This year, our writers share their music highlights and lowlights of 2024. Farhira Farudin, our founder and editor, weighs in with her top tracks, biggest letdowns and more.

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Favourite Tracks of 2024: 

1. “I Got Heaven” – Mannequin Pussy
2. “Life Is” – Jessica Pratt
3. “Chroy Metrey” – S. Razali
4. “AMAMA” – Crumb
5. “Girl, so confusing” – Charli xcx ft. Lorde
6. “Image” – Magdalena Bay
7. “Bangkit Usai Pesta” – Harum Manis
8. “Mayat Hidup” – Hawa
9. “All for Nothing” – LUST
10. “Seberang Sana” – Bayangan

Favourite Albums of 2024:

1. I Got Heaven – Mannequin Pussy
2. AMAMA – Crumb
3. Imaginal Disk – Magdalena Bay
4. Hentikan Pernikahan Ini – Harum Manis
5. Teleportasi – Mafidz

Most Played Song of 2024:

This year, I was hoping for a full-on BRAT Summer, but instead, I found myself confronting unresolved trauma that resurfaced the moment I heard the opening verse of Mannequin Pussy’s “I Got Heaven”: “If I wanted it, you’d really think I’d wait for the permission? / For protection and assurances that all will be delivered?”

There’s so much vengeance simmering beneath themes of religious trauma and hypocritical oppressors, but the most devastating moment for me is how the song concludes with a bitter reality check — and what I’d consider the best lyrics of 2024: “I am spiteful like a god, seek a vengeance like the rest.” All we can do is feel a paramount anger, and most of the time, it amounts to nothing.

An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year:

The first couple of months of 2024 were an especially harrowing way to start the year, as I became embarrassingly fixated on Black Country, New Road’s Ants From Up There. It came out two years ago, and I never understood the hype (though I’ve had “Sunglasses” off their first album on repeat, so I did kind of understand the hype—just on a delay) until I listened to “Concorde” for the first time and found myself listening to it 258 more times (my Last.fm can vouch for this).

The album has some of the best lyrics ever written about the hopeless, self-destructive stage of heartbreak — a more mournful sibling to Lorde’s “Hard Feelings/Loveless” when she sings, “When you’ve outgrown a lover / The whole world knows but you” — paired with Isaac Wood’s pathetic-sounding, swan song-esque plea to stay and let go at the same time. Unfortunately for me, I’ve listened to the album so religiously that it has finally lost the magic that made me love worshipping it in the first place. That’s recovery, I guess.

Biggest Disappointment: This might be a controversial take, but I’d say Iqbal M’s “Trek 2” has been the biggest disappointment of the year. Whatever magic they poured into seems to have faded, whether in their vibrant riffs or Iqbal’s poetic justice-esque lyrics. As someone who once looked up to the band, I tried not to dwell on it too much. But with no sophomore album in sight this year, and judging by the two singles released, I don’t think they can recapture the PSJKB magic. I hope I’m wrong.

Biggest Surprise:

S. Razali’s Kembang Mas EP was a grand entrance that no one saw coming. Can’t remember the last time I was so whiplashed by a local debut. But you already know that.