This year’s Top 100 Folk Albums of 2022 has been done slightly differently. In the past, these albums were compiled by me and unranked, but this year I decided to ask our core writers to vote for their favourite albums instead. Thankfully, they found the time to do this, on top of also presenting their individual Top 10 lists which can be read here.
As the Folk Album list below shows, it’s been an incredible year for music. It includes a fair few undeniable career highs and some equally stunning debuts. The list also reflects Folk Radio’s depth of coverage which, alongside the ongoing mix series’ (Folk Show, Lost in Transmission and KLOF) and playlists, highlights an open-minded approach that has navigated a continually evolving landscape both in the folk world and the more alternative music that we cover. When you work at something full-time, it’s easy to forget the value that others may place on what you do. Over the past year, in particular, I have received numerous emails reminding me of this. Most recently, that was highlighted by BBC 6 Music DJ Tom Robinson when sitting in for Gideon Coe…he ended his three-hour folk music-themed show by acknowledging Folk Radio UK as his ‘go-to resource’ for folk music (listen here); it was a beautiful gesture to see out the year on.
I’ve been running Folk Radio UK for over 18 years now and keeping this ship afloat has been challenging. In hindsight, my decision to run a niche music website full-time seems foolhardy, especially considering the rapidly changing and uncertain media market we now work within. As the last couple of years have demonstrated, community has become an essential part of the creative arts, and without the wonderful readers and listeners that have rallied behind us and provided donations and signed up to our premium newsletter subscriptions, you wouldn’t be reading this. The writing on the wall suggests that the year ahead is going to be equally challenging so if you do receive our free newsletter, please consider upgrading that to a paid subscription or making a one-off or regular donation; this all helps to secure our future and independence.
I hope you enjoy the list below; alongside the excerpts from our album reviews are streaming links (mostly from Bandcamp) and links to the full reviews which I encourage you to dive into and explore – we have a great team of writers, so take some time out to look back and savour what a great year it has been for music.
I wish you all best and a Happy New Year
Alex Gallacher, December 2022
You can find a playlist for the Top 100 here:
100 – 75 | 74 – 50 | 49-25 | 24-01 |
100-75
100. Various – África Negra: Antologia Vol.1
In music that displays fierce energy, frenzied rhythms, and natural harmonies in the rich San Tomean melodic tradition, Antologia Volume 1 brings the Pan African sound of África Negra to a wider audience and most convivialade it is too.
99. Bola Sete – Samba in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966 – 1968)
Born Djama De Andrade in Brazil in 1923, nylon string guitar (violão in Portuguese) maestro Bola Sete left his home country in 1959, never to return. His travels eventually brought him to the United States, where he worked for the Sheraton hotel company and signed for Fantasy records and Takoma after winning the admiration of solo acoustic guitar pioneer and loose cannon John Fahey. The extensive and fascinating sleeve notes to Tompkins Square’s three-disc release of Sete’s live shows at the famous Penthouse jazz club in Seattle will provide the listener and reader with oodles more information than the above, plus a wealth of music spanning three years of concerts. Samba in Seattle is an indulgent and immensely satisfying collector’s piece that will provide much entertainment.
98. VRï – islais a genir
If Wales can be said to have a national psyche, it is heavily linked to song. From eisteddfods to rugby songs, male voice choirs to the Green Man festival, the outsider’s view of Wales is of a musical nation, specifically a nation that takes immense joy in song. And if any band can be said to tap into the source of that joy, it is VRÏ. The name translates roughly as ‘up’, but it has connotations of elation or lightness, of a feeling of floating. They describe what they do as ‘vocal and instrumental chamber music’, and create a signature sound entirely unencumbered by rhythmic or melodic ‘anchors’ – no drums, no fretted or keyed instruments. Mostly this equates to a combination of voice, harmonium and various fretless strings. It sounds like a simple combination, but the results are varied and impressive. islais a genir is an album that honours variety and positively revels in its own complex, colourful identity, by turns thoughtful and celebratory. A formidable artistic and cultural statement.
97. Patrick Watson – Better in the Shade
Watson says, Better in the Shade “is about negotiating a world where you don’t know what’s real anymore.” The album engages by disengaging from the world we know, using parts we tend to rely on as stepping stones to a deeper understanding. Everything you know is wrong on Patrick Watson’s Better in the Shade, which is what makes it so perfectly right.
96. Marlais – Streams of Forms
Streams of Forms has taken around five years to work into a final form, settling into a fascinating presentation in which the artist is the narrator of a collection that stitches together traditional folk and ambient electronica in ground-breaking ways. It hints at bolder, more profound trips from this alchemist still to come. On this form, it will be worth keeping an ear out for a taste of whatever this outside-the-box sonic chef cooks up next.
95. Plu – Tri
The last time we heard the Caernarfonshire sibling trio Plu, featuring Elan, Marged and Gwilym Rhys, was in 2015 with Tir a Golau. Plu have not lost the magic that so captivated us back then; those rich, gorgeous sibling harmonies are there in abundance. With a broadened sound stage, there is a beautiful, nuanced depth to this offering; it is an understated joy and one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.
94. BRÍDÍN – BRÍDÍN
West Sligo contemporary harpist Brídín released her debut album Thursday 20th October, featuring collaborations with Limerick rapper MuRli, legendary trad musician Sharon Shannon, and the award-winning actor Stephen Rea. Speaking of the release, Brídín says “My self-titled debut album ‘BRÍDÍN’ has become for me, my favourite work to date. I am so proud of every song and piece on this album and what they mean to me. Along with my amazing band, we have captured my mindset in this moment. From start to finish, I believe my album takes you on a journey of grief, pain and anxiety to a place of great peace and acceptance. Through writing and recording these songs and pieces, I have learned and grown so much, fine tuning my style and writing the music I want to hear.”
Featured on various Mixes and Videos across the year on Folk Radio.
93. Robyn Hitchcock – Shufflemania!
Thank heaven that Robyn Hitchcock ran into Kukulkan, aka Quetzalcoatl, the feathery serpent god while in Tulum. Without that chance encounter, we may have never had Shufflemania! We are so much richer due to that chance encounter.
92. Joseph Allred – The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh
Multi-instrumentalist Joseph Allred is a broad-reaching musician who has set to tape many of his stylistic shifts in the past, illustrating a diverse creative nature and ability with instruments and voice. For The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh, he sticks to six and twelve-string guitar plus banjo to paint a wide-ranging vista of instrumental narratives through many styles of music. Not to be confused with the biblical city of Shiloh, Joseph’s inspiration was a small community in Overton County, Tennessee, near where his father was born. In the album notes, a sentence describing Shiloh is appropriate for the music: ‘A place where the spheres of past and present, dead and living, immanent and transcendent, overlap.’
91. Ye Vagabonds – Nine Waves
Last summer, brothers Brían and Diarmuid MacGloinn took to Ireland’s inland waterways for their All Boats Rise project, which featured several alfresco, pop-up performances and guest appearances. Fascinated by folklore and the natural world, and with a tip of the cap to those who forged the way before them, this ‘exercise in slow touring’ neatly summed up their ethos. Emerging from the stifling fug of the last couple of years, it’s incredible to see how far they have come with the release of their third record, the gorgeously restrained Nine Waves. Reflective and reverent, with Nine Waves Ye Vagabonds prove once again to be at the forefront of an ever-evolving, flourishing Irish folk scene and have done so in the most understated and inspired fashion imaginable.
90. Andrew Bird – Inside Problems
Andrew Bird once again confirms that he is one of the most original artists in the music business. He finds a way to deal with complex topics while also attempting to simplify them, then sets them to incredibly attractive arrangements. Inside Problems have never sounded quite so appealing.
89. Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin – The Deepest Breath
He has a quality to his voice that’s mesmerising and enchanting. “(Eoghan has) a creative streak on par with some of this country’s greatest ever songwriters. The lyrics of The Deepest Breath are proof and testament to that. Incredibly powerful words which not unlike the great Liam Weldon, are words that belong to and represent the working people. Words of hope for the overlooked and hard done by.” – Myles O’Reilly
88. Kathryn Williams – Night Drives
With Night Drives, Kathryn Williams continues to explore ways to intrigue and find touchstones outside the commonplace. A collection that explores a more filmic sound, with a larger ensemble of instrumentation, and production from Ed Harcourt. These are emotive, intelligent, and self-aware tracks, with Kathryn’s inimitable writing backed with beautifully arranged, natural compositions.
87. The Trials of Cato – Gog Magog
…an album that is refreshingly different whilst still retaining enough of the original to be recognisably a progression and not a completely new direction. There’s been a maturing of old components; for example, the Arabic influences, while unmissable, are more nuanced. And whilst Polly’s voice is a standout difference, it’s a very welcome one that has broadened and strengthened the trio’s vocals. Add to this the increasing confidence they show when incorporating electronic effects into their music, and we have an album packed with genre-defying music that will surely be greeted with as much enthusiasm and praise as their debut.
86. Brad Barr – The Winter Mission
From his debut album, The Fall Apartment, it was clear that Brad Barr, known for his work in band The Slip and his sibling Americana duo The Barr Brothers, was more than an emulator in the solo guitar genre, something he further proves with The Winter Mission. His second is a complex recording that shifts into different styles from track to track; the resulting set can be fairly challenging in places, with densely structured pieces entwined with almost eerie sparseness (Safe), but the music, recorded solo with no overdubs (this in itself is surprising), is carefully considered and intelligent. …an album of riches that needs to be given plenty of listens and plenty of time. It will certainly reward you.
85. Loudon Wainwright III – Lifetime Achievement
His first album of new original songs since 2014’s Haven’t Got The Blues Yet, Lifetime Achievement finds him in a state of deep reflection at age 75, over a set of 15 recently written, insightful and incisive gems that he wasn’t even planning to pen. He says that once an album is done and dusted, he can’t stand to hear it anymore. That’s unlikely to be something you’ll experience with this wonderfully Wainwright delight.
84. Luke Daniels and The Cobhers – Luke Daniels and The Cobhers
Everything on this collection from Luke Daniels and The Cobhers is attacked with such life-affirming urgency… These are songs that have cut across the eras, the sub-cultures and age restrictions, and now, they are hoping to knock down genre fences as well.
83. Mama’s Broke – Narrow Line
They are described as folk-without-borders, yet it goes beyond that; their whole musical outlook is without boundary. For sure, this new album definitively builds on the obvious promise of their debut; they have already grown to a point where they are making untrammelled folk music that, whilst sounding vintage in style, could belong in no other era than the present day. Mama’s Broke may seem traditional, but their tales of modern life have too much bite to be nostalgic; they are new and unique voices in modern, rootsy Americana that must be heard.
82. Fruit Bats – Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud
While it seems to go by in the blink of an eye, 20 years is a long time, and Fruit Bats‘ Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001-2021) takes a backward glance at where they’ve been over all that time. These two discs will cause a lot of head-scratching as people try to figure out why they’ve missed the glories of Fruit Bats. As Eric D. Johnson explains, “I’ve never even really gotten up to traveling on tour buses. I’m still in a 15-passenger van I’m driving half the time, still after 20 years.” If the release of Sometimes a Cloud Is Just a Cloud: Slow Growers, Sleeper Hits and Lost Songs (2001-2021) doesn’t get him out of the van, there is no justice in the world.
81. Rachael Dadd – Kaleidoscope
As Rachael sings on the final song ‘Join The Dots,’ “there’s more than one way to travel”, and she proves it by gliding through her own music without repetition or routine. ‘Kaleidoscope’ really does live up to its title; it is an album that possesses so much nuance in those deep grooves, making it a potential career-best for an artist with an admirably understated excellence.
80. Tamsin Elliott – Frey
There is a point where music must be heard rather than talked about; words can only do so much, and when it comes to Frey by Tamsin Elliott, words begin to fail. A Bristol-based musician, she is also an explorer of styles and themes that come from a variety of cultures and musical forms. Her music is a rich tapestry serving to illustrate how much she understands the connections between such cultures. Tamsin Elliott has created a piece of work that will be talked about for years to come.
79. The Little Unsaid – Fable
…If the band dynamic appears familiar, the results are anything but. Elliott’s singing has a little of Thom Yorke about it, while his lyrical preoccupations often touch on mental illness, loss, redemption and man’s place in the world. But there is always an underlying melodicism – he’s like a downbeat Paul McCartney or Nick Cave with a penchant for synth-folk. The essence of The Little Unsaid’s songcraft is that good things (strange and remarkable things, too) can come out of bad times or uncomfortable situations. Their music is all about those contrasts, and Fable illustrates them more sharply than anything they’ve done before.
78. Kate Rusby – 30: Happy Returns
Rightly considered a national treasure, Kate Rusby has made a significant contribution over the last few decades to popularising English folk music, and I’m regularly surprised when friends, who otherwise wouldn’t dream of going to a folk gig, tell me they’ve been to see Kate and her band. With this latest release, she celebrates 30 years as a professional musician. She is still very much at the top of her game.
77. Heidi Talbot – Sing It For A Lifetime
It may have been born of hurt, pain and confusion, but there’s a strength within its musical veins that can find hope in new paths to be taken and new lifetimes to be sung. As Nietzsche said, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, and, as evidence, this may be the best work of Talbot’s career to date.
76. Geoff Muldaur – His Last Letter
Geoff Muldaur has curated a behemoth of a project with packaging that befits the ambition; this is undoubtedly the most annotated and sympathetically presented new music release of 2022. This release not only offers insight into why a banjo-playing folk singer, best remembered for his Kweskin Jug Band in the sixties, or perhaps as the former other half of Maria, is releasing a double album of music that spans the entire range of early twentieth century Americana, before concluding with a three-movement operatic octet; it also goes deep in its liner notes offering both context and information pointing the way to a fuller appreciation of the artists whose music feature. This is an eighty-page hardback book, beautifully illustrated with period photos and scenes from the sessions, extensive text, much of which is written by Muldaur and whose warm personality and fully rounded love of all music burns from the pages. Geoff Muldaur has produced a work where audio thrills match the depth of the subject matter, all stitched together in very personal fabric, making this a deep joy on every level.
75. Ian Noe – River Fools & Mountain Saints
Ian Noe‘s River Fools & Mountain Saints is a mix of observational storytelling and self-reflection. The grainy-voiced Kentucky singer-songwriter’s second album which comes with a more expansive sound. His inspirations come from autobiography, the Appalachian community and observations of the characters that inhabit it. Still, the emotions he touches on and the stories he tells have a universal resonance for all the world’s river fools and mountain saints.