The Top 25 Albums of 2022
#25: Apollo Brown, Philmore Greene - Cost of Living
(Conscious Hip Hop, Boom Bap)
It might seem a tad reductive to open your album with a track dedicated to both literally and figuratively introducing yourself to the listener, but Chicago rapper Philmore Greene has correctly deduced that Cost of Living is his best chance to break into a new tier of acclaim and popularity, and he intends to make the most of it. Combine that too-eager sincerity with a suite of beats from Apollo Brown (a well-established talent and member of underrated indie rap label Mello Music), and the result is a quietly excellent album whose retreat into comfortable nostalgia is handled with far more grace than most of the boom bap throwbacks in recent years. Greene's maturity is an asset that only leaves him more suitable to rap over this type of instrumental, though admittedly it also functions as a hindrance at times when his bars or themes feel slightly out of step with those of his most radically creative peers. Still, though Greene performs admirably, the record's strongest asset is unquestionably its production; with old-school sampling techniques reclaiming more and more of the hip hop market share each year, it becomes all the more laudable when a producer like Apollo Brown folds those techniques seamlessly into their own distinctive style, and Cost of Living is easily one of the more notable examples of how to do just that.
#24: Nilüfer Yanya - PAINLESS
(Art Rock, Indie Rock)
An improvement on her debut in virtually all areas: in style, in substance, in pacing, in writing. With PAINLESS, Nilüfer Yanya has firmly pivoted away from the pleasant, affirming sound of 2019’s Miss Universe and encased her disarming emotional turmoil in a synthetic shell of melancholy and static, resulting in a record that sounds as disillusioned with a broken relationship as it does with indie rock's tenets themselves. Whether her vocals and her ambition are enough to carry that package into the realm of greatness is up to the listener, but it's astonishing how many of the musical ideas on PAINLESS worm their way into memorability through one riff or another. As far as sophomore records go, few could match the first two-thirds of PAINLESS in sheer stubborn digression; wherever Nilüfer Yanya decides to take her art from here, there will be far more eyes watching and waiting for her next move after this, a success if ever there was one.
#23: al.divino, Estee Nack - TRIPLE BLACK DIAMONDS 2
(Abstract Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop)
Both names present have been making relatively big waves in the world of underground hip hop for the past five years, even if quantity has become more of a defining characteristic than quality recently (for divino especially). Framing this latest project as a sequel, then, doesn't just invoke comparisons to its 2016 predecessor, but also recalls a period before the steady deluge of inconsistent albums, back when the skill of both rappers, and their chemistry together, was anything but in question. Luckily, TRIPLE BLACK DIAMONDS 2 isn't content to merely live up to those nostalgic standards; the latest joint effort between the Massachusetts rappers is a startling return to form, and may even be their best yet. The beats and samples underneath their words are as engaging as they've ever been, and both Nack and divino lay down a slew of effortlessly superb verses, confident and menacing in equal measure. To say that their collaborations vary in quality would be an understatement, but between al.divino's artistic vision and Estee Nack's undeniable presence, greatness is never truly out of reach, an axiom that TRIPLE BLACK DIAMONDS 2 demonstrates with an unquestionably effectiveness.
#22: Danger Mouse, Black Thought - Cheat Codes
(Conscious Hip Hop, Boom Bap)
Could this album have ever turned out anything less than great? Both Black Thought and Danger Mouse have spent the last two decades actively and consistently making a name for themselves as grandmasters in the fields of rapping and producing (respectively), and the idea of a full-length collaboration between two names each separately known for a thoughtful, old-school approach was exciting, to say the least. The only disappointment, then, is in Cheat Codes being nearly exactly as good as it would seem at first glance; few surprises await the listener, though the result is an album that plays to its strengths with an efficiency that must be appreciated. As one of the few remaining advocates for the art of the third verse, Black Thought songs aren't always perfectly succinct, and the best moments on Cheat Codes tend to either keep things short or bring in a ringer to add some much-appreciated variety. Danger Mouse's beats remain an appreciably enjoyable constant, however, and given how rare it remains to get a Black Thought verse that is any less than masterful, looking for flaws in Cheat Codes is ultimately a largely fruitless endeavour; after all, expected excellence is still excellence.
#21: MIKE - Beware of the Monkey
(Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop)
Though MIKE's conventional, capital-A albums are all worthwhile listens in their own right, it's his less formal mixtapes that tend to stand out as the brightest spots in his catalogue. Like 2018's War in My Pen (another winter solstice release), Beware of the Monkey is a short yet decisive collection of lo-fi sample manipulation and understated, almost inelegant rapping, a style that presents succinct brilliance one moment yet sloppily overstays its welcome the next (thankfully, most tracks fall into the former category this time around). The most notable moments on Beware of the Monkey, where MIKE syncs his own slurred crooning with the soul samples he usually only raps over, innovate with much more success than one might assume at first, likely due to the charisma that shines through in every up and down throughout MIKE's entire career. It's a testament to the uncommon caliber of Beware of the Monkey (and to MIKE's artistry as a whole) that, though his imitators become more and more prevalent with each year, MIKE himself remains an essential figure to keep an eye on in the ever-growing world of hip hop, and one who never truly disappoints.
#20: Hatchie - Giving the World Away
(Dream Pop, Shoegaze)
Returning for her first album since 2019's Keepsake with a somewhat cleaner sound, underrated Australian artist Hatchie has fortunately started to amass a much-deserved profile among fans of dream pop as a result of her latest release. While its singles certainly showed those who missed her the first time around why Hatchie was such a breath of fresh air for the shoegaze world, Giving the World Away also pushes even further into the 'pop' suffix of its genres, with even its most innocuous album cuts boasting some deceptively memorable melodies. Songs such as Twin and The Rhythm unfold in ways both familiar and exciting, built around incredibly slick riffs of guitar and electronica yet never straying too far from their effortlessly catchy pop hooks. Though it trails off towards the realm of mundanity in its fleeting moments, Giving the World Away is thankfully another superb and solid release from an artist that, though she may not seem it at first, will no doubt be one of the safest bets in shoegaze for a long time to come.
#19: Mickey Diamond, Big Ghost Ltd. - Gucci Ghost
(Hardcore Hip Hop, Boom Bap)
In the growing push among producers to claim more of the (deserved) credit for their contributions to rap albums, few could hope to compete with the eccentric styling of faceless virtuoso Big Ghost, already well known for a variety of hallmarks and ventures which extend well past his skill behind the boards. After innumerable collaborations released in just the past few years alone, Big Ghost may have finally found the perfect co-conspirator in Detroit rapper Mickey Diamond, whose baritone ferocity impels Gucci Ghost with an immediacy and menace rarely found in the modern world of hip hop. The uneasy elegance endemic to Big Ghost beats is at its most potent here from beginning to end, and the verses layered atop are verbose and ice-cold to a one, with Mickey Diamond asserting himself as an unapologetically old-school rapper in all the best (and worst) ways. That a sequel was released mere weeks after the first album (along with a third installment looming in the near future) speaks to both the duo's deep creative pockets and the voracious appetite of their many instant fans; if those metrics are anything to go by, then Gucci Ghost is comfortably one of the most successful 'debuts' in rap's recent history.
#18: Gospel - The Loser
(Post-Hardcore, Prog Rock)
It's not just the 16-year gulf between Gospel's two albums that defines the cultural perception of the group's long-awaited comeback, although it very well may have if The Loser were any less than excellent. The band and its members have aged, certainly, yet that earned maturity has been brought perfectly in step with the lofty creativity of their debut, leading to a record that is just as prog as it is punk and enjoyable for both its theatricality and its volume. On the axis of restraint versus excess, The Loser definitely still errs on the side of the latter, though that aforementioned maturity nonetheless shines through in the songs' themes (if not their lyrics), and admittedly that tendency towards indulgence is what many come to these genres in search of. With that in mind, to find a prog record with this much character, or a punk record with this much ambition, would be notable enough; that The Loser is equally comfortable being both at once is nothing short of miraculous.
#17: Asian Glow - Stalled Flutes, means
(Shoegaze, Emo)
Alongside fellow Seoul shoegaze artist Parannoul, Asian Glow has enjoyed an incredibly productive and acclaimed ascent over the past couple years, pioneering a sound that is just as comfortably a part of the lo-fi, Internet-based indie scene as it is the broader lineage of maximalist dream pop. In between various crossover collabs with his peers, Gyungwon Shin has somehow also found time to drop his most fully realized solo project yet, even if the hour-long Stalled Flutes, means can seem at first like a surplus release for its genre. Existing doubters will likely remain unimpressed by the unpolished, emo-tinged vocals (still arguably the artist's least impressive tool), but the melodies on offer utilize in perfect measure a blend of electronics and more familiar instrumentation, escalating and collapsing in ways that remain spellbinding on each subsequent track. For anyone uninitiated to the newest wave of viral shoegaze, or for Parannoul fans yet to be convinced of Asian Glow's equivalent brilliance, this is the record to point to.
#16: Honningbarna - Animorphs
(Punk Rock)
That one of the best punk albums of the year came from an unassuming, (relatively) unknown Norwegian band likely hindered the potential success of Animorphs, even if Honningbarna provide absolutely no evidence on here as to why they should be so overlooked. Much of their blown-out thrashing on Animorphs has evoked positive comparisons to fellow Norwegian group Kvelertak, though just as notable are the moments when Honningbarna deign to tame things down enough to resemble mainstream punk alumni like the Jam (Åh bliss) or the Clash (Når alt det treffer oss). Still, the final product deserves plenty of credit in its own right, as few punk acts from America, Britain, or elsewhere have ever put together a record this gratifying from front to back, with hardly any low points to speak of. Whatever one considers punk's essential tenets to be, Honningbarna offers them in spades on Animorphs, a concise reminder of just how enjoyably relevant punk music continues to be.
#15: Boldy James, Real Bad Man - Killing Nothing
(Abstract Hip Hop, Gangsta Rap)
Quantity has definitely become the name of the game for musicians in the streaming era; fortunately, some underground rappers have taken this demanding state of affairs as an opportunity to build not just a reputation for consistency, but a prestigious brand for themselves and their talents that stands out amidst an oversaturated field of competition. Of the four (four!) albums released by Boldy James in 2022, Killing Nothing is the longest and (fittingly) the most fully realized, in large part due to the contributions of producer Real Bad Man, who has demonstrably stepped up his game for the duo's second full-length project together. The beats here are subdued, ominous, and perfectly in tune with Boldy's suave machismo, bolstered by some of the cleanest hooks the rapper has ever laid down (the impeccable caliber of his verses goes without saying). No disrespect meant towards the Alchemist and his inimitable genius as a producer, but Killing Nothing is yet more proof that the reliability of the Real Bad Boldy pairing is something to marvel at, and that Boldy James verses will continue to be one of the hottest commodities in hip hop for (hopefully) a long time to come.
#14: Charlotte Adigéry, Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer
(Tech House, Art Pop)
Aptly titled, indeed; the only aspect of Topical Dancer more striking than its political valence, evident immediately and yet gaining in significance with each subsequent listen, is its powerfully infectious energy. Even at its most aberrant (the instrumental built around pitch-shifted snippets of laughter comes to mind), the album never feels any less than perfectly in step with the importance of its themes: prejudice, activism, and the many lines (some tenuous, some not) that thread between them and us in modern society. Charlotte's words are self-deprecating in an incredibly charming fashion, blunt aphorisms that no doubt come off as flippantly basic to the very groups she critiques but are backed up in the real experiences rumbling with barely restrained fury beneath her anecdotes. Their debut record has immediately placed both Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul at the forefront of the house genre in every sense, and one can only hope that the potency and passion of Topical Dancer proves to be but an ambitious prelude to something even greater in the future.
#13: The Beths - Expert In A Dying Field
(Indie Rock, Power Pop)
For those overexposed to indie rock's trend towards the mainstream in recent years, it's possible that Expert In A Dying Field might come off like a symptom of oversaturation, and The Beths themselves subsequently written off as unoriginal Paramore imitators. Despite being relatively new to the scene, however, the New Zealand quartet have taken to their style with an ease and a maturity that remains all too rare; the title of their latest record, itself a stark metaphor for a doomed relationship, demonstrates at a glance just how exceptional the songwriting on offer here really is. The Beths can certainly thrash and bash with intensity enough to satisfy rock purists, but the best moments on Expert In A Dying Field relate themselves quietly, with lead singer Elizabeth Stokes speaking directly to the listener about anxiety, regret, and heartbreak in a voice of admirable sincerity. Being inundated with a deluge of seemingly indistinct records is undoubtedly a source of annoyance for those who only concern themselves with the cream of the genre's crop, but even if one is dead set on ignoring how many good-to-great indie rock albums have been released in the past five years, a project as compelling as Expert In A Dying Field is not one to be dismissed out of hand.
#12: Cities Aviv - “Working Title for the Album Secret Waters”
(Experimental Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop)
The second and final album from Gavin Mays in 2022 is certainly a more compact and approachable listen than many of his recent efforts, yet sacrifices not an ounce of the reflective thoughtfulness and unabashed mirth that defines the best of his expansive catalogue. In many ways a stable blend of MAN PLAYS THE HORN and 2021's The Crashing Sound of How It Goes, the sound of Secret Waters borrows at times from both the distorted nostalgia of the former and the sample-centered confidence of the latter, collated under one heading and aurally polished to a level that, while not always a requirement for Cities Aviv albums to shine, is nonetheless appreciated. The nature of a record this sporadic and diverse necessitates some lackluster moments, but given the other hour and a half of Cities Aviv music released the same year, that "Working Title for the Album Secret Waters" feels so original and essential merits praise all on its own. In the hands of most other artists, a project like Secret Waters would be (likely deservedly) dismissed as an ersatz collection of B-sides; for Cities Aviv, it is yet more proof that his artistic well runs very deep indeed.
#11: Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
(Baroque Pop, Art Pop)
As the first successor to the immensely positive reception of 2019's Titanic Rising, the greatness of And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow runs the risk of being almost perfunctory, especially given that Natalie Mering is now finally being recognized as the uniquely and resplendently talented songwriter she has been for the better part of a decade. Her latest album, though, is textbook in the balance it strikes between innovation and recollection, at once more intimate and more epic across all its facets. Mering has here pruned some of the least necessary beats from her previous project, and even if the resulting album has its moments of too-ambient ennui, the consistent beauty of its music is one aspect, along with Mering's lyricism, that can never be said to falter. Whether she has truly improved upon Titanic Rising is a difficult question to answer, and an unnecessary one; the best moments of both records touch the same impossibly high art pop peaks with identical amounts of splendor, proving definitively that Weyes Blood deserves all of the plentiful accolades she has received, and then some.
#10: Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
(Space Rock, Neo-Psychedelia)
In the two and a half decades since 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, J. Spacemen and co. can hardly be faulted for their attempts to tweak the dreamy yet grandiose formula that made their first few records so memorable, especially given the relatively consistent quality of said attempts. Consciously or not, though, the material on Everything Was Beautiful hews wonderfully close to the best of its predecessors, and not since 2012's scrappy, relatively lo-fi Sweet Heart Sweet Light have Spiritualized felt this tangibly in sync with their most enjoyable tendencies. The vocals here boast a bit more intimacy, and the guitars a tad more twang, but it’s their trademark combination of operatic and psychedelic, reaching a familiar apogee on the first track and never truly abating for the remainder of the album, that earns Everything Was Beautiful its stripes. Thirty years after their first album, and twenty-five years after their creative peak, Spiritualized are somehow still adding to their legacy, and Everything Was Beautiful merely further cements their unique, essential place in the long and winding history of rock music.
#9: billy woods, Messiah Musik - Church
(Abstract Hip Hop)
billy woods’ music does not enter the world on accident or impulse; even the white label compilation selectively distributed at Armand Hammer tour dates was carefully formed from misfit ideas (including the innocuous Artichoke), stitched together alongside freshly recorded material into a cohesive whole. Given that WHT LBL will never be released onto streaming services, that fans can so readily listen to Church and its confessionals adds another layer of significance to the parables of Magdalene, Artichoke, Pollo Rico, and their brethren that betrays their importance in a catalogue already without equal. Streaming might be a necessary evil for now, but for artists like woods and ELUCID, the desire to share one’s stories with a likeminded culture remains preeminent, and it is that desire which justifies both the urgency and the incredible quality of billy woods’ most sincere creation.
#8: Pink Siifu, Real Bad Man - Real Bad Flights
(Abstract Hip Hop, Neo-Soul)
Over the past few years, the diversity in genre and in mood across Pink Siifu's various projects (both solo and collaborative) has led to a subtle yet fundamental shift in his perceived role in the music world, with him wearing the respective hats of rapper, producer, contributor, and curator at different times yet with uniform prowess. Beat-making duties this time around are handled by rising underground contender Real Bad Man, but from every other angle Real Bad Flights is the perfect summation of Siifu's eclectic array of talents, even if on many of its tracks his influence is not the immediate highlight. Between a litany of verses and hooks from both established and unknown names, Siifu weaves in a carefully measured amount of slick, self-assured rapping to tie everything together around an immaculately consistent sound, an undeniable presence even when ceding the mic to one of his many (uniformly capable) guests. At a point in his career when a new Pink Siifu album could truly sound like anything (or everything), Real Bad Flights is far from the most groundbreaking release, satisfied instead with proving definitively that Siifu's presence in the music world itself is inherently revolutionary; that the results sound so damn good doesn’t hurt either.
#7: Kali Malone - Living Torch
(Drone)
Few composers as talented as Kali Malone could also boast of manifesting said talent across as many instruments and avenues as she, which makes it all the more intriguing that her latest project seems to purposely and completely eschew many of her music's usual tenets (most notably, the pipe organ). With naught but a synthesizer and some sparse brass and bass clarinet, Living Torch envelops itself in a potent atmosphere of comfortable disquiet, summing to a succinct experience that nonetheless stands as one of the best drone albums in recent memory. The first movement phases carefully between elegy and exhilaration, tethered together by a synthesized undercurrent; the second, however, reforms the same minimalist elements into some of the most devastatingly gorgeous soundscapes the genre has ever bore witness to. Constructed with a tedious level of care that betrays the depths of her devotion to the craft, Kali Malone's most affecting masterpiece is exciting in a way that ambient drone so rarely is; Living Torch will undoubtedly not be the last time she wows the music world.
#6: Perfume Genius - Ugly Season
(Art Pop, Ambient Pop)
For as raucous as were the highlights on 2020's Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, the default tenor of Mike Hadreas' music remains one of surprising fragility balanced against the catharsis inherent in his voice and lyrics. The latest Perfume Genius album, initially composed as accompaniment for a contemporary dance piece, nonetheless feels like another expected step up in quality to match its predecessor, yet Ugly Season may prove to be a tipping point in Hadreas' extensive career as his long-burgeoning talents finally spill over into the realm of universal mastery. The delicacy of his ballads has only gotten more precise with every album released, and like On the Floor before it, Eye in the Wall establishes an astounding new benchmark for just how far Hadreas can push his art in both exoticism and euphoria. As a consequence of both its origins and of Hadreas' ever-growing ambitions, Ugly Season may be a bridge too far for some fans, though it would seem impossible to not acknowledge on some level the ingenuity on display here; that this record works so well even completely divorced from its original context is a testament only surpassed by the quality of the music itself.
#5: Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
(Hardcore Punk, Screamo)
If their singular blend of punk, hardcore hip hop, and metal somehow wasn't enough for Soul Glo to indelibly stick in the minds of everyone who heard them, the immense feeling of gratification that accompanies their righteous walls of noise surely does the job and then some. Diaspora Problems is notable in their fledgling discography not just for finally realizing all of the nascent potential shown on their few prior efforts, but for the innumerable ways in which Soul Glo are able to blend some or all of their influences into a variety of equally exuberant tracks. At times it can seem like the band can only move forward at one speed (frenetic), yet encased in every crevice of Diaspora Problems is an unfaltering artistic spirit which, while always aiming its fury at the same place (injustice), is able to hit its target from every angle at once. Politically lucid records that also manage to be this creative are impossibly rare; it would be a sin to let one this consistently stellar slip by unappreciated or unremembered.
#4: Cities Aviv - MAN PLAYS THE HORN
(Experimental Hip Hop, Cloud Rap)
The plentiful releases from Cities Aviv in the past few years have run the gamut somewhat in terms of structure, serving as ample opportunities for experimentation while also establishing a recognizable sound that on MAN PLAYS THE HORN is elevated to a whole new level of religiosity. All the hallmarks of Gavin Mays' style are still present (stuttering samples, emphatic and unapologetic verses, a lo-fi sheen over the entire affair that belies Mays' ample musical experience), but have here been stretched out into an uneasy ninety-minute odyssey that, though it may appear excessively outré at first, is centered around paying careful homage to its musical and cultural predecessors. The loops that Mays fashions from retro jazz and soul samples serve as a canvas for rapping, crooning, sermons, ambient interludes, electronic explorations, and so much more, all filtered through the ether and coming out the other side as something that often feels separate from both its genre and the medium itself. Awash in an atmosphere of culture, community, and static, MAN PLAYS THE HORN is at once a love letter to both jazz and hip hop, to both Soundcloud uploads and streetside performances, and an experience that, while not entirely inviting, promises a musical and political deliverance of a kind that cannot be found anywhere but in the meticulous grooves of a Cities Aviv record.
#3: billy woods - Aethiopes
(Abstract Hip Hop)
Kongi’s Harvest ends with the titular dictator murdered in a plot concocted by political prisoner Dr. Gbenga, who thereafter seizes power and continues the cycle of cyclical despotism…at least, that’s how the film version ends. Despite writing both the stage play and movie, Wole Soyinka disowned the latter (in which he also starred as President Kongi) as a result of its altered conclusion, a change no doubt insisted upon by the studio as a way to impose onto Kongi’s Harvest a worldview of (ironically) black-and-white morality. For those in the West, to levy anything but unequivocal hatred at Kwame Nkrumah (whose regime Kongi’s was likely a satire of), or Robert Mugabe, or Mengistu Haile Mariam, is anathema; self-determination is reserved only for imperialists, and not even in fiction do the colonized deserve freedom. Aethiopes, in title, lyrics, and instrumentals, is a scathing deconstruction of this idea, collating all of billy woods’ past analyses of African culture, European empire, and American exceptionalism into one auditory canvas of blurred lines. Like Soyinka, woods’ humour is as dry as it is disarming; like Preservation, his work is all the more captivating for its layered, unabashed intricacy. It’s difficult to say where the refinement on Aethiopes ends and the fresh perspective begins, but that is merely a symptom of billy woods’ intrinsic brilliance, and his inability to write a verse that doesn’t feel completely revolutionary in one way or another.
#2: Ghais Guevara - There Will Be No Super-Slave
(Political Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop)
There's a unique sort of excitement felt as a listener that by definition is all too rare: that of stumbling upon an artist right at the precipice of a career-defining achievement, and literally hearing in their work a genre about to be turned on its head. Ghais Guevara is far from an untested newcomer, with multiple projects already under his belt and 2021’s BlackBolshevik having cemented him a reputation in the hip hop underground distinct from any of his peers. Yet listening to There Will Be No Super-Slave right after its release, that feeling of stumbling onto the beginning of something singularly momentous is still entirely palpable, in every one of Guevara's belligerent, chopped-up beats and in every insightful burst of his unparalleled writing style. There is not a rapper alive who couldn't learn something from how Guevara puts together verses and punchlines; the fact that his songs often double as bite-size lessons in radical ideology, community, and solidarity only makes them all the more impressive. Never before has an album so blatantly DIY also sounded this polished and fully formed, and the notion that a work this powerfully creative might somehow be eclipsed by whatever comes next seems both impossible and inevitable in equal measure.
#1: Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
(Art Rock, Post-Rock)
Ants From Up There is a masterpiece, undoubtedly, the kind for which the response seems preordained in hindsight: a perfunctory shrug and a vague gesture towards an album whose perfection could almost be mistakenly called banal. As soon as the band's earliest singles like Sunglasses and Athen's, France began to pick up steam in indie music circles, it was clear to most listeners that Black Country, New Road had only unimaginable heights in store for their future, though only those who religiously followed the group’s live performances could have truly foreseen what was coming. The nascent prodigies who just last year felt neatly ensconced in the current British post-punk resurgence have all but alienated themselves through sheer ingenuity alone, and frontman Isaac Wood's swansong is instead a tender opus of operatic art rock that surpasses even the most acclaimed of their influences. That Isaac's relatively short stint in the music world and Ants From Up There itself both culminate in a raucous twelve-minute affirmation of creative catharsis feels almost too fitting; wherever the remaining members of Black Country, New Road choose to go from here, their sophomore record will stand as the untouchable climax most artists can only dream of, an achievement that no amount of contrarian backlash or bittersweet nostalgia can ever take away from them.