How dare I feel so lonely?

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's top 50 albums of 2022. 

#42 : God Save The Animals - Alex G

When asked by Pitchfork why his ninth album was so awash in religious imagery, Alex Giannascoli replied: “A few people that I’m close to became religious. It made me wonder what they found.” God Save the Animals suggests that what they found may have been, plainly, ease – a contentment and faith in the world that’s been hard to find on Giannascoli’s past few albums. Although he may be as neurotic and searching as ever, God Save the Animals finds him zeroing in on tiny moments of relief from the anxieties of the world, trudging up a never-ending hill and telling himself a mantra steeped in earnestness and irony: “Every day is a blessing.”

This may be his ninth album, but I've never heard of the lad - so I'm interested to do so.

Hmmm - interesting.  It's a very inventive album, but the vocals are often obscured by said inventiveness.  I was reminded of Bright Eyes, who I like but find it can take a few listens to get into his albums and I can believe the same is true here.  I can't say any particular tracks jumped out at me but it's all quite intriguing - not immediate, but I can see it might be a grower.  It's also a very interesting choice to have the opening track (hence the first I'd heard from him) sang by someone else.

I can't imagine this has charted over here - nope, none of his stuff has.  Wikipedia tells me that it did chart in the US - #144 on the Billboard 200 and it was his first album to do so, so I can imagine he was pretty chuffed about that.  It also tells me the critics loved it and it's on a load of best of 2022 lists.

"Customers also listened to" Frankie Cosmos, Archers Of Loaf and Blood Orange - ah yes, that lot.  I admit to being intrigued by Alex but not, I suspect, enough to investigate further - it feels like a well put-together album though and I'm pleased he's got some recognition for it.

#41 : Hideous Bastard - Oliver Sim

The greatest trick pulled by the xx is in how joint singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim dissolve their personal perspectives into an alluring, all-embracing whole. But on Sim’s debut album, he considers the many ways he has tried to disappear in his life – denial, fear, isolation, shame – and weighs up their cost. The antidote, Hideous Bastard suggests, is in unvarnished, often unflattering honesty; the slinky, seductive, often twisted music, produced by Sim’s bandmate Jamie xx, creates the perfect uncanny spotlight for it

The xx are one of those bands I quite like but never seek out - I'm expecting this to be "ooh, look at me being different" without really being all that different.

But I'd say it's different enough to count as being worth the effort - it's quite John Grant like.  It's nicely singalong if you like that sort of thing, although the lyrics might not be great for your sense of self worth - I think it's fair to say The Guardian gets it right with "unflattering honesty" (see also that album cover).  I wouldn't say any particularly track jumped out at me, but he's got a nice voice and at 35 minutes, it's not going to take you long to check it out - we've seen lots of short albums this year.

I thought he might have a snuck a quick week in the lower reaches of the charts and so it turns out - a fleeting appearance at #58.  Which gave him more recognition than he gets Wikipedia which doesn't even have an entry for the lad, let alone one for the album.  "Customers also listened to" chloe moriondo, Princess Chelsea and Magdalena Bay - once again, yeah, that lot.  I didn't mind this at all - I hope it gave him some of the confessional benefit it certainly sounds that he's after.

Two very contrasting male voices this time around - an interesting pair of albums.

#44-43 - Our first previously met album
#40-39 - An odd pair of albums and no mistake