You can read all our latest end-of-year lists here. We still have one more Top 10 list to share before we share our Top 100 Albums of 2022. The album titles beneath link to the full album review, and there is also an album purchase link (most of which link to Bandcamp).
Here are Bob Fish’s Top 10 Albums of 2022…
The Unthanks – Sorrows Away
Not many bands can quote influences like Miles Davis, Steve Reich, Sufjan Stevens, Robert Wyatt, Antony & The Johnsons, King Crimson and Tom Waits; even less can continue to move an audience the way The Unthanks do. Sorrows Away continue a string of releases that prove they are a treasure no one should ignore. Their singing and playing simply have no equals. Since they are self-managed, they only answer to their muses, for which we can be eternally grateful. Whether the songs are 3 minutes long or over 9, they hold you in their thrall, listening in total amazement.
Joan Shelley – The Spur
Times are what we make them. Joan Shelley used her time to create something truly special with The Spur. It isn’t merely a window into a woman; it is a mirror that allows us to see the world differently, to view these moments not only as what they are but as moments rife with possibility. This is an album of simple power. Nothing feels out of place, it is not so much set in a moment, rather it feels like a sea of them. Each moment builds on what has come before, creating sounds that feel surprisingly simple. Yet listening, one realizes that simplicity is deceiving. Neither the music nor the lyrics are exactly what they seem; there is beauty and grace beyond anything Shelley has done before.
Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy
Rolling Golden Holy is a collaboration unlike anything else you’ve heard this year. There are even fewer rules than on their first disc. In the process, they’ve made something even more memorable because they are taking even more chances. Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman all sing, creating blends that reflect three individuals who have merged their identities in search of a common dream – to create the best music possible. This is the sound of a band changing all the rules and discovering new connections.
Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
At every turn, Big Thief exposes their willingness to experiment and create new sounds that put them in a category all their own. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a stunning collection that goes everywhere with most impressive results. This is a band that is playing at a different level, examining and creating sounds that set them apart from almost everyone else recording today.
Su-a Lee – Dialogues
Dialogues is unlike anything else released this year. Playing with everyone from Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis to Phil Cunningham and Donald Shaw, Lee illustrates the connections between musical styles, creating an album that has rarely been out of rotation. Uncategorizable, yet undeniably some of the best music you’ll hear this year or any year.
Rezo – Sew Change
Sew change is proof that Rezo are still at the forefront of generating fresh and creative collages of sound. It shows that when you choose to colour outside the lines, some of the most interesting shades can appear. Making choices that aren’t necessarily the most straightforward, Colm O’Connell and Rory McDaid are able to explore areas that create new frames for their images. This is what great music is capable of being, something that frees us to see beyond what we already know.
Ben McElroy – How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack
Ben McElroy’s How I Learnt to Disengage from the Pack is an album that generates moments in a most deceptive way. He disarms you, taking everything you know about music and playing it in ways that find the power between the notes. The air itself is an instrument, and he uses it to create moments of stillness that only to make the music more powerful. Using the simplest of acoustic instrumentation, he not only recreates but reinvigorates his music.
Kevin Morby – This is a Photograph
Photographs capture moments that time cannot erase, except that images don’t tell the entire story, which Morby makes clear on This is a Photograph. More than moments trapped in time, we get memories, fables and images captured with a lens focused on who we are and from where we have come. Morby takes to the task with a sense of heightened awareness coming from his father’s near-fatal heart attack. He finds the passion and emotion that make us living and breathing people, tingeing that with realities that humanize us all.
Penguin Café – A Matter of Life … 2021
Arthur Jeffes and Penguin Cafe have, over the course of the past ten years, managed to create a name for themselves. Different yet related to the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra, a Matter of Life … 2021 illustrated the beginning of a new path. Listening to it today only serves to confirm the wisdom of the choices Jeffes made. Penguin Café was conceived in a way to challenge the traditional music structure and find the connections that fly in the face of that tradition.
Anaïs Mitchell – Anaïs Mitchell
When Anaïs Mitchell released her self-titled album back in January, I shouldn’t have been surprised by how good it was. Produced by her Bonnie Light Horseman bandmate Josh Kaufman, it continues to illustrate her ability to create music that finds a seam that connects with your experience. “Now You Know”, in particular, hits all the right notes, creating the kind of power and passion impossible to ignore.