Welcome to my Top 22 Albums of 2022!
It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. The time to look back over all the music that talented people have created and create subjective rankings in hopes of garnering attention for your struggling media property. By cobbling together their personal twist on the “best” albums of any given year, a collection of music critics can showcase their style, conjure some conflict, and gin up some juice that might lead to clicks that help their website meet their revenue goals
At least, that’s how far too many publications view the End-Of-Year List process. It’s especially true if I lean too far into my cynicism and nihilism about the music industry and journalism in general. Thankfully, I work with a wonderful collection of writers and talk to a vast array of friends who encourage my inner optimism when it comes to “Best Of” lists.
By channeling our shared love of music, I can approach my end-of-year list-making with joy. It’s an opportunity to talk about music with people who love the stuff, and it’s a chance to educate them on the stuff they might have missed. I mean, I listen to music all day, read a variety of music publications, and write about the stuff in my spare time – and I always find music on these Year-End lists that I love.
Thus, I want to use my list to talk about the stuff I love because I love it. And I want to share that love with you. It helps that this year has featured some wonderful albums, so it was even harder than usual to pick my favorites.
As usual, I don’t create a ranked list. You’ll find everything in alphabetical order.
I hope you enjoy my Top 22 Albums of 2022!
Alvvays – Blue Rev
Pitch-perfect modern indie-pop with heaps of ‘90s shoegaze. The music of Alvvays fuses huge, air-guitar-worthy hooks with introspective lyrics. This combination on Blue Rev somehow makes me feel like a moody teenager and thoughtful grownup without any sort of forced nostalgia. An absolute triumph.
Angel Olsen – Big Time
Her music simply keeps getting better with each and every release. Olsen is simply one of the most well-rounded and curious artists making music today. This album overflows with heartbreak and personal revelations while also showcasing her penchant for classic country and Laurel Canyon folk.
Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture
2022 might be the year I fully reconnected with the love of metal and hardcore I thought I left in my mid-20s. Sure, I’ve added some token “loud” acts on these lists over the years, but I listened to more than ever this year. This album simply rips. It calls to mind Converge, mewithoutYou, and The Fall while still pursuing its own musical trajectory.
billy woods – Aethiopes
Oh look – it’s the best hip-hop album of the year! I feel ill-equipped to talk about how I enjoy the music of billy woods. His lyricism and flow are at the top of their game, as he manages to discuss deep socioeconomic struggles with deeply personal religious concerns all without sounding like an obnoxious pedant. He raps with a powerful intimacy, and the beats themselves are urgent yet never overpowering.
black midi – Hellfire
The post-punk revival of the early ‘00s has nothing on what’s happening now. Instead of revivalists aping Joy Division or Gang of Four, acts like black midi are fusing Wire with Mission of Burma and Pere Ubu to delirious effect. This album reels and cajoles with riotous, frantic energy that will send you ping-ponging across the room like a demented circus performer.
Burial – Antidawn
My love of Burial knows few bounds. His breakthrough 2007 album, Untrue, literally changed the course of my musical fandom. After years of releasing only a couple of songs a year (at most), he started 2022 with a majestic 5-song EP that encapsulates the trajectory of his recent output and sets a fresh direction for the next few years. This project is the epitome of spectral, moody, and nearly beatless atmospheric electro, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Camp Trash – The Long Way, The Slow Way
My Top 22 Albums of 2022 list wouldn’t be complete without this example of pitch-perfect contemporary emo. Go read my review from earlier this year to learn more.
Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
A staggering number of artists released albums in 2022 that owe a huge debt to Enya and Kate Bush (even before the latter appeared on Stranger Things). Who knew that the next trend in the blogosphere would be introspective music that borrows heavily from ‘80s art-pop and ‘90s New Age? Standing atop the pack is this powerful album from Cate Le Bon. While her glorious voice sits center stage, the hallmark of these songs lies in her capacity for introspective arrangements that pulse with subtle tension. I recommend this album to anyone who longs for quieter music that still pulses with steady strength. Pompeii is what “adult contemporary” music should be.
Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn – Pigments
I’ve been a fan of Dawn Spencer’s eclectic blend of pop, gospel, and electro for many years. But the last thing I expected of her was a project overflowing with tremulous yet spacious experimental ambient, but she and Spencer Zahn create completely enthralling music. Yes, her jaw-dropping pipes still preside, but they’re matched with an eerily dreamy production aesthetic that totally captivated me.
Denzel Curry – Melt My Eyez See Your Future
Yes, this album possess all manner of sublime beats and whip-smart rhymes. Curry has been crankin’ out amazing music for years now, complete with lyrics overflowing with passion and pathos. On this album, I get the overwhelming sense that he has made powerful emotional progress talking to a caring therapist. The songs excuse a depth of thoughtfulness and compassion that made my heart sing.
Drug Church – Hygiene
Ten songs. Twenty-six minutes. Rip-roaring punk with a pristine hardcore edge. But this isn’t some snot-nosed, generic three-chord nonsense. Drug Church brings the goods, including ample hooks, ragged vocals, and sharp delivery, as if Springsteen and Rollins had a kid and let it run wild.
Ghost – Impera
I’m ashamed to admit that I’d never given Ghost much attention in the past, despite people I trust telling me I should. But when Impera hit my ears earlier this year, somehow the band’s oeuvre finally made sense. The band is like everything “Satanic Panic” Christians preached against in the ‘80s, except they’re totally in on the joke and crank the irony up to 11. Even better, the music far exceeds nearly every legacy act Ghost borrowed from when making this ridiculously wonderful album. A standout inclusion in my Top 22 Albums of 2022 rankings.
Loraine James – Building Something Beautiful for Me
I wrote about Loraine James in this space last year, and I’ll be damned if she didn’t exceed that album in 2022. James dials back the grime and garage while increasing the spectral minimalism to incandescent levels. Yet, she avoids Burial comparisons by exploring more precise compositional flair in a way that showcases her propensity for sub-bass and well-executed movement.
Makaya McCraven – In These Times
You might have seen this album on other end-of-year lists as 2022’s entry from the jazz wing of the genre dial. But before you hand-wave it away as a music critic’s attempt to be completist or show off their tastes, you must dive into this record head-first. McCraven has crafted an impeccable album that feels improvisational yet you know is highly structured, which makes total sense, seeing as how he’s a drummer. He pays equal homage to ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s jazz while also showing a hearty appreciation for gospel flair.
Moor Mother – Jazz Codes
Yes, this is also a jazz record, but it’s the flip side of the prior entry on this list. With Moor Mother’s music, you’re always destined to hear hefty portions of spoken-word poetry, underground hip-hop, and withering industrial undercurrents. But with this profound album, she centers it all around thick strains of spiritual jazz and free jazz, the stuff most people associate with Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders. Jazz Codes is not for the timid, but you will definitely come away enriched.
Robert Glasper – Black Radio III
An astonishing tour de force of gospel-infused hip-hop the industry hasn’t seen since Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book. Glasper strides above and beyond that album with passionate sociopolitical commentary, startling jazz fusion, and a host of guest voices who deliver their verses with maximum impact. My Top 22 Albums of 2022 collection wouldn’t be complete without this profound work.
Ronnie Martin – From the Womb of the Morning, The Dew of Your Youth Will Be Yours
His first full-length since retiring Joy Electric in 2012, Ronnie Martin returns to music-making with aplomb. He’s glued his well-known affection for modular synthesizers to dark ‘80s New Wave to create a dizzying musical concoction. These seven songs pulse with some of the hardest-hitting kicks, snares, and bass melodies in Martin’s entire career. Much like his work in Joy Electric, the lyrics feel like excerpts from a fantasy novel, while the music conjures up New Order, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus.
Shamir – Heterosexuality
Few genres consistently wow me with their ability to morph and mutate with the passage of time like soul and R&B. Shamir stands at the forefront of the current generation of outsider artists who willingly pour their entire selves into their work for the world to see. His otherworldly falsetto floats and croons with tremulous power, calling to mind a fantastical mix of ANONHI, Moses Sumney, and Prince. Heterosexuality finds him mining his innermost psyche and exploring his sexuality atop dreamy arrangements for all the world to hear.
The Soft Pink Truth – Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This?
After the triumphant success of 2020’s Shall We Go on Sinning So That Grace May Increase?, I thought the next few albums by Drew Daniel might follow a similar meditative course. Thus, the joyful thoughtfulness of Is It Going to Get Any Deeper Than This? pleasantly surprised me. The album oozes psychological and physical freedom, encouraging people to dance, move, and groove to their heart’s content. You should get on your feet and play these songs loud so the music can wash over your soul.
Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems
Soul Glo might be everything I’ve wanted to hear from punk and hardcore in the 21st century. This group of queer and BIPOC musicians creates music that is fun, brutal, uncompromising, and unabashedly political. Diaspora Problems cuts you to the quick the instant it begins and then proceeds to shred your senses with righteous fury. The band should be viewed as the vanguard of punk rock for the next several years.
Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
The stage name of classically trained violinist Brittney Denise Parks, Sudan Archives creates wholly global music. Influenced by European electro, African grooves, and both American R&B and gospel. Natural Brown Prom Queen delivers nearly everything I’d want or need in forward-thinking pop music. This album ripples, flows, and undulates with a sort of spiritual and physical sensuality that hits you in your gut and then spreads throughout your body. An absolute powerhouse.
Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor
Rounding out my Top 22 Albums of 2022 collection, I couldn’t imagine an album or band more specifically designed to help me navigate my journey back into the realm of metal and hard rock. This self-titled project dripped with all the influences I absorbed between 1999 and 2005 while also pulling them into this decade kicking and screaming. Zeal & Ardor have a riotous energy that belies a pinpoint focus on updating these sounds for a new generation of listeners. I found myself returning to these songs over and over again in 2022, imagining 23-year-old me in the middle of a mosh pit belting out the lyrics at the top of my throat.