Albums Of The Year, 2022
After another tumultuous year and a cavalcade of great music, choosing our 50 favourite albums of 2022 hasn’t been easy.
Halina Rice: Divine Rice
Producer Halina Rice creates immersive, audiovisual environments where music, art and technology intersect. Her second long-player, ‘Elision’, takes you on a deep journey into abstract soundscapes
Joe Meek: No Ordinary Joe
Hidden away for decades, Joe Meek’s near-mythical “tea chest tapes” have finally seen the light of day, revealing much about the working practices of the legendary producer responsible for The Tornados’ pioneering, electronically hued 1962 single, ‘Telstar’
Lucrecia Dalt: Space Invader
Lucrecia Dalt’s latest album is a sumptuous and radiant sci-fi meditation in which the bolero, salsa, mambo and merengue influences she absorbed throughout her childhood are refracted through “machinic distortions”. But an alien presence is lurking…
Simple Minds: Natural High
Simple Minds have just put out a new album… and it’s their best since the band’s heyday in the 1980s. From the striking cover to the upbeat tunes and sometimes dark lyrics, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill explain how ‘Direction Of The Heart’ came together, as well as reflecting on their enduring friendship and the 40th anniversary of their 1982 classic, ‘New Gold Dream’
The Umlauts: Umming and Ahhing
A self-proclaimed “uber-group/circus troupe”, London quartet The Umlauts dabble in wonky minimal synths, art-punk and industrial vibes. Thrillingly visceral it all is too, as their ‘Another Fact’ EP vividly attests
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan: North by Northwest
Concrete dreams and brutalist ideals… Gordon Chapman-Fox is Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. His third album, ‘Districts, Roads, Open Space’, has just been released and he’s here to talk about it. What’s more, he’s brought sandwiches
Neu!: Get Your Motorik Runnin’
With a new boxset marking the 50th anniversary of their self-titled 1972 debut album, Neu!’s pioneering krautrock groove continues to resonate. Here, Michael Rother sheds light on irascible Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger, his time with Kraftwerk, and the Bowie collaboration that never quite came to pass
The Advisory Circle: In The Round
Cate Brooks is The Advisory Circle, and the retro synths of latest album ‘Full Circle’ hark back to her earliest days on Ghost Box. In a rare and candid interview, she admits it’s been “a hell of a journey” to get there
William Orbit: True Colours
Songwriter, musician and all-round chart supremo of four decades, William Orbit has clearly lost neither his producerly nouse, nor his knack for a good story. His new album, ‘The Painter’, is a wistful, hypnotic and thoroughly immersive voyage into sound