Our Favorite Albums of 2022
Take a look back at the best metal, non-metal and everything else of a jam-packed year in music
My Favorite Albums of 2022
Choosing the best music each year should come down to gut feelings. So many lists out there emerge from painstaking curatorial efforts. It sounds like something admirable, but is instead a deeply selfish exercise. Often, these lists smack of feigned prescience. They grasp toward a future they cannot know in the hopes that its denizens look fondly upon their opinions. At worst, they try to drive the canon itself. The crafters of lists view themselves as sainted figures who deserve to shepherd critical consensus through the ages.
In doing this, they make their lists methodical, dull, predictable and utterly inoffensive. Most frustratingly, they make them uninspired. For my money, music is about feeling and passion. It thrives on raw, visceral emotions that pour out of the speakers and into the vessel of your spirit. It is not an academic exercise. It is an exercise in vitality and spirit.
To that end, this list is my own. It is organized but not on an album to album basis. There are tiers where I think albums belong and that’s about as deep as it gets. With any luck, you’ll think this list proves my insanity. With any luck I’ll hate it in six months. If that all comes to pass, it will mean I deeply and honestly felt what I put here, and that makes it truer than any future canon.
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Tier 5 - Runners Up
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
Blood & Nunslaughter - Blood/Nunslaughter
Animal Collective - Time Skiffs
Pyrithe - Monuments to Impermanence
Denzel Curry - Melt My Eyez, See Your Future
Tier 4
Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti
Bad Bunny continues to impress. Un Verano Sin Ti brings some of his best vocal performances and beat constructions to date. While I can’t comment on the lyrics as I don’t speak Spanish, the emotional heft of his vocals more than carries the tracks regardless of your language capabilities.
Moon Tooth - Phototroph
This is what hard rock should be. Phototroph perfectly encapsulates all the things that drew me to the genre as a child but without all the stuff that makes it a critical punching bag. It bursts at the seams with chunky, full-bodied riffs that buoy upper-tier singing (for the genre) and top-notch songwriting.
Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork
Dry Cleaning really upgraded with this one. Few albums have such a self-assured viewpoint, especially when the song construction is so outside of the norm. It sizzles with poignant, silly and downright hilarious observations. All of this is set over top-notch instrumentation, allowing everything to feel considered but not mechanical.
Alvvays - Blue Rev
This is the first time Alvvays has really connected with me, and it’s easy to see why. Blue Rev is a masterclass in shoegaze and dream pop. Each track perfectly balances whirring, noisy guitars with calming construction. Best of all, the vocals are intelligible, which is rarely a given for the genre.
Escuela Grind - Memory Theater
It takes a lot to make a special grindcore album. For a genre often derided for its sameness, Escuela Grind has managed to imbue their album with a sense of fun, adventure and genuine thrill. Riffs frequently slow to sub-grindcore paces and have an innate joy to them. It’s not the ur template for the genre, but maybe it should be in the future.
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
In a year of excellent pop punk revival, Expert in a Dying Field proved itself a standout. The instruments are more or less what you expect from modern emo/pop-punk revival, but the vocal performances are so delicate and affecting that it’s hard to imagine anyone with an iota of love for the genre walking away from it. And the instruments are good, they just know exactly where to be at all times, which is more than you can say for most bands making this style of music.
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
Black metal can get pretty boring once you know the ropes. Nothing about this album is boring. With their unique spin on American black metal, Blackbraid bring unexpected and thrilling dynamic shifts to their songwriting that are sure to thrill even the most experienced listeners. That, coupled with the heavy themes of loss and reclamation explored on the record make this an essential piece of metal in 2022.
Boris - Heavy Rocks (2022)
How does Boris keep doing this? They are so prolific and so consistently amazing. I’m hard pressed to think of another band that operates on such a high level. Heavy Rocks (2022) once again sees them evolving their image into noise punk and even a little bit of jazz and hair metal. The sick thing is that they’re stellar at all of it, to the point where bands working in similar genres should be embarrassed. No one does it like Boris.
Raid - Paralells
Speaking of bands that don’t like to stick to the script, Raid’s Parallels refuses to stay on page for a whole album, and it works wonders for them. The album readily blasts between shoegaze and grimy death metal, and while the ideas are largely contained to single songs, the constant juxtaposition makes for a riveting listening experience where you never know what’s around the corner.
Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever
Soccer Mommy has one of the best ears for sad pop. Sometimes, Forever perfectly showcases this excellent ear at every possible turn. The album manages to be sad without being a bummer, and is engaging without killing the efficacy of the lyrics. All that, plus the fact that Shotgun is one of the songs of the year, make this another accolade for Soccer Mommy’s illustrious career.
Perfume Genius - Ugly Season
As a longtime fan of Perfume Genius, it feels insulting to have one of his albums outside of my top two tiers, but that doesn’t mean I dislike Ugly Season. This album provides us with an entirely new perspective on the Perfume Genius project, which has been one of the most successful and consistent of the 2010’s, by slowing everything down and making it, for lack of a better term, uglier. It’s an experiment that I’m glad we received.
Nechochwen - Kanawha Black
Oh my god the riffs on this thing. From the opening seconds you know you’re going on the metal ride of a lifetime. Kanawha Black sticks a bit closer to the classic black metal formula than other American black metal bands like Blackbraid and Panopticon, but within that formula they find some profound and inventive places to steer their music.
The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention
Did you want a new Radiohead album? Here it is! While it’s not really Radiohead, that works in its favor. With the expectation of revolutionary greatness partially lessened, both Greenwood and Yorke sound freer, less encumbered by the weight of their legendary band. The resulting product is a joyous throwback of an album that still makes plenty of forward facing strides.
Heriot - Profound Morality
OOOOOOOOOOOHHHH they like it heavy over at Heriot! Good news for them, so do I. Profound Morality injects more death metal into the formula that groups like vein.fm and Knocked Loose have crafted. This experimentation results in riveting, earth shaking riffs, heart palpitating drums and ear rending screams. I adore this record and its utter refusal to do anything but beat your skull into the pavement for half an hour.
Alto Arc - Alto Arc (EP)
This album is weird. Like seriously weird. It mostly blends synth work, gorgeously sung women’s vocals, haunting string arrangements and guttural screams. The whole thing reminds me of Lingua Ignota (conceptually, they sound very different). It possesses a similarly ritualistic tone, but with even more adventurous turns. If this were a proper album, it would be higher. I can hardly describe it properly, it must be heard to be believed.
Earl Sweatshirt - SICK!
In a bit of a break from critical consensus, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Earl Sweatshirt’s latest output (barring Feet of Clay, thanks again for the free shirt Earl) but I do find it compelling. SICK! hit all the right notes though. The beats still pulse with an unorthodox and inventive energy, as do the flows (which never bothered me) but there’s just enough conventionality to it that it digests easily. It’s great, and Earl Sweatshirt needs to start being mentioned more frequently in best living MC conversations.
Tier 3
Backxwash - HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING
Someone listened to Rage Against the Machine before making their most recent album. Sure, that sounds derisive, but it actually works unlike the hundreds of RATM imitators. Backxwash brings a sense of supreme urgency, internal strife and madness to this particular record. The unhinged energy has earned it some side eyes from others, but to me it’s the most effective record to come out of this project.
Skullcrusher - Quiet the Room
This remains the spookiest album of 2022. Like previous efforts from Skullcrusher, this album mostly traffics in the cool calm spaces. Washed out voices populate the silences with haunting refrains, not unlike tracks from Grouper. However, every so often an off-kilter lyric implies the sinister, the static creeps up into the light to leave you stunned and fearful. Haunting is an overused term, but this album earns it at every turn.
Gilla Band - Most Normal
Mashing together post punk, with all its snideness and dry humor, with noise rock isn’t a new concept. Gilla Band takes this well-trod path and carves so much deeper into the earth than I thought possible. The record pulses with a furious noise that would put even Pissed Jeans to shame, and the lyrics and vocal performances sit perfectly between that post punk drawl and a Big Black style whine. It all coalesces into a record that treats urgency with laziness and the normal with utter derision.
Moor Mother - Jazz Codes
Moor Mother only makes essential music, but this transcends almost all her previous material. This collaborative exercise with a variety of talented jazz musicians imbues her ever-urgent lyrics with a new sense of space. The overall muting of her propensity for harsher modes of instrumentation gives her poetry plenty of room to breathe, enabling you to focus in on the message of the music. At the same time, the jazz burns with complexity that begs to be explored, making it something of a two-pathed album where you can lose yourself in either the instruments or the lyrics. The many moments where the two collapse into a single space are passages of utter magic.
Momma - Household Name
In a year of great pop punk, Momma provided us with yet another standout album. Existing somewhere between the sound of Soccer Mommy and a more traditional pop-punk group, Momma adds a sense of fun to the former and a greater sincerity to the latter. What really differentiates Household Name from so much other (admittedly enjoyable) pop punk records is its dedication to craft. Each track must have gone through so many iterations to net out somewhere so enjoyable. You could pop this on in the car with almost anyone and receive an intrigued “who is this?” in response.
Shit and Shine - Phase Corrected
Like many groups operating in the avant garde space, Shit and Shine operates from a hit or miss structure. With that in mind, Phase Corrected clearly falls into the hit category. Almost like an electronic (though I’m pretty sure it’s analog) sounding version of Earth, this band takes things even lower and slower than the legendary drone metal band. By virtue of the genre, this album will have limited appeal. But if you like Earth and Sunn0))) or even Haxan Cloak and BIG|BRAVE, you need to check out this hulking monstrosity.
Grace Ives - Janky Star
Having never heard Grace Ives, I went into this album with no expectations and was blown away. There’s a joyful inventiveness to this record that’s rare to find at any point in music history. It incorporates bits of chiptunes, heavily compressed synths, weirdly tripped out background vocals and joyous, perfect lead vocals. To label it with a genre, it sits pretty squarely in the weird art pop world, but compared to many of the artists that fit there, this emphasizes playfulness over emotional impact. In doing so, it manages to find both in spades.
Ethel Cain - Preacher’s Daughter
Ethel Cain stole my heart with this album. Few artists are capable of dragging you wholly into their emotional process in a way that allows you to view it both internally and externally. The magic of Preacher’s Daughter comes from its genuine feeling, which is further buoyed by Cain’s remarkable voice, with all its little cracks and chips. This album is very close to being a tier higher. There are plenty of songs that are well deserving of even a tier one inclusion, but ultimately the record was too long and had too much inessential material. Even keeping that in mind, this wonderfully heartfelt album demands the whole of your attention.
billy woods- Aethiopes
If I could lob a criticism toward this style of hip-hop for a brief moment, it often pushes emotional messaging out of the picture in favor of technicality. The best artists in this space, like billy woods and Moor Mother, find a way to make the technical nature of the music work in favor of the messaging and few are better at this than billy woods. Of the albums he put out this year Aethiopes has the greatest emotional heft and the most mind boggling instrumentation. It will not change your opinion on jazz rap, but if you have any affinity for the genre it’s hard to do much better.
SOUL GLO - Diaspora Problems
God this goes so hard. This whole album is a heartfelt slap in the face toward all of the establishment. It perfectly updates and carries forward the heart of hardcore punk with more direct politics, both personal and worldwide. Even stepping away from the themes, they could be making babbling noises and this would still make the list. The riffs and drums are so perfect. In particular, “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)” has that “get your head knocked off in a mosh pit” energy that all of punk strives toward. The album balances all of its ambition, and all of its manic freakout energy with such precision that I’d be shocked to hear a better punk record for at least two years.
Rosalía - MOTOMAMI
Rosalía has spent much of her career establishing herself as one of the better Spanish language vocalists on the planet. MOTOMAMI sees her continuing that trend with tracks like “HENTAI” but the real joy of MOTOMAMI is when she establishes herself as a party queen. The best summation comes from Rosalía herself on “SAOKO” where she proclaims “Una mariposa, yo me transformo (a butterfly, I transform)” shifting the perception of herself from something beautiful into something more layered. The whole album is a riot from start to back, even the slow songs have me jumping out of my seat. And you don’t need to speak Spanish to extract joy from this album, lord knows I don’t. Ask my high school Spanish teacher.
Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS
PAINLESS is just a wonderful experience from front to back. It’s the sort of record you could lose yourself in without noticing. The vocals wash over you in a way that floats you rather than drowns you and the instruments work in perfect compliment. At times, particularly on the track “Midnight Sun” it tilts a little bit toward Radiohead style instruments, which compliments the vocals in a shocking way. It’s one of those records where everything you say about it sounds simple and boring, but the minute you hear it you understand.
vein.fm - This World is Going to Ruin You
They’ve done it again friends. This World is Going to Ruin You once again balances utter chaos with perfect compositional joy. Compared to so many metal bands, vein.fm has a beautiful sense of what they want to do. Now, what they want to do is beat your face in with bricks of a surprising variety, red bricks, blue bricks, one brick, two bricks, all the bricks are coming at your face. The album starts and only rarely lets up from hounding you with some of the heaviest riffs put onto magnetic tape this year. However, unlike the equally excellent Errorzone there are several sections of clean, almost post-hardcore style vocals that help to break up the madness. I have a hard time imagining this album is for everyone but if you read this letter regularly, then you should dig it.
The Weeknd - Dawn FM
No one needed me to champion this very popular album but I’m going to anyways. The Weeknd has frequently lost his way as an artist. After a remarkable trilogy of semi-underground records and a Drake album, we received several albums with interesting ideas but a total lack of direction and even some trend chasing. With the last two albums, I feel confident that we have him back where he needs to be. This album, Dawn FM is so much darker and grimier than what he gave us after Trilogy and it rocks as a result. Following The Weeknd through a death spiral puts his music where his aesthetic has always lingered. Oneohtrix Point Never provides flawless production and The Weeknd’s MJ-esque vocals guide us through a journey into Inferno that won’t easily be forgotten. And for all the conceptual heft and darkness, the album remains catchy, singable and delightful at most every turn.
Pusha T - It’s Almost Dry
We were so close to being in tier 2 with this one but a few of the songs held me back from really loving it after my initial listens. That said, what works on this album works better than any hip-hop album from this year. Tracks like “Brambleton,” “Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes,” and “Neck and Wrist” are all in line for track of the year. Pusha T doesn’t glide over these beats either, he smacks them with a ball peen hammer, his lyrics leaving dents all over the beats, molding them into his canvas rather than letting the beats dictate his approach. And of course we have to talk about the one liners. Whether you prefer “Cocaine’s Dr. Suess,” “Might buy your bitch a jeep,” or my personal favorite “Annoyed cuz this bitch callin’ Lanvin “lan-ven” hardly matters, because they’re all classics. In a year where a lot of newcomers made big waves, Pusha T remained an institution.
Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor
Zeal & Ardor has a few tracks that are competing for metal song of the year. Were it not for what I consider to be a slightly weak middle section, this would have been a shoe in for a higher tier. That said, we’re here to talk positives, and there are plenty. Once again, the blend of spirituals with black and death metal makes for a stunning combination, and all the best songs are those that blend them thoroughly. Even some of the songs that lean hard in one direction, like “Church Burns” and “Götterdӓmmerung” make a wonderful case for why Zeal & Ardor has the chops to attempt this unorthodox union. What really stuns on this record though is the vocal work. Manuel Gagneux, along with backing vocalists Denis Wagner and Marc Obrist, unleashes some truly gut-churning screams and deep, luscious clean passages. The riffs tear into your chest and the drums take steps away from blast beats, deploying them only when they are most effective. Zeal & Ardor, most impressively, remains approachable. Some songs may prove too much for non-metal folks to stomach, but the core of the album brings enough to the table that everyone can eat.
Tier 2
Alex G. - God Save the Animals
Alex G., who has eluded my interest for so long, has finally pulled something together that stunned me. To be honest, I’m not sure this is all that different from his previous albums, maybe it just hit at the right time. Whatever the case, he’s crafted a loving tribute to Americana music. The tracks bristle with an undeniable love for artists like Bruce Springsteen, but with a more tender vocal touch and more off-kilter arrangements than the boss tends to deploy. The heavy inclusion of strings on certain tracks evokes a memory of early Fleet Foxes, and makes me feel like I’m home again. Maybe it’s just because I live in the south and not in the city anymore, but few albums have struck me as more pleasant this year.
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
What tremendous fun. Jockstrap has always been an interesting band. Many of their previous efforts deserve to be on their respective year end lists. I Love You Jennifer B naturally evolves their interests into a more eclectic space. Loaded with wonky synth patterns and mind-boggling vocal melodies, this record thrills from start to finish. Sometimes you can hear MIA, sometimes Bjork, other times it’s pure pop joy. What makes this a standout is its ability to mash these all together without overloading itself. No song plays out the way you’d expect, and nothing disappoints.
Wet Leg - Wet Leg
In my less charitable moments, I have described Wet Leg as “The Strokes but women” but even that was meant as a compliment. To revisit that comparison, they have a similar love for the riff. The guitar melodies that bolster this record never fail to amaze. So many of them burrow their way directly into your skull and refuse to leave, whether it’s the rocking riff that carries lead single “Chaise Lounge” or the tinging whine that buoys “Angelica,” Wet Leg certainly holds the belt for catchy guitars this year. On top of that, the lyrics and delivery are perfectly dry and snide, with highlights like “I don’t want to follow you on the gram, I don’t want to listen to your band” littered throughout each track like nuggets of gold in a pile of pure silver. Few records arrive with such incredible self-assuredness, and even fewer execute on such a high level. Any criticisms of predictability are easily brushed aside by the joy that the final product brings to my brain.
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Big Thief has long captivated listeners that aren’t me. This year, the folk outfit finally clicked and it’s plain to see why. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You redefines this band’s essential nature and stamps their influence in modern indie folk for eternity. The vocals have lost their obnoxious whine (which some must find endearing) and the dreaminess factor tilts up to eleven. No matter which track you choose, you will find flawless songwriting and delightful lyrical turns. What most stands out to me on this record is its immediate appeal. Despite the immense length, the runtime passes by with little friction. Tracks like “Simulation Swarm” and “Spud Infinity” have a near pop-like appeal, instantly worming their way into your brain and refusing to leave. I sincerely hope that this record defines the future of Big Thief, because I don’t want to go back.
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
It’s a bit boring of me to love this album. But for my money, and a lot of other people’s money, Kendrick Lamar is the best active rapper. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers was clearly a divisive album, and I can’t speak on whether or not you should find it off-putting or endearing. However, I will say this. I’m happy someone is making an album that shows warts. Too often we receive bland records that portray the artist as a perfect saint. Even those that deal with flaws are often very generous and provide plenty of excuses. Kendrick provides no excuses for his reprehensible behavior in several areas of life. Sure, the album might get out over its skis, and it might wrap up a bit too cleanly with some woo woo rich person therapy stuff. But even with all those blemishes it’s honest. Oh and he’s a really good rapper, did I mention that?
Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE
Am I the right person to write a diatribe about the importance of this record? No. Freed from that burden, I’ll pass the reins off to my wife, who listens to this album with near daily frequency. That’s kind of the review. The whole thing. My wife listens to this record almost every single day. How many records have that sort of staying power? Most impressively, it hasn’t grown old for me either, and I’m there for at least 1/10th of those listens. The sequencing on this record is perfect, there’s zero denying that. Tracks transition flawlessly, the production stuns. It sounds as expensive as the diamond horse (and lingerie) on the cover looks. Still, it doesn’t come across as overproduced. It plays perfectly at clubs (I assume), in cars (confirmed) and at weddings (confirmed). I’ve seen men and women lose their shit to this album, and who can blame them. It tackles so many different styles and triumphs at all of them. I haven't even mentioned Beyoncé’s voice because it seems unnecessary. She’s great, she sounds great, rapping or singing. Who cares what I have to say? You need to hear it and feel it.
Vince Staples - RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART
Whatever you think of Vince Staples, he is more complex. At times he’s the funniest man on Twitter and routinely the best interview this side of Kevin Gates. At other’s he’s a thoughtful rapper pondering the conditions of his upbringing. Sometimes he’s a gangster rapper delivering the coldest bars in hip-hop. Despite all these facets, they play upon one another and create a true gem. RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART is the album that most effectively represents this. On “FREE THE HOMIES” he both lauds the thrills of gang life and laments the consequences for his friends. On other tracks he pines for lost love, lost homes, lost friends, and all while refusing to apologize for the life that led to this loss. He’s not ignorant of these things, and it’s not hypocrisy. He carries genuine affection for all of these things and his ability to clearly represent all of this through engaging flows, dreamy beats and poetic storytelling, he is the most honest rapper out there.
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
What can you say, once the Beach House bug bites you, you’re doomed to love everything they put out. Once Twice Melody, their sprawling double album, regularly threatens to buckle under the weight of its own ambition and scope. Tracks routinely blend into one another with such ease that 20 minutes will pass and you won’t realize that you’ve listened to multiple tracks. For some, this was a hindrance, for me it was a blessing. If you come to Beach House for innovation, at least in 2022, you’re drinking from the wrong faucet. But if you know what you’re here for, which is to say, utterly dreamy melodies, perfect production, wistful lyrics and breathless vocals, then no one does it better than Beach House. Should the band continue to pursue this mode of music, I don’t know where they go from here. Once Twice Melody feels like a conclusion, the closing paragraph of a decades long project. I anticipate that the band will continue to make music, but as to how they surpass this record without doing something different, I have no idea.
SZA - SOS
In 2017 I made the grave mistake of underrating CTRL. No one ever brings this up to me, but I think about it constantly. That will not be the case this year. SOS is, for my money, the best R&B album of the year, and I knew it would be. SZA conveys such tremendous melancholy and joy in every note she utters. Even the pop punk song that she does, “F2F” works. I wrote about this album in my best of December already, but I wanted to highlight one thing I didn’t mention. It has so many tracks. So many that I was terrified the first time I listened. But unlike so many artists that make overloaded albums, SZA honed in on the parts of each song that worked and kept it tight. Length is, shockingly, not even close to an issue on this album. Because of when it came out, I haven’t given this album the time it deserves, but I don’t think that will be an issue for much longer. Chances are I’ll look back and feel like I underrated this one too.
Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory
What happens when you smash together post-metal, black metal and post-hardcore with gorgeous female vocals? Magic. Rolo Tomassi knows this and doesn’t spend much time trying to get cute with it. From the opening guitar thrill, a seething wall of feedback and tremolo picking that threatens to overwhelm the glassy vocals in a sea of static, you know what this album is and what it plans to do. When it refuses to bait and switch you is when the magic really happens. Everything you thought this record would do well, it does better than expected. It doesn’t shy away from the thousand-ton heft of post metal, nor does it balk at the slow, clean vocal passages. This juxtaposition of light and dark, beautifully expressed on the album cover, powers the record to near perfection. Funnily enough, for all this wondrous achievement, there’s one moment on the record that always sticks with me. The damn drums on “Cloaked.” It isn’t even a terribly complex pattern on drums, and that’s where it transcends its technicality. Try listening to this in your car, see how long you last without bruising your hands on the steering wheel. I made it about 15 seconds.
Viagra Boys - Cave World
Music is fun again. If 2022 taught me anything it was that the room for humor in music is infinite, and much like literature, it’s often better if it’s funny. Cave World takes aim at almost everything, right wingers, grifters, language police, straight up idiots, no one is safe. And in their wide spraying approach, they invite almost everyone to mock something. If you listen to this record, you’re going to end up mocking yourself at some point as you sing along, at the very least you’ll be mocking someone you know. The trick of this album lies in absurdity. The targets of derision are so comically overblown that you can look and say “well they aren’t talking about me.” They are though. And that’s fine, we should all learn to accept our own foolishness. Oh, the instruments are bouncing and thrilling as well. In particular, the manic vocal performances, seemingly ripped from the most absurd post-punk bands of the 1980s, turn this album from something great into something transcendent.
Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture
Drop what you’re doing and listen to this album. What Ashenspire does has almost no comparison point. Yes, they’re using horns and strings in metal, a technique that has precedent. They’re talking more than singing, another well-trod concept. But the way they blend together the maddening trill of horns with the urgent howls of labor movement screeds imbues each with such necessity. They provide little in the way of rest, the songwriting reflecting the plight of the abused working class, toiling away in agony until their bosses decide that retrofitting the building they live in is too great a cost, and they die in a fire. If you seek music for escape, you will not find it here. This album, like the one metal album above it on this list, looks the world straight in the face and tells you that it’s fucked. There is no respite, there is no solace, there is only pain, until the tables are turned.
Tier 1
Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
Not so long ago, I sat in a different home at a different computer singing the praises of BC,NR’s first record, and proclaimed them the saviors of post rock. Funnily enough, Ants From Up There isn’t post rock. Sure there are long songs and passages of instrumentation worthy of the post rock label, most notably “Snowglobes,” but ultimately this is an emo album. The sick thing is, BC,NR might be the best at emo too. The album liberally borrows from midwest emo, and even blends in some hints of post punk with nods to The National (“Bread Song”). Whatever you want to call it, the post-genre mixture works at every possible turn. I dare anyone with a heart to sing “The Place Where He Inserted the Blade” without getting at least a little misty eyed.
All that hoity-toity genre stuff hardly matters though. What really powers the record is honesty. It’s meticulously written but not performed. Any horn player worth their salt could tell you that the instrumental proficiency in the band is not perfect. That same player would also tell you that it is perfect for the assignment. Every little squeak and slightly off-pitch note, no matter the instrument, conveys such emotional urgency that it inherently means more than being performed at “the highest level.” Ants From Up There, and more importantly, BC,NR at large, understand that honesty leads to the best music. Even as their future looks uncertain, I rest assured that they’ll carry that ethos forward and continue to create some of the most necessary music of this decade.
black midi - Hellfire
Because these tiers are unorganized, I wanted to ensure that I kept BC,NR back to back with black midi. Despite the constant comparisons and discussions that lump these two groups together, to the point that I saw them on tour together and BC,NR name drops black midi in a studio recorded song, they really couldn’t be more different. BC,NR trafficks in pure emotion, raw, heartfelt feelings. Sure they have plenty of chaos in their music and the technical songwriting is apparent, but everything in the music is in service of emotion. black midi on the other hand is pure virtuosity. They don’t lack emotion, but it’s not really their thing.
Now, this all could sound like an insult toward black midi, I promise it’s not. In fact, it’s the biggest compliment I could give them. By and large I do not care about proficiency in my music. Most prog (rock and metal, with notable exceptions), while awe inspiring, is utterly dull. This band is never dull. Their skill is such that it strips everything else of its necessity. Each song surprises with its twists and turns. They utterly destroy the stage live, mostly by making their songs even wilder and less comprehensible. Even when the surprise wears off, you start to listen more intently and find countless wrinkles of impossible ability within each track. The album cover represents it best, I don’t even have time to talk about the well executed Inferno concept. Just listen to this one and let it peel off your skin.
Orville Peck - Bronco
Orville Peck has the best voice in country music. The previous statement is not an assertion of my belief, but a simple statement of fact. A clear student of Elvis, Orville Peck captures a magic that helps me to understand the appeal of the iconic rock and roll forefather. At the same time, I have to imagine that Peck is a superior lyricist. His songs have that special sense of place, time and emotion that country music does best. But what sets Peck apart from all his peers in this space is songwriting.
Country music does not lack for great songwriters. Strugill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Chris Stapleton and countless others all know how to make a damn good song. All of these people also know how to tell a story. Where Peck shines is in his ability to make songs that are just as good as all those folks, but are more digestible and immediately appealing. Perhaps only Musgraves stands on the same pedestal.
What I’m traipsing around saying is ultimately this; Peck makes pop country music. Yes, the most critically derided genre in modern music sits comfortably within my first tier of album rankings for 2022, and that’s because Peck has cracked the code. Sad songs, they’re here, go check out “Kalahari Down,” “Let Me Drown” or “Hexie Mountains.” Need some yeehaw to get your day started? Pop on “Daytona Sand,” “C’mon Baby Cry” or “Any Turn.” Each song has just enough going on to push it leagues beyond the seething mass of Nashville produced slop, and just enough of that sugary-sweet melody to make it more appealing than his beloved outlaw country peers.
What holds it all together is the voice. If you handed this album to any other country singer, and I truly mean any, it would be great, but it wouldn’t be transcendent. His baritone voice conveys emotion like no other. Plus, it has the added benefit of silky smoothness that appeals on an undeniably technical level too. I’m so glad this album exists because it’s redefining how I look at country music in a way that I didn’t believe possible.
Chat Pile - God’s Country
In my initial review of this album on the best of July I talked a lot about how it perfectly understands and conveys the dark underbelly of America. From the album name to its cover, this was a clear goal of the record. It still does all of this. The confrontational nature of the music makes it an impossible to ignore theme. But what I didn’t really talk about is the joyous appeal of this album.
I’ve been thinking a lot about nu metal lately. Mostly, this is thanks to a podcast called “The Nu Metal Agenda” who has hosted members of Chat Pile twice. At the risk of repeating their talking points, anyone with ears who was around for at least some of the nu-metal craze can tell you where Chat Pile grabbed their influence points.
What set nu-metal apart from previous metal genres was a clear drive for popularity. Many subgenres of metal have had the same emotional hook, the earnestness and the (now) cringy aesthetics. But with the exception of hair metal, most actually heavy music has never aspired toward meaningful popularity. Of course, heavy bands have become popular in the past, but mostly (Metallica notwithstanding) that happened by accident.
Chat Pile bucks this trend by pulling nu-metal influences (low tuning, loose bass playing, clattering breakdowns) back into the underground. More notably, they aren’t pulling from the acceptable nu-metal titans, Deftones. Instead, they opt to go the route of KoRn.
What results is a more mature version of the music we grew up on. The targets of their anger are clearer, the reasons they’re angry more justified. The songwriting is altogether better, but the connecting thread is urgency.
Chat Pile needed to make this music. They needed to put you in the shoes of this “real American horror story” in order for you to get it. Like the nu-metal legends before them, they come from middle America. Yes, OKC is a real city, but the outskirts of OKC are not the same as the areas around LA or NY or Chicago. This music is on the ground, and it seethes with all the potency of the groups before them.
And finally, the last joyous cries of nu-metal gave Chat Pile one more thing. Weirdly, it’s fun. Make no mistake, this album is fucked. When I first heard it, fear and anxiety were real, strong emotions that bubbled up in me. But as I listened more, I thought about how much fun it would be to see them live, to get knocked on my ass in a mosh pit to the breakdown at the end of “Tropical Beaches Inc.” It’s that balancing act. The necessity and the madness, the message and the method, that make this album more than another half-baked nu-metal mess. And more than an excellent, but inaccessible sludge metal monolith. It’s why this is the best album of the year.