The best musical moments of 2024: Taylor Swift, Jack White, Parkway Drive, Bluey
The Australian’s music writer nominates his highlights of 2024, from the best concerts, songs and albums to the best books and soundtrack usage.
The Australian’s music writer nominates his highlights of 2024, from the best concerts, songs and albums to the best books and soundtrack usage.
A rollicking collection of high-voltage rock ‘n’ rollers from an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who retains a remarkable ability to continue digging up shiny nuggets of innovation buried deep in the dirt of a genre that’s been strip-mined for decades. Jack White made his name playing simple, accessible rock music with Detroit duo The White Stripes 25 or so years ago, but he’s uninterested in staying in the past. Instead, as he appears to be at the peak of his powers, as his uniformly strong sixth solo album No Name made clear.
Also great:
For the Dreams by King Stingray; Inhale/Exhale by Rufus Du Sol; I Just Need to Conquer This Mountain by Sarah Blasko; Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; Songs of a Lost World by The Cure; The Deluge by Fanning Dempsey National Park; Hit Me Hard and Soft by Billie Eilish; Cape Forestier by Angus & Julia Stone; and Waku – Minaral a Minalay by Christine Anu.
It’s a measure of this Seattle band’s enduring greatness that it can produce one of its most vital and affecting songs some 33 years after its generation-shaping debut. On this six-minute slow burn – the final track of Pearl Jam’s 12th album, Dark Matter – frontman Eddie Vedder mourns a lost love, in what could be a lyrical cousin to the heartbroken subject matter of his stunning 1991 song Black. But the resolution in Setting Sun is hopeful and accepting, as his bandmates power toward a stirring terminus. In fact, its patient arrangement – from quiet, ponderous beginnings to a hard-rocking finale, followed by a breath-catching coda – might even be designed to mimic the sprawling arc of a human life. Clearly, this diamond of a song evokes deep feelings in Review, and it may in you, too.
Also great (and included in Spotify playlist below):
The Boxer by Mark Seymour and the Undertow; Underground by Jack White; Nostalgic by King Stingray; Conversion by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; Neverender by Justice (feat. Tame Impala); Birds of a Feather by Billie Eilish; Some Days by Troy Cassar-Daley; She’s Leaving You by MJ Lenderman; Divine by Sarah Blasko; Who Dares Wins by The Ferguson Rogers Process; I Can Do it with a Broken Heart by Taylor Swift; Dunning Kruger National Park by Fanning Dempsey National Park; Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter; Permaglow by Peter Garrett; Beautiful Eyes by Amy Shark; Pressure by Rufus Du Sol; Liquid Gold by Emma Donovan; Hello Melancholy, Hello Joy by Paul Kelly; and Von Dutch by Charli XCX.
Pure hysteria arrived alongside the US pop star’s visit in February, to the point where the breathless hype surrounding Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour threatened to cloud any discussion of her artistry. Review was among the 630,000 or so people lucky enough to have witnessed one of her seven Australian shows, and 10 months later, it remains a potent and treasured memory: for 3½ hours each night, Swift and her exquisitely talented colleagues – and their stage crew – held stadiums aloft on an unmatched musical high.
This was a perfectly polished show without peer, even amid outrageously high expectations. As we observed hours after the tour debut in Melbourne, it was her sheer poise that shone through strongest. Rarely has a performer looked so natural or comfortable with being at the centre of attention.
Also great:Pearl Jam.
The 20th anniversary tour for Byron Bay heavy metal band Parkway Drive was the perfect meeting of ambition, ability and execution. For the band, it began with a wide-eyed walk from the back of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre to a small stage at the front, where it created rare intimacy inside an arena. The main stage featured a large amount of production bells and whistles – flamethrowers, hydraulic lifts, a spinning drum kit and a spectacular water effect among them – before the set ended as it started, with five blokes standing on a small square near the front mosh pit, playing incredible music.
Best amphitheatre concert
Tie: The Chemical Brothers (at Brisbane Riverstage) and James Taylor (at Sirromet Winery).
It’s always inspiring to see veteran performers injecting new life into much-loved material, and so it was for Cold Chisel, which played to about 225,000 people across 23 sold-out shows. Review caught three dates on this tour, and none was better than its big top tent show, held at Brisbane’s Victoria Park. The band brought the fire and the fans brought their voices, as all in earshot celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of the nation’s defining musical groups. To hear 10,000 or so people singing along to every word of many of its songs was a thrill, and for two hours, we were immersed inside a communal sense of awe and pleasure.
An effortlessly masterly performance by an artist who has an obscenely rare ability to tap into deeply felt emotions amid a whirlwind of freakish vocal notes – and then undercut the whole thing with a shrug and perhaps some toilet humour. Kasey Chambers ended with her showstopping cover of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, and afterwards – accompanied by Review editor Tim Douglas – we slipped out a side door of Tamworth Town Hall into a warm summer’s night. Reflecting on the artistic detonation we’d just witnessed, we stepped away in silence; two men whose lives revolve around the careful deployment of the English language both dumbstruck in the soul-shaking wake of Kasey’s greatness.
Also great: Wilco, Queens of the Stone Age, In Flames, Peter Garrett and the Alter Egos, Explosions in the Sky, Fever Ray, Ride, Sarah Blasko, The Butterfly Effect, Northlane, Mogwai, Troy Cassar-Daley, Angus and Julia Stone, Jack White and Viagra Boys.
This Sydney instrumental post-rock band writes towering, powerful arrangements that have earned it a cult global fanbase, and at a midweek gig at The Triffid in Brisbane, We Lost The Sea took a major leap of faith: debuting a new song that was about 30 minutes long, during a set supporting US band Botch. It veered between delicate and crushingly heavy, and no doubt earned some new fans ahead of its next album release, due next year.
Also great: Sparta, Ball Park Music and Keith Urban (who played a tiny club “underplay” at Lefty’s Music Hall during a short album promo visit, ahead of an arena tour next year).
As far as we’re aware, John Williamson is the only ARIA Hall of Fame-inducted musician who regularly invites fans on to his property for gigs. On one winter weekend each year, inside his shed at Springbrook, Williamson hosts two exclusive “Willoshed” concerts for about 200 punters per day. Review is a repeat attendee, and as the man himself – who’ll turn 80 next year – winds down his touring activity, it remains a reliable joy to see Williamson and his tight-knit band performing music from a stunning songbook on his home turf, while accompanied by a stunning vista of the Gold Coast Hinterland outside his shed door.
Best festival set
Tie: Korn (at Good Things) and Tina Arena (at Big Red Bash).
Also great: Stormzy (at Laneway Festival) and Colin Hay (at Big Red Bash)
By installing a custom-built 3.65m “vert ramp” inside Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall, then adding skate demonstrations, live music and video gaming, event organisers assembled a truly unique tribute to the 25th anniversary of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. To see 55-year-old Hawk (aka Birdman) skating in the flesh – followed by a gun live band reprising songs from the iconic skateboarding game’s soundtrack – felt like a living, breathing exercise in nostalgia, in the best possible way.
Best music book
Tie: The Silver River by Jim Moginie, Just Don’t be a Dickhead by Kasey Chambers, and The Voice Inside by John Farnham (with Poppy Stockell).
Best music film
Tie: Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line, directed by Paul Clarke; and How to Make Gravy, directed by Nick Waterman (which was inspired by Paul Kelly’s much-loved song of the same name, so feels at home in this category).
It was a safe bet that a feature-length Bluey episode titled The Sign was always going to be an emotional affair, with its story centred on the Heeler family of cartoon dogs regretfully moving house (hence the titular “for sale” sign).
But the decision to use Meg Washington’s gorgeous song Lazarus Drug – from her 2020 album Batflowers – in its closing minutes was an inspired one, and ensured that whenever we hear it from now on, we’ll be thinking about the inner lives of blue heelers.
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