Songs for Cineastes: 2022 Edition

Click here for
the 2021 edition.

Top 10 

1. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer (DEEWEE)

2. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador)

3. Wet Leg - Wet Leg (Domino)

4. Sault - Untitled (God) (Forever Living Originals)

5. Earthless - Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Nuclear Blast)

6. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention (XL)

7. Sault - 11 (Forever Living Originals)

8. Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful (Bella Union)

9. Cate Le Bon - Pompeii (Mexican Summer)

10. Attia Taylor - Space Ghost (Lame-O)

Runners-up

11. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris (4AD)

12. Gwenno - Tresor (Heavenly Recordings)

13. Soft Pink Truth - Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This? 

     (Thrill Jockey)

14. Lucrecia Dault - ¡Ay! (RVNG Intl.)

16. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen (Stones Throw)

15. Sonic Youth - In/Out/In (Three Lobed Recordings)

17. Miranda Lambert - Palomino (Vanner-Sony Music)

18. Sault - Today and Tomorrow (Forever Living Originals)

19. Little Simz - No Thank You (Forever Living Originals)

20. Black Thought - Cheat Codes (BMG)

21. Ibibio Sound Machine - Electricity (Merge)

22. Robin Holcomb - One Way or the Other (Westerlies)

23. Horse Lords - Comradely Objects (RVNG Intl.)

24. Andrea Parkins - Two Rooms from the Memory Palace 

      (Infrequent Seams)

25. Seratones - Love & Algorhythms (New West)

26. Osees - A Foul Form (Castle Face)

27. SZA - SOS (Top Dawg-RCA)

28. Nina Nastasia - Riderless Horse (Temporary Residence)

29. Sault - Earth (Forever Living Originals)

30. Bill Frisell - Four (Blue Note)

31. Sault - Aiir (Forever Living Originals)

32. Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance (Matador)

33. Lizzo - Special (Nice Life Recording-Atlantic)

34. Anika - Change: The Remixes (Sacred Bones)

35. Nightshift - Zöe (Trouble in Mind)

36. Ben Shemie - Desiderata 

      (Joyful Noise Recordings/Backwards Music)

37. Brown Calvin - d i m e n s i o n // p e r s p e c t i v e (AKP)

38. Bailey Miller - Still Water (Whited Sepulchre)

39. Miles Hewitt - Heartfell (self-released)

40. Ernest Hood - Back to the Woodlands (RVNG Intl.)

Songs 

1. Sault - "Glory" (Forever Living Originals)

2. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - "Ceci n'est pas un cliché" 

    (Soulwax)

3. Lizzo - "About Damn Time" (Nice Life/Atlantic)

4. Hot Chip - "Down" (Domino Recording Co.)

5. Jessie Ware - "Free Yourself" (PMR-Virgin EMI)

6. Beyoncé - "Break My Soul" (Parkwood/Columbia)

7. LCD Soundsystem - "New Body Rhumba" (DFA)

8. Sault - "Life We Rent But Love Is Rent Free" 

    (Forever Living Originals)

9. Black Thought - "Because" (BMG)

10. Aidan Noell & Nancy Whang - "Sharevari" (Nation of Language)

Reissues & Collections 

1. The Beatles - Revolver (Super Deluxe) 

   (Calderstone Productions Ltd-UMG)

2. Donald Byrd - Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreux (Blue Note)

3. Wire - Not about To Die (pinkflag)

4. Roxy Music - Flesh + Blood (Virgin/Ume)

5. Roxy Music - Avalon (Virgin/Ume)

6. Roxy Music - Greatest Hits (Virgin/Ume)

7. Redd Kross - Neurotica (Big Time-Merge)

8. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Nancy & Lee

    (Reprise-Light in the Attic)

9. Lee Hazlewood - The Sweet Ride: Lost Recordings 1965-68 

    (Light in the Attic)

10. Charles Stepney - Step by Step (International Anthem)

Also worthy of note: Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators (Drag City), Laure Briard - Eu Voo (Midnight Special), Decius - Decius Vol. 1 (The Leaf Label), Dezron Douglas - More Coffee Please (International Anthem), Chad Fowler, Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Steve Hirsh - Alien Skin (Mahakala Music), Makaya McCraven - In These Times (International Anthem-Nonesuch), Tommaso Moretti - Inside Out (BASE), and Angel Olsen - Big Time (Jagjaguwar). 

Endnote: I only saw three shows this year, largely due to the 2021 passing of Bill Kennedy, my favorite show-going companion: Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul at Barboza in Seattle, Roxy Music and St. Vincent at the United Center in Chicago, and Grace Jones at the Moore in Seattle (click here for my profile of Jones). I wore a mask each time. Images: Adigéry and Pupul at Barboza (Kathy Fennessy), Aldous Harding's Warm Chris album cover (4AD / Discogs), and Donald Byrd (Blue Note Records).