Music Reviews

After what’s been what I honestly consider one of the best years for music in recent memory, I am finally happy to present my personal picks (so keep in mind that these are objectively correct and any other opinion is automatically false and invalid) for my TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2022! No but honestly though, I know this probably won’t reach a single musician out there, but a special thanks to everyone that contributed to the musical sphere this year, it really has been a hell of journey and here I’d like to show you some of my favorite moments from it – so without further a do, let’s get into it, starting off with…

10.) Björk – Fossora (strong 8/10)

Strange hearing all this fuzz about the Queen dying when Björk is still here releasing some of the finest albums of the year. In all seriousness though, this album is pretty fantastic – the psychedelic elements are through the roof with this one and there is always just this feeling present throughout this whole album of something just feeling a bit off but in like the best way possible. Björk really shows here that even after all these years she is still capable of releasing a conceptual masterpiece – check out the title track to see what I mean.

9.) Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future (strong 8/10)

On what is arguably his most cohesive and lyrically impactful album yet Denzel defends his status as one of hip-hop’s finest in the last few years – not only that but this album has my favorite song of the entire year „Walkin“ on it so yeah, the rest of it is bound to be at least great. If this peaks your intrest I’d also recommend you checking out the Extended soul edition of this album, just to answer your question if this album can even get any better.

8.) Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (strong 8/10)

I know right, what a shocker this ended up on here. What can be said about this album that hasn’t been said a milion times throughout this year already – it’s Kendrick’s most human most voulnarable and flawed album to date and that’s what also makes it one my absolute favorites from him. I really think this is a serious step up from DAMN. and I can’t wait to see where his musical trajectory takes him next – check out „N95“ and „Mother I Sober“.

7.) Viagra Boys – Cave World (light 9/10)

Now we’re getting into the big ones, the 9/10s and so on – starting off with Viagra Boys’s Cave World and I have to say this is the most musically colorful and tasteful album I’ve heard probably the entire year – the album cover strangely reflects that almost alarmingly well. There are like one or two tracks that weight this thing down from being basically flawless but besides those yeah, this thing is basically flawless and more importantly, just so much fun to listen to – go listen to „Troglodyte“ and „Return To Monke“ to get a taste.

6.) Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (light 9/10)

This album is the musical equivalent of a long warm hug. I swear find me an album this year that’s as just warm as fuzzy or as welcoming as this one is – and Big Thief still manage to sneak in some really intresting experimentation here and there without it sounding odd or out of place, everything on this album is just so natural, so non-forced, so just incredibly relaxed. I can’t recommend this album enough to basically anyone, I can’t really see how anyone can dislike this – some highlights definetly include the title track and the stunningly beautiful „Simulation Swarm“

5.) JID – The Forever Story (decent 9/10)

(sorry for the low quality picture on this one, I’m too lazy to find a better pic lol) Yeah this is my rap aoty and it’s not even close. This thing just absolutely never stops punching you in the face the entire way through, whether it’s the lyrics or the at point insane sampling and instrumentation or just the insane consistency this album keeps all the way through – there just is not a moment to breather with this thing, you’ll just be constantly hitting these different musical peaks that just never stop coming. This is also JID’s best album hands down and I have no doubt in my mind that he is only going to continue to deliver this quality of music even more – you don’t wanna miss out on banger such as „Surround Sound“ or “ Kody Blu 31″.

4.) black midi – Hellfire (decent 9/10)

I mean if you know this band you really don’t need me to tell you how good they are – the’ve come out with some exceptionally great stuff over the years but ladies and gentlemen I gotta say this one right here tops all of that of. The sheer insanity that’s just condensed into this 39 minute literal hellride is overwhelming even for someone who is used this kind of stuff let alone for someone who just found about these guys – either way it’s definetly worht giving it a shot, like if you don’t wanna miss out on a record this year than this one right here is that record, try „Sugar/Tzu“ or „Welcome To Hell“.

3.) Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems (strong 9/10)

Yeah for the longest time this has been my number 2 pick, when at the last second a truly unexpected album swooped in and took that spot, however that still doesn’t mean this album doesn’t absolutely kick my ass everytime I listen to it and I listen to it A LOT. This right here is just pure agression in musical form and all the proof in the world that punk is not dead and very much alive and well. „Coming Correct Is Cheaper“ and „Spiritual Levels of Gang Shit“ are my personal favorites.

2.) Quadeca – I Didn’t Mean To Haunt You (strong 9/10)

Never in a milion year would I have expected a fricking Quadeca album to even make such a list let alone be this high but here we are. I mean if you’ve read my glowing in-depth review for this thing you already know that I’m pretty much in love with this project, like besides like a cut or two all the songs here are flawless masterpieces which makes it all that impressive that it’s all been recordered by just some dude who used to make corny youtube raps. But yeah, nothing I can say about this record can really do it justice, if you want some key tracks then try „tell me a joke“ or „house settling“ but honestly just listen to the whole album.

Now before we get to the number one spot I’d like to just breefly introudce some

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry

-key tracks: Let The Smokers Shine The Coupes; Diet Coke

Beach House – Once Twice Melody

-key tracks: Superstar; Over and Over

Black Thought & Danger Mouse – Cheat Codes

-key tracks: Because; Aquamarine

Saba – Few Good Things

-key tracks: 2012; Few Good Things

FKA Twigs – CAPRISONGS

-key tracks: meta angel; tears in the club

And now finally for the number one spot – the number one best album of 2022, in my eyes, is…

1.) Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There (10/10)

Yeah, big surprise there right? This album is flawless for me – from the minute I put this thing on I knew that this was gonna be something special. I enjoyed the band’s last album „For the first time“ well enough but I just had a gut feeling that they were capable of making something even more ambitious and even more mind-blowing and low and behold I was right – this album is everything and more than that. This album means quite a lot to me – it was there for me during some really tough times this year and for that it hold quite a special place in my heart. Normally I’d recommend you like a track or two to check out but with this album I really can’t recomment enought just sitting down and listening all the way through – it may not be ompletely your thing at first but trust me when I say this album really grows on you with each and every listen until you just can’t stop listening at all.

So yeah, there you have it, a complete list of my top 10 favorite albums from this year with some honorable mentions thrown in there aswell (this honestly took way longer then it should have to make lol). Don’t really have much of an outro plan here, so let’s just say see you all here in another year!

So here it is, the brand new Metro Boomin‘ album and just from seeing the feature list on this thing you could already tell it was gonna be a good one. I mean he really pulled all stops with the features for this album and it’s not just name recognition, most of them do actually go really hard aswell.

I’m not really gonna be going in depth on all of these features and songs since there are so many of them and not all of them granted stand out all that much however I will go over some highlights for me whether they were good or bad. You got John Legend on the opening track „On Time“ doing his thing and even I, who isn’t as crazy on John Legend as some other people might be, find his contribution here really charming and a great way to start this album off – also all the swirling strings are just a nice cherry on top. It also just transitions into the next song in like one of the most smooth ways I’ve heard any song this year transition period, it’s so grand and cinematic and just gets your super hyped for what’s about to come. The Homelander sample which yes is a real sentence is somehow also a perfect inclusion to the song, honestly there is very little negative I have to say about this intro. The next song „Superhero (Heroes & Villains)“ is a nice continuation of said sample that right off the back just delivers the pay off the last song was building up to and even though it’s basically a Future song with a really last minute Chris Brown feature thrown in at the last like 30 seconds of the track which doesn’t mash with the rest of the song at all, I still find this to be one of the best songs of the album. The horn sample is so simple yet so effective and Future just sounds so hungry and in his element here, it ticks all the right boxes. „Too Many Nights“ with Don Toliver and Future yet again is definetly the best Don Toliver feature song on this which is kind of a shame since there are a whole 3 of them and I think Don could have overall done better on this project but oh well – still his feature here and this song as a whole is pretty solid, I especially enjoy the really abrassive and chunky bass here, that’s definetly the biggest selling point for me here. „Trance“ with Travis Scott and Young Thug is another intresting one since I think that song easily had like one of the biggest potentials going into it of this entire project with this whole „Maria, I’m Drunk“ vibe the song is clearly going for, however I just feel like the song doesn’t really live up to it’s whole potential all that much – I still like the ethereal kinda other-worldly production and Travis and Yount Thug both do pretty well over it, especially Travis, however there is just such a big portion of the song where nothing really happens and it just comes of a bit empty, maybe a bit more time on the chopping board would have helped with this one. I REALLY enjoy „Creepin“ with The Weeknd and 21 Savage and yeah of course there is my obvious The Weeknd bias playing a bit into that sure, but this genuinely is the best on the album like no contest. I’m honestly not sure which song it is sampling but from what I’ve heard The Weeknd definetly does it justice and yeah, he sounds better than ever on here – his voice just cuts through the entire track like a knife through butter and when the trap beat is replaced by actual live drums? Man at that moment everything in life is just right. 21 is also on here as I mentioned but he does just okay, I could honestly take it or leave it but he doesn’t ruin the song or anything. „Niagra Falls“ with Travis Scott and 21 Savage is another one of my favorites from this album – if it wasn’t for the The Weeknd song this one would have definetly had my favorite melody from the whole album, the piano lick with the strings and Travis’s melodies combined is music to my ears and 21 with his cold-hearted delivery only adds to that enjoyment, they play off of each other super well here. The song is honestly super infectious, it crawls under your skin and just refuses to leave. „Walk Em Down (Don’t Kill Civilians)“ with 21 Savage (yeah he is on this album a lot if you couldn’t already tell) and Mustafa is probably my favorite just all out banger on this album, 21 is just absolutely merciless over this trademark Metro Boomin‘ bassy piano trap beat, he absolutely steals this track and Mustafa’s outro is honestly really surprising but in like the best way possible, kind of like a calm after the storm – this song is honestly the whole package.

There are obviously more song that I liked than just that (for example „Umbrella“ and „Raindrops (Insane)“) but I’d just be repeating myself talking about those, the only songs I honestly wasn’t all that crazy about were „Lock On Me“ with Travis and Future, that one interlude song that I already forgot, Around Me with Don Toliver which is just okay and perhaps the bonus track with Gunna that also just exists, but other than that, this album is just non-stop fun all killer no filler and a huge improvement on some of Metro Boomin’s earlier output.

-favorite tracks: On Time, Superheroe (Heroes & Villains), Too Many Nights, Umbrella, Raindrops (Insane, Creepin‘, Niagra Falls, Walk Em Down (Don’t Kill Civilians)

-least favorite tracks: I Can’t Save You (interlude), Lock On Me, Around Me

Strong 7/10