2022 OG-STYLE, PT. 5: BRAD'S TOP 10 (+55 More)
I am a child of the Internet.
Well, not in the literal sense, of course. I mean, this is a site with "old guys" in the title. And even if some jerk in his late 20s might try to say he feels old, well -- save it, pal. I'm close to 50 and often feel every bit of it.
But not when it comes to music. Music often comprises the great thrills of any day for me -- finding, listening, sharing, debating, proselytizing, critiquing, writing about, seeing new music. And especially new music. While I appreciate going back to old stuff here and there, I am much more likely to dive into something I've stumbled across on the Internet than I am to flip on something from my classic rock roots. Or even to an album by a favorite band from just a few years ago.
The thing about being a (figurative) child of the Internet is also that it's impossible to either keep up or keep track. And the thing about being an old guy is that I have trouble remembering what I listened to yesterday. Maybe in 2023, I should aspire to be more of a more responsible old guy -- aim to be organized and take better notes. Dare to dream.
So somewhat by default, my top 10 albums and top 5 songs are defined as the ones I never had to remember to listen to. They were what I came back to over and over – for inspiration, for motivation, for relaxation, for unintentional irritation of my neighbors on the bus or in the office. The next 55 or so are the ones I loved for a day, for a week, or even for most of the year but would have to scroll once or twice to remember. I'm excited when they pop up, but it takes that little bit extra for this Old Guy to remember.
And 2022 served up a lot to remember. I don't think it was quite up there with 2020 in terms of quality, but it blew 2021 away -- especially in the indie/punk rock lane. For me, hip-hop ruled in 2021, but guitars and drums (maybe with bass, maybe with keyboards) came back to the forefront in 2022 overall. The steady stream of things I loved makes me excited for 2023, but I know I'll be coming back to 2022 releases for awhile. Here's what I got:
1 - Black Thought and Danger Mouse - Cheat Codes -- "I came to take back that other 2/5 of a man." This album just feels unfair to everyone else. Black Thought, lead MC of the Roots, is in a league with very few others by virtue of both his longevity and creativity. What's most unfair about this is that he then gets many of the others who could be in his league -- Killer Mike, Raekwon, the late MF DOOM, El-P, A$AP Rocky -- to guest feature, and they all stretch their games out. Black Thought released some remarkable EPs in the last few years, but this is his debut full-length. Wisely, he seemed to know that for the full album, he couldn't just rely on a few great rhymes the way he did on those EPs. By partnering with Danger Mouse, he pushed himself and his guest MCs sonically, and the result is one of those records that gives you something new each time. But with each listen, you also come back to the core mission statement of Black Thought, and to some degree, of much of hip-hop: to take back his humanity and his soul.
2 - Porridge Radio - Waterfall, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky -- For pure emotional punch and depth, in both music and lyrics/vocals, no album came anywhere close to this record from UK's Porridge Radio, their third full length. What else to say about a record where one of the standout tracks features the line "I don't want to be loved" as the chorus. The band's previous record, Every Bad, which packed more of a punk punch, had the unfortunate luck of being released on March 13, 2020, meaning it got completely lost in the pandemic shuffle and that the band could not tour behind it. This album clearly channels the anxiety of the pandemic period (the first lyrics heard on the radio are "Lock all the windows and march up the stairs") combined with the uncertainty and angst of where Dana Margolin finds herself in life -- "No, I don't want the end/But I don't want the beginning/All the way down to hell/And all the way up to heavеn." Her vocals crack and shudder as she delivers them on top of guitars and keyboards that jab you in the heart throughout. Each time I listened to this record, I felt drained, yet rewarded and wanting to come back again.
3 - Congotronics International - Where’s the One? -- I was not expecting this album in any way when it popped up on Bandcamp. As a fan of the many styles of Congolese music, I had overlooked this collaboration many years ago that brought a range of Congolese stars from groups like Konono No 1 and Kasai All Stars together with Western rock musicians like Damon Albarn, Deerhoof, and Juana Molina. Usually these kinds of collaborations result in what seems like everyone feeling out of water and comfortable more with the concept than the end product in the studio. Which is why this is different - it's a record of live performances from a tour done more than 10 years ago, with the energy and creativity of the shows clearly taking everyone to another level. There are a lot of records where critics try to say something like "this defies genre," but Where's the One actually does.
4 - Empath - Visitor -- This feels like 2022's most overlooked indie/punk album, partly because it came out so early in the year and partly because Philadelphia's Empath are so hard to define. With two keyboards and no bass, a frenetic drummer, and vocals swirled in the mix, the sound is a unique one (their Bandcamp page uses these terms to define the genres they fit into -- "Devotional, croc rock, gay ass rock, pengk, warm earth music, post dirge," but I have no idea what any of that means or how of it applies to their sound). Musically, they bounce around among pop, ethereal instrumentals, faster/punkier bursts, and slower/melodic tunes. No other album in my Top 10 feels as diverse in terms of song structure and tempo while still holding true to a core sound.
5 - Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems -- The Bandcamp page for this blistering and relentless, yet insanely groovy, hardcore record features a comment: "This record is gonna steal your bike and throw it thru the window of a cop car." It feels hard to top that as a description, though it undersells the lyrical content. Carrying on the torch of Fucked up and IDLES lyrically, Soul Glo's Pierce Jordan screams out lines like "I try to listen the way I wanna be listened to" throughout on top of punishing, but still groovy, music; even the horns sound aggressive. But he takes those lyrical roots and weaves them in with the anti-capitalist, anti-racist, spoken word elements of Moor Mother, often going at 100 MPH delivering hundreds of words that were scrawled, not written, in lyric books. It feels like they were scrawled so hard, Pierce must have torn holes in the paper or hurt his hand. It's not easy to listen to but there are few albums in the last decade I have hit "repeat" on so many times.
6 - Robert Glasper - Black Radio III -- "We don't play music/we pray music." Perhaps no line in any song (though, to be fair, this was spoken word by Amir Sulaiman, from one of the most captivating poems you will ever hear) has stuck with me more than this one in 2022. The Black Radio series has been incredibly rewarding over the years, but this edition took the effort to a whole different level. Once you are frozen in your seat by the opening track, you get a powerful track, "Black Superhero," featuring Killer Mike, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Big KRIT, only to have features by D Smoke and Q-Tip on the next two tracks. And once you've been wowed by these MCs at the top of their game, you're taken to a soul version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" with Lalah Hathaway and Common. The rap and vocal features continue, all with the usual musical greatness you expect from any Glasper ensemble. For sheer diversity of sound and style, no collection did more than this in 2022.
7 - Sault - Untitled (God) -- Sault is the best band in the world. There's not much more to say about it. After releasing a bizarre classical album in April, Sault came back with a 10min10sec track on 10/10, then released five albums, all different in sound and tone though rooted in reverence and adoration of God, the planet, and life -- well, really rooted in Love above all. The music is an almost undefinable mix of more or less any genre you can think of but feels rooted in soul above all. Their two albums in 2020 were my two favorites of that year, and Untitled (Black Is) is one of the rare albums from recent years that I turn back to all the time and still feel like it's my first listen each time. I am not sure any of their 7 (!) albums from this year quite match that classic, but this one and 11 (#9 below) come very close.
8 - MJ Lenderman - Boat Songs -- I don't have anything smarter to say about this than Brian (who had it at #1), Charles, and Marc. Like Brian, this was an album that brought me back to alt-country in 2022. And I think it had to come from an artist who doesn't make his living playing alt-country (but louder, shoegaze rock in the band Wednesday).
9 - Sault - 11 -- See above.
10 - Ribbon Stage - Hit with the Most -- See 3A60G #5, where I featured this album.
Top 5 Songs:
All the Good Times by Angel Olsen
Alive Ain’t Always Living by Quelle Chris
Back to the Radio by Porridge Radio
The Chief Enters Again by Congotronics International
Playing Possum by Ribbon Stage
Honorable Mention Albums by Genre:
Indie/Punk:
2nd Grade, Easy Listening
Artsick, Fingers Crossed
Axons, I Object to Everything
Camp Cope, Running with the Hurricane
Casual Dots, Sanguine Truth
Crime of Passing, Crime of Passing
Dazy, Out of Body
Dry Cleaning, Stumpwork
Dumb, Pray 4 Tomorrow
Feeble Little Horse, Hayday
Green/Blue, Paper Thin
Hammered Hulls, Careening
The Hazmats, Empty Rooms
Kids on a Crime Spree, Fall in Love Not in Line
Knifeplay, Animal Drowning
Lawn, Bigger Sprout
Lifeguard, Crowd Can Talk
MAITA, I Just Want to Be Wild for You
Megamall, Escape from Lizard City
Mick Trouble, It’s Mick Trouble’s Second LP
Momma, Household Name
Plains, I Walked with You a Ways
Praise, All in a Dream
Smirk, Material
Star Party, Meadow Flower
Thick, Happy Now
Tin-ear, Cadastral Maps
Vision 3D, Hypnose
Weird Nightmare, by Weird Nightmare
Hip-hop:
Deca, Smoking Gun
Defcee and Boathouse, For All Debts Public and Private
Elucid, I Told Bessie
Ivy Sole, candid.
Justo the MC & Remulak, Knockturnal
Kae Tempest, The Line is a Curve
Open Mike Eagle, a tape called component system with the auto reverse
Quelle Chris, Deathfame
Robalu Gibsun, Keep Going!
Sampa the Great, As Above So Below
Sol Messiah, God Cmplx
Tab One, Glory in the Weight
Billy Woods, Aethiopes and Church
Wrecking Crew, Sedale Threat
African (no, Africa is not a country or a genre, but grouping all together for convenience -- mix of Afrobeat, high life, and desert blues):
Lady Aicha & Pisko Crane’s Original Fulu Mziki of Kinshasa, N’djila wa Mudujimu (band with the album cover featured in this post)
Etran de L’Air, Agadez
Imarhan, Aboogi
Kokoroko, Could We Be More
Azuku Moweta & His Anioma Brothers Band, Nwanne bu Ife
Oliver Nayoka, Oka Mmadu
Oumou Sangare, Timbuktu
Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin, Ali
Wau Wau Collectif, Mariage
Sault (this band is so good they are their own genre):
Earth
X
Today & Tomorrow