Favorite 100 Songs of 2022

Hey you!  Here are 100 songs i really loved this year in no particular order whatsoever.  Except for number one.  I think that one's my favorite.  Anyway, without further ado...

1. Mapache - "I Love My Dog"

2. Burial - "Strange Neighbourhood"

3. Father John Misty - "Funny Girl"

4. Vibrations of the Sun - "Web of Wire"

5. Mutterlein - "Mother of Wrath"

6. YGGl - "Imagine"

7. Winged Wheel - "Monsella"

8. MWWB - "The Harvest"

9. Project Lazarus -"Прощай Земля"

10. The Lazy Eyes - "Fuzz Jam"

11. Alabaster dePlume - "The Sound of My Feet on This Earth Is a Song to Your Spirit"

12. The Golden Filter - "Drive"

13. Shamir - "Cisgender"

14. Alto Arc - "The Model Gospel"

15. Robert Stillman - "Cherry Ocean"

16. Domotic - "Conclusive"

17. Pneumatic Tubes - "Magic Meadow"

18. VOWWS - "One by One"

19. Just Mustard - "Still"

20. Zeal & Ardor - "Hold Your Head Low"

21. Enumclaw - "2002"

22. SAVAK - "Recanted (Free the Singer)"

23. Whitney K - "While Digging Through the Snow"

24. Project Gemini - "June"

25. Horsegirl - "Anti-Glory"

26. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "The Dripping Tap"

27. Chelsea Wolfe - "Oui Oui Marie"

28. ixi w/ Ane Croft - "As Within So Without"

29. Listening Center - "Memoire"

30. Thom Yorke - "5.17"

31. Plato III - "Sorry if I Dissed You"

32. Zola Jesus - "Lost"

33. The Smile - "The Same"

34. Sound of Ceres - "Arm of Golden Flame"

35. Wah Together - "Teen Vito"

36. Cosmo Vitelli - "High Blood Pressure"

37. Kelly Lee Owens - "Sonic 8"

38. Los Lucha - "Slowly Clean"

39. Crime of Passing - "Vision Talk"

40. Devil Master - "Acid Black Mass"

41. Stomp Talk Modstone - "I'll Believe"

42. Teen Suicide - "Coyote (2015-2021)"

43. Final Light - "In the Void"

44. HTRK - "Valentina (Cali Hwy Version)"

45. Ghost Funk Orchestra w/ Zitronen - "Bedford"

46. Zombi & Friends - "Sirius / Eye in the Sky"

47. Revelators Sound System - "George the Revelator"

48. Kikagaku Moyo - "Monaka"

49. Sacred Skin - "Far Away"

50. Braxe + Falcon w/ Panda Bear - "Step by Step"

51. Conway the Machine - "It's a Green Light"

52. Sven Wunder - "Sun-Kissed"

53. Unloved - "Thinkin About Her"

54. Communicant - "La Roue"

55. Eerie Wanda - "Sail to the Silver Sun"

56. Omerta - "Amour Fou"

57. Julia, Julia - "Do It or Don't"

58. Kutiman w/ Dekel - "My Everything"

59. Lalalar - "Hata Benim Gobek Adim"

60. Billy Woods - "Asylum"

61. SOUL GLO w/ McKinley Dixon & Lojii - "Spiritual Level of Gang Shit"

62. Danger Mouse & Black Thought - "No Gold Teeth"

63. Sam Gendel & Antonia Cytrynowicz - "Something Real"

64. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals - "A Melancholy Boogie"

65. Principles of Geometry - "Jeopardy"

66. Girls in Synthesis - "Watch with Mother"

67. Winter w/ Hatchie - "Atonement"

68. The Gabys - "The End of Love"

69. THROTH - "Letterman Is a Liar"

70. Szun Waves - "Exploding Upwards"

71. Misha Panfilov - "Waves"

72. METZ w/ Joe Talbot - "Come on Down"

73. Boy Harsher - "Burn It Down - Rework"

74. The Hologram People - "Kommune"

75. Magdalena Bay - "All You Do"

76. Algiers w/ Billy Woods & Backxwash - "Bite Back"

77. Dark Canyon - "Taste of Honey"

78. Mark Peters w/ Dot Allison - "Switch on the Sky"

79. NCY Milky Band - "Le Cascadeur Fleuriste, Pt. II"

80. The Mellons - "So Much to Say"

81. Sault - "Heal the World"

82. EggS - "How It Was Before"

83. Roy Montgomery - "Aura of the Afterlife 1"

84. Gift - "Feather"

85. Men I Trust - "Girl"

86. Malibu - "So Far Out of Love"

87. Tai Chi Tommy - "Nightmares"

88. Old Fire w/ Bill Callahan - "Don't You Go"

89. Backxwash w/ Morgan-Paige & Michael Go - "VIBANDA"

90. CS + Kreme w/ Bridget St John - "Would You Like a Vampire"

91. Pink Milk - "River of Glass"

92. Melanie - "Paris"

93. Fucked Up - "Strix"

94. Molly Lewis - "Miracle Fruit"

95. Gloria de Oliveira & Dean Hurley - "All Flowers in Time"

96. EABS - "Lucifer (The New Sun)"

97. Animal Ghosts - "Stellar"

98. Death Parade - "Somewhere to Stay"

99. Zetra - "Call of the Void"

100. Beach House - "Superstar"

I'm sure i have forgotten something.  Be back tomorrow for a mess of old songs i discovered this year.

Daily Jam - Refugee

I seem to always forget how many Tom Petty songs i like until i hear one in passing somewhere.  And then i'm like, oh yeah, this guy ruled.  Anyway, here he is with The Heartbreakers and "Refugee," our Daily Jam.

RIP Angelo Badalamenti

Just saw a little while ago that the amazing composer Angelo Badalamenti has passed away.  His sounds were always the perfect companion to David Lynch's visuals.  He will be missed.  RIP Angelo Badalamenti.  RIP The Bad Angel.

Favorite 25 Albums of 2022

Here we are again.  I don't want to wax too poetic about 2022, a year that started off with the whole house getting COVID.  There's been plenty of bad shit to go around, but hopefully plenty of good shit too.  I want to focus on that stuff: playing basketball in the driveway with my kids, my oldest son performing in a school play, my youngest son learning to ride his bike, seeing two of my oldest friends for a great, beer-filled weekend in Seattle, watching movies and working on house projects and everything else with my wife.  That kind of stuff.  And of course, all of the wonderful music i got to listen to over these past 12 months.  Here are my favorite 25 albums of the year (in alphabetical order)...

1. Alabaster dePlume - GOLD

Experimental, no-wave jazz and folk that feels like it's from the earth, from the stars, from the body and soul.

2. Alto Arc - Alto Arc

A dark and swirling mix of haunting electronics, growling and ghostly vocals, and dread from a "supergroup" featuring members of Deafheaven and Hundred Waters.

3. Author & Punisher - KRULLER

Strangely beautiful and noisy industrial metal.

4. Backxwash - His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering

Dark and heavy, both thematically and sonically, hip-hop with an industrial metal bent from a trans artist working through her life and trauma.

5. Beach House - Once Twice Melody

The dreampop mainstays biggest and most ambitious release to date.  Positively gorgeous.

6. Crime of Passing - Crime of Passing

Cincinnati blue collar post punk.  It's a whole scene, and it rules.

7. Devil Master - Ecstasies of Never Ending Night

Crusty, punk-infused black metal for that special dirt bag in your life.

8. Final Light - Final Light

The synth wave and techno of Perturbator's James Kent and the dark and heavy metal of Cult of Luna's Johannes Persson, two great tastes that taste great together.

9. Sam Gendel & Antonia Cytrynowicz - Live a Little

LA experimental jazz musician and composer Sam Gendel made a record with his creative partner and girlfriend's kid sister Antonia Cytrynowicz, an alien, otherworldly combination of avant-jazz, dreampop, and eerie weirdness.

10. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals - King Cobra

Cool as hell hip-hop collaboration between producer Infinity Knives and Baltimore rapper Brian Ennals that's full of humor and righteous anger, electro synth, funk, post punk, and more.

 

11. Just Mustard - Heart Under

Shoegazey, trip-hoppy post punk from Ireland, my favorite from SXSW.

12. Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island

A wonderful swan song from the Japanese psych rock icons.

13. Lalalar - Bi Cinnete Bakar

A body-moving, head-bobbing mix of Anatolian rock and Turkish pop.  This one gets the blood pumping.

14. Mapache - Roscoe's Dream

Dusty sunshine folk and country psychedelia, a kind of country-fried Laurel Canyon thing that centers around the duo's 14-year old dog Roscoe.

15. The Mellons - Introducing...The Mellons

Like a long lost Elephant 6 record full of '60s sunshine pop and Beach Boy harmonies.  Perfect from start to finish.

16. Old Fire - Voids

Ambient Americana from Abilene artist John Mark Lapham with a little help from Bill Callahan, Julia Holter, and more.

17. Misha Panfilov - The Sea Will Outlive Us All

An intoxicating mix of ambient, lounge, jazz, psych, folk, and library sounds from Estonia.

18. Mark Peters - Red Sunset Dreams

Mark Peters of the UK band Engineers crafts a sprawling and wistful mix of ambient country and dreampop on this solo effort, a cosmic country soundtrack to watch the setting sun to.

19. Principles of Geometry - ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

The French electronic duo return with 26-song album of IDM, retro synths, and modulators.

20. Sault - 5 Albums (11, AIIR, Earth, Today & Tomorrow, UNTITLED (God))

Cheating just a little bit here, but UK outfit Sault dropped five new albums on the same day last month, and they're all fantastic.  And this is on top of an album and EP already released earlier this year.  Really digging the prolific output.  The collection is full of soul, gospel, hip-hop, cosmic jazz, psychedelic rock, and more.  I'll probably be listening to these deep into next year too.

21. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention

While the new project from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and former Sons of Kemet member Tom Skinner really just sounds like a new Radiohead album, that's not a bad thing.

22. Stomp Talk Modstone - Mew

Swirling, reverb-drenched, delirious shoegaze from Japan.

23. Unloved - The Pink Album

An absolutely massive alt-rock album from LA based band Unloved featuring assists from such luminaries as Jon Spencer and Jarvis Cocker.

24. Billy Woods - Aethiopes

New York rapper Billy Woods released two albums this year, a great collaborative effort with producer Messiah Musik called "Church," along with the potential album of the year with the earthy, jazzy, soulful, and entrancing "Aethiopes."

25. Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor

Pummeling death and black metal paired with haunting spiritual soul.  This is one of those things i never would have thought i needed in my life until hearing it.

And there you go.  I don't think i have a number one this year, and i'm not about to start doing a "Sophie's Choice" with these.  They're all wonderful.  They're all worth you time and money.  And they all made 2022 a little better.  Be back tomorrow for my favorite songs of the year.

Dead Meadow

Man, i haven't thought about Dead Meadow in a long time.  Good to see the band is still at it with new album "Force Form Free."  Their penchant for psychedelic stoner riffs is still rampant and awesome.  Check out "The Left Hand Path" below and get the record here from Blues Funeral.

Daily Jam - Back in Baby's Arms

Gonna try to start busting out my year-end lists today, so be on the lookout for the first of those.  In the meanwhile, enjoy some Patsy Cline.  Listen to "Back in Baby's Arms" below, our Daily Jam.

EggS

I totally missed UK band EggS dropping their new album "A Glitter Year" last month.  Shame on me.  Their "Greatest Hits" EP from last year was wonderful, a short collection of college rock and alt-rock from a dozen different eras smashed into lo-fi ear nuggets.  The full-length continues that vibe.  Check out "How It Was Before" below and get the record here from Prefect Records.

Daily Jam - My Dreaming Hill

I'm having one of those mornings where i feel like i've forgotten to do something.  It's weighing on me, and i cannot figure out what it might be.  My brain is in a fog.  Here's some appropriately fuzzy music from Flying Saucer Attack to soundtrack the situation.  Listen to "My Dreaming Hill" below, our Daily Jam.

Dimples'

Here's some music i missed earlier this year.  Prepare to see a bit of that over the next few weeks as i read people's year-end lists.  Anyway, check out the wonderfully weird vibes of Dimples' and new album "Soul Chateau."  The whole thing oozes with warbled, fluttery, Syd Barrett-like psych.  Listen to "Pink Fortune" below and get the record here from Laughable Recordings.

Daily Jam - The Electrician

Here's probably the best song ever written about a CIA torturer.  Listen to The Walker Brothers' "The Electrician" below, our Daily Jam.