1) My Morning Jacket, “MMJ Live Vol. 2: Chicago 2021” / At a moment when the live album seems a lost art, My Morning Jacket brings it roaring back with this dynamite set from last year (including a 21-minute version of “Dondante!”). Jim James and Co. once again prove themselves among the best live acts working today with swirling textures, visceral moments and just enough breathing room to make everything else pop.
2) Archers of Loaf, “Reason in Decline” / I can’t authentically wear the Archers of Loaf merit badge; I didn’t know the band in their zenith. But the first album from the Chapel Hill, N.C. band in 14 years has me ready to make up the lost time. Supremely buzzy and impossibly catchy, these songs unite inherent instincts and the benefits of age and distance.
3) Nick Hakim, “Cometa” / The ever-intriguing singer-songwriter captivates again with tracks that bob and weave stylistically, sometimes casting Hakim as a Father John Misty-type (in terms of his sense of songcraft, not necessarily his satire) for the indie-pop set. The last two-thirds of lead track “Ani” make up a top musical moment of 2022, worth sitting with the album on its own.
4) Britta Virves, “Juniper” / So much to commend the debut offering from this Estonia-born, Sweden-based pianist. At its best, “Juniper” represents an extension of planing, seeking piano-led efforts by the likes of Brad Mehldau and GoGo Penguin. Virves creates momentum and shimmer at the piano, and makes the most of every give-and-take with bassist Jon Henriksson and drummer Jonas Bäckman.
5) Saeed Jones, “Alive at the End of the World” / Jones’ new poetry collection is undistilled, down-in-the-marrow brilliance, balancing perhaps the most intimate apocalyptic verses I know (“The end of the world is a boy who feels all the pain we give him / but never bruises, never has a history to show for who happened / to him”) with reveries for Luther Vandross. “A Song for the Status Quo,” an unbroken, painfully true music history might be the most potent poem released this year; and Jones’ description of failure in “Gravity” will haunt me the way it haunts the speaker.