The pandemic decimated the music and touring industry in 2020. Both rebounded in 2021, with various success since the pandemic was far from over. Regardless, bands went back on the road and got back to releasing albums. 2021 ended up being a very busy year for new music thanks to the release of albums delayed from their original 2020 release dates finally coming out and new music recorded during lockdown also being dropped.
Since so many albums dropped in 2021, 2022 wasn’t quite as busy… But it did feature some huge album releases by some of the most prominent artists that I follow. Including the BIG one. Three past Album Of The Year winners dropped albums in 2022 and a band that wasn’t even on my radar at the beginning of the year joined the ranks along with a few other previous nominees. Which made 2022 a very good year for new music for me despite having fewer new releases added to my collection overall.
The year also featured a smaller selection of non-studio album releases in the form of live albums, deluxe editions, box sets, etc. And of course, there were also a slew of standalone singles released throughout the year, some of which will lead us into 2023.
The winner of the 2022 Album Of The Year award will be posted on the Album Of The Year page on (or around) December 31, 2022.
Studio Albums – Purchased
Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators – 4
Release Date: February 11, 2022
SMKC was one of many bands to try to make the best of their lockdown time by getting together to make a new album. While some bands opted for 100% remote recording (more on that later), SMKC went the opposite route and the full band gathered to cut a studio album almost entirely live-to-tape. Unfortunately for them, COVID struck and multiple members of the band fell ill during the recording. While that was unfortunate, it wasn’t the worst thing to happen to this album…
No, that would be producer Dave Cobb. I knew from the moment I first heard lead single “The River Is Rising” on October 21, 2021 that there was no way in hell Michael Baskette had produced the album. Instead, it was done by a country producer who clearly has no idea how to capture a rock band. The production on this album is complete shit. The performances are fine and the live-to-tape method of recording isn’t a bad one by any means. The bad production just hurts my overall enjoyment of the album. But I also have to admit that the songwriting on 4 does not reach the standards set by SMKC’s first three albums, especially 2014 Album Of The Year winner World On Fire or 2018 Album Of The Year runner up Living The Dream.
Highlights on 4 include the middle eastern flavored “Spirit Love,” “C’est la vie,” “The River Is Rising,” closer “Fall Back To Earth,” and the song that’ll make you want to give your dog a big ol’ hug, “Fill My World.” The rest is decent to just ok and there isn’t a single five star song on this album in my phone’s ratings.
Velvet Revolver was one of my favorite bands from 2004-2008 and SMKC took their place in 2014. Following three great albums, I had quite high expectations for their fourth effort… And was left a bit disappointed upon my very first listen. Thankfully the album did grow on me over time (and even more so after hearing some of the songs live), but it’s still easily my least favorite album by SMKC. A few really good songs, a few average songs, and a couple that would rank near the bottom of the band’s entire discography for me all on an album with terrible production and bland presentation. Is it a bad album? Not at all. It’s just a lot of wasted potential and I hope SMKC never works with Dave Cobb again.
Top Three Songs:
- Spirit Love
- C’est la vie
- The River Is Rising
Ghost – Impera
Release Date: March 11, 2022
As 2021 came to a close and I began looking ahead to what bands I follow could be releasing new albums… This one was never on my radar. I mean, I knew of Ghost, but I wasn’t a fan. I was familiar with a couple of their singles and their… Um… Appearance. But that was about it.
Around mid-March however, I started to see a lot of online chatter about their new album Impera. Along with that chatter came some comparisons to Def Leppard. My interest was piqued. Then I happened to catch Ghost performing the album’s second single, “Call Me Little Sunshine,” on Jimmy Kimmel Live on March 17. I was entertained by the performance and the song stuck in my head.
For Impera, the album has a lyrical theme of “the rise and fall of empires” while the music itself would blend elements from hard rock, arena rock, glam metal, heavy metal, and pop rock. It’s here that the Def Leppard comparisons came in, which Forge himself confirmed in an interview with Metal Hammer.
From the Devil to Def Leppard: how Ghost made the best album of 2022 so far
“Going into this record, I thought I would see if I could do it a little more like Def Leppard did it, where every song – especially on Pyromania or Hysteria – starts with one thing, and then there’s a verse, then there’s a pre-chorus that feels like a chorus, and then there’s another pre-chorus and another thing and finally, after like five different sections, comes the chorus, in a completely different key. It’s such a riot! Every song! Even Pour Some Sugar On Me is quite intelligently written. I’m not saying that as a surprise – I think they were great.”
Subsequent album and concert reviews have continued to make comparisons to Lep, whether it be the songwriting, the guitars, the backing vocals, or the production. Of course for me, that’s a tall order to live up to… Especially when specifically calling out the song writing on monster classic albums like Pyromania and Hysteria. One concert review even referred to the band as “Spooky Def Leppard.” Obviously I had to see what all the fuss was about.
I streamed the album at first. And then I kept coming back to it. Then I bought it. Then I streamed their entire back catalog. Then I bought their entire back catalog. I was full entrenched in the Ghost rabbit hole.
As for Impera, it’s a fucking amazing album. I wrote a full review on it in May, but my ratings have actually increased since then. Highlights include “Kaisarion,” “Spillways,” “Darkness At The Heart Of My Love,” “Griftwood,” the epic closer “Respite On The Spitalfields” (“Bite Of Passage” should have just been left as the intro to the track rather then be split into a separate track), and of course the song that started it all for me, “Call Me Little Sunshine.” The only track that doesn’t quite connect with me is the oddball that is “Twenties,” though it’s still enjoyable. The production is pristine, although it does suffer a tad from the pesky loudness war here and there.
If this was any other year, this album would easily be the front-runner for Album Of The Year… Unfortunately for Ghost, they released this during a rare year that also features a new studio album by Def Leppard. Tough as it may be, Lep isn’t guaranteed to win and Ghost has certainly made a strong case for why they should be considered for the award, as Impera is that damn good. The strength of this album resulted in me picking up all of their prior albums and I saw them live for the very first time this September 24. Thankfully the set included six songs from Impera along with a healthy dose of older tracks and it was an awesome show. I can’t wait to see the band live again.
The early Ghost albums don’t connect with me as much as the more recent three, but their album over album improvement/growth and reputation as a live band have them knocking at the door of joining my Top 10 favorite bands. As for Impera, it is easily my favorite Ghost album to date. In fact, each one they release seems to be better than the last. So no pressure for the follow up, ghouls.
Top Three Songs:
- Call Me Little Sunshine
- Bite Of Passage/Respite On The Spitalfields
- Spillways
Def Leppard – Diamond Star Halos
Release Date: May 27, 2022
Def Leppard seemed re-energized when it came to making new music after the making-of and release of their 2015 self-titled album, and it sounded like the gap between albums would not run another seven years. But all that optimism had faded by the end of 2019. A stadium tour had been announced for the summer of 2020 and there was no end in sight for the gap between albums. The only glimmer of hope was that the band was planning on getting together in March 2020, ahead of the tour, to get started on some new music. Then the pandemic kicked in, those plans fell through, and literally everything went silent.
Thankfully the band did not waste their newfound free time, as they decided to try recording new music entirely remotely. With the 2020 summer tour fully postponed, they immersed themselves in the writing and recording of new music and actually had an album’s worth of music ready to go for 2021… Only for the tour to be postponed again. Work continued and the band shocked fans by announcing a brand new studio album for release in May 2022.
My experience with Diamond Star Halos has been all over the place. I was a bit discouraged when the album was announced, as the obsession with paying tribute to the band’s influences was once again all too prevalent. Since 2005/2006, it has felt like paying tribute to their influences have been come more important than just being Def Leppard. When the album was released on May 27, my first listen did not go all that well (as detailed in my review, published in June). It got better with each listen, but I hadn’t struggled to absorb an album from Lep like this since 2002’s X.
Thankfully the more I listened to DSH, the more I liked it and began to love it. Then I got to see the band live four times during the 2022 summer tour, with three of the shows (New York, St. Louis, and Chicago) featuring four songs from DSH while the final show I went to (Kansas City) featured three. Seeing the songs live injected more life into them, as it often does, and I continued to regularly spin the album throughout the summer and fall.
My favorite song from Def Leppard was “Wings Of An Angel,” a Slang-meets-Pyromania style hard rocker that was unfortunately buried at the end of the album and was never played live. My favorite song from Diamond Star Halos, however, was released as the second single from the album and received widespread exposure and acclaim. “Take What You Want” is a 100% classic sounding hard rocker from Def Leppard straight out of the Pyromania era with a modern twist. We get an extended musical intro, a chunky guitar riff, high register vocals from Joe Elliott on the verses, a massive chorus, and a dual guitar solo from both Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen. The song was played live on TV and opened every show on the 2022 stadium tour, including all four shows I saw.
My second favorite song is “Open Your Eyes,” one far less commercial sounding but still heavy and dark. It’s yet another song that borrows many traits from the Slang album and era. With Slang being my favorite Lep album and favorite album of all time, it’s obvious that I absolutely love when they revisit that sound. Considering how much of a 180 they pulled with the Euphoria album on the heels of Slang, it’s pretty amazing that they still find ways to revisit what they did on that album all these years later. My only complaint about “Open Your Eyes” is that they fade it out too fast, as I could have listened to another two minutes of Phil’s guitar solo outro. It would have been like Lep’s darker version of “Moonage Daydream.”
Picking my third favorite song is quite difficult, but I have to go with the good time rocker “Gimme A Kiss That Rocks.” I think this song was written as a potential collaboration with The Struts back when they were making their Strange Days album, but I’m glad it was held back and turned into a 100% Lep original. It’s one of those perfect, upbeat, fun throwaway hard rockers that put a smile on my face every time I hear it.
On the flip side, we have “All We Need,” which is another one of the most classic Leppard sounding songs on the album. You could drop this track onto Hysteria or Adrenalize and it would fit right in. Then we have the ‘murder ballad’ closer “From Here To Eternity,” which could be dropped right onto the opening credits of a James Bond film of the same name. It’s dark, it has a great melody, and it’s both new and familiar for the band. Meanwhile “SOS Emergency,” another five star song, is classic Lep in the same vein as “Dangerous,” “Nine Lives,” “Promises,” “Heaven Is,” “Animal,” and “Photograph.” It’s that archetypical Def Leppard single.
Singles “Kick” and “Fire It Up” are quite enjoyable, though both took some time to really get their hooks in me. Fourth single “This Guitar” is a beautiful track, though I prefer listening to the Alison Krauss-less version more than the standard album version… Or better yet, I prefer the live version, which takes on a more straightforward Def Leppard acoustic approach and strips away the country twang. “Liquid Dust,” “U Rok Me,” “Lifeless” (again, the Krauss-less version), and “Unbreakable” all are quite enjoyable, as is the beautifully orchestral “Angels (Can’t Help You Now).” The only song I really struggle with and tend to skip on nearly every listen is “Goodbye For Good This Time,” which perhaps strayed too far from Leppard territory and should have been left for the Down ‘n’ Outz to record.
DSH wasn’t as instant as Def Leppard was for me in 2015, but thankfully the album has been a grower and I’m still enjoying the hell out of it each and every day. By November, I had finally made up my mind. I like Diamond Star Halos MORE than 2015’s Def Leppard. That was not the case when I wrote my initial review in June, and it’s quite a statement considering how highly I placed the self-titled album when I ranked Def Leppard’s first twelve-ish studio albums in May. I do tend to enjoy DSH more if I omit two songs (“This Guitar” and “Goodbye For Good This Time”), turning it into a very solid 13 track album that plays like it has little to no filler. Having said that, I still do enjoy listening to “This Guitar” on occasion and I’m glad both songs were included. I’ll take all we can get at this point.
In 2015, I enjoyed every day leading up to and including the release of the Def Leppard album as if it would be the band’s last. That made Diamond Star Halos feel like a bonus. An epilogue, of sorts. Yet I don’t feel like this will be the band’s final album. For one thing, we already know they have four songs left over from the sessions and they’ll likely continue to write. With their new remote recording process all figured out, there’s good reason to hope that they not only will release another album (or more!), but that they also won’t take seven more years to do so.
Top Three Songs:
- Take What You Want
- Open Your Eyes
- Gimme A Kiss That Rocks
Michelle Branch – The Trouble With Fever
Release Date: September 16, 2022
My high school musical crush returned this year to drop a brand new album… On my birthday! Time really flies as Michelle Branch’s proper debut album The Spirit Room dropped roughly a month before my 15th birthday in 2001. Now here we are, 21+ years later, and she’s releasing just her fourth album on my 36th birthday. I’ll skip over the drama surrounding her douchebag husband/co-producer and just get right onto the album itself.
The Trouble With Fever feels like a very natural progress from Michelle’s prior album, 2017’s Hopeless Romantic. Michelle will never truly revisit the pop era of the early 2000’s, but I am really enjoying her more mature work during these modern times as well. The production is good and there are enough hooks here to keep me interested. Having said that, this album gets off to a much slower start than Hopeless Romantic and it took longer to both grab my initial interest and sink in long term.
Highlights for me are the excellent “You,” “Fever Forever,” closer “I’m Sorry,” lead single “I’m A Man,” and the slightly oddball track “Zut Alors!” Solid tracks are “Closest Thing To Heaven” and “Beating On The Outside” while the remaining songs are good, but haven’t grabbed me just yet.
Overall, it’s a solid album but has not connected with me as much as Hopeless Romantic. But the highlights are great songs and I’ll continue to follow Michelle for the rest of hear career, as she’s still got it… Musically and otherwise!
Top Three Songs:
- You
- Fever Forever
- I’m Sorry
Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings
Release Date: October 14, 2022
Few bands are as reliable as Alter Bridge. Since their debut album One Day Remains was released in 2004, they have dropped a new studio album every three years like clockwork. Not even an explosion of side bands can slow them down, which means I get a healthy dose of music from Myles Kennedy pretty frequently. Thanks to his work with Alter Bridge, Slash, and his solo work he has become one of my favorite musicians and I look forward to everything he does. And while I love Mark Tremonti’s work with Alter Bridge, his solo band stuff hasn’t quite held my interest just yet. I like the odd single from Tremonti, but have yet to commit to buying or even regularly listening to their full albums.
Alter Bridge, however, has secured their place in my top 10 favorite bands and they’ve snagged multiple Album Of The Year awards to date… Retroactively picking up the 2013 award for Fortress (my favorite AB album to date) and securing the 2019 award for Walk The Sky at the end of that year. And if I’m being perfectly honest, ABIII is worthy of the 2010 award, but it currently resides with Stone Temple Pilots for a few reasons… For now.
With such a solid body of work, expectations are always high for me with Alter Bridge. While 2016’s The Last Hero was a step down from 2013’s Fortress, 2019’s Walk The Sky went onto become my second favorite AB album. So I had high hopes for the follow up.
Speaking of being honest, I haven’t yet committed the time to get to know Pawns & Kings as well as their prior albums just yet. I’ve been quite distracted this year and with the first set of American dates for the corresponding tour not happening until early 2023, I just haven’t given this album the time it deserves. I will be seeing my third Alter Bridge show on March 14 and will certainly kick listening to this album into high gear ahead of that show.
Still, I can still happily say Pawns & Kings is a fine successor to Walk The Sky. First of all, Michael Baskette once again serves as producer, preventing the horrible loss in quality that SMKC suffered by not utilizing him again. The production here is consistent with Walk The Sky and Fortress. It’s big, it’s loud, and it’s not pushed past the brink (like The Last Hero). The album is a bit more concise at only 10 songs, but still runs over 50 minutes in length.
The opening trio of “This Is War,” “Dead Among The Living,” and “Silver Tongue” are worth the price of this album alone. All heavy, all catchy, and all chock full of guitar riffs while still retaining a sense of melody. Which is what I really love about Alter Bridge. I’m all about heavy music, but I’ve grown into that. My love of music started with an emphasis on melody and a pop hook. Thanks to Myles and Mark, those two things get mixed together in Alter Bridge on each and every album.
“Stay” and the insanely epic “Fable Of The Silent Son” are also highlights, while “Sin After Sin,” “Holiday,” and “Last Man Standing” are good tracks but non on the level of everything else. Meanwhile the title track closes things out in fine fashion and it’s another one of my favorite songs on the album.
After being disappointed by SMKC’s 4, it was refreshing to have Alter Bridge deliver an album up to their standards. I’m looking forward to seeing some of these songs live in a few months… And hearing the follow up album in 2025.
Top Three Songs:
- This Is War
- Dead Among The Living
- Pawns & Kings
Weezer – SZNZ
Release Dates:
- Spring: March 20, 2022
- Summer: June 21, 2022
- Autumn: September 23, 2022
- Winter: December 21, 2022
Originally I was going to throw Weezer’s EPs into the non-studio album section… But considering they actually released more new music this year than any other band on the list, I figured I would combine the four EPs into what is essentially one double album.
It’s not unusual for Weezer to drop multiple studio albums per year these days, but they went one step further in 2022 by unleashing SZNZ: four seven track EPs, each one tied to the first day of the new season. Spring kicked things off on March 21, Summer kept it going on June 21, Autumn dropped on September 23, and Winter wrapped things up on December 21. Each EPs music was meant to reflect the mood of the corresponding season, which would also play into how much I liked each of the EPs.
The project kicked off with Spring in March. The Spring EP takes on a lighter, more acoustic approach. Lead single “A Little Bit Of Love” gave me high hopes for the EP, but I didn’t enjoy the rest of it quite as much. I do like “Opening Night,” a lot, but the remaining tracks don’t hold a lot of replay value for me.
I was most looking forward to the Summer EP, as I guessed it would be the most upbeat and hardest rocking of the bunch. For the most part, that is true and it did end up being the highest scoring of the set on my phone. Opening track “Lawn Chair” is the weakest for me, but then “Records” and “Blue Like Jazz” are damn good. The rest of the songs are really good, especially “Thank You And Good Night,” which closes out the EP with a bang. “Records” already had a shot at being my favorite song from the whole project, but hearing it on the radio multiple times during my trip to Los Angeles attached the song to those memories and gave it an extra boost in how much I enjoy the track. Hearing it always takes me back to being in California now.
My expectations for Spring (lighter and acoustic) and Summer (heavier and energetic) were mostly spot on, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect out of Autumn. It ended up being a pretty natural segue from Summer, retaining much of the energy and rock. The production changed a bit, which was an interesting twist. This EP reminds me more of their White/Black albums. The highlights here are “Can’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me,” “What Happens After You?,” and “Get Off On The Pain.” Another solid release although scoring-wise, it’s identical to Spring in my phone’s library. It just has a different spread.
I fucking hate the winter season, so I fully expected a more somber affair for the Winter EP. Perhaps there is a tad of that on this EP, but opening track “I Want A Dog” is a nice mid-tempo to fast rocker that makes me extra grateful for my dog Toby. And my cat Bruce, since the track ends with the meow of a cat. “Iambic Pentameter” is all over the place style-wise, which keeps it interesting. “Basketball” has some funny lyrics to me as a (former) basketball player and the song has a very old-school Weezer vibe to it, making it a highlight of the whole project. “Dark Enough To See THe Stars” and “The One That Got Away” are both great tracks while closer “The Deep And Dreamless Sleep” brings the whole thing to a proper, rocking conclusion that borrows the riff from Autumn‘s “Run Raven Run.”
As expected, Summer was my favorite of the four. Surprisingly, Winter looks to be my second favorite of the four, though I am still getting to know it since it’s so new. Spring and Autumn are a step or two down from Summer and Winter.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising with a project like this that there are standout tracks, good tracks, and what can feel like a lot of filler. Somewhere in these four EPs is one really good album (or two), which perhaps is a project for another day. Regardless, it was a fresh idea and it was nice to have new Weezer to look forward to every few months throughout the year. And even if there was a chunk of filler spread between the four EPs, it still added a lot of good music to my library.
Top Three Six Songs:
- Records
- Blue Like Jazz
- A Little Bit Of Love
- I Want A Dog
- Basketball
- Dark Enough To See The Stars
Studio Albums – Streamed
Or not streamed…
- March 25, 2022 – Dream Widow – Dream Widow
- April 1, 2022 – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
- July 1, 2022 – Shinedown – Planet Zero
- August 12, 2022 – Collective Soul – Vibrating
So… Yeah. I was so preoccupied with the albums I purchased this year that I didn’t really bother checking any of these out. I did listen to the Dream Widow album, but then Taylor Hawkins passed away and I never returned to it.
Red Hot Chili Peppers actually dropped two albums this year, but none of the singles appealed to me so I didn’t bother with the albums.
The same can be said for Shinedown, as I didn’t like any of the singles that came out for Planet Zero. Shinedown is strictly a singles band for me anyway. Like I always say, for every good Shinedown song, there are three bad ones. Since I didn’t like the singles from this album, I never subjected myself to the album.
One that I will probably check out eventually is Collective Soul’s Vibrating. I liked their last two albums but they aren’t a band I listen to frequently, as I tend to hear their stuff most often when I’m either shuffling through my phone’s entire music library or when I’m indulging in 90’s pop/alternative. So I will give this a shot sometime when the mood hits.
Non-Studio Album Releases
Various Artists – Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame In Concert: 2018 & 2019
Release Date: January 28, 2022
Unceremoniously dropped onto Spotify in January 2022, we have a compilation album pulling performances from both the 2018 and 2019 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremonies. Other than The Cars, there isn’t much I care to listen to from the 2018 portion of the set. Thankfully the bulk of the album is pulled from the 2019 ceremony, which took place in Brooklyn, NY on March 29, 2019. I was there in attendance, so I got to witness the inductions & performances of Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music, The Cure, The Zombies, and Def Leppard as featured on this release. Listening back really takes me back to that night, which was quite amazing. Of course, it took place at the end of one of the most insane days of my life after my flight from St. Louis to New York was canceled the morning of the show. Somehow I managed to get my wife and I to the show just in time for Stevie Nicks to take the stage with “Stand Back.”
The full sets are sadly not featured here, but we get a few tracks from each artist. Def Leppard is timeless for me, but whenever I hear the songs performed that night by Stevie Nicks, The Cure, and The Zombies specifically, it always transports me back to that night. In fact, when I returned to New York in the summer of 2021 for my first post mid-pandemic visit, I was sitting at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory in Brooklyn as the sun was going down on a beautiful night when “Love Song” by The Cure came on. It could not have been more fitting since I was sitting in Brooklyn for the first time since the night of the ceremony in 2019. So it’s nice to have pieces of the actual concert to listen to whenever I want.
Def Leppard’s portion is relegated to three songs: “Rock Of Ages,” “Photograph,” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” Which all sound great, but it’s a shame “Hysteria” and especially the evening’s final star-studded performance of “All The Young Dudes” were left off.
The Violent – The Violent [EP]
Release Date: March 11, 2022
It’s not often that new rock bands work their way into my music library, but one band that managed to sneak in was Red Sun Rising. They grabbed my attention with their 2015 debut album Polyester Zeal in 2016 and then dropped a solid follow up with 2018‘s Thread. Then, as is the case with many bands these days, they just couldn’t keep their shit together. They disbanded and one or two members went on to start a new band called The Violent. They dropped two singles in 2021 so I was hoping for a proper studio album in 2022…
Instead, we got a 10 track excuse for an ‘album’ that runs a mere 25 minutes. The two songs released in 2021, “Think For Yourself” and “Impression,” are both featured as is their popular cover of The Doors’ “People Are Strange.” Two singles released in 2020, “Smile Like A Hostage” and “Fly On The Wall” are also featured. We get maybe two actual new songs, “Me” and “People Say.” And then nonsensical filler interludes (“Admission” & “Pockets Of Your Dreams”) along with a bonus alternate clip of “People Are Strange.”
The actual songs are good, but this 10 track release is no album. It’s merely an EP that rounds up a few good songs and then pads the runtime with junk. The band would go onto release two more brand new singles throughout 2022, so now I guess I’ll once again naively hope for a PROPER studio album in 2023. That or we’ll just get another EP of nonsense filled in around new-ish songs.
Rush – Moving Pictures [40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
Release Date: April 15, 2022
Rush was a tad late, but they did eventually get around to marking the 40th (or 41st) anniversary of their biggest and best album, Moving Pictures. The album was remastered for a prior anniversary, but the deluxe edition also featured a full live show recorded in Toronto in 1981.
Of course you can’t go wrong with listening to Moving Pictures itself, but the live show drawn from that tour is an excellent listen… If not slightly strange. As with any band that releases an album that goes on to be as big as this, it’s crazy to think that those songs were brand spanking new at one point. Hearing Geddy introduce “Limelight” to little applause is so jarring considering the juggernaut that song became in the years after its release.
Moving Pictures is an album that should be in any self-respecting rock fan’s collection and the deluxe edition offers up a proper celebration with the remastered album and full live show from the corresponding tour.
Garbage – Anthology
Release Date: October 28, 2022
Just one year after the release of the excellent studio album No Gods No Masters, Garbage has oddly decided to drop an updated compilation. They had previously released one in 2007 when the band was on hiatus, but we’ve had three studio albums released since then. If you ask me, the band probably could have waited until 2025 and to release an updated set that would have celebrated 30 years since the debut and maybe even allowed time for one more studio album in between (2024 perhaps?). But hey, it’s not up to me and instead we have Anthology, Garbage’s first proper double disc compilation.
Anthology draws singles and album cuts from Garbage’s seven studio albums while sprinkling in a few standalone singles and b-sides. The highlight of the set is “Witness To Your Love,” a song that was originally released on a charity compilation called Give Listen Help in 2008. The track had been hard to come by ever since and only now has it featured on an actual Garbage release. And I fucking love the song. The mid 2000’s may have been tough for Garbage as a band, but the musical output is amazing.
As for the tracklist of Anthology, every fan of the band will have differing opinions on what should and shouldn’t have been included. If you’re just looking for the biggest hit singles, they’re all here. Each of the first four albums receives a slightly better representation than what they got on 2007’s Absolute Garbage. The first four albums take up most of the tracklist. 2012’s Not Your Kind Of People gets a healthy five cuts, but 2016’s Strange Little Birds only gets three while 2021’s No Gods No Masters criminally gets only two.
Obviously there’s only so much room to work with on a two CD set, but it’s still unacceptable that “It’s All Over But The Crying” (featured as a remix on Absolute Garbage),” “Night Drive Loneliness,” and “Godhead” were left off this compilation. Of course I could keep going about what else should be included but I’m not even sure three CDs would have made me completely happy. But that’s a testament to how much I love Garbage and all of their albums.
And I can still hope for a new one in the next few years, right?
Foo Fighters – The Essential Foo Fighters
Release Date: October 28, 2022
Foo Fighters had a new album in the can and ready for release in 2020, a year that would have also celebrated the band’s 25th anniversary. Instead, the pandemic paused everything and they didn’t end up releasing that album, Medicine At Midnight, until 2021. Thankfully it was worth the wait and the band returned to the road in the summer of 2021. Seeing them in St. Louis on August 3, 2021 was fucking amazing. After a year and a half, that show (my fifth of theirs) was my first proper full scale rock show since the pandemic had upended everything. It was a great night.
The band had returned to the road in early 2022 and were playing international dates when tragedy struck. I’ll never forget sitting on my couch late at night and seeing a post on social media announcing the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. It felt like I had been kicked in the chest. It was unfathomable. Not surprisingly the band immediately went on hiatus, where they have remained ever since other than the two tribute concerts that were played for Taylor.
In October, the band released The Essential Foo Fighters, an updated compilation and their first since 2009’s Greatest Hits. If you pick up the CD version of Essential, you get 19 songs pulled from the band’s run of albums from 1995-2021. If you opt for the digital version, you get 21 songs (as it adds “Waiting On A War” and “Breakout”). Honestly, this had no business being released as a single disc version in the first place. When Greatest Hits was released in 2009, it drew only singles from the band’s first six studio albums. They’ve since released four more albums and if you’re going to expand from ‘greatest hits’ to ‘essential,’ you can’t properly encapsulate the band’s work into a single disc.
Especially if you’re going to waste space by including two versions of “Everlong” at the expense of other singles/album cuts. But I guess if you just want a good cross section of singles from 1995-2021, this does a decent job even though it under-represents nearly every album (and completely ignores Sonic Highways).
I still can’t imagine Foo Fighters with anyone else but Taylor behind the drum kit. But I also hope the band continues and will one day return with a new album.
Last In Line – A Day In The Life [EP]
Release Date: November 11, 2021
Vivian Campbell apparently couldn’t be bothered to write any new music for Def Leppard’s latest studio album, but thankfully the day job had no shortage of songs to record when they put that album together. Meanwhile, Viv had plenty to contribute to his side band Last In Line. A proper new studio album, the band’s third, is due out in 2023. In the meantime, they decided to drop an EP with two studio songs and two live tracks.
When the single “A Day In The Life” first popped up on iTunes/streaming services, I immediately downloaded it. My frustration with the abundance of side projects and lack of Lep material had subsided thanks to the release of Diamond Star Halos, even though I was still a bit annoyed at Viv’s lack of songwriting contribution. I’m not trying to be hard on the guy, I WANT to hear songs with his writing in Def Leppard. Still, since I was more open to music from side projects, I was looking forward to hearing new music from Last IN Line.
And since I’m not a Beatles fan in the slightest, I did not make the connection that “A Day In The Life” was a cover of The Beatles. So when I first listened to the song by Last In Line, I thought ‘what the fuck is this?’ It sounded NOTHING like the music heard on their first two albums Heavy Crown and II. In fact, I could barely get through the song. I literally could not wait for it to be over and I haven’t listened to it since. Only after the fact did I realize that it was a cover, which was a relief in a way. I thought LIL had truly lost their minds if they had written that song.
Don’t get me wrong, the song is well performed by all involved and if you like both Last In Line and The Beatles, it’s probably quite enjoyable. I just don’t like The Beatles so I got nothing out of it. Thankfully when the full EP dropped, one original new song was featured: “Hurricane Orlagh.” It’s much more in line with the band’s first two albums while sounding like a natural progression for album number three. In fact, it may be a bit more melodic than anything done by the band in the past, featuring some big backing vocals, while still being heavy and guitar driven.
The live tracks are good performance-wise, but have fairly thin sounding production. I’m still hoping the band gets around to releasing a proper live album some day. For now, I’ll look forward to the release of their third studio album in 2023.
Singles
Fuel – “Two Hearts”
Release Date: March 4, 2022
Fresh off the release of a new studio album by the latest incarnation of Fuel, the band dropped a standalone single in March. It’s a cover of U2’s “Two Hearts Beat As One,” and it’s… Fine. It’s also somewhat pointless, as by the end of the year, this latest incarnation of Fuel was no more. I guess the band is still together, technically… But new frontman… Whatever his name was is no longer in the band. At this point, I can’t even say that the constant lineup changes of this band are a joke. It’s just pathetic.
Vega – “Animal”
Release Date: March 14, 2022
Vega is one of those bands that is influenced by Lep and has a decent following in the melodic rock world… I just pay little to no attention to them. In the melodic rock fandom, bands like Vega, H.E.A.T., Eclipse, W.E.T., etc. They may make decent music and all, but if it’s just blatant 80’s style stuff and they are never around to see live… I don’t care. If you look through my top 20 or so favorite bands, none of them sound quite alike. I like variety in my music (granted it’s 90% rock!) and the 80’s is, surprisingly, not my favorite decade for music.
But! Vega is apparently a decent band and they covered Def Leppard’s “Animal.” And while I did not check out their new album, I did check out this cover. They tag the good ol’ “Rock Of Ages” spoken word intro onto it and then they do a straightforward, if not thin sounding, cover of “Animal.” The amount of time and production that went into Pyromania and Hysteria make it damn near impossible to truly do the songs justice as covers. And that’s not even unique to other bands, as Lep’s attempts at re-recording their own songs when they were still in dispute with their old label did result in as good of ‘forgeries’ as the band apparently thought. You simply cannot replicate the production on Pyromania and Hysteria on the quick or on the cheap.
But as for this cover of “Animal,” it’s one of the better Lep covers I’ve heard. So there’s that.
The Violent – “Counting Sheep”
Release Date: July 22, 2022
A few months after their EP/compilation, The Violent got back to dropping standalone singles. Two were released in 2022, with the first being “Counting Sheep.” A mid-tempo rocker with a melodic chorus and electronic overtones, it fits right in with the band’s prior output. Good, but not overly special.
Tesla – “Time To Rock”
Release Date: August 5, 2022
Tesla continues to play the singles game, as the late summer brought on the release of “Time To Rock.” They’ve abandoned the slick production of their prior album, 2019’s Shock, and gone back to the stripped back (and not all that great) production of their previous album, 2014’s Simplicity. The song isn’t terrible, but the production and single artwork suggest it was all done as cheaply as possible. Makes sense in today’s musical landscape, but I don’t feel the need to come back to this single often.
Starset & Breaking Benjamin – “Waiting On The Sky To Change”
Release Date: August 19, 2022
I actually saw these two bands together live on July 21, 2015. Breaking Benjamin has long been one of my favorite bands, while Starset… Has not. I had been vaguely familiar with them before that show and seeing them live did not win me over. To quote myself from that review…
I get that everyone needs their way to stand out these days, but I can’t take being lectured about the ‘dangers’ of technology from a group of 22 years olds seriously.
Breaking Benjamin hasn’t released a proper studio album since 2018. I have no idea if they have another in the works as of yet, but for now all we have is this collaboration with Starset. I haven’t looked into the logistics of how two complete bands would play on one song, but whatever. It’s actually not a bad song, though I would probably enjoy it more if it was *just* Breaking Benjamin.
The Struts – “Fallin’ With Me”
Release Date: August 19, 2022
Having released their third studio album Strange Days in the height of the pandemic in October 2020, the band spent a good portion of 2021 and 2022 on the road. They also recorded and released another new single, “Fallin’ With Me.”
Godsmack – “Surrender”
Release Date: September 28, 2022
Godsmack will return in 2023 with their eighth and supposedly final studio album, Lighting Up The Sky. The band will continue to tour, but the logic of ‘we can’t keep adding songs to the setlist’ while also saying you’re only playing 15 songs and you’ll also take the time to throw in covers moving forward is fucking bullshit. I mean, if you want to quit making albums, no problem. Just don’t restrict yourself to 15 song sets and throw a bunch of bullshit covers in while also saying you don’t have enough time to play your old stuff AND new stuff.
The first single from Lighting Up The Sky is “Surrender,” and it’s immediately clear that the production has really dropped off from the prior album When Legends Rise. It sounds so thin and plain compared to the last album. The song isn’t terrible but it’s not as good as any of the singles from When Legends Rise either.
Steel Panther – “Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight)”
Release Date: October 6, 2022
Having undergone a lineup change after the departure of bassist Lexxi Foxx, Steel Panther continued to tour with a variety of different bassists taking his place as part of long-term auditions. Thankfully they eventually settled on Spyder, whom I had already see with the band while Lexxi was on ‘break’ in 2018. The revamped band got to work on new music in 2022 and will drop a new album, On The Prowl, on February 24, 2023. The first single is “Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight),” and it’s clear the band hasn’t lost a step. It’s about as classic as any lead single from the band’s prior albums and I’m looking forward to hearing more from it. And it even makes light of Lexxi’s departure, ripping that bandaid off right away.
Godsmack – “You And I”
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Godsmack wasted little time in releasing a second single from their upcoming new album… And it’s not better than “Surrender.” Meh. If I keep following them, this will be an album to stream rather than buy. Unless I stream it and it really surprises me (like When Legends Rise did).
The Violent – “Wrap Your Head Around”
Release Date: November 18, 2022
More electronic hard rock. Not as good as the last song. And not something I revisit much since all these songs are getting lost without being part of proper albums.
Metallica – “Lux Æterna”
Release Date: November 28, 2022
I quite liked most of Metallica’s last album, 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. They will return with the follow up album, 72 Seasons, in the spring of 2023. Our first taste of the album comes via lead single “Lux Æterna,” which short… Frantic… And damn good. Many fans have praised its old-school feel and I tend to agree, though the production is better than what can be heard on those early Metallica albums. Old school song-writing with modern day sound? Sounds good to me. I’ll be picking up the album in April!
Steel Panther – “1987”
Release Date: December 6, 2022
Steel Panther does away (for the most part) with the graphically sexual lyrics to instead wax poetic about the good ol’ days of 1987… And it’s a great song and nice change of pace. I mean, they lose points for somehow failing to mention Def Leppard’s Hysteria when namechecking some of the biggest albums of that year, but it’s still damn good and continues to show promise for the overall quality of the On The Prowl album. Hopefully it’ll be a step up from 2019’s Heavy Metal Rules.
2020 was really quiet due to the pandemic… Resulting in 2021 being flooded with new releases. 2022 has seen those flood waters recede as the number of new releases slowed down quite a bit. But what it lacks in quantity it has more than made up for in quality.
I got new studio albums from three of my top 10 favorite bands, four EPs from a top 20 band, and had a new band break the door down with an album so fucking good it actually had me questioning exactly what I would pick for my favorite album of 2022…
So we’ll see what happens come December 31.
TurnToDust86 