The year in Sophisticated-ass Grown-up Music 2022

I don’t know what else to call it: Stuff that makes you feel like you have pretty good taste. I don’t believe in the concept of “guilty pleasure” music. I’ll get into that sometime; not today. But while you should listen to what you want, you kind of have to own what it signals to people. There are things that signal that you’re cosmopolitan and put-together, and then there’s banging your head to Hell Bent For Leather or head-bobbing along to The Chronic or knowing all the words to the single smartest pop song of the 20th century.

So here’s a playlist to make you look like the tuxedo-wearing Winnie The Pooh in the famous meme format.

Misadventures Of Doomscroller - Dawes

I keep talking about this one, but I really liked it.

Bronco - Orville Peck

Another one I can’t stop talking about. Just brilliant.

Kaleidoscope - Fatma Said

Definitely getting written up soon (update: it did). A genuine phenom in classical vocal music, who also programs everything from Irving Berlin to Whitney Houston

In Amber - Hercules & Love Affair

A great find for the year, and one I haven’t taken out of rotation.