June 27, 2025 9:05AM

The 80 Best New Zealand Albums of the 2020s So Far

Our countdown of the best New Zealand albums of the decade so far reflects the vastness of modern Aotearoa music, from major pop stars to underrated independent musicians

By ROLLING STONE

The first half of the 2020s has not been an easy time for artists. An unprecedented pandemic marked the beginning of the new decade, and with it came frightening uncertainty for an industry and its people already so used to a fragile existence. Times of strife, however, always birth great art. Despite not knowing if there was a viable future ahead, New Zealand musicians have spent the past five-and-a-bit years releasing career-best albums.

Fazerdaze and Home Brew returned, dropping comeback records that made it sound like they’d never been away; global exports like The Beths and BENEE made it to the next level; and Lorde, New Zealand’s biggest music star, released an album that served as a loving homage to her home country.

Considering the decade to date, our editorial team initially settled on a top 50 albums list, but we quickly realised that just wouldn’t be enough.

Below is our countdown of the 80 best New Zealand albums of the 2020s so far.

These records, we think, reflect the vastness of modern Aotearoa music, from major pop stars to underrated independent musicians. Many albums previously featured in our year-end lists (some moved up or down in our estimation — this is a subjective endeavour, remember), and there are plenty of new inclusions too. Our list has metal, power-pop, indie-folk, underground hip-hop, neo-soul, and dub records. We hope you find your new favourite local album below, or remember how much you love another one. —Conor Lochrie

Sometimes all it takes is a name change. After a deep period of self-discovery, Kiwi singer-songwriter Harry Parsons reinvented himself as MACEY, and his debut album was the perfect introduction to his new moniker.

The Lovers showcases the multi-instrumentalist’s impeccable ear for production, silky alt-pop rhythms being enhanced by his sincere lyrics about love and loss. Parsons’ voice stands out, too, slipping into soulful falsettos at will. Singing about one’s insecurities has never sounded so smooth. —Conor Lochrie

Pōneke-based artist AJA put a lot of time and thought into her debut album — and it shows. The singer-songwriter spent seven years carefully crafting KĀWAI.

More than just music, AJA’s debut is a heartfelt journey through whakapapa, resilience, and motherhood, blending Indigenous soul with bilingual storytelling. Produced with the help of Mara TK, the album is deeply rooted in whānau and Aotearoa. “KĀWAI is a piece of my heart,” AJA says. —Conor Lochrie

In need of an easy listening delight? Casual Healing has just the album for you.

Driftwood, the debut release of Nikau Te Huki’s solo project, is a vibrant genre-bending collection of tracks, the crooning musician flitting silkily between soulful sections, smooth R&B jams, tender indie-folk, and rap and reggae moments.

There’s a strong sense of home and family throughout his debut, and they capture the journey of a young man finding his place in life: “I’m coming home / I’m coming home,” he softly sings in standout cut “Aotearoa”. “Land of the long white cloud / I want to feel your mist / In this empty space,” he yearns.

Going by Driftwood, Casual Healing has a bright future ahead of him in New Zealand music. —Conor Lochrie

Nathan Haines has been through a lot in recent times. Now cancer-free after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 2017, he underwent throat surgery which damaged his vocal cords — a terrible development for any musician. Haines’ close friend and collaborator Phil Asher, who c0-produced Notes, then sadly passed away in 2021.

It’s little wonder, then, that Haines’ first solo album since 2014 is such a cathartic collection. The saxophonist and producer powers his way through profound slices of jazz, dance, and soul. One play of these tracks just won’t be enough. —Conor Lochrie

A true Aotearoa music legend, Don McGlashan just keeps on going. The Blam Blam Blam and Mutton Birds frontman sounded as fresh as ever on his latest solo album, his first since Lucky Stars in 2015.

It’s a difficult feat to sound this essential so deep into one’s long career — Jimmy Barnes and Robert Forster are Australian counterparts who have also managed to maintain such quality over many decades — and Bright November Morning is sprinkled with moments of classic McGlashan songwriting, capturing the nuances of life as only he can. —Conor Lochrie

Leisurevision was hailed as “a record for groovers and shakers with introspection,” which sums it up perfectly.

New Zealand’s genre-hopping supergroup (the lineup features members of Goodnight Nurse, Cool Rainbows, and more Kiwi bands) aimed big on their fourth album, successfully building on their acclaimed 2021 album Sunsetter. —Conor Lochrie

Profilic songwriter and producer Eddie Johnston — aka Lontalius — could really have had multiple albums make our list, but Someone Will Be There for You is the high point of his last five years of consistent output.

These tracks are a masterclass in moody and minimalistic production, Lontalius proving himself to be a truly modern musician in his avoidance of restrictive genre structures. A beautifully constructed record for the lovelorn and lonesome. —Conor Lochrie

Delaney Davidson earned a Taite Music Prize nomination this year for a 2024 album — the fact that it wasn’t Happiness Is Near speaks to his remarkably consistent output.

Davidson and Barry Saunders weave songwriting magic together throughout their collaborative record, which is “just two guys with their guitars and their songs.” That’s all you really need sometimes, though. —Conor Lochrie

Daniel McBride wrote and recorded his most recent album as Sheep, Dog & Wolf over a three-year period, fine-tuning his lush arrangements at his own pace.

Two-Minds is an endlessly ambitious record that finds McBride deftly mixing jazz, folk, and electronica elements to create soundscapes wholly his own. A true original. —Conor Lochrie

After making his name coming up in Auckland’s underground hip-hop scene, Brandn Shiraz perhaps felt pressure on his debut solo project.

You wouldn’t be able to tell listening to the self-titled album, though, which is the sound of a rapper confidently introducing themself to a wider audience. Shiraz drops memorable verse after verse about what it’s like to be be part of the Pacific diaspora in Aotearoa, combining with guests including Diggy Dupé to create slick tracks that prove the hype is real. —Conor Lochrie

You could gather all the biggest alt-pop stars in the world in one room, invite all of their production gurus and superstar songwriters, and they still wouldn’t be able to come up with an album as fascinating and complex as Mousey’s latest.

The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers! is a triumph for Christchurch-based artist Sarena Close, exploring difficult themes, particularly family dynamics (or lack thereof), with impressive openness. There’s something of Mitski in the way Mousey moves through her album – the emotive wails, the lush arrangements, the aching intimacy. —Conor Lochrie

Bruising metal heavyweights Beastwars decided to drop a covers album in 2023.

They completely overhaul classic songs spanning 40 years of New Zealand music on Tyranny of Distance, from Marlon Williams to The 3DS, Nadia Reid and The Gordons. The history of this country’s music has never sounded so thunderous. —Conor Lochrie

Anna Coddington’s latest album opens with an APRA Silver Scroll-winning waiata, and she manages to maintain the energy and quality throughout the rest of Te Whakamiha.

While nothing admittedly tops the inviting funk of “Kātuarehe”, Coddington’s first full body of work featuring te reo Māori has plenty of danceable tracks left to entertain listeners. —Conor Lochrie

On her highly anticipated debut album, Molly Payton reproduces ’90s alt-rock with a modern twist with striking results, just as the likes of Beabadoobee has done in her own work. (Payton previously supported the Filipino-British musician in Australia and New Zealand.)

Payton called YOYOTTA “a deeply personal project that depicts the artist at her most vulnerable,” and she gives all of herself in the lyrics and singing; her debut album is an open book, and that’s why it works so well.

Listening to YOYOTTA, you get the impression that Payton is really just getting started. An even better album definitely awaits in the rising rocker’s future. —Conor Lochrie

It’s a wonderful thing when an artist lands on a sound and style that’s tailor-made for them. On his sixth full-length album in six years, Adam Hattaway takes a significant turn towards a more stripped-down approach than his earlier rock ‘n’ roll releases.

Produced by fellow New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams, Hattaway leans into slower tempos and grittier rhythms, pushing his voice further than ever before. Hattaway may well return to rockier territory in the future, but High Horse is so good that he’d be a fool to leave this sparser style behind. —Conor Lochrie

Mermaidens’ self-titled album almost didn’t arrive at all — Gussie Larkin was supposed to move to Berlin in 2020 before the pandemic foiled her plans — but listeners are lucky that it did.

Released four years after the Taite-nominated album Look Me in the Eye, their fourth record finds the trio of Larkin, Lily West, and Abe Hollingsworth energetically experimenting and pushing their sound further than ever before.

“I think we’re very hungry songwriters and love to explore so many different facets of music and different expressions of feelings,” West told us in 2023. “We treated this album as a wonderland to explore so many different possibilities and hone in on them.” —Conor Lochrie

They’re great going solo, doing their own thing, but nothing beats Church & AP together. On their third album, the pair team up with some trusted collaborators to craft a collaboration filled with alluring beats and seasoned flows.

It’s little wonder that Church & AP went so hard on the album from the outset. “’POSTAL’ is our representation of anxiety and feeling stir crazy after years of confinement. It was one of the first songs created post-pandemic, so we aimed for a massive sound that could shake any sound system,” they said about their opening track, and it only gets better from there. POSTAL is defiant hip-hop made by two artists at the top of their game. —Conor Lochrie

Jazmine Mary could have made our list for their wonderful 2023 album Dog; if it hadn’t been released just weeks ago, the immediately intriguing I Want to Rock and Roll could also have been in contention.

But Mary has arguably never sounded better than on 2021’s The Licking of a Tangerine — it won the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut award at the 2022 Taite Music Prize, after all.

Each track on the transformative album is beguiling in its own way, Mary conjuring haunting indie-folk gems that stick in the mind for a long time. —Conor Lochrie

A beautiful indie rock album of the highest order.

Wellington trio Soft Plastics contemplate and capture the swiftly changing moods that define one’s twenties on their debut album, a collection that deserves to be listened to slowly and often.

Saturn Return also captures a trio who fully understand each other musically: Jonathan Shirley’s swirling guitar lines frequently shine, as does Laura Robinson’s propelling drumming, but it’s Sophie Scott-Maunder’s stunning, shapeshifting vocals that really leave a lasting impression. —Conor Lochrie

If Clot is to be the final Wax Chattels album, what a parting gift it is.

The rock trio’s cathartic 2020 release combines raw elements — mostly just a bass guitar, keyboard, and battered drum kit — to create an ear-splitting sound. Clot also crucially retains some of the immensity of Wax Chattels’ acclaimed live sets. —Conor Lochrie

“It increasingly feels like New Zealand has another commercial behemoth akin to Six60 in the form of Drax Project,” we wrote of the Wellington pop-rock band in 2023, and they’ve proven this to be true over the past two years.

It was Upside that really first put them on the map, Drax Project following up their promising self-titled debut album (2019) with a second collection filled with just as many viral-ready hits, particularly the catchy “Atmosphere” and “Disrespect”, a collaboration with Australian pop artist Charley. —Conor Lochrie

Mel Parsons’ latest collection of estimable songwriting earned a glowing review from us.

“At eight tracks, the sixth album from Mel Parsons is a tight, fat-free collection of her trademark alt-country and indie folk, featuring some of her best songwriting to date (see: relationship-in-peril opener ‘Circling the City’ and the winsome ‘Little Sadness’),” we wrote in a four-star appraisal. —Conor Lochrie

Kimbra’s fourth album is a reckoning and a revelation.

Coming five long years after the art-pop artist’s previous album, Primal Heart, Kimbra makes up for lost time with 10 ruminative tracks that are unafraid to be experimental.

She chases personal breakthroughs on A Reckoning, but the specificity of some of the songwriting doesn’t negate a universal listening experience, such is the insightful nature of her words. Never content to rest on past glories, Kimbra is constantly reinventing her sound and style. —Conor Lochrie

Euphoric disco; vibrant house; groovy psychedelia; Latin funk — it’s all present in Flamingo Pier’s debut album.

The self-titled record invites you to the dancefloor, and you’ll find it difficult to tear yourself away. Flamingo Pier wrote most of the album in South Auckland, of all places, but it will instantly transport you to far-flung destinations, from the Pacific Islands to deepest India. One of the best dance records ever produced in Aotearoa. —Conor Lochrie

A cult artist on Bandcamp for years, Christchurch multi-instrumentalist Lukas Mayo finally progressed to the next stage in their career with Laundromat, a magical little album that showcases all the best qualities of their Pickle Darling project.

“Following in the grand tradition of Aotearoa bands like Tall Dwarfs, Mayo (as Pickle Darling) creates vulnerable lo-fi pop vignettes rich in small details,” we wrote in a rare five-star review. —Conor Lochrie

Hannah Everingham’s music is as lovely and inviting as the album titles she chooses.

Siempre Tiene Flores, which translates to “always have flowers” in Spanish, is a tight collection of tracks made beautiful by their arresting percussion and Everingham’s hushed bilingual words.

Boosted by Latin-American flavours, Everingham’s album exudes warmth, recalling some of Devendra Barnhart’s earlier works. Siempre Tiene Flores is a musical balm to a wintry day – if Everingham’s debut, Between Bodies (2022), hinted at her potential, this album confirms her special songwriter status. —Conor Lochrie

Yes, we know they’re in the ARIA Hall of Fame. But Crowded House are still a Kiwi band too, okay?

Dreamers Are Waiting was Crowded House’s first studio album in 11 years, and the first to feature Neil Finn’s sons, Liam and Elroy. The LP was a hit, winning the ARIA for Best Adult Contemporary Album and hitting No. 2 in New Zealand and Australia.

Dreamers Are Waiting also scored a four-star rating from Rolling Stone AU/NZ: “The sweet melodies, the familiar voice of Finn, and timeless qualities of singles like ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘To the Island’ see Dreamers Are Waiting not serving as just a ‘comeback album’, but the continuation of one of the country’s most celebrated musical careers,” we wrote. —Neil Griffiths

Reb Fountain is another artist who could have featured prominently in this list as a result of more than one of their albums.

Iris effectively builds upon the success of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s 2020 self-titled album, with Fountain pushing her writing deeper than ever before.

“Writing a song a day to keep myself grounded and productive during lockdown… Iris provided me an opportunity to speak my unspoken, to reflect what I have seen and experienced from within and to bear witness,” she said at the time. One of New Zealand’s most consistent lyricists never fails to deliver with each album. —Conor Lochrie

Marlin’s Dreaming came back last year with HIRL, a beautifully melancholic step forward. “Lucky Star” stands out with its bittersweet vibe, while “Hello My Dear” moves with warm acoustic tones.

Their collaboration with Erny Belle, “Earnestly”, hits quietly devastating notes. Filled with wistful melodies, this feels like the most confident the Dunedin-born indie band have ever sounded. —Sarah Downs

Some albums feel like a slow, steady exhale. Bad Meditation is one of them.

Mara TK returns with a sound full of feeling, grief, and whakapapa. You can almost hear the winds of Aotearoa blowing through each track. His voice is soft, honest, and full of emotion. There’s a fuzzy, psychedelic edge, especially on the title track and “Colours”, that nods to his dad, Billy TK.

“Te Kete Aronui” is a beautiful, haunting waiata. Guest spots from Troy Kingi and Xenia Manasseh bring even more depth. This is future soul at its best — stretched, reimagined, affecting. It gets better every time you listen. —Sarah Downs

With a bit more time, this album could have made it higher up our list.

Released just a few months ago, Foley’s second album, recorded on Waiheke and finished in Sydney, is confident electro-pop. Bright vocals, sharp guitars, and bold hooks drive tracks like “Low and High”, “Unstable”, and “Heartstrings”, stories of love and loss told with honesty and warmth. Even the upbeat “Time of My Life” feels grounded.

That’s Life, Baby! is a polished, heartfelt record that’s ready for bigger stages. —Sarah Downs

Auckland’s favourite punk band of the last few years? Probably. Formed in the bowels of Whammy Bar, Dick Move have honed their craft by playing gig after gig after gig on K’ Road and beyond since 2019, and any room they play has been packed out due to their growing reputation on the live circuit.

While their raucous punk is perhaps best listened to up close, Dick Move demonstrated that they also sound thrilling as hell recorded with the release of their second album. There’s a reason the band were called upon for a massive support slot when the Foo Fighters were in town. —Conor Lochrie

Black Sea Golden Ladder was written and recorded as part of Troy Kingi’s Matairangi Mahi Toi Artist Residency in Wellington, the rocker working closely with Delaney Davidson to create the album.

Not many musicians test their artistry as much as Kingi, and Black Sea Golden Ladder is the sound of him pushing and expanding, never settling or resting for a second. —Conor Lochrie

Jordyn with a Why would deserve a place on this list for her wonderful album title alone.

The music on Hibiscus Moon, Love & Justice is just as good as the album’s name, however, the Māori-Samoan artist weaving silky R&B magic over 10 tracks.

Jordyn with a Why was unlucky to be up against a big name like Stan Walker for Best Māori Artist at the recent Aotearoa Music Awards, but expect her time in the category to come. —Conor Lochrie

Strings, choirs, and soul-searching: on his fifth album The Loop, Jordan Rakei went big without losing intimacy.

Recorded live with an orchestra, it balances cinematic moments with raw emotion. Themes of fatherhood and growth run through lush arrangements, making it his most personal and expansive work yet.

Since its release, The Loop has earned him a historic Abbey Road residency, sold-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall, and a 2025 Ivor Novello nod for Album of the Year. Rakei is building up quite the musical CV. —Sarah Downs

Tom Scott’s second studio album operating as Avantdale Bowling Club offers never-ending pleasures.

He blends hazy hip-hop and seductive neo-jazz together on Trees, reuniting with producer Christoph El Truento to stirring effect. A worthy chart topper in New Zealand in 2022. —Conor Lochrie

Musical duos are a precarious venture – for every Simon and Garfunkel and White Stripes, there’s a Royal Blood and Black Keys – but Earth Tongue’s Gussie Larkin and Ezra Simons, partners in music and in life, are of the former vintage.

The fuzz-rock duo create an unrelenting racket from start to finish on their second album, a record that perfectly announced their arrival on the LA-based label In the Red Records.

Larkin and Simons are unafraid to get theatrical in these tracks, and they sound energised having taken their time between albums. (Their previous record, Floating Being, came out in 2019.) It’s blistering rock ‘n’ roll that has unsurprisingly won Earth Tongue key support slots for Ty Segall and Queens of the Stone Age, legions of fans around Europe, and a cult following back home. —Conor Lochrie

It makes a lot of sense that The Band From Wellington are moving to Melbourne — their punk rock anthems can be compared to those of Aussie outfits like The Chats and Drunk Mums.

They head Down Under basking in the success of latest album Dangerous Day to Be a Cold One, which earned them a positive Rolling Stone AU/NZ review.

“It’s always a dangerous day to be a cold one when The Band From Wellington are around, but it’s also a dangerous day to be a ramshackle Kiwi pub-slash-music venue when DARTZ are kicking about: their raucous punk rock songs are made for the live setting, to be performed wildly in front of a packed pit of ecstatic revellers,” we wrote. DARTZ also triumphed in the Best Rock Artist category at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards. —Conor Lochrie

Kane Strang was a firm favourite among an entire generation of Kiwi indie kids due to his thoughtful garage-pop gems, and his new output as leader of Office Dog is just as excellent.

The trio – Strang accompanied by Rassani Tolovaa (bass) and Mitchell Innes (drums) – used Spiel as a collaborative platform to explore intricate sounds and existential lyricism.

The tracks on Spiel are introspective rock backed by rugged rhythms and precise layers that demand frequent listens, Strang and his collaborators showing themselves to be a formidable proposition as a musical unit. New solo Strang material will always be welcomed, but Office Dog is a fitting vessel for his songwriting talent for the foreseeable future. —Conor Lochrie

Nadia Reid is incapable of making a bad album, and Out of My Province is a peak amongst many peaks for the singer-songwriter.

Combining beautifully with producer Trey Pollard, the pair create lush, gentle arrangements supported by Reid’s intelligent lyrics. This might just be your favourite singer-songwriter’s favourite record. —Conor Lochrie

A weird and wonderful New Zealand album.

Wurld Series are a Christchurch indie rock collective based around the sublime songwriting talent of Luke Towart, someone immediately recognisable as a music obsessive just from listening to The Giant’s Lawn.

Wurld Series’ album conjures surreal and fantastical tapestries with titles like “The Pugilist”, “The Cloven Stone”, and “Queen’s Poisoner”. (It takes a special band to make you want to listen to a track with the name “World of Perverts”.)

Indie label Melted Ice Cream has been producing truly excellent releases for a long time now, but The Giant’s Lawn might be the finest one yet. And in Wurld Series the label has a band continuing the fine tradition of genuine DIY music in this part of the world, even as the wider industry changes at rapid speed around them. —Conor Lochrie

Both good and bad art came out of the initial pandemic years, but Tami Neilson‘s fifth album definitely belongs in the former category.

Kingmaker was recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios, Neilson offering rallying cries for the myriad women struggling through the pandemic. The result is an album for those who refuse to be put down by outside forces. Neilson has never sounded fiercer or more resilient than she does on Kingmaker. —Conor Lochrie

After producing Avantdale Bowling Club’s stellar second album, Trees, Christoph El Truento gathered, well, a circle of friends for a genre-bending album of his own.

Ladi6, Mā, Troye Kingi, and many more lend their significant talents to the ambling collection, the producer happily shifting through genres and styles – sometimes even within the one track – at his own assured pace. —Conor Lochrie

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When you’re almost two decades into a distinguished career in Aotearoa music, you’ve got to keep challenging yourself.

Aaradhna took complete control on Sweet Surrender, the long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s chart-topping Brown Girl, producing every track and playing many of the instruments herself.

The result is a confident collection that signals a bold new chapter in her already excellent discography. “Creating this album was a complete reset for me,” Aaradhna said. “I had to figure it all out myself. I didn’t want to rely on anyone else to create what I can hear in my head.” —Conor Lochrie

Originally formed in Auckland in the late ‘90s, Fat Freddy’s Drop are still going strong all these years later. Wairunga is plentiful proof of that.

The group’s 2021 album finds them debuting five songs as well as revisiting two classics captured in an outdoor performance without an audience, with wild weather elements playing an important creative role. Bursts of rain and chilly winds were never going to stop one of New Zealand’s most enduring live acts. —Conor Lochrie

There’s a reason The Beths wanted Hans Pucket to support them in America.

The Auckland-based indie-pop band are cut from the same sonic cloth as The Beths, delivering melodious gems concerned with the anxieties of modern life.

Hans Pucket’s second album was produced by The Beths’ own Jonathan Pearce, with the production magician helping the quartet build polished arrangements. And like The Beths, too, Hans Pucket ensure there’s plenty of dry wit sprinkled throughout their tracks. A follow-up album to No Drama is highly anticipated. —Conor Lochrie

Not just any old band gets the approval of Sir Dave Dobbyn. Coterie, who featured in our Future of Music 2024 series, cracked the charts with their self-titled debut album, a record steeped in New Zealand’s tradition of groovy reggae-rock.

The NZ-born, WA-based brothers’ album features fan favourites like “Cool It Down” and “Deja Vu”. “It’s an honour, a responsibility, but more so it’s just a knowing of who we are,” the band told us in 2022. “Everything we do comes back to the fact that we’re four Māori brothers that grew up on the coast lines of Western Australia. We wanna inspire other Indigenous artists, POC artists and just all humans alike, our differences are beautiful!” —Neil Griffiths

Returning with an exceptional album after a seriously lengthy hiatus? Child’s play for Home Brew.

Tom Scott and Haz Beats dropped one of the most anticipated hip-hop releases in Aotearoa in years as 2023 dwindled to a close, running it back to their heyday with a set of fresh cuts that reminded everyone of just what made Home Brew so special in the first place.

Run It Back is the ideal accompaniment to the reissue of the group’s seminal self-titled debut album, with 2023 being a celebration of both the old and the new for these evergreen hip-hop artists. A reunion that was definitively worth the wait. —Conor Lochrie

CHAII’s debut Safar (which means “journey” in Farsi) lives up to every bit of the hype.

Co-produced with Frank Keys, it mixes Persian melodies, rap, hip-hop, and electronic beats into a sound that’s totally hers. From hard-hitting bars to soft-spoken moments, it maps her journey from Iran to Aotearoa with pride and purpose. Not just any artist gets to lead the nominations at the Aotearoa Music Awards. —Sarah Downs

Anthonie Tonnon’s third album, Leave Love Out of This, is a stunner — lush with synths and full of storytelling that’s personal, political, and poetic.

These songs are thoughtful snapshots of modern Aotearoa, delivered with quiet power and rare clarity. No surprise it won the Taite Music Prize in 2022. —Sarah Downs

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