FAVORiTE ALBUMs of 2022

ROUTES & BRANCHES

featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music

December 11, 2022

Scott Foley, purveyor of dust

So what makes for a good year-end list? We certainly have to be true to ourselves, so our list will be a funky little butterfly among the countless other lists. But it also has to be relevant. I love and I practice the art of musical discovery, but if I’m discovering a record for the first time in your favorites list, maybe you haven’t done your job. If your list is crowded with obscurity, perhaps you’re trying too hard. 

It’s a balancing act. But I believe we’ve achieved equilibrium with this year’s Favorites, as much as we can with a list that waxes, wanes, evolves and morphs from moment to moment. A good year-end list should be one that's as satisfying a year or two from now as it is today. The first Favorites list I published on our blog was back in 2008 (though I’ve been creating lists since Skot: The Wonder Years). It featured Alejandro Escovedo in the coveted top spot, in addition to plaudits for early Felice Brothers, Samantha Crain, Calexico and more. It also celebrated names forgotten to time such as Danielle Talamini, Will Quinlan, and Star Anna. In subsequent years, our #1 spot has been occupied by a pretty strong range of worthy acts:

2008: Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal

2009: Son Volt, American Central Dust

2010: Robert Plant, Band of Joy

2011: Lydia Loveless, Indestructible Machine

2012: Arliss Nancy, Simple Machines

2013: Jason Isbell, Southeastern

2014: Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

2015: John Moreland, High On Tulsa Heat

2016: Lydia Loveless, Real

2017: Lee Bains + Glory Fires, Youth Detention

2018: Neko Case, Hell-on

2019: Yola, Walk Through Fire

2020: Jerry Joseph, Beautiful Madness

2021: Allison Russell, Outside Child

So. Featuring excerpts from our published reviews where possible:  

WHAT's SO GREAT ABOUT 2022?!!

or FAVORiTE ALBUMs

1. Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You  (4AD, Feb 11)

From the simple brilliance of its arrangements to a pervasive spirit that is simultaneously as trad as the Holy Modal Rounders and as contemporary as Wilco in its more organic moments, it's a terrifically diverse project. At its heart is the warm and tangled heart of Adrianne Lenker, both intensely her own and laid bare for all to see. The songs of Dragon speak to the extremes of complexity and simplicity, of coming together and drifting apart. Her lyrics posit us within nature, while also acknowledging the nature that dwells within us. Eternity in this moment. Most impressively, Big Thief strike a balance between these dualities without pretention, without resorting to overstatement or leftover lyrics from a Rush record.

2. Orville Peck, Bronco  (Columbia, Apr 8)

While not as unexpected as the arrival of Pony, the new project succeeds far less on novelty and more on the merits of its writing and execution. "Curse of the Blackened Eye" and "Trample Out the Days" are among the year's best songs, the former adding a country-exotica vibe to lyrics addressing the emotional struggle or personal history that haunt us: It ain't the letting go, it's more about the things that you take with. Bronco also seems to be a genuinely personal record, setting aside any masquerade for a dive deep into the soul of this costumed performer. Orville Peck masterfully deploys artifice and flash as a vehicle for truth, the kind of honesty on which country music has prided itself since the beginning. 

3. SG Goodman, Teeth Marks  (Verve, Jun 3)

Teeth Marks moves restlessly from one trauma to another, from the loss of an addicted child to the scars left by an unfeeling capitalist system. "Work Until I Die" lands an unanticipated punch to the gut, with its flat punky delivery and its pogoing bassline. Goodman's song of the South is a breakneck journey through birth-school-work-death, whipping up an ersatz dinner prayer in its whirlwind: Bless this food to our bodies / And our bodies to your service / In the company's holy name / Amen. Even in the stylistic back-and-forth of SG Goodman's new sessions, the writer's own compassion and empathy are brilliantly conveyed. In her own piece for No Depression, she acknowledges her near obsessive focus on saying everything that needs to be said in a song. "Patron Saint of the Dollar Store" is a lovely acoustic moment, with Goodman's breathy delivery: Know I found heaven / Lying in a woman's arms. Teeth Marks closes with "Keeper of the Time", restating the record's thesis of how a body remembers, and spinning into Goodman's rockstar outro.

4. Courtney Marie Andrews, Loose Future  (Fat Possum, Oct 7)

Loose Future has already earned Courtney Marie Andrews a new level of review attention from sources that only occasionally flirt with roots music. The record's soulful rhythms and engaging juxtaposition of organic and processed sounds lend the project a lure of contemporary relevance. Andrews' origin story tells of her earlier stints with indie artists Jimmy Eat World and Damien Jurado, reminding us that this is not new territory for the artist. What might be less familiar is her comfort with the unpredictable. She sings in retrospect: I'm not used to feeling good ... I keep looking for new ways to be let down. On the album's bluesy closer, "Me & Jerry", she is carried headlong into her future on whorls of processed strings and an only somewhat distorted vocal chorus: I'm falling down the rabbit hole / And he makes me wanna strip down to my soul ...

5. Plains, I Walked With You a Ways  (Anti, Oct 14)

Twining the voices of Katie Crutchfield/Waxahatchee and Jess Williamson, Plains is a warm and easygoing paean to nineties country pop. It's also one of a handful of 2020 records that successfully approach country from an indie-folk vantage. Both Crutchfield and Williamson have flirted with roots elements in the past, most successfully on Waxahatchee's Saint Cloud, also produced by Brad Cook. I Walked With You is built on the duo's sisterly harmonies, augmented by the understated accompaniment of Phil Cook, Spencer Tweedy and a small cadre of acoustic instrumentalists. Not a retro project or a costume tribute, the songs charm in a manner that is as current as First Aid Kit, while recalling the heyday of the Chicks, or the spell cast by Trio. 

6. Zach Bryan, American Heartbreak  (Belting Bronco, May 20)

Add here the steady stream of singles and EPs Bryan has shared throughout the year, the product of a generous, genuine artistry. As a phenomenon, Bryan's seemingly grassroots emergence is the stuff of legend, a welcome antidote to the country genre's deliberate machinations. As a songbook, Heartbreak delivers some of the year's strongest pure writing, refreshingly unvarnished. Heck, it might even be impossible to pry apart the circumstance from the artistry. But the 34 tunes between these covers point tentatively in the vicinity of Chris Knight and Jason Isbell. It's foolish to hope Bryan never finds his way into a proper studio with an established producer and band, but the way he's stepped into the sudden spotlight of 2022, somehow both confident and humble, gives me hope that it won't really matter. 

7. Angel Olsen, Big Time  (Jagjaguwar, Jun 3)

Those who have branded this Angel Olsen's country record don't really know country music (or Angel Olsen). Produced by Jonathan Wilson in California, Big Time showcases more of the songwriter's roots-leaning vocal characteristics, mannerisms that have been a part of even her least organic projects since her 2011 debut. Strings flourish and Spencer Cullum's pedal steel weeps on songs that swoon with melancholy. But unlike Lana del Rey or Father John Misty (whose 2022 collection Wilson also produced), Olsen's sentiment is genuine, the reckoning of a year that saw her coming to terms with her sexuality and navigating the death of both parents - as a recent New York Times profile declared, sounds like an antiquated theater burning down in slow motion. 

8. John Moreland, Birds in the Ceiling  (Old Omens, Jul 22)

On "Claim Your Prize", John Moreland shares, I stopped asking how bad the world is broken. His sixth record is more about asking the questions than becoming mired in the search for answers. Birds may raise questions for certain longtime listeners looking for Still In the Throes or Bigger Badder Luv, but the more they relax into these new songs the more they might hear the continuity with Moreland's earlier work. With time, what might at first be distracting becomes just another tool in service of the songwriter's special vision. The title cut that closes the record deserves a place alongside his best, alien birdsounds and all. A gorgeous track, it ends with a beautiful lyric: Let a bird be a bird, let a train be a train / Let the sky be the sky, let the rain be the rain / Let a curse be a curse, Let a blessing be a blessing / Death alone is certain, but life is a beautiful question.

9. Lee Bains + Glory Fires, Old-Time Folks  (Don Giovanni, Aug 5)

These are rebel songs, musical celebrations of the power of the people to hold back a river of despair. In maturing and sharpening his artistic vision, Lee Bains delivers another history lesson set to song, a race riot with guitars, a lesson in labor movements with horns. At heart, both punk and folk music share a common root in the struggle of old broken things to fix. Bains' cadence and his lyrical precision (sacred names crawl through the mist) are his calling card, the elements that brand him as much a boots-on-the-ground reporter as he is a boots-on-the-stage troubadour. On Old-Time Folks, he and the Glory Fires don't let us overlook that our kind of music belongs to the people. Roots, soul, punk and gospel is the music of the old-time folks.

10. Arlo McKinley, This Mess We're In  (Oh Boy, Jul 15)

Of the record he's written: I was navigating through a pretty dark time, but also there was the realization that it's time to really change. This Mess is the soundtrack to that pivot, to a reorientation that is never as easy as it might sound. The collection closes, perhaps appropriately with the gospel-adjacent "Here's To the Dying", in recognition of McKinley's lost family and friends. What might've previously been written off as depressing is here celebratory, an edifying recognition of our reliance on those around us when It's getting so hard / Without you holding my hand. It's this dedication to truth-telling paired with an economy of language that earned Arlo Mckinley a place on the legendary John Prine's label; never indulgent, genuine to a fault.

11. Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man  (ATO, Jul 29)

12. Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Nightroamer  (Abeyance, Feb 18)

13. Ryan Culwell, Run Like a Bull  (Culwell, Jan 28)

14. Bonny Light Horseman, Rolling Golden Holy  (37d03d, Oct 7)

15. Hurray for the Riff Raff, Living On Earth  (Nonesuch, Feb 18)

16. Sophie & the Broken Things, Delusions of Grandeur  (Petaluma, Feb 25)

17. Adeem the Artist, White Trash Revelry  (Four Quarters, Dec 2)

18. Caroline Spence, True North  (Rounder, Apr 29)

19. American Aquarium, Chicamacomico  (Losing Side, Jun 10)

20. Nikki Lane, Denim & Diamonds  (New West, Sept 23)

21. Julianna Riolino, All Blue  (You've Changed, Oct 14)

22. Caitlin Rose, CAZIMI  (Pearl Tower, Nov 18)

23. Anna Tivel, Outsiders  (Mama Bird, Aug 19)

24. Ian Noe, River Fools & Mountain Saints  (Lock13, Mar 25)

25. 49 Winchester, Fortune Favors the Bold  (New West, May 13)

26. Joan Shelley, The Spur  (No Quarter, Jun 24)

27. Willi Carlisle, Peculiar Missouri  (Free Dirt, Jul 15)

28. Kelsey Waldon, No Regular Dog  (Oh Boy, Aug 12)

29. Joshua Hedley, Neon Blue  (New West, Apr 22)

30. Caleb Caudle, Forsythia  (Soundly, Oct 7) 

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