Death to 2022: Best Movies, Series, Documentaries, Music & Podcasts
Did your ears & eyes receive the best of 2022?
It's well known by Mainstream Media that no one in the 'East' dies from bombs or snow during the Western holiday season, or on Sundays when we're braaing (barbecuing) after Church. Consequently, 'Putin Isn't the Only Monster in Ukraine' will only be back on Jan 8 2023.
I'm interrupting that misery with my joys which are watching movies and documentaries, listening to music and podcasts, and, especially, learning. If you're not interested in my gushiness, skip past these words to where I've listed amazing recommendations via bullet points.
I've had no social life for years, not since I lost the town I love. I'm not digging into that so let me sum it up as, "Fuck the politicians and their cronies who fucked me!" Consequently, my replacement for people has mostly been movies and podcasts - good substitutes considering they're less problematic, more informative, and have more in common with me.
But I'm grateful for my accident of bloody South African birth not being as bad as I once thought it was during my activism. It's a privilege to be able to watch a movie and a documentary almost daily, as opposed to a being a pawn in a war. I say that because I'm not dying, shivering, feverish, or starving in Ukraine, Palestine, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Western Sahara, Ethiopia, Somalia, Armenia, Kashmir, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Congo, Peru etc. We must never take our freedoms for granted. They must be enjoyed and defended.
If my opinion were an award ceremony, I'd honour Iran's brave actors and filmmakers. For example, Taraneh Alidoosti, who co-starred in the Oscar-winning 'The Salesman', and who made me cry in 'About Elly', was arrested for defiantly not wearing her hijab and demanding international support against a protestor's execution. Director Jafar Panahi has ‘danced’ with the regime for over a decade. Whilst banned from making movies, he inventively shot a quasi-documentary inside a taxi, posing as the driver. When placed under house arrest, he made another documentary with his cellphone. This year, he was arrested for the third time. Strength runs in his family because his son, Panah Panahi, released 'Hit the Road', a family road-trip drama which makes a political point in its finale.
'Holy Spider', set in Iran but filmed in Jordan, is one of the years grittiest. It's theme of oppression is based on a true story about druggy prostitutes being hunted by a serial killer in the streets of the holy city of Masshad. The protagonist is a female reporter played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi. She delivers an excellent performance which won her an award at Cannes and the Seville European Film Festival. She's been in exile since 2008. The Iranian government compared 'Holy Spider' to the 'Satanic Verses’ and stated that any Iranian, within the country, who was found to be involved, would be punished.
Other actors to love are Andrea Riseborough ('To Leslie'), 'Cate Blanchett ('Tar'), Alison Pill (‘All My Puny Sorrows’), Martha Henry ('Three Tall Women'), Colin Farrell ('Banshees of Inisherin' & ‘After Yang’), Michal Sikorski ('Sonata'), and Benedict Cumberbatch (‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain'). In the service of sexual liberation for older women, Emma Thompson delivered her most important role ('Good Luck to You, Leo Grande'). The most endearing kid was Bhavin Rabari (‘Last Film Show').
I'm sharing my 2022's fun and education with you. If there's something I've missed, you can gossip about my poor taste.
Discover the following sections below, with trailer links for every suggestion:
Best English Movies 2022
Best Non-English Movies 2022
Best Documentaries 2022
Best Miniseries 2022
Best Series 2022
Best Docuseries 2022
Best Podcasts 2022
Best Music 2022
Best English Movies 2022
'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once' (family adventure fantasy)
'The Fallout' (mass shooting grief drama)
'Licorice Pizza' (quirky drama romance)
‘Tar’ (abuse of power drama)
‘Women Talking’ (feminism cult drama)
‘The Menu’ (inequality horredy)
'Masking Threshold' (indie psychological horror)
'The Banshees of Inisherin' (philosophical black comedy)
'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' (sex drama)
‘Sanctuary’(sex drama thriller)
'She Said' (MeToo investigative journalism biopic)
'All My Puny Sorrows' (grief drama)
'The Batman' (dark superhero)
‘White Noise’ (family drama)
'The Fabelmans' (family drama)
'X' (sexy horror)
'To Leslie' (redemption drama)
'Stars at Noon' (daylight neo-noir)
'The Outfit' (crime drama)
'Bull' (action thriller)
'Trees of Peace' (Rwandan genocide drama)
‘Triangle of Sadness’ (inequality art drama)
'Honor Society' (teen dramedy)
'Watcher' (thriller)
'We're All Going to the World's Fair’ (psychological drama)
'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On' (animation for all ages)
‘The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' (cat biopic)
'Aftersun' (child drama)
'Strawberry Mansion' (surreal mystery drama)
'Glorious' (absurdist horredy)
An easy favourite for everyone is 'Everything, Everywhere, All At Once'. It transcends the dumbness of most Hollywood action movies, the repetitiveness of half the superhero movies, and the syrupy nationalism of 'Top Gun: Maverick'. It never made me cry or scream with outrage but rocket-escaped the humdrum of the modern action genre. It blends drama, action, fantasy and love whilst giving Michelle Yeoh her biggest platform since 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2002). Culture needs to play a role in saving society from nothingness. 'Everything' is definitely something, proving that family movies don't have to be stupid. If you want to feel good and hug a family member, watch it!
'Top Gun: Maverick' is overrated. I can separate fun from propaganda, and consider Tom Cruise to be an underrated actor (think 'Born on the 4th of July'), but 'Maverick' is more a lesser remake than a sequel, with a touch of 'Cocktail' thrown in. A more honest title would be 'Top Gun: Recycled'.
I found my usual components for favouritism when 'The Fallout' cried, 'Licorice Pizza' enchanted, and 'X' thrilled my amygdala (and libido). With over 600 mass shootings in the USA in 2022, 'The Fallout' is an important movie, the most impactful since the disturbing 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'.
Exceeding my expectations were 'Vengeance' and 'Not Okay'. I almost turned them off but they grew into solid commentaries on social media and the vapid priorities that plague our society. If you're wanting a trilogy in that vein, add 'Sweat’(2020) to your streaming playlist. Then make every young adult watch them!
The most wonderfully bizarre is 'Strawberry Mansion', a pink dystopia featuring the versatile Sam Rockwell.
For the fan of what we used to call "art movies" is the filming of the stage production of the Pulitzer-winning play, 'Three Tall Women'. Sans Hollywood special effects, nor the usual easy connection a live witnessing provides, it never captured me immediately. But the dialogue and acting won me over so that Martha Henry competes for the best actor of the year. For women who need a friend who says the unspoken, or for men seeking to understand women, it's a must. Sadly, Martha died 5 days after the filmed version was released.
I cannot easily classify 'Stars at Noon' by a genre, and I cannot precisely describe why I loved it. Nevertheless, it affected me, returning to me in flashes for weeks after viewing. It's assured that, next year, I'll be digging into director Claire Denis' filmography. And Margaret Qualley is an actress to follow so do her as a double billing with the sexy dialogue thriller, ‘Sanctuary’.
Almost last but not least in my heart are the independent filmmakers who prove that intelligence and creativity count more than big budgets. 'Masking Threshold' is smart, artistic, extremely visual, slow, and finally horrifying. Incredibly shot in the small workshop of the director/screenwriter/actor, its an experiment that’s become a landmark. 'We're All Going to the World's Fair' is best watched in silence and darkness. You'll become absorbed and creepily affected by an older man chatting to a teen girl online - there’s more to that than you thinking right now. 'Deadstream' is hilarious - there's no found footage horror like it! It’s a shrill tribute and mocking of its genre.
My final recommendation is for absurdists like me. In the horredy 'Glorious', a man encounters a god in the bathroom stall next to him at a roadside stop. Would you put your dick in the gloryhole?
View the full international list at ‘Wicked Mike's 200 Best Movies 2022’. Or view the genre sub-list, ‘Wicked Mike's Best Thrillers & Horrors 2022’. I never reviewed this past year but made comments of appreciation for 'Masking Threshold', and 'Stars at Noon'.
Best Non-English Movies 2022
‘Beautiful Beings’ (Iceland)
'Decision to Leave' (South Korea)
'Wesele' a.k.a. 'The Wedding Day' (Poland)
'Paris, 13th District' (France)
'Junk Head' (Japan)
‘EO’ (Poland)
'All Quiet on the Western Front' (Germany)
‘Holy Spider’ (Iran)
‘Memories of My Father’(Spain set Colombia)
'Leave No Traces' (Poland)
'You Won't Be Alone' (Macedonia)
‘Argentina, 1985’ (Argentina)
'Ballad of a White Cow' (Iran)
‘Petrov's Flu' (Russia)
'Wu Hai' (Mongolia)
'The Good Boss' (Spain)
'Huda's Salon' (Palestine)
'Happening' (France)
'Murina' (Croatia)
'Broken Keys' (Lebanon)
'Drunken Birds' (Canada/Mexico)
'Olga' (Ukraine/Switzerland)
‘Broker’ (Japan)
'Hit the Road' (Iran)
'Limbo' (Hong Kong, China)
'The Bombardment' (Denmark)
'Compartment Number 6' (Finland set Russia)
No one is a movie lover if they ignore the majority of the world!
'Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths' is hard to swallow - the masses will never see it and critics are strangely polarised. But it's my favourite foreign language movie, beginning with its dexterous title. It took me an hour to fall into its flow but the 3hr surreal journey led to profound wonder and reflection. I urge you to watch it fully awake and alone i.e. without distraction. It's got the best cinematography despite astounding competitors (e.g. ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and 'Decision to Leave'). I remind that its director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, gave us 'Revenant' (Leonardo de Caprio), 'Babel' (Brad Pitt), '21 Grams (Naomi Watts) and 'Birdman (Michael Keaton). As A-rated as those are, his Mexican 'Bardo' (Daniel Giménez Cacho) and 'Biutiful' (Javier Bardem) are better.
The 100th Nordic movie I watched was their best. Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson previously delighted with the meaningful child gay drama, ‘Heartstone’. He throws in a bunch of stones and mud to make the painfully ugly ‘Beautiful Beings’. It’s about impoverished young boys finding unlikely friendships in a world of apathetic or scary adults.
Korea's Chang-Wook Park is another of my cherished directors. Hopefully you've seen his 'Lady Vengeance' and 'The Handmaiden', or his English mini-series 'Little Drummer Girl'. Park's latest, 'Decision to Leave', is an elegant, clever and intoxicating crime romance featuring one of my favourite actresses, Tang Wei ('Lust/Caution'). It’s a femme fatale for the history books.
Another great director is Wojciech Smarzowski. With 'Wesele' a.k.a. 'The Wedding Day', he masterfully blends and compares modern Polish fascism with an old man's WW2 experience. It may be the most underrated movie this year and is relevant considering the current Polish/Ukraine relationship of convenience. It’s a masterpiece of anti-nationalism.
There were many impressive movies that granted an understanding or extra perspective regarding countries that made the headlines the past year.
'Olga' is about a Ukrainian teen gymnast in mental turmoil after her mother sends her to Switzerland for safety. She becomes a member of that country's team which is to compete against her Ukrainian friends, and against the Russia team which is headed by her ex-coach. The movie is a quest for identity, and a strong representation of the turmoil many children and young adults must be experiencing during the current war. ‘Klondike’ shows the civil war as it began in 2014. A family, living in a border territory, is torn apart as the husband battles to find balance between his wife wanting to stay, her brother being pro-Ukraine, and their neighbour pro-Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have faced, and are facing, the same dilemma: How do they make a decision without losing their homes and possessions?
Deserving special mention for their unique perspective include 'Unclenching the Fists' (the first I've seen from South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian province that declared independence) and 'Compartment No. 6'(a Finnish production set in an extremely cold and non-touristry part of Russia). ‘Petrov’s Flu’ (Russia) is dark; a wonderful, vodka mindfuck and a feverish piece of art - it’s for those who want to challenge themselves. These are not fun movies, instead deep dramas for the meaningfully inclined.
The Middle East, a goldmine for sincerity, is well explored through 'Ballad of a White Cow' (Iran), 'A Hero' (Iran) 'Hit the Road' (Iran), 'Broken Keys' (Lebanon), 'Huda's Salon' (Palestine) and the ealier mentioned 'Holy Spider'(Sweden/Iran). All have been nominated for awards.
The best immigration movie goes to Canada for its French language 'Drunken Birds'. Brazil's 'The Pink Cloud' is a sympathetic fantasy drama for those who felt alienated during COVID lockdown.
So that I’m not bullying ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, the other side of the world released propaganda too. China's syrupy 'Snipers' was a letdown, more so because Yimou Zhang, the master, was co-director. 'The Kashmir Files' was well shot, an example of India’s movie industry exploding away from Bollywood. Unfortunately, it’s handicapped by its perversion of history for the sake of Hindu nationalism - enormously successful movies that manipulate emotions through lies are dangerous!
View the full international list at ‘Wicked Mike's 200 Best Movies 2022’. View my comments of appreciation for 'Wesele', 'Paris, 13th District', 'Huda's Saloon', and 'Drunken Birds'.
Best Documentaries 2022
’Revolution of Our Times’ (Hong Kong, China)
‘Sabaya’ (Syria/Kurdistan)
‘Dying to Divorce’ (Turkey)
‘Fire of Love’ (France)
‘Paper & Glue’ (France/USA)
‘Writing with Fire’ (India)
‘The Conservation Game’ (USA)
‘Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror’ (South Korea)
‘The Velvet Queen’ (France/Tibet)
‘Ennio’ (Italy)
‘Salt in MY Soul’ (USA)
‘The Bubble’ (Austrian director but set USA)
‘A House Made of Splinters’ (Ukraine)
‘The Princess’ (UK)
‘The Killing of a Journalist’ (Slovakia)
‘In Search of Tomorrow’ (USA)
‘Angels of Sinjar’(Poland set Kurdistan, Iraq)
‘Children of the Mist’(Vietnam)
‘And Still I Sing’ (Afghanistan)
‘Kickback’ (USA/UK)
‘Was Tun’ a.k.a. ‘What to Do?’ (German director but set India)
‘Skandal! Bring Down Wirecard’ (Germany)
‘Mr Bachmann and His Class’ (Germany)
‘The Fabric of the Human Body’ (France)
‘The Photographer: Murder in Pinimar’ (Argentina)
‘Good Night, Oppy’ (USA)
Documentarians ensure that corporate and government sins are archived for the few that will one day want to learn from them. Documentaries are our teachers. They're my friends.
A portion of Hong Kong's history is insane and shouldn't exist. That the gun and opium-toking British took over a Chinese island for a century is morally wrong. I've yet to see a documentary from the Chinese perspective, for the sake of a full view, but I've love and admiration for activists wanting as much freedom as possible. Now that I've admitted my angle of bias, know that 'Revolution of Our Times' is the best in a year of exceptional documentaries.
Hong Kong's protestors were forgotten by the Media with the USA's fatal withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghani's were forgotten with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainians are not easy to hide in Europe, and millions of regugees will likely become exiles. They'll take longer to forget but, for the sake of political convenience, they probably will be. But victims and activists must be remembered for the sake of our better humanity. Consequently, I'm grateful that 'A House Made of Splinters' (trailer), 'This Rain Will Never Stop' and 'The Earth Is Blue as an Orange' have documented the plight of everyday Ukrainians, especially the children.
Documentaries that educate and make me care are invaluable. The poverty of Asia swung its doors wide open to me through 'Midwives' (Myanmar), 'A Thousand Fires' (Myanmar) and 'What to Do?' (India).
I'm impressed with India's development and Jaishankar is the world's finest foreign minister. I'm not ignorant of human rights violations but when you juggle over 1 billion people, heads will get cracked. I'm not indifferent or biased, simply sharing an observation from the stratosphere. At ground level, my heart is with the female journalists struggling to report the truth in a chauvinistic and caste-stricken society. Their brave lives are insightfully shown in 'Writing With Fire' (trailer).
Everyone who sympathises with Palestine knows its territories, Gaza and the West Bank. But what about other places hosting Palestinian refugees? Yarmouk, in Syria, was one of those. I was clueless to it and the accompanying besiegement tragedy until the documentary, 'Little Palestine (Diary of a Siege)' (trailer). It's one of the darkest on this list...
... and 'Dying to Divorce' is the saddest... and made me angriest. Imagine having a husband so misogynistic that he blows off your limbs with a shotgun so that you can't leave. This Turkish doccie will fuck you up but it needs to be seen.
In contrast, 'Sabaya' is about a group of men who, at great risk to themselves, rescue Kurdish girls held in a maze of a camp in Syria, where they've been kidnapped by ISIS to be sex or work slaves. The bravery of the rescuers and the pain of the girls is applaudable and devastating.
With the attention its gets from their Media, its easy to wrongly think that America is home to all the sexual perverts. Lesser known, but as necessary to watch, is the UK's 'Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story' and 'Dark Secrets of a Trillion Dollar Island: Garenne'. It horrendous how the Government and Media put these paedophiles first.
I passed the litmus test for being human when I teared up during 'Salt in My Soul'. I found it motivational too. It's about Mallory Smith who suffers from cerebral palsy. Her attitude of living life to the fullest is a lesson to be practiced. Almost as inspirational is Jessi Combs in 'The Fastest Woman on Earth'.
The best nature documentaries are polar opposites. 'The Velvet Queen' is meditative and stunning, a reverence for majestic snow leopards and the stark beauty of their Tibetan mountains. It’s unlike other nature doccies. 'The Conservation Game', however, will make you want to kill humans. It's the stunning expose of abuse of animals in the USA by sociopathic celebrities and TV stations.
The most positive documentary of 2022 is 'Paper & Blue' - art can help change the world. The most beautiful is 'Fire of Love', a romance between volcanologists. I'm not going to say anymore - you simple need to watch it!
I love the work of Laura Poitras, her shining of the light in inconvenient, dark places. Her latest, ‘All The Beauty and The Bloodshed’ isn’t streaming yet. When it is, it’s sure to make my list [update: it did!].
View the full list at ‘Wicked Mike's 100 Best Documentaries 2022’. Here’s my comment of appreciation for 'Midwives'.
Best Docuseries 2022
Adam Curtis’‘Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone’
Ken Burn’s ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’
Best Miniseries 2022
‘We Own This City’ (USA)
‘Pachinko’ (Korea/USA)
‘SAS Rogue Heroes’ (UK)
‘Infiniti’ (France but English set in Kazakhstan)
‘The English’ (UK/USA)
‘Five Days at Memorial’ (USA)
‘The Responder’ (UK)
‘Irma Vep’ (France)
I haven’t tired of cult stories, especially those based on fact. ‘Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith’, by Jon Krakauer, is one of the best books I’ve read. It was good to see it translated into a series. A good accompaniment is the docuseries ‘Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey’.
David Simon is television’s most consistent quality creator. Although ‘We Own This City’ is based on a true story, it’s a natural follow-on to his earlier works, ‘The Corner’ and ‘The Wire’.
Best Series 2022
‘This Is Going to Hurt’ is #1 because the tension was relatable and thus palpable. I have sympathy for overworked health workers, and for us as patients. Corruption and covid drained the healthcare system worldwide. In my South Africa, arson for tenders have made the situation worse. Our public hospitals are a nightmare. ‘This Is Going to Hurt’ was akin to the feeling I sometimes have that my country wants to swallow me.
For escapism, ‘Wednesday’ is the best Adam’s Family production. Yep, even better than the original movie. And ‘1899’ is an epic mystery, worthy of its $62-million budget.
Best Podcasts 2022
Al Jazeera Investigates - ‘The Labour Files Part 1’
Al Jazeera The Take - ‘Inside Russia’s Wagner Group’
Bari Weiss - ‘Eating Ourselves to Death’
Bari Weiss - ‘Iran's Most Wanted Woman, Masih Alinejad’
Blocked & Reported - Helen Lewis Challenges Us To An End-Of-Year Quiz About Internet Bullshit
Blocked & Reported - Possibly The Craziest And Most Infuriating #MeToo Story You Will Ever Hear
Chris Hedges - ‘We Don’t Need the CIA’
Chris Hedges - ‘Richard Wolff on Inflation and Inequality’
Chris Hedges - ‘Ukraine Proxy War and Enemy Military Industrial Complex’
Clearing the Fog - ‘The Danger To Palestinians Has Never Been So Severe’
Consider This - ‘How A Foiled Coup In Germany Came To Be’
Counterpunch Radio - ‘The Failure of Mikhail Gorbachev’
Democracy at Work - ‘Capitalism’s Decline’
Democracy Now - Best World News, Mon-Fri and on YouTube
Empire Files - ‘Anthrax, Smallpox & America’s Bioweapons Secret’
Empire Files - ‘Don’t Forget About Yemen’
Empire Files - ‘US Propaganda, Censorship & Our Huxleyan Servitude’
Freakonomics Radio - ‘Is Google Getting Worse?’
Freakonomics Radio - ‘Yuval Noah Harari Thinks Life is Meaningless and Amazing’
Intelligence Squared - ‘Is America a Force for Good in the World?’
Intelligence Squared - ‘The Death and Rebirth of Writing’
Intelligence Squared- ‘The Life and Death of a Garment’
Intelligence Square - ‘Will Democracy Survive? (f. Maria Ressa)’
Jordan Peterson - ‘How to Make the World a Better Place’
Jordan Peterson - ‘Stella Assange on Julian Assange’
Lex Fridman - ‘Ben Shapiro’
Lex Fridman - ‘Joe Rogan’
Lex Fridman - ‘Jordan Peterson’
Macro n Cheese - ‘Please Look Up (Jason Hickel)’
Macro n Cheese - ‘Africa's Place in the Multi-Polar Order’
Media Roots Radio - ‘Alex Jones & the 20-Year-Long Poison Pill to Destroy the Alt Media Ecosystem, Part 1 of 2’
Multipolarista - ‘Imran Khan 1: Compares His Ouster to CIA Coup in Iran’
Multipolarista - ‘Imran Khan 2: Pakistan Must Be Neutral in Cold War’
Ones and Tooze - ‘Ukraine (Economics) So Far(Dec 2022)’
Ones and Tooze - ‘Will Qatar Always Be Rich?’
Radiolab - ‘Neanderthal’s Revenge’
Revisionist History - ‘When Will Met Grace’
Rough Translation - ‘The Cat Must Still Be Fed’
Rough Translation - ‘Slackers@Work: A Song for the Exhausted’
RT Africa Now - ‘One Murder Away From Hunger in South Africa’
RT Africa Now - ‘South Africa building BRICS for the future’
RT Whistleblower - ‘Uber’
Sam Harris - ‘Preparing for the End’
Sam Harris - ‘The End of Global Order (with Peter Zeihan)’
Sam Harris - ‘What I Really Think About Trump and Media Bias’
Scheer Intelligence - ‘Can the USA Handle a Multipolar World?’
Scott Horton - ‘US Bio-weapons and CIA Attempts to Hide Them
Scott Horton - ‘Where Things Stand for Ukraine (at end of 2022)’
This American Life - 'Munachi and the War'
Triggernometry - ‘How Elites Hurt the Poor With Terrible Ideas’
Triggernometry - 'Lockdowns Were Mistake (Dr Jay Bhattacharya)’
The Economist Babbage - ‘What Causes Long COVID?’
The Economist Intelligence - ‘Sofa Troubles for Cyril Ramaphosa’
The Economist Money Talks - ‘India’s Moment’
Podcasts are insanely good. Radiolab set the standard and millions followed. It’s impossible for me to recall all the greatest hits of 2022 but the list above is testament to our awakening planet and a counterculture revolution in thought. Choosing a favourite is like deciding between fresh mountain water from the Alps or Himalayas. Nevertheless, I’m giving a shoutout to The Scott Horton Show. Scott’s from ANtiWar.com. He hosts incredible guests whilst standing against empire. Particularly laudable is his fight to end the war in Yemen. I’m also astounded by Lex Fridman, a deep questioner, whom I only discovered in 2022. Loved how he gave both sides of the Ukraine/Russian War with his Oliver Stone and Stephen Kotkin interviews. Sam Harris fans will dig him.
Best Music 2022
Soft Rock:
A.A. Williams - As the Moon Rests (alternate soft rock)
alt-J - ‘The Dream’ (alternate electronic pop)
Jim Jones - ‘Regions of Light & Sound of God’ (soft rock)
Midlake - ‘For the Sake of Bethel Woods’ (soft rock)
Rock:
Arcade Fire - ‘WE’ (alternate rock)
Crippled Black Phoenix - ‘Banefyre’ (alternate rock)
Devin Townsend - ‘Lightwork’ (melodic rock)
Editors - ‘EBM’ (electronic alternate rock)
Fuzigish - ‘Fuzigish’ (ska rock)
Kills Birds - ‘Married’ (alternate rock)
Pineapple Thief - ‘Give it Back, Rewired’ (prog rock)
Puscifer - ‘Existential Reckoning’ (electronic alternate rock)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - ‘Cool It Down’ (alternate pop rock)
Hard Rock, Prog & Metal:
Machine Head - ‘Of Kingdom and Crown’ (groove metal)
Meshuggah - ‘Immutable’ (metal)
O.R.K. - ‘Screamnasium’ (prog rock)
Russian Circles - ‘Gnosis’ (instrumental prog rock/metal)
Skold - ‘Dead God’ (industrial rock)
Wilderun - 'Antidote’ (metal)
Pop:
The Cure, the first band I loved. It was in 1991 before I could remotely imagine I would become a DJ let alone an activist. I’ve travelled a million years since then, and so have the band They were supposed to release 'Songs of a Lost World' but, damn, it never happened. Consequently, I've something to look forward to in 2023 besides researching insane U.S. politics and death in Ukraine.
Want more, for free, then visit my previous post, '2022's Best Free Documentaries (To Make You Wiser and More Caring)'.
My 'Putin Isn't the Only Monster in Ukraine' series continues next Sunday, January 8. Right now, it's the death of of 2022. May it be a positive rebirth for us all. I’m going to watch less movies and count more clouds :)