The Best Albums of 2022

I often load my best of albums list into the introduction to a regular review, but I’m going to break with tradition this year and give it an entry all its own. This year will also have the excitement of links to songs so you can have an immediate sampling of just what I’m so damned excited about.

If you like it, please check out the artist’s entire record, and if you like that, please buy it. That’s how artists get paid. Or stream it a whole bunch of times. That also works.

I listened to an untold number of records released in 2022 and found 80 of them worth buying. Of those I have successfully bought 66 (still searching for the rest) and gotten rid of 4 (errors). Still on the hunt for 14 more, some of which made the list regardless.

After considerable soul searching, here is the best of the best. I reserve the right to change my mind as I dig into each of these (and others) deeper, but for now, this is it. For those records I’ve already reviewed, I’ve embedded a link:

10 Ghost – Impera (reviewed at Disc 1592)

• Hard rock/metal from Sweden, Ghost has long enjoyed pretending they really love Satan, but don’t be concerned. It is just pretend.Here’s a track about their favourite subject called “Call Me Little Sunshine”. 

9 Julia Jacklin – Pre Pleasure

• Jacklin just keeps getting better. 2019’s Crushing was good, but I think this is even better. For the sake of balance with the previous record, let’s go with “Lydia Wears a Cross”.  

8 The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field

• More great music from the Beths. Here’s the title track as a sampler: 

7 Danger Mouse and Black Thoughts – Cheat Codes

• I find Danger Mouse hit and miss but combining him with hip hop mastery of Black Thoughts and the many guest stars on this record is inspiring. Here’s one called "Strangers" with some Run the Jewels guest starring.

6 Craig Finn – A Legacy of Rentals

• If you like the band The Hold Steady you’ll already know its lead singer Craig Finn. If you like that, I think you’ll like this just as much. I liked it even more, but you have to be OK with listening to the lyrics, because Finn tells a hell of a story, but you gotta pay attention. Here’s "The Amarillo Kid". 

5 Dropkick Murphys – This Machine Still Kills Fascists

• Woody Guthrie lyrics have been set to music by Wilco and Billy Bragg previously, and the latest collaboration is with the Dropkick Murphys. I think it may be the best yet. Here’s “The Last One”. 

4 Kevin Morby – This is a Photograph

• Just an all-around great record that is half chill, half-anxiety, all awesome. All the tracks are good, but I’m picking this one because I like the tone of the banjo and it features Erin Rae, who I also discovered this year. Her 2022 album is Lighten Up and it is good, even though it didn’t make this list. Here’s “Bittersweet”.

3 Mattiel – Georgia Gothic

• Mattiel’s 2019 album Satis Factory is one of my favourite records of all time. Georgia Gothic is good enough for #3 in 2022. Here’s “On the Run”.

2 Ezra Furman – All of Us Flames

• Brilliant, anthemic, and emotionally overwhelming, Furman is a wave you want to both catch and have crash over you. Here’s “Forever in Sunset".

1 Grace Cummings – Storm Queen (reviewed at Disc 1573)

• Listening to Grace Cummings is like being transfixed by the keening of a ghost as she warbles her fell and beautiful secrets to you from the underworld. Here’s “Up in Flames”:  I also strongly recommend “Heaven” if for no other reason than the arresting quality of Cummings eyes as she stares right at you in the video.

Honourable Mention – all great, but I could only pick 10. Here are 5 more in no particular order in the event you want even more great music to choose from 2022:

• Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway – Crooked Tree; CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead; Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter; Wet Leg – Self-Titled; Angel Olsen – Big Time

CD Odyssey Disc 1592: Ghost

Driving home today my volume control got stuck on my car. Hopefully it is just a temporary glitch, but if not, at least it was turned up nice and high when it happened.

Disc 1592 is…. Impera

Artist: Ghost

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  In some cyclopean cathedral, a horde of Satan’s technicians work day and night to build a massive Papa Emeritus IV who will, no doubt, bring in a new era of darkness. A sort of “shipyard of terror” or something.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a Ghost fan for almost ten years but for whatever reason haven’t managed to roll any of their albums for review. Now it has been so long I can’t remember how I discovered them in the first place, but for “Impera” it is easy – I just bought their new album when it came out and hoped for the best.

How It Stacks Up: Including two EPs, I have seven Ghost albums, which is pretty much all of them. “Impera” lands at #4, or plumb in the middle.

Ratings: 4 stars

A few years ago I overheard a couple shopping in the metal section of the local record store. “How about ‘Ghost’?” asked the young woman making up half of the duo. Her young beau responded with a derisive, “Ghost isn’t metal.” I had a laugh under my breath, thinking that, despite his Comic Book Guy vibe, the guy was at least half right.

Ghost both is and is not metal. At their heaviest they have a definitive thump to them and are not strangers to a well-placed power chord. At the same time, they mostly occupy a space somewhere in anthemic hard rock, with a bit of artful harmony. The best equivalent I would say would be a latter-day Blue Oyster Cult, with the theatrical addition of Alice Cooper’s unknown progeny. Frequent readers will know this is high praise.

“Impera” is their latest album and after a much heavier foray on 2018’s “Prequelle” they opt for a lot more of the artful harmony side of things. These are songs that are meant for raising your arms in praise, with choruses that are catchy earworms; easy to remember, and inspiring to sing along with. The guitar is powerful, and the songs are buoyed by the clean streamlined production that I am an eternal sucker for.

Now, if you decide you want to do some singing along, you should know first that Ghost likes Satan, and they like him a lot. Songs like “Call Me Little Sunshine” are not about having a positive outlook on life, they are references to Lucifer. The lead singer is Papa Emeritus IV, with previous Papa Emerituses often being removed from the band for not being sufficiently Satanic.

At this point, lest I scare any with a timid heart, I should point out that the Satan thing is entirely an act (all the Papa Emerituses along the way are played by the same guy – the band’s principle songwriter and lead singer). I shall not name Papa, however, because Ghost is like professional wrestling; way more fun if you suspend your disbelief and just get into the theatre of it all.

That said, this band is a lot more than theatre. They make great music, and after a slight downturn with their previous record, on “Impera” they return to form. This album is chock full of anthemic glory. It isn’t the most creative thing the band has ever done (their early work has some serious prog elements) but it is so good at those soaring melodic structures that all its simplicity is not only forgiven but is cause for celebration. This is a record that will have you waving your lighter aloft by the second track, and not bring it down until the metal bit scalds you.

My favourite track on the record is “Call Me Little Sunshine” which combines a perfect guitar bit at the beginning with the heaviest thump on the album. This song will have you thinking of Ronnie James Dio at his Holy Diver heights.  Songs like “Hunter’s Moon” and “Watcher in the Sky” will also have you reminiscing of the glory days of eighties metal, mixed with the creepy dissonance of late seventies Blue Oyster Cult.  Ghost are masters at incorporating old school forms into their work and making it a celebration, rather than a heist.

This also makes “Impera” one of their most accessible albums and there is no sin in that. Sure earlier, weirder records like Meliora and Opus Eponymous are overall superior, but I found this latest entry in their catalogue an eminently enjoyable record to find yourself frozen on “loud” on an October drive home.

Best tracks: Kaisarion, Spillways, Just Call Me Little Sunshine, Hunter’s Moon, Watcher in the Sky, Darkness at the Heart of My Love

Figurine: Ghost And Gravestones

I haven't posted a new figurine in over six weeks (this is what happens once football season starts), but yesterday being a holiday I was able to get some painting time in.

My last figure was a ghost knight, begging the question, "what happens when someone dies and they aren't a knight?" Well my friends, then you just get a ghost of the ordinary variety. Here he is:
For some reason, this figure was sold with three little gravestones as well. I presume that is what passes for 'value added' in undead commerce. Here's a closer look at just the ghost:
I tried to slowly lighten the colour at the edges of the figure to give it the illusion of being insubstantial, and fading into the surrounding mist.

Maybe this ghost would rest if someone would just put his skull back in his grave. Having it sit out naked like that is just embarassing.

Here he is from the back:
And of course, no scary ghost photo gallery would be complete without the obligatory "He's coming right at me!" pose.
Happy early Halloween!

Figurine: Ghost Knight

In addition to finishing another CD review, I also finished painting another figure this afternoon - the much promised ghost knight.

I know what you're wondering - 'Is he a knight that has become a ghost, or is he a ghost that somewhere after entering a state of undeath got knighted. Whichever it is, here he is:
I imagine he was some long forgotten tyrant who died on a battlefield and now returns to haunt the living because he can't accept his own defeat (I like a good back story - it keeps me young).

This is one of those figures that is very easy to paint (the only real colours on it are purple and black) and easy to make look good. The movement is all there, and it just takes some patience and highlighting to bring it out. Here he is from the back:

And here is an oblique view, where you can see his helmet detail a bit better. Wait a minute...is he starting to turn this way?

Oh my God - he's coming right at me!

This "he's coming right at me!' moment has been brought to you by A Creative Maelstrom. I hope that combined with the Black Mountain album cover below you have not found today's blog postings too frightening.