The Best of Me, 2022

Friday, December 23, 2022

 






As I like to do at the end of each year, here's a look back at some things I did in 2022 that I'm proud of: 

- For Spin, I interviewed DMC of Run-DMC and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran. I wrote pieces paying tribute to Meat Loaf, Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, and Joe Strummer of The Clash. I wrote about #1 songs that sampled other #1s. I wrote pieces analyzing the 2022 Grammys broadcast and the 2023 Grammys nominations, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's new inductions, and Neil Young's war with Spotify. And I began writing big monthly pieces ranking an entire artist's catalog, and some of my favorites in the series took on the discographies of Prince, David Bowie, Kate Bush, and Sonic Youth. 

- The Baltimore Banner launched this year, and I was grateful for the opportunity to have a new outlet to write more about local music in 2022 than I have in years. Some of my pieces for the Banner included a profile of Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals, a look back at the brilliant radio jingles composed by the late Art Ehrens, reviews of The Soft Pink Truth and King Los records, and a retrospective of the best Baltimore hip hop songs of every year since 2000. 

- For GQ, I interviewed John Mellencamp and Tears For Fears for features that I'm really proud of, and wrote about the history of radio-themed concept albums like The Weeknd's FM Dawn, 

- I wrote my first piece for Okayplayer, about new and emerging album distribution models in hip hop.

- I also began writing for Bandcamp this year, including a brief interview with Carrtoons and a longer piece about the late great Baltimore hip hop producer Dwayne "Headphones" Lawson. 

- For Stereogum, I wrote about "Saturday Night Live" musical guests debuting new songs and the history of hoax bands. 

- For Consequence, I mostly wrote about film and television, including reviews of Elvis, The Munsters, Call Jane, "Life & Beth," "Reservation Dogs," "American Gigolo," "Rick and Morty," and a list of the greatest Showtime series. 

- For Complex, I wrote a list ranking the 22 best hip hop duos of all time. 

- For Billboard, I wrote a piece about the history of gun control activism in popular music. 

- I made a few radio, internet radio, and podcast appearances this year: I reviewed Jack White on NPR's All Things Considered, I discussed Baltimore rap on Power 104.7, I analyzed Future and Lil Wayne collaborations on Rap Rankings, and I broke down the Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog on Music Vibes.

- Here on Narrowcast, I posted dozens of new volumes of my long-running Deep Album Cuts series. Some of my favorite deep cuts playlists this year were Dolly Parton, Metallica, Simon & Garfunkel, Bjork, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Mario, Blondie, Jane's Addiction, Ginuwine, and Our Lady Peace. And I also used the series to look back at the careers of many artists who've recently passed away, including Young Dolph, Jerry Lee Lewis, Olivia Newton-John, Anton Fier of The Golden Palominos, Coolio, Takeoff of Migos, Michael Nesmith of The Monkees, Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd, William "Poogie" Hart of The Delfonics, and Andrew Woolfolk of Earth, Wind & Fire. And of course, this month I posted lists of my favorite albums, singles, EPs, remixes, and TV shows of 2022. And I voted in the Uproxx Music Critics Poll again this year. 

- My solo project Western Blot celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and I released my 5th album Open just last week. I also released the Excel EP and my annual DJ set in the 5/4 time signature, and guested on a track by George Bonzanza (chug). And the new band I've been playing drums for, Lithobrake, played our first gig and released our first song, "Bats," and an EP will be following in early 2023. 

11:13 AM

Thursday, December 22, 2022






I wrote about and ranked every Taylor Swift album for Spin.

I also helped with Spin's list of the best songs of the year. 

11:12 AM

Sunday, December 18, 2022

 



On Friday I released my 5th Western Blot album Open, just a few days after the 10th anniversary of the band's debut single. It's available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, all the usual spots. 

Some people who have helped me out with a lot of previous Western Blot projects had a hand in Open: Ishai Barnoy played on three songs, and wrote and sang one of them. Mat Leffler-Schulman mastered it, and Deadman Jay helped put together the cover art from my photograph. But other than that, it was all me, banging on drums and pressing buttons and distorting synths and programming drum machines and trying my best to sing. There's some cool shit on here that I'm excited to share with people, I hope you check it out. 

8:00 AM

My Top 50 Albums of 2022

Saturday, December 17, 2022


 
























I have already posted my favorite singles, EPs, remixes, and TV shows of 2022, so here's my favorite albums. I put a favorite track from each album in a Spotify playlist. 

1. Vince Staples - Ramona Park Broke My Heart
Vince Staples is dependable to a fault, a major label rapper who reliably charts in the same region of the charts over and over for 5 albums straight (always in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 but never quite top 10), a guy who's better known for wry, entertaining interviews and an Adult Swim cartoon than any radio single. But I think too many rap fans have made the mistake of underestimating or passing him over. Ramona Park Broke My Heart is a major statement from a major artist, steeped in the sounds and conventions of West coast rap but subdued and twisted into something quieter, more introspective and melancholy, a full-length opus after years of hedging his bets with bite-sized 20-minute projects. 

2. Beyonce - Renaissance
As amazing as her self-titled album is, I tend to name B'Day as my favorite Beyonce album, because I think that such a relentlessly uptempo album is the ideal showcase for her singing and writing. So it's no surprise that an album that practically lives its entire life in the club like Renaissance appeals to me, and may be my favorite someday, but for now is at least top 3. And the wealth of danceable tracks and uptempo vamps makes the one slow jam, "Plastic Off The Sofa," hit even harder. 

3. Aoife O'Donovan - Age of Apathy
One of my favorite things about my job is that I pretty regularly get to work at the Kennedy Center and see amazing shows (or at least, watch and listen to the audio and video monitors from my work station in the wings). And one of the best ones I saw this year was the NSO tribute to Joni Mitchell in May. The night featured several great vocalists, because obviously you aren't even going to try to sing a Joni song unless you know what you're doing, and even in that field Aoife O'Donovan stood out, her voice is absolutely breathtaking. And I immediately sought out her latest album, her third for Yep Roc, which has a definite Michell influence (she even sings a few lines of "My Old Man" at the end of the title track), but she very much has her own Americana sound and lyrical perspective that feels rooted in what's happening in the world right now.

4. The 1975 - Being Funny In A Foreign Language
Matty Healy and George Daniel are one of the best production teams of the past decade, and I think they should be producing more of other people's records (Healy publicly campaigned to produce a Harry Styles album but that hasn't happened) instead of bringing an in-demand outside producer to work with The 1975. That said, Jack Antonoff is a good match for The 1975 in a lot of ways, and he mostly helps them sound like themselves on Being Funny In A Foreign Language -- "I'm Looking For Somebody (To Love)" does sound like a Bleachers song, but I don't mind that, I'm one of the few people who thinks a lot of Antonoff's best stuff is on the Bleachers albums. 

5. Lucky Daye - Candydrip
I've written like 3 blurbs about this record for Spin so I'm kind of blurbed out? But a great record, maybe D'Mile's masterpiece out of all the things he's done the last few years. And in a youth-obsessed music industry, Lucky Daye breaking through at 37, long after his top 20 elimination from the season of "American Idol" won by Carrie Underwood, is a rare triumph. 

6. Julia Jacklin - Pre Pleasure
I really liked Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin's 2019 album Crushing, but it feels like the songs on Pre Pleasure are on another level, inventively arranged with arresting moments that can completely transform the song after I thought I knew where it was going.  The drums that come in on the second half of "Lydia Wears A Cross," the huge out-of-nowhere climax in the middle of "Love, Try Not To Let Go," the late arriving acoustic guitar in "Too In Love To Die," or the way the lyric of "Magic" slowly walks you toward the significance of the title. 

7. Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak
There's something offputting about the outsized ambition of a 26-year-old guy naming his major label debut American Heartbreak and loading it up with 34 songs. But Zach Bryan manages to pull it off, partly by making the kind of wounded alt-country that goes down so easy that you're not completed exhausted by the end of the 2-hour album, and the sheer variety and energy of the collection does feel like an achievement that goes beyond if he'd simply put the dozen best songs on the album. 

8. Denzel Curry - Melt My Eyez See Your Future
I never really followed the Raider Klan thing and kinda slept on Denzel Curry before 2019's ZUU, and I didn't even totally come around to realizing how great Melt My Eyez See Your Future is until towards the end of this year. But his ear for beats is really omnivorous and he's in that interesting space where his music's grounded in Florida rap traditions but he's on his own trip, and he really steps up with his best wordplay-heavy verse on the posse cut "Ain't No Way" with Rico Nasty and J.I.D.

9. Harry Styles - Harry's House
When a boy band guy becomes a successful solo artist, he's usually a force of nature, whether a generational talent (Michael Jackson, George Michael) or at least a hugely charismatic showman (Bobby Brown, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams). Harry Styles is none of the above, and honestly, it's kind of refreshing to have a slacker male pop superstar who has definite taste and artistic ambitions but doesn't seem to take himself too seriously. And by his third album, he's slouched into making real A-list heavy rotation pop music that still has the quirky dad rock roots that dominated his earlier solo work. 

10. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Changes
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have averaged two to three albums per year for their entire existence, but they stepped it up with five albums in 2022, including three in October alone. Out of that flood of music, Changes stood out to me for its wealth syncopated grooves, big melodic hooks, and bright, clean sound, although it still maintains the esoteric psych rock vibe that defines the band. 



























11. Saba - Few Good Things
I never paid a lot of attention to Saba before, but Few Good Things has really grabbed me and rewarded repeated listens. Partly because it's articulating some of the same complex ideas about success, money, family and identity as the Vince Staples album, partly because of its often beautiful and soulful palette of sounds and voices. It's an album that communicates a lot of uncomfortable truths and observations, but it has a calm, comforting air to it. 

12. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals - King Cobra
I knew Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals before they made King Cobra. And when I received an advance of the album and interviewed them for The Baltimore Banner ahead of its release, both seemed a little exhausted by the process of making the album and unsure of how it'd be received. And I found myself reassuring both of them that they'd knocked it out of the park with this album and I thought it was probably the best thing either of them had done, and had potential to resonate with a larger audience. And I'm pleased to say I was right -- a lot of people who've never been to Baltimore have called this the best album or the best hip hop album of 2022. And I've loved seeing that happen, especially since Ennals was a complete unknown when he started sending me music 12 years ago and was always one of those clearly talented guys that I would root for to break through at at some point. 

13. Flo Milli - You Still Here, Ho? 
I will say, I don't like that Flo Milli promoted her debut album with a single called "Conceited" that's unrelated to and not nearly as good as the single "Conceited" from Remy Ma's debut album. Other than that, though, she picked up where the 2020 mixtape Ho, Why Is You Here? left off perfectly, with slightly sharper and more varied production this time around. 

14. Kehlani - Blue Water Road
Blue Water Road missed the top 10 unlike Kehlani's three previous projects, and all its singles missed the radio, which I find a little baffling, because I think this is by far their best album, and a pretty accessible one. I even like the song with Bieber! The ballad with the chorus "it's the everything for me" took the album out of top 10 contention though.

15. Demi Lovato - Holy Fvck
The production team Pop & Oak made some of the best pop and R&B of the 2010s, but now they're mostly working separately. And while Pop Wansel is still holding down the R&B lane with the Kehlani album, Warren "Oak" Felder surprisingly helmed Demi Lovato's first guitar-driven album in over a decade. And it kicks more ass than all the Travis Barker-produced pop punk revival albums that have been so in vogue in recent years, Lovato wailing like Rob Halford about death and addiction over heavy riffs. 

16. Brett Eldredge - Songs About You
Brett Eldredge is kind of an inconsequential, cuddly middle-of-the-pack country star, and 2 of his 7 albums are Christmas records. But he's a hell of a vocalist, and Songs About You is his richest, most adventurous album to date, with hushed ballads and horn-driven tracks that bring out the soulful grit in his voice. Heather Morgan, who's been co-writing some of Eldredge's best songs since "Beat of the Music" from his debut album, continues to do great work on Songs About You, including beautiful backing vocals on "Home Sweet Love." 

17. Ashley McBryde - Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville
Lindeville is a quick, profanely funny 33-minute album that Warner Music Nashville treated like a side project with so little promotion that it didn't even chart. But it's probably the most ambitious thing Ashley McBryde has ever done, a concept album about a fictional small town and the people in it, conceived as a tribute to the character-driven country music of songwriters like the late great Dennis Linde. "Brenda Put Your Bra On" and "The Missed Connection Section of the Lindeville Gazette" are hilarious, but there's so much love and humanity and musical tradition in this album too. 

18. Tears For Fears - The Tipping Point
I've been loving the music of Tears For Fears for practically my whole life -- like one of my earliest memories of pop music is asking my dad to play "Head Over Heels" again. So it was thrilling for me to interview Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith this year, tell them what their work meant to me, and dig into the artistic rebirth behind the band's best (and highest charting) album since the '80s. 

19. Nas - King's Disease III
I never went for the line that Nas lost his touch -- he's not the most consistent of rap's greats, so be sure, but I'll take pretty almost any of his albums since 2001 over almost any of Jay-Z's albums since 2001. Still, it was pretty unexpected that he'd forge a stronger professional relationship with Hit-Boy than any other producer of his career and go on a hot streak that has so far included four albums that stand with the best of his post-Illmatic output. 

20. Florence + The Machine - Dance Fever
As with his work with The 1975 this year, I rolled my eyes when I heard that Jack Antonoff would produce the new Florence + The Machine album, because sometimes it feels like he's just collecting artists like major label alt-pop infinity stones. But then the album arrived and I was happy that he seemed to merely support the artist's existing sound instead of imposing his sound on it. Florence Welch remains one of the world's greatest vocalists working, and "The Bomb" is quickly becoming maybe my favorite song she's ever done. 





























21. Maggie Rogers - Surrender
I was similarly skeptical of Maggie Rogers going into the studio with a current hitmaker, Harry Styles producer Kid Harpoon, when her earlier work had such a particular and individual sound. But Surrender is kind of the perfect fusion of her established aesthetic and some bigger, hookier production with booming drums and more forceful choruses. And it feels like Rogers really pushed her voice on "Anywhere With You" and "Shatter" and is a much more versatile, expressive vocalist, as well as a bit more of a rock star, on this record. 

22. FKA Twigs - Caprisongs
I don't really follow or understand astrology, but anecdotally, it seems like Capricorn musicians are less likely to name songs or albums after their sign than some other signs. So I appreciate a fellow January baby like FKA Twigs naming her latest project after our sign, even if it's in a weird way that reminds me of those juice pouches. And though Caprisongs is officially a 'mixtape,' her first major label project feels a big ambitious reach for a larger audience that combines her British and American influences in a really cool fluid way, my favorite record she's made since LP1. 

23. Tove Lo - Dirt Femme
Last week I made a Tove Lo playlist and really started to appreciate how consistent she's been throughout her career. She doesn't have a weak album in the bunch, and while Queen Of The Clouds remains her biggest record and Blue Lips is my cult favorite, her first independent album Dirt Femme shows that she doesn't need major label money to make state of the art pop, "Kick In The Head" and "No One Dies From Love" are among her best songs ever.

24. The Soft Pink Truth - Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?
I wound up writing more about the EP before the album, the 7th album from Drew Daniel's The Soft Pink Truth project is clearly the main course, and I think one of the best things he's ever done, including Matmos's formidable catalog. At some point decades ago, underground electronic music sorted itself into the opposing camps of twitchier, artier stuff and actual dance music that stays true to the four-on-the-floor thump of house and disco, and Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? feels like a rare record that bridges those worlds satisfyingly, arthouse house music. 

25. Timothy Bailey & The Humans - Timothy Bailey & The Humans
Richmond, Virginia's Timothy Bailey released his debut album at 50 years old, and it's a poignant record about the personal difficulties that kept him from getting an earlier start. Beauty Pill's Chad Clark was a sound choice to co-produce and mix the album, and he knows how to capture the personality in Bailey's plainspoken voice and set it against a rich ensemble that often includes vibraphone, horns, and flutes. 

26. Charli XCX - Crash
For a lot of people, Charli XCX only got interesting once she started flirting with hyper pop and other more niche styles in the Number 1 Angel/Pop 2 era. And Crash, which was the last album on Charli's Atlantic Records contract and felt like one last stab at traditional pop stardom, seemed to be greeted by some skepticism by fans who saw it as, I dunno, too basic. But for me, Crash is her best album since Sucker and "Yuck" is a pretty perfect encapsulation of her sound and songwriting style, so I'm glad that I've seen the album on so many year-end lists, feels like maybe her snobbier fans let their guards down and embraced the album eventually. 

27. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named If
One of my main writing projects of 2022 was ranking artists' catalogs for Spin, and often the challenge was to figure out where a new album belonged in the grand scheme of their career as soon as it was released. And looking back at where I ranked The Boy Named If in Elvis Costello's discography back in January, I feel good about my decision to put it right ahead of Brutal Youth -- it's one of his occasional albums that harkens back to his fast and loud '70s work, but it hits the spot more more accurately and more satisfyingly than some of his other late period albums of that variety. 

28. They Hate Change - Finally, New
I tend to regard hip hop albums released by prominent indie rock labels with suspicion, and I know Jagjaguwar mainly for releasing albums I've loved by Parts & Labor and Dinosaur Jr., among others. But I'm glad I got over that hangup and checked out Tampa Bay duo They Hate Change, whose album is brimming with classic Dungeon Family-style southern rap pop smarts as well as an omnivorous experimental bent that throws cutting edge beats and retro drum'n'bass breaks into the mix. 

29. Rosalía - Motomami
I always feel a little guilty about not speaking a second language (I took French in high school and retained little of it), and feel like it should be a long term goal of mine to learn Spanish someday simply because it's spoken by so many people in America and elsewhere in the world. And a year like 2022, where Bad Bunny and a few other Spanish language acts made a huge impact, can really make a music lover feel like they're missing out if they're not fluent. Without understanding the lyrics, I get limited enjoyment out of Bad Bunny's music, I just don't love his voice. But I could listen to Rosalia's voice all day, and her ear for beats has gotten so adventurous and unpredictable over her three albums, I love where she's taken her sound on Motomami. 

30. Christine and the Queens - Redcar les adorables etoiles (Prologue)
Once again, I feel like my lack of fluency in anything besides English has served me poorly, because while Christine and the Queens' 2018 album Chris was issued with versions of each song sung in both French and English, most of Redcar is purely in French. But while I have less of a clear idea of what Heloise Letissier's new songs are about, his art pop collaboration with hip hop legend Mike Dean is a fascination new step forward for his sound. 




























31. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is, for me, the weakest of all of Kendrick's proper albums since Section 80. But there's not denying that he's one of the greatest artists in any genre of the past decade, and even a flawed minor work contains incredible songs like "Mother I Sober" and "Purple Hearts" that help balance out some of the more offputting experiments or the multiple Kodak Black features. 

32. Roc Marciano & The Alchemist - The Elephant Man's Bones
Roc Marciano and The Alchemist were in the mix way back in the '90s, working with Busta Rhymes and Mobb Deep respectively, at the peak of east coast boom bap rap's splashy blockbuster era. But as that sound has moved away from the forefront of mainstream hip hop, both Roc and Alc have become leading figures in a more deliberately niche strand of street rap, sample-driven but with lighter drums (or none at all), designed more for headphones than for getting spun at the Tunnel. So hearing them do an album together in 2022, when each's influence is at an all-time high, feels like an event, even if the music they're making is sort of the opposite of a blustering event album. 

33. Black Thought & Danger Mouse - Cheat Codes
I have not been a huge fan of Danger Mouse's production in the past, and thought his project with Black Thought would interest me a lot less than his album with Salaam Remi. But I will give Danger Mouse some credit, he is versatile and he understood the assignment here, chopping samples for more Alchemist-style minimalist beats that suited Tariq's bars. 

34. Megan Thee Stallion - Traumazine
Some rappers just make better mixtapes than albums, it's just the nature of how industry expectations can hurt more high-pressure projects. And last year's tape Something For Thee Hotties will probably always be my favorite Megan Thee Stallion project, it's just all killer and no crossover-friendly filler. But Traumazine is a better attempt at a mass market something-for-everyone Megan album than Good News, and the way she opens up about the craziness of the past couple years really makes her a more nuanced and relatable songwriter than the Tina Snow superhero figure she played so well in the past. 

35. Dreezy & Hit-Boy - HITGIRL
During that pre-Cardi/Megan era when no female rappers not named Nicki got more than a hit or two on the charts, Chicago's Dreezy was one of the most promising and talented prospects that never really got the shine she deserved. I hope it's not too late for her to catch a wave, though, because HITGIRL is fantastic, Hit-Boy gave her a great and varied set of beats just like he's done for Nas and others lately. 

36. Ari Lennox - Age/Sex/Location
Ari Lennox's 2019 debut Shea Butter Baby was a sleeper hit that only just went gold a couple months ago. With the hit Jermaine Dupri-produced lead single "Pressure" preceding her second album, I thought Age/Sex/Location might take Lennox's career up a notch and place her alongside SZA and Summer Walker as one of the few young female R&B singers who can do numbers. Disappointingly, that didn't happen -- I'm tempted to blame the label, since JID's album seemed to fall short too -- but I quality-wise, the album was worth the wait, paricularly for "Outside" and "Hoodie." 

37. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn
People who wanted The White Stripes to have slicker drumming or less minimal arrangements were squares. But I will admit that I enjoy hearing Jack White cut loose with bigger ensembles, more intricately bugged-out arrangements, and virtuoso drumming from Daru Jones on this, his loudest solo album. 

38. Amber Mark - Three Dimensions Deep
Tennessee-born R&B singer Amber Mark has lived in India and collaborated with people like Dirty Projectors and Empress Of, and she brings that sort of worldly, wide ranging experience to her debut album, feels like there's huge star potential here. 

39. LÉON - Circles
I've loved the Swedish singer LÉON's voice since her debut single "Tired Of Talking" in 2016. About a year ago her Jonas Blue collaboration "Hear Me Say" became LÉON's biggest song since "Tired Of Talking" and entered the U.S. and UK charts, but it didn't seem to really do much to bring attention to her third album, which is a mellow gem with smokey Stevie Nicks-style vocals. 

40. Carrtoons - Homegrown
I love the bass, and I've played with some great bassists, and sometimes when making music you can't help but notice that these awesome basslines that you get to hear in isolation when putting a song together wind up kind of buried under all the other instruments. And I know, I know, that's kind of the point, you're supposed to feel bass more than you hear it, but sometimes I wish bassists got more room to breathe. And that's something I dig about what Carrtoons is doing, he's created pretty detailed tracks, but there's always space in the mix to hear what he's doing on the bass, even if he's not playing it as a 'lead' instrument in a flashy Les Claypool sense. 










41. Superchunk - Wild Loneliness
During Superchunk's initial burst of albums from 1990 to 2001, it seemed like they were on a steady slide from fast, breezy anthems to slower, more textured songs. When the band resumed making albums in 2010, they mostly kept it uptempo like the early days, culminating in the fiery protest punk of 2018's What A Time To Be Alive. But Wild Loneliness feels like album they probably would've made in 2003, the mellowest Superchunk album ever, with horn arrangements that are more comforting and autumnal than the tart experimental textures of 1999's Come Pick Me Up. 

42. Redveil - Learn 2 Swim
It's such a flex to release an album this good on your 18th birthday. I love that this kid is from here in Prince George's County, Maryland, I can't wait to see where he goes from here because the sky's the limit, his rapping and his production are growing by leaps and bounds with each release. 

43. Maren Morris - Humble Quest
Maren Morris and the late Michael Busbee were such a perfect team on her first two albums, I was wary that she might lose some of the magic on her third album. But she has pretty great chemistry with Greg Kurstin, too, and it's fun to one of pop's most versatile hitmakers really show off how well he can do straight-up country on this album. 

44. Taylor Swift - Midnights (3am Edition)
Most of the time when an album has a deluxe edition with a few extra songs, I listen to that version once and then I just put on the main album for every subsequent listen. But I definitely think some of the Aaron Dressner rejects from an earlier attempt at Midnights are better than the proper album, "Bigger Than The Sky" and "Would've, Could've, Should've" are definitely highlights of the entire project. 

45. Beabadoobee - Beatopia
There was kind of a wide stylistic gulf between the mellow lo-fi EPs that Beabadoobee built her fanbase with and the crunchy retro "120 Minutes" riffs of her 2020 debut album Fake It Flowers. And the follow-up album makes a satisfying attempt to present both ends of Beatrice Kristi Luas's range as points on a continuum, along with some new approaches that arise from collaborations with The 1975's Matt Healy and PinkPantheress. 

46. Willie Nelson - A Beautiful Time
A lot of us won't live to see 89 years old, and certainly most of us will never lives quite so full as Willie Nelson has. So I find something very valuable in one of the world's greatest songwriters still sitting down and writing new tunes, when he certainly doesn't need to but simply wants to, and telling us what life is like from that unique vantage point in wry, reflective songs like "I Don't Go To Funerals" and "Energy Follows Thought."

47. Madeline Edwards - Crashlanded
Madeline Edwards has a big distinctive voice, has toured with people like Chris Stapleton, and her debut album sounds like a million bucks. Crashlanded hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet, but if it doesn't break big in 2023, Nashville is fucking up. 

48. Jarv Is - This Is Going To Hurt (Original Soundtrack)
The 2020 debut by Jarvis Cocker's new band Jarv Is, Beyond The Pale, left me a little cold, it was a rare miss from something that I think has pretty consistently made spectacular records over the last 30 years. But the BBC series "This Is Going To Hurt," a dark comedy about the grim realities of hospital work, seems to have really brought out the best in Cocker, whose acidic sense of humor matches the show perfectly. 

49. Future - I Never Liked You
Future's track record is so solid and his hit list is so long at this point that I don't even feel invested in how one album or another does. But he just keeps running up the score, and by some measures I Never Liked You was his biggest album ever, which is remarkable considering that people tried to play him off as a flash in the pan over a decade ago. Longtime members of Future's deep bench of ace producers like Southside, TM88 and Wheezy are present, but the relative rookie ATL Jacob puts in work like he's got something to prove. 

50. Brent Faiyaz - Wasteland
This album would be so much higher on the list if there were less than 11 minutes of skits on it. I dont think an album has been dragged down by skits this badly since Late Registration. The songs are good, though. 

6:00 AM

My Top 100 TV Shows of 2022

Thursday, December 15, 2022






1. Severance (Apple TV+)
As a filmmaker, Ben Stiller has largely fared better when he's done full-on comedy (Zoolander, Tropic Thunder) than with things that take themselves a little more seriously (Reality Bites, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). But it feels like he's really reached a new level as a director in his recent TV work on "Escape At Dannemora" and especially "Severance." Sort of a droll office satire mixed with a bleak sci-fi hypothetical, with a surprisingly charming romance between Christopher Walken and John Turturro, "Severance" artfully doled out hints at the truths that had been hidden from characters whose entire lives had been split into two personalities, making the story a fascinating puzzle to unravel. 

2. Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Every once in a while a new show seems to singlehandedly breathe new life into the old network sitcom format. And even though "Abbott Elementary" is a mockumentary in the style of "The Office" and "Modern Family" that's been in vogue for less than twenty years, it feels in some ways like a throwback, a workplace sitcom that mixes sweet earnest moments with a steady stream of barbed one-liners. Casting is everything in a show like this, and it feels like Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, and Lisa Ann Walter arrived in Quinta Brunson's ensemble at the exact right moment in their careers to play the characters they'll hopefully be inhabiting for the next 5-10 seasons. 

3. Station Eleven (HBO Max)
"Station Eleven" showrunner Patrick Somerville was previously a writer on "The Leftovers," the HBO series about a world where 2% of the Earth's human population had mysteriously vanished. And his adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven then operated as sort of an equally poignant inverse, a story about a world where a virus had wiped out all but 1% of Earth's human population. Watching a show about a far deadlier pandemic while living in the COVID age could have been a massive bummer, but instead it felt life-affirming, a beautiful vision of what can survive and persevere in the worst of circumstances. The first episode of "Station Eleven" aired the day before I posted my 2021 TV list, and it's already enjoyed a year of accolades, but I wanna make sure it doesn't get lost in that slippery area between two years. 

4. What We Do In The Shadows (FX)
Probably the most consistently funny show of the last few years, and it felt like every week there was some deranged counterintuitive Matt Berry line reading that got stuck in every viewer's head. But the fourth season will probably be remembered as the season Laszlo raises the reincarnated child Colin Robinson, and the amazing payoff of the whole recurring "Go Flip Yourself" joke.

5. The Bear (FX/Hulu)
I thought Jeremy Allen White was a standout in the cast of "Shameless," but one season of "The Bear" seemed to do more to raise his profile than 11 seasons on his previous show, which is funny since they're practically the same character: a brooding, ambitious young guy in Chicago with a complicated family situation trying to work his way to a better life. But as someone who spent several years working in sweaty, noisy kitchens, I appreciate how much "The Bear" captured the the texture and the rhythms of that life like no TV show has really done before. 























6. Amsterdam (HBO Max)
One of the biggest stories in television in the last few months has been the collapse of HBO Max: after a few years of racking up Emmys and word-of-mouth hits almost as reliably as HBO proper, the Warner Bros. corporate chiefs started slashing budgets, canceling already renewed shows, and pulling dozens of shows off the streaming platform, from animated cult hits like "Infinity Train" to even big hits like "Westworld." In retrospect, the canary in the coalmine was "Amsterdam," a beautifully understated show about the daily lives of a Mexico City musician and his actress girlfriend as they squabble, break up, and share custody of the stray dog they took in together. It disappeared from HBO Max just 3 weeks after it premiered, and I feel like one of the only people who got to see this absolute gem of a show. And then a major motion picture called Amsterdam came out a couple months later, which probably didn't help in terms of the show ever attaining any kind of renown. 

7. Dead To Me (Netflix)
The storylines on "Dead To Me" are absurd as any soap opera, but the performances by Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini have always elevated the show and given its strange core friendship a real sense of emotional truth, from the first season it felt like a culmination of both actresses' careers. And it was really bittersweet that Applegate was able to continue filming the third and final season of the show after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and close out the narrative on one of her greatest roles. 

8. Peacemaker (HBO Max)
When the deeply mediocre Suicide Squad came out in 2016, I would not have guessed that it would spawn a far more enjoyable sequel, and an even more enjoyable spinoff series. But John Cena is honestly one of the funniest people in show business right now and this is the perfect vehicle for him, with one of the best opening credits sequences in recent memory. The DC Extended Universe has given us a lot of dour, dimly lit movies, but it also gave us "The Peacemaker" and "Harley Quinn," a couple of the funniest shows on TV. 

9. As We See It (Amazon Prime)
One of the best things about the expanded TV landscape is that there's more and more room for different groups of people to tell their own stories that didn't have many opportunities before. But it still felt unique and unprecedented for three actors on the autism spectrum to lead the cast of "As We See It" and give such a nuanced, messy, funny and heartfelt depiction of life for autistic adults trying to live their own lives with jobs and romantic relationships. It made me really sad to hear that Amazon canceled "As We See It" a couple months ago, but the one season they got to make is an incredible triumph. 

10. Ramy (Hulu)
A lot of comedians star in autobiographical sitcoms where they play characters with the same name. But Ramy Youssef said recently that he regrets deciding to give the main character in his show his own name, which I get, because holy shit does this show get dark sometimes. I mean it's also a really funny show, and I don't assume that everything in this show is based in reality because of the name, but I kind of hope that less than 10% of the stories in "Ramy" are from his own life. 



























11. Mo (Netflix)
After giving Mohammed Amer a supporting role in "Ramy," Ramy Youssef co-created another show with Amer in the lead role. And while "Mo" sometimes went off the rails with attempts at a thrilling plot, it's in many ways just as good as "Ramy," as well as probably television's greatest love letter to the city of Houston . 

12. The Dropout (Hulu)
2022 felt like the year that every network tried to make its own The Social Network, with shows like "WeCrashed" and "Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber" documenting the rise and fall of 2010s tech entrepreneurs. But "The Dropout" was by far the jewel of this trend, thanks in large part to Amanda Seyfried, whose performance as Elizabeth Holmes was so good that Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence backed out of playing Holmes in a competing feature project. 

13. Julia (HBO Max)
Speaking of the difficulty of playing someone who's already been depicted onscreen well, Sarah Lancashire had her work cut out for her playing Julia Child just a decade after Meryl Streep did so in Julie & Julia. And while I never thought I'd watch two different fictionalized versions of Julia Child's life story, it's even more remarkable that the second one with the less famous lead would be the one I'd really connect with. David Hyde Pierce and Neuwirth are both also wonderful in "Julia," I'd love to see more of the "Frasier" cast getting together without Kelsey Grammer in tow. 

14. Minx (HBO Max)
There are so many shows on TV in recent years following the A League Of Their Own formula (including a pretty good "League" series) of going back a few decades to tell the stories of fictional women trailblazers ("Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "Physical," "GLOW") that I kind of wish we had more shows like "Julia" telling the stories of real women who did actual remarkable things in their time. But I think "Minx," the story of a fictional female pornographer in the 1970s, is one of the best of these kinds of shows because Joyce Prigger (Olivia Lovibond) is trying to do something completely different from what she ends up accomplishing, and the show gets a big comedic charge out of that, it's not some wish fulfillment thing about an imaginary pioneer. HBO Max recently canceled "Minx" while its second season was in production, but there still seems to be some optimism that we'll get to see it elsewhere. 

15. The Kids In The Hall (Amazon Prime)
Music is more important to me than comedy, but it's probably closer than I realize, and The Kids In The Hall are my comedy Beatles, I worship the ground they walk on. And the long-awaited 6th season of the troupe's titular sketch show, after decades of tours, a movie, and a murder mystery miniseries, was something I didn't think I'd ever see. But it was a hell of a reunion album, with the Canadian quintet's signature subversive cultural commentary getting updated for the 2020s with, surprisingly, a lot more full frontal nudity. 



























16. Bust Down (Peacock)
We tend to think of Lorne Michaels as a staid patriarch of mainstream comedy, someone who's guided the careers of a lot of brilliant comedians and comic actors but maybe guided them towards safer and more formulaic work at times. Now and again, though, Lorne Michaels puts something fiercely original on television and lets a new generation express itself -- it happened 30 years ago with "The Kids In The Hall," and it happened this year with "Bust Down," a profane and remarkably quick-witted sitcom about four friends working shitty jobs in a casino. Sadly, we only got 6 episodes of "Bust Down" with the show's four creators and stars before one of them, Jad Knight, died at the age of 28 in July. 

17. Yellowjackets (Showtime)
Only half of the first season of "Yellowjackets" had aired when I put it high up on my 2021 list, so it feels right to rate the second half the season highly as well. But I don't have much to add, I'm just excited to see the new episodes in March. 

18. Hacks (HBO Max)
My #1 show of 2021 had a strong sophomore season. But it also felt like it completed a story arc for Deborah and Ava so satisfyingly that I wouldn't mind as much if it gets canceled soon in the ongoing HBO Max chaos, much as I'd like to spend more time with these characters. 

19. Reboot (Hulu)
"Reboot" is, much like "Hacks," sort of a long joke about the generational differences between boomer comedy and millennial comedy, with Paul Reiser as the creator of a schticky popular old sitcom and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"'s Rachel Bloom as his estranged daughter who tries to reboot the show into something more contemporary. Just a fantastic cast, including Judy Greer, Johnny Knoxville, and Fred Melamed, although Calum Worthy's fantastically creepy depiction of a former child star's arrested development is probably the show's greatest performance. 

20. Atlanta (FX)
A lot of shows wound up going years between seasons because of COVID-19, but "Atlanta" was off the air for almost 4 years, and decided to up the ante by airing its two final seasons in the same year, with creator Donald Glover hyping up "Sopranos"-level television during the long hiatus. Probably no show could live up to those kind of expectations being piled on it, but "Atlanta" put a lot of great stuff on the air this year, some of which resembled the first two seasons and some of which felt like the writers cramming one-off stories and experiments into the show that they might never get a chance to make into a movie or whatever. 



























21. The Old Man (FX)
Movies like The Expendables or the last decade of Liam Neeson's career attest to the enduring appeal of seeing really old guys play implausibly tough badasses. And it's extremely satisfying to see Jeff Bridges play a retired spy who can outsmart or just straight up destroy anybody. But "The Old Man" has great quiet stretches of simmering tension and slowly played out reveals, that really make the show gripping. 

22. Gaslit (Starz)
HBO is running its own Watergate miniseries, "The White House Plumbers," next March, with a different cast playing many of the same people, and it'd really be a coup if HBO can't outshine the jobs Starz just did with this story. Julia Roberts and Sean Penn headlined "Gaslit," but I think the show had one of the strongest ensembles of 2022, and Betty Gilpin, Shea Wigham, Ahna O'Reilly, Hamish Linklater, and Chris Bauer deserve a lot of credit for breathing new life into a familiar story. 

23. Andor (Disney+)
George Lucas deserves a lot of the blame for prequels becoming a bankable way to extend the life of a franchise, and we're now inundated with all sorts of deeply unnecessary prequel shows about the nurse from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest or the parents of the brothers from "Supernatural." But a couple decades after The Phantom Menace, we're starting to get some pretty good Star Wars prequel stories, including Rogue One and the prequel to Rogue One, "Andor." Instead of a bunch of fan service and reverse engineered foreshadowing of things we've already seen, "Andor" fills out the world with its own fascinating chapter in the story, including Andy Serkis giving one of the best performances I've seen in anything Star Wars. 

24. She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (Disney+)
Just as "Andor" and 'The Mandalorian" stand out among Disney+'s more forgettable Star Wars series, "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law" joins "WandaVision" as one of the few MCU series that has its own texture and sense of humor and offers something more than padding out the mythology. And somehow even established MCU characters like Mark Ruffalo's Hulk and Charlie Cox's Daredevil fit into the show's cartoony reality in ways that worked better than they had a right to. 

25. Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty (HBO)
The Los Angeles Lakers became the hot topic of television in 2022, with HBO's big budget series prompting an official response in the form of a Hulu docuseries, as well as docuseries about Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal and a forthcoming Kobe Bryant series on Netflix. Not being an NBA buff, I don't know what's true and what isn't in "Winning Time" (and it sounds like quite a bit wasn't), but Quincy Isaiah, Solomon Hughes, Tracy Letts, and Jason Clarke are fantastic. It's sad that the long Adam McKay/Will Ferrell partnership ended after McKay refused to cast Ferrell as Jerry Buss...but McKay was right, John C. Reilly needed to be in that role for the show to work. 

























26. Night Sky (Amazon Prime)
27. The Baby (HBO)
28. Russian Doll (Netflix)
29. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX/Hulu)
30. South Side (HBO Max)
31. The English (Amazon Prime)
32. Barry (HBO)
33. Girls5Eva (Peacock)
34. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)
35. Only Murders In The Building (Hulu)
36. The Boys (Amazon Prime)
37. Servant (Apple TV+)
38. The Offer (Paramount+)
39. Reservation Dogs (FX/Hulu)
40. The Time Traveler's Wife (HBO)
41. Bad Sisters (Apple TV+)
42. The Staircase (HBO)
43. Grace And Frankie (Netflix)
44. Better Things (FX)
45. Rap Sh!t (HBO Max)
46. We Own This City (HBO)
47. Billions (Showtime)
48. Welcome To Flatch (Fox)
49. Evil (CBS)
50. Wolf Like Me (Peacock)
51. So Help Me Todd (CBS)
52. A League Of Their Own (Amazon Prime)
53. Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max)
54. The White Lotus (HBO)
55. Rutherford Falls (Peacock)
56. Moon Knight (Disney+)
57. Trying (Apple TV+)
58. The Flight Attendant (HBO Max)
59. Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)
60. The Resort (Peacock)
61. Ziwe (Showtime)
62. Breeders (FX)
63. Workin' Moms (Netflix)
64. Avenue 5 (HBO)
65. Shining Vale (Showtime)
66. The Rehearsal (HBO)
67. Life & Beth (Hulu)
68. The Afterparty (Apple TV+)
69. Flatbush Misdemeanors (Showtime)
70. Rick And Morty (Adult Swim)
71. Killing It (Peacock)
72. Starstruck (HBO Max)
73. The Gilded Age (HBO)
74. Search Party (HBO Max)
75. Home Economics (ABC)
76. Ghosts (CBS)
77. Mythic Quest (Apple TV+)
78. Los Espookys (HBO)
79. Never Have I Ever (Netflix)
80. The Patient (FX/Hulu)
81. Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)
82. The Peripheral (Amazon Prime)
83. Westworld (HBO)
84. American Auto (NBC)
85. Last Week Tonight (HBO)
86. Made For Love (HBO Max)
87. Bob's Burgers (Fox)
88. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime)
89. Harley Quinn (HBO Max)
90. The Legend of Vox Machina (Amazon Prime)
91. Women Who Rock (Showtime)
92. Saturday Night Live (NBC)
93. Loot (Apple TV+)
94. Inside Amy Schumer (Paramount+)
95. Rings of Power (Amazon Prime)
96. For All Mankind (Apple TV+)
97. Five Days At Memorial (Apple TV+)
98. Irma Vep (HBO)
99. Black Bird (Apple TV+)
100. Warrior Nun (Netflix)

4:14 PM

My Top 50 EPs of 2022

Tuesday, December 13, 2022








I put every EP on the playlist that's on Spotify in a playlist, you could listen to the whole thing in a day if you wanted to. 
 
1. Coco Jones - What I Didn't Tell You
Coco Jones has been kicking around show business for a long time, starring in the 2011 Disney Channel musical Let It Shine as a teenager and then releasing music independently for a decade. And when she signed to Def Jam and released the What I Didn't Tell You EP this year, and appeared on Babyface's latest album, it sounded like all that time she's put in paid off and she's ready to hit the ground running as a top shelf R&B vocalist.  It would surprise me if "ICU" or "Caliber" or something else from this EP didn't hit the charts in 2023. 

2. Ted Leo - For Coit And Killie
Ted Leo is one of the best singer/songwriters of his generation. But for whatever stupid reason, he never quite made it to comfortable headliner status like so many of his 2000s indie rock contemporaries, and I get the sense it's just not feasible for him to release albums and tour regularly like he used to. But 5 years after his last album, he started to post some enjoyably lo-fi music on Bandcamp regularly. His three EPs in 2022 included seven new originals, one remix of an obscure previously released track, and three covers reflecting his far ranging influences (The Bee Gees, Traffic, and Stereolab). 

3. Doechii - She / Her / Black Bitch
The Tampa rapper Doechii had a big year in 2022, becoming the first female rapper on TDE and releasing an EP with a minor radio hit, the SZA remix of her single "Persuasive." She / Her / Black Bitch doesn't even feature the most memorable song Doechii released this year, "Crazy," but it does a great job of showcasing the enormous potential of what she could do with a major label budget. 

4. Em Beihold - Egg In The Backseat
One thing I don't like about EPs becoming more fashionable in the major label world in recent years is that it's become a way for the industry to soft-pedal a newer artist's career and keep a debut album always just out of reach (like Saweetie, who released her 4th EP this year despite being more famous than a lot of rappers with albums). Occasionally that works, as when Lil Nas X followed one of the most successful EPs of all time with a very successful album a couple years later, but often, I think it becomes a way of squandering the momentum of a career-making hit. Gayle absolutely should have released an album on the back of "abcdefu" this year instead of two EPs, and Em Beihold absolutely should have a whole album to go with "Numb Little Bug," because the 6 other clever, catchy, densely layered piano pop confections on Egg In The Backseat are right up to the same standard. 

5. GloRilla - Anyways, Life's Great...
It feels like every year hip hop gives us at least one feelgood story of a rapper going from completely unknown outside their hometown to the talk of the industry, and in 2022 that person was inarguably the Memphis 23-year-old Gloria Hallelujah Woods. Her first EP for Yo Gotti's CMG label confirms, if there was any doubt, that she's got plenty more songs in the vein of her breakout hit "F.N.F. (Let's Go)." But it's bookended by two more introspective tracks, "No More Love" and "Out Loud Thinking," that hint that there's a little more depth and emotion for her to explore in her writing than people may expect. 

6. Jonathan Richman - Cold Pizza & Other Hot Stuff
50 years after achieving mortality with his early Modern Lovers work, Jonathan Richman is still out there writing and performing songs in his distinctive and inimitable style, although his work from the past decade or so is on Bandcamp and not the big streaming services. And just three months after his last full-length, he released 6 more tracks, including instant classic odes to cold pizza and Dolly Parton, plus a cover of "La Bamba." 

7. Ganser - Nothing You Do Matters
I hadn't heard the Chicago post-punk Ganser before this year but I really dig their latest EP. The two main songs "People Watching" and "What Me Worry?" are both excellent but sound almost like completely different  bands. And then a remix of the former takes things in yet another direction, so it feels like a lot of ground is covered in 10 minutes. 

8. Sonder - Too Late To Die Young
In addition to his solo career, Brent Faiyaz is also a member of the group Sonder with two producers, Dpat and Atu. In terms of branding, I don't really understand it, because Sonder songs are musically indistinguishable from Faiyaz songs, and both Dpat and Atu have contributed to some of his solo tracks. But the Sonder EP released a few months after Faiyaz's big breakthrough Wasteland is really excellent, with none of that album's ponderous interludes, and "Indonesian Fantasies" and "Break You Off" are as good as anything he's ever made. 

9. Maddie & Tae - Through The Madness Vol. 1
Each of Maddie Font and Tae Kerr's two full-length albums has spun off a #1 country radio hit. But their place in the competitive Nashville marketplace is still tentative enough that they released two EPs this year instead of an album. But they've really grown into strong songwriters, and collaborated with one of modern country's songwriting greats, Lori McKenna, on "The Other Side." 

10. DJ Premier - Hip Hop 50: Vol. 1
If I had to pick one producer as my #1 the entire history of hip hop, it would probably be DJ Premier. And he decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the genre's birth by kicking off a series of all star EPs, featuring some inspired intergenerational pairings of Slick Rick with Lil Wayne and Remy Ma with Rapsody. 

11. Zach Bryan - Summertime Blues
Zach Bryan released a 34-song major label debut, American Heartbreak, this year, and then just kept going with additional singles and a nearly album-length EP until his 2022 output reached, by my count, 47 songs. I really like "Motorcycle Drive By" on this EP, but he should've called it something else, that title belongs to Third Eye Blind.

12. Ari Lennox - Away Message
EPs can and often do function as an album preview, and some of the EPs on this list inevitably will be expanded into albums in 2023. But I generally avoided including EPs on this list that I know have been or will be absorbed into albums (Weezer, Young The Giant, Christina Aguilera, Caroline Polachek). Ari Lennox released the Away Message EP less than 2 weeks before her long-awaited second album, but it was sort of a bonus thing, with only one song on the album and four tracks exclusive to the EP, including the pretty great "Gummy" and "Bitter."

13. Tomato Flower - Gold Arc
Tomato Flower are probably the most promising new Baltimore band I heard this year, with two EPs comprised of short, tightly arranged songs that manage to take a few twists in turns in the space of a couple minutes. 

14. YTK - As Polite, As Possible
Last year the Baltimore rapper YTK went viral with a remix of the Mariah Carey hit "Shake It Off." But it really feels like he's building serious career momentum now without the aid of big recognizable samples, his charisma is through the roof and his bars are full of sly little turns of phrase and revealing, insightful moments of introspection. 

15. Renee Rapp - Everything To Everyone
A couple weeks ago I saw a music video for Renee Rapp's "Too Well" and thought huh, this new pop singer looks so much like the girl who plays Leighton on "The Sex Lives of College Girls." But it actually is the same person, apparently Rapp played Regina George in the Mean Girls musical on Broadway, and will reprise the role in the upcoming film adaptation, so she's working on a pretty nice actor/singer dual career. 

16. Tom Skinner - Voices of Bishara
The British jazz drummer Tom Skinner got a huge boost in name recognition this year when The Smile, his band with the two most famous members of Radiohead, released its debut album. And Skinner followed that up with his first release under his own name, leading a beautiful ensemble featuring cello, saxophone, flute, and bass clarinet. 

17. JSOUL & B. Jamelle - Mellowdisiac
JSOUL has been forging parallel careers as a hip hop producer and an R&B singer in Baltimore for over decade. And this year he teamed up with Washing, D.C. singer B. Jamelle for a potent collaboration project featuring his woozy sample-driven beats and her jazzy vocals and clever lyrics, really hope they continue to make more music together. 

18. Billie Eilish - Guitar Songs
In between Billie Eilish's first two albums, she released a string of some of her most radio-friendly singles to date to keep her profile high. But after Happier Than Ever's promo cycle wound down, Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell released a pair of quietly intense acoustic songs that give an indication that the last album's handful of guitar-driven songs on the last album may point the way towards their next record. 

19. Dr. Dre - The Contract
After Dr. Dre surprise released his third album Compton in 2015, he indicated that it may be his last album and that the long-promised Detox will never see the light of day, and then went back to high profile studio sessions with superstar rappers for some mysterious future project. About a year ago, six new Dre songs, including collaborations with Eminem, Snoop, and the late Nipsey Hussle, debuted in the video game Grand Theft Auto Online, and in February those songs made it to streaming services as an EP. And honestly, I hope Dre just keeps finding weird little projects like this to release some of his mountain of unreleased music through, it's fun to hear this stuff in a low stakes context instead of doing the overblown Detox hype thing. 

20. Juliett Class - Juliett Class
The New York-based punk trio Juliett Class's debut release, 4 songs produced by Jawbox legend J. Robbins, is great stuff. I really look forward to hearing more from them, hopefully with more of the fun noisy theremin from "Shut Off" in the mix. 

21. The Answers In Between - Self-Talk
Hannah Jocelyn is a talented music writer, musician, and mixing engineer that I'm friendly with through the music critic twittersphere, and The Answers In Between is I guess the new iteration of her electronic indie pop project previously known as Fell From The Tree. "OK (Individually Speaking)" is my favorite from this one, a very unusual and distinctive combination of different instrumental and vocal textures. 

22. Jack Irons - Koi Fish In Space
I'm a drummer, but I don't necessarily want to hear a lot of solo records by drummers that are mostly percussion. But I think Jack Irons is an absolute genius and that his work on Pearl Jam's No Code is a high watermark for rock drumming. He released two solo EPs in 2022 that mainly consist of him playing these insane polyrhythms with some cool effects and reverb and minimal synth washes, and I enjoyed March's Koi Fish In Space a little more than October's Dreamer's Ball. 

23. Olivia O'Brien - A Means To An End
Olivia O'Brien rose to fame after appearing on Gnash's enormous and very tiresome 2016 hit "I Hate U, I Love U," and I kind of forgot she existed for a few years after that. But then I heard one of her new songs and checked out her recent EP and "What Are We" is fantastic, really rooting for her as a solo artist now. 

24. Ringo Starr - EP3
With EPs largely being the provenance of new or rising artists, it's a little surprising when rock legends decide to funnel their studio output into EPs instead of albums. But Ringo Starr seems like the kind of guy who just wants to make music and give it to his fans as simply as possible, and it seems to fit where he is these days that he's released three EPs since 2021. The latest one is kind of all over the place stylistically, with the Linda Perry-written "Everyone And Everything" getting the closest to the vibe of a classic Ringo Starr solo track. 

25. Kirk Hammett - Portals
Kirk Hammett has always been the member of Metallica with the most diverse and interesting taste, namechecking all kinds of bands from outside the metal scene in interviews. So it was cool to finally hear him go solo with the four proggy instrumentals on Portals. That said, I feel annoyed on behalf of Jason Newsted, who left Metallica 20 years ago because the band refused to let him have a side project. 

26. Mahalia - Letter To Ur Ex
27. The Soft Pink Truth - Was It Ever Real?
28. Key Glock - PRE5L
29. Stephen Sanchez - Easy On My Eyes
30. Ted Leo - Andy, Come Out
31. Ted Leo - The Old 200
32. Joyce Wrice - Motive
33. Rusty - The Resurrection of Rust
34. Primus - Conspiranoid
35. Tiana Major9 - Fool Me Once
36. IDK - Simple.
37. Tropical Fuck Storm / King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Satanic Slumber Party
38. Busta Rhymes - The Fuse Is Lit
39. Tenille Townes - Masquerades
40. Pink Sweat$ - Pink Moon
41. Tomato Flower - Construction
42. Maddie & Tae - Through The Madness Vol. 2
43. Billy Idol - The Cage
44. Travis Denning - Might As Well Be Me
45. OTR Chaz - Longwood Legends
46. Dave Fell - Do You Like Email?
47. Pussy Riot - Matriarchy Now
48. Charlotte Sands - Love And Other Lies
49. Mariah The Scientist - Buckles Laboratories Presents: The Intermission
50. Bas - [BUMP] Pick Me Up

2:07 PM