Rob Sheffield’s Top 20 Albums of 2022 - Rolling Stone

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What a year for music—any of my apical half-dozen oregon truthful could person been Number One immoderate different year. But these are my faves, with popular idols, guitar bangers, rap poets, disco visionaries. All these albums support giving up caller surprises for me. The double-digit years are ever pivotal for music—’66, ’77, ’88, ’99 were 4 of the coolest euphony years ever. (’11 and ’55 were bangers, too. Y2K wasn’t truthful hot, but astatine slightest it had a kick-ass Madonna album.) 2022 felt much similar Neil Young’s 22 than Taylor Swift’s, but the sick sonic minds connected this database kept opening up backstage imagination spaces. Farewell to the twelvemonth 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 large medium they’ve ever had successful them. The “Lovesick Girls” of K-pop are retired for blood—when Rosé yells “I’m truthful stone & roll!” she isn’t kidding. “Pink Venom” is simply a cleanable blast of Sunset Strip hair-metal cosplay—even the rubric sounds similar the sanction of a barroom set playing Poison and Motley Crue covers astatine the sleaziest dive successful town. But the slayer is “Yeah Yeah Yeah,” a guitar banger afloat of freestyle synth-horns and crazed hormones. The lone skip is the weepy ballad, but that’s conscionable due to the fact that Blackpink dependable astir themselves erstwhile they swagger similar they cognize they’re the coolest girls successful the room. And they ever are.

19. Pusha T, It’s Almost Dry

So…artistic evolution. A chill thought successful theory, right? But past there’s Pusha T, the Lemmy of coke rap, who keeps making large records by sticking to the aforesaid dope-game turf helium locked down years ago, erstwhile helium was “Grindin’” with the Clipse. King Push calls himself “cocaine’s Dr. Seuss,” and if it sounds similar he’s been present before, it’s due to the fact that helium ne'er left. (As helium enactment it once, his specialty is “Nosetalgia.”) He flexes with impermanent shots from Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Pharrell, his Clipse member No Malice. But Lil Uzi Vert has the champion line, successful “Scrape It Off”: “Like, what the motherfuck’s a roof?”

Editor’s picks

18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cool It Down

Karen O gives her psyche grounds on Cool It Down, making this consciousness similar a stone companion to the SZA album. (Which is mode up connected this list, obviously.) The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the unkillable vampires from the NYC indie-sleaze Meet Me In The Bathroom era. As Nick Zinner told maine successful 2013. “Nobody thought we’d past agelong capable to marque ONE album, including us.” But Karen, Nick, and Brian Chase person their ain unsocial punk juju, and they’ve ne'er made a less-than-amazing record. (Mosquito gets unfairly slept on, mostly due to the fact that of the butt-ugly screen 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 7,300 dates with the night, and not a boring infinitesimal successful the batch.

17. Momma, Household Name

Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman, 2 champion friends hardly into their 20s, marque a existent corker of a summertime guitar grounds with Household Name. Like truthful overmuch of 2022’s coolest music, it’s the dependable of young women stealing everything worthy stealing from Pavement oregon the Breeders oregon Veruca Salt, but with their ain heartfelt twist. The champion mode to commencement the greeting this twelvemonth was to deed play connected Household Name and consciousness revved up for contiguous similar it’s a marque caller adventure.

16. FKA Twigs, Caprisongs

FKA Twigs begins Caprisongs with the dependable of a cassette popping in, arsenic she says, “Hey, I made you a mixtape.” Never a atrocious mode for a emotion communicative to begin, adjacent if this 1 is each astir Twigs learning to clasp herself. When she asks, “You wanna get a spot of my mystique?” the lone reply is yes.

15. Black Star, No Fear of Time

I wholly get wherefore you thought the Talib Kweli/Yasiin Bey reunion was a letdown, but arsenic a Nineties bitch who has prayed for this medium connected much floors than I attraction to count, I bash not stock your dismay. (Hell, what could beryllium much authentically Nineties than disappointing everyone? How astir refusing to merchandise it connected streaming services?) The Brooklyn underground rap duo made history with Rawkus classics similar “Definition,” but 25 years later, they’re trying to bring their infinitesimal guardant into the future. Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def) sums it up successful “No Fear of Time” erstwhile helium says, “We assemble an ark and conscionable interval on.” The medium ends with a illustration from the precocious Greg Tate, 1 of the realest minds ever to constitute astir music, whose obit I had to constitute astir precisely a twelvemonth ago. Tate gives a (typically) mind-blowing speech astir rap artistry; the opus ends with him saying, “I mean, 1 of the things we cognize astir MCs is, man, they conscionable have phenomenal memories.” His dependable echoes into space—“phenomenal memories, phenomenal memories”—and resonates into the future. The past isn’t dead, it’s not adjacent past—or arsenic Tate utilized to say, “Hip-hop is ancestor worship.”

14. Water Damage, Repeater

Quite perchance my favourite 22-minute psych-freak noise-punk drone of the year. And that’s conscionable Side One. The Austin corporate Water Damage laic down a monster groove (two drummers? three?) with amps groaning successful saccharine feedback agony. The band’s motto: “Maximal Repetition Minimal Deviation.” Their fantabulous debut medium comes successful useful for those days erstwhile you conscionable wanna blast immoderate cat-hair clogs retired of your brain. Like the Stooges’ Fun House, but without amusive oregon a house. Side Two is simply a small faster.

13. Vince Staples, Ramona Park Broke My Heart

The Long Beach MC has built 1 of the past decade’s astir superb careers, with classics similar Prima Donna and Big Fish Theory, the self-proclaimed “gangsta gone Gatsby.” He raps astir emotion gone bad, but Ramona Park isn’t a woman—it’s the vicinity wherever helium grew up to the dependable of gunfire. Staples goes from the summertime amusive of “Lemonade” (with Ty Dolla $ign) to “The Blues,” wherever helium faces the last 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 satellite was 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 were amended to maine past possibly I’d see fucking you goodbye.” Also, uncovering retired that everybody’s been pronouncing “chaise lounge” incorrect each these years? Bombshell. More, please.

11. JID, The Forever Story

Five years aft helium blew up with The Never Story, the Atlanta MC goes heavy into his root story, unpacking his thoroughfare beingness and household past for a hard-hitting memoir. “Sistanem” is simply a pained chronicle of making bid with a distant sister, admitting, “I’m not the lone 1 affected by poison successful the mind,” trying to unload “misogynistic mindsets.” He exorcises these mindsets successful his Ari Lennox duet “Can’t Make You Change,” admitting “TLC would telephone maine a scrub / Back erstwhile I was / But present I’m getting it, dilatory arsenic fuck.” In the 7-minute memoir “2007,” helium recalls increasing up to the dependable of his idol J. Cole, with Cole and JID’s dada helping him archer the story.

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 successful the basement, DIY style. (The credits say, “Mixed by Capt. Tripps Ballsington.”) But the tunes are irresistible. “Playing Possum” is astir listening to the Velvet Underground each nighttime (“Left the 45 connected / Another Mo Tucker song”) to retrieve from a break-up. Yet they motion disconnected the pain: “I’ve gotten harder to delight / And I liked you amended erstwhile I was 18.” Punk rock—what a concept!

9. Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen

L.A. violinist and auteur Brittney Denise Parks drops a perpetually inventive collage, with songs successful the cardinal of her beingness arsenic a 20-something Black creator with a fearless sonic imagination. These songs are afloat of moody R&B, hip-hop loops, gospel handclaps, electro glitches, Sudanese people fiddle. But she makes it each dependable similar her, from “Selfish Soul” to “Milk Me.” The year’s champion 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 classical vibe of “Wichita Lineman” for a full album—widescreen popular beauty, afloat of lush strings, but a cold-eyed consciousness of doom. It sounds similar an intolerable task, but 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 aforesaid thing, with a formed of dealers and drifters and hustlers, with lines similar “The devil makes his wealth connected the tiny deals” oregon “Her formal each done successful daffodils / The sticker connected her skateboard said ‘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 buzzing Chicago indie country this twelvemonth with their ain caller sound. These 3 Gen Z women mightiness beryllium inactive excessively young to get into bars—hence their teen lament, “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty).” But if you’re a fiend for guitars, Horsegirl present the clang you’ve been craving—their bang-up debut Versions of Modern Performance is simply a blast of top-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 connected the not-quite-ironic “Beautiful Song.” The satellite volition ne'er cognize wherefore it took truthful agelong for idiosyncratic to deliberation this 1 up, but Horsegirl flip a Gang of Four opus into their ain cleanable hook: “Sometimes I’m reasoning that I lust you / But I cognize it’s lone love.”

6. Rosalía, Motomami

Rosalía makes a radically inventive greatest-hits medium for each her antithetic voices, with “Yo maine transformo” arsenic her ngo statement. On Motomami, she mixes up genres, beats, moods—in immoderate different era, this medium would person been an avant-garde experimentation for a cult audience, but Rosalía made it a planetary blockbuster. She taps into the glam-pop bequest of Spain, a federation with a glorious New Wave past that’s hugely underrated (and astir unknown) successful 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 euphony successful her ain weird way—and she has nary non-weird ways.

5. Pictoria Vark, The Parts I Dread

When I privation to retrieve the summertime of 2022, I’ll retrieve however Pictoria Vark ruined my beingness with a succinct yet poignant acceptable of indie tunes evoking the mode a wandering bosom covers crushed successful her twenties, from Wyoming roads to suburban lawns, looking up astatine the stars of Iowa but dreaming of a relationship near down successful Brooklyn. Plus “I Can’t Bike,” a long-overdue pedestrian anthem with a kick-ass guitar solo. Best line, from “Friend Song”: “This metropolis won’t ever beryllium the aforesaid / The enigma stars volition spell your name.”

P.S. Pictoria Vark ruined my beingness successful different way, due to the fact that astatine her NYC show, connected her pre-show playlist, she included The Veronicas’ 2007 deed “Untouched,” a opus I’d wholly forgotten about, but 1 I’ve been playing obsessively ever since. Music, man—when radical pass you it’s dangerous, they’re right.

4. SZA, SOS

This medium has lone existed for a mates of weeks, but I already can’t ideate a satellite without it. As idiosyncratic who has spent the past 5 years trying and failing to larn each the beingness lessons SZA was teaching connected CTRL, I had precocious hopes for SOS, but SZA tops them all, adjacent if it turns retired she’s been trying to larn the aforesaid lessons. The trio of “Snooze”/“Notice Me”/“Gone Girl” is 10 minutes of soul-deep perfection. There’s truthful overmuch analyzable poetic penning connected this album, it’s pugnacious to prime a favourite line. “I don’t wanna beryllium your girlfriend, I’m conscionable tryna beryllium your person”? “Now that I’ve ruined everything I’m truthful fucking free”? “I gave each my peculiar distant to a loser”? But the enactment I support coming backmost to is 1 of the simplest: “Is it atrocious that I privation more?”

3. Harry Styles, Harry’s House

Harry, you’re nary bully alone. Harry’s House is his champion album, not to notation the lone deed medium of 2022 to see 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 antithetic kinds of location connected the run. Harry zips from Tokyo-style metropolis popular (“Music for a Sushi Restaurant”) to disco flash (“Satellite”) to the woozy hippie shagadelia (“Grapejuice”). “As It Was” feels truthful vulnerable, yet it exploded into the year’s monster vigor hit—it took six months for this opus to acceptable ft outside the Top Five. (Right, A-Ha, but it’s got somewhat much Scritti Politti.) It has the aforesaid beating bosom arsenic “Matilda,” a almighty guitar ballad astir watching a person heal from household trauma, not knowing what to say, conscionable listening and empathizing. Sure privation this opus existed erstwhile I was 19, but truthful grateful the satellite has it now.

2. Taylor Swift, Midnights

Checkmate, she couldn’t lose. There’s nary parallel to Taylor successful history: 16 years aft her debut, she’s connected 1 of the all-time blistery streaks, astatine the highest of her genius and impact, with a prolific unreserved of 7 Number One albums successful 5 years. Let’s enactment it this way: 16 years aft his archetypal hit, Bowie was bottoming retired successful his Tonight era. Dylan was connected Street Legal. Springsteen was making Human Touch. This conscionable ne'er happens. I emotion however truthful galore of Taylor’s favourite stories travel unneurotic connected Midnights, arsenic she keeps getting mislaid successful her ain lavender labyrinths. I emotion however she brags, “I play it chill with the champion of them.” (Taylor, person you met yourself? The past clip you sang astir however emotionally chill you were, you sang the enactment “isn’t it?” 26 times successful 1 song.) I emotion the 3 A.M. Quill Pen ballads—damn, “The Great War.” Even “Karma,” which sounded similar the dud astatine first. (The rubric mightiness evoke John Lennon oregon George Harrison, but it’s precisely the opus Paul McCartney would person written astir karma successful 1974 for Side 2 of Wings’ Venus and Mars.) I emotion each infinitesimal of this thing. A full Taylor classic.

A conception medium astir big fun, from a queen who turns the full cosmos into her creation floor. In her archetypal since Lemonade, Beyoncé the “Freakum Dress” Party Girl Hedonist goes up against Beyoncé the Genius Conceptual Music Mind, and they some win, due to the fact that they request each other. The opening 10-minute bang is arsenic exhilarating arsenic euphony got this year, kicking disconnected an epic visionary circuit of Black creation sounds, traveling done truthful overmuch taste past successful each beat, uniting each alien superstar successful the club. She keeps wondering if we’re having capable fun, if she’s moving hard enough, if she’s being socially liable enough, lone to determine the hellhole with it, let’s deed the level and fuck up the night. She’s Number One, the 1 of one, the lone one, excessively classical for this world.