My Top 22 of 2022: #19-17

19. John Mellencamp - Strictly A One-Eyed Jack

Grumpy Old Man Alert!

Mellencamp's best record in some years, here he finds a nice balance between the folkier turn his music has taken in the 21st Century and a grizzled retread of his earlier days. I was a huge JCM fan growing up, and while I'm glad he's not trying to make the same sort of music he made back then, it was good to hear him lighten up and have a little fun again. Well, as much fun as us miserable old bastards can allow ourselves. There's also a couple of cool Springsteen collaborations and even a toe dipped into Tom Waits territory. 

John Mellencamp & Bruce Springsteen - Did You Say Such A Thing?

John Mellencamp - Driving In The Rain

18. Ezra Furman - All Of Us Flames

Back in 2018, Ezra Furman's Transangelic Exodus hit the heights of #7 in my Year End countdown. I couldn't get into the 2019 follow-up, Twelve Nudes, but this one is a definite return to form. The Springsteen influences are still there, and while there's a slight discordance to both music and vocals, as always with Ezra, these heartbreaking tales of lost souls doing their best to survive in our pre-apocalyptic times regularly turns caterpillars into butterflies.

Ezra Furman - Train Comes Through

Ezra Furman - Come Close

17. Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph

A while back, Kevin Morby took up residence at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. The hotel is famous for its ducks: they live on the roof, but are brought downstairs every day, accompanied by a John Phillip Sousa March, where they proceed via red carpet to swim in the lobby fountain. 

Kevin Morby's 7th album isn't about the Peabody Ducks, though it is about Memphis, the town where Elvis, Jeff Buckley and Martin Luther King all died, but much amazing music was born. This record follows in those footsteps, an intensely personal disc about family, memories and mortality. It's the first Kevin Morby record to really leave its mark on me, but it's definitely encouraged me to dig back into his catalogue.

Kevin Morby - Bittersweet, TN (feat. Erin Rae)

Kevin Morby - Disappearing