Best Albums of 2022

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Explore the best albums of 2022, based on over 2 million album rankings across 59,000 charts.
Last updated: 35 minutes ago.

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2022 year summaryThe best artists of 2022 were Black Country, New Road, Big Thief, Kendrick Lamar, Alvvays, Black Midi, The Smile, Beach House, Fontaines D.C., Beyoncé and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

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Ants From Up There

Black Country, New Road

"Rational and emotional, cheerful and deeply sad, it's amazing how this album integrates all the contradictions in a musical masterpiece. Best indie album we have heard since Carrie & Lowell and, if you want, since Funeral. Most of us agree and time will probably consolidate this position." Reply

- Altsoul | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (10 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

623 charts

Rank Score:

8,070

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

181

Average Rating:

85 (624 votes)

Comments:

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Big Thief

"“Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” is a broad display of Big Thief’s talents. The band is very skilled at changing between their styles. Indie rock, folk, and alt country tracks appear next to each other without feeling out of place. Lenker adds a lot of personality to the song writing. ..." [+] Reply

- titansaurs28 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

510 charts

Rank Score:

3,922

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

429

Average Rating:

82 (423 votes)

Comments:

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

Kendrick Lamar

"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 r...""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." [+] Reply

Arthurknight | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (9 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

481 charts

Rank Score:

3,049

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

560

Average Rating:

81 (463 votes)

Comments:

Blue Rev

Alvvays

"Bit like the previous comment. I have looked forward to this more than anything in a while and I think it probably needs a few spins. Obviously great but how much so we'll see. I'm worried they've over egged the production slightly and relegated Molly's vocals somewhat in places." Reply

Graeme2 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

362 charts

Rank Score:

2,566

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"There are a bunch of degens gambling at a horse track where the announcer keeps getting distracted - every other thing he says has nothing to do with the race at all, but is instead panicking about the rise of fascism and dangers of climate change. Nobody even notices. Then 2 religious extremist ...""There are a bunch of degens gambling at a horse track where the announcer keeps getting distracted - every other thing he says has nothing to do with the race at all, but is instead panicking about the rise of fascism and dangers of climate change. Nobody even notices. Then 2 religious extremist groups bomb the whole place simultaneously just as the race ends. There was no communication between the terrorists, the attacks have just become so common that the coincidence isn't even noted. Half of the debris and bomb fragments and body parts and shrapnel get auctioned off before the auctioneer stops for a quick meth/crack break to sell off the other half of the aftermath even faster. One corporation wins all of it and makes a collage out of the juiciest bits and sells it to an art collector for double what it spent. All of this gets reported on the news, but the closest any viewers get to empathy is in the middle of furiously masturbating when they orgasm so hard that they die and go to hell. They love it down there, the torture just keeps strengthening them until they're ready to take on heaven. So they get up there and slaughter everything handily before returning to earth and possessing all of the fascist leaders and all of the liberal leaders who finally see eye to eye. We have world peace for about 5 seconds until they decide the best way to deal with our problems is to burn through all of the fossil fuels as fast as we can and fill the oceans with plastic straight from the factories. They meet in this huge ballroom where they alternatively dance the flamenco and fucking waltz until long after all their skin falls off of their old dinosaur bones. And by waltz, I really do mean waltz. Others in faraway lands outside the ballroom are thrashing around, but not to music. They're just on fire. Most of them still don't even realize it. That's what's going on sonically anyway. Lyrically? Don't ask me, I have no idea what's being sung about this time. I can't even say that I "like" it. I appreciate it. I'm "feeling" it. I sit in awe of it, I don't move to it. How could you move to it? What would you be doing, the flamenco, then waltz, in between headbanging (b/c that's literally what the music is switching between)? Like if the pyramids were outside my house I'd probably look at them multiple times a day and wonder how exactly they got there. That's this record - pyramids in between "Cavalcade" and "For The First Time" and I just listen to it a couple times a day and sit there and wonder how the fuck we got here. In a perfect world, we wouldn't be "vibing" to this. This wouldn't even exist because nothing would prompt the insanity and desperation and hopelessness behind it. If people there could hear it, they'd laugh and sarcastically ask, "what planet is this from?" The answer of course would be this planet. Enjoy your Hellfire." [+] Reply

- jackbrown8786 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

296 charts

Rank Score:

2,232

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

769

Average Rating:

80 (305 votes)

Comments:

A Light For Attracting Attention

The Smile

"Amazing album. I love how each track feels inspired in its own unique way: none of them is filler by any stretch of the imagination and in every song there's always something interesting going on rhythmically and/or harmonically. There are many different atmospheres and moods shifting through the..." [+] Reply

- RoamingDinosaur | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

426 charts

Rank Score:

2,194

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"A luxurious odyssey into various soundscapes that explore the most common themes in the duo's history together. What a stellar album with a phenomenal rollout. The past few months really have been a treat." Reply

Anti | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

356 charts

Rank Score:

2,073

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"By far their best record" Reply

LebowskiRams | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

2022

Appears in:

331 charts

Rank Score:

1,904

Rank in 2022:

Rank in 2020s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"It's no Lemonade but it's pretty cool, especially the back half. It all flows together nicely like an endless dance club night out haha. Have been to a few haha, dancing in public isn't for me but I can see the appeal. They could literally just play this entire album and it'd be about the same as..." [+] Reply