2022 Music: Top 25 Albums of the Year

 Alright, final post to wrap up our music project for another year. I believe Jez is planning to write up his top 25 in two different posts but I DON'T DO THINGS THAT WAY. So enjoy this hideously long post. Or who am I kidding, you're just going to scroll straight down to number 1 and then get angry and rage-quit. Aren't you, Mother? Well, enjoy.

 

25) A Bit Of Previous - Belle and Sebastian (Indie Pop) 

Starting off with a familiar name, I mean obviously familiar if you were actively listening to Indie Pop music in the 90s, but familiar even if you pay attention to my end of year music posts (which I know you do, Mother) as these guys did my #7 album and #3 song of 2018. While not exactly their follow-up (they released a soundtrack album and a live album in the interim), this was delightfully more of the same as their first proper album since that time. If there's a reason they drop down the list a little bit here, it's mainly that their 2018 effort had a far grander scope, and I feel had a bit more bite in the wonderfully sardonic vocals of Stuart Murdoch, but otherwise it's a very bright and entertaining pop outing from these veterans.

24) Formentera - Metric (Post-Punk Revival)

Straight away we have another alumnus of my 2018 end-of-year list (as I'm sure you can recall Mother, they did my #87 song and were an honourable mention for my top 25 albums. Alright I'm going to stop addressing my mother directly now). This one really surprised me, as to be honest I'd kind of forgotten that Metric's 2018 album had that kind of success with me. Kicking off with the sprawling and wonderful bit of progressive pop "Doomscroller", the album has a consistently good sort of dance-punk quality to it, which does start to feel a bit effortful as it goes on; there's an attitude to the vocals while the music earnestly tries to be catchy and perky, and it's that audible effort only that prevented me from loving this more on a relisten and for it to be higher.

23) Crisis Of Faith - Billy Talent (Pop Punk)

To refer back to my previous writeup again, this album from old Canadian punk-rockers Billy Talent also kicks off with a sprawling track ("Forgiveness I + II") which I wrote up yesterday as part of my top 20 songs of the year. I don't always have a lot of time for pop punk music generally, mainly because it all has the same kind of raucous energy coupled with youthful whingeing (/Billy Joe Armstrong impersonation contest) in place of vocals. So these guys stand apart mainly because they have a more mature sound both vocally and in the sense that their arrangements and compositions are thoughtful and aren't just plugged into the automatic punk music generator machine. But it retains the raucous energetic fun, and I'm very here for that when it's this well done.

22) Cheers - Jukebox the Ghost (Power Pop)

This was a major turnup when it came to relistening. The references to previous music project artists from 2018 keep coming, because these guys had a big hit in that year for us with "Jumpstarted" which started to wear heavily on me as the year wore on, ended up only #66 and in the years since has in fact started to give me the shits. So I was pleasantly surprised that this album worked better on the first listen, but I fully expected in relistening to just throw this straight on the trash heap where it belonged. Instead, here it is cracking the top 25 that their previous album failed to. Main reason is that, while these guys obviously do fun and silly bombast very well, this album has a fully-fledged cabaret kind of feel to it, where they explore greater depths in slower and more thoughtful songs, and the whole thing retains the 'dudes having fun together' party spirit but also feels more restrained and just sophisticated, so in every way I just think it's a better and more complete album rather than a gimmick.

21) Something In The Making - Team Me (Indie Pop)

I feel like my 25-21 picks are very heavy on the 'pop', possibly because there's a bunch of poppier albums that worked consistently for me but it's in other styles and genres that the real contenders emerge. This one here is very high on production value, which means there's a nice schmick quality to the way it sounds but it also means there's a certain artificiality to it that often puts me at a remove. In this case though I feel every song brings a unique personality, and the whole album has a really fun, unpredictable quality to the way it works through its different guises. "Song for a Drummer" is definitely the standout track here though.

20) Fossora - Björk (Art Pop)

This feels like possibly the only place where I cross over with the general critical consensus on best of the year, and honestly I'm not even sure why. It's actually really hard to fully embrace this outing from Björk because it really is the most avant-garde/experimental she's ever been. There's little in the way of rhythmic coherence, she leans heavily on the woodwinds and the strings but not necessarily in a melodious way. Somehow though, the end result I find completely compelling, mainly because they're such idiosyncratic soundscapes and don't sound like they could come from anyone or anywhere else. I will also admit that I'd probably have hated this if I hadn't listened to all of Björk's discography a couple of years ago and got a fuller understanding of her quirks as an artist. I disliked her 2017 album "Utopia" when I first heard it for example. So if this one really isn't your cup of tea, I can understand - but it is worth working your way chronologically through as, in context, this one really takes off with a lot of wonderful weirdness.

19) The Gods We Can Touch - Aurora (Dreampop)

Another beloved previous music project artist (who did my #1 song of the year the first year we did this, in 2016), this is another case where all Aurora had to do was keep plugging away at her usual thing to win me over. There's some inconsistencies in this album to be fair; in particular with tone. I feel she vacillates a little too much between airy softness and down-to-earth pop and she tends to be at her best when she occupies the space in between. But there's a high concentration of her best work here with contrasting tracks like the spooky chamber quality of "Everything Matters" or the upbeat charm of "Giving In to the Love" that it had to find a spot in my top twenty.

18) Never Let Me Go - Placebo (Alt Rock)

Although this should almost feel over-familiar to the point of cliché for someone my age to like Placebo, truth is I wasn't into them in their heyday and in fact hadn't really sat down to listen to their music at all until this album. It's fair to say then that I was very late to the Placebo party (that sounds like a wild time, doesn't it) but I'm definitely dancing on the table by now. Similar to Aurora, this album has a lot of high points like "The Prodigal" and "Surrounded by Spies" that showcase a band who's really comfortable with their sound after many years making it and really know how to put a song together, but it does find itself down the bottom half of my top of the year just for some songs that aren't as good, which ultimately makes the album about ten minutes longer and more indulgent than it needs to be.

17) exuvium [OBLIVIØN pt. II] - Crywolf (Experimental Downtempo)

This was an album that Jez chose, and normally when Jez calls anything "experimental" it's code for "Sam is going to be furiously angry at how shit and intractable this is" so it's really a delightful surprise to find it in fact good enough for a top of the year ranking. Its key strength is also its key weakness, which is that it's really powerfully dense. There's something quite captivating about this both musically and artistically, but the fact is it really doesn't let up with the piling on of musical complexity and dramatic, expansive experimentation. It's definitely an impressive set of music but I am held back a bit by feeling like it's sometimes an artistic curiosity more than it is a collection of music.

16) Strange Time To Be Alive - Early James (Chamber Blues)

Another discovery by Jez that I never came across, this guy really won me over with his extraordinary gravelly blues voice. The voice itself shouldn't be a revelation, it's just the kind of voice you develop from sixty years of whiskey and cigarettes, but in fact this bloke is younger than me by some eight years. In some ways there's also nothing revelatory about his songwriting or instrumentation, it's just really solid, earthy blues that can deliver some wonderful grunt. "Racing to a Red Light" and "Harder to Blame" are definitely my standout tracks here.

15) And I Have Been  - Benjamin Clementine (Post-Music)

I mentioned in my songs writeup yesterday that this full album (featuring my #6 song of the year, "Copening") was arguably one of the most anticipated of the year, and it didn't... really disappoint. Fact is Benjamin Clementine has one of the most intrinsically captivating voices around, and there's a showmanship to his songwriting that's quite wonderful. What I could certainly see as a disappointment here is that he's really toned down the wacky playfulness he displayed in his first two albums, and while I do instead love the intimacy of having him, his piano and the occasional bit of string support, it does feel like it's missing something. I wouldn't change very much about Clementine's music, but I'm not sure he puts enough of his creativity and personality into this album, otherwise we might be talking about this ten, even fourteen albums later than we are.

14) Ini (Spirit) - Digawolf (Canadian Indigenous Folktronica)

Canadian Indigenous folk music was definitely my huge discovery of the year, having spent the first seven months running through the entire back catalogue of Buffy Sainte-Marie. So this album was perfectly timed late in the year to hit that sweet spot again. Not - I hasten to point out - that I'm suggesting this is in any way similar music from two completely different indigenous nations from different parts of Canada, but what this does produce is the modern twist on traditional sounds that I loved so much from the latter stage of Buffy's career. In some ways this reminds me more of Musk Ox - who did my #6 song of last year - in that it has a raw, rustic quality that's extremely evocative of untamed northern wilderness, but in this case produced with a curious electronic accompaniment that provides a constantly intriguing contrast.

13) Leather Terror - Carpenter Brut (Synthwave)

Ha. I think after a couple of really sophisticated and even delicate bits of composition in Benjamin Clementine and Digawolf, we dive belly first into a giant pool of silly bombast with this. Carpenter Brut is an artist that checks subtlety at the door, in this case fusing his trademark over-the-top mixing and beats with elements of death metal, post-punk and even some exotic pop. At the end of the day though, this is just wall-to-wall bangers and being non-stop fun, I found it completely irresistible even on a relisten.

12) Churches - LP (Pop)

From very early in the year (in fact this was a December 2021 release), this one definitely became one of my most beloved pop albums of the year. Held up largely by LP's hugely impressive voice, she just carries an immense amount of raw emotive power that works through a number of different moods and paces. It's a nicely slick pop album but it feels very much her own rather than some amalgam of committee thinking and what feels like it should work. I feel this is very much just a strong collection of songs rather than an album that stands as some grand musical statement, but the sheer volume of stirring and at times provocative individual songs here meant it was always going to play near the top of my year.

11) From Wasteland To Wonderland - Paddy And The Rats (Hungarian Celtic Punk)

I feel I really can't stop myself from making a bunch of dumb jokes at this point, but... aaargh I love Celtic punk music generally and it just seems like the most absurd thing in the world that the only really great example of it we got this year was from some Hungarian guys who decided to tap into that great Celtic tradition of their country?? Yeah I tried my hardest to think of this as camp, forgettable silliness because truly they do sound a lot like that Eastern European Eurovision entry who decides to do Celtic punk for some reason, but man they just do it so well. Not just the camp rap-folk of "Everybody Get Up" and the pirate lilt of "Ship Will Sail" but they manage the impossible task of delivering some really stirring folk heart with "After the Rain" and "Standing in the Storm" to show that beyond the gimmick of Hungarian Celtic punk, these guys actually have some serious musical and songwriting chops.

10) Radiant Bloom - Astronoid (Post-Metal)

This album was a disagreement between me and Jez, so I was determined to push this into my top 10 just to spite him. Thankfully I also love the album so the spite never really entered into my decision (or did it?). I mean, it's fair to say that I'm very open to music that could be described as 'droney' and while I can see this coming across as droney, I feel it's actually one of the most complex and dynamic sets of music of the year. The guitar movements are very intricate and constantly moving, so on the surface it appears droney but there's so much going on underneath when you pay attention. There's also delightful contrast here - as I talked about yesterday for "Human", my #9 song of the year from this album - between the light and dark elements of the music that gives it a nice hum but also plenty of melody to give it a more complete musical character. Whether you end up liking this or not is of course subjective, but I think this is a bit of technical mastery that manages to produce some surprisingly beautiful music.

9) White Jesus Black Problems - Fantastic Negrito (Contemporary Blues)

A mainstay of my top 25 albums, Fantastic Negrito did my #1 album of 2018 (which I've since gone on to consider as my favourite album of the first five years we did this music project) so this one was hotly anticipated and it absolutely didn't disappoint. His lyrics are always very pointed, and this album stands as a vociferous personal statement about black identity but it's really in his music and songwriting that the best of his beautiful spontaneity happens. I just love the way this guy seems to constantly surprise with new twists on blues conventions (such as the rollicking country-infused "Trudoo" here) and plays with such passion and personality. He's genuinely one of the most innovative artists working today and I feel very lucky to be able to follow his career as he keeps churning out brilliance like this.

8) Still Life - The Slow Show (Indie Pop Rock)

I talked about these guys again yesterday as my #20 song of the year "Mountbatten" comes from this album. One of the more general things I can say about the album is how strongly The Slow Show reminds me of another favourite discovery of the music project for me, Future Islands. Or rather how much singer Rob Goodwin reminds me of Future Islands' Samuel T Herring. In this case though the music is less synthpop and has more of a rock drive, and in doing so they produce a different aesthetic but the same musical philosophy of delivering sometimes dark and brooding lyrics but in a moving and upbeat kind of way. There's a real performative aspect to the way Goodwin switches between his singing and his spoken-word deliveries, and the string and piano orchestrations are subtly done to set the mood in an ambient kind of way that never really takes over the overall feel.

7) ForeverAndEverNoMore  - Brian Eno (Ambient Rock)

Speaking of ambient, we have the pioneer of ambient rock landing at #7 and yes, he still absolutely has 'it'. Now for those who don't know (I think you know this though, Mother), I have a very soft spot for Brian Eno's ambient music because we spent the first couple of years of our son's life using Eno's "Music for Airports" suite as white noise while he slept. So I'm always excited about new Eno music, but the fact is this is frankly the best he's released since possibly the 70s. It's testament to how good he is as a thinker that he can create such interesting and surprising music like this decades into his career. I think as well there's a real commitment to the bit here in music that can come across as pretentious, but because he's so committed to tranquility and peace in his soundscapes, it ends up being so immersive and peaceful. It's ultimately just very cool as well. Sidenote stat, worth noting that this is my highest-ranked album that only won runner-up album of the week it was released. And yes, there's a reason for that: the album that beat it that week is still to come. 

6) Maxim - Drew Worthley & No Spinoza (Nursery Rhyme Folktronica)

I seem to be liking to make segues into my next writeup, so speaking of commitment to the bit, this was one of the most delightful surprises of the year. The premise is simple to explain: they sing a bunch of nursery rhymes, and they lay down electronic folk compositions around the text. But the execution really is not simple at all, and that's where the commitment to the bit makes this such a wonderfully rich and deep album. Each nursery rhyme is given a full musical composition with its own personality, whether or not the tunes exist or not, but the tone they take with it is also so important. The album feels gimmicky but there's not a hint of irony or that these guys are taking the piss, and I feel if they'd done that, or alternatively if they'd tried to imbue too much drama into it, it would completely undermine how wonderful their compositions are. It's not a satirical album at all: it's nursery rhymes given a brilliant new lease on life thanks to the combined genius at work here from Worthley and No Spinoza.

5) Hold the Girl - Rina Sawayama (Art Pop)

This is probably the album that had the biggest surge in relistening (possibly second to Jukebox the Ghost) as I felt I'd unfairly underrated it myself in doing my initial arbitrary rankings. I enjoyed Rina Sawayama's self-titled album "Sawayama" a couple of years ago, and really found this a far more rich and captivating manifest of her songwriting. She obviously has a strong voice, but I find the key strength is how adaptable that voice is. Through this album she works through every emotive expression available: tender, vulnerable, furious and plaintive, all very much with a lot of raw feeling throughout. This made it to the very top tier of my year though mainly because I can't find a weak song on here: there are some I like more than others but every note of this serves a purpose and hits its target, never losing momentum. This is definitely my pop album of the year.

4) Between Two Waves - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)

I telegraphed this in yesterday's post, but the makers of my runner-up album of 2018 have made it into my top 5 again. This is also my highest-rated EP of the year - Jez and I played this year with a 'mandatory weekly EP' rule to keep the overall listening time down a bit, and this squeezes into the criteria at 24 minutes - and notably is also higher than Fantastic Negrito's album (who beat them to the #1 spot of 2018). These guys just consistently deliver astounding improvisational jazz, with the piano and double bass being beautifully held together by Rob Turner on the drums who just seems to keep playing despite what nonsensical time signature they're playing in. I love how constantly surprising and moving their music is while they manage to always move together and keep a coherent musical theme going. In this case they also really emphasise electronic augmentation and it's lovely and subtle in the way that the jazz will transition into something more electronically based without me even noticing. It'd be hard for me to judge this as better than "A Humdrum Star" but at 24 minutes it's certainly the album I'd more likely recommend as it's just pure gold throughout.

3) Bronco - Orville Peck (Queer Country)

I feel like I've been skirting around my full thoughts on Orville Peck, through two top 50 (including one top ten) songs of the year, because I've known all along of course that this is coming. But what really struck me in listening to this album - and it didn't strike me when I listened to Pony, its critically-acclaimed predecessor - is just how exciting this guy is as a musician. I was obviously too young to experience Elvis Presley fervour at its height, or even really understand his appeal as an artist, but Orville Peck makes me realise what that feeling could have amounted to. But there's an added spark to Orville Peck, which is that he brings that same feeling of stirring emotions, puts it in a country music setting that's really evocative of place and time, and also adds that queer love element that really expands the scope of both country music and rock & roll in ways that are fascinating and profound.

2) ILYSM  - Wild Pink (Dreamfolk)

 So yeah, if there was money in betting on my album of the year, the follow-up to my #1 album of last year (only 18-odd months in the making) would have been too short odds. But you would have been fucking WRONG anyway, because it's only #2 of 2022. I feel like I've spoken enough through all the songs and albums from Wild Pink that I've written up before, but what made this album so fascinating this year was the fact that they retained all of their (and specifically frontman John Ross') gentle and curious wonder, but in this case explored more of a down-to-earth rock aesthetic that worked to liven up beautifully what might have felt stale or samey, while also doing it in a strange way that felt new and yes, weirdly exciting. But at the end of the day, like last year's "big warm hug" that was A Billion Little Lights, this is a sentimental and reassuring album that reminds you of what really matters in life (hint: it's not Elon Musk's twitter stream).

1) Rakshak - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal) 

But - and it's a big but - for some reason despite the fact that 2022 was a lot more predictable and stable than the last two years have been (and I mean personally, although globally as well), I really did take an immense amount of solace in the raw, furious anger that these guys brought this year. I feel like I've hinted at this through several writeups now but this album, from the first time I heard it in February, was absolutely unbeatable to the top spot of my year. It should be noted that this is the first time that an artist has claimed my #1 song (with Chakh Le) and #1 album of the year spot, but everything about both that song and this album hits absolutely hard in my sweet spot. The fusion of traditional Punjabi folk music with the really on-point fury of their guitars and the anger of their vocals. Their rap has a certain kind of "people imitating hip-hop artists" quality to it, but it all absolutely makes sense in the east-meets-west vibes that they're laying down. I will say that I find this album utterly perfect as it stands, but that itself feels like a double-edged sword, in that I'm not sure I'll love a follow-up from them with this much fervour. They're playing here with very much the same ingredients but invoking them in different ways and combinations and it's wonderful as it exists, but I do feel they'll need a proper twist in the sophomore effort or this will start to feel like a gimmick. Possibly it is already, but I think it's exquisitely executed and I've just bloody loved headbanging to these guys all year.

So that's it for another year of music listening. Of course there were many, many more albums I would consider worthy of mention, and here are my honourable mentions. I lose track of the stupid ways I decide to order these, but this year they're ordered... in order. It's just my #26-45 albums, without any further commentary.

Was kost die Welt - Versengold (Pagan Folk Rock)

Emerald Sea - Sound of Ceres (Dreampop)

Valtos - Valtos (Celtic Folktronica)

Chimes at Midnight - Madrugada (Dark Country)

Moch - Dlù (Modern Gaelic Folk)

Physical Thrills - Silversun Pickups (Post-Punk Revival)

Libre - Jesse Cook (Nuevo Flamenco)

El Mirador - Calexico (Desert Rock)

Firmament - Dim Gray (Prog Rock)

Impera - Ghost (Heavy Metal)

Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum - Alestorm (Pirate Metal)

Smoke & Oakum - The Longest Johns (Sea Shanties)

Flames of Perdition - Dawn Of Solace (Doom Metal)

Will of the People - MUSE (Glam Pop Rock)

Tularosa: An American Dreamtime - Kamara Thomas (Psychedelic Country)

Roots - Children of the Sün (Psychedelic Rock)

Do You Need A Release? - De Lux (Post-Disco)

Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam - The Comet Is Coming (Psychedelic Jazz Rock)

Sunir - IANAI (World Folk)

PSYCHX - Kordhell & Scarlxrd (Drift Phonk/Scream Rap Fusion)

2022 Music: Top 20 Songs of the Year

 Alright, well it's come to that time again, that time I've come to this time every year for the past seven years, so I don't need too much preamble. Let's just jump in.

But before I do, a quick sidenote to link to my Spotify playlist including all of these songs along with the rest of my insanely long longlist that was whittled down to my two previous posts and, indeed, this one as the best of the year.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6XjcgPtkht6jg8yHLj9ilp?si=50c8f2ba1c4347a7

 20) Mountbatten - The Slow Show (Pop Rock)

A new discovery for  me this year, these guys really surprised me with their subtle progressive movements in a way that really expands their sound. This was the best track for me off their album "Still Life" which had a tendency throughout to build slowly on me to the point where it was hard to let go. We'll be talking more about the album overall in tomorrow's post.

19) Kaleidoscope - Shadow Academy (Pop Rock)

I had a bit of a hard time taking this band seriously, mainly because frontman Dan Avidan's voice is so familiar to me as one half of comedy rock duo Ninja Sex Party, so I kept wondering when he was going to throw a dick joke or ten into his lyrics. But this song really puts my need for facetiousness to rest; it's really quite an intensely catchy bit of arena rock that suits his light tones really well even when I'm struggling to accept his newfound serious musicianship.

18) Underwater - Sun's Signature (Chamber Pop)

This song had the most absurd journey into my top twenty of the year. I was listening to the self-titled EP as a potential contender for album of the year and was so struck by this song that I felt I had to look up where it had landed in its week and how strongly I was considering it for song of the year - and found out that not only did it land only at #5 of its week (most of these songs here of course won song of the week or runner-up), but I'd in fact removed it for consideration for song of the year at some point relistening during the year. It immediately got reinstated and ended up getting shuffled into 18th spot of the year. The reason is obvious to me now, and I can see why I may have lost traction with it, as it does have a bit of a slow build and a long fadeout but while it's in its complete strides it's a note-perfect bit of expansive dreampop, delivered by way of a chamber music mentality and instrumentation; extremely striking.

17) Pamela - Chat Pile (Experimental Death Punk)

This is probably not the song from my top 20 that I'd recommend people listen to really to get my taste in music, or indeed if you want a song that's entertaining or in any way pleasant. But the way this song acts as a manifestation of grief and despair I find utterly captivating. Through its constant discordance, laconic spoken-word vocals and shrieking climax, there's very little here really to enjoy but it's the relentless barrage of pain here that makes it so impactful.

16) Night Prowler - Carpenter Brut (Synthwave)

From something as serious and dour as "Pamela" it's quite a delight to segue into a bit of Carpenter Brut, who is making my top 20 songs of the year for the second time (previously #14 of 2018 for "Inferno Galore" off the album to which this album is a spiritual sequel). There's not a great deal of nuance or even really depth to this, but it's just a wild, rollicking  ride of heavy-beat and synthesised music that slaps at every turn.

15) Daybreak - Bastards of Soul (Soul)

For a long time this year I had this song slated as a surefire entry in my top 10, and I'm not sure what's made me cool to it because, objectively, it's a fantastic bit of music. The late Chadwick Murray - who died in late 2021 before this album was released - really drives the song with his powerful vocal performance singing about the despondency he faced as a black man waking up each day not knowing when he might face an untimely death. The brass accompaniment imbues it with a nice funky air and it really deserves a spot in any top of the year list, except that I took a personal greater liking to other songs.

14) Forgiveness I + II - Billy Talent (Pop Punk)

These guys were somehow completely new to me this year, although it seems they've been mainstays of the Canadian pop punk scene for most of my life. Possibly not being a big pop punk fan and not being Canadian has helped me stay at a distance from them until now. But there's always room in my end of year list for a really well-done bit of pop punk, and this not only just has a great rocking-out kind of energy but they manage to stitch together the central theme across an interesting progressive instrumental and fadeout section, and it works brilliantly.

13) Cold Brew - Shamir (Queer Pop)

I was quite taken by Shamir's self-titled album a couple of years ago, and he made my top 100 songs with a surprisingly spry bit of self-deprecation "On My Own", so naturally with his follow-up album "Heterosexuality" he struck even deeper chords with this track. Again it's a strangely perky and dreamy pop song on the surface but that sweet exterior belies quite a dark central theme of being uncomfortable with your own being and existence. At the end of the day it's just a really cool, catchy song but it carries a great deal of gravity as well.

12) The Antidote is in the Poison - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)

I've loved this trio ever since first hearing them in 2018, a year which saw them land my #2 album of the year, "A Humdrum Star", and I feel their EP this year "Between Two Waves" may even be a superior album (except that it's only 24 minutes long). This bizarre little composition is one of their most striking tracks and hence it gives them their first top twenty berth for me. I've probably listened to this intensely syncopated bit of freewheeling jazz two dozen times and I still can't quite wrap my head around the time signature. What really sets them apart, besides their obvious individual talents, is how well they move around tempos so unpredictably yet so coherently.

11) Snowblind - Ásgeir (Electrofolk Pop)

Like Shamir, Ásgeir is another artist who's previously cracked my top 100 songs of the year (#84 of 2017 for "Stardust") and now graduates into my top 20 with this cracker. I was honestly a bit unenthused by the rest of his album released late in 2022, but this particular track just hits all of his Icelandic roots in the right strange, other-worldly ways while also delivering a really engaging and driving bit of electropop. It's light and fun but also seriously striking.

10) Giant - Mighty Mystic (Dancehall Reggae)

This track really stands out on its album as being a very sweet, wholesome love note to the dude's mother and him fulfilling his promise to grow up and look after her the way she looked after him - and presumably also his older brother, the current prime minister of Jamaica (just a fun fact in there - isn't that the most Jamaican thing ever that the prime minister has a little brother who makes reggae music for a living). I always have a bit of a soft spot for reggae music, in particular when it has a nice upbeat lilt like this as well as an uplifting message ("The boy you knew has turned into a giant") that never loses sight of its social consciousness.

9) Human - Astronoid (Post-Metal)

I was also familiar with these guys prior to this year; they've never made an end-of-year list but they did get an "honourable mention" in my top albums of 2016 post. This particular track, and the album it comes off, really struck me though as their strongest work to date. This song stands out for its wonderful contrasts between the dark and busy guitar work and the light, ethereal touches from the keyboard and Brett Boland's vocals. I'll have more to say about the album overall in tomorrow's post, but this song definitely feels like the high point in terms of drawing out those juxtaposed elements in intriguing and mesmerising ways.

8) Let Me Drown - Orville Peck (Queer Country)

We listened to Orville Peck's critically-acclaimed debut album "Pony" in 2019 but I didn't really "get" his thing at the time, but this year's "Bronco" really clicked with me. In particular this song, a painful ballad about letting love go, really stirred and moved me. His voice, obviously owing a debt of gratitude to Elvis Presley and great country singers of the 60s and beyond, has a pitch-perfect tone throughout that's wounded, poignant and plaintive, but of course the string orchestrations hit all the right swells and dramatic builds to make this a genuine show-stopper.

7) Am I Really Going to Die - White Lies (Post-Punk)

This was another album where I wasn't entirely taken with it overall but this song stood head and shoulders above the rest. It's lyrically strange, an exploration of paranoia and cynicism in the age of information overload and illiteracy, but what I love so much about it is how well the instrumentation grows the chorus and allows this bit of whimsical satire to expand out into something truly, but strangely, affecting.

6) Copening - Benjamin Clementine (Chamber Pop)

This song, first released as part of a two-song EP, was probably among my most highly-anticipated of the year: the long-awaited follow-up to Clementine's 2017 album "I Tell a Fly" (my #17 album of that year) and a year after we'd relistened to his remarkable Mercury-prize winning debut "At Least For Now" which I'd now consider among my top 5 favourite albums of all time. Apart from his incredible voice and presence behind the mic, what really makes this song quite remarkable to me is how much drama, musical narrative and pathos Clementine manages to squeeze into a simple 2-minute composition of piano, voice and accompanying strings. If you want a recommendation for getting the most out of your music efficiently, look no further.

5) Haldern - Black Country, New Road (Experimental Jazz Punk)

There's a bit of a personal story behind why this ultimately very strange song makes my top 5, which is that I had it playing for some reason one day when I picked up Dylan from school, and he liked it so much (for some reason) that he kept asking me to play it whenever I picked him up. But beyond repeated exposure for the first months of the year, I put it on to reconsider it later in the year and felt that yes, Dylan had good taste. I can't quite work out what makes this song so compelling, but I think it's largely in its complete idiosyncrasy: the delicacy of the piano accompaniment combined with the abrasive vocal work and the sheer incongruity of having the emotional heart of your song delivered through saxophone. It's a unique and remarkable listening experience.

4) The Dripping Tap - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Progressive Rock)

Absolutely the antithesis to Benjamin Clementine's 2-minute efficiency, this 18+ minute monster could in many ways be considered bloated and self-indulgent, but I absolutely love it. It's funny that I've never been able to fully embrace King Giz mainly because they release albums so frequently it's hard to reckon with one before you have to consider another, and yet at their most bombastic here I'm completely on board. What I loved first about this song is how seamlessly it works through its progressive stages, working in some fiery instrumental sections with a kickass protest rock message decrying the worsening effects of climate change, "the dripping tap won't be turned off by the suits in charge of the world". It's a long ride but a hugely enjoyable one.

3) Triangle - The HU (Mongolian Folk Metal)

These pioneers of fusing metal music with Mongolian folk singing (I note they weren't the first to do this, but certainly the first to gain international recognition for it) absolutely burst out of the blocks with this remarkable bit of hard rock that manages to draw the most catchy and melodious strains from a collection of largely guttural sounds. I described this song on my very first impression as being "absolute magic" and I stand by that after about thirty relistens: it's really the perfect example of being able to fuse traditional and modern sounds in a way that invites the two cultures to coexist and form a deeper appreciation of each other.

2) Christmas Moon - Kathryn Williams & Carol Ann Duffy (Indie Folk)

I've had all year to fall deeper in love with this song which won my song of the week in the first week of the year (the album was a holdover from December 2021), but it's never really been far from the front of my mind as a genuine song of the year contender. It's simply the sweetest and most poignant love song I've heard this year, centred around former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy's lyrics rhapsodising about watching her child sleep and the peace that ensues. The simple composition of guitar and woodwinds gives it a beautiful fairytale quality, and I'm really happy to have it here as a gentle runner-up, sandwiched between a couple of much rougher tracks. Notably, of course...

1) Chakh Le - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)

I'll have a fair bit more to say about Bloodywood's remarkable debut album "Rakshak" tomorrow of course, but for now let's talk about this song that closes out the album. I'm not entirely sure what precisely it is that sets this song apart from a lot of the rest of the album which follows a similar pattern, fusing Punjabi folk choruses with hard-hitting blokey rap and even harder-hitting metal guitar chords, but to me this song just embodies everything I love about music. I love the old-meets-new clash of the chorus which sounds like the big crowd number at the centre of a Bollywood musical but underlain by the furious frenzy of the metal guitars, I love the east-meets-west clash of the young Indian lads rapping about wealth inequality and how they plan to use their influence behind the mic to try to drive social change. But at the end of the day, this song just holds nothing back and it's the best head-banger I've had, and after the vicissitudes of personal fortune the last couple of years, I found Bloodywood's particular brand of righteous anger hit the perfect cathartic note.

2022 Music: Songs of the Year 50-21

 For part two of my countdown, I'll offer some cursory commentary on why - the hell - such a song made it into my top 50. I'm writing this preamble before I've written any of the comments and I hope I can get these comments finished before tomorrow so I can post it in time (I've already written up my top 20 and most of my top albums so those are ready to go in their place, it's just this one that's up in the air)

 

50) Kobold im Kopp - Versengold (Pagan Folk)

Versengold are an old favourite of this countdown, making my #53 song of 2019, and they're playing in the same delightful territory here. Whimsical, playful medieval folk rock - in German. What more could you want?

49) Neghoniehto - Digawolf (Canadio Indigenous Folktronica)

Great bit of expansive folk here, done with an electronic production quality that both modernises the Indigenous folk traditions it's playing on while also retaining a raw, rustic quality to it.

48) Salt Coast - Kae Tempest (Spoken Word Folktronica)

Kae Tempest was very much a slow-burn artist for me. We heard them in the very first year of the music project where I didn't quite 'get' their music, mainly because it's not really about the music as much as it's about the poetry. Their poetry is always beautiful and haunting, but in this case the music rises to meet it.

47) Goodbye - LP (Pop)

I loved LP's whole album, and it was fairly hard to separate my favourite tracks from it, as you'll see from the fact that she had two songs in my 100-51 and now coming in at 47 as well. This track is probably her most striking as a power ballad with a slight Italianate flavour.

46) Cleopatra - Nova Twins (Nu Metal)

Nova Twins really surprised me with this Mercury prize-nominated album, mainly because I rejected it earlier in the year and then went back to revisit it and it ended up taking my runner-up album of the week. This song is the clear standout though, I love the attitude of the chorus (the line "I'm a boss bitch, I'm Cleopatra" is one of my favourites of the year) and it's just good hard-hitting fun.

45) Indigo - Dirty Heads (Rap Reggae)

This whole album was a dichotomy of try-hard white-boy rap which was largely terrible, and try-hard white-boy reggae which I tend to enjoy a lot more. This tune has a really nice lilting tune to it and grew on me a lot more in relistening.

44) Awakening - Yungchen Lhamo (Tibetan Folk)

Yungchen Lhamo has a genuinely haunting, otherworldly quality to her voice, and this track is just pure white sparseness to let it stand out on its own. I will say that it's further down than it should be just from the questionable production choice to have a long and disconnected Tibetan chant outro to it, which is fine in the context of the album but it deflates the feeling of the song on its own; it's more likely to have been playing in the top 20 if not for it.

43) Harness the Wind - Calexico (Desert Rock)

Another alumnus of my 100-51 songs of the year (this time from 2018), Calexico play in one of my favourite underutilised genres of Latin-tinged desert rock. This track is a nice little evocative piece of psychedelia with a nice earthy undertone to it.

42) We Let It In - Brian Eno (Ambient Rock)

Brian Eno's whole album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE this year I think was up there with the best of his career, and this ethereal, meditative track was just a lovely breath of fresh, peaceful air. Strange, but also just a lovely bit of quiet musical exploration.

41) Giving in to the Love - Aurora (Indie Pop)

Aurora tends to have a spot reserved somewhere on my end-of-year lists, although she hasn't recreated her #1 song of the year success of the first year of the music project. This is on the poppier side of her spectrum that goes between atmospheric dreampop and more upbeat stuff, and it's catchy and fun and upbeat.

40) United in Grief - Kendrick Lamar (Hip-Hop)

If you've somehow come across my blog randomly (Hi, my first reader who isn't my mother!), you're probably wondering what the fuck kind of fucking shit-hole random 'best of 2022' list this is without it just being full of Kendrick songs. Well not put in just to please you because frankly you're a bit rude, this is really the one Kendrick song that I've really enjoyed. And I mean, ever. Maybe apart from King Kunta which was before we started the music project. What this song really brings I feel is that it really played with the production in interesting, post-modern ways, and wasn't simply about his lyrical content (although that game is also very strong here).

39) High Like You - The Feeling (Indie Pop)

From something very serious and very avant-garde from Kendrick we now come to this, which I like a little bit more but is in every way just the polar opposite. This is just a nice, feel-good kind of track, breezily put together but with a lot of sonic layers including the synthesised strings and bass.

38) Lafayette - Orville Peck (Queer Country)

I'll have more to say about Orville Peck in upcoming posts, but this was a perfect encapsulation of the feeling I got from his album Bronco this year, which is that this dude can be really quite rousing as an artist. Beyond his magnificent voice, there's just an effortless showiness to his persona that's wonderfully injected into his country aesthetic, and this song is a great example of it.

37) Aaj - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)

Ah, Bloodywood. You will definitely be hearing more about these guys and their unique blend of Punjabi folk, rhythmic rap verses and delightfully hard-hitting metal. You'll even be hearing more just later in this very post. But this track is a great place to start with them: fast-paced, infused with flute and some kind of stringed instrument (possibly the Tumbi?) and punctuated with their in-your-face shouty rap. I love it.

36) Paper Doll - Flower Face (Dreampop)

Definitely slowing it down a bit now for this song. This one really grew on me on a relisten; it's a lot quieter on the surface, but there's a swelling drama in the wings here that ends up making it one of the most haunting bits of dreampop I've heard this year.

35) Stained Glass Love - Telenova (Indie Pop)

Similar kind of mood for this one; the vocals are done in an ethereal kind of space, but the production here is far more present and upbeat. But despite the enjoyable, danceable beat here I find the song just as haunting as the previous just because the chord progressions here are so cleverly unpredictable and due to the particular tone of the synth on it.

34) Superficial Intelligence - MOR (Swedish Avant-Soul)

Wow, this is a really weird song. But I love the effects on it that really make it a soul track to stand up and take notice of. The vocals are strong across this whole album (which I liked, but not enough for it to crack my top 25 which I'll get to in a couple of days), but here they really take a backseat to the otherworldly synth drops and sub-bass that make this such a weird bit of wonderfully industrial music.

33) Song for a Drummer - Team Me (Art Pop)

This one really took me by surprise when I was relistening to finalise this list. Only fourth place in its week (although, spoiler alert, two of the songs that beat it are still to come), I found it originally a bit of interesting but still just nicely put-together pop. But when I relistened it really struck me as perfectly poised, with the call-response vocal style a fascinating way of delivering its slightly off-kilter attitude.

32) Up the Mountain - Regina Spektor (Anti-Folk)

I have liked and admired Regina Spektor since before the music project, although was lukewarm on her 2016 album that we listened to in the project's first year. This year's album though was a much stronger effort, at least in the fact that it contained this song which is a beautifully realised bit of musical drama, led by Spektor's keen vocals and innovative songwriting.

31) Tularosa - Kamara Thomas (Psychedelic Country)

I expected this album (of the same name) to be holding its own against some of the heavy-hitters of the year, but in the event it didn't quite make it, leaving just this track to represent Kamara Thomas in my listicles. Fair though, because this song encapsulates everything that was great about the album: it's epic in scale, psychedelic in tone. It holds a melancholic tone, chronicling the misadventures of a wild west frontiersman facing all the dangers of exploring uncharted territory. This song really could just be the album and I'd be happy.

30) Hold the Girl - Rina Sawayama (Art Pop)

Rina Sawayama has been out and about in my end-of-year lists for a while, just barely cracking my top 100 of 2020 (at #100) and then rising up the ranks last year with her cover of Enter Sandman at #28, this year she makes #30 with the title track of her album (but more to be said about that in a couple of days). This song's really got a bit of everything for everyone in it: it's stirring and beautiful, but it's also got a nice bit of shuffling breakbeat. And of course she delivers everything she does with aplomb.

29) Everybody Get Up - Paddy and the Rats (Hungarian Celtic Punk)

This band was quite the surprise: I wasn't aware that Celtic folk traditions stretched as far as Hungary, but these guys do a very good line in the modern variant thereof. What I liked most about them though was that they bring a kind of Eastern European Eurovision energy to it as well, and this track leans far more into that territory than into the Celtic punk. Therefore I kind of hate that I like this song so much, but there it is.

28) Tissues - YUNGBLUD (Pop Punk)

Another alumnus of my top 100, Yungblud did my #58 song of 2018 with Polygraph Eyes; since then he's released quite a lot of music that I've found middling to disappointing so it was a great delight to see him back with a vengeance with this track. It obviously owes a great debt to late-era Cure in its aesthetic and attitude (Close To Me is sampled for this song), but I think Yungblud is a fine songwriter and artist in his own right and this is him at his earnest best.

27) Harder to Blame - Early James (Contemporary Blues)

Early James really impressed me with his powerful voice, and I think he worked best on his album Strange Time To Be Alive when he was infusing a little bit of country influence, which he certainly is here. This track is gritty, hits all the classic blues notes, and leaves you with a suitable feeling of cathartic bitterness to dwell upon.

26) Abalus | In Time - Dim Gray (Psychedelic Rock)

A great bit of psych/prog rock is always welcome, and this track from Dim Gray really brought both the trippiness required but couples it with an almost arena rock-level build with the dramatic chorus and the way it works its various stages of that drama in. It's quite magnificently done.

25) Dana Dan - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)

This is definitely I feel the most talked-about of Bloodywood's songs from their remarkable debut album, mainly because it revolves around a revenge-fantasy where they violently retaliate against a rapist. Which is certainly problematic, but I think speaks volumes about how I found a strange solace in the righteous anger of these guys - misdirected or not - and how they feel like a kind of force for (chaotic) good in the world.

24) Simple Glyphs - Wild Pink (Dreamfolk)

Oh yes, the makers of my #1 album of last year have a new album out this year and this is broadly speaking the first you've heard about it. This was though my standout song from it, and a perfect example of how their album this year took their subtly beautiful dreamfolk and put more of a rock drive underneath it, rendering it interestingly distinct from their previous two albums (which were my #3 and #1 albums of their respective  years) while retaining their focus on thoughtful downtempo folk.

23) SMOKE AND WATER [the chthonic mother] - Crywolf (Experimental Downtempo)

Crywolf did a lot of interesting, complex compositions on his album exuvium [Oblivion Pt II] and strangely this wasn't my favourite when I first listened to it. But it was definitely the first time I seriously started to pay attention to the album as something more fascinating than I'd been giving it credit for, and on relistening this ended up leapfrogging FAR LIGHT (my erstwhile favourite) which ended up dropping from my top 100 altogether. Its use of tuned percussion to add to its overall spooky aesthetic really made it the catalyst for my overall appreciation of his strange style.

22) Doomscroller - Metric (Progressive Pop)

This one was also destined to be higher in my rankings from my first listen, but ended up dropping down when I came to the pointy-end of my year. It's got a great feeling this song, post-punk in its style but progressive in intent: it goes through a number of different stages to deliver its message of "everything is fucked so you may as well be happy about it" (or something to that effect), and it's thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. Could have been a top twenty song of the year for sure, but I just happened to cool on it at the right (or wrong) time.

21) Wrap Your Arms - ViVii (Dreampop)

This one's a bit of an anomaly really, because ViVii is absolutely Jez's artist now (even though they were my discovery originally I think?). Basically he holds these guys (who made his #1 album of 2019) up as his gold standard for dreampop while I hold Sound of Ceres (makers of my #2 album of 2016) as mine. But I took a far greater liking to this song at the time than he did, and here it is just flirting with my top 20 of the year. It doesn't quite have the otherworldly quality that I admire so much in Sound of Ceres, but it delivers the same expansive quality where it starts quiet and progressively builds as the song goes on. It's still earthly but it reminds me of those beautiful parts of earth and humanity that can take my breath away. 

 

So that's it; I've finished my writeup here in time and I can be ready to post this tomorrow morning (by which I mean, right now, because you're in my future).

2022 Music: Songs of the Year 100-51

 Alright, kicking off the end-of-year wrap up the way I always do: starting with my top 100 songs of the year, in countdown order (the best order) of course. As per previous years, the first 50 will be presented without comment because it's just much easier that way and obviously I don't care about these that much anyway, but I do very much like all 50 of these songs.

But rather than simply make this a dump of 50 songs, I also like to take a moment at this time to acknowledge the opposite end of the spectrum: my worst of the year. Again without commentary, and this process is always flawed (usually it just involves me searching in my writeups for the words 'terrible', 'abysmal', 'grating' etc.), although for the first time this year I actually took the time to relisten to the shortlist and determine the awards properly.

Songs first why not.

Worst song of the year: Sweet Nothing (Like a Version) - Something for Kate (Alt Rock Cover)

Runner-Up worst song of the year: Middle of America - Hailey Whitters feat. American Aquarium (Pop Country)

And albums:

Worst album of the year: Vices - Weiland ('Plugg', apparently)

Runner-Up worst album of the year: Spiral - Frost Children (Hyperpop)

 

So with the fun part out of the way, it's time for the boring part. A dump of songs. If anything catches your eye feel free to drop an argument-starter in the comments. Or tell me about it at Christmas lunch tomorrow if you like, Mother.

100) Wooden Leg (Part III) - Alestorm (Pirate Metal)
99) Cate's Brother - Maisie Peters (Alt-Z)
98) What Is Real Anymore? - Tom Aspaul (Electropop)
97) Under No Nation - Goat (World Folk)
96) Cahooting the Multiverse - Wild Pink (Dreamfolk)
95) Just a Little Bit - Bastards of Soul (Neo-soul)
94) Comme tout l'monde - 2Frères (French Pop)
93) Bell Tune - LSB (Atmospheric DnB)
92) Against the Grain - Passenger (Folk Pop)
91) God, Demon, Machine - Rave the Reqviem (Industrial Metal)
90) Slipping Away - LEISURE (Dreampop)
89) Magenta Mountain - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Psychedelic Rock)
88) Machi Bhasad - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)
87) The Main Character - Will Wood (Cabaret Rock)
86) Blue Nights - The Slow Show (Indie Pop Rock)
85) Nobody Loves You Like I Do - Madrugada (Dark Country)
84) The One That You Love - LP (Pop)
83) Baby Green - The Deer (Stargaze Folk)
82) Big Mouth - Damn the Witch Siren (Electronic Witch Rock)
81) Thunder - Children of the Sün (Psychedelic Rock)
80) Hereafter (Way After) - Silversun Pickups (Post-Punk Revival)
79) Real Low Down Lonesome - Early James feat. Sierra Ferrell (Contemporary Blues)
78) Peachy - Bad Suns (Indie Pop)
77) Hitchin' a Ride - Amythyst Kiah (Soul Cover)
76) Jee Veerey - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)
75) Heart Attack - Brave Rival (Blues Rock)
74) Racing to a Red Light - Early James (Contemporary Blues)
73) Three Blind Mice - Drew Worthley & No Spinoza (Nursery Rhyme Folktronica)
72) Posesivna bivsa - Milica Pavlović (Serbian Pop)
71) Everything Matters - Aurora feat. Pomme (Dreampop)
70) Ascent - GoGo Penguin (Contemporary Jazz)
69) Johnson Song - Mt. Joy (Indie Rock)
68) One Last Time - LP (Pop)
67) ILYSM - Wild Pink (Dreamfolk)
66) The Final Roadtrip - Charlotte Wessels (Gothic Metal)
65) Sleep Whisper - Astronoid (Post-Metal)
64) Gaddaar - Bloodywood (Indian Rap Metal)
63) Tastes Like Pain - Weezer (Alt Rock)
62) Manda Navaja - IANAI (World Folk)
61) Cannonball - Alestorm (Pirate Metal)
60) Azizam - Liraz (Iranian Folk Pop)
59) MISS ME? - Kordhell & Scarlxrd (Drift Phonk/Scream Rap Fusion)
58) Contempt for You - Hercules & Love Affair feat. ANOHNI (Art Pop)
57) Heart Attack - Editors (Post-Punk Revival)
56) Sedative - Astronoid (Post-Metal)
55) My Boy - Marlon Williams (New Zealando Lounge Pop)
54) Bandana - Fireboy DML & Asake (Nigerian RnB)
53) Updraft - Jesse Cook (Nuevo Flamenco)
52) Losing My Cool - Chaos Emeralds (Electropop)
51) Destination Stank Station - Oli Parker (Jazz Funk)