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.
The debut album from The Haunted Youth opens with a short
rough, yet simple instrumental and closes with a lofi acoustic heart tugging
ballad. The eight tracks in-between are
some kind of amazing collection of postpunk pop wonders that are so streamlined
and perfect that they play like a greatest hits album from a pioneer of the
genre.
Joachim Leibens,
from Belgium, has managed to learn from the past. Over the years, especially before MP3s and
streaming changed the music industry forever, occasionally, an “alternative”
artist or band would sneak a catchy song or two into mainstream radio. I’m talking about songs by Modern English (“I Melt with You”), The Church (“Under the Milky Way”), The Cure (“Just Like Heaven”), or
especially The Psychedelic Furs (a
few), among others. These were
triumphant moments for those of us who were exhausted from the overplayed pop hits
that we mostly heard on the top 40 radio stations that us folks in small towns
were pretty much stuck with. These
random breakthroughs would spur on discovery of new and unusual music that we
had to hunt down in the nearest cities, and these would lead us to other artists. These artists were different. Generally, more experimental,
thought-provoking and interesting.
Generally, they had more insightful lyrics and sounds. They were often darker in sound, but still
tied to the idea of pop hooks. It’s as
if The Haunted Youth have cleaned out any of those variations and failed
experiments that were buried on those old albums, and put out a collection that
is so unrelentingly focused that every song sounds like one of those
breakthrough hits.
“Broken,” the first song I heard from
them, is an epic breathy anthem, whose guitar chorus is magical and downright
exciting! So many of these songs have
very few lyrics - mainly a few lines, repeated at key moments, a sturdy
rumbling bassline and beat, some spiraling or scratchy rhythm guitars, and
nothing to get in the way of the point.
“Teen Rebel” is super infectious, though a bit odd. The vocal is kind of a snotty retort to the
so-called Teen Rebel, who is “always wanting something more.” Though, it could be irritating, these lines
are sung/spoken atop a Chameleons-like
bed of guitar reverb, which is always great.
If one were to remove the bass and drums, this song could qualify for an
Ambient genre all-time classic. All of
the singles, like the hand clapping addiction that is “Gone,” or the scratchy
simplicity of “Shadows,” and the sing along attraction of “Coming Home” (opens
similar to New Order’s “Procession”)
should be international blockbusters.
There’s a no frills/no bullshit thing
going on here that I dig and I think a lot of people would to. A great example of this is the song “I Feel
Like Shit and I Wanna Die,” is exactly what the title implies. No sugarcoating. No nonsense to obscure the message. No room for interpretation. The music is stunning – something similar to
an early OMD ballad. So is this album. I’m anxious to hear more!
