Jeremy's 11 Favorite Albums of 2022

I wrote this intro once already, but Wix deleted it, so let's try this again. Welcome to my favorite albums of the year list. I meant to write this a month and a half ago but I went on a movie binge in February in an, ultimately futile, attempt to watch every movie nominated for an Oscar. It was time consuming. But anyway, here we go, best albums of the year! Also, obligatory yearly apology for Wix screwing with all the formatting, I do my best here, and then Wix takes it and runs it through the washing machine.

Group 1: The Also-Rans

11) Domi & JD Beck - Not Tight

I don't know if it's a change in the musical landscape or if it's simply a development of my own music tastes, but I've had a jazz album on this list for at least the last three years. This year's jazz representative is the debut album from duo Domi and JD Beck. Both were child prodigies, Domi on the piano, JD on the drums. They got signed onto Anderson .Paak's record label, and this is their debut release. There's a song featuring Paak, one with Thundercat, another with Mac Demarco, and even a song with Herbie Hancock. It's all a lot of fun.

Best Song: Two Shrimps (featuring Mac DeMarco) (Live Version on Jimmy Fallon)

10) Brockhampton - TM

At some point at the beginning of last year, Brockhampton announced they'd be playing their already committed date at Coachella, then would make their last album, and then were going to break up. So they played Coachella, and then we all waited for the last album to come out. And we waited. In October they finally announced an album was coming out called The Family, and on November 17th, it came out. And it was literally a solo album for leader of the band Kevin Abstract, no one else was on the album. And the day their "final" album was released, they announced that there would be a surprise album coming out the next day, and that was this album, TM, and it is the actual final album. The one caveat of this album is that it is mostly made up of songs that had been started during a session in 2021, but they finished them and Matt Champion mixed the album together, and it's a great final album. The Family isn't going to make this list, but I do think I'll get into it eventually, but I needed this album to give me my Brockhampton closure, and there's some good bops.

Best Song: New Shoes

09) The Weeknd - Dawn FM

This is a solid album full of 80's synth pop songs. There's your typical Weeknd death theme rolling through this thing as the album is supposed to be a radio station with Jim Carrey as the DJ, helping you accept your death and move onto the afterlife. None of that is hyperbole, that is actually what is happening on this album. But, as I said before, it's got some good bops, especially Out of Time, it's like an early Toro Y Moi song sung by Abel. I tried to karaoke it when I was in Arizona with my siblings this summer, and my voice would not make the sounds I needed for this song. And then the next day I found out I had Covid, so it all made sense.

Best Song: Out of Time

08) Bloc Party - Alpha Games

Bloc Party was once one of my favorite bands, but after four albums that average out to pretty good, the drummer and bassist left the band, and singer Kele Okereke and guitarist Russell Lissack made a really boring album called Hymns. So I figured my time of loving new Bloc Party albums must be over. But this album Alpha Games is actually pretty decent. It's kind of a watered down version of their fourth album, Four, which is my second favorite of their albums, but at this point, I'll take a watered down version of that album over whatever Hymns was. If you've ever liked a Bloc Party song, you'll probably dig this album.

Best Song: Rough Justice

Group 2: Quite Good

07) Perfume - Plasma

My list is so boring this year, it's almost all artists that have been on one of my lists before, I have so little left to say about some of these groups. Perfume is a J-pop group, all of their albums have been good electronic-y fun, and this new one is no exception. If you've never listened to J-pop before, check out the link below, Android & is a good place to start.

Best Song: Android & (I couldn't find the album version, but this live version is pretty sweet anyway)

06) Cryalot - Icarus EP

The singer from Kero Kero Bonito, Sarah Midori Perry, created this EP with one of the touring members of the band Jennifer Walton. It's not to dissimilar from a KKB album, but it's a little less N64 and a little bit more dark eye makeup. There are elements of metal on this thing, but mostly it's what you would imagine from a solo venture of a member of Kero Kero Bonito. I hope we get more of this side project but if not, this little five song release will serve as a worthy reminder of its existence.

Best Song: Hurt Me

Group 3: Old Reliables

05) Warpaint - Radiate Like This

Like I said before, every Warpaint album released has been on my end of year best of lists. I've run out of things to say about them. They're an all woman rock band, they all sing, they all play instruments. I went through a bit of a phase last year when I was still at my apartment, of watching live videos of them playing when I couldn't sleep. But this new album is another really good one. Apparently it was made remotely due to pandemic times, but it doesn't show with a lack of grooves or anything like that.

Best Song: Hips

04) Toro y Moi - Mahal

Another good semi-psychedelic guitar album from Toro y Moi. This one is a concept album following a bus full of people, listening to this album, having a good time across America. There are a couple times where you hear the bus getting jump started or the radio station fuzzes out.

Best Song: Last Year

03) Damien Jurado - Reggae Film Star

Damien Jurado's yearly entry on this list is a concept album about an actor in the nineties, I think, and the ups and downs of his career and his relationships. But really this album is like all of Jurado's other great albums: every song paints a slice of life picture of someone living some sort of American life, whether it be the protagonist who crashes his car and wanders off to a commune in the Maraqopa trilogy, or the variety of black and white characters from pop culture past of The Horizon Just Laughed. The albums of Jurado's that I don't enjoy are often just him and a guitar, but this album flushes out the empty spaces with some strings and some female backing vocals. It's all you need to go from too stark to subtly beautiful. I listen to this album at least once a week, if not more.

Best Song: Whatever Happened to Paul Sand?

Group 4: The top two, there's no further theme to these two

02) JB Dunckel - Carbon

JB Dunckel is one half of the possibly defunct French duo, Air. Air is one of my favorite bands, I am pretty sure that the solo album from Nicolas Godin, the other half of the group, was number two on my list last year. Between that album and this one, you can really hear the two parts that come together to create the music Air has been making for the last twenty years. Godin's album was called Concrete and Glass, and the music he made sounded slick as that title. Dunckel's album artwork looks like a moon floating in space, and the album is firmly set there. Both albums have great grooves, the place the two meet. I think this is probably the album I have listened to the most times this past year, whether it was while doing puzzles while dog sitting or walking from the train station to the office. Also, I bought this on CD and it came signed. Artists will literally do anything to show their appreciation when you buy things from them these days.

Best Song: Dare

01) Foxtails - Fawn

Well, it's 2023 and I picked a screamo band for my number one pick of the previous year. I actually didn't really listen to this album until the end of the year but it took over the top spot with the help of me not doing the list until March because I had plenty of time to listen. I've listened to Foxtails albums in the past, but Fawn is easily their most consistent, every song is great. Screamo, for me, only really works with female vocalists, so Foxtails is right up my alley, plus they added a violin player permanently to their roster, giving you that standard Midwestern Emo sound. I have listened to this album many, many times walking in the freezing cold from the train station to the office.

Best Song: Space Orphan

That's all I've got, folks. I swear next year I will maybe try to get this out closer to the beginning of the year, but who knows.