BY: ADRIAN PATTERSON
JANUARY 18, 2023
2022 has been hailed repeatedly by critics and listeners alike for being a great year in music; not only for the more popular genres but also for more fringe types of music. Dominant styles are getting stranger and the fringes are starting to become more palatable. It has also been a great year for leaving all these labels of genre behind to just make music that feels genuine to the artist and listener.
Hip Hop has been dominating the charts for years and thus has started to become watered down and safe. This year’s hip hop releases defy expectations of the big incoherent messes that a lot of late stage big name rappers fall into. Expectations of bloated, scattered projects that feel like a handful of good singles glued together with filler have not been as prevalent this year. This year sees many albums that aren’t afraid to change many times through the tracklist.
Melt My Eyes See Your Future gives Denzel Curry an opportunity to get away from the trap stylings that he is most known for with tasteful jazz hop beats and great flows. This album’s cohesion is so surprising considering the diversity of styles. Every beat, though radically different, is noticeably, expertly curated by Denzel Curry to build his world of self-progression and forgiveness. “X-Wing” was the biggest “growing on me” track this year.
The Forever Story is just immense from front to back with songs like “Raydar” and “Can’t Punk Me” scattered through the album to boost the energy of the great R&B style songs. It has great new ways of talking about the usual issues in the hip hop consciousness. The points about poverty and gang mentality are handled so eloquently in “Bruddanem” and “Money.” “Stars” with Yasiin Bey is one of my favorite tracks of the whole year especially with the beautiful production by BADBADNOTGOOD.
Cheat Codes shows off the insane amount of cohesion that can come from a rapper/producer joint project. With Black Thought and Danger Mouse on the same wavelength this album comes together perfectly. The beats are especially memorable with highlights like “Aquamarine” and “No Gold Teeth” getting played in my head over and over. The rare modern rap posse cut Strangers achieving such insane momentum is a real highlight in the rap cannon.
Sick! is a quick listen from Earl Sweatshirt–who keeps dizzinging my head with his unconventional rhymes and flows. The way that Earl sits on beats is exemplified by some great off the wall beats courtesy of innovative producers like the Alchemist and Black Noi$e. Titanic has been on my track rotation since this album dropped. The off kilter beat and strange lyrical choices make it such a dizzying and atypical hip hop song.
Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is almost too much to handle with its nearly 90 minute runtime. On face value it gave us some of the biggest bangers in “N95” and “United in Grief”. Without compromising Kedrick Lamar’s hard hitting, conscious verses about mental health and our social lives. The radical approach to production on this album is a real refresher to the monotonous rap albums of the past and present. “We Cry Together” delivers one of rap’s most radical songs with a rhythmic argument underscored by an eerie piano loop.
Metal, rock and hardcore are seeing a great new wave of bands eager to bend their respective genres into their own. The growing trend in rock and metal lately is one of progression, fusion, and intensity of all kinds. With the bands that stay in a lane cranking up the intensity. And plenty of bands going so far as to create whole new genres through fusion and experimentation.
Ants From Up There is Black Country, New Roads sophomore album and is my favorite of the year. The emotional weight of Issac Woods’ cryptic lyrics is so immediate and hard hitting. The quiet nuances of the instrumentalists give such immense weight to the impactful crescendos of the tracks. The types of songs that this album can safely house is insane. From slow burning postrock repetition fests to klezmer inspired folk rock fusions. Throughout all these styles the band maintains their sad sincerity through enigmatic lyrics and instrumentals. A lesser band that aligns themselves with postrock ideas falls into the pitfalls of making their songs too long and meandering. Black Country, New Road expertly avoid this with a collective appreciation for pop music. Not only does this album succeed emotionally it excels in the repetitive gorgeous lines that the band can develop over sometimes 12 minute songs.
Hiss is an insanely pummeling take on grindcore and hardcore. From the get-go the album’s intensity is palpable. The tough textures of the album give the listener a relentless experience. The grindcore centered band breathes life into the genre by pulling ideas from black metal and death metal. Songs like “Broken Maze” are very blackened while “Hatred Transcending” has a death metal like pace and flow. All these factors serve to make this album varied and novel, something grindcore especially struggles with.
God’s Country really works to expand the bounds of extreme metal. It also has an amazing commentary on American society that is somehow ham fisted and yet pretty thoughtful. Heavy music has never been known for nuisance. “Pamela” is a really strange spaced out dissonance slog reminiscent of Daughters and Swans; it serves as a palette cleanser to the heavy fast songs. I really love a slow disturbing song that gets louder and more intense as it goes along with the introduction of more instruments and heightened performance intensity.
These last two albums come from more obscure genres but need to have their time in the sun. They both are great examples of musical innovation and appropriation of the old. They are both on the forefront of hopeful new genres and permutations that feel very true to the artist.
Once Twice Melody is an expansive double album that yet again shows Beach House’s amazing feel for texture, melody and composition. The amazing melodies reveal, upon subsequent listens, a depth of sound that is almost unmatched in all of music. This album is the perfect blend of the ethereal vocals and synths mixed with heavy bass and drum textures. The title track is my favorite late night chill out song of the year.
Flaming Swords is an extremely off the wall take on a genre that has mostly died out. RIO (rock in opposition) and jazz fusion in general has been borderline extinct especially in this style for years. This album brings in back with an accessible bang of an album full of great moments. The melodies and licks on this album are really off the wall at some points, probably too much for listeners not familiar with RIO records of the past.
I can’t say how these albums will hold up exactly, but my prediction is that this year has the power to guide the landscape of music for years to come. Most of these artists are still young and thus will be instrumental in the shape of music as a whole to come. Lots of these albums see their creators at their rising action before they create their magnum opus.
The Pioneer Online 
Leave a comment