When I'm done singing this song, I will have to find something else

     

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

#21 : Laurel Hell - Mitski

In psychology, arrival fallacy describes the feeling of fulfilling a goal and yet still feeling disappointed. These are the underpinnings of Mitski’s sixth album, in which the Japanese American songwriter confronts the compromises her career has forced on her art and personhood – an album, no less, that she had no intention of making until she realised she still owed her label one more. These sound like inauspicious invitations to listen to Laurel Hell until you remember that – perhaps unfortunately for Mitski – her songwriting thrives amid this sort of conflict, between what we’re meant to want and what we truly want. Set primarily to the kind of tarnished 80s synth-pop the Weeknd would also explore on Dawn FM, Mitski charts the captivating battle between her weariness and drive, her rage and her discipline.

I've had exposure to the odd Mitski track over the the years and think I've not minded them, but they obviously haven't stuck.  It feels like the sort of thing I might like though - and she already has my sympathy if she thought she'd done all her albums for the label until they pointed out there was one more to get out.

Hmmm - it's an odd one.  Overall, I quite liked the songs which do have a very 80s feel to them, so they're right up my street - but she has an odd habit of singing slightly flat from time to time.  There's plenty of evidence across the rest of the album that she's perfectly capable of holding a note, so I assume it's an artistic choice she's made to sing that way and it's an artistic choice that's annoyed me.  Maybe that was her intent - who knows with these arty types?  I did really like "Love Me More" though - as did The Guardian because it's one of their top 20 tracks of the year.

Wow - this is a rarity for us so far.  TWO weeks in the charts!  And it peaked at #6 as well, so I'm pretty certain this is our most successful album so far - The Guardian have really sold out this year.  Wikipedia has a reasonably lengthy entry on the album, most of which is about the artistic torture that she went through to make it - ah, poor lamb.  It also explains that the album title refers to "a folk term for being trapped in thickets of laurel that grow in the southern Appalachian Mountains" - which feels like a situation rare enough that it really doesn't need a specific term to describe it.  The critics were a bit mixed on it, considering it either perfect or annoyingly understated but it did very well commercially - hitting the dizzy heights of #5 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Allie X, Lucy Ducas and Weyes Blood (again!).  Mitskit's latest offering all felt a bit like a missed opportunity to me, whilst also leaving me with the suspicion that this was exactly what she wanted me to feel.  In which case, she wins!

#20 : Diaspora Problems - Soul Glo

Diaspora Problems is sad, funny and, above all, brutal – the sound of a band contending with the horrors of racism and capitalism with an absurdist grin and an uncompromising eye. Fusing raw, flayed hardcore with dense rap, meme-ish humour, horn sections and jagged samples, Soul Glo reorient punk towards its anarchic and anti-capitalist roots, away from the When We Were Young-ified TikTok punk aesthetic and towards something that – in a rarity for 2022 – felt genuinely vital and transgressive.

I've never heard of them, but I have a sneaking suspicion from the above that I'm not going to like it...

Well.  I do agree with The Guardian that they "reorient punk towards its anarchic and anti-capitalist roots" but I can't help but feel that they've omitted to mention that, in doing so, they make A BLOODY AWFUL RACKET.  I genuinely couldn't listen to this - for some people that will be a recommendation, but I feel confident in stating that it's not going to be to most people's tastes.

No chart apperance but they have managed a Wikipedia entry - basically the album exists and the critics liked it.  A quick glance at a related article raised the point that they are unusual in being a black punk band - which hadn't occurred to me, but another random internet article "The 20 black punk bands you should listen to" drove the point home because I'd never even heard of any of them (and Soul Glo weren't on the list either).

"Customers also listened to" Chat Pile, Show Me The Body, Scowl and Drug Church - who I was going to say I've never heard of until some distant recess of my brain reminded me I've actually already written about Drug Church.  And whilst I can't say that album's been on repeat play ever since, it was obviously a much more pleasant experience than this one.  I suspect Soul Glo can live without my approval though.

A nearly and a not-even-close this time around.

#21-20 - One nearly yes, one absolute no
#19-17 - A quirky mix