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Peter Talisman - The Absolute Scene At Stanton Drew

Let us start this list as we mean to go on, with something absolutely fuckin' weird. Peter Talisman is a multimedia project by electronic musician Slugabed and Samuel Organ (of The Physics House Band). I can't get enough of this stuttering otherworldly sound, it's so delightfully unusual, just when you think you can pin it down it goes off in an entirely new direction.

Sleep Token - Alkaline

A few tracks on this list are going to be influenced by the most important thing to happen to me this year, the return of live music to my life. Sleep Token were one of the first few bands I saw live post pandemic and I fell in love instantly. there's such an overblown theatricality to their music, it's captivating. The blend of radio friendly pop vocals and hooks with djenty guitars and drum fills really works for me, Alkaline may be their finest example of this formula.

Bo Burnham - All Eyes On Me

Bo Burnham's Inside was a triumph that I would recommend to absolutely anybody. Performance art for the pandemic years, a deeply personal, introspective look at the creative process at the cost of ones own mental health and the place of comedy in a world that is falling apart around us. All Eyes On Me is the emotional cornerstone of the project, a Kanye inspired meditation on ego and the desire to be seen within the slow oblivion that envelopes us all.

Evan Greer - Back Row

This track released almost exactly a year after I last went to see a live band and absolutely destroyed me, it made me feel like I was back there, in amongst a crowd of people connected by a love of music. It's such a beautifully evocative, yearning love letter to every aspect of live music, and to that feeling of belonging to something bigger that only a gig can bring about. Also "There were nights when toxic masculinity couldn't even ruin the moshpit" is such a wonderfully specific lyric that I love it.

SION - The Blade

I don't have a huge amount to say here other than I didn't realise how much I'd missed Howard Jones fronted Killswitch until I heard this song. His clean vocals are just absolutely unparalleled and the harsher vocals go so unbelievably hard here paired with the fantastic technical guitar work of Jared Dines, it's just a delight to listen to over and over again.

Maude Latour - Block Your Number

This sounds really rubbish, but I think the main reason this track has made it onto the list is because I was so underwhelmed by Lorde's third album. This scratches so many of the same itches I wanted that record to scratch. The bittersweet breakups, the storytelling journey, the lyrics that sound almost too clever for their own good, the layered vocals and harmonies. It's all very Lorde, but then there's this high energy chorus that punches through and really makes it stand out as it's own thing.

Royal Blood - Boilermaker

I've always been a bit cold on Royal Blood in the past, but this track has an undeniable level of swagger. It's such a groove, like a cross between QOTSA and Muse in the best way, straightforward fuzzy feelgood rock music.

Black Dresses - Bulldozer

I remember seeing a comment where somebody described Bulldozer as WAP for intellectuals and that's absolutely ridiculous but I also love it. The sound design here is exquisite, confrontational and disconcerting. Nothing in the track quite sits right lyrically or sonically, there's an emptiness to the sound, a feeling of irreparable brokenness, of something reconstructed but without spirit. Damn I love Black Dresses.

Slayyyter - Clouds

"I always drink to the sound of a drum"... This is the most upbeat song about severe depression and alcohol dependency I've ever heard. The juxtaposition of musical and lyrical tone, europop dance beats paired with lyrics like "I don't wanna think, pour another drink, so I don't have to deal with anything", hit in such a particular way that accentuate both elements brilliantly.

Olivia Rodrigo - deja vu

Who doesn't love a good break up song? There's such a cold, disconnected, bitterness to deja vu. It's like a Gen-Z You Oughtta Know, blending synth pop and alt rock sounds for a tone that's almost too cool to really care about the ex who's the subject of the track.

The Physics House Band - Drifter

The Physics House Band are back babyyy! This is their first outing without bass player Adam Hutchison and while I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the driving driving basslines, their absence has opened up the bands sound in some really interesting ways. Drifter is a sprawling prog-jazz odyssey and a perfect opener to the bands fourth LP as it drifts between tones of Tarkus era ELP and 1960's free jazz.

Rolo Tomassi - Drip

Rolo Tomassi never disappoint and Drip sounds downright evil in the best way, Eva Spence's vocals have gone from strength to strength ever since their debut and this is a new high as far as I'm concerned. The way the synth tones cut through the heaviness in the latter half of the track is beautiful.

AFI - Dulcería

Dulcería sounds like nothing else AFI have ever done before, which for a band as chameleon-like as AFI isn't really that surprising. Dulcería also sounds nothing like you'd ever expect an AFI track to sound like. Hunter's bass line underpinning the song is just so cool here and we get to here a totally new side of Davey's vocal style. For a die-hard AFI fan this song was a unexpectedly fresh take on the band.

Halsey - Easier Than Lying

When I heard that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were going to be producing Halsey's latest album I was excited, but nothing prepared me for just how hard I fell for the album, it's honestly some of my favourite Nine Inch Nails adjacent music and Easier Than Lying is a particular standout, showcasing how well Halsey's voice works alongside the singular tone that Trent and Atticus are able to evoke.

Poppy - EAT

There's one huge reason why EAT is here, it's weird hearing a song deal so openly with eating disorder issues like this and it really struck me just how much that spoke to me. That aside though, as a song EAT slaps, it feels like a further evolution of what Poppy was doing on I Disagree, whereas that album felt like a homage to various genres of metal, EAT feels like Poppy taking metal sounds and making them her own instead of just mimicking other bands.

Drumcorps - For The Living

I love the use of chiptune sounds on this track, gives me some real oldschool chipcore vibes but with some more modern metal production technique and sensibility. Some really great high energy fun.

Dying Wish - Fragments of a Bitter Memory

Dying Wish came out of nowhere for me this year with this single and quickly became one of my most anticipated album releases. There's such an astronomical emotional heft to Fragments, from the opening lyrics right to the fading moments of the breakdown that closes the track, I was utterly gripped on first listen and have been for every repeat since.

The Muslims - Fuck These Fuckin Fascists

Sometimes do you just need to say "Fuck These Fuckin Fascists"? Well The Muslims have the perfect track for you.

Creeper - Ghosts Over Calvary

The continual evolution and adaptation of Creeper from album to album is something fascinating to me, especially when it means more lead vocals for Hannah Greenwood. Ghosts is such a fantastic bit of 80's goth rock, resplendent with Creeper's penchant for theatricality. The spoken word section and lead into the solo is one of those musical moments that makes me grin with just how playful it is.

Rebecca Black - Girlfriend

If you had told me a decade ago that my 2nd most listened to track of the year was by Rebecca Black (you know, Friday) I'm not sure what exactly I'd do, but utter disbelief would be a big part of it. Girlfriend is fantastic though, an iconic queer bop with such a sugary sweet moreishness that I can't help but come back to it over and over and over again.

Frank Carter - Go Get A Tattoo

Seeing Frank Carter perform this live with Lynks was one of the highlights of my year. It's such a feelgood piece of sing-along rock and truly I think we can all agree that we "Never want to lockdown again".

Press To MECO - Gold

This sound is not generally what I expect from Press To MECO, I am very much not complaining though. This manages to simultaneously sound incredibly fun and also absolutely so fucking sinister. I'm a sucker for "the bit where the riff comes back but slower" and it's done so well here.

Architects ft. Simon Neil - Goliath

While I have my issues with Architects "For Those That Wish To Exist", one thing it really has going for it is that it sounds HUGE. As you'd expect from the title Goliath is the pinnacle of this, every aspect of the track sounds absolutely massive. Simon Neil's guest vocals are a delight on this track as well, it is often these days you get hear him completely let loose like he does on the breakdown here. More harsh vocals in future Biffy, Simon, pls.

CHVRCHES ft. Robert Smith - How Not To Drown

I always felt that CHVRCHES are at their best when indulging their gothier tendencies, and you don't get much more goth than a feature by Robert Smith. I absolutely adore how the track opens up after the bridge and basically becomes a Cure song for the last minute, such a great blend of sounds.

Backxwash ft. Ada Rook - I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES

God, this goes so unbelievably hard. Ada Rook's screams sound possessed and I've already mentioned my love for Black Dresses production. Then you add Backxwash's anxiety laden verses and this track is pure nightmare fuel.

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Invading The World of the Guilty as a Spirit of Vengeance

...and the award for longest band name and song title goes to... But in all serious this is a really beautiful piece of emo post-rock. "I crave more luxury disposables, a beautiful gym to have a heart attack in", whilst lyrically utterly bleak, the guitar lines are so emotive and energetic and the vocal lines delivered so well this song is infinitely relistenable.

Lil Nas X ft. Jack Harlow - INDUSTRY BABY

Those trumpets!!! Lil Nas X continues to be one of the most interesting musical artists on the planet, everything about this track and accompanying video is so perfect, how Lil Nas X appropriates a hyper masculine form of brag rap and then converts into an anthem of queer celebration, juxtaposed with Jack Harlow's excellent verse. Art.

Pom Poko - Like A Lady

Like A Lady features my favourite moment in music this year, at the 1 minute and 45 second mark there's a guitar lick that comes in and it's the most fantastically overblown bit of prog nonsense, it makes me laugh every time I hear it. Outside of that though, Like A Lady is a fantastic bit of turned-up-to-11 art punk that wears it's influences proudly on its sleeve.

Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen - Like I Used To

The first of two Sharon Van Etten duets to feature on this list, this is such a perfect dream collaboration. Both artists vibes work together so well complimenting each other while giving each other space to add their own individual tone to the track.

Big Lad - Maaaate

Just absolutely wild chaotic energy. Big Lad's breakcore but with live drums is a shot of pure adrenaline, and Maaaate is a track I absolutely can't wait to see them play live in the future.

IDLES - MTT 420 RR

This for me is the best IDLES have sounded since Brutalism. Forgoing their usual blunt force approach to post punk MTT 4420 RR is a dark, ominous, bleak track that slowly builds into a melancholy maelstrom of anxious anticipation and leads into the rest of Crawler beautifully.

Voronoi - The Nauseator

Oh hey, we've managed to get over halfway through this list before I drop a 10+ minute track on you! The Nauseator is an epic journey filled with the sort of mathcore you'd hear from the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan but through the lens of contempary jazz. It's a sound that almost defies explanation and just needs to be heard to be understood.

Haru Nemuri - Old Fashioned

Old Fashioned is another immensely creative track from Haru Nemuri, a rage filled banger full of experimental punky instrumentation and lyrics that reference the existentialism of Sartre and Beauvoir.

The Hell ft. Jeremy Lonsdale (Jamie Lenman) - The Open Road

Well this is just fun. The Hell's tongue-in-cheek approach to hardcore has always been particularly amusing to me and I'm not sure I've ever not been delighted by Jamie Lenman. Hearing the Lenmeister channel washed up star "Jeremy Lonsdale" is an absolute joy. Not to mention that the breakdown on this track unironically slaps.

Black Country, New Road - Opus

Another end of year list, another entry for Black Country, New Road. I've already gone over so much of why I love this band in previous lists and all of that applies here, but Opus sees them add elements of klezmer to their sound and it is absolutely wild.

CLT DRP - Ownership

The first new track to drop from CLT DRP since last years Without The Eyes, Ownership, a track about the claims we purport to have over another's time and energy, is filled with a seething anger that bursts forth in a full bodied assault of noise in the songs chorus. I had the good fortune to see the track performed earlier this year, and it hits so hard in a live environment.

SQUID - Pamphlets

UK Post Punk is truly having a resurgence at the moment and Squid's Bright Green Field may be its finest moment to date. There is such a fantastic frenetic energy to vocalist Ollie Judge's delivery on Pamphlets as the listener is carried through an ever shifting tableau of paranoia and misinformation.

Pupil Slicer - Panic Defence

Taken from wikipedia: The gay panic defense or homosexual advance defence is a legal strategy in which a defendant claims to have acted in a state of violent, temporary insanity, committing assault or murder, because of unwanted same-sex sexual advances. The trans panic defense is a closely related legal strategy applied in cases of assault, manslaughter, or murder of a transgender individual with whom the assailant had engaged in or was close to engaging in sexual relations with and claim to have been unaware that the victim was transgender, producing in the attacker an alleged trans panic reaction, often a manifestation of homophobia and transphobia. It's a brutal vile ugly thing, something Pupil Slicer's merciless mathcore catches expertly.

Every Time I Die - Post-Boredom

That bass intro. Post-Boredom is about transformation of the self through the vessel of death, both death of the body and death of the ego. It posits the question what would you do with a clean slate, to pull the trigger and start over. It's unusual to find ETID quite this introspective, but Post-Boredom doesn't let up on the riffs and energy the band excel at.

Zeal & Ardor - Run

Run sees Zeal & Ardor add elements of industrial metal to the bands usual blend of black metal meets gospel and soul. The result is a thunderous track of nightmarish intensity as Manuel Gagneux screams "Where's your fucking god, When your about to rot?" with demonic fury.

Xiu Xiu ft. Sharon Van Etten - Sad Mezcalita

The second in our series of Sharon Van Etten duets, Sad Mezcalita is a hauntingly delicate track. In turns moody and despondent and wistfully dreamlike as Jamie Scott and Sharon van Etten spin a scene of relationships doomed to failure.

Coheed and Cambria - Shoulders

I'm not sure there's any other song I've had as much pure enjoyment out of as Shoulders, every single second seems to be crafted to be the epitome of sonic exuberance. Claudio Sanchez's vocals sound so good and the riff is an absolute killer.

Crossfaith - Slave of Chaos

This is the heaviest thing I've heard from Crossfaith in a long while. Taking more cues from hardcore punk than on previous releases Slave Of Chaos is absolutely punishing in its intensity, while continuing the bands penchant for blending in some really entertaining electronic elements into their sound. The pits for this one are going to be immense.

Placebo - Surrounded By Spies

I hate to use the phrase "a return to form", but this is a return to form in every way for Placebo. For one thing, they finally sound like the band I fell in love with again, instead of the watered down rock act they had become. Surrounded by spies is a paranoid thriller in song form, a fearful narrative that builds to a crescendo of distrust and confusion.

***Lucy Dacus - Thumbs***

Lucy Dacus has an incredible skill as an artist and performer for expressing relationships and emotional complexities in a really direct way that throws the listener right into that headspace. It's why Night Shift is one of my all time fav songs and Thumbs is up there with it. This is undoubtedly my song of the year.

Eskimo Callboy - We Got The Moves

Time for a wild gear change. I wasn't sure that Eskimo Callboy would be able to repeat the batshit insanity of Hypa Hypa, but 'Moves' is all that and a bag of chips. Just absolutely ridiculous irony drenched feel good summer nonsense with a breakdown that unapologetically slaps.

Bicurious - We're All Totally Fucked

We're All Totally Fucked is like Biffy Clyro and And So I Watch You From Afar had an incredibly pessimistic baby and it inherited all the greatest elements from both bands. Bicurious are one of my favourite 'guitar bands' to emerge in recent years and this track makes it clear why.

Tom Morello & Pussy Riot - Weather Strike

What if Rage Against The Machine but Pussy Riot? An absolute rager of a protest track with some fantastic riffs being laid down by Morello.

Orla Gartland - You're Not Special, Babe

You're Not Special, Babe is one of those songs that found me when I needed it most. I've long been a fan of Orla's frank and emotionally open approach to songwriting, but this feels like something different. A song about the collectiveness of the human experience, a call to get out of your own head and understand that we all have shit we're going through.

PROJECTOR - Zero