2022 was an absolutely bonkers year for new music. It seemed like every musician who had to stop touring in 2020 finally finished their lockdown-era albums, and dozens of defunct acts came out of the woodwork. It was a year of stunning debuts, surprising reunions, and more music than anyone could keep up with. There are dozens of great albums that I just didn’t have the capacity to care about (e.g., Soul Glo, Ethel Cain, Spoon, Wilco, Death Cab…).
But there were even more records that hit me dead square in the chest. I purchased more music than I ever have before, even when I was showing some semblance of impulse control.
And because I am an immense music nerd, I have organized it all in a list.
Albums of the Year
1. HOLY FAWN – Dimensional Bleed
Few records have the sort of meteoric rise as 2018’s Death Spells, which means few records had the anticipation of its follow up, Dimensional Bleed. To everyone’s great relief, the Arizona doomgazers delivered another masterpiece, diving deeper into nuanced textures and glistening atmospheres without skimping on the catharsis.
2. Brutus – Unison Life
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone combine influences quite the way Belgian powertrio Brutus does. There are plenty of elements of hardcore and metal without being metalcore, plus a bit of post rock and shoegaze without being blackgaze. Instead, they just create blistering songs filled with drama, power, and raw emotion. Unison Life might be their best, and given the rest of their catalog, that’s saying something.
3. The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention
People have speculated that Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood deserve most of the credit for Radiohead for a while now. Their new side project doesn’t exactly dispel that suspicion at all, and that’s just fine.
But what separates this from a proper Radiohead album is the lack of expectations. There’s a playfulness that can’t exist in the roiling pressure cooker of speculation that each new Radiohead record brings. It really just sounds like two long time friends and collaborators doing what they love doing, and that’s just fine.
4. Pedro the Lion – Havasu
The second of five promised Pedro the Lion albums centered around each of the cities David Bazan lived in as a child, Havasu finds him setting his surgically precise songwriting on the minefield of adolescence, with an understated brilliance that has always defined his best work. There’s plenty of heartbreak, as with any Pedro record, but the main event is the exuberant turnaround in “First Drum Set,” which might be my favorite band of the year.
5. Cave In – Heavy Pendulum
If you thought Cave In was done after Final Transmissions, you have some good company. Namely, Cave In themselves. For all intents and purposes, the Boston legends intended to hang it up after the death of bassist Caleb Scofield, but when they practiced with Converge bassist Nate Newton, there was a kinetic energy that could not be ignored. That energy led to a proper double album with zero wasted space, exploring all of the things Cave In does best.
6. Astronoid – Radiant Bloom
Astronoid’s patented “dream thrash” blew me away from the moment I heard their debut LP Air. They haven’t changed their formula much since then, and thank God for that. Even though their sound has been fully formed since that record, Radiant Bloom maybe feels the most fully realized in their catalog. The riffs are heavier, the hooks are catchier, and the songs soar higher than ever before.
7. Rolo Tomassi – Where Myth Becomes Memory
I have recommended this album dozens of times this year, and every time I give the caveat that they listen to at least the first two tracks together, so they can witness the moment when their shimmering shoegaze balladry combusts into dark, snarling progressive metal. It’s a shock to the system, like jumping from a hot tub to an ice bath, and just as refreshing. Throughout the record, they swing between those extremes several times, and it’s just as surprising and satisfying every time. Eleven months after hearing it for the first time, I’m still enchanted by every twist and turn.
8. SOM – The Shape of Everything
This Caspian/Junius side project was my biggest surprise of Post Fest 2019, and I’ve loved them ever since. So this record was among my most anticipated of this year. SOM manages to offer even more crushing heavy sludge riffs with even brighter vocal melodies, combined in a way that makes the term “doom pop” actually make sense.
9. Chalk Hands – Don’t Think About Death
I’ve always liked the idea of screamo far more than what was actually offered. Descriptions of the genre mention things like white hot cathartic vocals, blistering tempos, and melodic guitar work, but most of the key albums in the genre are too brittle and shrill for my liking. This group of Bristol newcomers though created a record that captures everything I’ve always wanted screamo to be with such clarity that I sometimes wonder if I willed it into existence, seasoned with math rock and post rock to taste.
10. Calm Collapse – Mirrored Nature
If you’ve spent any time reading my opinions, you already know that I have a huge soft spot for heavy instrumentation with a strong sense of melody. Calm Collapse, the new band from Roadside Monument frontman Doug Lorig, does exactly that, offering up fiery riffs, menacingly plodding tempos, and passionate vocals that lands somewhere around Hum or The Life and Times, if they listened to a lot more Iron Maiden.
11. Cremation Lily – Dreams Drenched in Static
2022 saw an almost complete breakdown in my sense of aesthetic. Sounds that most people (thus far including myself) would find utterly harsh and unlistenable shifted in the light, refracting in a multicolored brilliance I hadn’t noticed before. This record brought probably the largest rotation in that prism, utilizing hissing tape noise, sound collages, and hints of black metal acidity to create a dazzling pop record that thrives in the midst of its unhospitable soundscape.
12. Grivo – Omit
Tons of acts have been injecting the gauzy sheen of dream pop into heavier genres, but so far Grivo is the only heavy band I’ve found that actually sounds anything like Cocteau Twins. But for the eruptions of sludge and menacing doom, the softer moments of this record sound ripped right out of the 4AD 1991 catalog.
13. Cold Gawd – God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here
Shoegaze is generally thought of as, uh, pretty white. Rhythms typically take a backseat to guitar textures, hooks are typically drowned in cough syrup to the point of impairing drowsiness. Cold Gawd’s debut uses those same sonic touchstones, but wraps it up in hip hop aesthetic to create a surprisingly delightful album. Their are skits, R&B melodies, and Parental Guidance warnings galore, creating one of the best shoegaze records of the year.
14. HERIOT – Profound Morality
Remember what I said about finding beauty in ugliness? Pround Morality might be the ugliest record I heard all year. The tones of this record are positively nauseating, often so heavy that it sounds like the tape itself is struggling to carry it. But between the crunching metalcore bombast and blood-streaked industrial atmospheres, HERIOT managed to create one of the most affecting releases of the year.
15. Joe Baughman & the Righteous Few – Antichrist Complex
I have struggled for years to describe the music of Joe Baughman and his roving band of variety show minstrels, whatever name they use (see also: The Flying DeSelms). This year, I finally settled on “If Sufjan Stevens and the Talking Heads were members of The Electric Mayhem.” Antichrist Complex is a rambling double album that dissects Baughman’s obsession with pop culture and spirituality with a toolbelt that includes folk rock, Baroque pop, funk, Nilsson-esque humor, and plenty of Evangelical-onset existential dread. Did I mention this is a local band?
16. White Ward – False Light
In the midst of Russian forces waging war on their soil, Odessa metal outfit White Ward released False Light, one of the most powerful and beautiful records of the year. Black metal and NWBHM are mixed with post-punk, folk music, and way more saxophone than you would expect based on the riffs. To give you an idea of just how affecting this record is, I didn’t give it a proper listen until the last couple weeks, and it’s already this high on my year end list (see also: Cold Gawd).
17. Cloakroom – Dissolution Wave
Cloakroom has been at the top of the heavy shoegaze scene since before there was much of a scene around them. That said, the hype around their newest record was sky high—especially since this is the first release since frontman Doyle Martin joined Nothing, bringing Cloakroom much more exposure. That hype was warranted, as Cloakroom delves deeper into the scorched amps and pot smoke of 90s alt rock to create a concept album with five or six layers that I haven’t totally sussed out yet.
And hey, they’re kind of local too.
18. Warpaint – Radiate Like This
Warpaint’s self titled record has been a sort of Platonic ideal for me ever since it was released in 2014. The follow up, with its increased electronic palette, didn’t do much for me, so I wasn’t even paying attention when they went on hiatus. That doesn’t mean Radiate Like This didn’t hit me like the massive comeback it is though. The electronics are still here, but they’re tempered by the atmospheric guitar jamming and voodoo bass lines that made the self-titled so special.
19. Caroline – Caroline
There were shades of other bands in Caroline’s self titled debut, but I’d never seen those colors arranged in quite this pattern before. Sure, you could call it post rock, but that wouldn’t communicate its living-room intimacy. Call it folk, but that would understate the grandiosity of its scale. Call it noise rock, but that would miss just how catchy and inviting it is.
20. Blushing – Possessions
The Austin shoegaze double-daters* follow up a promising debut with one of the most accurate takes on the original 90s shoegaze scene I’ve ever heard in this century. They escape many of the tropes of modern shoegaze and instead create a bunch of good ol’ fashioned pop songs and then slather it with noisy guitars, the way Kevin Shields intended.
*the four members are two married couples)
21. Pianos Become the Teeth – Drift
The Emo Revivalist heroes return with their most understated record yet. And while it may lack the bursting catharsis of earlier records, there’s still plenty of anguish roiling beneath the surface.
22. Young Prisms – Drifter
For me, most of Young Prisms’ first run was lost in the crowd of other shoegaze revivalists playing the same complex chords through the same effects pedals. Drifter however finds them clarifying their identity, with great results.
23. Painted Light – Comfort In The Consistency
My first reaction to this record was “David Bazan writing songs for Local Natives,” and I stand by it. The Texas trio creates a record of domestic drama with wide eyed perspective and hooks so infectious they should have called for another round of lockdowns.
24. Dream Unending – Song Of Salvation
The death doom duo returns with their third eyes opened wide to the cosmos, weaving epic fantasies with churning distortion, guttural growls, and expansive sections of Pink Floyd-y prog rock.
25. Onsloow – S/T
The Norwegian indie rockers pay homage to 90s cult classics like Letters to Cleo and Sixpence None the Richer without a speck of irony, creating one of the catchiest and most charming records of the year.
26. Jack M. Senff – Low Spirit
The ex-emo revival pioneer digs his heels deeper into intimate folk, offering up introspections that are as heartbreaking as they are charming. And oh yeah, he grew up here in South Bend.
27. Chat Pile – God’s Country
This might be the most disgusting sounding record I’ve ever loved, combining sludge guitar and electronic drums with largely spoken word vocals that explore homelessness, religious hypocrisy, mass murders, and drug-induced hallucinations of McDonald’s mascots.
28. Absent in Body – Plague God
Members of Amenra, Neurosis, and Sepultra join forces to create a truly frightening record, plumbing the most traumatic parts of the pandemic as an act of catharsis and putting them to a churning mixture of sludge, industrial, and post metal.
29. PLOSIVS – PLOSIVS
The Pinback/Drive Like Jehu supergroup combines the angular riffs of John Reis with the indelible hooks of Rob Crow, with exactly the results you could hope for.
30. The Bell and the Hammer – The Things We Get Wrong
Husband and wife folk duo returns for the first time in twelve years with a record that’s as moving as it is ambitious. And hey, I played baritone guitar on “When I Was a Sailor”.
31. Life On Venus – Homewards
While their government was committing war crimes in Ukraine, Russian shoegazers Life On Venus wrestled with the turmoil of their national identity, offering a gauzy reflection on the tension that exists between their pride in their heritage and shame in their government.
32. Birds in Row – Gris Klein
This was one of the years biggest growers for me. I couldn’t stomach it on my first listen, but I couldn’t stay away either. Imagine if Daughters was a screamo band.
33. Curtail – When The Sway Sets
I have no idea how to describe these Ohio indie rockers’ debut in a way that does it justice, except that it’s just really, really, really good.
34. Elder – Innate Passage
The Boston-via-Berlin stoner metal outfit shifts even further toward prog rock sonic sojourns, but the lessening frequency of distortion pedals doesn’t diminish the power of their composition: they’re just as fierce as ever.
35. Mountaineer – Giving Up the Ghost
The Oakland post metal/doomgaze outfit’s Bloodletting was one of my biggest surprises of 2020, and Giving Up the Ghost is nearly as satisfying and more immediate, with more clean vocals and a shorter running.
36. OMBIIGIZI – Sewn Back Together
The indigenous Canadian duo offers up sobering reflections on their heritage set to delightful noise pop in one of the most arresting records of the year.
37. CATERPILLARS – Frontier For The Fallen
Texas emo revivalists pull out all the stops, offering their biggest record ever—even without the Chris Simpson cameo.
38. Eugenius – Crisis!
Cincinnati avant-garde hip hopper follows up his incredible Midlife with even more maximalist production and as clever a flow as anyone put to tape.
39. Helms Alee – Keep This Be the Way
Seattle sludge/grungers pull back their fuzz pedals in favor of more studio experimentation with powerful results: more nuanced and atmospheric without feeling gutted.
40. Valleyheart – Heal My Head
Massachusetts emo/shoegaze trio offer their first album on Tooth & Nail Records, taking full advantage of the bigger budget without losing the tuneful introspection that made me fall in love with them in the first place.
41. Duster – Together
The slowcore legends return with their second album since reuniting, but listening to the spaced out, gazey tunes offered here, you’d never guess they’d taken a day off.
42. Executioner’s Mask – Winterlong
This was one of the most intriguing melting pots of the year for me: the press release named Deerhunter, The National, and Alcest as influences, but there were also plenty of nods to Joy Division, Black Sabbath, the Cure, and Slowdive, all while sounding cohesive and self-assured.
43. Lesser Care – Underneath, Beside Me
The El Paso trio combines shoegaze, post punk, and some tasteful moments of post hardcore in a stunning debut. Definitely a band to keep your eye on.
44. Neko Nine – Isola
The Amsterdam solo act creates a post rock classic, combining the chill electronics of The Album Leaf with the more jagged edges of Mogwai and This Will Destroy You to make a record that will remind everyone why we all loved post rock so much in the first place.
45. Boris – W
These days, it’s a rare moment when the ever-moving Japanese trio releases something that captures my attention long enough to buy it. W explores the softer side of their atmospheric tendencies, offering moments of Cocteau Twins lightness punctuated by some dark industrial moments.
46. Powerviolet – Wavelengths
The remote instrumental duo’s second album does everything their debut did right, and more. Layers of Kevin Sheilds-y guitars and New Order bass lines mix with glitching Drum&Bass drums to create something truly special.
47. Khamsin – What’s Left of Life?
These Nashville post hardcore kids have been in my orbit for a bit, but What’s Left of Life is something special, combining the best parts of As Cities Burn and Thrice’s Beggars era with flavors of mewithoutYou and Pedro the Lion.
48. E-L-R – Vexier
This anonymous Swiss trio offers up a meditative brand of doomgaze that is as cinematic as it is crushing.
49. Out of Service – The Ground Beneath Me
The East Coast emo rockers time travel back to 2006 with guest features from members of Taking Back Sunday and Emery, but Out of Service makes most of the trip on their own steam.
50. Museum of Light – Horizon
Best Discoveries
Even though I spent most of the year listening to new releases, I made up for plenty of lost time with some releases from past years that I missed at the time.
Glassing – Twin Dream, Painted Horse, Light and Death
I had definitely listened to Glassing before this year, but I always turned it off pretty quickly. It wasn’t until checking out Twin Dream earlier this year that their brand of harsh yet atmospheric metal sunk its claws in me, and it opened the door to their entire catalog.
Thom Yorke – Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes
Don’t ask me why it took me eight years to finally give Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes an earnest listen. I don’t know. But I fixed that and fell in love immediately.
A Place to Bury Strangers
For years, I’ve assumed that A Place to Bury Strangers was a horrorcore band or something. This year I realized how wrong I was and allowed their bristling shoegaze to wash all over me.
Blankenberge – Everything
One of my most common defense mechanisms is that when a record is too expensive, I just don’t listen to it. Best to avoid the turmoil or damage to my wallet. So when everyone was hyping up Blankenberge last year, I looked at the astronomical import prices and ignored it.
Until a repress a few months ago allowed me to cop it for a reasonable price. And yeah, everyone was right.
Failure – Fantastic Planet
Speaking of ignoring records because they’re too expensive: I knew this was legendary. I knew it was great. I knew I loved it. But it wasn’t until a repress this year that I finally gave myself over to it.
Life on Venus – Odes to the Void
And speaking of Russian shoegaze bands, I stumbled upon Odes to the Void this year and instantly hunted down a copy from Amazon’s German webstore, which as far as I can tell was the only copy for sale on the whole of the internet. It hasn’t strayed far from my turntable since.
Slayer – Seasons In the Abyss, Reign in Blood
I’m always exploring music history to correct blind spots. And as I’ve trudged the history of metal, I realized this year that I have mostly ignored the Big Four outside of Metallica’s most inescapable hits. Through that dive, I learned that Slayer is really the only one of those bands that I like, and I like ’em a whole lot.
Bruit≤ – The Machine Is Burning And Now Everyone Knows It Can Happen Again
French newcomers Bruit≤ released bonafide post rock classic last year, seating themselves on the pantheon next to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and MONO. However, I entirely missed it until early this year when I instantly fell in love.
What got your motor running this year? Drop your favs in the comments.