{"id":9699,"date":"2022-12-22T11:39:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T16:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9699"},"modified":"2022-12-22T11:41:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T16:41:27","slug":"top-100-songs-of-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/22\/top-100-songs-of-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 100 songs of 2022."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There was such a flood of new music in the last two months of 2022 that I struggled to keep up with it, even slipping a couple of new albums on <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/21\/top-22-albums-of-2022\/\">my best of 2022 list<\/a> that I\u2019d only listened to in their entirety in the last couple of weeks. It\u2019s a good outcome, though, as 2022 shaped up to be a better year for new music than I would have said it was coming out of the summer, and I had more songs to put on this list than I could fit (and no, I\u2019m not going past 100, this is work enough for something that\u2019s not my actual job). You can see my previous years\u2019 song rankings here: <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/23\/top-100-songs-of-2021\/\">2021<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/24\/top-100-songs-of-2020\/\">2020<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/13\/top-100-songs-of-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2019<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/20\/top-100-songs-of-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2018<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/19\/top-100-songs-of-2017\/\"><strong>2017<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2gPBItT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2016<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/1NzuUp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2015<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/1zKgTAN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2014<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/19zpudz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2013<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/XM4Txp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>2012<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you can\u2019t see the Spotify widget below, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/5WlyUKakQQe7XOy6HQhNgd?si=817942bf1edf4388\">access it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Klaw&amp;apos;s Top 100 songs of 2022\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/5WlyUKakQQe7XOy6HQhNgd?si=07aa97288df34ce6&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>100. beabadoobee \u2013 10:36.<\/strong> Beatrice Kristi Laus\u2019s second album, <em>beatopia<\/em>, refers to a fantasy world she created for herself when she moved with her family from the Philippines to London at age 7. It\u2019s a clear step forward in her songwriting and gets her out of the lo-fi world of her first record. This was my second-favorite track on the album, although \u201cLast Day on Earth,\u201d her one-off single from 2021, isn\u2019t on the LP at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>99. Stella Donnelly \u2013 How Was Your Day?<\/strong> The Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter Donnelly released her second album, <em>Flood<\/em>, this spring to positive reviews. This track\u2019s witty lyrics, revealing the hidden layers behind that innocuous phrase, and sunny indie-pop make it the album\u2019s best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>98. Young Guv \u2013 Nowhere at All.<\/strong> Ben Cook of the Canadian band No Warning released his third album as Young Guv early this year and then followed it up with this one-off jangle-pop single that reminded me quite a bit of last year\u2019s debut record from Chime School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>97. The Linda Lindas \u2013 Tonite.<\/strong> I\u2019ve been a bit surprised that the Linda Linda\u2019s debut album <em>Growing Up<\/em> didn\u2019t appear on any year-end rankings or roundups of the year\u2019s best music that I found, given the hype around the teenage punk band a year or two earlier \u2013 and given how good they sound for a bunch of kids. This is a great, vibrant young punk album, just angry enough about the right stuff. I admit it\u2019s not breaking a ton of new ground, but tracks like this one are pretty infectious and point to a promising future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>96. Arlo Parks \u2013 Softly.<\/strong> The only music Parks released this year was this track, which brings some electronic music elements to her lovely vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>95. Bartees Strange \u2013 Wretched. <\/strong>Strange\u2019s second album, <em>Farm to Table<\/em>, is his big coming-out as a songwriter, bringing him out from under the shadow of his influences (notably the National). This track was one of the album\u2019s standouts, a slower, mournful song that offers thanks to the people who stood by him when he was at his worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>94. Jungle \u2013 Good Times.<\/strong> One of two songs Jungle released this year ahead of an album that didn\u2019t appear in 2022, although I imagine it won\u2019t be that much longer now that their summer\/fall tour is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>93. SAULT \u2013 Money.<\/strong> SAULT released six albums this year, five of them at the start of November. One of those five was <em>Today &amp; Tomorrow<\/em>, the band\u2019s most rock-oriented record to date, even bringing in some punk influences. You can hear it here, where they channel the 1970s punk act Death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>92. The Cool Greenhouse \u2013 Get Unjaded.<\/strong> I know this style of very English art-rock music with talk-sung lyrics isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but where else would you find a couplet like \u201cGoogling questions like &#8216;Should I start microdosing?&#8217;\/And &#8216;How come I&#8217;m standing outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping?&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>91. The Fashion Weak ft. Gruff Rhys \u2013 Welsh Words. <\/strong>I admit to some pro-Cymru bias here, but this song is both extremely catch and makes me laugh every time I hear it. Rhys is the lead singer of Super Furry Animals, who\u2019ve recorded entire albums in Welsh, while the Fashion Weak are a new wave revival act whose second single, \u201cFly Fishing,\u201d featured Miki Berenyi of Lush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>90. Superbloom \u2013 Falling Up.<\/strong> The first few seconds are sort of nonsense, the kind of thing the band will grow out of, but I like where the track goes afterwards as these over Nirvana fans expand beyond the well-crafted mimicry of their first album into something more original over the foundation of grunge revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>89. Stars \u2013 Pretenders.<\/strong> Stars\u2019 first album in nearly five years was typically lovely, if perhaps a bit unambitious, featuring plenty of back-and-forth vocals from the two lead singers. They bring an ethereal beauty even to upbeat rock tracks like this one, my favorite on the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>88. All Them Witches \u2013 Hush, I\u2019m on TV.<\/strong> According to Wikipedia, ATW released nine original singles in 2022 plus two covers, but no album. Anyway, I dig their heavy, stoner\/blues rock sound, which settles in after the loud, layered riffing that opens this track before the buzzsaw hits in the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>87. The Wombats \u2013 Everything I Love is Going to Die.<\/strong> The two best tracks from the Wombats\u2019 2022 album <em>Fix Yourself, Not the World<\/em> were both released in 2021, so even though the LP made my best-of-2022 list, this is the only song from the record on this year\u2019s top 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>86. Preoccupations \u2013 Ricochet.<\/strong> The best song from Preoccupations\u2019 fourth album <em>Arrangements<\/em> is this track, which fuses their typical post-punk\/early new wave sound with elements of early \u201890s shoegaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>85. Porcupine Tree \u2013 Rats Return.<\/strong> \u201cHarridan\u201d was my favorite song on <em>CLOSURE\/CONTINUATION<\/em>, but this is a close second, less ambitious but highlighted by the best guitar riff on the entire album, a dark, minor-key line that infuses the whole song with a sense of foreboding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>84. Cory Wong \u2013 Power Station. <\/strong>Wong released two albums in 2022, <em>Wong\u2019s Caf\u00e9<\/em> in January and <em>Power Station<\/em> in April, with this, obviously from the latter album, sounding like something discovered in Prince\u2019s archives from the early 1980s, just with a better guitar solo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>83. The Afghan Whigs \u2013 I\u2019ll Make You See God.<\/strong> The Whigs have always been able to rock, but this track goes 0 to 90 in the opening seconds and never lets up \u2013 enough that it ended up in the video game <em>Gran Turismo 7<\/em>. The lyrics appear to be total nonsense, but man, this sucker rocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>82. Gojira \u2013 Our Time is Now.<\/strong> Gojira put out the best metal song of the year \u2013 and it\u2019s the only song they released all year, although I\u2019m hopeful we\u2019re getting a new Gojira album soon. It\u2019s not my favorite Gojira song ever, but it might be their most accessible, if that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>81. Black Honey \u2013 Heavy.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t love their previous single, \u201cCharlie Bronson,\u201d but \u201cHeavy\u201d is more the Black Honey I know and love, indie-rock with a strong melody crossed with a harder edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>80. Crawlers \u2013 I Don\u2019t Want It.<\/strong> Barely over two minutes long, this little earworm from the Liverpudlian quartet Crawlers is their best track to date and one of two strong singles from their second EP, <em>Loud Without Noise<\/em>, along with \u201cToo Soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>79. Sports Team \u2013 The Drop.<\/strong> I could have put as many as five songs from <em>Gulp!<\/em> on this top 100, but ended up with two, adding this track because the main hook is so memorable, and it\u2019s one of the more interesting tracks on the album because of the one right turn it takes at the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>78. Killing Joke \u2013 Lord of Chaos.<\/strong> Jaz Coleman is 62, and with his age and seven years passing since Killing Joke\u2019s last album, <em>Pylon<\/em>, I figured we were done getting new music from the band. Killing Joke defy labels as much as any artist I can think of \u2013 I suppose people who know Sparks\u2019 music would say the same, but I don\u2019t know their oeuvre as well \u2013 so it was sort of a pleasant surprise to hear this track and \u201cTotal\u201d follow in the same heavy-rock vein as that last album, which gave us the incredible single \u201cEuphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>77. Band of Horses \u2013 Warning Signs.<\/strong> Band of Horses\u2019 best songs can be pretty great, like \u201cIs There a Ghost,\u201d but I find their albums nearly always let me down, and this year\u2019s <em>Things Are Great<\/em> was more of the same. This was my favorite track, although I think that\u2019s probably because it reminds me of the way I want Band of Horses to sound all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>76. Melt Yourself Down \u2013 Balance.<\/strong> I admit to ignorance on Melt Yourself Down, and I need to explore their discography some more, as I liked what I heard from this year as they released their fourth album <em>Pray for Me, I Don\u2019t Fit In<\/em>. Their music doesn\u2019t just blend genres from around the world, but it does so in a frenetic fashion that holds my interest even when the song doesn\u2019t have a great hook (\u201cNightsiren\u201d). This was the best track from the album, with three great hooks in the vocals, the saxophone line, and the guitar riff around the 1:30 mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>75. The Mysterines \u2013 Means to Bleed. <\/strong>The Mysterines released their debut album, <em>Reeling<\/em>, in March, but it didn\u2019t include most of the great singles they\u2019d released over the previous couple of years, like \u201cI Win Every Time,\u201d \u201cLove\u2019s Not Enough,\u201d \u201cBet Your Pretty Face,\u201d or \u201cGasoline.\u201d The album has the right vibe, just without the highlights, although this and \u201cHung Up\u201d are solid examples of their sound and their potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>74. Jack White feat. Q-Tip \u2013 Hi-De-Ho.<\/strong> The Jack White\/Q-Tip partnership that first appeared on record with A Tribe Called Quest\u2019s swan song <em>We Got It From Here \u2026 Thank You For Your Service <\/em>continued this year with Q-Tip\u2019s guest spot on this track from the first of White\u2019s two albums released in 2022, <em>Fear of the Dawn<\/em>. The result here, based on an interpolation of Cab Calloway\u2019s famous scatting phrase, is wonderfully weird and catchy, and by now you probably realize I give 5 bonus points to any track including Kamaal the Abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>73. Kid Kapichi \u2013 Rob the Supermarket.<\/strong> I can\u2019t avoid thinking of this as some sort of late-stage capitalist response to the Clash\u2019s anti-consumerist \u201cLost in the Supermarket,\u201d while also marveling at how Kid Kapichi have taken the mantle that Alex Turner dropped somewhere in the late teens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>72. Freddie Gibbs feat. Moneybagg Yo. <\/strong>Gibbs is one of the best technical rappers going now, and pairs it with consistently interesting and often weird backing music; this track, the best from the regular edition of Gibbs\u2019s <em>$oul $old $eparately<\/em>, shows off his rhyming speed and rhythm better than anything else on the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>71. beabadoobee \u2013 Talk.<\/strong> The best track from <em>beatopia<\/em> has a little harder of an edge to the music and mixes her vocals up accordingly to pair with the walls of distortion in the chorus, along with the album\u2019s best melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>70. Talk Show \u2013 Cold House. <\/strong>Talk Show, unrelated to the Stone Temple Pilots offshoot from about twenty years ago, released two EPs this year; <em>Touch the Ground<\/em> had six songs, including last year\u2019s \u201cUnderworld\u201d and this track that encapsulates their blend of post-punk, new wave revival, and dark wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>69. HAIM \u2013 Lost Track.<\/strong> I\u2019ve never gotten the hype for HAIM, but man this song has a hell of a hook in the chorus, and it\u2019s the perfect length for a song of this simplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>68. FKA twigs featuring Jorja Smith and Unknown T \u2013 darjeeling.<\/strong> I love FKA twigs and I love Jorja Smith, so I\u2019m clearly in the target audience for this track from FKA twigs\u2019 <s>album<\/s> mixtape, and indeed it\u2019s Smith\u2019s vocals that elevate the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>67. Tei Shi \u2013 GRIP.<\/strong> Big year for songs\/albums calling out the music industry\u2019s more exploitative practices. Tei Shi pulled her 2021 album <em>La Linda<\/em> from streaming services after Downtown Records refused to pay her the remainder of her advance two years aft, er its release. \u201cGRIP\u201d is her diss track against that label and the industry as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>66. Editors \u2013 Karma Climb.<\/strong> I was a little underwhelmed by <em>EBM<\/em>, Editors\u2019 latest album and first with Blanck Mass (Benjamin Power) as a member, but the chorus on \u201cKarma Climb\u201d is extremely catchy and I think a good example of their early Interpol-esque dark indie sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>65. Greentea Peng \u2013 Your Mind. <\/strong>Greentea Peng\u2019s eclectic mix of styles can be very hit or miss, missing on \u201cStuck in the Middle\u201d but hitting here on \u201cYour Mind,\u201d which incorporates traditional soul, jazz, and some rock guitar lines. Both appeared on her mixtape <em>GREENZONE 108<\/em> this September. I wonder if it\u2019s more than a coincidence that this song\u2019s length is 4:20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>64. Sudan Archives \u2013 Home Maker.<\/strong> The opening track from <em>Natural Brown Prom Queen<\/em>, my #2 album of the year, fakes you out with a minute-long intro that almost sounds like someone pressed \u2018record\u2019 before anyone was ready, but it\u2019s all a matter of building tension before Britt Parks starts up with her mixture of rap and vocals, and by the two-minute mark she\u2019s shipped you back almost fifty years in time with her classic R&amp;B sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>63. Sky Ferreira \u2013 Don\u2019t Forget.<\/strong> I had forgotten, it turns out, as Ferreira released just one song between 2014 and 2022, 2019\u2019s \u201cDownhill Lullaby.\u201d This track is supposed to herald the release of her long-awaited second album, <em>Masochism<\/em>, although it\u2019s still unscheduled; if this is where her sound has evolved after the long layoff, into a darker version of synth-pop, I\u2019m all for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>62. Sprints \u2013 Literary Mind.<\/strong> Sprints released an EP earlier in 2022, <em>Modern Job<\/em>, featuring the title track and \u201cDelia Smith,\u201d while this single came later and might be their catchiest song to date, without losing any of their signature garage or punk elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>61. Automatic \u2013 Skyscraper.<\/strong> Automatic released their second album, <em>Excess<\/em>, in June, and this third single from the record was actually the first of their songs I\u2019d heard, a pulsing, dark synth-pop track powered by a prominent, wandering bass line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>60. Dry Cleaning \u2013 Don\u2019t Press Me.<\/strong> I\u2019m very sensitive to how a vocalist sings, and often it doesn\u2019t even make that much sense to me. I don\u2019t love the vocals from Dry Cleaning, even though that flat, almost toneless style of sing-talking doesn\u2019t necessarily bother me from other singers, just as I can\u2019t stand Porridge Radio\u2019s whiny, cracking vocals. \u201cDon\u2019t Press Me\u201d is a rare example where the vocals on a Dry Cleaning song aren\u2019t enough to deter me from an outstanding Wire-ish track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>59. Hatchie \u2013 Quicksand.<\/strong> I was a little \u2026 not underwhelmed, but maybe just whelmed by Hatchie\u2019s new album this year, as it seemed like the Aussie singer\/songwriter might be stagnating; the best track was last year\u2019s \u201cThis Enchanted,\u201d followed by this song, both solid examples of her particular brand of dream pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>58. CVC \u2013 Good Morning Vietnam.<\/strong> CVC have been gigging in Cardiff (that\u2019s Wales) since before the pandemic but didn\u2019t start releasing music until this year, when they dropped a couple of singles, including this odd m\u00e9lange of psychedelic rock and \u201870s soft rock with a funk-adjacent bass line. \u201cDocking My Pay\u201d is also worth checking out if you like this track, as we wait for CVC to drop a full album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>57. Yard Act \u2013 Pour Another.<\/strong> Yard Act\u2019s debut album <em>The Overload<\/em> dropped in January and its best songs had already appeared, including the superb title track and the peculiar \u201cPayday,\u201d leaving this as the best song from the band in 2022. I\u2019ll forever compare them to Gang of Four, although here there\u2019s a more joyous, almost silly vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>56. Crows \u2013 Garden of England. <\/strong>The standout track on <em>Slowly Separate<\/em>, bringing punk energy to their particular brand of hard-rock-verging-on-metal. I\u2019d fly to London tomorrow for a Kid Kapichi\/Crows double billing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>55. MUNA \u2013 What I Want. <\/strong>MUNA\u2019s self-titled third album made a few best-of-2022 lists, although it didn\u2019t quite make the cut for me. I do like their unabashedly poppy approach; I just feel like they\u2019re often a little short in the hooks department. This was the best track on the record for me, and unsurprisingly I think the most acclaimed as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>54. shame \u2013 Fingers of Steel.<\/strong> shame&#8217;s sophomore album <em>Food for Worms<\/em> is due out February 24<sup>th<\/sup>, with this the lead single. I see them tabbed everywhere as \u201cpost-punk,\u201d but I don\u2019t think it fits; they\u2019re an alternative rock act in the clearest sense of the word, working with dissonant sounds and unusual rhythms that will probably always keep them out of the mainstream. I\u2019m also in awe of the fact that they named a song \u201cBaldur\u2019s Gate\u201d after my all-time favorite CPRG series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>53. John-Allison Weiss \u2013 Different Now. <\/strong>Weiss\u2019 first new music since coming out as non-binary &amp; trans in 2017, and first for Get Better Records, was this aptly titled song that doubles as a bittersweet breakup track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>52. Death Cab for Cutie \u2013 Here to Forever.<\/strong> DCFC seem good for one real standout single on every album at this point, such as \u201cGold Rush\u201d from 2018\u2019s <em>Thank You for Today<\/em> and \u201cBlack Sun\u201d from <em>Kintsugi<\/em>. That may not quite hit the highs of <em>Codes and Keys <\/em>or <em>Transatlanticism<\/em>, but I\u2019d say this is pretty good for a band approaching the 25<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of its first album, and singing about mortality and surviving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>51. STONE \u2013 Waste.<\/strong> This Liverpool garage-punk band signed to Polydor earlier in the year and ended it with a banger of a six-song EP, highlighted by this abrasive track that starts angry and ends up furious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>50. Sam Fender \u2013 Alright.<\/strong> A tremendous non-album single from the <em>Seventeen Going Under<\/em> sessions, included in a live version on a bonus version of the 2021 LP released this summer. You\u2019ll notice I don\u2019t include many slower-tempo songs on these lists, especially ones that aren\u2019t acoustic, so that should give you some sense of how much I like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>49. Foals \u2013 Looking High. I thought Foals\u2019 <em>Life is Yours<\/em> was just a big ol\u2019 mess of danceable fun, but it didn\u2019t receive the plaudits I expected, with a lot of criticism over the lyrics \u2013 which has never been a strength of Foals\u2019 songwriter Yannis Philippakis. (\u201cI see a mountain at my gates\/I see it more and more each day.\u201d Shades of Keats and Shelley there.) This or \u201cWake Me Up\u201d vie for my favorite track on the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>48. GIFT \u2013 Gumball Garden. <\/strong>A five-minute opus that starts out in shoegaze territory and then shifts almost to power-pop territory before turning back around on itself. Their album <em>Momentary Presence <\/em>has a lot of that combination, bigger melodies and faster tempos mixed with shimmering guitars and synths out of shoegaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>47. Lizzo \u2013 About Damn Time. <\/strong>You may have heard this song. <em>Special<\/em> lists twenty-five different people as producers, and somehow, none of them was Nile Rodgers. This track is so chic Rodgers might as well have produced it and played guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>46. Kendrick Lamar feat. Sampha \u2013 Father Time.<\/strong> <em>Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers<\/em> is certainly ambitious, but it\u2019s too long and inconsistent, which led me to leave it off my top albums of the year list. \u201cN95\u201d is solid, and \u201cAuntie Diaries\u201d has a truly incredible and necessary sentiment (although it contains a word best omitted, despite the message). This song was the real highlight for me, thanks to the chorus from Mercury Prize winner Sampha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>45. The Head and the Heart \u2013 Shut Up.<\/strong> <em>Every Shade of Blue<\/em> had its highs and lows for me, which is how I pretty much always feel about H&amp;H\u2019s albums, although I loved this song and \u201cVirginia (Wind in the Night)\u201d from their latest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>44. SAULT \u2013 Above the Sky.<\/strong> The best track from the best of the six albums SAULT released this year (<em>Today &amp; Tomorrow<\/em>), incorporating rock elements into the sound they honed on their first four albums, including a guitar solo with distortion and reverb that evoke Hendrix. Also, it\u2019s kind of nuts that SAULT has released eleven albums in three and a half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>43. The Lathums \u2013 Say My Name. <\/strong>The Arctic Monkeys meet the Amazons? It\u2019s anthemic, muscular rock, and I\u2019m fine with that, even if it\u2019s of a sort we\u2019ve heard before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>42. Anxious \u2013 Call From You. <\/strong>It\u2019s post-hardcore, emo, whatever, but with real harmonies, and that little guitar riff you hear in the intro is so unexpected from this subgenre that it has consistently brought me back to this song on a generally great album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>41. Just Mustard \u2013 Mirrors.<\/strong> So I\u2019ve said many times I was never a My Bloody Valentine fan, even with their general critical acclaim and my own affinity for shoegaze, because I just hear waves of noise, not individual notes or chords. \u201cI Only Said\u201d is the exception, because there\u2019s an actual melody to latch on to. If you made an even more accessible version of that song, you\u2019d get \u201cMirrors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>40. Danger Mouse &amp; Black Thought feat. MF Doom \u2013 Belize.<\/strong> Of course, I had to include this track from <em>Cheat Codes<\/em>, as it\u2019s probably the final recording to feature the late MF Doom (a.k.a Zev Love X), although it\u2019s hard to single out any particular tracks on the generally excellent DM\/BT collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>39. Young Fathers \u2013 I Saw.<\/strong> The Mercury Prize winners will drop their fourth album, <em>Heavy Heavy<\/em>, early in 2023, and from the first three singles it looks like we\u2019re in for even more musical experimentation. This was by far my favorite of the three, though, as there\u2019s a hint of their rap origins and a rising sense of indignation as the song progresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>38. Belle &amp; Sebastian \u2013 Unnecessary Drama.<\/strong> I don\u2019t know why people get upset when Belle &amp; Sebastian rock out a little, or hit the dance floor, as long as their essential Belle-and-Sebastian-ness is intact. Stuart Murdoch\u2019s wry, sardonic lyrics are still here, as are the band\u2019s harmonies, so who\u2019s to argue if they have a little more fun?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>37. Gang of Youths \u2013 in the wake of your leave.<\/strong> I don\u2019t think any album disappointed me more than <em>angel in realtime.<\/em>, which had three incredible singles to tease it (\u201cthe angel of 8<sup>th<\/sup> ave.\u201d and \u201cunison\u201d) and nothing else of note. The rest of the record felt self-indulgent, even pretentious, and worst of all devoid of energy. But those three tracks \u2026 I\u2019m not sure anyone has evoked early U2 so effortlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>36. Khruangbin feat. Leon Bridges \u2013 B-side.<\/strong> The collaboration that began two years ago with <em>Texas Sun<\/em> continued this year with <em>Texas Moon<\/em>, highlighted by this danceable, soulful, and of course jazz-inflected single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>35. The Beths \u2013 Expert in a Dying Field.<\/strong> The title track from my #1 album of 2022 is just a perfect Beths song, shiny and bright and poppy and just a little dark around the edges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>34. Sunflower Bean \u2013 I Don\u2019t Have Control Sometimes.<\/strong> Sunflower Bean had a moment this year, pun intended, with \u201cMoment in the Sun\u201d appearing in the final episode of Netflix\u2019s <em>Heartstopper<\/em>, and their latest album <em>Headful of Sugar<\/em> had a number of similarly melodic lo-fi gems, including this one, which hits you with the melody right out of the chute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>33. The Smile \u2013 Thin Thing.<\/strong> The more I listened to the Smile\u2019s debut album, the less I liked it, finding it experimental in some ways but often exactly what you\u2019d expect if you smushed Jonny Greenwood\u2019s soundtrack work with Thom Yorke\u2019s vocals and the drummer from jazz group Sons of Kemet. It turns out it\u2019s not that interesting. This track has the most to offer, starting with that odd syncopated guitar line that opens the song and moves on through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>32. Blossoms \u2013 The Sulking Poet. <\/strong>Good luck getting this chorus out of your head. It\u2019s a bit of Lord Huron, a bit of Head and the Heart, a bit of the Kooks, and oddly American-sounding for a band from Stockport, England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>31. Everything Everything \u2013 Bad Friday.<\/strong> If you liked Everything Everything\u2019s early work, like \u201cCough Cough,\u201d \u201cKemosabe,\u201d \u201cMY KZ UR BF,\u201d and so on, this would likely be your favorite song from their newest album <em>Raw Data Feel<\/em>. It\u2019s their most frenetic, most freewheeling track on the record, and we get more of the falsetto vocals that show up on just about all of their best songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>30. Megan Thee Stallion \u2013 Her.<\/strong> I think Megan Thee Stallion is in the uppermost echelon of rappers today when it comes to speed, flow, and verbal dexterity, but I don\u2019t think she picks music that does enough to accentuate her skills \u2013 or at least to work with them to make better songs. Only this and \u201cPlan B\u201d really stood out to me from <em>Traumazine<\/em> as songs that worked on all levels, from rhyme to music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>29. Rina Sawayama \u2013 This Hell.<\/strong> Sawayama\u2019s second album, <em>Hold the Girl<\/em>, sees the singer\/songwriter leaning far more into her pop sensibilities, which means it lacks the edge or ambition of her debut record, but also has a few more mainstream-ready tracks like this one. It\u2019s her most overtly pop song yet, opening with a trite callback to Shania Twain and passing through a number of popular catchphrases and allusions, but highlights her idiosyncratic blend of styles and ability to craft a memorable hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>28. Kae Tempest and Grian Chatten \u2013 I Saw Light.<\/strong> A spoken-word track over a hypnotic, minimalist synth line that sees the English poet\/rapper Tempest sharing the vocals with Fontaines D.C. singer Chatten. Tempest\u2019s lyrics are superb \u2013 a song like this can\u2019t succeed without that \u2013 and the sparse music behind them creates a forbidding mood without getting in the way of the two speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>27. Griff &amp; Sigrid \u2013 Head on Fire.<\/strong> Griff is a rising superstar, taking home a couple of Brit Award nominations last year shortly after she turned 21 (including Best New Artist, which she lost to Little Simz \u2026 who won for her <em>fourth<\/em> album), while Sigrid is already a star in Europe, so it was a little disappointing to see this track, with its catchy-as-hell chorus, fare poorly on the charts even in their home countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>26. White Lies \u2013 Trouble in America.<\/strong> A bonus track on the deluxe edition of <em>As I Try Not to Fall Apart<\/em> that should have made the record proper given how potent this chorus is. It\u2019s one of my favorite tracks ever from White Lies, six albums in, with some tremendous bass work from Charles Cave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>25. Phoenix feat. Ezra Koenig \u2013 Tonight. <\/strong>The best track on Phoenix\u2019s fun, straightforward new album <em>Alpha Zulu<\/em>, which had a few other standouts, including \u201cAll Eyes on Me.\u201d This one features Vampire Weekend lead singer\/founder Koenig, but I like it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>24. Christine and the Queens \u2013 Je te vois enfin. <\/strong>The best track from <em>Redcar les adorables \u00e9toiles (prologue)<\/em> recalls the dark pop sounds from his 2020 EP <em>La Vita Nuova<\/em> and even parts of his 2018 album <em>Chris<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>23. Soccer Mommy \u2013 Shotgun. <\/strong>My favorite track from Soccer Mommy\u2019s acclaimed album <em>Sometimes, Forever<\/em> has some of her strongest vocals \u2013 I find her voice can be droning, but here it\u2019s well paired with the music and comes off as more ethereal and dreamy than whiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>22. Little Simz \u2013 Angel.<\/strong> Simz won the Mercury Prize in October for <em>Sometimes I Might Be<\/em>, my #1 album of 2021, and then released <em>NO THANK YOU<\/em>, a simpler album that excoriates the music industry,twomonths later. This opener is a six-minute polemic against the exploitation Simz faced over the last year-plus since her magnum opus was first released, although I found in general <em>NO THANK YOU<\/em> doesn\u2019t have the same degree of musical ambition as the preceding LP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>21. Mandrake Handshake \u2013 Emonzaemon.<\/strong> This Oxford-based psychedelic rock band released their second EP, <em>The Triple Point of Water<\/em>, last month, with three songs that run a total of nearly 20 minutes. I could see them being big on the jam-band circuit with this sound and those running times, but that\u2019s not to dismiss the great guitar lick that opens this track and carries it all the way through until the heavier guitars kick in for the last thirty seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>20. Lizzo \u2013 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready).<\/strong> The best track on <em>Special<\/em> is the one that calls back to Prince both in title and in sound, which couldn\u2019t have been more tailor-made for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>19. Momma \u2013 Speeding 72. <\/strong>There\u2019s a big Veruca Salt vibe to the vocals on this track, but mixed with fuzzier garage-rock production and some heavier bass work from a band that likes to employ the drop-D tuning more associated with metal acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>18. The Reytons \u2013 Avalanche.<\/strong> Sometimes I just want a big, crunchy rock song that announces its presence with authority in the opening seconds and never lets up on the gas pedal until it\u2019s done. So I give you \u201cAvalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>17. Sharon van Etten \u2013 Mistakes.<\/strong> As with Soccer Mommy, van Etten\u2019s vocal style often grates on me \u2013 she sounds stoned or just disinterested on so many of her songs \u2013 even when I like her music. Here she belts it out on the earworm chorus, maybe the best hook she\u2019s ever crafted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>16. Kid Kapichi feat. Bob Vylan \u2013 New England.<\/strong> Vylan is the perfect collaborator for Kid Kapichi\u2019s style of bitter, sarcastic attacks on modern British society between the duo\u2019s track \u201cGDP\u201d last year and Kapichi\u2019s \u2026 well, their entire catalog to date. \u201cYou\u2019re such a fool, Britannia\u201d probably wouldn\u2019t get anyone many votes but it\u2019s certainly sums up the Brexiteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>15. Wet Leg \u2013 Angelica.<\/strong> I know \u201cChaise Longue\u201d and \u201cUr Mum\u201d have earned more plaudits, and the former was a legitimate commercial breakout track, but this is their best song by a mile \u2013 it\u2019s got a better hook, the sonic interplay between the two vocalists works far better here than on other tracks, and this time the lyrics are actually funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>14. Spiritualized \u2013 The Mainline Song.<\/strong> <em>Everything Was Beautiful<\/em>, the space-rock pioneers\u2019 first new album in four years and only their second in a decade, came out in April, highlighted by this gorgeous, textured, melancholy song, the only flaw in which is that it could use some additional lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>13. Let\u2019s Eat Grandma \u2013 Levitation.<\/strong> I understand this band\u2019s name (think \u201ceats, shoots and leaves\u201d) but it still kind of bugs me. They can write a pretty great synth-pop song, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>12. Lucius \u2013 Next to Normal.<\/strong> One of the year\u2019s best bass lines came on this funky track from <em>Second Nature<\/em>, Lucius\u2019 first album of new material since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>11. Metronomy \u2013 Good to Be Back.<\/strong> What a weirdly happy, bouncy song \u2013 it feels like someone slipped it into the TARDIS in the early 1980s, from the new wave-y sound to the sparse production, but that main synth line is so catchy it would fit in any era. The song is so good that Panic Shack\u2019s punk cover of it works just as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>10. FKA twigs feat. rema \u2013 jealousy.<\/strong> The best track from <em>CAPRISONGS<\/em> includes the Nigerian \u201cAfrorave\u201d singer Rema and has a swirling, Afrobeat-like backdrop to the vocals that feels immersive even with a too-short running time below three minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>9. Riverby \u2013 Chapel.<\/strong> Riverby is a punk act from Philly, but this song from their latest album <em>Absolution<\/em> is an absolutely gorgeous ballad that showcases lead singer\/guitarist August Greenberg\u2019s beautiful voice. I\u2019d take a whole album made out of this, thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>8. Blossoms \u2013 Ode to NYC.<\/strong> The most Lord Huron-ish track on <em>Ribbon Around the World<\/em> also feels like the replacement for Ryan Adams\u2019 \u201cNew York, New York.\u201d As someone who grew up in the suburbs of the Big Apple, I was never not in love with New York City, but I\u2019m also always happy to sing along with praises of my favorite place in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>7. Mattiel \u2013 Lighthouse.<\/strong> There are two great hooks in this track, both driven by the powerful voice of lead singer Mattiel Brown, from her new album <em>Georgia Gothic<\/em>. It reminds me a ton of Swing Out Sister\u2019s breakout hit \u2026 uh, \u201cBreakout,\u201d from 1986, which I mean as a high compliment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>6. Jamie T \u2013 The Old Style Raiders.<\/strong> In a year when the Arctic Monkeys gave up on rock, we didn\u2019t lack for artists stepping in to fill the void they\u2019ve left behind, from the Lathums to the Reytons to Kid Kapichi, along with this track from British star Jamie T, whose 2022 album <em>The Theory of Whatever <\/em>hit #1 in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5. Sports Team \u2013 Dig!<\/strong> I loved Sports Team\u2019s new album <em>Gulp!<\/em> and this is the song I keep coming back to. If I were a big-league reliever, I\u2019d warm up to this track, which brings huge energy with the initial bass line and that three-chord riff, like someone put a cinder block on the gas pedal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. Sudan Archives \u2013 NBPQ (Topless).<\/strong> The best track from my #2 album of the year refers to that LP\u2019s title, <em>Natural Brown Prom Queen<\/em>, and wanders through what feels like three different genres while always coming back to the tagline from the chorus, \u201cI\u2019m not average.\u201d She\u2019s anything but.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. The Beths \u2013 When You Know You Know.<\/strong> If anyone ever asked me why I like the Beths so much, I\u2019d just play this song, which has everything that makes them great: a big hook in the chorus, sunny vocals with a great harmony, witty lyrics, and jangly guitars. Almost all of <em>Expert in a Dying Field<\/em> is like this, but here everything comes together perfectly for the best song the Beths have ever recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Spoon \u2013 Wild.<\/strong> Man, <em>Lucifer on the Sofa<\/em> did not live up to this single at all, but for three minutes it felt like we had peak Spoon again. That simple, sparing guitar line in the verse feels like a rubber band about to snap, and the song never quite lets out that tension. I liked the previous single, \u201cThe Hardest Cut,\u201d as well, but the rest of the record was just filler after these two songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Bartees Strange \u2013 Heavy Heart. <\/strong>What\u2019s the opposite of the sophomore slump? Strange\u2019s debut album was solid, and promising, but also limited, and it seemed like he might just be another indie-rock singer\/songwriter who had a distinct voice but whose music sounded like too much else from indie\/college radio of the last decade or so \u2013 notably his primary influence, the National. Instead of continuing in that vein, we got <em>Farm to Table<\/em>, a wide-ranging, genre-skipping, guitar-driven record with sensitive, introspective lyrics, led by this song, which feels like two for the price of one, punctuated by that giant guitar break just after the two minute mark that I would bet brings the house down when he plays it live. I had Strange in the wrong category after the first record, figuring I\u2019d respect his music more than I liked it. His growth as a musician and lyricist is one of the great stories of music in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feel free to throw any of your favorites &#8211; songs, albums, EPs, mixtapes &#8211; in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was such a flood of new music in the last two months of 2022 that I struggled to keep up with it, even slipping a couple of new albums on my best of 2022 list that I\u2019d only listened to in their entirety in the last couple of weeks. It\u2019s a good outcome, though, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1275,359,609,167,852,260],"class_list":["post-9699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2022-in-music","tag-alternative","tag-hip-hop","tag-indie","tag-music","tag-rankings","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9699"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9702,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9699\/revisions\/9702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}