1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell 2. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 3. Joanna Newsom - Divers Three Masterpieces
Wild year. I was in a pretty bad place this year and music was my only real escape. Top 3 was the hardest to decide on yet. 1 and 2 switch a lot now, but Turnover was the easy top for a few years after. 1. Turnover - Peripheral Vision 2. Caspian - Dust and Disquiet 3. Foxing - Dealer 4. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle The Rest: Bring Me The Horizon - That's The Spirit Citizen - Everybody is Going To Heaven Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi The Early November - Imbue Jamie XX - In Colour Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly Khruangbin - The Universe Smiles Upon You Mewithoutyou - Pale Horses Superheaven - Ours Is Chrome Title Fight - Hyperview The Wonder Years - No Closer to Heaven The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness
1. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle 2. Foxing - Dealer 3. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion 4. Baroness - Purple 5. Grimes - Art Angels 6. Young Thug - Barter 6 7. father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear 8. Mew - +/- 9. Chvrches- Every Open Eye 10. mewithoutYou - Pale Horses
1. HEALTH - Death Magic 2. MewithoutYou - Pale Horses 3. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle Remaining Top 10: 4. Envy - Atheist's Cornea 5. Foxing - Dealer 6. Loma Prieta - Self Portrait 7. The Money Pit - The Money Pit 8. The Wonder Years - No Closer to Heaven 9. Ghost - Meliora 10. The World Is a Beautiful Place - Harmlessness Great, great year for music. Some albums I definitely need to revisit.
I didn't even realize Death Magic was this year. My eardrums wish I never heard that album or saw HEALTH live. The ringing will be a constant memory.
I still stand by my #1 for this year: 01) MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK - Panic Stations The current swan song from of our scene's most vital bands was still my favorite from this year 02) TAME IMPALA - Currents Kevin Parker's blend of psych rock and modern R&B began his world domination here 03) ELLE KING - Love Stuff An absolute blast full of sassy attitude and old fashioned rock n' roll 04) FATHER JOHN MISTY - I Love You, Honeybear There are so many layers of irony on this it can be hard to stomach but this is an incredible presentation of songs 05) ADELE - 25 A big blockbuster follow-up to a blockbuster record 06) JAMES BAY - The Chaos And The Calm Opposite of Father John Misty in that this is so incredibly earnest and sincere that it stood out 07) BIG DATA - 2.0 A slew of guest stars allowed for Alan Wilikis to make his electro-pop debut great even if it went nowhere commercially 08) JOYWAVE - How Does It Feel Now? Speaking of Big Data, the singer from Joywave sang on Big Data's hit "Dangerous" and Joywave themselves put out an excellent electro-rock major label debut 09) TWENTY ONE PILOTS - Blurryface The well-deserved breakout of the year and the first Gen Z band to annoy millennials at scale 10) X AMBASSADORS - VHS A neat concept album about the various stages of growing up with beautiful and fun pop/rock songs 11) FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Perfect blend of her first two albums which finalls put her onto the arena stages she desrved to play on 12) BUTCH WALKER - Afraid Of Ghosts A spiritual cousin of Letters, this is Butch's most personal and devastating release to date 13) JAMIE XX - In Color This record may have single-handedly gotten me over my "I don't listen to DJ's" stance 14) MUTEMATH - Vitals Another excellent entry in a sadly underappreciated band's catalog 15) ALABAMA SHAKES - Sound & Color Following up an acclaimed debut with an album that is perhaps weirder and less accessible but still rewarding 16) WOLF ALICE - My Love Is Cool Brits are still true believers of rock and Wolf Alice is another example of why 17) SMALLPOOLS - Lovetap! Buzzy indie pop band gets signed off of one song and produces an album full of jams to unfortunately go unnoticed and get dropped 18) GRIMES - Art Angels As much as Grimes and her antics annoy me, this album is still great 19) NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats The Fallon endorsement started the buzz but these guys know how to play and these songs are excelelnt Americana-style rock songs 20) JASON ISBELL - Something More Than Free Another slice of Americana but this time more somber, I think this is Isbell's best 21) BEACH HOUSE - Depression Cherry / Thank Your Lucky Stars Before Beach House gave us a proper double-record in 2022 there were these two companion pieces which showcased how consistently beautiful their music is 22) CITY AND COLOUR - If I Should Go Before You Dallas Green just needs to keep writing songs and I'll continue to listen 23) BORNS - Dopamine Quirky and seductive pop by a dude who sounds like he's from England but actually from Michigan 24) THE DARKNESS - Last Of Our Kind These guys never rebounded after their initial brush with success in America (I think they're still big in the UK) but this album rips from front to back 25) FALL OUT BOY - American Beauty / American Pyscho Doubling down on their new sound Fall Out Boy found even more success (and more detractors) with this one 26) PUSCIFER - Money Shot I think Maynard is still most dedicated to this project as it allows him to work outside the confines of his other bands for a much more dynamic approach 27) MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS - Froot While never quite reaching the levels of the likes of Ellie Goulding or Charli XCX, Marina made a bid for big tent festival pop in 2015 and succeeded 28) MISTERWIVES - Our Own House The comparisons to No Doubt are slightly lazy (female singer, horn-influenced pop/rock) as Misterwives definitely made their own unique statement 29) THE DECEMBERISTS - What A Terrible World What A Beautiful World / Florasongs The Decemberists deliver another solid collection of songs (and a B-sides companion) 30) BOB MOSES - Days Gone By The late night hours haze of regret and partying, this is a great soundtrack to city life Honorable mentions: CAGE THE ELEPHANT - tell ME I'm Pretty CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye COURTNEY BARNETT - Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit MUSE - Drones PURITY RING - Another Eternity BEACH SLANG - The Things We Do To People Who Feel Like Us AWOLNATION - Run THE ARCS - Yours, Dreamily
Seeing them live a few years back has definitely left a ringing. Saw them with Youth Code so got kicked in the ears right at the start. Love me some HEALTH haha.
My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before The Sun The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Harmlessness Honourable Mentions: Failure - The Heart Is A Monster Nmesh / telepath - The Path To Lost Eden Faith No More - Sol Invictus Nils Frahm - Solo Martin Gore - MG Baroness - Purple Dan Mason - Miami Virtual Bullion - Rooster It's a little controversial but I think that Coheed album is an absolute joy. One of the best examples of a proggier band making a more streamlined, poppier record with big hooks, and pretty much nailing it.
This video wasn't originally made specifically for the song but it was an inspired choice for them to pair it. Great combination. Good album too.
1. Kendrick LaMar - To Pimp A Butterfly 2. James McMurtry - Complicated Game 3. Kamasi Washington - The Epic 4. Joanna Newsom - Divers 5. Phil Cook - Southland Mission 6. Kurt Vile - b’lieve i’m going down 7. Joan Shelley - Over and Even 8. Jake Xerxes Fussell - S/T 9. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free 10. John Moreland - High on Tulsa Heat 11. Charlie Parr - Stumpjumper
Great year, lots of good stuff. I didn't put Emotion because I don't listen to the full album that much, but shout out to "Run Away With Me" which is the song of the year by a mile. 1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell 2. Grimes - Art Angels 3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear 4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly 5. The Mountain Goats - Beat the Champ 6. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle 7. Vince Staples - Summertime '06 8. Tame Impala - Currents 9. Jamie XX - In Colour 10. Sophie - Product 11. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit 12. Beach House - Depression Cherry 13. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp 14. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin Down 15. Purity Ring - Another Eternity
I like Emotion a lot, but it's a classic example of having one song that's so clearly the highlight (IMO, anyway) that I can never help but be a little disappointed that the rest of it isn't nearly as great.
@Craig Manning yes, the clear highlight is Making The Most of The Night, right? Oh wait, maybe you meant Gimme Love... or the title track? Oooooh it's Favorite Color, or maybe Love Again? Probably is All That or Run Away With Me actually. Actuallly it's When I Needed You, huh?
Gotta be honest, I’m drunk and just skimmed through this tbh. But if Twenty One Pilots don’t win, wtf is going on. I’ll be back later. Bye. Oh yeah: 1) Twenty One Pilots: Blurryface
Blurryface is one of those records I dont think I can ever listen to again solely based on the fact I couldn't ever fucking escape hearing the singles everywhere I went for what felt like 3 years
1. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free 2. Houndmouth - Little Neon Limelight 3. Josh Ritter - Sermon on the Rocks HMs to: High on Tulsa Heat by John Moreland All Your Favorite Bands by Dawes The Desired Effect by Brandon Flowers All Across This Land by Blitzen Trapper What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists The Firewatcher’s Daughter by Brandi Carlile Glitterbug by The Wombats Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett Before the World Was Big by Girlpool Coming Home by Leon Bridges Live Harvest by Blitzen Trapper The Most Lamentable Tragedy by Titus Andronicus Kintsugi by Death Cab For Cutie Painted Shut by Hop Along The Traveller by Rhett Miller The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us by Beach Slang Star Wars by Wilco