AOB: Katie's Best of '22
AOB: Katie's Best of '22
Any other business (ie, music that's not necessarily Paramore)
Occasionally, I listen to (and write about) music that’s not Paramore. The name “AOB” (Any Other Business) comes from Hayley Williams’ “Everything Is Emo” podcast, where she used it to categorize miscellaneous stuff she wanted to talk about just ‘cuz.
Before we get into it, here’s a Spotify playlist I made of all the songs/artists/albums I mentioned. Perfect for Paramore For Dummies completionists, and also for the people who care about my recommendations but not enough to read this whole thing.
Five songs that need to bill me for therapy
“Kind of Girl,” MUNA - Before I heard this recorded, I heard it live at “gay church” (what they call their shows lol). It felt like I was hearing my soul sung back to me in a song. And truly, this whole year, it’s felt like a worship song to the girl I’m becoming, who’s really just the same one that’s been there all along.
Picture me singing that last line like that one meme cat in the cowboy hat howling to the winds. “Morning Elvis,” Florence + The Machine - She’s narrating—so eloquently that it’s obviously out-of-body, and poignantly surreal, like maybe she’s already gone—an overdose(?), a blackout-drunk hookup, and the world’s worst hangover. Somehow, a song that teeters on suicide note ends as self-fulfilled salvation prophecy, even as the gospel melody leaves her mouth. Heaven’s a lost cause, hell looms, and nothing is promised but Music. It’s enough. (According to Genius, she’s been sober for a long time now, so don’t lose sleep over her health!!)
If you wanna get extra fucked up, listen to the live version where Ethel Cain joins on the last chorus ……. “Make You Proud,” Jensen McRae - More lyrics that make me weep. Shocker! Also, her voice on this is MIND-BLOWING. In the last verse when she says “you’ll still be lou-ou-ouuuuud”… very loud???? Fuck me up!!!!
This song only has 175k TOTAL LISTENS and that makes me want to cry because every human should hear this song???? “orange show speedway,” Lizzy McAlpine - This song is about me, and the city of Austin—my oldest old flame—and moving back there and knowing that I’m giving a place I’m hopelessly in love with, the power to make or break me. (Haters are saying Lizzy was actually singing about a high school boy, but.)
“Hold The Girl,” Rina Sawayama - Therapy-going pop listeners, we won!!!!
Crying and dancing and crying and dancing and
Five other notable songs that made me go 👀
“Up Again,” Typhoon - No one is fucking me up quite like Typhoon, always! The saddest indie rock around!!!
“Tall Poppies,” Yard Act - This song is a whole Academy-award-winning movie in six minutes and 21 seconds, in the least pretentious way imaginable. Life, death, soccer, marriage, divorce, imperialism, and the question of why we exist. I have never heard a song quite like it.
“Window,” Dehd - I saw them at ACL and man, what a ROCK show. Just rocking the fuck out. And one thing about me? I absolutely LOVE to rock the fuck out.
“Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs ft. Perfume Genius - This song goes CRAZY. The YYY’s always manage to do the most interesting stuff with bwah-bwahhhh synths. Also, I loooove this collab - Feature Perfume Genius On Everything Challenge.
“Heavy Heart,” Bartees Strange - No one did it quite like Bartees this year. His rich voice charts a path through a Jimmy Eat World-esque melody and lyrics, over thoughtful, angular guitars, with some almost rap-like cadences on later verses. He does so much and he does it all well.
Six “no notes” albums
MUNA: MUNA - Every single song is a pop masterpiece. Perfect tracklist order. Perfect everything. It’s the kind of album that makes life feel like a movie (which is my favorite kind of music-listening feeling tbh).
Pool Kids: Pool Kids - Beautiful vocals over the kind of twinkly Midwest-emo guitars I’m absolutely addicted to. There are soft moments, there are loud moments. It’s all perfectly-executed emo perfection.
RENAISSANCE: Beyoncé - What is there to say that hasn’t been said? I laughed, I cried, I danced. I literally can’t listen to it while working because I get TOO hype.
CHAOS NOW*: Jean Dawson - My brother turned me onto this album, and it’s just mind-blowingly innovative. One of the most interesting, fun, and cathartic listens of my year.
I Walked With You a Ways: Plains - The spiritual successor of The Chicks’ early catalogue.
Preacher’s Daughter: Ethel Cain - Southern Goth concept album about a girl who gets kidnapped, murdered, and cannibalized, but make it vocally gorgeous, and add a little tiny tinge of black metal. Yes, she pulls it off. Listen listen listen!!!
New-ish artists to keep on your radar
Grace Cummings - I swear she’s a reincarnated ‘70s rockstar. How she didn’t get more attention this year is BEYOND me.
ash tuesday - I found her on TikTok(!) and am obsessed - she reminds me of one of my favorite bands of all time, Now, Now
Pinkshift - Electric, empathetic female-fronted hardcore at its finest
Lou Roy - Earworm/orchestral/wacky/heartbreaking indie-pop
Saya Gray - Like Sufjan Stevens on acid
Sweet Pill - Paramore-endorsed, female-fronted post-hardcore
Charlie Hickey - Phoebe Bridgers protogé and poetic, sharp singer-songwriter
Honorable mentions
“Come Back,” Sharon Van Etten - This album is such a triumph from a veteran who has perfected her indie rock craft, and this song is the album’s soaring masterpiece.
“Nothing To See,” Miya Folick - She is sharp as a tack lyrically, vocally, and musically. Every line on this EP is a banger. “I've been losing weight so I can wear these Dolls Kill jeans”??? Fuck me up!!!!
“F2F,” SZA - God, I LOVE the songs on this album that have the Liz Phair flavor.
“Autopilot,” Allison Ponthier - When I listen to her, I feel like I’m hanging out with a friend. The last 30-second stretch of this song goes SO hard.
“I’ve Got a Friend,” Maggie Rogers - In the midst of an album that had a lot of flops for me, this song stopped me in my tracks. It’s funny AND it made me cry. It could belong on a Carol King album, easily.
“Far Away,” Carly Rae Jepsen - This song has drugs in it.
“October Sky - Live at Electric Lady,” Yebba - Bit of a stretch calling this a 2022 song, but it was by MILES my favorite song of 2021, and this live version is transcendent and somehow finds a way to iterate on perfection.
“This Is a Photograph,” Kevin Morby - I’ve wanted to hear something lively like this from him for SO long. Bonus points for lyrical references to his hometown of Lubbock(!).
“Wake Me Up To Drive,” Big Thief - I literally listened to this song while driving on long stretches of highway so many times this year, and it always fit the bill.
“Event Horizon,” Amber Mark - A cathartic, elegant coda to a gorgeous, thoughtful pop album.
“Concorde,” Black Country, New Road - Fucks me ALL the way up.
“This Is Why,” Paramore - this is a Paramore newsletter. So.
If you made it this far, I appreciate’cha. Lmk in the comments if you agree/disagree/think I’m a completely correct genius!
Love,
Katie from Paramore*
*Hayley had/has “Hayley from Paramore” as her name on social media so a lot of fan accounts (I guess now including me) do it too
How many days til This Is Why comes out? I’m glad you asked:
