As I have listened to my favorite albums from the past eleven years, there are artists, that if you knew me, would seem obvious for them to be my favorite. Then there are other albums by artists that may have seemed a little out of leftfield at the time. As time has progressed onward, the “out of leftfield” artists have become core music that I listen to, and the hope is that I will keep expanding my musical listening reach so that no artist is truly a surprise to be a favorite.
And one of the things that I really enjoy about listening to new releases, is never knowing exactly where my favorite new album of the year is going to come from. Over the years there always seems to be at least one album that I absolutely adore that I never anticipated that I would. This year, that album was Bully’s Lucky For You.
I became a fan of Bully the first time I heard the single Trying on WEQX back in 2015. It was raw, emotional, with a great underlying hook. They were always an artist that were on my radar, and I made sure to check out any album that they released, but they were never a top tier artist for me. I would put them on the tier of “I’ll listen to the new album, but if it doesn’t catch me, I probably won’t listen to it more than once or twice.” So with the new record, I was thinking it would continue along this trajectory.
To me this album is a throwback to the grunge records that I grew up with in the early 90’s, with a little more polished sound. It rocks from the first seconds of All I Do to the last hits on All This Noise, with little time to catch your breath in between. In its grandness, Lucky For You reminds me of my album of the year from 2021, Wolf Alice’s Blue Weekend. The sound of an artist really swinging for the fences and hitting an absolute bomb. I cannot wait to hear what Bully has on deck.
As always, there will be a link to my Spotify playlist with my favorite track from each album I checked out and an asterisk next to the albums that really stood out to me this year.
- Allah-Las – Zuma 85
- Andre 3000 – New Blue Sun
- Andy Shauf – Norm
- The Arcs – Electrophonic Chronic
- Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine
- Armand Hammer – We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
- Avalon Emerson – & the Charm
- bar italia – Tracey Denim
- Being Dead – When Horses Would Run
- Blonde Redhead – Sit Down for Dinner
- Blondshell – Blondshell*
- Blur – The Ballad of Darren
- Bombino – Sahel
- Bully – Lucky For You*
- Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
- Caroline Rose – The Art of Forgetting
- Country Westerns – Forgive the City
- Cut Worms – Cut Worms
- Dusk – Glass Pastures*
- Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist – VOIR DIRE
- Florry – The Holey Bible
- Foo Fighters – But Here We Are*
- Geese – 3D Country
- Gorillaz – Cracker Island
- Graveyard – 6
- The Hives – The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons
- Hotline TNT – Cartwheel
- Iggy Pop – EVERY LOSER
- James Yorkston, Nina Persson, & The Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Sea Eagle
- Janell Monae – The Age of Pleasure
- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes*
- Jeff Rosenstock – HELLMODE
- Jonathan Wilson – Eat the Mode
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – PetroDragonic Apocalypse
- King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – The Silver Cord
- King Tuff – Smalltown Stardust*
- Kurt Vile – Back to Moon Beach
- Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
- M83 – Fantasy
- Mandy, Indiana – i’ve seen a way
- Margo Price – Strays*
- Masego – Masego
- The Murlocs – Calm Ya Farm
- Pearl & The Oysters – Coast 2 Coast
- Pile – All Fiction*
- Portugal. The Man – Chris Black Changed My Life
- Q – Soul,PRESENT
- Queens of the Stone Age – In Times New Roman*
- Ric Wilson – CLUSTERFUNK
- Robert Finley – Black Bayou
- Royal Blood – Back To The Water Below
- Ruen Brothers – Ten Paces
- Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12
- shame – Food for Worms
- Slow Pulp – Yard*
- Speedy Ortiz – Rabbit Rabbit*
- Squirrel Flower – Tomorrow’s Fire*
- SUBSTANCE810 – The Lion’s Share
- Temples – Excotico
- Tigercub – The Perfume of Decay
- Tinariwen – Amatssou
- Wednesday – Rat Saw God
- Wilco – Cousin
- Woods – Perennial
Perry Ponds 