My Favorite Tracks of 2022 (and late 2021) Playlist: I Can't Go Back/Birdsplosion

Last week, I featured my top albums of 2022, but as usual there are a lot of other individual songs from 2022 (and late 2021…) not on those albums that I want to share. As I sifted through my favorites from the year, I decided on a theme—“I can’t go back,” taken from a line in “Rosy” by The Regrettes. These songs all could be about going forward and not being able to return to where you started, which is always true—but especially true post-pandemic.

But wait, there’s more! I didn’t create just one playlist this year—I made two. This year I listened to so many songs inspired by birds, featuring birds, or sampling birdsong, that that theme needed its own playlist, “Birdsplosion.” One example of on-theme music released this year was the 5-part mega-album For the Birds: The Birdsong Project, which was conceived of during the pandemic and benefits Aududon. The physical version of this album fills 20 LPs. There were all types of content, including poetry read by celebrities, ambient music, songs by artists you’ve heard of and by many you haven’t heard of. You can listen to it yourself, if you like (or if you can just watch a video of Andrew Bird imitating birdsong to videos of birds here), but I’ve included a small sample from the collection below, interspersed with tracks from other artists who featured birds in their music this last-year-and-change. Anyway, from my listening, I decided it's really hard to write compelling music based on birdsong—the source material is often too repetitive and lacks direction. The songs that succeed take the source material and manipulate it to bring some direction; hopefully, you will hear that in some of these selections. Of course, another path is to write about birds without using their songs at all, of which there are several examples here.

I’ll say a little about all of the tracks from both playlists below.

“I can’t go back”

1. Momma: “Speeding 72” from Household Name – Not a great artist name, though the title pun is funny; but nonetheless a great song to play while driving fast in a car.
2. M.I.A.: “Puththi” from Mata – I’m not sure many people noticed that M.I.A. came out with a new album this year. This particular track appealed to me with more South Asian mixed in to the hip hop than other tracks on the album.
3. Phoenix: “Season 2” from Alpha Zulu – A light bopper from the veteran French Band. Their English words don’t always make sense.
4. Sylvan Esso: “Alarm” from No Rules Sandy – I’m usually not a huge fan of loop-based music, but this track keeps me unsteady on my feet at the same time I want to be dancing. I love how the main refrain sounds like an alarm, especially the word “alarm.” And when you’ve heard an alarm, you can’t go back.
5. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway: “The River Knows” from Crooked Tree – A haunting story about a sexual assault from a childhood friend, culminating in situation that no one can go back from. Guitar prodigy Tuttle is a rising star in folk and bluegrass scenes.
6. The Regrettes: “Rosy” from Further Joy – A song about changing your mind about a relationship, moving from friendship to love. This album's style is a departure from previous punk Regrettes' albums, moving in a more pop direction.
7. Perfume: “Spinning World” from Plasma – Japanese idol group Perfume has been making music together since 2001, lasting far longer than many J-pop idol groups. And they’ve still got it. If you want to be a little freaked out, watch the music video (even though the video has a translation, I’m still not sure what the song is about).
8. Regina Spektor: “One Man’s Prayer” from Home, Before and After – This song seems to start okay, but you gradually realize that the male singer persona is a poster child for toxic masculinity, and as the audience, we become more and more alarmed. Alarming, but also kind of true. I do think the heavy production takes a little away from the songwriting.
   
9. Muna: “Anything But Me” from Muna – A breakup song with a very real message for those who should really step away from toxic relationships (like the one in the previous track?); I love the one-liners, especially the first one.
10. Heal & Harrow: “Cutty Sark” from Heal & Harrow – At first, I thought this track from Scottish musicians Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl was about the famous clipper ship on display in Greenwich, England. But it turns out this song is about the witch for which the ship was named. The whole albums is about Scottish witch trials from the 16th–18th centuries.
11. Raveena: “Rush” from Asha’s Awakening – I’m not going to go into the Punjabi space princess concept, which in my opinion doesn’t really hold up, but New York musician Raveena still does a great job melding South Asian and pop music (though the 13-minute guided meditation is not for me). This track perfectly characterizes joyful anticipation.
12. Lizzy McAlpine (featuring Jacob Collier): “Erase me” from five seconds flat – Although this song is from Lizzy McAlpine’s second full-length album, she was new to me. I didn’t listen for very long before I figured out that the multi-instrumentalist jazz-pop prodigy Jacob Collier was also on the track. I think the song is about someone who is in too deep in a relationship and can’t see how to exist without the other person.
    
13. Mattiel: “Boomerang” from Georgia Gothic – I encountered this album trying to keep track of Georgia musicians, and this track won me over with its off-kilter meter. Also, by pairing “party in the USA” with “party in the Hudson Bay.” I’m not sure exactly what the track is about, but perhaps it is about trying to go back and failing?
14. Gwenno: “Kan Me” from Tresor – I first featured Gwenno, a Welsh musician who sings her recent albums entirely in Cornish, in my 2018 year-end list.  “Kan me” means May song, and it celebrates the beginning of summer.
15. Robert Glasper, esperanza spalding, and Q-Tip: “Why We Speak” from Black Radio III – This is the third album in which pianist/songwriter/producer Glasper has collaborated with a lot of different artists; this song (in which spalding sings more French than English) is an anti-capitalist plea to remember the real reasons for living. You can watch the lyrics video (not translated, though) here.
    

“Birdsplosion”

1. Aoife O’Donovan: “Sister Starling” from Age of Apathy – Birds as metaphor.
2. Seu Jorge and Flor Jorge: “Good to See” from For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 2 – Birdsong as compositional material (I wish I knew the bird!).
3. Ingrid Henderson: “Reels: The Dance of the Storm Petrels & Swallows of the Sea” from Message in a Bottle (Brath sa Bhuideal) – Birds as inspiration.
4. Rudresh Mahanthappa: “Oreals” from For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 1 – Birdsong as compositional material.
5. Rachel Newton and the Spell Song Ensemble: “Swifts” from Spell Songs II: Let the Light In – This once seems to actually be about the bird.
6. Les Mamans du Congo and RROBIN: “Loango Weaver” from A guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa – Birdsong as compositional material. This is just the latest albums in a whole regional series featuring songs based on birdsong—separate from the Audubon album.
   
7. Shabaka Hutchings and esperanza spalding: “Morning Rituals” from For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 5 – I think bird as inspiration, but there could be some borrowed birdsong compositional material here, in addition to the birdsong in the background. spalding is the only artist featured in both playlists!
8. Olivia Chaney: “The Hawk and the Crow” from For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 2 – Birds as metaphor.
9. El Búho and David Rothenberg: “SupercurlU”  from Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds. I think a little of bird as inspiration and birdsong as compositional material. This track is from an entire album based on curlew birdsong. Also, birds and bass clarinet? How could I not like it? That's like like my brand.
   
10. Woodkid: “Altamira Oriole” from For the Birds, the Birdsong Project, Vol. 3 – Birdsong as compositional material.
11. Lyre Lyre: “Sam’s Chicken” from Gin and Strathspey – Birds as inspiration, and a fun way to end the Birdsplosion with this Scottish fiddle/cello/guitar trio.