Best Music of 2024

UPDATE: Here are some playlists with a selection of great songs from the year. Why not check them out? (P.S. Tidal pays artists way more than Spotify. Please use Tidal if you can!)

In last year’s post, I said, “Especially right now, when the world seems to be in flames all around us, it’s comforting and even inspiring to know that great music is still being made.” That’s even more true now as the trend toward fascism and oppression gains even more sickening pace. It might seem frivolous to spend so much time listening to music, but it’s truly a survival tactic for me and maybe for you, too. So, with that in mind, here are some words about some of the music that helped me during 2024. First a top ten, then an unranked 11-25, then another unranked 26-50. Here’s a YouTube playlist with a song from each of the Top Ten:

Here we go (asterisks indicate an artist with Canadian bona fides and a bold L means I’ve seen the band live in 2024):

1. *Ducks Ltd. (L) – Harm’s Way

I’m so proud of these hometown janglers. For their second album, they decamped to Chicago to work with members of Ratboys and Dehd, and the results are excellent. Even though this came out last February, its songs have had staying power and its spot at or near the top of this year’s list was never really threatened. I appreciated the continuity of uptempo jangle songs like “The Main Thing” but also that the band stretched into new musical territory, like the melancholy closer “Heavy Bag.” Seeing the band live again also brought these songs to life. If the Ducks come to your town, I highly recommend that you obtain some tickets!

2. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks

Still just 25 years of age, MJ Lenderman entered my peripheral vision a few years ago with his album Boat Songs. I loved the combination of humourous lyrics and guitar hooks on songs like “Hangover Game,” but I didn’t spend a lot of time with that record. This year’s Manning Fireworks didn’t really register until about a month ago when I began to see it popping up on Best of 2024 lists. Mark Jacob Lenderman is having quite a year, it seems. He plays guitar in the band Wednesday, and also guests with Waxahatchee. He sings backup and plays guitar on one of Waxahatchee‘s best songs from this year, “Right Back To It.” As a songwriter, Lenderman has a remarkable gift for combining memorable music with lyrics that are both funny and poignant. On “Wristwatch,” he’s the kind of sympathetic loser who might have been writing a song about his Bluetooth headset about 15 years ago. “I’ve got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome, and a wristwatch that’s a pocket knife and a megaphone, and a wristwatch that tells me I’m on my own.”

3. Eggs – Crafted Achievement

This Paris quartet make music that feels like it’s come from somewhere in the American Midwest. Frontman Charles Daneau sings in English, for one, but the music has a sort of nonspecific American indie sound, perhaps from the ’80s or ’90s. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that guitarist Margaux Bouchaudon and saxophonist Camille Fréchou are also members of En Attendant Ana, another of my favourite French bands. Whereas their previous record “A Glitter Year” drew comparisons to the Dunedin indie pop sound, this one has been compared with bands like The Replacements. It’s no coincidence since one of the songs (“Bob Stinson’s Song”) actually pays tribute to the Minneapolis’ band’s departed guitarist.

4. Christopher Owens – I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair

One half of the late band Girls, Christopher Owens has a dramatic life story. Raised in the Children of God cult, he broke away as a teenager and drifted to California, where he eventually met Chet “JR” White, and they started making music together. Girls released two well-received albums between 2009 and 2011, and were known for their excessive drug use almost as much as for their music. Owens broke up the band in 2012 and got sober in 2014. Unfortunately, White continued to struggle with his addictions and died in 2020. Owens released a few solo albums but then hit a rough patch that lasted several years. He lost his record contract, ended a long term relationship, and was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. This is his first musical release in nine years, and it feels like a well-earned if unexpected gift. Album opener “No Good” reveals an older, wiser Owens on lines like this: “No, not another love song, not one more song where I’m pretending everything will be okay.” It’s haunting and beautiful, and it’s impossible not to wish Owens a long period of peace and happiness, whether or not he has more music left to share.

5. *Laughing (L) – Because It’s True

Laughing is from Montreal, a city whose music scene continues to thrive. The Wesleys follow in this list at #6. Other bands from that great city that didn’t crack the Top Ten include Feeling Figures and Corridor. There’s definitely something in the water in Montreal, or more likely, the cheaper rents are allowing creatives to thrive without worrying about keeping a roof over their heads. In any case, Laughing has a sweet jangly vibe that’s mixed ever so slightly with something more akin to country or folk. I can hear The Byrds, Dinosaur Jr. and even The Flying Burrito Brothers. It’s notable that all four members take lead vocals, and there is no real frontperson. I’ve seen them live twice now, and the songs are definitely stronger than their live show, but that could be more an indication of the smallness of the rooms they’ve played so far. In any case, Laughing is the real deal.

6. *The Wesleys – The Wesleys

Every year, there seems to be one album that crashes my Top Ten in the final days of the year. I usually see it on some end of year list. It’s almost always something I haven’t encountered at all until then. This year, it was Montreal band The Wesleys, on the 27th of December! Thank you, Exclaim.ca! This hits the perfect sweet spot between jangle pop and garage rock and just has some extra secret sauce that I can’t quite put my finger on. All I can say is that I have been playing the hell out of this one for the past few days. I’m eager for them to return to Toronto to play live. So eager, in fact, that I’ve reached out to them on Instagram. This is an exciting new record that I don’t think I’ve seen on any other lists, so give it a listen and see what you think!

7. *Little Kid – A Million Easy Payments

I was very happy to discover yet another great Toronto band this year. Little Kid have been quietly putting out music for the past 15 years, but apparently so quietly that I hadn’t heard anything until 2024. Centred around the songwriting of Kenny Boothby, Little Kid make music that could be described as folk, but infused with a bruised spirituality that really connects with me and my own experiences with faith. Don’t let that put you off; this stuff is gorgeous no matter how you feel about the lyrics.

8. *Motorists (L) – Touched By The Stuff

I saw Toronto’s Motorists live this year, which made it much easier for me to click with their new album. Three years ago, I’d seen 2021’s Surrounded on a bunch of year-end lists, and it came with a label (“power pop”) that I usually vibe with, but for whatever reason, I didn’t spend much time with it. Since then, I’ve come to really love that album, and so when 2024 brought new music from this trio, I rolled out the welcome mat. Labelling Motorists as power pop is actually pretty limiting. Though there is some jangle, and some harmonies, Touched By The Stuff covers a lot of musical ground in its 12 tracks. To me, this band sounds like a new generation’s Sloan, with maybe a little bit more twang.

9. Blushing – Sugarcoat

I’ve been a fan of the music once denigrated as “shoegaze” (allegedly due to band members being too busy looking at their guitar effects pedals to make eye contact with the audience) ever since the early 1990s, and although there are lots of revivalists plying their trade these days, not many really capture my attention the way that Blushing has over the past few years. The band, who are from Austin, Texas, put out an excellent record called Possessions in 2022, and this year’s Sugarcoat has surpassed it. Just listen to “Tamagotchi” and see if you’re not transported back to the ’90s. Or, if you weren’t around in the ’90s, just enjoy some excellent swirling guitars and great voice harmonies.

10. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

I first heard the song “I Don’t Know You” from this album and was charmed by its exploration of having a crush on someone. The rest of the album is much more forceful, both musically and thematically. Many reviews call the album “horny” and that’s accurate, as singer Marisa Dabice sings of her desire in songs like “Loud Bark,” “Aching,” and “Split Me Open.” Although I love the hardcore crunch of some of those songs, it’s the delicate and vulnerable lyrics of “I Don’t Know You” that bring me back again and again. “I know a lot of things, I know a lot of things, but I don’t know you.”

Ducks Ltd. - Harm's Way
MJ Lenderman - Manning FireworksEggs - Crafted Achievement
Christopher Owens - I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your HairLaughing - Because It's TrueThe Wesleys - The Wesleys
Little Kid - A Million Easy PaymentsMotorists - Touched By The StuffBlushing - SugarcoatMannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

Notable (Unranked 11-25)

  • 2nd Grade – Scheduled Explosions
  • The BV’s – Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures
  • Dancer – 10 Songs I Hate About You
  • Dummy – Free Energy
  • *Feeling Figures – Everything Around You
  • Hannah Frances – Keeper of the Shepherd
  • *Heaven for Real (L) – Hell’s Logo’s Pink
  • Jagged Baptist Club – Physical Surveillance
  • Mo Dotti – Opaque
  • Mo Troper – Svengali
  • *Mustafa – Dunya
  • Nilüfer Yanya – My Method Actor
  • Split System – Vol. 2
  • Sprints – Letter To Self
  • Sharp Pins – Radio DDR

Worthy (Unranked 26-50)

  • Beige Banquet – Ornamental Hermit
  • Bermuda Squares – Outsider
  • *Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
  • Chime School – The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel
  • *Corridor – Mimi
  • The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
  • *Daniel Romano’s Outfit (L) – Too Hot to Sleep
  • DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water
  • Hamish Hawk (L) – A Firmer Hand
  • Honeyglaze – Real Deal
  • *Jeremie Albino (L) – Our Time in the Sun
  • Jim Nothing – Grey Eyes, Grey Lynn
  • julia – my anti-aircraft friend
  • Khruangbin – A La Sala
  • Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More
  • Klapper – High for No Reason
  • Marcel Wave – Something Looming
  • Negative Gears – Moraliser
  • Neutrals – New Town Dream
  • Pleasant Mob – Pleasant Mob
  • Quivers (L) – Oyster Cuts
  • Torrey – Torrey
  • The Umbrellas – Fairweather Friend
  • Uranium Club – Infants Under the Bulb
  • Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood

EEPEES

  • Billy Tibbals – Nightlife Stories
  • Plexi Stad – Siren Dance
  • Highschool – Accelerator
  • *Apollo Ghosts – Amethyst
  • Nag – Fear
  • *Accelerant – Accelerant
  • The Girls – Cuntry Music
  • Softjaw – Softjaw
  • Guiding Light – Guiding Light
  • *Fold Paper – 4TO
  • Citric Dummies – Trapped in a Parking Garage

Most Anticipated 2025 Releases

  • Ex-Vöid – In Love Again
  • The Laughing Chimes – Whispers in the Speech Machine
  • *Motherhood – Thunder Perfect Mind
  • *No Frills – Sad Clown
  • The Tubs – Cotton Crown

As always, music helped me through this year’s highs and lows, reinforcing my belief that music is as essential to my life as food, oxygen, and love.

Just for fun, here are some of my previous lists:

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

Best Music of 2023

UPDATE: Here are some playlists with a selection of great songs from the year. Why not check them out?

Ah, the annual music post. Since I hardly post here anymore, it shouldn’t be so hard, but this post is always the hardest thing to write each year. Yet, when I finish, I’m always very pleased that I’ve said a few things about the music that I enjoyed the most during the past year. Especially right now, when the world seems to be in flames all around us, it’s comforting and even inspiring to know that great music is still being made. Music is such an essential part of my life and my identity, and sharing this post with you (no matter how few of you there might be or where you are in the world) is always worthwhile. So strap in. As always, this will be long.

As always, lists are bunk, especially ranked lists. This year, I’ve decided to just rank my Top Ten, and then include a batch of unranked releases that are still worthy of your time and attention. I hope my post will point you in some new directions, and bring you some of the joy that music brings to me. Here’s a YouTube playlist with a whole bunch of songs from this year’s batch.

Here we go (asterisks indicate an artist with Canadian bona fides and a bold L means I’ve seen the band live in 2023):

1. Mo Troper – Troper Sings Brion – This just came out in November and crashed my Top Ten quite aggressively. I’ve been a fan of Mo’s since discovering his album covering The Beatles‘ Revolver and his 2021 album Dilettante. He’s a bit of a power pop legend and also produces, including Bory‘s debut record, Who’s A Good Boy?, which came out too late for consideration on this year’s list (but which sounds pretty great!). I love the idea of one songwriter paying tribute to another, and the album art goes even further, with its echoes of Harry Nilsson’s 1970 record Nilsson Sings Newman, on which he paid tribute to the songs of the great Randy Newman. Jon Brion is a songwriter with whom I had only a passing familiarity. I know him from his soundtrack work, especially on Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia (1998). He’s actually a bit of a power pop icon, with one album released under his own name (2000’s Meaningless) and another as part of power pop supergroup The Grays (Ro Sham Bo, from 1994). He played a lot of shows at Los Angeles’ club Largo, and many of the songs on Troper’s album were played live there or recorded as demos (available with a diligent internet search), but never officially released. Troper certainly delivers, with amazing versions of such future classics as “Citgo Sign,” “Love of My Life (So Far),” and “Not Ready Yet.” Mo Troper is emerging as not just an important artist in his own right, but as someone who is a champion for great power pop songwriting, both old and new.

2. Display Homes – What If You’re Right and They’re Wrong? – A very sad story here. Sydney-based Australian band finally release their debut album, but their guitarist dies suddenly. Darrell Beveridge was also a comedian and a food blogger, and his loss means we probably won’t hear any more from this incredibly talented band.

3. Flyying Colours – You Never Know – These Australian shoegazers have been on my radar since their previous release, 2021’s Fantasy Country, and this one surpasses that great album. Might be a longshot, but one can always hope for a North American tour.

4. *Buddie – Agitator – Buddie frontman Daniel Forrest moved from Philadelphia to Vancouver sometime after the pandemic abated, and now we can claim him as a Canadian. This record ranges from rock to power pop, but always oozes sincerity and great songwriting. I’m hoping his newfound Canadian residency means the band will visit Toronto in 2024.

5. Deeper – Careful! – I found Deeper around 2021 and enjoyed their 2020 release Auto-Pain and so you could say I was looking forward to this new one, which does not disappoint. Post-punk hooks aplenty, from a strong Chicago scene which also includes bands like Stuck, whose 2023 album Freak Frequency landed on the “unranked” list.

6. Yves Tumor – Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) – Never underestimate the power of surprise. Yves Tumor came out of nowhere (at least for me) and knocked me out with a surprising sound reminiscent of TV on the Radio. There’s not much out there right now that sounds like this, challenging and yet filled with hooks.

7. Nation of Language (L) – Strange Disciple – I was very impressed the first time I saw Nation of Language play live, and even more impressed to see them headlining a show at the Phoenix here in Toronto just a few weeks ago. I think it’s because they bring a real emotional warmth to music that can at first listen seem kind of cold and detached. Their fully committed live performances certainly lifted their 2023 album Strange Disciple firmly into my Top Ten. If you get a chance to see this band performing live in your town, definitely take it!

8. TV Party – Psychic Driving – Hailing from Ventura, California, TV Party is notable for the distinctive sound of frontman Jesse Brinkenhoff’s vocals, which seem teleported from the early days of punk. Give these guys a listen!

9. En Attendant Ana – Principia – I really loved this French band’s previous record Juillet which came out in 2020, and at first was a bit underwhelmed with this much anticipated follow up. But as I spent more time with it, it crept (back) into my Top Ten. A highlight is the longer song “Wonder.” Will 2024 bring them to Toronto? I’m crossing my fingers.

10. Hamish Hawk – Angel Numbers – Another surprise. Not sure how I found Hamish Hawk, but this Scottish singer has a unique vocal style and a way with words. “Angel Numbers” refers to the strange sequences of repeated numbers that sometimes pop up in our everyday lives, and to which we somehow want to ascribe deeper meaning. Hamish’s presence on my top ten seems kind of like a strange coincidence, but don’t ignore it. Check out his song “Think of Us Kissing” for a start.

Mo Troper - Troper Sings Brion
Display Homes - What If You're Right and They're Wrong?Flyying Colours - You Never Know
Buddie - AgitatorDeeper - Careful!Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Betweeen Worlds)
Nation of Language - Strange DiscipleTV Party - Psychic DrivingEn Attendant Ana - PrincipiaHamish Hawk - Angel Numbers

Here are a bunch more worthy releases, all unranked. As in the Top Ten above, Canadian bands get an asterisk and a bold L means I’ve seen the band live in 2023.

Unranked But Worthy

  • Rocky – Rocky
  • Public Interest – Spiritual Pollution
  • Stuck – Freak Frequency
  • Pearly Drops – A Little Disaster
  • The Tubs – Dead Meat
  • Public Body – Big Mess
  • Bully (L) – Lucky For You
  • Motorbike – Motorbike
  • Crocodiles – Upside Down in Heaven
  • Onyon – Last Days on Earth
  • Snooper – Super Snooper
  • Echo Ladies – Lilies
  • Model/Actriz – Dogsbody
  • Uni Boys – Buy This Now!
  • Erik Nervous – Immaturity
  • Hotline TNT – Cartwheel
  • Beach Fossils – Bunny
  • Ratboys – The Window
  • Sweeping Promises (L) – Good Living is Coming for You
  • *Tough Age – Waiting Here
  • Spiritual Cramp – Spiritual Cramp
  • *Home Front – Games of Power
  • *Vanity Mirror – Puff
  • White Reaper – Asking for a Ride
  • feeble little horse – Girl With Fish
  • The Lemon Twigs – Everything Harmony
  • Lewsberg (L) – Out and About
  • The Whiffs – Scratch ‘n’ Sniff
  • Hard Copy – 12 Shots of Nature

EEPEES

  1. Wombo (L) – Slab (EP)
  2. Gym Tonic – Sanitary Situations (EP)
  3. Cel Ray – Cellular Raymond (EP)
  4. Cel Ray – Piss Park (EP)
  5. Lightheaded – Good Good Great! (EP)
  6. Lifeguard – Dressed in Trenches (EP)
  7. *Natural Light – 2023.I (EP)
  8. *Lavoro – Lavoro (EP)

Best Reissues

  • The Exploding Hearts – Guitar Romantic

As always, music helped me through this year’s highs and lows, reinforcing my belief that music is as essential to my life as food, oxygen, and love.

Just for fun, here are some of my previous lists:

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

NO FUN #5: Contemporary Christian Music of the 1980s

NO FUN is a monthly show I curate for Frozen Section Radio. It plays “live” each first Monday at 7pm Eastern Time, and then lives on Mixcloud.

The early ’80s was an important time in my life, and also a time when my musical taste (and the rest of my life) took a strange detour. In 1982, at the age of 16, I was “born again” and entered the very unique subculture of evangelical Christianity. The world in general was experiencing a period of conservative politics, with Reagan and Thatcher in power (and Brian Mulroney up here in Canada being elected in 1984). The fear of nuclear war was a big part of my teenage years, and perhaps a part of my conversion was a desire for security, for things to make sense. Despite that, I was always a black sheep and remained a big fan of punk and “new wave” music.

The ’80s were also a time of great change in the evangelical culture. Something called “Contemporary Christian Music” (or CCM) was emerging to compete with traditional gospel music, and evangelical teens who had always been discouraged from listening to “secular” music were finding new music that was hewing a bit closer to the general trends and styles of the larger culture.

Personally, I was still listening to my Sex Pistols and Talking Heads records, but I was curious about this new stuff, despite much of it feeling like a pale imitation. It was very important to evangelicals that the “message” of the music was positive. I remember hearing a lot of Christian music for the first time at weekly roller skating socials at the Scarborough Roller Palace. By the early ’80s, roller skating had pretty much passed out of the general culture, and I found it funny to be returning to a pastime that my parents had enjoyed a full decade earlier.

The music of a Christian roller skating social in 1982 was a mix of older Gospel acts trying to stay current (The Imperials, Sandy Patti), classic gospel stars (often Black, like Andrae Crouch and Leon Patillo), emerging gospel stars with a bit of stylistic range (Amy Grant), and newer CCM acts who played everything from straight ahead rock (Petra, Resurrection Band) to New Wave experimentation (Steve Taylor, Daniel Amos). We even had a newly born-again Bob Dylan! I had the added bonus of working at a Christian bookstore which was also the only place to buy this new Christian music.

Contemporary Christian Music Magazine

One weekend my friend Brad and I were assigned the task of clearing out the inventory of an independent store that our company had just bought out. We were allowed to take home any of the “demo” records that the store had available for listening, and we both significantly expanded our collections that day.

In those days, before the Internet, finding out about new acts was difficult. So we listened to as many “demo” records as we could, and read about other acts in a couple of magazines (the leading one was helpfully called CCM). I remember articles which actually said things like “If you like (insert secular band name here), you will like (Christian band name).” Let’s just say that it wasn’t always accurate.

This particular playlist, whittled down to an hour, was originally assembled in 2020 and was a bit longer than two hours; this shorter version includes music that I was actually listening to in those years (as opposed to stuff I might have discovered later doing research). Three names deserve more explanation.

Modern Innocence is my friend Grant Cermak’s band. I’m proud to say that Grant is still a friend, 40 years later, and I’m also very happy that he’s digitized the cassette that I played to death back in the ’80s. Look for it on Bandcamp here: https://moderninnocence.bandcamp.com

Daniel Amos was a band, despite sounding like an individual artist, and they’d been around since 1974. Starting off with a country sound, they evolved into a more straight ahead rock band by the end of the decade, and when the ’80s arrived, they continued to evolve, embracing the new wave sound. They used humour in their lyrics, but also confronted bigger themes than many of their contemporaries. Band leader Terry Scott Taylor produced records for other artists and remains a prolific musician. I think a lot of their music stands the test of time, and while many other artists’ lyrics now make me cringe, Daniel Amos’ songs are still pretty dear to me.

Contemporary Christian Music Magazine

Michael W. Smith, on the other hand, became a Christian pop juggernaut as the decade continued. His first album though, The Michael W. Smith Project, released in 1983, maintains a very personal place in my heart despite its sentimentality and overproduction. “The Race is On” remains an extremely catchy tune worthy of inclusion on its own merits, but I’ve also included two sappier numbers. “Be Strong and Courageous” always makes me laugh because in my youth group I would always sing the chorus as “Be Wrong and Outrageous.” You can see what I meant about being a black sheep. And “Friends” is there despite its sentimentality because it came out just around the time that the most popular girl in our youth group was killed by a distracted driver while crossing the street. That song carried us through a lot of the grief that followed.

Revisiting this time in my life will always be bittersweet. Alongside the absolutely cringeworthy, there were lots of moments of genuine love and idealism. Though I wouldn’t describe myself as an evangelical anymore (or even a Christian), I hope I’m still essentially that person today, still hopeful and trying my best to love the world, just with a bit more wisdom and a lot more wear and tear. Try to listen with an open mind, or at least an open heart.

Playlist:

The Lifesavors – Christian Twisters (2:13)
Modern Innocence – Alive Alive (2:51)
The 77s – Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba (4:15)
Daniel Amos – (It’s the Eighties, So Where’s Our) Rocket Packs (3:38)
Steve Taylor – I Want to Be a Clone (2:32)
After The Fire – Laser Love (3:27)
Ishmael United – Crowd Trouble (2:55)
Malcolm and the Mirrors – Paint Your Windows White (2:34)
Daniel Amos – Youth With a Machine (2:45)
Resurrection Band – Autograph (4:02)
Daniel Amos – Central Theme (3:17)
Michael W. Smith – The Race is On (3:43)
Daniel Amos – Faces to the Window (2:30)
Daniel Amos – Through the Speakers (2:41)
Michael W. Smith – Be Strong and Courageous (3:44)
Daniel Amos – Home Permanent (3:13)
Ishmael United – Song of the Last Generation (2:31)
Ishmael United – Schizo (2:46)
Michael W. Smith – Friends (4:22)

Best Music of 2022

UPDATE: I’ve posted THREE DJ sets where I played 102 songs from my best of 2022, some of which are not mentioned in the post below. Check them out!

Once again, 2022 was a fantastic year for new music, with the added bonus that I got out to see more live shows again. Favourite thing ever was finally seeing Pavement, and at the newly-renovated Massey Hall, no less. An evening of pure joy, and for me a celebration of a band that I’d once avoided seeing live. Their reputation for sloppy live shows has been put firmly behind them, I’m glad to report. Other live highlights were discovering smaller bands who released music this year. Halifax/Toronto’s Heaven for Real and Fredericton’s Motherhood are well worth seeing live, should you get the chance. I also enjoyed Chicago’s Stuck and hope they have new music to share in 2023. And seeing Nation of Language live, with Ducks Ltd., was a big surprise. Despite their “cool” sounding music, the band were a delight to see live, and much more lively and chatty on stage than I expected. And of course, I was able to see my favourite band of the year, No Frills, play a record release party that generated a real feeling of excitement about all the great music being created in my hometown these days. I hope 2023 has even more great live experiences in store.

The longer I try to write about music, the harder it gets. Especially this idea of a year-end list and trying to rank things. I find that I just don’t get enough time with each release to really compare it fairly to other stuff. So, in the way of a lame disclaimer, my Top Ten is here again, with a longer list of (very loosely) ranked releases and some that I haven’t had enough time to sit with to rank but which are definitely worthy.

I hope my post will point you in some new directions, and bring you some of the joy that music brings to me. Here’s a YouTube playlist with a whole bunch of songs from this year’s batch.

Here we go…

1. *No Frills – Downward Dog – I discovered No Frills through another local band connection. I saw that one of my Toronto favourites Ducks Ltd. were playing a DJ set at a release party for No Frills‘ album Downward Dog. In preparation for the show, I bought it on Bandcamp and listened a few times. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was being pranked. The production made it feel like I was listening to a wonky cassette, with the pitch shifting all over the place. It even started off with a gimmicky “Welcome” track. But the songs wormed their way into my brain and wouldn’t let go. Frontman and songwriter Daniel Busheikin wants to come across as a smartass, but his emotional honesty can’t be covered up with clever lyrics or even studio trickery. Despite what seem to be transparent efforts to muddy up the sound, Downward Dog is so clearly a pop record, and an exemplary one at that. “Save the Bees” and “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore” should be on any Best Songs of 2022 playlist, and the rest of the songs are equally fine. Maddy Wilde (Born Ruffians, Rapport)’s sweet backing vocals are especially worthy of note. Oh, and drums are by Jonathan Pappo, who also mans the kit for Ducks Ltd. I wish this record had gotten more attention, but I wonder if the existence of a Canadian grocery store chain with the same name has simply made the band rather invisible. Hopefully it’s not more cleverness as self-deprecation, because this music deserves the largest audience possible.

2. Self Improvement – Visible Damage – Hailing from Long Beach, California, Self Improvement‘s sound is based around the slightly deranged vocals of Jett Witchalls, a transplanted Brit. These are catchy post-punk songs that get in and then get out. The entire 10 songs fly by in 24 minutes, including a twitchy and nearly unrecognisable cover of The Prodigy‘s “Firestarter.”

3. Green/Blue – Paper Thin – Led by Jim Blaha, Minneapolis quartet Green/Blue have been around since 2020, and Blaha himself is a veteran of several bands (The Blind Shake, Jim and the French Vanilla, Shadow in the Cracks). In 2022, they actually released two albums, though I haven’t had the chance to listen to Offering yet. Paper Thin grabbed me right away, though, with leadoff track “In Lies” hitting my sweet spot: a little bit shoegaze, a little bit jangly. Another brisk record (10 tracks in 24 minutes), with the longest track still under 3 minutes. The vocals are buried a bit, with the excellent guitar hooks up front. It’s moody but still hooky.

4. Phoenix – Alpha Zulu – I was prepared to like the new Phoenix record, because I always like the new Phoenix record. Every release since Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) has been an automatic buy for me, but more than any of their other recent releases, Alpha Zulu really stuck. Thomas Mars’ vocals are always soothing and pleasing to me, no matter what he’s singing about, but this time it was some of the more melancholic songs that hit hardest. “Winter Solstice” is particularly lovely.

5. Nilüfer Yanya – Painless – Nilüfer Yanya appeared on my radar back in 2017 with her song “Baby Luv” and I have to admit that her 2019 debut album Miss Universe mostly passed me by. But on this year’s Painless, her completely unique combination of gorgeous vocals (sometimes sultry and sometimes chilly), innovative guitar playing, and vaguely electronic beats really hit for me. She obviously owns a few Radiohead records. The obvious hits for me are “stablise” and “the dealer,” but after watching this incredible From The Basement performance, I’m ready to listen to the whole thing front to back again and again.

6. Onyon – Onyon – Onyon are from the same fertile Leipzig punk scene that gave us the excellent Maraudeur, and I was glad to discover them on Bandcamp through the excellent Flennen label. Onyon play fast and catchy songs that wouldn’t appear out of place on a compilation with bands like the Au Pairs or Delta 5.

7. *Motherhood – Winded – I can’t recall how I discovered Motherhood, a veteran trio from tiny Fredericton, New Brunswick, but they put on one of the tightest live shows I saw in 2022, in front of a pitifully small crowd. I was visibly angry when I caught vocalist/guitarist Brydon Crain smoking outside after the gig. “You guys should be playing to crowds ten times bigger,” I raged. Brydon thanked me with a wistful smile that showed that perhaps he thought so, too. They’ve been releasing music since 2013, and relentlessly touring even the smallest towns in Canada and the Northeast US, and I sincerely hope that more people get to hear them. They describe themselves as an “avant-rock” band, and there’s also a bit of math rock, but with more warmth. Winded is simply a great and unique record, and I beg you to give it a listen. “Crawly I” is not a bad place to start.

8. *Alvvays – Blue Rev – I’ve been a huge fan of Alvvays since way back. I’ve seen them live a bunch of times and I’m delighted for their success. Each year since Antisocialites came out back in 2017, I’ve watched the skies for news of a new record, and so I was crazy excited to hear that they’d be releasing new music in 2022. So why isn’t this record higher in my list? I think it might be a few things. I’m not a huge fan of the production on the record, which sounds muddy to me, with Molly Rankin’s vocals buried beneath layers of sludge. I also think that their records tend to need time for me to digest them and begin to distinguish between the songs. This came out in October, which is fairly late in the year. Check with me again in May or June and I’m sure this will have climbed a few places. I’m just glad to have more music from one of Canada’s finest working bands.

9. Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Performance – Definitely one of the buzziest bands on the list, Chicago’s Horsegirl drew attention as much for their youth (the members were just finishing high school while making this record) as for their music. Clearly showing their influences (one critic said, not in a negative way, that they combined the best bits of shoegaze, C86, jangle, grunge and alt-rock), the trio transcend the nostalgia with the force of their youthful enthusiasm. I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

10. *Tallies – Patina – Ah, the difficult tenth spot on a Top Ten list. I chose Tallies over Suede for several reasons. Suede made a fantastic late career record, but they’re seasoned professionals and their record got more than ample attention. I chose Tallies because, partially, they’re another Toronto band of whom I can be proud. Although they’re mining the same dream pop territory as many other bands, there is a real warmth to singer Sarah Cogan’s moody vocals. Yes, they’re reminiscent of bands like The Sundays and Tamaryn, but that’s a wonderful thing; at least I think so. They’re signed to Bella Union, a label run by former Cocteau Twins‘ bassist Simon Raymonde, so I’m not the only one.

No Frills - Downward Dog
Self Improvement - Visible DamageGreen/Blue - Paper Thin
Phoenix - Alpha ZuluNilüfer Yanya - PainlessOnyon - Onyon
Motherhood - WindedAlvvays - Blue RevHorsegirl - Versions of Modern PerformanceTallies - Patina

Once again, and with a tinge of regret, I really went hard trying to listen to a lot of new music in 2022, though of course nobody can listen to it all. Here are the rest of my ranked picks, although the rankings are very loose. I’ve also listed a couple of unranked releases, which I just haven’t had the time to listen to enough to form a strong opinion yet. They are ALL worthy of your attention. As in the Top Ten above, Canadian bands get an asterisk.

  1. Suede – Autofiction
  2. *Heaven for Real – Energy Bar
  3. Delivery – Forever Giving Handshakes
  4. *Kiwi Jr. – Chopper
  5. Ex-Vöid – Bigger Than Before
  6. The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field
  7. Metronomy – Small World
  8. Beach House – Once Twice Melody
  9. Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
  10. *Young Guv – GUV III/GUV IV
  11. *The Weeknd – FM Dawn
  12. String Machine – Hallelujah Hell Yeah
  13. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
  14. Mo Troper – MTV
  15. Lassie – Behold
  16. Just Mustard – Heart Under
  17. The Soundcarriers – Wilds
  18. Yard Act – The Overload
  19. The Reds, Pinks, and Purples – Summer at Land’s End
  20. Lawn – Bigger Sprout
  21. Launder – Happening
  22. Vision 3D – Hypnose
  23. MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs
  24. Bartees Strange – Farm to Table
  25. Blushing – Possessions
  26. Spoon – Lucifer on the Sofa
  27. Smirk – Material
  28. CLASS – Epoca de Los Vaqueros
  29. Mick Trouble – It’s Mick Trouble’s Second LP
  30. Johnny Marr – Fever Dreams, Pts. 1-4

Unranked for now

  • Spread Joy – II
  • *The Weather Station – How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars?
  • Sharon Van Etten – We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
  • Wilco – Cruel Country
  • Papé Nziengui – Kadi Yombo
  • Freak Genes – Hologram
  • The Orchids – Dreaming Kind
  • Dot Dash – Madman in the Rain
  • The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness – The Third Wave Of…
  • KT Tunstall – NUT
  • Glaas – Qualm
  • Mitraille – Mitraille
  • *Bliss Fields – Slowly, Forever
  • Crime of Passing – Crime of Passing
  • Kindsight – Swedish Punk
  • Syndrome 81 – Prisons Imaginaires
  • Kpax! – Kpax!
  • Pale Blue Eyes – Souvenir
  • Die Verlierer – Die Verlierer

EEPEES

  1. Public Body – Flavour of Labour (EP)
  2. Khruangbin and Leon Bridges – Texas Moon (EP)
  3. *Rapport – Floating Through the Wonderwave (EP)
  4. *Rare Spam – EP (EP)
  5. Arny Margret – intertwined (EP)
  6. Fugitive – Maniac (EP)
  7. Trauma Ray – Transmissions (EP)
  8. Mo Dotti – Guided Imagery (EP)
  9. *Private Lives – Private Lives (EP)
  10. Lifeguard – Crowd Can Talk (EP)
  11. *Coins Parallèles – Démo (EP)
  12. Rouge – Rouge (EP)
  13. Clear Capsule – Gravity Licker
  14. His Lordship – His Lordship Play Rock ‘n’ Roll Volume 1

Best 2021 Albums Discovered in 2022

  • Snapped Ankles – Forest of Your Problems
  • Nation of Language – A Way Forward
  • feeble little horse – Hayday

As always, music helped me through this year’s highs and lows, reinforcing my belief that music is as essential to my life as food, oxygen, and love.

Just for fun, here are some of my previous lists:

How about you? What were some of your favourites?

Where The Wild Things Were, Part 1

Where The Wild Things Were: My Year as an American College DJ

So, recently I discovered about 10 cassettes of my college radio show from 1992-1993, when I attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Teachers’ College. This was a hugely tumultuous and important year in my life, and so I’ve decided to make something out of it. I’ve digitised the tapes and am going to recreate the playlists and add some biographical stuff. Maybe this will only be fun for me, but I’m hoping some of my friends and other people might want to get a peek into the early ’90s, both musically and to get a glimpse into my life as a human being.

Part 1 was finished today and uploaded to Mixcloud. I’ll embed the show here, but here’s the intro stuff from the beginning (it runs about six minutes in the audio)


__________

Where The Wild Things Were: My Year as an American College DJ

Introduction

The years 1992 and 1993 were pivotal ones in my life. In the spring of 1992, I was 27 years old and about to graduate from York University with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature. I was living with my friend Brent in the apartment I had occupied since I was 6 years old, but things weren’t going so well financially. My mum had died in 1987 and since then, my Dad hadn’t really given me any financial or emotional support. After working up the courage to write and share a begging letter with him, I was disheartened when he said he couldn’t help except to offer space in his one bedroom apartment for me to move in.

So after discarding many of my childhood mementoes and saying goodbye to Brent, who’d also been forced to move back in with his parents, I took up residence in a single bed squeezed behind the sofa in my Dad’s living room. The whole apartment smelled like smoke and fried food. It was here that I finished my essays and commuted to university for those last few months.

Over the summer, I applied to both M.A. programmes in English and to Teacher’s College programmes, some as far away as the Maritimes and the U.S. I remember taking the bus to visit the campus at Brock University in St. Catherines, and even visiting Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I loved the campus at Calvin, and the school appealed to me. It was a liberal arts college run by the Christian Reformed Church, a denomination with a heavily Dutch-American (and Dutch-Canadian) population.

Since I’d been to Bible College, it had a certain comfort, althouth it seemed a lot less strict. Students there were known to smoke and drink, although the curriculum was rooted in Christian principles. The academic standards were very high, and the professors were highly qualified and yet accessible. The student population was around 4,000. I came home from my visit really hoping to be able to go.

And then I got an acceptance letter. The only one from a teachers’ college, in fact. Calvin was super expensive (something like US$12,000), but of course the fees included on-campus housing and a meal plan. They were also offering me a significant package of student aid that covered around half of the cost. I just needed to come up with the rest.

One of the main appeals of Calvin was that I could spend a year away from Dad’s apartment, and away from a Toronto that seemed to have run out of good things for me. I didn’t really have a home anymore, and I needed to make some progress toward making a living on my own. I was also eager to get away from an unrequited crush that had been weighing me down for more than five years. I accepted the offer and prayed that somehow the money would come.

I moved into a campus apartment with four other guys, two junior and two seniors. I was 6 or 7 years older than all of them, but they welcomed me with open arms. We moved all the bunk beds into one room, and put a TV and small couch into the other room. We did lots of stuff together, and without those guys, my year would have been much harder.

During orientation week, there was a party, organized in part by Ben and Ryan, two of my housemates, who were residence advisors. They were looking for someone to DJ, so I volunteered. I figured it would be a good way to avoid having to talk to people while still participating. I loved it, and people complimented me on the music I chose. So I decided to ask about getting a weekly slot at WCAL, the campus radio station. It had been going since 1965, even though it was only closed-circuit, which meant you could only hear it on the Calvin campus.

I was a little surprised how easy it was to get on the air. I was given a two hour weekly slot and without too much in the way of orientation, I was let loose on the airwaves. The WCAL office was mostly full of CDs by this point, but there was still some vinyl and even some “cartridges,” which looked a bit like 8-track tapes and which mostly held short station ID bits. Whenever I did my show, there was no one else in the office, although I’d drop by occasionally to borrow CDs when there were people around. Despite that, I never really got to know any of the other DJs.

I started the show at the end of September, initially from 6-8 on Wednesday nights, and it took me a few weeks to come up with the idea of calling it “Where The Wild Things Are.” I’d always loved Maurice Sendak’s book, and the artwork seemed like it would look great on a poster. So I checked the book out of the library, and lo and behold, it came with a 45rpm record that had someone reading the story aloud. I decided to use the first couple of minutes as my intro, right up until the part where the reader says, “And now, cried Max, let the wild rumpus start!” Each week I’d check the book out for a day and then return it the next day. I hadn’t figured out how to record my intro onto a cartridge, which would have saved a lot of hassle.

By December, when this first tape was recorded, I was pretty comfortable on air even as school and my personal life were overwhelming me. I had just returned from a long weekend at home in Toronto, where I’d spent time with my crush. The one I was trying to get over by going away for a year. To make things worse, I’d fallen for a neighbour in my campus apartment complex with the same name. All four of my housemates had girlfriends, and were putting pressure on me to ask out this neighbour. I had passed some state competency exams required for my teaching certificate, but hadn’t yet received my placement for student teaching, so that was making me anxious. I also had no plans for Christmas, since my Dad always spent it with some friends and didn’t invite me along.

So that’s where I was at in December 1992. This first tape uncharacteristically has two shows on it, the first 45 minutes of each of December 2nd and December 9th. I hope you enjoy listening.