Best Music 🎶 of 2022!

Piecing together my preliminary Top 16 EPs for the year...

I've listened to 176 and have two kicking in a stragglers queue. Barring anything else released over the coming few weeks, I'm pretty sure I have my top 20 figured and will simply be tweaking the placements and which 4 get culled over the next couple of weeks.

Starting with EPs feels like a good way to ease into year-end, as I've no doubt the album list will be a much trickier endeavour!
 
wokeupnew said:
Not that Beach House really care too much about year-end lists, but I'm curious to see if any publications include it on their lists. It's a 2021 and 2022 album at the same time. It's going to be on my list, but others may forget about it because it was so long ago.
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I bet it makes some lists (not mine) it feels like a #92 on a “Top 100 or 2022” list type album.
 
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avecigrec said:
After some time and without the initial expectation I revisited the new Mars Volta album this morning and it's really quite good.
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I need to go back to it. I liked it on first listen and then never went back because it was right when a flood of really good shit was hitting...

An update on my list as I'm at a 50 that I feel really good about prior to the lists we're about to get bombed with. 1-40 are all albums I feel rock solid at minimum about. The last tier is stuff I could see getting pushed out once I dig through the end of the year amalgamations.

Tier 1: Possible Masterpiece
1. Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (rap)
2. Ibibio Sound Machine: Electricity (house, afro-funk)
3. Jockstrap: I Love You Jennifer B (electro pop, folk)
4. JID: The Forever Story (hip-hop)
5. Sunflower Bean: Moment in the Sun (indie rock)
6. The Soft Pink Truth: Is It Going to Get Any Deeper (ambient jazz, deep house)
7. Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen (experimental r&b, hip-hop)
8. Beyonce: Renaissance (house, r&b)
9. Perfume Genius: Ugly Season (art pop)
10. Just Mustard: Heart Under (shoe-gaze, post punk)

Tier 2: Excellent
11. Axel Boman- LULZ (downtempo house) + Quest for Fire (progressive techno)
12. Beth Orton: Weather Alive (art rock, trip hop)
13. Wet Leg: Wet Leg (indie rock, pop punk)
14. Wunderhorse: Pup (indie rock, alt-rock)
15. Zola Jesus: Arkhon (art pop)
16. Grace Ives: Janky Star (lo-fi pop)
17. Denzel Curry: Melt My Eyez See Your Future
18. Alex G: God Save the Animals (indie folk
19. King Hannah: I'm Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me (indie rock, post-punk)
20. Tove Lo: Dirt Femme (pop)

Tier 3: Great
21. Nilifur Yanya: Painless
22. Bonobo: Fragments (deep house)
23.The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention (rock)
24. Weyes Blood: And in Darkness, Hearts Aglow (singer / songwriter)
25. Black Thought and Danger Mouse: Cheat Codes (rap)
26. Gabriels: Angels and Queens- Part 1 (orchestral soul, R&B)
27. Viagra Boys- Cave World (dance punk)
28. Daniel Avery: Ultra Truth [ambient techno]
29. Kevin Moby: This is a Photograph (singer / songwriter, folk rock)
30. MAITA: I Just Want to Be Wild For You (singer / songwriter, indie rock)
31. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Cool It Down (indie rock)
32. Wu-Lu: Loggerhead (experimental hip-hop)
33. Billy Woods: Aethiopes (rap)
34. Charli XCX- CRASH (pop)

Tier 4: Good
35. Loyle Carner: Hugo (hip-hop)
36. Arctic Monkeys: The Car (art rock)
37. Sam Prekop, John McEntire- Sons Of
(progressive techno)
38. Alvvays: Blurr (indie rock)
39. Ty Segall: Hello, Hi (folk, acoustic rock)
40. Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain (folk)
41. Kojey Radical: Reason to Smile (rap)
42. Fountaines D.C.: Skinty Fina (post-punk)
43. PVA: Blush (industrial, electro pop)
44. A.A. Williams: As The Moon Rises (gothic folk, post rock)
45. Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (rock)
46. Soccer Mommy: Sometimes, Forever (indie rock)
47. Florist: Florist (indie folk)
48: Horesegirl: Versions of Modern Performance (indie rock)
49. Amber Mark: Three Deminsions Deep (r&b)
50. Saba: Few Good Things (hip-hop)
 
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DownIsTheNewUp said:
I need to go back to it. I liked it on first listen and then never went back because it was right when a flood of really good shit was hitting...

An update on my list as I'm at a 50 that I feel really good about prior to the lists we're about to get bombed with. 1-40 are all albums I feel rock solid at minimum about. The last tier is stuff I could see getting pushed out once I dig through the end of the year amalgamations.

Tier 1:
1. Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (rap)
2. Ibibio Sound Machine: Electricity (house, funk)
3. Perfume Genius: Ugly Season (art pop)
4. JID: The Forever Story (hip-hop)
5. Beyonce: Renaissance (house, r&b)
6. Sunflower Bean: Moment in the Sun (indie rock)
7. Jockstrap: I Love You Jennifer B (experimental pop)

Tier 2:
8. Just Mustard: Heart Under (shoe-gaze, post punk)
9. Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen (experimental r&b, hip-hop)
10. Alex G: God Save the Animals (indie folk)
11. Denzel Curry: Melt My Eyez See Your Future (rap)
12. Wet Leg: Wet Leg (indie rock, pop punk)
13. Beth Orton: Weather Alive (art rock, trip hop)
14. Zola Jesus: Arkhon (art pop)
15. Wunderhorse: Pup (indie rock, alt-rock)
16. Axel Boman- LULZ (downtempo electronic, deep house)
17. Tove Lo: Dirt Femme (pop)
18. Grace Ives: Janky Star (lo-fi pop)
19. Kevin Moby: This is a Photograph (singer / songwriter, folk rock)

Tier 3:
20. Weyes Blood: And in Darkness, Hearts Aglow (singer / songwriter)
21. Bonobo: Fragments (deep house, downtempo)
22. MAITA: I Just Want to Be Wild For You (singer / songwriter, indie rock)
23.The Smile: A Light for Attracting Attention (rock)
24. Black Thought and Danger Mouse: Cheat Codes (rap)
25. Gabriels: Angels and Queens- Part 1 (orchestral soul, R&B)
26. Nilifur Yanya: Painless (indie rock)
27. Viagra Boys- Cave World (dance punk)
28. Daniel Avery: Ultra Truth [ambient techno]
29. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Cool It Down (indie rock)

Tier 4
30. Wu-Lu: Loggerhead (experimental hip-hop)
31. Loyle Carner: Hugo (hip-hop)
32. Arctic Monkeys: The Car (art rock)
33. Fountaines D.C.: Skinty Fina (post-punk)
34. Charli XCX- CRASH (pop)
35. Alvvays: Blurr (indie rock)
36. Billy Woods: Aethiopes (rap)
37. Ty Segall: Hello, Hi (folk, acoustic rock)
38. Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain (folk)
39. Sam Prekop, John McEntire- Sons Of
(progressive techno)
40. Kojey Radical: Reason to Smile (rap)

Tier 5:
41. PVA: Blush (industrial, electro pop)
42. A.A. Williams: As The Moon Rises (gothic folk, post rock)
43. Brockhampton: The Family (R&B, rap)
44. Soccer Mommy: Sometimes, Forever (indie rock)
45. TSHA: Capricorn Sun (Progressive House)
46. Saba: Few Good Things (hip-hop)
47. Florist: Florist (indie folk)
48: Horesegirl: Versions of Modern Performance (indie rock)
49. Mallrat: Butterfly Blue (indie pop)
50. Amber Mark: Three Deminsions Deep (r&b)
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I agree with a good number of these. Perhaps not the placement.
 
avecigrec said:
This one's from back in March but it slipped me by until today (Mercury Prize nomination and all!)



I definitely foresee it doing rather well on my year-end list - it's retroactively made its way into my top 3 for March, and I ordered a copy halfway through my first listen.
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Been on my list most of the year, floating between tiers. Highly recommend as well.

I also want to shout out a couple other super-under-the-radar gems that I never would have found if it we're for my weekly check in at albumoftheyear.org and / or friends who are musicians.

1) Wunderhorse- Pup: Incredible blend of 90's alt-rock and Mark Kozlak style indie. Almost as if Kozlak decided to make an album influenced by the softer side of Alice in Chains.





2) MAITA- I Just Want to Be Wild For You: Homie plays in like 3 bands in SD and hit me up about this album. If you dig Pheobe Bridgers, Julia Jacklin and the such-- this has those vibes to a degree BUT is more upbeat and closer to indie rock than indie folk. Actually, as I am typing-- Mitski might be a closer comp.



MAITA - Loneliness [Official Video]

3) Gabriels- Angles & Queens Part 1: Gorgeous blend of orchestral Soul and R&B that apparently involves a lot of the people that Kendrick regularly works with.

 
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