A Christmas Treat
During the holiday season, lists of the year’s best albums used to pop up everywhere. This has become a bit muted lately. I don’t know if this has to do with the fact that musical tastes are generally more spread out or if there is a bland consensus of the most popular and talked-about records made by the usual suspects.
At glamglare, we have always struggled with coming up with our lists because we have listened to so much different music over the course of a year that it is almost impossible to choose the ten or 20 best albums or songs. Can you even call an album your favorite of the year if you only found time to listen to it once or twice?
However, reflecting on the past year marks an essential ritual in December, and thinking about the music that moved you is a wonderful part of it. This year, I want to select my favorite ten albums of 2024 that I’ll keep in my library and remove the rest.
I take my music library seriously. It is a digital extension of the record collection I started in the 1980s. This collection has become a part of my identity, so I want it to be filled with records I have a relationship with.
But tastes and preferences change over time, and without physical and monetary constraints, my digital library looks more like the bins in a second-hand record store than an album collection I could be proud of.
I quickly devised a list of ten albums to keep, but the process was more challenging now on a second pass. Ten albums is an awfully small number, and there are undoubtedly many more fantastic albums made in 2024. But it does not only count how much I liked the music but also the impact the album – and the artist – had on me when it came out. As such, it will be a deeply personal list, but I hope it will entice you to listen to some or all of the artists. The plan is to publish the final ten albums in the December 19 newsletter.
Another ritual of the season is watching holiday movies. For many people, Elke and me included, Love Actually is the gold standard for the perfect mix of Christmas magic, comedy, and heartwarming message. Also, it shines a beautifully festive light on London, which we could catch a glimpse of last year. (Fond memories!)
Over here, many holiday movies are set in New York but mostly filmed somewhere else. After a few establishing shots on 5th Avenue, often with romantic snow flurries (which are very rare - we have either snow storms or nothing here), the scenery changes to non-descript cityscapes that are decisively not New York. At least some filmmakers seem to have fun with the concept: in Hotel for the Holidays they showed a “Stone Street” subway station – which doesn’t exist – with stops for the 14, 15, and 16 trains – which don’t exist either.
Still, we crave an atmospheric Christmas movie that is not mostly comedy and suspense-your-disbelief story. If you know one, please let us know.
glamglare favorites
Listen to glamglare favorites on Spotify or below on YouTube.
We all know the Christmas classics. Enjoy five original holiday-themed songs by Julian Casablancas, Fenne Lily, Wyldest, Kadhja Bonet, and Ellen Krauss.
Song Pick of the Day
Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features or subscribe here to receive them into your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.
Nine Photos of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
New Yorkers love their city more than tourists and also cannot get enough of saying it out loud or hearing it. Case in point is yesterday’s holiday tree lighting at the Seaport. The Big Apple Choir sang “New York, New York,” with the audience happily chiming in despite the cold, and all agreed that the holiday season is nowhere better than in the greatest city in the world. Forgive me, please, if this is all a bit too NYC-centric, but… yes, there’s a ‘but.’ New York is a magical place during the holiday season. While we usually enjoyed Bryant Park and the midtown area, we’re now fully diving into what the Seaport has to offer and there is plenty. We’ve only scratched the surface so far, so expect more photos to come.
(1, 3, 5, 6 and 9) At the Seaport.
(2) The beautiful glass (!) ornaments from the MoMA that we simply couldn’t resist.
(4) We’ve got mail, real mail.
(6) We write letters too.
(8) Official holiday kick-off: Santa at the Macy’s Day Parade. :D
Enjoy the holiday season!
Photos: Elke Nominikat