Best Songs of 2022: 20 Of Our Favorites From Louisville Area Artists

Ben Sollee — “Slow Flow”

Back in January, Ben Sollee proclaimed that (for himself at least) 2022 was going to be a year of intention. “With all the headlines and products competing for my attention, it’s more important than ever to practice and protect mindful activities and time,” he said in a hopeful Facebook post, adding, “It is my daily (sometimes hourly) challenge to set intentions that nudge my family and me towards where we want to be. Often that means slowing down and connecting with my body.” For the noted Kentucky cellist and composer, these borderline Buddhist ideas are precisely what the lyric-less track, “Slow Flow,” is all about. In other words, Sollee hopes that, while listening, you will take a few moments to turn off your mind, relax and float downstream with him. Perhaps taking a cue from longtime pal Jim James, Sollee recorded this improvised instrumental meditation on a farm far away, in an old grain silo at the break of day. Accordingly, this number is a vivid recollection of Sollee and his cello achieving a flow state, responding to the various calls of nature, and entering the deep reverberations provided by the location itself. —Kevin Murphy Wilson
Listen on Bandcamp

Aaron West and Jeroen Diepenmaat — “Broadcast Interrupted”

Normally, strange gems like “Broadcast Interrupted” by Aaron West and Danish musician Jeroen Diepenmaat might be left in the cold on best-of-year compilations, which would be an egregious error. While it’s hard to slap a concrete description on the song, it would be wisest to think of it as a serious thinker’s piece, one where the meaning is left entirely to the audience. It’s a performance that renders a different experience for every listener, and, at over seven minutes long, it’s less a song than it is an operatic movement; a short concerto of a cosmic darkness, if you will. If you’re in need of any songs for your “floating through the endless blackness of outer space” playlist, then look no further than this gem straight out of the Oort Cloud. — Tyrel Kessinger
Listen on Bandcamp

The Histrionics — “Writhe”

Combine the vocals of Jim Morrison with grunge and thoughtful storytelling inspired by a Hieronymus Bosch painting and you get “Writhe,” a single by New Albany-based rock band The Histrionics. Incredibly, the lyrics consist of only 53 words — 30 if you remove the duplicates — but they work with the heavy, dizzying riffs in a way that perfectly suits the story of a soul on its way into Hell. This, by the way, is more than just a bunch of kids getting together to make something that’s accidentally good; this is a full-on project. The talent that’s already come out of this young three-piece band — the oldest member of which is only 23 — is just incredible, and we’ve got plenty of reasons to be excited for their upcoming album. Good things are in store for The Histrionics, and we’re writhing with anticipation for what comes next. —Carolyn Brown
Listen on Spotify

JIKININKI — “Nonchalanto”

Out on cassette via local imprint Rising Beast Records, Jikininki’s “NonChalanto” gets in a groove and howls from the void. So David Lynch of them. I found this track just before the year ended and fell in love with the way that it guides me through a dark place, very much like a Lynch film. It is tense, a little scary, yet it drives you into the night and never leaves you alone on a wet road. The song feels dangerous and unexpected, but it’s played in a pocket, and you never actually leave it. You ride it to the next track. The only thing I know about the artist is that they were born and raised in Louisville. I guess I know they’re a bit of a ‘spooky muffin,’ and that’s comforting because this track, as unsettling as it is, also comes with some comfort, if you’re into hissing darkness. —Erica Rucker
Listen on Bandcamp

LUX — “We Toss Suns”

If you haven’t given LUX a listen yet, do so now. I’ll wait. “We Toss Suns,” the first track off their debut EP Dirty Mirrors, is a great place to start. Equal parts shoegaze, indie rock and post-hardcore, “We Toss Suns” manages to combine high-energy guitar and pounding, frantic drums with melancholic vocals and melody to create a hauntingly beautiful dreamlike soundscape. Of the song, LUX’s Chaz Owens (vocals/guitar) says: “The song is one of the first we’ve made. It’s a really personal song about loss of childhood/innocence, etc. It’s definitely a song that will stick with us for a while.” The bridge on this song alone, with its early Radiohead-ish breakdown that explodes into a cacophony of guitar-driven noise before flowing smoothly back into the verse again, gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. No band this young should be this good right off the bat. There are bands out there that have been together longer than LUX’s members have been alive that are nowhere near this level of songwriting. No doubt in my mind that LUX could easily be Louisville’s next White Reaper or My Morning Jacket. —Jeff Polk
Listen on Spotify

Routine Caffeine — “Straws”

Routine Caffeine is one of Louisville’s best new bands to emerge during the 2020s, and their rich dream-pop continued to shine on their 2022 album, Spaghetti Junction. A particularly magnetic song from the record is “Straws,” a strikingly-lush, carefully-dynamic track that is an emotionally-charged whirlwind about leaving the past behind. The way that Routine Caffeine builds, shifts and controls this song is reminiscent of the local trio Twin Limb, as they use psychedelic architecture to take listeners’ brains to different dimensions while puppet-mastering heartstrings. The song ends with an exclamation point. The line, “I took down pictures, it was long overdue,” is heavy enough, but it’s reinforced by the gigantic soundscape being completely dropped all at once, leaving the listener in silence for the final few seconds to sit with those words. —Scott Recker
Listen on Spotify

Wombo — “Snakey”

Upon first listen, “Snakey” is an unassuming number, but under the hood there is a lot of slick layering that makes this song one of the chillest — albeit slightly (in-a-good-way!) strange — jams of the year. Here, Wombo excels at extracting the best ingredients of the early ‘90s alt-indie sound. The engine of the song is fueled by the tight bounce of a Pixies-dusted bass riff that somehow manages to plow both over and under the other instrumentation like so much hot glue. Sydney Chadwick’s android croon-talk mesmerizes, splicing through the music like a warm static fuzz. At a little over two minutes, you might be surprised to find that it took so long to go nowhere, but it wouldn’t be surprising if that was exactly what Wombo wanted us to realize. —Tyrel Kessinger
Listen on Spotify

Bonnie “Prince” Billy — “Outsider”

The song that lands Will Oldham (working here as Bonnie “Prince” Billy) on this “Best of 2022” list has actually been with him for a little while. That is to say that although the “Outsider” single dropped this year, the track was cut (and produced with Mark Nevers) back in 2016. What’s more, the tune was likely in Oldham’s head long before that, as it was first written and recorded somewhat obscurely by the Ramones nearly 40 years ago. Out of the controlled chaos of the original, Oldham fashions homespun melody in a big way. To achieve such stunning results, the BPB version was created with a little help from Peter Townsend, Chris Scruggs, William Tyler and D.C. Berman. And, importantly, when an industry outsider like Oldham delivers lines such as, “Everything you know, it disturbs me so,” it’s easy to believe him. An added bonus is the single’s evocative cover artwork that was brilliantly crafted by Elsa Hansen Oldham. —Kevin Murphy Wilson
Listen on Bandcamp

StormToker — “Poor Man’s Doom”

Yeah, I know it’s a bit of a stretch to list a band from Lexington in a piece about local songs. However, it is my opinion that StormToker plays Louisville often enough to be considered local. Honestly, though, I just really love this song and want to turn people on to this band. For the most part, StormToker plays a sludgy mix of stoner metal, doom, thrash, heavy blues, psych and prog rock in downtuned and very heavy, groove-driven songs. They are not really the kind of band you can pigeonhole, but at the same time not a band you’d expect to hear a jangly, upbeat rockabilly tune from. Yet smack-dab in the middle of their latest album, The Mother Tree, there it is! Guitarist/vocalist Anthony Grigsby said: “I got really heavy into Colter Wall. ‘The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie’ blew me away. It was just simple and powerful. I wanted to kind of emulate it.” However, StormToker being StormToker, the tune is rolling right along when all of a sudden the chorus kicks in and you get clubbed over the head with massively heavy doom-ish stoner metal, then right back into the rockabilly verse, leaving the listener wondering what just happened? Lyrically, with the refrain of “Where you’re born is where you’ll die, my friend,” this is a rather blunt and depressing tune about being a wage slave for life. Overall, “Poor Man’s Doom” is certainly a crowning moment for this Lexington trio. —Jeff Polk
Listen on Bandcamp

Connie Kissel/Pharmacy Girl — “Tightly Wound”

Louisville is still the city where the creative brain can live and thrive. Connie Kissel is a pianist, saxophonist and electronic artist from Louisville. They sometimes play or record under the moniker of Pharmacy Girl and did this song, “Tightly Wound,” as a piece of their degree project. “Tightly Wound” starts in a groove and then breaks out in a bit of a frenzy of distortion and glitches. It’s a good song for a day in the studio painting or working up photos. Definitely one for the creative set. There is something a bit dark about “Tightly Wound” that almost drifts into the world of goth/electronic, but somehow it stays just outside that pigeonhole as probably a tad too out there, too weird... wonderfully weird. It feels very ‘80s and makes me want to dig into a rewatch of “Liquid Sky” or “ Lair of the White Worm.” —Erica Rucker
Listen on Bandcamp

White Reaper — “Pages”

White Reaper has subtly twisted and tweaked their sound and lyrics over the years, working from a full-speed-ahead fuzz-punk band barely out of their teens that leaned on music that was both catchy and rowdy, to a more versatile, exploratory style that carefully incorporates slow-moving evolution and introspective thoughts and stories. Despite all of that, a White Reaper song always sounds like a White Reaper song — a characteristic of a solid foundation. “Pages” — the first single off the upcoming album, Asking For A Ride (Jan. 27) — has an acoustic-to-explosion, loud-quiet dynamic that features a classic White Reaper feel-good anthemic melody. Underneath that surface, however, it’s a song about breaking through to the other side of the constant brain swirls and sleepless nights that follow the crashing and burning of a relationship that needed to end. The protagonist knows it was the right call, but it still sucks. “Pages” never feels overcomplicated or weighed down, but there are layers to unpack. —Scott Recker
Listen on Spotify

Anemic Royalty — “Looking Forward”

Party-punk band Anemic Royalty is a fixture in the Louisville music scene, and this track shows us exactly why: it’s catchy as hell, right from that fun, perfect-for-singing-along intro. But the song is about growing up and the changes that come with it, a perfect fit for these young rockers. The last time I heard this song live, I was sweating inside the big bowl at the Extreme Park, surrounded by thousands of other people who were just as young — if not younger — than Anemic Royalty. It was a perfect channel for their energy. The more I listen to “Looking Forward,” the more I’m convinced it could’ve been the perfect theme song for a teen comedy movie or TV show in the early 2000s. —Carolyn Brown
Listen on Spotify

Sunshine — “Blindsided Butterflies”

Honestly, I could’ve picked any song on this album to write about for this piece, as they are all amazing. The underlying reason for which lies in the fact that they are all just a bit strange and incredibly intriguing. Sunshine’s overwhelming abundance of musical talent affords them the ability to craft songs in such a way that the listener is never quite sure where they are going to go with them at any given moment. And Sunshine is a band that can and does change up rhythms, tempos and even musical genres at the drop of a dime. They make complex polyrhythmic song structures look easy, and do so while loading their songs up with catchy hooks and making it all flow together seamlessly smooth with an infectiously energetic delivery. There is nothing out there quite like Sunshine. This song alone is a little bit Ween, a little bit Frank Zappa, a little bit Primus, a little bit Slint, and just a hint of Black Flag. I have no idea what the song is about because even though the lyrics are fairly easy to understand, there are so many interesting things going on here musically that I can’t focus on them even after repeated listenings. The band calls their sound “alternative/experimental/jazz punk”, and it is a fantastic journey into the wonderfully bizarre. —Jeff Polk
Spotify

Marzz — “Countless Times”

I’m a fan of vocals, and Marzz has them. Even though this song technically was out the year before, the official release date says 2022, so I’m cheating and adding it to this list… again. But if you missed this song, you’re truly missing one of the most lovely vocals of the year. Marzz sings with a similar sensibility to artists like SZA and H.E.R. (with whom they toured), and yet, there is something older, wiser and smoother bubbling in the voice of this young artist. The way they slide between notes, full steps, half steps is simply mesmerizing. They do this without gymnastics and delivers the skills with clean lines and clarity that some artists give away in mumbling. LEO has written about Marzz several times and we can’t get enough of them or this song. ­—Erica Rucker
Listen on Spotify

Jordan Jetson — “Uknowit”

Jordan Jetson merges consistency and unpredictably in a slick way — the lyrics are always clever and thoughtful, the production is always airtight, but the songs always push in new directions and twist and turn in short amounts of time. Within the same song — and often in the same verse — he often alters the rhythm of his flow in magnetic ways. On “Uknowit,” Jetson combines a rollercoaster ride of dense bars in a verse, with a concise, breathable, effect-driven chorus, packing a lot of substance in a track that clocks in at two and a half minutes. And, as usual, the phrases he turns are filed with gold — so much so that you can listen to the short song ten times and on the 11th listen, you’ll find things you missed. Some of his lines are like riddles, others are straightforward and obvious, but everything is worded in ways you haven’t heard before — he avoids the minefields of cliches. “Uknowit” and most of his other material aren’t story songs and lean more into cut-and-paste, stream-of-conscious framing but similar to a great novelist, Jetson has a style that would be impossible to replicate. His talent is singular. —Scott Recker
Listen on Bandcamp/Spotify

Houseplant — “Acetone”

This song was made for tripping out, and I mean that in the very best way. It absolutely drips with pure psychedelic groove from the funky, shoulder-shaking start to the nonsensical, wordplay-laden lyrics — “The stuff he knows gives me a stuffy nose / Caesar shouts seize her from the phone / Some mothers let some others chaperone.” Hell, even the music video is literally just colorful, fluorescent visuals, the kind you’re meant to stare at under some kind of influence. If this song had come out when I was a psychedelia-obsessed hippie teenager, there is a 1000% chance I would’ve had it on repeat every day. Alas, it only came out in 2022. Turn on, tune in, drop out — or just enjoy it like normal, because it’s really good — and listen to “Acetone.” —Carolyn Brown
Listen on Spotify

Joan Shelley — “Forever Blues”

Throughout the songs and characters that populate her delightful new LP, The Spur, Joan Shelley consciously confronts both the darkness and the light that appear in her life as if it’s this giant coincidence of opposites that makes her (and the rest of us by extension) human. In fact, at one point on the album, she astutely observes that “it takes so much” just to exist in this form. “Forever Blues,” on its own, is a perfect example of the sort of dichotomy that often overtakes the Louisville-based songwriter. Here, Shelley’s voice is softly juxtaposed with Meg Baird’s for a bittersweet delivery of the litany of fears that haunt Shelley’s worried mind at one particularly happy moment in time. More specifically, with this song, Shelley’s lyrics alternate between celebrating domestic bliss and acknowledging the deep unease that is simultaneously lurking about the brand new heartache that may or may not lie just around the bend. —Kevin Murphy Wilson
Listen on Spotify

Belushi Speed Ball — “Ripping Off Municipal Waste”

“So I’m a hypocrite / I stole this guitar riff / Original music makes me sick,” yells Belushi Speed Ball vocalist/guitarist Vinny Castellano at the beginning of the song, tongue firmly planted in cheek. This song isn’t just inspired by Municipal Waste; it was purposely written to sound exactly like them. Later in the song, Castellano even goes as far as to refer to his own band as “no-talent musical hacks” and “performers who alienate fans.” However, don’t dismiss this as a joke track — it’s far from it. Regarding the song, Castellano says: “We never intentionally tried to sound like one particular artist. BUT for this particular song, driven by spite [inspired by a fan’s snarky comment] we gave it our best effort to emulate ‘The Waste.’ It’s way more difficult to achieve this than people might think. The song is honestly one of the hardest musical pieces we ever wrote.” “Ripping Off Municipal Waste” is an intense, two-minute blast of crossover thrash that’s full of breakneck speed riffing, blasting drums, unrelenting vocals, chugging hardcore breakdowns and a gang-vocal-style chorus that is impossible not to scream along to at their shows. This song is the musical equivalent of being repeatedly bashed in the face with a full can of LaCroix. It’s one of the best mosh pit songs ever. No wonder it’s already become one of the band’s signature pieces, as it’s an amazing showcase of just how talented Belushi Speed Ball truly is. —Jeff Polk
Listen on Spotify

The JimHärralson — “rule thirteen”

A little toxic but, look, I love a good metal sex groove, and “Rule Thirteen” is perfect. If you’ve got any issue on the spectrum of things that can make a life both fucked up and fun, then bring this song along for the soundtrack. Louisville’s punk/metal scene has always delivered jewels, and this band is no different. They kick pretty hard and even toss in a metal version of “Wicked Games” for those who wonder what that might sound like. But back to the song at hand… it is the song for those volatile times in a relationship. Fighting, fucking, fighting, fucking. Remember those times? Not the healthiest, but goddammit, they were fun. I don’t recommend living like that, but who is to stop you from having a good time? Certainly not me. —Erica Rucker
Listen on Spotify