Best Chunes 2024 (Part 1)
Honey, just shut up and ride
Welcome to Human Pursuits, the column that features need-to-know names and stories in media and other creative spaces. Today, we kick off our year-end music coverage with five Proper Chunes, courtesy of yours truly.
Twelve months ago, I logged onto this website and declared 2023 the year that monoculture returned to music, as it seemed to me critics and fans had coalesced around a small group of (mostly) pre-established artists, celebrating their output in what felt like a genuine consensus.
2024 saw that trend mostly continue, as Pulitzer-winning rappers, billionaire pop stars, and black cowboys dominated the charts, and delivered electrifying moments.
But there were also signs of a sea change.
What was once underground is quickly becoming mainstream; is suddenly playing Saturday Night Live, or delivering record crowds at Lollapalooza, is suddenly inspiring a generation of guitarists to experiment with baritone strings.
In other words: things are getting interesting. And Human Pursuits is trying to respond accordingly.
As in previous years, I have turned to some trusted collaborators to highlight the year’s essential Chunes. Seeing as nobody has time to listen to 10 songs, let alone 100 (cough-Pitchfork-cough), we’re keeping it to five songs each, spread out over five days.
Every song included in this year’s round-up was selected by a real person – for reasons explained in edited and condensed interviews that I will share throughout the week.
Because you don’t need us to tell you Charli XCX put out a great record, or to show you ‘Espresso’.
The best part of any list is the arguments and stories contained therein, attempting to explain the personal calculus behind each selection.
And so without further ado…
Rockman – mk.gee
Michael Gordon spent 2024 injecting some much-needed mystery back into guitar music.
While his signature sound, created using baritone guitar strings and obscure pedals, has become something of a meme thanks to its popularity with guitar guys, there’s nothing funny about mk.gee’s ear for melody.
Songs like “Are You Looking Up?”, “Candy”, and “Alesis”, prove he knows how to write a chorus.
But even these pale in comparison with “Rockman”.
Clocking in at just under 3 minutes, this loose single bravely asks “What would happen if we took three of the catchiest melodies ever recorded, and combined them into a short pop song?”
The result is a Proper Chune that pulls more than a little inspiration from Sting and The Police.
Amid rumours that he is collaborating with Justin Bieber and The 1975, it seems the world is mk.gee’s for the taking.
Nineteen – Charly Bliss
It takes guts to change gears three albums into your career.
Charly Bliss has a lot of guts.
While they’ve always been poppy, past records obscured the hooks in second-hand 90s fuzz. But no more.
Coming after a difficult sophomore release, and a period of inactivity, Forever finds the quartet refreshed and ready to embrace their inner poptimists, creating a collection of Chunes that sounds more like Haim or Taylor Swift than The Breeders.
Chief among these is “Nineteen”, a flawless power ballad depicting the end of a relationship. Over drums that break like a wave, Eva Hendricks sings:
“Face of an angel,
You’re just like heaven,
I die a little just to be let in”
It’s a testament to the power of seeing and being seen. The last 40 seconds give me goosebumps every time.
Long Throes – Los Campesinos!
Beyond the walled garden that is the newsletter, things are not always looking so great.
“Everything that people are experiencing on a huge scale be it climate apocalypse, genocide, or everyday living… I think to describe living as hell is corny, don’t get me wrong, but it’s true.”
To me, no song better captures that sentiment than “Long Throes”.
While I don’t always want my music to reflect the current state of affairs, it helps if the song is an actual Chune. Here, Gareth and company use a sing-along to soundtrack total social collapse. Ambient noise evolves slowly until it feels like an anthem of our time.
Does it end well? Probably not.
But there’s a solace in hearing that hopelessness reflected back at us.
It suggests we’re all in this together.
Sticky – Tyler, The Creator ft. GloRilla, Sexy Red & Lil Wayne
CHROMAKOPIA is not Tyler the Creator’s best album. But I do think “Sticky” is one of his best songs.
With horns lifted from Young Thug’s 2007 banger “Get Buck” the track taps into the same bluster displayed on much of 2021’s Call Me If You Get Lost (shout out Tom Breihan at Stereogum for the reference).
Lyrically, the song is whatever. Tyler raps well without saying very much.
Still, it’s a masterclass in production and capturing a mood.
Listen to the part after Lil Wayne’s verse and try to tell me you don’t feel anything. You can’t do it.
“CHROMAKOPIA! CHROMAKOPIA! CHROMAKOPIA!”
“But Daddy I Love Him” – Taylor Swift
I spent a lot of time talking and writing about Taylor Swift this year, so it seems only right that she be included here.
While I am happy to admit The Tortured Poets Department was a bloated mess, I also think it contained occasional moments of real brilliance.
Exhibit A: a song that harkens back to Taylor’s country roots, while revealing the depths of her relationship to a controversial frontman, and shading her own fanbase.
In fact, the morning texted me to say the record had leaked, and that it contained more than a few references to The 1975’s Matty Healy, was my favourite musical moment of the entire year.
Listening to the record as I walked to work across the Granville Street Bridge, I realized that Matty had been a muse far longer than anyone realized.
It felt like seeing something I shouldn’t. It felt like seeing everything.
My dopamine receptors fired for like a week straight after that.
What were your favourite Chunes of 2024? Let me know in the comments.