I thought about when I was skimming through. It was like, oh, they're fluidly switching from more R and b melody to 90s hip hop to like just every single thing you can think of. It felt like it was hitting and it's really sad to hear that they're breaking up. How long have they been a group?

[Camden Ostrander]

I guess like five or six years. But like the babe, Gabe, she has talked about like she has a project coming out and then like Ty, who's another one of the members, he has like a production alias and then he has stuff coming out like they're incredible.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah. I'm just happy they like made so much stuff in such a tight time frame. It's crazy. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. So the next one I'll highlight is let's Go Brat. We don't need to spend too much time on it.

[Camden Ostrander]

We're gonna do Brat.

[Cole Kushna]

Cause we talked about. I think we did our like our mid. I think we did an episode earlier this year. Halfway through the year, kind of. Yeah, this was my kind of one to beat and it got. It got beat sadly. But it's still a great album. It's so fun. Incredibly well produced. It kind of Broke through culture in a really fun way. It seemed really, like, really important for her as an artist. I know she had spoken about, like, I just wanted to make an album that wasn't worried about singles. And then she made her biggest album of her career, which is. I love seeing that from artists that take the risk and just do. Do the art. And they get rewarded for kind of going against what they've been trained to do as pop stars. And it's only going to embolden her to do even more stuff like this in the future. So I'm really glad that. To see the moment that it had. I hope it feels like that out of all the ones that have been nominated for Grammy of the album of the year at the Grammys, like, it feels like I would hope. We can't be Taylor Swift again. It just, like, it just cannot be. And like, Cowboy Carter's great album, like, Beyonce has been deserving of that award for. So obviously, if Beyonce get it, it gets it. It's fine. But like, Brat, if anyone's gonna beat Beyonce, Brat feels like it has the best case.

[Camden Ostrander]

Brad is like a unique, uniquely, culturally ubiquitous thing.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

I can't. It's so awesome that we had this. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Okay. You want to highlight something else?

[Camden Ostrander]

I mean, honestly, you're gonna talk about all the other ones that I wanted to, and then I was gonna say brat. So, like, we'll get to them. We'll get to them.

[Cole Kushna]

All right, so. Oh, go ahead.

[Camden Ostrander]

I think you had one. How many?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Blue lips. I talked about this again at the earlier of the year. Incredible body of work. I re. Listened to it again in preparation for this production. Insane introspective bracket. It just. It hits all the marks, all the. You know, all the. All the. The categories I want from him as a maturing hip hop artist. So definitely wanted to shout that out again. And then also, JPEG Mafia. I laid down my life for you. Another incredible project from JPEG Mafia. It's like the fifth year in a row he's released something great. You like this album too?

[Camden Ostrander]

I love it. Like, he's first. He's just remarkably consistent. Yeah, the whole thing is crazy. I love that, like, he did find some new space on this. Initially, I will say I was, like, a little concerned because, like, lyrically, I wanted him to go more places. But, like, the more I listen to the album, like, I think it's very strong. I really like, like, his more. I don't know how to say this. His moral code, like, to me, the. Like, the Theme and like the core and I lay down my life for you really helps me. Understands scaring the hose and really helps me understand Peggy. Just like how committed he is, how he believes that having a personal code then drives your life and how important that is. And him criticizing those who would not have that. It does feel Kendrick esque, I was gonna say.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. This is the year of moral code.

[Camden Ostrander]

I think one thing for me this year is discipline. And we'll talk about that when we talk about Kendrick more. But that's what this is and I love it.

[Cole Kushna]

Beautifully said. Yeah, I had the same critique. If I'm going to give any critique about the album is like, yeah, lyrically. I mean, lyrically, the subject matter is. Is consistent. But also I do want to hear some more things from him in the future. And also the way he raps, I think it's him relying.

[Camden Ostrander]

So I can't get enough.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, really? Just the triplet flow. He relies on the triple flow.

[Camden Ostrander]

Okay.

[Cole Kushna]

I think just a little too much where I know he has more in his bag then I'm just like, show us a little bit more variety in the rhythms. But small critiques on a great album.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Excellent. Okay, so, yeah, I'm looking at your other honorable mentions and we're definitely going to be talking about this. Okay, so let's get into our official top three albums of the year. Why don't you start with your number three? We'll work backwards.

[Camden Ostrander]

All right. Sweet. We're going to do it. I'm going to go ahead and admit my number three pick is also informed by the fact that I knew the three you were going to say.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

So I was avoiding it a little. But for my number three, I'm going to go with Charm by Claro. I love it. It is so sweet. I think she. This is her best album. Like, I've been a long time Clara fan. I am like the core demographic as far as, like, age goes for Clara. So, like, I think it makes sense. This is her strongest piece musically. Lyrically, I think she's found such a strength. I was really concerned after her second album, Sling that. Like, she was getting too beat down by everything around her and by, like, the pressures of industry and everything.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

But I love charm. Like, charm is so sweet. It helps. It's like she's obviously dealing with social anxieties, but she works through them on charm in a way that helps listeners work through them. It's lovely. There's a stretch from Terrapin to Juna to add up my Love, which is an incredible three track run of just like, I could listen to that forever. And then to be honest, the big standout lyric, I think, from Juna, which is the big hit song from the album, is, you make me want to try on feminine. This song makes me want to try on feminine. Like, this gets me in that energy and I feel that. And it's like, so lovely. I love it. I love this song. It's so sweet. Yeah, Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

I listened to it again because I listened to it when it came out and I listened to it again a couple days ago. Yeah, it's beautiful. I think her music hasn't resonated as deeply as it has for what I can tell her fan base, but they love her. Yeah, it's. It's very enjoyable and. Yeah, very sweet. Good, good. There's some really great. Like, I don't know if she does her arrangements or if she has help.

[Camden Ostrander]

With that involved in it, but yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

She has some really great, like, musical details that I was really picking up on. Just a little instrumental pointed out that.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, this is rife with samples.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like the. For the first people that are going to flip this. This.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

That's what I'm saying.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's gonna be sweet. Yeah. Yeah, I know it's gonna be weird. We're gonna be 20 years from now talking about people sampling. Claro. I remember that song. Okay. So my number three. Oh, my God, I can't believe I'm about to say this. Cam, dude, you have to decide. I had to decide between all three of these could have been number one. All three of these could have been number two, and all of them could be number three. So in this moment, in this moment, I'm gonna say my third album. My. My number three album of 2024 is GNX by Kendrick Lamar, which is crazy to say. Any other year, any other year but 2024, GNX is easily my hands down favorite of the year. Year. It's an incredible album. We talked about it. I've talked about it a lot. We talked about it last episode a little bit, actually. Let me. I haven't got to talk to you about it though, so let me. Let me hear your thoughts on GNX as a Kendrick fan, but not to the degree that probably I am.

[Camden Ostrander]

Look, I'm. I bow at the altar of Cole, but like, look, man, GNX this year, this Kendrick, this gx discipline, change. Like actual moral code. Like, I cannot believe the discipline. Like, the way that I feel it from this album, I put this thing On a lot. Like, this thing has been on repeat since it released. I can't believe how much I love it. I can't believe how much every single song has moments like you usually with an album, like one song will go big on the Internet. Every song. I know every single song. And the fact that this is happening with gnx, which is so focused and in that sound, I love it. Kendrick is the greatest rapper of all time.

[Cole Kushna]

I can't.

[Camden Ostrander]

Genix is amazing.

[Cole Kushna]

I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment, but it's just like we talked about this on.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's tough because it's so recent.

[Cole Kushna]

It's so recent. So we're still in it and we're feeling that momentum and we're feeling the energy from the public and everything he's about to do with the stadium tour and super bowl and possibly another project. And it's like, it feels like he's going to. On a very focused, multi year run as his kind of. Here's my resume. I'm submitting my resume for the greatest of all time. This is my official submission of like, there we go. I'm building on this classic. I've already have like three to four classic albums, depending on who you're talking to. And here goes my like popular culture. Undeniably, I'm just. I am everything about. I'm what everyone's talking about. I'm going to go on a tour. Tour with sza, A stadium tour with sza. You know, it's just like he's just checking every single box for the. In a serious kind of quote, unquote, goat conversation. It's. As a. You know, I've been a huge Kendrick fan for many, many years now. And to experience this moment with my favorite artist of. I mean, I say that. My favorite artist. I say that very specifically of this. Of my lifetime so far, you know, of someone I've experienced in real time. Like, Kendrick is the artist of my lifetime so far. So to see him now taking it to new heights is absolutely incredible. But GNX as an album. Yeah, it's hard to even talk about the album without talking about the year. Right. Like the 2024 was the concept that was an album.

[Camden Ostrander]

Kendrick Lamar.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I think it's just. Yeah, it's thrown some of us for a loop that have been so in. Kind of enveloped in his work, conceptual work, that the lack of concept is like confusing. But I've learned to. I've kind of let that now go and. Okay, it feels just like an album Most people don't have multi layered conceptual album. And it's like, it's actually really great to have a Kendrick Lamar album that you just put on and it's really, really listenable and you don't have to, like, use that side of your brain. Yeah, exactly. And I think that was part of the strategy of this year, was like, I can do all that and I can still. I can knock the. I can knock the top guy off with my lyrical skill. I can make hits. I can. I can literally do everything. And I think he's going to continue to show us how he does everything. And so it's so weird to be talking about it as my number three album.

[Camden Ostrander]

How is that three? I don't know.

[Cole Kushna]

Crazy. It's great. Maybe. Yeah, maybe it's just imagine it was one of those things, like, am I a prisoner of the moment? Because it's the most recent album, but what I have it up against, you'll see. I mean, it's hard competition here.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah. I think Dissect particularly, we had a trifecta release this year, so we're going.

[Cole Kushna]

To talk about it.

[Camden Ostrander]

We'll talk about more.

[Cole Kushna]

All right, so number two.

[Camden Ostrander]

Number two that I want to talk about is Two Star and the Dream Police by Mickey. This album is beautiful. McGee is a guitar player. He was probably most well known for being a massive part of Dijon's album. Absolutely. He was massive part of that production. Look, I'm not the musical theorist, so I'm not able to address specifically what it is about the album that feels so special. I just know that I can't stop playing it, that this was the top of my. I can't believe this was the top of my Spotify wrapped.

[Cole Kushna]

It was.

[Camden Ostrander]

Was this album. It was, I think in part because it came out so early. But, like, I can't believe it beat Gambino that I played this more. So I have to be honest, like, I played this more. I think he's described the album in a couple of ways, kind of as like a series of fables, which I really enjoy. Like, him talking about it, like weird little fables. He also talked about, like, today's moment in culture makes no sense. So why won't I be honest and have an album similarly express, like, the honesty of right now? Because it's very difficult to find actual threads through culture right now of, like, what should we be learning from this moment? So it's not as if there's like a clear narrative through this album then. I mean, it has really strong Point. Like, there's so many. Are you looking up DNM, Candy, Alesis. And then one of the 1. The dream. Please song from the end. Like, I love all these songs. You can just, like, stay in them forever. I want to talk about one of these songs later, so I'm gonna save that. But, like, I just love the dreaminess, the fantasy. Like, he's like a little elf. This is an Elvish, beautiful guitar album. I don't know, man. And then Live. I saw it twice this year.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, cool.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's just immaculate vibes.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

You. You couldn't. I can't even believe.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I was trying to describe the album to myself as I was listening to it this morning, actually revisiting it. And it's such a unique sound. It's like bedroom quality recording. Like, it. It's like a little rough around the edges.

[Camden Ostrander]

He says he specifically uses crap.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Like, makes sense instruments. So it has that, like. But also makes it really intimate in that way because it feels like your next door neighbor recorded it or something.

[Camden Ostrander]

A little bit.

[Cole Kushna]

But then there's all these, like, electronic glitches and stuff in it.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

So there's this weird textual layer of, like. Okay, he knows how to produce. Obviously.

[Camden Ostrander]

He's producing all of it. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

And so it's like, okay, there's the skill sets there. This is not just. This is someone doing this for an aesthetic purpose. Not. Because I don't know how to not. Do you know what I mean? I don't have the skill set to do this polished. So. Yeah, I can see why it's hard to describe. Even as the music theorist guy here, it's like. There's a weird quality to it where it's.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

I don't know. Like, Bony Vera was the one comparison point that I had. Yeah. His favorite album.

[Camden Ostrander]

They opened.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

There's the one. What's, like, the more electronic Bony Vera album. I can't.

[Camden Ostrander]

The one with, like, the black and white cover.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Camden Ostrander]

Is that the one?

[Cole Kushna]

It's. It has I on it. 22 million.

[Camden Ostrander]

Okay.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, 22amillion. It reminded me. It's not. I. Yeah. 22amillion, which is a more electronic, experimental album from Bony Ver, was the only point of comparison. I was like, oh, that kind of sounds like in the same lane. But I wouldn't. I mean, even to compare it to. That's kind of undermining the uniqueness of the sound. That. What. The question I wanted to ask for you was like, why do you think he's Broken through and almost. I don't know. I wouldn't say like a mainstream way, but he was on snl. It feels like he is bigger than I would have guessed, given his sound.

[Camden Ostrander]

Here's like the one thing that I can think of when it comes to this in my personal life. The coolest people that I know love this album.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

And I'm not trying to say I'm cool because I love this. No, that's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying, like, if I think about the coolest people, like, I'm like, damn. They got. Everything about their life is cool. Like, I love that person. They all love this album. So there's something about, like, maybe tastemaker. Something like something about that is hitting in a way where everybody kind of realizes, like, oh, something is special.

[Cole Kushna]

Right, Right.

[Camden Ostrander]

I think it's something to do with that. I don't think it's so difficult to put into words.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's weird because I can. I know exactly the kind of person you're talking about. And it's like his music feels like a soundtrack for their outfits in some weird way. Like, I can see the aesthetic of today's coolest people and how they dress.

[Camden Ostrander]

The people at the concert. Are you kidding?

[Cole Kushna]

All dripped out.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yes.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

I've never been in such an immaculate place.

[Cole Kushna]

I was gonna say at Dochi's concert, everyone was. Cause she kind of had a dress code, like a suggested dress code on her Instagram. She had put some, like, looks to be inspired by. And so everyone. Okay, abided. Because everyone there was like heavy Dochi fan. Again, intimate audience. And so everyone was dressed so cool. And then she had. She picked out some. The best dressed person from the crowd and brought them on stage and they danced, which is incredible. That's sick. Okay, so my number two. I love the McGee album too. Really, really great. So. But my number two, speaking of Dochi, it's gotta be Alligator Bites Never Heal.

[Camden Ostrander]

Remember old dude from 2019? Nice clean Nick, a Demi dirtier than.

[Cole Kushna]

Laundry, took a scroll through his IG.

[Camden Ostrander]

Just to get a DM from his wife.

[Cole Kushna]

So this album has just been so special to me this year. You know, I think maybe if we're talking about gnx, I think Kendrick Amar is a better songwriter at this point. But there's something about Alligator Bites Never Heal that the album itself, her rise this year and witnessing even now in this moment, her performance on Colbert, her tiny desk performance, which was one of the best tiny desk performance I've ever seen. If people haven't seen it, go check it out immediately. And seeing her in the concert and just obviously getting to talk to her, but even seeing her on other platforms talking, it's just like she's checking every single box. And I haven't really felt this invested in a new artist in such a long time where I'm just genuinely like become a Stan. Just genuinely interested in everything she's doing because everything is done with so much intention and vision and she's restrained by her, her kind of financial constraints right now because she is a smaller artist at this moment. So she doesn't get these huge budgets to do exactly what she wants to do. But when she does, she's going to be so ready for those moments. Like, it's going to be incredible. Like, I hope she performs at the Grammys. That seems like a no brainer. And if she gets that, like, watch out because I think that could be really a, a moment in a big way for her. I'm hoping, fingers crossed that she gets to open for Kendrick on the stadium tour. But the album itself is just, I mean, if you want to hear my thoughts on it, go listen to the interview we did because we dissect it in detail, but dissect it with her. With her. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

That was crazy.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. And she's a fan of the show, I'll just say, which was really cool. So no big deal. No big deal.

[Camden Ostrander]

No big deal.

[Cole Kushna]

Just Dochi, just one of the best rising artists in the world.

[Camden Ostrander]

This is one of the incredible artists.

[Cole Kushna]

The album is just phenomenal. There's a freedom present that someone really finding themselves and committing to themselves, blocking out outside noise and just really discovering who they are as an artist. And you can really feel that kind of battle and the catharsis that comes with like really finding that confidence in yourself and then running with it and just never looking back. And we're, we're kind of experiencing. What's cool is that the album helper helped her to like formalize that to herself. And now we're seeing the fruits of that labor in everything she's done since the album, which are these performances and all, you know, her outfits. And she's just moving in a way that you can just tell like she's an artist who knows herself and this album is what helped her kind of find herself in that way. So I think number two for me, alligator bites never heal. Dochi, haven't you really. Have we talked about this album together? What are your thoughts on it?

[Camden Ostrander]

I haven't been able to Talk about it as much.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, dude.

[Camden Ostrander]

As far as, like, the artists after this, like, first generation of the ones that we have become so excited about in our lifetimes, like Dochi being like a post Tyler post game. Like, as much as we can say that. Incredible. Like, this is the best we have post our guy. Like, our folks so far.

[Cole Kushna]

You know, it's the. Yeah, it's the. She's the. She's. Yeah, she's one of the ones. She grew up on the odd future. The early 2010s to the early 2010s.

[Camden Ostrander]

Post that generation because they're still around right now.

[Cole Kushna]

Right.

[Camden Ostrander]

And they're still making great stuff. But don't you. As far as, like, a post one. To take some of the concept, like, the fact that she, like, some of her concepts are straight out of early Tyler and always. And I'm like. But they're, like, elevated and they're. It's pulling it off better.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And like, when I heard it the first, I'm like, whoa. Like, man, it's cool.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah. She's amazing.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay, so number one album of the year. No surprises here.

[Camden Ostrander]

All right, look, there is no surprise here. For me. It is Bando Stone and the New World by Childish Gambino. It's clear that you're ever loving I knew it from the start I opened my heart inside what's all gone. I can't believe I got two new Childish Gambino albums this year. I don't count Atavista for this exercise because it was kind of like a remaster retooling. Band of Stone and the New World is an incredible album that is so jam packed. It is. Maximalism is a full cornucopia. I am overjoyed every day that I have it like that. I can listen to it. I can't believe it. I can't say enough good things. The fact that he is capping off Childish Gambino, he was very intentional about. This is the end of Childish Gambino. I'm making this for the fans. He said that about the tour and about the album. It really did feel that way. I am beyond grateful that this thing exists. I love it so much. I know that I'm gonna be listening to it forever. I love feeling the way that Gambino albums grow with me as I spend more and more time with them. That's just been happening. And I'm not gonna sit here and say, yeah, I can dissect it right now, the year it came out. Cause I can't. And I Don't want to necessarily, but this thing helps me feel better about the future. This thing helps me accept things that I have been afraid of, like unknown future, like, things that I think are going wrong. The new world is coming. And just as we have loved the old world, we can love the new. Is very strong to me. It is also killing me that Childish Gambino has not released the movie.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. I was going to ask you about that. Is there any news about it?

[Camden Ostrander]

Look, so Donald Glover, during the New World Tour, which I do want to talk about in a moment, but during the New World tour, he had to cancel the rest of the tour because it appears he got ill. He had to have a surgery. He didn't say specifically what happened, but he had to cancel the whole tour. That meant, like, half of the country didn't get the tour and all of Europe did not get the tour, which is devastating. That sucks.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. There's a possibility, though, that he'll do it again. Maybe.

[Camden Ostrander]

Maybe. I don't know. Like, he canceled. Like, they're getting refunds for everything, so it's over. It appears he has had the surgery. He has made a couple of public appearances without saying, like, we've seen that. He's walking around, so I don't know how he's doing. I hope he is doing well and recovering and all that. I don't know what that movie is in limbo now. I hate every time somebody points out that he did a trailer for a 21 Savage movie and then didn't give us the movie, because people point that out to be like, yo, Bando, sun's not happening. And maybe. Maybe Bando's own won't happen. Maybe the movie was the friends we made along the way. It's fine. It really crushes me, but it's fine. But, like, when he did the New World Tour, I'm, like, devastated that that was cut short, because that was a narrative experience. There was a narrative to the performance. There was an opening that happened before you even came on stage, where parts of the stage were appearing to fall apart and, like, a actual welder came on and did a pyrotechnic thing.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, wow.

[Camden Ostrander]

There were these weird sounds happening, and then he's moving between places. He has an alien costume, then this weird flight suit, then he transports him. It was a narrative performance. I can only imagine that if we had the movie and if we had had the full tour, we would be able to make better sense of it. So it's difficult for me to talk about it. Dissect it in the way that I want to, in the way that my natural inclination is right. Given that it is limited by the fact that it's almost broken. Like, it's like Band of Stone is almost broken. I still love it. I'm still gonna, like, listen to it, like. And I'll talk more when we get to the songs. But, like, yeah, I love man of Stone and the New World. I'm happy to be in it. Yeah, that's my. That's my favorite album. 2024.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. I re. Listened to it this morning. I was struck by how. Yeah, exactly how you said. There's. There's dark elements to it, but there's so much hope, genuine hope. And I can feel his sentiment as a father. There's like. There's even like, real love, I think is like, really encapsulates, like, that song. That song says, do you know real love. Can you feel real love? And it's like, I think of my children and I think of my wife, and I think about this. These beautiful things we have in the chaotic. In the k. Amongst the chaos of CEOs getting assassinated and certain people being elected to president of the. You know, just like where the world seems like on one hand, just in total weird chaos and just surreal thing happening after a surreal thing. But also to have the grounding of love and, you know, genuine sentiment. It's just like, I felt that on the re. Listen this morning of like. Yeah, this really does articulate a lot of the moment that we're experiencing right now and the kind of dichotomy of it all. So I. I feel for you, though. I was wondering about the movie. I know, I know I was. I mean, and it did feel like a soundtrack. That was the thing that struck me again. It's a soundtrack.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's got movie clips.

[Cole Kushna]

I know there's a clear.

[Camden Ostrander]

Please just put it out.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, so. But yeah, it stands on its own, though. The songs are great. The songs really are great. And he's experimenting, he's nailing it. I love the electronic kind of tinge of it all. Great pick. I can't say I'm surprised, but great pick.

[Camden Ostrander]

It was going to be.

[Cole Kushna]

But I am surprised that my album, number one album, is not even on your top three list. It is.

[Camden Ostrander]

I cheated because I knew. Okay, what is it?

[Cole Kushna]

So my number one album of 2024 is Chromacopia by Tyler the Creator Laferra Sour. I could 1500,000 in these trousers but a pillow talking Stay away from coma. I mean, I Think I'm ready to say it. I think Chromacopia is his best work to date. I think it is the most complete work to date. Whether it's my favorite, time will tell. Okay. I love Igor. Igor has a special.

[Camden Ostrander]

My eyes just bugged out of my head.

[Cole Kushna]

I think technically you can make the case that easily. Make the case that Chromacopia is his most complete and best expression as an artist. As much as I love Igor, and as much as that just kind of felt like it was released at the perfect time. Chromacopia is an elevated Igor. To me, it's Igor where it's like he's leaning into the songwriting and the melody and barely rapping. Chromacopia has rapping and. But equally as much melody and songwriting. And I just feel like he's doing everything at a higher level. On Chromo Copia. Again, whether it's your favorite, that's. That's personal. But I just. As a musician, I'm just like, this guy is. Continues to get better as a producer, as someone writing chords and making arrangements. And it's like you think of a song like Sticky, like, he's never made a song like that. And as far as accessible and fun as it is, like, listen to the production on that thing. Like that is insane. Those are all real instruments. He's, you know, he's bringing in all these different components and you can. Essentially, every song is like that. And you forget. I. Something I've been thinking about is just. I don't think we give enough credit to him as a producer. We. We think of him. We put him in the same boxes as, let's say, even a Kendrick, you know, and like, as much as Kendrick is a producer in terms of like an orchestrator, like, Tyler's got his hands on the keyboards, like, he's the one playing the piano. He's giving us those incredible synth solos. He's arranging all the songs again. The chord progressions, the bridges, all this stuff is coming directly from him. He's recording himself doing all of this stuff. And I just feel like we're overlooking that aspect because he's such a great rapper, because he's such a great now storyteller and lyricist and even getting better as a singer that it's like, no, let's not forget he's touching every single part of every single song and it's coming from him. So I just. I just feel really strongly about him as an artist. And Kim just continuing to get better as a musician has been just such an Inspiring part of his kind of musical journey to witness. You know, we'll talk about some of the songs in a second, but overall, man, Chromacopia, it was actually kind of an easy number one. As much as I love Doi and. And Kendrick Lamar as a complete project, as an album that sounds like a world is cohesive, that has the narrative, has the through line, it has diverse songs, but all feels like a part of the same world, where I think that's kind of my knock on Kendrick's album, where it feels some of the songs do feel a little bit individual. It's like Tyler still gives us the diverse sound where they each has its own identity, and it's not like the same song over and over, yet they all feel a part of the world, and it's seamless one song to the next, even if they're sonically coming from different perspectives. Like, I think of Darling, I kind of like more of like a pop song versus Sticky or like him or even Ratata. It's like all these songs are very different, but they all feel so cohesive. So Chromacopia, easy number one for me. I. Easy, easy number one. I think, like, I'm so impressed with this album, him as an artist. It's a privilege to watch him evolve.

[Camden Ostrander]

Absolutely. No, I agree with what you're saying, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. This thing is incredible. We talked about it when it came out, but, like, one thing I'm mad about this year, I haven't had enough time with Chromacopia because there's been too much. Like, that was. That's one thing I was thinking about when I was reviewing the year. I'm like, chromucopia is incredible. Why. Why haven't I been able to, like, listen to it?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Every day? Because I have to listen to all this other stuff. Like.

[Cole Kushna]

Yep.

[Camden Ostrander]

God, we're spoiled.

[Cole Kushna]

I know that specifically the second half of this year was just.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Release after release, it seems like. And I haven't even listened to, like, Denzel Curry's new project, which I hear is really good, but I'm, like, trying to save that to when I can actually give it my full attention. There's a couple of albums that I just haven't listened to.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, Vince Staples released a very good album. And, like, when I'm thinking about, I'm like, this is a great album. It's not near the other 25.

[Cole Kushna]

I know.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, what are we doing?

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, it's been incredible. Yeah. Was there any other projects that we should just name? We're Going to get to our favorite song or song of the year as the ending portion of this episode. But I'm just trying to think if, like, okay. Rhapsody, Please Don't Cry. Great album. Cordae the Crossroads. Great album. Vin Staples, Dark Times. Great album. Soulberger by Absol. Great. Samurai by Lupe Fiasco. Great. We don't trust you by Metro. And Future was pretty historic.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

And I'm probably missing a whole bunch of other ones, but it's just too much. Too much greatness, too much. I'm sad that, like, this is, like, legitimately one of the best years of music of definitely of the 21st century so far. I feel, like, excited. But also it's coming to an end. Whether, you know, whatever a year kind of demarcation means, who knows? But hopefully it sustains. But it's like, I think we both know this has been special. The year has been special. Okay, so let's get to our song of the year. Do you want to. We'll go three to one. Three to one.

[Camden Ostrander]

Trading off.

[Cole Kushna]

Trade off. Let's go. Year number three.

[Camden Ostrander]

Want to put your. Do you want to put your caveat. Do you want to go ahead with that or. Or no, Your little.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, I. I just don't see a world where I'm not Like Us is not the song of the year. Right. Am I right?

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah. No, if you're right. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Turn on your objective, brain.

[Camden Ostrander]

Objective. Objective.

[Cole Kushna]

Give me a case for any other song being the song of 2024.

[Camden Ostrander]

I don't want.

[Cole Kushna]

There's just.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's not possible.

[Cole Kushna]

It's not possible. Beat your ass and hide the Bible.

[Camden Ostrander]

If God watching.

[Cole Kushna]

Sometimes you gotta pop out and show Certified boogeyman. I'm the one that up to school with him walking down whole time I.

[Camden Ostrander]

Know he got some hoeing.

[Cole Kushna]

Not Like Us is The song of 2024. End of discussion. Whether it's our. This is our favorite.

[Camden Ostrander]

These are favorites. That's the thing.

[Cole Kushna]

We didn't make that demarcation. But this is. This is not us saying these are the best. These are our favorite. But Not Like Us is the best song of 2024. I'll say it. Okay, so note to your third favorite song of the year.

[Camden Ostrander]

All right, so for my third favorite, I'm going to go with what I think is a fascinating pick. In light of the rest of this year, I'm gonna go, girl. So confusing. Featuring Lorde by Charli XCX and Lorde. I think it is so fascinating that in the Beef, if you would call it that between Charli XCX and Lorde, it gets resolved by working it out on the remix. In the year when Kendrick Lamar. And can you imagine Kendrick and Drake? Can you imagine?

[Cole Kushna]

No.

[Camden Ostrander]

Drake's like, man, I just felt like I wasn't accepted and that's why I wanted to make the pop like that.

[Cole Kushna]

It will never happen. Kendrick is never gonna happen. Kendrick has made it entirely clear. It will actually never. Not in 20 years. It's never going to happen.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's not going to happen.

[Cole Kushna]

Unless Drake. I think the only case that I.

[Camden Ostrander]

Don'T want it to happen. I'm going to be honest. I don't want it to happen.

[Cole Kushna]

It's very Drake. Unless Drake. Yeah. I think unless Drake has like a moral kind of 180.

[Camden Ostrander]

You have to have him. Exactly. Because you know what the difference is, is Charli XCX and Lorde are both phenomenal artists who are doing beautiful work and trying to better the world. They're both trying to make the world a better place. That's the difference. I love this song. This is a audible gasp moment when this song comes out. Like, what is happening? Cause when girl's so confusing. I thought that Lorde was who Charlie was talking about, and it was correct and it was Lorde. And Lorde is one of the best writers of her generation. Her pen is so strong on this song. Like, reminds us all. Do not forget about Lord. Even though some of you didn't like solar power for some reason. Right.

[Cole Kushna]

She's coming. 2025. She's coming. And I think she's out.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's gonna happen.

[Cole Kushna]

She's out for blood. In terms of, like, don't forget about me.

[Camden Ostrander]

I love this song so much. It speaks to, like, what art can do to what honesty can do. Like, when we talk about how special Brad is, when you talk about everything we've said so far, like, it has the pop, it has the party. But, like, the honesty that Charlie put into the album is what makes it special.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And, like, we cannot forget that in how culturally ubiquitous it has become because it's so actually powerful and beautiful.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And I think girls so confusing. Like, and this kind of also setting off the whole remix album.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, right.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like that Charlie did, like. I love this song. This song is something that we need to remember from 2024. It's gonna be in my three favorite. And I love Lord. And I'm so happy that she had just, like, one showing this year and it was a showstopper. Like, that was it.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, good point. Yeah. Really it was her only. Her only release, I think, right?

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. It was incredible verse. The story behind it is beautiful. I was surprised it was not on my top five played songs on Rapped. They are all just dominated by the beef. But this must have been number six or something because I played this a lot. My kids love this song. And as like someone who just for them to express, like just the title Umbrella girl. So confusing them trying to work out this weird tension that doesn't seem like either of them really wanted, but were just. Was like. Just kind of happens. But it just. Yeah, it just happens.

[Camden Ostrander]

We get pit against each other all the time.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And them like finding the space to work it out publicly, I thought was really important in terms of just. Yeah. Two girls, two women trying to just be vulnerable and honest, you know, Because Charlie is like, she's not sucking up to Lord in that song. No, she's just being exactly honest about what she feels about their relationship. And then Lord comes on and does the same thing. And you know, her talking about, like, the reason I didn't want to go to dinner with you is because I was afraid of taking pictures because I'm. I've been struggling with my body and my weight. Like, how much more vulnerable are you going to ask an artist to be? And like, you just see like that insecurity and that thing playing out in these decisions and then causing tension where there should. You know what I mean? Like, and then getting to like, be like, when do you actually share that deep of a truth with someone so.

[Camden Ostrander]

Difficult to be that brave to be that.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. Especially on a public, you know, on a huge album to do that. That response like. And then I didn't. I think. Didn't Lord text Charlie her response, like, the verse as. Her response as.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

And then it's like, yeah, Lord, what do you think?

[Camden Ostrander]

How are you this good?

[Cole Kushna]

I know.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, what are we talking about?

[Cole Kushna]

It's really. It's such a special song. It is truly a special song. Okay, so let me go then, because that would have easily made my list. So I'm glad that we got to talk about it. So it's kind of a reverse order here because my third favorite song is going to come off of Chromucopia. It's my favorite album of the year, which it makes sense actually, to me, where it's. Chromocopia doesn't have my favorite songs, but altogether it's my favorite. Where GNX and Alligator Bites have my favorite song. So let Me say it's. I could easily nominate darling eye. Take your mask off like him or Balloon. I'm just gonna go with. With take your mask off.

[Camden Ostrander]

Wanna be seen as a cuz.

[Cole Kushna]

And then them face tags gonna have the fact that you sad, bro.

[Camden Ostrander]

You ain't a thug.

[Cole Kushna]

You was a drama club. Use an actor. But now cuz getting validation from it. That was my. That was a standout track for me when it first came out. And it's still every time if I'm. If I'm forced to choose one song as a representative of the album. It feels like that's a great statement, individual statement piece, because it gives you kind of both sides of the album, which is Tyler kind of looking around him and being judgmental and braggadocious, but then also being equally scrutinized, turning the mirror around and placing it on himself and kind of going out his own flaws. And in that way, kind of unites the sentiments, right. Like, he's being critical of everyone else, equally as critical about himself. And so we're all sharing those critiques of ourselves, working to be. Working to take our individual masks off and be expressed closer to who we are, closer to that authentic self and then just have. That's such an ongoing journey. And so much of the album is about. Yeah, how do you like. You know, the motif of the light is the centerpiece of the album. It being like this pure thing that Tyler had as a child. You know, my. My take on chromacopia is that it was. Represents, like his childhood home. That's why his mother is a huge prominence. And he says what he says on. On the first song, he says back in Chromo, talking about his childhood. So it feels like the album is him. Yeah. How do you maintain the light that is chromo as you age? And take your mask off is a perfect encapsulation of that concept being. Yeah, we put on these different masks to kind of appease certain people or just get on, Get. Get on in life, but each one of those masks kind of mask our light and our authentic, true self. And, yeah, it's a really deep album. Like, the. The. The concept is simple, but it feels very truthful and very relevant. And the way that expresses it is very, I think, something that everyone relates to as we're getting older with Tyler and as we're trying to, like, make sacrifices to build a better life, just trying to stay true to who we are. And I think, yeah, take your mask off I think, is a great encapsulation of that so I'm gonna go number three. Take your mask off. Sweet. What's your number two?

[Camden Ostrander]

Number two. Okay, so now we're going. These songs are off my favorite albums. Number two, I'm gonna go with Alesis by Mickey. This is my standout song from the album, and I kind of want to think and talk about this a little bit. So I think this song is infinitely readable in that I have heard this song and interpreted this song in an infinite amount of ways when I've been listening to it. Like, I cannot believe how applicable it is when I think about different things. It's fascinating to me, the title of the song, Alesis. And correct me if I'm wrong, but, like, Alesis is a music technology production company. Like an electronic mostly.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, the name sounds familiar.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, because. And I think I'm remembering this from Doom. The Golden Elise.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Right.

[Camden Ostrander]

And so, like, it's about. And my understanding is it's kind of like a budget company. So for that to fit with McGee's concept of, like, using the budget materials to create, I think is beautiful. And I think that the song's infinite interpretations come from, like, you have to create. So, like, the. Some of the things he talked, like, I'm in another body. Like, I've thought about that in, like, a gender dysphoria sort of way and in a body image sort of way. And he's critiquing himself and other people at the same time. And he asked the question, don't you want to get a move on? And I've just heard this so many times and thought of this in so many ways, and it just. This song inspires creation and activity for me. One thing I connected it to is, like, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, because there's, like, we don't have enough money to leave. Da da da. But it's Fast Car if it was all in one person. So in Fast Car, there's, like, the relationship and the father and all these things going on. This is McGee all interior. If you like, look at the verses and everything that he's discussing. It's internal conflict. Resisting his own impulses to just escape conflict or put it off. Calling out his own lies, calling out his own stagnancy and asking himself and asking us, don't you want to get a movie? Like, I think this thing is beautiful. And the first time I saw it live, I, like, I cry because, like, I cried a lot. And the song is so beautiful in the studio version, but, like, there was something about the live like, they added the instrumentation. This song is. I can't believe. A, I can't believe this is only my second favorite song of the year.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

B, like, this thing is infinite to me.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

At least this is infinite. Like, as far as, like, creativity and the push.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

I love it. It's truly special to me.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. This was the hit song too, right. Quote unquote, like, it was a bigger song.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's one of the. It's one of the two. It's this. And I think. Are you looking up.

[Cole Kushna]

Okay.

[Camden Ostrander]

Are the big ones. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. He's. I haven't even, like, thought about his lyrics. That's where I am with his music. Because you know that for people that don't know any muddles it. Yeah. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And he hides it in the magic of all the. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

So I'm like. I'm one that does. I listen to lyrics last usually, so I haven't even really got to that layer. But I'm like. I just pulled them up as you're talking about it and it's like, yeah. I'm in another body, who's in somebody else. Both of the headless and the heartless dancing with themselves. Like. Well, yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

And the description of, like, looking around in the apartment, like, I think of looking for a certain substance. I think of just like fighting amongst yourself. I feel like quarantine probably inform this in a definite way. Like, how much do we have to, like, push ourselves out of our shells and out of our stupid excuses for why? I don't know, man.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Again. And like every day I could think of something new.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

To frame the song. So I love it.

[Cole Kushna]

Beautiful. Okay, so I'm going to go with my second favorite song of the year. It's going to come off of gnx. I don't even have one picked out yet. Well, let me just say Euphoria. Euphoria would probably be. I've just talked about Euphoria so much this year, but that's kind of my 1B with not like Us for the song of the year. So I'm just. I'm skipping over Euphoria. I'm basically skipping over all the battle songs because we just spent two hours on them last episode. But Just know Not Like Us Euphoria. Those are the ones for me. But for the sake of conversation, Gen X has so many good songs. My. What I love about this, the album is that I have a new song every other day. It feels like it started out with Reincarnated Just because or Sorry, Squabble up the. But because I was waiting for that song. We're all waiting for that song. So when we got it, it was so kind of euphoric to get it. But then I really got attracted to hey now, which is the fifth song. Super dark. I've never heard Kendrick's voice so low. And then, you know, of course, Reincarnated Heart part six is incredibly sweet. My current favorite song is Peekaboo, which is so, so fun. It's like a meme song. Every single part of Kendrick's verses and chorus is like a memeable tick tockable, like, but he's also like, the greatest rapper alive, so it's just cool to hear him, like, have fun. So I can really just. I haven't really landed on the GNX song. I think it just though. I think conceptually I just have to go with reincarnated. I have to go reincarnated. TV off might be the. It's so hard at this point. It's only been TV off is the.

[Camden Ostrander]

One I. I would decide upon.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah. But my 6 year old is screaming mustard now, by the way.

[Camden Ostrander]

That's good.

[Cole Kushna]

So it's reaching. It's reaching that level of ubiquity. Um, let me just go reincarnated number two as my representative off gnx, because conceptually, there's just every single layer you want. I'm not going to rehash it because we spent so much time on it with Femi. And then last week, we even covered it on our. Our best bars of the year. And I covered it on the rap Latte podcast that I was just on with those guys, King Green and Torre. But I could really have picked every. Any song, really, off of GNX almost. But let me just say Euphoria. Reincarnated. Reincarnated Gonna be my number two slot.

[Camden Ostrander]

I got this fire burning near me.

[Cole Kushna]

From within Concentrated thoughts on who I used to be I'm shedding skin every day A new version of me A third of me demented Cementing in pain Juggling the pros. So let's go into your number number one.

[Camden Ostrander]

Okay, so for my number one song of the year, we are gonna go. It's obvious. I think it's obvious. The song is We Are God by Childish Gambino. To me, this is the most Childish Gambino. Childish Gambino has ever. Childish Gambino. It is a culmination of so many things he has done over the years. I'm gonna try and break them down, but I'm also gonna say at the top, I'll probably forget something. And this is what I mean when I'm like, I'm so grateful he made this for the fans, because this builds on so many of the things he has said over the years. If we've been paying attention. If you listened to season seven of Dissect, you probably already knew the We Are God song. You knew it inside already, is what I would say.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

So first off, it is a retooling of what was the initial 0.00 off of 315 20, which then became Atavista. And on that album, it was just We Are. We Are as this kind of chant to bring you into the album. I for years have loved that song and thought like, okay, this is a great meditation to get into the album. This hyper repetition of the word that allows for freedom of thought and meaning with the interpretation of the song. Like, I loved it as an intro. And then Atavista came out and it was gone. And we're like, no. Oh, the song's gone. Where'd it go? Like, shoot, this sucks. And then a couple months later, we got it back. He gave it back to us, but now retooled and added and fleshed out. And it's like. I mean, it's an old friend coming back. It is the very childish Gambino thing of, like, everything has to die because the song died. It was gone, and then it came back. Is that type of thing. So it's in it. So it's from that album. It's also a continuation of ideas he put forth on because the Internet and Stone Mountain, Kauai, with the idea of we are becoming God. And so as people, like, learn to code and as we build humanity, like, and become more and more connected, the act, as Gambino talked about at the time, like, the act of creation is the spark of God. And so the more connections we create and the more we create, the more like, that is the spark of God. That's what that feeling is. And so this speaks to that. And then in my mind, for some reason, and I still can't figure it out, but it sounds like the end of Awaken My Love. Like the last few songs like Stand Tall and Baby Boy, like, it just feels in that vein. And a little bit like Flight of the Navigator with some of these, like, standout Gambino songs where he's speaking almost in this universal perspective. I love it. I can't. Like, this song was not on my wrap because I can't listen to this song and have a normal rest of my day. Because it is really overwhelming. And that's maybe stupid to say, but, like, I am overwhelmed by this song. Every time I hear it, it's just a flood. A complete flood. Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

All my favorite songs of all time are those kind of songs where it's like, I can't actually just listen to this. It's impossible.

[Camden Ostrander]

I can't. I can't hear it, like, in the car regularly.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Like, no, I'm sorry, we're skipping that. I can't have this moment.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah, exactly.

[Camden Ostrander]

You know what I mean?

[Cole Kushna]

Exactly.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah. So I cherish it. And that's my favorite song of the year.

[Cole Kushna]

Beautiful.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

Happy for you that you got that. Yeah. Okay, so I gotta go again with the caveat. Not Like Us slash Euphoria. Those are my favorite songs. Those are my songs of the year. But as a. As my 1C, let's say I gotta go Boom Bap off of Dochi's Alligator Bites Never Heal. So this is my introduction to Dochi, really. I think I heard. I definitely heard, like, what it is, which is her big, like, pop song that doesn't really give a complete picture of who she is as does. I think that was always the thing with Dochi was like, she had these singles. She had one ep, Persuasive was a cool hit. Persuasive, yeah. But it's like that did. In retrospect, that clearly didn't give us the full picture of who she is as an artist. And so once we get Alligator Bites Never Heal, it comes into focus a little bit more. Although I think she still. Still fine tuning it and we'll kind of. I think it's. She's gonna. What she's doing now is gonna be amplified times 10 in the future if I'm right about her. But Boom Bap is what really caught my attention of someone just doing something so different in a world. At a musical world in which it's so hard to stand out. There's so many albums coming out every single week. It's so easy to kind of just fall into the mix and not really stand out. Boom Bap was a song same with, like, Denial is a River off the same same album. A song that I've just never quite heard. You know, I've never heard what she's doing on the beginning of the song. The fun she's having. It's like. It's fun, it's. But it's also very serious because what she's talking about and the fun that she is having is a cathartic expression of like, all these entrapments that she felt artistically, and she's kind of just being so free on this song in a way that I've just rarely ever hear, with the speaking in tongues and the blowing raspberries and mocking hip hop at the same time, clearly beloving it, but also kind of feeling boxed in in a specific lane of hip hop and people's expectations of what she should be rapping about or sounding like as a female MC and just kind of encapsulating all that with so much freedom and joy. And then we get the line that I've talked about numerous times on the podcast. So, like, every time I talk to her about her is I bring up the I'm everything line because it's such a condensed articulation of her as an artist. It also expresses so much about the moment and what kind of artists that all the artists that we talked about today are kind of doing some version of this where even like a Tyler Chromo Copia is. He's everything. He's not just a rapper. He's not just a singer. He's not, you know, he's expressing this full bouquet. And I think Boom Bap is just such a unique song that I have to go as my kind of song of the year. My 1C. The caveat being, of course, the Kendrick stuff. But I think it's such a great representation of her as an artist, and I've just. I've just really never heard a song like it, frankly, which is really saying something, I think. So it's very inspiring. Yeah, it's fun. It's so fun. It's just everything. It's literally everything, you know, in a song.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

About being everything. It gives us everything. So Boom Bap song of the year for me. All right, man.

[Camden Ostrander]

It's been a good.

[Cole Kushna]

It's been such a good year. Oh, my God. Well, thanks for joining me, Cam. Again, we're going to put all these picks on a playlist that you can find linked in the description. Is there anything else that we didn't get to that you wanted to just mention? Because I know we had to skip a lot.

[Camden Ostrander]

We had to skip a lot. Like, I obviously wish we could have talked about Meg Thee Stallion probably starting the beef with Hiss.

[Cole Kushna]

Oh, right. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

You know what I mean?

[Cole Kushna]

Like glowrilla credit gorillas. Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Glows. Yeah, man. There's so much good stuff. Like, to me, seeing the Kendrick cultural win.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Seeing Dochi and Gabino and Tyler first off, like, that's a Very interesting. Dissect trifecta into the next. And then just the ideas of discipline, the ideas of our ability to change for the better. With all the stuff that I think we've been talking about through conversation, through creativity, through being you, like, being everything. I think this has just been a really beautiful year for music, which is incredible, given everything else.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

I'm so grateful that we get this.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

I can't believe it.

[Cole Kushna]

I know. It really does. I never really guess. I never really thought about, I guess, specifically the Kendrick stuff as it, Like. Yeah. There's something there about what he is saying and the kind of demeanor in which he's carrying himself throughout this whole thing that is resonating culturally in a way that might be reflective of something larger that we all feel like we should be doing in this moment because of the chaos, because of just the noise of everything, the rapid way that technology seems to just be advancing every single day. And we're kind of on the precipice of something. We could all feel like something's about to change in a huge and fundamental way. In the same way that the onset of the Internet, if you're old enough to remember what. That we were kind of wondering what it would be. And it's like, we know that it's not going to be anything we can imagine yet we know something. It's going to be something significant. And there's a fear there. There's also an excitement there.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah.

[Cole Kushna]

And then there's all this noise around it. There's the noise of the election and how. Just gross. That got, of course, like, predictable, but still somehow found a way to live up to the. The grossness of the expectation and just the.

[Camden Ostrander]

Yeah, but when I, like, listen to us, I believe in us.

[Cole Kushna]

Yeah.

[Camden Ostrander]

Do you know what I mean? And that's what this year feel like. The music.

[Cole Kushna]

The music exactly feels like that. Exactly. It's like we all understand this isn't quite right. There's something weird, but there's also something beautiful and there's potential. And, like, the people I talk to every day seem to be with it. So it's like what we're experiencing. I don't know, it's this weird dichotomy of, like, yeah, this is scary, but also, like, there's really just great, beautiful people around. And, like, we. We can do this type of feeling. Yep. You know, and it's like, we can make this better. I experience it every day with the people I interact with, and it's like, that has to win. Right? Like, that has to win. And I think, yeah, that's an interesting point that I'm going to be thinking about it now of Kendrick being reflective of that in some way, but also just all the music as well and it just like maturing with some of these artists. I think we talked about this with.

[Camden Ostrander]

Tyler, we've been talking about this, but.

[Cole Kushna]

Just the way some of these artists have evolved in the right way and are kind of reaping the benefits and the rewards of doing it the right way. And I really love seeing that. And then, yeah, then getting someone like Dochi, who is clearly the next seed that we're. We're about to witness kind of blossom and the excitement of that and what that means and like, yeah, we got one. It's going to be. It's like amongst all the kind of worry of like even like specifically about the hip hop genre, which has been a point of conversation. It's like, man, we really might have someone. The future really might be in like good hands. Someone that understands the history is respectful, wants to honor the legacy of hip hop. Doing it the right way. It's just like, yeah, it feels like things are really just kind of clicking on all levels this year. So yeah, beautiful, man. Well, thanks for joining.

[Camden Ostrander]

Thanks.

[Cole Kushna]

Thanks everyone for listening. Check out the playlist if you're interested and I'll probably post. I'm always interested to hear our listeners top albums and songs of the year. So for the social media posts for this episode, I'll have kind of a survey. Just drop your favorites in the comments. I always love reading through those. So give us your favorites, your explanation if you want and we'll talk to you soon. I should say just if for the people that are listening are probably the bigger dissect fans. Season 12 is this 12 or 13? I always forget whatever the next season is. I think it's 13. It's 13. It is coming. You'll see why it's taken so long. The key word being C. What? So there's some stuff coming also. Like I was thrown off of my script writing for so many times this year. I was like, okay, I gotta get this. I gotta get the season off the ground. But then Tyler drops, Kendrick drops the battle. Like I was just pulled so many different directions this year that I haven't been able to focus and lockdown as I usually am. But it is coming. So I did want to say that because this is the last episode of the year, so I should. Next time you hear from me, it's either because Kendrick dropped again. Or it's going to be the launch of season 13, which is going to be coming soon, in January. So thanks, everyone, for listening. Thank you, Cam. We'll talk to you soon.

[Camden Ostrander]

Thanks.