The Skinny Current Issue

It’s look back on the year time here at The Skinny, and what a year it has been. Remember when we thought 2016 was shit? A more innocent time.

We’re still not ready to abandon democracy though – our Music team have been polled, the ballots have been counted, and we are ready to announce our top Albums of 2024. The winner won by a landslide, and their cultural dominance felt at times near total. We also get more specific, looking back on the year in Scottish music to round up, in our highly subjective opinions, the best releases.

Film approaches the measuring of screen work in three ways – you’ve got your best Films of the Year, for the movies that were good and received generally positive acclaim. Then there are the Underrated Films of the Year, for things our team loved but felt didn’t get the attention they deserved from the wider world. Then there’s TV of the Year, which provides a list of gems that you could dive into this very evening in the comfort of your own home. Spoiler – Married at First Sight Australia is once again overlooked, a travesty.

We have some Books of the Year, with each writer picking their favourite and sharing why they love it, while the Comedy team look back on their highlights from the live circuit and on screen. The centre pages are once again an illustrator-designed sheet of wrapping paper, this year by local hero Emer Tumilty. Pull it out and use it to wrap your gifts – it’s fully recyclable, the paper so biodegradable it’s a wonder it stays in one piece long enough for you to read the magazine. Maybe it doesn’t.

It’s been a year where grassroots organising has been more and more essential. Intersections offers a survey of some of the people and collectives who are offering community and resistance in a relentlessly hostile environment. We also look at the government’s new digital-first immigration process and consider what the true cost will be, as it further raises the barriers to entry. In Art, one writer examines the culture of complicity that has been revealed in the sector as some organisations maintain their silence over the genocide in Palestine.

With the year duly surveyed, we move on to talking to some artists about things they have made that we like. Wuh Oh, aka Pete Ferguson, talks about the distress of being dropped by a major label as his eponymous debut album is finally released and he reveals a new moniker, Ferguson. We get insight from Tina Sandwich on their recent experience of going on a DIY European tour in 2024, from sleeping in vans to bingo-based fundraising.

South African artist Gabrielle Goliath discusses the collaborative process in Personal Accounts, currently on show at Talbot Rice Gallery. We meet Guy Maddin and his frequent collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson to hear about Rumours, their new comedy about a crisis at the G7 Summit. Clubs meets Kami-O, one of Scotland's top grime and dubstep exports, to look back on the year following his signing with White Peach.

We close the issue with The Skinny on… John-Luke Roberts, who won one of our Besties awards back in August for his Fringe show. His favourite thing about 2024 has been the sense of encroaching doom, so relatable. Happy holidays!