Albums 2022 - Top Ten

This year unfolded casually for me, musically speaking, with most of my favorite albums arriving during its latter months.  At its start 2022 showed no particular promise, no major albums on the horizon, and no favorite artists announcing elaborate album cycles and tours.  Years like this often prove to be the most musically rewarding as I get a chance to explore freely, spend time with artists and genres I'd previously neglected, and stumble serendipitously on new favorites. 

The first half of the year I spent a great deal of time with an era of country music I'd only experienced begrudgingly and in meager doses the first time around - 80's and 90's country.  George Strait and Clint Black became new favorites.  Even Garth Brooks earned my respect - based on a front-row stadium concert experience this summer that I consider among the best of my life so far.  Brooks' charm and energy fall somewhere between that of a preacher and a pro-wrestler, and the songs ain't bad either.  "The Thunder Rolls" and "Callin' Baton Rouge" are unqualified bangers, especially with back-up vocals provided by 84,000 enraptured fans.

No surprise then that country and American roots music continued to dominate my hi-fi in 2022 with relative newcomer 49 Winchester and stalwart singer-songwriter Adam Hood being particularly revelatory, but my year was also bookended by favorite albums from British electronic dance music artist's Grey Code and Fracture from a genre that has arguably been the most enduring in my life - jungle, otherwise known as drum&bass.  

Birthed from the British acid house and hardcore rave movements of the early 90's, with its high-speed percussion and smothering sub-bass, jungle/drum&bass is the genre I spent the most time with in my youth and one I continue to love to this day.  With countless raves and club nights attended, countless hours spent in specialty record shops searching for the tastiest 12" vinyl singles, and a weekly college radio show I hosted in the late 90's - inelegantly named "Jungle Fever" - jungle/drum&bass lit my path toward professional deejaying and eventually a career in the music business.  Roughly three-decades strong now, the genre continues to thrive and offer up surprises.            

These are my top ten favorite albums of 2022, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . .

49 Winchester:  Fortune Favors The Bold  (New West - 5/13/22)

In my experience, the best kinds of albums are the ones that arrive in your life unexpectedly and worm their way into your heart over weeks and months, eventually becoming lifelong favorites.  49 Winchester's Fortune Favors The Bold is exactly that kind of album, and none other came to dominate my year quite like it.  Admittedly, this four-piece country-rock outfit from Russell County, VA, flew under my radar for years but their fourth album refused to go unnoticed.  Looking back at the raw eclecticism of their back catalogue, this one finds the band laser-focused and firing on all cylinders.  With frontman Isaac Gibson's soulful wail and heartfelt lyricism backed by an adept ensemble of guitar, drums, keys, and steel, every cut here is indispensable.  A wellspring of musical output, the Appalachian region continues to generate stars -  with Fortune Favors The Bold, 49 Winchester is only its newest.

   

Tyler Childers:  Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?  (Hickman Holler - 9/30/22)

Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven? is Tyler Childers' third studio effort following his breakout sophomore hit Purgatory in 2017.  Once among country music's brightest rising stars, this Kentuckian's meteoric trajectory may have been thwarted by cosmic circumstance - a pandemic.  Perhaps that's why he was moved to write and record a triple-disc concept album of devotional music.  As peculiar and tedious as that might seem at first glance, given a chance, this project is among Childers' most rewarding so far.  Self-produced and recorded for the first time with his touring band, The Food Stamps, this collection of recordings - eight songs issued in three distinct versions including remixes reminiscent of DJ Shadow's early studio experiments - drips with funk, soul, and hip-hop flavor - one foot in church and the other on the dance floor.

   

Fracture:  0860  (Astrophonica - 11/18/22)

London-based drum&bass artist Fracture unpacked an ambitious and multifaceted project late this year entitled 0860  - a series of retrospective deejay sets, interviews with scene luminaries, and this album of original material honoring the legacy of illegal pirate radio.  As raves, clubs, and state-controlled media presented limitations of access to London's youth, pirate radio became a cornerstone of underground British dance music in the early 90's.  This LP pays homage to the so called "hardcore continuum" by moving through various styles of hardcore, jungle, and drum&bass - breakbeat science immersed in a brume of emcee chatter, found-sounds, and ambient radio static.  Much more than a nostalgic journey through a bygone era, 0860 reaffirms the heritage of British underground dance music and is, perhaps ironically, among the scene's freshest and most unique projects in recent memory.             

   

Grey Code:  Renewal  (Metalheadz - 1/28/22)

While many drum&bass artists at the moment draw inspiration from the sounds of yesteryear, trending toward mid-90's junglism, some are less inclined to reminisce preferring instead to push the genre forward.  Case in point, London's Grey Code who released his stunning debut LP on the legendary Metalheadz imprint earlier this year.  Embodying that label's original bleeding-edge creative ethos, the aptly named album Renewal is a gripping journey through soundscapes and aural textures previously unknown, incorporating next-level audio design, sweeping film soundtrack score, off-kilter rhythms, and colossal basslines.  Renewal was an obvious standout for me early this year and I'd argue it's one of the most innovative and accomplished albums in the genre since Goldie's Timeless.

Adam Hood:  Bad Days Better  (Southern Songs - 9/16/22)

A rare "goldilocks" album, this year veteran Alabama singer-songwriter Adam Hood delivered a collection of recordings where every element is "just right".  With his sixth LP, recorded at Macon, GA's legendary Capricorn Studios - hallowed ground for southern rock music,  having hosted sessions with the Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band and many more - with production by longtime songwriting buddy Brent Cobb and session instrumentation by Blackberry Smoke, Hood's Bad Days Better is steeped in laid-back southern groove and upbeat boogie-woogie.  Having recently beat alcoholism, Hood's songwriting here is at once self-reflective and jubilant, with a sense of humility, gratitude, and love for life, family, friendship, and faith.  Next to 49 Winchester's Fortune Favors The Bold, this one might be my all-around favorite album of 2022.  

   

Marcus King:  Young Blood  (Republic - 8/26/22)

Marcus King, out of Greenville, SC, is easily among the most talented blues guitar players and vocalists working today and one of my favorite artists in recent years.  Young Blood finds King once again stepping away from his "Marcus King Band" outfit for a sophomore solo effort produced by fellow blues-rock revivalist and Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach.  This collection of songs doesn't drift and meander quite like King’s previous jam-oriented material, rather brute force minimalism is the order of the day here with King leaning toward arena-rock tropes in the style of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC - pumping riffs, blazing solos, and spartan delta blues lyricism.  If King is looking at the Black Keys' playbook for commercial success he's certainly found worthy tutelage in Auerbach. 

   

Nikki Lane:  Denim & Diamonds  (New West - 9/23/22)

I'd been aware of Nikki Lane for a few years but hadn't felt the urge to investigate further, until this year - that is, when I heard that her new album would be produced by Josh Homme, founder and frontman of my favorite rock band since the turn of the millennium Queens of the Stone Age.  Homme hails from the desert southwest so I'd always detected some western flair in his musical output, but never anything explicitly "country".  From Greenville, SC, with stints in LA and NYC, now calling Nashville home, Nikki Lane shares a rebellious spirit and eclectic bent with Homme so the pairing is natural.  On her fourth studio album, Denim & Diamonds, Lane blends rock n' roll swagger with down-home country sincerity.  Simultaneously defiant and vulnerable, this is a personal journey that makes frequent reference to life-lessons learned from youth, parents, loved ones, lovers, and addictions.   

   

Kendell Marvel:  Come On Sunshine  (Kendell Marvel - 9/23/22)

Nashville singer-songwriter, by way of southern Illinois, Kendell Marvel is another unsung country music stalwart with a lengthy resume scribing for luminaries like George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Jamey Johnson. Having focused primarily on songwriting since the 90's, Marvel ventured out into the spotlight as a solo performer later than most. Come On Sunshine is only Marvel's third studio album, this time produced and instrumentally fleshed out by firecracker session players The Texas Gentlemen, based out of Dallas. With distinctive booming vocals, swampy arrangements, and world-weary lyricism, this collection of existential ruminations and indignant send-offs hits harder than most - and the indie-country scene, as of late brimming with youthful naivety, is all the better for it.

   

Jon Pardi:  Mr. Saturday Night  (Capitol - 9/2/22)

As wide and deep as the independent country music scene is today, I'd be remiss if I didn't dip into the genre's commercial side.  Is there anything on Top-40 country radio these days worth checking out?  Absolutely.  Raised on the arid west-coast farmlands of Dixon, CA, Jon Pardi has been a rising star in commercial country for several years now, blending traditional steel and fiddle with breezy pop sensibility and a flair for silly wordplay.  Pardi's featured on my year-end best-of lists before, with 2019's breakout Heartache Medication, this time it's Mr. Saturday Night, his fourth studio effort.  Chock-full of good-time drinking songs and sentimental breakup songs, those feelings of celebration and heartache frequently featured in the same song, Mr. Saturday Night is carefree and unpretentious - always aiming to squeeze lemonade from life's lemons.

   

The Wilder Blue:  The Wilder Blue  (The Wilder Blue - 3/25/22)

Formerly known as Hill Country, making my Top 10 list in 2020 with their self-titled debut, this independent country/rock five-piece out of Texas, now dubbed Wilder Blue, returned in 2022 with their self-titled sophomore album.  Frontman and veteran Texas songster Zane Williams once again leads mellifluous five-part harmonies and eclectic arrangements that recall classic country-rock ensembles of the 70’s like The Eagles and Alabama, with occasional inspiration from Fleetwood Mac.  Each song here is a self-contained musical universe bursting with vivid lyricism and intricate string-picking.  Replete with tales of nostalgia and regret, love and loss, redemption and sin, Wilder Blue is an effortless blend of traditional and contemporary American roots music and one of this year's best.

   

2022 Runners Up & Honorable Mention here!