Year 3 of the New Normal™ has come to a close and it’s time again for year-end lists and reflection.
Today marks my 16th anniversary on last.fm and I confess I still greatly enjoy the data and charts it collects and manages, especially lately s as I’m finding time so much harder to keep track of. Days blend into months with little to distinguish them…at least that’s been my experience in the strange limbo of the last while.
It’s been an interesting year for me musically, as I increased the amount of songs I listened to to around the same levels they were at in 2019, around a 47 percent increase from 2021, my lowest year on record. Here’s a look at my favourite music from 2022.
A L B U M S
For the first time in a while my top played albums were all old releases; 4 out of my top 10 were from 2021, 3 were older than a decade and 3 were from 2022. Given that the current releases start at 7 on the chart I’m going to take a few liberties here with the data and choose my emotional favourites.
The bulk of my plays for Ghost’s Impera come from one night in March. I had decided to redo the vinyl flooring in my bathroom and metal seemed the obvious soundtrack choice. It was the right decision and 2 songs in I put the album on repeat. Impera is a lot of fun. It’s full of great hooks, melodies and energy and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Fontaines D.C.’s previous outputs but Skinty Fia is a solid album. It was a late discovery (mid December) but once found it was all I listened to for about a week.
Interpol are one of my favourite bands and while I racked up a lot of plays for The Other Side of Make-Believe, that was mostly for the track Something Changed, which is the obvious album standout for me. The album itself is pretty mediocre. It feels a bit like a bunch of B-sides from their earlier days… but I like it for that reason. It feels nostalgic, new but not fully. I found it easy-listening and quite comforting.
Favourite albums:
Others I enjoyed, in no particular order:
- Minds of 99 – Infinity Action
- Viagra Boys – Cave World
- Taylor Swift – Midnights (3am Edition)
- Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys – Teen Tapes (For Performing Your Own Stunts)
- Shearwater – The Great Awakening
- Tove Lo – Dirt Femme
- Rammstein – Zeit
- Björk – Fossora
Albums I missed/overlooked in the past and really enjoyed last year:
- Failure – Wild Type Droid (2021)
- IAMX – Kingdom of Welcome Addiction (2009)
- Sneaker Pimps – Splinter (1999)
- Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever (2021)
- Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark (2021)
- BRMC – Specter at the Feast (2013)
A R T I S T S
I’m bringing back this section since my year was definitely dominated by a couple of back catalogue dives; these aren’t new artist discoveries but rediscoveries.
The first was Failure – I knew of them but never really listened to them until last year. Another Space Song is so great, but their other earlier work didn’t really grab me. 2018’s In the Future Your Body Will Be the Furthest Thing from Your Mind and 2021’s Wild Type Droid did though, and I enjoyed them both thoroughly. The latter was actually my top played album of 2022.
The second artist was Chris Corner and his projects IAMX and Sneaker Pimps. I’ve enjoyed both for like 20 years and listened to IAMX in particular a lot back in my teens/2006. But this was back in the day of dubious 128kbps MP3s and when I randomly heard Spit it Out in comparatively amazing quality (thanks Spotify) it started me down a lengthy rabbit hole. I listened properly to the albums I knew and those I had missed for like a solid month.
At some point I transitioned into the Sneaker Pimps discography and really enjoyed their 3 original albums and the calm vibe that era of trip hop brings. Their long-awaited comeback album, 2021’s Squaring the Circle, was interesting. It definitely stands apart from the others sonically and…vibely? But has some great tracks (Child in the dark, No Show – interestingly both reworks of demos that have been floating around for some years).
T R A C K S
Favourite track:
Others I enjoyed, in no particular order:
- Interpol – Something Changed
- Shearwater – Xenarthran
- Charli XCX – Good Ones
- Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia
- Jonathan Bree – Destiny
- Johnny Hunter – Life
- Tove Lo– Grapefruit
- Viagra Boys – Punk Rock Loser
- The Minds of 99 – Det Vi Venter På
- Fever Ray – Carbon Dioxide
- Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys – Spinning
- The Smile – We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings
- Infanteria – Embrace the Trauma
Tracks I missed in previous years and really enjoyed last year:
- Big Red Machine – Birch (feat. Taylor Swift)
- Failure – Water with Hands
- Richard Dawson – Methuselah
- IAMX – Tear Garden
- Arab Strap – Fable of the Urban Fox
- Achille Lauro – Bam Bam Twist
- Billie Eilish – NDA
- Baxter Dury – Cocaine Man
- Bad Lip Reading – My Stick
- EL VY – Happiness, Missouri
M Y W O R K : M U S I C V I D E O S & A L B U M A R T
From found footage to fairies to fire and brimstone, I’m grateful to have been able to work on some really cool and varied projects with some long-time collaborators in 2022.
Tess Callaghan : This project was a great creative challenge and I really appreciate the opportunity it presented to delve into the medium of watercolour. The hand-painted scenes combined with subtle animation create a whimsical storybook effect, highlighting the poetic origins of Tess’ lovely track Stolen Child.
Infanteria : Such a fun project! I loved the evocative cover art the band designed (featuring a haunted Victorian family) as a visual/conceptual anchor and the breakneck speed and intensity of the track. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been in a moshpit and this really was the next best thing.
My dad’s creative output this year included several releases with different projects.
McCully/Mackay released 3 singles, Flowers in the Dirt, The Mystery Man and The Elixir of Life. The lyric video for Flowers features a hybrid of animation and stock footage and the other 2 are edits of public domain films. Each of the album covers are oil paintings, creating a cohesive visual identity.
See the singles playlist below:
Not only did McCully Workshop record their latest track Beginnings remotely, but each member remotely filmed themselves too (much like Ill System did for the Rock Bottom music video we did in 2021). The band wanted to go for an animated pencil sketch kind of look and this was the result:
Jasper’s Acolytes is a nostalgic folk project, focusing mainly on covers of classic songs but also featuring original compositions. I designed the covers for the 2 singles and debut album released in 2022 (using stock images for a nostalgic, vintage feel).
I used more stock images for the music video for Water through our hands; a simple but haunting concept that echoes the quiet heartbreak of the track.
E U R O V I S I O N (Still my favourite comfort-watch)
This year’s edition of Eurovision came of course during an incredibly turbulent time for Europe, to put it mildly. At the start of the invasion, several countries threatened to pull out of the contest if Russia were allowed to participate. For a while the EBU tried to convince everyone that the contest was not political but eventually made the sensible call and banned Russia.
Ukraine for their part managed to send a delegation and Europe rallied behind them in a show of support and solidarity. Kalush Orchestra won the audience televote decisively. A controversial thing, at once expected (the bookies called it) and surprising, as they would definitely not be able to host the event the following year.
War, politics and Covid aside, this wasn’t a great Eurovision year. Held in Turin, it was hosted by Italian singer Laura Pausini and Mika…British Mika…who sang Grace Kelly a hundred years ago. Evidently he had his own TV show in Italy for a while so Italians probably weren’t surprised to see him, but I sure was. Though I have to say, his ridiculously over-the-top interval performance was one of the highlights of the whole event.
Production-wise there were a bunch of technical problems throughout, the postcards (that introduce each country/act) sucked, the camera work was pretty off at times and the whole thing just felt a bit sloppy. But the worst technical failure was that of the stage – I’m not sure what the black semi circle dubbed the rainbow of death was supposed to do but apparently it had broken during rehearsals. It ended up as a big ugly distraction and would have affected every act that had intended to use it (causing some awkward subtitles for some performances).
Still, there were some musical highlights:
Serbia : Konstrakta – In Corpore Sano
Most interesting/artistic performance and song for sure. The music video is fun too. She placed 5th.
Netherlands: S10 – De Diepte
Classy track and performer. Bonus points for singing in Dutch. She didn’t do great live unfortunately. She placed 11th.
Norway: Subwoolfer – Give that wolf a banana
The most Eurovision entry of the year. Blatant novelty act but actually a great track with some really fun choreography. They placed 10th.
Portugal: Maro – Saudade Saudade
The studio version is quite lovely, unfortunately the live performance wasn’t great. She placed 9th.
Sweden: Cornelia Jakobs – Hold me Closer
Sweden at Eurovision annoy me. You always know what you’re getting: something slick, safe and overproduced. That said I did appreciate this one. She gave a really solid performance, cleverly choreographed and with a rawness in her voice that was refreshing. The song, predictably, is good. Nothing special really but pretty impeccably crafted and with a very 90s feel – especially the bridge. She placed 4th.
And of course Ukraine’s winning performance:
Given the ongoing war in Ukraine, Eurovision 2023 will be hosted by runners up the UK.
– – –
So ends another strange and complicated year. A new year always brings some level of trepidation…optimism, fear, hopes and wishes…At least we know for certain that there will be music, and that is a great comfort.
Happy new year – stay safe and happy listening in 2023.
