100 Favorite New Albums of 2022
It was an amazing year for music. I always say that, but it’s irrefutable. 2022 was full of ambitious, groundbreaking work, and also of tuneful, melodically rich records you just wanna keep spinning and spinning. As usual I listened to about 500 albums this year, and reviewed about 200, and I have now distilled those into a tighter, more competitive Top 100 than ever.
These are favorites, as always, rather than a judgment on what is “best.” I’m one human being — not a magazine staff — and this list reflects my tastes. The more I do this, the more deeply I grasp how subjective this process is, and how many factors go into the way we each experience and evaluate the music we love.
2022 was a great year for established bands, and older bands returning to the scene. It was a great year for double albums. Along with a good mix of US, UK, Australian and Canadian musicians, it was a strong year for artists from Africa, and Hispanic artists, and it was an epic year for Irish bands!
Stylistically you’ll see a mix of indie rock, folk, art pop, post-punk, hip hop, indigenous fusion, psychedelia, and soul, and ton of other stuff too.
All 100 favorites are listed below, with brief descriptions, and a master list at the end. All of these albums are wonderful — even those at the bottom. You wouldn’t believe some of the fantastic albums I couldn’t fit onto my list!
- Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
This Brooklyn indie band reaches new heights on a double album of surprisingly freewheeling folk. Each of these 20 songs offers something we’ve never heard from them before, even as the subtlety, vulnerability and intimacy remain. The profound humor, joy and palpable camaraderie between Adrianne Lenker and her bandmates take Big Thief to a whole new level. To my ears this is the album of the decade thus far. Highlights: “Change,” “Simulation Swarm,” “Spud Infinity,” “Promise Is A Pendulum”
2. Ezra Furman, All Of Us Flames
The Chicago indie rocker’s 9th album is her first since coming out as a trans woman and a mother. Applying subtler and sophisticated touches all across the board — songwriting, sound, and vocal approach — Furman vividly captures the dangers and the rewards awaiting those who live beyond society’s edges, and the power of the community we can create even in its shadows, with this soulful, punk-spawned, pop-informed protest music. Highlights: “Train Come Through,” “Throne,” “Temple of Broken Dreams,” “Forever in Sunset”
3. Dehd, Blue Skies
Chicago trio Dehd play deceptively simple, unpretentious, surf punk-derived indie pop. Some ineffable secret ingredient turns their songs into magical earworms that never let go, and they just keep getting better. All three members do some lead vocals, but Emily Kempf takes the lion’s share this time, which is a great move. These are songs you sing along to before you’ve even heard the whole chorus. Highlights: “Bad Love,” “Clear,” “Window,” “Dream On”
4. Jesca Hoop, Order of Romance
One of the low-key very-best singer/songwriters of the 21st century, the Leeds-based, California-native Hoop launches a jazzier and more colorful brand of her always sophisticated indie art-folk on her 6th album. Elaborate, circuitous melodies, playful rhythms and intricate vocal overlays tackle often dark-ish subject matter in Hoop’s playful, curious, fairy-like way, and the horns are a welcome addition to her sound. Highlights: “Hatred Has A Mother,” “I Was Just 14,” “Sioux Falls,” “Like I Am Time”
5. Benjamin Clementine, And I Have Been
The later-in-life self-taught singer/songwriter’s third album feels more tactile and grounded while retaining the aura of elegance and enchantment he’s always sported. The music is hookier and the lyrics are more direct here, too. Arranged mostly for voice, piano, strings and percussion, Clementine’s new record occupies a singular intersection between art pop, chamber pop and neo-soul and it’s just riveting. Highlights: “Residue,” “Auxillary,” “Difference,” “Copening”
6. Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers
The most important rapper of his generation uses his 5th album to dig deep into musical adventurism and self-exploration. Black trauma, personal blindspots, family histories, and the influence of Eckhart Tolle are at the fore lyrically. The beats — adventurous, frenetic, challenging, and sometimes chaotic — are less radio-friendly 2017’s DAMN., and that much more interesting for it. Highlights: “United in Grief,” “Mr. Morale,” “Worldwide Steppers,” “Mother I Sober”
7. Black Country New Road, Ants From Up There
Pulling back on the guitars in favor of woodwinds and strings, post-punk fully gives way to post-rock on the seven-piece South London band’s second album. It’s a pyrrhic victory, given vocalist Isaac Wood’s departure days before the release — but a decisive one; an even more distinctive sound emerges, as BCNR cement their claim as one of the most exciting bands native to this decade. Highlights: “Chaos Space Marine,” “Concorde,” “Basketball Shoes”
8. Sampa The Great, As Above, So Below
Having returned from the Australian rap scene to her native Zambia, Samba Tempo’s second official album exults in her African heritage as it blends hip hop, neo-soul, Afro-pop and amapiano. Empowered and empowering, Sampa’s keen lyrical attack is and full of swagger, but her songs are as deep and as passionate as they are sharp. Top-notch production helps too! Highlights: “Never Forget,” “Shadows,” “Lane,” “Tilibobo”
9. Fontaines DC, Skinty Fia
The Irish band’s 3rd album of incisive, poetic post-punk strikes a balance between their full-throttle debut and their slower, hypnotic follow-up. Pithy, philosophical, and trenchant, these are songs whose depth is felt in every measure. One of the greatest lyricists of his generation, Grian Chatten’s thick Dublin accent and unpolished voice sells these songs perfectly, and the whole band is firing on all cylinders. Highlights: “In Ár cGroíthe Go Deo,” “I Love You,” “Jackie Down the Line,” “Skinty Fia”
10. Ibibio Sound Machine, Electricity
The sound of a band arriving in its prime, the massively multi-lingual London-based Afrofuturists’ second album ups their game with meatier arrangements, often by bringing the electronics to the fore. Overall this grounds and sharpens the expansive optimism that’s long defined their blend of Afrobeat, funk, high life, jazz, disco and EDM. Hot Chip produced this; both acts should win awards. Highlights: “Protection From Evil,” “Afo Ken Doko Mien,” “Oyoyo”
11. Black Midi, Hellfire
This enigmatic London band’s been getting simultaneously jazzier, funkier, and proggier, as well as increasingly cohesive, lyrically direct, and (as a bonus) Primus-like with each release. Their finest work so far is a dark, vaudevillian concept album, full of slamming bass licks and a bevy of speed and time signature changes. Black Midi’s always had a lot of ideas, but this time they find glorious cohesion. Highlights: “Hellfire,” “Eat Men Eat,” “The Race Is About To Begin,” “27 Questions”
12. Björk, Fossora
Starting out with the most kinetic music she’s made in 15 years, before moving into non-traditional choral music, and airy chamber art-pop arrangements (frequently spiked with Gabber-style percussive electronica), the Icelandic maverick’s 10th album is ultimately as odd and as ethereal as ever, but deeply enchanting. Of her previous albums, it’s most like Medúlla, which makes this blogger very, very happy. Highlights: “Atopos,” “Fungal City,” “Fossora”l
13. Anais Mitchell, Anais Mitchell
Her first album in almost a decade, the Vermont-based alt-folk singer and Hadestown creator’s 6th, eponymous album is a rich and resonant romantic folk record for the ages. While Mitchell’s depth and vulnerability show themselves plenty, this is an intently optimistic record, and a perfect album to fall in love to. Highlights: “Brooklyn Bridge,” “Little Big Girl,” “Watershed”
14. Bodega, Broken Equipment
This Brooklyn-based art house dance-punk band come off as natural heirs to a diverse array of NYC’s best indie bands, and a couple of California‘s too. Songwriters Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio double down on the frenetic energy, sly wit, and quirky grammar, and get a little more vulnerable here too, on their second full-length album. Highlights: “Statuette on the Console,” “C.I.R.P.,” “After Jane”
15. Mattiel, Georgia Gothic
Now a duo with producer Jonah Swilley, Mattiel Brown’s third album expressly pays tribute to a diverse array of music from her native Atlanta, while anchoring itself in 90s garage rock, blues rock, and indie pop. But genre is beside the point on this album, which is defined entirely by the strength of its top-notch songcraft. Highlights: “Lighthouse,” “Wheels Fall Off,” “Blood in the Yolk,” “Boomerang”
16. Backxwash, His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering
Visceral, metal-friendly industrial rap from Canada, Zambian-bred rapper Ashanti Mutinta’s 4th album confronts shame, oppression and fear-mongering of a fundamentalist upbringing, in a racist culture, in an effort to de-program. Samples of fire-and-brimstone preaching provide context; Malcolm X and soul music samples provide respite and direction. Highlights: “Vibanda,” “Muzungo,” “Zigolo,” “Juju”
17. Meridian Brothers y El Grupo Renacimientos, Meridian Brothers y El Grupo Renacimientos
It sure sounds like musicians from all over South America, Mexico and the Caribbean came together on this many-layered, pan-Latin wonder of a record, but every note on this faux collaboration — between the so-called “Meridian Brothers,” and the fictitious 1970s salsa dura band “El Grupo Renacimientos” — is played and sung by Eblis Álvarez alone. Highlights: “Metamorfosis,” “Bomba Atómica,” “Hipnosis”
18. Crack Cloud, Tough Baby
For an outfit founded as a healing outlet by and for people in addiction recovery, it’s no surprise the work of this Canadian collective sounds as urgent and vital as it does. A wide-ranging experiment with art-punk and post-punk at center, the collective’s 3rd album engages self-examination and sociopolitical discourse with equal fervor. Highlgihts: “Costly Engineered Illusion,” “Virtuous Industry,” “Criminal”
19. Richard Dawson, The Ruby Cord
A dense, elaborate finale in a trilogy of concept albums, the Geordie artist’s latest prog folk epic plays with the relationship between actual and virtual reality. Using mostly guitar, harp, violin and percussion, Dawson connects sounds and characters from austere, traditional English folk with a far-flung future setting that makes use of his loftiest songwriting ambitions. Highlights: “The Tip of an Arrow,” “The Fool,” “Museum,” “The Hermit”
20. Jack White, Fear of the Dawn
Jagged and unruly and oozing with swagger, this thematically unified 4th solo record plunges into revelries of textured sounds even as the guitars chug along unstoppably. It’s about as experimental as White could possibly get while still playing to his strength as a guitar hero and rock star, and it’s the most exciting thing he’s done in ages. Highlights: “Eosophobia,” “Morning Noon and Night,” “That Was Then, This Is Now”
21. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Changes
The Australian band’s 23rd album — their 5th this year — is their psych/prog-flavored idea of a 7-song jazz suite which follows variations on a single chord progression oscillating between two different scales. Luckily the adventurous KGLW would never letthat chordal uniformity stop them from making Changes as varied in sound and in tone as its title suggests. Highlights: ‘Gondii,” “Astroturf,” “Change”
22. Regina Spektor, Home, Before And After
Like most of her albums, Spektor’s 8th LP features at least two of the very best songs you’ve ever heard, several other clear highlights, and others you don’t realize are highlights until they sneak up on you and become part of your DNA. Always unpredictable, her melodies and arrangements — voice-and-piano driven art pop, orchestrally tinged — are just riveting. Highlights: “Spacetime Fairytale,” “SugarMan,” “Up The Mountain”
23. Imarhan, Aboogi
This Tuareg desert blues band’s third album, their first in their new home studio in Algeria, focuses their sound and warms it up a bit too. Relying mostly on guitars, vocals and percussion, Imarhan bear forward the Assouf tradition simply but elegantly, and this is their strongest effort to date. Highlights: “Assossam,” “Laouni,” “Adar Newlan”
24. Melt Yourself Down, Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In
This London sextet uses sax, bass, drums and electronic sounds to create their “Nubian party punk,” a visionary and increasingly cohesive blend of jazz, no wave, dub, North African and Afro-Latin music (and more), animated by an unmistakably punk rock spirit. This lively 4th album is a whole quantum leap forward. Highlights: “Boots of Leather,” “For Real,” “Ghosts On The Run”
25. Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings, Love Is The Only Thing
The wise, wry, midwestern folk of Peter Mulvey goes as deep as it gets on his 13th regular studio album, a collaboration with violin/cello duo SistaStrings. Mulvey digs into these tumult of our era, searches for compassionate responses, and sure does capture the spirit of the times. Highlights: “On the Eve of the Inaugural,” “Soft Animal,” “Early Summer of ‘21”
26. Melts, Maelstrom
My favorite debut album of 2022 comes from a psychedelically inclined Dublin outfit who’ve created a 44-minute-thick wall of sound built on textured guitars, synths and keyboards. Throbbing, hypnotic, and immersive, Maelstrom deepens its allure with every listen. Highlights: “Signal,” “Waltzer,” “Skyward”
27. Open Mike Eagle, Component System with the Auto Reverse
Giving himself more thematic freedom after a couple of heavy, conceptually focused records, the Chicago-by-way-of-LA rapper’s 8th album showcases the intelligence and playfulness of his unpretentious nerd-core art rap, bolstered by the best beats and the best features he’s ever had. Highlights: “Multi-Game Arcade Cabinet,” “Burner Account,” “CD Only Bonus Track”
28. Midnight Oil, Resist
The most politically focused of all the great alt-rock bands of the 80s and 90s, the Oils’ first full album in 20 years thrives in the contrast between the dire realities it confronts, and the updeterred passion which thrives in anthems of encouragement to those fighting the good fight. Highlights: “To the Ends of the Earth,” “At The Time Of Writing,” “The Last Frontier”
29. Archers Of Loaf, Reason In Decline
The best band from Chapel Hill’s 90s indie rock scene reconvenes after 24 years for their 5th album and retains the punch and vitality of their classic work. Better still, it incorporates the gravitas and vocal strength of Eric Bachmann’s solo work, as well as the grandness and the emotion of his work with Crooked Fingers. Highlights: “Misinformation Age,” “Saturation and Light,” “Mama Was A War Profiteer”
30. King Stingray, King Stingray
In the tradition of Yothu Yindi (and sharing some literal DNA with that band), this roughly-half-Aboriginal Australian band marries alt-rock with indigenous music, on a bi-lingual, punk-tinged debut. The band offers some guitar work, though they’re at their best when they explore their Yolŋu roots. Highlights: “Milkumana,” “Sweet Amhem Land,” “Raypirri”
31. Ty Segall, “Hello, Hi!”
The rock revivalist’s 14th album applies predominantly acoustic, psychedelic arrangements with lush harmonies to a set of songs driven by off-kilter melodies that align with the artist’s grungier leanings. It’s his most stylistically unified work in a while, and that’s a big win in this case. Highlights: “Saturday Pt. 1,” “Hello, Hi,” “Over,” “Looking At You”
32. Sinead O Brien, Time Bend And Break The Bower
The first full-length album of this Irish post-punk poet more than delivers on the promise of her earliest releases. O Brien’s unwavering, trenchant, mostly spoken and only-occasionally-melodic vocal delivery is supported mostly by guitars and drums, but the arrangements are as rich as her lyrics. Highlights: “Like Culture,” “Spare, For My Size, Me,” “End of Days”
33. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava
Each song sculpted from a day-long jam session devoted to one of the seven Greek musical scales, the band’s 21st album gives their most psychedelic inclinations free rein. Recurring imagery of magic mushrooms and a fiery underworld make an odd lyrical mixture, but the jams will carry you through. Highlights: “Iron Lung,” “Lava,” “Ice V”
Continue to #34 through 66 of my Favorite Albums of 2022, and the master list…
(Cause frankly the amount of great albums that couldn’t fit into my top 33 is staggering, as you’ll see below…)
…Or, check out my Highlights of 2022 playlist! I think this is the best end-of-year playlist I’ve ever made, despite the simplicity of its design: Two songs from each of my top 100 albums, and then some other favorites from albums that didn’t make this list too. Anyway, feel free to go Follow that playlist, and then read on to the next 33 albums…