Small Albums
Year In Review
Well, we’ve closed out 2022 officially.
We just want to start this Feature by saying THANK YOU!
Thank you to EVERYONE who has taken part in checking out our site, reading our reviews, listening to our playlists, and more than anything, seeing us as a music outlet that you trust enough to listen to WHAT we think rules!
This year, in January, we launched our actual own website and moved off of doing everything on Twitter, to a full-scale site that we have continually enjoyed working on.
Thank you so much for all the support and all of the kindness, and all of the music you’ve sent us, and for sharing what we do, and for EVERYTHING!
We worked super hard on our End of Year Lists, and just want to say THANK YOU for all of the response and MASSIVE amounts of people that looked at them!
Our website analytics are truly through the roof, and we are BLOWN AWAY by how many people have been looking at our lists, responding, and going through song by song, or album by album. The responses we’ve gotten, and all of the gems you’ve told us you’ve discovered makes it all worth it!
SHOUT OUT to Album of the Year List Aggregate for keeping our lists off of their site because our lists would have messed up their algorithms of getting Big Thief to the top of the charts. Hope you get that “aggregated list” just how you want it, AOTY!
Anyways, along with all of the best music we keep track of all year, we also enjoy keeping track of a lot of ridiculous things that go on in the music world. And if you are on Twitter then every day is a new saga in some of the strangest and most confusing stories, decisions, attempts at relevancy, album cycles, etc.
Here we have written up “SMALL ALBUMS: A Year In Review,” a look back at what was weirdest and most pointless from 2022! Enjoy!
SMALL ALBUMS
A YEAR IN REVEW
2022, the year we watched nostalgia culture CONTINUE to pump out as much as possible to resell us stuff we already bought. Let’s go all the way back to the beginning of the year when the Super Bowl halftime show consisted of all of the rappers my Dad can name. As hilarious as it was to watch 50 Cent SURPRISE US ALL with his best attempt at a Tobey Maguire-Spiderman-Upside-Down-BIG-reveal, or Snoop Dog continuing the schtick he’s been running with for years and years, (that dude has seemed old for decades,) the greatest moment of the entire show, and one of my personal favorite moments of my year, was watching Dr. Dre make an homage to himself with the most over the top, fake “board” that he could “mix” on during the set… on the football field. I don’t know if this was to remind us that he knows about mixing and producing, or to make the non-musical think more about him than needed, but I couldn’t get over it. Truly hilarious.
DaniAL WEIRDcliffe
In February we were blessed with images of Daniel Radcliffe animorphing into Weird Al, before our eyes. The thrill of “The Boy Who Lived” changing out his invisibility cloak and typecast existence, for the guy that wrote “Amish Paradise,” was mind boggling and provided a continual stream of still images that, for a moment, we at Small Albums even took on as our only mode of response. (We kept using Weird DaniAL as our replies to tweets for about 2 days.) Big shouts to when Daniel Radcliffe easily plays the guy from We Are Scientists next!
“You’re Weird Al, Harry”
The significance here is Will is looking back at the camera and waving as if to represent saying “goodbye,” as he leaves the band.
The Picture that Shows the Concept of “Waving Goodbye”
March, the worst month of the year, had many events to dazzle us all with.
In March, Will Butler announced he was leaving Arcade Fire. Many were shocked, even surprised. I thought it was the best career move he could have made 10 years ago! But before he left, he got someone to take an actual picture of him waving goodbye. This was helpful because it gave us a visual to see that he was actually leaving the band, and saying goodbye by waving in the picture. What a cherished moment, and helpful image.
Bandcamp Fornite
March brought the announcement of Epic Games, home of Fortnite video game, buying Bandcamp… ??? This still is confusing and seems as odd to type now as it did when they sent out that letter. Not really sure what has changed with Bandcamp, except for every band that loads their music onto Bandcamp now gets a Mr. Beast skin OR Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam skin. And an NFT gun to keep in their van for safety.
They should have called “Bandcamp Friday"
“FORTNITE FRIDAY”
Much of the U2 Poetry Slam was Nance looking around like “Did you guys HEAR that line?”
Nancy Peloetry
Finally on March 17, 2022 which also happened to be the annual holiday, “St. Patrick’s Day,” Nancy Pelosi got a text from Bono of U2… (unless he just forced this poem onto her phone,) and the text was one of the worst poems I’ve ever heard, when Nancy read it to a luncheon of government officials who kind of just talked through her recitation. It was bleak and corny, and everything you’d hope to see from this scene.
(U2 IT IS TIME TO BREAK UP)
Not Such 🎸ood News
In April, Guitar Center, a place where the people working there largely never seem to have a grasp on the instruments they are selling, announced it was finally time to stop spelling Guitar, “🎸uitar,” and begin using an actual “G.” For years I failed classes because I always spelled Guitar with a 🎸 and suddenly I understood why. Because a guitar NEVER made sense in place of a G. End of an era. Goodbye 🎸 “G”
🎸OODBYE
You know who DOESN’T look CALM here? NOAH LENNOX
Appnimal CALMllective
April also brought us this really sad picture of Noah Lennox as he revealed he had attempted to write some tranquil sounds for the Calm App, and was rejected. I am not totally clear on what the Calm App does, but I am sorry for Noah since he put the work in to try to help some people relax more. Good news for Noah, his album with Sonic Boom is great! Bad news, this year’s Animal Collective album sounded like sleeping medication taking Nyquil and watching television static for a year straight.
How could we have known what was STILL on the way?
Unlimited Bad News Pt. 1 of 2
Hey, the very first day of April also brought one half of what became a WHOLE lot more Red Hot Chili Peppers than we ended up needing. RHCP reunited with Jon Frusciante at some point recently so it was like, “Oh cool that guy can really play some guitar, maybe they’ll make some hits like the old days.” And then “Unlimited Love” was an ENDLESS letdown. It was like if you took all the teeth out of a Grizzly Bear’s mouth and then waited to watch it attack something, but it just sat down on a rock and did nothing at all. I also would normally not report on Anthony and Flea and the gang, but they had MORE up their sleeves to make the year of music EVEN worse!
The Minion of Music
At some point in the first half of the year Jack Antonoff also curated a bunch of 70’s covers by artists like St. Vincent and Tame Impala for a new Minions movie. And then I realized… Jack Antonoff might be a Minion. See image⬆️
“I am Gru”
-Jack Antonoff
Field Recorders Rejoice
A Grating Sound Better Than 99% Of What Got On Most Year End Lists
In August scientists shared the sound of a Black Hole. Actual audio of one of the scariest sounds I’ve ever heard. Like a giant, celestial garbage disposal devouring dark matter and grimacing from above as it nears the Earth, each and every day. The ambient community is thrilled. “Best New Space Destroyer Sounds.” I also said the sound of a black hole was better than that single The National released with Bon Iver, and I stand by it. Would rather listen to space devour itself than have to endure another bummer dad tune about nothing.
This band wrote “Undone”
It’s The SZN To Break Up
A thread throughout the year that plagued us all was the existence of 2022 Weezer. They released 4 EPS and the concept, get ready for this… is the SEASONS. Yes, Weezer songs that are about what the Seasons sound like…
But in the name of forcing creativity and drowning in the sea of attempting to maintain relevance, Weezer also planned to do some sort of Broadway residency to go with these EPS. SHOCKINGLY there weren’t enough ticket sales so they had to cancel this idea that no one could have seen coming, but certainly also didn’t ask for. Picturing myself in high school listening to the Blue Album, and being told that someday this band, who made this AMAZING BEST EVER ALBUM, would drift into middle age, still hanging on, and now making seasonal EPS and trying to perform something with them on Broadway. I would have said, “They shouldn’t do that.”
Old Man Covers Older Man
Speaking of old guys, Beck literally recorded a cover of that Neil Young song that starts with the words, “Old Man,” and they made a really dramatic video of it for a Monday Night Football TV commercial. I happened to see this get aired live, and was astounded at what I was witnessing. First because it was an actual scorching of Tom Brady, but also because Beck looked like an old dude just sittin’ on a stool singing a good old Neil Young tune. At the time of writing this, you can listen to this NEIL YOUNG cover on SPOTIFY. Shout out to Neil holding to his convictions! Also this Beck cover of Neil Young somehow got nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Performance. ROCK…
Stream Beck’s Grammy- Nominated-Best Rock Performance-Neil Young Cover for the NFL on Spotify
The Creators of Magical Mystery Canteen Machine
Endless Pain Part 2 of 2
In the Fall, we were made aware that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were “peppering” the Fall (sorry) with A DOUBLE ALBUM called something like the Magical Mystery Canteen Machine, and I tried to listen to it and did not make it through the first song. Nothing like overwhelming everyone with a LOT of really poorly done songs all in one year. We need to set a limit on how long a band can stay a band before we respectfully retire them, and they aren’t allowed to “Rolling Stones” their career.
*Jun Jun* “IT’S SOME NACHO FRIES”
Let’s not forget Turnstile getting a giant check from Taco Bell as “Holiday” soundtracked a Nacho Fries commercial! Is Turnstile the fast food of hardcore now?
Fast Food Core
T.L.C. (Taco Bell Licensing Connection)
Pictured: Two up and coming Independent Artists that simply wrote a few songs in a cabin in the woods and are trying to make it in the music industry
22, A Midnights
People were OUTRAGED to see Taylor Swift guest appear at a Bon Iver show. This one is maybe the funniest to me. Unbelievable, and yet so believable. Imagine a world where Justin Vernon is singing some high pitched jumbled nonsense over washes of melancholy synthesizers and then Taylor Swift comes on stage and sings “Skinny Love,” and we somehow have reverse engineered reality that Taylor Swift is an indie artist just hanging around with The National and Justin Vernon??? I blame the Dessner Brothers for this and the mid-life crisis core of early 2000’s indie music that won’t just end so we can all move on.
This is the same thing as the BTS McDonalds Meal, just with Mashed Potatoes instead of Fries
“Hi, My Wowee Zowee Meal Is Cold”
Pavement developed a marketing strategy in the name of maintaining relevance in 2022 by licensing Pierogis from a specific Pierogi restaurant to be named after their music. This was the big marketing idea to stay relevant, Pavement Pierogis. Like the mashed potatoes inside of a ravioli shell named, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.” I say this as truly and genuinely as possible, NO ONE could have ever in the world made this concept up, or thought of this before Pavement actually just did this.
RADIO Heads will love this Simon Cowell Super Group
It’s A No From Me Dawg
Kelly Clarkson sang a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” on her daytime talk show.
This is what Thom Yorke intended.
But he was too busy to notice in his new super-mid Radiohead cover band “The Smile.”
I bet Simon Cowell raised his eyebrows at this one.
You can tell this is going to be a Rock Opera because Billy Corgan has the same fancy star design on his wizard jacket as on the Smashing Pumpkins Logo
Come For The New Smashing Pumpkins Songs… Stay for the Wrestling Commentary
The Smashing Pumpkins wrote a 33-song rock opera no one asked for, and did some weird revealing of the songs through a podcast they also made. I wonder if anyone listened to any of that podcast. I remember hearing about it and thinking, “That would be hilarious to listen to,” and then never thinking about it again.
“No one knows about my band Metallica.”
Running Up That Marketing Scheme
Stranger Things somehow worked to give relevance to songs that SUDDENLY EVERYONE on Twitter had to OWN as their favorite song ever! EVERYONE was somehow a “Running Up That Hill” expert and needed to make sure new listeners to this very OK song knew that THEY already had heard it. The best part of this whole Stranger Things as music curators of very old songs reviving relevance, was when Metallica acted like no one had ever heard of them, and advertised their song “Master of Puppets” as “the song from Stranger Things.” Literally everyone on planet earth has heard of Metallica. It was a magical moment to watch unfold. Check out, “Master Of Puppets,” by unknowns Metallica, on the Smash Netflix Show Stranger Things today!
Final Remarks
In closing, we hope that all of these wonderful memories of so many odd and pointless musical moments in 2022 jogged your memory of just how ridiculous the world of music and marketing can be. It’s fun to watch bands flail in an attempt to stay relevant. It’s like when politicians try to do a dance with a rapper to get you to vote for them to be the next president, and it makes you want to never see anything ever again. The idea of “reading the room” is dead, and in its place is an endless string of poorly crafted ideas that are even more painful when executed, or attempted.
Some have said, 2022 has been an AMAZING year for music! And while it has in SO many ways, we also had to endure TWO Jack White Albums, TWO Red Hot Chili Peppers Albums (kind of 3 since one was a DOUBLE album), AND FOUR Weezer EPS. Along with a slew of albums from mainstream “indie” artists that everyone continuously forced as THE BEST STUFF, which was either exceptionally bland, or actually not that good. “Pitchfork-Core” is alive and well.
Looking ahead to 2023, we can’t wait for all of the ridiculous and hilarious things we’ll start keeping track of in just a few short days
All joking aside, it TRULY has been an amazing year for music!
In 2023 we hope to share MORE excellent music from bands and artists, labels and “not on a labels,” than we ever have before!
We’ll have your weekly Tiny Playlist Tuesdays, New Music Friday Guides, Reviews, Picks of the Day, End of Month Lists, and a lot of new ideas and Features we’ll get started soon!
We love hearing your thoughts on music you find through Small Albums, music you find that you think we should know, or just anything about music at all!
Thank you, truly for supporting us and being a part of this with us!
Happy New Year!
Can’t wait to hear all of the music we can all discover from Netflix T Shows in 2023!
Pictured: The Greatest Music Blog Ever
SMALL ALBUMS FOREVER