“THE BEST THING I’VE HEARD ALL YEAR!”
OUR FAVOURITE MUSICIANS’ FAVOURITE MUSIC OF 2022
JEFF TWEEDY Wilco’s fan of contradictions.
I can’t remember the last time I encountered a record that left me feeling so fully healed as Alabaster DePlume’s Gold. Joyful and solemn. Hushed and exuberant. Spontaneous and deeply considered. I could go on. Think of any two adjectives that seem to contradict each other and you’ll be getting close to how it feels to listen to this music. It’s a magic trick but it’s also pretty much how the world really works. One person being themselves on purpose – unafraid of contradictions and proudly fragile – always brings a tear to my eye. A smile and a tear.
VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ A chip off the old desert blues block…
There were two albums I really loved. The first was Timbuktu by Oumou Sangaré. Oumou is like an aunt to me and I have always admired her and her music. Of course, when Oumou releases a new LP everyone in Mali hears about it. This new album is magnificent. It has so many styles and influences working together in it, lots of rock and blues and funk, and her voice soars. She is proving she is still the queen of Malian music. The second is Alpha Blondy’s album Eternity. Ever since I was young he has been my favourite reggae artist. He is very popular throughout West Africa, so everyone will hear when he releases a new album as well. His music always relaxes me. I love to play it loud in my car. I cannot feel the stress of life when I am driving with Alpha’s music blasting.
ROBERT FRIPP Predictably unpredictable.
My number one this year is Slipknot’s Psychosocial [from 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone], which Toyah and I considered for our Sunday Lunch series of YouTube covers. I very much enjoy the guitar work: the altered tuning, the really digging-in riffs. It’s superb, energetic music. We also considered covering Lenny
Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way. It just digs in; the beat is right there and the co-writer Craig Ross is a stunning guitarist.
Jennifer Higdon is an American classical composer; String Lake, the second movement of her four-piece work All Things Majestic, has really sung to me this year. It was written about the Grand Teton range of mountains in Wyoming, and in my hectic life, maybe on a Sunday morning when I have a moment’s reflection, it transports me to an open, quiet space that is supporting and rich. But mostly it’s live performance that transports me. The last great concert I saw was Robert Plant at this spring’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival. It’s essentially roots music with local musicians that felt authentic and real, no going through the motions, but live in the moment.
ALYNDA SEGARRA Hurray For The Riff Raff’s enthusiast-in-chief.
I had been eagerly waiting for the new album from Ezra Furman, All Of Us Flames, and it was everything I needed. Her lyricism has amazed me ever since I fell in love with Transangelic Exodus and to me this feels like a continuation of that work. Ezra creating at the same time as me makes me feel less alone in the world. She’s a legend.
This Is A Photograph by Kevin Morby has been inspiring to me this year. He is an artist that has such a clear vision, and it really translates in this record. Kevin is a lifer, and that’s comforting in a world where artists and our creations have been treated as disposable. I’m excited to continue following his journey and see where he takes us next.
JIM O’ROURKE Out-rock mage, producer, collaborator.
For me, any unreleased Cecil Taylor is essential, but Respiration
– released this year on the Polish label, Fundacja Sluchaj – is remarkable, as it comes from 1968. There aren’t many commercial recordings of that period, and a solo piano performance to boot. That alone is remarkable, but this performance is truly earth-shattering for longtime Taylor fans. In one listen it may have become my favourite Cecil Taylor solo record ever.
[Minimalist experimental musicians] Giancarlo & Massimo Toniutti’s Stratégies Obliques I is absolutely fantastic. They are two of my favourite creators of their generation. Massimo Toniutti’s Il Museo Selvatico from 1991 is still one of my favourite records, and his return this year after decades of silence has been a dream come true. His brother Giancarlo is brilliant as always as well.
TOM SKINNER Son Of Kemet, third of The Smile, all percussion.
The one thing that sticks out for me is Sam Gendel. He’s a saxophonist, composer, guitar player and producer, based out of LA. He’s really prolific so narrowing it down to a particular release isn’t easy. Earlier this year there was Superstore, a collection of unreleased things, almost like a sketchbook of ideas. It’s lo-fi – some of it must have been recorded on his phone – and a lot of these pieces are very short, under a minute or two minutes. Then, when I was touring with Sons Of Kemet this summer, he dropped Cicada Lite: Live In Texas. It was quite a gruelling schedule and I found myself turning to this to transcend that kind of travel, travel, travel place you get into. It’s mostly solo saxophone with, I guess, laptops and drum machines. But then it also incorporates field recordings, and there are tracks with him playing along with cicadas, hence the title. So it has this diary quality, and a kind of integration with nature and the environment. In the jazz world, it feels like, more and more, we’re moving away from conventional studio recordings. That’s a refreshing thing. With Sam Gendel you’re getting a little window into a moment in time.
CONOR ‘DEEGO’ DEEGAN Fontaines D.C.’s low-end theorist goes ’90s.
The act that really wowed me this year is Wunderhorse. We took them on tour in America and I got to watch them a lot. They’re a great band, probably better than us. They brought it every night consistently. It really shows that they’ve had the time to figure out who they want to be because the album, Cub, is very mature and nuanced. While you can still hear something that sounds a bit like Pearl Jam or a song that sounds a bit like Alice In Chains, the influences are much less marked than on most first albums.
I loved Been Stellar as well. They’re a really young band from New York – kids basically – but they’re making really great music,
the best I’ve heard from New York n a long time. There’s something beautiful about it but it’s quite edgy and street. It has something in common with what Sonic Youth were doing in the ’90s. They put out an EP this year and there’s a song on it called Kids 1995 which is really, really great.
LEYLA MCCALLA Carolina Chocolate Drop looks to the Afro-future.
Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento are from Colombia. El Grupo Renacimiento are actually the Meridian Brothers’ imaginary band, playing and updating salsa roots music with a psychedelic twist. Their [self-titled] album is super-fun and the arrangements, singing and rhythms are amazing. It feels very in line with what I’ve been exploring, keeping Afro-diasporic music alive. Jake Blount’s LP The New Faith also resonates with me. He has re-imagined old negro spirituals as an Afro-futurist concept record, imagining the impact of climate change in 500 years’ time, because the people who will be most affected are black and brown. I’m currently obsessed with Gilberto Gil’s [1972] album Expresso 2222. He’s such an amazing singer and guitarist, the rhythms are super-inspiring and his expression is breathtaking. I find a lot of similarities between Tropicália and Haitian music, which makes me feel connected to Brazil – but, of course, we’re all part of the African diaspora.
JASON PIERCE Spiritualized seer, back from the grave.
We toured America this year and I picked up a stack of gospel records. Every church seems to have made a record so there’s a lot out there, usually in local stores. I feel like I can’t go wrong with those records. I especially like The Gospel Clefs, and especially the track So Good. And the Brotherhood Of Cross And Stars LP Mustard Seed – the music is like Casio pre-set keyboards but the most beautiful voices. I also love Dorothy Love Coates, The Brotherhood Crusade Choir and Bill Moss & The Celestials. I’ve just discovered the Cairo label’s American soul compilation series, like The Truth Is A Lie, The World Is A Cafeteria, All Of This Goes Too and Do You Believe it?. Tracks from the ’50s to the ’70s. I love compilations when you don’t know what’s coming next. The foil sleeves are beautiful too. I also discovered Jamaican doo wop this year – I didn’t know there was such a thing, but of course it’s out there! And one beautiful track from Ghana: Charlotte Dada’s cover of The Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down.
NATALIE MERING Weyes Blood’s alt-Karen Carpenter backs “fruity fun”.
I love Alex G, God Save The Animals. When I first heard it, it caught me off guard. My friend was listening to it and I was like, “What is that?” I’ve always been an admirer of him because he’s also from Philly, but this is the first record of his I’ve really dived into. What’s so cool about it is that I feel in some ways, post-pandemic, people have taken an approach that is a little more stripped-down or intimate, or kind of restricted. Very few people were having a lot of weird, fruity, creative fun. You can tell that they just had a blast making it. It’s such a journey and it’s so colourful. At times it reminds me of Ween, because Ween are the only other band that really shifts and alters their vocals so low and so high in the same song, but otherwise it feels totally innovative. Now I really have to see it live.