And the beat goes on
This year confounded our musical expectations in the best way as our post-pandemic society struggled to reach a new normal. Tours and festivals returned, and there were song releases aplenty. Although times may never be quite the same, the cathartic effect a great song has on the anxious mind will live on forever. Check out the 2022 top album picks from the City Paper’s contributing writers. It’s time to tune in! —Chelsea Grinstead
Kate Bryan
Dehd, Blue Skies
While Chicago-based indie-rock band Dehd’s latest album, Blue Skies, was released in May, the songs are heavily in my rotation to this day — a quick glance at my Spotify Wrapped, and it’s clear the hold it had on me.
The three-piece band, composed of members Emily Kempf, Jason Balla and Eric McGrady, create a distinct fusion of sound: plucky, sun-soaked guitar and earthy, straightforward drums thump against an otherwise paired-down soundscape. Kempf’s vocals are undeniably the focal point — soaring, punchy and, at times, triumphantly guttural in a post-punk way that feels utterly satisfying.
Blue Skies is not special because it shows the band taking a new direction, rather, it’s remarkable in that it maintains the same spirit as the group’s earlier work, adding to an already-stacked roster of addictively interesting songs.
Stand-out tracks like “Bad Love” and “Stars” induce the urge to not just sing, but almost yowl along with the chorus, to bang your feet on the ground and fists against the table. When Kempf and Balla sing in harmony, their voices don’t melt together so much as spark against one another in a glorious sizzle.
Thematically, Blue Skies is tender and nostalgic — giddy and forlorn in equal turns, yet not cringe-inducingly earnest. Instead, much like the album’s instrumentation, the rendering of emotion is so simple, it’s daring.
Tonya Nicole, #1996KindaLove
Local artist and actress Tonya Nicole’s debut EP, #1996KindaLove, was a welcome addition to Charleston’s releases in 2022. The project, which dropped in March, represents a fresh take on classic R&B spirit. Nicole’s vocals are lush and lithe as she indulges in a playful form of sonic storytelling, accompanied by easy beats and electric pulses.
The biggest takeaway from the seven songs on #1996KindaLove is the sensuality — Nicole pairs imagistic lyricism with a voice that lends a tangible quality to the words, creating a complete sensorial experience. Many of the tracks deal overtly with matters of the heart and of the body, made clear through lines like “Making love all night just pick the right song” in “PURDY” and “Sometimes I sit / And I can feel your breath on my neck” in “You Got Me” — a track that was a collaboration with local hip-hop artist Manny Houston.
Despite all its sensuality, the EP isn’t afraid of a little humor. Nicole wakes you up from her ethereal spell with quirky samples threaded onto the end of songs, like a small voice saying, “You’re so purdy, mommy,” and her voice asking her husband if he wants some stewed chicken. Touches like these, plus well-thought out instrumentation and collaboration with the likes of Dries Vandenberg and Thomas Kenney, add whimsy and heft to a stellar debut project from a supremely talented vocalist.
Kyle Peterson
Doom Flamingo, In the Rain (Live)
Doom Flamingo shines in the studio. The group’s stylistic inputs — ’80s pop, R&B and synthwave meets 2010s indie rock — all benefit from the intricate tinkering and layering of sounds both real and artificial, with the live show existing merely to recreate those immaculately constructed set pieces.
But instead, Doom Flamingo did something else: a live album juggernaut whose songs truly come alive when sprawling outward and upward in a sweaty club or airy outdoor amphitheater. In the Rain (Live), with apologies to Doom’s fun and flashy studio EPs, shows you what makes this crew tick. The interplay between keyboardist Ross Bogan and guitarist Thomas Kenney becomes an elaborate party narrative, saxophonist Mike Quinn’s role comes into the fore, and the charisma and chops of singer Kanika Moore becomes abundantly apparent. Songs as eclectic as Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” run gleefully through their distinctive sonic filter to create a connective tissue between the band’s self-described “Jekyll and Hyde” impulses. This record makes it clear — Doom Flamingo is a crew that can positively burn down a stage.
It’s tempting to credit this inversion to bassist Ryan Stasik, who moonlights in Doom Flamingo when not holding down the low end in jam band road warriors Umphrey’s McGee. And it’s likely that stints on the jam band circuit have shaped their show — but, in the end, it’s only sharpened and heightened the DNA of a group that prioritized live performance from the beginning.
Homemade Haircuts, Sun Showers
The pivot from folk strum-alongs to sun-kissed indie rock could have risked sacrificing what made the then-duo of Bob Magee and Evan Delp exciting in the early days of Homemade Haircuts, when the two were casually making music in their dorm room at the University of South Carolina.
Instead, the aptly titled Sun Showers allowed their abundant gifts to shine all the brighter. Magee’s bucolic, reverb-drenched vocals might recall Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell or Robin Pecknold at times, but its infectious spirit is matched by some surprisingly propulsive arrangements that put the hooks and melodies front and center. Delp’s vocal contributions aren’t quite as immediate, but he’s in deep simpatico with his musical partner and gives the album a lovely yin-and-yang across its breezy 35-minute run-time.
Delp is the one who brings the recording chops, and Sun Showers is as much a document of his impressive skills on that front as anything else, given how clean and sharp the sonics are. Credit new drummer Blake Hunter as well for some of that immediacy.
But, at the end of the day, it’s these sparkling songs themselves that makes this record a triumph, and Homemade Haircuts one of the clear-cut up-and-coming bands to watch in the Carolinas.
Vincent Harris
Big Stoner Creek, Big Stoner Creek
It’s been way too long since Charleston’s Big Stoner Creek released an album. This self-titled platter sounds, for all the world, like it was recorded in someone’s living room, with a group of skilled players trading licks and hooks back and forth.
Kicking off with the pumping “Subway,” singer/guitarist George Fox and company establish an easy-rolling groove that mixes country, rock and bluegrass with ease. Call it Americana if you will, but that glosses over the album’s strong points. The acoustic interplay is superb, with guitar, mandolin and fiddle all rising to the surface and shooting off sparks.
The album has various highlights, including the chugging country-rocker “Hey Colleen,” the mandolin-fueled shuffle “Hitch,” the heartwarming ballad “Books, Seeds and Bullets” and the laid-back rocker “Figurin’ It Out,” a shoulder-shrugging meditation on life in general. This is ideal Sunday-afternoon music, good-natured pickin’ and grinnin’ that adds just enough polish to the band’s gritty sound. Special shout-out to Josh Roberts (of Josh Roberts & The Hinges) for his ramshackle production, which fits the band’s rough-hewn sound perfectly. Hopefully, this won’t be the last we hear from Big Stoner Creek. The band’s well-worn sound is too ingratiating to ignore.
Metric, Formentera
This is finally Metric’s big moment. After more than two decades of creating excellent electronics-laced indie rock, the band scored arguably its biggest single yet with the pulsing “All Comes Crashing,” a vintage Metric jam that highlights Emily Haines melodic whisper of a voice and the band’s irresistible mix of guitars and synths.
That Metric can create a sizzling, effervescent slice of pop-rock isn’t a surprise; it’s been doing that since the dawn of the millennium. What IS surprising is the twists and turns that Formentera takes. The album-opening “Doomscroller” is the band’s biggest, most confident statement yet. A 10-minute epic, the song starts will a barrage of disjointed images from Haines while the band is content to pulse in the background. The song slowly builds into a true electro-rock juggernaut before changing styles entirely and ending on a peaceful coda that pleasantly counters the song’s opening dread.
“Doomscroller” is such an astounding tune that it threatens to throw the whole album off-balance, but luckily there’s plenty of Metric to follow, including the throbbing “What Feels Like Eternity” and the whirring, spinning “False Dichotomy.” All in all, it’s a stunning, neon-lit collection of strutting, danceable songs that adds up to one of the band’s best efforts.
Kevin Murphy Wilson
Blue Dogs, Big Dreamers
Blue Dogs co-founders bassist Hank Futch and guitarist/singer Bobby Houck would be the first ones to tell you that, in the past, there was always a strange dichotomy that existed between the long-running local act’s pop/rock ambitions and its classic country core.
In actuality, the group loved to play all kinds of American music: folk, blues, bluegrass, country and rock ‘n’ roll. Regardless of what you choose to call it, in terms of style, the songcraft and sound delivered in this 2022 comeback record might just make this collection the Blue Dogs’ finest work to date. And here’s why: For Big Dreamers, Houck and Futch were joined in the studio by guitarist Dan Hood, steel guitarist Charlie Thompson and longtime Blue Dogs drummer Greg Walker. Plus, their old pal Phillip Lammonds was called upon to co-write three of the new tunes, and this stunning album was produced entirely by Grammy winner Sadler Vaden. Even if powerhouse contributors such as Radney Foster and Jerry Douglas hadn’t also turned up, Big Dreamers would still be among the year’s top releases.
Billy Strings, Me/And/Dad
The title, along with the cover art, pretty much tells the story of what is contained within the sleeve of this heartfelt album. Billy Strings’ Me/And/Dad record is an endearing assortment of 14 tried-and-true tunes that the master musician and his stepdad/musical mentor Terry Barber spent a shared lifetime becoming acquainted with.
Collectively, the songs nodding to roots musicians Doc Watson and the Stanley Brothers sit comfortably alongside obscure mountain hymns and country standards. Finally following through on this long-discussed endeavor occasioned a sentimental journey for both men although it was, by all accounts, primarily a vehicle for the Grammy Award-winning son to honor the unsung hero who taught him how to sing and play guitar in the first place.
While the lighthearted track list is akin to what the pair might have picked their way through around a campfire back in the day, this particular family outing was recorded properly at Nashville’s Sound Emporium studios, along with an impeccable choice of supporting musicians including Mike Bub, Ronnie McCoury, Rob McCoury, Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas and Jason Carter.
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