(As a note: not every song I included here is on Spotify. The iZme songs can be found here, here, and here. Meanwhile, two of the Witch Café songs can be found here and here; however, I think “Cauldron Bay” may only be publicly posted on the artist’s Bandcamp page?).
9/21 Update: There's now also a YouTube Playlist version, for those who would prefer that:
It's still missing the Witch Café songs, as well as one of the gloss songs and two Polite Fiction songs (although those can be found here and here).
Let’s start with the big guns: my pick for Album of the Summer is The Kick, by Foxes. I listened to her debut album Glorious back in 2014, and it was fine. I didn’t revisit it a ton, so there’s a lot of it that kind of faded from my memory, but there were definitely stand-out parts, like the dramatic timpani rolls and stuttered vocals of “Youth” and the layered, Florence + the Machine-like vocals on the chorus of “Holding onto Heaven”. But I ended up missing out on her 2016 follow-up, and probably would have missed out on The Kick had my brother not sent it to me.
I kind of really regret not checking out All I Need, though, because I really did not see her swing into Carly Rae Jepsen-style dance-y synthpop on The Kick coming, let alone her skill at the style. This really is exactly what I want out of a summer album, just non-stop sing-along choruses and sparkling synth hooks for days.
Every one of these could be a standout single on a normal album, and it makes the 40-minute album breeze along. I could run on a loop without getting tired of it (and I suppose I have, to some extent), and I could pick any combination of three songs for it (my unofficial limit on a single album’s representation for these lists) and not feel bad (although it was difficult to ignore the pulsing excitement of opener “Sister Ray” or the absolutely cathartic drop in the bridge of “Potential”). With Carly pushing her next album into October, I am so glad this was here to pick up the slack as my soundtrack of the summer. And in the meantime, I definitely need to go back in her discography and see what I missed.
A strong runner-up in the “Best Album” category was MUNA, with their self-titled third album. I’ve been a regular fan of theirs, naming their debut one of my favorite albums of 2017 (and while I forgot to make a 2019 Playlist, Saves the World was absolutely on my shortlist for that year). MUNA keeps up that streak, with their shortest and smallest-scale record yet. The band still has their ability to write big, sprawling melodies over layers of synth textures, but it feels like the subjects are much more smaller-scale than some of their past records.
Tracks like “Silk Chiffon” (on my previous playlist, as a single) or “Solid” are applied to more straight-forward love songs, and even the more reflective pieces like “Home By Now” keep the type of introspective thoughts like those on their past records to more specific moments. There are some times I wished it had gone a little bigger (“Solid” especially; it feels packed with more musical ideas than its brief 2:21 runtime can hold), but better to leave you wanting than overstaying its welcome, I suppose.
There are a lot of reasons that I make these playlists and write these articles for them. I really enjoy sharing the music I enjoy with other people; and I find that they make for fun snapshots into periods of my life, which makes them good mementos to return to. But another reason I do them is that, while writing them, I force myself to return to a lot of music, and in that revisiting, sometimes I’ll gain a new appreciation for something that I bounced off of the first time. That wound up being the case with Bastille’s new album, Give Me the Future.
I don’t think that I’ve really gotten a chance to talk about it here, but I like Bastille a lot, but I didn’t latch onto their third album Doom Days as strongly as their first two albums or a lot of their side projects. I’m still not as sure why, really; for a while, I thought it was that the album was a little shorter and smaller in scope, but in retrospect, even the extended This Got Out of Hand double album version didn’t do much to move my opinion (which, again, hadn’t really been the case with the first two’s extended editions).
Give Me the Future was again on the shorter side, and I feel like I had something else going on around its release, so I gave it a listen or two. But re-listening to it, I actually liked it a lot. I think the clear sci-fi concept works well, especially since the shorter length helps keep it focused and from getting too excessive. I know that big, spiraling, melodramatic grandeur is kind of their thing (and it’s a big reason why I love them as artists!), but the big theming helps cancel out any losses from a shortened length. I also think re-viewing it as a whole rather than a bunch of singles helped, since the pre-release songs were strong (and I still think the best song on the whole is “Thelma + Louise”, which appeared on my playlist last summer). But there’s still a lot to love in deep cuts like “Shut Off the Lights” and “Back to the Future”.
I’ve also really liked some of the songs on the extended Dreams of the Past version, which was released the final week of August, although I might need some more time seeing how it holds up as a whole. It’s a full-on triple album that makes the runtime nearly two and a half times its original length, and that’s just… a lot to digest at once.
Jukebox the Ghost also returns with another strong effort. It’s been a few years since their last full album, 2018’s Off to the Races (likely due to their heavy focus on touring, which is hard to do during a pandemic; but I’d absolutely recommend their live show, for anyone who hasn't seen them yet). And in that time, their brand of theatrical, piano-driven power pop has been sorely missed, which is why it’s great that Cheers sees them at their best. I’ve already featured a few of the album’s early tracks in my last playlist (namely the title track and “Ramona”), but there are a lot of strong points here. Opener “Hey Maude” has the kind of frantic energy and piano runs that make it such an exciting opener (and remind me of “Schizophrenia” from Everything Under the Sun, which is one of my favorite songs of theirs, so that’s always good). The big brass hits in the chorus of “Brass Band” are such a fun moment, and “Move Along” is such a tight little pop number that shows off how good they are at writing catchy hooks and building up songs. There are just so many good moments here, and it’s going to be fun to revisit it going forward.
I highlighted Witch Café last year for her debut EP, and she returns this year with full album Witchpop Volume Two. It’s exactly what you’d expect, a bunch of high-energy chiptune songs. Absolutely worth checking out if you also found her stuff last summer interesting.
I’m really late to this one, but I first heard “Ablaze” by School of Seven Bells and instantly fell in love. It’s just a blast of dreamy synths and breezy vocals that feels ethereal, and it’s an all-timer of a song. And learning about the tragic backstory of its album, 2016’s SVIIB (lead singer Alejandra Deheza finished it following the death of her bandmate Benjamin Curtis to leukemia), just makes it all the more beautiful and haunting.
It’s not nearly as tragic, but the story behind Casey Dienel’s 2017 album Imitation Of A Woman To Love definitely has its own bittersweet side. I had heard of Casey’s prior project, White Hinterland, but not much more than that, and I completely missed Imitation on its initial release, but I was drawn in when I listened. Casey has an interesting, practiced voice, the kind that calls to mind the haunting, airy belting of Florence Welch. But the arrangements here are the exact opposite of Florence + the Machine; sparse, dark, electronic, and often tinged with a weary bitterness. The combination of simple, addictive synth lines and evocative lyrics, like in “Sincerely Insincerely”, just wedged themselves into my mind; you’ll get a bleeping keyboard loop that feels like it’s echoing in a large room under swelling vocals about ominous visions among mundane suburbia, only for the orchestration to gradually build in fullness to walls of sound to accompany the dramatic singing. It really is something to behold over the course of a song.
And then, while searching for more information about the album’s story, I found this 2019 post from Dienel herself, “Why I Quit My Dream Job In The Music Industry”, discussing how the album served as a sort of soft retirement: the end of over a decade of trying relentlessly to make a dream, a lifestyle, and ultimately a job, just work out, and all of the challenges along the way. It’s a really good article that I would highly recommend, the story of slowly coming to hard understandings about both yourself and your dreams; and it just adds so much depth to Imitation, keeping it alive in the back of mind. But even then, there’s the kernel of hope there, for reinvention and being more than the limiting ways we often define ourselves.
I wasn’t as big a fan of the sophomore album of Pale Waves, so I’m happy to say that I found their third album Unwanted much closer to their stellar debut. The group has moved much more firmly in a pop-punk direction, and that decision has allowed their natural skill at hooks and sing-along choruses to shine through; any of the baker’s dozen songs here could be a single, and they’re all a good time. The songwriting on Who Am I? seemed a lot less certain (in retrospect, it was perhaps aptly named), but with an album of hindsight, it makes sense as a midpoint between this and the more new wave-inspired debut My Mind Makes Noises. I think for personal preferences, I’ll prefer the latter (and the highs of that one were maybe a tad higher), but I think they absolutely hit the mark here.
Speaking of semi-bounceback albums, I think Joywave’s Cleanse is my favorite album of theirs since their 2015 debut How Do You Feel Now? Their usual sarcasm feels so sharp and focused, and “Buy American” especially is definitely one of my favorite songs in their repertoire.
After numerous delays (the longest being waiting until they could tour to support its release), The Family Crest finally released The War: Act II. I have yet to listen to it back-to-back with 2018’s Act I, but I think it holds its own. I’m a sucker for the opening sax of “Hearts on Fire”, and “Pride” stands out even more as the centerpiece, two years after it was released to tease the eventual full album. If you’re a fan of the lush arrangements of orchestral pop, it’s hard to go wrong with The Family Crest.
If you prefer your complex arrangements delivered in a more traditional, rock music style, definitely check out Gang of Youths. I wound up checking out their new album angel in realtime and its 2017 predecessor Go Farther in Lightness after hearing some good reviews, and I wound up loving both of them. The band’s songwriting has this natural storyteller vibe, putting you in the moment of their story, and singer David Le’aupepe can wring so much emotion out of his voice, alternating between his baritone growl and shouted exclamations and everything else with great precision (maybe it’s cliche of me, but it makes me think of singers like Bruce Springsteen or Craig Finn, although I think David has a smoother voice than either of them). And the band knows how to go big and grand; I love things like the dramatic string line undergirding the 7-minute “Achilles Come Down” like a constant heartbeat, or the combined 9-minute suite that is “Le Symbolique” and “Let Me Down Easy”, which can just tear your heart out at a moment’s notice several times over with a dramatic instrumental swell or line reflecting on the end of a doomed romance. If there’s a downside here, it’s that their excess can take a toll; both albums fall in the 70 to 80 minute range, and can sometimes drag (even on angel in realtime., which does a slightly better job of reigning it in). But if you don’t mind that, there’s a lot to love on both of them.
I don’t know that Beam Me Up reaches the highs of past Mystery Skulls albums, but it’s a solid 35 minutes of electro-funk. He basically has it down to a science at this point, cranking out another extremely-listenable, danceable album of synth-rock roughly every 18 months.
I usually try to keep the songs from video game soundtracks that I listen to a lot at least a little separate from these playlists; most of the time, I just listen to them straight-through, and I don’t know that they make for good entries on playlists anyway. But “4:42 Still Free” by Danger absolutely slaps, so it gets a pass; for those who didn’t see my past writing on it, check out my review of The Game Bakers’ Haven! And if you’re interested in other fun game soundtracks, I’ve been listening to Guilty Gear -Strive- after finally getting into that game, as well as Machine Girl’s Neon White soundtrack (more to come on the latter!).
Speaking of video game soundtracks, I’ve mentioned River City Girls a few times (most prominently as part of my 2019 Year-End Round-Up), including how it has great music. Well, I finally checked out the independent work of the composer behind that, Megan McDuffee. Her most recent album, Inner Demons, is some great dark, moody synthwave, perfect for vibing on a dark night or rainy day. And she recently released a single titled “Villain”, which is filled with some deliciously filthy, bass-y synth work (it’s a collaboration with ALEX apparently meant to contrast with an earlier project of theirs titled Hero, but I still need to check that one out). And to tie it back, I think “Villain” is also a nice companion piece to some of the Neon White soundtrack that I was just mentioning.
If you prefer your moody, contemplative albums to be more on the rock side of things, I also enjoyed The Greeting Committee’s Dandelion. It’s a little less tightly tied to that tone, though, so you’ll also get the occasional fun song, like “Make Out”. And if you want something lighter and more dream-pop for setting the atmosphere, Soft Velvet Lounge’s debut Life of the Party is solid, with “Polaroid Girl” as a standout track.
I also have a few follow-ups on some artists I covered in my End of 2021 Playlist. After loving Mercurial World, I spent a lot of time listening to their pre-album backlog; turns out, I loved a lot of that, too! I went with breadth, picking “Head Over Heels” (a Tears for Fears cover), “Move Slow”, and “Kill Shot”; that’s one representative each from prior EPs Day/Pop, Night/Pop, and A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling (which, at 8 songs, maybe strains the distinction between “EP” and “album”, but whatever), but basically everything I listened to was great. And they’re soon releasing a Deluxe Version of Mercurial World, so there’s a lot to look forward to (I’m usually more indifferent to remixes, but I really liked Danny L Harle’s hyperpop take of “Chaeri”, which served as the lead single).
Speaking of hyperpop-ish follow-ups, there’s underscores’s successor to fishmonger, an EP titled boneyard aka fearmonger. I’m not sure if it’s an entirely separate thing, B-sides from fishmonger, or something else, but I think I liked it even more than its predecessor. The hooks on songs like “Girls and boys” and “Saltfields” are just etched into my brain now, and I found myself wishing it went on longer than it’s 18-ish minute runtime.
And of course, there’s new 100 gecs single “Doritos & Fritos”, which (and I mean this with the utmost appreciation) sounds like it came off the soundtrack for a Splatoon game. In non-hyperpop updates, if you’re in the mood for more fun covers, Alex Lahey returns with a fun cover of Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” that brings her characteristic rock edge to the classic. Also, I haven’t written about them since their last album back in 2020, but while I’m talking covers by artists I’ve talked about repeatedly, Misterwives released a cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams” among their recent singles, and they do such a great performance of an all-time classic.
I continue to be dumbfounded at League of Legends’ successes in non-games spaces. Their music curation, for one, has been weirdly strong. I don’t know how they got Porter Robinson (who I guess I featured on the Summer 2021 list rather than Year-End, but whatever) to do a song for them, but it's a good one, so it’s included here. And playlist regular Snail’s House also did a few solid songs for them, although I wound up including some of his non-LoL recent output. I’m still going to try the game, though.
And Left at London’s T.I.A.P.F.Y.H. follow-up single “Bloodlust” is solid, and saw play in my rotation in the first half of the year. It also led me to discover (while writing this) that she released an EP back in June. Honestly, I’ve already gone over some of the bigger reasons I do these playlists, but a small part of me also does it because I have no idea how to keep track of music releases, and sometimes I’ll find out things like this while doing research on an artist.
Speaking of “being late to the party on news”, I also learned a few months ago that The Mowgli’s split up… 2 years ago? I liked them for a long time, and if you weren’t familiar with their work, maybe check out their album Waiting for the Dawn (or its big single, “San Francisco”). However, I also learned that they basically just split into two projects, with lead singer Colin Dieden going solo under the name Little Hurt, and the rest of the band continuing as Modern Original. So I included a little of both.
“Borders” by Milk & Bone and “Hollow” by End of the World and DNCE are some perfect pop songs. I don’t have much else to add, but I would be remiss to let them go unremarked.
For the next section, I might go a little quicker. I’ve been finding and trying out more smaller artists lately, mostly by browsing Bandcamp on their Bandcamp Fridays (for those unfamiliar, those are mostly-monthly days where the site waives their cut of each sale and instead gives to the artist; if you’re also interested, the next one is October 7th). Some of them might not have their work posted on every single music service, but at the very least, you should be able to find them on their individual Bandcamp pages. This is also the section where some of the releases might be the oldest (especially since in some cases, I dug through their back catalog a little bit), but since the artists aren’t big names, I feel substantially less guilty than I normally do about including older songs.
The rundown:
Jamie Paige: If you like synth pop or vocaloid stuff, definitely check Jamie out. Her late 2021 album Bittersweet has been one of my favorites to listen to this year, and the three songs she’s released since then have been similarly stand-out. I also enjoyed digging through her back catalog, including a realization that I had actually heard her before (she was a featured vocalist on Moe Shop’s “Love Taste”, which I could have sworn I put on a past playlist, but I guess not).
Panic Division: Their 2019 album Touch was another highlight, just a delight of atmospheric pop-rock coated in glistening synths and guitar hooks. I wish the closing was a little stronger, but the highlights are catchy, and putting it on just lightens the mood.
Dresage: This is another one where I had a lot of fun digging through their work; it’s a lot of fun indie-pop from someone who’s well-practiced at songwriting. “Dinners at Home” in particular is standout stuff. Dresage is the solo project for singer/songwriter Keeley Bumford, and while she hasn’t broken out in a mainstream way, she seems to pop up in a lot of places while I was looking for more music, with soundtrack work, songs being licensed for TV shows, guest appearances on music Youtube shows like Andrew Huang’s “4 Producers 1 Sample”... Like, breaking out in the music industry is difficult (see above: the blurb on Casey Dienel), but she’s certainly getting her name out.
iZme: I’m not positive of the specific name for whatever genre Snail’s House is (I’ve seen some good names, though, like “kawaii pop”, “pico pop”, and “kawaii future bass”), but if you vibe with his stuff, definitely take a look at iZme/U Kitazawa (like Snail’s House, a few songs are credited under a different moniker). I’ve loved every EP I’ve listened to so far.
HOLIDAE: This is a fun little electropop band with a pair of EPs under the belt. Their best songs are absolute earworms; “Magic” is just a perfect pop song, and the chorus of “Burnin’ Up” has established permanent residence in a corner of my brain.
Polite Fiction: This self-titled EP was from 2013, and it fit in perfectly with the best indie pop-rock of the era. I kept getting flashes of Franz Ferdinand, Two Door Cinema Club, early Panic at the Disco… And most exciting, he released a new single, “Drive”, last month, his first release (on Bandcamp at least) in nine years, and it’s a fantastic continuation.
gloss: I found their 2022 EP Are You Okay? (which, as a side note, has some of my favorite cover art of the year), and you can tell this is a really tight ensemble. If you like any sort of jazz-pop fusion stuff, check them out.
Client Liaison: Their self-titled EP is a bunch of funky, electro dance-pop numbers, and a lot of fun.
Tokyo Wanderer: I started with their 2019 album Incubus, which is a moodier, electronic piece, only to find out most of their output was more traditional future funk fare. It’s not a huge shift, I suppose, but it did surprise me at the time. Either way, it’s all solid stuff.
Cheem: A short album of pop-punk and hyperpop (in the vein of Rina Sawayama’s “throw in every disparate musical idea you feel like” excess), with some solid pop hooks supporting it.
Sister Species: Their EP Light Exchanges is a pleasant little chamber pop record. Opener “Heat Death (Hold Me Here)” and the title track are standouts.
Primo the Alien: For anyone who likes more theatrical pop-rock, a la early Lady Gaga or the glam rock she was drawing from, Primo’s Heart on the Run is a solid choice.
Candy Apple Blue: If you prefer you theatricality in the form of over-the-top ‘80s synth rock, I had a good time with this duo’s album Second Sight.
Friday Night Firefight: I’m a little iffier on this, but it’s the sort of ‘80s synth wave that’s in vogue in some circles, except with a definite more modern-twist that I can’ really define that sets them apart from some of the crowd.
unit.0: His EP comms.array is some solid, guitar-instrumental math rock.
And now, the section where I talk about the albums that are on the horizon (and a few of the early singles from them):
I ended up agonizing over whether to include two songs each from Carly Rae Jepsen, St. Lucia, and Rina Sawayama. All of them have albums coming in the next few months, and will almost certainly be contenders for my favorite albums of the back-half of the year. Would popping up that much be bad? What if the best songs are all the pre-release singles, and I run out of good picks (especially for St. Lucia’s Utopia, which I think has already released half of its tracklist)? But ultimately, I’m confident I’ll find good songs to use, and these lists are as much time capsules for me to refer back to, and I’m definitely listening to these songs a lot.
(Also, while I’m talking about them, “Touch” is in the running for my favorite St. Lucia song, which is saying a ton. That build to the chorus is just fantastic, and I love trying to belt along to that high note it lands on.)
If there’s anything that gives me pause on that ruling, it’s probably the Knock’s HISTORY. Which is… fine, but definitely the most underwhelming of their albums. The hits are good (it’s especially fun seeing them collaborate with Dragonette on “Slow Song”, which I’ve put on the playlist), but I’ve featured a number of them over the course of my last three playlists, and the album deep cuts are a little underwhelming. But it’s also a little weird that not every early single made the final tracklist? It might not have made the album feel any fresher (although for what it’s worth, some of the songs on the final album are older than some of the excluded singles), but I feel like a dance album succeeds in part on how many bangers it has, and including things like “Sound the Alarm”, “Bedroom Eyes”, “Exit Sign”, or “Fireworks” (among others) would have certainly made for a deeper lineup.
And the rapid-fire section:
I’m also excited for 22 Make, Oh Wonder’s sequel to last year’s 22 Break (which featured heavily on my End of the Year playlist), but I only included one song here; I feel like their tracks are going to play better as part of a full album.
Speaking of Dragonette, they have an album coming out soon. It should be interesting, as it’s their first album in six years, as well as the first one since the group became a solo project for lead singer Martina Sorbara (again, I learn so much researching these); but the early songs (including that feature with the Knocks) have been promising, so we shall see.
I don’t know if they’re building up to a full album, but I’ve loved The Chain Gang of 1974’s recent releases (“Wanting This” and a two-song EP with Olivver the Kid), and am excited to find out if there’s more in the pipeline.
I also suspect Great Good Fine Ok is building to another of their solid EPs with their releases, but those tend to happen on their own schedule, so who knows how imminent that is.
And I’m curious how The Midnight’s new album turns out, as “Change Your Heart or Die” feels like a bit of a shift in sound for them, including a lot more guitar, but it fell after the cutoff I was using for writing this, so that will probably come up on the next playlist.
There are a lot of reasons that I make these playlists and write these articles for them. I really enjoy sharing the music I enjoy with other people; and I find that they make for fun snapshots into periods of my life, which makes them good mementos to return to. But another reason I do them is that, while writing them, I force myself to return to a lot of music, and in that revisiting, sometimes I’ll gain a new appreciation for something that I bounced off of the first time. That wound up being the case with Bastille’s new album, Give Me the Future.
I don’t think that I’ve really gotten a chance to talk about it here, but I like Bastille a lot, but I didn’t latch onto their third album Doom Days as strongly as their first two albums or a lot of their side projects. I’m still not as sure why, really; for a while, I thought it was that the album was a little shorter and smaller in scope, but in retrospect, even the extended This Got Out of Hand double album version didn’t do much to move my opinion (which, again, hadn’t really been the case with the first two’s extended editions).
Give Me the Future was again on the shorter side, and I feel like I had something else going on around its release, so I gave it a listen or two. But re-listening to it, I actually liked it a lot. I think the clear sci-fi concept works well, especially since the shorter length helps keep it focused and from getting too excessive. I know that big, spiraling, melodramatic grandeur is kind of their thing (and it’s a big reason why I love them as artists!), but the big theming helps cancel out any losses from a shortened length. I also think re-viewing it as a whole rather than a bunch of singles helped, since the pre-release songs were strong (and I still think the best song on the whole is “Thelma + Louise”, which appeared on my playlist last summer). But there’s still a lot to love in deep cuts like “Shut Off the Lights” and “Back to the Future”.
I’ve also really liked some of the songs on the extended Dreams of the Past version, which was released the final week of August, although I might need some more time seeing how it holds up as a whole. It’s a full-on triple album that makes the runtime nearly two and a half times its original length, and that’s just… a lot to digest at once.
Jukebox the Ghost also returns with another strong effort. It’s been a few years since their last full album, 2018’s Off to the Races (likely due to their heavy focus on touring, which is hard to do during a pandemic; but I’d absolutely recommend their live show, for anyone who hasn't seen them yet). And in that time, their brand of theatrical, piano-driven power pop has been sorely missed, which is why it’s great that Cheers sees them at their best. I’ve already featured a few of the album’s early tracks in my last playlist (namely the title track and “Ramona”), but there are a lot of strong points here. Opener “Hey Maude” has the kind of frantic energy and piano runs that make it such an exciting opener (and remind me of “Schizophrenia” from Everything Under the Sun, which is one of my favorite songs of theirs, so that’s always good). The big brass hits in the chorus of “Brass Band” are such a fun moment, and “Move Along” is such a tight little pop number that shows off how good they are at writing catchy hooks and building up songs. There are just so many good moments here, and it’s going to be fun to revisit it going forward.
I highlighted Witch Café last year for her debut EP, and she returns this year with full album Witchpop Volume Two. It’s exactly what you’d expect, a bunch of high-energy chiptune songs. Absolutely worth checking out if you also found her stuff last summer interesting.
I’m really late to this one, but I first heard “Ablaze” by School of Seven Bells and instantly fell in love. It’s just a blast of dreamy synths and breezy vocals that feels ethereal, and it’s an all-timer of a song. And learning about the tragic backstory of its album, 2016’s SVIIB (lead singer Alejandra Deheza finished it following the death of her bandmate Benjamin Curtis to leukemia), just makes it all the more beautiful and haunting.
It’s not nearly as tragic, but the story behind Casey Dienel’s 2017 album Imitation Of A Woman To Love definitely has its own bittersweet side. I had heard of Casey’s prior project, White Hinterland, but not much more than that, and I completely missed Imitation on its initial release, but I was drawn in when I listened. Casey has an interesting, practiced voice, the kind that calls to mind the haunting, airy belting of Florence Welch. But the arrangements here are the exact opposite of Florence + the Machine; sparse, dark, electronic, and often tinged with a weary bitterness. The combination of simple, addictive synth lines and evocative lyrics, like in “Sincerely Insincerely”, just wedged themselves into my mind; you’ll get a bleeping keyboard loop that feels like it’s echoing in a large room under swelling vocals about ominous visions among mundane suburbia, only for the orchestration to gradually build in fullness to walls of sound to accompany the dramatic singing. It really is something to behold over the course of a song.
And then, while searching for more information about the album’s story, I found this 2019 post from Dienel herself, “Why I Quit My Dream Job In The Music Industry”, discussing how the album served as a sort of soft retirement: the end of over a decade of trying relentlessly to make a dream, a lifestyle, and ultimately a job, just work out, and all of the challenges along the way. It’s a really good article that I would highly recommend, the story of slowly coming to hard understandings about both yourself and your dreams; and it just adds so much depth to Imitation, keeping it alive in the back of mind. But even then, there’s the kernel of hope there, for reinvention and being more than the limiting ways we often define ourselves.
I wasn’t as big a fan of the sophomore album of Pale Waves, so I’m happy to say that I found their third album Unwanted much closer to their stellar debut. The group has moved much more firmly in a pop-punk direction, and that decision has allowed their natural skill at hooks and sing-along choruses to shine through; any of the baker’s dozen songs here could be a single, and they’re all a good time. The songwriting on Who Am I? seemed a lot less certain (in retrospect, it was perhaps aptly named), but with an album of hindsight, it makes sense as a midpoint between this and the more new wave-inspired debut My Mind Makes Noises. I think for personal preferences, I’ll prefer the latter (and the highs of that one were maybe a tad higher), but I think they absolutely hit the mark here.
Speaking of semi-bounceback albums, I think Joywave’s Cleanse is my favorite album of theirs since their 2015 debut How Do You Feel Now? Their usual sarcasm feels so sharp and focused, and “Buy American” especially is definitely one of my favorite songs in their repertoire.
After numerous delays (the longest being waiting until they could tour to support its release), The Family Crest finally released The War: Act II. I have yet to listen to it back-to-back with 2018’s Act I, but I think it holds its own. I’m a sucker for the opening sax of “Hearts on Fire”, and “Pride” stands out even more as the centerpiece, two years after it was released to tease the eventual full album. If you’re a fan of the lush arrangements of orchestral pop, it’s hard to go wrong with The Family Crest.
If you prefer your complex arrangements delivered in a more traditional, rock music style, definitely check out Gang of Youths. I wound up checking out their new album angel in realtime and its 2017 predecessor Go Farther in Lightness after hearing some good reviews, and I wound up loving both of them. The band’s songwriting has this natural storyteller vibe, putting you in the moment of their story, and singer David Le’aupepe can wring so much emotion out of his voice, alternating between his baritone growl and shouted exclamations and everything else with great precision (maybe it’s cliche of me, but it makes me think of singers like Bruce Springsteen or Craig Finn, although I think David has a smoother voice than either of them). And the band knows how to go big and grand; I love things like the dramatic string line undergirding the 7-minute “Achilles Come Down” like a constant heartbeat, or the combined 9-minute suite that is “Le Symbolique” and “Let Me Down Easy”, which can just tear your heart out at a moment’s notice several times over with a dramatic instrumental swell or line reflecting on the end of a doomed romance. If there’s a downside here, it’s that their excess can take a toll; both albums fall in the 70 to 80 minute range, and can sometimes drag (even on angel in realtime., which does a slightly better job of reigning it in). But if you don’t mind that, there’s a lot to love on both of them.
I don’t know that Beam Me Up reaches the highs of past Mystery Skulls albums, but it’s a solid 35 minutes of electro-funk. He basically has it down to a science at this point, cranking out another extremely-listenable, danceable album of synth-rock roughly every 18 months.
I usually try to keep the songs from video game soundtracks that I listen to a lot at least a little separate from these playlists; most of the time, I just listen to them straight-through, and I don’t know that they make for good entries on playlists anyway. But “4:42 Still Free” by Danger absolutely slaps, so it gets a pass; for those who didn’t see my past writing on it, check out my review of The Game Bakers’ Haven! And if you’re interested in other fun game soundtracks, I’ve been listening to Guilty Gear -Strive- after finally getting into that game, as well as Machine Girl’s Neon White soundtrack (more to come on the latter!).
Speaking of video game soundtracks, I’ve mentioned River City Girls a few times (most prominently as part of my 2019 Year-End Round-Up), including how it has great music. Well, I finally checked out the independent work of the composer behind that, Megan McDuffee. Her most recent album, Inner Demons, is some great dark, moody synthwave, perfect for vibing on a dark night or rainy day. And she recently released a single titled “Villain”, which is filled with some deliciously filthy, bass-y synth work (it’s a collaboration with ALEX apparently meant to contrast with an earlier project of theirs titled Hero, but I still need to check that one out). And to tie it back, I think “Villain” is also a nice companion piece to some of the Neon White soundtrack that I was just mentioning.
If you prefer your moody, contemplative albums to be more on the rock side of things, I also enjoyed The Greeting Committee’s Dandelion. It’s a little less tightly tied to that tone, though, so you’ll also get the occasional fun song, like “Make Out”. And if you want something lighter and more dream-pop for setting the atmosphere, Soft Velvet Lounge’s debut Life of the Party is solid, with “Polaroid Girl” as a standout track.
I also have a few follow-ups on some artists I covered in my End of 2021 Playlist. After loving Mercurial World, I spent a lot of time listening to their pre-album backlog; turns out, I loved a lot of that, too! I went with breadth, picking “Head Over Heels” (a Tears for Fears cover), “Move Slow”, and “Kill Shot”; that’s one representative each from prior EPs Day/Pop, Night/Pop, and A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling (which, at 8 songs, maybe strains the distinction between “EP” and “album”, but whatever), but basically everything I listened to was great. And they’re soon releasing a Deluxe Version of Mercurial World, so there’s a lot to look forward to (I’m usually more indifferent to remixes, but I really liked Danny L Harle’s hyperpop take of “Chaeri”, which served as the lead single).
Speaking of hyperpop-ish follow-ups, there’s underscores’s successor to fishmonger, an EP titled boneyard aka fearmonger. I’m not sure if it’s an entirely separate thing, B-sides from fishmonger, or something else, but I think I liked it even more than its predecessor. The hooks on songs like “Girls and boys” and “Saltfields” are just etched into my brain now, and I found myself wishing it went on longer than it’s 18-ish minute runtime.
And of course, there’s new 100 gecs single “Doritos & Fritos”, which (and I mean this with the utmost appreciation) sounds like it came off the soundtrack for a Splatoon game. In non-hyperpop updates, if you’re in the mood for more fun covers, Alex Lahey returns with a fun cover of Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” that brings her characteristic rock edge to the classic. Also, I haven’t written about them since their last album back in 2020, but while I’m talking covers by artists I’ve talked about repeatedly, Misterwives released a cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams” among their recent singles, and they do such a great performance of an all-time classic.
I continue to be dumbfounded at League of Legends’ successes in non-games spaces. Their music curation, for one, has been weirdly strong. I don’t know how they got Porter Robinson (who I guess I featured on the Summer 2021 list rather than Year-End, but whatever) to do a song for them, but it's a good one, so it’s included here. And playlist regular Snail’s House also did a few solid songs for them, although I wound up including some of his non-LoL recent output. I’m still going to try the game, though.
And Left at London’s T.I.A.P.F.Y.H. follow-up single “Bloodlust” is solid, and saw play in my rotation in the first half of the year. It also led me to discover (while writing this) that she released an EP back in June. Honestly, I’ve already gone over some of the bigger reasons I do these playlists, but a small part of me also does it because I have no idea how to keep track of music releases, and sometimes I’ll find out things like this while doing research on an artist.
Speaking of “being late to the party on news”, I also learned a few months ago that The Mowgli’s split up… 2 years ago? I liked them for a long time, and if you weren’t familiar with their work, maybe check out their album Waiting for the Dawn (or its big single, “San Francisco”). However, I also learned that they basically just split into two projects, with lead singer Colin Dieden going solo under the name Little Hurt, and the rest of the band continuing as Modern Original. So I included a little of both.
“Borders” by Milk & Bone and “Hollow” by End of the World and DNCE are some perfect pop songs. I don’t have much else to add, but I would be remiss to let them go unremarked.
For the next section, I might go a little quicker. I’ve been finding and trying out more smaller artists lately, mostly by browsing Bandcamp on their Bandcamp Fridays (for those unfamiliar, those are mostly-monthly days where the site waives their cut of each sale and instead gives to the artist; if you’re also interested, the next one is October 7th). Some of them might not have their work posted on every single music service, but at the very least, you should be able to find them on their individual Bandcamp pages. This is also the section where some of the releases might be the oldest (especially since in some cases, I dug through their back catalog a little bit), but since the artists aren’t big names, I feel substantially less guilty than I normally do about including older songs.
The rundown:
Jamie Paige: If you like synth pop or vocaloid stuff, definitely check Jamie out. Her late 2021 album Bittersweet has been one of my favorites to listen to this year, and the three songs she’s released since then have been similarly stand-out. I also enjoyed digging through her back catalog, including a realization that I had actually heard her before (she was a featured vocalist on Moe Shop’s “Love Taste”, which I could have sworn I put on a past playlist, but I guess not).
Panic Division: Their 2019 album Touch was another highlight, just a delight of atmospheric pop-rock coated in glistening synths and guitar hooks. I wish the closing was a little stronger, but the highlights are catchy, and putting it on just lightens the mood.
Dresage: This is another one where I had a lot of fun digging through their work; it’s a lot of fun indie-pop from someone who’s well-practiced at songwriting. “Dinners at Home” in particular is standout stuff. Dresage is the solo project for singer/songwriter Keeley Bumford, and while she hasn’t broken out in a mainstream way, she seems to pop up in a lot of places while I was looking for more music, with soundtrack work, songs being licensed for TV shows, guest appearances on music Youtube shows like Andrew Huang’s “4 Producers 1 Sample”... Like, breaking out in the music industry is difficult (see above: the blurb on Casey Dienel), but she’s certainly getting her name out.
iZme: I’m not positive of the specific name for whatever genre Snail’s House is (I’ve seen some good names, though, like “kawaii pop”, “pico pop”, and “kawaii future bass”), but if you vibe with his stuff, definitely take a look at iZme/U Kitazawa (like Snail’s House, a few songs are credited under a different moniker). I’ve loved every EP I’ve listened to so far.
HOLIDAE: This is a fun little electropop band with a pair of EPs under the belt. Their best songs are absolute earworms; “Magic” is just a perfect pop song, and the chorus of “Burnin’ Up” has established permanent residence in a corner of my brain.
Polite Fiction: This self-titled EP was from 2013, and it fit in perfectly with the best indie pop-rock of the era. I kept getting flashes of Franz Ferdinand, Two Door Cinema Club, early Panic at the Disco… And most exciting, he released a new single, “Drive”, last month, his first release (on Bandcamp at least) in nine years, and it’s a fantastic continuation.
gloss: I found their 2022 EP Are You Okay? (which, as a side note, has some of my favorite cover art of the year), and you can tell this is a really tight ensemble. If you like any sort of jazz-pop fusion stuff, check them out.
Client Liaison: Their self-titled EP is a bunch of funky, electro dance-pop numbers, and a lot of fun.
Tokyo Wanderer: I started with their 2019 album Incubus, which is a moodier, electronic piece, only to find out most of their output was more traditional future funk fare. It’s not a huge shift, I suppose, but it did surprise me at the time. Either way, it’s all solid stuff.
Cheem: A short album of pop-punk and hyperpop (in the vein of Rina Sawayama’s “throw in every disparate musical idea you feel like” excess), with some solid pop hooks supporting it.
Sister Species: Their EP Light Exchanges is a pleasant little chamber pop record. Opener “Heat Death (Hold Me Here)” and the title track are standouts.
Primo the Alien: For anyone who likes more theatrical pop-rock, a la early Lady Gaga or the glam rock she was drawing from, Primo’s Heart on the Run is a solid choice.
Candy Apple Blue: If you prefer you theatricality in the form of over-the-top ‘80s synth rock, I had a good time with this duo’s album Second Sight.
Friday Night Firefight: I’m a little iffier on this, but it’s the sort of ‘80s synth wave that’s in vogue in some circles, except with a definite more modern-twist that I can’ really define that sets them apart from some of the crowd.
unit.0: His EP comms.array is some solid, guitar-instrumental math rock.
And now, the section where I talk about the albums that are on the horizon (and a few of the early singles from them):
I ended up agonizing over whether to include two songs each from Carly Rae Jepsen, St. Lucia, and Rina Sawayama. All of them have albums coming in the next few months, and will almost certainly be contenders for my favorite albums of the back-half of the year. Would popping up that much be bad? What if the best songs are all the pre-release singles, and I run out of good picks (especially for St. Lucia’s Utopia, which I think has already released half of its tracklist)? But ultimately, I’m confident I’ll find good songs to use, and these lists are as much time capsules for me to refer back to, and I’m definitely listening to these songs a lot.
(Also, while I’m talking about them, “Touch” is in the running for my favorite St. Lucia song, which is saying a ton. That build to the chorus is just fantastic, and I love trying to belt along to that high note it lands on.)
If there’s anything that gives me pause on that ruling, it’s probably the Knock’s HISTORY. Which is… fine, but definitely the most underwhelming of their albums. The hits are good (it’s especially fun seeing them collaborate with Dragonette on “Slow Song”, which I’ve put on the playlist), but I’ve featured a number of them over the course of my last three playlists, and the album deep cuts are a little underwhelming. But it’s also a little weird that not every early single made the final tracklist? It might not have made the album feel any fresher (although for what it’s worth, some of the songs on the final album are older than some of the excluded singles), but I feel like a dance album succeeds in part on how many bangers it has, and including things like “Sound the Alarm”, “Bedroom Eyes”, “Exit Sign”, or “Fireworks” (among others) would have certainly made for a deeper lineup.
And the rapid-fire section:
I’m also excited for 22 Make, Oh Wonder’s sequel to last year’s 22 Break (which featured heavily on my End of the Year playlist), but I only included one song here; I feel like their tracks are going to play better as part of a full album.
Speaking of Dragonette, they have an album coming out soon. It should be interesting, as it’s their first album in six years, as well as the first one since the group became a solo project for lead singer Martina Sorbara (again, I learn so much researching these); but the early songs (including that feature with the Knocks) have been promising, so we shall see.
I don’t know if they’re building up to a full album, but I’ve loved The Chain Gang of 1974’s recent releases (“Wanting This” and a two-song EP with Olivver the Kid), and am excited to find out if there’s more in the pipeline.
I also suspect Great Good Fine Ok is building to another of their solid EPs with their releases, but those tend to happen on their own schedule, so who knows how imminent that is.
And I’m curious how The Midnight’s new album turns out, as “Change Your Heart or Die” feels like a bit of a shift in sound for them, including a lot more guitar, but it fell after the cutoff I was using for writing this, so that will probably come up on the next playlist.
| Song | Artist |
|---|---|
| Girls Make Me Wanna Die | The Aces |
| This Kiss | Alex Lahey |
| How It Is | Amethysts |
| Stones | Amethysts |
| Giving In to the Love | AURORA |
| The Innocent | AURORA |
| Moscow | Autoheart |
| The Sailor Song | Autoheart |
| Summer Lightning | Bad Suns |
| Silently Screaming | Bad Suns |
| Back to the Future | Bastille |
| Shut Off the Lights | Bastille |
| Run Into Trouble | Bastille & Alok |
| Blow Out My Candle | Betty Who |
| Crying My Eyes Out (Matt Pop Remix) | Candy Apple Blue ft. Nick Bramlett |
| Dance Again | Candy Apple Blue |
| Beach House | Carly Rae Jepsen |
| Western Wind | Carly Rae Jepsen |
| Billions | Caroline Polachek |
| Nancy | Casey Dienel |
| Sincerely Insincerely | Casey Dienel |
| Thrasher | Casey Dienel |
| Wanting This | The Chain Gang of 1974 |
| Beg for You | Charli XCX feat. Rina Sawayama |
| Snag | Cheem |
| Mango | Cheem |
| Feed the Rhyhtm | Client Liaison |
| Pretty Lovers | Client Liaison |
| Cutie | COIN |
| 04:42 Still Free | Danger |
| New Suit | Dragonette |
| Gallery | Dresage |
| Dinners at Home | Dresage |
| Shame | Dresage & Misty Boyce |
| Hollow | End of the World feat. DNCE |
| Hearts on Fire | The Family Crest |
| Her Song | The Family Crest |
| Sister Ray | Foxes |
| Potential | Foxes |
| Two Kinds of Silence | Foxes |
| You Only Like Me When You're Eight Drinks Down | Friday Night Firefight |
| Silhouettes | Friday Night Firefight |
| Achilles Come Down | Gang of Youths |
| Le symbolique/Let Me Down Easy | Gang of Youths |
| in the wake of your leave | Gang of Youths |
| the angel of 8th ave. | Gang of Youths |
| Slow Love | Gigamesh feat. Caroline Smith |
| Daydreamin' | gloss |
| Secondhand Beauty Queen | gloss |
| Paradise | Great Good Fine Ok & Before You Exit |
| Someone to You | Great Good Fine Ok |
| Can I Leave Me Too? | The Greeting Committee |
| Float Away | The Greeting Committee |
| Make Out | The Greeting Committee |
| Party | hex gf |
| Another Life | HOLIDAE |
| Magic | HOLIDAE |
| Burnin' Up | HOLIDAE |
| Cream Soda | iZme |
| Majestic Stranger | iZme |
| Geck | iZme |
| Gentle Heart | Jamie Paige |
| Paisley Patterns | Jamie Paige |
| Encore | Jamie Paige |
| People Posture Play Pretend | Jamie Paige |
| I'd Go Anywhere (Do Anything) | Jay Pray |
| Buy American | Joywave |
| Cyn City 2000 | Joywave |
| Hey Maude | Jukebox the Ghost |
| Brass Band | Jukebox the Ghost |
| Move Along | Jukebox the Ghost |
| Slow Song | The Knocks with Dragonette |
| Dancing Feet | Kygo feat. DNCE |
| june 14th | Lauren Auder |
| meek | Lauren Auder |
| Bloodlust | Left at London |
| Prodigal Daughter | Lights |
| Jaws | Lights |
| Alaska | Little Hurt |
| It's Ok Not to Be Ok | Little Hurt |
| About Damn Time | Lizzo |
| Love You Back | Madeon |
| Killshot | Magdalena Bay |
| Head Over Heels | Magdalena Bay |
| Move Slow | Magdalena Bay |
| Under Your Knife | Megan McDuffee feat. Michael Garrett Steele |
| Wicked Thing | Megan McDuffee |
| Villain | Megan McDuffee & ALEX |
| Change Your Heart or Die | The Midnight |
| Borders | Milk & Bone |
| Where Do We Go From Here? | MisterWives |
| Dreams | MisterWives |
| Turn It Around | Modern Original |
| What I Want | MUNA |
| Home By Now | MUNA |
| Solid | MUNA |
| Pleasure | Mystery Skulls |
| Beam Me Up | Mystery Skulls |
| Easy to Breathe | Neon Capital & Clara Sofie |
| New Beginning | Neon Capital & Kinck |
| The Walls | Neon Capital |
| Bitter Water | The Oh Hellos |
| Soldier, Poet, King | The Oh Hellos |
| Fuck It I Love You | Oh Wonder |
| Psychodrama | Olivver the Kid & The Chain Gang of 1974 |
| Teeth | Onlychild |
| Crimson Red | Onlychild |
| Unwanted | Pale Waves |
| Clean | Pale Waves |
| Reasons to Live | Pale Waves |
| Graveyards | The Panic Division |
| Sugar High | The Panic Division |
| Arrow | Polite Fiction |
| Suzerainty | Polite Fiction |
| Drive | Polite Fiction |
| Everything Goes On | Porter Robinson |
| Do It Again | Primo the Alien |
| K.W.I.W. | Primo the Alien |
| Scared of Love | Primo the Alien & Jordan F |
| Hold the Girl | Rina Sawayama |
| Catch Me in the Air | Rina Sawayama |
| Salvage | ROOKES |
| Ablaze | School of Seven Bells |
| Signals | School of Seven Bells |
| Heat Death (Hold Me Here) | Sister Species |
| Light Exchanges | Sister Species |
| Cameras & Coastlines | Smallpools |
| Subspace Drive | Snail's House |
| SUPERGIRL | Snail's House |
| Dreamy Beach | Snail's House & dark cat |
| Polaroid Girl | Soft Velvet Lounge |
| Mind Reader | Soft Velvet Lounge |
| Touch | St. Lucia |
| Rocket on My Feet | St. Lucia |
| 1990something | Sub-Radio |
| No-Disco | Tokyo Wanderer feat. PHAUN |
| Transistor | Tokyo Wanderer |
| Loveless | Tokyo Wanderer ft. Lavera |
| Blue Flowers | Transviolet & Little Hurt |
| Drugs in California | Transviolet |
| Girls and boys | underscores |
| Saltfields (There's nothing we can do!) | underscores |
| satellites | unit.0 |
| signals | unit.0 |
| Pumpkin Prince | Witch Café |
| Purikura | Witch Café |
| Cauldron Bay | Witch Café |
| Flip Me Upside Down | The Wombats |
| Everything I Love Is Going to Die | The Wombats |
| Night Call | Years & Years |
| Make It Out Alive | Years & Years |
| Doritos & Fritos | 100 gecs |
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