If you have been with me for awhile I usually enter into my Top Twenty after posting The Almosts. Well, this year I found so many worthy albums I have nine more to share with you before we move into the Top Twenty. Here are my picks for the 2022’s albums that are On The Outside Looking Into the Top Twenty.

Marlowe- Marlowe 3 – This album has my favorite song of the year, “Past Life”. I can worship the horns on that track all day long. A latecomer this year that I will be returning to often.

Angel Olsen – Big Time. This is so nice. Will I return to it? Is it truly memorable? Time will tell. But every song arrangement keeps you holding on long after the vocals have faded. 

Angel Olsen: Big Time

For over a decade, the highwire eloquence of the Angel Olsen songbook has been grounded by the emotional weight of living mostly in your mind. The heaviness of solitary dreaming-“Hiding out inside my head”; “I like the thoughts I think…without you”; “Some days all you need is one good thought strong in your mind”-is paired with comforting grace when reflected through Olsen’s fever-pitched warble and incisive lyrics, her schema of gravity and wonder.

Gang of Youths – angel in reatlime – Hard to evaluate this one objectively since I loved the last one so much. 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness was my pick for the best album of the year. If you are looking for an emotional artist, this checks all the boxes. And what a voice David Le’aupepe has!

Chris Bathgate – The Significance of Peaches.  Meditative music. Some real gems here. Feels like top twenty pick on some days. And something tells me I will also be returning to this often in the future. 

Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Cheat Codes. Old heads will adore this album. It is solid beats andd solid rhythms, maybe a little simple but still pretty great.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down. Karen O and crew’s first album in nine years is a  dreamy syntho pop gem. Fans of Beach House, Future Islands, and LCD Soundsystem should love this one.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Cool It Down

If any group could capitalize on indie’s embrace of pop and submission to nostalgia in the last decade, Yeah Yeah Yeahs surely might have reshaped their volatile Technicolor swagger to fit the bill to a tasteful T. But leave it to Karen O and co. to explode out of their hiatus with a cannon blast.

S. Carey – Break Me Open. S. Carey is a lovely artist. He is best known for being  Bon Iver’s drummer and pianist.  He has made a few pretty albums. This one feels as if all the growth it takes to figure out who you are found its way into the cohesiveness of this record. It might just be more like my own listening skills are growing. But, Instead of wanting to listen to the album in a rare somber mood, as in his past releases; here I am in for revisiting Break Me Open no matter the mood.

Nerves Baddington – Micro and Macro This Birmingham based rap star trio is the artist you most definitely would not have heard of had you not read this. If you give this a listen it could become your favorite rap album of the year. Here is a great article here on how they made a variation of every song on Micro on the Macro relase

Nerves Baddington Shines With “Micro” and “Macro” Double-Release | About Town

Nerves Baddington has been Birmingham favorites ever since they first released music in 2014, and recently returned to provide more great music to the city they love with two unique releases titled “Micro” and “Macro”. The double-drop is a new milestone of musical glory for a group that’s already made some incredible music.

R.A.P Ferreira – 5 to the Eye with Stars. He finished in my top ten last year. This album is a rock solid follow up. I think this too will linger in my playlists into the new year.

8. Rap Ferreira & Scallops Hotel- Bob’s Son

Rap Ferreira & Scallops Hotel- Bob’s Son This album itself is a testament to the beat poet Bob Kaufman. It is as if R.A.P. Ferreria takes on Bob as his son in the hodge podge of addictive music and abstract lyrical approach. This was the very

Nas – King’s Disease 3 -I can’t tell if I love this album because of its greatness or out of nostalgia. And I’m leaning toward nostalgia, which is why it’s not in my top 20.

Album Review: Nas, King’s Disease III

Nas King’s Disease III (released November 12, 2022) There’s been a lot of talk about Renaissances this year, and Imma let you finish Bey but I’m just happy to see Nasir Jones get his flowers. It’s been a LONG time coming.

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