Best Albums Of 2022: Honourable Mention
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Best Albums Of 2022: Honourable Mention
Our year-end coverage continues with a group of records that didn’t quite make it onto the list of our favourite albums of 2022. These records still deserve major praise and because it broke many of our hearts to leave them off the final list, we devised a way to still highlight them.
Apollo Ghosts - Pink Tiger
Legendary Vancouver band, Apollo Ghosts return with a double LP of carefully scripted songs that treat the listener like an old friend. From the stripped down first LP to the power-pop perfection of the second, Pink Tiger had us extremely grateful these fine humans decided to reunite.
Clea Anaïs - Circle Zero
Calgary mainstay, Clea Anaïs delivered her best work to date by leaning into chill vibes that veer very close to dream-pop. Touches of indie-rock and some funky baselines are the necessary flourishes that make Circle Zero stand out among other dreamy releases.
Daniel Romano - La Luna
Daniel Romano delivered us a country/rock opera that swells and soars and is a pure joy to explore. In our modern world of music consumption, not too many people would have the guts to put out an album comprised of two 15+ minute songs. We salute Romano for putting art over business.
Fortunato Durutti Marinetti - Memory’s Fool
Daniel Colussi struck gold on his second album under the Fortunato Durutti Marinetti moniker. Working with Sandro Perri and Jay Arner proved the perfect match for Colussi’s jazzy art-folk. The songs meander without a care, finding their destinations on their own terms.
Georgia Harmer - Stay In Touch
No release was more anticipated than Georgia Harmer’s debut album and over its 11 tracks, Harmer didn’t disappoint. The musical landscapes differ from track to track but always cater exclusively to Harmer’s stunning voice and entrancing lyricism.
Ghostkeeper - Multidimensional Culture
A hard album to describe. So many different genres smash together to create 35 minutes of audible excitement. Avant-pop might be the best descriptor but it takes psych, folk, country, 60s rock, jazz, and more to get us to that title. Every time I listen to this record I find something new, it literally doesn’t get old.
JOYFULTALK - Familiar Science
Jay Crocker reached into his past as a prominent member of Calgary’s jazz scene and melted it with his current status as the Nova Scotia based experimental electro-guru. He collaborated with Calgary A-Lister’s Chris Dadge and Eric Hamelin to fuck with our minds by crafting an electo-free-jazz triumph.
Kee Avil - Crease
Sometimes more challenging listens offer the biggest rewards. This is certainly the case with Crease from Kee Avil, the debut album from Montreal’s Vicky Mettler. Dark, electronic undertones meet urgent guitars as layers build to create a sinister tapestry for Mettler’s unsettling vocals.
Kyla Charter - Edible Flowers
Kyla Charter’s debut album smashed our expectations of a neo-soul release. Exploring R&B and Soul with the help of trip-hop, psych, and experimental music, Charter’s team crafted intensely present music for her astonishing lyrical gymnastics. I’ve never heard vocal repetition used so well, Charter says so much with so few words.
Mares Of Thrace - The Exile
Winnipeg’s Mares Of Thrace came out of a ten-year hibernation in 2022 to deliver a sludgy, doom encrusted collection of rippers. The duo of Thérèse Lanz and Casey Rogers show no signs of rust, making us believe the ten year wait was them saving their energy and biding their time to strike with this riff-rippin’-blitzkrieg.
Michael Scott Dawson - Music For Listening
Leaning heavily into the sounds of nature, Michael Scott Dawson crafted an album for those who can’t go outside with their morning coffee to stare into a forest of green and hear the various ecosystems that power nature. For us city dwellers, grab that coffee and turn on this record to get transported to the natural world desperately needed from time to time.
Skinny Dyck - Palace Waiting
Lethbridge, Alberta’s Skinny Dyck has truly found his voice on Palace Waiting, forcing us to reckon with the idea of him no longer being our little secret. Country-Swing meets Americana as Ryan “Skinny” Dyck paints a rich portrait of bygone times by taking classic styles and doing them better than the historical greats.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - I’M GOOD, HBU?
Snotty Nose Rez Kids return with a much more positive outlook than we heard on last year’s Life After. Success can do that. Funny thing is that even while delivering braggadocios bars that can sour how people view some rappers, the duo of Young D and Young Trybez come across as genuinely lovable protagonists. Of course we’re cheering for these two!
Sunglaciers - Subterranea
Calgary’s Sunglaciers latest effort has a bit everything, brooding post-punk, psychedelia, electronica and even pop! With so many elements mashed together, it’s truly a wonder they crafted such a cohesive and concise record. Subterranea’s diversity made it one of the funnest records to explore in 2022.
Swim Team - Hurricane
Right out of left field. Vancouver’s Swim Team abandon their past and find dance vibes to mellow out their post-punk ferociousness which was great by its own right. After the ‘genre-swap’ shock wore off, Hurricane brought to mind The Rapture at their most potent… danceable-pop music for crusty rock n rollers.
Check out our look back at 2022 by visiting our features: