The fifteen or so albums chosen here are the result of a tug-of-war contest that has nothing to do with listening figures. Passion has its reasons, here are ours. The choice of Sylvain Cormier and Philippe Renaud.
1. Mr. Morale The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar
Already at the top of the world rap pyramid, Kendrick Lamar adds to it with an ambitious concept album, less in terms of musical aesthetics (more scattered than on his classic To Pimp a Butterfly) as well as on the themes addressed, which range from civil rights to toxic masculinity, through the tolerance of differences that should no longer keep us apart. Confessional, intimate, the MC displays a vulnerability hitherto unheard of, all that served with the expert verve that we recognize in him. (PR)
2. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Big Thief
Singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker and her colleagues at Big Thief have provided us with the first musical crush of 2022, on record and on stage (from the Olympia in April, after a confined winter). what a beast Dragon, a double album teeming with great choruses and ingenious musical ideas! Big Thief causes the collision between American roots music and indie rock open to electronic sounds; Lenker confirms himself there as one of the great feathers of his generation, as is Jeff Tweedy for Wilco. (PR)
3. Motomami, Rosalia
Presented as the diary of this musician who has become star worldwide in the wake of the success of his second album, Motomami amazes by the extent of his musical influences, ranging from the most pop (rapid reggaeton on Chicken Teriyaki) to the most experimental (precious second half of the album). Rosalía the audacious, the golden voice (touching Delirio de Grandeza) accomplishes what too few artists of his stature dare: push the boundaries of pop and invite its fans to open their ears to the musical beyond. (PR)
4. big-time, Angel Olsen
It takes the heart, from the first to the last painful and liberating note: the upheavals in the life of Angel Olsen are heard, resonate. Her pandemic was more than eventful: she lost both her parents, one after the other, shortly after introducing her partner to them and declaring herself queer. Between mourning and the aftermath, she sings of her brutal disarray and the sweetness of a great calm finally found. It’s the album of the journey from guilt to acceptance. ” I can’t say that I’m sorry when I don’t feel so wrong anymore. (SC)
5. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Weyes Blood
Melancholy in sound, lucid in subject, the Californian Natalie Mering had felt even before the arrival of the pandemic the need to work on a trilogy inspired by the “feeling of an imminent catastrophe”, whose And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is the second part. Her velvety voice haunts It’s not Just Me, It’s Everybody in the opening, the slow cadence lulled by piano chords and aerial choirs in counterpoint to one of those poignant melodies of which she has the secret. (CS)
6. Natural Brown Prom Queen, Sudan Archives
Singer, rapper, composer and classical violinist by training, Sudan Archives (Brittney Denise Parks) is in a way the American version of the brilliant British Little Simz, this second album also defying genre conventions, mixing pop, electro, soul, rap , gospel. Natural Brown Prom Queen is the revelation album for this witty and springy musician who offers us a breathtaking musical journey in 18 captivating songs. (PR)
7. A Light for Attracting Attention, The Smile
Is it really over with Radiohead? If so, The Smile is not a sad alternative. The trio of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet) have delivered an album greater than the sum of its parts, on which Yorke’s concerns are expressed in a mix of indie rock, of Afro-jazz and electronic experimentation, in what was unanimously called the best side project to Radiohead. An album live, recorded last July at the Montreux Jazz Festival, has just appeared. (PR)
8. Fear of the Dawn, Jack White
Cannons against cannons, it’s no coincidence that this solo disc has so many White Stripes in the scalpel hatchings and the vocalizations at the top of the register. We need these familiar weapons, we must believe: it shakes up the ugly beasts salutarily. Even when Q-Tip’s rap gets involved, we’re frankly sons of the Who and T. Rex. Morning, Noon and Night is funky rock a la Prince, Shedding my Velvet revives the personal Led Zep. And so on. Bang, double bang. First of two discs this year for the Unleashed Jack. (CS)
9. Ghost Song, Cecile McLorin Salvant
The quality of the interpreter is no longer to be established, which jumps to the ears from the opening of this sixth album, when she appropriates in a lightning way the magnificent Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, a cappella until an electric bassline pops up. What demonstrates Ghost Song, on the other hand, it is the lively and fertile imagination of the musician, which explodes the timbres, the textures and the rhythms on this album crossed by the themes of ghosts and nostalgia. (CS)
10. Chloë and the Next 20th Century, Father John Misty
In 1968 appeared The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. The folk-rock group had lent itself to 12 incarnations, which were meant to be caricatural, but which were not so much: it was rather a permission to deploy in all possible facets. Great art! It’s a bit much of Father John Misty’s project: a 360-degree fresco, an improbable turn of the century that goes far beyond the music, however vast in spirit, of the fifteen albums launched under various names in 20 years by Joshua Tillman. (CS)
11. Fossora, Bjork
Björk’s “post-pandemic” album serves as our outlet. Wild ? Requiring ? At times, yes, but never hermetic, the icon of avant-garde pop rediscovering the pleasure of dancing rhythms by dressing them in skilful orchestrations in which choirs, strings and almost industrial sounds exult, as if all the beings of its musical biodiversity fought together for their survival. The career of the Icelandic is an example of consistency and the search for relevance. (PR)
12. Earth, Sault
We chose the album Earth because of the traditional rhythmic accents of Africa that characterize it, but frankly, we could have chosen any of the five other albums that Sault launched in 2022. The mysterious collective led by composer and director Inflo (he signs several tracks from Little Simz’s brand new album) maps musical genres from the African-American tradition, its soul, funk, rap, gospel and house carrying with it a socially and politically engaged message. (PR)
13. Consolation, Apple
Like Björk, Pomme offers a “fungal” album, the mushroom serving as a metaphor for her musical evolution. Recorded with us, with local musicians, his Consolation could have appeared in our local record charts, and the meeting between the artist and his director Flavien Berger gives exciting boletes, porcini mushrooms and chanterelles. His song is often folk, and takes on electronic colors opening up new musical avenues. (PR)
14. kingmaker, Tami Neilson
Was the formidable Tami more intense, cinematic in the arrangements, more direct in the subject? ” You can bet, most famous girl ain’t no-one heard of yet / But I’m all set “, she says in King of Country Music, a song-manifesto on the square that should come back to him. It is her story that she tells, and all the frustrations are channeled into energy. ” Big boys, big noise / It’s my turn, you’re gonna learn / Keep walkin’, Mama’s talking “, she intimates to the misogynists of the record and entertainment industry. On good terms. (CS)
15. The Forever Story, JID
Hailing from Atlanta, rapper JID isn’t exactly a rookie anymore, offering with The Forever Story his third album in a dozen-year career, nor the most prominent MC on a scene outrageously dominated by the trend of rapper-singers on trap and drill rhythms. And this is precisely the reason why we tip our hat to this authentic cook of rhyme, sharp knives, sharp prosody, cordon-bleu technique. Nourishing album that gives back to the latest Kendrick Lamar. (PR)