We continue our list of best albums in 2022 and reveal the best albums. All top five records are extremely catchy and favor hooks to pretention. Gyasi gets an LP vinyl release for the first time on Bomp label, known for its catchiness through out the history of rock’n’roll. Vitus Mataré and John Rosewall continue with Petrified Max project and keep cranking high quality music from year to year. Joey Rubbish of Chicago’s Rubs leaves no filler on his hook laden album Dust. Alicja Trout gets together with Sweet Knives and delivers a jewel of an album with a good mix of guitars, bubblegum and synthesizers. But the most complete album this year is in my opinion brought to us by the New Zealand outfit Best Bets. On An Unhistoric Night is a fun record without much pretention, but a fantastic flow that would likely make it a classic in years to come. The rest of the list is pretty great as well and features 3rd Secret, Aoife O’Donovan, Harlan T. Bobo, Jack Broadbent, The Americans, Ghost Woman, Tony Molina, Gentleman Jesse and multiple entries by David Nance. Check it out!
Gentleman Jesse – Lose Everything;
Tony Molina – The Last Time;
David Nance and Simon Joyner – Clingy And Thick;
David Nance – Yesterday Don’t Matter;
Ghost Woman – Along;
The Americans – Sore Bones;
Jack Broadbent – Ride;
Harlan T Bobo – Free;
Aoife O’Donovan – Phoenix;
3rd Secret – Diamond in the Cold;
Gyasi – Feed Your Face;
Petrified Max – Long Way Around;
The Rubs – Dana;
The Rubs – I Don’t Wanna Wait;
Sweet Knives – Oh Danny;
Sweet Knives – On A Grey Day;
Best Bets – The Point;
Best Bets – Whataworld.
01 Best Bets - On An Unhistoric Night
02 Sweet Knives - Spritzereta
03 The Rubs - Dust
04 Petrified Max - Everything's Beautiful Now
05 Gyasi - Pronounced Jah-See
06 3rd Secret
07 Aoife O'Donovan - Age of Apathy
08 Harlan T Bobo - Porch Songs
09 Jack Broadbent - Ride
10 The American - Stand True
11 Ghost Woman
12a David Nance - Wet Candles
12b David Nance Pearl Lovejoy Boyd James Schroeder - Ash Wednesday
13 Tony Molina - In the Fade
14 Gentleman Jesse - Lose Everything
15 Julie Christensen - 11 from Kevin
16 Sylvia Rose Novak - A Miss A Masterpiece
17 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava
18 Murlocs - Rapscallion
19 2nd Grade - Easy Listening
20 Breanna Barbara - Nothin' But Time
21 Sisteria - Dark Matter
22 David Craven & Jon S Williams - Urban Trio
23 So Gung Ho
24 Schizophonics - Hoof It
25 Tav Falco - Club Car Zodiac
26 The Missed - Activation
27 Momma - Household Name
28 Black Lizard - Heads
29 Berries - High Flying Man
30 A Place to Bury Strangers - See Through You
We continue our list of best albums in 2017, this time with top 14 albums. This year was full of albums that will surely stay and I will definitely keep coming back to these many times in my life. Chris Church has came up with with a power pop album that can stand next to all the classics from that disarming genre that only seems effortless on the surface. Big Hogg offered us their extremely playful version of modern day prog rock. If you think Alien Lanes are a classic record, you should definitely look into Stevens and their album Good. Similar albums with great melodies, low fi and clever segues were always in the top of my albums in the past years. Matthew Melton and his wife Doris started a new project Dream Machine and The Illusion definitely made a mark, even politically (although unwittingly). Hayley Thompson-King and her concept record about the biblical woman is truly a deep album that goes from country over garage rock and ends up in opera. Tin Foil are newcomers from Detroit with an addictive set of songs on their album without a title. Pink Tiles return with a record that definitely puts them on a map of serious bands with fun content. David Nance comes from Omaha and has created an album sounds so well crafted, as if he was putting albums for a really long time. Americans on I’ll Be Yours reach depths and territories that were only visited by House of Freaks in the past. Emmett Kelly and his Cairo Gang continue with a series of truly timeless albums with Untouchable. Harlan T. Bobo’s new album came out only a month ago, and there was not enough time to come back to it many times, but it definitely made me rearrange my playlist and put him up on the high third place. It might be his strongest yet. On the top we have Sweet Apple and Bash & Pop. There’s a lot in common to these albums. Both are genre defying and disarmingly playful works of rock’s veteran warriors who know exactly where the sources of this music is. It was a good year for rock.
Today we hear the new music from Co-Pilgrim and introduce two other bands from UK that are heavily inspired by the Paisley Underground scene in the 80s California. Co-Pilgrim, Dreaming Spires and Hanging Stars are so inspired by that sound that they even call their own movement Paisley Overground. Other stuff today are catchy new power pop tunes courtesy of Gorilla*, The Stevens, Sheer Mag, Needles//Pins and The Americans. We also introduce the new Royal Headache tune from their live in Cleveland show.