New Crush? Let's go girls

This is me + my favorite albums of 2024!

Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be on the computer a lot.

The transition into a new year is a weird time to start a music newsletter, because it’s really the only time when most people pay any attention to music journalism. And by attention, I mean they scroll down to the bottom of Pitchfork’s best albums list and frown that “brat” only reached #2.

Every December, I realize how out of touch music listeners are with what’s being written about music. I also discover how out of touch music publications are with actual music listeners. If I knew the solution to either of these problems, I would be a hero to the media and music industries and I’d finally be able to afford a dog or a Le Creuset .

I have no solutions, BUT I have been thinking that maybe I can channel all of my disenchantment with music journalism into something else. Between group chats and Reddit threads and conversations I overhear in the concert merch line, I’ve learned that—this might shock some of you—when people connect on the music they love, they end up having a lot to talk about. There is actual proof out there that music criticism, analysis, curiosity and maybe—if we’re brave—even journalism, are not dead yet.

New Crush is the place where I’m going to write about the music I love, as well as the culture, memes and inappropriately obsessed 15-year-old stans that surround it. Maybe we’ll connect? There’s only one way to find out…

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I have a lot of fun ideas for this newsletter that I’ll begin next week (HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE PLEASE) but in the meantime, I thought I’d share my favorite albums of 2024 to give you a little idea of who I am: a Swiftie, a girl who works in a corporate setting but is spiritually a riot grrrl, a reformed pop-punk teen, a 365 party girl, a daughter, a friend…

NATALIA’S TOP ALBUMS OF 2024

(in alphabetical order because I’m not a monster¹)

1. Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter

2. Brittany Howard - What Now

3. Charli XCX – Brat

4. Charly Bliss – Forever

5. Clairo – Charm

6. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World

7. Eliza McLamb – Going Through It

8. English Teacher - This Could Be Texas

9. Gracie Abrams - The Secret of Us

10. Katie Gavin – What a Relief

11. Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns

12. Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk

13. Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me

14. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

15. Madi Diaz – Weird Faith

16. Megan Maroney – Am I Okay?

17. MK.Gee – Two Star & the Dream Police

18. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks

19. Nilufer Yanya – My Method Actor

20. Remi Wolf– Big Ideas

21. Sabrina Carpenter – Short n Sweet

22. Soccer Mommy - Evergreen

23. Taylor Swift – Tortured Poets Department (+ the Anthology)

24. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Challengers soundtrack

25. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood

If you made it this far, you earned access my playlist! This has one song from each of these 25 albums, plus 35 more songs I loved from 2024.

1. Should this be a newsletter topic? LMK

All typos are accidents that will keep me up at night!