The Top 25 Producers Who Defined The Year 2024

We say this not lightly but with the kind of heaviness that, if actualised, would crash through the floor of our office straight through the centre of the earth and straight out the other side into space… A. G. Cook has soundtracked 2024. It would have been difficult to predict the unmitigated saturation of Cook’s productions throughout our listening habits back in January, when he announced the end of new releases from his seminal imprint PC Music, but as February rolled around and the first single from his third studio album ‘Britpop’ emerged — a tantalisingly ebullient banger that combines shiny elements of hyperpop with hypnotic bass, and a catchy vocals courtesy of BFF Charli xcx (it’s coming, stay with us), it was clear that A. G. was working towards a defining moment. And the full album was just that: a clever look at UK influence on US subculture by way of classic, PC Music soundscapes on Disc 1, with Disc 2 veering toward the experimental, with nods to rock via guitar strings, woozy synths and even an emotionally gut-punching tribute to SOPHIE on ‘Without’. For fans of Cook, of PC Music, it was an exciting moment; an expert at the top of his game, pushing out against the edges of his self-built sonic macrocosm.

Then things all got a bit ‘Brat’, didn’t they? While Charli xcx’s era-defining dance-pop record isn’t the only project A. G. appeared on beyond his solo work this year – once again assisting Caroline Polachek on the soundtrack of Netflix show I Saw, alongside singles for Brooke Candy, Fuji Kaze, F5ve and horsegiirL – his work on ‘Brat’ has ensured that the A. G. Cook sound has been within earshot just about everywhere that has an internet connection in 2024. He co-wrote and produced the majority of the album’s initial 15 tracks, its expanded and remix additions, including ‘So I’ and lead single ‘Von Dutch’. While Charli xcx often admits that she aims to provide commentary on pop stardom and celebrity, it feels as if Cook uses his skills as a producer to do just that — you can hear it within the now-all-familiar drippings of hyperpop, electropop and revived, rough-edged electroclash — and while ‘Britpop’ combined Cook’s clean-edged and trippy take on pop music, ‘Brat’ saw him explore maximalism and excess, pushing basslines to the breaking point: intense, overwhelming, a runaway train. While it would be difficult to wholly claim that ‘Brat’’s popularity is a result of Cook’s productions, it’s unlikely that it could have existed without them. After all, during ‘Brat’ summer, we all wanted to dance to A.G.