2022: My Year in Music

Trying to catch up on missing two years of these year-end playlist posts and stay up to date for 2024 is a challenge, but I am currently in El Paso, TX, trying to gain perspective on the last two years anyway, so it seems like the right time to try.  I've finally regained my motivation to do this and have been enjoying reviewing the songs I tucked away in 2022 for this post and never had a chance to sort, digest and mull over.  I had two flights yesterday and a long out and back drive today which gave me the time and quiet I needed to finally go through it. 

I put over 64 songs on the "possibilities" list in 2022. That's a long list, even for me. I think there were several contributing factors to it being such an exploratory year: 

• I was in transition between my non-profit and making a move to consulting.  I pieced together employment for most of the year with jobs that weren't always full-time and stayed well within the bounds of a 40 hour work week. 
• I got more into my fun weekend job at a winery, and took some wine classes. 
• I traveled often quite often to maintain a long-distance relationship. 

Girvan, Scotland - April 2022

The most important factor is lessened professional responsibility, and being in a phase where I was trying to figure out next steps and exploring and trying lots of new things.  So this long, long list of possibilities is likely a reflection of that.  Perspective and self-awareness appear more easily with two years of hindsight.  Once I started my new job at the beginning of 2023 I knew I wouldn't have time to sit down and write anything like this for a long time, and that proved all too true.  

Anyway, it's exciting to take these songs and moments in time off the shelf and think about them a little bit.  So let's dive in!

Sunshine - Two Hundred Grand

It takes less than a fraction of a second to get sucked into this song. It's a little bit surf rock, and so, SO infectious.  I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks after I first heard it.  I still get pumped when it pops up in the rotation.  

Mt. Joy - Roly Poly

I'm not sure why it is, but every time I hear this song I think of my nephew.  He would have been two at the time of its release and very roly poly.  The lyrics have no connection at all, but it's the lilting beat, the interesting sounds that layer to create the melody, and the general happiness that the music conveys that remind me of that bright young ball of boundless energy.  He will probably never like this song.  Maybe if I tell him I hate it?   

The English Beat - Save it For Later

I really really love 80's music.  This song was originally released the year I was born, oh so very long ago. I like where the lyrics talk about coming to a decision on something, and hinting at that imposter syndrome where your legs give way, you hit the ground, and then you'll get found out.  In changing my job YET AGAIN, I do feel as though I don't have much to recommend myself in terms of expertise to any employer, and so when they are looking for me to tell them what I am good at, I think of all my friends who have carefully honed skill sets over 20+ years and then there's me - flitting about from flower to flower, feeding then moving on.  Also the part about "don't run away and let me down".  My boyfriend navigated the career change with me from start to finish and there were times when I wanted to sing this lyric to him directly.  He has been in mostly the same line of work his entire career.  He was very often confused by my decisions and leadings. This song is just great, even if you don't read into it.  Also, again, taking liberties with my 2024 self, not my 2022 self, I can also highly recommend a cover of this song that Eddie Vedder released in 2024 that kicks off season 3 of "The Bear" and is gorgeous.  

The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers

The Beths made an impression on me with their debut album in 2018 (Future Me Hates Me) which I played so many times.  This cut is off their eponymous sophomore release from 2020 but, as usual, I was late to the party.  It's more introspective and what caught my attention is the noticeably slower, more introspective and beautifully melodious construction of this song.  It's an introspective and beautiful rock song, which is not easy to do.  Also, their New Zealand accents are so strong in it, it adds a level to the already lovely musicality for me. 

Elvis Costello - Every Day I Write The Book

Another gem from the 80s.  There's something about the way I love books and music and a good story that is wrapped up into this song.  How do we know how love stories unfold? The ones in my life have been a consistent mystery to me even as I live in them and outlive them, and look back on them - what is the story there? What are the themes? Playing around with the idea of being the writer but also not being in control of the story.  "When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote...".  I think we all know what that feels like. So it hits home emotionally, but maintains a hopeful outlook and tone. Everyday I write the book.  

California Gold - Stand Close 

It is legitimately hard for me love this song like I do.  It's a great example of one of those times where the lyrics are hitting something very deep for me and I also have real trouble listening to them for the same reason. It's always hard for me to stay in one place, even from when I was tiny. I love moving just like my roly-poly nephew. I rarely date, and have trouble settling down even when I do.  But in my last relationship, I did start to understand what the goodness of staying with the right person could truly be.  The offer of stable companionship is a very powerful and precious thing in whatever form it comes.  

Jamie Drake - To My Love

Another in the theme of feeling the push-pull of confrontation with being loved, and loving in return.  It helps to know that others out there also want to run and hide from good things.  And that they are also trying their best NOT to do that - their self-awareness allows them to write songs to their lovers effectively leaving the some breadcrumbs on the path so that they can find their way back to each other again.  We can't always stem the tide of crazy, but at least we can learn to help our people navigate it with us.  

St. Thomas - Feb 2022

Hurray for the Riff Raff - Pierced Arrows

Okay, back to being jaded and scarred again.  Enough with this being vulnerable and allowing other people to care for you.  BARF.  I've been a fan of hers for over a decade and her sound has evolved but her excellent songwriting remains intriguing.  I also just love the driving beat behind the song, and the hard edge to the production.  This song sounds so tough but she's talking about how vulnerable she is.  

Ethel Cain - American Teenager

I can feel all the struggle in this song. So many good questions and no definitive answers.  I'm not a teenager anymore, but even at my current age, these struggles feel present and familiar.  I wish it could get easier for the youths, but the struggle is definitely part of adulthood.  I want to have something to say to them about how it does get easier, but I don't.  This also reminds me of Olivia Rodrigo, who also has all of the angst and emotion in her music, but this song is more relatable for me for sure. 

Hogback Mountain - January 2022

Joel Plaskett Emergency - Fashionable People

I had only been working at the winery for about 6 months before I heard this song.  I had this itch about  bartending, but working until 3am on weekends wasn't going to work. Wineries have all but cornered the market on making day-drinking classy, and the hours are great.  I started the gig to make extra money for my big 40th birthday trip and now the trip is long passed but working there is so fun. It's a beautiful place, and the wine is among the best produced in Virginia, in my humble opinion. I really enjoy the people I work with and learning more about wine, many days it doesn't feel like work at all. And from time to time, I do witness fashionable people doing questionable things. 

Sir Sly - Material Boy

A high-energy pop tune that is semi-apologetically selfish and muses about a disconnect between a desire to remain a material boy in a spiritual world.  Spirituality lives in a different place in modern American culture, with more and more options offered, and less and less that seem to hold much water.  I like considering the songwriter's perspective.  He alludes to having an addiction and sitting in a circle of people trying to fix it, and they don't seem to be helping.  He also alludes to political frustration, and as the band is from Orange County, CA, I can imagine there would be quite a story about the journey the band traveled to whatever beliefs and views they hold today.  I think spirituality can be the absolute best thing in the world, and it can also be the worst, even scary.  We're seeing all kinds most days and while no answers are offered in this tune, and it's sort of a navel-gazing indie pop song, I still like it.  The conversation is current.  

John Craigie - Nomads

The chorus supplicates Saint Christopher (the patron saint of travelers, motorists, drivers, sailors, soldiers, and those who are caught in storms) for a blessing over nomads everywhere. I love songs that have what I have heard described as a "jangly" sound to them.  This is a sound I associate with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the Felice Brothers (who are featured on this year's list as well!), Phosphorescent, Loudon Wainwright III, and Shakey Graves, to name a few.  This is different than Jangle Pop by the way, which, the internet has just taught me, is a sub-genre of rock based on jangling electric guitar sounds and 1960's melodies.  But I digress. I have called upon this blessing many a time and appreciated its words and the stirring tune that accompanies it.  It feels so right to play this song with the open road before you and an open sky above, and nothing but unknowns to step into.  

Anaïs Mitchell - Bright Star

A ballad for a purposeful drifter, this beautiful song is full of gentle longing and hope.  This song makes me think that people can feel lost but also secure knowing they can be guided and even sought by a constant light. 

Florence and the Machine - Free

Florence Welch and Jack Antonoff wrote this song and their teammwork resulted in a masterful pop song that is simple and profound.  I love songs that help me have hope to "exist in the face of suffering and death and somehow still keep singing". Things are rough out there.  I've said before and I remain so thankful for the artists helping the less expressive of us to sort it all out.  And I especially love the artists who can hold pain and hope together in such a way as this.  

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - There She Goes My Beautiful World

Since I watched "Wings of Desire" with my older brother many years ago, Nick Cave and his band the Bad Seeds have utterly fascinated me.  He's almost 70 and his songwriting and poetry seem to intensify, as do his performances.  He has a gravelly baritone and he is known to bellow some his lyrics.  This song is kind of a wild ride.  He has an incredible arc to his story, full of loss and pain, and I just love how raw he is, in every song I've encountered.  I think it's probably hard live with that kind of intensity, even just managing an internal life and thoughts that are like that.  But I am glad he persists and holds himself to higher standards and remains unhinged in the best possible ways.  

The Felice Brothers - Jazz on the Autobahn

If this song were a novel I would tear through it ravenously.  A doomed Corvette, an elicit couple, discussions about the apocalypse dominating their first moments on the lam together...such intrigue! I wouldn't be able to put it down.  This song gives me so much to think about, and leaves so many questions unanswered: What will the apocalypse look and sound like? What is freedom? Why is the Corvette doomed? This is one of those songs I just want to walk around in, dwelling in the people and the questions and the excellent music playing. 

The Arcadian Wild - A Benediction

A blessing for all of us, sent with dulcet tones and the strongest Nickle Creek vibes I've heard since my college years.  I hope it speaks to something unsettling for you right now, and helps tie something together that is frayed for a little while at least.  

Thanks, as always, for listening, friends.