Best of 2022

 5) Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain

This album reminds me of my self-indulgent preamble to the year in that I've witnessed a lot of people cheating, I've witnessed myself cheating, to make a buck, to avoid making waves, to avoid unpleasantness. Lies are just a way of getting past an uncomfortable moment so we can move on to the next one. Maybe this moment will be a good one, one we can share with friends with total honesty.

Keeping this lens in mind, why would a band create music like Artificial Brian's self-titled release? If they were trying to cheat they would've picked a more agreeable style and presentation, they would've tried to consider what would be profitable, what would be relatable in order to make money. They didn't. Given the current state of artificial intelligence one might assume that all art is subject to a taking over by the artificial, but that should only be a concern for profitable artistic expressions. For creations that depend on the catharsis of creation, AI generation doesn't compete. The purity in creation for emotional catharsis is required to be a solely human endeavor because those seeking catharsis don't want or need help in expressing their emotion. They work tirelessly to do it because the catharsis is more important than any meaningless monetary reward (as long as they can pay the rent). This album is an expression, real, tangible, organic. I personally love the irony on display here, a band named Artificial Brain releasing some of the most human music imaginable.