year end list

2022 Year End

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

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.

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2020 Year End

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For all of the personal, political, and global calamity of the hellacious year that was 2020, there was a lot of great music that came out. Like…a LOT. 

It makes sense: with tours, festivals, and live shows canceled, most bands turned to the studio instead. The result is perhaps the most challenging year to quantify into a nice, neat list.

But that hasn’t stopped me from trying.

And while I often cop out and just make a list of all the music I’ve purchased, this year is difficult because I’ve purchased all of this music this year, on one format or another.

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2019: A Year In Review

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 2 Comments

As we sit on the cusp of a new year—and a new decade—it’s become customary to look back and quantify all of the music produced into a neat little list of what’s noteworthy.

While these lists are always bound to vary from person to person and between publications, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much variation as in 2019. This year was an undeniable banner year for music, with excellent release after excellent release piling up relentlessly without ceasing. If you slipped behind, there was no hope of catching up.

As I look back on the year, I keep being surprised by all the stuff I missed—either ubiquitous barn burners like Lizzo or Lana Del Ray’s NFR or artists I love like Solange and Deerhunter. Even among releases I loved and purchased, quantifying all of it into a top ten list proved a much more difficult task than most years.

And so, as much as I stand by this list, I’m fully aware how flawed a ranked top whatever format is for describing just how magnanimous this year’s musical output was.

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2018 Year End Lists

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 2 Comments

At midnight tonight, the earth will continue another circle around our star.

And while it might be a pretty arbitrary marker of time, it’s a great way to group music together to quantify it. And since I am an amateur music critic, I’m obligated to create my own year-end lists.

2018 was a banner year for music—not just because of the relentless onslaught of incredible new albums, but I also saw more shows than ever and discovered a fair amount of music that I missed. And in this article, I’m counting them all down. Continue reading →