NYT Times best albums of 2022

[hemingway]

What bores me about these lists is that, even when they include older artists, they rate them way below newer artists, regardless of whether they're any good.

In the last few years I've seen terrific new albums by The Who, Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, and Dylan down at the bottom of the pile, below new popsters - some of whom I have no doubt are great, but many of whom will be forgotten in two years, tops.

Large pinch of salt all round.

 

[eddiewagner]

Rosalia is very interesting

 

[Linderflomann]

Rosalia is very interesting

It's not going to be a lot of people's cup of tea here, but she's exceptionally talented.

 

[eddiewagner]

It's not going to be a lot of people's cup of tea here, but she's exceptionally talented.

 

[Linderflomann]

Funny story: I was hanging out with a friend of mine a few months ago and she was complaining about modern pop stars. I played her some Rosalia and she instantly became a fan.

Fast forward to last week: that friend runs a vintage store, and guess who shows up to shop there, in town before her concert?

She was apparently every bit as charming and down to earth in real life as in this clip.

 

[Jared Purdy]

Aside from Beyoncé and Bjork I've never heard of any of the other artists. Rosalia, Beth Orton, Sudan Archives, iLe, Sylvan Esso, black midi, Billy Woods and Porridge Radio. And that's as should be. I'm 71, I don't stream, I don't watch much TV. Does MTV still exist? None of the clips I listened too caught my ear. I think black midi was what sounded like Rock music.

My musical tastes are pretty broad but don't extend far into contemporary pop music. I guess it's good the but gulf has grown so large between me and popular culture I may not ever cross it again. I'm okay with that.

I'm 62, and I too have never heard of any of those groups. I mostly listen to jazz, on the radio, and through my albums. I have several albums by some fairly recent jazz artists, all of who got a Grammy nod, none of which are mentioned by the times: Jazzmeia Horn, Brandi Younger, Samara Joy, Esperanza Spalding, Arooj Aftab and Cecile McLorin Salvant. All five of those artists are heavy hitters in the world of jazz. Clearly not according to the NYT's, a newspaper that based in the jazz capital of the world. Epic fail.

 

[Jared Purdy]

Check out Samara Joy, singer (guitar players a beast too). Just wait for her voice




Or this, very traditional. What a voice though

Her voice is gold. I've got both her LP's. She's described as the next "it" in female jazz vocal. Incredible voice. At 23, she's going to go places.

 

[CharlieO]

While I may not enjoy everything on the New York Times list, I appreciate having a list of good new stuff to check out. Here is my personal choice for best album of the year. I suspect that many of you will enjoy it. If you click on YouTube you can listen to the entire album.

Derrick Procell web site

 

[buster poser]

Seems like these threads usually feature a large cohort of people who admit more or less total ignorance about musicians from and music produced in the last 5-20 years. Is this meant to buttress your stated opinions on the relative quality of "today's artists?"

Because it doesn't.

 

[bladeswitcher]

Lost me at NYT....

One of the best decisions I’ve made in recent years has been to subscribe to the New York Times online edition. Nearly every day i read about something fascinating or interesting that I would not have known about otherwise. Of course, the daily news reporting is unparalleled, but it’s the feature reporting that really makes it worthwhile.

But, yeah, I didn’t recognise anyone on the best albums list, either.


BTW, this morning's NYT had an obituary for Jim Stewart, founder of Stax records. Did your local paper devote a bunch of ink to a guy who brought great black music to white audiences?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/...I6jxmKfTs_7p0_acbQx3HQDtsSEvdw&smid=share-url

 

[Lawdawg]

Seems like these threads usually feature a large cohort of people who admit more or less total ignorance about musicians from and music produced in the last 5-20 years. Is this meant to buttress your stated opinions on the relative quality of "today's artists?"

Because it doesn't.

What's funny about this is that the comments on this thread don't really match the artists on the list! Porridge Radio and Black Midi are making pretty aggressive guitar based rock music. I can understand why Black Midi is not everyone's cup of tea, but they're about as far away from pop music as I can imagine and are killer musicians.

 

[Killing Floor]

Sudan Archives is cool. Sylvan Esso are clever writers.
Lists are lists. Like what you like.

 

[Cloodie]

I think I only bought one album this year that was released later than 1970 so I'm not expecting to recognise all that much from the list.

 

[effzee]

The whole concept of "album", does it still exist? Is it really a relevant thing today?

 

[Killing Floor]

Sharon Van Etten

Hands down one of the best living American singer songwriters.
Brilliant.
And really good live.

 

[Mike Eskimo]

Lost me at NYT....

He knows. And I'm with him

The Gaslight Daily’s list of the “best music of 2022” comes out next week !

So there’s that…

 

[blowtorch]

Hands down one of the best living American singer songwriters.
Brilliant.
And really good live.

one of my faves

 

[imwjl]

He knows. And I'm with him

It's short for New York Times. One of the major papers in the US.

LOL, I have equal contempt for bathing in stinky water and willful ignorance.

@Mjark You might really enjoy trying a streaming service. I've thoroughly enjoyed purposely streaming new music and things I don't know in a tuned my me and the robots mode. It was just made more enjoyable with Apple pushing the year in review stuff - a by the numbers analysis. I listened to 2600+ tracks new to me, discovered a lot of neat stuff, and it's been great pleasure.

More beauty in it is at any time I can also go for classics I've known, genres I like, but now take that twist of following and the robots exposing me to more in those areas too.

 

[Mjark]

@Mjark You might really enjoy trying a streaming service. I've thoroughly enjoyed purposely streaming new music and things I don't know in a tuned my me and the robots mode. It was just made more enjoyable with Apple pushing the year in review stuff - a by the numbers analysis. I listened to 2600+ tracks new to me, discovered a lot of neat stuff, and it's been great pleasure.

More beauty in it is at any time I can also go for classics I've known, genres I like, but now take that twist of following and the robots exposing me to more in those areas too.
[/QUOTE]

If they paid the artists fairly I would but they don’t. I buy music directly from them when I can. Or at least on iTunes.

 

[blowtorch]

Lucy Dacus is pretty awesome, too