Music

Who needs time when you encounter the timeless?

By the time you read this, it will be a few weeks into 2023. The dead of winter. The perplexingly mundane time between the most socially demanding holidays of the year and, well, warmer weather.

Some people might call it some of the saddest times of the year, and those people might not be wrong. A new year is here. Optimism is rampant until you try to hit the gym for the third time in a week and all those resolutions suddenly feel less resolute.

It also means we just completed a year. In this case, that year was 2022. And for the longest time at the FNP, I submitted lists of my favorite music of the year as the years wound down. There was a local list and two national lists. It was all in good fun. It would also take about 6,000 hours to write. Therefore, when it came time to carve out hours for figuring out what I wanted to be on the lists, figuring out what order in which the selections would be and then writing the thing, I would have to start thinking, writing and everything in between far before Dec. 31.

Which means what? Well, it means that typical year-end best-of lists, I’ve always argued, are flawed. They don’t actually encompass the previous year. Instead, they encompass about 10 or 11 months of it. Considering the time it takes to ruffle through everything, you’re taking nearly a quarter of the year away from consideration.

And so, with that in mind, I proudly present to you my top albums of 2022, in no particular order:

Chvrches — “Screen Violence”

Wet Leg — “Wet Leg”

Oh, wait. You were expecting more, right?

Sorry. But I can’t.

You see, if nothing else (and honestly, nothing else), 2022 taught me that the music you love shouldn’t be the music confined. For some of us, we are in constant search of that great new band, that infectious new record, that favorite new singer. But that’s not how it works sometimes. In fact, sometimes, we’re late — we pick up what we love far after it was deemed successful or cool. Conversely, sometimes, we’re early — nobody else is into what we’re into at the time, and by the time they are, we’re already over it. If time can be a narrator, it’s sometimes unreliable. Such is why I decided to internally take that approach to my 2022 year in music. The Wet Leg album found its way onto a lot of 2022 year-end lists anyway, so I’m not too egregious in that. Plus, well, it’s great. But that Chvrches album? Well, that was out in August 2021. The Scottish trio (live quartet) toured the album three times (three times!) around this very country before I found it (by which time, I had missed any opportunity of seeing those songs performed live).

But, if you look at my iPod, my YouTube searches or my prayers (that they’ll come back to the States one more time on this album cycle), you’d see that those songs dominated my life for pretty much all of 2022. Sure, I tried out new artists and yeah, I liked more recent records, but nothing held my attention the way that set of songs did — and, three weeks into 2023, still does. It’s Lauren Mayberry’s self-effacing stories. It’s the sweet-tooth electro-pop. It’s the space in between. It’s a million and one things. It’s an album I found too late and have yet to get over.

And here’s the thing: For the first time, I’m OK with that. I could have crammed in five to 10 more records to check out in the final quarter of 2022, but what’s the point? Most year-end lists fall victim to recency bias anyway (unless it’s something really, really special and features four to five absolute chart-topping singles that are released super strategically for the next 10 months, how often do you see a February release on a year-end list?). And most of the time, it’s hard to find true love if you’re constantly looking for the next pretty person to smile your way. So, hell, why not fall hard?

In fact, fall really hard. Give

yourself away to it. If there’s an album that you couldn’t get enough of in 2022, I suggest you name that your Album of the Year. Forget Pitchfork. Forget the Grammys. Forget Rolling Stone. Forget Spotify’s most-streamed list. Consider what moved you the most, what songs you needed to hear to calm down, feel less lonely, sing with joy or fall asleep to. They could be from 2022 or 1972; it doesn’t matter because it’s the art that shaped your year — no matter what the copyright date says on its Wikipedia page. And when it’s time to move on, you’ll know it’s time to move on. Those songs might be replaced by others, but the memories you’ll make with the ones you fell for will COLIN MCGUIRE stick with you forever. A simple lyric or chord sequence will remind you of that passion you once felt, and it will remind you of what it’s like to be head over heels in love again. So, perhaps you’ll press play, and perhaps you’ll take that love on one more date, and perhaps you’ll remind yourself that true connection in music doesn’t come around all that often.

So, when it does, embrace it — and embrace it by taking the time it takes to truly appreciate the timeless.

Colin McGuire has been in and out of bands for more than 20 years and also helps produce concerts in and around Frederick. His work has appeared in Alternative Press magazine, PopMatters and 72 Hours, among other outlets. He is convinced that the difference between being in a band and being in a romantic relationship is less than minimal. Contact him at mcguire.colin@gmail. com.

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versity (most of his shows had featured “guy nerds,” as he put it). He landed on the 1995 TV miniseries version of “Pride & Prejudice” that starred Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.

“It’s almost like every other story has used Lizzie and Darcy as their model for fillin-the-blank,” he said, using Princess Leia and Han Solo in “Star Wars” as one example.

He had to do a lot of cutting and condensing for his “One-Man Avengers.” His show is based on the second half of the 2019 film “Avengers: Endgame”

His most recent show is based on the Netflix sci-fi series “Stranger Things.” Ross said TV shows are harder to re-create as one-man shows because they keep evolving as more seasons come out.

Ross pokes fun at the originals in all of his shows, but it comes from a place of love, he said. “Sometimes, it’s just the ridiculousness of it. CHARLES ROSS I think it’s obvious because with ‘Star When: “One Man Avengers” at 3 p.m. Jan. 21; “One Man Stranger Things” at 8 p.m. Jan. 21 and “One Man Lord of the Rings” at 3 p.m. Jan. 22. Where: New Spire Arts, Wars’ or ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Avengers,’ I’m standing there in a pair of black overalls pretending to be all these things. It’s like a mad 15 W. Patrick St., Frederick mechanic or a crazy Tickets: $16.75 to $25 8-year-old kid doing Info: weinbergcenter.org this.” Ross doesn’t find performing oneman shows difficult and said, for him, it’s all about the connection with the audience. “It’s really about trying to share your love for something with people. You’re preaching to the choir, right? You’re not having to find new audiences — not usually, when you’re doing this kind of show. In so many ways, it’s just a joy to find those people that share the same kind of love of something that I have.”

Terry Crews will be in town to motivate all of Frederick

There are motivational speakers, and then there are motivational do-ers.

Terry Crews is the latter.

Crews has inspired countless individuals to “do something about it.” “It” can mean many different things to many different people: a difficult career choice, a seemingly unattainable goal, an addiction, an abusive relationship or just life in general.

An actor, artist, author and activist, Crews will be onstage at the Weinberg Center in Frederick at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20, as part of the Frederick Speaker Series.

Crews speaks from his experience, but in the process, he can relate to universal stories of struggle. Having endured childhood abuse, Crews managed to turn his passion for art into a prestigious scholarship at a young age, a path that would lead to an athletic scholarship at Western Michigan University and, eventually, Crews’ storied career in the NFL. Not content to slow down after retiring, Crews set his sights on Hollywood and launched the career for which he is most famous today. However, Crews will be the first to tell you that it was no easy ride. Between financial difficulties, confronting the challenges of a toxic masculine culture that included treatment for pornography addiction and an initial hesitance to talk about his experience with sexual assault to heal, Crews could have given up many times over. But he refused. Crews believes that “whatever is meant to destroy you can be your salvation.” With a combination of radical honesty, effortless charisma, and infectious enthusiasm, Crews inspires audiences to overcome fear and shame, be honest, do the work, and live life to its highest potential.

Tickets start at $70 and are available at weinbergcenter.org, by calling the box office at 301600-2828, or in person at 20 W. Patrick St., Frederick.

Courtesy photo

Terry Crews

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