2022 Year End Lists: Top 100 Songs of 2022
While
the singles list is burdened with rules about one song per artist and the insistence on taking every single element of a song from a cultural and promotional standpoint into consideration, the songs list has none of that. This is just the best songs from every single album, mixtape, and EP I heard this year. Anymore context than that is unnecessary, enjoy. <3
100. More Pressure - Kae Tempest (feat. Kevin Abstract)
I fell foolishly in love with this song early in the year and while I was ultimately disappointed by what Kevin Abstract brought to the final two Brockhampton projects, he makes a great contribution here. On top of that Kae's mind-bending lyricism is as compelling and mystifying as ever, not to mention catchy as the refrains throughout have stuck with me all year.
Key Lyric: "Less instruction, more comprehension"
99. So Much More - Conway The Machine
This year Conway made a statement with a record that not only elevated him from much of his previous work but separated himself from the reach of so many of his contemporaries. His creativity and individuality are on perfect display on So Much More where he proclaims that he's more than just another rapper and then proves it.
Key Lyric: "Don't confuse me as just another rapper, I'm so much more"
98. NYAMA - Backxwash (feat. Pupil Slicer)
Every year Backxwash seems to find a new way to conjure up an even filthier blend of metal and hip-hop, so sure why not throw Pupil Slicer in the mix. Lead singer Katie Davies handles the ripping hook and it's a testament to the intensity of Backxwash and the quality of the instrumental that it doesn't feel the least bit out of place. The song is confrontational, expansive, and totally unforgettable.
Key Lyric: "If I can't live, then you can't live, blood is thicker than everything"
97. the dealer - Nilufer Yanya
One of the breakout artists of 2022 on the indie scene was Nilufer Yanya and it's easy to see why. When she's at her best she has enough command of her performance to captivate an exciting instrumental but also has the nuance to make her meditations feel like they mean something. That all comes together on her best song yet the dealer whose stuttering drum beat and infectious hook meant it was firmly lodged in my rotation from the moment I first heard it.
Key Lyric: "I miss the kind of patience that breaks your heart, baby it's me that's taking us apart"
96. RAP JASM - Moor Mother (feat. AKAI SOLO & justmadnice)
Every time Moor Mother drops a new murky experimental hip hop record it just translates with me more and more. The inventive flavors of this year's Jazz Codes felt like something only she could pull off. This team-up with AKAI SOLO who had already won me over with his music in the past felt like a match made in heaven and the two bring their A-Game, not only contrasting each other perfectly but doing it while fitting snugly into the same instrumental landscape.
Key Lyric: "In the boxing ring called life, you can get hit forever"
95. Abilene - Plains
This year Waxahatchee and Jess Williamson debut their collaborative folk project Plains with an album packed front to back with great indie folk songs. The best of the bunch is Abilene a classic country-folk fusion in the best narrative sense with a story that I won't spoil, it's worth hearing for yourself. Even better than that is the musicianship involved as both Jess and Katie feel fit for a song like this while also managing to have impressive chemistry with each other throughout.
Key Lyric: "That's why I don't talk about Abilene no more"
94. Cosmic - Amber Mark
Amber Mark's debut album this year confirmed to many fans and critics that she actually is just as good as we all thought. While there were a number of highlights that had already been out as singles in 2021, its really some of the deep cuts on this record that managed to impress me the most. One of which is Cosmic a perfectly titled spacey love song with a lovely sentiment and an irresistible combination of instrumentation and refrains.
Key Lyric: "Your breathing on my neck, it takes me to another planet, it's all so cinematic"
93. Hearts Aglow - Weyes Blood
While the mystical sounds of Weyes Blood's music may be a lot more familiar to people these days than it was just a few years ago when she dropped Titanic Rising, she still executes that sound with a profound level of perfection. The dark, spacious beauty of tracks like Hearts Aglow crafted by Jonathan Rado are the perfect palette for Natalie's versatile singing and songwriting to lay. There are a LOT of good songs on the new Weyes Blood album but of all the deep cuts, this one spoke to me the loudest.
Key Lyric: "We don't know where we're going, we just keep getting higher, hearts aglow"
92. Respirate - Pinegrove
If you think you've got the Pinegrove formula nailed down already, congratulations you do. Four albums deep into the band's career you pretty much know what to expect sonically which means they really need to impress narratively and Respirate does. There will be no shortage of pandemic songs that age poorly but this won't be one of them. The sharp songwritery analogy of respiration does have added context during the pandemic, but the anguish that clearly went into the song and the advice that comes out the other end is effectively timeless.
Key Lyric: "So take it day by day, and just do your best to respirate"
91. No Gold Teeth - Black Thought & Danger Mouse
Like I said on the singles list, No Gold Teeth is far from the most extravagant thing Black Thought & Danger Mouse do on Cheat Codes and it doesn't have the flashy guest verses that critics have been eating up all year. But if you dug down into exactly what made the combination of these two artists so irresistible, it's No Gold Teeth. It's the definition of proficiency as both a rapper and producer, and it's one of the best and most focused hip hop songs of the year.
Key Lyric: "I'm gratified, winning, bling bling, and no gold teeth"
90. This Hell - Rina Sawayama
Disappointment is too strong of a word to describe Rina's second album Hold The Girl, I would call it a letdown. It developed that reputation both because of the great precedent she set with her debut album and EP, as well as the record's lead single This Hell. The song is an electro-pop banger that walks a perfect line between blasting haters for their ignorance and showing just how little their ideas matter. Rina makes the idea of a queer party in hell feel more fun than any homophobe is capable of and does it with infectious refrains and Clarence Clarity's pinpoint production.
Key Lyric: "Got my invitation, to eternal damnation, get in line pass the wine bitch, we're going straight to hell"
89. COMO UN G - Rosalia
"The year of Rosalia" is something I really want to stick to 2022 even though I know it won't. Part of the unstoppable versatility of Rosalia's MOTOMAMI was her ability to strip it down and deliver an absolutely amazing performance. COMO UN G is thoughtful. meditative and beautifully assembled by everyone involved. Yet despite all that you could make an argument that the track isn't even in the upper echelon of the best songs on MOTOMAMI, which is as much of a testament to Rosalia's talent as I can make.
Key Lyric: "Yo tengo mi fe, mis armas, mi cora', que no sé pa' quién" "I have my faith, my weapons, and my heart, though I don't know who it belongs to"
88. Survivor's Guilt - Saba (feat. G Herbo)
On Survivor's Guilt Saba lends his topical focus and quality lyricism to one of the crazier beats he's ever been on in his career and it sounds great. It may have taken some time to click with me after I first heard it but once his full album came out I knew right away that it was the highlight of the bunch. The comes even with the G Herbo feature who manages to do a decent job on the track even though I've never really been a fan of his in the past. The results are fiery and fun in a brand new way for Saba that I wouldn't mind him revisiting again going forward.
Key Lyric: "Is a piece of mind worth leaving everything you knew behind?"
87. Good Will Hunting - Black Country, New Road
I promise I'm only gonna talk about Ants From Up There like 4 or 5 more times and then I'll shut up until the next Black Country, New Road album drops. But this is one of the many songs that captivated me all year from the album I couldn't stop listening to. Good Will Hunting in particular spawned one of the indie memes of the year, Bille Eilish style, while also managing to take itself seriously enough to be a high-impact post-punk expansion on some of the ideas set up in the softer run of songs preceding it. It's the combination of musicianship and unmistakable songwriting that made for the most beloved indie record of the year.
Key Lyric: "She had Billie Eilish style, moving to Berlin for a little while"
86. Fungal City - Bjork (feat. serpentwithfeet)
Among the songs on Bjork's new record that focus more on the atmosphere side of its concept, Fungal City is really a standout tune. It's an absolute fairytale of a song that once again feels like dancing through an enchanted forest. What makes it so impressive to me is that it isn't merely a parade of beauty from start to finish though, there's real tension to what's going on here and the directional shifts the song makes as it develops. The results are a whirlwind of sonic beauty that wasn't easy for me to forget at any point this year once I first heard it.
Key Lyric: "His capacity for love is enormous, his vibrant optimism happens to be my faith too"
85. Wild - Spoon
Spoon are so well known for being consistently good at their very specific and unambitious style of rock music that it's basically a meme among fans. But what can I say, they continue to do it well more than 20 years into their career. The best track on their new album is a pretty anguished call for answers but it doesn't burden you with all that heavy stuff, the song is blissfully easy to listen to. That's because the riffs and refrains are so catchy you might even start to wonder how the band has been doing it this consistently for this long.
Key Lyric: "And the world still so wild called to me, I'd been caught I was lost on my knees"
84. Lost - Zola Jesus
The new Zola Jesus album has plenty of points that are as obtuse and abstract as you'd expect from her, but Lost isn't one of them. Not only is the depth of the song used in a much more infectious way with rumbling echoey bass and drums, but the chorus is one of the catchiest I've ever heard her sing. It's a point on the record that feels like the priority shifts directly to making a song you can't ignore and I think she pulls it off perfectly.
Key Lyric: "Everyone I know is lost"
83. Water Table - Cola
When Ought disbanded I felt like we lost one of the best indie bands of the 2010s before they could even get started in the 2020s. But when I first heard Water Table, it was like we found them all over again. To state the obvious, this sounds like an Ought song from the opening drums to Tim Darcy's unmistakable lead vocals. While I discuss later on in the list how happy I was to see Cola take this sound to new directions, this is all the proof we needed that the DNA of Ought is alive and well in this new project:
Key Lyric: "I can only think to say, catacombs and water mains"
82. T.F.J - Kai Whiston
Kai's new electronica concept album about how his musical vision came to take shape was one of the most underrated albums I covered this year and the nature of the concept means that it's hard for just one song to represent that. Thankfully, you don't need any of that pretext to enjoy T.F.J which dropped as a single with alien synth lines and jittery D&B style drums that hooked me right away. It's one of the more accessible moments on the record and it's still not that easy to grapple with. But once the song really clicked with me I just couldn't get enough of it.
Key Lyric: If you can make out any words in this song then you're a more attentive listener than me.
81. MURDER DEATH KILL - Health (feat. Ada Rook & PlayThatBoiZay)
One of the greatest joys of being a music critic is seeing a decidedly random collaboration actually come to fruition and be really good. That's how I felt when Black Dresses' Ada Rook teamed up with rapper PlayThatBoiZay on this absolute banger of a song. The hard-hitting beats laced with fuzzy distortion are the perfect middle ground for Zay's intense rap flows and Ada's blistering screams. It all feels like a delicate balance but one that everyone involved walked perfectly.
Key Lyric: "Bodies dropping, moshpit rocking, choppa chopping, armor bodied"
80. Pharmacist - Alvvays
This one was pretty easy. Alvvays returning with their heaviest and most shoegaze-inspired song to date grabbed me as a single and held onto me long past the release of this album. While there weren't quite as many walls of layered haze as I was hoping for on the album, the ones that litter Pharmacist still translate so perfectly. The promise of shoegaze as heavy but still effectively dreamy music can often be hard to achieve, but Alvvays nail it here.
Key Lyric: "I know I never crossed your mind"
79. Pink Funeral - Beach House
While I did listen to the individual pieces of Beach House's new album as they were released in short EPs I wasn't really diving THAT deep into them. That meant that the majesty of Pink Funeral was saved for when I first heard the record earlier this year. In a sea of consistently dark but strikingly beautiful songs, it might be the one that gives me the most wanderlust. By the time the layers of keys and gentle vocals all swell together on the hook I feel like I'm ready to be at my own pink funeral.
Key Lyric: "How sweet, the sound, the swell of strings begins to rise"
78. Baby - Charli XCX
While Charli has never been necessarily anti-pop in her musical sentimentalities, she's always sounded like the future of pop music. Crash doesn't, it's basically the sound of 2022 minus a reggaeton feature. Baby is the outlier that meets in the middle of still firmly being an accessible pop song, but with the intensity, we've come to expect from Charli. It unfolds with fast-paced refrains and a slick beat which all align for a pretty irresistible pop jam.
Key Lyric: "Imma make you my, baby"
77. I Pray For You - Pusha T (feat. Labrinth & Malice)
As much hesitation as I should have placing a Kanye produced song on the list after the 2022 he's had, the combination of a Clipse reunion with a soaring Labrinth hook serving as the dramatic conclusion to Pusha T's new record, I just couldn't resist. The high and low contrast between Push and Malice's hard-hitting bars and the cascading Labrinth hook over the dramatic gospel flavor of the song is purely epic.
Key Lyric: "I greet you with the love of God that don't mean we friends, I might whisper in his ear 'bury all of them'"
76. You Will Never Work In Television Again - The Smile
While the novelty of hearing Thom Yorke snarl like it's 1995 again won't last forever, it doesn't have to because the song underneath is still exciting. Those same snarls are directed at the shitty people who've abused their power for years and on the bridge, Thom just lets them have it. It's cathartic, explosive, and incredibly catchy in a way I wasn't sure a Radiohead side project could be in 2022. I'm glad to be wrong.
Key Lyric: "All those beautiful young hopes and dreams, devoured by those evil eyes"
75. Slaughterhouse - Chat Pile
I wrestled with which of the many insane songs on Chat Pile's debut album belonged on this list. Ultimately while Slaughterhouse isn't conceptually or sonically the most unique thing the band does it managed to be the song that stuck with me the longest. The format is simple, hardcore music that unfolds just slow enough for every single blast of instrumentation and blistering vocal line to hit hard one after another for the entire runtime. For an album that takes pride in beating listeners into submission, this is a fitting opener.
Key Lyric: "Blood had to be shed, in order to set things right"
74. The Next 20th Century - Father John Misty
If I had a nickel for every Father John Misty album with a 6-minute title track that takes on the grandiosity of the record's concept through a series of charming and verbose refrains, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't that many but it's weird that it happened twice.
Key Lyric: "Val Kilmer had a wall length mirror over there, well I'm sure he's someone else now but he was Batman when he lived here"
73. Welcome To Hell - Black Midi
This is about as appropriately titled as a song can get. Black Midi's third album Hellfire applied their frenetic musicianship to insane themes and sonic palettes that really do feel like falling through layers of hell. Welcome To Hell is the fitting introduction to that experience erupting with unpredictable whirrs of indistinguishable sound that's as dark as it is epic. Black Midi are just living in an entirely different universe than any of their contemporaries.
Key Lyric: "Don't tell me your name don't ask for hers, in this land of oysters you are the world"
72. BLUE - Whitney
Whitney have something, I can't say exactly what it is, but something that makes the completely irresistible to me. Their gentle blend of indie and folk with the touching lead vocals just sound so sweet and when they all swell together it gets me mesmerized. When you combine that with great songwriting like on BLUE which contains one of the catchiest hooks of the year, I can't help but lump praise onto it.
Key Lyric: "Blue, every summer in the morning light"
71. Underwater - Sun's Signature
While I was pretty positive towards this song when I originally reviewed the debut Sun's Signature EP earlier this year, it took me a while to realize just how good it is. Then a few weeks ago when I was putting together my best EPs of the year list it finally clicked with me that this is the watery expansive indie and chamber song I had been dreaming of all year. This sounds like something Julia Holter would have sung over at her very sweetest and Elizabeth Frazer is more than equipped to fill that role as a vocalist. It's a beautiful song that takes its time but makes every second feel worthwhile.
Key Lyric: "Summer is gone, the autumn of my life"
70. Feed My Fire - Petrol Girls
This track feels perfect among the fury of Petrol Girls new album Baby. The song is both part of the fuel powering their intensity throughout this angry and highly political punk record but it's also fueled by all of the same political and social woes that define the record's politics. Even outside of that place it fits into the record it's just a great song that manages to be righteous without ever having to be preachy or go outside the bounds of its themes.
Key Lyric: "Burning bright burn it down till I burn out"
69. Crack Sandwich - JID
To anyone who doesn't already rank JID among the highest echelon of storytellers in modern hip hop, what more does he have to do than Crack Sandwich? Over the course of just a few minutes, JID sets up the outlook and circumstances he experienced as a child with some perfectly placed narrative details that say so much about his lyrical talent. On the back end of the song, he goes full narrative mode telling the story of a big fight that erupted as a result of him and his siblings having each other's back. It's a great experience whose details I won't spoil any further and one whose implications I couldn't stop thinking about as I listened through the record over and over.
Key Lyric: "I ain't got cheeseburger money, make a sandwich"
68. My Presidents Are Black - Stormzy
Though there are some more exciting songs in the mix here and there the overwhelming aesthetic of Stormzy's new record is one of somber reflection. That's why it's so surprising when out of nowhere this remarkably triumphant anthem of black achievement slips its way into the tracklist. The song isn't necessarily paving new ground as much as it's just a celebration of what so many black creatives have achieved despite the uphill struggles they face along the way. If Stormzy is going to insist that you shouldn't walk away from his new record sad, Presidents is the best evidence he has.
Key Lyric: "I had a crown before my song, this is the mountain that I'm on"
67. Music For A Sushi Restaurant - Harry Styles
My issues with Harry's House aside, what an opening track. This anthemic introduction to the record is admittedly probably horrible music for an actual sushi restaurant, but the tongue and cheek lyricism and demeanor of Harry's singing pair perfectly with the bright anthemic instrumental. Given that the coziness of As It Was is the only thing we had heard from the record before it dropped, kicking things off with this was a surprise but a very pleasant one that I'll think about every time I heard it.
Key Lyric: "Excuse me, a green tea?, music for a sushi restaurant"
66. Burning - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Another record I wasn't crazy about, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs' album DESPERATELY needed some songs as exciting as it's first two singles. While the Perfume Genius featuring Spitting Off The Edge Of The World was a good start the real moment that the band felt back and as good as ever was on Burning. The song's transition from murkier verses into that soaring hook is absolutely perfect and Karen O's performance is grand enough to meet the moment. This is just a flat out great song.
Key Lyric: "Into the sea, out of fire, all that burning"
65. Chaos Space Marine - Black Country, New Road
The first taste we got of the band's sophomore album and the intro track to the record proper, Chaos Space Marine is a rush of energy I wasn't sure Black Country, New Road were capable of pulling off in such a short song. It's an injection of energy with a rumbling instrumental that rushes into a thrilling chorus. While its thematic purpose didn't become clear until we had the entire record to process, it was obvious right out of the gate that this would be one of the standout songs.
Key Lyric: "And though England is mine, I must leave it all behind"
64. Crazy - Spiritualized
Spiritualized is a band best known for layers. Occasionally that means layers so thick it creates a dreamy haze, but on this new record more often than not it really does mean layers of speaker-obliterating noise. That's why it's so funny to me that one of the standout moments on the album is one of its simplest and most reserved. Crazy is a gentle, earnest little love song performed as so many folk ballads are with just vocals and a guitar. It lends new meaning to the idea that great songwriting translates across sounds and styles but really it's just one of the sweetest songs of 2022.
Key Lyric: "My mind's all messed up over you"
63. Gorilla - Little Simz
Simz dropped this song just a few weeks ago and I'm POSITIVE that if I had all year to digest it, it would be even higher on this list. When she makes a banger it just feels completely unstoppable and this is the next in a line of increasingly hard-hitting but effortlessly smooth tracks that captivate me in a way I can't exactly explain. I'm just in awe of the instrumental and how much command of them Simz is able to conjure, she's really a one of a kind artist.
Key Lyric: "Beatin on my chest goin apeshit, puttin in the graveshift, ain't life what you make it?"
62. No Decent Shoes For Rain - Dry Cleaning
This is another place I could see people decrying an apology spot, but it's not. I'm still not really crazy about either Dry Cleaning album and I still don't think the first one had a song or single worth landing on my year-end lists. But No Decent Shoes is easily the best thing the band has done yet. From the Life Without Buildings channeling art-rock and post-punk intro to the much darker and murkier conclusion the song reaches, everything feels like a journey but the kind that ends with more somber reflection than joyous celebration.
Key Lyric: "Let's smoke and drink and get fucked, I don't know"
61. How Long - Tove Lo
Even though it had to make a jump from the Euphoria soundtrack to an awkward placement on Tove Lo's album Dirt Femme in order to qualify for this list, I'm glad it did because I adore this song. For a nocturnal little electro-pop number Tove Lo manages to deliver on something entirely unique that's both incredibly catchy in the short term and incredibly rewarding in the long term. While I don't think the people calling this Tove Lo's comeback were necessarily right, I see where they were coming from with songs like this.
Key Lyric: "How long have you loved another while I'm dreaming of us together?"
60. Concrete Over Water - Jockstrap
On top of being the best single from Jackstrap's new album, Concrete Over Water is also its best song. From the gentle vocals in the first half that creak into an expansive sound palette to the breakdown of pulsating electronic beats that follow, the band is intent on subverting expectations and defying convention. The appeal of the song isn't watered down to just being a surprise though, even once you know what is coming every piece of immaculate production and every perfectly sung refrain still feel like pop bliss from another planet.
Key Lyric: "Oh one night, on the bridge we stood, concrete over water"
59. Photograph - Perfume Genius
The new Perfume Genius album Ugly Season contains the song Eye In The Wall, a multi-faceted pseudo-house cut that landed really high on my singles list the year it came out, in 2019. I thought about including the song on this list since it never got the chance to be among the Songs list before, but it didn't really feel like it was in the spirit of things. Instead, we've got the haunting Photograph one of the most confrontationally produced Perfume Genius songs to date. But as you'd expect even underneath that sonic dissonance there is a darkly beautiful performance from Mike that contrasts perfectly with the song and helps sell its message.
Key Lyric: "On the stage, where he sang, I feel a silhouette"
58. Don't Break My Heart - The Weeknd
Dawn FM works much better as a conceptual listening experience than it does when broken down into its individual parts, which is probably a large part of the reason it suffered commercially and among some fans. But just like with Take My Breath last year, Abel delivered a great song in the mix. This time it's closer to R&B styling but with the pop flair that has become one of the distinguishing factors of The Weeknd's music. It's got a multi-layered hook that really gets stuck in your head but is also just something to marvel at as a piece of songwriting. It's pop music written and recorded by veterans who know what they're doing and it sounds like it.
Key Lyric: "Just don't break my heart, just don't let me down please"
57. Fossora - Bjork (feat. Kasimyn)
Another song from Bjork's new record that really wades into things on the enchanted magical mushroom forest side of things is the title track Fossora. The song is actually a really compelling combination of some of the wonky gabber instrumentation from the lead single and some of the beautiful orchestral arrangements that so many Bjork classics have been dusted with in the past. It's a song that instantly transports me into a fantasy and it's one that I never got tired of engaging with.
Key Lyric: "For a million years, we've been ejecting our spores, seedlings and sprouts, are shot into the ground"
56. Funny Girl - Father John Misty
Okay let's try to take this FJM entry a little more seriously than the last one. While I've been vocal about how the album has grown off me a bit I still enjoy this song quite a bit and it fits perfectly within the record's old Hollywood aesthetic. As well as it works as a single it might be even better within the tracklist of the record as one of the strongest commitments to that style while still firmly existing within FJM's indie meets singer-songwriter style and packing the whole song full of clever and hilarious lyricism.
Key Lyric: "Funny girl, you seemed pretty indifferent, but you knocked me out when you charmed the pants off Letterman"
55. Mother I Sober - Kendrick Lamar (feat. Beth Gibbons)
We're gonna talk about Kendrick Lamar three times on this list for songs from his new record Mr. Morale and the first one is the one you probably expected to pop up on every critic's list. This team-up with Portishead's Beth Gibbons reaches a level of emotional intimacy that Kendrick has flirted with before, but fully submerges himself in here. It's an appropriate time to do it too as Beth's chilling vocals over the stark instrumental are a wonderful addition to his storytelling. The real star of the show is just how detailed Kendrick's story is, an almost unreal level of authenticity for an album that so many heard. Once he completes the songs transition from personal narrative to social commentary there really feels like no more ground necessary to cover, Mother I Sober does it all.
Key Lyric: "I set free all you abusers, this is transformation"
54. NEW TRICKS: ART, AESTHETICS, AND MONEY - Kilo Kish
The new Kilo Kish album is absolutely packed full of dancy electronic bangers, which should surprise absolutely nobody that's been paying attention. My favorite of the bunch is NEW TRICKS, the glitchy, pummeling, and Vince Staples-backed single which still never fails to hype me up. Kilo's short but memorable refrains chopped up in between booming distorted beats is a winning combination and while the song may not be as persistent as some of the house-flavored bangers on her last EP, the time it takes to unravel is worthwhile.
Key Lyric: "America's the land of pretty people and monsters"
53. Gibson Girl - Ethel Cain
Calling Preacher's Daughter a "breakout album" for Ethel Cain is objectively true, but it doesn't feel right. With the album leaning so heavily on the best tracks of the bunch it's more accurately just a vessel for fans to hear Ethel's versatility throughout. Gibson Girl is the crux of that dynamic where she shows off her skills as a narrative weaver, portraying the character of "Ethel Cain" perfectly. Then she shows off her skills as a musician and composer as the song expands and wanders into territory you'd never expect it to. What's left is a testament to Ethel Cain as an artist that doesn't rely on anything else to show off what makes her so unique.
Key Lyric: "Baby if it feels good, then it can't be bad"
52. Can't Punk Me - JID (feat. Earthgang)
I've said a few times in different places that Earthgang was an artist I realized just how much I enjoy in 2022 and it turns out to be quite a lot. This song was part of that. It's a short but incredibly sweet little banger that sees the pair teaming up with JID for a nonstop sequence of fiery flows and high-energy performances. From the hook that I've been muttering to myself for months, to the nonstop quotables level at rapid-fire pace one after another, there's so much to love about this song.
Key Lyric: "The audacity to think that I surpassed them from Atlanta streets, you must be crazy, nah let's be clear, I'm clairvoyant"
51. SAOKO - Rosalia
One of the best singles of the year is also obviously one of the best songs of the year. SAOKO is an infusion of everything Rosalia is so good at, from making latin trap bangers to experimental pop odysseys. Breaking down everything about the track is a critical endeavor that really isn't worth it. Everything about the song is instantaneous and unmistakably hers.
Key Lyric: "Si ere la pampara, Nada te pue' parar"
50. Shirt - SZA
In case you're one of the three people on earth who didn't know, SZA returned this year with SOS, her first album in 5 years. While some singles from years past did end up making it on the record the real teaser was Shirt which dropped a few weeks beforehand. Given that it covered a lot of the same territory SZA has in the past and did a lot of the same exact things perfectly I fell for it pretty quickly. And while SZA managed to expand her sound into more nocturnal and spacious music on her new record, Shirt continues to please. It's another from her seemingly infinite bag of great hooks and slightly unique ways to process anxiety and examine relationships through songs.
Key Lyric: "In the dark right now, feelin lost but I like it"
49. Break My Soul - Beyonce
Completing a trio of great singles landing around the midpoint of the list, you may be surprised to learn that Break My Soul isn't even my favorite song off of Beyonce's excellent new record. Which is especially telling considering I've done nothing but praise it since it first came out and will continue to do so here. This is a great song, one that Beyonce injects with her liveliest performance on any track since Lemonade and does so over an instantly ear-grabbing beat that I can't not dance to. It's vibrant, grand, and infectious dance music that served as the most irresistible song on the radio this year, and one of the best songs of the year period.
Key Lyric: "Worldwide hoodie with the mask outside, in case you forgot how we act outside"
48. Ms. Mural - Lupe Fiasco
The "Mural" series of Lupe Fiasco songs has a very impressive legacy across three different records and the narrative-heavy style doesn't falter a bit on his new project Drill Music In Zion. While simple in concept Ms. Mural achieves a pretty grand scale as Lupe seems to follow wherever his rhymes take him, dropping truths along the way and adding to the conceptual layers of the album. It's a great song that shows off not only his ability to conceptualize on a massive scale but then execute with all the perfect little lyrical details.
Key Lyric: "Not to sound shamanistic but there's medicine in paint, it gets kinetic if you let it there's a fetish in its strength"
47. You When You're Gone - Anxious
I know this is one where I'll probably be on an island, this song was one of the best-hidden treats I heard anywhere in 2022. The closing track to the new pop-punk meets emo debut album from Anxious doesn't really sound like the rest of the record sonically, but it's a love song with a sentimentality that only an emo band could pull off. They also shift lead vocalists for the track and the change fits perfectly. The beautiful little vocal embellishments and purposeful repetition drive home exactly what makes the track so unique from a songwriting perspective and it's made even better as an album closer.
Key Lyric: "No one will miss you when you're gone, but I still love you"
If you're looking for the most insane banger of the year, stop scrolling, you're here. Jimmy Edgar who first really came to my attention last year with a number of insane bangers, delivered once again with an even better collection of tracks with some even more unpredictable guests. This song is canonically for getting cross-faded according to the lyrics but I can't imagine any volume you can play this music at that wouldn't blow anything drink out of your hand. This song is fucking crazy if that sounds like you're kind of thing then do NOT miss out on it.
Key Lyric: "Get high till I disappear"
45. Clockwalk Around The Ache - Weatherday & Asian Glow
Despite being a part of my favorite EP of the entire year, Clockwalk still took some time to click with me as one of the best songs of the year. While Weatherday's music has been so instantaneous to me in the past, there was a bit more patience and contemplation to this song which feels appropriate for the emotional anguish it displays. But like both artist's music in the past I came to like the raw immediacy of everything here. Nothing is overthought, just a blast of emotion fed through filters of crackling distortion that scratched a very specific internet-core interest for me in 2022.
Key Lyric: "All of my penetrated spells were found to head to you through the neon signs"
44. Feel No Pain - Freddie Gibbs (feat. Anderson .Paak & Raekwon)
This song grabbed my attention right away the moment I first saw the tracklist of Freddie's new record, but even I didn't expect this to be so good. The incredible collection of talent just shows up here to do exactly what they're all so good at. Paak's hook is impossibly smooth with a nocturnal sheen over it that pairs perfectly with the confident delivery and intense lyricism that Freddie and Raekwon bring to the track. It's cutthroat from start to finish and shows perfectly how to blend together the talent of various artists to make something greater than the sum of its parts.
Key Lyric: "Stock is hot and streets is lit, blowin cash getting cash driving off in some gangsta shit"
43. Return To Monke - Viagra Boys
Another album closer, though one I've seen much more acclaim from. Viagra Boys' new record hilariously reframes some of the dumbest misunderstandings of modern culture as issues of divergent evolution and by the end of the record this examination of society has left them with one thought, it's time to go back. That sets up the explosive hilarious finale where the band chants "leave society, be a monkey" and somehow it feels like the reasonable conclusion. It's a killer moment to finish off a record that's grown on me every time I heard it and feels like Viagra Boys reaching their full potential.
Key Lyric: "Leave society, be a monkey"
42. Royal and Desire - Animal Collective
When I say that this was the "year of Animal Collective" in the indie world that doesn't just mean they dropped a great record, but that great record is the core of the argument. Part of what makes it so great is the various members all finding their own ways to succeed in the exact way you'd expect them to. Fittingly, that means that Deakin gets his own minimal, naturalistic, experimental folk ballad to close off Time Skiffs and absolutely kills it. Much like his 2016 solo album when he ventures out on these wandering diatribes the results are fantastic and the surreal elegancy of the world he crafts are infectious.
Key Lyric: "And what's this lie that you place, before the birth of your world?"
41. la belle indifference - Foxtails
2022 was the first time I really enjoyed a Foxtails record and as it turns out none of the most popular tracks were the ones that stuck with me the most. The best of the bunch is a brooding deep cut called la belle indifference that succeeds in a way I clearly love from looking at this list, patience. Not only does the song take all the time it needs to let its haunting instrumental develop but it also saves all of the most intense moments of its performance for just when you think you've settled down. It sees the band finally realizing the potential of their collective artistry put together and still having the restraint to make us beg for it along the way, I find it intoxicating.
Key Lyric: "I ask for nothing more, than release in any of its forms"
40. I'm In Love With You - The 1975
For a better meditation on The 1975 phenomenon check out my singles list, spoiler alert it's pretty high. Here I'll just say that this is a vibrant shimmering love song, the kind that most bands think they're too good to make. But The 1975 isn't afraid to be simple and maybe even a bit predictable if it means they can make something so instantaneous. This is just a plain old great song.
Key Lyric: "There's somewhere I've been meaning to take the conversation, but I just can't do it"
39. Plan B - Megan Thee Stallion
Megan's new album Traumazine represented yet another point where despite her talent, she undersold her album, packing it with too much filler that doesn't match her standards. The best proof of that is Plan B, the lead single and easily the best song on the album. For years now Megan has been stomping on men with no regard for their lift and last year's Thot Shit felt like the purest form of that style we were going to get. But somehow Plan B one-upped it coming with even better attacks on the fucked up things men do and leaving even less room for retaliation. Someday Megan will be able to conjure up an entire album worth of songs this good and when she does, look out.
Key Lyric: "Poppin Plan B's cause I ain't plan to be stuck with ya"
38. ZIGOLO - Backxwash (feat. Censored Dialogue & Sadistik)
After they collaborated on Backxwash's last album with Terror Packets, the combination of her and Censored Dialogue was always going to face high expectations wherever they popped up next. Turns out the turnaround on that one was pretty quick and the results were somehow even better than I expected. The pure intensity of everyone involved on the song matched with the grit of the subject matter they obliterate as they run through it on bar after bar, everything about the track is just hip hop from another universe of intensity.
Key Lyric: "Jesus will need to annihilate me"
37. new strategies for telemarketing through precognitive dreams - Teen Suicide
Song after song it's pretty much impossible to predict what the new Teen Suicide record is gonna do. So when it emerged with this hilariously titled shoegaze cut it didn't really surprise me. But when the song was originally released as a single, it really blew me away. Given the lo-fi singer-songwritery reservations of so much of Sam Ray's music hearing him just let loose and rip on this song grabbed me immediately. It has that same level of intensity and great musicianship but with more layers and sounds coming together to complete its ambitions. It's wonderful.
Key Lyric: "Dream about it for a year or two, sooner or later it'll happen to you"
36. Landers - Cola
One of the themes of this record is "closing tracks that I feel the need to defend because they aren't anyone else's standout tracks" and this is another one. The closing track to the new Cola record really does feel like something Ought never did, a chilly and eerie spoken word number. I really can't express just how eerie and alien the song feels though, even given Tim Darcy's typically neurotic style he is sounding dejected and pessimistic in a whole new way here. To say it's not exactly a "feel good" song would be an understatement and yet it had a grip on me that very few other tracks could achieve this year.
Key Lyric: "I am considering now the possibility, that I am air escaping from a cave"
35. Palaces - Flume (feat. Damon Albarn)
After Damon Albarn wowed me last year with his icy landscapes on The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure Th Stream Flows I was pretty surprised to see him pop up on a Flume song. As it turns out Flume was clearly impressed with similar things as me because this is one of his most stark and naturalistic songs ever which fits perfectly with Damon Albarn alongside him. The chilling expanses in the first half of the song being remedied by Damon's perfectly poised vocals is one of the best moments in all of music this year. This is just a perfect example of two collaborators who are talented enough to find the perfect meeting point between their respective sounds and execute it to perfection.
Key Lyric: "I thought that beyond the exit, there would be palaces"
34. Driponomics - Soul Glo (feat. Mother Mayrose)
The breakout hardcore punk band of the year came to the scene with the fundamentals to interpolate hip-hop styles and themes already in their bag and there's no better example of that than Driponomics. The fiery meditation on the economics of hypebeast clout is pretty funny in concept but the band is playing with such an intensity that if you stop and think for even a second you'll get left behind. Add in an excellent feature from Mother Mayrose that would have easily made my best featured verses of the year list if I still made one and you've got a great fucking song.
Key Lyric: "Fuck being good I'm a bad bitch, if he buy bags I'ma fuck him like a savage"
33. Postman - Toro Y Moi
If I believed in guilty pleasures, this would be one. I can already imagine people musing on how I could possibly put this silly arguably meaningless little tune about delivering mail over Driponomics but I just can't describe to you how infectious Postman is without just playing it. The bouncy indie pop vibe it maintains and the sweet memorable little refrains laced in throughout just make this song completely irresistible to me and I'm really not sure what else I can say about it.
Key Lyric: "Mr Postman, did I get mail?, did I get a letter?"
32. Survivor's Guilt - Joey Bada$$
After doing more than my fair share of complaining about it, I think I've made my piece with the one lyric in this song that feels almost shockingly out of place and I can just appreciate the track for what it is. Joey's beautiful ode to Capital Steez as well as one of his cousins is clearly coming from a place of love and a decade of reflection. Using it to tee up a spiritual sequel to the album that Steez helped make into a modern hip-hop classic just feels right and I don't think 2000 or the actual year 2022 would have felt right without it.
Key Lyric: "The truth about Steelo he lacked the mental health, but try to tell that to people way back in 2012"
31. Bad Habit - Steve Lacy
One of the breakout hit songs in the mainstream this year also lands on the singles list because in addition to being a big hit, it's also just a great song. Like I said in my video on the subject the track thrives in the weird idiosyncratic eccentricities that have always made Steve Lacy an interesting artist, but this time infused with instrumentation and refrains that are so catchy they become impossible to ignore. I can envision a world where this song doesn't take on quite as strong and become a huge hit, but I can't envision a world where it isn't beloved by all the Steve Lacy fans who first heard it.
Key Lyric: "You can't surprise a gemini"
30. Father Time - Kendrick Lamar (feat. Sampha)
There's a LOT of things in the past decade that we can thank Kendrick Lamar for, but for this entry I'm gonna narrow the focus. Thank you Kendrick Lamar for bringing us more Sampha, whose incredible vocals are a treat pretty much every single time they pop up anywhere. While his hook on this song is brief it is an absolute show stealer, which is saying something because Kendrick's verses analyzing the way his father made him emotionally unavailable but also instilled his drive for hard work and success, are amazing. The whole song is fantastic and at the end of the day, how could a song with these two working together on it not be.
Key Lyric: "I got daddy issues, that's on me"
29. Snow Globes - Black Country, New Road
Every time BC,NR released a new single from their sophomore album I thought, wow, this is it this is THE single this is the song that will be completely timeless from the record. Turns out the record is timeless in a way I couldn't have possibly anticipated going into it, but Snow Globes was the third time I felt that way. This long driving crescendo backed by drums so loud they became meme-worthy and Isaac Wood's intoxicating languished repetition is a whirlwind sonic experience that's impossible to do justice with just words. It's chaotic and intense while somehow also being very poetic and necessary for the emotions being expressed. It's also a song I just can't imagine being made by any other band.
Key Lyric: "God of weather Henry knows, snow globes don't shake on their own"
28. What Else Could I Be But A Jester - The Garden
This year The Garden dropped their best album to date and despite how much I liked the record's singles both individually and as a collective, the defining song on the record is this little two-minute rager. It perfectly encapsulates their blend of SoCal sun-bleached indie rock with garage and hardcore punk as they smash out a few short verses and hooks in no time at all. But it also adds to the character of the make-up-donning clowns playing the music and to the songwriters underneath who conjure up some evocative lyricism and catchy refrains that serve as icing on this excellent cake.
Key Lyric: "Handprint on my face and nobody smacked me"
27. FOMO - Amber Mark
One of the amazing things about Amber Mark's debut album Three Dimensions Deep is just how consistently she's able to pump out warm, catchy R&B songs. You really could make an argument for a significant amount of the deep cuts here to be on a list like this, but my personal favorite is FOMO. Fittingly, the song about the anxiety you feel when missing out on something potentially fun probably won't be heard by nearly as many people as some other songs on the list, but it's just as worth your time. With a bright poppy hook and a great thematic focus and evaluation of the topic, I just love everything about this song.
Key Lyric: "Fill up my cup made up my mind, won't miss out on living happily"
26. Body Paint - Arctic Monkeys
Are Arctic Monkeys as cool, exciting, youthful or innovative as they were in 2006? No, mostly not even close. And I thought their new record was just okay with a handful of highlights here and there but nothing special. The exception is Body Paint a Beatlesy lounge romp that I liked at first but grew to love very quickly. It's the Star Treatment of this album where Alex Turner's charm reaches the level that he imagines it is in his head and the entire universe of the song just dances around him.
Key Lyric: "Still a trace of body paint, on your legs and on your arms and on your face"
25. Alma_The Voyage - Melody's Echo Chamber
File this one under things I was surprised about in 2022. Not only was I not really expecting Melody Prochet to come back and drop one of the best singles of her entire career, but I also didn't expect it to get an expanded version on the album proper that's arguably even better as a song. Like I said in my review of the single, the song already felt like a voyage on its own and the extended wandering diatribes only work to layer me deeper into the world she crafts on the song. Aside from the bassline talent in performance and songwriting, this is also an experiment in world-building and Melody nails it on this track.
Key Lyric: "I'm so lucky, to have you, and so proud, to hold you"
24. Tintoretto, It's For You - Destroyer
The lead-off single to Destroyer's new album is one of the quirkiest indie-flavored art-rock songs you'll hear anywhere this year, well, except for the rest of the record I guess. It's hard to put yourself back in the first moments of hearing the song but the slow start doesn't even really try to hint at what it's building up to. And then it hits. The title lyrics, booming synth line and you're into it. Instantly one of the best songs of the year. I'm yet to hear from any other artist who can match Dan Bayar's level of artsy, aloof, bookstore indie rock and I suspect that none exist.
Key Lyric: "Do you remember the mythic beast? Do you remember the round of it singing?"
23. Year Of Love - Jenny Hval
Spoiler alert, I loved this song as a single, and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, I liked it a lot as a song too. Jenny Hval is still such a unique and impactful songwriter but she manages to do it with such patience and nuance that I just end up hanging off of every word. It's even easy to put this song in the back of your head because it really is such a pleasant listening experience, but the more I engaged with it the better it got. It's another strong statement from one of my favorite songwriters in all of music right now.
Key Lyric: "But in the year of love, I signed a deal with patriarchy"
22. Baby, I Had An Abortion - Petrol Girls
On their new album full of blistering punk rock and radical feminist politics, a song about abortion taking a confrontational first-person perspective fits right in. The message is simple but sold time and time again by the band's fiery passion and jittery intensity. There's really so much personality to everything they do that its easy to fall in line and go along without question. But take it from somebody who listened to a lot of Petrol Girls this year, they know exactly what they're talking about. The best moment where all of these facets come together is on this perfect piece of punk rock prowess.
Key Lyric: "Blessed is the fetus, but god damn the children in existence"
21. Endless Time - The Weather Station
I've made it a point to mention a few times that I thought The Weather Station's album last year was just okay and I wasn't sure I would ever really love anything she did. That's really just to set up how surprised I was by Endless Time and the resulting album of sparse piano ballads. Her gentle and intimate performance feels so much more natural and fitting than last years more opulent indie rock style, but even beyond just the change in style it's the quality of songwriting increase that changes everything. This ballad unfolds with one perfect step after another managing to be both catchy and impactful, memorable for reasons that include both its sound and sentiment.
Key Lyric: "It's only the end of an endless time, they don't put that in the paper, you won't read it on the news"
20. Jackie Down The Line - Fontaines D.C
I've been a critic of Fontaines D.C. a lot in the past, like the three times now a new album of theirs has dropped to critical acclaim, and I haven't really liked it much. Since I don't expect the band to suddenly click with me anytime soon, Jackie Down The Line might go down as the one Fontaines D.C. track I actually like, and I REALLY like it. The song's bouncy groove is completely irresistible and the refrains have been stuck in my head all year. I think the brighter more art-rock and less post-punk sound suits the band really well as I've had issues with them pulling off dead seriousness in the past. But they have the perfect sentiment for this damaged love song and it's one of the many tracks from early in the year that I thought might drift away from me, but it never did.
Key Lyric: "I will wear you down in time, I will hurt you, I'll desert you, I am Jackie down the line"
19. It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody - Weyes Blood
Another hangover from the singles list that ends up placed very highly on both, Everybody is exactly the essence of what makes Natalie and the Weyes Blood project great, drilled down into its core and then expanded to 6 minutes of chamber opulence. Once again I can't say enough for the production and arrangement of former Foxygen member Jonathan Rado who has now served the role on back-to-back records for Weyes Blood and has done astounding. Everyone involved just understands what makes her unique and what drives her songs to perfection and on It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody she thrives once again.
Key Lyric: "Mercy is the only cure for being so lonely, has a time ever been more revealing that people are hurting?
18. Guilty - Conway The Machine
So much of what I like about Conway's new album God Don't Make Mistakes is that only Conway could have made it. Nobody else has the ability to make vulnerability feel this confident and unwavering. Conway is so assured of his talents on Guilty that he can allow himself to embrace his past traumas, like getting shot for instance, in excruciating detail. It's a song that you can only make once you're so self-assured you feel untouchable and at this point I think Conway has earned it.
Key Lyric: "That's why I chuckle at the comments that I read about the way my face look, and shit I coulda been dead"
17. Champion - Warpaint
I was always a bigger fan of Warpaint than most so I wasn't surprised to be a lot more hyped than most when they returned earlier this year. But with months to digest the album and the various great songs it produced now I'm not sure how more people aren't talking about this. Champion's pinpoint drum beat, cloudy refrains, and vibrant mix all come together to make for one of the best indie songs I heard this year, or honestly in the past few years. Warpaint is back and all I can do is hope that they come back sooner rather than later.
Key Lyric: "I'll help you figure out, everything you're on about"
16. All Of The Good Times - Angel Olsen
Angel Olsen has been one of the best songwriters in all of music pretty much since she started, but at least once an album cycle she manages to prove all over again that she's in a league of her own. All Of The Good Times opens up her new album and served as the lead single. It's a beautiful ode to a relationship gone by that has every potential to be bitter, but Angel chooses to be reflective instead. She tributes all of the good times they had together, an acknowledgement that there were high points in-between whatever caused the relationship to fall apart. It's one of those great subversions of expectation that songwriters can pull off and she executes it perfectly. In yet another year, Angel Olsen is ahead of her contemporaries and one of the voices in indie music worth looking forward to.
Key Lyric: "Thanks for the free ride, and all of the good times"
15. Free In The Knowledge - The Smile
I've said in the past that whenever Radiohead emerges even if they don't drop a great album, there's always at least one great song. Apparently, that's even true of Radiohead side projects because the debut album from The Smile has a masterpiece in Free in The Knowledge. Like so many great Radiohead songs before it, Knowledge is about the moments between the moments. Every little detail of the track sets up greater things and when it pays off on the soaring hook it's immaculate. The amount of talent going into this project should make it no surprise that something this good turned out, but it's still a refreshing experience every time.
Key Lyric: "This was just a bad moment, we were fumbling around, but we won't get caught like that"
14. Familiar Fields - Duster
About every year there's a song with a particular blend of instrumentation that just speaks directly to me, this year it was Duster with Familiar Fields. The beloved internet-core legends returned with their darkest record yet this year and the murmuring bleakness of this instrumentation translates perfectly. The gentle plucking of the guitars and the dreary reverb give the song a haunting atmosphere that channels a chilling emptiness. It's a feeling I can try my best to describe, but it really has to be heard.
Key Lyric: "I hear your voice like you are still here, part of a dream I can't remember, just out of reach"
13. Sistanem - JID
James Blake and JID are really a perfect combination. Even though James isn't on the song for long he has the pinpoint perfection vocally to bridge the gap between these verses. It's those verses that really sell the song though. While JID may not seem like the perfect vessel for a meditation on womanhood, he has the forethought to allow his perspective to take a backseat. The result is a song that feels less "for" woman in any suggestive way and more about women and the perils they experience as an observer. It's smart, clinical but still achingly human and smartly written and performed, everything that makes JID such a unique artist in hip hop, encapsulated in one killer song.
Key Lyric: "Stunt like my dad I'm a druggie, money in my hands but its bloody"
12, Superstar - Beach House
When Beach House started to flirt with the sounds of shoegaze on their last album it was interesting but on Once Twice Melody it's a much fuller endeavor and one that I found completely irresistible. The best of the bunch is Superstar which dropped on the first EP from the project but stuck with me throughout the entire release process and throughout the rest of the year. Not only is it heavier, muddled in thick shoegazey guitars but it also still manages to soar like the truly best songs of the genre's early days. The songwriting of a band as experienced as Beach House, in conjunction with an appreciation for the sound that spans the entire history of its development, an amazing song results.
Key Lyric: "When you were mine, we fell across the sky, backlit up against the wall"
11. CHURCH GIRL - Beyonce
Here we've arrived at what I think is the shining achievement of the year's best pop album. CHURCH GIRL has all the swagger of Beyonce at her absolute peak and it comes with the dancey intuitions she's picked up all across this record. For a song that doesn't ultimately have that many lyrics, it has attitude for days and if you've seen my Instagram story any time soon then you've heard some of my favorite parts. Much like Formation before it, the song is a celebration of where Beyonce comes from and everything she has left to achieve, though through a much different sonic palette this time around. It's a perfect anthem for the Renaissance era and one of the best anthems of bad bitch empowerment I've heard all year.
Key Lyrics: "Drop it like a thottie, drop it like a thottie, Church girls actin loose bad girls actin snotty"
10. Eat Men Eat - Black Midi
For many people what they love about Black Midi is the band's extreme technical proficiency and willingness to stretch the limits of their genres. but for this year's Hellfire I was equally compelled by their attitude. The ferocity doesn't really come into play until the song's final minute but across that time Black Midi made a permanent impression on me. It's an unforgettable sequence of instrumental and narrative chaos that is sure to be one of the things that sticks with me from 2022 the longest. While it may not be the highlight of the band's technical prowess, I can't imagine most bands even conceptualizing what Black Midi pulls off here, much less executing it.
Key Lyric: "Captain's screams echo: 'You fucking faggots ain't seen the last of me yet'"
9. Let The Smokers Shine The Coupes - Pusha T
Normally I'm not this blunt, but how the fuck is this song not more popular and acclaimed. Starting with the booming Pharrell beat and moving through the hard-hitting hook and endless chain of quotable Pusha T lyrics this song has absolutely everything it needs to go down as one of the best rap songs of the year. In a genre that people spend as much time discussing as hip hop, why this song hasn't had its day yet makes no sense to me and I don't plan on slowing down my calls for it any time soon.
Key Lyric: "The dope game destroyed my youth, now Kim Jones Dior my suits"
8. Surrender My Heart - Carly Rae Jepsen
Carly Rae Jepsen really can't release an album without at least one masterpiece on it. While I liked a lot of the singles none of them were IT. None of them were Julien, Cut To The Feeling, or Run Away With Me. But going into the record and knowing her potential I was on the lookout for that next great song and she didn't keep it hidden for long. The first time I heard the wordy pre-chorus to Surrender My Heart I knew it was perfect, you just don't use that set-up for anything but the defining pop song of an era in your career. Carly has learned from all of her past relationships and like in a similar pop masterpiece Ariana Grande's thank u, next, she's ready to move forward with all of that knowledge gained and informing her decision-making. The next time she surrenders her heart, it will be for all the right reasons.
Key Lyric: "Surrender my heart, I wanna be open, I wanna be honest with you"
7. Strung With Everything - Animal Collective
This is the best Animal Collective song since Merriweather Post Pavillion. I'm repeating that from the singles list not only because I believe it, but because I think it's frankly not even close. Take it from someone who had Golden Girl in her top 10 songs of 2016, the band is back to their peak with this one. The compositional journey is a wonderful one bouncing between obscured folk passages and shimmering indie pop with ease. Like so many previous Animal Collective songs repetition is used to absolute perfection here and every time I hear an old refrain from the song brought back with rousing group vocals that somehow reach higher than I even thought possible, it's a treat. This song synthesizes not only everything great about the individual members of Animal Collective, but also what's great about when they all come together. The result is one of the best songs of their career since turning from freak-folk to psych-pop and as you'd expect, one of the best songs of the year.
Key Lyric: "The sun's no better off lately, the sun's no better off now"
6. Ancestress - Bjork (feat.Sindri Eldon)
Twice already on this list we've talked about how good Bjork is when she lends her songwriting and composing abilities to craft a surreal fairy tale landscape. But where she's perhaps even more impressive on her new record is when the barriers of fantasy are stripped down and she suddenly because achingly authentic and earnest. Enter Ancestress, a sweeping 7-minute ode from Bjork to her recently deceased mother. The song features some intimate details which can so often be a rarity from Bjork but what's just as impressive is how she frames the teachings she received from her mother and the loss itself within the generational ancestry of womanhood. It's a fantastic song that took as much emotional fortitude to craft as it did compositional brilliance, and spoiler alert it's got a lot of both.
Key Lyric: "You see with your own eyes, but hear with your mother's"
5. STRONG FRIENDS - Earthgang
This is another deep cut I've talked about before, in my worst hits of the year video when I equated its honesty in taking on contemporary mental health struggles in contrast to Em Beihold's putrid Numb little Bug. But that on its own doesn't do justice to what makes this song so fucking good. Sometimes you can be effectively talking about mental health, while also just taking a lay-up. It's not the 50s and a lot of these topics are known, but what Earthgang do is both modern and completely unexpected. The message of not just checking on the people you need to, but also the ones you don't is painfully necessary in 2022. Mental health is so often treated like an exterior problem and ignored unless there's exterior signs but even those with the most confident demeanor can be hiding their struggles, so just check in on them. The song immediately became my favorite of the bands new record and as it grew on me more and more all year, so did STRONG FRIENDS, I really do think everyone should hear this track.
Key Lyric: "Oh girl I'm with you, you ain't gotta fake it you and gotta post a Reel, you barely know how your posed to feel"
4. Gone Girl - SZA
Speaking of impossibly genuine songs that take on issues with an achingly modern gaze, when it rains it pours I guess. SZA's new album is full of hilarious, adorable, and charming meditations of romance, anxiety, and sex. What sets her apart is how earnest she is throughout, no matter how personal the subject matter. On the song SZA channels the idea of the "Gone Girl" because it's how she feels, not the other way around. That authenticity is what sells the song and translates its themes of anxiety about past and impending abandonment cut so deep. On top of it all, it's just an exceedingly great song with a performance that it feels like only SZA is capable of giving. If for some reason you haven't given SOS a fair shake yet, you're out of warnings.
Key Lyric: "I need less voices, just you and me, I need your touch not your scrutiny"
3. HENTAI - Rosalia
Blah blah blah. "The year of Rosalia" "MOTOMAMI is a versatile masterpiece" you've heard me say it all too many times. Plus, HENTAI doesn't need any of that context to sound good, it's absolutely stunning. Stunning really is the best word I can come up with when you combine the stark but beautiful instrumental with Rosalia's impossibly grand and angelic vocal performance. All of that isn't even to say that using hentai as a thematic device for a song that is ostensibly about romance has a level of tongue-in-cheek brilliance that only Rosalia could pull off. No one song is capable of showing off everything she can achieve, but this is the closest she's gotten, at least so far.
Key Lyric: "No pienses mas, na que pensar"
2. We Cry Together - Kendrick Lamar (feat. Taylor Paige)
How do you even conceptualize a song like this? Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Paige have a theatrical and vitriolic argument that shifts and sways with the musical waves, crashing in toxic chaos and then reeling in, just to crash harder the next time. Just the idea of writing this song feels like something almost impossibly chaotic and it's a monument to their achievement. The amount of attention to detail necessary to make this argument flow back and forth like a song in incredible and yet it never feels like its scripted. It feels emotional, so raw that we shouldn't even be hearing it. While Kendrick's performance is great Taylor Paige deserves the assist of the year for stepping into one of the most challenging arenas I can imagine for a performer and absolutely killing it. There's so much music out there and yet. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything quite like this. Certainly not anything done anywhere near this well.
Key Lyric: "Wasting my time and energy tryna be good to you"
1. The Place Where He Inserted The Blade - Black Country, New Road
It's been a long time since I last heard a track that instantly shut down any curiosities about what the best song of year is. But once I heard The Place Where He Inserted The Blade it was almost like the quest didn't matter anymore because the mountain had been topped. Everything that the band has ever done well on their first two projects comes to a head on this song. The instrumental sways gently until just the right moment when it erupts with an intoxicating drama. The lyrics are coy and metaphorical until the moment it all unravels and they become confrontationally literal. And the vocals from Isaac Wood perfectly mirror every single dip, every gentle shift of the song, and the narrative ends up reflected through his words and the gentle creaks of his voice at its most earnest moments. This is the best song of 2022, easily. In fact, I might go as far as to call it the best new song I've ever heard while writing for this blog, it's certainly in the Top 5. Maybe that feels anti-climactic since I've been swearing by the opinion since February of this year, but it doesn't change the fact that the song deserves all the praise I can give it and more. You all got surprised by the Singles list, so let me have this. Black Country, New Road's brilliance may be a flash in the pan, or it may not. But what I can say for absolute certain is that these 7 minutes will be brilliant until the sun burns out, they're irreplaceable.
Key Lyric: "I'll praise the lord, burn my house, I get lost, I freak out, you come home and hold me tight as if it never happened at all"
Thanks for reading!
Check out the Spotify playlist if you wanna listen to all these songs.
Check the previous post for my best singles of the year and stay tuned for the next post, my Top 100 Albums of 2022. <3
