BEST OF â22: ALBUMS_of_the_YEARâŚ
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE returned this year w/ âTIME SKIFFS,â one of their finest offerings to date & it found the long running & geographically scattered outfit being all presently accounted for while reestablishing their position as they once again found that sweet spot between abstract maximalism & sunny PsychPop.
âYOU SLEEP WHILE THEY WATCHâ was the phenomenal & long gestated debut album from BRADYÂ & it found the Chicago-based quartet bringing their âperfect blend of hick shit, innuendo, & a sad storyâ mantra across 8 tracks of slow_coring, richly detailed & post_grunging Sabbath-for-the-basement-set DoomRawk.
âPOMPEIIâ found CATE LE BONÂ bringing her finest offering to date as the Welsh artist channeled all the eccentric greats of yore from Bowie to Kate Bush while sounding wholly her own & did so by flexing a perkily ethereal & dialed-in focus across 9 tracks of fully realized, warmly textured & aesthetically fluent ArtPop.
Looking for that quintessential 2022 album, a set of songs that nailed the status quo while filling you with that unbearable dread⌠Well look no further than CHAT PILEâs latest LP titled âGODâS COUNTRYâ because that shit was filled to the brim w/ an unending void which is soundtracked by a wholly on-brand & OKC-addled mix of sludge, noise, doom, punk, noise & 90s AltRawk.
CLOAKROOM returned w/ their finest album to date w/ the spaciously lush âDISSOLUTION WAVEâ & it found the Northwest Indiana-based trio reaching their optimal peak by finding THEE balance, one that bridged many_a_doomed genre tags under once perfectly gloomed umbrella as they fit comfortably alongside such luminaries as HUM/Failure & amongst their Nu_Gazing peers.
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