Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones and this is seven
Speaker 1: AM Summer Series. Twenty twenty four was a blockbuster year
Speaker 1: in music. Beyonce went country, Taylor Swift went everywhere, and
Speaker 1: we all went brat. Today with the Saturday Papers music
Speaker 1: critic Shad De Souza, we're exploring the albums that defined
Speaker 1: the year. That includes Charlie XCX, of course, but also
Speaker 1: a surprising new album from Sonic youth Kim Gordon, and
Speaker 1: a tender exploration of modern masculinity by MJ. Linderman. It's Wednesday,
Speaker 1: December twenty five, HiPE Christmas, So Shad welcome. It's great
Speaker 1: to have you in the studio.
Speaker 2: Thanks NXE for be here.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the best music of the year,
Speaker 1: and I think we should just go straight to the
Speaker 1: main event. It's really been Charlie XCX's year, hasn't it.
Speaker 2: It's been amazing to see, you know, her going from
Speaker 2: this kind of niche concern that a few people were
Speaker 2: really banging the drum for to yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 2: the year of brat and you know, she's basically released
Speaker 2: two amazing albums that totally owned the year critically, commercially,
Speaker 2: they kind of set the tone. It's pretty incredible to see.
Speaker 1: So there was Bratt, which was released in June, which
Speaker 1: was obviously huge, and then a few months later we
Speaker 1: got the remix version Brat and it's completely different but
Speaker 1: still Bratt. So tell me about the remix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really like singling out the remix album because
Speaker 2: I think it really shows kind of what she's about
Speaker 2: and kind of how deaf she is as like a
Speaker 2: producer and an A and R. Obviously, it's really kind
Speaker 2: of dereger for artists to release full remix albums or
Speaker 2: release kind of deluxe versions of their records nowadays, because
Speaker 2: it boosts being at both sales chart positions. That kind
Speaker 2: of thing. This, I think is that, but it's also
Speaker 2: a little bit different. It's kind of a full reimagining
Speaker 2: of the album. She recorded new vocals for every song,
Speaker 2: and a lot of songs are like totally overhauled to
Speaker 2: the point that maybe you wouldn't even be able to
Speaker 2: make the connection with the original, And it kind of
Speaker 2: serves as a commentary on the original record, which was
Speaker 2: like a risk when she released it. You know, it
Speaker 2: was never guaranteed that it was going to be huge.
Speaker 2: She's never had huge commercial success, and this was an
Speaker 2: album all about her place in the industry and you know,
Speaker 2: her relationships with other women in the industry and wondering
Speaker 2: whether she can whether she still has a gas in
Speaker 2: the tank basically to keep going. So then obviously she
Speaker 2: becomes really successful, and it's kind of surprising that it's
Speaker 2: on this album, and then you know, the natural thing
Speaker 2: for her is to reimagine the record but talking about
Speaker 2: everything that's happened in the intervening few months. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of headspinning conceptually. But if you've been following, you know,
Speaker 2: the whole brat train for the year, it's actually kind
Speaker 2: of the perfect counter point to the original album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if you like me. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: think you might hate me.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think I might hate you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you just want to be me. You always say yeah.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed I think her exploration of her relationships
Speaker 1: with these other artists, in particular, I'm thinking of the
Speaker 1: song girl So Confusing, So that's about her and Lord,
Speaker 1: and it's very specific to their relationship, right, So you know,
Speaker 1: they're talking about how everyone thinks they should be friends
Speaker 1: and they get compared. But I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: that is also an experience that like most people have
Speaker 1: had in a friendship circle at some point, this idea
Speaker 1: that there's someone that they maybe should be friends with,
Speaker 1: but like maybe it's like a little bit awkward when
Speaker 1: they hang out, and then they're not really totally sure
Speaker 1: if they want to be mates with them or if actually,
Speaker 1: like they kind of secretly hate them. So like there's
Speaker 1: this real specificity to the lyrics, which are you know,
Speaker 1: so clearly about the world that she's in and you know,
Speaker 1: could be unrelatable, but they're not right.
Speaker 2: And that's something I love about this record is that,
Speaker 2: like a lot of really big pop stars are always
Speaker 2: going for relatability at all of the costs. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of like, I'm a normal girl, just like you.
Speaker 2: You know, my struggles are just like yours. Charlie doesn't
Speaker 2: do that. She's talking specifically, you know. On the original album,
Speaker 2: it's just this song girl so confusing, where she doesn't
Speaker 2: name the other pop stars she's talking about, but it
Speaker 2: was very clear to a lot of people that it
Speaker 2: was about Lord and that's not necessarily a relatable thing.
Speaker 2: But I think she does this thing over and over
Speaker 2: again on the album where it's not about, you know,
Speaker 2: putting yourself in her shoes. It's about thinking about your
Speaker 2: own kind of jealousies and rivalries and worst traits and
Speaker 2: best traits and that kind of thing. And I think
Speaker 2: that's ultimately why people connect with it more than maybe
Speaker 2: some of the other bigger pop records that didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: land this year. And then obviously, you know, releasing the
Speaker 2: remix of Girls So Confusing with lord On it turned
Speaker 2: it into this quite crazy you know, whether you think
Speaker 2: it's kind of staged, whether you think it's kind of
Speaker 2: off the cuff, it's a pretty remarkable thing to hear
Speaker 2: these two extremely famous women be so vulnerable in this
Speaker 2: quite intense way.
Speaker 1: I think I know how you feel good, feels instize. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's move on. What's your next album of you?
Speaker 2: I want to talk about this record, Imaginal Disc by
Speaker 2: a duo called Magdalena Bay. I feel like it's helpful
Speaker 2: to understand their origin story, which is basically they're a
Speaker 2: couple and they were in a prog band and then
Speaker 2: one day they kind of happened upon a Charlie XCX
Speaker 2: concert and discovered that pop music could be interesting as well.
Speaker 2: That's basically how they put it. And so now they
Speaker 2: make this kind of very weird multi genre prog pop basically,
Speaker 2: and this album is kind of their big opus. It's
Speaker 2: really long, it's really dense, but it's also a blast
Speaker 2: to listen to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listening at home, there was like a lot going on.
Speaker 1: There was some like dance pop, there was some disco,
Speaker 1: there was some psychedelic stuff happening. And like you say,
Speaker 1: it was a really long album, like more than an
Speaker 1: hour long, which I think stands in comparison to some
Speaker 1: of the other pop albums of the year, like you know,
Speaker 1: Short and Sweet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And I think they have them like
Speaker 2: a really big cult following. And I think the success
Speaker 2: of this album, you know, it's huge online and like
Speaker 2: you know, they did their first American TV performance this
Speaker 2: year off the back of it, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: The success of it just shows the power of kind
Speaker 2: of like building a cult fan base these days. Like
Speaker 2: it's not about reaching everyone with this album. They just
Speaker 2: kind of follow every instinct that they could possibly have
Speaker 2: and it worked really well for them.
Speaker 1: After the Break is Old Country Coming Back. So Shad,
Speaker 1: we've spoken about two of the best albums of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four What's.
Speaker 2: Next Manning Fireworks by Mjlenderman, which is kind of the
Speaker 2: second studio album by this young North Carolina songwriter guitarist
Speaker 2: Mark Jacob Linderman.
Speaker 1: So same godn face.
Speaker 2: It's a really remarkable indie rock singer songwriter record, although
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would even call it that
Speaker 2: because it totally rips, Like it's like amazing guitar solos,
Speaker 2: really long, crazy songs, but at the same time, they're
Speaker 2: really hooky and they're really emotional everything you want in
Speaker 2: tern of a rock record.
Speaker 1: And so this is his fourth solo album, but he
Speaker 1: is the guitarist of Wednesday, which is an old country band, right, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: an old country seems to be having a bit of
Speaker 1: a moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, this is like it's almost
Speaker 2: kind of like a controversial thing because it's like, what
Speaker 2: do you mean by old country or like Americana. I
Speaker 2: know a lot of people who like just call it
Speaker 2: country or whatever, But yeah, Wednesday do this really loud, noisy,
Speaker 2: experimental rock. But then there's also elements of like drive
Speaker 2: by truckers and other country stuff in there. And I'm
Speaker 2: Joe Lenderman kind of does a similar thing. It's more
Speaker 2: straight down the middle rock music with a twang. But yeah,
Speaker 2: there is a lot of that stuff going around.
Speaker 1: This year, and he's an amazing guitarist obviously, But it's
Speaker 1: the lyrics of this album that I think really stood
Speaker 1: out to me. The song Wristwatch in particular, it's so petulant.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does this amazing thing, like he is so
Speaker 2: good at picking apart modern masculinity in all its permutations,
Speaker 2: from like the far right like Manisphere stuff, through to
Speaker 2: like more innocuous but still insidious forms of modern marcho masculinity,
Speaker 2: which is really he does it in a way that's
Speaker 2: not like preachy or anything. It's just so smart and sad, yeah,
Speaker 2: and depressing. But also the you know, the riffs and
Speaker 2: the hooks are like so ingratiating that you just can't
Speaker 2: STARp listening. It's it's a really cool, interesting mix.
Speaker 1: Okay, So final album of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one was from a bit earlier in the year,
Speaker 2: and it's one that I just kept coming back to.
Speaker 2: It's The Collective by Kim Gordon. It's her second solo album,
Speaker 2: but obviously she's had a long illustrious career as part
Speaker 2: of Sonic Youth, and it kind of follows this vibe
Speaker 2: she started with her first solo record from a few
Speaker 2: years back, called No Home Record, and it's basically her
Speaker 2: rapping or doing spoken word over these insane, blown out
Speaker 2: industrial beats. So crazy, but also kind of in character
Speaker 2: with what she's number four.
Speaker 1: By keys Pants to the clean cigar routes for a
Speaker 1: kid quite outside of Sonic Youth, which has that kind
Speaker 1: of experimental rock format. I mean, this isn't rock at all, really, no.
Speaker 2: Not really, and like there are guitars on it, but
Speaker 2: I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to call it
Speaker 2: a rock record, and like, I think it's all the
Speaker 2: better for it. You know, it really allows her to
Speaker 2: experiment with what she's saying and do this quite abstracted
Speaker 2: lyrical style that still makes a sort of sense. It's
Speaker 2: a really remarkable.
Speaker 1: Record, and I also just love that this is the
Speaker 1: album that Kim Gordon is making when she's like seventy
Speaker 1: or seventy one. It's incredible. I mean it just shows that,
Speaker 1: I guess, like true originality and creativity. I mean, there
Speaker 1: is like no limit to it. It doesn't run out
Speaker 1: if you're Kim.
Speaker 2: Gordon, Yeah, and like you know, there's next week that like,
Speaker 2: as you get older, your music should get safer maybe,
Speaker 2: But I think Kim Gordon is kind of following in
Speaker 2: this lineage of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, like in Lady
Speaker 2: Years made some of their most radical records. Like Bob
Speaker 2: Dylan obviously made Rough and Rowdy Ways, which is quite
Speaker 2: a weird, crazy album. David Bowie read before he died
Speaker 2: and made Black Star, which is very experimental and crazy.
Speaker 2: And I think it's good that Kim Gordon, you know,
Speaker 2: she's at this stage in her life where she probably
Speaker 2: could just rest on her laurels, and she's really Yeah,
Speaker 2: she's really pushing herself to do something new though, which
Speaker 2: is part of what makes this so amazing.
Speaker 1: In just a moment, a few honorable mentions, including an
Speaker 1: incredible new Australian album. Okay, so Shah before you go,
Speaker 1: any honorable mentions? What are you going to be listening
Speaker 1: to on repeat at the beach?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Well I don't go to the beach,
Speaker 2: but listening on repeat maybe like in my hotel room
Speaker 2: as I yeah, with the air conon. Addison Ray had
Speaker 2: a really big year it's kind of funny to say
Speaker 2: she's like a TikToker, but who makes very great pop music.
Speaker 2: She released two amazing songs, Diet Pepsi and Aquamarine, and
Speaker 2: Ameil and the Sniffer has released a really incredible I
Speaker 2: think it's their third album. It's called Cartoon Darkness. It's
Speaker 2: almost like a bit intense. There's quite a level of
Speaker 2: you know, the lead singer Amy Taylor clearly has a
Speaker 2: lot of access to grind with Australia in general and
Speaker 2: the way she's perceived, but I think that makes for
Speaker 2: quite an interesting record. You know, it's defensive and it's
Speaker 2: kind of mean, but it's also very funny in the
Speaker 2: way that that band always is. I've been returning to
Speaker 2: that record a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this might be an obvious point, but that album
Speaker 1: is one that I think you need to play really loud.
Speaker 2: Windows down, like it's so much fun to listen to,
Speaker 2: like if you you know, thinking about your nemesis or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's very free.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Shad, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me