2022 end of year lists

Permanent ban Tux

Rulez iz rulez

Now the World Cup is over you can all spend the next few days working hard on your lists!

Hi guys, my laptop has died and my full length end of year list with write ups has died with it

I shall only be providing a basic list now as I cannot be arsed to type all the comments out again.

Goodbye.

Good job you posted the list elsewhere as a backup, right?

Why don't want your fucking half arsed list. Stick with your phoney little insta followers cos we ain't interested!

It's ok, I've fixed my laptop guys!

AIDS!

BAD

VERY BAD

Hearing rumours of a sopabox member in extreme pain with screws and plates keeping them together whilst they graft out their end of year list

then I hear rumours of some iconic members not even starting their lists yet. It makes me sick.

BULLSHIT !

That 41st entry might have to be done one handed

I have so much respect for you and what you have achieved

Kevin on the other hand!

OMG ONE DAY TO GOOOO. I won’t be able to sleep tonight!

I can picture SRK listening to that Springsteen covers album with a tear in his eye!

Let it be Mahoney

But that Lorde album with her arse on the cover was out last year

Can't be bothered to do any more individual lists (though the Piccadilly Records top 100 I quite like www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=1287) but here's the Album of the Year aggregate list from 76 publications: www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2022/

1. Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE
2. ROSALÍA - MOTOMAMI
3. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
4. Wet Leg - Wet Leg
5. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
6. Alvvays - Blue Rev
7. Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia
8. Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti
9. Angel Olsen - Big Time
10. Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
11. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention
12. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
13. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen
14. Taylor Swift - Midnights
15. Black Thought & Danger Mouse - Cheat Codes
16. The Weeknd - Dawn FM
17. Alex G - God Save the Animals
18. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
19. Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
20. Arctic Monkeys - The Car
21. Pusha T - It's Almost Dry
22. Yard Act - The Overload
23. Björk - Fossora
24. billy woods - Aethiopes
25. Harry Styles - Harry's House
26. Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS
27. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa
28. Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork
29. Charli XCX - CRASH
30. Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter
31. Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights
32. Mitski - Laurel Hell
33. FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS
34. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer
35. The 1975 - Being Funny in a Foreign Language
36. Beth Orton - Weather Alive
37. Beach House - Once Twice Melody
38. Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Dear Scott
39. Cate Le Bon - Pompeii
40. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn
41. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris
42. Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay!
43. Sharon Van Etten - We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
44. Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever
45. Suede - Autofiction
46. Rina Sawayama - Hold The Girl
47. Jack White - Entering Heaven Alive
48. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool It Down
49. Florence + The Machine - Dance Fever
50. Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance

🤣🤣

Let It Be came out in 1970 not 2022

Ha ha!

Happy end of year list day guys!

Here we go! I'm going to type so much shit that Columbia Rocks man rage will be felt for many years to come!

Old shit I discovered in 2022:


01: Moondog - Moondog (1969)

I'd heard of the legend of Moondog a lot over the years but whenever I heard clips I wasn't sure what to make of his music. Watched a couple of mini documentaries about the man & decided to give him a proper go with his most famous record & was floored. It's just so unique, falling somewhere between jazz & classical yet feels kinda lo-fi and homemade at times. Not something I expected to really fall for but damn, I've not been hit so hard by a record in a long time. Need to do a deep dive on the rest if the catalogue now


02: F.J. McMahon - Spirit of the Golden Juice (1969)

This is one of those lost 60's gems that nobody heard at the time but reissues in recent years have helped it find an audience. McMahon wrote & recorded this shortly after returning from service tours of Vietnam & Thailand. It's typical late 60's sensitive singer song-writer material, bit of Cohen, bit of Drake, yet has a kinda full band warm production to it. Great songs, though I think it's his voice that really grabs my attention. It's the record on this list I've listened to the most this year


03: Lee Hazlewnood - The Sweet Ride: Lost Recordings 1965-68 (2022)

cheating by having a comp on this list, though that won't be the first time will it! I saw this advertised as coming out...  demo's, outtakes & home recordings, I wasn't too excited. Gave it a go and damn, it's great! The recorded material Lee put out during this time frame often feels dated by some of the arrangements. Here it's just stripped back, often guitar & his voice, or at least very basic arrangements. It serves the material so much better & is more ln line with something like Requiem for an Almost Lady which for my money, is peak Lee. There's also a few unreleased tunes which are golden. A beautiful surprise, outside of "Requiem..", "Cowboy,," & the first Nancy & Lee record this will probably end up being my go-to Hazlewood record now.



04: Fẹla and Afrika 70 - Opposite People (1977)

One of the classic era Fela records I'd not gotten around to. Afrika 70 & Fela were just an unstoppable force around this time. You really can't go wrong with anything from this period. When I think about it, it's a contended for the greatest run of any artist in history. 

05: Elastica - Elastica (1995)

I've owned the CD since I dunno, late 90's? Always liked a few tunes, though it never really did much for me. Revisited it earlier in the year & it's fucking great. I was wanting & expecting a Britpop record back then, but it's basically a post-punk record that fits in better with basically the SHIT I've been listening to over the past 3-4 years. Banger after banger. 

06: The Horace Silver Quintet - Song for My Father  (1965)

Classic hard bop jazz record I'd never heard that lives up to its reputation. bit of a Latin vibe on it in places.


07: Josh White - Southern Exposure: An Album of Jim Crow Blues Sung by Joshua White (1941)

Protest blues from the 40's, only six songs, so powerful. I'm surprised this isn't talked about in the context of musical history more.


08: Etta James - Come a Little Closer (1974)

Etta James deserves more respect to her name than she already gets. "At Last!" is a classic R&B early soul record from 1960 and then by 68 she's making a southern soul masterpiece with Tell Mama. Fast forward six years & Etta is struggling big time. She's in rehab for heroin & alcohol addiction. Being let out only to go to the studio to lay down vocals for this record whilst suffering from withdrawal symptoms, often vomiting between takes. It's remarkable it exists at all, yet the fact it's also bloody brilliant is a miracle. A mixture of Funk, Blues & soul, she lets it all out. Probably not quite on par with her most famous work but man, you can hear the pain and suffering in her voice at times, it's moving.


09: Little Richard - The Rill Thing (1970)

In recent years I've been enjoying hearing artists from previous era's go into uncharted waters, and by that I mostly mean FUNK. at the time often cited as desperate attempts to remain relevant I'd say there's some really great forgotten & surprising music out there by some of the greats attempting shit they're not exactly known for. I discovered in recent years Bo diddley's attempts into funk and you know what? They're fucking great. Here, after spending the majority of the 60's failing to live up to previous successes Little Richard gets aboard the funk train & delivers a really fucking great slab of Funk/Southern Soul. Not every track is a total winner but the highlights are outstanding. We all know it but, damn, what a voice & a treat to hear him tackle this style in is own unique way.


10: Girls Aloud - Tangled Up

This year I had a huge deep dive on Girls Aloud's back catalogue. Loved a bunch of their singles back in the day but that was as far as I went. 2022 I went DEEP, Albums, B-sides, Bonus tracks, the lot. They've got at least 50 fucking bangers in their back catalogue. This is their 4th records & for me their best, an electro-pop masterclass.


11: Tim Maia - Tim Maia (1973)

This is the (I think) 4th self titled of his records. Heard a handful of his records & they've all been gold. This one is perhaps more soulful than the others I'd heard, lovely production, beautiful voice. Need a deep dive on his back catalogue.


12: UT - In Gut's House (1987)

NY female no-wave/post-punk band I'd never heard of until this year. Seems they were active throughout the late 70s but didn't release any records until the mid 80s. Noisy, chaotic & cool as fuck. Saw them perform at cafe Oto earlier in the year & they were magnificent.


13: Orlandivo - Orlandivo (1977)

The artwork for this is badass. Had a huge summer listening to funk/soul/Brazilian shit, mostly in my garden getting sunburnt. This record ticked all those boxes.


14: Love - Reel to Real (1974)

Had my first LOVE phase in quite some time around the time seeing Johnny Echols perform Forever Changes this summer. Had heard most of Arthur's post-classic-period work before, though this one had escaped me. Now, I'm not saying this is by any means a classic & it should be approached with caution, but damn, there's some shit hot stuff on here. It probably suffered from Arthur not really having a defined sound for this record, he's attempting material along the lines of what you'd expect, whilst throwing in funk-rock & psychedelic soul numbers. It's the attempts at something different which really caught my ear, there's a few absolute bangers on here. Just don't expect it to sound like 60s Arthur.


15: The Eliminators - Loving Explosion (1974)

not much to say about this, just some good old fashioned dirty slabs of funk, the whole records a winner


16: The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights (1978)

Cheers to popular forum member KRBURG for getting me into this. Such a weird record, the Walker Brothers reform in the mid 70s, make a couple of covers records which flop hard, yet have enough money left over to make another record so they decide to make a record where they all write and sing their own tunes, so it feels more like 3 mini EP's than a record. John & Gary's material is... fine, but of no real interest. However, the opening 4 Scott numbers are just fucking incredible. It sounds like fricking Station to Station, it's a shame Scott didn't do a full album completely in this style. So, probably the most patchy record on this list but those 4 songs just have to be heard.


17: Trio Mocotó - Trio Mocotó (1973)

Great samba-rock/soul. I own one of their later 70s records which is gold, this isn't perhaps quite on that level but when it hits, it hits.


18: Gene Clark - No Other (1974)

I fucking love early Byrds, up to about 67 I'm completely on board, after that I've struggled to get into any of their work, as the Byrds or solo, though probably due a revisit. Anyway, a track from this LP came on spotify after I'd finished listening to F.J Mcmahon's record & it hit home hard. I don't think I'd ever heard anything from this record prior to hearing it, yet ever since I played it I've heard songs in films, PA playing it at gigs & people mentioning it in interviews. Not sure if it has had some kind of resurgence or reissue or I was just completely ignorant to a record that was already hugely popular but I'm glad I found it. A mixture of country/folk & psychedelic rock. Great stuff


19: Clarence Carter - This Is Clarence Carter (1968)

Don't know a great deal about Carter other than he was married to Candi Staton & looks like a total badass on the album cover. Southern Soul gem, must hear more.


20: Klaus Schulze - "X" (1978)

Knew of Schulze work but conveniently waited until he died to actually listen to him, Turns out he had a career ripping off The Jesus Abyss. RIP