From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones and this is seven AM Summer Series. Twenty twenty four was a blockbuster year in music. Beyonce went country, Taylor Swift went everywhere, and we all went brat. Today with the Saturday Papers music critic Shad De Souza, we're exploring the albums that defined the year. That includes Charlie XCX, of course, but also a surprising new album from Sonic youth Kim Gordon, and a tender exploration of modern masculinity by MJ. Linderman. It's Wednesday,
December twenty five, HiPE Christmas, So Shad welcome. It's great to have you in the studio.
Thanks NXE for be here.
So we're talking about the best music of the year, and I think we should just go straight to the main event. It's really been Charlie XCX's year, hasn't it.
It's been amazing to see, you know, her going from this kind of niche concern that a few people were really banging the drum for to yeah, it's kind of the year of brat and you know, she's basically released two amazing albums that totally owned the year critically, commercially, they kind of set the tone. It's pretty incredible to see.
So there was Bratt, which was released in June, which was obviously huge, and then a few months later we got the remix version Brat and it's completely different but still Bratt. So tell me about the remix.
Yeah, I really like singling out the remix album because I think it really shows kind of what she's about and kind of how deaf she is as like a producer and an A and R. Obviously, it's really kind of dereger for artists to release full remix albums or release kind of deluxe versions of their records nowadays, because it boosts being at both sales chart positions. That kind of thing. This, I think is that, but it's also a little bit different. It's kind of a full reimagining
of the album. She recorded new vocals for every song, and a lot of songs are like totally overhauled to the point that maybe you wouldn't even be able to make the connection with the original, And it kind of serves as a commentary on the original record, which was like a risk when she released it. You know, it was never guaranteed that it was going to be huge.
She's never had huge commercial success, and this was an album all about her place in the industry and you know, her relationships with other women in the industry and wondering whether she can whether she still has a gas in the tank basically to keep going. So then obviously she becomes really successful, and it's kind of surprising that it's on this album, and then you know, the natural thing for her is to reimagine the record but talking about
everything that's happened in the intervening few months. So it's kind of headspinning conceptually. But if you've been following, you know, the whole brat train for the year, it's actually kind of the perfect counter point to the original album.
Yeah, I don't know if you like me. Sometimes I think you might hate me.
Sometimes I think I might hate you.
Maybe you just want to be me. You always say yeah. I really enjoyed I think her exploration of her relationships with these other artists, in particular, I'm thinking of the song girl So Confusing, So that's about her and Lord, and it's very specific to their relationship, right, So you know, they're talking about how everyone thinks they should be friends
and they get compared. But I mean, I feel like that is also an experience that like most people have had in a friendship circle at some point, this idea that there's someone that they maybe should be friends with, but like maybe it's like a little bit awkward when they hang out, and then they're not really totally sure if they want to be mates with them or if actually,
like they kind of secretly hate them. So like there's this real specificity to the lyrics, which are you know, so clearly about the world that she's in and you know, could be unrelatable, but they're not right.
And that's something I love about this record is that, like a lot of really big pop stars are always going for relatability at all of the costs. So it's kind of like, I'm a normal girl, just like you. You know, my struggles are just like yours. Charlie doesn't
do that. She's talking specifically, you know. On the original album, it's just this song girl so confusing, where she doesn't name the other pop stars she's talking about, but it was very clear to a lot of people that it was about Lord and that's not necessarily a relatable thing. But I think she does this thing over and over again on the album where it's not about, you know, putting yourself in her shoes. It's about thinking about your own kind of jealousies and rivalries and worst traits and
best traits and that kind of thing. And I think that's ultimately why people connect with it more than maybe some of the other bigger pop records that didn't necessarily
land this year. And then obviously, you know, releasing the remix of Girls So Confusing with lord On it turned it into this quite crazy you know, whether you think it's kind of staged, whether you think it's kind of off the cuff, it's a pretty remarkable thing to hear these two extremely famous women be so vulnerable in this quite intense way.
I think I know how you feel good, feels instize. Okay, so let's move on. What's your next album of you?
I want to talk about this record, Imaginal Disc by a duo called Magdalena Bay. I feel like it's helpful to understand their origin story, which is basically they're a couple and they were in a prog band and then one day they kind of happened upon a Charlie XCX concert and discovered that pop music could be interesting as well. That's basically how they put it. And so now they make this kind of very weird multi genre prog pop basically,
and this album is kind of their big opus. It's really long, it's really dense, but it's also a blast to listen to.
Yeah, listening at home, there was like a lot going on. There was some like dance pop, there was some disco, there was some psychedelic stuff happening. And like you say, it was a really long album, like more than an hour long, which I think stands in comparison to some of the other pop albums of the year, like you know, Short and Sweet.
Yeah, for sure. And I think they have them like a really big cult following. And I think the success of this album, you know, it's huge online and like you know, they did their first American TV performance this year off the back of it, that kind of thing. The success of it just shows the power of kind of like building a cult fan base these days. Like
it's not about reaching everyone with this album. They just kind of follow every instinct that they could possibly have and it worked really well for them.
After the Break is Old Country Coming Back. So Shad, we've spoken about two of the best albums of twenty twenty four What's.
Next Manning Fireworks by Mjlenderman, which is kind of the second studio album by this young North Carolina songwriter guitarist Mark Jacob Linderman.
So same godn face.
It's a really remarkable indie rock singer songwriter record, although I don't know if I would even call it that because it totally rips, Like it's like amazing guitar solos, really long, crazy songs, but at the same time, they're really hooky and they're really emotional everything you want in tern of a rock record.
And so this is his fourth solo album, but he is the guitarist of Wednesday, which is an old country band, right, Yes, yeah, an old country seems to be having a bit of a moment.
Yeah, I mean, you know, this is like it's almost kind of like a controversial thing because it's like, what do you mean by old country or like Americana. I know a lot of people who like just call it country or whatever, But yeah, Wednesday do this really loud, noisy, experimental rock. But then there's also elements of like drive by truckers and other country stuff in there. And I'm Joe Lenderman kind of does a similar thing. It's more
straight down the middle rock music with a twang. But yeah, there is a lot of that stuff going around.
This year, and he's an amazing guitarist obviously, But it's the lyrics of this album that I think really stood out to me. The song Wristwatch in particular, it's so petulant. It's great.
Yeah, he does this amazing thing, like he is so good at picking apart modern masculinity in all its permutations, from like the far right like Manisphere stuff, through to like more innocuous but still insidious forms of modern marcho masculinity, which is really he does it in a way that's not like preachy or anything. It's just so smart and sad, yeah, and depressing. But also the you know, the riffs and the hooks are like so ingratiating that you just can't
STARp listening. It's it's a really cool, interesting mix.
Okay, So final album of the year.
Yeah, this one was from a bit earlier in the year, and it's one that I just kept coming back to. It's The Collective by Kim Gordon. It's her second solo album, but obviously she's had a long illustrious career as part of Sonic Youth, and it kind of follows this vibe she started with her first solo record from a few years back, called No Home Record, and it's basically her rapping or doing spoken word over these insane, blown out
industrial beats. So crazy, but also kind of in character with what she's number four.
By keys Pants to the clean cigar routes for a kid quite outside of Sonic Youth, which has that kind of experimental rock format. I mean, this isn't rock at all, really, no.
Not really, and like there are guitars on it, but I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to call it a rock record, and like, I think it's all the better for it. You know, it really allows her to experiment with what she's saying and do this quite abstracted lyrical style that still makes a sort of sense. It's a really remarkable.
Record, and I also just love that this is the album that Kim Gordon is making when she's like seventy or seventy one. It's incredible. I mean it just shows that, I guess, like true originality and creativity. I mean, there is like no limit to it. It doesn't run out if you're Kim.
Gordon, Yeah, and like you know, there's next week that like, as you get older, your music should get safer maybe, But I think Kim Gordon is kind of following in this lineage of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, like in Lady Years made some of their most radical records. Like Bob Dylan obviously made Rough and Rowdy Ways, which is quite a weird, crazy album. David Bowie read before he died and made Black Star, which is very experimental and crazy.
And I think it's good that Kim Gordon, you know, she's at this stage in her life where she probably could just rest on her laurels, and she's really Yeah, she's really pushing herself to do something new though, which is part of what makes this so amazing.
In just a moment, a few honorable mentions, including an incredible new Australian album. Okay, so Shah before you go, any honorable mentions? What are you going to be listening to on repeat at the beach?
Oh my god, Well I don't go to the beach, but listening on repeat maybe like in my hotel room as I yeah, with the air conon. Addison Ray had a really big year it's kind of funny to say she's like a TikToker, but who makes very great pop music. She released two amazing songs, Diet Pepsi and Aquamarine, and Ameil and the Sniffer has released a really incredible I think it's their third album. It's called Cartoon Darkness. It's
almost like a bit intense. There's quite a level of you know, the lead singer Amy Taylor clearly has a lot of access to grind with Australia in general and the way she's perceived, but I think that makes for quite an interesting record. You know, it's defensive and it's kind of mean, but it's also very funny in the way that that band always is. I've been returning to that record a lot.
Yeah, this might be an obvious point, but that album is one that I think you need to play really loud.
Windows down, like it's so much fun to listen to, like if you you know, thinking about your nemesis or whatever.
It's very free.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, Shad, thank you so much for your time.
Thanks for having me