It was the year of Brat and AI not only doing your homework but also writing and performing songs. And looking pretty good doing it. But real people still made real music.

International country artists and “our very own Kaylee Bell” pulled large audiences here, Thom Yorke brought electronica, art rock, yearning melodrama and more in an exceptional solo show, and R’n’B was still the dominant form on our album charts. Dua Lipa, Chappell Roan, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo are as familiar as “Tay-Tay”, which newsreaders began to call Taylor Swift trying to get down with the kids.

However overseas, the accumulated cachet of Swift, Beyoncé and others didn’t have as much political clout as they thought. Close to home, the cash injection from concerts by Pink, Pearl Jam and Coldplay confirmed entertainers are more convincing when they entertain.

Some of them, anyway.

Travis Scott played a 70-minute concert here, which 82-year-old Paul McCartney would call “warming up”.

The Cure came back on record after 16 years away and sounded even more gloomy and epic as 65-year-old Robert Smith’s lyrics considered death and mortality.

Our past was exhumed in ongoing vinyl reissues (Dam Native’s seminal Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted, Dr Tree’s rocking jazz fusion, Home Brew’s jazz-rap among them), but our album charts for New Zealand artists mostly remained the uninterrupted residence of a small number. However, interesting albums appeared frequently, even if their tenure on the charts was brief or non-existent.

Here, we single out some. These aren’t “the best” of the year – as we always say, the best are the ones you like the most – but perhaps pointers to music that might have gone past you.

So, in alphabetical order, 24 from 24.

ADRIANNE LENKER

Bright Future

The voice of the experimental folk group Big Thief takes the Dylan/Band Basement Tapes’ weird Americana as its starting point and weaves in memories, despondency, sexual passion and the dim candlelight of hope in the album’s title.

Now hear: Holly Arrowsmith, Blue Dreams

AMIRIA GRENELL

The Winter Light

Although Grenell is nominally a folk artist (the genre where she has won awards), this album embraced influences from doo-wop pop, soul and timeless Americana. Impressive breadth and a beautifully played album for adults that opens with Oamaru By Night.

Now hear: Mel Parsons, Sabotage’

BEST BETS

The Hollow Husk of Feeling

Social comment and guitar-driven rock are not desirable options for local musicians if our charts are any measure. But this band from Ōtautahi Christchurch delivered both on an album that made astute observations and fired them off as powerful post-Pixies power-pop.

Now hear: Dartz, Dangerous Day to be a Cold One

BEYONCÉ

Cowboy Carter

Cultural reference point, country music game-changer and conversation starter for sure. But also a damn fine collection of originals, covers (Dolly’s Jolene, McCartney’s Blackbird), guests (Post Malone, Miley Cyrus and others) and enough diversity from the dancefloor Texas Hold ‘Em and ballads to keep the attention for a whopping 80 minutes.

Now hear: Tami Neilson, Neilson Sings Nelson

BILLIE EILISH

Hit Me Hard and Soft

As on her two previous albums, Eilish and her co-writing/producer brother Finneas mostly turn the volume down (even on songs that could otherwise be bangers), but keep attractive pop in the foreground on a classy album addressing jealousy, heartbreak and more. Might be called a concept album.

Now hear: Marika Hackman, Big Sigh

BRITTANY HOWARD

What Now

Former Alabama Shakes singer/writer and Grammy winner’s second solo album roamed across genres, from Paisley Park funk and Miles Davis jazz to soul and rock on an album of majestic proportions, intense lyrics and an overarching sense of joy and gratitude.

Now hear: Beth Gibbons, Lives Outgrown

CASSANDRA JENKINS

My Light, My Destroyer

Brooklyn-based Jenkins pulled together Nick Cave-like meditations, abrasive guitars, self-examination, Velvet Underground drone-pop, spoken word, saxophone and strings into a poetic art-pop album for adults.

Now hear: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wild God

CROWDED HOUSE

Gravity Stairs

Free of writing archetypal Crowdie songs, and with a more democratic input (Neil Finn’s sons Liam and Elroy write and co-write), this iteration of the band might not deliver pop hits, but these crafted, intelligent if often lyrically opaque songs slowly take hold. A grower and a keeper.

Now hear: Mike Hall, Nothing Stands Still

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Uneven Ground

A name to conjure with, touchstones in early Cure and Joy Division, Lucinda King’s ethereal vocals, funereal organ and trance-like melodies. Doesn’t sound enticing, but we said “their gloom-pop often radiates a beguiling discomfort”. So, we liked it.

Now hear: Chelsea Wolfe, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

DELANEY DAVIDSON, BARRY SAUNDERS

Happiness Is Near

An album of darkness at the break of noon where country and folk are bent into songs that brood, menace and haunt yet beckon you into its self-contained world. A dark but wonderful ride.

Now hear: Mark Knopfler, One Deep River

FATHER JOHN MISTY

Mahashmashana

This blend of Phil Spector’s dramatic orchestration for George Harrison (the title track), Dylan’s Beat-surrealism lyrics from the mid 1960s (She Cleans Up), Scott Walker (the ballad Summer’s Gone) and disco-driven philosophy (I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All), the good Father covers a lot of ground, but the songs, humour and shaggy-dog acid visions are persuasive.

Now hear: Gracie Abrams, The Secret of Us

GEORGIA LINES

The Rose of Jericho

At a time when bangers and summer anthems seemed the default position for aspiring locals, Lines’s debut delivered sophisticated, complex and courageous songs for mature thinkers, which commanded attention but also came with memorable melodies and vocal confidence. Quite special.

Now hear: St Vincent, All Born Screaming

KIM GORDON

The Collective

With some room-clearing intensity, declamatory songs, industrial noise, feminist assertion and speak-sing poetry over grimy loops, Gordon, at 71, remains an art school provocateur. A lacerating exploration of a dystopian world and her tuned-in psyche.

Now hear: Thurston Moore, Glow Critical Lucidity

LOUISA NICKLIN

The Big Sulk

With a degree in classical composition, touring as part of Mermaidens and Dimmer, and this produced by Shayne Carter means Nicklin can pull off strident rock, expressionistic soundscapes, weary whispered vocals and ambitious art music. We said “deep, dark and exceptional”.

Now hear: John Cale, POPtical Illusion

LUCIEN JOHNSON

Ancient Relics

Saxophonist Johnson’s Wax///Wane appeared in our 2021 countback, but here – with pianist Jonathan Crayford and percussion player Julien Dyne – he dived even deeper into spiritual jazz in the manner of The Coltranes. Swinging and soulful.

Now hear: Charles Lloyd, The Sky Will Still be There Tomorrow

MOANA AND THE TRIBE

Ono

With indigenous rights and the fight to retain traditional language in the forefront of our consciousness, this international collaboration by Moana with six like-minded artists and unique voices from Norway, Australia, Hawai’i, Taiwan, Scotland and Canada, couldn’t be more timely. And – held together by Paddy Free’s electronica – more harmonious.

Now hear: Anna Coddington, Te Whakamiha

MYSTERY WAITRESS

Bright Black Night

From gloom-rock and poetic folk to downbeat medicated moods and white-knuckle rock, singer/writer Tessa Dillon delivered this impressive second album under a title that encapsulates the dichotomies in the refined lyrics. The cinematic Mountain set in the Tararua feels distant and chilly.

Now hear: Dateline, It’s All Downhill from Here

NALA SINEPHRO

Endless

Caribbean-Belgian synth player and harpist Sinephro sits in the Venn diagram where jazz, ambient music and atmospheric New Age intersect and, with guest saxophonist Nubya Garcia, makes calming music for these often tense times.

Now hear: Nubya Garcia, Odyssey

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS

Wild God

Cave has infuriated some with his political comments, but there’s no denying his heartfelt depths, as written after the deaths of two sons, his mother, friends and former partner/Bad Seed Anita Lane. He sings of healing, love, acceptance, faith and joy: “We’ve all had too much sorrow. Now is the time for joy.”

Now hear: Mousey, The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers!

SKILAA

Tiger in the River

In a great year for local jazz, this genre-jumping ensemble pulled in hip-hop, psychedelic R’n’B, Pacific soul, a hint of rock and clever pop for an inventive, unpredictable trip.

Now hear: Revulva, Revulva

T BONE BURNETT

The Other Side

The acclaimed Grammy-winning producer (Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elton John and Leon Russell) rarely releases solo albums, but here’s why he should: understated religion, back-porch country, folk blues and Hawaiian influences with guests Rosanne Cash and the indie band Lucius. Reassuring in times of uncertainty.

Now hear: Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Woodland

THE SMILE

Offcuts

Written and recorded mostly simultaneously with Wall of Eyes’ release in February, Offcuts confirms this trio (Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner) are an independent band that move effortlessly from soulful pop and experimental sounds into world music and electronica.

Now hear: Idles, Tangk

TROY KINGI AND THE CACTUS HANDSHAKE

Leatherman and the Mojave Green

The psyched-out lyrics may not make much sense, but the journey into the Joshua Tree landscape and recording at

the famously eccentric Rancho De La Luna studio there brought hard rock, stoner metal, tough reggae, punky speed metal and more on a double album you strap yourself in for. It’s a trip.

Now hear: Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice

PAUL WELLER

66

Although he qualifies for a senior bus pass, the former angry young man hasn’t lost his edge, although recent albums have also been dignified, beautifully arranged and not short of an appreciation of his age. This one, recorded when he was 66, is pensive, but also brings home dream-pop ballads, horn-driven rock and wah-wah soul. Still someone to be reckoned with.

Now hear: Sam Bambery, Rubricator

Top resissues

TALKING HEADS:

77

Their classic debut album returns as a three-CD set: the original remastered, rare and unreleased demos and outtakes, and a previous unreleased live recording from New York music club CBGB. Add in a Blu-Ray 5.1 mix, an 80-page hardback with liner notes from the band and previously unseen photos … A set that’ll keep you occupied until the album’s 50th anniversary in a few years.

JONI MITCHELL:

Archives Volume 4

Covering her years on the Asylum label (1976-1980), this six-CD set has almost 100 unreleased recordings as she moved from Hejira to collaborations with the cream of jazz players (Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter and others). Comes with a 36-page booklet and a conversation between Mitchell and writer/director Cameron Crowe. Weighty.

MILES DAVIS:

Miles in France, Miles Davis Quintet 1963/64

Miles Davis was always cool but never more so than in the early 1960s with his great quintets, which included pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonist George Coleman or Wayne Shorter, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. This six-CD (or eight records) set has more than four hours of previously unreleased music and includes extended treatments of his classics So What and All Blues alongside cornerstone pieces (My Funny Valentine, Stella By Starlight, etc). Très, très cool.

ELVIS PRESLEY:

Memphis

From his first Sun Studio recordings (That’s All Right, Blue Moon of Kentucky) through early years at RCA and classics like In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds and Long Black Limousine to sessions at Stax in 1973, a hit-filled homecoming concert and recordings at Graceland the year before his death, this is a journey through the life of The King in 111 songs, boxed up with a biographical booklet. He may be gone, but he lives on.