Top 20 Albums of 2022
Once again we gather around and partake in the annual holiday tradition of SHARING LISTS. So without further ado, join me as we count down my 20 favourite albums released in 2022.
20 — OFF! — Free LSD
20 hard hitting tracks in 38 minutes. Blending some more metal aesthetics into their aggressively hardcore punk sound and bringing a vocal intensity of an early Jello Biafra, this thing just grabbed me by the lapels and slapped me in the face the first time I heard it. And then there are the four free-form freakout pieces (“F”, “L”, “S”, and “D”) that call back to The Red Krayola’s magnum opus Parable of the Arable Land. Brilliant palette cleansers between each 8 minute assault.
Favourite Track: “War Above Los Angeles”
19 — Soul Glo — Diaspora Problems
If Free LSD was hardcore punk with a metal edge, Diaspora Problems is hardcore punk with hip hop swagger. “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)” comes out swinging with some heavy riffs and some insane screaming. The “who gon beat my ass?” refrain is equal parts funny and desperately sad and that’s kind of the point. There are clearly real issues and trauma and pain being exorcised in this music, but the band are also having a lot of fun and making it fun for the audience to listen to. Check out the cheeky ska horns buried in the background of “Thumbsucker” for an example. It’s not all hardcore tho. “Driponomics” moves into hip hop — it could almost be a Death Grips track except for the goofy intro — and “John J” has a post-punk crescendo that builds throughout. Album closer starts almost as a conscious/gospel flavoured hip hop track before exploding into a desperate hardcore sprint to the finish, a perfect encapsulation of all the disparate influences that this band is trying to combine. By continuously switching it up but never losing momentum Diaspora Problems stays electric and invigorating from start to finish.
Favourite Track: “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)”
18 — Little Simz — NO THANK YOU
Listen. It might be recency bias since this album has been out for…5 days as of this writing. But I’ve already listened to it more than a lot of albums that came out this year, and Little Simz last album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was #10 of 2021 for me, so it doesn’t feel to unfair to have her crack the top 20 so quickly.
NO THANK YOU is less epic than Sometimes…, but it’s also less bloated. There only one real banger on here, “Gorilla”, which immediately became one of my favourite tracks of the year. Come ON with the the huge horns into the double bass boom bap groove and the totally relaxed swagger. This is the most disarmingly confident I’ve heard Simz maybe ever. The rest of the album is really thoughtful and stripped down emotionally, without compromising any of the lush production we’ve come to expect. “Silhouette” has a shuffling beat backed by swelling choir vocals that almost sounds like it could be on a James Bond soundtrack in certain moments. “No Merci” has some many different cinematic sounding sections that it almost feels like a mash up of someone’s favourite movie soundtracks, but it stays unified by Simz delivery. “X” sounds like “Jesus Walks” but for 2022.
The lyrics hit hard too. On the 7.5 minute “Broken” she explores everything brokenness can feel like and after a couple rough years for everyone it hits hard:
“Am I even enough?”, then you question yourself/
“Man, this week has been tough,” been sayin’ that for a year/
How do I disappear? Can I hide from my fears?/
Sometimes, a feather can feel like a stone/
When your soul weak, you can feel that shit in your bones/
Another massive release from one of the most exciting rappers doing it. With more time this may have climbed even higher on my list.
Favourite Track: “Gorilla”
17 — Conjurer — Páthos
Páthos is super heavy. Everytime it comes on I make the Meshuggah metal face. You know the face. This one:
The album begins with “It Dwells” which opens with some calm strumming before an absolute assault of drums, dual screaming vocals and huge riffs just erupts from out of no where. But by 2 minutes in, we’re in a lovely lilting passage, reminiscent of some of Isis’ more meditative passages which then crests a wave before plummeting into one of the sickest breakdowns of the year…and then it breakdowns ever further into a second, sludgier breakdown. Seriously. I’m making the face right now.
Every one of the 8 tracks feels like it’s own journey. Some of more somber like “All You Will Remember” and others are more triumphant like “Those Years, Condemned.” But every track sounds incredible. The main vocals are my favourite kind of metal bellowing growl (again with the Isis comparisons) while the second singer’s higher pitched blackened wretch adds extra character. The sung passages are lovely, and every guitar tone is warm and crushing. It’s a beautiful album, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Favourite Track: “It Dwells”
16 — Otoboke Beaver — Super Champon
Man, it was a good year for hardcore! (Last one I promise) This time we’ve got 18 tracks in 21 minutes and a massive extra dose of FUN thrown into the mix. These three ladies don’t care about being respectable, they care about playing as hard and fast as they can and telling everyone who’s not on board to fuck off. And I’m here for it. More than half the lyrics are in Japanese so I have no idea what they’re saying a lot of the time, but the attitude speaks volumes and the parts that are in english are hilarious and cutting. On “Yakitori” they admit to filling someone’s mail box with the the delicious chicken dish for revenge before screaming “DESTROY!” The only lyrics I understand on “I Won’t Dish Out Salads” are when they chant “SALAD SALAD SALAD!” “Pardon?” is repetitive to a hilarious degree and evokes that goofy chant style that System of a Down used to do so well and it cracks me up. Repetition is actually one of the main tools these ladies use, and to really great effect. It creates these vignette-style anthems that just get lodged in my head. “I Checked You Cellphone” repeats “I don’t know why” over and over until it becomes its own music.
Anyway its nonstop fun and silly and absolutely packed with enegetic riffs from minute one to minute 18. Highly recommend it you wanna blow off some steam but also be elated afterwards.
Favourite Track: “Pardon?”
15 — Lucrecia Dalt — ¡Ay!
Berlin-based Columbian singer Lucrecia Dalt has made one of the most evocative albums of the year. Every track is beautifully arranged, and her voice is rich and sultry. Another example where a language barrier doesn’t stop the attitude of the message coming across.
The arrangements are full of flutes, clarinets, whirling organs, and an incredible percussion section. “Atemporal” is the most Tom Waits thing I’ve heard in years with it’s junk yard instrumentals over a Tango rhythm, the wood blocks on “No Tiempo” invokes Pet Sounds, and “La Desmesura” feels like one of Charles Mingus’ more moody city soundscapes. Actually, Mingus via Waits is very much the vibe of the whole album and I’m absolutely 100% here for it.
Definitely a great one for late night drives.
Favourite Track: “Atemporal”
14 — Zeal & Ardor — Zeal & Ardor
I guess this is my favourite metal album of the year! What started as a fun experiment to blend the genres of black metal and gospel has continued to evolve and grow until this self titled album, their third and by far best in my opinion. Fat tones, blistering drums, and catchy hooks (both on guitar and vocals) really come together to make a special album. And the vocals, my god. Whether main man Manuel Gagneux (who plays everything but drums on the recordings) is chanting, screaming, growling, or belting out in the more gospel passages, he is electric and captivating.
“Death to the Holy” showcases all the best of the project. Gospel chants over a creepy piano line and thumping drums transition into a low spoken growl before the titular refrain screeches out and the guitars get sinister. The bridge has weird electronic glitches that sound like they belong in a horror movie before the whole thing gets really heavy in the home stretch at the end with some absolutely sick drums. This track was one of the best of the year and always got me bobbing or banging my head. “Emersion” on the otherhand is one big post-rock crescendo but with blast beats and some buried screams to propel it, before retreating into a lovely little piano melody that actually evokes last years gently uplifting AOTY, Nurture.
The varied styles continue to grow with every track. “Golden Liar” is a dark take on folk-country with whistling that seems to echo off of canyon walls, and feels really lonely right up until the big climax which is belted out with a full throat. “I Caught You” brings in some early 00’s flavour that could almost fit on a Slipknot track, and “Götterdämmerung” is a chugging demonic invocation.
This rollercoaster never stops and never outstays its welcome. The diversity of styles united by the absolutely viciously pristine production and Manuel’s incredible vocal work make this well worth checking out if you’re at all a fan of heavy music.
Favourite track: “Death to the Holy”
13 — Natalia Lafourcade — De Todas Las Flores
Since 2017 Lafourcade has been exploring the folk music of her culture and bringing it into the present. Un Canto por Mexico, Vol 1. was my favourite album of 2020, and while she released 3 solid projects in 2021, De Todas Las Flores is the the first to approach that previous favourite. Where Canto Vol 1 was pure joy, Flores is more introspective and emotionally raw. There’s also a much bigger focus on arrangements and taking one’s time. More than half the tracks here are over 6 minutes, which gives them time to grow and develop and for Natalia’s voice to stretch phrases out and feel each word.
“Vine Solita” opens with a string filled flourish before her voice almost shouts in at it’s most bare and unrefined, but it’s reigned in by the gentle guitar and piano and brushed snare. The title track moves along more with a lovely lilting melody that feels like its dancing on thin air. On the otherhand “Llévame viento” sounds like it’s boiling with free form strings and horns swirling around each other before coalescing into a plodding groove.
Like ¡Ay!, the lack of english is no barrier to enjoyment for me on this one. In fact I love just treating her versatile voice as it’s own instrument. The whisperingly sinister “Muerte” is creepy and sensual at the same time, while the latin shuffle really locks in. I love this type of music (see “Jockey Full of Bourbon” by Tom Waits, or “L’via L’viaquez” by The Mars Volta — off of two of my favourite albums of all time) and to hear it in a more straight up version — right until all the different instruments start soloing chaotically at the end — is a real treat.
This was a strong year for albums that weren’t primarily in English, and of those albums Lafourcade delivered what I found to be the richest experience.
Favourite Track: “Muerte”
12 — DOMi & JD BECK — NOT TiGHT
Domi (keys) and JD Beck (drums) are just kids (22 and 19 respectively) but they’re two of the hottest jazz musicians working right now. Both massively talented and yet coming across as both reserved and shy instead of cocky, they’re a very disarming and charming duo. “NOT TiGHT” their debut album is in fact super tight and groovy. It makes sense that Thundercat and Anderson .Paak are both heavily featured on the album, since it fits seamlessly into the current neo-jazz wave with a more hip hop style production.
This was a real comfort album for me this year. It’s smooth enough to be background music, but complex enough for intensely detailed listens. Most of the instrumental tracks almost operate as if they’re elevating muzak into high art. “SMiLE” has a keys melody that gets lodged in my head every time I hear it. “TAKE A CHANCE” with .Paak has a really endearing chorus that likewise secured it as a go to track for the year.
No doubt, like Thundercat, this duo is going to end up being featured on lots of hip hop artists’ albums in the near future. “PiLOT” with Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg brings out some of the best smooth and seductive versions of their personas that I’ve heard in years and made me want to see what they’ve been up to recently.
I think everyone should check this out if you just want some chill vibes but will some of the most stellar musicianship around.
Favourite track: “SMiLE”
11 — The Linda Lindas — Growing Up
The Linda Lindas first blew up when these 4 teenage girls (aged 12–18) were filmed in a local library playing the song “Racist, Sexist Boy.” They quickly capitalized on the virality by officially recording the song and releasing it as their first single. Within a year they’d released their debut album Growing Up…and it’s SO fun.
Relentless enthusiasm, innocence, and angst funnelled into guitar driven power pop, it’s undeniably charming. This album cheered me up whenever I listened to it and brought me back to the sort of fun Weezer was having on their self-titled Blue album.
Weezer, Ramones, The Runaways/Joan Jett, and all the girl-fronted rock bands of the 90s are all touch points for the styles that the Linda Lindas, its almost a greatest hits tribute act, except that they’re all original songs and played with open faced enthusiasm. There’s not a single dud on here.
The title track really sums up whats happening here thematically:
“We’ll dance like nobody’s there, we’ll dance without any cares
We’ll talk ‘bout problems we share, we’ll talk ‘bout things that ain’t fair
We’ll sing ‘bout things we don’t know, we’ll sing to people and show
What it means to be young and growing up”
“Oh!” is introspective and gets into those moments of feeling like you want to help but when you open your mouth it feels like you make things worse — super relatable to me still in my 30s. On the otherhand “Nino” is just a song about their pet cat. But it’s catchy and adorable as heck:
“Gentlemen by day
Hunter by night
Friendliest cat you’ll meet
Will protect you with all his might
Nino, Nino, Nino, the savage cat
Killer of mice and rats”
After a couple of dark pandemic years, having some youthful energy injected into my life was a real relief. That, and the fact that all of these songs are catchy as heck, is why this little pop-punk record is so high on my list.
Favourite track: “Growing Up”
10 — Viagra Boys — Cave World
On Cave World the Viagra Boys take on the sleaziest of their personas and dive into the underworld of criminals, conspiracy theorists, and get obsessed with evolutionary biology. But they keep it dancy and punk af the whole time.
“Baby Criminal” narrates one person’s descent into madness and his mother’s inane justifications and bafflement over his behaviour. All of this overtop of a groove that sounds like a sped up version of something off of Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
“Troglodyte” feels like a mashup between Queens of the Stone Age and Talking Heads and is all about eviscerating people who choose violence and still think they’re an evolved being:
“When everybody was a monkey, ha
We had to fight just to survive
And now you got yourself a weapon
You think you choose who lives and dies
But when we had hairy arms and legs
And you were still swimming round in a lake
Yeah, you were still a troglodyte
You just evolved a bit too late”
“Ain’t No Thief” is a thumping alt-disco beat told from the perspective of a compulsive liar who is willing to go to extreme lengths to explain how the very personal or unique object in his possession wasn’t stolen from his friend. It’s ridiculous but we’ve all been around someone who can’t take responsibility for their own actions and gaslights as hard as they can even if it’s super obvious that they’re lying. “I ain’t no thief man, we just happen to have the same stuff.”
“Return to Monke” continues with the evolutionary themes as blistering guitars swirl over yet another hypnotic groove and tells of someone who decides that it’s better to leave society and climb a tree and be like the monkeys than it is to get vaccinated or get “shot up with 5G” and turned into a computer. Society continues to devolve into violence but even the people who leave society and live in the trees end up killing each other, just with sticks and stones. It’s a batshit sci fi idea that’s equal parts hilarious and critical and I’m here for it.
A rowdy good time full of sarcasm and satire.
Favourite track: “Troglodyte”
9 — Björk — Fossora
First of all. Probably the best album artwork of the year.
Secondly, this year bold arrangements were a really big theme and none were bolder than Björk’s work on Fossora. This album is full of disjointed woodwinds honking over thundering electronic beats while her otherworldly and alien voice is layered multiple times to creating a swirling choir. On the surface the album is themed around how fascinating and bizarre mushrooms are, but there’s so much humanity laced into the themes lyrically.
Album opener “Atopos” is a deep and sincere plea for connection and understanding:
“Are these not just excuses to not connect?”
“If we don’t grow outwards towards love/
We’ll implode inwards towards destruction”
“Hope is a muscle/
That allows us to connect”
Great reminders while the weird mushroom rave builds underneath courtesy of DJ Kasimyn’s contribution to the work.
Every track is fascinating in someway. “Mycelia” has no lyrics and calls back to her work on Medulla where the entire album was made with samples of her voice. “Ancestress”, one of the stand outs of the album, is Björk processing watching her mother pass, reflecting on the good, and the pain, of the maternal relationship. Musically, there’s minimal bass and concert bells in the verses before swells of extra vocals and strings and percussion come to fill in the more chorus-y bits. It’s lovely and subdued, but never repetitive or dull, for all of it’s 7 minute run time.
The themes of motherhood return on the lovely album closer “Her Mother’s House” which boasts a sublime clarinet solo, and also features Björk’s own daughter Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney. Hearing their voices intertwine over lyrics of how a mother’s support increases independence and separation is poignant and beautiful and a wonderful way to end the album:
The more I love you (The more you love me)
The stronger you become (The stronger I become)
The less you need me (And the less I need you)
Favourite track: “Ancestress”
8 — Richard Dawson — The Ruby Cord
Richard Dawson is one of the most unique and interesting singer songwriters currently working. His 2019 album 2020 was my second favourite album of that year (only beat out by the absolute behemoth that was Caligula). He blends medieval bardic vocal melodies with his electric guitar that sometimes plays hard rock riffs and other times plays jangly angular little licks. His voice (and slightly obtuse lyrics) almost make him the male counterpoint to Joanna Newsom, a little bit strident but very evocative.
The Ruby Cord continues his very strong streak of albums and goes big. The opening track “The Hermit” is 41 minutes long (!!) and is basically a three-part suite. The opening 11 or so minutes is a soft guitar and violin dialogue over languid brushed jazz drums. Then he spends the next large section of the track telling the tale of a hermit who walks into town to sell what he’s gathered — with plenty of diversions to describe the local birds and bugs that he encounters on his walk. However as the tale progresses, the image of a medieval landscape and hamlet slowly gives way as some science fiction elements emerge. It turns out he has a bionic eye that allows him to see more details than most, and eventual gets hooked up to a machine that allows him to see the auras of all living creatures near by and then see far and wide over the whole countryside until he finds a knight, or robot?, in shiny armour stuck in the earth. When he tries to help the being it dies and suddenly he is accused of being a murderer. It’s disorienting and epic. The final 13 minute part of the suite is one refrain sung over and over with a growing chorus as the music swells and ebbs until the ending. The melody is lovely as are the string swells and loosely picked guitar accompaniment.
“Tiny cobles out at sea
A black wall of cloud in the east
And a taper of rainbow
Faintly aglow
Amidst their wakes”
That’s just track one!
“The Fool” is the tale of a fool/jester who falls in love with a religious pilgrim, but she end’s their love affair and sails across the sea, breaking his heart. In the middle of the track there’s a cacophony of noise that chugs along before opening out to something more melodic again.
“Love is old, older than the sun
A dreadful magic, more powerful than evil
Love, love is old, older than the sun
The impossible engine of a hidden world”
This chorus is both a curse and a promise. It’s wonderful to be in love but devastating to lose it.
The final track is more upbeat and rollicking with a lovely little violin melody and describes a journey from the perspective of a horse who carrying his loving owner. It’s a very sweet idea to frame a story that way. There’s a few moments that seem to suggest that he is carrying her to the afterlife maybe? The explosion of voices and the triumphant riff that crescendos through the end of the track seem to imply that might be the case. It’s sweet and loving and just a little somber to wrap up the epic journey that is this album.
It really must be experienced to feel the full scope. I have no doubt that many people will bounce off of this one but it’s rewarding if you’re willing to take the plunge.
Favourite Track: “Horse and Rider”
7 — Soccer Mommy — Sometimes, Forever
According to Apple Music Sometimes, Forever was my most listened to album of 2022. It’s not exceptionally unique, and it doesn’t push many musical boundaries — it’s just a really solid sad guitar girl record that managed to hook itself into my heart with good melodies and some sad lyrics that resonated with me this year.
It all starts with “Bones”, one of the most lonesome indie rock tracks of the year for me. The clean guitar tone, the lyrics and melody, and the way that there’s that little pause right before the chorus which then really opens up and fills the room. Then that second verse with the “I think your heart could use a tourniquet” line and the outro which swells and crashes into nothingness. It’s a perfect little song, that I almost always listened to more than once in a row.
“I wanna know what’s wrong
With all of the ways I am
I’m trying to be someone
That you could love and understand
But I know that I’m not”
Just pain and unrequited love.
Even tho these are mostly pretty simple songs, Soccer Mommy keeps changing it up and exploring new aspects of their sound with every track. “With U” weirdly feels like an early Switchfoot track (like off Learning to Breath or something) with all the swirling reverb and the bass up front and how the melody of the chorus resolves. “Unholy Affliction” is dark and noisy, almost like a Portishead track. “newdemo” gets into shoegaze territory. “Don’t Ask Me” is very 90s from the guitar tone to the drum beat. “Following Eyes” does the great trick again of having the verses be moody and dark and the chorus just absolutely bursting into sunlight. It works on me everytime.
The album closes with “Still” which feels like a good mirror image to the opening track. Slightly out of tune clean guitars, and the first couple notes almost match the rhythm and tone of the opening line of “Bones.” The mode is still somber and sad and lonely, but there’s just enough movement in the melody to keep it from wallowing — even tho the lyrics are very depressed.
“I don’t know how to feel things small
It’s a tidal wave or nothing at all
I can’t believe in Heaven now
It’s been Hell on Earth for a second”
This album is pretty unassuming at first, but the raw honesty of the lyrics, the 90s throwback sounds, and the gentle but powerful delivery of the vocals kept bringing me back to it, more than any other album this year. So it had to be in the top 10.
Favourite track: “Bones” (most listened to individual song of the year)
6 — Oren Ambarchi — Shebang
You can count on Oren Ambarchi to put out a couple of interesting albums a year, and Shebang is his best since 2016’s Hubris (which had one of my favourite tracks of the 2010's). It’s essentially one 35-minute piece split into four tracks and consists of a hypnotic pattern of micro riffs that grow and evolve slowly over time.
It begins with just a shimmer, a hint of waves to come, then the bass joins, tentatively at first then with more insistence. Then some pads of strings start to layer over the shimmering stoccato notes to create a fuller sound.
Part two completely shifts the tone without losing any of the foundational rhythms as the drums replace the opening shimmer and a saxophone and piano adds more richness to the tones and the guitar shifts to a lower register. It starts to feel like a Miles Davis jam where everyone is still kind of warming up.
Part three the sound swells even more with strings and the piano taking over groove. There’s a lovely piano solo in dialogue with a double bass as well. This is the most obviously jazz section.
Part four begins to shift back to sounding more electronic with some of the original shimmering stoccato returning and the bass and piano returning to a foundational role allowing the drums to finally burst forth as synth pads swirl above like swelling tides. It crescendos until it suddenly dissipates into a swirling of stars and ethereal piano.
The patience and restraint shown in this piece captivated me from the moment I first pressed play. It’s so delicate and yet confident and it’s gorgeous the whole way through. Stunning work.
Favourite track: “III”
5 — black midi — Hellfire
I still don’t fully know what’s going on with Hellfire. black midi continue to be one of the most exciting bands working as they are one of the few who have taken up the mantle of absurdist and diverse and chaotic acts like Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, and The Pop Group. Every track here seems to be an attempt at mashing 4 different styles together while playing as hard and fast as possible at the same time.
I think this is loosely an absurdist alternate-dimension concept album about the war torn 1940's? Maybe? “Sugar/Tzu” is a metaphysical boxing match between philosophies? “Eat Men Eat” recalls The Wall with its vitriolic tirade of a captain yelling at his men. “Welcome to Hell”, with an insanely catchy repetitive ascending riff, and massive horn swells, is a psychedelic nightmare of taking shore leave as the soldiers burst into the streets and go mad with their small moments of freedom. The antiwar sentiment is not subtle:
“To die for your country does not win a war
To kill for your country is what wins a war
Don’t tell your name, don’t ask for hers
In this land of oysters, you are the world
The painless plainness of military life
Resumes tomorrow night”
The ending of the track is an insane double time circus that would make Mr. Bungle proud. It’s exhilirating and frightening.
And it immediately transitions into the gentle country western of “Still” which I think is the story of a man returning home and finding himself not fitting in. Even the straight forward melody and jangly country guitars get accompanied by trumpets and distorted guitar crashes at times, nothing can ever stay too simple in a black midi track.
“The Race Is About To Begin” brings back the ascending riff off of “Welcome to Hell” and changes it into just a small reprieve of recognition in the mad dash that is the race itself.
The madness continues until the album closer “27 Questions” which mirrors the opening “Hellfire” in it’s pounding motif before it suddenly shifts halfway through into a silly absurdist schmalzty jazz bar like it’s a Zappa album. A bombardment of strange questions with no answers and he even admits that he doesn’t have time to ask all 27 of his questions.
This album demands to be listened to multiple times. I have even cracked the surface of what it contains this year. I definitely be returning time and again as the years progress.
Favourite track: “Welcome to Hell”
4 — Billy Woods — Aethiopes
Billy Woods is one of the best rappers you may not have heard of. Between his solo projects, his duo Armand Hammer (with Elucid), and his collab with Moor Mother a couple years ago, he’s crept into being one of my favourites currently working and definitely one of the most interesting.
Aethiopes might be my favourite project by him yet. Every track is bleak and hard and completely unexpected. There’s lots of space between the beats, lots of strange and evocative sound effects. It’s hard to quite put my finger on how these very dry beats feel so spacious and empty and yet so rich in their production and emotional impact. They all seem to center around African jazz samples a la Hailu Mergia? But I can’t tell exactly.
“Asylum” loops a foreign sounding scale with odd little jazz solos and transitions straight into the saxophone heavy “No Hard Feelings” which just escalate the intensity. It’s like an evocation for the lost. Spiritual jazz made for the gutter. All, of course, with Woods deadpan delivery that doesn’t take no for an answer while still making you know he means every damn word. Almost like a Tom Waits narration but hip hop:
“A mad woman whistlin’, you can hear it if you listen
That’s that empty pipe hissin’, that’s him crying and twitchin’
That’s the vanishing point in the distance
Between us just the glass thickness
Cracked mirrors flash rictus
Skin pulled tight to the skull, that’s the sickness
Seepin’ through my leaky windows and broke fixtures”
“Doldrums” is maybe the moodiest hip hop track of the year with it’s creepy harpsicord over one ringing ride cymbal and a stumbling bass sample that never seems like it knows when it’s supposed to play. It really feels like you’re stuck on the ocean with no breeze with false starts and the refrain of “Nothing really happen til it do.” Like who is writing verses like this right now? No one. Maybe EL-P back in the earlier solo days but man this is wild:
“In tight spaces I learned not to speak
Submarine skirtin’ mountain peaks
Fernando Po’s Black Beach
Yemeni traders off the coast of Mozambique
Packed bodegas, akh in the weeds
Gold shimmerin’ in the reef
African water in the lengths of the piece
Tha Carter III pour out a double parked Jeep
The rain starts the minute I leave
At the corner the water waist deep”
Speaking of which the other stand out track on this album is “Heavy Water” featuring EL-P and Breeze Brewin. The beat moves more than others but keeps that same sparse sound palette, just more densely populated. And EL’s verse comes hard as always:
“Dead or be quick, I’m on the last clip sweatin’
Front to the flames, back to the black pit, weapon
Steadily aimed, couldn’t be tamed, too reckless
You entertain, we bring the game, true bedlam”
The hard and sinister mood with the african sample palette is just such a goddamn mood and everytime one of these tracks came up at any point it always caught my attention. If not the beat, the word play, but usually both. This has been comfortably in my top 10 since it dropped.
Favourite track: “The Doldrums”
3.5 — *SIDE NOTE:*
This is probably where “The Dripping Tap” by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard would have gone if it had stayed just as a standalone EP release instead of being packaged together with the bloated Omnium Gatherum.
3 — Moor Mother — Jazz Codes
This year Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother released an album as one half of dark dance duo 700 Bliss, two tracks with her jazz group Irreversible Entanglements, and this incredible solo record Jazz Codes. She’s prolific and everything she’s done is interesting and good. But Jazz Codes is next level.
It’s a swirling kaleidescopic history of black music through a futurism lens. Jazz, the blues, hip hop, African influences, and gospel music are dissected and reassembled in ever shifting vignettes that together give such a broad and deep image of the culture Moor Mother is part of, and the potential culture she envisions.
There are 18 tracks over 43 minutes here and only two stay over three and a half minutes. So my deep love for this record isn’t really about individual songs moving me, as much as just being born along the slow but inevitable and unstoppable river of the music. And of course Ayewa’s deep alto spoken word poetry ties it all together.
“UMZANSI” opens the album with an invocation:
“Quantum, black in the moment
Listen to your body deeply
Quantum, black in the moment
It holds the time and memory of all your mothers and grandmothers before
Quantum, black in the moment
And they have been everywhere you will be and have been
And so there is never a wrong place or time for you”
“ODE TO MARY” shifts the Catholic symbolism of the Virgin Mary to that of having a religious experience seeing jazz legend Mary Lou Williams play live as a young woman. “RAP JASM” shifts from poetry to more explicitly hip hop and comes out swinging hard:
“Oh, you wanna see the guillotine remove the heads of the defending team?
Blood the only color that’s been supreme
Fuck a color scheme, yeah, yeah, yeah
Dollar and a dream, oh, you wanna see the guts of the mainstream?”
Every track is layers and layers of depth, lyrically and musically. It almost feels like each track is a spell being woven and pulling mystical power from the past and projecting it into the future. As the final line of “EVENING” says, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got the blues.” I’ve been listening to this album since the day it dropped in July and I still don’t feel like I’ve cracked the code (if you’ll pardon the pun). One of the most mysterious and moody releases of the year and it deserves your focus and attention.
Favourite Track: “Evening”
2 — Denzel Curry — Melt My Eyez See Your Future
I was first turned on to Denzel Curry because he brought such bombastic energy to everything he does as he manipulates his voice into different voices. He’s an electric performer (have you seen his cover of “Bulls on Parade”? My god!) but on Melt My Eyez… he turns introspective and embraces jazz. Yet he never loses the intensity that first brought him into the spotlight.
After the very jazzy intro “Melt Session #1” featuring Robert Glasper, a Swingle Singers sort of sixties vocal sample floats in as “Walkin” begins. It’s very cinematic and sets the stage for Denzel’s smooth flow:
“Treadin’ softly on the path down the rockiest road
Life isn’t ice cream without Monopoly dough
The property grows in value, and rightfully so, I gotta have it
I see the way the people get treated, it’s problematic
They ready to set us up for failure, it’s systematic”
And then the beat switch between the two verses comes in with double time hi hats and it turns from a jazzy meditation into more of a banger, yet the vocal sample keeps it rooted and ethereal.
The chorus of “John Wayne” seems to revel in gun violence and the feeling of power that a gun can bestow — not an uncommon theme in gangster rap — but the verse dives into the complexity of the pain and generational trauma that causes the need to feel this power.
“So much pain I’ve endured, now I’m painless
I got the juice, my only friend is my stainless
My little weapon gave me power when I aimed it (Bwah)
This for my niggas in the struggle, let us sing, sing”
“The Last” with it’s refrain of “Everyday could be the last day” gets into the stress of just trying to survive as a black man in America, “Angelz” talks about how Denzel was always looking for validation as a kid and rarely got it in healthy places. Sometimes those old habits still come through. Both “Ain’t No Way” (with a killer JID verse) and “X-Wing” revel in material things as escapism, but in context it’s impossible to forget about the real world ready to bleed back in.
The album ends with the lounge jazz of “The Ills” as Curry reflects and seems to have some moments of spiritual transcendencent perspective:
“Surrounded by dismay, I display visions of a way
For Heaven on Earth and hell on Earth to fight for night and day
Apocalyptic hoes conflict against my optimistic hopes
The ropes around my neck are golden chains for me to choke
My locs reflect the locks and the flames that burn across”
It’s a fitting end to a beautiful hip hop album as he dances in and out of the jazz piano sample with his flow, and a DJ scratches percussion in counterpoint to the rapping. Another one that was immediately in my top 5 albums after a single listen.
Favourite track: “Walkin”
1 — Black Country, New Road — Ants From Up There
Last year Black Country, New Road’s debut album, For The First Time, ever so barely missed becoming my album of the year when Nurture just edged it out at the last minute. So two years, and two absolute top tier albums in a row. Damn. BCNR is easily one of the most exciting bands working, in what must be one of the most exciting scenes in the world (they consistently have played and collaborated with black midi).
After a hypnotic intro in 5/8 the lead single “Chaos Space Marine” opens with a rolling horn and guitar riff that makes way for tapping piano chords and singer Isaac Wood’s hushed and intense vocals. I was immediately excited as an old Warhammer nerd to see the title referencing a childhood obsession. The lyrics are both funny and sad at the same time:
What’s that that you said to me?
Oh, I’m a chaos space marine
So what? I love you
Darling, will you take my metal hand? It’s cold
This unloveable and corrupt creature looking for love, but the only touch it can experience is through its cold metal hand. Breaks a nerd’s heart.
In the middle of the track there’s an explosion of anthemic instrumental majesty with horns, strings, pounding drums, and chugging guitars reminiscent of the first two Arcade Fire records. That’s actually a comparison for a lot of the record…early Arcade Fire but make more complex with a dash of post-punk. And that is unsurprisingly so my shit that it isn’t even funny.
“Concorde” is a more gentle song giving Wood’s voice more space to crack and express his pain. The titular jet is a repeated theme on the album showing up on four of the 10 tracks and seems to be a metaphor for a distant unattainable love who he can just catch glimpses of, soaring over head while he trudges along the earth. Disconnection is a major theme as well. “Bread Song” has this devastating stanza:
“Okay, well, I just woke up
And you already don’t care
That I tried my best to hold you
Through the headset that you wear”
The song builds so delicatedly and slowly with swelling finger picked guitars and horns for 5 minutes before a final crescendo where nothing has changed but there seems to be a bit more acceptance of the distance and with that an enjoyment of the meager bread crumbs of attention that he can garner in rare moments.
“Oh, don’t eat your toast in my bed
Oh, darling, I
I never felt the crumbs until you said
‘This place is not for any man
Nor particles of bread’”
Devastating.
The arrangements are lovely throughout the album “Haldern” is a lovely jazz-infused post rock crescendo that builds to a tense end right before “Mark’s Theme” which is essentially a heartbreaking saxophone solo that eventually is joined by the rest of the band. It almost feels like a closeup someone dancing alone and then the shot slowly pans out to see the rest of the dancers and it feels slightly less lonely.
But really, the bleeding heart of this album are the last two tracks. The 9-minute “Snow Globes”, and the 12.5-minute “Basketball Shoes.”
“Snow Globes” is the ultimate slow crescendo track on the album as a single guitar plucking mournful chords gets layer upon layer added to it, first more guitars, then some strings, then a woodwind of some sort, then rolling suspended cymbals before the drums start rumbling like distant thunder underneath it all just after the two minute mark. There’s a cryptic conversation with a friend named Henry that includes the voice cracking declaration that the picture in a shrine, “He doesn’t look anything like Jesus at all.” As the verse ends the drums begin to solo almost out of time with the Godspeed You, Black Emperor-style strings and guitars as Isaac repeats the following phrase for literal minutes as the drums completely begin to explode. It’s cathartic and tense and such a relief when things finally unite again right at the end.
“Oh, god of weather, Henry knows
Snow globes don’t shake on their own, ah”
Those “ah”s slowly become more deranged as Wood pushes his voice to the absolute breaking point as if he’s trying to be heard over the drums even as his voice is mixed further and further back. Then the layers slowly dissipate until the song ends how it started with just a single lonesome guitar strumming.
“Basketball Shoes” starts almost too quiet to hear and may be my favourite track of the year. Another deliciously slow build and more cryptically devastating lyrics.
“And I’m feeling kinda normal with a packed lunch
Train rides don’t hurt much these days
We’re all working on ourselves
And we’re praying that the rest don’t mind how much we’ve changed
So if you see me looking strange with a fresh style
I’m still not feeling that great”
And yet the final soaring anthemic refrain saves what might be the most gut wrenching line for last as the entire band swells and crashes and explodes into the atmosphere: “Oh, your generous loan to me, your crippling interest.”
Unfortunately the pressure of performing got to Isaac and he left the band shortly after the album’s release in order to take care of his mental health. Considering how intense the emotions are on this album it’s not that surprising. While I mourn his loss I’m grateful he prioritized himself so we’re not mourning his loss in another way. Apparently the band has just decided that everyone will take turns singing which I’m sure brings a whole new flavour to these compositions. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Favourite Track: “Basketball Shoes”
Thanks for reading! Let me know what your favourite albums of the year were or if you found anything new and exciting in this list.
