BEST OF ’22: ALBUMS_of_the_YEAR…
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE returned this year w/ ‘TIME SKIFFS,’ 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.
‘YOU SLEEP WHILE THEY WATCH’ was the phenomenal & long gestated debut album from BRADY & it found the Chicago-based quartet bringing their “perfect blend of hick shit, innuendo, & a sad story” mantra across 8 tracks of slow_coring, richly detailed & post_grunging Sabbath-for-the-basement-set DoomRawk.
‘POMPEII’ found CATE LE BON 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 PILE’s latest LP titled ‘GOD’S COUNTRY’ 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 ‘DISSOLUTION WAVE’ & 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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