Favorites of 2022

This list didn't happen last year which was ironic when there was little to do but listen.  But I'm still finding new musical pleasures, and seeing the connections with the music that shaped me.  So here, once again, are the new sounds that most nourished, surprised and pleased me in the year gone by:

Office Culture, Big Time Things

These smart, sparkly-textured pop songs have a decade's spanning style that recalls Steely Dan, Belle and Sebastian and Kings of Convenience all at once. And maybe this year's best band name.

Robert Glasper, Black Radio III

BRIII perfectly embodies the pleasure of listening to adventurous radio stations like Philly's WDAS in the 70's and 80's. Glasper, his generation's Herbie Hancock, is genius. 

Wet Leg, Wet Leg

Wet Leg is a British duo that will more than meet your needs for tuneful noise.  Post-punk should always be this much fun.  

Mansions on the Moon, Lightyears EP

I'm a sucker for the kind of chilled-out, SoCal pop songs that I hear only on KCRW in Santa Monica.  This blissful EP is the bastard child of Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac and Avalon-era Roxy Music.  

She She She, Prism

Did you love the girl groups of the 60's like I did?  That charm is all here, dressed up in electro-soul.  Doo wop that thing, for sure. 

Young Gun Silver Fox, Ticket to Shangri-La

Someone's making new yacht rock, as shiny and addictive as the originals.  These guys.

Willie Nelson, A Beautiful Time

Nelson is the Keith Richards of country. He's improbably still alive and writing and recording rich, satisfying new tunes.  

Plus three from last year's uncompiled list:

Yola, Stand for Myself

Yola produced a miracle that recalls "Dusty in Memphis" -- a completely captivating blend of country and R&B with a contemporary sheen.  

Leon Bridges, Gold Diggers Soul

Drake crossed with Bill Withers? Nah, just foolin'.  But close.  

Pastor T.L. Barret and the Youth for Christ Choir, I Shall Wear a Crown

I'm breaking all my own rules with this 2021 compilation of Chicago gospel recordings, some going back to the 1970's.  But it is transcendent.  Can I get an "Amen"?

###

Spotify Playlist:   https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0U4T34i8XhG5o8LDEWJi01?si=71b90cc96343472e

Chilly Scenes of Winter

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, Cassandra Jenkins 

The smartly observed songs of Aimee Mann, Kate & Anna McGarrigle and the Roches have always cast a spell over me.  Their work rewarded deep listening, with occasional turns of phrase that could pierce your heart.  Jenkins has that talent and this disc, her second full-length work, shows it off.  She's first and foremost a storyteller and these stories are full of searching and pain, but somehow not despair.  Are they her stories?  They are now.  

Most Memorable Songs of 2020

The whole idea of "the best" of this weird year is an oxymoron, so let's change the frame. These were songs that brought comfort, or offered distraction or simply made me present to their beauty. In 2020, that was enough.  

 "Winter in America," The Archives - DC reggae band covers Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson: "And now it's winter in America."  Is it ever!

"Ladies," Fiona Apple - Only a few of Apple's songs hit my radar over the years. This one broke the screen.  

"These Are the Time," Molly Parden -  This beauty came wrapped in a "Dark Side of the Moon" gloss. 

"Time (You and I)," Khruangbin - This mood elevator got me out of the dumps all summer long with the funk vamp of the year. 

"Los Angeles," Haim - A bouncy hymn to the City of Angels that made me want to get on an airplane.  That's so not happening.  

"Circles," Mac Miller - A beautiful postscript to Miller's hard-lived life. 

Cheesin', Cautious Clay - "Cheesin" - (verb) smiling widely with contentment or happiness.  As in, "This song had me cheesin."

"Around the Sun," Poolside - And who didn't need a little Yacht Rock this year?

"Rose in the Dark," Cleo Sol - New neo-soul classic. "Do you know that things get better?"

"Kindness," HNNY -  Sometimes a tight little trip-hop groove with the ambient chops of vintage Brian Eno is all you need. 

"Friday," Real Estate - "Monday last, I had a dream. Not sure I woke up all week."

"Both of Us," Jayda G,  - If I coulda had a party, I woulda started it with this. 

"Ordinary Days," Isaac Waddington - And love kept happening in spite of it all. 

Hang on.  2021's comin'. 

####

Honorable Mention:  Deacon Blues, Bill Callahan; Hammond Song, Whitney; Dragonball Durag, Thundercat; Johnny, Sarah Jarosz; Everything You Touch is Gold, Gregory Porter; Nancy Wilson, Jazz is Dead 001; Blinding Light, The Weekend; Pale Blue Moon, A Girl Called Eddy; Wasted, Tomberlin; Woman, Nao; Don't Bring No Ladder, Clem Snide

Coming Into Los Angeles

Women in Music Part III

Haim

With California locking down again, let's lean in and remember how close it sits to the soul of American culture -- and how this frontier surprises us, fascinates us, scares us. This is the moment to listen to Haim's new disk -- in solidarity and celebration. They've made the quintessential summer album for this disorienting summer of 2020.  Brilliant sisters are doing it for themselves:  

'Los Angeles":

"Don't Wanna":

And it goes on!!

Simpler Times: "Rainy Day Music"

The Jayhawks
Rainy Day Music



Released in 2003, Rainy Day Music announced that close harmony singing -- the 60's sound of The Beach Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, Poco and yes, The Burritos -- was a sound for the new millennium.  Breaking out in the first 80's flowering of alt country, The Jayhawks were nearly twenty years in when they released this twangy masterpiece. There are fuzzy guitars and pedal steel anchoring melodic songs about breakups and redemption.  There's rock royalty on hand if you care about that sort of thing: producer Rick Rubin, Mathew Sweet ("Girlfriend," sigh) and Bernie Leadon (Buritos, Eagles). But somewhere, Gram Parsons was smiling when he heard this:

Favorite Songs of 2019

Here are the ones that were on repeat in my house, car and headphones this crazy year. Surprise! This works as a playlist, too.

Tame Impala, Borderline
Kevin Parker getting quietly jiggy with it.

Brittany Howard, Stay High
Lordy, can this woman sing.

Toro y Moi,  Ordinary Pleasure
He tore up this song and its deathless hook at Brooklyn Steel.

Faye Webster, Come to Atlanta
Doing that funky, jazzy thing.

H.E.R., Hard Place 
Sweet heartbreak for the slow dance or the last call.

Jai Paul, He
He released a bunch of tracks he called "unfinished."  Not this one.

Solange, Stay Flo
Just a groove but what a groove.

Billie Ellish, Bad Guy
This year's 17 year-old prodigy.  Scary.

Kaytranda & Van Jess, Dysfunctional 
Sometimes a simple ambition is all you need: make 'em dance.

Haim, Summer Girl
A top down song that opens with a drum riff from G. Love and then sneaks in a Lou Reed sample? Sign me up for that.

Favorite Albums of 2019

The end of a decade.  I didn't see this coming.  Should I feel obliged to call out decade defining discs that embody the trends of the 'teens?  Nah.  Once again, these are simply the disks that held up for me, from start to finish and after repeated listens.  And there were lots of them, so work one or two into your rotation. And listen to the whole damn thing; somebody worked hard on this.

Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride

I liked the old VW just fine, the smart collegiate pop that Ezra Koenig and Rostam Batmanglij made beginning almost 15 years ago.  Wry wordplay and recycled Afrobeats.  It was fresh and original, even if it genuflected to Paul Simon.  And now Koenig is at the helm alone and it feels, well, better.  The rhythms are still nervous but the songwriting is simpler and clearer, and the collaborators -- including Danielle Haim and Rostam, too -- stretch VW in new directions, befitting the more grown-up subject matter.

Clairo, Immunity

There's a place in the world for soft rock. My living room, for starters.  Immunity was Clairo's official debut after breaking out on "YouCloud" or wherever the hell it is breakouts happen these days.  Here she's got the A-team at her side (look, Rostam and Danielle again!), showing off pop songcraft chops that make me think she'll be around for a while.

Raphael Sadiq, Jimmy Lee

Sadiq has been an R&B demigod since the late '80's, with a genius for turning out soulful pop gems -- dazzling, sparkling things you want to replay the minute they end. Jimmy Lee aims even higher: a song cycle about his late brother, a victim of addiction, that ranges over genres and styles. It reaches for a Stevie Wonder cohesiveness (think Fullfillingness' First Finale) and mostly succeeds.

Lana Del Rey, Norman F***ing Rockwell

She's like a difficult friend. You think, I don't need another evening of her drama, but then she's brilliantly on -- witty and insightful with turns of phrase that astonish and smart-mouthed putdowns that keep you howling.  And the melodies! And you think, if only she could just be like this all the time. She could be a Joni or Carole for these times -- as long as she keeps her shit together.

Snoh Aalegra, - Ugh Those Feels Again

What the world needs now is some fresh makeout music.  Sade's Diamond Life and Roxy Music's Avalon have  been with us for 35 years and Barry White's not coming back from the dead.  So thank Aalegra, a Swede, for delivering a new quiet storm classic, weaving a spell with smokey, fresh, deep-house tinged tracks that surpass her 2017 Feels.  She's more at home here, singing from a deeper place -- and more authentically soulful.  Let's stay in tonight.

Helado Negro, This Is How You Smile

Synth-folk from a Florida-born son of Ecuadorian parents, now living in Brooklyn. This is cutting edge music that won't make you edgy.  Sung in Spanish and English, the texture of these dreamy songs belies the pain of the immigrant experience that Roberto Carlos Lange describes. But it's so not a downer.  Instead, This Is How You Smile offered me reasons for hope this year. What a gift!

Bill Callahan, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

The simplicity of folk music made sense to me this year.  I dipped back into '60's legends Tom Rush, Chris Smither and (God help me) Gordon Lightfoot. But Callahan is a folksinger for this decade, who eschews politics but looks deeply at everyday life. The minor key of Shepherd can conceal that these are happy songs about successful romance and family.  Callahan reminds us that sometimes melancholy can be a satisfying place to visit.

Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan, Epistrophy

There are hundreds of jazz albums released every year that do what this does: document a single, fleeting, live performance by seasoned jazz professionals.  What made this one special for me was a rare chemistry between guitarist Frisell (a favorite of mine) and bassist Morgan, deconstructing a collection of jazz standards.  They are neither noisy nor flashy; indeed, both are masters of restraint.  But in their quiet playing they reveal the architecture of these songs and make them new.

Moonchild, Little Ghost

This may prove a completely disposable bit of electro-soul, a hybrid of Floetry, Massive Attack, and late period Everything But the Girl, but I loved it.  It's all about the beats.

Lizzo, Cuz I Love You

How could this not be here?  She was everywhere, breaking through with the same confident, modern swagger we love about Erykah and Janelle.  And the sound? It looks back to Betty Wright and Millie Jackson, and across the road to Brittany Howard, while being completely her own with that freaky flute, big guitars and whip smart drumming. Who wouldn't love this? Everybody sing: "Ya-ya-ee, ya-ya-ee!"

###