My Favorite Music of 2022
Rosalia, Shygirl and DJ Python
“Music was better in my days” is a phrase that always made my blood simmer. I took pride in being a music geek in high school but in my mid-30s, I found myself listening to the same artists I did a decade ago. The personal mini crisis that followed inspired me to resume my music education with the giddy excitement of a misunderstood teenager. My life has been a constant quest for new music since.
Here are a few musical treats of 2022 that blew my mind.
Rosalia, Motomami – Rosalia’s hyperactive talent and wit explodes in a blitz of tracks alternating reggaeton, flamenco, balladry, pop, bachata and electronica. The opening gambit, Saoko, rips through the air like a firing squad, setting a promise of the most riveting and discombobulating pop album of the year. Its polar opposite, Hentai, is a sensual ballad that rides a phantom melody of Moon River with lyrics that would make Megan thee Stallion blush. The video for Hentai features Rosalia straddling a mechanical bull and it is exhilarating.
Shygirl, Nymph — In a futuristic pop utopia, where Rosalia’s tour breaks Ticketmaster and Ed Sheeran is a used car salesman, Shygirl is the sound of the after-party. Whimsy and mischief drip from the first track, Woe, and set the stage for a delirious layering of deconstructed club music, trap, pop and R&B. This album makes me optimistic about where music could go.
DJ Python, Club Sentimientos Vol 2. – An underwater dance party, lush and dreamy. Reggaeton dembow beats are slowed down to a hypnotic pace, undulating and sending shivers of delight. This EP is a shapeshifter, seductive at night and invigorating in the morning.
Sudan Archives, Topless from Natural Brown Prom Queen – This track combines quirky humor and giddy party vibes, building up to the best line of 2022, “I just want to have my titties out.” The unexpected violin solo at the end propels the song into blissful heights. Best heard on repeat.
Lucretia Dalt, ¡Ay! — A kaleidoscope of genres is the calling card of 2022, and this album lives in a whimsical universe of jazz, bolero, and ambient. Lucretia glides through the tracks with a childlike sense of wonder. The sounds flutter on the border of avant-garde and nostalgia, triggering a disorienting feeling of deja-vu and a wave of visceral pleasure.
Beach House, Once Twice Melody — The term “magical” has been hackneyed to oblivion having been used in every marketing campaign from Coca Cola to the microwave oven. Yet, it’s THE word that came to mind from the first notes of the album. A sprawling four-part symphony of fuzzy guitars and luminous vocals is dotted with moments of acute beauty. This is Beach House’s most ambitious work to date.
Hercules & Love Affair, In Amber — A cult vampire sci-fi soundtrack with shards of 80’s goth, synth and medieval chants. It is a hymn, part celebration, part elegy reverberating through a cobwebbed cathedral.
I made my Favorite tracks of 2022 playlist on Spotify for more musical treats.
Apparently, there's a reason the music from our youth continues to resonate with us throughout the decades. There's a scientific study just about everything. :)
This article from the Atlantic touches on it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/04/subjective-age-how-old-you-feel-difference/673086/
"Adolescence and emerging adulthood are times dense with firsts (first kiss, first time having sex, first love, first foray into the world without your parents’ watchful gaze); they are also times when our brains, for a variety of neurodevelopmental reasons, are inclined to feel things more intensely, especially the devil’s buzz of a good, foolhardy risk. The uniqueness and density of these periods have manifested themselves in other areas of Rubin’s research. Years ago, he and other researchers showed that adults have an outsize number of memories from the ages of about 15 to 25. They called this phenomenon “the reminiscence bump.” (This is generally used to explain why we’re so responsive to the music of our adolescence—which in my case means my iPhone is loaded with a lot more Duran Duran songs than any dignified person should admit.)"