THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2024: THE EDITOR'S PICKS

It is that time again when we reflect on the year that has sped by, and of course we single out albums that made it all so much better.

As always these are not “the best” of the year because we couldn't hear everything and anyway, “the best” are those that you enjoyed the most.

But here we remind you of those albums which stood out from the scores we reviewed during 2024. And we have only chosen our picks from the ones we wrote about.

Some debuts and some long distance runners among the selection.

Have a look, flick to our review where you can also have a listen to a sample.

Unfortunately this year I can't invite you to contribute your preferences for a page of Readers' Choices because I am away for a month, but by all means Post A Comment at the end of this about any albums which got you through.

Have a great holiday season and now . . .

in no particular order it is “on the with countdown” . . .

And follow along with this playlist at Spotify

And right at the end some important local albums which got vinyl reissue this year.

John Cale: POPtical Illusion

We said: POPtical Illusion – with synths, beat box percussion, strings, raw guitars and sometimes hypnotic melodies – may be the most surprisingly agreeable and intelligent “pop” album from classically-trained Cale since Hobosapiens 20 years ago.

Our full review is here

Mel Parsons: Sabotage

We said: Sabotage barely moves the needle from its moody reverie but the raw honesty of her lyrics (Little Sadness “walking with me”) and weary delivery make for an emotionally engaging coherent body of work.

Our full review is here

Crowded House: Gravity Stairs

We said: As with the previous album Dreamers Are Waiting, there are however no signature Crowded House/Neil Finn hit singles leaping out here. If Neil is a songwriter's songwriter, this is an album artist's album.

Our full review is here

Adrianne Lenker: Bright Future

We said: Bright Future -- which offers a different, very personal take on weird Americana -- is an album of emotional exposure, folk imagery, lessons learned and ecological pessimism (Donut Seam). But also a place where there's comfort and a lilac river.

Our review in full is here

Amiria Grenell: The Winter Light

We said: Quite what category it might fall into when a record store is looking for a bin to put it in is another matter: folk, country, pop . . . Any and all of those, and then some. You could even put an “alt” in front of each if it helps.

Our review in full is here

Lucien Johnson: Ancient Relics

We said: an album that commands attention the whole way while reaching for the beyond.

Our full review is here

Charles Lloyd, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

We said: a double vinyl album of depth, beauty and most often a spiritual calm.

Our full review is here

Best Bets: The Hollow Husk of Feeling

We said: This is power-pop and powerful pop that pogos right to the precipice.

Our full review is here

Tami Neilson, Neilson Sings Nelson

We said: More than a tribute or career digression, this is in the lineage of Neilson's life, generously spotlighting the breadth of Nelson's writing.

Our full review is here

Brittany Howard: What Now

We said: Brittany Howard is a serious artist but manages to bring danceable joy, some sterling rock guitar and the celebratory spirit of Paisley Park on an album which reaches wide and offers as much pleasure as poignancy.

Our full review is here

Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown

We said: Beth Gibbons' long overdue debut after numerous collaborations has been worth the wait. 

Our full review is here

Pearl Jam, Dark Matter

We said: In this aggressive double punch, Pearl Jam serve notice they're still a hard rock band wearing its beliefs and emotions like an open carry weapon.

Our full review is here

Paul Weller: 66

We said the consistently interesting album also includes horn-driven rock (Jumble Queen), edgy guitar riffs (Soul Wandering where he considers what lies beyond life) and wah-wah soul (In Full Flight with “lately, I've been doubting it/not just one thing/but kind of all of it”). There are also elegant dream-pop ballads in Nothing and the soulful Rise Up Singing, which recalls the Style Council.

Our full review is here

Sam Bambery, Rubricator

We said: Bambery's expressive and impressive vocal range -- from intimate (Spring, Tricks of Light) through the uneasy shapeshifting stalk of Parasite, to Jeff Buckley-like confessional art-rock on Mountain and Me and the dramatic Uncertain – carries these diverse, skilfully arranged songs which sometimes include seemingly random vocal samples. The final song is the DIY home recording of the dark Myself, Vindicated. He is.

Our full review is here

Cassandra Jenkins: My Light, My Destroyer

We said: It has become quite a recognisable phenomenon: women like Georgia Lines, St. Vincent, The Weather Station (Tamara Lindeman), Weyes Blood, Julia Jacklin and many others pushing the parameters of contemporary music and redefining poetic art-pop for adults. Brooklyn-based Cassandra Jenkins is in their ranks too.

Our full review is here

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wild God

We said: Wild God offers resonant poetry, images from The Bible and William Blake, self-salvaging and finds hope and rapture in small moments of visualisation, compassion and love.

Our full review is here

Revulva, Revulva

We said:  these lyrics – stinging, wry or ironic – come with smooth, slinky arrangements for horns, Wurlitzer, guitar and a rhythm section, which nudge Revulva closer to Steely Dan, Studio 54 disco-soul, LA street funk and sensual R'n'B strutting. Johnson delivers her lyrics with a coquettish purr or a knowing seduction which run cleverly contrary to their bite

Our full review is here

T Bone Burnett: The Other Side

We said: The Other Side is a refined, understated folk-blues and country collection of originals which sound a century old

Our full review is here

Death and the Maiden: Uneven Ground

We said: The title Uneven Ground suggests wary walking and there's certainly unease here. But Death and the Maiden have assured footing and – although broadcasting on a readily identifiable emotional bandwidth – offer engrossing, gloomadelic penumbra-pop.

Our full review is here

Chelsea Wolfe, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

We said: Start three songs in, hold the guard rail tight, She Reaches Out is quite a ride

Our full review is here

Fazerdaze: Soft Power

We said:  her second album Soft Power which is the culmination of self-discovery and personal empowerment, extending the sonics of Break! through electronic beats and cinematic-scale synths to swell her crafted, economic pop-rock.

Our full review is here

Holly Arrowsmith: Blue Dreams

We said: with serious lyrics tapping resonant observations in life, Blue Dreams is – like an Aldous Harding album -- a slow grower collection of crafted, poetic songs.

Our full review is here

Delaney Davidson, Barry Saunders: Happiness is Near

We said: Davidson and Saunders tap into traditions of folk and country but Happiness is Near is about our contemporary world, existential unease and -- in its minimalist sound -- whispers that you should consider the cover image where a shadow spirit looms over the duo.

Our full review is here

Father John Misty: Mahashmashana

We said: An extraordinary, exceptional and multi-layered album chock full of ideas, contradictions, self-analysis, broad observations and cracking tunes.

Our full review is here

Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days

We said: Dwight Yoakam – annoyingly at 68 he can still fit into those tight jeans – never went away. But he's certainly back with this album where the title track maybe takes on a special meaning of hope in these darker days.

Our full review is here

Gracie Adams: The Secret of Us

We said: the album – albeit self-centred, self-pitying contemporary mope-pop with the lyrical detail Swift and the National employ – is a plausible collection of discreet songs about finding meaning after a relationship ends.

Our full review is here

Georgia Lines: The Rose of Jericho

We said: The Rose of Jericho is an outstanding body of work which, when delivered live, punches even harder.

Our full review is here

St Vincent, All Born Screaming

We said: A journey from darkness into a glow, this – despite such arresting lines as “I feel like graffiti on a urinal in the abattoir” – is quite something.

Our full review is here

Kim Gordon: The Collective

We said: At 70, Kim Gordon sketches an unsettling place few would want to visit.

Our full review is here

Anna Coddington, Te Whakamiha

We said: the retro-fitted but contemporary, forward-facing bilingual Te Whakamiha was appropriately launched at Matariki when we reflect on the past, celebrate the present and prepare for the future

Our full review is here

Mdou Moctar: Funeral for Justice

We said: From the title and cover art inward – with only a couple of more familiar Sahara blues pieces – this burns with white-hot intensity, the guitars deployed like rocket launchers. You won't understand a word, but Funeral for Justice is utterly thrilling psychedelicized blues-rock.

Our full review is here

Jack White, No Name

We said: hefty blues, a lump of nasty guitar rock-cum-funk (Number One With A Bullet) and plenty of archetypal Jack White as only Jack can do White. Noisy, desperate, thrilling.

Our full review is here

Mike Hall: Nothing Stands Still

Modest bassist Hall (Balance, Pluto, Brunettes, Dimmer) offers an unhurried debut album full of pop hooks and memorable melodies which have reference points in power pop, Neil Finn's dream pop and romantic ballads. Nothing to be modest about.

Our full review is here

Lemon Twigs, A Dream Is All We Know

We said:  again Lemon Twigs sound like themselves over the 35 minutes and this bright pop sits neatly alongside that slightly darker predecessor.

Our full review is here

Thurston Moore, Glow Critical Lucidity

We said: he hits an interesting midpoint of his many style with an album of quirky moments (New in Town), delightful dream-pop (Hypnogram) and minimalist guitar figures morphing into cinematic pop (Sans Limites with Stereolab singer Laeitia Sadier providing a brief atmospheric dreamscape).

Our full review is here

Louisa Nicklin: The Big Sulk

We said: Nicklin is one of those who is within rock culture but also apart from it, in a distinct domain of her own making.

Our full review is here

Mystery Waitress, Bright Black Night

We said: Bright Black Night – the title encapsulating the dichotomies in Dillon's astute, refined lyrics – is a rare one. It rocks as much as it penetrates.

Our full review is here

Moana and the Tribe: Ono

We said: an uncommonly arresting album of dub electronica-cum-world music.

Our full review is here

Molly Payton: Yoyotta

This London-based expat has much to get emo about (too young in the cruel music business, dad in prison) but she channels her anger and disappointment into sharp and often insightful lyrics, grungy pop and seething rock. One to watch.

Our full review is here

Nala Sinephro: Endless

We said: you can be left with the feeling you are in familiar musical territory but it's a nice place to be, somewhere between adventurous New Age jazz and atmospheric minimalism.

Our full review is here

Nubya Garcia, Odyssey

We said: this might not be the album fans of that album want – too diverse, too disparate – but as a signal that Nubya Garcia is an accomplished composer, arranger, collaborator and more, this odyssey is well worth undertaking.

Our full review is here

Skilaa: Tiger in the River

We said: This is clever, feminist, soulful and exquisitely crafted music which steps past easy genre categorisation which is also catchy, inventive and . . . Check it out for yourself.

Our full review is here

Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Woodland

We said: Moving harmonies, superb playing and songs like Rawlings' Dylanesque Turf the Gambler which may have always existed but required royalty to pluck them from the air.

Our full review is here

The Smile: Wall of Eyes and Offcuts

Two albums recorded mostly simultaneously but released separately confirm this trio (Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner) are an independent band that moves from soulful pop and experimental sounds into world music and electronica.

Our full reviews are here

Idles, Tangk

We said: Great rock-cum-art album.

Our full review is here

Troy Kingi and the Cactus Handshake: Leatherman and the Mojave Green.

We said: On the mainline of desert-inspired psychedelic rock from Meat Puppets (out of Phoenix) and Giant Sand (Tucson) to influences from Rancho's illustrious alumni, Kingi uncorks exciting, lyrically bewildering and enormously energetic rock

Our full review is here

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RECORDS GOING ROUND AGAIN: Local albums issued for the first time on vinyl

The vinyl revival has meant more available pressing plants and therefore more local albums appearing on record, some for the first time. This year there were dozens but we point you to the following and the highlighted title takes you to our review or article.

Dam Native: Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted

Strident, important 1997 album considered one of the most significant rap albums released in Aotearoa.

Fuemana: New Urban Polynesian

The soulful sounds of South Auckland from 1994 with the late Phil Fuemana putting ballads, hip-hop, dancefloor Samoan music and more in front of a mainstream audience . . . which ignored it at the time.

The Verlaines: Live at the Windsor Castle 1986

Thrilling, previously unreleased double album recorded when the band were at an early, often manic peak of fury and energy. Also available Way Out Where, a last gasp bid for international acceptance which deserved a better hearing than it got in 1993.

Primitive Art Group: Primitive Art Group 1981-1986

Excellent double album compilation from the short-lived but prolific PAG out of Wellington. Free improvisation which has aged remarkably well and not as scary as it once seemed.

Dr Tree: Dr Tree

Not too many jazz fusion album in this country but here was the award-winning best, the Auckland group's sole album re-presented with an excellent extra disc of previously unreleased material.

The Chills: Kaleidoscope World

The essential 1986 compilation which picked up key early songs (the title track, Rolling Moon, Pink Frost, Doledrums) now expanded with demos, b-sides and live material. Also re-released 1987's Brave Words remixed and expanded as Brave Words Spoken Bravely: The Remix

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