always fun to see what made my most played of the year... some surprises here actually. some notable omissions because i have them as CD and i wasn't as diligent about manually reporting those plays to last.fm (noisia - closer and polyphia - remember that you will die would've definitely made it into the top if i had reported every CD play properly).
side-note: the baby's favorite albums for 2022 were (in no specific order):
- radiohead - in rainbows
- animal crossing movie ost
- raffi - best of
- asturias - cryptogam illusion
- chet baker - chet baker and crew
- stan getz - west coast jazz
- noisia - closer
- mukajudan - madoromu
read more for thoughts about these albums...
(ill come back to add in links to songs later) i did it!
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kikuo - miku 6 -- this definitely dominated my listening this year and it made me want to focus even more on visceral composition. some of the stuff i've been doing recently has definitely been influenced by his work on this album, and i want to explore more in this direction in the future. "hole dwelling", "searching for your love", and "memories of a rainy summer day" especially blew me away, spectacular stuff.
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animal crossing movie soundtrack -- probably if i had scrobbled all my CD plays, the animal crossing movie soundtrack would've been #1. we played this a LOT for the baby his first year, he loves it. this soundtrack is really a joy anyway, drawing mostly from wild world (which i would argue is the best animal crossing soundtrack) with high quality sounds, as well as original score which is very enjoyable. the beautiful orchestral arrangement of k.k. bossa and the roost are highlights. (also for those who aren't aware, this movie rocks, it's super cute!)
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doe maar - skunk -- doe maar is a dutch reggae/ska kinda group active in the 80s that was massively popular, bordering on beatle-mania. the singer/bassist/songwriter and arguably most creative member, henny vrienten, died early this year, which lead me to a sort of rediscovery of their music, especially their greatest hit, de bom (which isn't on this record, but it's from this time). they are really great and a pretty subversive band for what it's worth (one of the big tracks on this record is called "nederwiet" and is basically an instruction on how to grow, farm and smoke weed at home).
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ryo yamazaki - balan wonderworld OST -- this game and its soundtrack deserved better! unfortunately due to many factors ranging from this game being targeted at little kids, to rushed development leading to many bugs and glitches, and a sky-high reputation from the lead dev for both greatness and epic failure, lead to this game becoming the punching bag of the games journalism world. which is a shame because it's genuinely pretty good! the soundtrack is just very pleasant mostly-orchestral stuff, a little on the nose perhaps but just very solid stuff.
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lindsay lowend - nectarine -- this album really blew me away and i'm honestly surprised it's not higher on the list. absolutely fantastic renoise tracker digital fusion, with the highlight of course being the collaborative track with fearofdark, skylight promenade. but the whole album is a delight from start to finish!
of the albums beyond this point i'll just remark on a few--i really expected promtastik - anhelo to be higher on the list, although i suppose it's only been out for a few weeks at this point. it'll very likely feature higher on the list next year as this is an all time great record. similarly, aivi - tiger and water should be higher, i imagine part of why it's not is that i was the one who mastered it so i listened to .wav renders instead of the final MP3s (that is actually true for anhelo too). k.shiraki - fusion vol.2 is also an album that will likely rise, as it just came out at the very tail end of the year.
thanks for reading!
