The best and worst music of 2024 ... so far.

Unhinged, a total mess, often really rather beautiful: the year's best music has been born from chaos.

This year is a mess of contradictions. It wants to crank everything up to 11 – then whisper in your ear. It wants to party – and sit down and chill. Everything is at odds all the damn time. It wants to have one foot in the past, and another in the future. Streaming numbers are up, yet so are vinyl sales. We want songs that sound intimate, played on a mass scale. 2024 is the year that will not quit.

No one knows what’s going on, and nothing makes sense. But it started with a bang, a splurge of stadium shows and festivals, so many that our stacked summer burst apart at the seams, with so much live music on offer it was impossible to take it all in. The strain is already showing and is unlikely to be repeated for a long time to come.

Ever since, we’ve had a surge of surprises: brilliant albums coming from leftfield, artists delivering incredible shows out of nowhere, newcomers emerging from nothing to deliver songs that instantly knock you off your feet, and boffins breaking streaming records without leaving their bedrooms.

This is a year in which Beyoncé made a country album, lockdown DJ Fred Again went from his bedroom to arenas to stadiums in record time, Taylor Swift refused to come to Aotearoa then Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish followed suit, Charli XCX became the pop star she always deserved to be, Chumbawamba made headlines, and Kendrick Lamar started a rap beef in which he dethroned then beheaded king Drake.

Here, in June, the mid-point of what’s been a completely chaotic year for music, no one’s really been covering any of that. There hasn’t been much in the way of music journalism to celebrate. I’m sorry to say but that’s unlikely to change.

But there has been plenty of music worth championing: a local scene that continues to hum away, with New Zealand bands out there conquering the world; a flourishing live scene with so many concerts and festivals it’s impossible to keep up; two new venues opening; and essential, important songs and albums landing on a daily basis.

So, let’s celebrate it! Here, according to my weathered ears, is the best music of 2024, so far…

Charli XCX’s all-conquering brat…

In 2015, when I met Charli XCX for the first time, I was terrified she’d begin our conversation the same way she opened this Rolling Stone ($$) interview – with an x-rated admission. It didn’t happen. Instead, she was equal parts delightful and fiery, later delivering a stunning free show at The Powersation full of animal costumes and birthday balloons. Back then, I remember thinking, “Why isn’t she a big deal?” It’s taken more than 10 years, but now, thanks to brat, her bold, brash EDM spectacle of a new album, she’s bigger than ever. Love that for her.

Fred Again’s ‘surprise’ New Zealand tour…

It was a spectacle. It was sensational. It was hype. Everything about Fred Again’s “surprise” tour in March, from a $25 performance at The Coroglen tavern to two sold out Spark Arena shows, was a fight, from getting tickets in the unforgiving online queues to the punches being thrown between fans outside venues. Here’s the thing: it was all worth it. His show delivered like no other, a masterful mix of mood, texture and layers that used intimate vocals and brutal beats to get its point across. It was so good I’m still dreaming about it as I sit here now. Again, please, Fred. Again.

All the New Zealand acts killing it overseas…

The Beths have just come home from playing Coachella. Earth Tongue are in the middle of a 49-date run of European shows and festivals. Leisure keep selling out overseas tours and booking major festivals. Dartz have just jetted off for their first European jaunt. Benee is about to open for Olivia Rodrigo on her Australian tour. DJ Messie is playing Glastonbury. I’ve almost certainly missed a bunch because I can’t keep up with the number of New Zealand acts out there on the road, doing the thing that they do, on a global scale. You good things. Let’s. Fucking. Go.

Mannequin Pussy’s ‘Loud Bark’…

In 2024, this is the song I’ve played the most. No regrets.

Anything John Glacier has released…

It’s like Burial and Charli XCX combined forces then sent the results to be chopped and screwed by DJ Screw. I’m completely and utterly obsessed with John Glacier, a UK bedroom boffin with a chronic disability who releases her brand of woozy trip-hop intermittently, rarely tours and doesn’t do much in the way of press. Start with her February EP Like A Ribbon, and go from there.

We’re getting two new music venues…

Remember when venues kept closing during all those Covid lockdowns? Don’t call it a comeback … but maybe this is it? Soon, Whammy, Backroom and The Wine Cellar will be refurbished into a bigger venue called Double Whammy! into a place capable of hosting 450 people. Meanwhile, Wellington’s getting its own version of the Powerstation with Meow Nui, a flash, kitted out space capable of hosting 1000 people. That feels like the start of something. What that is, only time will tell.

Josh Homme preaches to the converted.

He joked and laughed and told stories and reminisced and played songs from his band’s huge back catalogue. And then Josh Homme, the towering Queens of the Stone Age front man, got down from the stage, entered the crowd and began walking through his congregation, preaching like the man of God he isn’t. Across a five-day stretch that included Auckland shows by Blink-182, Dinosaur Jr, Mogwai, Mr Bungle and The Melvins, it was this moment, from this show, that still rings loudest in my ears.

Kendrick Lamar’s titanic comeback…

I didn’t have the complete and utter demolition of Drake on my 2024 bingo card, but the rap king’s downfall at the hands of an absolutely masterful display of incendiary storytelling and violent wordplay by Kendrick Lamar was riveting viewing. Best of all, some great music came out of it. After Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, all is forgiven.

And the year’s biggest disappointments…

Okay, it hasn’t all been good. Here are the things that have kind of sucked: Sampha’s disappointing Powerstation show; the utterly woeful Amy Winehouse movie; Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo playing Australia but not New Zealand; the constant reliance of booking ancient artists for nostalgia tours; Splore being cancelled; Xzibit’s hip-hop festival being cancelled; Splendour in the Grass being cancelled; Morningside Live Block Party being cancelled; the sound at SZA’s very expensive three Auckland shows; Stuff deleting its Music section; constantly rising concert ticket prices; and the continued demise of music journalism :(

Okay, now it’s over to you: what are your musical highlights (or lowlights) for 2024 so far?