I had the honor to translate this for a special concert performance that took place in New York City in the autumn of 2022.
by Kenji Miyazawa
translated by Eric Margolis
As a light mist drizzled over a field of moss, one ant sentry kept a sharp lookout on the surroundings. The sentry gazed out from under a steel helmet, marching back and forth in front of a forest of green ferns.
From far away, a single ant soldier came racing up to the sentry, wriggling and jiggling all the while.
“Halt! Who goes there?” the sentry called.
“Messenger from the 128th regiment, reporting for duty!” the soldier replied.
“Where are you headed?”
“50th regiment, ant headquarters!”
The sentry thrust its rifle diagonally against the ant soldier’s chest. It inspected everything about the soldier in exact detail, from the light in its eyes to the shape of its jaw, to the sleeves of its jacket and the pattern and condition of its shoes.
“Very well. Pass through,” the sentry said.
The messenger hurried off into the forest of ferns.
The raining beads of mist grew smaller and smaller, turning into little more than a thin, milky smoke. The sound of the grasses and trees sucking up water from the soil started to sing out around the forest. Even the sentry was dozing off.
Two little ants appeared hand in hand, bursting with laughter about something or other. Then their eyes fell upon an object in the shadow of a distant oak tree, and they suddenly froze in shock.
“Hey, what’s that? How’d a white house grow out of nowhere?”
“That’s not a house, it’s a mountain.”
“It wasn’t there yesterday!”
“Let’s go ask that soldier.”
“Okay.”
The two little ants ran up to the sentry.
“Mr. Soldier, what’s that thing over there?”
“Eh? Pipe down, go home,” the sentry grumbled.
“Mr. Soldier, don’t be sleepy. What’s that thing over there?”
“Oh, be quiet already! What thing?”
“That thing, it wasn’t there yesterday.”
The sentry looked up and gasped. “Oh no, it’s an emergency! You may just be kids, but this is your chance to prove your worth! So listen carefully, you got it? The two of you, head through this forest and show yourselves before Lieutenant Alkyl. Then go over to the Department of Land Surveying. When you get there, say this: ‘At 25 degrees north and 4 minutes east, a mysterious large object has appeared.’ Now go off and deliver the message.”
“At 25 degrees north and 4 minutes east, a mysterious large object has appeared,” the little ants chanted.
“That’s right, now hurry. I need to stay put right here.”
The two little ants ran into the forest as fast as they could.
The sentry held a sword at the ready, glaring steadily at the object. It was a thick, white pillar with some sort of roof on top.
It looked like it was getting bigger and bigger. The soldier could tell it was, as the white outline of the object glimmered, and it jiggled and wiggled and jingled and jangled.
Then the bright white faded and the object, to the sentry’s alarm, started to wobble and sway. The sentry watched wide-eyed as the huge white structure bent over and collapsed all the way to the ground.
The little ants came running back from the forest.
“Mr. Soldier!” one called. “They say it’s no big deal. They say it’s something called a ‘mushroom.’ It’s nothing. Lieutenant Alkyl laughed. And called us good ants!”
“Lieutenant Alkyl said mushrooms go away quickly,” the other added. “We don’t need to put them on the map. They say if they updated the map every time a new mushroom appeared or disappeared, a hundred ants wouldn’t be enough for the Department of Land Surveying. Hey! It fell over!”
“It just collapsed,” the sentry said, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“Boooring,” one of the little ants said. “Whoa. Look, look over there!”
A short way away, a strange gray mushroom in the shape of a fish bone rose out of the ground, sparkling as it sprouted tiny branches and fingers. The two little ants pointed at it and laughed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fog, the big red sun rose and the ferns turned green in a glitter. The ant sentry held its rifle in position, turning to face the south, ready for anything.
Heated comebacks and inspired songwriting defined 2022. Of course, the best contemporary music hardly relies on skilled instrumentation, but last year it also felt less reliant on innovative, expansionary production than ever. Instead, the best music of 2022 was poetically written and soundly constructed. The political currents of the year ran in two directions—simultaneously back towards pre-pandemic normality and away from it in a dizzying series of crises. One can hope that the steadiness and safeness of this years’ beautiful pop-of-many-genres can buoy us against these currents, even as we wish for a bit more pizazz in 2023.
Reflect below on addicting hooks, brilliant bars, and irony-tinged anthems that are poised to inspire new moods—if not new movements—for years to come. Across eight albums and twenty-eight songs, we present to you 2022: A retrospective review.
Listen to the Spotify playlist here:
The Eight to Contemplate: Albums
1. Sahar – Tamino
West-Meets-East Troubadour of the Modern Guitar Song
The soaring J.-Buckley-meets-L.-Cohen voice was already there. As was the forlorn poetry, rich with imagery and metaphor. What was missing was the sensuality, a version of the romantic where you can actually feel the other person in each rising falsetto and falling arpeggio. With Sahar, Tamino finally brings you into the room, and tempts you to free him from his reclusive tendencies from which he’s already mined so much. The results speak for themselves: There are more styles (FJM balladry, Bends-esque indie), instruments (from piano to oud), and voices (the great Angèle) than before, but together they form a kaleidoscopic collection of some of the most unique and beautiful love songs of the year. And, they also showcase a melodic talent on the rise—by Album #3, he’ll have cleared the stratosphere.
Must-listen: Sunflower (feat. Angèle), My Dearest Friend and Enemy, The First Disciple
2. RENAISSANCE — Beyoncé
The Queen Is Here to [Only] Play
RENAISSANCE is Beyoncé’s best ever album from start to finish. 2022 Beyoncé is the definition of “the hero we deserve, but not the one we need right now”: was this album necessary for us to survive a chaotic, ramshackle 2022? No. But did we deserve one hour and two minutes of nonstop joyous, anthemic lyrics guiding phat funk bass beats? Absolutely. Mrs. Carter abandoned any charade of authenticity and went all in on rocking our world/knocking off our socks/getting lit AF with a lineup of sixteen pop/disco/house/soul/R&B hits, and by the heavens, did she succeed. She’s better at pop, she’s better at R&B, and better at simply fun than all the rest. Not to mention she gave us some vulnerable moments and a modern “9 to 5” in “BREAK MY SOUL.”
Must-listen: CUFF IT, PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA→VIRGO’S GROOVE (medley)
3. God Save the Animals – Alex G
Indie Mastermind Who Is the Dr. Jekyll to his Own Mr. Hyde
One way to assess an artist’s innovative spirit is to measure how difficult it is to actually describe their style: the harder it is to consistently apply genre labels—and the more often you find yourself falling back on just using their name—the more likely you’re in the presence of someone unique. Alex G is such an artist, and his unnameable signature may be his dichotomous ability to marry bizarre, almost inhuman sound effects with warm and memorable hooks that run the stylistic gamut from country to grunge. “Runner” is a case in point: a midsummer drive of a melody that remains casually infectious even as a blood curdling scream is unleashed. So if no artist is doing it quite like this, perhaps it’s because Alex G the songwriter and Alex G the producer are perfect foils who happen to exist in the same mad, brilliant mind.
Must-listen: After All, Runner, Miracles
4. sore thumb – Oso Oso
Beware the Hooks that Hit at Odd Angles
Jade Lilitri finds hooks in the oddest places—notice how a lone, naggingly out-of-tune piano note in “Pensacola” ingratiates its way into your musical memory—but the power of this album comes from good old-fashioned songcraft. The choruses swell and rise like all the best pop anthems do—even when they’re about drinking gatorade. And the music rocks but remembers to stay light and effervescent. That is, until the album reaches the touching “carousel,” a beautiful tribute to a departed friend that also serves as an exploration of all of Lilitri’s gifts as a songwriter. This may not be oso oso’s most immediate album, but it just may last the longest.
Must-listen: nothing to do, pensacola, carousel
5. Blue Rev — Alvvays
Strumming to the Beat of a Simpler Time
We return to the halcyon days when layers of strumming and twanging guitars were all we needed. Blue Rev is at once many sounds and ideas that we were craving deep down: a chorus of harmonizing instrumentation that even dare a solo or three, dreamy, layered melodies that produce catchy hooks, adventurous dynamics, blessed brevity, and an album that both moves from start to finish if played in order but also has songs that can be played in any order and still enjoyed. The lyrics are wonderfully colorful and sensory, resulting in a poetic power pop symphony.
Must-listen: After the Earthquake, Belinda Says
6. I don’t know who needs to hear this . . . – Tomberlin
Pocket Symphonies of Quiet Contemplations
At the end of a bitter winter, open the window and let whispers of saxophone, piano, guitar, bass and Tomberlin’s hypnotic vocals drift in and welcome the springtime. Or better yet, actually step outside and embrace the fear of a place that could be both everything and nothing you wanted. Tomberlin’s music leaves space for unanswered questions in its quietude, but there is a beautiful precision to each of the deceptively simple arrangements—each of which manages to hypnotize without lulling—that suggests all the answers might be in reach.
Must-listen: unsaid, stoned
7.Laurel Hell — Mitski
Songwriting Goddess With a Minor Gift
This album is not as adventurous as Be the Cowboy and the stories aren’t as moving as Puberty 2; it speaks to just how fantastically gifted a songwriter Mitski is that this happy-medium album is nonetheless one of the best of the year. She leans hard into using ‘80s wall-of-sound mechanics to execute a poppy mosaic that, upon further inspection, has both the ingenious lyricism and creative arrangements endemic to any Mitski record. “Working for the Knife” has an off-kilter thrill that manages to tell a fully realized and suspenseful story within the runtime of a 2.5-minute song. “The Only Heartbreaker” reaches frenzied fanaticism. Then, somehow, she brings us all the way down to the riveting, echoing afterlife of “I Guess”: “It’s still as a pond / I am staring into / From here, I can say, / Thank you.” How is she so good at this?
Must-listen: Working for the Knife, The Only Heartbreaker
8. Ivory – Omar Apollo
Chameleonic Rising Star with Many Colors
The songs are often so accessible in their grooves (“Killing Me”) and hooks (“Waiting on You”) that it’s easy to miss the eclecticism that underpins Apollo’s debut LP. Sure, every artist who has debuted in the past five years is “genreless,” but rarely do you hear Strokes guitarisms, Pharrell-funk, doo wop and mariachi music on one LP, all done with a level of proficiency that avoids mimicry. But musical acumen aside, it’s also his direct explorations of queer love that help him claim these styles as his own.
Must-listen: Talk, Tamagotchi
The Great 28: Songs
1. “The Heart Part V” — Kendrick Lamar
Over a celestial Marvin Gaye sample, K.dot dissolves body and soul to inhabit other voices—O.J. Simpson, Kanye West, Kobe Bryant, and Nipsey Hussle, to name a few. Kendrick’s urgent call for a moral culture to take root in the streets feels anything but in vain.
2. “Once Twice Melody” – Beach House
Master architects of sonic mists you can drown in drag an undulating melody reminiscent of Serge Gainsbourg out of the abyss.
3. “Rosé” — Dezron Douglas
Douglas successfully brought post-bop jazz into 2022 with a smashing improvisational acid trip. When musicians this good share a song already charged with emotion and the raw power of jazz, you’re bound to embark on a soul-shaking journey.
4. “Gasoline” – The Weeknd
You’re up at 5am, high on existential despair and heartbreak, and the voice of God comes through the radio, jagged over seesawing synths; he says he’s as miserable as you are, and you say finally, you’re ready to dance.
5. “BADモード” — Hikaru Utada
The Japanese pop legend sounds marvelous doing what she does best: making intricately rhythmic melodies straight-up sexy.
6. “Tired of Taking It Out on You” – Wilco
You’ve been bitter for so long, but now you’re starting to hear chords of reconciliation; you can’t help but hum along on your long drive to nowhere.
7. “Kill Bill” — SZA
You’ll be captivated by this 2:33 story of almost—er, I mean, actually killing an ex—led the way by SZA’s captivating vocal performance, and backed up by storytelling flourishes in the form of wandering guitars and scuttling, shifting beats.
8. “Speeding 72” – Momma
When the chorus melody is so good the guitar just has to double up.
9. “About You” — The 1975
The 1975’s genius shines through when they are at the brink of crossing over into cringe, and the dense orchestral cry that backs the lost-love pining of “About You” takes us to that exact verge.
10. “Crown” — Kendrick Lamar
Some time between the first and hundredth listen, when Duval Timothy’s piano has blended seamlessly into Kendrick Lamar’s dexterous and impassioned rhymes, you realize that together they have brought the Schubertian art song into the 21st century.
11. “Tooth for a Tooth” — Johanna Warren
A lilting lullaby that traps you in a murky but gorgeous gloom of melancholy, alienation, and dissociation, anchored by rolling waves of piano that feel like Billy Joel by the fire.
12. “Satellites” — Ravyn Lenae
You and I will go high on lush and layered beds of sensual coos and sighs, further proof that modern R&B is delivering the best harmony vocals this side of the Milky Way.
13. “Good End” — Saho Terao
This emotive piano ballad sets itself apart with bright change-ups, haltering rhythmic shifts, and a quirky orchestral backdrop of congas, synths, and choral harmonies. Terao says that she prefers to perform outdoors so the wind and the sounds of nature can harmonize with her music, but in “Good End,” you feel like the breadth of the sky is already there.
14. “The Place Where He Inserted the Blade” — Black Country, New Road
This tragicomedy in two verse-acts may leave your bones feeling as crushed as the titular character’s, but between some zany one-liners that had never before been put to paper and the cacophonous symphony that is the outro, you may be left with a feeling approaching euphoria.
15. “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” — Arctic Monkeys
Over the score to a snaking descent into the dark, Turner’s baritone, sizzling vocal effort is a whiskey-scented tip of the cap to the end of something that was always too good to be true.
16. “Moviegoer” — Julia Jacklin
Verse by verse, each scene and each character comes more and more to life, details floating into the frame with greater focus. By the time the final chorus hits you may find yourself crying while watching a movie of your own life.
17. “Glimpse of Us” — Joji
Listen to the year’s ultimate romantic ballad and ache with all the heartbreak you’ve ever known, and that which is still to come.
18. “Simulation Swarm” – Big Thief
You’ve been longing for a beauty that doesn’t just sit there, but urges you to act—to get off the couch and twist your fingers into knots as you try and fail to follow along across the fretboard—and that inspires you as only the best muses can. Well, now you’ve found her.
19. “Understand” — Hippo Campus
Beautiful indie pop with swaying melodies that climb to an urgent, climactic plea is sure to bring tears when associated with the right memory.
20. “Hold the Line” – Bartees Strange
You didn’t think they made this kind of music anymore—an authentic power ballad with lighters-in-the-air guitar soloing and a soulful voice that sings like it’s swigging whiskey in the back.
21. “Late Night Talking” — Harry Styles
You’ll have no trouble bopping to this slightly funky, slightly saucy seduction earworm on repeat.
22. “Walkin’” — Denzel Curry
Before long you’ll be vibing to this at the cookout and scheming to this on your next introspective walk: A soaring vocal loop serves as the ostinato anchor, while the beat subtly switches to support expansive and sometimes dizzying bars, proving that Denzel Curry can be an emcee’s as well as a producer’s rapper.
23. “Jerusalem” — Ben Zaidi
A deeply personal, poetic reflection on personal identity and history over gently flowing guitars.
24. “L’Enfer” — Stromae
Though you’re normally good at keeping it together, even in the calmer moments an ominous current forged in the minor mode churns and churns; God help you when the chorus hits and your demons run free.
25. “Jennie” — Barrie
Barrie’s indie flower-girl flutter will make you feel like a new chapter of your life is about to unfold.
26. “Way Out” — FKJ
When you’re at a loss for words, sitting on your couch, staring at the ceiling, you may just start to see it spin in time with these spiraling piano licks that waft through the speakers. If that happens, do not panic, but instead take deep breaths and let this tune’s minimalist and repetitious musical and lyrical pulses become your mantra.
27. “Descifrar” — maye
You won’t be able to escape the mournful samba and shuffle of this moonlight bossa nova’s wandering melodies.
28. “Vigilante Shit” — Taylor Swift
Formal attire not required: The “dressed for revenge” shtick clicks into place once you realize that the skittering, Billie Eilish knockoff of a beat is just part of the setup to one of the more humorous story songs of the year. This isn’t Lennon–McCartney’s Beach Boys-sendup “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, but perhaps Swift similarly realized that a good pastiche requires both a lyrical and a musical punchline.
over the offing 