The Top 50 Albums of 2022

Welcome! We made it! It’s another one of these!

What a funky-ass year 2022 was. Actually, not really on some kind of social scale – the pandemic pandemonium has died down, politics seems more…idk, stable? – but just in terms of a year kind of flying by, just happening. Life with kids always reads as “busy” and even more so when you’re actually busy. Very few weekends went by where the family didn’t have something on the go. We are movers, sometimes to our detriment. Turning 40 this year came with a sense that every moment of non-movement should be celebrated and savored. So, the lesson of 2022 was, if you ain’t got shit to do, breath it in. It’s fleeting.

But what a year for music 2022 was. I mean it. Great albums just kept piling up and piling up. And while this list kind of runs the usual game plan of 25 great albums (this year it was more like 30) plus 25 more I just felt like writing about, I’m really happy with the records on here. In fact, I had originally intended to expand this list to 60, but time constraints and writing fatigue forced me to approach the list with more modesty. That said, here’s what 60-51 would have looked like:

60. Sobs Air Guitar

59. Spiritworld DEATHWESTERN

58. Julius Rodriguez Let Sound Tell All

57. 7xvethegenius Self 7xve 2

56. Pool Kids Pool Kids

55. Papo2oo4 Ballerific

54. String Machine Hallelujah Hell Yeah

53. Undeath It’s Time…To Rise From The Grave

52. Infinity Knives King Cobra

51. Denzel Curry Melt My Eyez See Your Future

2022 saw the return of the class of 2019. Some were once again splendid, some are conspicuously absent from this list. It was the year rappers went to therapy (Denzel, Kendrick, Conway, billy woods was already there). It was another banner year for hardcore and jazz boasted some albums that I’m already worried this list is underrating (a couple latecomers kept rising until I had to just give up and hit publish). Some people may lament the state of modern music, but man, if you can shake free from the need to have everything written and made by Tier 1 celebrities, music becomes incredibly freeing and inspiring.

Enjoy the list! Comments are always welcomed.