The Best Music of 2022

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I guess I have a Substack now.

I knew I would succumb and make a blog sooner or later, but I didn’t realize it would be just because Facebook doesn’t have the server capacity to withstand the magnitude of my lists.

After this whole ordeal, I don’t want to write much, but I will share a couple observations of my own list.

Only 2 albums in my top 10 topped one of my monthly A-list. One of them was Big Thief, and the other was Emperor X, and I placed Beyoncé below it that month. It just goes to show how valuable repeated listening is. 

This Beyoncé album is one I truly think people will continue to look back on decades from now as a pinnacle of the album format. I think with her last two studio albums, her self-titled and Lemonade (we don’t talk about THE CARTERS: EVERYTHING IS LOVE), she molded a very unique and defined sound, and started crafting albums in a more cohesive way that made a lot of critics and fans (including me) take notice. I was never as crazy about either of those albums as many other people were, but I think they are both great. However, RENAISSANCE displays a level of meticulousness and virtuosity that recalls some of the greatest examples of the artform (Daydream Nation, Endtroducing….., Exile on Main St. — if you don’t get the idea, listen to those albums too). While Beyoncé had more resources and connections than any of those artists (with possible exception for The Rolling Stones) it doesn’t make this album any less of a once-in-a-generation flash of brilliance.

Anyway, the lists.

The Best Albums of 2022:

1. Beyoncé: RENAISSANCE

2. Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

3. Homeboy Sandman: I Can’t Sell These

4. Emperor X: The Lakes of Zones B and C

5. Tom Zé: Língua Brasileira

6. Amanda Shires: Take It Like a Man

7. Buck 65: King Of Drums

8. Harry Styles: Harry’s House

9. Todd Snider: Live: Return of the Storyteller

10. Wet Leg: Wet Leg

11. The Mountain Goats: Bleed Out

12. Sowal Diabi: De Kaboul á Bamako

13. Ashley McBryde: Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville

14. Plains: I Walked with You a Ways

15. Miranda Lambert: Palomino

16. Danger Mouse & Black Thought: Cheat Codes

17. Willi Carlisle: Peculiar, Mississippi

18. Gogol Bordello: SOLIDARITINE

19. Willie Nelson: A Beautiful Time

20. c0ncernn: Dariacore 3… At least I think that’s what it’s called?

21. The Paranoid Style: For Executive Meeting

22. Stro Elliot & James Brown: Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot

23. Bonnie Raitt: Just Like That…

24. Pillbox Patti: Florida

25. Homeboy Sandman: There in Spirit

26. The Beths: Expert in a Dying Field

27. My Idea: CRY MFER

28. Lizzo: Special

29. Vince Staples: Ramona Park Broke My Heart

30. Ab-Soul: Herbert

31. MIKE: Beware of the Monkey

32. Open Mike Eagle: Component System with the Auto Reverse

33. Stella Donnelly: Flood

34. Montparnasse Musique: Archeology

35. various: Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono

36. R.A.P. Ferreira: 5 to the Eye with Stars

37. Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

38. Maggie Rogers: Surrender

39. Rokia Koné & Jacknife Lee: BAMANAN

40. Oumou Sangaré: Timbuktu

41. Aaron Raitiere: Single Wide Dreamer

42. M.I.A.: MATA

43. Kassmasse: Bahil Weg

44. Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen

45. PinkPantheress: Take me home

46. Loudon Wainwright III: Lifetime Achievement

47. Lalalar: Bi Cinnete Bakar

48. ROSALÍA: MOTOMAMI

49. Regina Spektor: Home, before and after

50. Fox Green: Holy Souls

51. Lady Aicha & Pisko Cranes Original Fulu Mziki of Kinsasha: N’Djila Wa Mudjimu

52. JID: The Forever Story

53. Mama’s Broke: Narrow Line

54. Superchunk: Wild Loneliness

55. Homeboy Sandman: Still Champion

56. Cheekface: Too Much to Ask

57. various: Something Borrowed, Something New: A Tribute to John Anderson

58. Jockstrap: I Love You Jennifer B

59. Dumb: Pray 4 Tomorrow

60. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer

61. Dr. John: Things Happen That Way

62. Congotronics International: Where’s the One?

63. Yard Act: The Overload

64. Etran de L’Aïr: Agadez

65. Zach Phillips: Goddaughters

66. Leyla McCalla: Breaking the Thermometer

67. Phoenix: Alpha Zulu

68. Jeffrey Lewis: When That Really Old Cat Dies

69. First Aid Kit: Palomino

70. Dan Ex Machina: All is Ours, Nothing is Theirs

71. Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country

72. Alvvays: Blue Rev

73. Elza Soares: Elza Ao Vivo No Municipal

74. Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes: Fore!!!!

75. Santigold: Spirituals

76. Elvis Costello & The Imposters: The Boy Named If

77. various: Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver

78. Craig Finn: A Legacy of Rentals

79. Phelimuncasi: Ama Gogela

80. The Casual Dots: Sanguine Truth

81. Sinead O Brien: Time Bend and Break the Bower

82. Ray Wylie Hubbard: Co-Starring Too

83. Superorganism: World Wide Pop

84. Tee Grizzley: Chapters of the Trenches

85. Saba: Few Good Things

86. Derek Senn: The Big Five-0

87. Ella Mai: Heart On My Sleeve

88. Terry Klein: Good Luck, Take Care

89. Momma: Household Name

90. Oriental Brothers International Band: Oku Ngwo Di Ochi

91. Drive-By Truckers: Welcome 2 Club XIII

92. Mach-Hommy: Dollar Menu 4

93. Adeem the Artist: White Trash Revelry

94. Pongo: Sakidila

95. Bob Vylan: Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life

96. Kimberly Kelly: “I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen”

97. Lucrecia Dalt: ¡Ay!

98. Carly Rae Jepsen: The Loneliest Time

99. Sunny Sweeney: Married Alone

100. Lady Wray: Piece of Me

For the grubbers: #1 is A+, obviously, 2-22 are A’s and the rest A-.

Jazz Albums of 2022:

1. Sun Ra Arkestra: Living Sky

2. Brand New World Trio (David Murray, Brad Jones & Hamid Drake): Seriana Promethea

3. Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet: Spirit to All

4. Felipe Salles: Tiyo’s Songs of Life

5. Mary Halvorson: Amaryllis

6. Avram Fefer: Juba Lee

7. Ricky Ford: The Wailing Sounds of Ricky Ford: Paul’s Scene

8. Kirk Lightsey: Live at Smalls Jazz Club

9. Jasper Høiby: What It Means to Be Human

10. Joy Guidry: Radical Acceptance

FtG: 1 is A, the rest A-.

Archival Releases of 2022:

1. Orchestre Massako

2. Kabaka International Guitar Band

3. Alhaji Waziri Oshomah: World Spirituality Classics 3: The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah

4. África Negra: Antologia, Vol. 1

5. Tinariwen: Kel Tinariwen

FtG: All A-.

Top 10 albums that released in 2021 that I heard in 2022:

1. Tommy Womack: I Thought I Was Fine

2. Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Love For Sale

3. My Idea: That’s My Idea

4. DJ Black Low: Uwami

5. Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: (Exit) Knarr

6. PONY: TV Baby

7. Jon Batiste: WE ARE

8. Fanfare Ciocârlia: It Wasn’t Hard to Love You

9. Kady Diarra: Burkina Hakili

10. The Buoys: Unsolicited Advice for Your DIY Disaster

FtG: 1-5 are A’s, the rest A-.

Singles shortlist for EW poll:

1. My Idea: “I Can’t Dance”

2. Maisie Peters: “Cate’s Brother”

3. Lil Yachty: “Poland”

4. Tove Lo: “True Romance”

5. Emperor X: “Freeway in Heaven”

6. Beyoncé: “Cuff It”

7. Duke Duce: “Just Say That (feat. Glorilla)”

8. The Beths: “Silence is Golden”

9. Ava Max: “Maybe You’re the Problem”

10. Elvis Costello & The Imposters: “The Death of Magic Thinking”

11. The Beths: “Expert in a Dying Field”

12. Jockstrap: “Glasgow”

13. Steve Earl: “The Wheel”

14. Cheekface: “We Need a Bigger Dumpster”

15. 100 Gecs: “Doritos & Fritos”

16. Grace Ives: “Shelly”

17. NLE Choppa: “Slut Me Out”

Will I post here more? Probably. I’ll let you know.