Black Country, New Road - Ants from Up There
Ants from Up There may be the single greatest album about failure ever recorded. Isaac Wood’s intimate lyrics are less poetry than a confessional: personal insecurities, social anxiety, and isolation paint the landscapes of Black Country, New Road’s world. The portraits presented are intimate and yet elliptical: crumbs of toast scattered in a bed are the insidious signs of a relationship’s dissolution; tabletop RPG characters become stand-ins rejecting English nationalism; wet dreams of Charli XCX are portents of masculine insecurity; while a song about messing up cooking while following a YouTube tutorial evokes fears of failure and inadequacy. These probing psychological explorations are propelled by one of 2022’s greatest musical evolutions: the Slint-meets-klezmer band sounds of their debut are completely uprooted, exchanged for lusher chamber pop compositions that evoke the likes of Talk Talk, Sufjan Stevens, and Wolf Parade. There are even nods to pre-rock popular music such as the music hall touches on “Chaos Space Marine” and “Bread Song.” Then there is the band’s use of space on these compositions, which results less in songs than worlds to inhabit (see the masterfully sustained tension on “Snowglobes” or the near-ambient passages of “Good Will Hunting”). While this appears to be Isaac Wood’s last album with the band he helped to found, he is leaving on a high note, with Ants from Up There acting us Black Country, New Road’s magnum opus.
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
In a year of incredible double albums, none seemed as sprawling or as satisfying as Big Thief’s whimsically titled Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. The album acts as a revelation in many ways. We see Big Thief eke away from their usual somber bleary-eyed folk to embrace noisy indie rock, country sing-alongs, orchestral pop, and rhythmic trip hop. Yet the even bigger reveal is just how fun the band can be. Sure, Adrianne Lenker still can break your heart and make you weep on the more intimate cuts, but tracks like “Spud Infinity” and “Blue Lightning” are just plain fun, complete with non-sense lyrics and in-between band banter. This is the sound of a group letting their hair down, taking their selves slightly less seriously, and coming across all the better for it. There is nary a dud across these twenty songs, and the overall experience shows Big Thief to be more than just another maudlin indie folk act: this astonishing turn shows the band to be one of the most versatile and ambitious acts working today.
black midi - Hellfire
Jazz-rock. Prog-punk. Baroque-noise. There are a dozen labels one could cast on black midi, each feeling somewhat right yet ultimately off. The greatest compliment to pay a band these days is to admit nothing else quite sounds like them, and while there are elements of Scott Walker, Captain Beefheart, and King Crimson in the London trio’s sound, there is no mistaking the group for anyone else. Like the shifting visceral hellscape of the album cover, Hellfire’s sound is constantly in flux. This Heat style postpunk breaks down into Jacque Brel theatrics. Laser focused punk rhythms morph into acid jazz. Geordie Greep’s vocals threaten to shift from wavering baritone to barked shrieks at a moment’s notice. The album’s a constant reminder that, hey buddy, don’t get too comfortable: everything changes, nothing is free from mutability. Considering the comfort we seek in the assurance of patterns and predictability, it only makes sense that black midi compose a hell from an ever shifting wasteland. Yet give yourself over to it, embrace the pull of the flux, and you may find the hellfire not too bad to drift in. For all it offers, and all the album refuses to do, Hellfire is one of the most startling and original works of the year.
1. The Chats - Ticket Inspector (Get Fucked - Bargain Bin Records - 2022)
2. Osees - Funeral Solution (A Foul Form - Castle Face - 2022)
3. Fruit Tones - Don’t Speak A Language (Pink Wafer Factory - Alien Snatch Records - 2022)
4. Fake Palms - Visions (Lemons - Hand Drawn Dracula - 2022)
5. Susans - Nine (Susans - Painters Tapes/Tedious Medium - 2022)
6. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Magnificent Hurt (The Boy Named If - EMI/Capitol Records - 2022)
7. Fontaines D.C. – Jackie Down the Line (Skinty Fia - Partisan/Rough Trade - 2022)
8. White Lung – Date Night (Premonition - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022)
9. Kamikaze Nurse – Boom Josie (Stimuloso - Sub Pop - 2022)
11. Soul Glo – Thumbsucker (Diaspora Problems - Epitaph Records - 2022)
12. Animal Collective – Dragon Slayer (Time Skiffs - Domino Records - 2022)
13. Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Gettin’ to the Point (Reset - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022)
15. The Burning Hell - Birdwatching (Garbage Island - You've Changed Records - 2022)
16. Steven Lambke - Sea Level (Volcano, Volcano - You've Changed Records - 2022)
19. Juliana Riolino - Why Do I Miss You (All Blue - You've Changed Records - 2022)
21. The Paranoyds - Lizzie (Talk Talk Talk - Third Man Records - 2022)
22. Black Angels - History of the Future (Wilderness of Mirrors - Partisan Records - 2022)
23. The Volebeats - You Get Closer (Lonesome Galaxy - Mad Bunny Records - 2022)
24. Ghost Woman - All the Time (Ghost Woman - Full Time Hobby - 2022)
25. The Sadies - Ginger Moon (Colder Streams - Dine Alone Records/Yep Roc Records - 2022)
26. Aldous Harding – Tick Tock (Warm Chris - 4AD/Flying Nun Records - 2022)
27. Alex G – Runner (God Save the Animals - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022)
29. Wilco – Mystery Binds (Cruel Country - dBpm Records - 2022)
1. Alvvays – Pomeranian Spinster (Blue Rev - Polyvinyl - 2022)
2. Wet Leg – Supermarket (Wet Leg - Domino Records - 2022)
3. Beach House – Once Twice Melody (Once Twice Melody - Mistletoe Records - 2022)
4. Angel Olsen – Big Time (Big Time - Jagjaguwar - 2022)
5. Big Thief – Blue Lightening (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - 4AD - 2022)
6. Ty Segall - Over (Hello, Hi - Drag City Records - 2022)
8. Bloodshot Bill - Spitfire (Songs From The Sludge - Hi-Tide Recordings - 2022)
9. Apollo Ghosts - Acid Jenny (Pink Tiger - You've Changed Records - 2022)
10. By Divine Right - Fuzzy Empires (Otto Motto - Fortune Stellar Records - 2022)
11. Wolfmanhattan Project - H Hour (Summer Forever and Ever - In The Red Records - 2022)
12. Jon Spencer & the HITmakers - Push Comes to Shove (Spencer Gets It Lit! - In The Red Records - 2022)
13. Dry Cleaning - Conservative Hell (Stumpwork - 4AD - 2022)
14. black midi – Welcome to Hell (Hellfire - Rough Trade Records - 2022)
15. Destroyer – Tintoretto, It’s For You (Labyrnthitis - Merge Records - 2022)
16. The Smile – We Don't Know Tomorrow Brings (A Light for Attracting Attention - XL Recordings - 2022)
17. Black Country, New Road – Good Will Hunting (Ants from Up There - Ninja Tune - 2022)
18. Preoccupations - Slowly (Arrangements - Flemish Eye - 2022)
19. Viagra Boys - Punk Rock Loser (Cave World - Year0001 - 2022)
20. CLAMM - Monday (Care - Chapter Music - 2022)
21. Dion Lunadon - Living and Dying With You (Beyond Everything - In The Red Records - 2022)
22. Weird Nightmare - Lusitania (Weird Nightmare - Sub Pop - 2022)
23. Sloan - Dream It All Over Again (Steady - Murder Records - 2022)
24. Kiwi Jr. - Parasite II (Chopper - Sub Pop Records - 2022)
25. Weak Signal - Spooky Feeling (War&War - 2022)
26. Baby Giant - Brightside (All Day Dreaming - 2022)