Best of 2022
My favorite thing about the coming of any new year is all the “best of” lists that my favorite commentators post. Best music, best film, best football game, best mutual fund, best everything. All the lists are crap, but it’s a blast to see where my favorites sit in comparison to the experts.
This year for the first time ever I’m going to do my best of list. Thought about best Ltac tactic, but caught myself before that mistake. Then there was best dog video, but I don’t video my dog. So, music it will have to be. Without further delay, here are my lists:
Pop/Rock Whatever
- The Boy Named If - Elvis Costello & the Imposters
- Going Places - Josh Rouse
- Labryinthitis - Destroyer
- Wet Leg - Wet Leg
- A Light for Attracting Attention - The Smile
- The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom - Jens Lekman
- Ye Olde… - JEFF the Brotherhood
- Only In America - Matthew E. White
- Expert In A Dying Field - The Beths
- At Scaramouche - Shabason & Krgovich
- Big Time Things - Office Culture
- Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
- Human Kind - Straw Man Army
- ALAWARI - Alawari
Alt Whatever
- Time Skiffs - Animal Collective
- Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road
- Texas Moon - Khruangbin & Leon Bridges
- Classic Objects - Jenny Hval
- Weather Alive - Beth Orton
- Saturday Sunday - Sam Prekop
- Inside Problems - Andrew Bird
- Reset - Panda Bear & Sonic Boom
- Air - Sault
- Bleed Out - The Mountain Goats
- Stump Works - Dry Cleaning
Jazz Whatever
- The Relatives - Jeff Parker
- Far Star - Gilad Hekselman
- In the Moment - Makaya McCraven
- Black Focus - Yussef Kamaal
- The Temple Within - Matthew Halsall
- View With A Room - Julian Lage
- The Bad Plus - The Bad Plus
- Ghost Song - Cecile McLorin Salvant
- Flaming Swords - Fievel Is Glauque
- Jazz Is Dead 15 - Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad
- Falling Grace - Charlie Ballantine
- Clouds of Joy - Badge Epoque Ensemble
- Lost in Tokyo - SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS
- Fresh Pepper - Fresh Pepper
- The Spoon - Oscar Jerome
- New Gospel - Marquis Hill
- In the Moment - Larnell Lewis
Country & Folk
- Bronco - Orville Peck
- Love & Harm - Karl Blau
- REALITY - Bill Calahan
- Blue Hours - Bear’s Den
And there you go. No discipline. No methodology. No order. Just a bunch of albums that made my year. My classifications are only there to help you find the albums. I make no claim to being the arbiter of “What is X” where “X” is your favorite genre.
So what was my favorite? I’m not sure. I can say Fresh Pepper got lots of play as did Ants From Up There and Clouds of Joy and Ghost Song and Texas Moon and… You get the picture. There’s just a ton of great music out there.