The best albums of 2022 (2023)

animal collective -makeshift coffins

For intrepid fans of Animal Collective, the arrival of a new album from the experimental Baltimore band brings more concern than excitement. it's likeMerriweather Postpavillon(2009) mipaint with(2016),Become a dream star with your Beach Boys in the Blue Smarties sound: textured vocal harmonies and offbeat choruses ("I just want four walls and adobe for my girls" and, just as moving, "Flori, Flori, Flori, Flori, Florida / Florida -da/Florida-da")? Or will we be subjected to anotherMandarine Riff(2018), a boring audiovisual album apparently inspired by tiny speakers and the screech of dial-up internet access. withmakeshift coffins, Animal Collective - recording with founding member Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) - resurrected the surf noir pop bubbles that burst them into the mainstream in the late 2000s. for "Cherokee," an ethereal, reverberant ode to travel ("On tour, I saw focaccia being treatment like jade"), the band is back on just the right level of madness.
Anoosh Chakelian

Bastille -Give me the future + past dreams

With its dark soundscape full of synthesizers and anthemic melodies, Bastille's fourth albumGive me the future + past dreams, explores our complicated relationship with technology. Here are society's conflicting desires: How do we embrace new frontiers while preserving the sanctity of the now? - are exposed Want blissful ignorance? Grab a VR headset, grab a loved one and experience nostalgic pop culture in the wacky song Thelma + Louise. Or, if you'd rather bask in or dive into today's downturns, listen to frontman Dan Smith list the anxieties of modern life on "Plug In." Throughout, Smith's commentary emphasizes our need for human connection, exemplified by the standout acoustic track "Hope For The Future."
Harry Clarke-Ezzidio

Beyoncé -Renaissance

Earlier this year, we were told online that a "vibrational shift" was occurring. Generation Z cooked. The boomers scoffed. A few of us giggled and pretended to understand what was going on. That is, it was made: vibrations for the sake of vibrations, perhaps. But how naive we all were. On June 21, Beyoncé released "Break My Soul," Naked on a Shiny Horse, and it produced less of a change of scenery and more of a mood overhaul.

We're expecting surprises from Beyoncé, today's most culturally powerful artist, and this is the first single from her album.Renaissance– was no exception. Based on a sample of Robin S.'s house classic "Show Me Love," "Break My Soul" was a blueprint for this album that celebrates, revitalizes, and elevates classic dance music. Packed with pounding rhythms, vintage horns, hidden vocal gems, and samples from Right Said Fred to Donna Summer, this isn't just a tribute to the dance floor, but to the queer culture that uses it as a stage.
Emily Bootle

Björk-Bagger

Only Björk could make an album about mushrooms sound this good. Although the flute was the Icelandic artist's instrument of choice on her previous album,Utopia(2017),BaggerIt's about the bass clarinet. The instrument's screeching tone anchors these songs in the natural world, the place where Björk looks for hope. Every Björk record is a work of visionary expansion, butBagger- despite its relative sonic scarcity - it sounds more complicated than ever. Every time I listen, I feel a new lyric, the most recent being "For millions of years / We've been expelling our spores" or a crisp new timbre. But after dozens of listens, two songs always stand out to me: "Sorrowful Soil" and "Ancestress," two songs written in honor of Björk's mother, environmental activist Hildur Rúna Hauksdóttir, who died in 2018. Ten albums on, Björk knows how to look to both the past and the future, and both the earth beneath her feet and the sky above. His resulting worlds of sound are absolutely moving.
Ellen PeirsonHagger

Black earth, new road –ants from above

In the few years they have been on the scene, Black Country, New Road, a cacophonous seven piece band made up of amazing multi-instrumentalists under the age of 25, have represented what is new and exciting in British music. When they announced their second album in late 2021, it seemed like something big was about to happen. And then at the end of January 2022, four days beforeants from abovewas about to be released, something even bigger happened. The band's lead singer, Isaac Wood, announced that he was leaving the band due to mental health issues.

It was a disaster in a way: the band's sonic identity is closely tied to Wood's resonant, soulful voice and experimental lyrics. still didants from abovefeel deeper. As the record screams, "She's had the Billie Eilish/Moving to Berlin thing for a while" through harrowing, semi-ironic exclamations, there's a deep sadness that ebbs and flows with shifting rhythms, building in intensity. We finally get to "Show Me Where You Inserted The Blade," where Wood sings, "Every time I try to make lunch / For someone else, in my head / I end up dreaming of you." Couldn't that be the one be the most romantic text you've ever heard?
Emily Bootle

Ethel Caim -daughter of the preacher

From a converted church in rural Indiana last year, Hayden told AnhedoniaGabelthat he was working on "the next big American record". The resulting albumdaughter of the preacherby Anhedonia's ethereal alter ego, Ethel Cain, is a southern gothic epic that spans pop, country, gospel, rock and folk while maintaining a disarming intimacy. Anhedönia, a trans woman raised in a claustrophobic Southern Baptist church, has a complex relationship with faith and family, which is channeled here in the "cautionary tale" of the sad and haunted Cain, who flees a religious cult to make his own way to hike the country. There's a hint of Lana Del Rey in Cain's portrayal of faded American culture: all the roadside motels, parking lots, motorcycles, and pickup trucks. Absent men cast a long shadow across this landscape: a dead father, former lovers, an elusive Jesus.

The single "American Teenager" uses John Hughes' 80's synthesizers and effortlessly catchy melodies to characterize the suburb as a war zone with school kids on the front lines. The influence of Anhedonia's childhood heroine, Florence Welch, is audible in the theatrical percussion and vocal construction of Thoroughfare. And on "Sun Bleached Flies," the religious music of his upbringing morphs into shimmering choral harmonies over sparse piano: "What I would not give to be in church this Sunday," sings Cain, "listening to the choir, so sincerely, everyone sings, ' God loves you, but not enough to save you.'”
Anna Leszkiewicz

Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler—For all our heartbreaking days

(Video) Top 25 BEST Albums of 2022

We often use prior knowledge of a work to talk about its quality. Our shared cultural psyche tells us that timeliness, the feeling that a book could only have been written during the pandemic, a film only developed after #MeToo counts. But it is the timelessness that is the defining characteristic ofFor our heartbreaking days, debut album by Irish actress Jessie Buckley and guitarist Bernard Butler, Suede's first guitarist. When I saw them perform these songs at the Green Man Festival in August, Buckley sang with his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands on his hips. The resulting voice, as on the record, was rich and heartfelt. All 12 songs are contemporary folk numbers: Buckley sings about loss, pain, the utter meaninglessness of life. With Butler's elegant production and powerful orchestral arrangements, they become brilliant artifacts of humanity.
Ellen PeirsonHagger

First aid kit -Palomino

Klara and Johanna Söderberg, the Swedish sisters from the first aid kit, say they are very afraid of horses. But they chose the name of the album.Palomino- a horse with a golden coat - as a "symbol of strength and freedom". In the 14 years since they first wore theirsCover eines Fleet Foxes-Songson YouTube (they were 15 and 17 at the time), they released a number of very well received albums. But what I love about their fifth is that now you feel like they lived the songs they sing. They're not just playing country anymore: this album is a little bit Kate Bush, a little bit Fleetwood Mac and a lot unabashed. "out of my head' makes you dance around the kitchen. "Engel' is to overcome doubts. There is melancholy and heartbreak ("Nobody knows“, „A feeling that never came"). Until you reach the glorious final runway"Palomino- "I let the sun shine / I go for a walk" - You will feel like riding into the sunset, whether you like horses or not.
Katie Stallard

to swallow-tesoro

For a record of the inner workings,sweet teaweaver has an extraordinary amplitude. Expect the Welsh artist's second Cornish-language album to trace a psychedelic pastoral thread from Vashti Bunyan and John Martyn to Boards of Canadamealtime-Ära Gorky's Zygotic Mynci e SFA'sadministration. But Gwenno and producer Rhys Edwards also add a lot of surprises: there's the smoky soul of the title track's bonfire, like a lost 1960s torch song; the motor rhythm in "NYCAW" (sung in Welsh); and the ambient drift "Tonnow," reminiscent of the second instrumental side of Bowie's songUnder. Throughout, the percussive bass and loose flourishes are reminiscent of the elegant pop of Wild Beasts circaPresent. The real star, however, is the beautiful, rippling sound of the Cornish language, which Gwenno has not only revived, but also sounds absolutely contemporary.Res koedha yn nans trapo sevel arta.
Pedro Williams

ESTRADA -the eternal story

Leading up to the release of this album, American rapper JID released several singles, which I played repeatedly. Both "Surround Sound" with 21 Savage and "Dance Now" with Kenny Mason dominated my playlists. I loved these tracks so much I was afraid the entire album wouldn't do them justice. By the time the album came out, my worries were quickly gone.the eternal story, JID's third solo album, is a perfect blend of hip-hop and R&B melodies that also showcase his proven rap talent newly discovered corner range. The album focuses heavily on JID's relationship with his family, from the non-linear, intriguing reminiscence of a late-night argument with his brothers in "Crack Sandwich" to the nostalgic reflection on a bologna-eating childhood in "Money." This album is track after track but knows how to get emotional when he wants to.
smiling Hugo

Jenny Wal -classic objects

emclassic objectsAvant-garde artist Jenny Hval takes a critical look at the typically introspective lockdown album and re-examines herself as an artist. The slinky, upbeat opener "Year of Love" describes an Hval concert where he wanted the audience to feel as if they had vanished under the disco lights and belonged to no one in particular. Then, during what she called the "song, I thought I knew what this was about," a man in the crowd proposed to his girlfriend. Eventually he accepts that he has lost his meaning. "If I listen deeply, it's not mine," he sings on "Freedom." Hval shifts the focus from himself to the social and political contexts that contribute to people's inner lives. The sparse synths and guitars build into something lush and spacious, elevating the centerpiece “Jupiter” to an art pop epic.
Mateus Gilley

Jóhann Jóhannsson –mass of drones

The late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was probably best known for his film scores such asSicariomiarrival, and in his work outside of film, it's easy to see what drew directors to his music.mass of dronesReminiscent of the "holy minimalism" of Arvo Pärt or John Tavener, everything is space and tension. Get indelible effects with limited materials. Jóhannsson sets Coptic texts for chorus with string quartet; Drone, reference drone for electronic warfare. Cyclic and sustained melodiesslidetransition between voices and strings; Meaning circulates without ever having been established. It's a great work that could easily be lost: the electronics had to be recovered from the files on Jóhannsson's computer after his death in 2018. It's a relief that this was possible.
Mateus Gilley

Kendrick Lamar -Mr. Moral and the big climbers

Is there a more exciting and imaginative musician today than Kendrick Lamar? After solving the resulting writer's blockdrugIn 2017, the first pop album to win a Pulitzer Prize, the California rapper produced a double album that doesn't so much up his game as completely change the rules. During the two hours fromMr. Moral and the big climbersLamar looks inward and applies his unique brand of brutal poetic directness to himself and his family against the backdrop of a dysfunctional America and a planet in crisis. At every step, love and faith coexist with trauma and violence, a connection that is reflected not only in the lyrics - "Playing 'Baby Shark' with my daughter/Looking at the sharks outside at the same time" - but also in the music and in the vocals, which range from melancholy pianos and crooning (guest staring Portishead's Beth Gibbons) to stinging expletives and pounding rhythms with barely contained fury. Like the great American poets before him, Kendrick Lamar contains a multitude.
Male cat

Linda Hoover-i want to shine

In the summer of 1970, Linda Hoover did it. The 19-year-old had just finished recording one of the best albums of the year, backed by a band of talented musicians who would later go on to form Steely Dan. Laurel Canyon and a bright future beckoned in the 1970s singer-songwriter heyday. And then: nothing. After a dispute between Hoover's producer and his label over publishing rights, the project was abruptly abandoned, his career stalled, and the record rotted unreleased and unheard.

Its surprise release in 2022 was something of a happy ending, albeit of an intensely bittersweet kind. On his own terms, Hoover's album, which includes the first five songs by Steely Dan's Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, is a vacuum-sealed time capsule that captures the transition from 1960s folk to the sophistication of 1960s jazz, striking the exact middle ground between Joan Baez and Karen Carpenter. But Hoover's confirmation came 52 years late, and all the innocence and promise that shimmered through it all.i want to shinemake every song a heartbreaker.
Chris born

FIRST -FIRST

Muna the band came out with themFirst, the album, in June. Their third album and the first to be released on Phoebe Bridger's Saddest Factory label marks an evolution. The synth-pop band's first two albums:About youmisave the world- wallow in heartbreak and sadness. The latter isn't exactly happy, but the songs are about what happens when you honor yourself. Home By Now is about wondering what would have happened if the narrator had accepted less. “Loose Garment” is about what happens when sadness and pain don't go away, but subside. There is a real challenge here. “You will say that I am on a high horse. I think my horse is a normal size," they sing on Anything But Me. Muna and her music are uncompromisingly queer. "I want to dance in the middle of a gay bar," they sing on "What I Want," adding, "There's nothing wrong with what I want." "We're for the Freaky Joy Revolution," said Lead singer Katie Gavin leads the crowd at the band's show in Washington DC this fall. He had said it wrong, but it wasn't wrong.
Emily Tamkin

Oliver Sim-vile bastard

Oliver Sim's debut solo album from XX is a deeply personal study of shame and identity. Beginning with "Hideous," he addresses the stigma of his HIV diagnosis and its impact on him with hauntingly beautiful melodies that escalate into melancholic wails. This exploration of self-esteem continues throughout the album. "Saccharin" is a sincere sentiment song about the barriers you put up to keep others out; "GMT" shows the power that love can have to help and to hurt, even and especially when they are miles apart. The album features the same electronic and slightly surreal production we know from the 20th century. But Sim, along with Jason XX who produces here, knows when to use the production as a shield to hide behind and when to shut it down to reveal the rawness of his emotions. This is a fantastic debut from someone who has had a lot to say for a long time.
Adrian Bradley

Sharon Van Etten-we do everything wrong

"I've been writing in the dust / I hear stars falling," he singsSharon Van Ettenas the opening track of their sixth album Darkness Fades begins to spin. The line is a reference to the embers that charred his car, which was blown up by fires near his Los Angeles home in 2020. This luminous sky is recreated in a sublime waywe do everything wrong, many of which Van Etten put together under Covid restrictions in his garage studio. As always, her writing focuses openly on her own life, and here sketches scenes of parental guilt and diminishing domestic intimacy. But the cinematic production filled with reverb and ethereal synths, and his airy voice soaring euphorically on songs like "I'll Try" and "Born," give Van Etten an epic range not heard on his previous albums . . This is an album charged with the claustrophobia and apocalyptic dread of cooped up family life, but transformed into something vast, hopeful and utterly magnificent.
Chris born

The smile -A light to attract attention

short styleUM LITE for attracting a Tent-ION, it's hard to imagine how Smile's debut album could do thatto beMore Radiohead. There is Thom Yorke's voice, plaintive and sweet at times, delivering breathy phrases and dark darts; there's the easygoing sparkle and clarity of Jonny Greenwood's guitar playing. Nigel Godrich is producing, Stanley Donwood is doing the cover. The only obvious difference is that Tom Skinner brings a softer, more subtle percussion.

Fans will play Radiohead bingo: "The Same" is reminiscent of "Everything in its Right Place", the slightly cooler "Free in the Knowledge", "How to Disappear Completely" and the plain descendant character of "The Smoke", the old B - Talk Show Host page. But ultimately, Smile offers a continuation of the groggy, warm textures of 2016.A pool in the shape of the moon, as well as its outbursts of dense and dazzling orchestration. Despite all the expression of fear, anger and sadness, this is also a record that is relaxed, unbridled cohesion. If Big Rock is still a thing, then it's true that Yorke, Greenwood and company are way ahead of the pack. How have you fared in the last 25 years?
Pedro Williams

Taylor Swift -midnight

Taylor Swift has built a career based on reinventing herself. When thenmidnightArriving without a new haircut or style change, the pop star seemed to pause for a moment to think. After the folksy fun of their Pandemic albumsmidnightis a shocking return to pop, complete with vintage synths and chronological storytelling. It's his most self-deprecating and honest album yet, but most of all it's a lot of fun. Forgive the odd, slightly questionable lyric: "Karma is a cat, purrs in my lap because she loves me," and instead look for the passages Swift deftly references in her own catalogue. "Could've Would've, Should've" is a cathartic ending to her song about her aching relationship with John Mayer, "Dear John" (2010), and a conclusion she only now knows with the wisdom she's learning could have written . . . bring. In question...?" borrows the rhythms, drum samples and some lyrics from "Out of the Woods" (2014) and the result is a much fresher and more melancholic track. Many stars say they dedicate albums to their fans, butmidnightIt really feels for those who have followed Swift since they were in the rooms of their childhood.
Ellys Holzhaus

Franco Turner-FTHC

I get it, if punk rock doesn't sound like your thing, I would have felt the same way about this time last year. Then, in February, Frank Turner's ninth album was released and everything changed.FTHCIt's a soundtrack to recovering from his pandemic trauma, something Turner no doubt left behind on his post-Covid tour at Brixton Academy. "Well fuck last year/I'm glad it's over," he roars on "Punches," channeling the emotional rawness of a nation that's just had enough. Meanwhile, "I Haven't Done So Well" is a frenetic exploration of fear that's sure to resonate after the hopelessness we've all faced since 2020.

But it was the upbeat electro-rock of "The Work," a song Turner wrote for his wife, that really won me over: "I want to be with you on a weekday afternoon when we're both retired down the coast of." visit kent . ". I sang the lyrics along with the man I married six months earlier on our first show together. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a more romantic expression. Who said punk rock wasn't made for love songs ? ?
raquel cunliffe

1975 –Be funny in a foreign language

Is there a band that captures the spirit of the internet generation better than they did in 1975? your last albumBe funny in a foreign language, is no exception. It appears that Matt Healy, the band's self-proclaimed "ironically awake" "post-Coke" lead singer, ran the tracks through a Gen-Z keyword generator. It uses the clichés of the TikTok generation — Aperol, gaslighting, and “vaccinista totebag chic baristas” — to encourage rejection of the social media fad in exchange for the truest form of human connection: love.

Amidst the cynicism, 1975 retains its unparalleled genius for portraying wanting, wanting and wanting to love with the direct candor of young people. "About you" is a haunting track mourning the memory of a lover. "Looking for Somebody (to Love)" is the album's highlight, complete with 80's synths and a catchy chorus. A closer look, however, reveals a haunting song about incelism and male anger. This album is a fragile mirror of modernity that begs us to break it.
Zoe Grunewald

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