Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 by 
Arthurknight 
2022 was a really pleasant year for music. I think that sense of post-Covid energy shines through a lot of the albums that have come out and I for one like this as a nice change from the trend of bored artists making boring lockdown recordings which were continually dolled out as low-stakes releases throughout 2020 and 2021. Musically, the 2020s continue to not be particularly radical – nobodies making anything daringly "new" – but I think a set of sounds that distinguish the decade are beginning to emerge: It's the return of softcore, the "rock band", the concept album, and political music being cool again. Meanwhile, Tiktok looms over us all as the cultural behemoth which will eventually consume the entire industry and convert all artists into short-form vloggers peddling portable smoothie blenders.
Top 15 Songs of 2022:
1. Black Country, New Road: The Place Where He Inserted The Blade
2. Bluetile Lounge: Easterly
3. Blackwinterwells, 8485: halo3
4. Yo La Tengo – Fallout
5. Rachika Nayar, Maria BC – Heaven Comes Crashing
6. julie: pg. 4 a picture of three hedges
7. Kendrick Lamar - The Heart, Part 5
8. Horsegirl: Anti-glory
9. Julia Holter: Heloise
10. Uboa, vi a: Dead Time's Broken Arrow
11. Saya Gray: If There's No Seat In the Sky (Will You Forgive Me???)
12. Sons Of: A Yellow Robe
13. Enablers: Year Of The Dog
14. Jessie Ware: Free Yourself
15. Oiseaux-Tempête: A Man Alone - In A One Man Poem
Additional "Significant" reviews (Written reviews in album comments):
Ethel Cain – Preacher's Daughter: 6
Belle and Sebastian – A Bit of Previous: 6
Sault – Air: 6
Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems: 6
Nouns – While of Unsound Mind: 6
Desire – Escape: 6
Pusha T – It's Almost Dry: 6
Wet Leg – Wet Leg: 6
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Omnium Gatherum: 6
Pinegrove – 1111: 6
FKA Twigs – Caprisongs: 6
Leikeli47 – Shape Up: 6
Earl Sweatshirt – Sick!: 6
Yard Act – The Overload: 5.5
Father John Misty – Chloë And The Next 20th Century: 5.5
Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever: 5.5
Melody's Echo Chamber – Emotional Eternal: 5.5
Black Star – No Fear of Time: 5.5
Soccer Mommy – Somtimes, Forever: 5.5
The Weeknd – Dawn FM: 5
Spoon – Lucifer On The Sofa: 5
Jack White – Fear Of The Dawn: 5
Everything Everything – Raw Data Feel: 4.5
070 Shake – You Can't Kill Me: 4
Arcade Fire – We: 4
Arctic Monkeys – The Car: 2
Unsurprisingly, Muse released the year's worst album: a crass and masturbatory exercise in fantasised hubris masquerading as music. Will Of The People is the closest Muse have got to creating music that can work like the "Killer Joke" from Monty Python's Flying Circus, and after listening to it I could only wish that they had succeeded. Solid attempts at releasing worse music this year were made by Drake, Jack Harlow, and most-daringly Avril Lavigne, but it's hard to actively criticise the sausage factory for the junk it pumps out. Instead, Muse claim to be making art.
- Chart updated: 02/02/2024 04:15
- (Created: 02/07/2022 05:58).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 3 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 has an average rating of 90 out of 100 (from 4 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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6.5/10
Self styled reason your 14 year old won't stop talking about Malcolm X, Ghais Guevara is a RYM darling, mainly because he is more ironic sampling heavy version of JPEG Mafia. While Fuck the Nordic Model off Blackbolshevik remains the one great Guevara song, and nothing from this new project really compares, it's not to say this isn't a worthwhile listen at all. If anything, it's more ideologically clear, a musical campaign against service sector-based class stratification.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
Self styled reason your 14 year old won't stop talking about Malcolm X, Ghais Guevara is a RYM darling, mainly because he is more ironic sampling heavy version of JPEG Mafia. While Fuck the Nordic Model off Blackbolshevik remains the one great Guevara song, and nothing from this new project really compares, it's not to say this isn't a worthwhile listen at all. If anything, it's more ideologically clear, a musical campaign against service sector-based class stratification.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
1
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6.5/10
As the second single suggests, this record is alright. There's some really good ideas here. Outside of the main singles, which are the key tracks and all fun, "blessings" is a great closer. Ultimately, there's just too many short underdeveloped meanderings here (34 minutes across 18 songs) to make this a great full experience. Also, why is pitchfork so obsessed with this kind of RnB project? Basically a cheap way to get best new music.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/27/2022]
As the second single suggests, this record is alright. There's some really good ideas here. Outside of the main singles, which are the key tracks and all fun, "blessings" is a great closer. Ultimately, there's just too many short underdeveloped meanderings here (34 minutes across 18 songs) to make this a great full experience. Also, why is pitchfork so obsessed with this kind of RnB project? Basically a cheap way to get best new music.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/27/2022]
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6.5/10
Saxophone driven avant-garde metal in the vein of A Forest of Stars, but arguably a little weirder and with more spoken word vocals. Pretty enjoyable.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
Saxophone driven avant-garde metal in the vein of A Forest of Stars, but arguably a little weirder and with more spoken word vocals. Pretty enjoyable.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
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6.5/10
I wasn't – despite the hype – all that impressed by Lasky's last album, consistent with my general dislike of whiney male vocals and white rap. It doesn't help that Lasky is a cringe youtuber angled for kids and whose catalogue up until this recent "serious" shift is agonisingly bad. Putting that aside, I Didn't Mean to Haunt You shows some promise. I still cannot tolerate Quadeca's rapping, but in the bits where he gets closer to spoken word or mild croning it works – as an example: "tell me a joke" and "don't mind me" are great. It's not outstanding or anything, but – for the first time – it's actually good.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/16/2022]
I wasn't – despite the hype – all that impressed by Lasky's last album, consistent with my general dislike of whiney male vocals and white rap. It doesn't help that Lasky is a cringe youtuber angled for kids and whose catalogue up until this recent "serious" shift is agonisingly bad. Putting that aside, I Didn't Mean to Haunt You shows some promise. I still cannot tolerate Quadeca's rapping, but in the bits where he gets closer to spoken word or mild croning it works – as an example: "tell me a joke" and "don't mind me" are great. It's not outstanding or anything, but – for the first time – it's actually good.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/16/2022]
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6.5/10
Mitski comes out with another good album. Ironically, I like the instrumentation across most of this record moreso than other releases of hers, but I'm not sure Mitski herself fits that well into them. Working for the Knife remains a great track, but getting through the entire album becomes a little boring with time - mixes are low, reverb – while well executed – just dominates the album, and Mitski herself sounds mostly uninterested in the music. Usually a return from a hiatus feels more urgent, like you needed to get back into the studio, but this doesn't whatsoever. Fame does weird things.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/07/2022]
Mitski comes out with another good album. Ironically, I like the instrumentation across most of this record moreso than other releases of hers, but I'm not sure Mitski herself fits that well into them. Working for the Knife remains a great track, but getting through the entire album becomes a little boring with time - mixes are low, reverb – while well executed – just dominates the album, and Mitski herself sounds mostly uninterested in the music. Usually a return from a hiatus feels more urgent, like you needed to get back into the studio, but this doesn't whatsoever. Fame does weird things.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/07/2022]
Year of Release:
2022
Appears in:
Rank Score:
406
Rank in 2022:
Rank in 2020s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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6.5/10
Okay so this record is a mess. Some songs are pretty enjoyable: United in Grief is a solid opener, N95 makes for a good single, and Count Me Out and Crown demonstrate a comfortable grip on new terrain for Lamar. The Beth Gibbons track Mother I Sob is a nice way for the album to wind down, and a remarkably exciting bridging of worlds, only highlighted further by the need to specify who gibbons even is for his audience (albeit a slightly cringe sight). Auntie Diaries, although the supposedly controversial track – and it is, no doubt – is musically quite compelling. Lamar clearly has lived experience that makes him intimately aware of the trans experience, and his use of gendered language I read as far more fluidly conscious of performativity than others have credited the track with. However, deadnaming Caitlin Jenner is pointless and undermines the song's centre, and ending the track with some bizarre equivocation about who can say slurs is just trash. Additionally, the kind of highly gendered lyrics throughout the rest of the album (a considerable amount deals with metoo in odd ways), leads to conflations in places. Worst is in We Cry Together, which I personally left with a sour taste in my mouth and remain unclear as to what degree the song is satire. At least when MF Doom did this in "Can I Watch?" it was funny, here it's just rehearsed and recorded abusiveness. Kodak Black's inclusion just makes that ambiguous line between commentary and misogyny worse, not to mention Lamar's trap forays in the album being terrible. Although, there is an interesting synthesis set up in Crown, where Lamar repeats "I Can't Please Everybody" over and over. For someone who has often produced astute analysis of America's institutional racism, while maybe – to put it nicely – stumbling in the post-Trump social landscape, Mr Morale encapsulates the weird state of an artist heralded by fans (though Lamar likes to remind us a lot of this, which says something) as a Saviour. He's really far from that, and it's okay.
_ [First added to this chart: 05/15/2022]
Okay so this record is a mess. Some songs are pretty enjoyable: United in Grief is a solid opener, N95 makes for a good single, and Count Me Out and Crown demonstrate a comfortable grip on new terrain for Lamar. The Beth Gibbons track Mother I Sob is a nice way for the album to wind down, and a remarkably exciting bridging of worlds, only highlighted further by the need to specify who gibbons even is for his audience (albeit a slightly cringe sight). Auntie Diaries, although the supposedly controversial track – and it is, no doubt – is musically quite compelling. Lamar clearly has lived experience that makes him intimately aware of the trans experience, and his use of gendered language I read as far more fluidly conscious of performativity than others have credited the track with. However, deadnaming Caitlin Jenner is pointless and undermines the song's centre, and ending the track with some bizarre equivocation about who can say slurs is just trash. Additionally, the kind of highly gendered lyrics throughout the rest of the album (a considerable amount deals with metoo in odd ways), leads to conflations in places. Worst is in We Cry Together, which I personally left with a sour taste in my mouth and remain unclear as to what degree the song is satire. At least when MF Doom did this in "Can I Watch?" it was funny, here it's just rehearsed and recorded abusiveness. Kodak Black's inclusion just makes that ambiguous line between commentary and misogyny worse, not to mention Lamar's trap forays in the album being terrible. Although, there is an interesting synthesis set up in Crown, where Lamar repeats "I Can't Please Everybody" over and over. For someone who has often produced astute analysis of America's institutional racism, while maybe – to put it nicely – stumbling in the post-Trump social landscape, Mr Morale encapsulates the weird state of an artist heralded by fans (though Lamar likes to remind us a lot of this, which says something) as a Saviour. He's really far from that, and it's okay.
_ [First added to this chart: 05/15/2022]
Year of Release:
2022
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,126
Rank in 2022:
Rank in 2020s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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6.5/10
This is so much more a Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) album than it is a Panda Bear one. If you like Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Stereolab, etc., you'll probably enjoy aspects of this? Even despite these production credentials, I find the whole thing a bit vapid and tame. The goal of the whole project – like a lot of early Animal Collective music, but in this case so much more obviously – is to reach back to The Beach Boys, but it makes no sense why. The Beach Boys are so inimitable that the pursuit reeks of hubris.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
This is so much more a Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) album than it is a Panda Bear one. If you like Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Stereolab, etc., you'll probably enjoy aspects of this? Even despite these production credentials, I find the whole thing a bit vapid and tame. The goal of the whole project – like a lot of early Animal Collective music, but in this case so much more obviously – is to reach back to The Beach Boys, but it makes no sense why. The Beach Boys are so inimitable that the pursuit reeks of hubris.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
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6.5/10
Renaissance has a lot of redeeming features, mostly how Beyoncé historicises the disco canon. However, it is also indisputably overhyped, a prime example of the way popstars of the 21st century post-album-distribution hellscape of streaming can waltz into mass critical appraisal with a single foray into big concept driven "high art" full album. Beyonce has proven already with Lemonade that she can be more than a singles artist, so I don't want to suggest that it's entirely bad faith, just more that let's settle at pretty good at best rather than "revolutionary". Moreover, people are and will continue to attach other weirdly hyperbolic triumphalist tags to this – i.e. music as celebration of [insert your choice of really anything] – and that's nice and all, but this really only is somewhat convincing when Beyonce is looking back and celebrating 70s/80s black musicianship, a well trodden path in the last decade. Early tracks like Alien Superstar and Cuff it are perfect examples of modernised disco, they are genuinely fun songs to return to, but god the areas in this indulging in contemporary pop and trap trends, as if they too are – in a way – as iconic as Donna Summer ruin this. Energy is the first completely terrible song, exemplifying the worst of Beyonce-does-Jay Z nonsense. While Break My Soul's sudden interruption of it makes for a very fun opening of the single (which, when initially heard in isolation seemed very cringe), the irony in that opening sample is a little lost by Beyoncé doing it rather than James Ferraro. I think Renaissance starts to get back on track with Virgo's Groove, but the backend of this is littered with sleepfest tracks like Move and All Up In Your Mind, which honestly should have been binned (Virgo's Groove -> Pure/Honey would have been a nice transition). Summer Renaissance's celebration of I Feel Love, which should also retrospectively be a celebration of "Renaissance" – or a track that rationalises why Beyonce needed to do this – just ends up making me want to listen to the original 12" to be brutally honest. Beyonce is at her best in Renaissance when she is subtle rather than overt with the referentiality. It's a record that could open a window to the past for zoomers, but worst case this will date itself quickly.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
Renaissance has a lot of redeeming features, mostly how Beyoncé historicises the disco canon. However, it is also indisputably overhyped, a prime example of the way popstars of the 21st century post-album-distribution hellscape of streaming can waltz into mass critical appraisal with a single foray into big concept driven "high art" full album. Beyonce has proven already with Lemonade that she can be more than a singles artist, so I don't want to suggest that it's entirely bad faith, just more that let's settle at pretty good at best rather than "revolutionary". Moreover, people are and will continue to attach other weirdly hyperbolic triumphalist tags to this – i.e. music as celebration of [insert your choice of really anything] – and that's nice and all, but this really only is somewhat convincing when Beyonce is looking back and celebrating 70s/80s black musicianship, a well trodden path in the last decade. Early tracks like Alien Superstar and Cuff it are perfect examples of modernised disco, they are genuinely fun songs to return to, but god the areas in this indulging in contemporary pop and trap trends, as if they too are – in a way – as iconic as Donna Summer ruin this. Energy is the first completely terrible song, exemplifying the worst of Beyonce-does-Jay Z nonsense. While Break My Soul's sudden interruption of it makes for a very fun opening of the single (which, when initially heard in isolation seemed very cringe), the irony in that opening sample is a little lost by Beyoncé doing it rather than James Ferraro. I think Renaissance starts to get back on track with Virgo's Groove, but the backend of this is littered with sleepfest tracks like Move and All Up In Your Mind, which honestly should have been binned (Virgo's Groove -> Pure/Honey would have been a nice transition). Summer Renaissance's celebration of I Feel Love, which should also retrospectively be a celebration of "Renaissance" – or a track that rationalises why Beyonce needed to do this – just ends up making me want to listen to the original 12" to be brutally honest. Beyonce is at her best in Renaissance when she is subtle rather than overt with the referentiality. It's a record that could open a window to the past for zoomers, but worst case this will date itself quickly.
_ [First added to this chart: 08/26/2022]
Year of Release:
2022
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,172
Rank in 2022:
Rank in 2020s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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6.5/10
I need to preface this by saying that I saw Perfume Genius live in Melbourne a week out from the release of this album in what was one of (probably actually straight up) the worst international live act performance I've ever witnessed. Never have I been so compelled to complain to a venue because a show was mixed in such an appalling way that it was just unlistenable (PG played the same venue for No Shape tour and were good, the venue is always very professionally sound engineered otherwise). Basically, all the instrumental backing was mixed so high that the PA was distorting, and the vocal mic (not all vocals mind you, backing was loud af) on Hadreas was reverbed to shit and unbearably quiet. I got some vindication when you couldn't even head what Mike was saying as he did stage banter and when the show ended and a guy in front of me got up and said to his partner "did they even do a sound check?" Basically, I'm not in the highest spirits about new PG music rn and so this review might change with time once I get over it.
Ugly Season is good, albeit its best songs are singles from the last decade, and those songs which are new don't have either much coherence or continuity. E.g. Pop Song and Scherzo are both good songs, but don't transition nicely (or interestingly) from one to the other at all. It feels like a thrown together project hastily put together off the back of Hadreas going big.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/27/2022]
I need to preface this by saying that I saw Perfume Genius live in Melbourne a week out from the release of this album in what was one of (probably actually straight up) the worst international live act performance I've ever witnessed. Never have I been so compelled to complain to a venue because a show was mixed in such an appalling way that it was just unlistenable (PG played the same venue for No Shape tour and were good, the venue is always very professionally sound engineered otherwise). Basically, all the instrumental backing was mixed so high that the PA was distorting, and the vocal mic (not all vocals mind you, backing was loud af) on Hadreas was reverbed to shit and unbearably quiet. I got some vindication when you couldn't even head what Mike was saying as he did stage banter and when the show ended and a guy in front of me got up and said to his partner "did they even do a sound check?" Basically, I'm not in the highest spirits about new PG music rn and so this review might change with time once I get over it.
Ugly Season is good, albeit its best songs are singles from the last decade, and those songs which are new don't have either much coherence or continuity. E.g. Pop Song and Scherzo are both good songs, but don't transition nicely (or interestingly) from one to the other at all. It feels like a thrown together project hastily put together off the back of Hadreas going big.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/27/2022]
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6.5/10
It's cute. 2nd Grade made a sanitised non-lofi Guided by Voices album. Even if that sounds derivative and vacuous, the songs are actually quite well written. They're fun, don't take themselves awfully seriously, and do in fact make for some easy listening. Refreshing honestly.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/09/2022]
It's cute. 2nd Grade made a sanitised non-lofi Guided by Voices album. Even if that sounds derivative and vacuous, the songs are actually quite well written. They're fun, don't take themselves awfully seriously, and do in fact make for some easy listening. Refreshing honestly.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/09/2022]
Total albums: 100. Page 9 of 10
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Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| Lambchop | 1 | 1% | |
| The Weather Station | 1 | 1% | |
| Black Dresses | 1 | 1% | |
| Jockstrap | 1 | 1% | |
| Gospel | 1 | 1% | |
| Craig Finn | 1 | 1% | |
| Wild Up | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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45 | 45% | |
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20 | 20% | |
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6 | 6% | |
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4 | 4% | |
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3 | 3% | |
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3 | 3% | |
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2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
 Up 1 from 99th to 98thAir Guitar by Sobs |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 98th to 99th How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars by The Weather Station |
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Other year charts (from the 2020s) by Arthurknight
Top 15 Music Albums of 2024 by Arthurknight (2024)Top 100 Music Albums of 2023 by
Arthurknight (2024)Top 100 Music Albums of 2021 by
Arthurknight (2023)Top 100 Music Albums of 2020 by
Arthurknight (2024)Top 100 Music Albums of 2022 ratings
90/100 (from 4 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
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N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing all 4 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 100/100  | 07/24/2022 13:50 |  ForegroundNoise | | 87/100 |
| 100/100 | 07/16/2022 22:16 |  travelful | | 99/100 |
| 95/100 | 07/10/2022 20:39 |  ghosttomost | | 85/100 |
| 100/100 | 02/09/2022 19:47 | DJENNY | | 100/100 |
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From 
cestuneblague 01/07/2023 01:55
cestuneblague 01/07/2023 01:55
Great chart and love all the reviews- keep it coming!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From ForegroundNoise 01/05/2023 12:39
ForegroundNoise 01/05/2023 12:39
Went to give this a 100/100 and praise your writing when I noticed I'd got there already! Interested to hear your thoughts on my own top 20 – got a piece on Ants From Up There coming out soon too
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From ForegroundNoise 07/24/2022 13:51
ForegroundNoise 07/24/2022 13:51
Another class year chart!! Genuinely a better standard of journalism than most 'Best of 2022 So Far' lists I've seen from major publications; looking forward to checking back on what it looks like in December!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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