15 minute single!
The BBC Introducing bio said something like “this dreamy band combine Slowdive shoegaze with Cocteau Twins otherworldliness” and I obviously needed to check them out. They were fabulous!
My favourite album of 2022 got deluxified in 2023 and of course all the new tracks were marvellous.
Happy New Year. It’s time for the now traditional list of my 50 favourite albums from the year just ended. I will break custom though and reverse the presentation by beginning the list with #1 to spice it up. The best albums deserve the top billing after all.
My listening discoveries are assisted by the streaming service algorithms 😬, indie twitter, but mostly US radio such as KEXP and The Current. Some of the best music on this list has been introduced to me by Abbie Gobeli on her excellent late night KEXP show which airs Wednesdays 9am to 1pm UK time and on demand.
And…a first since I started this as we have a previous #1 artist returning to the top spot.
1 Hatchie - Giving The World Away
Hatchie’s 2019 debut Keepsake was fantastic and my favourite record of that year with its Cocteau Twins meets shoe gaze meets indie pop glory. Giving The World Away takes that further into pop. Full of hooks, moods, and uplifting noise.
As Hatchie says in her Twitter bio, referencing a lyric from this LP, her music is “heart hits the ceiling gaze pop” 💗
And I love how she shares her influences with a companion Spotify playlist. Just look at these tracks!
(There’s a similar Keepsake companion playlist for the previous album which is also worth checking out.)
While you can hear these inspirations Hatchie has a songwriting talent of her own.
I’ve picked 3 videos below to showcase this album, but I could have gone for the other 3 official vids in Lights On, Giving The World Away, and Twin. They are all so good.
The non-album single Nosedive released in November went all goth industrial pop, and made a stunning way to end my 2022 listening to this incredible artist’s music.
2 Caroline Loveglow - Strawberry
Coming in at under 30 minutes but not a second is wasted. Stocked full of quality. Ultra-dreamy-dreampop debut that had it vying with Hatchie for my #1. (The two toured the US together this year - fabulous line-up!)
3 Sophia Bel - Anxious Avoidant
The catchiest melodies I heard all year.
4 The Big Moon - Here Is Everything
Inspired by lead vocalist Jennifer Jackson’s motherhood, their third and best album.
5 Just Mustard - Heart Under
Gothy industrial guitars with dreamy ethereal vocals. Melody Maker writers in the late 80s would have lost their shit over this.
6 PVA - BLUSH
A splendid collection of awesome, hypnotic, electro rock dance techno things!
7 Little Simz - No Thank You
One of two surprise December releases to make the list. Given it’s unannounced nature you’d be forgiven for expecting a low-key follow up to 2021’s masterpiece “ Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”, and how you’d be wrong.
8 Let’s Eat Grandma - Two Ribbons
What a great song ‘Happy New Year’ is. Song of 2022 I think. And there are more gems on this album.
9 SRSQ - Ever Crashing
More dreampop for the list! Full of huge shoegazey tunes with vocals evoking Harriet Wheeler and Elizabeth Fraser. Stunning record.
10 Kelly Lee Owens - LP.8
I love the unexpected direction taken to follow up Inner Song. Challenging and beautiful sounds here.
11 First Aid Kit - Palomino
Fabulous return. When they release their best of it should be full of Palomino songs. 5 or 6 career highlights here. ‘Best album they’ve ever made’ can be said about quite a few on this year’s list, none more than this.
12 Ethel Cain - Preacher’s Daughter
A concept album “centred around the character Ethel Cain, who runs away from home only to meet a gruesome end at the hands of a cannibalistic psychopath”. There’s a lot going on with this one!
13 Loyle Carner - Hugo
Such a great talent.
14 Larkin Poe - Blood Harmony
Super hot roots rock. Their sound has been evolving over a decade and hit the jackpot this year.
15 Betty Boo - Boomerang
Nearly 30 years after her last music, Alison Clarkson came back with pop sounding fresher and more fun than ever, and 35 years after that McDonalds moment, she caught up with Chuck D.
“Let the bubblegum pop!”
16 Maggie Rogers - Surrender
The moody Overdrive opens and the anthem That’s Where I Am follows. The quality doesn’t dip from then on. Brilliant.
17 Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl
Rewards on multiple listens. This Hell sticks in your head.
18 The Beths - Expert In a Dying Field
Lovely guitar sounds on this indie pop from New Zealand.
19 Lande Hekt - House Without A View
More jangly things for the list. It’s not on this LP but check out Lande’s awesome cover of The Wedding Present’s Octopussy, also from 2022.
20 Bruce Hornsby - ‘Flicted
The final part of a semi official trilogy (after Absolute Zero and Non-Secure Connection) where Bruce has experimented with expanding music written for his many Spike Lee soundtracks. Still producing sounds to surprise his audience, he remains my musical hero. The track with Danielle Haim is gorgeous:
21 Wild Pink - ILYSM
Like an indie-folk The War on Drugs with some great melodies.
22 Sugababes - The Lost Tapes
This is why I wait until New Year’s Day to publish this list. This was surprise released on December 24th, with a deluxe version on December 31st! And while strictly speaking it’s music from 2013, it qualifies. Long time readers will know that I’m forever Team Keisha, and this is the dream MKS origibabes trio with only their 2nd album together (and their first was when they were 15/16 year olds!)
With contributions from MNEK and Shaznay Lewis (Summer of 99’ is an electro-pop banger), I’m so pleased this lost album is free. 2022 saw Siobhan get to sing Freak Like Me and Push The Button, and Mutya got to belt out About You Now. After all the battles and drama, they won. And they’re headlining the goddamn O2 this year. Total vindication.
23 Taylor Swift - Midnights
Not quite a full pop return but Folklore songs in the style of Blank Space. Gets better each listen and I’ve been listening a lot lately…
24 MUNA - MUNA
They went indie for their 3rd LP after signing for Phoebe Bridgers’ label. Self proclaimed ‘best band in the world’ and I wouldn’t argue.
“SILK!”
25 Stars - From Capelton Hill
A consistently brilliant band for over 20 years.
26-30
TVAM - High Art Lite
Wet Leg - Wet Leg
Suki Waterhouse - I Can’t Let Go
Shamir - Heterosexuality
Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That…
31-40
Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever
POLIÇA - Madness
Warpaint - Radiate Like This
Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS
Mitski - Laurel Hell
Foxes - The Kick
Mi von Ahn - reverie
Charli XCX - CRASH
Chorusgirl - Colapso Calypso
Sharon Van Etten - We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
41-50
Momma - Household Name
George Riley - Running In Waves
KT Tunstall - NUT
Holy Wars - Eat it Up Spit It Out
Basement Revolver - Embody
Bryde - Still
Suede - Autofiction
beabadoobee - Beatopia
Nerina Pallot - I Don’t Know What I’m Doing
Kyla La Grange - While Your Heart’s Still Beating
51 Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance
Why is this 51? Is it because I’ve added it after the fact a couple of days after publishing this list, having somehow neglected to include it in the original 50? Not for me to say.
Maxi Jazz was a compelling frontman. God Is A DJ, We Come 1, and Insomnia. All variations on a musical theme that banged hard.