As the final hours of 2022 tick away and all eyes and hopes look forward to 2023, there is still a little bit of time to look back on the year that is now ending in regards to the year’s top new albums. This year produced so many impressive new albums across the musical universe, from rock to rap to jazz, blues, classical, world, and even family music, as Phil’s Picks has shown. Looking at all of those genres, many of them have produced records that are clearly among the best of the best, and they are presented here in the last of this year’s new music lists.
This year’s list of the year’s top new albums includes Machine Head’s new album, Of Kingdom and Crown, percussionist Tom Collier’s new album, The Color of Wood, and even Pimps of Joytime’s new album, Reachin’ Up among so many others. Between these and all of the other albums included in this final music list for the year, it is clear that this year’s overall field of new music was rich with enjoyable content. It made creating this list so difficult, but the list was created, nonetheless.
As with each Phil’s Picks list, this one consists of the year’s top 10 new albums and five additional honorable mentions for a total of 15 titles. The top 10 records are the best of the best and the honorable mentions are records that are appealing in their own right and deserving of attention, too, thus their inclusion here. Without any further ado, here is Phil’s Picks’ 2022 Top 10 New Albums of the Year.
PHIL’S PICKS 2022 TOP 10 NEW ALBUMS
Bloodywood – Rakshak
Danilo Perez – Crisalida
Derek Sherinian – Vortex
Machine Head – Of Kingdom and Crown
Mickey Leigh’s Mutated Music – Variants of Vibe
Devin Townsend – Light Work
Joe Satriani – Elephants of Mars
Sabaton – The Symphony to End All Wars
Pimps of Joytime – Reachin’ Up
Tom Collier – The Color of Wood
The Jorgensens – Americana Soul
Mark Tremonti – Tremonti Sings Sinatra
Playing For Change Band – The Real Revolution
Old Crow Medicine Show – Paint The Town
Bobby Watson – Back Home in Kansas City
That’s it for this year’s new music year-enders. There is still time for at least a couple of TV pieces to go through before the year officially ends, so stay tuned!
Music from regions of the world other than America sadly do not get the attention that it deserves. More often than not, said music only gets attention on public radio. Audiences who give music from other parts of the world will find that it offers its own unique appeal and in turn grow as true fans of music. To that end, World Music deserves its own year-ender list just as much as music in any other category. That list is what is presented here from Phil’s Picks.
This year’s list features music from America, the Caribbean, Isreal, Sweden and other nation around the world. There is even a record from an artist who is originally from Algeria but currently lives in Switzerland. Simply put, the sounds of the world offer so much for audiences to appreciate just as much this year as the sounds of every genre across the musical universe.
As with each list from Phil’s Picks, this list features the year’s top 10 albums from the noted category and five additional honorable mention titles, for a total of 15 records. Each brings its own appeal and honor, so there is no intent to dishonor any one act and title in comparison to the others. This should be kept in mind. Without any further ado here is Phil’s Picks’ 2022 Top 10 New World Music Albums.
PHIL’S PICKS 2022 TOP 10 NEW WORLD MUSIC ALBUMS
Itzhak Ventura – Aligned
Danilo Perez – Crisalida
Anouar Kaddour Cherif – Djawla
Kolonien – To The Forest
Wesli — Tradisyon
Joe Rainey – Niineta
World Music Network – The Rough Guide to the Music of Yunnan
Playing For Change Band – The Real Revolution
Rakesh Chaurasia and Purbayan Chatterjee – Saath Saath
Russ Hewitt – Chasing Horizons
Mista Savona – Havana Meets Cuba Part 2
Putumayo World Music – World Chill
Slavo Rican Assembly – Intercosmic
Aliaksandr Yasinski – Hylbini
Lucretia Dalt – Ay
Having taken a musical trip around the world once more this year, now it’s on to the year’s top new independent albums and then overall albums. With any luck, before the last seconds of the year tick away, Phil’s Picks will also have some content regarding hew TV and movie releases this year. Time will tell. Stay tuned!
The jazz community was more active this year than in recent memory, or so it seems. That is because of the number of new albums that Phil’s Picks received this year from various jazz labels and acts. In all, more than 30 jazz albums in 2022. That is a much larger number of albums than ever received in the jazz category by Phil’s Picks. The jazz covered this year ranged from Afro-Latin to big band to more intimate music, meaning there was quite a bit for jazz fans to take in this year, too.
As with each other Phil’s Picks list, this list features the year’s top 10 new albums in the given category and five honorable mention titles, for a total of 15 records. This list was anything but easy to assemble considering just how many albums were received this year. No disrespect is meant to any act featured in this list, as each has its own positives.
Without any further ado here is Phil’s Picks 2022 Top 10 New Jazz Albums.
PHIL’S PICKS 2022 TOP 10 NEW JAZZ ALBUMS
Danilo Perez – Crisalida
Taurey Butler – One Of The Others
Tom Collier – The Color of Wood
Yellowjackets – Parallel Motion
Doug MacDonald and L.A. All-Star Octet – Overtones
Doug MacDonald – I’ll See You In My Dreams
Amos Gillespie – Unstructured Time
Chris Torkewitz – NY Ensembles
Matt Hall – I Hope To My Never
Nicholas Payton – The Couch Sessions
Bobby Watson – Back Home In Kansas City
San Nelson’s New London Big Band – Social Hour
Lisa Hilton – Life Is Beautiful
Paxton/Spengler Septet – Ugqozi
Tony Monaco – Four Brothers
That’s it for this list but as the final hours of the day tick away there is still so much left to do. There is still World Music to focus on and the year’s top new indie albums and albums overall, plus all of the year’s top new movie and TV content. Pray for me and stay tuned!
“Beyond category.” That simple wording is how pianist Danilo Perez’s new album Crisalida is described in a press release announcing the album’s release over the weekend. Released March 18 through Mack Avenue Music Group, the eight-song record truly is a presentation that defies category, as is shown through its featured arrangements. That blurring of musical and cultural lines in the record’s arrangements is at the center of the album’s appeal. It will be discussed shortly. The record’s production works with the arrangements to enhance the album’s listening experience even more. It will be examined a little later. The content’s sequencing rounds out the album’s most important elements and puts the finishing touch to the presentation herein. It will also be discussed later. Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of the album’s presentation. All things considered, they make Crisalida easily one of the best new albums of the year so far.
Crisalida, the new album from Grammy award-winning pianist Danilo Perez, is one of the most surprisingly unique, engaging and entertaining albums that has seen the light of day so far this year. The album’s appeal comes primarily through the album’s featured musical arrangements. The arrangements are of note because as stated already, they truly do defy category. The instrumentation exhibited throughout the album is largely Middle Eastern in nature. Though late in the album in ‘Al-Musafir Blues,’ Perez and his fellow musicians (known as The Global Messengers), actually insert a touch of samba style approach and sound, changing things up slightly to keep things interesting. At other points, Perez and company incorporate a clear free jazz approach to the arrangements, blending that into the largely Middle Eastern style compositions to make for even more originality. There are also more gentle moments of jazz in the occasional vocal performances from vocalists Farayi Malek and Layth Sidiq. As if all of this is not enough, there are also other instrumentations throughout the record, what with the string arrangements, that lean in the directions of both World music and even modern classical. The ability of Perez and company to bring all of these genres together, and balance them so well from start to end makes for such a powerful impact. It makes the arrangements such that they will appeal to an extremely wide range of audiences. That means that the album’s arrangements make for a solid foundation for the album.
Resting on the foundation formed by the album’s arrangements is their production. As noted, there is a lot going on in some of the arrangements and a lot even in what little is presented in others. The painstaking attention paid to each arrangement by those behind the glass paid off. Each instrument and performer expertly compliments his and her counterparts from start to end. The strings and the Middle Eastern Percussion pair so well while the piano line, sometimes gentle and at other times so percussive finds the right moments to accent each arrangement. The vocals, sometimes in English and at other times in Spanish, compliment the instruments just as well. The whole comes across to create a wonderful general effect throughout the album, thus showing the importance of the album’s production. Together with the arrangements, the two elements ensure listeners’ engagement and entertainment that much more. Even with that in mind, there is still one more item to note that makes the album so surprisingly successful. That item is the sequencing of the record’s content.
The sequencing of Perez and company’s new album is important because it takes into account, the noted production and overall content in each song. From start to end, the energy in each arrangement rises and falls just enough both within themselves and from one to the next. From the uptempo opener, ‘Rise From Love’ to the more subdued yet strong energy of its follow-up, ‘Monopathia,’ to the light swing of ‘Al-Musafir Blues’ and its East Meets West approach, to the album’s finale, ‘Unknown Destination’ and the control in its mid-tempo arrangement, Perez and company change things up just enough in the songs’ energies to keep things completely engaging and entertaining in this aspect. When this element is considered along with the album’s content and its production, the whole makes Crisalis a uniquely engaging and entertaining presentation that audiences of so many tastes will enjoy.
Crisalis, the new album from Danilo Perez and his fellow musicians, The Global Messengers, is one of the biggest musical surprises of the year so far if not the single biggest surprise of the year so far. That is due in no small part to its featured musical arrangements. The arrangements bring together East and West in so many genres to make for eight presentations that are in themselves so unique in the best way possible. The production of those arrangements and their sequencing work with the arrangements to enhance the listening experience even more. That is because they balance the arrangements’ general effect and energies. Each item examined is important in its own way to the whole of Crisalis. All things considered, they make the album one of the best new overall albums of the year so far.
Crisalis is available through Mack Avenue Music Group. More information on Perez’s new album is available along with all of his latest news at:
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