New Music is Dead; Long Live New Music
A few reflections (or complaints, more accurately), a record giveaway, and an interview to round out an excellent music year
Hello friends! This will be my last newsletter of 2024. Thanks for letting me take some time off. Keep scrolling for the last record giveaway of the year and a hefty interview I did with that will hopefully keep you entertained until 2025.
Happy holidays! xo, Gabbie
It’s that time again… the end of year doldrums when I decide I never want to listen to new music ever again.
On the absolutely gorgeously-rendered graph above, I’m squarely in the “new music sucks” stage of my annual journey, when all the end of year lists are published and I start resenting any label that would even consider putting a record out in December.
New music is terrible, obviously.1 Why would anybody listen to it on purpose? There’s just more and more of it all the time and all of it is “crank wave”? Isn’t there already a perfectly good word for post-punk? It’s exhausting and it makes me want to lie down.
Look, I know I’ve been promising to listen to every last album that you’ve all recommended, but I’ll be honest with you. In reality I’m probably just going to listen to The Gun Club’s Miami on repeat until the first release day in January. I’m not sure how else to reset my brain.
This is my extremely convoluted way of saying that I’m going to be taking the next few weeks off — both from work and from the newsletter — hopefully to return extra refreshed in the new year, ready to dive back into various playlists and spreadsheets and all kinds of new music tracking methods to help you stay on top of the very best.
In the meantime, I have some housekeeping and some goodies to keep you occupied.
Annual subscriptions are pay-what-you-can until Dec. 31st.
First, A Huge Thank You
It’s really just a random day in December, not any kind of newsletter milestone, but I still wanted to thank you so much for being here and for making me feel so welcome and valued in the Substack community.
I’m grateful to all of you, and especially those of you who have put your faith in me by becoming paid subscribers. You have brought my pipe dream of supporting myself with my writing and love of music one hair’s-length closer to earth.2
I’ve been trying to solidify more and better paid subscriber benefits to make it actually worth your while, and here’s where I’ve landed for now:
Monthly record giveaways
Regular subscriber-only playlists
An index of every artist I’ve recommended in the newsletter3
Full access to the archive & chat
I’m all ears for feedback and requests, though.
Speaking of Record Giveaways…
I’ve never formally announced previous record winners in an actual newsletter, so let’s fix that.
September - We started with the Porches/Fat Dog double giveaway, snagged by
andOctober - Next up was Juniore, won by
November - Finally, THUS LOVE’s latest was picked up by
That leaves us with one more record giveaway for the year!
There are many records that I left off of my EOY list, mostly because I am not as prolific a listener as I like to think I am. W.H. Lung deserved a spot on the roster. Their newest release has hints of Joy Division, but also a strange and welcome blend of shoegaze and krautrock.
Anyone who is a paid subscriber on New Year’s Eve (when I select a winner) is automatically entered to win the record on vinyl. Easy as that.
Finally, a Last Minute Treat
Before I sign off, I want to leave you with a full hour of my nonsense yapping with master music historian and storyteller . We talked earlier this month about our favorite new releases, what music meant to us growing up, and much more.
If you were ever curious about how I approach music recommendations on Substack differently from TikTok, I tackle that in this interview, too.
In the clip below, we rant about how undervalued art is these days, the deranged demand that artists must suffer for their art in order for it to “count” somehow, and the attitude shift of younger musicians about fame and responsibility.
If you prefer to read, be sure to click on “transcript” when you click through.
I’ll be back in the new year. If you have any thoughts about what you’d like to see from me in 2025, drop me a line.
In case you missed it…
New music is the best and I’ll never turn my back on it. Just LET ME VENT FOR A MINUTE OKAY.
It won’t ever happen, but hey! I still never thought I’d become a bestseller, and you made that happen for me, so I’m immeasurably grateful.
Shoot me an e-mail if you’re a paid subscriber and haven’t received a link to this.
"In reality, I’m probably just going to listen to The Gun Club’s Miami on repeat until the first release day in January. "
Same, but New Order Technique.
Thanks for the Miami push. It’s been too long for a record that was so important to me as a mid 80’s teenager in far away Brisbane town