billy woods and another Album of the Year

No. 1426: Billy woods - Aethiopes

Last week, I wrote about my favorite album of 2022. And this week, I’m leading with Treble’s top album of 2022. I can tell you from 20-plus years of running best-of-year polls that it’s not that often that I’m surprised by the end result, but this one definitely caught me by surprise. In the best way. billy woods and by extension Armand Hammer and the whole extended Backwoodz universe have been a creative force in the last decade, delivering a long string of incredible hip-hop records, in a quantity ample enough that it took some serious thought to narrow it down for another recent poll. (I might be hinting at something!)

In 2022, it seems all my writer homies agreed, and we collectively chose Aethiopes as our favorite, even though it was by no means the most hyped or visible record of the year. But is it great? You’re damn right it is. It’s produced for the most part by Preservation, who lends a dark and eerie atmosphere to the whole thing, while woods lyrically navigates threads of the “other”, beginning with an anecdote about how his neighbor might be the disgraced former leader of Ethiopia. (He always has amazing opening lines.) The combination is one of the best single-producer/single-emcee projects maybe ever. I’m not exaggerating.

It took a long time for the vinyl to arrive—at this point in the Autobiographical Order timeline, it’s the end of 2022, essentially—because it was surprise released digitally first and the pressing wasn’t ready for a few months. But a record of this quality is worth the wait. It’s also not even the longest I’ve waited for a record. That one’s coming up soon-ish, and I might have even ordered it before this one! In any case, I love listening to billy woods’ music because he’s the rare artist where I hear something different and new each time. And it happens all the time, on every record. Without fail. That’s a rare and special thing, and why this is more than worthy of being our Album of the Year, even though it was probably technically number three for me. But only just barely out of the top spot. Rating: 9.4

Listen: “Heavy Water”

No. 1427: Death Cab for Cutie - Something About Airplanes

It’s hard not to talk about this record through the lens of pure, uncut nostalgia. I’m not that nostalgic a person in general, but my wife and I were talking about how we’ve seen some pretty spectacular shows in the past 25 years, and that’s not changing anytime soon, based on what’s on the calendar. But there might have also been a little bit of “back in my day, get off my lawn” talk in there as well. It’s inevitable after you turn 40. I do my best to keep it to a minimum. 

But look, we saw the Death and Dismemberment Tour! Which, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, is when Death Cab for Cutie toured with The Dismemberment Plan. They were both big-deal indie bands at the time, and as I recall it was a co-headlining tour, so they each played equal length sets. When we saw the tour, Death Cab played last. But it was fun. That might have been the show where Ben Gibbard had the flu, so he probably didn’t have fun. Rock ‘n’ roll!

I haven’t really loved much of what Death Cab released after Plans, though their last album, Asphalt Meadows, was really good. Had more post-rock elements, some cool atmospheric stuff, their best songs in years, if you ask me. But I will listen to Something About Airplanes anytime, anywhere. I think Ben Gibbard is well over being told that this is their best album, because he clearly doesn’t think so and there’s a certain type of fan who does. I’m not necessarily one of them, but damn do I love this record. It got me into the band during my senior year of high school, and there’s a kind of smart-assed sensibility about it that I like. They got maybe too earnest after a while, I’d say like U2, but U2 were always super earnest, so that’s not the best comparison. Regardless, the scruffiness, the fuzziness, the fact that they wrote lines like “I think I’m drunk enough to drive you home now,” it’s hard to resist. I went on record with my findings about their catalog a few years back and determined that Transatlanticism was their best, with We Have the Facts a close second. But this one’s up there for me. Maybe I’m seeing it through nostalgic lenses, but I think I’m right about this being a great record. Rating: 9.1

Listen: “President of What?”

No. 1428: …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Madonna

As it turns out, two-fifths of today’s batch is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. And yet both Death Cab and …Trail of Dead are still active, if evolved somewhat from where and how they started. For Death Cab it was a matter of polishing up their sound. For Trail of Dead, it was a matter of stretching it out and building it into something more progressive and ambitious. For all intents and purposes, they became a progressive rock band, but with punk at their core—something that hasn’t been all that uncommon in the 21st century, and prog is arguably more popular among cool kids than it has been in a long time.

But this record is Trail of Dead at their most wild and unhinged. I’m not sure if there are more “fuck you”s in this album’s “A Perfect Teenhood” or Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” for instance. But this record is awesome even if it doesn’t win that battle. “Mistakes and Regrets” is a surge of post-hardcore energy, “Mark David Chapman” is a pretty convincing Sonic Youth impression, “Claire De Lune” is a haunting waltz, and “Totally Natural” is a batshit gallop that almost sounds like they’re going to trip over their own rhythm. They manage to keep it all together by sheer force of gravity, however.

This album isn’t as strong as Source Tags and Codes on the whole, but still in their top tier. And the handful of songs they played from it when I saw them live back in… oh, 2005?—those ripped. Including “A Perfect Teenhood.” There might have been some physical destruction afterwards. (Also, RIP Canes—but they’re not responsible for that.) Rating: 9.0

Listen: “Clair de Lune”

No. 1429: Rival Schools - United by Fate

Another band I saw in my twenties! And a great one at that. Somewhere in my top ten most-seen bands of all time, you’ll find Quicksand. I saw them first open for Deftones back in the ‘90s as a teenager, then again at FYF Fest 15 years later, and teenage Jeff was still right there losing his damn mind. They did another reunion tour after that, then made some new records for the first time in two decades, and then I saw them a few more times after that! Including last year in Richmond. And I’d do it again, hands down, no questions asked.

When Quicksand broke up in the ‘90s (before all the reunions and new albums and so on), their frontman Walter Schreifels founded another band called Rival Schools, who for all intents and purposes sounded a lot like Quicksand. More accurately, they sounded like Quicksand with some of the heavier elements smoothed out a bit and with a little more in the way of pop hooks. But still a post-hardcore band, and still one that ripped. They released a handful of records, but their debut United by Fate was out of print for a long time, due to being released by a major label in 2001, and we all know how that goes. Eventually it was reissued by Run for Cover, and damned if it didn’t feel good to get my hands on this again. Just a set of certified bangers right here. 

As it turns out, I did see Rival Schools once, back in September of 2001, opening for Burning Airlines. You see where this is going. Still, both bands played the show, everyone was stoked to be there, in spite of just how fucking weird it all was. It’s hard to explain to anyone born after 2000 how weird that time was. (Anyone remember the Clear Channel list of “banned” songs?) Well anyhow, I was the guy who went to see a band called Burning Airlines a week after 9/11, so that’s something to know about me. Rating: 9.1

Listen: “Travel by Telephone”

No. 1430: The Drin - Down River in the Distance 

Another record by The Drin! Quite a few entries back I first wrote about Engines Sing for the Pale Moon, a great scuzzy, lo-fi post-punk record from Dylan McCartney, who’s also in The Serfs, Crime of Passing and Motorbike. I’ve written about one of those bands already and will write about the other two. And boy did getting into this dude’s music open up a can of worms. Basically if he’s involved, I’ll listen to it and probably buy it, though he’s since released a few more Drin albums and I haven’t entirely caught up. Prolific!

This is basically just more of what I loved about Engines: scruffy recordings of bassy, dub-influenced post-punk, somewhere between Joy Division and P.I.L. with some minimal wave eeriness. Some of it’s a little more punk rock, like the surging “Bash the Psychic.” But it’s all great, the kind of thing you put on mixtapes for weirdos. Which I do. (Ask me how!) Rating: 8.9

Listen: “Bash the Psychic”