Year End List: 2022
My list of 50 albums I listened to, and loved, a whole lot this year.
Alright, this is the last thing I’m writing for this list and I feel like it’s already long enough so I’m not going to say too much. As always I start with my last.fm data and see what I spun the most this year, then narrow it down and try to include things that came out later in the year so it’s not exclusively stuff from Q1 and Q2.
One thing that came to mind: I’m not exactly falling behind on my hip-hop intake but I’ve leaned back on my listening time there - lately it’s all been reaching for older stuff. I heard a bunch of great hip-hop albums this year but for some reason they never stuck in my heavy rotation. Ditto for electronic, which is way underrepresented this year.
Otherwise, if you’re reading this in the email, it’s too long so you should click through and read it in-browser to see all the albums!
Previous lists: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021
Spotify Playlist:
Fievel is Glauque - Flaming Swords (MATH Interactive)
If last year’s year-end list maker God’s Trashmen Sent Sent to Right the Mess was the sound of the coolest band you’ve ever heard playing in a bedroom two doors over, 2022’s Flaming Swords is that band stepping into the shiny spotlight of a slick recording studio.
At first, I missed the lo-fi grit but the glossiness suits them just well too. This is an impeccable record of jazzy indie psychedelia, all the more impressive when you realize this entire album was recorded 100% live in a single studio session. Listening to the album, hearing how many incredible performances it holds, and that they were all captured live is revelatory. I could listen to this album all day, and often do!
Sobs - Air Guitar (Topshelf Records, Inpartmaint Inc., Kolibri Rekords)
A top to bottom phenomenal album that sees the Singapore-based band Sobs brewing up lush guitar-pop, bubble-grunge, 90s power-pop with a light jangle and even synth- and dream-pop melodies (on songs like “Deal Breaker” or “Lucked Out.”) Surprisingly, the album remains remarkably consistent, even with a band pulling so many hyper-specific influence points together. Never does it feel like these references - their Bandcamp namechecks Dutch band Bettie Serveert, Big Star and New York’s Darla Records - aren’t working together to create a record length statement from the band. Amazing stuff.
The Drolls - That Puget Sound (Snappy Little Numbers)
I jokingly called this album the best Sicko LP since they put that compilation out in 2019, but I don’t want to undersell the addition of Julie D from Guest Directors & Chinchilla (who joins Denny and Josh from Sicko here.) Still, this is power-pop-punk-rock from people who have made some of the all-time best albums of the genre. It never left my heavy rotation all year.
Sweat - Gotta Give It Up (Pirates Press Records)
This one blew me away. I hit play on this record and was hooked. Sweat play hardcore and punk tinged with just the right amount of 70s rock riffery and melodicism to make it all go down easy. Perfect example: dueling lead guitar lines on “Machismo” hold your hand for a moment before tossing you straight into the pit. This one was a year-ender for me immediately.
Spacemoth - No Past No Future (Wax Nine Records)
Psychedelic avant space-pop from Maryam Qudus, who has stuffed this album full of vintage and modern synths alongside live instrumentation. Essential 2022 record for fans of Stereolab, Broadcast, The Soundcarriers et al.
Drug Church - Hygiene (Pure Noise Records)
More noisy, poppy post-hardcore indie-punk from Drug Church. It rips, it’s catchy, I love it.
Joyce Manor - 40 oz. to Fresno (Epitaph)
Another one to file under “you know what to expect;” it’s Joyce Manor, it’s less than 17 minutes long, and it’s fucking catchy as hell. Addictively replayable!
Options - Swimming Feeling (Self-Released)
Chicago’s Seth Engel has to be one of the great unheralded talents of modern indie rock. One look at their Discogs shows they’ve engineered or mixed records from C.H.E.W, Shell of a Shell, Floatie, Gnarwhal, Retirement Party and more. They’ve performed on records from Lifted Bells, Water From Your Eyes, Jupiter Styles, Great Deceivers, Mister Goblin, and more. Their name is attached to so many albums that have appeared on my year-end lists I feel like I should give them some kind of credit! Options’ Bandcamp describes Swimming Feeling best: no frills, bangers only.
Other Half - Soft Action (Big Scary Monsters)
In 2020, I asked “where’s the hype for this band” about their fantastic record Big Twenty. I am again asking, where’s this record on all of your year-end lists? Do you not listen to albums that drop in December? Soft Action has 40 more minutes of ripping post-hardcore/indie-punk with perfectly executed dual-singer interplay. They continue to live up to their “nasty music for nice people” bio.
joyride! - Miracle Question (Salinas Records)
I will listen to anything that Salinas Records puts out, doesn’t matter if I’ve heard the band before or if they are a complete and total unknown to me. They’re just that reliable a record label. In this case, I’ve long had a predisposal to Joyride!’s power-pop indie-punk ever since they dropped their self-titled LP in 2013.
Has much changed since then? Not really, and I mean that in a good way. Maybe a pinch matured, a smidge more mid-tempo, but in the best kind of way Joyride! provide the goods, again and again. Jenna Marx and co. are definitely one of the most consistent bands in the scene right now.
Lindsay Lowend - Nectarine (Self-Released)
Self-described as "a tribute to demoscene and tracker music forums frequented between 2007 and 2011"; not just for chip heads, beautiful textures and city/sophistipop influenced vibe happening here - maybe some IDM too. So cool!
Easy Prey - Unrest (Hellminded Records)
Easy Prey play a blend of political post-hardcore that also absorbs influences from 90s noise rock and the passion of early-screamo vocalists. I can hear some post-rock and shoegaze influence going on in some of the guitar tones on songs like “Radical Self Loathing” too, but they never stray far from their pummeling attack into something that becomes boring or over-indulgent.
All Away Lou - Things Will Change (Specialist Subject)
Lou Hanman (of the phenomenal band Caves, and who has been associated with acts like RVIVR, Mikey Erg, Thin Lips, Katie Ellen, Queen of Jeans and more) put out this wonderful power-pop indie-rock record and it should be on way more year-end lists okay!!! It rules top to bottom.
Empath - Visitor (Fat Possum Records)
Pure hazy bliss; synths in the distance and coming up fast with galloping drums and warped guitars. Hooks disappear into cacophony but reappear before long. Chaotic and poppy in equal measures.
blushh - C'est La Vie! (Literal Gold Records)
Between 2016 and 2019, Blushh released a series of EPs and singles that had me thoroughly addicted. If you haven’t already heard 2017’s It’s Fine and 2018’s Thx 4 Asking you should go rectify that now; both are stacked with hooky indie-pop-punk that will be buzzing between your ears for days. Their 2020 debut LP R.I.P. Apathy was one of my most anticipated albums that year, and while I dug it quite a bit there was just something about it that didn’t stick the way their EPs did.
Well, Blushh is back with C’est La Vie! and they’ve done something that few bands can do: expand upon what made their music so great in the first place, taking steps in a number of different textual and compositional directions while retaining that special something they had in their early work. This is a much more orchestrated, lush kind of power-pop than their fuzzy early work, and it’s all the better for it. This is pop music for your summer, the kind of album to crank up while rolling down windows.
Tin-ear - Cadastral Maps (Home Late)
This Prince Edward Island act plays ragged emo-tinged twee-adjacent indie-rock with just the right amount of noisy, buzzy energy. Reminds me of how vital and refreshing the 2019 album from Club Night sounded like when it hit my ears. I love that there are bands that sound like this right now.
Mindforce - New Lords (Triple B Records)
10 songs, 17 minutes, and barrels of heavy as shit riffs. When I first saw the cover to this album I kind of expected that cheesy NWOBHM revival thing but Mindforce take brutal hardcore and mix in a little 80s metal and thrash touches. It’s super fun, and super heavy. Lots of bands play this type of stuff, very few do it this well.
Cool Original - outtakes from “bad summer” (Topshelf Records)
My initial reaction to the latest from home recordist Nathan Tucker was an unsure one; I had grown accustomed to the noisy, hooky guitar-rock heard on 2017’s Infinite Hiatus and 2019’s I Never Said I Didn’t Care. As I spent more time with outtakes from “bad summer”, the more I found it an absolute revelation.
This album fits right alongside work by bands like Spirit of the Beehive or Dama Scout, taking spiraling bedroom production and exploding it to the widescreen, stuffing the frame with hooks, riffs, pitch shifted samples, and dusty synths. Every song is like some kind of oxymoronic maximalist-yet-minimalist pop epic, burrowing themselves into your ears like a worm but begging you to press one against the speaker to hear the infinite layers peeling back.
LASSIE - BEHOLD (Phantom Records)
I feel like this is another record that got so slept on this year; energy to spare, blasted fuzz rock post-punk with lightning bolts of synth piercings. A delight for fans of The Screamers, VCR, Why Bother?, No Knuckle et al.
Snuffed - Coping Human Waste (Another City Records)
Another brutally heavy one for you from 2022, snuffed play straightforward hardcore/punk through and through. They remind me of some of my favourite albums in recent years by bands like SLANT and Power Alone, which should make you pretty stoked to hear this album if you’re into those bands, trust me.
Escuela Grind - Memory Theater (MNRK Records)
The album art for this caught my eye in the new release bin in late-September. With a band name that included “grind” I figured I knew what I was in for, but still Memory Theater really surprised me. The songs rarely exceed two-and-a-half-minutes, and stack on top of each other in fascinating ways. It’s not all blast beats and power violence, there’s a ton of experimentation and damn-near melody buried in here and excavating it has been thrilling.
Chat Pile - God’s Country (The Flenser)
Chat Pile’s album wasn’t exactly on my radar; I hadn’t really given their acclaimed 2019 Remove Your Skin Please EP much time, even though I had heard their split with Portrayal of Guilt from this year. God’s Country hit me like a bomb though. Any band that can write something like “Pamela” (at first glance one of the most raw and emotionally intense songs of the year, and that’s before you realize it’s actually about Pamela Voorhees from Friday the 13th… I damn near applauded) will have my attention for years to come.
Ithaca - They Fear Us (Hassle Records)
To say I followed the rollout of Ithaca’s latest album closely would be an understatement. Every single release had me totally energized. When it landed, it was even more obvious how big of a step forward They Fear Us was for the band. They continue to prove that they are one of the most exciting and talented bands in the genre, bar none. I’m also loving the art direction on both the album art and their music videos for this release. So, so sick.
Non Plus Temps - Desire Choir (Post Present Medium)
The texture of this record is so lovely; a dubby, foggy cocktail laced with post-punk basslines and endless layers of noisy reverberations.
No Knuckle - Self-Titled (Tomothy Records)
At first glance I could see someone passing off No Knuckle’s self-titled release as just another post-punk revival record. It would be a shame if they did, because there’s a lot more going on here; DC noise-rock, SST-esque punk, art-rock song structures, 70s power-punk-pop (“I JUST WANT A PIECE”) and more.
Dama Scout – gen wo lai (come with me) [2022, Hand in Hive]
I love this album so much, I’m at a loss for words at how to even write a blurb about it. No other record in 2022 has rocketed into the year-end list section of my brain than Dama Scout’s debut LP.
This is fluid, groove-based but noisy and textured indie-rock, I guess you could call it. Immediately it brings to mind bands like Spirit of the Beehive or Crumb, who are also twisting expected sounds into unexpected gems of records. It’s cathartic, surprising at every turn, noisy, spaced out and more; all the while, it never lets go of your hand even when things blow up and get hectic.
Crime of Passing – Self-Titled (2022, Feel It Records)
Feel It Records, eh? Damn, they are just continuing to be on a wild roll of records. Feel It have very easily become another one of my “listen to everything they release” labels. Crime of Passing’s self-titled record certainly fits into their noisy, arty post-punk kind of bucket that many of their releases sit inside (or just outside of), but there’s a lot more to it than your average bass-led, post-punk, vintage-aping kind of band often has going on. Dig the squelching horn on “Damrak” and the buried synths on “Vision Talk.”
What I love about this record, is that it doesn’t just pick a style and rhythm and hammer it into the ground, but it’s always reaching for something just around the corner. You’ll hear the Joy Division influence, but you’ll hear synth-punk, industrial, kraut, electro-pop and more in there, all at once. It’s a wonderfully diverse album in that way, and to me felt like a breath of fresh air in 2022.
PLOSIVS - PLOSIVS (2022, Swami Records)
I’m a sucker for anything Rob Crow comes in contact with. Ditto for John Reis. Between Pinback, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes and more, the two of them have worked on some of my all-time favourite records. Add into the mix Atom Willard (Against Me!, ex-Rocket from the Crypt), and Jordan Clark (The Frights, Tape Deck Mountain, Mrs Magician) and you’ve got a supergroup of epic proportions.
PLOSIVS sound like the perfect amalgamation of Jehu/Snakes shattered guitar slashes and Crow’s twisting, layered melodicism. They go together like peanut butter and chocolate. This album rules and will certainly be stuck in my heavy rotation for years to come.
Traps PS - Prim Dicer (2022, Mock Records)
If movements are measured in waves, what wave of post-punk throwbackism are we currently on? Wherever we are, wave-wise, Traps PS are a bit of a breath of fresh air for me as they seem to be recalling the bands the first wave of post-punk reminiscers loved. Prim Dicer is all angular guitar slashes, nervous but excited basslines, precise but splashy drumming played in a room with stacks of Gang of Four / XTC records. Nary an overly gloomy vocal take or ploddingly basic bassline to be found.
Anxious - Little Green House (Run For Cover)
To be honest, I’m not totally sure Anxious’ record would be on my list had I not seen them live in Toronto with Oso Oso. I spun their album a bunch before that, and already could understand the reference points they pulled from - sanding the edges of 90s hardcore with near-easy-core level of pop-punk and emo melodicism. Live, the edges that were always there cut a little deeper, hit a little harder. There’s a lot of acts that want to be super poppy and still hit hard but I don’t think anyone is really doing it this well right now.
Spielbergs - Vestli (Big Scary Monsters)
Spielbergs’ album This is Not The End narrowly missed my year-end short list in 2019, but they’ve returned with an even stronger cocktail of 90s indie-rock and punk. Vestli had me returning again and again since it dropped in August, hitting that sweet spot of huge hooks with punk energy that reminded me a lot of golden era Superchunk.
Spite House - Self-Titled (New Morality Zine)
Speaking of 90s reference points, Spite House (hailing from Montreal, Québec) dropped this self-titled record that had me thinking about my favourite records from Samiam, Small Brown Bike, Jawbreaker, Seaweed and more. This one scratched my itch for a modern take on that sound without sounding like copycats. Definitely surprised me to see this so overlooked when it came to the year-end punk lists that I read.
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field (Carpark Records)
Not sure exactly what it was, but The Beths’ Jump Rope Gazers from 2020 didn’t hit me as hard as The Future Me Hates Me did in 2018. I wouldn’t go so far to call it a disappointment - it’s a great record! - but something about Expert in a Dying Field feels like a bit of a comeback story to me. Everything about this one just clicks into place for me - the songs, the melodies, the lyrics, the performances. It’s so great and deserving of all the praise it has been getting.
Bruce Lee Band - One Step Forward. Two Steps Back. (Asian Man Records)
Mike Park is one of independent music’s all-time great personalities - their energy and love of music (not just ska!) is incredibly infectious. Over the years, their Bruce Lee Band project has turned into a supergroup of sorts featuring Jeff Rosenstock, Kevin Higuchi, Dan Potthast, Jer, and plenty more. Angelo Moore of Fishbone even makes an appearance here! I love how much of a genre-and-decade-spanning record this is - it doesn’t neatly fit into any single wave of Ska, but you can hear every one in here plus much more.
Big Nothing - Dog Hours (Lame-O Records)
I know, “power-pop” is probably the most used genre descriptor in most of my year-end lists, but Big Nothing’s Dog Hours is a big ol’ record of jangly, infectious capital P power-pop. There’s just enough rock and roll grit and 80s-jangle mingling with a vaguely rootsy, country vibe to the songwriting. Such a comfortable record in all of the right ways.
Well Wisher - That Weight (Egghunt Records)
One of those releases that crept up on me; I really enjoyed Well Wisher’s previous album (which landed on my 2018 year-end list) and had no idea they were working on another album until it landed in front of me in September. They lead off with a song called “Need You Around” that is somehow so good you won’t compare it to the other song of the same name! Huge, thick guitar riffs and major hooks abound. An incredibly satisfying album.
Wah Together - Let’s Wah Together (Dedstrange)
Not-so-great band name aside, this record from members of LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and Longwave alongside singer Jaiko Suzuki sparkles with the excitement of a band performing and recording together, as their Bandcamp page says, live and in close quarters. And yet, it’s not just some jam-album but a beautiful record of kraut-y grooves, noisy textures and gorgeous vocals.
Pet Fox - A Face in Your Life (Exploding in Sound)
Another band who appeared on a previous year’s list (2018) who are back again; Pet Fox features members of Ovlov and Grass is Green who have joined forces to play a particularly intriguing brand of guitar-rock that tosses some light post-punk and jazzy elements into the mix. I love the tone of this record, there’s so many great little guitar riffs that will bounce around inside your head for days after hearing them.
Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance (Matador Records)
I don’t think you need me to tell you about this album; if you already know about it you know that it’s great and if you haven’t heard it yet, well now’s your chance to go check it out.
Gentle Heat - Sheer (Flesh & Bone Records)
There’s a lot of shoegaze-adjacent music these days that I find infinitely more interesting than the bands that you’ll see getting labeled as squarely fitting within the genre. Maybe that’s something that happens all the time - the bands who take a genre’s elements and run with them being more ear-catching than the ones that just play with the usual puzzle pieces - but Gentle Heat are a band I think should be in the conversation a bit more. They don’t seem content with just playing music that kind of sounds like Slowdive, but they’ve got the textures and the sonics down and they work them together to drive towards noisy, hooky kind of art-pop tunes. It’s really great.
Delivery - Forever Giving Handshakes (Feel It Records)
I said to someone, somewhere on Discord, that Delivery’s Forever Giving Handshakes feels like a great album to give someone who isn’t familiar with Feel It Records because it’s kind of a grab bag of what’s going on in there in a slightly more accessible, immediate package. And I mean that in the best possible way.
Golden Apples - Self-Titled (Lame-O Records)
On their second album, Golden Apples songwriter Russell Edling amassed members of NONA, Kite Party, Sun Organ, Spirit of the Beehive, Lowercase Roses, Gladie, Three Man Cannon and more to create a more collaborative effort than their previous album Shadowland. Originally, Golden Apples came on my radar when I was looking around online to see what Mimi Gallagher (of the aforementioned and underrated NONA) was up to. I’m glad I stumbled across them because this self-titled effort has that kind of grab-bag, anything goes indie-folk-bedroom-pop-psych-rock kind of vibe that I really dig.
Helpless - Caged in Gold (Church Road Records)
Helpless’ new album Caged in Gold came a full five years after their 2017 release Debt, and it was worth the wait. Here’s another band playing super aggressive grindcore, but with enough groove and slight metalcore elements thrown into the mix to truly stand out. The drumming on this release in particular always catches me off guard, there’s always something fascinating happening at every twist and turn.
Attia Taylor - Space Ghost (Lame-O Records)
This album from Brooklyn-based musician/activist Attia Taylor (who also founded Womanly) bursts with a mix of live and electronic instrumentation, where sketches of skewed pop hooks and droning synths bounce off one another. I love how this record can be at once disparate and completely homogeneous; one second you’re listening to the gorgeous reverberations of “Dog and Pony Show” and the next you’re hearing sparse guitar plucks, a simple synth and drumming toms of “Baby Ain’t Nobody.” And yet, it always makes perfect sense together.
Houseghost - Another Realm (Rad Girlfriend Records)
Where has all the great pop-punk gone?! Certainly some of it has taken home on Rad Girlfriend Records, home to Houseghost, Raging Nathans, Mikey Erg and more.
Houseghost put out my favourite pop-punk album in recent memory with their self-titled 2020 release, and while I am hesitant to say that Another Realm isn’t quite as good as that album (I have to admit I’ve had 2 years to listen to that one on repeat,) this is another great LP of slightly-moody pop-punk that truly hits the spot. Another Realm only dropped on December 16th, so there’s lots of time for me to keep hitting repeat on this one.
Momma - Household Name (Polyvinyl Record Co.)
I know that it’s not anything new, but I love when younger bands embrace the uncool. You hear it in bands these days riffing on nu metal or 00s era pop-punk, and here Momma continue their alt-rock buzz-bin attack with the hooks cranked up to “arena”. It’s like their take on an cool indie alternative band’s major label debut in a way that I just love to hear. Their 2020 album Two of Me was a bit of a sleeper personally, but Household Name hits hard upon your first spin.
Lauran Hibberd - Garageband Superstar (Virgin Music)
Speaking of major label alt-rock, Lauran Hibberd’s album was another that embraced the wave of 00s THPS-dizzy nostalgia in a way I just loved. Features by Limp Bizkit’s DJ Lethal and Wheatus in 2022? I mean, I’d be laughing if the songs weren’t so damn catchy. This was another record that had an uncannily perfect self-descriptor: “Dad rock, for their daughters.”
Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)
Definitely one of the most hyped albums of the year, and for good reason. There’s so much going on here that I still don’t think I’ve got a good hold on it. For some people that might make it hard to pin down but it’s what I think will make this release one that is spoken about for years and years.
Otoboke Beaver - Super Champon (Damnably)
I was a big fan of 2019’s ITEKOMA HITS so obviously their 2022 effort Super Champon was going to be up my alley. It’s everything you could want rolled up into one catchy, noisy, angry, fun, experimental, loud record.
Soft and Dumb - Self-Titled (Self-Released)
A heavy, hazy, and noisy debut album LP from this Chicago, Illinois duo. I love when records like this seem to come out of nowhere and blindside me. This stuff jumps from genre-to-genre, always finding new and interesting left-turns to take but never sacrificing its vibe or melodies. You could file this under slowcore, you could file it under shoegaze, but then what do you do about the electronic beats and auto-tune on “moonshoes?” I love that about this album, it defies easy description. Might as well just listen and enjoy it.
Bitter Branches - Your Neighbors Are Failures (Equal Vision Records)
This band is what it would sound like if members of Calvary, Deadguy, Lifetime, Lighten Up, Kiss It Goodbye, No Escape, Paint It Black and Walleye dressed up as The Jesus Lizard for Halloween and harassed you all night, drinking tall boys in your backyard or whatever. It’s really good!
Bad Boy Chiller Crew - Disrespectful (Relentless Records, Sony Music Entertainment)
Is this one of the best rap albums of the year? Certainly not. Did I listen to “Messages” like, fifty times? Yes. I am one of two people (including myself lol) that I know who enjoy the charms of the BBCC, and everyone else continues to give me puzzled looks when I put them on.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.