The 30 best albums of 2022
From Renaissance and Big Time to Blue Rev and Dawn FM, here are this year's standout albums
Music Lists Alex G
Music returned to its triumphant form in 2022. Multiple artists returned from extended breaks following a tumultuous few years for the industry, showing us just how exhilarating the promise of a new record could be. We were reminded of music’s ability to stir us, allowing us to forge further connections to ourselves and each other.
We thought the first half of the year offered enough to cherish—then we reached the second half. There, we got new stellar albums from acts such as Alvvays, Julia Jacklin, Alex G, Carly Rae Jepsen—oh, and Beyoncé. Excellent records came to us in abundance in 2022, pushing us to expand our best-of list to 30 albums. Indeed, 2022 was the musical gift that kept on giving, and here we’ll celebrate all that we loved from this year.
58 Comments
Wet Leg are very popular in the pocket pet community.
Well shit, I bet the under when I set my over/under to knowing only 5 of these people/bands. Freaking Beyonce got me at the end.
Needs more Soul Glo.
No “Unlimited Love” by RHCP? Frusciante’s return to the band resulted in a fantastic album. I’m also old and apparently out of touch. That’s not a huge change from when I was young and out of touch.
I haven’t listened to RHCP since maybe high school and “The Great Apes” is one of my favorite songs of the year.
I know they came out literally days ago but not having the new Little Simz and SZA albums on here is invalidating. I don’t make the rules I’m sorry (props for actually having the best album of the year with Blue Rev though!)
Co-signing for SZA. What a gem of an album.
we unfortunately had to submit this piece the day SZA’s album came out, but i have personally been loving it!
30 best rap/pop albums of all time. There are a TON of albums from artist outside of that/those genres that are missing. And frankly I have only heard of like 3 artists on this list.
Most people have never even heard of 75% of the albums you listed.
Wow, no Kendrick at all? Is his critical darling era over?
Not a bad list, though the Horsegirl album is waaaaaay too low (it was my favorite this year). Things I enjoyed that are missing from the list are Warpaint’s Radiate Like This and Dehd’s Blue Skies. And I think the new Little Simz album came out today – haven’t listened to that yet, but I’m just going to automatically assume it’ll be a 2022 favorite.
My list would be:Hikaru Utada – Bad ModeLooming – Anybody’s BabyCoheed and Cambria – Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking MindPlacebo – Never Let Me GoPool Kids – Pool KidsPorcupine Tree – CLOSURE / CONTINUATIONWhite Lung – PremonitionPaul Draper – Cult Leader TacticsSachiko Aoyama – HighlightHaru Nemuri – Shunka RyougenBloc Party – Alpha GamesSylvan Esso – No Rules SandyTiny Moving Parts – Tiny Moving PartsDrug Church – HygienePerfume – PlasmaSilversun Pickups – Physical ThrillsRoyal Coda – To Only A Few At FirstLupe Fiasco – Drill Music in ZionNo Devotion – No OblivionL.S. Dunes – Past LivesBartees Strange – Farm to TableTravie McCoy – Never Slept BetterThe Wonder Years – The Hum Goes on ForeverBroken Bells – Into the BluePianos Become the Teeth – DriftNNAMDÏ – Please Have a SeatFoals – Life Is YoursToro y Moi – MahalAnthony Green – Boom. Done.Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Performance
Thanks for the Bartees Strange reminder. Just put Farm to Table on my Bandcamp wishlist.
Still working on my list, but I know my top two are:1. Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems
2. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Omnium GatherumOther top picks that I haven’t ranked yet:Show Me the Body – Trouble the Water
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava
King Dude – Death
The Paranoid Style – For Executive Meeting
Naujawanan Baidar – Khedmat Be Khalq
Petrol Girls – Baby
The Loyal Seas – Strange Mornings in the Garden
Bob Vylan – Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life
Porridge Radio – Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky
Father John Misty – Chloe and the Next 20th Century
King Hannah – I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me
Black Dresses – Forget Your Own Face
Zeal & Ardor – Zeal and Ardor
Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There
Soul Glo…yes.
Omnium Gatherum was also in my top albums of 2022 (as was Lucifer on the Sofa and Versions of Modern Performance).
I’m very disappointed that none of the five (five!) albums dropped by SAULT in November made the list.
Sounds like SAULT was trying to one-up KGLW’s three October albums.
To be fair, King Gizz were having a bit of a rest year
honestly if Sault had spaced out their drops I think we’d be seeing 11 and Untitled (God) on a lot of year-end lists, but 5 albums at once made people feel a bit overwhelmed, understandablythe music is fucking fantastic though, I don’t understand how Inflo found time for all of that and then produced the new Little Simz album. what a beast
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard had a hell of a year.
It was the first time they were all in the studio together in 2 years (rather than Zoom sessions) and you could tell they were making up for lost time.
I haven’t heard of a lot of these artists. Here’s my pick for album of the year:Westbound Train, Dedication
Some I liked this year that weren’t on there:Andy Frasco and the U.N. – Wash, Rinse, RepeatThe Beths – Expert in a Dying FieldMondo Cozmo – This is for the BarbariansMountain Goats – Bleed OutPUP – The Unraveling of PUPTheBandSay Sue Me – The Last Thing Left
Let’s see, I was into:Bjork, Fossora (you could have bumped any one of these 30 to make room for that)Cypress Hill, Back in Black Brian Eno, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE Rocco Fuoco, EAP Noises Guided By Voices, Crystal Nuns Cathedral (and a second one too, I just never got around to listening to it yet)Tim Heidecker, High SchoolJaelmanz, AwklandKing Gizzard, five frickin’ albums in 2022!Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & the Big SteppersLustmord, The OthersNapalm Death, Resentment Is Always SeismicSabiwa, PinkSon Lux, Everything Everywhere All At Once SoundtrackSpoon, Lucifer on the MoonTenka, HydrationF.W. Tittenbrow, Les GommesVA, Elvis Soundtrack
Good list, but I would have put Boat Songs and Un Verano Sin Ti in the top 10. Not that anyone asked.
I find that music lists have the potential to be much more personal than movie lists. So I find it odd when it comes to the ‘best of the year’ many critics seem to be agreeing in unison and regurgitating what they all find acceptable as the year’s best. Here’s a few I liked that aren’t making many year end lists.Wolfgang Flur – Magazine OneWalt Disco – UnlearningThe Mysterines – ReelingMiles Kane – Change the ShowMo – MotordromeFort Romeau – Being of LightHatchie – Giving the World Away
I dunno y’all, I’ll stan Carly Rae Jepsen until the heat death of the universe but The Loneliest Time felt like a pretty weak retread of Devotion.
Devotion? Do you mean Emotion (2015) or Dedicated (2019)? I do agree, I enjoy this new album but the tracks don’t stand out to me as much.
I sure did portmanteau those, my bad! I was referring to Dedicated.
At the very least I’m glad she made the strongest song (Talking to Yourself) on the album her single. I’ll Be Your Girl would have killed from Dedicated.
Talking to Yourself is easily the strongest showing on the album, backed up by Beach House and The Loneliest Time which, imo, pretty strong as well.
POOL KIDS
The correct answer is The Tipping Point by Tears for Fears.We would also have accepted Bronco by Orville Peck.
Took me way to long to find Orville Peck mentioned on this page. Bronco is easily my #1 album of the year.
I missed this album due to getting a divorce. Lots of music I need to catch up on.
I’m sorry to hear that. I hope that this (and Bronco, and whatever other good stuff you find) helps to improve your year a little.
I became a Tears for Fears fan (forty years late obviously) thanks to The Tipping Point. What an incredible band they’ve been all along.
I must be old. I have heard of exactly four of these artists.
I agree with Beyonce as number one, that album just keeps giving (even more than her other work imo).Also really loved Asha’s Awakening by Raveena.
No Pusha, Denzel, or Earl lmao why even bother
I feel you but AV Club is really not the place for takes on hip hop that hasn’t crossed over into the mainstream. They barely do ANY music coverage nowadays.
Cool. I know maybe five of the 30 artists in this slideshow. Doesn’t make me feel old AT ALL.
Daniel Johns – FutureNeverAfghan Whigs – How Do you Burn?Whitmer Thomas – The Older I Get The Funnier I WasSharon Van Etten – We’ve Been Going About This All WrongWidowspeak – The JacketThe Beths – Expert In A Dying FieldWhy Bonnie – 90 In NovemberViagra Boys – Cave WorldMikey Erg – Love at Leeds
i will also put up metric-fomentera. i dont feel the album has a single skip, and enemies of the ocean and false dicotomy are amazing(thought he latter may be a love it or hate it deal…ha-ha).
How in the hell did Wet Leg not make it in the top 30 when it’s not only Top Ten in most other serious music sites’ Albums of the Year but also an album that AVClub themselves championed more than almost any other album in this list, upon its release?
I was wondering the same thing. I guess the AV Club didn’t want to repeat themselves?And as long as I’m here: Working Men’s Club new album was great, too.
Because Beyonce. Even if it’s just another very expensive generic R&B record that could have been made by anyone.
It is surprising that they skipped it based on their coverage. My personal opinion is they were right to do so.
This is mostly a list of mid-tempo messes for the Regina Spektor crowd.
I really think Stromae belongs here
Confidence Man – TILTRöyksopp – Profound Mysteries I, II, & IIHatchie – Giving The World AwayThe Big Moon – Here Is EverythingTotally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – When The Lights Go
Soooo… music really sucked in 2022?
Not enough of The Warning.
Am I the only one who has not purchased music in a long time? I just listen to it on youtube if I need to listen to music. You can even hook up your phone to your car if you have the proper cords, etc.
This song is from last year but I still love it!
A lot of whiny-types are moaning about the resurgence of 90s/00s types of music but I have to say it’s been mostly fabulous. Especially the club stuff, sorry, “EDM” for the Basics. What I love about a lot of the artists and groups/collaborations releasing stuff recently is that they’re applying not so much a polish to what some claim was a tired genre but a hard veneer of something new. It’s been an age since I heard stuff that reminded me of my misspent youth partying in Paris/Ibiza/Berlin/London/Madrid but it’s out there. Hopefully it means we move away from the tired old “let’s drop in a random bit of rapping” cliche that’s been doing the rounds for far too long and get back to the glittering diva vocals of the early 00s. Also, remixes are becoming delicious again. Again – it’s not pastiche, it’s not sampling things to death (that needs to be struck down like a well-used man-whore in Fuerteventura) – it’s crystallising and making something gloriously new. One artist I’ve started to listen recently is Camden Cox. Her stuff is…glittery. And the remixes are brilliant.More power to her and artists like her.