012: My favorite albums of 2022!

A manageable amount of excellent music.

We’re going ranked chronologically, unranked otherwise. Most of these are new, but a few archival releases simply had to be included. I can’t possibly have made it through everything released this year that might have interested me, so this is incomplete by nature. What holds true for each album here is that I fucking adore it. Anyone who has even a passing interest in my interests would do well to check out (and buy) all of this music.

Separate jazz list to come. Thanks for reading and following! I love you all. ❤️‍🔥

Cate Le Bon, Pompeii (Mexican Summer, February 4) • Listen.

This list has revealed to me that I have acquired a type and Cate Le Bon, who is only coincidentally the first here due to chronology, also happens to be a perfect icon (😏) of this type, which is Brilliant Woman Who Makes Eclectic Art-Pop.

Oksana Linde, Aquatic and Other Worlds (Buh Records, March 15) • Listen.

My favorite synth record of the year. This one is archival, consisting of music recorded from 1983-1989. Here’s a great description from Aquarium Drunkard: “The recordings that make up Aquatic are sometimes dense, creating layered and hypnotic drones (‘Intromersión,’ ‘Orinoco.’) Other times they present as playful, light, and bouncy, exercising the expressive range of the synthesizers at hand, much like the recordings of Jean-Jacques Perrey (‘Mariposas Acuáticas,’ ‘Descubrimiento.’) At the heart of each piece are magnetic, uncomplicated melodies with musical phrasings echoing both Venezuelan and Ukrainian music of different stripes.” 

Branko Mataja, Over Fields and Mountains (Numero Group, March 25) • Listen.

Another archival one, near and dear to my Yugoslavian roots. Mataja’s life story is a horrible adventure through tragic moments of history but he eventually landed in America in the ‘60s, first in Detroit and ultimately settling in LA, similar to the path taken by my relatives except we came back to Detroit. He’d been playing guitar since age 10 on his own homemade instrument and in the States, taught himself electrical engineering and built himself a home studio. He seems to have been a true gem and this music is both accessible and intimate, meditations on memory, nostalgia, and return shared in the Esperanto of the heart.

Winged Wheel, No Island (12XU, April 29) • Listen.

Noisy, artsy, kraut-shaded music with dreamy vox. “Monsella” fucking rules, a perfect opening track.

Angel Olsen, Big Time (Jagjaguwar, June 3) • Listen.

She just gets better and better. Here, I love the way she blends country so naturally into the baroque art-pop she perfected on All Mirrors.

Oren Ambarchi, Shebang (Drag City, September 30) • Listen.

A few things which I really love are happening on this album: guitar that sparkles, moments that sound like nature (crickets), and moments that sound like mechanics (airplane seat belt off/on). The artwork also rules.

Lucrecia Dalt, ¡Ay! (Rvng Intl., October 14) • Listen.

I said the list was unranked but if I had to pick a number one, it would likely be this. An intensely pleasurable listen, the music swirls in the atmosphere of experimental sensual space-age sci-fi textural art-pop. Probably the album I’ve instantly replayed the most often this year.

Carla dal Forno, Come Around (Kallista Records, November 4) • Listen.

As I stated elsewhere, this album is a brilliant example of one of my favorite modern not-quite-genres: music you might see at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. But I’m reminded of Blue Velvet too, with a tone that’s darker than Sandy Williams but not quite as dark as Dorothy Vallens. “Stay Awake” is a perfect song.

Molly Lewis, Mirage (Jagjaguwar, November 18) • Listen.

Delectable midcentury-inspired jazzy lounge featuring magnificent whistling. This is one of my most surprising discoveries of the year. Unbelievably good album art.

A few more great albums from this year!

• Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble, The Mermaid's Purse: Live at Chatham College, 1976 (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, March 4). Listen.

• Travesía, Ni un minuto m​á​s de dolor (Vampisoul, March 7). Listen.

• Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena, West Kensington (Three Lobed Recordings, May 20). Listen.

• Silvia Tarozzi & Deborah Walker, Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d‘amore (Unseen Worlds, June 10). Listen.

• The Modern Folk, Modern Folk One (WarHen Records, July 15). Listen.

• Charles Stepney, Step on Step (International Anthem, September 9). Listen.

• Maxine Funke, Pieces of Driftwood (Disciples, October 7). Listen.

• Isla Craig, Echo’s Reach (Idée Fixe, November 4). Listen.

• Mike Baggetta, Jim Keltner, Mike Watt, Everywhen We Go (BIG EGO Records, November 18). Listen.

• Roy Montgomery, Camera Melancholia (Grapefruit Records, November 25). Listen.

I feel the need to add that for reasons I won’t get into, I have not yet listened to the new Weyes Blood or Bill Callahan records in full, which is why you don’t see either of them on this list!

Currently Reading: Greed by Elfriede Jelinek; The Employees by Olga Ravn; The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy; The Two Towers by Tolkien; The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

(I hope Tyler Wilcox of Doom & Gloom From The Tomb fame [who recently added Substack to the list of places where you can brush up on his great music recommendations] doesn’t mind if I borrow his ‘Currently Reading’ send-off.)