These are my favorite albums of the year. There are more that I listened to but these are the ones that stood out most to me in one way or another. Some, I’ve spent more of a considerable amount of time with than others. There are also others I just never got around to. Nothing against them but there are only so many hours in a day and as much as I’d love to, I’m not able to devote but so much time per day listening to music. That’s mostly in my car going to and from work, road trips, and beach trips.
I don’t use any apps to track my listening habits but I can say without question that the album I listened to most in 2022 was Julia Jacklin’s Crushing from 2019. That was followed closely by Alvvays’ debut from 2014. It was a year of catching up for me after going roughly two years without listening to anything beyond single songs on my laptop. Other albums from previous years I got around to in 2022 that got multiple spins also include Margo Cilker’s Pohorylle and the debut album from Mylee Grace, Whiplash in the Moshpit, both from 2021. My favorite song of the year is “Wilder Days” by Drive-By Truckers which also just so happens to come from my favorite album of the year, Welcome 2 Club XIII. RIP, Wes Freed.
I also have to mention a late entry, Delusions of Grandeur by Sophie and the Broken Things. Sophie was Margo Cilker’s lead guitarist when I saw her at Cat’s Cradle - Back Room back in September where she proceeded to tear that shit up throughout the show. She told me about her band then but I just now got around to listening to their debut album. If not for seeing her with Margo I wouldn’t know about it. If you’re a fan of the roots rock/Americana thing, it should be right up your alley. I hear shades of Emmylou (among other influences) but their sound is all their own. Highly recommended.
Drive-By Truckers - Welcome 2 Club XIII
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Plains - I Walked With You A Ways
S.G. Goodman - Teeth Marks
The Beths - Expert in A Dying Field
Beth Orton - Weather Alive
Lee Bains & the Glory Fires - Old-Time Folks
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Good and Green Again
Will Stewart - Slow Life
Anna Tivel - Outsiders
Kenny Roby - self-titled
Bonny Light Horseman - Rolling Golden Holy
Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time
The Dead Tongues - Dust
Kelsey Waldon - No Regular Dog
Kaitlin Butts - What Else Can She Do
Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters - The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Sarah Lee Langford and Will Stewart - Bad Luck and Love
Angel Olsen - Big Time
Alvvays - Blue Rev
Julia Jacklin - Pre Pleasure
Sophie and the Broken Things - Delusions of Grandeur