Best Of 2022: Rock, Folk, Etc.

I won't claim that any of the artists below are saviors of rock & roll as that would imply a genre on life-support. Only people who confuse music with the music business might make such a claim. As long as one person is listening, a genre is alive and the ripples outward from that individual's experience are unknowably vast. That's not to say, however, that everything I cover here (or in my Top 25) is obscure. Artists like Wet Leg, Wilco, Arctic Monkeys, Björk, and Father John Misty all have millions of listeners, after all. As for the ones that count their fans in the hundreds or thousands, perhaps they're meant to be more of a boutique or niche experience - and who doesn't love being part of an exclusive club? So, push past the velvet rope and find your own V.I.P. listening room among the releases below, starting with ones previously covered. Press play on this playlist or below to hear a track from most of them.

Record Roundup: 22 For 22 (Part Two)
Laney Jones - Stories Up High
Father John Misty - Chloe And The Next 20th Century Katie Dey - Forever Music (See also The Kraken EP, featuring songs based on Tennyson, etc.)
Dexy - Sleeping Through Summer
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention (See also Live At Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022)
Spoon - Lucifer On The Sofa (See also Lucifer On The Moon, Adrian Sherwood's dub remix of the whole album)

The Best Of 2022 (So Far)
Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever

Record Roundup: Evocative Voices
Ethan Woods - Burnout
Billie Eilish - Guitar Songs

Record Roundup: Songcraft
Björk - Fossora
The Soft Hills - Viva Che Vede
Tchotchke - s/t

Record Roundup: Autumn Flood, Pt. 2
Rachael Dadd - Kaleidoscope
Bonny Light Horseman - Rolling Golden Holy
Frankie Cosmos - Inner World Peace
Winter - What Kind Of Blue Are You?

Record Roundup: Autumn Flood, Pt. 3
The Stargazer Lilies - Cosmic Tidal Wave
Pale Dian - Feral Birth 

NOISIER

Starcrawler - She Said On their first two albums, the trajectory of this L.A. band, from the "sloppy, grinding" filth of the 2018 debut to the "intoxicating" blend of primal urges with a bit more sophistication of 2019's Devour You, was a total thrill ride. On album three, we find a leveling off, with much the same variety they gave us on Devour You, delivered with plenty of conviction but without the sense of discovery. Still, there plenty of the short, sharp shocks we expect, like Roadkill, which opens the album in blistering form, and True (original title: Deranged), which blasts past like a roaring train. Midnight and Better Place are both more reflective, with guitarist Henri Cash showing off his skills at layering acoustic and electric textures. The anthemic Stranded and bouncy Thursday come closest to pointing in new directions, for an album that satisfies but never quite hits the transgressive heights singer Arrow de Wilde shows off on stage. Once they figure out how to inject more of that back into their studio material, watch out!

Lifeguard - Crowd Can Talk Like their Chicago compatriots Horsegirl, this trio of high schoolers seems to have heard all the best indie/art rock records and have the skill to combine noise, melody, and a rhythmic drive into something that feels fresh. These four songs definitely have me eager for more, which is why I hope to catch them opening for Horsegirl at House Of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ on July 22nd. Look for a date near you.

Bodega - Broken Equipment and Xtra Equipment While I found it "kind of thrilling when they flex their pop muscles" on their 2019 EP, Shiny New Model, had it been an album I think I would have missed their sharper edges. I'm delighted to report that they've figured out how to salt the high energy, angular sound of their classic debut with the clever and catchy tunefulness of the EP. Lyrically, they're still pursuing their critique of modern society from an ironic distance that can be witty and inspiring ("This city’s made for the doers. The movers shakers. Not connoisseurs./This city’s made for the doers. The movers shakers. Health food reviewers." - from Doers) but can also be so obvious that it feels almost condescending ("Craven is the island that we all come from. New York was founded by a corporation." - from NYC (Disambiguation)). In fact, if not for that quality, this likely would have been in my Top 25 like the first one. Once they remember that their audience is likely as smart as they are, classic status will be once again in their grasp. Xtra Equipment, a collection of B-sides, leftover tracks, alternate takes, and covers, finds them expanding their palette yet again, with the sweetly reflective doo wop of Memorize w/ yr Heart and the electro of Post yr Kilimanjaro (Doers 2.0) pointing to an exciting future. 

No Knuckle - S/T On their second self-titled record, this Portland, OR post-punk trio has their take on the sound down to a science, all taut bass lines, jagged guitars, driving drums, and quirky vocals. But the sheer adrenaline and canny songwriting keep it fun instead of rote. Also, at nine songs in 20 minutes, there's no chance they'll overstay their welcome.

2nd Grade - Easy Listening While far more straightforward than Palm or Empath, this vehicle for the songs of Peter Gill is another fine example of how vital the Philadelphia scene is these days. With ringing guitars, bittersweet melodies, and lyrics to match ("You’re one step ahead of me/And I’m one hundred steps behind/Where I oughta be/But I’ll go there some other time," as Gill sings in Strung Out On You), 2nd Grade will slot nicely into your collection near Big Star and The Replacements. Guitarist/vocalist Catherine Dwyer, whose voice adds a nice counterpoint to Gill, is one secret weapon that sets them apart, but the songs are strong enough to do that on their own.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Endless Rooms After the new heights of 2020's Sideways To New Italy, it would be greedy to expect another leap from this Melbourne band, but I'm happy to report that their songwriting, employment of dynamics, and guitar layering all continue to advance. The inclusion of  field recordings is an original touch, too, lending a true sense of place - and time, i.e. the late pandemic. Making this record helped get them through Australia's many lockdowns, now its here to help you with whatever challenge you need to power through.

LESS NOISY

Princess Chelsea - Everything Is Going To Be Alright If you, like me, are not one of the millions of people who streamed or watched Chelsea Nikkel's 2011 song Cigarette Duet, this latest album, her fifth, might actually be a better place to start. While the title track keeps her twee cred intact, The Forest embraces power and repetition in a heavy yet controlled way that makes the building apotheosis truly cathartic. As a second track, it's slightly oddly placed as where do you go after catharsis? But her charming, well-constructed songs just win you over each time, whether the baroque pop of Time or the draggy lysergia of Dream Warrior. Score another win for New Zealand!

King Hannah - I'm Not Sorry, I'm Just Being Me I had already spent some time with this Liverpool Band's sepulchral folk-blues before seeing them at Indieplaza. That performance cemented my impression that Hannah Merrick and Craig Whittle were on to something, with Merrick's moody, haunted vocals perfectly complimented by Whittle's spare, rattling guitar. A few songs feature Whittle singing and his voice is less distinctive than Merrick's, but the mood is sustained throughout. Don't be surprised if you hear a song like The Moods That I Get In or Foolius Caesar in David Lynch's next project - they'll work a treat.

S.G. Goodman - Teeth Marks While most of my knowledge of rural Kentucky comes from binging episodes of the classic series Justified, this second album rings out with the same absolute authenticity as her first. Perhaps even more confident than on 2020's marvelous Old Time Feeling, her range is powerfully on display between the searing a cappella of You Were Someone I loved and the working-class blues of Work Until I Die. The latter makes a great pair with Food For Thought by Mattiel, another artist incapable of singing a false note. 

Charlie Reed - Eddy Not a person, but a six (or seven?) piece band led by cosmic Americana dreamer Luke Trimble. There's a touch of late Beatles here, too - like, really late, think Real Love or Free As A Bird. Assured and very sweet, let yourself get pulled in by their sunny melodies and wide-ranging sound, with pedal-steel coexisting with mellotron, all yoked to some truly fine expressions of the bittersweet nature of existence. 

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Dear Scott The last album by this near-legendary Liverpudlian songwriter, Adiós Señor Pussycat, was one of 2017's most delightful surprises. A five-year wait dampened some of the momentum and may be the main reason I struggled to connect with this one. But it really is nearly as good, with songs either breezy and sparkling or dreamy and reflective creating jewel-like settings for Head's hard-won, yet still optimistic, wisdom. Never one to pontificate, his philosophy might be best encapsulated in the refrain from Gino And Rico: "Life is for living and living is for life/It's all in a day's work, tonight." Words to live by and tunes to match is what you can expect from this latest gem from the magical world of Michael Head.

Gabriel's Dawn - s/t Like The Clientele, this English band wears their influences on their (striped) sleeves, with a deep love for jangly, harmony-drenched, Laurel Canyon folk pop coming through loud and clear on this debut. But it's not just their enthusiasm that vaults this above mere revivalism, it's the songs, which breeze by in a rush of emotions like first love, first disillusionment, first sorrow. Fresh, is what this is, with ingeniously layered guitars and keyboards, swinging rhythms, and blissful harmonies. Kudos to guitarist Leon Jones for his production, which shaped these lockdown sessions, with band members often recording separately, into something warm and cohesive. 

Thus Love - Memorial This band from Brattleboro, VT, are not shy about presenting themselves as "self-identifying trans artists," but even more germane to the listener is their absolute adoration of 80s post-punk and dream pop. Bizarrely enough, I might prefer their take on the sound, with its heavily chorused guitars, atmospheric synths, melodic bass, and splashy, driving drums, to some of the original. Call me a philistine...but blazing enthusiasm like that shown by Echo Mars (guitar, vocals, cello), Lu Racine (drums), Sophia DiMatteo (bass), and Nathaniel van Osdol (synth) is a rare thing indeed - and completely contagious on this beautifully recorded album.

Miro Shot - Loot Box Their debut album, Content, slotted into 2020's Electronic list quite nicely, with its focus on forward-thinking sonics created with an eye on their eventual realization in VR-enhanced performances. This immaculately-recorded acoustic EP, however, puts the focus on what I called Roman Rappak's "trademark vocals, alternately wry and bruised" while also pointing up the sturdy song structures and emphasizing the melancholy core of Miro Shot's concerns. 

The Orielles - Tableau Jumping into a band's career on their third album, especially one as accomplished as this, can feel a little like cheating. After all, not being there to support them through their growing pains do you deserve to reap the rewards of their current mastery? Sure. Life's too short to deny yourself the pleasure of a richly immersive and flowing series of songs like this one. Intriguingly, this Manchester-based band calls Tableau their first "truly contemporary album," which makes me curious about their first two, and also detail the myriad processes used throughout its creation, from Leo Wadada Smith's graphic scores to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. Additionally, they expanded their sound with strings and electronics, although even a new listener can tell that the trio of vocalist and bassist Esmé Hand-Halford, drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford, and guitarist Henry Carlyle-Wade remains the core of what they do. The results take you on a journey, from driving songs like Chromo II and Television to abstractions like The Improvisation 001 and Some Day Later, to others, like The Room and Transmission, which combine both impulses. I'm glad I discovered the Orielles, albeit belatedly, but if you miss this opportunity to start becoming a fan, that's on you.

Turnover - Myself In The Way The striking, die-cut cover, painted by bassist Dan Dempsey, caught my daughter's eye at Rough Trade, leading us to investigate further. We were pleasantly surprised to find a an album of sweetly melancholy pop songs, often disco-inflected and occasionally psychedelic. Mountains Made Of Clouds is a perfect example of the latter impulse, with watery strumming, birdsong, and a shuffling beat adding up to a transporting result. Bre Morell of Crushed, whose Extra Life EP just came out, duets with singer Austin Getz on Ain't Love Heavy, which cranks up the string synth, hands the hi hat to Isaac Hayes, and lets the dance floor fill with couples on their way to breaking up. Judging this consistently great album by its cover turned out to be entirely appropriate. We would have been even more surprised by how good it is had we been aware of the band's beginnings over a decade ago, when they were on some kind of emo tip. But we won't hold that against them!

Historian - Light Goes Out Ten albums in and Chris Karman keeps refining his dreamy chamber pop template. While this one has the now requisite strings and other orchestral touches, he also adds James Paul Mitchel's pedal steel, adding even more starlit grace than we've come to expect. Recorded at the same time as 2021's Out Of Season, this shares all the virtues of that earlier release. Since Shelf Life in 2013, Karman has been a supremely reliable source of decorous and resonant song craft. Let him decorate and resonate in whatever space you listen.

Living Hour - Someday Is Today It took three albums for this Winnipeg-based band to reach my ears. Maybe that's because they're from Winnipeg or it could be that they just hooked up with the excellent folks at Riot Act Media, who dropped this expansive indie-rock gem in my inbox. Although, working with such worthies as Melina Duterte (AKA Jay Som) and Jonathan Schenke, who has collaborated with indie gems like Parquet Courts, Snail Mail, and The Drums, and released on Kanine Records, from whence came the perpetually underrated Coasting by Honey Cutt, I think I would have got here somehow. But all those bona fides would count for nothing if the songs weren't so good and delivered with such assurance. Hump is just one example from late in the album, a slow-burner that gains force without ever gaining volume or tempo, guitar, bass, and drums in an inexorable but airy lockstep, while the vocals grow ever more hypnotic. Come under the power of Living Hour, not someday but today.

SYNTH-BASED

Grace Ives - Janky Star There is nothing janky about the solid melodic architecture Ives employs on song after song on this short, sweet, and tart project. Take Angel Of Business, with a verse that moves up by half steps, seemingly leading you to some kind of nirvana that never quite arrives, a stairway to...a few flights below heaven. But that kind of tease just makes the repeat button command to be struck. Then there's Lazy Day, as blissful and swinging as an early Madonna song, yet without the hard sell baked into every gesture. The musical underpinnings she builds are also sturdy, little engines of programmed drums, synth bass, and electronic keyboards, with occasional guitar or piano. She sings all these songs in an airy soprano, as natural as breathing, and often as relatable as your best friend: "Wait/I just wanted to relate/It only took me like 300 tries/Just to motivate," as she notes on Angel Of Business. However much effort it took for her to get here - and this is her third album - it all sounds delightfully easy peasy.

Automatic - Excess This electro-pop trio from L.A. was one of many bright discoveries at last year's IndiePlaza Festival and their taut bass lines, motorik drumming, swooping, burbling, and buzzing analog synths, and deadpan vocals are equally diverting on this terrific record. And, in contrast to the title, there's no fat on these carbon-steel bones.

Sofie Royer - Harlequin As a fan of her marvelous curatorial skills, I wasn't quite convinced by Cult Survivor, her 2020 debut as an artist, and I was even less sure after a tentative performance of mostly newer material at IndiePlaza. Fortunately, all of that is dispelled by this far more assured collection, with her 70s-cabaret-disco-decadence approach coming fully into focus. Baker Miller Pink, with its effulgent keyboards, tart rhythm guitar, handclaps, and four-on-the-floor rhythm is a standout, and is sure to reduce any hostilities at your next party as effectively as the "drunk-tank pink" to which the title refers. But any of these clever confections will liven up a playlist while adding a touch of European sophistication.

Mitski - Laurel Hell I'm not a die-hard, so I haven't ridden the rollercoaster with her fans around the announced retirement in 2019 then the (inevitable?) comeback with Working For The Knife in 2021. That song, which seemed to grapple with her career fears ("I used to think I'd be done by twenty/Now at twenty-nine, the road ahead appears the same/Though maybe at thirty, I'll see a way to change/That I'm living for the knife.") over a brick-hard beat, doomy synth, baroque piano, and dramatic guitars, now finds a home on what may be her finest album yet. Or at least the one that appeals to me the most. Tracks like Stay Soft, Heat Lightning, and I Guess show her complete mastery at assembling arresting (mostly) electronic environments for her introspective songwriting. The last track, That's Our Lamp, goes a bit overboard, but it almost sounds like she's having fun, which is refreshing. And since I'm not a die-hard, I'll try not to read too much into lyrics like "I guess, I guess/I guess this is the end/I'll have to learn/To be somebody else." After all, she's already very good at being Mitski.

FOLKISH

Skyway Man & Andy Jenkins - Nothing No. 1 It's been a long wait since Jenkins's sublime Sweet Bunch in 2018, a hiatus that was slightly softened by The Garden Opens, a fine EP from 2019, so just hearing his voice on this collaborative release is a balm to the soul. As a bonus, Molly Sarlé, who got a bit of play around here with her excellent Karaoke Angel album in 2019, also lends her dulcet voice to the project. And Skyway Man? He seems to fit right in with the cosmic, soulful Americana for which Jenkins and other Spacebomb artists are known. Holding onto this like a little life raft until the next Jenkins opus. Let it be soon.

Patrick Watson - Better In The Shade This brief (21-minute) collection is a reminder of what makes Watson so special: the voice like a cloud, the Satie-esque piano, the existential attitude of a chain-smoker of Gauloises. Even better was seeing him in full flight with the Attaca string quartet in Central Park last summer, but this is as lovely a calling card as I could hope for.

Caroline - s/t In this day and age, few bands have the patience to wait five years to put out a debut album. But getting eight players to gel, as they do so beautifully on this album, takes time, as does arriving at a sound that has a familiar warmth but doesn't sound precisely like anything else. There's some of the (mock?) solemnity and fireside minimalism of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra here as well as a touching relationship with a current strain of UK post-rock - think Black Country New Road, yet pursued more profitably. It's arty, it's folky, and, even at its oddest, it creates a palpable sense of friendship while you listen, something ever more valuable in these times.

POPPISH

Girlpuppy - When I'm Alone While Becca Harvey's sound is very different from that of Faye Webster or Mattiel, it's great to hear another sign of life from Atlanta on this richly produced series of songs. Over tunes that sometimes opt for a 90s guitar chug and at other times drift into more dreamy territory, Harvey's sweet voice delivers some bitter pills about the pitfalls of modern relationships. As she sings on Revenant: "i’m waiting for you to leave/now, sick of checking my phone and seeing your name/i wish i knew how to forget everything/that’s ever happened to me." The sound overall is detailed, with layers of guitars, keyboards, and strings adding up to a polished yet personal result. Multi-instrumentalists Samuel Acchione (who also produced) and John Michael Young put in most of the work creating those layers and it was time well spent on these fine songs.

NoSo - Stay Proud Of Me As proven by a quick dive on YouTube, Abby Hwong is a guitar virtuoso who has wisely learned to turn down all the tricky stuff they used to play and let the focus be on the songs. And fine songs they are, dealing with the ups and downs of identity and romance in a tuneful and deceptively breezy fashion. "I'm envious of straight hips/Jangling nerves, simple limbs/Oh, I couldn't swim/fFast enough/But I made it out/Halfway done," Hwong sings in I Feel You, covering a lot of ground in a few words before the song switches to a coda that calls you to the dance floor. With sleek production, a beautiful voice, and wise pop songs, NoSo has put together a remarkably assured debut album that will have you marveling at their craft while never drawing attention to it.

C. Duncan - Alluvium The title refers to a deposit of silt, gravel, etc., left behind by running water, which might be slightly ironic as this fourth album is all running water, flowing gently past my ears and continuing through to the ether. This does mean it took me longer to connect to it than his last, 2019's Health, which featured tunes "as catchy as heck" and hit my Top 25. But there are few hoeing the row of sophisticated, synthetic pop better than Duncan these days, so grasp these diaphanous wisps of optimistic song as tightly as they'll let you. 

Faye Webster - Car Therapy Sessions This orchestral EP of one new and four reimagined songs is pop in the sense that Julie London or Joni James would easily recognize. And with Spacebomb's Trey Pollard behind the arrangements, the surroundings are not only as rich and lush as a room full of whipped cream but also phenomenally tasteful. The older songs, including Kind Of (here called Kind Of (Type Of Way)), a standout from 2021's brilliant I Know I'm Funny HaHa, slot perfectly into this expanded sound world, and the one new song, Car Therapy, takes advantage of them from the start. A gorgeous consolidation of all that makes Webster special, I'm now dreaming of her take on James' version of Little Girl Blue.

Beabadoobee - Beatopia The buzz for Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus's 2020 debut album, Fake It Flowers, was tough to ignore but I found it sounded too...familiar, with pale echoes of 90s bands that had limited appeal in the first place. But at my daughter's urging I tried again with Beatopia and it was totally worth it. The leap between albums is quite extraordinary to my ears, with her intimate, slightly child-like voice now assaying everything from string-laden folk (Ripples) to bossa nova (The Perfect Pair) to some orchestral pop of her own (Lovesong). While I listened, I kept saying to myself, "How did she get so GOOD?" She put in the work, that's how. Now it's up to you to make the effort to listen.

There's more goodness of this sort to be found in this archive playlist - plus, keep up with 2023 here.

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2021: Rock, Folk, Etc.
Best Of 2020: Rock, Folk, Etc.
Best Of 2019: Rock, Folk, Etc. 
Best Of 2018: Rock, Folk, Etc. 
Best Of 2017: Rock, Folk, Etc.
Best Of 2016: Rock, Folk, Etc.

Best Of 2020 (So Far)

Typically, the way I make these lists is by scanning through my posts from the year, looking at Spotify playlists, and then dragging songs or pieces into a draft playlist. If it's more than 25 tracks long, I begin the process of narrowing it down. The main criteria is not "excellence," as that's where I focus my listening and my writing, but rather more a question of survival. To what music am I cleaving in order to get through the year? In times of strife, which is a polite way of describing the shit-show garbage fire that is 2020, many turn to the music of old and I have certainly spent some time with Bowie, The Beatles, Bob Marley, and Young Marble Giants, among others. But I have this engine inside that propels me towards the new and this year has been as generous as any in that regard. I am at a loss for words to describe the appreciation I feel toward any artist who has pushed past inertia and given us sounds that nourish us. Some of them are listed below. P.S. As usual, if I've covered the album before, just click on the title for more information.

Listen as you read here or below!




1. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways There may yet be a shelf of books written on this almost overwhelming expression of creative fecundity. As Tim Sommer pointed out recently, the Never Ending Tour deserves its own place among Dylan's artistic achievements, but it should be noted that, like the three albums of Tin Pan Alley songs he's released since 2012's brilliant Tempest, that is an arena for interpretation rather than creation. So when he sings, "I'm falling in love with Calliope/She don't belong to anyone, why not give her to me?" in Mother Of Muses, you get a hint of the hunger he might have been feeling to get the plug back in the socket and start writing new songs. But who knows? There's a vagueness about when these songs were written or recorded. When he dropped Murder Most Foul back in April, catching the world by surprise, he coyly noted, "This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting." Coy, and the understatement of the year. These songs are all "interesting," at the very least, not to mention funny, smart, and displaying a full palette of emotions. They are also eminently quotable, from the ur-braggadocio of "I’m first among equals - second to none/I’m last of the best - you can bury the rest/Bury ‘em naked with their silver and gold/Put ‘em six feet under and then pray for their souls" (False Prophet) to the stark reality of "I can see the history of the whole human race/It’s all right there - its carved into your face" (My Own Version Of You), but while this is a wordy album, the sound of it is just as notable. Unlike Tempest, with its lapidary attention to each instrument, Dylan's production this time around often turns the band into a single unit, either dealing out blues riffs so elemental as to be platonic or creating a tapestry of delicate tones and textures, creating the perfect backdrop for his singing. And what singing, displaying nuance or power as appropriate and able to convey wit or heartbreak with masterful subtlety. Just listen to the way he caresses the words and toys with the tempo when he sings "A lotta people gone/A lotta people I knew" in I've Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You, one magical moment among many on this album. Even if Dylan weren't DYLAN, Rough And Rowdy Ways would demand your attention - but only Dylan could have made it.

2. Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman

3. Molly Joyce - Breaking And Entering

4. Jonathan Wilson - Dixie Blur

5. Ted Hearne & Saul Williams - Place

6. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo After last year's triumphant Bandana, I would have forgiven Gibbs for taking the year off. But he's a man on a mission, so there was no time to wait. After working with Madlib, almost any other producer would have been a comedown, but The Alchemist is fully up to the challenge of goading Gibbs to new heights. The results never fail to entertain or inspire, with the latter best represented by the most apropos lines of the year: "The revolution is the genocide/Yeah, my execution might be televised" - words being worn right now on a t-shirt at a protest near you. Gibbs once more defines the moment and it is highly unlikely there will be a better hip hop album in 2020. Maybe he should square off with Dylan and let the sparks fly!

7. Hamilton Leithauser - The Loves Of Your Life See also his charming Tiny Desk Concert.

8. Matt Evans - New Topographics

9. Ocean Music - Morsels

10. Miro Shot - Content

11. Yaeji - What We Drew

12. Jay Electronica - A Written Testament

13. Makaya McCraven and Gil Scott-Heron - We're New Again: A Reimagining

14. Nnux - Ciudad

15. Aoife Nessa Frances - Land Of No Junction

16. Car Seat Headrest - Making A Door Less Open

17. Frazey Ford - U Kin B The Sun

18. The Strokes - The New Abnormal

19. Tak Ensemble - Scott L. Miller: Ghost Layers

20. Wire - Mind Hive See also 10:20, a brilliant collection of strays and older songs reimagined.

21. John Craigie - Asterisk The Universe This is primo Americana and Craigie's most assured and varied album yet. It's his ninth studio album but don't feel bad if you never heard of him - I was in the same boat, a situation I detail in my interview with Craigie in Rock & Roll Globe. It's a rich catalog, too, but the smoky production, warmly cohesive band, and sharp songwriting here should put him in front of an even bigger audience. 

22. Honey Cutt - Coasting

23. Soccer Mommy - Color Theory

24. Them Airs - Union Suit XL I was pointed towards these New Haven art punks by Tracy Wilson's Turntable Report, which has quickly become an essential filter. Led by Cade Williams, Them Airs' website is a delightful trip into their aesthetic, including a highly editorialized list of all their gear. With their own liner notes referencing both Wire and "spicy no wave sax," you should be aware of what you're in for on this spiky blast of irreverent fun. Though they've been recording since 2017 and playing out since 2018, they have yet to play in NYC. I hope to be there when it happens!

25. Nadia Reid - Out Of My Province

What's been in heaviest rotation in your shelter?

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2019 (So Far)
The Best Of 2018 (So Far)
Best Of 2017 (So Far)
Best Of 2016 (So Far), Pt. 1
Best Of 2016 (So Far), Pt. 2
The Best Of 2015 (So Far)
2014: Mid-Year Report
The Best Of 2013 (So Far)

Record Roundup: Machine Learning

Here are three albums that combine the organic with the synthetic in such an integrated way that such a divide becomes irrelevant. The end result is music that is deeply human.

Molly Joyce - Breaking and Entering There is a lot to explore in the background to Joyce's debut album, mostly around her use of electric toy organs, which allow her left hand, disabled in a childhood car accident, to participate fully by pressing the chord buttons. And it is remarkable and inspiring stuff about turning your weaknesses into strengths and providing uplift to those who doubt their own ability to move beyond obstacles imposed from within and without. Joyce covers some of this ground in her interview with Frank J. Oteri earlier this year and in her TEDxMidAtlantic talk from 2017, which is when she first came to my attention with Lean Back and Release, an EP of two brief works for violin and electronics.

But none of that prepared me for what this brilliant album would sound like, or how it would make me feel. Unlike that earlier release, which featured her as a composer, Breaking and Entering is a startling introduction to Joyce as a performing artist, with her clear, unwavering soprano soaring over the sparkling, propulsive patterns of organs and a halo of electronics. The emotional impact has me reaching for comparisons as varied as the ancient incantations of Hildegard von Bingen, the proto-New Age of Popol Vuh, and on to the gleaming optimism of futurists like Franco Falsini, who recorded under the name Sensation's Fix in the 1970's.

A song like Form and Flee manages to be simultaneously meditative, hypnotic, and energizing, putting wind in your hair as you pirouette through the ether in imagined flight. The lyrics, as in this example from Body and Being, wisely straddle the personal and universal: "are you the soul of me/or the disgrace of me/are you the whole of me/or the reject from me." After all, each of us have our battles over the divide between our physical selves and the world of our mind and perceptions.

While Lean Back and Release was firmly in the realm of what is usually called "contemporary classical," Breaking and Entering overleaps silos and should make inroads deep into the hearts and minds of fans of dream pop, chill wave, ambient techno, synth pop, Krautrock, Euro-disco, or genre-defying artists like Micheal Hammond of No Lands, who produced and engineered the album. I can't say enough about how great this is and will leave you with one caveat: prepare to be obsessed. Note: Deepen the experience by joining the virtual album release party on June 26th.

Miro Shot - Content Arising from the ashes of my beloved Breton, this collective led by singer/songwriter/arranger/futurist Roman Rappak began releasing singles last year, assembled on the Servers EP, while also pushing forward a vision of applying VR and AR to the concert experience. Now comes their debut album, which expands on those earlier songs, combining electronics, orchestrations, a tough rhythm section, and Rappak's trademark vocals, alternately wry and bruised. While the lyrics question much of what Hoovers up the collective attention of the world at this moment, they are unafraid to aim straight for the gut with big choruses and bridges that kickstart songs into overdrive.

The visuals are just as addictive, all quick cuts, high-tech overlays, and clever juxtapositions. In future decades they will become essential chronicles of the way we live now, while still remaining ever-fresh through sheer force of artistic will. The same can be said of the album, which is resolutely up to the minute and deeply informed by the past, seeming to exist in its own time-space continuum. While the current crisis means we'll have to wait even longer for the concert experience, you can grab a taste in their live sessions for Radio X and sign up for a date on their Virtual Worlds tour - or all four. While new restrictions on our lives seem to be imposed daily, some limits are a thing of the past. And Miro Shot has the perfect content with which to celebrate that new kind of freedom.

Car Seat Headrest - Making A Door Less Open While Bowie going electronic didn't have the seismic impact of Dylan going electric, the aftershocks have been longer lasting. Example "A" for 2020 is this new album from Will Toledo's indie rock band, which only features guitar on four out of 10 tracks. One of those songs is the anti-anthem, Hollywood ("Hollywood makes me want to puke," etc.), which comes in on a guitar storm then settles into a chillier groove - but you know the storm will return. I can only imagine how captivating it will be in concert.

But many of these songs display Toledo's rock-solid song craft and could likely exist in any number of settings. Even so, it's a thrill to hear him push his vocal limits on a song like Hymn and fuck with the rhythms on Martin, shifting a classic CSH love song into stranger realms. When the synth/trumpet solo enters it feels even more blissful due to the contrast in moods and textures, further proof of the mastery of soundscaping on MADLO. Andrew Katz, drummer for CSH since 2014, has also been pursuing a "satirical EDM" project, 1Trait Danger, for a while and certainly deserves some credit for moving Toledo into new territory. When Bowie put out Low in 1977, he got some stick from the rock establishment and, likely, lost some fans. I hope that isn't the case with this one. But I think Toledo, like Bowie, is engaged in a continual quest to make the music that satisfies himself, a quest on which it is a privilege to tag along.

You may also enjoy: 

AnEarful's First Decade: 100 Best Albums Of The 2010's

Best Of 2017: Classical

Levitating With Car Seat Headrest

Best Of 2019: Electronic

Even though I attempt to craft my posts to reflect my listening throughout the year, I heard way more electronic music than I wrote about this year. Something to work on for 2020! However, four albums that could easily fit in this category, Thom Yorke's Anima, Daniel Wohl's Etat, Drinker's Fragments, and Elsa Hewitt's Citrus Paradisi, were in my Top 25, so make sure you catch up with those ASAP. Now, on to all of the plugged-in things I've waited to tell you about, from ambient excursions to more aggressive explorations. At the top is a playlist so you can listen while you read - if you haven't already beaten me to these stellar records, I hope you find new worlds of transporting sound within.



Fennesz - Agora If you read the backstory, about Christian Fennesz losing his studio and moving all his gear back into the bedroom of his Berlin flat, you might expect something spare and lo-fi. Spare yes, with slowly building slabs of sound created by his guitar, laptop, field recordings, and the human voice. But also sonically magnificent, with rich, enveloping bass and sparkling highs. The approach is mostly ambient, but when the elements of melody emerge on Rainfall, it hits like warm sunshine. One imagines Fennesz's editing talents are as good as his recording skills to arrive at these four perfectly calibrated tracks. Let's hope we don't have to wait another five years for the next one! Note: Fennesz is on tour and will be appearing in New York on March 14th as part of the Ambient Church series - should be quite a night.

Seabuckthorn - Crossing Here we have another master of the guitar + electronics micro-genre, except Andy Cartwright uses mainly acoustic instruments to make his music, lending an organic feel to his soundscapes. Crossing comes just a year after the excellent A House With Too Much Fire and finds him moving away from the epic towards the gently hypnotic. There’s still some drama here, especially he when uses a bow to create flanging shafts of sound. Cartwright is just one of the most singular musicians working today and I highly recommend finding him in his niche. 

Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan - New Rain Duets I had to do a Google to confirm that this is that same McCaughan who leads Superchunk and founded Merge Records - indeed, it is! He must have been developing his synth skills in private as I never would have expected him to be such a sensitive partner for Lattimore’s harp. That instrument is the star, however, and the atmospherics and treatments amplify all of its glittering qualities, so surely expressed by Lattimore’s deft hands. The result is simply lovely. 

Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima, & Satsuki Shibano - FRKWYS Vol. 15: serenitatem This series creates meetings of the minds that usually have me wondering how they could have ever been thought of, much less executed, such as the classic collab of California electronic gurus Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras with Jamaican harmony trio The Congos, which came out in 2012. This one is more of a straight line, with Visible Cloaks (Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile) displaying the influence of both Japanese ambient masters on their sublime Reassemblage in 2017. But just because it makes sense on paper doesn’t mean that serenitatem is any less surprising in how gorgeous it is.  In fact, even more so than any of their individual achievements, this album arrives at what seems to be a form of chamber music, one in which a collective memory or dream of what that could be provides the guiding force. It just sounds right, as if synthetic and acoustic instruments had always coexisted and there was no higher state of listening than to hear them together. Just fantastic and a new landmark in this remarkable series. 

Arp - Ensemble: Live! That exclamation point suggests that following up last year’s excellent Zebra (#18/25) with a live album seems to have surprised Arp mainman Alexis Georgopoulos as much as it surprised me. But those songs translate marvelously in this studio session performed by him and four other musicians. There are also new songs, giving us a snapshot of Georgopoulos’s methods almost as a work in progress. While Zebra remains an artistic peak for him, the delicious noodling here hints at new buds about to blossom on his creative vine. 

Daniel Lopatin - Uncut Gems Original Soundtrack I can’t tell you how someone who hasn’t seen this high-intensity movie would experience this soundtrack. But I can easily say that Lopatin (who usually records as Oneohtrix Point Never) made an enormous contribution to the film with these rich, pulsing, and occasionally bombastic tracks. Best thing he’s done and maybe he should borrow the emotional narrative from film more often. I doubt you’ll be able to turn it off - just as you can’t look away from Adam Sandler’s astonishing performance. 

Adam Cuthbért & John Adler - Scarlet Rising Moon Speaking of soundtracks, someone hand these two a script, STAT. Adler’s gleaming trumpet tells stories all on its own, and supported by Cuthbért's analog synths and dense beats, it’s a gripping tale indeed. Paging Blade Runner 2075 - your score awaits. Until then, I’ll make up my own interstellar epics as I listen. BTW, if you buy the nifty USB edition, you get 14 further minutes of this stuff plus a variety of intriguing extras. 

Elizabeth Joan Kelly - Farewell, Doomed Planet On her last album, Kelly was seeking escapism from the grind of long lines at the DMV. This time around, she has bigger problems on her mind. If that moment of exile comes, I can imagine watching the big blue marble disappear in the porthole while listening to her loopy melodicism and watery textures, which brought both Eno’s Apollo and David Torn’s guitar to mind. By the time we get to the chillier confines of Cosmonaut Chorus, however, our current home, with all its flaws - or more precisely, flawed inhabitants - starts to seem a little more welcoming!

Caterina Barbieri - Ecstatic Computation The title gives a hint of Barbieri's retro-futurist approach, which finds her putting Buchla modules through their paces to make melodic and immersive pieces that make the idea of synthetic music seem brand new all over again. The ecstatic part is maybe a reminder that electricity lives within us - as do mechanics - making for music that is strikingly human.

Suzi Analogue - ZONEZ V.4: Love Me Louder Speaking of ecstasy, whenever I can stop moving to her music, I sit in wonder at how she takes such simple elements - a kick, a snare, some pinging keyboards - and assembles them to create songs that are wickedly kinetic. Analogue occupies a wonderful *zone* all her own, adjacent to hip hop, r&b, and dancehall, but 100% electronic. Even such collaborators as RP Boo and Mike Millionz become mere ghosts in her machine - or fuel for the fire that will burn long after these tracks are ringing in your ears. P.S. Being that this is "The Audio/Visual Moodboard of Suzi Analogue," I would be remiss if I didn't point you in the right direction for some fun videos.

Hyperion Drive - Hyperion Drive This is a new collaboration between some old friends, Alice Tolan-Mee and Ethan Woods, who sometimes performs as Rokenri. This is a bit of a switch from the "chamber-freak-folk-tronica" I enjoyed on 2018's Mossing Around EP, being altogether sleeker, synthier, and sexier than that earlier collection. Tuneful, too, and unafraid to be just a bit weirder than the average electro-pop. Be the first on your block to own the cassette - unless you live on my block ;-).

Miro Shot - Servers This collective germinated in some of the ideas - both sonic and philosophic -  put forth by Roman Rappak when he was in Breton. Combining catchy melodies with dense electronics and lyrics that inquire about how technology, globalization, and our struggling planet serve to simultaneously bring us together and drive us apart, the four songs here are also part of a bigger plan to bring VR and AR to the concert experience. So far that has only happened in Europe, but this Breton fan doesn't need bells and whistles to be damned excited about what I've heard so far. More to come in 2020. Join the Collective - you just may find yourself contributing to their next video, as I did to this one.

Carolina Eyck - Elephant In Green/Elegies For Theremin And Voice/Waves (With Eversines) Eyck marked the centennial of the theremin with three releases giving an overview of her trajectory as she develops a repertoire of songs and sounds that combine her bell-like voice with the instrument. I had the privilege of seeing her in concert, which not only exposed me to her uniquely engaging stage presence but also gave me window into the structure of her music. While I'm not as taken with this direction as I was with her stunning collaboration with ACME (11/20, 2016), she's still doing something melodically, sonically, and emotionally that I can't find anywhere else.

Emily A. Sprague & Lightbath - full/new  While I've been familiar with the RVNG label for some time (see FRKWYS above), I only recently became aware of their space on the lower east side known as Commend. When I went there in November to see sets by Adam Cuthbért and Phong Tran I found a jewel on Forsyth Street, a small record store and performance space perfect for intimate performances like the one captured here. Sprague is also the singer-songwriter behind the charming Florist but has been traveling into ambience for a couple of years. Beautiful stuff, too, with stretched out chords supporting outgrowths that hint at the melancholy song-craft of Florist. Lightbath, the project of Bryan Noll, sparkles with the underwater hypnotism of early Eno instrumentals, which means I swoon as I listen. I think you will, too.

For more goodies in this vein, dial up my Of Note In 2019: Electronic (Archive) playlist and follow this one to see what 2020 will bring.

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2018: Electronic
Record Roundup: Electronic Excursions
Best Of 2017: Electronic
Record Roundup: Eclectic Electronics
Best Of 2016: Electronic