The 10 Best Albums of 2022
2022 was a good year for music. From Beyoncé’s club-themed Renaissance to the Arctic Monkeys’ toned-down The Car, music lovers had a great variety of soundtrack options for their subway rides and gym sessions. In a year where a shocking war broke out, our favorite artists continued to inspire us to believe in a better world—even when the beat is slower or the melody is sadder. Here’s our list of the 10 Best Albums released in 2022.
10. Blue Rev - Alvvays
Alvvays’ third album, Blue Rev brims with well-placed influences and a superbly-layered production akin to the likes of My Bloody Valentine and The Smiths. Over a gale of electric guitars, synths, and witty lyrics, the band is guided by vocalist Molly Rankin’s ever-so-sweet voice through an ethereal mix of dream pop and modernized shoegaze.
Read the full review here.
9. Nymph - Shygirl
In the 12 songs that make up Shygirl’s debut album, the British singer—born Blane Muise—levitates above pop and hip-hop formulas with unusual beats and vocal effects. While her previous music was more heated, Nymph is sonically softer and even draws from elements of nature—vide the sound of water at the beginning of “Heaven.” But her lyrics are still incisive and, if anything, more emotionally deep, and the record is a candid assemblage of self-confidence and insecurity, both at once.
Read the full review here.
8. Dirt Femme - Tove Lo
What does love mean to you? Does it make everything perfect? Or is it just one more risk to take in your already complicated life? Dirt Femme, Tove Lo’s fifth album, is an open attempt at answering these questions of love and passion, fear and insecurity, femininity, and everything in between.
Read the full review here.
7. The Car - Arctic Monkeys
After 20 years of creating music, The Arctic Monkeys have made it impossible to predict what—or even when—their next move will be. As one of the most famous bands to emerge from the British indie-rock and post-punk revival scene in the early 2000s, they have valued their presence in the industry internationally. The Car represents the most successful venture in the band’s constant act of self-discovery.
Read the full review here.
6. MOTOMAMI - Rosalía
On MOTOMAMI, she elevated her audacious experiments to the 10th power: with the heavily auto-tuned vocals on the flamenco track “Bulerías,” with the jazz intermission on “Saoko,” with the highly graphic sexual lyrics on the piano ballad “Hentai,” with a viral Tik Tok video incorporated into the samba-inspired “CUUUUuuuuuute.” By putting together these heterogeneous cultural puzzle pieces, Rosalía seems to be simultaneously 10 years ahead and 10 years behind us, traveling through the archives of music and juxtaposing them with bravura.
Read the full review here.
5. RENAISSANCE — Beyoncé
Beyoncé’s glorious seventh studio album didn’t get a review on here, but it still had to make the list. Just like the singer herself, Renaissance is undeniable. There’s just no way you can so to any of the songs on this record—be it the ode to one’s own glory “Alien Superstar” or the electrifying ballroom-inspired “Pure/Honey.” This album is one of one.
4. Midnights – Taylor Swift
Midnights poses the glint of 1989, the gutsy attitude of reputation, and the reveries of Lover, all of which are filtered through the succinct musical lens that Swift acquired when making her indie folk albums, folklore and evermore. It’s Swift at her most candid yet, without the overproduction but with the successful formulas of her past pop records.
Read the full review here.
3. SOS — SZA
SZA’s sophomore record stretches R&B past its limits, with SZA flirting with pop-punk, country, and even grunge. This inclination not to stay in a single musical lane, along with the lyrical content of SOS, demonstrates something: she cares not about perfection, and main songwriting/production collaborators Rob Bisel and Carter Lang ride along with it. Thank God they do—even with its bits of imperfection, SOS is glorious.
Read the full review here.
2. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers — Kendrick Lamar
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is beautifully painful and terrifyingly real, as Kendrick Lamar he refuses to play any character but himself and present any perspective other than his own. Stepping down from the mantle that an entire culture has agreed to hand to him and returning to his family and God, Kendrick tells us that he cannot be anyone’s savior but his own. By choosing himself, he asks us to choose ourselves as well. Tie it all together, and you have the most important hip-hop album of 2022.
Read the full review here.
1. Ants From Up There — Black Country, New Road
On the majestic Ants From Up There, Black Country, New Road didn’t abandon the forward-thinking post-punk attitude that propelled them to fame—just made it more accessible. Their music still sounds intentionally raw and unedited, just like it did on their debut full-length For the First Time, but there is an unshakable feeling that their skills have become more elevated and their intent more serious. The result is the most intricate record of the year.
Read the full review here.
