I’m going to wait until closer to Oscar night like I always do to pick my ten favorite movies of the year, since many of the top contenders (including The Brutalist, Hard Truths, and Nickel Boys) haven’t made it to Ithaca yet. I am, however, happy to usher in 2025 by sharing my 2024: The Mixtape, Vol. 2 Spotify playlist and new year’s resolutions for the blog! As usual, the songs which made it on the former shouldn’t *necessarily* be regarded as my choices for the “best” new music that has been released since I published Vol. 1 in June, but this is what I’ve been listing to on heavy rotation, so there’s a lot of overlap with any such list I might make. Here’s the track listing:
- Miranda Lambert – “Ain’t In Kansas Anymore”
- Osees – “Earthling”
- Mount Eerie – “I Saw Another Bird”
- Jamie xx feat. The Avalanches – “All You Children”
- Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – “The Day The Mississippi Died”
- Dame Area – “Si No Es Hoy Cuándo Es”
- Johnny Blue Skies – “Right Kind of Dream”
- Been Stellar – “I Have the Answer”
- Billy Strings – “In the Clear”
- Toro y Moi feat. Kevin Abstract & Lev – “Heaven”
- Father John Misty – “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All”
- Charley Crockett – “Ain’t Done Losing Yet”
- Kim Dracula & Alex Boniello – “Going Down”
- Los Campesinos! – “Feast of Tongues”
- Fucked Up – “Paternal Instinct”
- Doechii – “BOILED PEANUTS”
- Anna McClellan – “Like a Painting”
- Being Dead – “Ballerina”
- Jessica Pratt – “Life Is”
- Luke Combs – “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma”
The mix begins and ends with songs from the soundtrack for Twisters, which I still think is the year’s best, and I’m using them to try to set up a rough double narrative: tracks 1-10 have an otherworldly The Wizard of Oz/The Man Who Fell to Earth vibe, while tracks 11-20 chart a path from disillusionment and anger to acceptance and determination.
As far as new year’s resolutions go, my ones for 2025 are pretty straightforward. If I publish thirteen Drink & a Movie posts over the upcoming twelve months like I’m planning to, I’ll be just one away from my ultimate goal of 54, so that’s my top priority. I’d also like to figure out a long-overdue social media strategy of some sort which preserves my desire to not spend too much time online, but exposes me to content from the people I want to follow who have migrated from X to Bluesky, Threads, and other platforms. On the personal front I’m boringly going to try to run more, drink less, and not fiddle so much with my fantasy football team. In other words, I’m fortunate enough to be in a pretty good spot in my life right now and am hoping to keep on keeping on!
Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!
Links to previous mixes I’ve posted about can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 