To quote Bloc Party, “So Here We Are”…

Firstly, to all/any/none of the peeps who have been waiting patiently for me to update this would-be farrago into journalising, apologies for the complete lack thereof for the last twelve months. It was not my intention to keep my polite little nook of the Internet absent of activity for quite so long, but with the any and everything of it all deciding to pile on hard and fast in terms of events both personal and world-sized, barely getting through some days/weeks/months without struggling from end-times fatigue felt like quite the mean feat, as if the previous two years of miasmic uncertainty courtesy of the pandemic has meant that now we have to experience everything at a breakneck pace.

As I have written in previous entries, humble scribbles highlighting favourite new media things intended to provide a keen distraction from the awfulness both outside and inside can feel foolhardy at best and pretentiously offkey at the worst. Taking into consideration a little case of career-realignment back towards something more entertainment-oriented also, my writing cap has not so much been gathering dust as it has been trying to not fade away into non-existence. However, in large part thanks to a landmark year in terms of consumed content in the music department which heralded a new record of 640 new music releases listened to by the beginning of December, not to mention a sizeable chunk of my holiday shopping budget being usurped by my web-hosting service, I have been duly spurred into action just in time to give a few thoughts on some bits and bobs from 2022 that I thought were rather good actually.

If I’m being honest though, 2022 may be the year I appeared to have finally confirmed my graduation into being a rose-tinted-glasses-wearing nostalgia fiend, seeing as my favourite big hit of the last twelve months was a song that had already spent thirty-seven years enchanting listeners throughout the world. Ignited into relevance via being used as a plot-point in the best episode of Netflix behemoth Stranger Things ever, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” achieved the kind of cross-generational reach rarely seen in the finnicky world of pop music, and whilst it is true that this isn’t the first time that “Hill” has found chart resurgence decades after its initial release (thank you, London 2012), much was made over this latest lap of success for Bush and her song. Granted this was the first time the song had managed to scale the top of singles charts in many countries including Bush’s homeland of the United Kingdom, with coverage on the song’s success oscillating between rightly celebrating Bush’s pioneering efforts as a solo female singer/songwriter/producer in what is to this day still considered a male-dominated field or somewhat backhandedly mentioning Bush’s age with reference to the continued influence her work as instilled in fellow, subsequent and no doubt future artists.

The song’s inner core of yearning and empathy taps into something far more profound and ultimately integral to the human condition than most other pop songs conceived in the history of ever, and whilst the team behind Stranger Things can be accused of relying far too much on nostalgic soundtrack cues to amp up the emotional stakes in their storylines, its usage in highlighting one of the show’s most sympathetic character’s mental trajectory through guilt, alienation and depression in processing their trauma is one that cannot help but stir even the hardest of hearts (not including its overegged encore in the overlong finale though). In the sole interview she has done since attaining this latest wind of favour with the pop world, Bush perfectly described the song as being a “talisman” for the tortured character of Max in Things, which is as finer a term as I could find to evoke the profound effect any person’s favourite song has and a powerful reminder of the emotionally rejuvenating power of music.

And whilst none of this year’s release could not quite hold up much of a fight in terms of comparison to Kate Bush’s treatise on reconciliation, I was still moved enough to record a megamix highlighting my favourite new releases this year. Which you can see here:

FWD://:2022

This was originally going to be comprised of three separate parts, but due to Mixcloud changing its rules for non-paying patrons, I have had to stitch them together to create a four-hour epic curation of pop, dance, electronica, rock, hip hop, R&B, jazz and folk amongst others…

There is also a shorter Spotify playlist here:

N.B. For the sake of decade-establishing continuity, I’ve gone ahead and included iterations of my 2020 and 2021 FWD listings for handy, truncated Spotify playlist below, just to give anyone who cares more of an idea of how we got here and where we might be going…

Back to 2022 though, and just to show my working out of what to include in my year-long dive into incessant listening, here are my favourite musical offerings of the past eleven months, with a note or three about my particular favourites…

Clark Villa’s Favourite Music Releases Of 2022

Top 5 EP’s

1. ANTIDAWN – Burial
2. Icons – Two Shell
3. Jupiter’s Purse – MATTIE
4. Sun’s Signature – Sun’s Signature
5. Save Me – Empress Of

The first new release I listened to this year did well to weather the tide and retain the top spot of the extended play set, though my admiration for Will Bevan’s peerless soundscaping is a secret to no one who has met me previously. ANTIDAWN (along with his latter 2022 release, the Streetlands EP) finds Bevan continue to travel in a furthermore ambient direction in his inimitable sonic ethos of urban desolation, now relying more on field recordings from real life rather than samples from films and video games that provide a starker contrast to when those dusty beats resurface and thus making them all the more poignant.

Top 5 Debut Albums

1. Baby, We’re Ascending – HAAi
2. No Thread Leads Back To The Heart – MR WA7T
3. Nymph – Shygirl
4. Mosquito – LYZZA
5. Topical Dancer – Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

Australian techno upstart Teneil Throssell delivered good on the promise on the promise of her 2019 debut EP with a full length featuring collaborations with the likes of Jon Hopkins and Daniel Avery, amongst other notable dance music boffins. Despite the impressive roster of contributions though, this is undoubtedly Throssell’s thrall throughout the album’s duration, laden with continuously blissful bouts of sweaty euphoria that aim for a soulful transcendence as opposed to smart-aleck sophistication or dumbass pop-phoria prevalent on either side of the electronic dance music spectrum at present.

Top 25 Albums

1. Fossora – Björk
2. Once Twice Melody – Beach House
3. Endure – Special Interest
4. In These Times – Makaya McCraven
5. Sad Cities – Sally Shapiro
6. Heterosexuality – Shamir
7. Arkhon – Zola Jesus
8. Heart Under – Just Mustard
9. Profound Mysteries II – Röyksopp
10. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar
11. Ugly Season – Perfume Genius
12. ¡Ay! – Lucrecia Dalt
13. The Line Is A Curve – Kae Tempest
14. Garden Gaia – Pantha Du Prince
15. Baby, We’re Ascending – HAAi
16. Mil Coisas Invisíveis – Tim Bernardes
17. No Thread Leads Back To The Heart – MR WA7T
18. Gold: Go Forward With The Courage Of Your Love – Alabaster dePlume
19. Un Verano Sin Ti – Bad Bunny
20. Natural Brown Prom Queen – Sudan Archives
21. Nothing To Declare – 700 Bliss
22. Nymph – Shygirl
23. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You – Big Thief
24. Electricity – Ibibio Sound Machine
25. Heaven Come Crashing – Rachika Nayar

Like Burial’s escalation earlier, the Icelandic artist’s position atop my Best Of 2022 Album Chart would not necessarily come as much of a surprise to anyone who has spent more than five minutes talking to me, and that’s about any and everything and not strictly music. One cannot argue though that Fossora‘s spell is a subsuming one, its progenitor drawing on themes musically and lyrically from their previous works to create a new sonic refuge redolent with colourful flourishes that dabbles in contemporary classicism, art-folk acapella, deranged electronic pummelling and, ultimately, the bittersweet nature of family life that retains as much bliss as it does sorrow.

There we have it, folks, my particularly favourite choices of the year…

Please do expect more content in 2023; if this year has taught me anything, it’s shown me how much I miss writing stuff down, and how lazy I have gotten in keeping up with it all.

So watch this space, and hopefully see you again sooner rather than later; feel free to leave a comment below if you would like to contest my musings or offer alternatives, whatever takes your fancy!

In the meantime, take care! xxxo