“Let Me Prepare You” by Watashi Wa, Wednesday, December 28, 2022 + My Top 10 albums of the year
Coming to the end of the year, it's time to remember some of the musical highlights of 2022. I listened to a lot of music this year and maybe more new music than last year. But there certainly were albums that slipped under the radar. I had every intention of digging into The Weeknd's Dawn FM , but somehow I was never in that dark of a mood to resonate with the characteristics of that record. Today, I'm going to reveal my controversial list. Enjoy!
#10. The Loneliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen. The latest from the "Call Me Maybe" singer is a record that isn't immediately catchy and could easily fall between the cracks of all the big releases of this year. The diverse singles showed different camera angles of a maturing pop singer who has solidified her status in music nerd-dom and gay music listeners alike. And with her first explicit labeled song, Jepsen is distancing herself from former tween-friendly aesthetic. I'm sure next year I'll be digging into songs like "Surrender My Heart" and "Joshua Tree" and writing a blog post about the hilarious "Beach House." Maybe next year, the art pop vibe of this record will hit at just the right time.
#9 INVU by Taeyeon. I didn't listen to much K-pop this year, but one record that I did listen to a few times was Taeyeon's latest LP. Last year, she released the single "Weekend," which became hugely popular and that single was also included on the LP. The title track, "INVU," was her biggest song of the year and people are still signing as Taeyeon does in the music video. My favorite track has to be "Siren" because of the emotion Taeyeon brings to the song.
#8 Midnights by Taylor Swift. I was expecting more from Taylor, ngl, especially after the journey she brought us on with folklore and evermore. Mic the Snare summed up an opinion on the record that I felt when the album came out and struggled to get into it: that it feels like a repeat album cycle of reputation. Despite the lyrics of "Anti-Hero," though, Swift has become wiser in her lyric writing making Midnights a much more tolerable record with some genuinely good tracks--"Maroon," "Snow on the Beach," "Lavender Haze" are interesting lyrically with Jack Antonoff's '80s-inspired production. I'll keep giving it a try, but as of writing this post, I'm not convinced this is best Swift's got.
#6 MUNA. The June release of MUNA's self-titled record came after the group released several singles starting with last October's duet with Phoebe Bridgers "Silk Chiffon." The full album was solid. "Anything but Me" was a beautiful break up song wishing the best for an ex. The group also had an interesting post-album release single, the '00s sounding shock pop song "What I Want," a song about getting back out in the world after a break up, doubling as an anthem for the once cooped up quarantined listeners. Unfortunately, the album was released the same weekend as Roe was overturned, and that didn't make for fun listening, and I haven't really gotten into the album since. The record was really hyped before its release and then kind of forgotten in my other music circles. Maybe we can bring it back next year.
#5 Voyeurist by Underoath. I didn't listen to this record a lot. It was too dark. I thought that the band had summed up what they wanted to say on 2018's Erase Me. "Religion is a means of control," the band continues to argue, wrestling with an evolving spirituality and atheism in the former Christian band. But listening to the documentary mini-series of Labeled: Deep Dive, the band got into the deeper personal issues they had which shaped this record. Voyeurist is a hard record to get into unless you love hard music. Some of the tracks feel bereft of all hope and blasphemous, particularly "Pneumonia," the album's closer. Other tracks are just creepy like "I'm Pretty Sure I'm Out of Luck and Have No Friends." But the most accessible track has to be "Hallelujah," which blends melody and screaming in a way similar to tracks on Define the Great Line.
#4 Dawn FM by The Weeknd. I listened to Dawn FM through once. Similar to the Underoath record, but in a different way, Dawn FM is a depressing record. The '80s/'90s RnB sounds of the record make the album fun, but the eerie impending doom of the record--death--freaked me out. "Out of Time" and "Take My Breath" are the stand out tracks for me, as well as the voice of Jim Carrey as a radio DJ. 
#3 Harry's House by Harry Styles. This album has received a lot of hate, and I'm not sure that it's warranted. Harry's House is an interesting ride, though it certainly is a little disjointed. Haters say that the songs like "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" are soulless as a Target commercial, but from listening to Styles talk about the album, it seems that he and his team are adding something unique to top 40 pop music. Yes, "As It Was" feels like a less original "Take on Me," but the album shines in the middle with slow tracks like "Little Freak," "Matilda," and '70s disco fun tracks like "Cinema" and "Daydreaming."
#2 People Like People by Watshi Wa. I admire what the band did with production on this record. It's a punk rock record refined by 2022 technology. It's collaborative featuring friends of the veteran band. I chose "Let Me Prepare You" as today's song and the song to represent the album. "Let Me Prepare You" features Gasoline Heart--a band that certainly need their own post. People Like People may not age well given its reaction to the pandemic and as I sat with the album throughout the year, I wrestled more and more with the themes of government control and reliance on technology. The record seems to fall on the more conservative side of the pandemic, and lead singer Seth Roberts points out the toll that the pandemic had on his corner of the music industry. The album makes a few covert statements on tracks like "Land of the Free" and "Who Who Hu (Man)" comes off as subtly racist. But tracks like "Trust Me," "Like You Mean It," "Some Time," as well as today's song and the Stephen Christian-featuring track "Zombie" all make the record ridiculously catchy. 
#1 Milk Teeth by Tyson Motsenbocker. It's the indie rock album I've been wishing Death Cab for Cutie would record. Tyson Motsenbocker tells stories on Milk Teeth, but also has mastered hooks in a way that he has never played hooks before. Sure "Wendy Darling" is a slow start for a pop song, but by the saxophone outro, you may just put the song on repeat unless the instantly catchy guitar riff of "Carlo Rossi" comes on. But it's not just the hits. The lost loves on "UC Santa Cruz" and "Give Up," the existential dread of "North Shore Party" and "Time Is a One Way Mirror," and even the light-hearted "Hide from the World" balance the album. It's poetry, storytelling, and beautiful instrumentation.
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