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Sputnikmusic Staff’s Q3 Playlist 2022

Welcome to our third installment for our 2022 quarterly playlist! Feel free to jam the playlist below while reading what our writers had to say about each selection. Tell us what your favorites are in the comments, as well as any new artists you may have discovered here — or, alternatively, tell us what we missed! Thanks for reading/listening.

Tracklist:

The 1975 – “I’m in Love with You”
Being Funny in a Foreign Language

I’m historically mixed on the results whenever The 1975 go straight at their default, somewhat-played ’80s pop throwback sound. For every instant classic like “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” there are a handful of overbaked, cloying cuts which end up with titles like “She’s American” and “She Way Out”. Thankfully, the genuinely adorable “I’m In Love With You” leans towards the quality of the former; an irresistible groove underpins a hook that I’d describe as repetitive if it wasn’t so lovable. “I’m In Love With You” is so cutesy you may feel your strings being yanked, especially watching the too-twee video with Matty Healy doing silent slapstick and a Phoebe Bridgers cameo — but if I’m gonna have good vibes force-fed to me, it may as well be via a certified catchy cut like this. –Rowan5215

Ada Rook – “999999999 IN A DREAM”
UGLY DEATH NO REDEMPTION ANGEL CURSE I LOVE YOU

NOTE TO SELF

[[so the thing is]] I hate :: most industrial/industrial metal/nu-metal/cyberskramz; any mix of meme humour with brutal aesthetics or emotional baldness; glitch in heavy music; a worrying share of everything I’ve heard from Black Dresses; cringe.

\\also// i < 3 :: talking about cringe; a lotta electro-industrial, clipping as an artistic choice; glitch (tasteful or otherwise) not in heavy music; dancing that isn’t actually dancing but is more like pounding your soles into the floor in sheer disgust (at who??); caffeinewinecaffeine; skramz so ratty that i’m not screaming ur screaming etc.

well sucks that you forgot that LOVE AND HATE ARE THE SAME FUCKING THING you stupid bitch f±!@#$%k wordswordswords Ada Rook’s latest is tighter than a death-grip and shreds like a cheesegrater, I swear on all hell this record is slick enough to shrug off unlimited levels of tastelessness and THAT’S A GOOD THING TOO becuz AAAAAAAH

((((“999999999 IN A DREAM” is very good and sounds like internalised ugly things that are no longer internalised, make some fuckin’ peace with yourself and get that shit down you)))) –JohnnyoftheWell

Anthony Green – “Maybe This Will Be the One”
Boom. Done.

There’s something about the way “Maybe This Will Be the One” folds and unfolds and refolds that’s just so tragic and triumphant, optimistic and pessimistic, either and neither and both. –BlushfulHippocrene

Bedlocked – “Pictures”
Bedlocked

Picture (heh) this: it’s lovely summer weather, you’re hiking through the Alps, you just received an email saying that you graduated, and the soothing nu-gaze of Bedlocked’s “Pictures” is playing in your headphones. It’s rare, but every once in a while life rules as hard as dreamy music. –JesperL

The Beths – “2am”
Expert in a Dying Field

While Elizabeth Stokes sets the scene — late night in the kitchen, tipsy and emotionally vulnerable — the rest of The Beths bide their time and keep their cards pressed to their chests. By the time the narrative unravels into a rather disarming ending that seems more bitter than sweet, the accompanying noise is amplified, tortured even, but still withheld enough to suggest that everything will still be okay in the end. Me? Crying? Well… yuhp. Can I have a hug? –MiloRuggles

The Butterfly Effect – “Visiting Hours”
IV

I have prayed and awaited the return of The Butterfly Effect for a very long time. I have lit candles, sacrificed lambs and painted walls with butterflies while dancing around the room in my butterfly outfit for what feels like decades. It did work out, though, because the Aussies are back with a vengeance. Although not every song in IV rocked my socks the way its predecessor used to do back in the day, this song in particular, which closes the album, shows the direction that I personally expected them to follow — and no matter how many years have passed, it’s clear that they still got it. –Dewinged

The Callous Daoboys – “Star Baby”
Celebrity Therapist

Accessing the perfect blend of aggression, experimentation, and melody in hardcore is so much easier said than done, but that’s exactly what The Callous Daoboys accomplish on “Star Baby”. As the final song on the band’s breakthrough sophomore effort Celebrity Therapist, it’s got everything from raucous screams to unpredictable tempo changes and a massive singalong chorus. Like the entire album, it’s a wild good time and proof that sometimes the most ridiculous and outlandish ideas are the ones that music needs most. –Sowing

Chat Pile – “Tropical Beaches, Inc.”
God’s Country

God’s Country dropped in the dead center of a brutal five-day heat wave in my area, and right from its opening seconds, “Tropical Beaches, Inc.” was exactly the sound my own boiling brain had already been making for 48 solid hours prior to its release: a noxious, sweat-slicked sputter of furious incoherence. Even more so than on the rest of the album, Raygun Busch and co. perfectly portray the all-consuming misery of a dysfunctional brain trapped inside a dysfunctional body trapped inside a dysfunctional city trapped inside a dysfunctional planet. By the time they’ve brute-forced their way to the grotty, greasy breakdown, ‘get the fuck up’ feels less like a rallying cry and more like a reminder that you’ve been lying in bed feverishly twitching and writhing around for the last three minutes; prolly time to grab a glass of water. –Kompys2000

City of Caterpillar – “Ascension Theft… (Gnawing of the Bottom-Feeders)”
Mystic Sisters

City of Caterpillar’s first album in two decades is a mercurial whirl of fresh possibilities, but it’s not until the last moment that they colour the whole thing as a triumphant return. The band once practically blueprinted a scheme of tension and relief that many an imitator translated into hackneyed climaxes; “Ascension Theft… (Gnawing of the Bottom-Feeders)” sees them, just for once, dropping an uplifting motherload that wipes their slate of influence mercifully clean and lays down how it should have been done all along. A benchmark for any band eyeing up a comeback. –JohnnyoftheWell

Courting – “Jumper”
Guitar Music

It was either this or “Loaded” to include here, but a universal constant throughout Guitar Music is the clever production amidst the album’s eclectic sound-shifting ethos. Within context of Guitar Music, “Jumper” is a delightful detour of Grouplove-meets-LCD Soundsystem stupor, and their sense-of-humour is extrapolated in their Genius annotations (“I don’t think I have ever heard an English person emphatically describe a relationship they’re very happy about in a word stronger than ‘alright’, which I find quite funny”). –Jom

Deaf Havana – “Someone/Somewhere” (feat. IDER)
The Present is a Foreign Land

Deaf Havana are at their very best when they’re telling stories, and “Someone/Somewhere” takes this to a whole new level. The duet with IDER trades the band’s guitars for a pulsating beat while emotions ebb and flow in perfect sync with the story’s tensions. It’s a song that finds significance in the insignificant; it’s perfectly capable of weaving a uniquely colourful sonic experience out of the extremely ordinary. –JesperL

Domestic Terminal – “Chalk Dust” and “Summit”
All the Stories Left to Tell

Domestic Terminal’s second full-length LP, All The Stories Left to Tell, possesses a warm summer glow and uplifting vibes… but even the brightest light casts a shadow. It’s within these occasional pockets, like “Chalk Dust”, that you can really feel the turmoil that berthed the album’s sense of triumph in the first place. Amid shimmering guitars and mesmerizing vocals, darker lyrical themes take shape and eventually erupt in a shouted, cathartic conclusion. If you’re an emo/indie-rock fan still clutching your copy of Clarity, then this is one of the best songs (and albums) that you could possibly check out in 2022. –Sowing

Few things in life are as sparkly, soothing, beautiful and overwhelming as a snowy summit. Except for Domestic Terminal’s “Summit”, of course. –JesperL

Dreadnought – “Midnight Moon”
The Endless

Gaerea – “Memoir”
Mirage

With Mirage, Portuguese blackened horde Gaerea unleashed not only their best effort to date but also one of the finest black metal chapters of 2022. The 8-minute opening track, “Memoir”, with its contrasting flavor and epic outbursts, is undoubtedly among the album’s highlights. Excelente trabalho, rapazes. –TheNotrap

Holy Fawn – “True Loss”
Dimensional Bleed

Dimensional Bleed is an album’s album, the kind that doesn’t feel quite right to not listen to all the way through, as songs ebb and flow into one another. Regardless, there’s still no way I can’t acknowledge “True Loss” as one of the finest tunes of the year. It’s simply a pristine aural experience. –Sunnyvale

JID – “Surround Sound” (feat. 21 Savage and Baby Tate)
The Forever Story

Sometimes the masses get it right: JID’s latest album is the shit. The cornerstone of this track is nothing but a slick hook over 808s, and that’s almost all this certified whip-bumper needs in order to succeed. –MiloRuggles

Jockstrap – “Debra”
I Love You Jennifer B

You know that feeling when you’re stumbling out of the pub/club/house of fun, with the first specks of sobriety and nagging doubts that you spent too much and did some dumb shit starting to clear that pleasant haze over your vision? Jockstrap have a way of fuckin’ nailing that feeling with uncanny precision, something in the way Georgia Ellery’s sardonic vocals and classically-indebted melodies collide with Taylor Skye’s UK garage-leaning beatsmithery. “Debra” is perhaps the most accessible and yet carefree song on I Love You Jennifer B; the way Ellery’s hook of the year-contender rides Skye’s furious instrumental is so addictive, you’ll have looped the song around 3-4 times before you pick up on the subtle dark undertones lurking in the corners of Jockstrap’s beautifully twisted songwriting. –Rowan5215

John Moreland – “Generational Dust”
Birds in the Ceiling

A generational (see what I did there) country singer-songwriter that is starting to try to incorporate some glitch elements, I think. I have no idea what glitch music actually is. I miss old John Moreland, but if he keeps channeling what he found on “Generational Dust”, I’ll keep listening. –dmathias52

Khold – “Ødslet Blod”
Svartsyn

You guys didn’t think I was going to let my only contribution to this playlist be another dosing of death metal, did you? Good. Because while I’ve spent most of this year listening to classy as fuck technical drum wankers, I’ve needed to find something a bit more vintage, refined, ready to play in the darkened room or next to yonder campfire. Khold hit the mark. “Ødslet Blod” lit the spark. I’m all warm and fuzzy now. That could be the candle though. –Gnocchi

Lorna Shore – “Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames”
Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames

Not a fan of deathcore? Me too. Although “Pain Remains I” fits some of the tropes (like lots of double bass and blast beats), this is something else entirely. It’s emotive, it’s melodic, it’s epic, and it’s really good. –Willie

Makaya McCraven – “So Ubuji”
In These Times

The resplendent marimba motif with meditative hand percussion and Brandee Younger’s ethereal harp all make for a soothing listen. The preceding “Seventh String” is a stunning complement, and In These Times is a masterclass in innovation from one of International Anthem’s prolific cadre of genre-blurring musicians. –Jom

Mass of the Fermenting Dregs – “Dramatic”
Awakening:Sleeping

“Dramatic” is so rife with nostalgic what-could-have-beens that its otherwise weightless shoegaze jangle sinks my heart a little every time I tune in to it. Its driving rhythm keeps its eyes firmly on the road, yet bandleader Natsuko Miyamoto focuses her oneiric lyricism elsewhere, blurring between lost and found, ditsy and dizzy, form and formlessness in distinctly emotive style. The thread of the song hangs off every one of her gloriously full-toned syllables, each weaving a fresh nuance into perhaps the most gripping depiction of that mono no aware-patented past-tinged present-tense incumbency I’ve heard this year. Beautiful things hurt, and this song is very pretty. –JohnnyoftheWell

Metric – “Doomscroller”
Formentera

I can’t think of ballsier decisions than starting an album with a ten-minute track, especially if your band is called Metric and you are ten albums deep into your career. But then, at the same time, what is there to lose at this point, right? The duo formed by core members Emily Haines and James Shaw were confident enough to place this eclectic and electric pop stunner as the opener of their last album Formentera. While it feels like three tracks in one, every section of “Doomscroller” is a masterclass in ebb and flow. Easily one of my favorite tracks of 2022. –Dewinged

No Devotion – “Love Songs from Fascist Italy”
No Oblivion

“Love Songs From Fascist Italy” is the perfect encapsulation of what No Devotion strive for (mostly highly successfully) on their sophomore album. There’s always a straightforward appeal to the music, but also an ever-obvious note that something’s a little off in the grayscale nocturnal world the album creates. But that was just a dream. –Sunnyvale

Noah Cyrus – “Noah (Stand Still)”
The Hardest Part

One of the most straight up depressing/hopeful songs I’ve heard in country music in a long time and it comes from Miley’s little sister. As a millennial trying to talk about Gen Z culture, I think I’m contractually obligated to say something like, “I didn’t have that on my 2022 bingo card.” –dmathias52

Pool Kids – “Comes in Waves”
Pool Kids

I was gonna write about “Conscious Uncoupling”, but something about that felt too obvious. And but so, there are better songs on Pool Kids than “Comes in Waves”, but none so full, so teeming, so brimful with — what? Beauty. Bitterness. An undefinable charm, better defined in Brendan’s review (go peep). –BlushfulHippocrene

Spite House – “Hope”
Spite House

Max Lajoie’s roar of “Let’s bend the truth until it breaks” is within the same orbit as “The more you stretch the truth, the easier it is to see through,” but no bamboozle here: Spite House’s sonic leanings are on an appreciably similar wavelength to Floral Green-era Title Fight. The Montreal trio’s debut is an auspicious one, with spirited guitar melodies and a sprightly rhythm section despite the somber lyrical backdrop. See also: “Afraid” and “Dying Leaves”. –Jom

Willi Carlisle – “Tulsa’s Last Magician” and “Your Heart’s a Big Tent”
Peculiar, Missouri

It’s been a while since I’ve heard an artist that sings as earnestly or pens lyrics as eloquently as Willi Carlisle. While his entire sophomore album Peculiar, Missouri is worth a listen from anyone with a passing interest in folk or country, it’s “Tulsa’s Last Magician” that first got its hooks into me — and for good reason. The song is one of the best depictions of loss of innocence that I’ve ever heard, following the story of a kid with a knack for sleight of hand who quickly loses faith in the world and himself, trading in his natural gift/passion for a regular job: “now his great escaping act is just untying both his shoes / and most days he’s in the easy chair, yellin’ at the news”. The song feels like a plea to hang on to everything that makes you you — to not allow the world break you. It’s heartbreaking and inspirational at the same time. –Sowing

There are “better” songs on Peculiar, Missouri than “Your Heart’s A Big Tent”, but there are none that I hope as fervently for the eternal persistence of. It’s folk art in every possible sense, but foremost in the sense that it has a real, tangible use for everyday folk: a reminder that empathy is not a finite resource, that jealously guarding our souls will only leave us alone with the wolves. Spoiler alert, the 2020s and the decades to follow ain’t gonna be pretty. As shit goes sideways and crack-ups crack up and everybody scrambles for ways to keep feeling like a human being, we need it sung to every rafter, covered and uncovered and covered again: EVERYBODY GETS IN!!!!! –Kompys2000

Wisteria Lodge – “Mercy”
Wisteria Lodge

Wisteria Lodge’s self-titled EP, for good or ill, is all about atmosphere, shrouding the listener in an eerily beautiful ambience. Closer “Mercy” serves as the most notable song on its own merits, its Mazzy Star-esque presentation leaning into Gothic vibes, appropriate as a spectral hymn for October. –Sunnyvale

The Wonder Years – “You’re the Reason I Don’t Want the World to End”
The Hum Goes on Forever

Maybe putting the closing song to an album violates some sort of playlist making etiquette, but I don’t care. The Wonder Years go full cheese, full melodrama, fully over the top, and it’s everything I could want from them and more. –dmathias52

Participating staff writers:

BlushfulHippocrene | Dewinged | dmathias52 | Gnocchi | JesperL | JohnnyoftheWell | Jom | Kompys2000 | MiloRuggles | Rowan5215 | Sowing | Sunnyvale | TheNotrap | Willie