Music I loved in 2022
The music I like seems to fall quite consistently into just two categories:
- Good songs: Well-crafted songs (often on guitar) that make me feel things.
- Cool sounds: Noises and beats (often electronic) that intrigue or move me.
Still, I spend a decent amount of time thinking about what it is I love about the music I listen to so I thought I’d share some of my favourite albums and songs that I loved this year* with some brief thoughts on what it is I love about them.
*Not necessarily released this year, though most were. I often discover music from years ago that‘s new to me and why not celebrate that too.
Good songs
Big Thief — Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Already widely-acclaimed, I expect this album will appear on any self-respecting “Best albums of 2022” list. But it deserves all of that praise. DNWMIBIY is a charming collection of beautifully crafted songs. The production is warm and imperfect (capturing the campfire scene from the album cover), the performances expressive, the full package.
When all material scatters
And ashes amplify
The only place that matters
Is by your side
Favourite track: Little Things
caroline — caroline
Each song is so patient — often gently introducing each guitar strum, each string bow, each pulsating beat. If you were told what each band member was about to play, you might expect to lose interest over the course of the 5+ minute songs. But the music builds at just the right pace and the songwriting at its core is sincere, mournful and captivating.
Favourite track: Dark blue
Everything Everything— Raw Data Feel
Possibly the best album yet from one of my favourite bands. Track after track of finely-tuned, punchy and memorable electro-pop rock. But the band retain their quirkiness, deploying AI-generated lyrics and bizarre themes to keep you on your toes.
Is it fun on your own?
Just you and your mobile phone?
Are you coming to life?
Do you want me to look inside?
Favourite track: Pizza Boy
Kinnship — Intenserenity
A gentle and evocative set of songs infused with synths. I wish the vocals sat a bit further forward, and it wasn’t all so washed out, but these are good songs and they made me feel things.
I pick my target and I sit
I set my focus and I wait
And so I concentrate my thought
But I concentrate the pain
’Cause I neglect the vital truth that everything around me is vital, too
Favourite track: Little Ache
Bonny Light Horsemen — Rolling Golden Holy
An album that could pass as a compilation of classic folk songs. Memorable, singalong lines in just about every stanza of just about every song.
Favourite track: California
The 1975 —Being Funny in a Foreign Language
It turned out to be the year where my favourite bands from my teenage years return with one of their best albums yet (see also: Everything Everything). The 1975 cut things back to a sensible album length and pack it full of hard-hitting, painfully sincere songs with buckets of character and swagger. To give you a sense of how much I had this on repeat, my top three most-listened-to songs of the year came from this record. I unironically love this band.
Favourite track: Part of the Band
Cool Sounds
Pêtr Aleksänder et al. — Collage
A gentle and deeply moving set of piano and string pieces. At least half of the songs on this album could make for a centrepiece to a film soundtrack. Searching, atmospheric, sublime.
Favourite track: Moving Thirds
Max Cooper —Unspoken Words
Intense, powerful, awe-inspiring electronic record. “Everything” might be my favourite track this year — the most intense build-up and release I’ve heard in a long time.
Favourite track: Everything
Jimbo Jones— The Heat Death of My Hometown
A really unique record I was lucky to stumble upon this year. Jimbo Jones interlaces intricate and melodic dance/ambient music with field recordings and poetry (presumably from his hometown, somewhere in Ireland). A fascinating listen.
Favourite track: Dart
HAAi—Baby, We’re Ascending
A wonderful blend of playful cut-up beats and soaring trance music. If you want to feel like HAAi does on the cover of this record, give “FM” or “Baby, We’re Ascending” a spin.
Favourite track: FM
Huerco S. — For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)
A gem of an album that I stumbled on one summer afternoon. Listening to Huerco S. feels like floating on a warm, slow-moving river bathed in rainbows. Meditative, mysterious, whimsical, a record to get totally lost in.
Favourite track: On The Embankment
Rival Consoles —Now Is
Another immersive and powerful record from Rival Consoles. The sounds on this album feel so alive and so masterfully mixed together. My favourite tracks — Echoes, World Turns, Eventually — have a mesmerising drive to them.
Favourite track: Echoes
Novo Amor — Antarctican Dream Machine
To wrap up, it’s probably my favourite album of the year. I’ve been a fan of Novo Amor (Ali Lacey) for many years. Ali’s known for his delicate falsetto and humane, triumphant acoustic tracks. But this year, while stuck on a boat in Antarctica, presumably with limited equipment at his disposal, he put together a record of peaceful, melancholy and utterly beautiful instrumental electronic tracks. The minimalism here is refreshing; each track is short, each sound only taking up as much space as it needs. The result is magical and moving.
Favourite track: Ataraxia
Honourable Mentions
Good songs
Japandroids — Celebration Rock
Holly Humberstone — Please Don’t Leave Just Yet
Florida — Wild Pink
MUNA — Anything But Me
Bill Wurtz — If the World Doesn’t End
S Carey — Waking Up
Vulfmon — Take Me To A Higher Place
half-alive — Summerland
Yasmin Williams — Urban Driftwood
Daniel Romano — Finally Free
Death Cab for Cutie — Asphalt Meadows
Alvvays — Blue Rev
Asgeir — Time On My Hands
Henrik Lindstrand — Post
Cool Sounds
Teen Daze — Glacial Lake
Bonobo — Fragments
Burial / Four Tet — Nova / Moth
Henrik Lindstrand — Enghave Lys
Tennyson — Rot
Indian Wells — Before Life
Polo & Pan — From One World to Another
George Fitzgerald — Setting Sun
Barker — BARKER001
Geotic — To Not Now, Nor To Ever, Despair
Orbital / Jon Hopkins — Halycon & On (Jon Hopkins Remix)
