Albums of the Year 2022

26.2

Funkfingers said:

I predict that @thecolourbox will nominate Jack White's two albums.

26.2 said: 

Can live in Cuxhaven

If this re-issued 1976 recording is admissible, my nomination is Pink Floyd Animals 2018 Remaster.

The Can isn’t a reissue. 

EricTheWeary

Placidcasual79 said:

Oh I’ll have to look that up. He’s played and produced some great stuff over the years (Dennis Bovell MBE now). 

It's called the dubmaster: the essential anthology Dennis Bovell - like you say he's played on and produced some really good stuff over the years - hugely influential. I've found it hard to find some of his stuff - this is basically in two halves -  the first is his groups and stuff he's played on -  from straight roots and dub to the more jazzy and out there stuff he did then the second half is his production and remix stuff - all the way from lovers rock to a few more contemporary things. It's 38 tracks and covers a lot of ground - like the man himself. 

Hope you enjoy it Eric  + have a great Christmas. 

Cheers. Have a great one yourself. 

richardhomer

PJ Moore & Co’s ‘When a Good Day Comes’.

fretmeister

Dub War - Westgate under fire.

stimpsonslostson

Zeal and Ardor by Zeal and Ardor. 
Best album I've heard in a long time. 
It's a crazy mix of rock, death metal, jazz and goodness knows what else. 

equalsql

Louis Cole - Quality Over Opinion.

Grangousier

The Smile, Sun's Signature (technically an EP, but I waited long enough for it, it counts to me), Julian Lage, Robyn Hitchcock, Richard Dawson and Sweet Billy Pilgrim. 

CharlieShaw

Grangousier said:

The Smile, Sun's Signature (technically an EP, but I waited long enough for it, it counts to me), Julian Lage, Robyn Hitchcock, Richard Dawson and Sweet Billy Pilgrim. 

I’ll have to check out the Robyn Hitchcock album. I preferred his last one to his older stuff.

DarnWeight

Grangousier said:

The Smile, Sun's Signature (technically an EP, but I waited long enough for it, it counts to me), Julian Lage, Robyn Hitchcock, Richard Dawson and Sweet Billy Pilgrim. 

I kept reading off-putting things about The Ruby Cord, mostly due to the 41-minute opening track.  I've just sat and listened to it ("The Hermit") for the first time, and it's absolutely floored me.  Incredible stuff.

I thought Cate Le Bon's Pompeii was amazing, and probably my favorite album this year.

Octahedron

I was thinking about this the other day...
I'm 30. And I used to give a shit about top x lists.

I don't anymore.

The social media ruins music journalism. Music is art and art is divisive and subjective.

Everyone has an opinion (ironically) but seems to feel it's their right to openly express it at the detriment of themselves and others.

There is so many "Every <band name here> Album Ranked From Best To Worst" and most of the time I don't agree with them. 

I also honestly can say I have not listened to a single album that has been mentioned here so far.

Yet here I am and I can boast to have acquired over 80 albums from the rock/metal genres that were released this year... including but not limited to the "obvious" "big" ones (the big name releases): Ozzy, Megadeth, Korn, Nickelback...

 I have some I have not yet broken the shrink wrap on and it's really hard to pick a favourite. Actually there are some cases where I love the band and followed since day one but really disappointed with the 2022 output.

Really not into the new RHCP stuff. All the hype is John Frusciante and the albums are just long, watered down, not exciting.

Alter Bridge and Slash I wanted to love but they sound lifeless and uninspired.

Elsewhere there's songs that are enjoyable enough but in terms of a complete album that I dig from start to end and can play on repeat there's very few this year, but they are:
CLASSLESS ACT
CLUTCH
COHEED & CAMBRIA
DEAD CITY RUINS
THE DEAD DAISIES
HARDCORE SUPERSTAR
SAHG
SKID ROW

CloudNine

Prob go with these two:

Alex G - God Save The Animals
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Vintage65

CloudNine said:

Prob go with these two:

Alex G - God Save The Animals
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

My 2nd & 3rd picks squeezed out by Blue Rev 

CloudNine

Vintage65 said:

CloudNine said:

Prob go with these two:

Alex G - God Save The Animals
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

My 2nd & 3rd picks squeezed out by Blue Rev 

Your obvious good taste means I will need to give that one a proper listen, have only heard a few tracks.

Vintage65

CloudNine said:

Vintage65 said:

CloudNine said:

Prob go with these two:

Alex G - God Save The Animals
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

My 2nd & 3rd picks squeezed out by Blue Rev 

Your obvious good taste means I will need to give that one a proper listen, have only heard a few tracks.

Check out the live KEXP performance I posted. You can tell Alec works in a guitar store, and I would recommend decent monitors/headphones to hear past the distortion.

Grumpyrocker

My favourite albums released this year are:

Ghost - Imperia
The Gathering - Beautiful Distortion
Disillusion - Ayam
Darkher - The Buried Storm
Arch Enemy - Deceivers
Dawn of Solace - Flames of Perdition
Amorphis - Halo
Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
Hanging Garden - Neither Moth Nor Rust (EP)

Though my most played albums of the year also include last year's Skeleton Lake by Hanging Garden, Draconian's Under a Godless Veil, Paradise Lost's Obsidian, Helion Prime's debut album, and Solarus' A Dance With Tragedy.

ICBM

I only have two albums that were recorded in 2022 - Steve Vai's Inviolate and Bruce Springsteen's Only The Strong Survive, so... those, for me.

I also have Now That's What I Call Music! 111 and 112, and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting 113 this week, so I do listen to new music .

digitalkettle

Grangousier said:

The Smile, Sun's Signature (technically an EP, but I waited long enough for it, it counts to me), Julian Lage, Robyn Hitchcock, Richard Dawson and Sweet Billy Pilgrim. 

 @Grangousier I tried to start a SBP fanboi thread recently: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/231282/fancy-getting-into-a-new-band-check-out-sweet-billy-pilgrim

ewal

My music listening has been really poor this year - it's been a dying habit for various reasons.

But I'll second Blue Rev - Alvvays. Pretty much the only new album I listened to repeatedly on release.

lustycourtier

Sierra Ferrell-Long time coming. 

MagicPigDetective

For me it's been an excellent year of music.
My top ten below (though I've only just heard Little Simz's new album which should be in my top ten somewhere, its magnificent). 

1. Fontaines DC - Skinty Fia

2. Alunah  - Strange Machine

3. King Buffalo - Regenerator

4. Alvvays - Blue Rev

5. Kruangbin & Vieux Farka Toure- Ali

6. Elder - Innate Passage

7. Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork

8. Loyle Carner - Hugo 

9. Adwaith - Bato Mato

10. Korn - Requiem