Favorite Music of 2022

It's been three years since I've compiled a year-end-music list. Hmm, guess a few things have happened since the end of 2019...

Here it is, without much ado, a list of my favorite albums of 2022 

And favorite singles of 2022

Taking it to the streets: the marathon of stopping fascism

I ran my first marathon in 2014 to help me make sense of the process of writing my first book. I like physical practices that help me work though other parts of my life. Marathon running, to me, is a durational public performance practice that involves putting my body on the line. Each time I run a marathon, I'm never sure how it's going to turn out. It seems like an impossible task, foolish even, but I set out to do it anyway. I train for it. Along the way, I develop hopes (and fears) about how it will turn out. But I know in the end the only thing to do is to keep moving, to stay in it. In most marathons, there are thousands of other runners in it with you, a crowd cheering you all on, and volunteers making sure you stay on course, hydrated, and safe. I'll be running the Virtual 2020 TCS New York City Marathon Saturday physically alone, but knowing that 25,000 other runners around the world are running with me.

This marathon, though, is not about a personal project for me. It's about the collective struggle to push back fascism and imagine into being the world we want to live in. We're in truly crucial and frightening political times that require all of us to put ourselves on the line, to risk more than we've been willing to risk before, to do things we are not sure we are capable of (from each according to their ability, as it were), and to trust that there are others doing the work alongside us even if we can't always see them. Honestly it's going to take a lot more than voting. It's going to take a mass movement of people in the streets. And it's not going to be over November 4, no matter who wins. I'm conceiving my run Saturday as a performative gesture of taking to the streets. Since there are no number bibs in virtual races, I've made my own bibs to wear that declare #StopTrump and #TrumpPenceOutNow.

I invite you to join me in the streets as you're able. Before the election AND after the election. We have to keep moving, even if it seems we'll never make it.

#neveragainisnow

Favorite Musical Artists of the 2010s

Looking over my lists of favorite music from the past decade, a number of artists stand out. This is a list of musicians whose work has, over a number of albums, and in some cases over a number of projects, remained significant to me. In alphabetical order:

Alabama Shakes (see also Brittany Howard, Thunderbitch)
Angel Olsen
Anna Calvi
Chastity Belt (see also Childbirth)
Courtney Barnett
EMA
First Aid Kit
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Janelle Monaé
Jason Isbell
Jenny Hval
Jesca Hoop
José González (see also Junip)
Julia Holter
Kamasi Washington
Laura Marling
Laura Mvula
Low
Paul Simon
Perfume Genius
Rhiannon Giddens
Spiritualized
St. Vincent
Superchunk
Tanya Tagaq
Wilco
Y La Bamba
Zola Jesus

Listen to a sampling of their music here:

Favorite Music of 2019

I had a hard time coming up with a list this year, I suppose because I was traveling so much and didn't have the time for my usual podcast listening. Nonetheless, here is the music that stood out to me this year, in no particular order (except that it seems to flow this way).

Holly Herndon Proto
Jenny Hval The Practice of Love
Angel Olsen All Mirrors
Y La Bamba Mujeres (and also their EP, Entre los Dos)
Esperanza Spalding 12 Little Spells (ok, this is a bit of a cheat because it was also on my 2018 list; it was released on Spotify in 2018, but as an album with added songs in 2019, so...)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen
Jesca Hoop STONECHILD
The Highwomen The Highwomen
Stef Chura Midnight
Sunn O))) Life Metal

Favorite music videos of 2018

This year I had to add a new category to my year-end music lists: music videos. 

Really I had to create the category so I could talk about Childish Gambino's "This is America," which really is not only the song of the year, but I dare say artistic statement of the year.



This conversation between Theresa Ruth Howard and Camille A. Brown on the Dance Magazine blog is really worth reading, especially in terms of seeing the dance as essential to the video, rather than as a distraction, as many critics did.

Since I'm at it, I also want to mention Janelle Monae's "Pynk." Largely because: vagina pants.



I mean, come on: those vagina pants are amazing! And bonus points for nuancing the crass pinkification of anyone with a vagina, by focusing on the vagina itself (and vulva, and tongues, and...well you get the picture) as Pynk. But also, Monae did make one of the albums of the year, and she is certainly someone working transdisciplinarily. A force to be reckoned with!