Rob Sheffield's Top 20 Albums of 2022



By Rob Sheffield

What a yr for track—any of my pinnacle fractional of-dozen oregon truthful could person been Number One immoderate different year. But those are my faves, with popular idols, guitar bangers, rap poets, disco visionaries. All those albums support giving up caller surprises for me. The double-digit years are perpetually pivotal for music—’66, ’seventy seven, ’88, ’ninety 9 had been 4 of the champion opus years ever. (’11 and ’55 were bangers, too. Y2K wasn’t truthful warm, nevertheless arsenic a minimum it had a kick-ass Madonna album.) 2022 felt other similar Neil Young’s 22 than Taylor Swift’s, nevertheless the sick sonic minds connected this listing saved establishing up backstage imagination areas. Farewell to the yr of Feelin’ 22. Bring connected Nobody Likes You When You’re ’23.

20. Blackpink, Born Pink 

Jisoo, Lisa, Jennie, and Rosé measurement retired arsenic glam queens connected Born Pink—it’s the splendid medium they’ve continually had successful them. The “Lovesick Girls” of K-pop are retired for blood—while Rosé yells “I’m truthful stone & roll!” she isn’t kidding. “Pink Venom” is an fantabulous blast of Sunset Strip hair-steel cosplay—even the sanction sounds similar the telephone of a barroom set playing Poison and Motley Crue covers astatine the sleaziest dive connected the town. But the slayer is “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” a guitar banger implicit of freestyle synth-horns and crazed hormones. The simplest walk is the weepy ballad, nevertheless that’s simply owed to the information Blackpink dependable astir themselves erstwhile they swagger similar they recognize they’re the bully girls wrong the room. And they continually are.

19. Pusha T, It’s Almost Dry 

So…creative evolution. A chill thought successful theory, right? But past there’s Pusha T, the Lemmy of coke rap, who maintains making superb statistic via sticking to the aforesaid dope-game turf helium locked down years ago, whilst helium turned into “Grindin’” with the Clipse. King Push calls himself “cocaine’s Dr. Seuss,” and if it feels similar he’s been present before, it’s owed to the information helium successful nary mode left. (As helium positioned it once, his forte is “Nosetalgia.”) He flexes with visitant shots from Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Pharrell, his Clipse member No Malice. But Lil Uzi Vert has the large line, successful “Scrape It Off”: “Like, what the motherfuck’s a roof?”

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18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cool It Down 

Karen O gives her psyche grounds on Cool It Down, making this consciousness similar a stone spouse to the SZA album. (Which is mode up successful this list, obviously.) The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the unkillable vampires from the NYC indie-sleaze Meet Me In The Bathroom generation. As Nick Zinner advised maine successful 2013. “Nobody thought we’d closing agelong capable to marque ONE album, including us.” But Karen, Nick, and Brian Chase person their idiosyncratic peculiar punk juju, and that they’ve successful nary mode made a overmuch less-than-first-rate report. (Mosquito receives unfairly slept on, commonly owed to the butt-ugly cowl art, but adjacent that 1 had the glam-disco banger “Despair.”) The YYYs flaunt it each implicit Cool It Down, dancing into the apocalypse. The show-stopper: “Blacktop,” which mixes Eno synth enactment and Dylan Thomas poesy arsenic Karen testifies, “I sang successful my chains similar the sea!” Twenty years from “Black Tongue” to “Blacktop”—that’s 7,three 100 dates with the nighttime time, and not a tally of the mill infinitesimal wrong the batch.

17. Momma, Household Name 

Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman, champion friends hardly into their 20s, marque a existent corker of a summertime guitar record with Household Name. Like a batch of 2022’s coolest track, it’s the dependable of younger ladies stealing the full batch worthy stealing from Pavement oregon the Breeders oregon Veruca Salt, but with their precise ain heartfelt twist. The bully mode to statesman the greeting this yr was to deed play connected Household Name and consciousness revved up for these days find it irresistible’s a ultra-modern adventure.

sixteen. FKA Twigs, Caprisongs 

FKA Twigs starts Caprisongs with the dependable of a cassette popping in, arsenic she says, “Hey, I made you a mixtape.” Never a unspeakable mode for a emotion communicative to begin, contempt the information that this 1 is each astir Twigs learning to see herself. When she asks, “You wanna get a portion of my mystique?” the lone reply is yes.

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15. Black Star, No Fear of Time

I wholly get wherefore you thought the Talib Kweli/Yasiin Bey reunion turned into a letdown, nevertheless arsenic a 1990s bitch who has prayed for this medium connected greater flooring than I attraction to matter, I bash not stock your dismay. (Hell, what mightiness beryllium much authentically Nineteen Nineties than disappointing everybody? How astir refusing to merchandise it connected streaming offerings?) The Brooklyn underground rap duo made records with Rawkus classics similar “Definition,” nevertheless 25 years later, they’re looking to bring their infinitesimal up into the future. Bey (f.K.A. Mos Def) sums it up successful “No Fear of Time” whilst helium says, “We bring unneurotic an ark and simply travel on.” The medium ends with a signifier from the precocious Greg Tate, 1 of the realest minds ever to constitute astir track, whose obit I needed to constitute astir precisely a twelvemonth successful the past. Tate offers a (typically) thoughts-blowing pass astir rap artistry; the tune ends with him pronouncing, “I mean, 1 of the matters we recognise astir MCs is, man, they conscionable have retired of the mean recollections.” His dependable echoes into space—“extra peculiar reminiscences, phenomenal reminiscences”—and resonates into the future. The beyond isn’t lifeless, it’s nary longer adjacent beyond—or arsenic Tate utilized to mention, “Hip-hop is ancestor worship.”

14. Water Damage, Repeater

Quite apt my preferred 22-minute psych-freak noise-punk drone of the yr. And that’s simply Side One. The Austin corporate Water Damage laic down a monster groove (two drummers? Three?) with amps groaning successful saccharine comments discomfort. The band’s motto: “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation.” Their unthinkable debut medium is disposable successful useful for those days portion you conscionable wanna blast immoderate cat-hair clogs retired of your brain. Like the Stooges’ Fun House, nevertheless without amusive oregon a residence. Side Two is simply a interaction faster.

13. Vince Staples, Ramona Park Broke My Heart

The Long Beach MC has built 1 of the past decade’s astir apical notch careers, with classics similar Prima Donna and Big Fish Theory, the self-proclaimed “gangsta agelong past Gatsby.” He raps astir emotion agelong past awful, but Ramona Park isn’t a girl—it’s the assemblage successful which helium grew up to the dependable of gunfire. Staples is going from the summertime clip a laughter of “Lemonade” (with Ty Dolla $) to “The Blues,” wherein helium faces the precise past curtains with the confession, “Money made maine numb.”

12. Wet Leg, Wet Leg

Wet Leg’s Big D of a debut inactive feels caller adjacent aft a twelvemonth of dense rotation. Truly a set the assemblage go waiting for: Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, from the Isle of Wight, crank retired a barrage of sarcastic kiss-offs, guitars, sex, revenge, bubble baths. Best exit line: “If you had been higher to maine past possibly I’d support successful caput fucking you good-bye.” Also, locating retired that everybody’s been saying “chaise surviving room” incorrect astir of these years? Bombshell. More, please.

eleven. JID, The Forever Story

Five years aft helium blew up with The Never Story, the Atlanta MC is going heavy into his root tale, unpacking his avenue beingness and ain household past for a hard-hitting memoir. “Sistanem” is simply a pained chronicle of making bid with a distant sister, admitting, “I’m nary longer the astir effectual 1 stricken by poison wrong the mind,” looking to dump “misogynistic mindsets.” He exorcises these mindsets successful his Ari Lennox duet “Can’t Make You Change,” admitting “TLC mightiness telephone maine a scrub / Back erstwhile I changed into / But present I’m getting it, dilatory arsenic fuck.” In the 7-minute memoir “2007,” helium recollects processing up to the dependable of his idol J. Cole, with Cole and JID’s dada supporting him archer the tale. 

10. Ribbon Stage, Hit With The Most

Ribbon Stage spell for punk kicks connected their effervescent debut Hit With The Most. They’re 3 wiseass Brooklyn/Olympia upstarts: guitarist Jolie M-A, drummer Dave Sweetie, singer/bassist Anni Hilator. They bashed retired their medium down wrong the basement, DIY style. (The credits say, “Mixed by means of Capt. Tripps Ballsington.”) But the tunes are irresistible. “Playing Possum” is acceptable being attentive to the Velvet Underground each nighttime (“Left the forty 5 connected / Another Mo Tucker song”) to retrieve from a damage-up. Yet they motion disconnected the pain: “I’ve gotten much hard to delight / And I appreciated you higher erstwhile I go 18.” Punk rock—what a idea!

9. Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen 

L.A. Violinist and auteur Brittney Denise Parks drops a continuously ingenious university, with songs wrong the cardinal of her beingness arsenic a 20-some happening Black creator with a fearless sonic creativeness. These songs are implicit of moody R&B, hip-hop loops, gospel handclaps, electro strategy faults, Sudanese radical fiddle. But she makes it each dependable similar her, from “Selfish Soul” to “Milk Me.” The yr’s high-quality enactment astir gardening: “Only atrocious bitches successful my trellis.”

8. Craig Finn, A Legacy of Rentals 

The Hold Steady frontman acceptable retired to seizure the accepted vibe of “Wichita Lineman” for a full album—widescreen popular beauty, implicit of lush strings, nevertheless a cold-eyed consciousness of doom. It feels similar an not imaginable undertaking, nevertheless helium gets determination successful A Legacy of Rentals, with shaper Josh Kaufman, vocalist Cassandra Jenkins, and a 14-piece orchestra. Finn sings astir capitalism and addiction similar they’re the adjacent aspect, with a forged of sellers and drifters and hustlers, with strains similar “The satan makes his currency connected the tiny offers” oregon “Her get dressed each completed successful daffodils / The sticky statement connected her skateboard stated ‘Speed Kills.’” Craig Finn has been rock’s hardest-hitting storyteller for years, but he’s inactive connected the line.

7. Horsegirl, Versions of Modern Performance

Horsegirl broke retired of the humming Chicago indie country this 12 months with their precise ain caller sound. These 3 Gen Z girls mightiness beryllium nevertheless excessively young to get into bars—for this crushed their youngster lament, “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty).” But successful lawsuit you’re a fiend for guitars, Horsegirl proviso the clang you’ve been craving—their bang-up debut Versions of Modern Performance is simply a blast of pinnacle-notch six-string fuzz that brings a sly caller twist to the grooves of Pavement, the Breeders, oregon the Pastels. Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley play astatine the nary longer-pretty-ironic “Beautiful Song.” The satellite volition successful nary mode recognize wherefore it took goodbye for idiosyncratic to accidental this 1 up, nevertheless Horsegirl crook a Gang of Four euphony into their ain cleanable hook: “Sometimes I’m questioning that I lust you / But I recognize it’s lone love.” 

6. Rosalía, Motomami 

Rosalía makes a notably ingenious best-hits medium for each her bonzer voices, with “Yo maine transformo” arsenic her undertaking announcement. On Motomami, she mixes up genres, beats, moods—in immoderate different technology, this medium could person been an avant-garde experimentation for a cult people audience, nevertheless Rosalía made it a worldwide blockbuster. She taps into the glam-pop bequest of Spain, a authorities with a glorious New Wave records that’s hugely underrated (and astir unknown) wrong the U.S., whether it’s stars similar Mecano and Alaska y Dinarama oregon underground bands similar Esplendor Geométrico. But Rosalía approaches each benignant of way successful her ain bizarre manner—and helium oregon she has nary non-weird approaches.

five. Pictoria Vark, The Parts I Dread

When I request to carnivore successful caput the summertime of 2022, I’ll instrumentality into relationship however Pictoria Vark ruined my beingness with a succinct yet poant acceptable of indie tunes evoking the mode a wandering bosom covers crushed successful her twenties, from Wyoming roads to suburban lawns, searching up astatine the stars of Iowa nevertheless dreaming of a relationship near astatine the backmost of successful Brooklyn. Plus “I Can’t Bike,” a protracted-past owed pedestrian anthem with a kick-ass guitar solo. Best line, from “Friend Song”: “This metropolis received’t ever beryllium the adjacent / The enigma stars volition spell your name.”

P.S. Pictoria Vark ruined my beingness successful different way, owed to the information astatine her NYC display, connected her pre-display playlist, she blanketed The Veronicas’ 2007 deed “Untouched,” a tune I’d wholly forgotten approximately, but 1 I’ve been gambling obsessively ever seeing that. Music, guy—while radical alert you it’s dangerous, they’re right. 

four. SZA, SOS

This medium has lone existed for much than 1 weeks, nevertheless I already can’t ideate a planetary with retired it. As idiosyncratic who has spent the beyond 5 years attempting and failing to analyse each of the beingness grooming SZA became coaching connected CTRL, I had precocious hopes for SOS, nevertheless SZA tops each of them, contempt the information that it turns retired she’s been seeking to larn the identical classes. The trio of “Snooze”/“Notice Me”/“Gone Girl” is 10 minutes of soul-deep perfection. There’s a batch analyzable poetic penning connected this album, it’s hard to take a favourite line. “I don’t wanna beryllium your woman friend, I’m conscionable tryna beryllium your character”? “Now that I’ve ruined the full batch I’m truthful fucking free”? “I gave each my unsocial distant to a loser”? But the enactment I sphere coming returned to is 1 of the handiest: “Is it unspeakable that I request extra?”

3. Harry Styles, Harry’s House

Harry, you’re nary close by myself. Harry’s House is his good album, nary longer to notation the lone deed medium of 2022 to encompass some an epigraph from Ralph Waldo Emerson and the hook “cocaine sideboob, choke her with a oversea view.” It’s a vibrant, playful, vividly affectional opus rhythm astir uncovering one-of-a-kind sorts of location astatine the run. Harry zips from Tokyo-fashion metropolis popular (“Music for a Sushi Restaurant”) to disco flash (“Satellite”) to the woozy hippie shagadelia (“Grapejuice”). “As It Was” feels truthful prone, yet it exploded into the 12 months’s monster vigor hit—it took six months for this tune to acceptable ft outside the Top Five. (Right, A-Ha, nevertheless it’s were fixed hardly greater Scritti Politti.) It has the aforesaid beating coronary bosom arsenic “Matilda,” a almighty guitar ballad astir looking a chum heal from ain household trauma, not knowing what to say, simply listening and empathizing. Sure tendency this opus existed erstwhile I turned into 19, nevertheless truthful grateful the assemblage has it now.

2. Taylor Swift, Midnights