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The Best Music of 2022

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The Best Music of 2022

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Sidney Carpenter-Wilson
Jan 24
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The Best Music of 2022

sidneycw.substack.com

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.

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The Best Music of 2022

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1 Comment
Michael Biggs
Feb 8Liked by Sidney Carpenter-Wilson

S C-W, OK you have got me to subscribe. For what it's worth, I have the following: Best Albums - A+ and A -17, (+ 4 I will be getting; Gogol Bordello is the odd man out); A- 12 (+ 6 I will be getting or am considering; others intrigue but there is only so much money); Jazz - A -1 and A- 1, (+ maybe / probably David Murray; don't know the others and will have to research); '21s heard in '22 - A - 4, (+ will look into My Idea). I hope that I hope that my having so many of the top albums in common with you isn't too frightening- there are lots of other more reputable people who also do. Good luck with your blog. Michael

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