my year in music

a little walk through what i listened to this year, both new and old

Hello and welcome to my year in music retrospective. It’s more of a “my state of music listening” than anything else.

I consume a lot of music. I listen to Spotify for eight hours a day at work, and when I get home, either an album or a CD or a playlist goes on immediately. Even when I’m watching a game, I have music on in the background. I’m constantly looking for new bands and albums to listen to and, as such, I listen to a lot of new-to-me records as well as new music that came out this year.

I have a list of 41 albums I enjoyed that came out in 2022. I will spare you that list and drop my top ten, which is in the best order I could get it in without overthinking it.

1. Kevin Devine - Nothing’s Real So Nothing’s Wrong

2. Camp Trash - The Long Way, The Slow Way

3. dazy - OUTOFBODY

4. Panda Bear/Sonic Boom - Reset

5. Prince Daddy & The Hyena - s/t

6. Mo Troper - MTV

7. MJ Lenderman - Boat Songs

8. Angel Olsen - Big Time

9. Mountain Goats - Bleed Out

10. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa

All of these albums in some way touched me or moved me, they all brought me joy in one way or another. I don’t want to do blurbs on each of these because there’s other stuff I want to write about here; suffice it to say these are all stellar records and I would love it if you checked them out.

There are also specific songs from 2022 that stood out for me.

1. Angel Olsen - All the Good Times

2. Dazy/Militarie Gun - Pressure Cooker

3. Kevin Devine - Albatross

4. Prince Daddy & The Hyena - Curly Q

5. Camp Trash - Weird Florida

6. The National/Bon Iver - Weird Goodbyes

7. Panda Bear/Sonic Boom - The Edge of the Edge

8. Weird Nightmare - Searching For You

9. Mountain Goats - Training Montage

10. Drug Church - Million Miles of Fun

Man, that Angel Olsen song really buried itself in my heart. “so long, farewell, this is the end/and I'll always remember you just like a friend” are lines that punctured my soul the first time I heard them and still resonate with me, even when I listen to it ten times a day. All of these are songs that I have hit repeat on innumerable times. I’ve lost count of how many times I got up and jumped around my living room to “Pressure Cooker” or sighed to “Weird Goodbyes.” If digging into albums isn’t your thing (it is time consuming) then maybe check out some of these songs (which will hopefully lead you to albums).

Now, not all my time is spent listening to new music. I have a playlist with almost 3,000 songs that I listen to daily and I am always on the hunt for albums I may have missed when they first came out. This was a banner year for me in this respect, as I discovered a slew of new-to-me records that just blew me away. It’s easy for music to pass you by. Sometimes you are just stuck listening to your old favorites. Sometimes you’re not in a place to listen to new music. But I soaked it up like a sponge this year, eagerly listening to music I’ve heard of but not heard.

1. Icky Mettle - Archers of Loaf (1993)

2. Shake the Sheets - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (2004)

3. Up the Bracket - The Libertines (2002)

4. Source Tags & Codes ..And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (2002)

5. Read Music/Speak Spanish - Desaparecidos (2002)

6. Attack on Memory - Cloud Nothings (2012)

7. Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts - Wolf Parade (2005)

8. Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things (2002)

Each one of these albums was a revelation. How did I miss this, I keep saying to myself. Years and years of depriving myself of some of the best music I ever heard. Of all these albums, it’s the Rilo Kiley record that really blew me away. I listened to it so much since first hearing it that it made its way into my year end top ten albums I listened to (according to last fm). “A Better Son/Daughter” sits with me now; it’s a part of my life and I feel like I’m making up for lost time by listening to it so much.

Four of these albums are from 2002. That was the first year of my lengthy mental breakdown and I don’t think I was interested in new music or music like this at all. It’s interesting what goes into listening to new music and how sometimes you just don’t have the mental capacity for it. I’ve gotten much better at sitting down with new albums and really soaking them up because I’m in a place where my brain allows that. I’m so eager to hear new stuff; I get bored with my lengthy playlist, I get bored with all my old bands for periods of time. Adding something new to the list is always an exhilarating thing for me. I love the joy of finding something new to obsess over, to talk about and tell people about. Falling in love with a song or album is such a pleasure.

I bought a lot of albums/CDs this year. I’ve really rounded out my collection. To make a list of all the records I bought this year would only serve to make me realize how much money I spent and I don’t want to take away from my good feelings about supporting the artists I love.

It was a good year, musically. I would love for you to tell me what you listened to this year because I’m always on the lookout for something new.