LF Favorite Albums 2022
Its the time of year when I get to rant on and on about the music I really loved in the hope of bringing a little bit of exposure to some bands that I felt deserved it. All these albums were on repeat for me at various points in 2022 and helped shape the year that was. Hope you find something you like!
Best Songs 2022 Spotify Playlist
Combine shoegaze, post rock, alt rock and metal with some black metal vocal touches and you get Holy Fawn. This is an epic album crossing genres and classifications that moves from beautiful instrumental passages to meditative ambient sections to all out head banging, sometimes in one song. If this is the future of post - whatever, I am all in for it. Sit back and let it absorb you.
This is a one-man band from San Diego who builds all his own bespoke midi controllers. They are designed like machines to contstrict his limbs, wrap around his throat, and generally challenge him physically to convey a sense of the difficulty of the artist and the machine oriented world we have built for ourselves. This is the most listenable album from the Author and Punisher project, partially because of the inclusion of collaborators like Danny Carey and Perturbator, but also because the album is full of 90s era hooks and harmonies run through the Punisher machine but you can actually sing along.
Amos Roddy - Citizen Sleeper OST
Citizen Sleeper is a game about being stranded on a space station with a limited time to live. You make connections with others on the station and help them solve their problems, but ultimately your goal is to go back to the stars. The soundtrack evokes this feeling of loneliness in every note and in every beat while somehow also projecting the fantastic dream of space and its myriad possibilities. Alternately melancholy and hopeful, ambient and beat driven. Best soundtrack of the year for sure.
Jean Jean was top of the list a few years ago, and their follow up album is also an amazing, and too short, collection of Soulwax inspired dance music using a minimal palette of guitar, synths and live drums. The energy is undeniable and the high points of these songs genuinely make me feel ‘the lift’ that so many artists try to find. Best driving around at night music.
This Swiss band has been combining soul vocals with black metal for a couple records, but I think this year’s offering was the ultimate realization of their sound. Haunting and brutal both in instrumentation and vocal delivery. Real headbanging stuff.
Deserta - Every Moment, Everything You Need
This is a shoegaze band from LA who I initially wrote off as good, not great, but this album stayed in my head and I kept listening over and over. Before I knew it I was hooked and I realized it was the definition of a ‘grower’ of a record. One that makes you remember various parts of it while brushing your teeth or putting on pants. And when I would remember some riff or melody that I really liked, I would spin it one more time.
The Allegorist - Blind Emperor
The project of Anna Jordan, a Berlin based electronic artist, The Allegorist makes dark ambient dance music about the collapse of civilization. Without vocals she is free to explore the soundtrack to this dystopian reality and let the listener supply the narrative. I know I wrote one in my head over the many listens I gave this record and I bet you would too.
Hands down the best album by an ex punk drummer turned gay cowboy crooner you will hear all year.
A beautiful jazz album with electronic elements that features Heidel’s saxophone playing in new and unique ways. The production here is on point and every song has a warm sound that invites you in for multiple listens. Best album to play with your morning coffee.
Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
These guys were one of the main hype bands of the year, showing up at #1 on many lists from respectable publications, and for good reason. This is the weirdest ‘indie pop’ album i’ve heard. Anchored by an amazing vocalist and a fantastic producer, there is nothing off limits for this group. They want to drop a beat into a ballad? No prob. They want to end the album with a straight up dubstep dance song? Ok sure. This album also has the song of the year for me in ‘Concrete Over Water’, an astonishing piece that moves easily from ballad to glitch hop over 6 minutes.
