My Favourite Albums of 2022

1. Big Thief ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’

2. Black Country New Road ‘Ants from up There’

3. Alvvays ‘Blue Rev’

4. Arctic Monkeys ‘The Car’

5. Let’s Eat Grandma ‘Two Ribbons’

6. MJ Lenderman ‘Boat Songs’

7. Florist ‘Florist’

8. Paolo Nutini ‘Last Night in the Bittersweet’

9. The 1975 ‘Being Funny in a Foreign Language’

10. SZA ‘SOS’

11. Beach House ‘Once, Twice, Melody’

12. Wet Leg ‘Wet Leg’

13. Jamie T ‘The Theory of Whatever’

14. Porridge Radio ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky’

15. Soccer Mommy ‘Sometimes Forever’

16. Oso Oso ‘Sore Thumb’

17. The Beths ‘Expert in a Dying Field’

18. Chat Pile ‘God’s Country’

19. Kendrick Lamar ‘Mr Morale and the Big Steppers’

20. Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Unlimited Love’

21. Wild Pink ‘ILYSM’

22. Joyce Manor ‘40oz to Fresco’

23. Alex G ‘God Save the Animals’

24. Jockstrap ‘I Love You Jennifer B’

25. Zack Bryan ‘American Heartbreak’

26. Ethel Cain ‘American Teenager’

27. Pup ‘The Unravelling of PUPTHEBAND’

28. Romero ‘Turn It On’

29. Mitski ‘Laurel Hell’

30. Ezra Cohen ‘The Sweet Million’

31. Caracara ‘New Preoccupations’

32. The Weeknd ‘Dawn FM’

33. Camp Cope ‘Running With the Hurricane’ 

34. Axel Boman ‘Luz / Quest for Fire’

35. Bartees Strange ‘From Farm to Table’

36. Carly Cosgrove ‘See You In Chemistry’

37. Beach Bunny ‘Emotional Creature’

38. Gilla Band ‘Most Normal’

39. Animal Collective ‘Time Skiffs’ / Panda Bear ‘Reset’

40. Father John Misty ‘Chloe and the new 20th Century’

41. Sudan Archives ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’

42. Say Sue Me ‘The Last Thing Left’

43. Angel Olsen ‘Big Time’

44. Gang of Youths ‘Angel in Real Time’

45. Field Medic ‘Grow Your Hair Long if You’re Wanting to See Something You Can Change’

46. Frankie Cosmos ‘Inner World Peace’

47. Jake Xerxes Fussell ‘Good and Green Again’

48. Caroline ‘Caroline’

49. 2nd Grade ‘Easy Listening’

50. Mavi ‘Laughing So Hard, It Hurts’

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(Other albums I enjoyed, presented alphabetically): 070 Shake ‘You Can’t Kill Me’ Anxious ‘Little Green House’ Arms Length ‘Never Before Seen, Never Again Found’ Beabadobee ‘Beatopia’ Belle and Sebastian ‘A Bit of Previous’ Beyoncé ‘Resistance’ Big Nothing ‘Dog Hours’ Black MIDI ‘Hellfire’ Camp Trash ‘The Long Way, the Slow Way’ Charles Watson ‘Yes’  Charli XCX ‘CRASH’ Cheem ‘Guilty Pleasure’ Cola ‘Deep in View’ Daphni Cherry’ Dehd ‘Blue Skies’ Denzel Curry ‘Melt my Eyez See Your Future’ Drake ‘Honestly Nevermind’ Fireboy DML ‘Playboy’ Fontaines DC ‘Skinty Fa’ Friendship ‘Love the Stranger’ Gwenno‘Trevor’ Harry Styles ‘Harry’s House’ Kevin Molby ‘This is a Photograph’ Mom Jeans ‘Sweet Tooth’ Pantha du Prince ‘Gardan Gaia’ Pool Kids ‘Pool Kids’ Roc Marciano and The Alchemist ‘The Elephant Man’s Bones’  Spector ‘Now or Whenever’ Stormzy ‘This is What I Mean’ Taylor Swift ‘Midnights’ Weird Nightmare ‘Weird Nightmare’ Whitney ‘Spark’ Why Bonnie ‘90 in November’ Wilco ‘Cruel Country’

My Favourite Tracks of 2022

Here are my favourite songs released this year (restricted to one song per artist).

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1. Arctic Monkeys ‘There Better be a Mirrorball’

2. Black Country New Road ‘Basketball Shoes’

3. Chat Pile ‘Why’

4. Alvvays ‘After the Earthquake’

5. Kendrick Lamar ‘United in Grief’

6. Joyce Manor ‘Gotta Let it Go’

7. Oso Oso ‘Computer Exploder’

8. Let’s Eat Grandma ‘Watching You Go’

9. Beyoncé ‘Break My Soul’

10. Jockstrap ‘Greatest Hits’

11. Big Thief ‘Simulation Swarm’

12. MJ Lenderman ‘Tastes Just Like It Costs’

13. Axel Boman ‘Hold On’

14. Paolo Nutini ‘Everywhere’

15. Wet Leg ‘Wet Dream’

16. The Beths ‘Knee Deep’

17. Metronomy ‘Hold Me Tonight’

18. Florist ‘Red Bird pt. 2 (Morning)

19. SZA ‘Kill Bill’

20. Jamie XX ‘Kill Dem’

21. Origami Angel ‘Fawn’

22. Dave ‘Starlight’

23. Arcade Fire ‘Lookout Kid’

24. The 1975 ‘Part of the Band’

25. Bartees Strange ‘Heavy Heart’

26. Jamie T ‘St George’s Wharf Tower’

27. Hovvdy ‘Ruby’

28. Steve Lacy ‘Bad Habit’

29. Wild Pink ‘Hold My Hand’

30. Caroline Polacheck ‘Billions’

31. Pharell Williams x 21 Savage ‘Cash in Cash Out’

32. Soccer Mommy ‘Bones’

33. Harry Styles ‘As It Was’

34. Pup ‘Matilda’

35. Ethel Cain ‘American Teenager’

36. Mitski ‘That’s Our Lamp’

37. Alex G ‘Runner’

38. Father John Misty ‘Goodbye Mr Blue’

39. Drake ‘More Ms’

40. Gang of Youths ‘In the Wake of Your Leave’

41. Plains ‘Problem With It’

42. Tyga x Doja Cat ‘Freaky Deaky’

43. Beach House ‘Once Twice Melody’

44. Denzel Curry ‘Walkin’

45. Camp Cope ‘Running with the Hurricane’

46. Yeah Yeah Yeahs ‘Spitting off the Edge of the World’

47. Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Black Summer’

48. Phoenix ‘Tonight’

49. Sea Power ‘Two Fingers’

50. Taylor Swift ‘Anti Hero’

51. Porridge Radio ‘Rotten’

52. Sudan Archives ‘NBPQ’

53. Zach Bryon ‘Summertime Blues’

54. Camp Trash ‘Weird Florida’

55. Romero ‘Turn it On’

56. Angel Olsen ‘All the Good Times’

57. LF System ‘Afraid to Feel’

58. Cheem ‘Snag’

59. Ezra Cohen ‘Annabelle’

60. Loyle Carner ‘Georgetown’

61. Pool Kids ‘Conscious Uncoupling’

62. Panda Bear and Sonic Boom  ‘Edge of the Edge’

63. Frankie Cosmos ‘One Year Stand’

64. Diana Ross and Tame Impala ‘Turn up the Sunshine’

65. Peter Doherty and Frederic Lo ‘You Can’t Keep it From Me’

66. Cavetown ‘1994’

67. Field Medic ‘I Had a Dream’

68. Sorry ‘Let the Lights On’

69. Say Sue Me ‘Around You’

70. Jake Xerxes Fussell ‘Love Farewell’

 71. Destroyer ‘June’

72. Carly Cosgrove ‘Mungk’

73. Indigo Sparke ‘Hysteria’

74. Dehd ‘Bad Love’

75. Mavi ‘3 Left Feet’

76. Anxious ‘Your One Way Street’

77. The Killers ‘Boy’

78. Why Bonnie ‘Galveston’

79. KH ‘Looking at your Pager’

80. Stormzy ‘Hide and Seek’

81. Caracara ‘Strange Interactions’

82. Big Nothing ‘Always on my Mind’

83. Julia Jacklin ‘I Was Neon’

84. Weird Nightmare ‘Searching for You’

85. Friendship ‘Hank’

86. Beabadobee ‘Talk’

87. Craig Finn ‘Messing With the Settings’

88. Fireboy DML ‘Playboy’

89. Ryan Adams ‘I Want You’

90. Jensen McRae ‘Starting to Get to You’

91. Floating Points ‘Vocoder’

92. Gilla Band ‘Post Ryan’

93. The Game ‘Eazy’

94. Belle and Sebastian ‘If They’re Shooting at You’

95. The Smile ‘You Will Never Work in Television Again’

96. Daphni ‘Cherry’

97. The Mountain Goats ‘Training Montage’

98. English Teacher ‘R&B’

99. Christian Lee Hutson ‘Rubberneckers’

100. Cardi B ‘Hot Sh*t’

Wild Pink ‘ILYSM’ – Review

‘I love you so much’ feels like the kind of expression you would find on a Valentine’s Day card rather than an indie-rock album. Yet it’s a phrase that recurs several times across Wild Pink’s fourth album (the title of which is the abbreviation ‘ILYSM’). It’s emblematic of the way that John Ross knows when to cut through prosaic descriptions and dense imagery with expressions that feel familiar and straightforward.

Wild Pink’s fourth album is their most daring and ambitious to date. Last year’s ‘A Billion Little Lights’ saw the band angling towards War on Drugs’ dreamy, escapist rock soundscapes but ‘ILYSM’ takes far greater risks, moving away from in vogue Heartland-Rock towards something more inwardly contemplative and comforting. At times the lush, acoustic balladry recalls Tom Petty or even Coldplay. Elsewhere they experiment with Sludge Metal (‘Sucking on the Birdshot’) and Synth-Pop (‘Abducted at the Grief Retreat’). Surprising collaborators appear across the album, adding texture to Wild Pink’s sound. Mike “Slo Mo” Brenner adds thoughtful pedal steel to several tracks.  J Mascis and Ryley Walker contribute guitar solos to ‘See You Better’ and ‘War on Terror’ respectively, while the ridiculously talented Jasmin Williams adds her own distinctive licks to ‘The Grass Widow In The Glass Window.’

With an hour long run time, this is a long album – and you feel it. It’s heavy (emotionally more than musically) and slow. Occasionally it becomes difficult to hear the boundaries between tracks, which can make the record feel repetitive, but ultimately that helps to amplify the sense of blurriness that is central to John Ross’ perspective. Ross wrote the album while recovering from treatment for Cancer, and while he doesn’t explicitly reference his diagnosis, the whole record is informed by a sense of impending tragedy. It wrestles with the ramifications of mortality and creates a haunting, and moving, atmosphere. 

Ross is a writer who sequences precise descriptions in a way that creates a sense of disorientation. His surreal streams of non-sequiturs recreate the feeling of being unanchored from reality. ‘St Beater Camry’ opens with some vividly real exposition; ‘the sky was pink and blown with sand, by the stacked up shipping containers where the cruise ships land’, but grows into a strange sort of fever dream about escape. ‘It’s a long way down when your feet have never touched the ground,’ he observes. Opening track ‘Cahooting the Multiverse’ is stranger still; it is written in a stream of consciousness style, with Ross rummaging through memories of college and childhood to find insight. When things get particularly untethered from the here and now, he brings us down to earth with confessions of direct sincerity. Several songs end with the aforementioned ‘I love you so much’ but it never feels cliched or unearned. 

While Ross is a thoughtful and intelligent lyricist, occasionally his songs drift a little too far from the ground. ‘Hold My Hand’ uses so many similes that the meanings start to get a little muddled. “I was lost like a ring of keys but you were there like light in the morning.You brought the birds back with a song in my tree.” There is also the frustration that Ross sings in the same breathy whisper whether he’s approaching a metal track or intimate ballad. It robs the emotion from both ends, flattening the album into mushy middle ground while diminishing the impact of the thoughtful lyrics. Julian Baker puts this into starker contrast when she steals the limelight on ‘Hold My Hand’ with a vocal performance of infinite depth compared to Ross’ muted delivery.

This is an album about the thoughts that distract you during the day and the voices that keep you up at night.“Now everything I’ve lost I visit from my bed / And the voices carry on, they echo in my head.” It’s both unnervingly real and surreal at the same time. On ‘War on Terror’ Ross describes sleeping with ‘a white noise machine because the house is too noisy at night.’ ‘Abducted at the Grief Retreat’ describes a dream where he is ‘floating perfectly’ in a blissful free-fall. The album ends with him waking and taking something meaningful from his traumatic experience. ‘Everything I thought was important and isn’t anymore after the year I went through. I couldn’t love you more.’ Everything gets put Into perspective in the end.

8/10