Goodbye 2022!

  

This is the first year that I've written up at the end of the year - I'll be interested to see how many of the albums I still remember given that it's taken longer than the other years I've attempted...

We'll skip straight over the ownership statistics - I couldn't tell you the last album I actually bought (I've managed to avoid becoming a vinyl collector - so far), so let's consider the official biggest (no-one bothers saying best selling anymore) albums of the year.

Top of the pile, unsurprisingly is Harry Styles - I wasn't overly impressed with it, but it seems I'm alone here because it hasn't dropped out of the top ten since being released in June.  The same can be said for Ed Sheeran (#2), although I didn't find it quite as hateful as I might have expected - it was actually released last year, but hasn't dropped any lower than #11 all year.  I was more impressed with Taylor Swift (#3) whilst not liking it quite as much as my daughters - I suspect we might well be seeing this for a bit yet given it's not dropped out of the top three in the ten weeks it's been around.

The first curiosity on the list is The Weeknd's best of album at #4 - this actually came out in February '21 and ended that year at #32, so it looked like it might have been on the way out.  But it instantly rebounded and hasn't been out of the top 20 all year.  Odd.  I don't think I actually came across it on my travels - but if I had, I would have rejected it as being unworthy of consdieration.  Another album from last year completes the top five - Olivia Rodrigo has put a solid stint in this year and it's probably my favourite album of the top ten.  It's fair to say the competition tails off a bit at this point because we now have best ofs from Eminem, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Little Mix, Abba and Queen (one of the few best ofs I've reviewed).  Between them, these six albums have 3196 weeks on the charts between them - or, as you might understand it better, SIXTY ONE AND A HALF YEARS!!  And they're followed by more Ed Sheeran - sigh.

All of which brings us to another curiosity at #13 - an album released in 2013 which I've listened to a few times and never got further than "meh".  All of which makes its 485 weeks on the charts (with it currently being on a 315 week run) all the more surprising.  Yes, it's obviously AM by Arctic Monkeys ("it's been big on the TikToks, Dad" apparently).  I bet Adele didn't expect to be sandwiched between that and Oasis's best-of from 2010 (currently on a 313 week run).

Some slightly more optimistic notes for the future are struck by Sam Fender (#21), Doja Cat (#24 - I'm very surprised to see this '21 release so high), Dave (#25 - ditto), Becky Hill (#27 - and again!) and Billie Eilish (#38) although this optimism is more than matched by the presence of Michael Jackson (#23), Bob Marley (#26), Elvis (#28) and The Beatles (#31).  I was also very surprised to see Bowie's Legacy best-of at #39 - I love the man, but I can't help but feel some streaming shenanigans are responsible for this.

Multiple appearances on the list come from Arctic Monkeys and Taylor Swift (3 each) and Harry Styles, Fleetwood Mac, Oasis (really - people still listen to WTSMG?!?) and The Weekend (2 each).  Some of those feel more deserving than others of that level of recognition, but who am I to judge?  But judge I do nonetheless...

So looking at the albums I was subjected to, how did the men do this year?  Approximately half the albums were by solo male artists and, with a few exceptions, they were all remarkably average at best.  The exceptions to this were somewhat surprising - Yungblud and Ozzy provided a surprisingly enjoyable fortnight in September.  I'm also going to mention Paolo Nutini, Sam Ryder and Metro Boomin - they weren't really my thing but at least they were trying something different.  And although I wasn't that impressed with Harry's effort, I'd have to say it's considerably better than a load of stuff I had to endure.

Guys in bands did a slightly better job in terms of providing listenable material - Don Broco, Fontaines DC (which I found surprisingly enjoyable), Marillion (a Winkley birthday bonus), Arcade Fire, Muse, Kasabian, The 1975 and (amazingly) Slipknot all made quite interesting albums.  To balance this big list of positives, I'm going to call out Bad Boy Chiller Crew, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stereophonics and 5SOS for making, at best, mediocre albums.

In stark contrast, you'd have to say the ladies all did pretty well for themselves - there weren't many of them, so they all get a namecheck.  Well done to Adele, Charli XCX, Wet Leg, Florence, Mabel, Beyonce, Blackpink, Taylor Swift and SZA - I didn't love all of them, but none of them felt like lazy thrown together minimal efforts, which isn't so true for plenty of the men.

And last but not least, let's give Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott a namecheck for doing something different from everyone else and being surprisingly successful in the process - and I hope Jacqui is feeling better having missed half their tour under medical recommendation.

There were 41 number #1 debuts this year, which was the most we've seen so far and there were 43 #1 albums, with Adele and Ed hanging over from last year and Bublé coming back for his Christmas turn.  No album entered further down the chart and climbed to the top spot this year - do you remember when everyone used to do that?.  And one final angle of interest is that the blog post which attracted most views was Harry and the ones that attracted least were Muse and Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott - I've no idea what they did to be so ignored.

There was a lot of dross out there this year but if you ignored the male solo artists, you stood a much better chance of finding something of interest.  But if you like the male solo artist stuff, then I'm happy for you (and you're welcome to it) and I'm pleased for Harry - the lad certainly puts the effort in.  Those outfits don't just fall out of the wardrobe, you know...

I will be continuing forward in time through 2023 whilst also travelling backwards in time through random years - 2006 first, then 2010 (otherwise the youngest will complain) and then probably a year from the 60s (and who knows what that's going to be like?!?).  Thanks once again for your tolerance of my musings - I'm about 10% through the entire chart now!

Happy New Year to all!

30/12/22 - The final #17 album of 2022
6/1/23 - One from 30 years ago