As 2022 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of what we hope will be a happy, healthy new year, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made year's best lists and are up for Grammy Awards. So here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music, in gratitude.
As 2022 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of what we hope will be a happy, healthy new year, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made year's best lists and are up for Grammy Awards. So here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music, in gratitude:
JANUARY
The new year began with the release of Tyondai Braxton’s “Multiplay” on January 11. It followed the December 2021 release of “Dia" / "Phonolydian”—Braxton’s first new music in five years—and features Braxton on electronics, recorded in his home studio in Bearsville, New York.
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Punch Brothers
Hell on Church Street
Punch Brothers' album Hell on Church Street, released on January 14, is the band's reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues, featuring an inspired collection of songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Monroe, and others. Recorded in November 2020, Hell on Church Street had been intended as both its own work of art and a gift to Rice, who died later that year. "After we got over the shock of losing our hero and friend," Noam Pikelny says, "we realized what Tony had left with us was his music, his spirit, and his legacy." "We spent a lot of time contemplating what happened when Church Street Blues hit our ears as a band," Chris Thile says: "we held it out, we conversed with it, and now we’re handing it to you."
Hell on Church Street has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and was included on Spotify’s list of the Best Folk & Americana Albums of 2022
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Laurie Anderson
”Big Science (Arca Remix)”
Arca—the Venezuelan musician, singer, composer, and producer Alejandra Ghersi Rodriguez—reinterprets "Big Science," the title track to Laurie Anderson’s landmark 1982 debut album, in a remix made in her home studio in Barcelona and released on January 19. The original recording features Anderson on vocals, OBXa, percussion, and electronics; Roma Baran on glass harmonica; Perry Hoberman on bottles; and David Van Tieghem on RotoToms and timpani, as well as Anderson, Baran, Hoberman on "sticks."
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Tigran Hamasyan
“Ara Resurrected (Dawatile Remix)”
Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan's "Ara Resurrected (Dawatile Remix)," released on January 28, is a remix of a track from his 2020 album, The Call Within. It was recorded by Dawatile—producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist David Kiledjian—in France, and co-produced with Hamasyan, with Dawatile adding electronic elements to Hamasyan’s piano playing from the original recording.
FEBRUARY
Hurray for the Riff Raff
LIFE ON EARTH
Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) made their Nonesuch debut with the release of LIFE ON EARTH on February 18. The album is a departure for the Bronx-born, New Orleans-based singer/songwriter. Its eleven new "nature punk" tracks on the theme of survival are music for a world in flux—songs about thriving, not just surviving, while disaster is happening. The album was recorded during the pandemic with producer Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver, Kevin Morby). While making it, Segarra drew inspiration from the Clash, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Bad Bunny, and the author of Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown. "A major step forward for one of today's most vital artists," exclaims Uncut. "The first great album of 2022."
LIFE ON EARTH has made album of the year lists from NPR Music, Uncut, Mojo, Paste, PopMatters, Brooklyn Vegan, Slant, Glide, Treble, WFUV, KEXP, WXPN, HMV, and Amazon. The title track is the number one song of the year per New York Times’ Lindsay Zoladz. The song “Saga” made year’s best lists from Rolling Stone and Treble.
MARCH
Cécile McLorin Salvant
Ghost Song
Singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant made her Nonesuch Records debut with the release of Ghost Song on March 4. The album features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. The New York Times calls it "her most revealing and rewarding album yet." Uncut says she is "one of the most daring and resourceful vocalists in jazz—or any other genre, for that matter." The Arts Desk exclaims: "The treasure trove of marvels that is Ghost Song exceeds all expectations."
Salvant has been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Jazz Vocal Album for Ghost Song and Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for the album track “Optimistic Voices / No Love Dying.” The album has made several year’s best lists, including those of the New York Times, NPR Music, Slate, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Wire, PopMatters, The Arts Desk, The Arts Fuse, Echoes, KEXP, WGBH, Spotify, and Amazon, and tops the Jazzwise Critics Poll.
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Brad Mehldau’s album Jacob’s Ladder, released on March 18, features new music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music inspired by the prog rock he loved as a young adolescent—his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. Featured musicians on the album include label mates Chris Thile and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Joel Frahm, and others. Mojo calls it "a kaleidoscopic affair, where baroque prog-rock edifices are juxtaposed with clouds of ethereal choirs, dreamy piano interludes, and squalls of free jazz-style clarinet. Skillfully weaving these elements into storytelling sound collages, Mehldau takes the listener on a memorable musical journey."
Jacob’s Ladder has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and made Jazzwise and Record Collector year’s best lists.
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The Staves released an EP, Be Kind, on March 18, featuring the band's take on Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting," from her album, Hounds of Love, and five tracks in their Be Kind series of stripped down, alternative versions of songs from their 2021 album, Good Woman: "Devotion," "Careful, Kid," "Failure," "Best Friend," and "Good Woman."
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Gabriel Kahane
Magnificent Bird
Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane's album Magnificent Bird, released on March 25, chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet. Kahane explores quiet, domestic concerns, coupled with losses personal and collective, against the backdrop of a nation and planet in crisis. "Deft, prose poem-like songs: an illuminating humanity is absolutely key," says Mojo. "A most eloquent exploration of our current lot." The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a gorgeous, intimate collection ... glistening and magical." Guest musicians include Sam Amidon, Punch Brothers' Chris Thile and Paul Kowert, Caroline Shaw, and Mountain Man's Amelia Meath.
APRIL
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
Crooked Tree
Crooked Tree, the Nonesuch Records debut album from singer, songwriter, and musician Molly Tuttle and her band Golden Highway, released April 1, was recorded live at Nashville’s Oceanway Studios. The album was produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas and features collaborations with Sierra Hull, Old Crow Medicine Show, Margo Price, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski, and Gillian Welch. These thirteen tracks, all written or co-written by Tuttle, explore her lifelong love of bluegrass. "Molly Tuttle’s fingers move so quickly, she could pick your pocket without breaking stride," says the New York Times. NPR calls it "a set of dashingly virtuosic songs."
A digital deluxe version of Crooked Tree was released December 2. Alongside the original thirteen songs, the deluxe edition features new renditions of the Grateful Dead’s “Dire Wolf,” and the traditional folk song “Cold Rain and Snow,” also made famous by the Grateful Dead, as well as live versions of album tracks “Dooley’s Farm” (feat. special guest Jerry Douglas) and “Castilleja,” both recorded at Nashville’s historic Station Inn.
Mollly Tuttle has been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Bluegrass Album for Crooked Tree. The album has landed in year’s best lists from NPR, Mojo, The Tennessean, PopMatters, Bandcamp, Premier Guitar, Glide, Wide Open Country, No Depression, WFUV, HMV, Resident, and Spotify.
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Hurray for the Riff Raff
“Pierced Arrows (Acoustic)”
Hurray for the Riff Raff (Alynda Segarra) released a solo acoustic version of “PIERCED ARROWS," a song from their new album, LIFE ON EARTH, on April 14. Segarra calls it "a heartbreak song, lost in the realm of memory. Being stuck in the past, and finding the rapidly changing world uncanny and bizarre. Trying to outrun trauma. Finding a meeting place between tough and tender. Memory replaying inside/beside you, triggering fight or flight responses.” The release came before Hurray for the Riff Raff joined Bright Eyes on tour.
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Wilco
War on War / I’m the Man Who Loves You (Alternate Takes) Vinyl 7”
Wilco released a vinyl 7” on April 19 highlighting two tracks from the 2022 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 20th anniversary deluxe editions to be released later in the year. The single features alternate takes of the album tracks “War on War” and “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” from the set.
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Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder
GET ON BOARD
Nearly sixty years after they first played together, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, longtime friends and collaborators, reunited with an album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives: GET ON BOARD: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, released on April 22. With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo—joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass—they recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee. “The music feels intimate and lived in, the sound of two old friends jamming away in a small room," says Rolling Stone. "But because they also want to romp things up, what could have been a tasteful salute becomes a record that’s bristlingly, viscerally alive."
Get on Board has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. It made year’s best lists from Mojo, HMV, and Resident.
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Tigran Hamasyan released StandArt, his first album of American standards, on April 29. Produced by the pianist/composer, the album includes songs from the 1920s through the 1950s by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker, Jerome Kern, and others, plus a piece Hamasyan improvised with his bandmates—bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown—and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. Other special guests include saxophonists Joshua Redman and Mark Turner.
StandArt has made year’s best lists from Jazzwise, Spotify, and Amazon.
MAY
Astor Piazzolla
The American Clavé Recordings
A box set comprising three albums from the great Argentine composer, bandleader, and bandoneón player Astor Piazzolla originally released by American Clavé Records in the 1980s later reissued by Nonesuch was released on May 6. Astor Piazzolla: The American Clavé Recordings marks the first time this landmark trio of albums—Tango: Zero Hour, La Camorra, and The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night (Tango Apasionado)—is available as a set, now remastered, and the first time the albums have been available on vinyl since their initial American Clavé release. The set features original and new notes by the albums’ producer and American Clavé founder Kip Hanrahan and an essay from journalist Fernando González. Uncut exclaims: "On its own, each album makes a fine introduction to Piazzolla’s music, but together, they comprise a monumental contribution to world music."
Fernando González has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for The American Clavé Recordings.
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As they've done their entire career, The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney wrote all of the material for their new album, Dropout Boogie, released May 13, in the studio, and the album captures a number of first takes that hark back to the stripped-down blues rock of their early days making music together in Akron, Ohio, basements. After hashing out initial ideas at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, the duo welcomed new collaborators Billy F Gibbons, Greg Cartwright, and Angelo Petraglia to the sessions, marking the first time they've invited multiple new contributors to work simultaneously on one of their own albums.
The Black Keys have been nominated for two Grammy Awards—Best Rock Album for Dropout Boogie and Best Rock Performance for the album track “Wild Child”—and Dan Auerbach is up for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Dropout Boogie has made year’s best lists from Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock, The Sun, WFUV, Radio X, HMV, Spotify, and Amazon.
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Mary Halvorson
Amaryllis / Belladonna
Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson made her Nonesuch debut with two albums, Amaryllis and Belladonna, released on May 13. The two suites, which Halvorson describes as “modular and interlocking,” come in a two-LP vinyl set or as two separate CDs and digital albums, produced and mixed by John Dieterich, that Jazziz calls "some of the most accomplished writing of Halvorson’s meteoric career." Amaryllis is a six-song suite performed by a newly formed sextet of master improvisers; the Mivos string quartet joins for three of the songs, making this the largest ensemble for which Halvorson has written to date. Belladonna is a set of five compositions written for Halvorson on guitar plus the Mivos Quartet, whose parts are through-composed and augmented by Halvorson’s guitar improvisations.
Amaryllis and Belladonna have made year’s best lists from Jazzwise, The Quietus, NPR Music, Slate, Stereogum, PopMatters, Treble, The Wire, The Arts Fuse, and Echoes.
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On May 1, the Nonesuch Store merch line was expanded to include two new heather-gray pieces: a heavyweight hoodie with a front pocket and fleece interior, made by Lane Seven, and a slim-fit, light-weight t-shirt made from 100% cotton by Next Level Apparel. These new items joined other Nonesuch-logo merch in black: a t-shirt, zip-up hoodie, tote bag, hat, mug, slipmat, and buttons.
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Rhiannon Giddens
”Julie’s Aria”
Rhiannon Giddens performs “Julie’s Aria,” a song from Omar, the new opera she wrote with Michael Abels, on a recording with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi and guitarist Bill Frisell released on May 19. Omar is based on the life and autobiography of enslaved Muslim scholar Omar Ibn Said, who was forcefully brought to Charleston, SC, from Africa in 1807. “My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard, but that can also add to the conversation about what’s going on now,” Giddens says. “This is a story that hasn’t been represented in the operatic world—or in any world.”
JUNE
The first recording of Steve Reich’s 2019 piece Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, was released on June 10. The composition was originally written to be performed with Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3), for which Richter’s book Patterns served as source material. “Reich’s music ... expands from minimalist austerity to more full-bodied passages and back again,” says the Financial Times. “Reminiscent of his earliest work, it is very beautiful.”
JULY
The forty-disc box set John Adams Collected Works, released July 1, features recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label, plus two extensive booklets with new essays and notes by Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Robert Hurwitz, Nico Muhly, and Jake Wilder-Smith. Nonesuch made its first record with John Adams in 1985; he was signed exclusively to the label that year, and since then the company has released forty-two first recordings and thirty-one all-Adams albums. Collected Works includes thirty-five discs of Nonesuch recordings and five from other labels.
John Adams Collected Works made year-end lists from the New York Times, Gramophone, and The Times.
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To celebrate the 35th anniversary of their 1987 hit song “Bamboleo," Gipsy Kings released an EP of four remixes of the famed track on July 8: Pumped Up Mix by Nick Patrick, THRDL!FE REM!X, Miami Mix by Andy Clay, and an acoustic version remixed by Gildas Boclé & Jean Baptiste Boclé.
SEPTEMBER
Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade
LongGone
In 1994, the original Joshua Redman Quartet—Redman (saxophone), Brad Mehldau (piano), Christian McBride (bass), and Brian Blade (drums)—released MoodSwing, an instant classic that helped launch each member’s career as a leader. The members of the quartet reunited for the critically acclaimed album RoundAgain in 2020 and for a new album, LongGone, released September 9, featuring original Redman compositions from the RoundAgain recording sessions, plus a live performance of the MoodSwing track “Rejoice,” captured by SFJAZZ at the San Francisco Jazz Festival.
LongGone has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Album. It has made year’s best lists from Jazzwise, Treble, Stereogum, Glide, Record Collector, Spotify, and Amazon.
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Mary Halvorson
The Trouble with Fever
Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter Michelle Branch made her Nonesuch debut with her fourth solo album, The Trouble with Fever, released September 16. Created during the pandemic lockdown, The Trouble with Fever follows her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Hopeless Romantic. The time at home gave Branch the opportunity to stretch herself creatively.
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Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
”White Rabbit (Amazon Original)”
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway released a cover of Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 hit "White Rabbit," only on Amazon Music, September 16. "I have loved the story of Alice In Wonderland since I read the book as a kid and played the Queen of Hearts in my school play,” Tuttle says. "Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is from Palo Alto, CA, just like me, and this song gives me the nostalgic feeling of growing up, but recording it also pushed my band forward into new territory musically. Amazon included the song on its list of the Best Folk of 2022.
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Makaya McCraven
In These Times
In These Times, the new album by percussionist, producer, and composer Makaya McCraven, released September 23 on International Anthem / Nonesuch / XL, has been in process since 2015. It’s the album McCraven’s been trying to make since he started making records, an appropriately career-defining body of work. The eleven-song suite was created over seven-plus years, as McCraven strived to fuse odd-meter compositions from his working songbook with orchestral, large-ensemble arrangements and the edit-heavy “organic beat music” he’s honed over the years. With contributions from over a dozen musicians and creative partners from his tight-knit circle of collaborators—including Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, and Marquis Hill—In These Times highlights McCraven’s unique gift for collapsing space, destroying borders, and blending past, present, and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music.
In These Times has made year’s best lists of Pitchfork, New York Times, NPR Music, Uncut, Mojo, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The Fader, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Bandcamp, Loud and Quiet, Line of Best Fit, Glide, Aquarium Drunkard, Treble, KEXP, Rough Trade, Spotify, and Amazon.
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Caroline Shaw + Attacca Quartet
Evergreen
Evergreen, performed by Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet, was released September 23. The album comprises five original works written by Shaw: two suites written for string quartet—Three Essays and The Evergreen, which Shaw describes as an offering to a tree she encountered in an evergreen forest on an island off Vancouver—two pieces written for string quartet and voice, including Other Song, which she also performed on her 2021 album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part; a piece for string quartet. Also included is an interpretation of a 12th-century French poem for quartet and voice.
Evergreen has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. It has made year’s best lists from NPR Music, The Wire, and Amazon.
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Steve Reich
Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra
These first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018) are performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Susanna Mälkki on the album released September 30. The New York Times calls Runner “a calmly luminous orchestral piece with the pulsating, propulsive rhythms that animate much of Mr. Reich’s music.” The San Francisco Chronicle says that Music for Ensemble and Orchestra “is a beautiful and dramatically charged masterpiece, but its impact goes even further than that.”
Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra has made NPR Music’s list of the The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022.
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Philip Glass
The Hours [Vinyl]
This first-ever vinyl edition of Philip Glass’s award-winning soundtrack to The Hours was released on September 30 to mark the album’s 20th anniversary and Glass’s 85th birthday concert season. The ravishing, Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning score was a key element in this acclaimed triptych of dramatic tales based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel and starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore. “Was there ever a more perfect film for Glass’s lyrical manner?” asked Gramophone. “Such a feeling of fragile beauty is a rare achievement.”
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Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Super Deluxe Edition)
The 11-LP + 1 CD Super Deluxe Edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco’s 2002 Nonesuch debut, was released September 30. The set comprises the original album, remastered for its 20th anniversary in 2022, plus 82 previously unreleased tracks. Includes demos, drafts, and instrumentals, charting the making of the album; a live 2002 concert recording; and a September 2001 radio performance and interview. The box set also includes a new book featuring an interview with Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, and Jim O’Rourke; an in-depth essay by journalist/author Bob Mehr; and previously unseen photos of the band making the album in their Chicago studio. On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the band delivers a thrillingly experimental work that scored a perfect 10 on Pitchfork, which hailed the album as “complex and dangerously catchy, lyrically sophisticated and provocative, noisy and somehow serene … simply a masterpiece.” Uncut called it “a stone-cold classic.”
The Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Super Deluxe Edition has been nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes, the latter for Bob Mehr. The set has made year’s best lists from Uncut, Mojo, PopMatters, Record Collector, Bandcamp, Aquarium Drunkard, and Resident.
OCTOBER
Rachael & Vilray
”Just Me This Year”
Rachael & Vilray—Lake Street Dive singer/songwriter Rachael Price and the guitarist/singer/songwriter Vilray—returned with the October 6 single “Just Me This Year,” written by Vilray, about the pleasures of spending the winter holidays alone after a welcome romantic breakup. Vilray says: “For those who happen to be going it alone this time of year, we’re here to help you embrace the freedom!” The release preceded their residency at the storied Carlyle Hotel in NYC over the Thanksgiving week and news of the duo’s 2023 album, I Love a Love Song!, on which the song would appear, as well as the release of a new album track, “Is a Good Man Real?”
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Rhiannon Giddens
”Build a House”
Rhiannon Giddens wrote “Build a House” for the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth in 2020; she performed it on a new recording with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, released October 11, to celebrate the publication of her children’s book of the same name. The song tells of African Americans who were forcibly enslaved and brought to the US to build houses they were not allowed to live in, tend to families who were not their own, and sow the seeds that fed a nation—while being left with only scraps themselves. It depicts a family’s resilience in the face of violence and sorrow.
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The Blue Hour, released October 14 on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records, is a song cycle born of a collaboration among five composers—Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider—commissioned and performed by the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, who are joined on the recording by singer Shara Nova. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the liminal space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, war, love, and loss, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.
The Blue Hour made NPR Music’s lists of The 50 Best Albums of 2022 and The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022 and made year's best lists from New Sounds, Boston Globe, I Care If You Listen, and Sequenza 21.
NOVEMBER
Drummer, composer, and producer Tom Skinner (The Smile, Sons of Kemet)'s album Voices of Bishara, the first recording under his own name, was released on Brownswood / International Anthem / Nonesuch Records on November 4. Its title references cellist Abdul Wadud's 1978 album By Myself, which was pressed on Wadud's label, Bisharra—an Arabic name meaning "good news." Voices of Bishara began life when Skinner asked some musician friends to join him for a Played Twice session at London's Brilliant Corners, in which a classic album was played in full through the venue's audiophile system, and a live ensemble improvised a response. That night focused on drummer Tony Williams' 1964 album Life Time; the music they conjured inspired Skinner to write an album's worth of new music.
Voices of Bishara made year’s best lists from NPR Music, Stereogum, All About Jazz, Treble, and Amazon.
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The first studio recording of Tyondai Braxton's Telekinesis—an eighty-seven-piece work for electric guitars, orchestra, choir, and electronics—released November 11 on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records, features the Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus conducted by Dianne Berkun Menaker, and chamber choir The Crossing conducted by Donald Nally performing what the Guardian calls "a superpower-themed symphony … a titanic composition." Braxton cites the Japanese manga classic Akira as a thematic guide, with its story of a young boy's discovery of his telekinetic powers and his inability to control it, leading to his own destruction. The Times exclaims: "It's remarkable."
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Hurray for the Riff Raff
”Sweet Dreams” (Amazon Original)
Hurray for the Riff, aka Alynda Segarra, released a cover of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” on November 17 as part of an Amazon Original series of covers of songs by the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees available only on Amazon Music. “What can you do with a classic song like this but dive in and explore the depths?” Segarra says. “My whole life I watched Annie Lennox sing it and she was so strong—superhero to me, with her suit and cropped hair. I vowed, as a kid, to one day be that unshakeable. But life happens to us all. So, I sing it today from a tender place, weary from the brutality of our world but not broken. As Annie told us all—hold your head up, keep your head up.”
DECEMBER
The Staves
Dead & Born & Grown [Vinyl]
The Staves celebrated the 10th anniversary of their 2012 debut album, Dead & Born & Grown, with the release of this 180-gram recycled colored vinyl edition. It was released on December 2 on Nonesuch in the US, ahead of their second sold-out show at the Barbican, following a UK release. Produced with Glyn and Ethan Johns (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones), Dead & Born & Grown was met with great critical acclaim and set the Staveley-Taylor sisters on the way to becoming one of the UK’s most celebrated indie exports. The recycled vinyl is made from 100% PVC recycled material, using waste material and clippings from previous record pressings, resulting in a unique color combination for each LP.
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Julia Bullock
Walking in the Dark
Classical singer Julia Bullock made her solo recording debut with the December 9 release of Walking in the Dark. On the album, Bullock and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Christian Reif, perform Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and a song from John Adams’s El Niño. She is joined by Reif, on piano, for a traditional spiritual and songs by Oscar Brown, Jr., Billy Taylor, Sandy Denny, and Connie Converse. Bullock is “one of the singular artists of her generation,” says the New York Times, “a singer of enveloping tone, startlingly mature presence and unusually sophisticated insight into culture, society and history.”
Walking in the Dark made NPR Music’s lists of The 50 Best Albums of 2022 and The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022.
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Hurray for the Riff Raff
“LIFE ON EARTH (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band)”
A new version of the song “LIFE ON EARTH” by Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, recorded with New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, was released on December 21. Segarra describes the title track from their critically acclaimed 2022 album as: “A psalm to all earthly beings. A letter regarding the suffering of humankind which effects all on this planet.” This new version was recorded by Segarra and the band live, in a New Orleans studio.
AND SO, THE YEAR IN MUSIC
The above playlist can also be found on our Playlists page, along with our recently updated holiday playlist and many others we hope you'll enjoy.
There is, of course, more great music to come in 2023. Multiple songs have been released from and pre-orders are already available for Rachael & Vilray’s I Love a Love Song!, out January 13; Brad Mehldau’s Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, out February 10; and Natalie Merchant’s Keep Your Courage, out April 14.
Happy Holidays from everyone at Nonesuch Records!
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