2022 In Music: 50 Best Albums
Alright, not going to waste more time apologising for the death of this blog, just going to get straight to the point. I listened to 142 albums and EPs this year apparently, and trawled through every New Music Fridays like an addict in search of a rush, so... if I missed anything, there's not really any excuse. I have a top 50 albums and top 100 songs as always, deluding myself as if I'm Pitchfork or something. Here's a list of everything I listened to but wasn't good enough for the list, apparently, with a score attached*
Syd - Broken Hearts Club - 8
Taylor Swift - Midnights - 8
Superorganism - World Wide Pop - 8
Angel Olsen - Big Time - 8
Animal Collective - Time Skiffs - 8
Charli XCX - Crash - 8
Empress Of - Save Me EP - 8
Plains - I Walked With You A Ways - 8
Sabrina Carpenter - Emails I Cannot Send - 7.9
Conan Gray - Superache - 7.9
Aurora - The Gods We Can Touch - 7.9
Mura Masa - Demon Time - 7.9
Yaya Bey - Remember Your North Star - 7.8
Fletcher - Girl of My Dreams - 7.8
Phoenix - Alpha Zulu - 7.8
Kehlani - Blue Water Road - 7.8
Royksopp - Profound Mysteries - 7.8
Alfie Templeman - Mellow Moon - 7.8
Ella Mai - Heart on My Sleeve - 7.8
Sea Girls - Homesick - 7.8
Earl Sweatshirt - SICK! - 7.8
Arctic Monkeys - The Car - 7.7
Ari Lennox - age/sex/location - 7.7
Obangjayar - Some Nights I Dream of Doors - 7.7
Alt-J - The Dream - 7.7
Flume - Palaces - 7.7
Zola Jesus - Arkhon- 7.7
Sofi Tukker - Wet Tennis - 7.6
M.I.A. - MATA - 7.6
Oliver Sim - Hideous Bastard - 7.6
Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti - 7.5
Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers - 7.5
Perfume Genius - Ugly Season - 7.5
Rina Sawayama - Hold the Girl - 7.4
Tove Styrke - Hard - 7.4
Mitski - Laurel Hell - 7.4
Latto - 777 - 7.4
Metronomy - Small World - 7.4
Alice Glass - Prey//IV - 7.4
Regina Spektor - Home, before and after - 7.3
Junglepussy - JP5000 - 7.3
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - When the Lights Go - 7.2
Cakes Da Killa - Svengali - 7.2
King Princess - Hold On Baby - 7.2
Drake - Honestly, Nevermind - 7.2
Lights - PEP - 7.2
Santigold - Spirituals - 7.2
Emeli Sande - Let's Say For Instance - 7.2
Stormzy - This Is What I Mean - 7.2
Arcade Fire - We - 7.1
Bloc Party - Alpha Games - 7.1
Sasha Alex Sloan - I Blame the World - 7.1
Greentea Peng - Greenzone 108 - 7.0
Sigrid - How to Let Go - 7.0
The Knocks - History - 7.0
Pale Waves - Unwanted - 7.0
Ezra Furman - All Of Us Flames - 7.0
Betty Who - BIG! - 6.9
Girlpool - Forgiveness - 6.9
Vince Staples - Ramona Parks Broke My Heart - 6.9
Hot Chip - Freakout/Release - 6.8
BANKS - Serpentina - 6.8
Cat Power - Covers - 6.7
Tegan and Sara - Crybaby - 6.6
Ethel Cain - Preacher's Daughter - 6.6
Christine and the Queens - Redcar les adorables etoiles - 6.6
Tate McRae - I Used to Think I Could Fly - 6.6
Blackpink - Born Pink - 6.5
MO - Motordrome - 6.5
Demi Lovato - Holy FVCK - 6.4
Jessie Reyez - Yessie - 6.4
Warpaint - Radiate Like This - 6.3
Aldous Harding - Warm Chris - 6.2
Hayley Kiyoko - Panorama - 6.1
Harry Styles - Harry's House - 6.1
Blossoms - Ribbon Around the Bomb - 6.0
Maggie Lindemann - SUCKERPUNCH - 5.8
Mykki Blanco - Stay Close to Music - 5.7
Stella Donnelly - Flood - 5.6
Rae Morris - Rachel@Fairyland - 5.3
Years & Years - Night Call - 5.2
Kid Cudi - Entergalactic - 5.0
George Ezra - Gold Rush Kid - 4.9
Jack Harlow - Come Home The Kids Miss You - 4.7
Bastille - Give Me The Future - 4.4
Calvin Harris - Funk Wav Bounces Vol 2 - 4.2
Avril Lavigne - Love Sux - 4.2
RuPaul - Mamaru - 3.4
Kanye West - Donda 2 - 3.2
Future - I NEVER LIKED YOU - 3.1
Kasabian - The Alchemists Euphoria - 2.3
Kim Petras - Slut Pop - 2.1
Not really sure I had "Kim Petras delivers the worst record of the year" in my list of predictions for the year but, lord, that mixtape was a fucking nadir. As the list suggests, everything in the top 50 scored an 8.1 or higher... which is quite astonishing, really, and perhaps means that I'm giving scores out far too generously. I digress. Let's get to it!
I gave this a brief listen back in April and it slightly frightened me. A quick refresher hasn't subdued the intimidation of it all, but it's fascinating all the same.
So whilst the crux of this album is definitely the phenomenal Jackie Down the Line, I keep getting drawn back to the hypnotic romanticism of I Love You and swaying like the Simpsons' idea of the Hullabalooza crowd watching Sonic Youth.
After the opulence and heartbreak of MAGDALENE, this album definitely came as a little bit of a surprise to those expecting her voice-cracking minimalism. The R&B jams here might not be the most overproduced but compared to her earlier LPs they're basically Charli XCX hyperpop. And she pulled it off wonderfully, with help from an impressive roster of guests.
Again, my perception of time has gone because I could've sworn it was only 2021 that they released two full-length albums. Turns out they were in 2019. COVID really fucked up everything, huh? Either way, this kicked off 2022 wonderfully and is almost certainly the best record they've ever done.
Every time I marvel at a new Foals record I'm reminded of my initial disdain of them around the 2009 period... maybe I was a bit of a wanker. They continue to make indie that makes you desperate to dance.
In November they may have released five albums that were all password-protected or some other pretentious nonsense, but thankfully my nonchalance to ever find out what those ones sound like was outweighed by my fondness for their earlier 2022 effort: Air is a 45 minute choral masterclass that conjures all sorts of inspiring and enchanting feelings.
Placed a little too high compared to the heavy hitters below it, perhaps, but my Spotify playlists have been dominated by this bright new popstar and I'd be doing myself a disservice if I pretended this wasn't one of my 2022 highlights. I'll elaborate if I write a singles of 2022 list.
I keep these lists on Wordpad and they aren't numbered at all, so this was a wonderful coincidence. Jorja Smith and Pa Salieu showing up on a record I turn out to really enjoy isn't a novelty, it seems (see: Caprisongs).
Another, like Soccer Mommy, who has the unfortunate handicap of having to live up to one of my earlier years' all-time-favourites and didn't quite make it, the follow-up to Remind Me Tomorrow might not have scratched the same itch but it still shone in moments and touched me like few other artists can.
After the letdown of Dedicated and its Side B, and the very confusing choices for the lead singles from this, I was all-but-convinced that Miss Jepsen had very much 'lost it'. Such fears were immediately assuaged last month, and with every new listen I keep finding new gems; whether it's the macabre lyrics of Beach House, the breezy 80s pop of Bad Thing Twice or the euphoric cacophony of Surrender My Heart.
Once again: suffers from the Herculean effort of trying to follow Titanic Rising, but the second she dropped 'It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody', that voice... ugh, heaven.
They'd been dropping this incrementally throughout the latter half of 2021 so it feels a little bit of a cheat to consider this a 2022 release, but I believe half of it was released in January/February so I'll allow it. Especially since it's such a stacked, charming record; that 1hr24m runtime might seem intimidating but it's more than worth the effort.
The first few times I listened to Atopos, I just found it to be incoherent noise. To an extent, I still feel that, but if it serves as nothing more than a little freaky sideshow to introduce the rest of the themes and vibes on display on Bjork's tenth album, then it's something I'm willing to skip to get to the good stuff. The longest tracks are the standouts: Victimhood, Ancestress and the title track are all gorgeous.
One of my happiest accidental discoveries (ie. I left a New Music Friday playlist running a little too long one week), MICHELLE are a New York six-piece that toy with vocal harmonies and create breezy, summery sounds that floored me this spring.
Is there a band around at the moment whose releases feel more... in touch with the zeitgeist than the 1975? The feral fanbase might put off some but in terms of a band who're able to encapsulate so much of what keeps us going and what gets us down in 2022, there's no one really doing it better than them. And all with a dash of Springsteen as well. Lovely.
Every year I glance at the Pitchfork #1 of the year for both albums and singles and tut and shake my head. Belinda Says, a cut from this record, won 'Best Track of 2022'. It absolutely is nothing of the sort. It's nice though!
Another person who I've only just stumbled across in the space of like, the past month or so, I'm still coming to grips with everything I love about this album but I know there's a lot of it. Her instrumentalist qualities lend the album a rich, layered quality that I'm sure I'll have fun picking apart for months to come (especially when she repeats "I just wanna have my titties out" on track two).
I really didn't think Foxes had it in her. She's been dropping the occasional good, but not great, track since... 2012? And everything about her career trajectory seemed to suggest flash-in-the-pan, done-and-dusted, other-hyphenated-insults. So to drop THIS selection box of pop majesty was... frankly audacious. I could go on at length about the incredible singles Sister Ray and Sky Love, because those two songs in particular bring me out in a feverish fist-pumping reverie, but I'd be doing the rest of the album an injustice because it's just all wonderful.
FUCK December releases. I don't have the time to digest all of this. I just know it's fantastic.
I don't think I gave her 2019 album a listen, but given how often I've kept coming back to this one I feel I owe myself the privilege. Rogers' voice is one of the standouts of 2022 for me, steering me along many a miserable bus ride with the sweetest of distractions.
2022 has been stacked with excellent R&B music and I don't envy new musicians the task of trying to break through in such a competitive field. Ravyn Lenae had to follow up a string of EPs with this debut in May and it made quite a big splash. Something about the production of this all just surrounded me and took me off my feet.
One of those albums that just - maybe because it's a debut and hasn't got the pressure of trying to match up with anything - feels completely unique and unlike anything you've ever heard before, in all the right ways.
New Long Leg was one of the greatest things about 2021 and trying to follow it just a year later seemed a frightening thing to me, but thankfully all of that sardonic wit and Florence Shaw's signature delivery will always deliver.
Looking at the reviews for this, and its absence on end-of-year lists pretty much everywhere just has me scratching my head and wondering what the fuck is wrong with everyone. It's fantastic? Hello?????
I entered 2022 with Wet Leg pretty much being my biggest source of musical anticipation and I was not disappointed. The duo finally arrived in full in April and followed up the buzz of early singles like Chaise Longue with even more catchy, chaotic fun.
Trying to find a rap megastar to fill the void that a pathetic antisemite has left with my complete refusal to ever listen to him again was a really upsetting task to put myself through, given that Kanye's pretty much been a corner post of social commentary for almost twenty years now, but someone who's been steadily building up a discography of equal greatness is Pusha T, who followed up the incredible DAYTONA with even more excellence.
I have an unfortunate habit of not noticing debut albums and then hopping into their sophomore with all the naive optimism of Steve Buscemi saying "How do you do, fellow kids?" If that can be forgiven, I really loved this follow-up and will be waiting for the third and fourth and fifth and...
It did seem for a while like Shygirl was just going to release a new song every single week and never deem us fit enough to listen to a full-length debut. That trend was thankfully bucked at the end of September, and I can finally add a vinyl to the library and stop feeling bad for just throwing 0.0005p at every stream of her I enjoy.
Gorgeous. Much like CHVRCHES did to my subconscious in the 2010s, it seems like Let's Eat Grandma are going to burrow their way into me and become one of my more annoying personality traits.
Everyone's loved a Tove Lo song at some point over the past ten years, but up until now I didn't really take to an album in the way I took to this. Maybe it's the multiple collaborations with SG Lewis, one of (if not the) best producer(s) around, maybe it's the appearance from the effortlessly cool Channel Tres, maybe it's the opportunity to remove "From The HBO Show Euphoria" from the fucking How Long track title. Who knows? But Dirt Femme is STACKED.
Miss Universe was one of the best things about 2019, and Painless is one of the best things about 2022. Yanya's sound is so intoxicating, I can't get enough of it.
This really is starting to feel like a list celebrating acts that've been around for a decade now, because I remember falling in love with the heartbreak of Around U back in my university days and thinking to myself "oh these girls will probably disappear in a year or two". To see them take off and become a staple with the gays has been a delight, because I don't.. <Oprah Winfrey tears> I don't know a better band, I don't.
Another thing I'd have bet against happening was Florence + the Machine putting out the best album she's ever done, but she did just that in 2022. It's always going to be a feat to try and match the anthems of Dog Days Are Over or Kiss With a Fist since those are standouts from my formative adulthood years, but I'm honestly hard-pressed to pick a favourite here. 'Choreomania' is as indulgent and twilit as her early work, 'Dream Girl Evil' packs a sarcastic menace that is honestly astounding, and 'Cassandra' stands up to earlier showstoppers like What Kind of Man or What the Water Gave Me with confidence.
Probably the album I've found myself recommending to people the most this year, if only because I've had to make reparations many a time and convince people that they don't really have to listen to the five-hour bonus track. This is everything a Grimes fan would want if they wanted to forget about Grimes herself.
Someone whose name I kept seeing pop up in previous years but never bothered to give a whirl until now, I find myself wondering what else I've missed out on. This album is literally perfect; it's just unfortunate that I fell in love with three albums more.
For a long, long time this didn't seem like it'd be topped this year. The scope of it is outrageous, the memes were instantaneous and the energy was contagious. I've disgusted myself with that rhyme so please just listen to Candy and shut up.
I gave this album a 10/10 when I first listened to it and smirked that nothing would ever beat it. Never bet against Beyonce. But I don't want to shrug this album off, because the news of Isaac Wood's departure from the band really did break my heart a little because this is just a staggering work of art and won't be performed without him. Where that places this record in their history remains to be seen, but what they did on this was nothing short of incredible.
Anyone who's had to talk to me for the past four months will find absolutely nothing surprising about this placement; I've even gone so far as to dub it the greatest album of all time. Whether I'm serious about that or not, I'm still unsure... because when the world's greatest popstar releases a no-filler love letter to queer black culture, and house music in particular, I have little attention to divert elsewhere. Renaissance is one of those albums where your preconceived idea of "your favourite track from it" is washed away every other day, and I'll keep coming back to this for pure joy for years and decades to come. Just drop the fucking visuals. PLEASE.
*Little Simz has decided to be selfish and release an album with 19 days of the year left to go, so if I do get around to listening to NO THANK YOU, it may very well be edited into the list.
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