This will be my last Album of the Week of 2022 (and possibly, ever, but more on that later) as I won’t have time to listen to new albums and do them justice, but I do hope I can do a round up of some of the best albums I missed before the year’s end.
Album: Pigments
Artist: Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn
Release Date: October 21, 2022
Label: Merge Records
Favorite Tracks:
- Vantablack
- Crimson
- Umber
Thoughts:
Dawn Richard, whose earlier work fell more into the pop and R&B genre, adds her ethereal voice to the layer of atmospheric sounds made with her collaborator Spencer Zahn. At times, this album sounds like one of those New Age relaxation tapes, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. At any rate this is a very deeply expressive form of music that definitely deserves repeated listening to understand better.
Rating: ***
Album of the Week: 2022
January
- Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
- Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever
- Adele –30
- Tran Uy Duc – Came
- Yard Act – The Overload
- Aoife O’Donovan – Age of Apathy
February
- Tanya Taqaq – Tongues
- Various Artists – Summer of Soul soundtrack
- Mitski – Laurel Hell
- Shamir – Hetrosexuality
March
- Lady Pills – What I Want
- Stromae – Multitude
- Jenny Hval – Classic Objects
- Yumi Zouma – Present Tense
April
- Ibibio Sound Machine – Electricity
- Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems
- The Linda Lindas – Growing Up
- Deer Scout – Woodpecker
- Sault – Air
May
- Congotronics International – Where’s the One?
- Oumou Sangaré – Timbuktu
- Various Artists – Daptone Mood
- Wet Leg – Wet Leg
July
- Editrix – Editrix Goes To Hell
- Medicine Singers – Medicine Singers
- Mourning [A] BLKstar – Celestial Bodies
- Lizzo – Special
- The Ballroom Thieves – Clouds
August
- Petrol Girls – Baby
- Beyoncé – Renaissance
- Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings – Love is the Only Thing
September
- Courtney Swain – Silver Lining
- Russian Circles – Gnosis
- Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
- Santigold – Spirituals
- The Beths – Expert in a Dying Field
October
- Björk – Fossora
- Alvvays – Blue Rev
- Tove Lo – Dirt Femme
November
- A New Kind of Love by Ghost Funk Orchestra
- Endure by Special Interest
- KALAK by Sarathy Korwar
- Revolver (Super Deluxe) by The Beatles