2022, I think, has been a difficult year for many of
us. I cannot imagine how difficult the
past few years have been for musicians with the closures and shut downs taking
away essentially every opportunity to perform and share their art or even
create it.My goal in sharing the music
I love with as much gusto as I have is to celebrate it!Not just those that I champion here, but all
of it.I admire the effort and passion
to not only have the talent and creativity and vision to make music, but to
also bring it to the public for those of us who struggle to make things
happen.Considering all of the
obstacles, 2022 has been as vibrant and exciting as any other year in music.These choices below are an approximation of
what I believe my most listened to albums of the year have been.
When I was buying records in the late
80s / early 90s, a lot of them were from US and UK indie labels like Creation, 4AD, Slumberland, SpinArt, and Pop
Narcotic, among many others. I didn’t
think that each LP, EP or 7” I purchased was part of a burgeoning “scene,”
which would be later coined “shoegaze.” I just
thought of each label putting out like minded releases because they were all
run by a couple of people at most, so their tastes coincided with where I was
at at the time. What I liked about so many
of these releases is that they checked a lot of different boxes for me. These bands were not afraid to play loud and
fast, they dabbled in experimentation with noise and heavy doses of feedback,
yet could also go so mellow that they were ambient, they weren’t afraid to
release records that had dance beats, or were straight up jangle pop. Sometimes, all of these elements were in one
song! Has anyone listened to the Boo Radleys “Lazarus” lately?
the Boo Radleys "Lazarus"
I was first introduced to Japanese
fourpiece COLLAPSE in the spring of
2018. It was the closer of their EP Delirium Poetry, “Tokyo,” and its
unbelievably melancholic atmosphere drew me in.
It is a heavy guitar song that has a hook that is so mournful and
languid that one cannot help but feel something reflective and emotional. I became an instant fan and have hungrily gobbled
up their few single releases over the past few years. Black
Sheep is Still Dreaming is their long-awaited debut LP!
Listening to this album is such a
joy! It is, for me, like listening to
those records, like I did some thirty years ago, unencumbered by genre. It would’ve fit right in. It is diverse, loud, very loud, dreamy,
catchy, fast, heavy, and light. They do
employ a lot of LOUD, quiet, LOUD in their songs, or at least song to song,
which is a very early 90s element, one which I never grew tired of. It was an element that appealed to me I
suppose in an orchestral way. It was
very dramatic.
Their single, “Drown,” from the spring
of 2020 is this collection’s melancholic heavy hitter, but I swear that it’s
slow beat and blasting guitars are that much more effective due to its
placement between the quiet street noise/piano instrumental “epilogue,” and the
shredding punk pop “Syrup.” “Syrup”
sounds like a Jawbreaker outtake circa
1992, with a female singing falsetto in place of Blake Schwarzenbach. The
other glorious pre-LP singles singles “Vertigo” and “Garden” are also
included. “Vertigo is an upbeat pop
number that isn’t afraid to be loud, while “Garden” is a breezy wonder a little
reminiscent of Chaperhouse’s
legendary “Pearl.”
I cannot tell you how much I love this
album! I find myself listening to it on
repeat often and tweaking the volume up incrementally until my ears buzz. Thankfully, I splurged for the CD, which comes
with two incredible exclusive bonus tracks!
Well worth the expense, if you ask me.
Their debut album may have been a long time coming, but I’m already
hankering for more. Please seek this
out.
