The Wildcard’s Top 10 Albums of 2022
Bit late on the uptake here, hectic holidays and all that, but gotta maintain a TNC tradition with the ol’ best album roundup. The ten albums that I, and I alone, currently consider to be the best of the best from the year of our lord 2022. None of these are presented in any particular order. Nor do I even expect to agree with the list myself after a few more months (it’s always unpredictable which albums rise and fall in esteem given the misty passages of time). Even as I put the words together I found myself wavering on one or two... although there were quite a few no-doubters amongst the crew which suggests a pretty strong year of tunage. I tried not to overthink things. The albums that I went back to the most, which moved me the most, they’re mostly the ones that get this illustrious honour. No need to waffle on. Let’s get into it.
Years Gone By...
Honourable Mentions
Erny Belle – Venus Is Home
The Beths – Experts In A Dying Field
Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island
Marlon Williams - My Boy
Aldous Harding – Warm Chris
Black Midi – Hellfire
Sun Ra Arkestra – Living Sky
DARTZ – The Band From Wellington, New Zealand
Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future
Ex-Vöid – Bigger Than Before
Drive-By Truckers – Welcome To Club XIII
Makaya McCraven – In These Times
Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
Larkin Poe – Blood Harmony
Molly Lewis – Mirage
Bartees Strange – Farm To Table
Conway The Machine – What Has Been Blessed Cannot Be Cursed
Fontaines DC – Skinty Fia
Joan Shelley – The Spur
Hans Pucket – No Drama
The Top Ten
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
“Is your muffin buttered? Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?”
Hailing from the Isle of Wight and settling smoothly into both the britpop legacy of bands like Elastica and the modern wave of irreverent rockers such as Dry Cleaning, Wet Leg delivered an absolute stonker of a debut record early in the year. Their breakthrough single Chaise Longue had deservedly put them on the map in 2021 and the full length album kept up the glory. Intensely catchy from top to bottom, full of energy and humour and sly relatable reflections upon life – the lyrics on this thing are ridiculously quotable (“baby do you want to go home with me I’ve got Buffalo 66 on DVD” is one of the best burns in the history of recorded sound). Wet Leg is an album that nestles deeper in your soul the more you listen to it as the various songs take on the qualities of old friends, the sort of friends where you can not see each other for months on end then as soon as you catch up again you pick up immediately where you left off. There may not have been a more electrifying moment on any record last year than the “longest and loudest scream” from Ur Mum.
Avantdale Bowling Club - Trees
“White walkers, Johnnie Walkers, could have been Stan Walkers. Olympic level shit talkers. The best of West Auckland's worst combined forces of workhorses horsed on state house porches”
It’s Tom Scott, man. The best we’ve got in this country. A true rapper’s rapper. The former Homebrew bro is back with his second album under the Avantdale Bowling Club banner, highly lyrical hip hop with jazzy production, once again hitting a new level in his mastery. Scott’s easy flow and authentic imagery make this a special listen as he spins nostalgic tales about economic pressures and family responsibilities and mental health and law enforcement and drug use and all sorts, finding humour and poignancy in tales that many can relate to in some way, shape, or form but which you very rarely hear told on this scale. What he’s done with Trees is to capture a genuine picture of an under-represented aspect of Aotearoa. Scott’s an Avondale Westie but if you grew up in South Auckland as The Niche Cache crew did then the same yarns ring true... no doubt it’s identical in so many other places too. There are some sad societal truths involved with that, not shying away, but Scott’s non-judgemental perspective brings even those aspects into an overall vision that shimmers with life itself. And the whole thing is built upon some stunning instrumentals. It’s a cool thing that there are a couple extended musical stretches because you could listen to the beats/tunes without the vocals and it’d still be brilliant. Special shout out for the track Friday Night @ The Liquor Store which is 200 seconds of absolute perfection.
Sasami – Squeeze
“I saw you at a party, you were sneaking behind the bar. Ever since I’ve known you then you’ve been covering up those scars. I tried to understand, I tried to understand”
The last SASAMI album was a solid entry within the realms of modern indie. Some nice songs with some nice ideas but nothing to really set it apart. This one, on the other hand... absolutely all over the place. It’s brilliantly eclectic, channelling (via her Bandcamp write-up): “the raw aggression of nu-metal, tender plainspokeness of country-pop and folk rock, and dramatic romanticism of classical music”. That lack of cohesion can ruin an album if the songs don’t hold their own but that’s no drama here, even if the jolt from track to track can be kinda jarring. It’s the more melodic tunes like The Greatest, Tried To Understand, Make It Right, and Not A Love Song which rise the highest although the album as a whole definitely benefits from its more abrasive moments such as Skin A Rat and Sorry Entertainer. Garage rock god Ty Segall pops by to handle production on some of the record (feels pretty easy to guess which ones have his fingerprints – the chunky guitars and booming drums give that away). The whole thing sounds amazing. The most thrilling part of it all is that Squeeze really sounds like SASAMI is swinging for the fences. There’s an aura of grandeur and ambition which is not willing to settle for goodness when greatness is possible.
Osees – A Foul Form
“Bloody splatter on the walls. Screaming violence in the halls. Crack a skull most every night”
Twenty-two minutes of hardcore punk assault. Savage distortion upon an onslaught of guitar and bass and drums with a ceaseless ferocity throughout. Basically anything that John Dwyer does is worth a listen and no matter how they’re spelling their name (Thee Oh Sees, OCS, Osees, Oh Sees, etc.) his relentlessly creative band does not disappoint. Dwyer is honestly one of the underrated musical geniuses of the 21st century... of course I say that as a massive fan in the knowledge that they’re not really appropriate for the proverbial catholic taste. But if you get it then you love it. In recent years Osees have swung between the garage rockers that made their name towards more psychedelic excursions and especially some proto-metal and prog-rock efforts. Been a long time since Dwyer’s cut loose with a punk record though. Hence why A Foul Form is such a wild blessing. You can’t hardly make out a damn word that the bloke sings but it’s utterly infectious in it’s brain-melting, skull-cracking, weirdo magnificence. It’s a vibe, mate.
Nilüfer Yanya – Painless
“Love is raised by common thieves hiding diamonds up their sleeves. Always I did it for you”
Having wavered over a couple of options for this spot, I eventually stuck with English songwriter Nilüfer Yanya’s second album and I did so for a couple of reasons. For one it’s a point of difference to the rest of the top ten with it’s modern production within an indie rock framework. And the other main reason is that it’s really bloody good. Yanya has a sound of her own, weaving electric guitars operating over slick beats with her breathy/hushed vocals nestled comfortably amidst. There’s something almost icy about her style. Like neon lights seen distorted through the rain drops on a taxi window. Not sure where that image comes from but another one would be the films of Wong Kar-wai (particularly Fallen Angels). There’s a similar dreamy gloominess here. Yanya’s first album, Miss Universe (2019), had the same feel but the songs weren’t quite as defined or as strong overall. Painless is a dazzling step forward and a record that probably doesn’t stand out as a classic upon first listen but, let me tell ya, it grows. In digs its roots in and blossoms further and further. It’s a credit to Yanya’s precise writing that you don’t quite know which way her songs will go yet every time they swerve it feels like exactly where they needed to go. Wasn’t sure if it was gonna crack the top ten until one final listen and by the end of those 46 minutes and 32 seconds I couldn’t possibly imagine how I was ever in doubt.
Ian Noe – River Fools & Mountain Saints
“There were no people left when the ship rolled in. No one around to explain. All the years they had travelled in search of kin. Now seemed a journey in vain”
This is that real deal Americana music, courtesy of Kentucky’s own Ian Noe. RF&MS is his second full album and it’s a magical effort. His first last album was strong but a bit uneven (although Letter to Madeline is an entire movie in a four minute tune, one of the finest folk songs of the last decade) whereas the latest offering simply never lets up. It’s one stirring Appalachian character portrait after another, painting pictures with his words and casting spells with his melodies. You can tell he spent time under the guidance of the late great John Prine (touring with him a few years back) because there are times here when Noe sounds uncannily like the master himself... though Priney never embraced the dark fatalism that Ian Noe tinkers with. Like Prine, however, Ian Noe has that visionary ability to imbue true humanity and empathy into what he does, taking you into the souls of his working class hero characters. This is not a casual listen. There’s a real emotional punch in tracks like Ballad of a Retired Man and One More Night although he does mix it up with a few blues and rock touches to get you stomping along. Get amongst a true craftsman at work.
Weyes Blood – And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
“Oh, hearts aglow, we don't know where we're going. We just keep getting higher”
There’s a quote in Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1976 film Stalker (paraphrased from the Tao Te Ching) in which the main fella talks about how the pliability and softness of nature represents life and freshness (as opposed to hardness which equals death – think of a dried out dead tree). There’s a song on Weyes Blood’s latest entitled God Turn Me Into A Flower which says a lot of the same things. Following on from the breakthrough majesty of 2019’s Titanic Rising, Natalie Mering has delivered what’s surely the prettiest album of 2022. It’s a stunningly aesthetic record that at times borrows from modern synths, at other times from Golden Hollywood musicals, and always with a Brian Wilson-esque feel for elaborate arrangements. Combine Mering’s heavenly vocals – truly emanating from another plane of consciousness – and the quiet heartbreak of her tunes and the whole thing is overwhelmingly lush and beautiful and profound and... it’s hard to even describe it. I melt into ectoplasm every time I hear it. The title track just evaporates me. What a remarkable thing to find an album that can inspire such a grand reaction – only the very best art can do that.
Charley Crockett – The Man From Waco
“It was there that he shot her while the lovers were embraced, with the bullet he intended for the man who took his place. He cried through the night as he made his escape, but the rain that was fallin' could not wash away his shame”
Gotta love a good cowboy balladeer and they don’t make many like Charley Crockett any more. Crockett tends to deliver a couple albums every year and his prolific work-rate can be both a strength and a curse. A strength because of how fantastic he is at delivering tasteful conceptual country/folk yarns (occasionally dipping into R&B and Blues too) but a curse too as it does keep his albums from being as stacked with bangers as they would be if he saved up his best songs for longer. You know what though? The Man From Waco doesn’t miss. The album tells a loose tale of a man who accidentally murders his beloved upon catching her in bed with another man, then finds he can’t outrun the shame. But you don’t really need to know that. The concept is just a jumping off point to spin through fifteen breezy tunes all written by his own pen (although Tom Turkey is based on an unfinished Bob Dylan sketch, earning ol’ Bobby a co-write credit). Time of the Cottonwood Tree, Just Like Honey, Black Sedan, July Jackson. It’s just one tumbling tumbleweed classic after another. The most complete project the dude has delivered yet.
Naima Bock – Giant Palm
“And when the world crumbles at my feet I’ll pick it up and pull it tight against my cheek until the wind blows it all away and leaves me here to waste away another day”
Another album of impeccable aesthetics. Naima Bock seems to sit smoothly in the English folk tradition of Nick Drake (she even kinda sings like him with those breathy laconics) though with Brazilian and Greek heritage also in her cultural bag she’s got plenty of tricks up her sleeve. There are jazzy tinges, ambient tinges, exotic tinges... and the whole thing is tastefully produced by Joel Burton. Naima Bock used to be a member of the impressive British indie rock band Goat Girl but backed away in order to steer clear of all the touring. Giant Palm does sorta lend an impression of Bock as an introverted and pensive personality - someone with a touch of the recluse, comfortable in her own solitude away from all that hectic modernity. There are themes of nature throughout which contributes to the timeless feel of the record. It could have been recorded in 2022 or it could have been recorded in 1972. Whenever it happens to emanate from in the vastness of human time-keeping, this is an album with sharply written tunes performed expertly with a unique sound and that all adds up to one of the year’s best chilled-out listens.
Angel Olsen – Big Time
“Take to the lakе, playing lady in red. Hanging onto every word that you said. Staying up all night, out by the fire. Singing your songs now, you know I'm a crier”
The Lauren Canyon circa 1969 reinvention of Angel Olsen was a genius move which led to one of 2022’s most engrossing and transcendent listens. Olsen’s initial breakthrough came as a chanteuse of acoustic folk burners but she’s spent most of the last decade working in various art-pop stylings. All of it’s really good too, Olsen is a wonderful song-writer with a beautifully unique voice and she’s never made anything close to an underwhelming album. This one though... this one shimmers with a trippy haze upon some country-rock strummers which summon the presences of Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, The Byrds, Gene Clark, etc. The whole thing is simply gorgeous. Gorgeous in its joy and gorgeous in its grief (there are moments of each on the record). Olsen wears her heart on her sleeve throughout, elegantly singing her way through another collection of impeccable tunes with some truly delicious arrangements, whether they’re going for sparse country wooziness or elaborate grandiosity. Big Time is nothing short of marvellous.
Bonus Shout: Fazerdaze – Break!
“Focus on your breath and just try to clear your head. Filter out what they said and dispose of all the dregs”
Was gonna chuck this in the top ten but as an EP with only five tracks that felt like a stretch... so here it is in bonus form anyway. There’s a lovely little doco on her YouTube about why Amelia Murray stepped away from her Fazerdaze project for a wee while (after a smashing debut album in 2017), but she’s back now and in a big way. Break! features five distinct tunes each with their own vibes. Only the title track and Overthink It (first and last on the tracklist respectively) feel like they could have been written and recorded together. Those two are the rockers of the bunch, each with a 90s grunge/alternative thing going on (and parallel themes of self-doubt and anxiety), swirling around the words and guitars before exploding in triumph towards the end when the layered vocals hit. In between you’ve got Winter which is a slick and sweet R&B track, Thick of the Honey adds in some funk, and Come Apart is in the power-pop mould of her previous album Morningside. Each of them has immense relisten value, distinguishing Murray’s prowess at song construction way beyond the blissed-out vibe of Morningside (which btw holds up as well as it ever did). Only 14 minutes long even if it really doesn’t feel that short, given how much Fazerdaze-ery has been crammed into that run-time. A glorious comeback effort.
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