Top 30 Albums of 2022

2022 was awash with Melody, anarchy, comebacks, throwbacks but ost important of all, pushed the envelope forwards yet again. Here’s to all the talent, labels, and tipsters who made it possible.

Here are our top 30 albums of the year:

30. The Heavy North - Electric Soul Machine (Full review here)

The Heavy North have achieved a great deal on this debut. The guitar solos are the big take home but, the creative flourishes with the drums and vocals begin to shine upon repeat listens. It leaves you with a sense of hope that, next time out, they could do something really powerful.

29. Kae Tempest – The Line Is A Curve

Tempest is a national treasure. Astute poetic observations from start to finish.

28. Lightning Seeds – See You In The Stars

Older and wiser but, still as vibrant as the ‘Jollification’ and ‘Sense’ days.

27. Jamie Webster - Moments

Mixing pop and politics with joyously righteous effects.

26. Enjoyable Listens - The Enjoyable Listens

The heir to Richard Hawley and Nick Drake.

25. Narcissus - A Sense of Place

Reimagining early 90s rave and hip hop for the modern day.

24. Embrace - How To Be A Person Like Other People

The euphoric anthems keep on coming!

23. Warmduscher - At The Hotspot

Bella Union’s best signing in a generation. Shaun Ryder-esque lyrics meet a drugged-up Talking Heads.

22. Andy Bell - Flicker

Bell’s creative streak is relentless at present. Flicker adds to his ever-expanding fine body of work.

21. The Mysterines - Reeling

Heavier and more badass than the debut. Their march to the top continues!

20. Skylights - What You Are (Full review here)

What was a fortuitous reformation has undoubtedly led to one of the albums of the year! This isn’t a breakout debut, it’s the sound of a band 3 albums deep commanding the respect of academy-sized audiences.

19. Suede - Autofiction

The outsiders return to their rightful place in the shadows howling at the world.

18. Maze – Chaos Interrupted

Wayward rock ‘n’ roll searching for its freedom.

17. David Long & Shane O’Neill - Age of Finding Stars (Full review here)

What started as an unplanned album has turned into a masterpiece of grief-stricken songwriting. Devastating lyrics and lost soundscapes unite on one of 2022’s albums of the year.

16. The Boo Radleys - Keep On With Falling (Full review here)

Without Martin Carr in the fold, the new lineup could have easily folded under the pressure of delivering a new Radleys album. Carr has been an exceptional solo artist after all. Nevertheless, Sice and co have paid tribute to all that they once were and pushed the band forwards with remarkable results.

15. The Shed Project - The Curious Mind of the Common Man (Full review here)

The guitars will inevitably lure people in. The licks of ‘Livin’ are so infectious it’s medically advisable to wear gloves when listening.

14. Chorusgirl - Collapso Calypso (Full review here)

In what must have been a testing time personally and creatively, Chorusgirl have come out the other side with a piece of art to be cherished!

13. The Skinner Brothers - Soul Boy II

Laconic but confrontational soon to be iconic.

12. Thousand Yard Stare - Earthanasia (Full review here)

Their previous album in many ways was a second debut album. It said everything they ever wanted to say to the world. They thought it would cap off a great few years playing live and release the odd EP. What it did is best expressed in their single ‘Measures’:

“It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Just be sure that you are here at the end / It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Take pleasure in the message it sends”.

This sentiment flows from every corner of the album and has allowed them to be more expressive than ever. Long may it continue.

11. The Shop Window - A 4 Letter Word (Full review here)

The Kent outfit have lit up a bleak year with this gentle yet defiant indie-pop record. Everywhere you turn there are nods to the 80s and 90s but, with astute sonic updates. Lyrically, they accept nostalgia less as a noose and more as a bridge to their untamed teenage selves and thus, provide endless tales for their souls to relive in the modern age.

10. My Raining Stars – 89 Memories (Full review here)

These more instantaneous moments breathe vitality into Haliniak’s body of work that will surely win the hearts and minds of many new fans sooner rather than later.

9. Armstrong - Grafitti (Full review here)

Classic songwriting rarely collides with guts, heart, and pop music but, Armstrong has it all.

8. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Joni Mitchell meets Karen Carpenter in this beautiful debut.

7. Columbia - Embrace The Chaos (Full review here)

Somehow, they have reimagined the Stones, Stereophonics, Oasis, and Kasabian into something new on this debut. A life-affirming set of songs that will smash whatever stands in its way. For once, we alternative types beg the gatekeepers to put up barriers. It’ll only be that much sweeter when Columbia destroys them!

6. Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia

The most accessible record to date is met with the sound of fraying souls and demons.

5. Moses – I Still Believe, Do you? (Full review here)

‘I Still Believe! Do You?’ is blessed with The Kinks’ storytelling, Blur’s chaos, and Blossoms’ pop sensibilities.

4. The Orchids – Dreaming Kind

A stunning return from the former Sarah Records heroes. Angelic masterpiece!

3. Confidence Man - TILT

All the girls say “Ooh”. All the boys say “ahh”.

2. Charlie Clark – Late Night Drinking (Full review here)

A tumultuous cleanse of the soul that rewards creator and listener alike. Clark has built upon The National’s ability to embed melody into troublesome discourse by adding psychedelic pop to certain tracks. It’s a stunning debut from the Astrid bandmate, a piece of art in its purest form.

1. Deja Vega – Personal Hell (Full review here)

There’s no filler on ‘Personal Hell’, every track leaves an indelible mark on the soul.  ‘Precious One’ throbs with 70s debauchery and Wooden Shjips riffs to create yet more new pastures of the kaleidoscopic expedition! On and on the superlatives could go. ‘Personal Hell’ is a huge leap forwards from the debut, and whilst the live shows remain in small(ish) venues, for now, their rightful place is the upper echelons of mainstages. Over to you festival bookers of 2023.

2002: The Great Reset

In 2000, the music landscape was bleak. Nu-metal dominated the airwaves. Skate-punk fashion was rife. The UK had lost its edge and was in the shadow of a wave of toxic masculinity and god-awful sound and fashion of nu-metal and skate punk.

‘Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants' endured rather than thrived. ‘Gas Panic’ and ‘Fucking In The Bushes’ were fleeting moments of brilliance amid a sea of dross. If they had embraced Noel’s cold turkey writing via ‘Cigarettes in Hell’ and ‘One Way Road’ would have at least given the UK’s cocaine hangover an interesting perspective.

It wasn’t just Noel all at sea. In 2001, the revolutionary class of 1994 and bombast of 95 & 96 was all fading in some form or another. The Manics, Supergrass, and Ocean Colour Scene all produced underwhelming albums. Shed Seven, who did find their punk spirit on their ‘Truth Be Told’ were being marginalised and forced out of a scene they once lit up from the periphery.

Something needed to change to make Neil Young right.  

In 2001 The Strokes blew up with their garage rock classic ‘Is This It?’ and rightly took all the plaudits. Meanwhile, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Soundtracks Of Our Lives kept the flame alive for rocks heritage with great albums. Alas, it never felt enough for British hearts and minds. The reference points and fashion were ever so slightly out of reach. For most, they were too cool for our feral shores. It meant rocks pendulum remained in the US.

However, in March via West Birmingham, one man was going well beyond the concept of resetting rock ‘n’ roll. Mike Skinner was rewiring hip-hop and dance music. Inspired by MJ Cole’s fine ‘Sincere’ album in 2000, Skinner took the worthiness of Ken Loach to the benign garage scene to conjure art for the ages.

‘Turn The Page’ and ‘Original Pirate material’ stripped everything back to MJ Cole’s meaningful vision of the scene. Skinner’s unique vocal delivery consigned a plague of West Coast wannabees to the bin. It went beyond garage music though, he conceptualised weed smoker philosophy with Ray Davies’ sense of characterisation and storytelling (‘Too Much Brandy’ / ‘Same Old Thing’). ‘Stay Positive’ was a desolate uncertain tale of a friend trying to keep fellow souls from drug and violent descent. It was the trailer to the great British grime phenomena coming via Dizzee in 2003 and Kano in 2005. It culminated in ‘Weak Become Heroes’, his ode to raves and ecstasy. Reigniting the second summer of love and rave culture in a Blake-esque poem in 2002, when Blairism was motoring toward PFI contracts and corporatism was a great cultural moment. It signified a generation uneasy with the power being wielded and, if pushed too far, would force escape through drugs and music once more.   

Never to be left out of any scene, Liverpool was preparing to release psychedelic folk punk onto the airwaves. On April 17th, The Coral signed to Deltasonic and played Dingwalls and thus, turned their lives upside down. Noel Gallagher talked of that day to Jools Holland in lockdown: 

“this band were playing at dingwalls…these lads walked on stage and they were kids. They were so young that they’d signed their record deal that day but their parents had to sign it for them and they played this song, it sounded like Frank Sinatra meets The Who meets Burt Bacharach…” 

James Skelly’s unfettered vocals alongside Bill Ryder Jones and Lee Southall’s guitars were beautifully jarring. They had the ability to take Beefheart to the studio with Bacharach and Costello. Like Skinner, their talent was obvious, ‘Dreaming of You’ was an instant pop classic, but it was their beatnik fuck everyone attitude that shone brightest. British bands were supposed to make verse, chorus verse solo outro songs. ‘Waiting For Heartaches’ toyed with tempo and big key changes like an Arthur Lee wet dream. ‘I Remember When’ sees Skelly’s raw Roger Daltrey vocals front up a psychedelic sea shanty, whilst ‘Simon Diamond’ took Syd Barret’s psyche-folk out for a walk with Karen Carpenter. Perhaps more than most that year, they embodied what youth can do for the soul. Unaffected by failure, they reinvented what Mod could be their untamed debut.     

Across the Pennines in Leeds, The Music, the most overlooked during 2002’s great reset, were led by break dancing front man Rob Harvey who later joined The Streets and Kasabian. Their self-titled debut, like The Coral, looked not to merge their disparate influences but, to smash them into oblivion a la Jackson Pollock and see what stuck. The space rock of The Verve, Robert Plant’s bewitching vocals, and Nile Rodgers licks flirted with electronica and the early hiss of Oasis on this wild adventure. They fixed the failures of the Roses ‘Second Coming’ and they injected The Verve’s ‘Storm In Heaven’ weightlessness with a punky outlier spirit courtesy of Adam Nutter’s guitars.  

While the nods to the past were apparent, Robert Harvey’s vocals served up a purity so distilled it engaged a new generation of rock classicists. Coupled with his on-stage dancing, it gave fans a freeing impetus to clutch the band to their hearts and decree “this is ours”.  

It was though, in the moments they made you dance they truly lifted the UK scene out of the doldrums. ‘Disco’ builds like early Ride before erupting into a psychotic bout of funk and soul. Moreover, ‘Float’ did what the Mondays and the Roses did so well in the 80s and tapped into the dance trend of the time; nu school breaks. Nailing the relentlessness and twitchiness of an Adam Freeland or Krafty Kuts set into 5mins of rock music was remarkable.   

Then, on 14th October 2002, the axis of rock ‘n’ roll truly splintered into something new. The Strokes’ influence on The Libertines had been colossal. The band re-routed its power supply from John Hassall’s 60s flowery numbers to Pete and Carl’s Kinks via The Clash brutality tales of England. On hearing ‘This Is It’, Pete and Carl in collusion with Banny Poostchi, launched ‘Plan A’; an all-or-nothing mission to get them signed to Rough Trade in six months. After a showcase for James Endeacott, they were tipped to Geoff Travis and the rest was history.  

The internet hadn’t really been a force for good in the music industry to this point. The Libertines, like many of the architects of Silicon Valley were dreamers though. Guerrilla gigs, invading Zoe Ball’s XFM show, house parties, and free tattoos in Soho were orchestrated from their blog and fan forums. Whilst other bands were all about the music, The Libertines went further. They created the community we yearned for. Much like the early 70s before punk, rock music had become bloated and out of reach for the common man. They took it back to the streets, literally on some occasions. They inspired people to pick up guitars and poetry books. They changed fashion, alas, they changed drugs.  

Not that the music didn’t matter. The skill levels were down but the hope stakes were through the roof! The guttural sound from the guitars was so desperate, they were the catalyst for change culturally that millions were waiting for.

2002 saw the initiation of the war on terror. It was the inauguration of Blair’s descent. It left so many feeling dirty, sorrowful, and uneasy with their country’s place in the world. What The Libertines did was, remind the world what England could be. Dangerous but poetic. Unhinged but beautiful.  Keats and Yates were on their side!  

The landscapes and characters were familiar but the dreams were new.  ‘Time For Heores’ spawned the greatest couplet since ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’: 

“There's fewer more distressing sights than that
Of an Englishman in a baseball cap” 

‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’ is arguably the best proponent of their back-and-forth vocals which were to become famous, infamous, and their harmonious over the course of 20 years. They sounded like a drunken night, staggering through the streets antagonising anyone who wasn’t with them (and Johnny Borrell). Pete’s ability to elevate a song with a fragile melody in the chorus was finding its feet here, something that he would go on to perfect but, all too infrequently.

“we set out to be as exciting as the Pythons”.  (Rik Mayall talking to Wogan in 1984)

This eclectic bunch was the same. Like a great John Hughes movie, the youth just wanted to be heard! For music lovers, it was the raw reset filled with adrenaline and ecstasy the alternative scene needed. It spawned another 8 years of bands. Wave upon wave they came. The kids who flooded playgrounds with kickers and Mr. Spliffy jackets and had grown up and wanted their time and boy, they took it! It was, sadly, to be the last hurrah of the music industry paying bands properly. The well-worn social contract of., take your shot at glory and escape the doldrums was dissipating as the world raced to the bottom.  

However, for one year, hope was everywhere. Psychedelic punks, social commentators, romantic poets, and riff makers alike came together to tear down the tired fabric of the rock industry as we knew it.  

Under The Bridge: The Orchids

Last week, Skep Wax Records (run by Amelia Fletcher & Rob Pursey) released their new compilation ‘Under The Bridge’. Essential listening for any Sarah Records fans, it’s made by all the bands which made the label iconic. Some are under new guises but the personal and therefore, the love, remains.

Images courtesy of Skep Wax Records.

This week we will be reviewing our favourite tracks. Today we focus on hazy pop pioneers The Orchids and their new track Don’t ‘Mean to Stare’.

Under The Bridge may be reuniting former label mates from the 80s and 90s but, it is very much about the future. None more so than for Scotland’s The Orchids as their ‘Don’t Mean to Stare’ is due to feature on their as yet untitled album released later this year.

Whilst the guitars begin with their iconic laissez-faire vibe from ‘A Kind of Eden’, the past remains firmly where it is. They venture towards the vibrant percussion on Ra Ra Riot and the vocal playfulness of Britt Daniel (Spoon) as the guitars spiral in and out of view.

The XX and hints of Afrobeat unite as the song lazily but joyously climaxes. It may have taken the band a while to make the upcoming album but, on this showing, it looks worth the wait.

The album is available to buy on Skep Wax’s Bandcamp page

You can catch most of the bands at their two all-day gigs this April. Click the image for tickets: