Last Night a Best Albums of the Year List Saved My Life
Back in the day, a year-end best-of list would be about records that most people were familiar with, so readers could take it in and weigh it against their own opinions. Nowadays there are seriously like 100,000 records released in a year (and probably as many blogs), so once you get past your Taylor Swifts and your Beyoncés it’s a lot of weird names followed by someone’s solipsistic superlatives. Basically you make a best-of list mostly for yourself, but after a year in the trenches of indie listening, and after reading a lot of end-of-year lists that made me want to throw fragile things at the wall, it feels nice to pull together a petite compendium of the music that gave me that special tingling sensation and share it with you, yes you! So here goes.
25. Super Champon – Otoboke Beaver
2022 was the year I started listening to a lot of genres I thought I had cancelled. Otoboke Beaver got me back into punk rock, and not only because they’re adorable and Japanese.
24. Recordings from the Åland Islands –
Jeremiah Chu & Marta Sofia Honer
Ambient is a genre I usually make a point of admiring from afar, but this one hypnotized me — so so elegant and full of grown-from-rich-soil detail and texture and emotion.
23. Castle in the Sky – Jennifer Vanilla
Jennifer took me back to the days of weirdo genius art-rock stars like Nina Hagen and Laurie Anderson who led you out of your comfort zone to someplace scary and fun, where anything could happen.
22. 4NEM – Chief Keef
Chief Keef was locked and loaded and in the mood to kill you and also undercut all that with sharp, absurdist humor.
21. Tresor – Gwenno
Another richly satisfying Gwenno adventure, skipping through her enchanted, moss-covered, Cornish-language forest.
20. How to Let Go – Sigrid
In which the full-throated 80’s-style power ballad was given new, Abba-sized, Scandinavian turbo-powered pop certainty.
19. Step By Step EP – Braxe and Falcon
Veterans of the Daft Punk/French Touch scene came back to show the youngsters how it’s done, partying like it’s 1999. They also wrote a stadium-sized boy band ballad and got that Animal Collective dude to sing it.
18. Decide – DJO
Star of much-hyped TV show turned out to have ridiculous pop-rock magic skills.
17. Skærsgårdslyd – Astrid Øster Mortensen
Experimental folk music that surprised and delighted and often sounded on the verge of complete collapse.
16. GIFT – Momentary Presence
Classic guitar bass drums long hair goodness distilled into electro-pop and so much joy.
15. The Zug – Yves Jarvis
This one took me back to the Summer of Love and Arthur Lee’s Love and actually didn’t talk about love much, just invented a lot of new forms with the 60s as its launchpad.
14. A Light for Attracting Attention – The Smile
Thom and Jonny tinkered a bit with the Radiohead personnel, came up with a suitably bitter/ironic name for themselves and put out some gorgeous sensitive-boy ballads that sounded a lot like Radiohead.
13. Oh Death – Goat
The masked Swedish neo-pagans rocked hard and loud and funky, pulled out flutes. Important and fun.
12. Diablo – Gabe Gurnsey
The Factory Floor guy kept his sub-zero party going with harsh/sexy dance imperatives, including Paul song of the year contender “Push.”
11. Touch the Lock – UTO
The French duo sounded light and frothy and otherworldly on their goodie box of intricately-constructed alt-pop amuse-bouches.
10. Warm Chris – Aldous Harding
As always, Aldous was in a league of her own, exploring something in the vein of pop-rock-cabaret with lyrics that hinted at storytelling as they led you into a sinister parallel dimension.
9. Beulah Spa – Noon Garden
Few albums rivaled Beulah Spa for number of should’ve been hit singles. Charles Prest’s psych-adjacent idea of pop felt like 1971 in such a good way.
8. Fairy Rust – Wombo
Thank you, finally a proper rock band. Wombo ingested and digested the best of post-punk and made it their own with truckloads of style, in Louisville, KY of all places.
7. Janky Star – Grace Ives
It’s 2022 and girls like me still just wanna have fun and Grace showed us the way with an album full of tart and sugary electropop alt-hits.
6. 19 Masters – Saya Grey
Torontonian Saya Grey sculpted strange and richly adorned melodic horror tableaus about romantic dysfunction, with elements of deconstructed rock and RnB. More soon please.
5. Green Evening – Goon
It’s only (indie) rock ‘n roll, but this one had me swooning and sighing with indie pleasure for a big chunk of the year.
4. Painless – Nilüfer Yanya
She’s unreasonably gorgeous, an incredible songwriter, and she rocked out with irresistable British power, elegance and accent.
3. Apricot Angel – Flung
Kashika Kollaikal invented her own bubbling, feathery genre which you could call experimental if it didn’t go down so easy. Hardly anybody knows about it, and it’s enchanted stuff.
2. 唱着那无人问津的歌谣 /
Chang Zhe Na Wu Ren Wen Jin De Ge Yao – Organ Tapes
Tim Zha is a deep one; his work went for autotuned emotional resonance and hit its target like no one else.
1. God Bless the Animals – Alex G
“Cross the Sea” held my heart in its hand all summer and the album, released in September, was a revelation. Mr. Giannascoli sounded free and vulnerable and poppy and 70s folk-rocky and experimental and fully tuned in to some kind of otherworldly communication.
Special mentions for Snake Chain by Shake Chain, Great Palm by Naima Bock, COMETA by Nick Hakim, Stardust by Yung Lean, Deep in View by Cola, Dirt Femme by Tove Lo, Strawberry Season by More Eaze, Sad Cities by Sally Shapiro, Pripyat by Marina Herlop, Famously Alive by Guerilla Toss, LOUIE by Kenny Beats, Dispeller by Ben Woods, Option Explore by Dylan Moon, Heart Under by Just Mustard, Some Nights I Dream of Doors by Obongjayar, As Above So Below by Sampa the Great, I Get Along without You Very Well by Ellen Arkbro & Johan Graden, Au Suisse by Au Suisse, Harlequin by Sophie Royer, The Bible by Lambchop, Continua by Nosaj Thing, As the Moon Rests by A. A. Williams, ILYSM by Wild Pink, Diner Coffee by Mamaleek, Cool It Down by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
And here’s a little Easter Egg for Christmas: my favorite 120 new songs of 2022. Why not spend seven hours or so inside my 2022 brain.