IV and the Strange Band live at The Hook and Ladder Theater in Minneapolis, MN- 11/6/22

Top 20 Albums of 2022

Well, better late than never, right? I had planned to post my favorite albums of 2022 about a week ago, a little before Christmas in fact, but the busyness of the holiday season kept me busy. So, I will be posting my top albums of the past year today, I will try to post my top EP's of 2022 tomorrow, and hopefully post my favorite songs of 2022 in the next few days as well. I listened to 284 albums this year, and have narrowed it down to these 20 as my favorites.

20. Heavy Gus - Notions 19. Becky Kapell - In It to Win It 18. Leona Naess - Brood X 17. Aria - Confession 16. Emisunshine and the Rain - Universe 15. Ryan Adams - Devolver 14. Chastity Brown - Sing to the Walls 13. Brooke Annibale - Better by Now 12. Peter Doherty & Frédéric Lo - The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime 11. Ryan Adams - Romeo & Juliet

10. The Cactus Blossoms - One Day

9. IV and the Strange Band - Southern Circus

8. Ryan Adams - Chris

7. Ondara - Spanish Villager No. 3

6. Zach Bryan - American Heartbreak

5. Alela Diane - Looking Glass

4. Caitlin Rose - Cazimi

3. Corey Medina & Brothers - Soak

2. Damien Jurado - Reggae Film Star

1. Hurray for the Riff Raff - Life on Earth

Hank III's son and grandson of Ole Bocephus

IV and the Strange Band - Southern Circus

(Southern Rock, Gothic Country, Cowpunk)

Coleman Williams' debut album as IV and the Strange Band is a sublime blend of Southern hard rock, gothic country songwriting, and outlaw country rebellion that doesn't let up for a minute. Southern Circus' tales of murder, vengeance, big top insanity, and pure Southern grit shows that the fourth generation of Williams musicians can live up to the legacy of his forefathers.

☆☆☆☆☆

There are few legacies in country music like the Williams. Started by Hank Williams, one of the most influential and beloved figures in American music, each musician within the Williams family lineage built on what the ones before them developed. After the first Williams was Hank Williams Jr., developing on his father's catchy country rock with bigger instrumentation, heftier vocals, and sturdier songwriting; Hank Williams III took that and brought some darker elements into the mix, albums like Straight to Hell and Lovesick, Broke & Driftin' infusing styles of metal and punk music into the fast-paced rockabilly his father helped cultivate. And now there's Coleman Williams, son of Williams III and the fourth generation of Williams musicians - quite the storied family legacy to uphold. But he doesn't let that overwhelm him for a bit, even when he was just a teenager, deciding to travel across the States after graduating high school and try everything the world had to offer him, being everything from a metalworker to a history buff to a poet and educator, not forcing himself into any one place and going wherever his heart took him. Now, based in Nashville and using his decade or so exploring America as his guide, his debut album as IV and the Strange Band Southern Circus is an absolutely stunning way to get the ball rolling. Taking his father's mix of punk rock, country and folk even further with bigger guitars, softer folk cuts and richer compositions, Southern Circus is just the beginning of what's sure to be an incredible artistic career. For the debut album of someone like Williams with such artistic family history behind him, Southern Circus feels remarkably unrestrained and assured in himself, something Williams is more than aware of and didn't let overwhelm him. Before he even got his start releasing music "...people were already expecting things of me. It felt like there was zero freedom of expression for someone with the last name 'Williams'" and that required him to break free of the music scene and go on that aforementioned journey across the States, blazing a trail outside of the music industry before returning to it with that time in the outside world behind him. When he did return, though, what really sparked his interest was getting himself invested in the underground Nashville scene, where he "found a family of people whom nobody else wanted — kids who were different and misunderstood — and during these two-hour shows, everyone belonged, everyone felt accepted, and everyone had a place," later putting together a group comprised of producer Jason Dietz, guitarist David Talley, banjo player Daniel Mason, drummer Carson Kehrer, fiddler Laura Beth Jewell, and steel player John Judkins that would be the people he recorded Southern Circus with. Inspired by Nashville's house-show circuit he was always around as a teenager, with its D.I.Y. spirits and embrace of everything from heavy metal to electronica, Southern Circus' sound is one that feels particularly attuned to the contemporary alt-country ethos of experimenting and manipulating with traditional rock formats, IV and the Strange Band setting down their 100-watt amps, plugging in all the distortion and noise they desire, the groaning guitar leads of centerpiece I'm Gonna Haunt You straight out of a doom metal album before fiddle and banjo ground it in the fields of a bloody Tennessee barn and Filth throwing down an unabashed hardcore punk tune with all the screaming and vein-bursting intensity you'd never expect to find on an album like this. But that's the fun of it all - they call themselves the Strange Band for a reason. They're not here to be anything but their genuine selves, balancing big top spectacle with determination and muscle that leaves you completely in awe of everything Southern Circus achieves. In line with the energetic blends of cowpunk while mixing in the deep melancholy of gothic country and thick guitar layers of Southern blues rock, Southern Circus' sound is one that feels both lived-in and like a complete breath of fresh air for the modern country scene, timeless country tunes that are an absolute salve in the ultra-sanitized, sterile world of contemporary country pop and bro-country. From the album's first single, Son of Sin, it was clear that Williams was carving his own path out, the song's creaky acoustic opener making way for thick guitar drones, anxious cinematic strings, and a chorus that absolutely fucking rips, that intense style of old Southern hard rock that hasn't sounded this good in years. The other three singles, Inbred, Stand Your Ground, and Deep Down, all gave similarly hard-hitting rock tunes, Inbred's gritty fiddle playing from Jewell adding extra drama to the song's tale of the Fugates family - whose incestuous history was latched onto by religious zealots way back in the 1800s - while the fast paced reassurance of Stand Your Ground and the gruesome murder tale of Deep Down with its grimy, Electric Wizard-esque guitars making for a thrilling lead-up to Southern Circus' full release. What's truly amazing is that the rest of the album is just as strong - and oftentimes stronger - than the little taste we got from the album's singles: save for the plaintive folksy opener Train with crisp acoustic guitar and Mason's twinkling banjo, there's not a moment on Southern Circus where IV and the Strange Band stall the engines: Cigarette Ends shows off William's howling vocal croons as he wrangles feelings of self-hatred and shame over twangy banjo and fiddle, Malice uses its danceable backbeat, bluesy guitars and Jewell's upbeat fiddle to explore how violence doesn't do all that much to make you feel better internally towards those you hate ("Cause I could stab you in the eye / And I could make you wanna die / But it won't change the way I feel inside"), Drinking Sad's downtempo groove adds an air of nostalgia as Williams pays homage to the gritty outlaw country that soundtracked his childhood, and I could keep going for every one of the album's twelve wonderful tracks. Each one's got an idea that IV and the Strange band take to the fullest, using Southern rock as their blueprint and modifying it with whatever's needed for their unique sound to take shape. Seriously, how often do you find a band combining absolute insanity with rich country instrumentation like this? Or a frontman who can deliver lines as absurd as "Licking that mud off my fingertips / I'm gonna stare you down while Granny moves those hips" (Filth) and a verse as hopeless and depressed as "Lefty killed the law at the door / Hopin' that there wouldn't be no more / Too bad ten came to settle the score / He just didn't seem to care anymore" (Southern Despair) and make it all work so beautifully? Southern Circus is not just a fantastic country album: it's one that sets a high standard for modern country music as a whole, cultivating a sound nobody else is right now and absolutely perfecting it on all twelve of the album's tracks, the patience and time he took waiting to get into recording music over the years paying off immensely as he pours his heart into every second here. He trusts his instincts entirely, trusting in his family's love of music to always support him while not buckling to the pressure: "I have to believe that's why Hank Williams made music, too; he could see what it did for people," Williams said. It's the mark of a strong person and unshakeable artist, proud of his bloodline but refusing to follow in their shadow, portraying himself as a clown on the cover of Southern Circus as an emblem of his commitment to himself and nobody else, catharsis and euphoria on his own terms. He's not just been dropped into the Williams' legacy, Southern Circus' enchantingly off-kilter country rock proves he's earned and well-deserving of his place within it. That alone is all he needs to make himself a powerful force in modern country, and when an album this good is his starting point, there's nowhere for IV and the Strange Band to go but up.

New year, but the same old hyperfixations 😔

(x)

Have you ever listened to anything from the band Lord Huron? They have a cosmic flavor of weird vibe that fits perfectly with your Batman Universe. Especially the Vide Noir and Strange Trails albums.

"have i listened to lord huron" turning my head to make eye contact with my #1 most listened band on spotify like 3 years in a row. yeah ive heard of them

Images that feel illegal to look at

combining all my flags and making a copia pfp with them. i’m insane.

me cataloguing which songs on the st soundtrack are by canadian bands and trying to find a pattern between them 

Ghost and Def Leopard doing a collab wasn’t on my 2023 bingo

like a decade later or something and hellaween/christmizzle still live in my head rent free

loool at this point the joke has gone on way too long to stop now...

doodling some old ocs and i swear to god these are four different people (green guys are twins and the white hair ones are a dead pop star (right) and a celebrity impersonator of said dead pop star (left)

Wondered why my eyes hurt and realized I read a 400 page book in less than 24 hours