2022. Building on from where I left 2021. The start wasn’t so easy, still too concerned about smears, the general state of the world. The invasion of Ukraine didn’t help, I had a real ‘end of the world’ feel. I knew it would pass, but somehow, I was waiting for the first of April to start feeling better. And around then, with the first concerts happening, the return to live football at Arsenal for me after the Covid times, and finally breaking free emotionally, and realising that what I was doing and feeling and the intentions mattered more than the rest. Going out more, reacquainting myself with old friends, meeting some new people, work getting better (even my boss noticed I was more assured and decisive), and at the end, The Cure gigs and the hope and possibility of new things. Musicwise, it was a very rich year. The 5 albums series continued to take a lot of time, but the music released in 2022 was just excellent. Is it just because I was feeling better and so my enjoyment of music got more intense again? I don’t know. There were so many good albums and not enough time to enjoy them, and the fact that the 5albums22 happened right at the end (though I wish I had been able to take two weeks off before NYE rather than just one, I feel it made me postpone a few things), when other feelings were reappearing made me reassess a lot of music. Everything seemed so much more enjoyable. Some albums that had nearly passed me by or I’d shrugged shoulders at sounded very good, and the best ones sounded amazing. I might have gone a little over the top when posting the 5albums22 series, but I was in that kind of happy place. As such, I think there will be quite a big list below of ‘albums that were great’ but without tunes directly attached throughout the year in terms of me listening again and again. Sure, this is confused but the last week of the year was quite emotional. I was a bit ill on Christmas day, but I decided to make a bigger shake up than usual in my flat, clearing space, and making my place able to have guests (and so I felt happy to at last have people around in early 2023), and feel far tidier, and also have enough room to truly start on the music again, something I’d wanted to do for nearly a year (after all I did buy equipment again as far back as April), and there were other things that just made me emotionally ‘high’ yet not in any way manic. I felt I was just reconnecting with emotions and feelings, being me more than ever before, and while at a couple of points (but that’s a little of very end of 2022, beginning of 2023) I was still not listening enough to my instinct, and reasoning a little too much, I knew there were things I had to build on to keep bettering myself and my exchanges with people. Anyway, yes a very good year in the end, especially the second half, and I managed to feel some real freedom and happiness I hadn’t truly felt in years, at the contact of other people, music, and more peace within myself. But yeah, at the end of the year, I looked back and realised how much I’d moved on in 2022. There was a re-start in 2021 but 2022 was really the year I started to go to gigs again very regularly, something I hadn’t done since 2006 I think. 2022 really was about falling back in love with music, life and people. Right, on to the music, back to the start of the year!
And it started with the best….
Aurora: Cure For Me. That was one of the first albums I bought in 2022, already in January, and that was a revelation. This song is fantastic, I loved the video, I loved the music, I loved the lyrics, the voice….And after all the relistens at the end of the year, this still ended at my number one album. Too many great songs to name them all, but The Innocent and A Temporary High were probably my two other favourites.
Blood Red Shoes: MORBID FASCINATION. The start of this year was also the occasion to reacquaint myself with a band I hadn’t heard in a long time (I got their just previous releases later in the year, though I know one was included in a previous page….before I changed ideas about how to do these pages). The album is uneven, but going to see them was one of the best live gigs of the year, first of the summer and felt like one of the best evenings of music and chat (see the live review).
Yard Act: Dead Horse. Some post-punk, remember listening to this one on one of my daily walks at work, and that tune just got me going. The rhythm is good, and the lyrics reflect on the state of Britain in 2022. Not one with emotional connection but very good and I listened to it a few times, it made my ‘dance’ list that I created at the end of the year.
Mitski: Love Me More. This stuck in me for a while then, and I was happy to revisit the whole album at the end of the year. But yes, that track was just one of the best of the year and brought a lot of emotion inside.
Sea Power: Doppelgänger. Now without the ‘British’ at the start (regretfully in my opinion, but I get their point given the state of nationalism over there – and everywhere to be fair), Sea Power produced a very good album. This, Folly and Two Fingers are the highlights.
Beach House: Masquerade. Felt like later in the year, but no, it was still only February (such a dense year). Beach House released a double album, and it didn’t feel too long. The kind of dreamy music I can lose myself into. Beautiful. Check also Superstar.
Johnny Marr: Spirit Power and Soul. Johnny Marr’s album was in fact four parts, released in four instalments, and so this might have been from a little earlier as it was the first song of it, and was an instant favourite. He’s still got it.
White Lies: Am I Really Going to Die? The Whole ‘As I try not to fall apart’ released in February (and it seemed aptly titled in the context of the/my world around then) is excellent. I Don’t want to go to Mars is another favourite on it.
CMAT: No More Virgos. Something a little different, from a good album and I enjoyed this song immediately.
Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo: The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime. The most Parisian of Englishmen, away from the Libertines, in collaboration mode with a French musician, produced another lovely album, and the opening track was always a pleasant listen.
Placebo: The Prodigal. Now I kind of think of this more in the context of the end of year re-listens than when I listened it first when released in March. I mean, the live writing/list right now just follows my file that had the buys in order. I remember liking this album at the time, but once more in the rich state of feeling at the end of the year, it reached another level and I found a lot of superb songs there , some I might not have paid attention to at the time, and I found it a beautiful album easy to connect with emotionally. This one is probably the most aerial.
Charli XCX: The Good Ones. Somewhere completely different on the musical spectrum, some great pop from Charli XCX, couple of highlights on the album but really just this one song that I enjoyed, made me want to snap my fingers and dance to.
Crows: Room 156. Now I’m revisiting the year and including a track I can’t say I associate with any particular moment or time, but I’m hearing it again and think it’s one I could easily have in my head and keep there, it just works. (Side question: is there a significance to ‘156″ ? Mew had a track named 156). Too much good music in 2022, definitely. A great year on so many levels…thinking now….2023 is odd so far but hopefully will pick up like 2022, I’m doing a decent job of it now, but it’s not at the level of the first few weeks of the year.
Wet Leg: Wet Dream. They might have been slightly overhyped? The future will tell, it was a good debut, though I missed them live to have a better opinion. Sure, there was Chaise Longue (a French version was released later), but really Wet Dream is the song that I felt addicted to and bumped back in my head at various time in 2022.
Fontaines D.C. Skinty Fia. The first two albums were truly excellent, but Skinty Fia is just phenomenal. I wasn’t sure which track to select, the opening one might have been a good choice as it sets the tone, but I settled for this. Check also the fantastic I Love You.
Let’s Eat Grandma: Hall of Mirrors. I can’t believe this was released at the end of April. This track has haunted me at many points in 2022 and also in early 2023. Just something that sends me in a different place, emotional, bittersweet and just right. One of the best songs from 2022. Shame they had to cancel their concert at the PopUp in September (though the venue might have made it frustrating again) and still haven’t been around since. Check also the superb Levitation that was also in my head a lot though didn’t linger for as long over time.
Dubstar: Token. I’ve always been fond of Dubstar since their first release and have good memories of that gig at The Planet in Coventry attended with colleagues from GPT when I was on my MSc placement (Did I have a crush on Sarah Blackwood? Possibly). Didn’t know they had reformed, but this little gem of a song was a repeated listen at times. Also some of the nicest ‘famous’ people on Twitter.
Warpaint: Melting. Something more ethereal and dreamy, back to music that makes me float and stays with me. This is just beautiful.
Belle and Sebastian: Reclaim the Night. I remember listening to this, not having listened to them in ages and having only been a not particularly passionate fan and thinking ‘this is good’. And that’s the song that stuck, just great (spoiler the early 2023 album has even better ones, and was released when I was still feeling great, before a more depressive turn….but I’m getting ahead of myself….2023 is not written…will I wait until the end of that year…the change from looking back to live ‘blogging’. instead? We will see. both options offer different possibilities, it’s a choice I have to make…yes I’m truly stream of conscionsness writing this while listening to the music….and 2022 is a long year where I was spoilt for amazing music, I have to take more than one evening to do it….maybe even 3).
Porridge Radio: The Rip. That was one of the songs already played before the release of the album at the April gig in La Boule Noire that caught my ear. The rest of the album does not reach me the way the previous one did, and in fact after that gig, I bought a couple of singles which I listened to a lot more than the whole album. So I’m here choosing this tune, but it was just because I only want to put one from the album here. But as far as the year is concerned, 7 seconds was more my Porridge Radio song. So, oh well, I will post it too to keep the theme and idea of the year in music alive and this was really part of the soundtrack of 2022! Check also another single from earlier, Good For You.
Horsegirl: Anti-Glory. Their debut was widely acclaimed, it was good, but not much really got me there beyond this opening track. But yeah, it was a top tune at a time of the year when there was a lot of good stuff but nothing that really stuck with me,.
Soccer Mommy: Shotgun. Summer started and another very good album from Sophia Allison. Couple of standout tracks (Bones to open the album), and as often, the leading single is the catcher.
MUNA: What I Want. Yes plenty of good albums mid-year, most will be listed at the bottom, given no track standout or I was too busy with other things to focus properly on new music, but this track there, yep I played it several times later, and that’s one that had the ‘stuck in the head nicely’ properties.
Metric: All Comes Crashing. Now, one of my favourite bands released an excellent album that made my top 5. I loved it on release, and I loved it on re-listen. Check also the monumental opener Doomscroller and beautiful closer Paths in the Sky. But really I’m not sure there’s a weak track in there.
Katy J Pearson: Float. From a great album, where Confession was another one I could easily remember/have posted, but this one is just beautiful.
Jamie T: Sabre Tooth. One of those songs I remember hearing first when listening to the album during one of my middays walks in Parc de Sceaux. This immediately got me dancing, I listened to that one many times, and it’s one of my top tunes of 2022. Check also Old Republican from the same album.
renforshort: i thot you were cool. This was a superb track, I immediately liked it a lot and I always revisit it with pleasure. The album was strange, nearly perfect in its first half, but then the second half was so-so. At least it saved me from having one more outstanding candidates for top 5. Check also moshpit.
Empress Of: Save Me. This didn’t really have time to linger at the time for a reason or another (music overload?) but somehow is memorable. From the EP of the same name.
Pale Waves: Only Problem. This is not really subtle music, but this is efficient. Catchy, energetic, perfect hook for a mood lift or a fast drive.
King Princess: Cursed. 2022 was littered was absolute gems from artists I’d never heard of, some probably going under most people’s radar. The whole album was good, but this was a particular highlight, something to connect with anytime, lovely music, lovely voice.
mxmtoon: sad disco. A toss up between this and dance(end of the world) for selection….but the theme is the same: dance! These two tracks well worth your time like they were worth mine.
Sei Selina: The Way. I wouldn’t have come across this if she hadn’t supported Aurora live at Le Trianon. I liked her voice and the sounds, this seemed to elicit the biggest cheer, and once listening to that EP, yes, it’s the best track on it and well worth inclusion.
Kiwi Jr.: Night Vision. Memories of a concert mostly, a great discovery of this year, a happy last minute gig that brought a smile and this song was my highlight from the new album. So many good moments in 2022, and I hope 2023 can soar too, there’s hope, there are doubts but also more certainties, feeling more myself, feeling that good stuff could happen around the corner and must not be missed out on now. Funny how listening to a song brings so many memories. On the blog projects, might do one on senses, and sure as Proust and his Madeleine, songs have that effect on me.
Rina Sawayama: Holy (Til You Let Me Go). The whole album is excellent (I see now it was ‘only’ at number 4 in my end of year list, but that’s how tough making that list was), I loved it instantly, but there was so much music I didn’t listen to it that much. When came time to revisit and in this emotional state at the end of the year, it was just ‘wow’ after ‘wow’ after ‘wow’. It’s varied (check the more rocking Frankenstein), and I can’t single out many individual songs as there are so many top tunes. But this one I listened to so many times in the last weeks of 2022 and first weeks of 2023. It just makes me go and dance and feel…and it’s bringing contrasting emotions…I think it made me escape from the actual reality at times…it’s really…one of my favourite tunes of all times.
Death Cab for Cutie: Pepper. An excellent album from an ancient band. This tune lingered in my mind very naturally and still found its way spontaneously a few times in 2023 so far too. A very beautiful song.
Editors: Heart Attack. Most of the music I buy these days, I read reviews, see if I’m tempted, have a quick preview of some of the tracks on iTunes then decide. I hadn’t heard of Editors since the second album I think? And I was ‘wow, they’ve changed!’. Quite like the energy in that. I remember listening to this on my way to the Just Mustard concert in Hasard Ludique and being impressed. Most of the goodness is in the first half of the album, but it’s kind of dancey rock, there was an energy I like there.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Wolf. Yes, I know this list is getting long (and I haven’t yet gone to non-2022 tracks that were meaningful during the year), but it really was a very rich year personally and musically (both often go hand in hand….oh yes and even Arsenal came good in the second part of the year, it’s almost like all the stars aligned). So yeah, the YYYs album, slightly inconsistent? Possibly but this track is just great and worth staying between your ears.
Beth Orton: Arms Around A Memory. From another album from a well established artist I’d heard about but never heard the works of. I was instantly seduced by it, and this track is just hauntingly beautiful, one of 2022’s gems. Really, I’ll repeat myself but 2022 spoilt me, there was pop, there were dance tracks, there was great rock, dream music, and some ethereal gems. Dream, dance, love, live, it had everything. And here I am revisiting the yearagain, in a slightly different place/state than at the end of the year for the five albums, but equally impressed by the music and emotions.
Sorry: Again. A bit difficult to single out tracks on Sorry’s excellent second album, but I think somehow the closer is the one that lingered in my head the longest both live and on record. But there are so many good ones. Still a new band, but coming in leaps and bounds and so far one of the best gigs of 2023.
As I’m doing evenings at the moment due to work and impending trip to London tomorrow, I’m starting to think that, as feared yesterday, two evenings won’t be enough to cover 2022.
Orbital featuring Sleaford Mods: Dirty Rat. On the Orbital album soon to be released in 2023. This is an absolute banger! One of my favourites from the end of the year. Just gets me pumped up.
Taylor Swift: You’re on your own, Kid. I fear I’m going slightly overboard with some of the selections. It’s not my favourite TS album or song, but somehow I seemed to keep this one a bit, though I’m not sure if it just feels it’s just like any other Taylor Swift song. But since the list is overlong (yet you’ll see below even on the remaining many (twenty or so?) good albums I still have to mention, there’s a handful that might have merited the YT treatment if this does). But yeah, this song is very good, it’s got the pace I like, and the right instrumentation.
Tove Lo: Call on Me. The album was both close and far from the top 5. I liked some tracks instantly but those few weeks end of December and early January, it was just right. That particular tune I danced to on the metro platform after a dinner when I stayed overnight at friends. So yeah, the album has a few too many duds, but the highs are very high. A sample of Popcorn on 2 Die 4, but the best others are Suburbia and Pineapple Slice, some of the tunes are just natural dance music that make you just want to let your body do the talking, quite sexy indeed. But yeah Call on Me was one of the top top tunes of 2022 and just my biggest listen of the end of the year and early 2023….and I still love it. One that inspired me to make a dance playlist that I still wish to play at a party but in the end I didn’t have the heart or means to organise a proper birthday party for my big birthday, it stayed a dream to have all the people I love around, family and friend from all the countries, just listening to music.
The Big Moon: Wide Eyes. Something totally different now. The album was an instant hit with me, superb from start to finish. It’s this weird thing (there were a few that year, but this one was at another level) when an album is just fabulous but I can’t really say one song stayed in my mind for a long time, but it was so good the first time I listened to it, and it was so good at the end of the year, and this song is just majestic. Somehow listening to it again today, it feels like one of the best of the year.
And I think I’ll stop here for tonight and will finish on Sunday. I’m ‘in October’ now, but I also have to put the pre-2022 tunes that made the year.
Carly Rae Jepsen: Beach House. Slightly stretching it, out of a not very memorable album, and this was a fleeting memory, but this is good pop that you can easily remember.
A.A. Williams: Pristine. Now for something completely different, from one of the best albums of the year, and for more introspective moments. A majestic, sprawling number.
The last quarter of the year had a few very good releases but maybe less new stuff that stuck in the head. There were also far more gigs to go too, so a lot of music to revisit, so some older tracks I will post below. A couple of tunes left though from 2022.
First Aid Kit: Out of My Head. The opening track from their new album was an instant hit with me. But sadly, after this initial success at making me giddy and swinging in rhythm, the rest of the album left me rather cold.
Mint Julep: Daydream. One last one from the year. For some reason I was browsing them on bandcamp (probably caught in one of those rabbit holes), so saw there were a few singles I hadn’t got, and this one just released earlier in the year really caught my attention. Does what it says on the tin, perfect for daydreaming, I do like my ‘dream pop’. Listen to this, and get floating and dreaming away. Beautiful.
So that’s it for 2022, but throughout the year there have been a few tunes I listened to (and you’re lucky, with my change of policy, there’s one less as Blood Red Shoes’ God Complex is in the 2018 post. Oh, and I’m also saving you from new music from The Cure played in 2022, because it’s still to be released officially whether live or, if it ever happens, in studio form. But you can find live versions on youtube and it sure was a huge part of my life’s soundtrack for the last month of the year, and especially on Christmas day. So yes, check in particular: Alone, Endsong and A Fragile Thing).
Maximilian Hecker: Daylight. The 5 albums series made me revisit a few albums. Sometimes reappraise a few favourites, but sometimes if I had the time, I made the effort to listen to all the albums I owned. And this unveiled a few gems that had passed me by for a reason or another. Rose, from 2003, is one such, the album’s pretty good, but this track is just beautiful.
Hard-Fi: Fire in the House. A bit more direct, but another one that got me going for a bit, still stemming from 5 albums, 2011 and Killer Sounds in this case.
Slowdive: Machine Gun. Travelling back in time to 1993 and their classic Souvlaki album, I had this tune floating in my head for a bit, back to the daydreaming despite the song title!
The Other Two: Tasty Fish. From their debut The Other Two & You in 1992. Something lighter, just a very nice electrodance number from Stephen and Gillian from New Order (i.e not Peter Hook or Bernard Sumner, hence the humourous moniker they adopted).
Fyfe Dangerfield: Faster than the setting sun. Not so far back in time with a revisit of 2010 and this song could have been on a Guillemots album though it figures on Fyfe’s solo album, Fly Yellow Moon. It soars high and lingers in your head.
The Mary Onettes: Symmetry. Just one year back in 2009 from the album Islands, this little gem was my companion for a few days, following bonding over the band with some random person on twitter. One of labrador’s last memorable bands (though it’s probably me who just lost track in the end). Magnificent tune full of emotions. Still getting goosebumps right now listening to it.
Arab Strab: The Shy Retirer. Now this one doesn’t stem from a 5 albums series, but from seeing them live. They finished with a stripped down version of this, and it stuck in my head for a long time and came back time and time again still at the end of the year. A very beautiful song somehow, quite touching.
Birdy: Silhouette. And to finish, back to the 5 albums but only just before my lists nominally start in these pages, another beautiful song, from her 2016 album Beautiful Lies.
She’s my next gig at the time of writing, and I’m looking forward to it.
Right, that’s it for video, but if you haven’t had enough 2022 music, below is a rather big list of good to great albums released in that amazingly rich year. Some really should have made the cut given the selections above, but reasons as stated in ‘2021’mostly apply.
Boy Harsher: The Runner (Original Soundtrack). More electro goodness and to be fair, Give Me a Reason should probably have been posted near the top of the list as it was an early release.
Gangs of Youth: angel in realtime. Check spirit boy, but it’s a solid album.
The Mysterines: Reeling. Hope to see them live in a ‘better’ venue, but great rocking debut.
Sunflower Bean: Headful of Sugar. A truly excellent album, that mostly passed me by at release time, but hit the spot on late year re-listen.
Alice Glass: PREY/IV. Not Crystal Castles, but definitely can see the lineage. Check BABY TEETH. Same as for Boy Harsher, it could have made the cut.
Spiritualized: Everything Was Beautiful. Classic Spiritualized, possibly one of their best.
The Linda Lindas: Growing Up. An impressive debut album from these very young ladies.
Confidence Man: TILT. Some solid dance music there.
Lykke Li: EYEYE. She never disappoints and this is yet another consistent album from her.
Poliça: Madness. Some rather atmospheric goodness.
Sinead O’Brien : Time Bend and Break The Bower. Is that post-rock? Spoken rock? Whichever way, it’s good.
Regina Spektor: Home, before and after. An excellent album, and I probably should have included Up The Mountain, above, as it’s rather memorable.
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead: XI: BLEED HERE NOW. It’s rather long but you don’t feel it too much, it’s a classic TOD album and very good throughout.
Zola Jesus: Arkhon. See Lykke Li above for consistency remark.
Adwaith: Bato Mato. It’s all sung in Welsh, so most of us don’t have to worry about what they sing about. But the music is good anyway.
beabadobee: Beatopia. Improving with each release, this is truly worth a listen.
Skullcrusher: Quiet The Room. Some very nice folkish lo-fi there.
Stars: From Capelton Hill. Some bands are always there or thereabout and I intermittently catch up with them. But this is a great album, near the top of the list.
Stella Donnelly: Flood. Three years on from her pretty good debut, she’s produced an even better album.
The Afghan Whigs: How Do You Burn? See Stars for the comment. Different kind of music obviously.
Suede: Autofiction. Speaking of ‘veteran’ bands, Suede’s new album was excellent throughout (but didn’t mark me with individual songs, and I didn’t listen to it a lot…just the relisten brought home its quality).
Wyldest: Feed The Flowers Nightmares. Beautiful album again after the previous one, and Abilene was very close to making the video list above.
The Comet is Coming: Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam. Slightly off my normal radar, but it’s interesting, lots of sax, and kind of jazzy. Possibly jazz for people who don’t really like jazz (like me…) ?
The Snuts: Burn The Empire. Your regular indie like I thought didn’t exist anymore for new bands, but it’s quite efficient, and The Rodeo could have made the list too.
Willow: <COPINGMECHANISM> kind of new-emo type of stuff? It works though I think this could grate over time.
DE’WAYNE: My Favorite Blue Jeans. Possibly to be filed next to Willow as some sort of emo revival. Quite good stilll.
Add Cassyette: Sad girl to the same list. At least in my mind without relistening to them all.
Connie Constance: Miss Power. One of the very good albums from the end of the year, that got a bit lost due to the number of gigs and relentless pace of the last few months of 2022.
And to finish, the traditional 5albums verdict.