Albums of the year 2022
I’ve had plenty of time to listen to music this year; my Last.fm profile shows this will be my biggest listening year ever; I’m not sure this means anything but who doesn’t like a high score? The chart is below and here’s a Spotify playlist with a selection from each record.
1 BLUE REV – Alvvays
2 GUV III/IV – Young Guv
3 FOREST FLOOR – Fergus McCreadie
4 LUCIFER ON THE SOFA – Spoon
5 A LIGHT FOR ATTRACTING ATTENTION – The Smile
6 I LOVE YOU JENNIFER B – Jockstrap
7 HIGH SCHOOL – Tim Heidecker
8 ONE STOP SHOP – Twen
9 THE UNFOLDING – Hannah Peel & Paraorchestra
10 ALTAR – Jo Schornikow
11 OPTION EXPLORE – Dylan Moon
12 GIANT PALM – Naima Bock
13 POMPEII – Cate Le Bon
14 ISLAND OF NOISE – Modern Nature
15 STILL LIFE – Carson McHone
16 BLOODSPORT & PORN – Augie March
17 ENDLESS ROOMS – Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
18 DO YOU BONGO? – Joey Joseph
19 RESET – Panda Bear & Sonic Boom
20 OUT OF BODY – Dazy
21 ANTS FROM UP THERE – Black Country, New Road
22 BABY U KNOW – Bas Jan
23 REMEMBER THE MAGIC – Junatime
24 OLD TIME FOLKS – Lee Bains + The Glory Fires
25 DRIVE MY CAR OST – Eiko Ishibashi
26 MAGIC SIGN – Martin Courtney
27 DEAR SCOTT – Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band
28 SO CERTAIN EP – Ryley Walker
29 LIGHTEN UP – Erin Rae
30 SMALL WORLD – Metronomy
31 LADY FOR SALE – Lola Kirke
32 THREESOME VOL 3 EP – The Lickerish Quartet
33 IS IT GOING TO GET ANY DEEPER THAN THIS? – The Soft Pink Truth
34 MAGNIFICENT BIRD – Gabriel Kahane
35 BETTER OUT THAN IN – Julia Blair
36 MIRRORBALL – Izzy & The Fins
37 CRUEL COUNTRY – Wilco
38 IN THE FADE – Tony Molina
39 DRAGON NEW WARM MOUNTAIN I BELIEVE IN YOU – Big Thief
40 BACKHAND DEALS – Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard
Excellent stuff. Though… the year’s not over! We mayyet get the long overdue The sisters of Mercy album! A previously lost Beatles album! The Sound of Music lost tracks. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
Ahhhh Gavin I have a cut off and anything after it goes into the following year, so don’t worry, the Beatles, Sisters Of Mercy and Sound Of Music: Previously Unheard can all go into the 2023 list at numbers 1, 2 and 3.
What if that’s all the same album, though?
If Herbie can place first and third place in a race (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWufUZ1mxQ), I’m sure that album can take all three top spots.
Great list as always John — honestly, I look forward to your AOTY list more than I do most publications.
A little surprised that DRAGON NEW WARM MOUNTAIN I BELIEVE IN YOU is so low in the list! Of course opinions will differ, but it’s my unassailable AOTY.
Big Thief are one of those bands where on paper they should be “my kind of thing” – and ten, twenty years ago, they might have been, so I persist, but I just can’t find a place for them in my soul, man. I enjoyed quite a few songs on the new one but didn’t feel compelled to return to it after initial listens.
For a long time, back when these lists were presented by Shelley Winters, I thought they were made up albums, purely from John’s imagination. I apparently lead a musically sheltered life; I’ve not heard of any of this year’s albums and I have heard of only one of the bands. I didn’t know Wilco was still putting out new stuff.
My usual vintage of music is at least about half a century old now, so I was in the same (blueberry) boat until I saw Shelley Winters present an album by Bob Dylan. The one band I recognise on this list is Metronomy, having listened to their album “Nights Out”, thanks to a mention from an IRC friend. I enjoy these lists because it’s always fun to hear the exotic* sounds of new good music I otherwise wouldn’t even know about for decades.
*exotic relative to what I usually listen to.
Delighted to hear it.
I don’t think Wilco are ever going to stop making music.
I’ve been using Last.fm since the mid ’00s and was delighted to find both a browser extension (“Web Scrobbler” on FF and Chrome) and a phone app (Pano Scrobbler for Android) that work with my choice of streaming services. It’s been a lot of fun to get back into using it.