My 20 Favorite Albums of 2022

A thrill to be able to hear so many gems!

2022 has shaped up to be one of my favorite years in music. Though it felt like it started out slow, by the end, I simply couldn’t keep up with stuff that I wanted to listen to. Even having plenty of time thanks to numerous illnesses, it was just too hard to explore. There’s sure to be plenty of hidden gems in the year for any music fan if they explore around blogs or the like and find something worth checking out.

Media in general was interesting this year. The world obviously rapidly changes before our eyes too quickly to keep up with, and in trying to grapple with the way the world changes, we ended up grappling with ourselves first. Perhaps “enough” time has passed since the COVID pandemic started that art is fully processing and we’re seeing the knock-on effects of such rippling throughout the form, both commercially and interdependently. As we grappled with ourselves in our art, we got bolder and further out there in looking at the world around us through ourselves as a lens. Or if not, at least applying what the world is currently teaching us through music as a means of healing or processing.

So 2022 transitions into 2023, and the year has ended for music, resulting in us needing to go through it all to make sense of it. Or perhaps it’s too much, simply too much art to bother with. Which is fair. But the biggest problem with doing a year’s end list before the year ends is missing out on what the end of the year has to say and gathering your thoughts formally, so you might as well fully try to bother with it if you’re going to bother at all!

I’ve put much thought into how I wanted to order this list. #20 - #1? The reverse? Not even bother with rankings? I had no idea. To be honest, rankings are nearly arbitrary in themselves, only really here for organization, convenience, and an indication of where current me stands on certain opinons. It could all change tomorrow (it’s changed numerous times in compiling this list over the past month). All I know is that I’d rather present it my way if I want to do it at all, so I’ll give you the absolute best upfront to keep enticing you to the rest. With that said, here’s what rocked me to my core in 2022.

kessoku band - kessoku band

Time and time again, I nearly fall sway to the notion of concepts such as "objectivity", or perhaps "being rational", cute ideas to flirt with as a music critic, analyzer, and researcher. But those cute notions are so easily dismantled in the face of something like kessoku band, and as a music listener and fan, I would rather my heart lead than anything else.

During 2022, a good amount of hardship was faced by several people close to me (including myself), and the pandemic sure never helps matters either. Cumulative stress and recovery means going insane a good amount as you do a whole bunch of nothing inside. For the first time since the pandemic started, I felt myself going back to the complete and utter hermit lifestyle that I once inhabited for a good amount of my school life. I dove into music more than ever before, and through music, found a deeper love and understanding of how music works, how interconnected music is in both our lives and with itself, and how we receive music. The way connections and understandings can be made through music is a valuable thing, and why it is one of the most beautiful forms of media and art that can exist.

In the midst of this increasing loneliness and increasing depth of music exploration came an anime called Bocchi the Rock!. It's a cute slice-of-life anime for sure, but the strength of its portrayal of the passion for music moved me like little else has. Its main character, Hitori Gotou AKA the titular Bocchi is a hermit who by happenstance joins a band as their lead guitarist and is thus forced to break out of her shell bit by bit (anime for you! but never let it be said that truth can't be stranger than fiction). The incredibly gradual (but still existent) progress our protagonist makes is comedic but tempered by a very real kindness and empathy for her situation and how she feels. The show clearly has nothing but pure adoration for music as a hobby, a form, an art, and a community. Based off a manga already in love with music even putting aside frequent references to a variety of bands (such as 88Kasyo Junrei, also serving as the source of inspiration for one of its supporting cast), the show spares no lengths to show how important music in many different ways and for many different type of people. Of course, the music was suitably good too, lending an absolute credence to its passion. Watching week-by-week warmed my heart, even reminding me heavily of accidentally finding acceptance in high school through music via drum performances at a youth club's concert stage (like I said about truth and fiction, though I am not 1/20th as good at my chosen instrument as Bocchi is at hers). So I can't help but instantly love this pink-haired girl, her friends, the show, and the music therein.

As it is, no matter how much I want to temper any part of my love for the music even in trying to describe its less favorable aspects, I can't help but be overflow with the pure love of music that each song makes me feel. The pull between feeling trapped in one's shell or pit of depression and the exuberant life of the music displaying it strikes a certain chord that feels utterly impactful in its sincerity. A desire to connect with others and working towards that even through the pain it brings, with an anxious lead guitar crying out to match and the propulsion of the band behind it to push it forward - chef's kiss. Thrilling and frantic arrangements are spearheaded by way of la la larks' guitarist Ritsuo Mitsui and session guitarist Akihito Suzuki (who also play guitar for kessoku band's recordings), with the rest of the band rounded out by School Food Punishment drummer Osamu Hidai and session bassist Yuichi Takama. The passion the whole band bring with them along with the show's various main voice actresses providing vocals end up containing magic more exciting than nearly anything else in modern J-rock. Joy is found in these songs despite the anxiety within, that contrast providing its own magic, and every key change hit feels like an extra burst through the wall into something brighter. It's hard to convince me of a good key change in modern pop, but the only other band that could pull it off this well in 2022 were Alvvays.

Several writers contribute to the core of these projects along with the two aforementioned arrangers, such as KANA-BOON's vocalist/guitarist Maguro Taniguchi, tricot's vocalist/guitarist Ikkyu Nakajima, and the peggies' vocalist/guitarist Yuho Kitazawa among many others. There's even a cover of Asian Kung-Fu Generation's Korogaru Iwa, Kimi ni Asa ga Furu (another band both the anime and manga adore too, as well as an additional musical reference point here). The guitar focus here is key as the main focus of the show is a guitarist, but another commonality between every band is a propensity for driving rhythms and super-tight cores that make songs feel alive as well as impactful no matter the tone or speed. Having these influences (who are already wonderful bands) coalesce in one package as good as what inspired it probably helps explain the immediate overwhelming appeal for me, so it doesn't matter when a similar trope or passage or the like occurs. It feels like homage, and even beyond that, it's just plain wonder and joy. There's little else that got me this year like any track on here. It makes me need to spill purple prose everywhere I go about this show and its music.

What I realized when 2022 ended was that the music that touched me the most was the kind that inspired a drive to connect and explore. With what? It's up to you. Others, music, technology, history, art, it doesn't matter, the drive is what matters. That realization was absolutely bolstered by the anime Bocchi the Rock! and its resulting score and soundtrack. Music can be as much of a drive as any to connect, and be responsible for many connections. (Any treasured memory or friendship formed or positive life experience is all an indication of this.) Good music is good music regardless of where it's from or how it impacts you. The pure joy of music is what matters, hardly exemplified better than these 14 bright auditory shots of energy that make up the album kessoku band. So here's to more wonderful music, here's to more touching music, but more importantly, here's to more music.

Aniplex (SVWC-70613)

Tidal

Kali Malone - Living Torch

The utter breathtaking awe each drone brings in both halves of Living Torch is nothing short of mesmerizing. Tones carefully recorded one at a time and painstakingly pieced together to blend and softly float together until latching onto the next, creating an ethereal chain of hypnotic beauty. The first song patiently comes and goes, setting about its connected drones carefully and subtly. Kali Malone, using Eliane Radigue's very own ARP 2500 and a custom-made instrument titled the Boîte à bourdons (bumblebee box), carefully sets the tone throughout, serenading while also keeping a deliberate distance. Mats Äleklint on trombone and Isak Hedtjärn on bass clarinet are especially careful with their playing here, blending in so perfectly with the droning from Kali's two synthesizers that it's hard to tell which is which. The processing of tones is delicious, and a warm vibrant life can be felt throughout that captures one's attention so easily despite its subduedness.

As the piece takes on a darker form in the second track, synthesizer buzzing to life with a noisy edge alongside a blaring trombone and clarinet, a new type of beauty is unearthed, the range of tones and each individual instrument given full clarity and color. What we heard in such gorgeous but muted tones takes on a vibrant, declrative energy, the music practically bursting through its seams as the track progresses. It's near jaw-dropping every time to hear it play out. Going from every end of the spectrum and fully grabbing at the emotional core of the work unearths the sheer resonance of the work. Kali Malone's compositions only get more bold and daring as time goes on leaving one to guess where she could go next with her exploration of tone and arrangement. Beyond the pipe organ, she proves that she's a master at extracting meaning from any drone regardless of how it's produced.

Portraits GRM (SPGRM004)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Earthless - Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

Guitar as massive and looming as the yokai on the cover. Bass anchoring the sound of their march. Drums playing to the beat of their arrival. Earthless have always been good at being heavy and conjuring up fantastical images, but I truly believe they've never pulled together such a cohesive vision into a pinpoint-accurate sound like this before. It's overwhelming, imposing, and simply delicious. Isaiah Mitchell's album-long guitar solo excursions have never been as satisfying and tasty as this, while simultaneously managing to make every note he plays count. And the immense power of Mike Eginton's bass and Mario Rubalcaba's drums create a rhythm section as hard as diamond. Everyone seems to have only gotten better as time goes on, and a unified idea and concept behind the music solidifies it into something incredibly towering.

The title track, split up into two songs, lures one in with a gorgeous intro that really takes its time to set the mood, guitar twinkling overhead the cymbals and earthy bass below before the band fully comes together into a bludgeon on the listener. From there, it's typical Earthless jamming that excites, especially when Part 2 starts with ominous, lumbering drums through a fairly desert-esque atmosphere before going on the offensive again. And in comparison to that bludgeon, Death to the Red Sun is akin to being smashed in, getting heavier, blues-ier, more aggressive, and more threatening. Bass gallops alongside drums at a hurried speed while Isaiah works through multiple delicious riffs, and the song even has the room for one of rock's catchiest riffs of the year without breaking the tone of the song. By the time the final hurrah is sounded, the hour is barely felt, and the yokai have taken over the night to their whims, feeling exactly as fun as that sounds.

Nuclear Blast (NB 6171-2)

Tidal

Vanessa Rossetto - The Actress

With numerous field recordings, Vanessa Rossetto pieces together a creative concept album about an actress in the age of social media juxtaposed between the rural and the urban. Or, with numerous field recordings, Vanessa Rossetto assumes the role of the titular actress as she acts as an observer of the world around her. Or... with numerous field recordings, Vanessa Rossetto acts as a sonic painter of the lowkey, peculiar settings of America around her. As much as she suggests, she also obfuscates, and as much as she tells, she playfully hides. Allowing her audience to come and go to shape the narrative as they please both in her recordings and as passive listeners is one of Vanessa's biggest strengths as an artist, so where better to blend such sensibilities than with playing with the framing of the real and the fictional?

Field recordings, samples, and scattered dialog both foggy and distant are blended alongside gradually swelling strings, drones, or various instrumentation, but the atmosphere is neither dark nor overwhelming, more... curious! The sense of playfulness extends into technique as well, such as cutting into someone's conversation (whether with the supposed actress or not) only to flitter away mid-word to another point of interest out of curiosity. Layers of reality mingling with each other like tenuous acquaintance at a highlight the meaningless boundaries between reality and fiction. Much in the vein of my favorite director of all time, Satoshi Kon, Vanessa acknowledges both as real and constructs vivid scenery with them, the concept from the real and the real from the concept. Like the transparent horse on the cover, the music is as transparent as it is dense, existing freely as it does.

Erstwhile (ErstSolo 008-2)

Bandcamp

Eyrie - All in All

It nearly feels like cheating to put this up here, so familiar have I become with these two demos from emoviolence band Eyrie over the years. I've become intimately familiar with the chainsaw buzzing-esque of the guitar and bass, detuned and/or played so dissonantly as to sound like an unprepared orchestra on the fritz more than guitars. Drumming that sounds ready to burst through the wall of noise at any possible second and vocals that feel dangerously ready to break in half make for a beautiful chaos. There's nothing really new here, aside from a remastering that helps make drums more audible (and everything louder in a good way), but it's fine for there to be nothing new with a package like this. Lack of cohesion? Sounds like a good joke underneath these killer strings.

I can't help but find even more beauty in these songs as time goes on, only affirmed more in hindsight by lyrics helpfully provided in the liner notes of the release despite it not being necessary to understand. Passion so intense it practically bleeds from the music itself. A deliberate love for the rabidity of the music being played. Careful balances between the soft, the serene, and the earsplitting, the ugly. When the band slow down during the chaos (best exemplified in the 2013 demo), it's like they're dragging the music through nails to get to the end. Something so beautiful in the way it breaks itself down and reconstructs itself to finish in one piece. There's truly little like Eyrie in screamo, particularly anyone willing to beat the shit out of their instruments for such gorgeous noise.

Energy Crow (ECR-01)

Bandcamp

Acid Mothers Temple & Infinity Rising Zero - Unstoppable Trance Hazard

By any estimate the Acid Mothers Temple collective have put out anywhere from an average of seven to "this is ridiculous" amounts of releases each year, particularly with Bandcamp Friday being a notable event each year, so it's only logical that one of their releases would make a Best Of list. Hard to predict it being a monster of a live album like this, though. From the more rhythm and beat-oriented unit of Acid Mothers Temple comprising of Makoto Kawabata, Higashi Hiroshi, Higashi Mineko (AKA Pika) of Afrirampo fame, and current AMT drummer Nani Satoshima, Unstoppable Trance Hazard is wanton destruction of psychedelia through a warped futuristic lens and drums. So much drumming. Pika and Satoshima lay down sheets of drums as they frantically pound their hearts out, Pika chanting, singing, and screaming as much as her voice lets her while Kawabata and Hiroshi build trippy atmospheres and lines over top of it and Satoshima's programmed beats. The crown gem is a rendition of AMT's bonafide signature song Pink Lady Lemonade, titled Pink Lady Lemon Energy here, nearly an hour of building upon itself in different directions and unique ways while still hitting the song's core themes and melodies and feeling less than half the length. Pure rhythmic chaos that surely filled up whatever room they played in.

Acid Mothers Temple

Bandcamp

Effluence - Sarmat

Matt Stephens is the mad scientist behind Effluence, and there's probably little better to describe the end result of the music he makes for the project. Filtered through brutal death metal, grindcore, noise and improvisation, what we end up hearing sounds akin to an elder god attempting to speak with us mere mortal human beings. It's alien and unknowable, which makes the pull that much more alluring. On his second album Sarmat, Effluence committed to seeing jazz enter this incomprehensible equation with Paul Acuña contributing the meanest vocals to an Effluence project yet, creating something more mind-bending than before. The music almost seems to come in waves; lonely piano that sounds slightly removed from human composition is flooded with outrageously harsh and heavy death metal. After dragging you under you're washed back up with alien piano filtered through the static air or perhaps feedback before crashing back into bloody metal all over again. The music is paradoxically impenetrable yet accessible by the nature of its structure and dynamics (helped by being a single track). Nothing about it should make any sense, yet it does. Though it feels as if it shouldn't exist, it does. If whatever kind of metal Effluence creates end up being the future of the genre, it could be truly frightening.

No Label

Bandcamp

Bird's Eye Batang - Flood Format

Whatever musical territories the artist behind Mid-Air Thief (here under the alias Bird’s Eye Batang) explores, so too does the sound of the ocean follow. Crystalline bells that sound like pearls from the ocean's floor glide along the currents of various synths, strewn about every which way while Mid-Air Thief's vocals wash upon the banks of abstract rhythms and collages. The mish-mash of sounds is disorienting, but there's something alluring to it. Just as you think you're about to latch onto a sense of what's going on, the rug gets tugged under you that little bit more, heightening the mystery even more. The erraticism never comes off as overbearing or an annoyance, but something to dig into and explore. Silence is often explored as well, creating tension and intrigue at various points in the music that serve to create a lighthearted contrast in the music. Constantly evolving, the music even flows and morphs as freely as liquid, chasing after a distant unknown downstream, morphing with its terrain. The clear sense of careful design in the craft is breathtaking, and it helps that it sounds really good and catchy in spite of its formless nature. Mid-Air Thief is clearly able to reach the vision in his head in a way that sounds deceptively effortless despite the complexity. It even has the distinction of being his cutest-sounding music yet.

The Vault (VLT000079)

Bandcamp / Tidal / YouTube

Boris - Heavy Rocks (2022)

As if Boris could simply sit still after the serene beauty of their previous affair W, they upped the intensity and style in a throwback to their Heavy Rocks series with a 2022 edition. Atsuo takes over on lead vocals as the band rip through song after song, managing an even more potent display of their noisy assault than something like the relentless NO. Finding the best of both worlds between 2002's version (noisy, overwhelming) and 2011's version (more refined, more of an ear for atmosphere), Boris further take their additional years with songwriting and experimentation with genres to make Heavy Rocks even heavier and more rock than before. Tracks like She Is Burning, Question 1 and Nosferatou absolutely crush and are suitably cool while doing so, while Ghostly Imagination has a manic industrial underpinning to it. (Not) Last Song is an especially gorgeous closer, only bolstered by the knowledge of what a killer outro they give it during live shows. What's especially ridiculous is how close this was to not being my Boris pick for album of the year, only further solidifying the case for them being one of the greatest bands of all time yet another year into their career.

Relapse (RR7526)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Current 93 - If a City Is Set Upon a Hill

David Tibet's latest is more forlorn than usual. Images are painted most of the way, frequently stopped short of completion and left up to subtle suggestion before David moves on to a new subject or thought while implying a sadness best left unsaid. The way both lyrical and musical repetition plays into the abstract poetic nature of the lyrics leaves an immense impression, no small part to the immense careful playing him and his band share with each other. More than once, David's voice sounds as if it wants to collapse at the sheer weight of the music. It's as if only the brightness of the instruments themselves is what keeps the music afloat. Joke Moon has its own musical theme that threatens to break your heart if you aren't careful. Clouds at Teatime is the closest David's lyrics get to being direct, before returning to that light tension permeating atmosphere throughout. Fragile doesn't begin to describe how this music feels. Yet its delicacy puts me at ease regardless, and the warm feeling radiating from the music has its own special allure that invited me back to it throughout the year. It makes me feel grateful to be able to hear its heavenly tones time and time again.

House of Mythology (HOMℵ 5)

Bandcamp

Gospel - The Loser

Moving in a less forceful but no less aggressive direction, Gospel returned nearly 17 years later to the day with The Loser, an album all about being a loser in a multitude of ways. The prog nerds deep within Gospel's soul emerge more prominent than before as well. It's quite an experience to hear their two albums back-to-back, going from technical and math-y screamo tinged with 60s psychedelia, one foot deep in King Crimson adoration and the other in combination Saetia + Envy kinship, to a more sombre and weary but no less pissed explosion of 70s prog and late-00s post-hardcore. The psychedelia and interplay of Yes mingle with the poetic song structures of Mahavishnu Orchestra, while a song like Warm Bed matches pained melodicism with punk's soaring rage as simply one example of the band further carving their own sound into the barriers of hardcore. In fact, they have even more bite despite dialing the intensity back a tad. Compare their 2010 version of Tango to this album's; I like that version a ton, but it can't hold a candle to its ferocity here. And if the lyrics from their debut were about living through Hell while making sense of it all, this one is living in the raw aftermath of it and recovering in all the ways one does. Thus the so-called Losers of each song struggle, rays of optimism shining through at times but tempered by the knowledge of reality, yet railing for any tomorrow to keep trying and going. A message as inspiring now as it ever has been, with the passion behind it to affirm.

Dog Knights (DK163)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Animal Collective - Time Skiffs

Warm hospitality, pure and simple. Though I am quite a fan of Animal Collective in the 2010s, and Crestone was quite a pretty soundtrack to easily lose yourself in, here they've really found a comfortable return to their mellow, warm, rhythm-oriented sound. Time Skiffs feels like a natural evolution of all their previous releases and melding what they learned from before into a very mature sound. The warm tropical dub sound here really helps ground the affair when it gets fanciful and too flightful at times, and the group manages to stretch their sound and contributions in numerous ways while still sounding fully cohesive in the end. I especially find the lyrics here to be some of the strongest on any Animal Collective record. Still poetic and abstract in nature, it feels more down-to-earth in addressing mythology, nature, music, the passage of time and how people change therein, and how interconnected all of these things are. It's addressed in a way that feels pretty unlike the group, making it all the more exuberant. For the most comfortable album from the group in a long while, it similarly manages to be the most heady.

Domino (WIG501D)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Alvvays - Blue Rev

Some of the most blissful and catchy pop rock all year, which is impressive considering the competition. Alvvays make increased usage of noisy, fuzzy guitars and contrast with a number of their clearest, brightest, upfront melodies ever, all a perfect counterpart to the bittersweetness throughout the lyrics. There's some amazing harmonizing throughout the vocal dueting here that really send these songs over the moon. I'm super partial to Belinda Says and how Alec O'Hanley underpins Molly Rankin so well especially on that last chorus. Every one of these 14 songs has a sense of inertia and emotional pull to it, even the hauntingly soft closer Fourth Figure. The energy and urgency felt in the playing, the passionate vocal lines, the lovestruck and heartbroken lyrics here are so invigorating, it brings warmth even in the winter.

Transgressive (TRANS642)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Vektroid & New Dreams Ltd. - Fuji Grid TV II: EMX

For her first new album in years, Vektroid produces a claustrophobic delight; trails of vocal samples poking through and between reality as layers of sound and noise pile onto each other and disappear just as quickly as they're introduced. In the rare moments of serenity or downtime, an uneasy etherealness shines through, background music of the news reports or jingles being sampled transformed into pads resembling a dark ocean over voices as soothing and careful as they are unreal. And then you get thrown back into it all over again. The spirit of New Deluxe Life's ▣世界から解放され▣ carries over quite well in this bizarre painting of textures, with some samples even being shared (or perhaps a sampling of that EP itself?). Even 2019's resurgence of Macintosh Plus finds a place here from OPTION2 on, the glitchy and anxious synths stabbing rhythmically through samples while converging in on themselves. P • V brings it full-circle, remixing various tracks from the album in an exciting manner reminiscent of Sick & Panic, itself an extension of her work through various aliases in the years before. Few understand its craft through its history from formation up to this day as well as Ramona Xavier.

No Label

Bandcamp / YouTube (Music Video)

death's dynamic shroud.wmv - Transcendence Bot

Produced by Keith Rankin, Transcendence Bot finds a unique middle spot between aggressive confrontation and sugar-sweet melodies to deliver truly transcendent vaporwave. Of course it's understandable for everyone to rave about Darklife when that one was available for the public. But this secret gem buried in their Bandcamp fanclub blows that out of the water for me by a country mile. In many respects, it feels like a cousin to 2021's Faith in Persona, but the increased boldness of how angry the music wants to feel and the more heavy energy do well to separate it. Every song here excepting the interludes displays a fantastic sense of writing and composition that's smart stuff to construct out of sampling. (Even the intro and interlude are sweet atmospheric ear candy.) The sampling is especially dramatic and suitably fitting to the tone of the music and concept while not going overboard or too saccharine, continuing to showcase how well the group can manage to play with music and produce something gorgeous. And as ever, the unashamed pop and radio-friendly song choices for sampling to use in such upfront and out-there music prove that the group, not just Keith Rankin, display a genuine love for the type of music they borrow from and in turn create. Thrilling!

Ghost Diamond

Bandcamp

Duster - Together

"I forgot the fuck it days and fuck it nights, rays of instinct drift to doom." Just like that, Duster solidify the tone of Together more succinctly and immediately than they have on any prior album. As a two-man unit now, with Jason Albertini absent from the group to focus on Helvetia, the songs turn more inward and colder, yet paradoxically, the intimacy only grows. Even with the familiar hazy guitars clouding the sky (affectionately dubbed "meow guitars" by the duo), more space is found within the songs for the listener to occupy. It's the first Duster album to really welcome you in, rather than merely share its gravity with you. Despite the poppier track here and there, the album is more mood-oriented than most of their other works, but it ultimately works in service for the album. The mood is the intimacy, and the intimacy works in favor for slowcore more than other genres, especially Duster's airy, lonely but wandering type. It's the most emotionally resonant Duster album for me.

Numero (NUM301)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island

Unfortunately, Kikagaku Moyo have gone on an infinite hiatus, but they at least went out with a bang in the form of a rocking tour and a really tight final album. As playful and chill as ever, Kikagaku Moyo opt for a more eclectic approach, throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. It often works thanks to their incredible creativity and interplay, always feeling each other out for the best groove. There's an exhilarating momentum that comes from listening to the band seamlessly bounce around with each other and settle into the best rhythm with what the rest of the group are doing better than the majority of psychedelic rock bands today, even on the ambient or short tracks. One hell of a flex to show off your range even further right when you're on your way out.

Guruguru Brain (GGB-028)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture

Ashenspire pull no punches with their contempt for capitalism, placing it in historical context through a number of different pained narratives as the music delivers as much of a gut-punch. Contorting in on itself and twisting through different hellish musical corridors, the music reflects the immense hostility against both capitalism and its inevitable wreckage as closely as the hostile architecture the album is named after, while also never failing to be empathetic for its victims as well in its softer passages, its more reflective lyrics.. The vicious snarl of Alasdair Dunn is incessant, manic and leaving no doubt as to his power behind the microphone (and the kit no less). Moments of beauty like the biting How the Mighty Have Vision showcase the versatility and emotional range of the band. There's a lot to unpack in the way the band weave in and out of the complex anarchy of these instrumentals, and once you do, it feels immensely gratifying.

Code666 (CODE135)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Beach House - Once Twice Melody

The way Beach House stretch out very naturally into a number of styles while both sounding like themselves and also sounding good across a double album at it is pretty satisfying to hear. They've always had their own sound, but never one that felt all that realized until 7 with electronics and psychedelia playing a larger role. And the duo, backed again by James Barone (of Moccasin and formerly of Tennis) on drums, continue to shape what that sound means to them, leaning even more in a romantic synthpop direction throughout that never clashes with their dream pop sound. Even the few lulls on here (it is a double album at the end of the day) aren't too bad, and still fit the overall atmosphere. Ultimately, the sum is greater than its parts, but the 85 minutes always seem to go by rapidly, and it's come to define how my winter has sounded over the past year. Very cozy, I would say.

Sub Pop (SP1470)

Bandcamp / Tidal

Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes

Black Thought seems unable to release a bad album, proving that even more when teaming up with Danger Mouse to present Cheat Codes. He continues to refine his conscious lyricism and show that he's still in the process of growing his strengths, impressive when a case already could have been made for him being one of the best since the end of the 90s. His wordplay only gets more clever without being overbearing, and more direct without missing out on nuance. A lot of the features here are practically on-par as well, with my full-on favorite verses here being delivered by Joey Bada$$, Conway the Machine, and A$AP Rocky with my absolute favorite of any album of the year. Danger Mouse brings his A-game here as well, with super catchy sampling and having an impeccable track-by-track flow. His organ playing is even tasty here, particularly on No Gold Teeth. My only real complaint with the album lies in Belize. It's a great tribute to MF DOOM, but every time I hear it I can't help but notice the crackling around DOOM's verse from how slow it's been stretched. It's far too jarring for me to ever ignore and frequently makes me seek out the original verse.

BMG (538823572)

Tidal