Spotify tells me that the album I listened to most this year was Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu. That doesn’t really surprise me, though the album came out in 2021 and I do usually try to spend a significant amount of time with new music every year. I love Iron Maiden and Senjutsu (which I really do think could have been great if 4 tracks had been dropped — ask nicely and I’ll tell you which ones) got me through a winter that felt VERY long. I promise, though, that I have been trying to branch out past Senjutsu. I loved so much music this year, including albums by artists who didn’t quite crack my songs list. The Mountain Goats sound revitalized on Bleed Out, which has a little more energy than their last two records. Beach House’s Once Twice Melody is an amazing sustained mood piece. Pusha T put out a perfect record. Mdou Moctar’s Niger EPs showcase some wonderful guitar playing. Charlie Griffiths made the best traditional prog metal album in years. Zach Bryan dropped a country record that another artist might have released as four albums. All of these albums (and so many more) made the year great, but the songs I’ve listed below are the ones I couldn’t stop coming back to. Except the ones from Senjutsu. Those belong to 2021.
One year ago, I finished an M.A in English. I’m proud of having earned the degree, but I think it would be fair to say that I struggled with how little I was reading outside of what was assigned. I read plenty for my classes, but I did not do enough reading for myself. The pandemic made this particularly difficult. I have often relied on the reading I do as a core part of care for my mental health, something to give me a boost when the world around me is not what I want it to be. Reading for class and not for myself was fine, but in the past year I have tried to make up for some of the reading I missed out on as a student.
Since January of 2022, I have read 131 books. Some were great. Some were frustrating. Each one was worth it. As I look back on the year, I want to share some of the books I loved. Sure, I was frustrated with some of my reading — I am not a perfect reader, the books were not all perfect books — but the end of the year is a time I try to be positive, to think back on what I have learned and consider how it can bring me forward into what I hope will be an even better year to come. Without further ado, here are 9 books or series I really enjoyed in 2022.
Iron Maiden have never made a perfect record. The Number of the Beast (1982), Piece of Mind (1983), and Powerslave (1984) all routinely end up on lists of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time, but I think it would be fair to say that the highs that lift those albums to the top of those lists are matched by some real lows. The Number of the Beast is remembered for the title track and “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” but it also has “Invaders,” “Gangland,” and “22 Acacia Avenue.” Piece of Mind opens side 2 with “The Trooper”, but “Quest for Fire” is perhaps one of the most embarrassing songs ever written. Powerslave has vocalist Bruce Dickinson’s paean to fencing, “Flash of the Blade.” Of the band’s run of classic ’80s records, it is 1988 concept record Seventh Son of a Seventh Son that comes closest to functioning as a really complete album — even “The Prophecy,” the album’s weakest track, features an inspired vocal performance — but the story is at best incoherent.
