Take a bow 2024

Why have a top ten when you can have a top 9

Hello, my friends. I sincerely hope you are having a beautiful, restful break, and if not, I hope you are doing work you love and that you get some time to yourself in some way soon. After a pretty mad, crazy (good, crazy) end to our year - we’ve had a quiet time at home. The neighbourhood is empty - everyone has gone and it’s so quiet - apart from a few cars racing down our road - not cruising, on their way out to Te Henga. Who can blame them? It’s beautiful out there, but it’s been a windy start to the summer - I guess that is the risk when you live on islands in the middle of the roaring forties.

Backyard blisses

I have been feeling pretty all consumed by events and politics - the world and here in Aotearoa, and the backward-thinking policies of our current government; I know I am not alone in that,and in this break, I have been trying to focus on the good things at my fingertips, and doing my best not to panic about the empty spaces in the 2025 planner on my table.

2024 has been good work-wise. I am lucky, and I know it. Of course, I want this to continue in 2025. I want to work hard.

If all goes well this new year, I’ll play a lot of music, focus on more songwriting and recording, and see the lights shine on many joyful faces. None of this is guaranteed, but I’ll do my best to make it so. (World peace would be nice, too).

This new substack has been a bit of a revelation and discovery to me, and with any luck, people (you) will get something from what I write or at least enjoy the writing and perspective. Receiving the feedback and the subscribers has been a bit of a surprise and a beautiful boost. I want to write more.

I had thought I would put together my top 2024 album release list to mark the end of the year, but I was a bit slow off the mark. There are so many top lists out there - and well, the thing is, with so many songs to learn for the shows I have been doing lately, I have to catch up on many of those albums myself, and I’m looking forward to that.

But I want to share a few songs/albums/moments that have moved me or meant something to me this year. It’s a genre-hopping, twisting, and turning list of songs. To me, 2024 has been a solid year of strong releases, and this list is pretty random, but I’m hoping there will be songs in there you won’t have heard, and it’ll be a good catalyst for some New Year listening. If I had my own radio show, this would be my 2024 (tiny) special.

Here it is:

Laura Marling made me cry - up it came from the deepest place and whacked me hard when I wasn’t looking. Feelings and thoughts I thought I had resolved.That’s the truth of it. Powerful, gentle - beautiful.

If you haven’t heard Laura’s latest album, Patterns in Repeat, do it!; if I had a top album list for 2024, it would be sitting at the top like the freshest Christmas cherry.

Laura Marling - Child of Mine:

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I was a devoted THE THE fan when I was young, and I still have treasured vinyl copies of Infected, Soul Mining and Mind Bomb in my collection. I totally missed the new album (the first release in 24 years) and show announcement this year, so I didn’t get a ticket.

I was pretty happy when a good friend said she had a spare ticket and invited me along (thanks, Irene). I am so glad I didn’t miss it. The band played the show in two parts - the new album Ensoulment back to back in the first set and came back for a second set full of treasures from past albums. Matt Johnson was in fine form; that voice still brings the spine tingles, and the new songs have the same intensity, tunefulness and Johnson’s lyrical skill and unique perspectives. Listening to the album added to my feelings of missing London.

THE THE - Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave of William Blake

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Mike Hall - Good Will

After a few years of chipping away bit by bit, stealing time away from a busy life to record with best pal and producer Jol Mulholland, Mike Hall released his first solo album, Nothing Stands Still, this year. Mike is an in-demand session bass player, guitarist, and singer best known in Aotearoa as a member of the bands Pluto and Night Choir. This song is a twanger of the heartstrings. The harmony vocals in this song are outstanding.

Listen to the album: https://precise.fm/nothingstandsstill

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Sivle Talk: Bottom Feeder

There isn’t an album yet, but I’m looking forward to the day this talented young musician from Dunedin, Tane Cotton, releases more songs. This one came out at just the right time this year, like a fresh southerly wind, energising and expressing frustration with unbridled youthful insight and energy. Have a listen, and follow Sivle Talk on bandcamp for release info.

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A slightly meandering, probably no punchline, but a vaguely amusing bit of a story to introduce a song:

Two of the warmest and memorable evenings this year were a Thursday evening in late March at Freida Margolis, that tiny little bar in Auckland’s Grey Lynn, and the following evening at Hollywood Cinema in Avondale - two very different suburbs and two of the best venues to play at and watch music. Both involved a couple of Kellys and a couple of bunches of friends.

On the Thursday evening, Paul Kelly’s nephew Dan Kelly, with Dave Khan and Matt Mitchinson put on a show at Freida’s. The place was packed (the venue is tiny). I saw Reb Fountain perching on a small box near the doorway, and she moved over so I could share the seat. It sounded lovely, Dan’s songs were playful, and the mood was lighthearted and fun. Dave called Reb and me up to sing - which was a little unexpected, but always on the cards when he is involved in a show. Ummm - I need to ditch my handbag I said to Reb, and the guy sitting with his back to us said, “I’ll hold it” - as I handed over the bag, I realised that it was Paul Kelly, of course, I handed Paul Kelly my bag. As we were up there on the place where there is no stage, but the spot right by the piano Reb and I squeezed into sing on one mic together I noticed PK had moved across the room to get a better spot. There he was, crossing the room with my handbag tucked onto his shoulder. Paul Kelly is wearing my handbag.

Anyway, Paul and Dan Kelly played as a duo at the Hollywood Avondale the next night. It was stripped back and loose - a beautiful way to hear those masterfully written songs. They played this one - Paul Kelly magic.

Paul Kelly - Going To The River With Dad

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Favourite Riff, favourite Video:

NZ duo Earth Tongue have moved to Berlin and have had a pretty full-on exciting year playing shows throughout Europe, supporting Ty Segal and more. I’m really happy for them; they are super talented beings. I was so looking forward to playing with Gussie as a part of Atomic #2, so it was an added layer of disappointment when the show was postponed until next year. I’m excited to hear the news that Gussie’s other band Mermaidens, have new music to deliver next year.

This video - thoroughly deliciously West Coast Aotearoa!

Earth Tongue - Bodies Dissolve Tonight.

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And now for something completely different.

Linda Thompson, singer-songwriter and a big name in the British folk-rock scene, particularly in the 70s and 80s - suffers from - spasmodic dysphonia, and this means she is now unable to sing.

This year, Linda released the amusingly titled album Proxy Music,(take a look at the album cover), a collection of adeptly crafted and varied songs interpreted by an impressive list of singers - including her son Teddy Thompson, daughter Kami Thompson, James Walbourne (you would have seen James playing guitar alongside Chrissie Hynde in the current version of the Pretenders), Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, and John Grant (on a song called John Grant). If this sounds like your cup o tea, listen to the album; it’s a good’un.

The song that grabbed me the most is Those Damn Roches - namechecking the folk-rock musical and esteemed singing and songwriting clans like the McGarrigle-Wainwrights, the Waterson-Carthys, and of course, as the title suggests, The Roches.

Teddy Thompson leads this song, and what a voice! - what clinched it for me, though, was the astounding harmonies sung by an absolute dream team of singers: Rufus Wainwright, John Grant, Zak Hobbs, Susan McKeown, Charlie Reid, and Craig Reid. (The Proclaimers), Richard Thompson, Dori Freeman.

Linda Thompson featuring Teddy Thompson - Those Damn Roches

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I’m always keen to hear a new Grandaddy album, The Sophtware Slump is toppermost on my imaginery best of albums of all time list.

2024’s Blu Wav album is a gorgeous mix of vintage synths, strings, and pedal steel, all wrapped up in a kind of modern-day, high-lonesome. Jason Lyttle’s voice is as dreamy as ever, and he somehow manages to convey heartbreak and loneliness with that bit of light heart and a dose of irony. I love this album.

Grandaddy - Cabin in My Mind

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More under favourite humans, favourite musicians heading:

The Phoenix Foundation released this track, and it’s nice to have a new song friend in my ears. With a sharply apt lyric, (“There’s chaos in the streets tonight, a brand new shoe or genocide.”)

It feels as though this is a good one to leave you to whistle along with. Maybe we can all whistle together next year but in a bit more light. Who knows.

The Phoenix Foundation - Whistling in The Darkness

Why have ten songs in a list when you can have 9?

Take a bow, 2024 - you have been an interesting year, surprising, shocking, worrying, sad - but always interesting.

All the best to you for 2025 - stay safe and well; thank you so much for reading.

Lots of love from me.

xx