By QuamiRadio
As originally published here .
And know that these super-subjective chart numbers are here just for fun, please don't take ’em too seriously. All of them are winners. All of them are the best of the best albums of 2022, to my ears. Hope you'll like the music <3
את הגרסה המקורית בעברית תוכלו למצוא פה.
40. LN – Monkeys & Spoons
A bit like a lo-fi version of The Blue Nile, or a somewhat more optimistic version of Smog. A nighttime album of sadness and comfort.
39. Life – North East Coastal Town
Hull's Life's third album should put them in everyone's list of current bands that are making the UK & indie-lovers all over the world go cuckoo for post-punk, no less than Fontaines DC and Yard Act.
38. Funeral Chic – Roman Candle
A Carolina-based band, that doesn't try to be part of any trendy scene or sound. Primal, filthy, uninhibited rock'n'roll.
37. Greg Puciato – Mirrorcell
If you've ever wondered what a Faith No More joint album with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor might sound like, there's a chance that the answer is this second solo album by Greg Puciato, former vocalist of The Dillinger Escape Plan.
36. Astronoid – Radiant Bloom
While not as uplifting as their fantastic debut album, uplifting enough is Massachusetts-based Astronoid's third lp. Astronoid is like an elephant walking a tightrope, combining Metal & Dreampop. And it just works. I love elephants. Music to fly with.
35. Bruce Springsteen – Only the Strong Survive
A great Bruce tribute to songs he loves, most of which he grew up on. Granted, it's not an "important" album, but I love its fun & simplicity. All but one here are soul and R&B gems, mainly from the sixties. Springsteen doesn't try to reinvent them, but he salutes them up to the level of their original arrangements, and I think there's also a statement of clarification here for all those who identify him only with white America. The Bruce sings these songs as if he's been waiting to perform them all of his life, and I believe him.
34. Pete Astor – Time On Earth
Pete Astor is the former lead singer of The Weather Prophets & The Loft, and this album is beautiful, simple, introspective, unpretentious, heart-wrenching indie-pop.
33. Ka – Languish Arts
Brownsville New York's Ka is one of Hip Hop's most wonderful open secrets. In '22 he released two albums on the same day, and among them I liked "Languish Arts" a little more. Ka raps almost without the sound of any drum, on a bed of refined acoustic guitars, melancholy electric guitars that sound like they arrive from some world beyond, dusty pianos and small additions, like a flute, or non-cliched string instruments. And even if everything here is sampled, what happens in this album does not feel like a production that's made on the same software with the same sounds that everyone uses nowadays, but like a rapper with a bunch of musicians, gathering together for a long introspective night, in the side streets of the soul.
32. Yard Act – The Overload
Out of all of the current Post-Punk bands hailing from the British Isles, Yard Act are undoubtedly the ones I liked most in '22. Their lyrics dive into topics such as capitalism & gentrification, but their humor saves them from self-righteousness. Yard Act continue a tradition of something so non-traditional as Post-Punk. Their debut album is rooted in Mark E. Smith's intellectual sneer, and in the danced funkness of LCD Soundsytem, whom themselves would'nt have existed without The Fall before them. Yard Act are young, funny, smart & hungry, and they're passing the Post-Punk torch to an even younger audience, like there's nothing to it.
31. Cypress Hill – Back In Black
The Hip-Hop Ramones done did it again. One of their best albums yet.
30. Al Qasar – Who Are We?
Musicians from Morocco, Egypt, France, Algeria, The US & Sudan are meeting here thanks to Paris-based Al Qasar, who've released a full of guests and boiling with passion debut lp. Immigrants' music sung in Arabic celebrated with Jello Biafra's punkish spoken word. Desert sounds dancing with Lee Ranaldo's guitar. It's hard to tell where the groove on this album begins American and ends Egyptian, and vice versa. The Western world can continue to be scared of refugees, but it won't be able to stop the music, and the multicultural evolution. And it's a huge celebration.
29. Wu-Lu – Loggerhead
After over 35 years one would think that we have reached a dead end regarding the ways rap and rock can be fused. Loggerhead, the debut album from South London's Wu-Lu, proves that there are new angles to the story, perhaps because it does but doesn't really do it. Rap and Rock's encounter in this album is not what one would expect. Wu-Lu mixes them with hazy electronics, noise, and light touches of drum'n'bass. His rap is delivered in an ascetic way, almost to a point of alienation, but the music playing is covering him with warmth, with acoustic drums blending with electronics. Only rarely does this whole encounter erupt. Most of the time it's restrained but tense, almost always just before a flare-up. Wu-Lu is in no rush to provide musical answers. He mainly asks questions and leaves them open, arouses curiosity and wonder. It would be a sin to define him to any clear genre. Don't log Loggerhead.
28. Museum Of Light – Horizon
As heavy as Seattle's Museum of Light's debut album lp is, it strives towards the light. As slowly as it's moving in Sludge & Doomy steps, it's accessible and optimistic. As much as it's grinding, it's very much harmonious. Maybe because the band's name got me to imagine this album takes place in some big building, it actually made me think of days in high school when I saw the sun shining at the end of despair & depression's tunnel.
27. Honey Dijon – Black Girl Magic
'22 was a great year for Honey Dijon. The two songs & remix she produced for Beyoncé on her Renaissance lp put Dijon on the most mainstreamed map she's danced and dj'd in yet. Even her work with Madonna didn't take her that far. A transgender producer & DJ rising to the center of world pop's consciousness is, in my opinion, the most exciting news that Beyoncé's album brought with her, but the equally exciting news is Black Girl Magic.
From the Beyoncé heights she'd reached, one would think that Dijon would release a mega-commercialized album, that would hit all the right clicks of the Tiktok era and use all the most fashionable sounds of today that will disappear by next year, two years at most. But nope. Black Girl Magic is built like a huge house party from start to finish, with minimalistic and sensual beats that remind you that you can raise as high as possible without using a billion channels and without productions that sound like maximalist victories like in a war movie or something. Every song there is an anthem, each one features a different singer, and all of them with Dijon create a soulful Chicago-House feeling that is both pleasant and insanely hot from the first moment to the last. It's not possible to stop dancing.
26. Phife Dawg – Forever
A warm-hearted, loving and friendship-based lament for the soul of one of the most underrated rappers of all time: A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg, who's unfortunately left this world in 2016. "Forever" proves how Phife was probably the only rapper in the world who was able to sing about himself in the third person and still not sound self-important. His second solo album carries a light spirit of soul-jazzy hip-hop. He textually looks lovingly at his past and optimistically at the future, and all of this while he was dealing with diabetes, which eventually unfortunately took him from us.
Phife managed to complete the recording of about two-thirds of the album, and DJ Rasta Root who worked with him oversaw the continuation of the work when Phife was no longer here in person. He said he did it with the help of things Phife had written – notes and requests for how he wanted the album to sound. And except for two unfortunate and unnecessary sexist songs which are a real downer, the result is beautiful.
Throughout the album, friends enter and leave, conducting duets with Phife. It's not always clear what was recorded before or after his death, until longing words for him are sung by people like his Tribe co-mate Q-Tip and by Pos – his friend from De La Soul. A spoken word track given by Phife's mother – Cheryl Boyce-Taylor – and the theme song in which Phife is soul searching the way he behaved in A Tribe Called Quest, turn this whole seemingly light matter into a tearjerker.
25. Wilco – Cruel Country
The last time I found myself emotionally invested in a Wilco album was when A Ghost Is Born was released in 2004. Since then, some hundred years and six complete Wilco albums have passed, but I wasn't there. Until this year when Cruel Country was released.
A lot is being said in this album's title. Country has always been an element in Wilco's work, but this time at least on the surface they really embrace it. Wilco cruise here between the sounds of country music and blend them naturally with their low-key indie rock, but they only use them in subtle ways. And those gentle elements become something else when you listen to what Jeff Tweedy is singing. Precisely on the pleasant musical background, in a singing tone that doesn't try to impress by force, Tweedy wrote and sang chilling lyrics about encounters with death, about the inability to function in a relationship, about being egotistical, about terrible loneliness. All of these have a degree of cruelty.
The country is also the USA of America. The place Tweedy loves "like a child" as he sings in the theme song. But he also sees the cruel blindness that is rooted in it towards the common human being.
Tweedy isn't busy with standing out as a singer, so without paying attention to his words you can feel the album's good-hearted atmosphere. But with really hearing his lyrics Cruel Country is a tantalizing piece of art.
24. eLZhi & Georgia Anne Muldrow – Zhigeist
eLZhi's rap sounds like the best of both Mos Def and Talib Kweli becoming a singular MC. A Detroit native and former Slum Village member, eLZhi already has been coming a long way. But this album sounds so fresh that it's hard to believe that he isn't a 20-year-old kid who came out rappin' out of nowhere. Zhigeist is a joint album for him and the adventurous (also from Detroit) Georgia Ann Muldrow. Muldrow produced the album herself, and all of its songs are sort of duets, or rather – dialogues – between his rapping and her singing and productions. Muldrow brings her floating & deep soul-jazziness that characterizes her, and she balances and elevates the bitterness that is often present in eLZhi's voice. Sometimes she is a good friend to him and sometimes she functions almost like a mother who looks at her child and really sees him.
23. Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice – Flux Populi
The future is so close, and it's still difficult for most of us to devote ourselves to it and get used to the next stage. At least until some social pressure is applied that makes us feel left out if we don't take part in what everyone else is doing. But some people are already seeing some steps forward, like Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice. This Texas brilliant rapper didn't release an album that sounds like some exaggerated or toyed-down version of what we tend to perceive as "futuristic". He really reached an advanced stage. He's not afraid to be intellectual and he's not afraid of musical adventures. His Flux Populi is a stunning encounter between him and Th'Mole who brings forth electronic productions that are as experimental as they are full of groove. One of the smartest and most thought-provoking rap albums of the year.
22. The Brother Moves On – $/he Who Feeds You…Owns You
A simply amazing fourth lp by a Johannesburg ensemble whose name is a take-off on- a character from TV series The Wire: Brother Mouzone. Shabaka Hutchings (Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming) produced a full of soul and frustration unbelievable album, that combines traditional African music, Jazz and a lot of pain over racism, violence, class differences and the current hard times in South Africa.
21. Steven Brown – El Hombre Invisible
During the 80's Steven Brown, one of Tuxedomoon's founders, was identified with the European coldness of Brussels, where he moved to from San Francisco, and where he created with and without his band some of avant-pop/art-rock's peaks. In 1993 Brown left Europe and moved to Mexico, where he had lived for the past three decades.
Personally, I really missed new music from him as a solo artist, and this year he released "The Invisible Man" – El Hombre Invisible – his first songs lp in 31 years. Brown wrote it inspired by his life in Mexico, and from his worldview, which sees the world much less through American or European eyes, and much more as a Mexican resident. His magnetizing chill from the Tuxedomoon era is there, but the coldness maintains a healthy relationship with the Mexico sun, with warmth and earthiness that were less common in Tuxedomoon, which was partially remote. All of these without losing the mystery that has always characterized Brown's music.
Brown is not about trying to catch up with the sounds made by today's kids. Instead, he uses the skills he has: piano and saxophone playing, a voice and delivery that seems to have not changed at all since the eighties, creating a non-embellished chamber and cabaret atmosphere, and writing and performing the kind of songs that only he and his Tuxedomoon friends are capable of . A wonderful and timeless record.
20. Gggolddd – This Shame Should Not Be Mine
Trigger Warning.
The vocals on this album are so tender and angelic that not listening to the lyrics can be deceiving. But "This Shame Shouldn't Be Mine" is a private documentation by Milena Eva, the superb lead singer of the Dutch band whose name is simply spelled "Gold". This is a record that's dealing with sexual assault, with the misleading way towards it and with the life that follows it. The use of electronic sounds and those of string instruments is very reminiscent of 90's trip-hop, but the electric guitars that come up every now and then and especially the menacing drums – remind me more of the Swans. Eva has written: "While the album tells the story of my personal experience with sexual assault, the song ‘Notes On How To Trust’ is about learning how to trust again after such trauma". A strong and important album.
19. Mo Troper – MTV
Portland's Mo Troper makes short and creative lo-fi-pop songs. In an era when almost everyone thinks that everything in the music world should sound shiny and look like a million bucks at least, even shitty home productions, there's something almost pure in this album. For all the dirt and his lack of production polish, Troper basically refuses to get dirty, refuses to play a role he is not.
In the album whose name is an acronym for "Mo Troper 5" and not "M.T.V.", he sings about social isolation, jealousy and abysmal despair, yet it seems that he does almost everything with humor in his lyrics, or singing. Like "They never suffered for their art/ It has all the depth of a wet fart/ Without the solid parts". On the other hand, a little less funny: "In Dallas/ I had a panic attack/ On a freeway on ramp/ I'm crying across the USA". And the one that broke my heart the most: "You were the cruelest person I've ever known / but you taught me how to write a song."
Maybe this is what Elliott Smith would have sounded like if he released an album produced by Ween or East River Pipe. Or maybe that's what Daniel Johnston would have sounded like if he were trying to write a soundtrack for a Pixar movie. Or Ariel Pink if he would stop being a douche.
18. Elvis Costello & The Imposters – The Boy Named If
Since his Look Now lp in 2018, Costello has been on a great albums streak, followed by Hey Clockface, and then Spanish Model – the Spanish versions album for This Year's Model, and 22's "The Boy Named If ". Somewhere from the 90's end Costello started to sound a bit too normal to my ears. In recent years, and especially in this album, he returns to his strangeness – in composition, arrangements, singing. And how fun it is to hear him both like this and in such a creative swing that is full of high energy and indie-rock-power-pop songs that are compressed with emotion. And it all reminds me again and again how much Costello's one of my favorite musicians in the world.
17. Sound Of Ceres – Emerald Sea
If somebody told me that Sound Of Ceres actually live underwater in Atlantis and that they recorded their album telepathically while they were inside small bubbles protected by an electromagnetic field that creates a crazy orchestral sound that allowed them to do what they did – of course I wouldn't believe it, c'mon. But it won't be far-fetched to say that this is how their 2022 album sounds like. Or maybe like a reimagining of "The Wizard of Oz" arranged by the exotica-king Martin Denny and inspired by the late Julie Cruise. Music from another world.
16. Cave In – Heavy Pendulum
This album could have been considered as one of the greats next to albums that are considered milestones of the "Big" 90's Rock, that ranges from Soundgarden to Faith No More. It's just that maybe because Cave In isn't interested in showing the mainstream that they can crossover, and because the main streamers really aren't looking for the next big rock band, that Cave In has been under their noses for about twenty-five years. 25 years that they are a young and starting band with a burning passion. But even without the market forces to believe in them, they're simply one of the best rock bands in the world today. Their Heavy Pendulum is storming between moments accessible as f***, alongside hellish growls that mainstream's soft belly is unable to absorb even for a second. An epic album of personal and group coping with the death of band member Caleb Scofield in 2017. Between darkness, grief, and terrible rage, to longing, recognition of a new reality, and hope that appears through the cracks. Heartbreaking and empowering at the same time.
15. C Duncan – Alluvium
In my dream Scottish multi-instrumentalist C Duncan just rode his 2022 Synthesizer back to Sixties Britain and made magnificent orchestral indie-pop before there was such a thing. Maybe Alluvium proves that it wasn't a dream? A melting album.
14. Napoleon Da Legend – Two Piece
Napoleon Da Legend released no less than six (!!!) brand new albums this year, at least as far as I know, and that's without counting the singles, EPs and other collaborations he released in '22. Among them I highly recommend checking out the excellent "Maison de Medici" as well. The album included here Is my Napoleon Da Legend favorite so far.
According to things I've read, Napoleon De Legend's greatest loves as a child were basketball, rap, and anima. The basketball dream was unfortunately stopped, and he became fully invested in creating hip-hop. A certain part of what he's created since then, was written and produced under the influence of anima he likes, as is the case with Two Piece. For those of you who love the anime series "One Piece" that influenced this album, it will probably say a lot, but I must say that as someone that One Piece means very little to, this album blew my mind.
If anima seems to you (mistakenly) like a childish thing, then this will not belittle a bit from Two Piece's greatness. Napoleon De Legend uses the anima in metaphors just to talk about his own life, and he brilliantly samples anima music soundtracks – which until this album I had no idea how amazing they were.
Using string instruments has become a super common thing in hip-hop in the last almost 30 years, but beyond the fact that it's nice to hear samples that are not just from kung fu movies, the way Napoleon – who also produced – connects his rap with the sampled orchestras is simply spectacular. Most of the lyrics come from real difficulties, but the string instruments make everyday life sound like a great adventure. Napoleon da Legend is, in my opinion, one of the best and most intriguing rappers in the world right now.
13. Thousand Yard Stare – Earthanasia
The world didn't exactly hold its breath for recent years comeback by Thousand Yard Stare, who was part of the of young bands wave that washed over British Indie in the early nineties. They were one of those that were considered as a new hope for a short time, and then the people who work at being hipsters moved on. But Thousand Yard Stare proved this year that, at least artistically, the most exciting survivors of that wave are not at all the names that were perceived as important at the time. Their Earthanasia lp is a thick and warm psychedelic indie-rock album. It's expansive but not pretentious. It's somewhere between the heyday of Eat and Ride, and it's lined with wonderful, almost flawless songs. 30 years ago such an album would have been applauded, and today's hype-makers are looking for new-kids-on-the-blog to crown. Whatevs. The main thing is that Thousand Yard Stare are doing what they're doing so good, and I wish they'd just keep on doing it. Those who'll listen will get it.
12. Office Culture – Big Time Things
Brooklyn's Office Culture's Lead singer Winston Cook-Wilson has a voice that's somewhere between Belle & Sebastian's Stewart Murdoch & A-ha's Morten Harket, but the music itself, consciously or not, is remindful of the wonderful sophisti-pop of the 80's – things like Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout & also World Party. You can hear a Joni Mitchell influence on the melodies and vocals, and in Wilson's electric piano playing, you can find a bit of Herbie Hancock. Office Culture put all of these together into an embracing album of jazzy indie-pop that is modest, loving, captivating and free from bragging. And Big Time Things has done so much good for my soul in '22. A "small" album, but big it is.
11. Julian Cope – England Expectorates
*Julian Cope's Site: Head Heritage
*A bit in Youtube, and a bit more, even a bit more, and more
I imagine that you also often feel that there are songs' or albums' names that are difficult to remember because they are so banal, even if the music is not clichéd. But what, what other being in the world would call their album "England Expectorates"? Only Julian Cope.
This year there was talk from time to time about the phenomenon of musicians who don't want to put their music on Spotify. But come the f on – these people are such a small minority. The phenomenon is the people who *do* put themselves on Spotify because, after all, they are the overwhelming majority. Let's be reasonable in looking at the quantity of each side, shall we?
The music that Julian Cope has been releasing in recent years can only be bought through his website without hearing it first, and he also doesn't want to put his new music on Spotify, or any streaming service. But – Cope also explains his reasons in the words he sings on his latest album: "I Never Cared Much for Spotify/ It's Real Name Should Be Stultify/ The Miniscule Fees That They Pay/Feels Like Those Yin Yangs Just Give It Away".
And the popular streaming service is not the only one in the crosshairs. In this great album Cope despises the worship of Bezos, Gates, Musk and Disney, whom he names in the same breath as Mao (Exiled On Hoy); he questions the Western hypocrisy in the boycott of Russia, and more precisely – in the boycott of the Russian people, while at the head of the British government was a scumbag like Boris Johnson; he mocks the PC self-righteousness on Facebook and Twitter (Hillary In Benghazi), and he sings a perfect orchestral-pop anthem "Cunts Can Fuck Off", in which he's going full at it at the church, American colonialism, Boris Johnson, and "Woke celebrities". He also makes fun of himself – like in "I just won the title Lard Ass Of The Year".
Cope knows how to criticize with enormous fury, but in "England Expectorates" this is not the case. Here he delivers his protest with humor and wisdom, and with mighty lyrics, which will most likely send you repeatedly to the dictionary or to Google to verify what they're about, only to find out that Cope has just expanded your treasure of expressions, concepts and knowledge on subjects that turn out to be very good to know. At the same time, "England Expectorates" is not a cold or condescending affair. It's full of emotion that flows throughout and has small and unique songs, such as Prodigal Sun and Dickless and Ridic'lous, which despite its funny name is a real heartbreaker.
Cope manages to bring an annoying world picture and at the same time fill it with joy of life. He does it with minimalistic bedroom-rock that ranges between non-threatening experimentation to addictive, almost pleasant, pop. So much so that his biggest middle finger towards the music industry is his private use of his abilities, without letting any music company of any kind enjoy his fruits.
It's just that these fruits are so ripe and delicious that I wish Cope would hear my plea and upload his albums at least to Bandcamp, where he can get paid directly from his fans while new listeners can hear his current music, fall in love with it and reach it beyond those who are addicted to it, myself included. He deserves it.
10. The Pleasure Majenta – Looming, The Spindle
I'd say they don't make albums like this anymore, but they do they do!
Originally hailed from New Zealand and settled in Berlin, The Pleasure Majenta somewhat reminds me of Virgin Prunes, Early days' Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Peter Murphy, Siouxsie & The Banshees also Tuxedomoon whom I wrote about earlier here. Looming, The Spindle is the The Pleasure Majenta's fourth record. This is dark night music & narcotic post-punk that has a measure of cabaret and a measure of goth, but not too much of both, and that was very much loved by alternative fans in the eighties, but whose place was extremely limited. And within the very small place that this type of music must live nowadays that's not through a nostalgic prism, The Pleasure Majenta are not far from a revelation. Mainly because what they're doing may remind you of those things, but in no way sounds like retro-something or nostalgia. It's just a young group that has its own thing, that doesn't need fashion to exist and that sounds like the real thing. Haunted, dangerous, addictive music.
9. Sol Messiah – GOD CMPLX
At a time when the standard in hip-hop is to be as generic as possible and fit as much as you can into an assembly line of productions and flow, hoping that you too will be heard and seen at any cost, this album is a true celebration for everyone who loves hip-hop made with tons of fire and passion. Sol Messiah brings creative and heart-uplifting productions one after the other, that take great notes from hip-hop's past and that will hopefully ignite – for those who'll listen – a more positive future for this musical world. On his beats he is joined by a knockout display of fantastic rappers who bring down the house one by one. You can't help but be blown away by Sa-Roc, who shines and justifiably steals the show, but the whole album is electricity. 2022 was such a good year for hip-hop as I see it, and like all the ones I've mentioned on this list – this is one of its highlights.
8. Chris Connelly – Eulogy to Christa
Chris Connelly has been a Nico fan since childhood. When he was 15, he went to see her perform, managed to get backstage, and there, in a moment that was probably random to her but divine to him, Nico reached out and touched his face. Her music accompanied him all his life and years later Connelly wanted to make a Nico tribute album. The initial plan was to record covers to songs she sang. But as he worked and researched her more and more, he felt that it wasn't enough and that a huge piece of the late Nico's story was missing. He started writing new & completely original songs, about the story of her life and inspired by her. A sort of a musical interpretation of her biography written by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike. He called the album, which includes both his original songs and the covers, "Eulogy To Christa" – Nico's original name.
This album does not have a glimpse into what really went on there from a personal acquaintance. Connelly varies between relaying the information he read in the book and simulating some of the things that happened. He goes through them in a vague and mysterious way, which is completely in line with Nico's solo career. And as an album that tells a story it's very much not In Your Face.
Connelly was not a part of her work or path, and it takes audacity to step into the shoes of Lou Reed, John Cale, Andy Warhol & Nico and try to channel them through him. On the other hand, this is exactly what one would expect this group of people to do in such a case on their own.
Connelly sings about Nico chronologically and incorporates the cover versions at the points in time where they happened in reality. And so as the album progresses – the musical inspiration on it changes. From moments influenced by The Velvet Underground to those influenced by Nico's later work with John Cale.
And despite the lack of a personal relationship between them, this album has a depth of love and identification. Neither Connelly nor Nico have Jewish roots, but parts of the album sound to me as if Connelly is singing for Nico the Jewish prayers – Kaddish & Merciful God while almost crying his soul out. Musically – it's a combination between beauty and distortion, which feels like a natural mirror to the beauty and distortion that were in what Nico did herself. A sister album to Songs For Drella by Lou Reed and John Cale, which they dedicated to Andy Warhol, "Eulogy to Christa" is an amazing and mesmerizing work.
7. Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord
This album by the not possible to be defined Richard Dawson of Newcastle, begins with a small 41-minute track. If you are not a fan of prog-rock, don't be scared. It does correspond to days when it was acceptable to make compositions of crazy length (although even in the seventies 41 consecutive minutes were impossible because there was no room for such a sequence on one vinyl side), but the opener The Hermit is a lovely thing. It's just that the real glory of The Ruby Cord comes after it, in its next 40 minutes, basically the classic length of another album. This second part of The Ruby Cord consists of six tracks, in which what Dawson does sounds to me like a combination of Robert Wyatt, Super Furry Animals, Richard Thompson & Sufjan Stevens. An album of ancient times English folk with contemporary orchestral indie-pop and Dawson's strange & stunning vocals. Nothing here is bombastic, and everything is so beautiful, but not too beautiful. Dawson's beauty is humane and consists primarily of flaws, as he looks into the dystopian future that has already begun, and tries to find hope and love in it. His music makes them shine.
6. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead – XI: BLEED HERE NOW
How to make a bombastic rock album without letting your ego be king? And how to create a pretentious piece without sounding Pompous? I really don't know but that's exactly what Trail Of Dead did this year with their 11th lp.
Bleed Here Now is a cinematic work full of warmth and love for music that could have been all kinds of tedious things and instead is a great rock album that deserves to be heard for years to come. Somehow the Texans Trail of Dead know how to make rock music that should fit in stadiums, without sounding vain in the process. On the one hand, you can hear a huge influence of Black Sabbath, as well as Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, and according to the band, Santana and even Mike Oldfield (I believe them), but on the other hand, everything goes through some kind of an indie-rock filter, which leaves the guitars devoid of bragging and the vocals minimalistic and modest, as if they were only supposed to serve the song and not the other way around. Something that should be more common and through this album you can remember how much it's no longer.
"Bleed Here Now" is wonderful for its soulful songs & for their magnificent performance. And it's also proof of what can be done with sound and music production in a time when almost everyone has the same music programs, and almost everyone uses the exact same sounds, that create a homogenous and unremarkable landscape – the musical equivalent of how movies and TV shows look in the age of Netflix. Trail of Dead mixed Bleed Here Now in a quadrophonic way – that's supposed to surround the ear and not just be in standard stereo or mono. For most of the year I've listened to it mostly with headphones. The songs worked, everything worked, I could have moved on. But I decided to try to listen to it as close as possible to what the mix was aiming for, and I did so with two speakers in front of me and two behind me. A stunning experience, like going all at once from watching a movie shot in 3D on a home screen, to watching it in a huge movie theater with special glasses. If you can listen to Bleed Here Now like that – I highly recommend it, but this album, which deserves to be played for years to come, doesn't need additional aids to be majestic.
5. Craig Finn – A Legacy Of Rentals
Like everything here, I wrote this piece in my original native tongue – Hebrew. These English sorts of translations are an adaptation of the original words, so first – I apologize that my English is not 100%. I did want to use this chance to connect with likeminded people who don't understand my original language. And I've had to make some adjustments, especially when I wrote about Craig Finn. The original piece is a reliving of my childhood past, and it speaks about things that people who didn't live here would probably have a hard time understanding, I think, so this is the much shorter version. But I do swear I was thinking about all of my past memories before I read what Finn himself wrote about the album: "These songs deal a lot with memory: how we remember people that are gone, places that have changed, major events that are part of our past. It's about how memories become the stories that we tell others and ourselves. It’s about the distortion that happens to our own histories when stretched by time and distance".
But we're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy, we never were. Not even in Minneapolis, Finn's original home, that the murder of George Floyd painted it in colors of sorrow and horror and that together with the covid outbreak – influenced the writing of this album's songs. Finn is inspired by life in America. He's a poet who tells little stories about lost characters who often seek redemption, whether they are actually himself or not. And although to understand him you have to be at least a little more attentive than we usually let ourselves be, he made it this time more accessible and beautiful than ever. While Craig Finn does not receive in real time one hundredth of the recognition that he deserves, his fifth solo album, the one he released this year, in my opinion, should get everything he can from today's reality. If Lou Reed had a heart of gold – he would be Finn. It took a long time for the world to recognize Reed. And Finn has his following, and it's beautiful, but it's about time more people will listen to his music, with this, his best album yet.
4. Brutus – Unison Life
Inside and outside the imaginary walls of Belgian trio Brutus rages a meteor shower of clear and fragile vocals, hardcore-punk rhythms, stadium drum sound, guitars that remind of Shoegazing, Metal & also of American noise a la Sonic Youth, power ballads that can be tacky But fall apart just before it happens, and one phenomenon of nature named Stefanie Mannaerts – Brutus' singer & drummer, who has thunder in her heart, lightning in her head, and sometimes wishes she wasn't there at all, as she sings in "Dreamlife".
I've been following Brutus since their first album in 2017, and have loved everything they've done since, but this lp (their fourth including a live one) is their highlight so far. With Unison Life they could have easily crossed over if they would only refine their heaviness, which doesn't even try to communicate with the shining technical standard of "Heavy" that the American mainstream likes to digest. But since Melanie sings catchy and exciting melodies, since she balances in an electrifying way between shouting to the almost angelic nature of her singing, and since the production is heavy but is also full of space, then Brutus goes halfway towards the unbiased audience. The new audience can, if they wish, walk the other half themselves. And it just might be the moment to be with them before the next stage where – I hope for them – the rest of the world will also understand how great they are.
3. Tim Burgess – Typical Music
I've already had the chance to say it, and I'm sure it's not the only one, but hey – there's nothing typical about "Typical Music", the album released this year by Tim Burgess. Who would have even thought that of all the early 90's Madchester and Baggies generation, the greatest survivor of all would be Burgess? Not Ian Brown, not Shawn Ryder, not any of that group yields such a large amount of work as Burgess over the last decade, which is significant not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. The Charlatans are no longer a fashionable band promoted by hipsters, and their latest lp Different Days is one of the best albums of latter years. In addition to his solo career, Burgess also publishes books (mainly about music), and initiated the album listening parties on Twitter, which created a huge buzz in the UK and outside of it, when about everyone from around the world were hosted by him and talked about their great albums there, with a twitting audience asking questions. After all this I think there has never been as much anticipation for a Burgess solo album as with the one that came out this year.
The very fact that it's a double album also created a feeling that something big is gonna happen. But apart from the matter of length, Burgess kept it quite modest. Typical Music is a fairly diverse indie-pop album, but it doesn't pretend be some sort of a magnum opus. Burgess just keeps singing about his life. And he made me think quite a bit about my own life. About the fact that, looking back, a large part of the albums I connected most to in 2022 are sad or heavy, if not musically then in their words or the ideas behind them. Burgess doesn't see the world through euphoric glasses though. He sings a lot about longing, about wanting to be reunited with the one he loves. But in his world, there IS love, and there is even optimism. And boy did I need optimism this year. Enter Tim Burgess to remind me that even nowadays there's a different angle on how life can be reflected through music.
Within the multi-tracked album there are several fast songs (Curiosity, Tender Hooks, A Bloody Nose), which are sung in Burgess's usual way but somehow feel a little hysterical to me, somewhere between French-sixties-pop and Sparks, and what I'm trying to say is that these specific songs don't always fall in place with any kind of mood. Which is unusual because most of what surrounds them just hits me at any given moment. When I'm feeling good, when I'm down, when I wanna hide away from the world, when I want to feel a little sunshine, or on a night out walk. Burgess has simply mastered with Typical Music a classic indie-pop creation for the ages.
One of the most beautiful things about this album is that in his lyrics, on the one hand, you can find a sophistication and punctuality that indicates Burgess' ultra-wide cultural world, but on the other hand, he manages to make the simplest sentences, which could have been perhaps too simple, feel like the most touching thing . Repetitiveness, for example, on the words "When I See You" in the song with the same name. What can you make with such a simple sentence? But when Burgess, with the wonderful harmonies of producer Daniel O'Sullivan, repeats these words again and again, one could imagine feet floating slightly off the ground.
Playing between everyday simplicity and small nuances in the arrangements, which can be strange or floating and magical, is part of what makes Typical Music. O'Sullivan created a colorful sonic world of pop that's… well…not so typical. Both he and Tim are my heroes, the connection between them was wonderful back in 2020 on Burgess's previous album – I Love the New Sky, and I wish it would continue on and on and on.
The other important partner here is Thighpaulsandra, who played keyboards for Julian Cope, Spiritualized and Coil, and he brings another pile of colors to the canvas. The three of them pour everything, arrange some of the colors, but leave enough elements on the painting that won't be clear or logical. The one who mixed everything was Dave Friedman, who produced albums for the Flaming Lips, MGMT and Baroness, among others, and his rough pop sound can be felt in this album as well.
But I want to go back to those three fast songs for a moment. On first listens to the album, I thought they were what kept Typical Music from being for Burgess what Avalon was for Roxy Music or Urban Hymns was for The Verve. But after it's been in my ears so much since it was released, I'm starting to wonder if Burgess just avoided making an album without such moments because maybe it would be too…typical? Or is it because he's not able to be too "classic" without letting the punk inside of him break the "good" order? Or is it because he's such a big music fan, that given the opportunity he simply must put more and more flavors into his stew, simply out of an endless passion for creation and out of curiosity to know what came out?
It doesn't matter, true magic can't be explained.
2. Real Lies – Lad Ash
Like a mind-blowing The Streets and Underworld collabo, this British duo brings together in their second lp several different generations of ravers, night creatures, dance music lovers and those who have led a whole life between stale club walls with electronic underground music exploding their hearts. Whether these are veterans for whom life itself stopped or slowed them down, or young people that are only now discovering the night as a world they didn't really know about. Kev Kharas speaks nightlife-poetry about childhood loves, experiences that the night allows with or without substances of all kinds, and friends who are not with us anymore. He does this with sensitivity, longing, and urban wisdom, all through the nightlife prism, when the heart of the city beats beneath the surface. Real Lies' city is London. To understand some of the references in Lad Ash you probably have to be their personal friend, and others – you have to be a part of the culture they grew up in to get. But this album is such a beauty because even with all of that, it can work in so many other cities. And not just in an urban landscape. You can feel the longing anywhere, in any situation of accumulation. Lad Ash is like a party that turns into a long walk through a city full of twinkling lights, with the pleasant echoes of New Order, The Orb, even The Beloved, coming and going like car headlights in the background. When the morning comes, and some seconds of West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys emerge from some store or a passing car. You don't have to be in London to feel or imagine it. Las Ash also sounds a bit like the more optimistic brother of one of 2021's greatest albums – "For Those I Love", by For Those I Love from Dublin, Ireland.
To the instrumental piece Thameslink Tryst they've attached words they don't sing: "Although the twilight hour is faithful, it never stays/
So I wrote these songs to keep me there/
Locked back home forever to the night that never falls/
And a promise that is never broken."
While they yearn for a night that was lost, they invented a brand new night to dance life through it. Dance with hope in your eyes. A glorious album.
1. SRSQ – Ever Crashing
First, you don't need to know anything about this album to be swallowed in its waves, be cradled in them, go through the dark night of the soul with them and be thrown to a safe beach.
The first thing SRSQ's (pronounced seer-skew) voice reminded me of was Elizabeth Fraser, forever the Cocteau Twins' singer. Like her, SRSQ also conveys mystery, but unlike most of Cocteau Twins' work, SRSQ sings in crystal clear English. Real, honest, fragile, painful words. Her singing is angelic as it is full of strength, and she remind me of another outstanding Fraser student – Sinead O'Connor.
Ever Crashing – is one of the most fantastic albums ever born from a musical world that would not exist without the Cocteau Twins. But SRSQ doesn't try to follow in their footsteps. She took from a deep understanding some of the wonderful things they did, and she applies them in her own unique way, with a spectacular singing ability and with her unique way of writing heartbreaking songs full of beauty and honesty. Diving to the same depths that the founding fathers and mother dived into.
But despite all of this, this is not a shoegazing or a dreampop album. The guitars are loud, but SRSQ doesn't drown in them, and her dreamy side is not only pleasant & floating but also piercing. The drums and keyboards here remind me of 80's-pop, and the melodies sometimes throw me to things made by the great late Angelo Badalamenti in the Twin Peaks soundtrack, and sometimes even to Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør.
More than anything, there's something in these pop melodies meeting with noise and a production that is both epic and bedroomy, that makes me think about the sensitivity and beauty with which such things are done in Noel Heroux's wholesome bands:
Hooray For Earth & Mass Gothic.
And what amazed me to discover was that I probably didn't hear it by accident. Only at a much later stage of listening when I wanted to learn more about the album, I realized that SRSQ's main partner on it is Chris Coady, who among other things was part of the production of Hooray For Earth's huge album – Racy! Coady has also worked as a producer with Beach House, Marissa Nadler and Trail Of Dead, and he brings here a rough and warm guitar sound, and riffs that remind me of The Jesus & Mary Chain and a little of New Order (second time here) .
Kennedy Ashlyn is an amazing musician from the Bay Area. In 2016, a terrible disaster in Oakland took the life of her best friend, Cash Askew, who together with Kennedy was in a duo called Them Are Us Too. To deal with this horrific tragedy, Kennedy wrote and released a soul-penetrating album in 2018 called Unreality, a beautiful piece which was the first she released as SRSQ. It was her musical way to find comfort and sense in everything that happened. But the huge hole in her heart was not healed, and shortly after that she was also diagnosed as bipolar with ADHD. And these, as told on her Bandcamp page, were the background for her next struggle, that gave birth to her second lp – Ever Crashing. An album in which, as she said, she is "mourning the person I thought I should be, mourning the person I never was."
Listening to this album after understanding what was behind it is crushing, but SRSQ's difficult struggles are translated into songs that you can identify with even before you know what's behind them. One can identify with them simply from being broken hearted, or endlessly longing, or rock bottom depressed, or desiring to start all over again. And as much as it was born from suffering, as much as the lyrics are wrenching, SRSQ still sings like someone who dreams of sunshine in her life. Even in moments when she doesn't sing it with these exact words. Even in today's age where more and more people (in arts and beyond) feel comfortable talking about their vulnerability, SRSQ is so brave. But equally amazing is how much Ever Crashing is like the sun in an unbearable gloomy day before one knows a single thing about what's behind it.
In Ever Crashing there isn't a single second wasted, and it is led by Ashlyn who's an unbelievable writer, composer, and performer. As much as there's something angelic in SRSQ's singing, she also sounds humane and real. Crushing with the waves and rebuilding herself every time. I hope she Knows how much inspiration she brings with her. My album of the year.
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