LIST: My 10 Favorite Albums of 2022
It’s now time to share my 10 favorite albums of the year! I posted my top 30 favorite songs of 2022 last week and you can check them out here. This is my first albums of the year post on Medium, you can check out my favorite 2021 albums over here.
Before I get to my long-form thoughts on my top 10, here are albums 20 through 11 for me in 2022, with a song from each:
20. Angel Olsen — Big Time (“All the Good Times”)
19. Goose — Dripfield (“Hungersite”)
18. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — Endless Rooms (“My Echo”)
17. Oso Oso — sore thumb (“computer exploder”)
16. Spoon — Lucifer on the Sofa (“Wild”)
15. Beyoncé — Renaissance (“BREAK MY SOUL”)
14. Pool Kids — Pool Kids (“Comes In Waves”)
13. Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (“N95”)
12. Wet Leg — Wet Leg (“Too Late Now”)
11. The Beths — Expert in a Dying Field (“Knees Deep”)
Here they are, my 10 favorite albums of 2022:
10. Plains — I Walked With You a Ways
Two years after releasing one of my favorite albums ever, Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee teamed up with Texas singer/songwriter Jess Williamson for one of 2022’s most enjoyable listens, I Walked With You a Ways. After years of tiptoeing around it, this feels like the first time Crutchfield has fully embraced her country roots and maybe needed Williamson’s Texas twang to get there. These are beautiful ditties recalling some of the greats: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and Linda Ronstadt among others. My favorite is “Line of Sight” with Crutchfield and Williamson’s harmonies intermingling in the chorus.
9. Anxious — Little Green House
Connecticut emo rockers Anxious are teenagers. This became painfully apparent when guitarist Dante Melucci told Brooklyn Vegan he was inspired by Fountains of Wayne and Death Cab for Cutie his dad played for him as a child. His dad’s good taste paid off, because on their debut Little Green House, Anxious sound like polished veterans. They’ve pushed the genre forward with songs that go extremely hard like “In April” and “Speechless,” plus mid-tempo burners like “More Than a Letter” and tender cuts like “Wayne” and beautiful closer “You When You’re Gone” with singer Stella Branstool. This is just the start for Anxious, and that’s damn exciting.
8. Momma — Household Name
One thing that annoyed me about the discourse around Momma’s breakthrough third record Household Name was how its title became such a huge part of it all. Did Momma, centered around the talents of Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten, become a “household name?” Who cares? These songs are terrific, and that’s what matters. Taking cues from ’90s alt-rock demigods like Smashing Pumpkins and Pixies, Momma crafts a guitar-driven and accessible sound with “Callin Me”, “No Stage” and “Lucky.” Their magnum opus, however, is the perfect summer-y driving song “Speeding 72,” a marvel of pop-rock with an anthemic chorus and a Pavement reference to boot.
7. Nilüfer Yanya — PAINLESS
I wish I didn’t have to pin the moniker of “underrated” on Nilüfer Yanya, but the London singer/songwriter/guitarist is just that. She’s one of the best artists out there, and built on her strong 2019 debut with this year’s PAINLESS. Instead of leaning into the dance/pop elements of Miss Universe, Yanya went in a decidedly non-pop direction on PAINLESS, harnessing an at times anxious and paranoid sound reminiscent of mid-period Radiohead. This is exemplified best with the looping guitar lines of standouts “stabilize” and “midnight sun”. On closer “anotherlife” she says “I want you to believe me that I’m alright / I’ll do anything, yeah,” finding solace amidst a bouncy groove.
6. Soccer Mommy — Sometimes, Forever
Sophie Allison’s upward progression as an artist continues on her third album, Sometimes, Forever. She worked alongside producer Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never to make her most creative, boundary-pushing project to date. Introducing elements of shoegaze, electronica, and even metal on the harsh “Unholy Affliction” — it’s exhilarating to see Allison try new things and succeed. The core of her work remains gorgeous ‘90s-influenced melodies driven by clean guitars, and her lyrics battling personal strife. “I wanna know what’s wrong / With all of the ways I am” she asks on driving opener “Bones,” and on late-album soft wonder “Fire in the Driveway” she struggles with acceptance: “I know it’s the truth / I’m better off without you / But I can’t seem to say it to your face.”
5. Wild Pink — ILYSM
While working on his fourth album for Wild Pink, bandleader John Ross was diagnosed — and treated for — cancer. Facing mortality in his mid-30s informs and resonates through the entirety of ILYSM (which stands for I Love You So Much, and is also a knockout title track and a refrain throughout the entire record). These are songs about the most difficult challenges that life brings, and discovering things about yourself and those around you in the process. All the while, Ross and his bandmates take their sound to new places, building on the folky rock of A Billion Little Lights into a lot more. There are disparate and intricate sounds here. A tender first half, including the Julien Baker-assisted “Hold My Hand,” gives way to a harder-rocking second half, accented by bone-crushing guitars led by special guest J Mascis, with the segue between “See You Better Now” and “Sucking on the Birdshot” possibly my favorite musical moment of 2022.
4. The Smile — A Light for Attracting Attention
Radiohead legends Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood unexpectedly formed a new band in 2021 with drummer Tom Skinner. They call themselves, somewhat terrifyingly, the Smile. And after releasing a bunch of rocking singles harkening back to the old days of Radiohead, A Light for Attracting Attention arrived in May. The result? A stunning work that stands on its own, apart from the band that changed music forever. It’s big, beautiful, meaningful, exciting and complicated. How about the mathy guitar and jerky rhythms of “Thin Thing”? Or the hardest-rocking song in their oeuvre since “Bodysnatchers” in the hilariously-named “You Will Never Work in Television Again”? Amidst the chaos is also somberness, with no better example than the pristine “Free in the Knowledge,” with Yorke’s voice practically cracking in the chorus. “I talk to the face in the mirror / But he can’t get through / Turns out we’re in this together / Both me and you.”
3. MJ Lenderman — Boat Songs
I very much enjoyed young North Carolina rock outfit Wednesday’s 2021 second album, Twin Plagues. But you know what I enjoyed even more? The breakout solo album from Wednesday’s insanely-talented guitarist, MJ Lenderman, Boat Songs. It’s equal parts shitkicking alt country, deep shoegaze, and humid, fuzzy indie rock, imbued with kitschy humor and youthful energy. Trust me when I say you’ve never heard songs like these: for example, buoyant opener “Hangover Game” is Lenderman posing a theory that fellow MJ Michael Jordan’s famous “Flu Game” in the 1997 NBA Finals was actually brought on by a hangover and not a tainted pizza. “I like drinking, too” Lenderman plainly says in a late refrain, while guitars and drums wail behind him. Later, there’s a lo-fi warbler that’s mostly about the time his dad saw Dan Marino in a grocery store. But there’s also the superlative trio of songs to end it: gorgeous Dinosaur Jr-inspired “You Are Every Girl to Me”, raw and thrashy “It Tastes Just Like it Costs” and the dirgey sludge of “Six Flags.” If you aren’t convinced to listen to this album after yet, here’s some of the highest praise I can give anything: Boat Songs makes me think of Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s 1990 opus Ragged Glory, one of the formative albums of my life.
2. Big Thief — Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
In the latter half of the 2010s, Big Thief — the folk-rock act made up of four classically-trained musicians from Berklee — became one of indie’s marquee acts, in no small part due to the immense popularity of lead singer Adrienne Lenker. After three years away, the band re-appeared in 2022 with the sprawling, grand masterpiece Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. Depending on whatever you’re feeling at any given moment, there’s a song from this record that can go with it. It’s Big Thief’s White Album in that regard. Unlike the feel of some of their recent work, Dragon is a full-band effort from beginning to end. Many of the songs have a true “recorded live in studio” vibe, and their outstanding chemistry as a band shines through on some of the hoedown-esque jams like “Spud Infinity,” “Red Moon” and closer “Blue Lightning.” You can tell Lenker and her bandmates Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia are having an absolute blast throughout. Amidst the fun is so much depth. They’ve become some of the best songwriters of their generation, weaving complex sounds and expert songcraft to go with Lenker’s perfect voice. “With the drone of fluorescence / Flicker, fever, fill the form / With a warm gush, now I wanna touch / Like we never could before,” she practically raps on “Simulation Swarm.” Through all the varied sounds, Big Thief maintains a sense of triumph in their accomplishment. On ringing marvel “Little Things” Lenker sings a song of love against a wall of sound: “The little things I like about you…Living in the city is a crowded place / I still lose sight of every other face.” That’s the wonderful thing about Dragon: it’s a crowded place, but you’ll be sure to find both little and big things to love.
1. Alvvays — Blue Rev
On the cover of Canadian quintet Alvvays’ third album, Blue Rev, is an image that appears to be a ’90s family photo from a boat trip. With a menacing dark sky behind them, a little girl wearing a life preserver turns her head to the camera, and the photographer catches an incredible moment: a look of complete, abject terror in the little girl’s eyes. That little girl would grow up to be Molly Rankin, the singer, rhythm guitarist and half of the creative force behind Alvvays along with lead guitarist Alec O’Hanley. That emotion of that picture is carried through the often-frantic, thickly-layered, sharp-witted but always brilliant Blue Rev, a joyous album blending dream pop, shoegaze, synth rock, power pop and more. Working with in-demand rock producer Shawn Everett, Alvvays tap into so many emotions and sounds on Blue Rev, but they all tie back to a musical ethos that feels all their own. Everything here has a purpose, but it’s not overdone. In the process, Alvvays made possibly my favorite album of the last five years, surpassed perhaps only by Snail Mail’s Lush. From start to finish, Rankin displays her primal natural singing power, which is truly a thing to behold live, but comes through masterfully and powerfully here. On “Belinda Says”, a crushing rock epic about losing your past but gaining a future, Rankin quotes Belinda Carlisle and adds that hell can be a place on Earth too. But, over bright synths and dense guitar lines, Rankin strikes a note of hope: “And we’ll all get help, paradise / And we’ll start another life.” It’s been a rough few years to just be a human being on this Earth. Alvvays took the anxiety we often feel, and the fear that sometimes can be seen on even our faces, and turned it into something beautiful that’ll live forever.
