It's that time of year. 2022 had a lot of great albums; too many to mention here and so... we take a stab at 15 standouts.
15) Pan!c Pop: Love Language
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Another vaporwave artist that decided to take those sampling and distortion skills to create a uniquely trippy album. This work goes from house music to vaporwave, to funk, to trip hop. Normally I don't put too many upbeat LP's up for recommendation, but this one is trippy enough to get the nod.
I confess, I love house music, particularly deep house. Pan!c Pop manages to take that style and add enough distortion on it to make me wish the album was more than just 31 minutes. It sounds like Mark Farina on Dextromethorphan. |
14) Yot Club: off the grid
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Yot Club came out of nowhere two years ago with a fun new low-fi indie sound. Most of the songs were upbeat, but with the occasional dark, melancholic ditty here and there showing signs of gothic brilliance.
Jackson Mississippi's Ryan Kessler has quickly become the Lil Peep of the indie rock world, and I mean that in a good way: Quick, catchy tunes with a great melody are his specialty. I would say that his latest album is a dark beauty, but technically it's his first album, as he spent the last two years releasing a prolific slew of singles; enough to fill an entire of "best of" album... without actually having released one. Think of Ariel Pink, but without the music being 20% diamonds packaged around 80% of overindulgent filler garbage.
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13) Boy Harsher: The Runner
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Technically this is an EP and a "Soundtrack" so I hesitated to list this. However, even an EP by Boy Harsher is worth a mention, especially one like this; short, yet epic.
I still haven't seen "The Runner". It's a short film by the group and it's a "chicken or the egg" mystery. Did they create the music and then create a short film to accompany it? Or did they create a film, and need the soundtrack? Either way, Boy Harsher continue their reign as darkwave kings (or queens... or whatever) by continuing to push the boundaries of a genre that's getting stale; imagining desolate, disturbing moods and then creating the soundtrack that accompanies it.
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12) Nmesh: Further Regions
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Nmesh is all over the place. A bit of vaporwave, a bit of industrial, a bit of trip hop. He's been making music for 20 years and technically this album is a compilation, not a studio album, but it's worth a listen.
I've never heard so many creative uses of samples. Alex Koenig's alter ago took the lessons from vaporwave: sample and distort early 90's R&B and jacked them to a new level, not limiting himself to just a single decade to draw from. He doesn't use the samples for the purpose of nostalgia but creates something original and disturbing. This album is DJ Shadow meets Ministry... a little something for everyone in every single song.
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11) Final Light: Final Light
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Final Light is the name of the collaboration between French dark synthwave legend, Perturbator, and Cult of Luna vocalist, Johannes Person. Perturbator has flirted with metal for some time now and finally dives headfirst into the genre, creating an epic masterpiece.
It's hard to set yourself apart in the crowded synthwave genre, even in the darker niche areas where you're crammed in with Carpenter Brut and Dance With The Dead. Perturbator, over time, became more distinguished, going for a cinematic, atmospheric style. It wasn't hard to close your eyes while listening and imagine yourself transported inside the Bladerunner films. The sound evolved over time, all the while getting the hint that James Kent was trying to find a way to break full-on into the rock landscape. He finally achieved it.
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10) Soft Kill: Canary Yellow
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| Post-Punk is a pretty broad term nowadays. It can mean anything from Synthpop and Darkwave to all flavors of indie rock. Portland-based band, Soft Kill, skewed more towards the former early on in their career. Wisely, on their latest album, they've broken out of the more crowded gothic field and created a solid indie rock album more in line with The Stills. It suits them better. It gives them a chance to highlight their songwriting abilities and deservedly moves them closer to mainstream success. Picking up a cameo from Ruth Radelet of the recently broken-up Chromatics doesn't hurt either. |
9) Bob Vylan: The Price of Life
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| The problem with punk bands is they generally end in one of two ways: They either take on more complicated topics and the music eventually becomes overindulgent and boring, or they keep making the same album over and over, becoming equally boring. Bob Vylan's latest proves that there is a third path: You can keep that raw, simple emotion going if you don't limit yourself to just guitar chords, trying different genres, but still keeping it simple. The final product is their third album; a continually successful experiment that sounds as if the Clash and Atari Teenage Riot merged into a super-band. Who knows how long they can keep it going and sound like they aren't trying too hard? For now, let's just enjoy this headbanger of an LP. |
8) Viagra Boys: Cave World
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| Trippy Sludge Punk. It's what the Viagra Boys do well, and this album is no exception. It gets a bit more danceable than their usual stuff, like an angry version of !!!, but it works. Other post punk bands are out there still pushing things forward, purposely distorting and manipulating the "rules" that kept punk simple, at times coming off a bit a bit too serious, possibly trying too hard. VB isn't having any of that. They are what they are: a bunch of disturbed lunatics that just won't compromise to sell more albums. |
7) Prayers: Chologoth
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This album is exactly what the title implies: Cholo... Goth. It's an unlikely mix, and I applaud the San Diego based Rafael Reyes for taking the genre in a new direction. While all other acts seem to be going down the mellow, moody darkwave approach, Prayers cranks the energy level to 10.
Steering far away from the usual cryptic, poetic style of lyrics, Reyes says what he feels; he yells it in fact. You could easily imagine the vocals plucked out and layered on top of a rap-rock or punk album, but instead they're juxtaposed on top of dark synthwave melodies. It seems unlikely the two divergent moods would work well together, but they do. Although I admit, it isn't for everyone.
Music genres are dead once they fail to attract new audiences. Prayers brings in a whole new hemisphere of people that never even heard of goth music. Genre..; revitalized.
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6) Trevor Something: Death of
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Trevor Something started off pigeonholed as a synthwave artist, being compared to acts like FM-84 and The Midnight. He's broken away from that mold, especially with notable covers of Depeche Mode and The Cure, making a more dreampop sound which has gotten darker with each album. In fact, he seems to have become more and more obsessed with the idea of his own death as time has gone on, culminating in an album that, we can only hope, takes on the persona of someone at the end of their life, ready to move on to whatever is next. It all culminates in an album that is ironically upbeat and beautiful, feeling influenced by everything from synthwave to Pink Floyd. Later in the year he would release a "posthumous" EP for this persona. Now that Clayton Bullard had killed off the Trevor Something character, we're left dying to know where he goes from here. |
5) Tempers: New Meaning
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If you're suffering from Boy Harsher withdrawal (they DID release an EP this year, just no new album yet), then NYC duo Tempers' latest should fill that void, if you like your darkwave a bit moodier and more subdued.
It's been a great decade so far for electronic based duos with female vocals. Tempers is one of those groups leading the way with solid, consistent output. This album may be a bit tamer than their previous work, but by no means have they lost their edge.
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4) Soft Moon: Exister
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How in the world did I miss this album until almost new year's? Less than a decade ago, the new wave of dark wave flooded the scene. As time went on, the genre got crowded and repetitive. A few bands really stood out such as Boy Harsher and Drab Majesty. Soft Moon kept the pace and had a great catalog, but 2022's EXISTER took the genre and turned it upside down.
EXISTER is the "Downward Spiral" of the 2020's. Musically, all over the place, but it keeps it together as a concept album; a manic journey through depression that sets the bar even higher for the darkwave genre. This album easily is in the top 5 musical creations of 2022.
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3) Harsh Symmetry. Display Model
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| I was skeptical before hearing the debut album by the darkwave project of Julian Sharwarko. I find when artists try too hard to recreate the Xymox/Cure aesthetic, they're overcompensating for lack of talent and substance. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Sharwarko is a Bonafide crooner on par with the best of them and the song craftsmanship is second to none. The album tries to recreate the original 80s gothic dance floor style and nails it while not feeling derivative. In a year that saw an overindulgence in new darkwave acts, Display model is the Jello that always has room in our playlists. |
2) Glass Beads. Time to Time
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Hailing from Ukraine, The Glass Beads released their sophomore album three months after the Russian invasion. How much of the album was written before and after the war started is unknown, but it's hard to imagine the lyrics to Smile representing anything other than resolve in the face of such real-world horror: "And if you ask me if I'm scared... well... give me MORE". Between trying to find the meaning behind lead singer Marina Rublevskaya's chilling baritone voice in songs such as Imaginary Friend and being hypnotized by the slow, nightmarish, pulsating beats, this is an album that gets stuck in your spine and keep you up at night. |
1) Fontaines DC: Skinty Fia
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| Following their first two albums, Fontaines DC became darlings of the newest post punk revival. By their second album, they had strayed into jangle pop territory and were on a trajectory to be the next Blur or Oasis. But as the pandemic wound down, something strange happened. One morning, someone woke up and decided to sprinkle PCP into our Irish lads' cheerios and down the rabbit hole they went. The result is one of the most sophisticated, beautifully dark rock albums since Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights. Make no mistake, though. This album is not full of echoey vamping and catchy choruses. The lyrics and melodies in each song march onward, building ans building up a complex story that you wonder will EVER end. |