The Top 10 Worst Albums of 2022

It is that time again. Here we take a look at the worst albums of the year. They come from various genres no one is unscathed... punk, metal, noise, prog , pop and hip-hop all released stinkers.  One of the things that made rap great in the 80s and 90s was rappers calling each other out for being whack. It provided a form of quality control. Now people have grown too sensitive for that kind of hard truth. There are those who would argue this is all subjective, but music is something that can be defined in technical terms, as well as artistic, how does it hold up over time. Chances are if it is hard is get through one listen it is not going to stand the test of time. Most of these albums it was hard for me to write a full review of as I could not listen to the album as a whole and had to skip around to try to find something to worthwhile to listen to. Sure, some of these might have sold a ton of album but the Fast and Furious movies are garbage in terms of storytelling, so the sheep are not a great barometer. So here are the top ten worst albums of 2022

10-Coheed & Cambria-"  Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind" 

This piece of garbage sounds more like Michael Jackson meets Meat Loaf than any of the prog emo from their Myspace glory days. the over produced vocal layering only makes this worse.  

Abysmal Hymns: Coheed & Cambria : " Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind"

 

9-Kendrick Lamar- "Mr Moral & the Big Steppers" 

 23 Producers and 37 songwriters made this album, to give some perspective Pink Floyd's "Darkside of the Moon" album only had one additional songwriter outside of the band, which was the guest singer on "the Great Gig in the Sky" and 3 be assisting in engineering and mixing. You would think this assembly line of songwriters would have to make a flawless product. There is little substance when it comes to songwriting. I think if it was cut down to one album, they might have had something more fun without being dragged down from the boring drones of spoken word. Some albums grow on you with time, this one got worse. 

Abysmal Hymns: Kendrick Lamar: "Mr Morale & the Big Steppers"

8-Indifference- "Consciousness"  

This Polish post-punk project is very experimental. The percussive elements they are using over the drone of the opening track creates an unsettling mood. They make some interesting almost jazz inflected choices when it comes to the guitar under it all. In other words, this is not your typical band of Joy Division wannabes. By the end of the album the minimalist drone is pretty boring and vocals grating. 

Abysmal Hymns: Gothtober- indifference: " consciousness"

                 

7- Soul Glo-"Diaspora Problems"  

This Philly band reminds me of a punk version of the earliest version of Faith No More, as their singer has a singer cadence to his voice. The guitars are closer to indie rock in their jangle than punk. The vocals are a chaotic howling. Abrasive noise begins to win out, these kids are still more of a punk band when they do this. I am less impressed by this and more annoyed. The album proved to be one that I had to force myself through.

 Abysmal Hymns: Soul Glo :"Diaspora Problems"

6-Bob Vylan- "Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life" 

This odd British duo has a great deal in common with Death Grips. The first song is hip hop and they seem to have more to say in that mode than when they are trying to play punk. On "Take That" he just sounds stupid trying to take cracks at Elvis. Dizzy Rascal certainly did it better. That is even with Strange Bones contributing bass. To their credit they do not have a whole team of producers to make this, though it is more lo-fi than that Kendrik Lamar album. This album runs out of gas early on and proves they are a one trick pony. 

 Abysmal Hymns: Bob Vylan : "Bob Vylan Presents The Price Of Life"

5-Scarcity : " Aveilut" 

The fact this band is on the Flenser was enough to make me want to check them out. They are a project from Brooklyn. They refer to themselves as black metal and in some way, this is true if you are thinking of what black metal out of Brooklyn might be prone to sound like. there is little that can be regarded as a song or music, there are abstract sounds being tortured. In scoring this album, I have to consider what is music and are they making it. If you like droning abrasive noise, then this might click with you, depending on what drugs you are doing at the moment. There is really nothing here that touches upon what I listen for in music

Abysmal Hymns: Scarcity : " Aveilut"

4-Lizzo-"Special"

While there are three other albums that are worse than this one all for different reasons, when I started to review this album it felt like a waste of my time, it took 45 producers to write 12 songs for her, and then there are zero hooks on this, it's a jumble of awkwardly rapped verses with a little bit of soulless singing tossed in that forms nothing memorable. There are those who will say, well she should not be judged because she presents something that people need...blah blah blah. The bottom line is if you are selling music, what you represent does not matter if you are selling product of such inferior quality 45 producer can't shine your shit., this could be number one since it is a marketing machine vomiting out what is the problem with society  

  3- Ghost -" Impera" 

I liked the Swedish band's 2010 album "Opus Eponymous". It felt like they were ripping off both Mercyful Fate and Blue Oyster Cult with their wanna be Satanic rock. Sadly the three albums that followed each got more watered down. The rock elements slowly faded into something that sound more like Abba meets Aldo Nova. They kept the same image in fact milked it as a cash cow. Are they selling more albums now? Yes, but the "Fast and Furious" movies rake in cash and are mind numbing in their vapidness. This album doesn't offer much more hope. It is hard to imagine that there will be an album worse than this in terms of lack of originality, sometimes it is to the point of stealing. Anyone who thinks this is metal, has proven to be they do not know shit about shit and their mind would be better flushed down the same toilet this album belongs in 

Abysmal Hymns: Ghost : "Impera"

 

2-Diamanda Galas-"Broken Gargoyles" 

Originally used as part of an art installation, the rule here is we are just listening to how the song stand on their own, when you strip away any pretenses that are attached to them. The theme is the inspiration taken from images of gargoyles that were left battered from World War I, given how things do not change and the locations of this kind of destruction simply relocate then it is a fitting theme for 2022 am a fan of Galas, but this is a trip to a museum that turned out to be an abstract haunted house. You might feel compelled to listen to this for an experience, but these are not songs that you will want to listen to more than once and even then, I had to break them up in ten-minute intervals to avoid the tedium, so based off songs and measuring this album against the standards we have for songs

Abysmal Hymns: Diamanda Galás : "Broken Gargoyles"

1-Abhorrent Expanse- "Gateways to Resplendence" 

This album could have had the few hipsters who are still pretending to be into metal, licking their porn staches. The first track is not even a song but feedback and noise. If it had not been for them blasting into business by the second song, then I would have questioned why I had wasted my time with this and to be honest, with the kind of grind core chaos that goes down on the second song I am still not sure this was a good decision on my part until it was to find a album worse than the new Ghost. This is for a different reason. You see Ghost cares too much about their songs so they are slick enough for the balls to fall off of them and become pop. These guys are just fucking around not even getting to songs, there are a few grooves that click together on the second song, but by and large I am not sure anyone knows what the other is doing

Abysmal Hymns: Abhorrent Expanse : " Gateways To Resplendence"