Ronnie Martin
From the Womb of the Morning
I always wanted to like Joy Electric, Martin’s other band, more than I actually did, but this side project just hit me upside the head. I love its tunefulness, its bonkers production, the obscure biblicism of its lyrics. I even kind of love how much my daughter complains that I play it too much. Bonus: Martin also wrote the Advent devotional my family is using this year. What this guy does with syntactic stress is as fun and innovative as what he does with the KJV.
Mr. And Mrs. Garrett Soucy
From the River to the Ends of the Earth
This soulful LP has a jazz delivery over early Bon Iver instrumentation, which is a recipe for success in my book. I guess it’s more mumble-core, or what we used to call lo-fi, than anything else. Very much my scene. I think I love best how it sounds completely believable as a 90’s record, or a 70’s. If you told me it was from the 1930’s, I wouldn’t doubt it, apart from the production quality.
Dogleg
Melee
Probably my most played record this year, they’re a bit like Japandroids and maybe, just a bit like Driver Eight. Gawd, I miss music sounding like this. I loved coming of age in the 1990’s.
Touché Amore
Lament
The only possible competitor for “most played,” this is a good bit harder rock than I have recently rolled, but the energy! The delivery! Reminds me of old At the Drive-In. Honestly, this is the record I think about most, wishing I were listening to it when I’m doing something else. I started spinning this last year, so that feeling has lasted for some 14 months now.
Wolves at the Gate
Eulogies
Music I put on while lifting weights in the garage, and perfect for that. Inventive and theologically-rich.
Wilco
Ode to Joy
Sneaky Wilco, making a sad record about joy. Like all Wilco records, it’s a little air-headed, often sweet, and beautifully mixed.
Mark Kozalek and Jimmy la Valle
Perils from the Sea
Kozalek records often feature in my best of lists, but I’ve been off the wagon for a few years. This one is really here on the strength of a couple of songs; when will I ever forget hearing “You Missed my Heart”?
TobyMac
Life After Death
This isn’t so much a record as a collection of singles, but how this guy keeps dropping hits is anyone’s guess. So many perfect pop songs here. It’s just been nominated for Dove and Grammy awards, so I’m not alone in thinking so. It also features “21 years,” written about the death of his son, which is vicariously my kids’ first experience of death. We cry as a family over it.
John Van Deusen
Marathon Daze
I interviewed John with Joel Hartse for Image this year and started listening to his albums in earnest. I listened across all four, but most to this new one, which my daughter knows well enough to put on when she wants to cheer me up.
Caedmon’s Call
S/T
This is a 25th anniversary re-recording of the band’s influential first record, which had not been available for streaming since the label that released it collapsed. I prefer the original version in most cases, but it is exciting to hear the songs fresh and it was a marker of the year to anticipate this release after the Kickstarter campaign and as the band released the tracks one at a time.
Peabod
Growing Up pt. 2
Kids have a tolerance for consuming the same thing that I can hardly fathom except that I remember doing it too. How many times did I see Monty Python? Sebastian eats only pb+j sandwiches and that’s all he cares to try, for instance. This record, which, let me say, I really admire, is one of those things for them. They literally ask to play it every single day, and sometimes just put it on a loop. They never tire of it. So when I think about 2022, this will always be the soundtrack.