XotY 2024
Book of the Year! 3. Piranesi a friend’s worthwhile recommendation. House of Leaves for dark academia, veering in and out of the territory of Paul Auster’s City of Glass. the beauty of the House is immeasurable; its kindness infinite.
2. Neuromancer so foundational to the genre that its random one-off lines invoke ideas still new and exciting today. the bleeding edge of the digital then, almost an analogue delight now. plays a magic trick with perspective in its final third that’s still on my mind.
1. The Hydrogen Sonata Banks’ final Culture novel, and the second of the lot that feels right as an ending. ultimately, deliberately, much ado about nothing. transcendent. i will return to these and reread, someday, and until then i will miss them.
Comic of the Year! 3. James Tynion IV’s paranoid ongoings (W0rldtr33, Dept. of Truth, The Nice House…, etc.) JT4 is telling too many versions of this story to pick just one, but i’ve come to love his indie horror work. betraying your friends and conspiracies of hate…
2. NYX Lanzing & Kelly are my favorite new authors in comics these days, and NYX may be their best work yet. goes further with Krakoa-X-Men Phonogram: Singles Club than Gillen ever dared to. sometimes the only big 2 book right now meaty enough to keep thinking about.
1. The Power Fantasy post-Thunderbolt, post-Immortal, post-WicDiv Kieron fucking Gillen at the peak of his powers. Wijngaard’s consistency maintains a Watchmen-descendant so enthralling you could almost see it existing even if it went back and killed its grandfather
Game of the Year! 3. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut my first time revisiting Revachol since its original release. still exceptional: deliberate friction with contemporary RPG modes of play, politically incisive (& smarter than its fans), & essentially, pathetically human.
2. Cyberpunk 2077 2.X thank god i didn’t play this at release. gameplay is smooth and responsive and generally feels good, but the high drama and performances hooked me—cherami leigh is exceptional. understands the cyberpunk genre better than the hangers-on of its moment.
1. Life is Strange series cringeworthy dialogue comes and goes, but the plots and themes of these—young adult under the weight of the world, high-stakes navigation of social life—just work. first game found my true weakness: nostalgia for the 2013 indie scene.
Film of the Year!: Theatrical 3. Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow I-III shorts almost feel essentially home/digital viewing these days, so seeing these with an audience at the Paris was unexpected. bitterness and laughter, memory and legacy, and the hope for a paycheck to come.
2. I Saw the TV Glow Justice Smith’s best performance yet and the best soundtrack of the year. nostalgia for Buffy and Nick at Nite boiling over into transgender existential horror. that final scream, man…
1. Tenet (70mm IMAX) works even better on every new loop. bullets from the future, fired at the past. particles and antiparticles annihilating, becoming each other, ending history. too big for your eyes, too loud for your ears. an expression of faith—
Film of the Year!: Home 3. Mystery Train Jim Jarmusch just wants to hang out all night. you should want to hang out with him.
2. Run Lola Run peak Tykwer. a cartoon, a soap opera, a tragedy, a race. the most nineteen ninety-nine anything has ever been. you absolutely see how he ended up with the Wachowskis and David Mitchell.
1. My Own Private Idaho 50% shakespearesque stage acting blank verse, 50% stylistically-out-there gay tragicomedy. a smidgen of SNL’s Sprockets; nude portraiture standing in for sex; the Pogues and the B-52s. narcolepsy is my favorite scene transition device in cinema.
Album of the Year! 3. Moons Melt Milk Light my first Anenon album, which technically came out late last year. gorgeously breathy sax and bass clarinet jazz. the type of piano playing where the wood of the bench settling is part of the instrument. highly recommend.
2. Only God Was Above Us in love with the odd-numbered VW albums, and seeing them live this year didn't hurt. a return to form while maintaining the new jam band aspect that enlivens the act post-Rostam. in dreams i scream piano!
1. All Hell + More Hell i've spent more time this year listening to All Hell and its companion EP More Hell than any other album. Los Campesinos! pulled 00s emo through the pasta-shaper of leftist twitter-tumblr and came out the other end with a masterpiece noodle.












