Issue 16: Best of 2022!
Sharing my top 10-1/2 albums and top 22 songs of 2022!
Well, folks, we’ve reached the end of the year and I am one day and one album away from reaching my goal of listening to a new album every day in 2022. I ended up listening to around 500 albums overall (LPs and EPs). 438 of those were completely new to me and 381 were released in 2022. I reviewed 56 of those albums over the course of this newsletter’s 16 issues. I made it a point to listen to as diverse of a mix as possible—from black metal to worldwide, from experimental electronic to country, and almost everything in between. But, of course, the genre I listened to the most was alternative, since that’s what I love to listen to the most.
But all of those numbers don’t really mean much. This is a love story. It is the story of the magic of loving music. Throughout this pandemic I have been longing for purpose and connection. This project—listening to and sharing music—has given me both. Being able to talk with people about music—reading your comments and getting your recommendations—has filled me with joy. And this project has given me purpose—something to look forward to every day, a way to push myself and grow into someone I want to become. The love of music did that.
And I want to share another kind of magic that happened. My brain created a multi-dimensional map of all of the albums that I listened to. I’ll explain. I listened to most of these albums while taking my dog on his morning walk. He likes to change up his routes every day, so there’s a lot of variety to which way we walk. What I didn’t realize is that these walking paths would imprint as memories with each album. For example, I know the exact route we walked when I listened to Harry Styles’ album for the first time. Or there’s the time we went to stay with a friend during the heat wave and I walked through their neighborhood listening to DOMi & JD BECK’s album. And I can remember listening to SZA’s new album on my good headphones while lying in bed first thing in the morning on its release day. Almost every album has a path or position on the map that can be located by pressing play. I feel as though I hold a whole world inside me, bound together by notes and lyrics that intertwine with every footstep I’ve taken. It truly feels like a gift.
I am so grateful for this project and this newsletter and the innumerable gifts that it has brought to my life. I am grateful that I set this goal for myself and that I accomplished it. It has felt so rewarding to fall in love with music again and, in doing so, fallen more in love with the world around me.
The following are the albums and songs I fell in love with the most. I hope you’ll enjoy them, too.
Top 10 albums of 2022
After listening to so many albums, it took a lot to stand out. So many blended together or felt ~blah~. I had a few painful listening experiences like Jack Harlow’s Come Home the Kids Miss You, which felt like the auditory equivalent of eating cardboard and Betty Who’s BIG! which was so templated it was as if someone told ChatGPT to write a mediocre pop album. But there were also plenty of brilliant surprises. I fell giddily in love with so many albums (81 to be exact). My initial feelings about some of the albums have changed over time. Some I have grown to love more and some I eventually got tired of. These top ten only got better with time.
There were a lot of close contenders for the top ten. Stromae, the Viagra Boys, Special Interest, Whitmer Thomas, Cautious Clay, and Rosalía all had albums that just nearly made the cut. Ultimately there were a few criteria that helped me narrow it down. Each of these top ten albums have no skippable tracks, I love (not just like) over 60% of the songs, they make me feel something deep in my gut, and—as I mentioned—I have grown to love them more with each listen.
So, I’ve narrowed it down as best as I could, but know that there were so many others that are worthy of recognition. If you want more favorites, I made a Google Sheet with all 81 of my favorite albums (including links to my reviews), that you can find here. It’s a fun list to comb through if you need some new music recommendations.
10. Embody — Basement Revolver
Alternative
There is a difference between sounding like the thing and feeling like the thing. Plenty of bands can achieve the grungy, shoegazey, alternative-pop sound of the 1990s, but Basement Revolver’s Embody actually feels like it. When I listen to it, it feels like I am my young tween self in my bedroom with my Alanis Morissette and The Cranberries CDs on repeat, lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling trying to cope with budding depression. When those piano keys tip-toe up the octaves in “Blackhole,” a portal opens to my former tween self and I extend my hand through it and tell her everything is going to be okay. Some albums connect to my brain or my soul. This one has my whole heart.
Tracks on repeat: Slow and Blackhole (always played together to catch the beautiful transition between them)
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
9. Midnights — Taylor Swift
Pop
There were many times during the year when I took my music listening too seriously and even veered into snobbery (guilty!). This was not one of those times. Listening to Midnights was pure fun and my review of it was one of my favorites to write. The album isn’t particularly cohesive but it’s a fine collection of the kind of songs that Taylor Swift does best—and I love her for it. She’s an excellent storyteller with a knack for crafting the perfect pop song, and there are many to be found within this album. It’s not an album for critics, it’s an album for fans, and she gives her fans plenty of sparkling songs that don’t at all feel boring. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s just something magic about it.
Tracks on repeat: Anti-Hero, You’re On Your Own Kid, Bejeweled
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
8. Write Your Name In Pink — Quinn Christopherson
Alternative
I discovered this album several months ago from a friend’s Facebook post—the same friend who I would go agate-hunting with on a Pacific Northwest island beach some months later. It feels appropriate because listening to this album feels like finding an agate amongst a beach of deceitfully shiny rocks. That is to say, it’s a real treasure. It’s not ultra-polished, but it doesn’t have to be. There is enough heart to make up for any lack of luster. Write Your Name In Pink is honest and true and bold and soft. It’s alt-pop feel and references to 2000s nostalgia are endearing and inviting, and Quinn Christopherson’s genuine vulnerability is a rare find that cuts through the noise of much of popular music. It will forever have a special place in my heart.
Tracks on repeat: 2005, Erase Me
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
7. Squeeze — SASAMI
Alternative
This is one of three albums from my favorites list in my first issue that has held up enough to stay among my top ten (the next two are the others). What initially drew me in was SASAMI’s goal to “appropriate white, male music” and I stayed listening through the end because it legitimately rocks (hard!). She seems to have a natural sensibility for “appropriating” these arenas of metal, rock, and folk music. And she can write a sick rock ballad (The Greatest).
Patti Harrison, Mitski, and Christian Lee Hutson make appearances on the album—which is basically a dream dinner party lineup. The album itself is a dream, too—one that takes me back to a sweaty, crowded venue with white/cis/dude-bros taking up way too much space as I prepare my eardrums to get shredded by the speakers. But, this time, the crowd parts and a vision in a corset and platform combat boots ushers me forward. Girls to the fucking front.
Tracks on repeat: Say It, Call Me Home
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
6. Three Dimensions Deep — Amber Mark
R&B/Soul
Out of all of the R&B albums I’ve listened to this year, this is the best. And, yes, I listened to SZA’s SOS and I loved it. I love this even more. I don’t know if it was submitted for Grammy consideration but, if it was, it absolutely should have been nominated. Three Dimensions Deep has no misses—even given the fact that Amber Mark takes risks, like the Peter Gabriel-esque “Darkside.” The risks pay off every time.
Mark is a great songwriter with smart hooks, soulful melodies, and authentic lyrics, and many of her songs have taken up permanent residence in the ecosystem of my brain including what remains my favorite song of the year, “Cosmic.” If you love R&B and haven’t gotten to this album yet, put it on immediately.
Tracks on repeat: Cosmic, Worth It, Darkside
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
5. Laurel Hell — Mitski
Alternative
Mitski was the only artist out of this list that I got to see perform live this year (though I did catch a livestream of Angel Olsen playing through Big Time). It is not often that an album is able to hold the electricity of a live performance, but Laurel Hell does. There are many moments on this album that feel like church to me. It’s not just because of the occasional organ or the worship-song-like structure of “Heat Lighting,” but because there’s something spiritual about the way she connects the personal to the universal. She pours her heart out in her lyrics and, in turn, makes you want to pour out your own heart as you sing along. I felt it in the crowd of Gen Z-ers at her concert, swaying and dancing and singing her lyrics back at her. This electric, spiritual thing was present then and it is present every time I press play.
Tracks on repeat: Heat Lightning, The Only Heartbreaker
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
4. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers — Kendrick Lamar
Hip-Hop/Rap
This was the album that most inspired me to write. There is so much symbolism and meaning packed into this album, writing my review felt like writing a college essay. Kendrick Lamar makes (imperfect) attempts at reconciliation with those he has wronged or have wronged him—including himself. His lyrics explore grief, trauma, and conflict—uncomfortable territory for the average rapper or songwriter. There is not much that feels “easy” on this album, but there is much that feels beautiful. In Mr. Morale…, Lamar finds the deep truths of human experience and pulls them up by the roots.
It is important to note that this album is not without controversy. It is disappointing to see Kodak Black featured and even praised on the album, and Lamar’s attempt at acceptance of two transgender family members (Auntie Diaries) is messy at best. I still grapple with this in measuring my love for this album (and welcome any feedback for its inclusion on this list). But, ultimately, the art that Lamar made on this album was powerful to me. I can’t deny that it is one of the albums that moved me the most.
Tracks on repeat: United In Grief, Mother I Sober
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
3. RENAISSANCE — Beyoncé
Pop
If writing the Kendrick Lamar review was like a college essay, my review of RENAISSANCE felt like writing a dissertation. This review took me three weeks to write and it was the one that I did the most research on. I researched so obsessively partly because I didn’t completely connect to the album right away. But I didn’t want to cast it aside so quickly. There are always layers to a Beyoncé project and I wanted to dissect them and understand them before judging the album overall. What I found was a brilliant homage to dance music—its sounds, its culture, its roots. But it’s more than an homage, really. Beyoncé not only immersed herself into dance genres like ballroom, house, and disco but tinkered with them, reshaped them, and made them her own.
This album is so full of detail that I find something new to love about it every time I listen to it. Like how there are tracks that don’t have those smooth, seamless transitions between them because those are the moments where you switch sides on the vinyl record—so there are no interrupted transitions! (I probably love this detail too much.) I have even come around on a couple of songs that I didn’t particularly enjoy when I wrote my initial review (e.g. MOVE and HEATED)…but I still don’t care for ALL UP IN YOUR MIND. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This album is simply a work of art. Hang it in the Louvre.
Tracks on repeat: COZY, ALIEN SUPERSTAR (living for that transition between them)
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
2. Big Time — Angel Olsen
Alternative
I don’t think there’s an album from this year that is as perfect as this one. It’s another album that was astonishingly snubbed by the Grammys. Maybe because it straddles the country and alternative genres and is a bit difficult to pin down. As Olsen jokes, “it’s not country but it’s not not country.” Whatever it is, it’s thoroughly beautiful.
Big Time is a look into the beauty that comes not necessarily from grief, but through it. Olsen lost both of her parents shortly before making this album and you can feel the weight of that loss throughout the album. But it is also about more than just loss. It is about love, about beauty, about dreaming, about being alive. There is something that moves me in every song—whether it’s a perfectly timed castanet, the final pull of a minor chord on the piano, or a jerky quiver in Olsen’s voice. It is exquisite and timeless. After the apocalypse, aliens will search through the rubble left of the earth, find this album, and when they play it, they’ll wonder when it was from. The answer is simply, “yes.” It always was, always has been, and will always be.
Tracks on repeat: Dream Thing, Go Home, Chasing The Sun
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
Link to full review here.
1. You Can’t Kill Me — 070 Shake
Alternative
No album captivated me more this year than 070 Shake’s You Can’t Kill Me. From the first note to the very last, I never knew where it was going—and that thrilled me. This album isn’t quite a lot of things—it’s not quite R&B, not quite hip-hop, not quite pop—and yet it contains multitudes. The songs are full of shapeshifting twists and turns and there is something to love in every single one of them.
070 Shake is a visionary. She didn’t just create an album but a whole world to explore within it. It’s a world that I enthusiastically immersed myself in when the album first came out and one that I love revisiting. It is full of contrast—light and dark, softness and hardness—with so many different textures and sounds. It is a whole prismatic spectrum of colors.
070 Shake took a bite out of my brain with this avant-garde, genre-bending album and it hasn’t been the same since. I think my strongest music memory from this year will be listening to this album on my headphones as the sun sets, playing it on repeat, repeat, and repeat again.
Tracks on repeat: Web, History, Cocoon
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
Link to full review here.
What are your favorite albums from this year? Let me know in the comments.
Favorite EP of 2022 (the 1/2 in 10-1/2)
Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar — NOBRO
Alternative
If this EP counted as a full LP, it would take the #10 slot on my list, but I’m considering it a bonus. This is an immaculate pop-punk album by one of the most kick-ass all female bands I’ve ever come across. It is perfect from start to finish. It has a badass opening track (Better Each Day), which kicks into full gear with the words, “being a bitch is not illegal.” It’s full of wall-to-wall bangers, and a strong closing track that makes you feel like you’re hanging out in a garage jamming with your friends. “Play guitar crazy, smoke weed, and skate. What the fucks it for if it don’t feel great?” What the fuck is it for, indeed. If these ladies have room for one more in their crew, sign me up immediately.
Favorite tracks: Better Each Day, Eat Slay Chardonnay (best title of a song maybe ever)
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
Top 22 songs of 2022
These are the songs that moved me the most this year—they made me cry, laugh, dance, and gave me goosebumps. Some of them have appeared in my seasonal playlists, but most have not.1 Some highlights: “Try,” whose genre is so indescribable it’s probably just from space. “Protection From Evil,” which has the best build and breakdown in a song this year. “Baby, I Had an Abortion,” which is a badass pro-Roe track that absolutely shreds (the guitar! the bass lines! sickening!). And then there’s “Cosmic”—an otherworldly (sorry, had to) R&B number and song of the year in my book. And, finally, “Monoculture” that fulfills the emo space in my soul—also with a great build.
The songs are not ranked but are ordered in a way that felt like it flowed the smoothest. Links to the Spotify and Apple Music versions are below.
Spotify:
Apple Music Link
It feels criminal to only share 22 songs, really. There are so many, many more great ones. If you want more, I kept a running playlist of my favorite song from every album and EP that I listened to this year. They’re listed in the chronological order of listening. It’s a big one so hit play or throw it on shuffle and brace yourself for a wild ride! You can find it here:
365 Albums in 2022 - Apple Music playlist
365 Albums in 2022 - Spotify playlist
You can also find my seasonal playlists on my Spotify profile here, or my Apple Music profile here.
What were some of your favorite songs this year? Let me know in the comments.
Thank you
I can’t wrap this year up without a BIG thanks to my mom and my partner for their help proofreading most of my issues, for being a sounding board for my ideas, and for encouraging me to keep going with this newsletter when I didn’t think I could do it anymore. Thank you, also, to all of the friends and family members that encouraged me and were on the other end of panicked texts arising from my own imposter syndrome. Thank you for not letting me give up on this. All it takes is for someone to believe in you to find the ability that you didn’t think was in you.
And thanks to you, dear readers, for every subscription, comment, and engagement. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again—this community here is just as much for you as it is for me. Thank you for being a part of it.
Band Practice will continue in 2023. I may not be listening to an album every single day, but there will be plenty of music to share with you. Keep an eye on your inboxes in the next couple of weeks for more info on the future of this newsletter. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it.
Happy New Year! Here’s to another year of good music in 2023!
Fun fact: SZA and Taylor Swift were also both on my Top 21 songs of 2021.