The hills are alive with the sound of music. Tears For Fears returned. Eddie Vedder found a new groove. Charli XCX dialed up the pop dial (even further???). Maren Morris broke her sound down. And Beyoncé reminded us why, decades into her incredible career, no one has come for her throne. Wait—did we mention the 1975? Because they finally delivered their first great record, top to bottom.
Of course, there has been more. And below, you'll find indie rock jams and pop bangers and classic rock, well, classics, ready to delight and amuse or, in some special cases, offer you that holy escape that only music can provide. These are the best albums of 2022.
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The 1975, Being Funny In A Foreign Language
Over the last decade and four overstuffed albums, Matty Healy and the boys have proven themselves capable of great moments. With their fifth, they’ve delivered their first great record. It may begin with the piano syncopation of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends,” but the album finally defines the sound of The 1975: eleven bubbly tracks about love and isolation, sex and solitude, and not a skip in the bunch. If you have an opportunity to see them on what remains of their At Their Very Best tour, take it from us and get there however you can. —Dave Holmes
The Southern rock duo got a hell of a lot muddier on their sixth studio album. Blood Harmony, easily the best southern rock set of the year, is gritty, soulful, and almost oppressively riff heavy. A lot of greats get name-checked when discussing the north Georgia-bred sisters—Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, Black Keys—but don't let the comparisons distract you. Just let loose. —Madison Vain
Intimate lyrics of regret and heartache, set to a glacier wall of ‘90s college-radio guitars. It is the holiday season; if your plans include deep melancholy, please consider Blue Rev your soundtrack. —DH
Gang of Youths, Angel in Realtime
Upon the death of his father, Gang of Youths frontman David Le’aupepe did some digging into the old man’s life, and found two half-brothers he didn’t know about. He went on to write this album, filled with stadium-rock songs that feel massive in the way grief and anger and wonder do. —DH
The youngest member of Smith family has been cranking out music for years, but COPINGMECHANISM is her finest album yet. (Think “Meet Me At Our Spot,” but older, wiser, and a bit more rebellious.) As with her previous work you can expect guitar solos and emo-lyrics, but for the first time, Smith's vocal booms—and songs enjoy a decidedly elevated composition. COPINGMECHANISM feels like talking about life with an old friend. —Bria McNeal
Tyler Childers, Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven?
Who's doing it better than Childers in roots music these days? No one. And his 2022 set proves he knows it: His new album has eight songs—some traditional, some freshly-penned—with each presented in three different styles from paper-thin arrangements to sample-fueled reimaginations. —MV
BROCKHAMPTON’s final album, The Family, ties a musical bow around a meteoric career. The boy-band was founded in 2010 and released six rap albums during their tenure, each more experimental than the last. On The Family, BROCKHAMPTON speaks about how their relationship has changed and why they decided to stop making music together (creative differences, fights, different paths). But it’s not all doom and gloom; across the set's sprawling 17 tracks the boys still sound exactly as you remember them—young, carefree, and full of joy. —BM
Florence & The Machine, Dance Fever
After a four-year hiatus, Florence Welch & co. returned with Dance Fever, a glittering celebration of, well, Florence Welch. The album opens with the lead singer reflecting on life as of late: “We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children, about the world ending, and the scale of my ambition,” she sings, before declaring herself a “king.” The rest of the album boasts more revelations too. On “Free” she crowns music as her liberator, while “Girls Against God” watches her fully come into her own, screaming, “you’ll be sorry that you messed with me.” It’s a euphoric, cathartic journey—and the album ends with a promise for more. “After every tour, I swear I’ll quit,” she sings. “It’s over boys, now this is it / But the call, it always comes.” —BM
Apollo’s second album, Ivory, is a no-skips-needed masterpiece. Listen to “Invincible” if you want to cry, then flip to “Tamagotchi” to dance your sorrow away. Feeling angry? Put on “Evergreen” and scream the bridge loud enough for your neighbors to come knocking. Then, listen to “Talk” for some emotional reprieve. Ivory seamlessly weaves its way through the entirety human experience across its runtime, but the album shines thanks to Apollo's stunning vocals. If you hadn’t heard of Apollo before, you’ll be tempted to call him a star in the making. Ivory, however, proves he’s fully formed. —BM
Maggie Rogers isn't afraid to get vulnerable. And much of Surrender sounds exactly like what the first smack of crisp morning air feels like: real and raw and a little jolting. Freeing. Rogers spent much of the writing this record shut off from the world, up in Maine, and the songs invite you right back into those scenes, watching horses running wild or "cruising 95 like we got nothing to lose." Her previous record, Heard It In A Past Life was great, but with Surrender, Rogers hasn't only found her sound, she seems to have found herself. –Ammal Hassan
Let's face it, anything Beyoncé does is a cultural moment. And with Renaissance, we'll be thanking her for years to come as we head to the dance floor. The LP, the superstar's seventh solo album, takes on sounds she's rarely dabbled in before: dance and house music. Boasting a large number of samples and collaborations, including an iconic (we said it) appearance by Grace Jones, the record is carefully curated—every sound, lyric, and transition nailed to perfection. We get to hear her get romantic in flirty riffs on "Plastic On The Sofa" and also totally lose herself, going off with a "Yada, yada, yada, bom-bom, kah-kah" on "Heated." She earns her title—Queen—all over again. —AH
Banks is still leveling up, somehow. Her previous albums stewed in heartbreak, the bitterness of being broken, and, eventually, forgiveness. But Serpentina carries a different tone, one where the artist is shedding the past and people's opinions, instead coming back born again, stronger than ever. On "Misunderstood," the best song on the record to describe Banks's new era, she sings,"If I had just one penny for/Every time somebody didn't get me/I wouldn't need this hustle, man/But, damn, I love this hustle/You don't have to understand." And we heard that loud and clear. –AH
Harry Styles, Harry's House
After his outrageously good 2019 album, Fine Line, Harry Styles is back—and even better. After a debut LP soaked in the '60s and Line's obsession with the '70s, in 2022 the singer moves firmly into the sequin ball era of the '80s. He carefully pairs synths and dreamy melodies with lyrics about everything from green tea and light-speed Internet to cocaine and bluebirds. It's random, sure, but that's the fun. Head out for a drive and turn this one way, way up. – AH
Though The Weeknd has been in the top echelon of pop music for most of the past decade, the last few years have seen him launch into an entirely new stratosphere—one entirely of his own. After Hours and the record-shattering single “Blinding Lights” defined and dominated pop culture in these early, fraught 2020s. And with Dawn FM, the artist made his most complete artistic statement yet. Dawn FM is an album–a full album in a time when many artists are releasing collections of singles to be plucked and streamed and TikTok’d independently. DJ’d by a sultry-voiced Jim Carrey, Dawn FM is a near-future radio broadcast that works best when taken in as a whole. “Take My Breath” hits hard and fast with Daft Punk-esque sheen among a handful of early club-crushing bangers. “Out of Time” and “Here We Go… Again” offer a mid-album break from the blistering synths with yearning neo-R&B ballads. The heartbreak keeps coming in Dawn FM’s back half, balancing out the drama with the clever funk of “I Heard You’re Married” and the dewey-eyed “Less Than Zero.” Like a neon-drenched dance party in dark times, Dawn FM is a welcome escape, open to close. —Matt Miller
Read our full review here.
This is the Eddie Vedder solo album we’ve been waiting for. Earthling is a big, sweeping mainstream rock album about life and loss and grief and aging, and it’s even more fun than it sounds. Vedder sounds like he’s enjoying himself here, like he’s relaxed into his place in the modern era of classic rock, like he’ll take a swing at a couple of tracks that would have ended up on a Tom Petty album and make them work. Stevie Wonder and Elton John drop by, but the record never slips into Grammy-tribute-jam territory. Turn on “Brother The Cloud,” roll down the windows, and scream these last two years right out of your lungs. —DH
Maren Morris, Humble Quest
What do you do when you scale the mountain? Tumble back down, of course. Maren Morris is a king in country music these days, headlining festivals and fairs, performing in super groups, and nabbing couch time during Late Night. That's gone to her head, but not her ego, as her excellent new LP testifies. Humble Quest is the sounds of one woman journeying through doubt, grief, and depression to find worth and happiness. But while it plumbs, the set never wallows; its Laurel Canyon-meets-70s FM arrangements positively soar. —MV
If there is one thing FKA twigs knows how to do, it’s how to play with sound. With a series of idiosyncratic, innovative albums, FKA twigs has long marked herself as the queen of experimentation. Caprisongs is no exception to that tradition. The singer continues to test the limits of her voice, flying with it at points and “Yee”ing with it at others. She channels her Jamaican roots with songs like “papi bones” and “jealousy” that offer up a dancehall feel, some Afrobeat influence, and that unique FKA twigs twist. This album appears to reinvent the singer anew, again. Speaking on “meta angel,” twigs reflects on the struggle she has faced coming out of her shell: “Each year I'm like, ah, I'm gonna own my shit, and then each year I'm still so shy and so quiet,” she confides. Perhaps in her earlier music, traces of that shy girl can be found if you search past the ethereal enigma, but, in Caprisongs she acknowledges that reticence—and then proceeds to have fun with it. —AH
Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
“Would you live forever, never die / while everything around passes?” Adrianne Lenker asks in the opening track of Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. And, for an album recorded during the summer of 2020, it feels like a radical question. A freewheeling, and gloriously alive set of 20 staggering tracks, Big Thief’s Dragon is a spirited journey filled with inside jokes, natural beauty, and humanity. Songs like “Sparrow” meander with woodsy mysticism, while “Spud Infinity” takes country twang to weird and welcome places. Recorded in locations across the U.S. like Arizona, Colorado, upstate New York, and Los Angeles, the album captures the energy of American folk and rock roots, but does so with a bold curiosity. —MM
Tears For Fears, The Tipping Point
Tears For Fears do not give you quantity, but they will give you quality. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith’s first album together in 18 years gets off to a slow, uncharacteristically-acoustic start with “No Small Thing,” but they’re off to the races immediately after with a title track that would have fit onto 1985’s Songs From The Big Chair. The album bounces between intimate ballads, bombast built to fill the stadiums they’re touring this summer, and “Break The Man,” the breeziest condemnation of the patriarchy you’re likely to get all year. It’s the soundtrack to the John Hughes reboot you’re writing in your head. —DH
Charli is back and, my god, louder than ever. That her 2022 LP would mark the singer's final in a five-album record deal with Atlantic Records—a partnership that she has publicly lamented many times over its lifespan—has earned plenty type face. But Charli hardly mailed in her send-off. Instead, songs are brasher and bigger and purer in their pop pursuits. (Somewhere, a dancefloor quakes in excitement.) Atlantic may call it an ending, we're calling it a beginning. —MV
With Laurel Hell, Mitski once again reminds us why she is so deserving of her feverish following. Toying with her regular themes of sadness, isolation, and self-doubt over heavy indie-pop synths, the Japanese-American singer-songwriter brings in a deeper description of the complexities of pain than ever before. With lines such as “I always knew the world moved on/I just didn’t know it would go without me” on “Working for the Knife” and “Well, I’ve held on, but I feel a storm approaching,” on “Heat Lighting,” Mitski reckons with the realization that even success cannot curb sadness. This album is a poetic, honest telling of her relationship with her job, with romance, with herself, and with the world around her. —AH
Earl Sweatshirt has always made music on his own terms. He exists outside of trends, and often, outside of conventional musical structure. His albums are brief, dense, and brilliant. 2018’s masterful Some Rap Songs covered 15 tracks in under 25 minutes. Its follow-up, Feet Of Clay, outdid even that with 7 songs in 15-and-a-half minutes. Earl’s latest, SICK!, is typically brief, but also more clear. He’s dug out his own vocals from the mix, which clears the haze from his profound rhymes (effortlessly clever one liners like “They stable full of sheep, we staying on the lam”). At the same time, he finds astonishing emotional depth, rapping lines like “True pain, I couldn't eat or sleep for seven days / Maimed me, I ain't weak / Keep changing for the better, what to do when your job thankless” over ambient tones on “God Laughs.” The range, over 10 songs and 24 minutes, is dizzying. —MM
Turner is a punk-folk troubadour, a live performer who will make you consider quitting your job to follow him around the world, an artist whose moment has always been just a tiny bit out of reach. After a couple of listless albums–a run he might be addressing on “Haven’t Been Doing So Well”–he’s back in fine form with this one. It’s intimate and inspiring, full of sometimes-uncomfortable lyrics you’ll want to shout along with. In “Untainted Love” and “Farewell To My City” he leaves his partying days behind him, in “A Wave Across a Bay” he eulogizes Frightened Rabbit lead singer Scott Hutchison, in “The Reckoning” he bites the Hold Steady so hard it will leave a mark. But whatever he’s doing, he sounds revitalized, and nine albums in, he finally got his first UK number one. Here’s hoping America catches on. —DH
Listening to her layered guitar textures, breathy vocals, and intricate melodic and rhythmic structures, it may seem somewhat surprising that 26-year-old singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya was once recruited to be in a pop group organized by One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. She turned down the opportunity. And since then, Yanya has released music that is decidedly unlike the clinical, mass produced product of the mainstream machine. On Painless, her second album, Yanya’s music has a blustery disquiet. “There's nothing out there / For you and me / I'm going nowhere / Until it bleeds,” she sings on the pulsing post-punk track “stabilise.” On “midnight sun,” which opens with OK Computer-era guitar picking and evolves into an eerie, tense sing-along, Yanya shows patience with her song structure, holding back until a crunchy, brief closing chorus. It’s this type of control that makes her music so captivating. And Painless is full of these unexpected turns where a hook or cathartic chord progression is tucked just beneath the surface. —MM
Superchunk, Wild Loneliness
Listen, any new Superchunk album is worthy of celebrating. But this one is a little mellower, a little more acoustic, a little better suited to a Sunday morning than anything they’ve released to this point. On their 12th album in their 33-year career, the indie heroes dial it down a touch and without sacrificing their uniqueness, faintly channel their fellow North Carolinians Let’s Active. If you know, you know; if not, you’re welcome for the Spotify rabbit hole we’ve just sent you down. —DH