Highlights of 2022
First of all: it was a fantastic year for concerts. Everything I’d wanted to see during the lockdown years came along at once. It was time to catch up.
In May, The Smile played at Paradiso, the band’s first gig in the Netherlands. The Main Hall was packed to the rafters. Thom Yorke just a metre away. Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner right next to him. It goes without saying, but it was an unforgettable evening. Free In The Knowledge can already be called a classic, and much of the new material sounds a lot harder live. The finale that evening was Yorke’s solo track Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses. The roof came off.
A month later, I was on the beach at Best Kept Secret. It was the last day of the festival. By then you’re on the edge, drained, you can’t take any more, and so you’re absolutely ready for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Always an almost religious experience, especially when you’re right at the front amongst the other disciples to see Him up close.
“Cry, cry, cry!”, He shouted. During The Ship Song, that moment came naturally. Happy to be back there, after those bloody years, with my favourite people. What else can you do after the last song but stare ahead a bit in a euphoric mood? Yes, ideally you’d just go home. Until you find yourself back in a techno tent after all.
Tame Impala was in a league of its own. The Slow Rush was my lockdown album at the start of 2020; I listened to it every single day for months, no exaggeration. For that reason alone, I had to go to the Ziggo Dome, where the band played a dream set. Elephant, Nangs, Let It Happen, The Less I Know The Better, Eventually – and so on.
Above all, this was the most beautiful light show I’ve ever seen. The confetti and lasers shooting over the crowd were all well and good. But the real gem was the luminous halo above the stage. Like a UFO, it rose and fell, lights flashed all around, and radiant rainbow colours illuminated Kevin Parker. What a trip.
To round off this post: Bob Dylan. Perhaps for the last time in the Netherlands (touch wood, I hope not, of course). But he is 81 years old after all, his album Rough and Rowdy Ways sounds like a swan song, and an end date has now been set for his tour, which for years he called ‘never-ending’.
It was special once again, that evening at AFAS Live. Phones had to be tucked away. Throughout the entire concert, an irritating blue light shone in your face from above the stage. Bob Dylan stood at the front, but was underexposed. It’s all part of the experience; that’s how The Mystery remains unfathomable.
A Dylan concert feels different from other concerts. A visit to AFAS Live becomes a pilgrimage to the Bijlmer. I felt nothing but gratitude at being allowed to be in the same space as the singer once more. The finest moment came in the very last seconds. Every Grain Of Sand, surely one of Dylan’s finest, concluded with the only harmonica solo of the evening. It cuts right through you.
I’m going to mention The Smile once more. It may be six years since Radiohead released an album, but this ‘side project’ fills the void perfectly. On the album A Light for Attracting Attention, things really get going. It rocks, it punks, it jazzes, often all three at once.
And do you know who’s come of age? Lucky Fonz III! He’s just released a brilliant album called Hemellichamen. It might well be the most Lucky Fonz-like Lucky Fonz record to date. His best by far. There’s room for light-hearted tracks like Bootje (a hit here in private circles), but I was blown away by Kwantumwetenschapper. Truly one of the most beautiful songs of the year:
> so you chop yourself to pieces
> you reshape yourself
> into a formless mass
> so that you return
> and are moulded anew
> into a new society
> and in the void between strangers
> you belong again
On The Car, Arctic Monkeys get everything right. The album is James Bond, it’s an Italian film and it’s a French chanson. It’s bursting with strings and it fits the band like a glove. It gets better with every listen, and you end up picking a different track as your favourite. Iconic album cover too – taken by drummer Matt Helders, who looked out of his flat and saw his chance.
Have I ever watched so few (new) films as I have this year? I’ve missed out on a lot. Drive My Car, Triangle of Sadness, Nope. I’m going to highlight three of them anyway. To start with, I saw two truly insane films. Everything Everywhere All At Once is the best multiverse film you’re going to see. Would you rather live in a world where everyone has sausages for fingers, or a world where stones have googly eyes and ponder their lives? The film is hilarious, colourful and flashy, yet has enough depth to give the style real substance.
If you haven’t seen RRR yet, try to imagine the wildest, most over-the-top action film in Bollywood style. Got it? Even then, you’ll be sitting there gaping at everything that happens in this three-hour film. Madness in the best possible way.
In a year when Paul Thomas Anderson is releasing a new film, it simply had to be on my list. Fortunately, Licorice Pizza was a delight. The film is one of Anderson’s lighter offerings, far more so than Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood or The Master. In this film, you follow a group of teenagers in 1970s America. It’s about love, trying to impress, overconfidence and, of course, growing up. With a delightful starring role for Bradley Cooper.
I did watch more series than usual. As the last person on earth, I finally finished watching ***The Sopranos***. Fantastic, gosh!The best new series was The Bear. It’s about a top chef who inherits his late brother’s restaurant. He is determined (and forced) to turn the debt-ridden restaurant into a success. The series makes the stress of a kitchen palpable, but is above all about family. And what family is. Heart-wrenching at times, very funny too. There’s a kind of toughness that seems to cling to Chicago. The city where The Bear is set is also honoured in its soundtrack. You’ll hear Wilco and Sufjan Stevens. The very last track is the most beautiful – it’ll take a moment to get over.
***Elden Ring*** is the best game of 2022. Perhaps even of the decade. The sense of freedom, adventure and discovery overwhelms you. I lived in The Lands Between for a few weeks and lived out my own story. Just as every player lived out their own story. I braved poisonous swamps, stormy mountain peaks, defeated bosses twenty times my size and felt invincible. This is the Ultimate Game.A small honourable mention, by the way, for Vampire Survivors (now also on smartphones). You walk around a bit, numbers go up, you become immortal. A sort of digital crack. Impossible to put down.
I’ve been a fan of Nicolien Mizee since this year. De Kennismaking is her first book in the Faxen aan Ger series. For years, Mizee sent faxes to which she never received a reply. They are razor-sharp descriptions from the life of a remarkable woman. She draws you in, she has you wrapped around her little finger.
If you fancy reading a graphic novel, do consider Dagen van Zand by Aimee de Jongh. A story about a photographer who braved sandstorms in the United States in the 1930s. Beautiful illustrations. A study of dust, you might say. Apart from that, it’s a gripping road trip that also touches on contemporary themes.
I had the warm, festive images in this article created by the artificial intelligence programme Dall-E. You feed it a text prompt and this is what comes out. That, too, is 2022.