If my list of favorite albums is difficult to put together and rank, my favorite songs of the year are virtually impossible. So many incredible tracks were delivered this year, some off of incredible albums, some as a diamond in the rough. In an attempt to highlight as much of it as I can, I’ve increased my list by five entries this year. What follows are all of the songs that soundtracked my 2022, be it in moments of joy with friends, pensive moments alone, or (mostly) just driving around day to day.
25. Underwater – Sun’s Signature
Elizabeth Fraser, best known for her work with Cocteau Twins, returns with a beautiful and epic track. Full of a wonderous instrumentation and carried by Elizabeth’s iconic voice, ‘Underwater’ evokes something otherworldly, like the storybook fantasy of your dreams.
24. R.A.V.E. – G Jones & Eprom
This collaborative track from the two experimental bass producers is truly unfettered and unyielding hype. There is so much raw energy here that is unmatched by anything on this list. Incorporating industrial influences in their heavy instrumentation, I can’t help but feel like this track belongs in a dance club from the ‘DOOM’ underworld.
23. June – Destroyer
From Dan Bejar’s delivery, to the funky bass that outlines the track, to the spoken word outro in the second half, the multi-faceted “June” manages to stay as cool as Destroyer’s music ever has. More than ever though, it feels like Destroyer’s approach is free spirited, wandering into whatever direction feels right, and confidently trekking ahead.
22. Friday Night – Beth Orton
In a much opposite way to the previous track, “Friday Night” feels cool in its tempered serenity. Evoking the calm post-rock established by Talk Talk, Beth Orton’s raspy voice weaves in and out of the beautiful instrumental palette behind her. Even as the song climaxes, there is a soothing quality to the track, like silently observing the city lights at night.
21. Harbour – Cate Le Bon
Cate Le Bon’s catchiest song from Pompeii exemplifies all the best parts from it. The reverb soaked instruments and groovy rhythm make way for a track that feels just as easy moving your body to the rhythm to, as to wistfully look out the window on a rainy day. Cate’s characteristic and uniquely employed horns also add a certain element to the track that make it both quirky and sophisticated.
20. I Pray For You – Pusha T (feat. Labrinth & Malice)
The closer to Pusha T’s latest album is a beautifully conflicted track. Opening with gorgeous church organ drones, Pusha delivers his unholy sermon, recounting his accolades as a drug dealer and reflecting on his successes. But beyond his contrast with the instrumental, he is contrasted by his brother and Clipse partner Malice, who steals the show with witty and hard-hitting lines, opting instead to reflect on his exit from the game, but doing so with undeniable flare.
19. Sunset – Beach House
The crowning jewel of Beach House’s expansive double album comes in the form of what is mostly a simple acoustic cut. In restraint, slowly building the track with gentle orchestration and vocal harmonies, Beach House feel most reminiscent of their more stripped back output from Devotion, but this time more evolved and mature. Halfway through the song, I find myself hypnotized by a reversed guitar that really does feel as wonderous as a sunset.
18. Retrograde – Duster
Duster’s best track of the year is as laid back and moody as you could ask from the slowcore staples. Simplicity is the name of the game here, with a punchy bass and fuzzed out guitars that stay largely the same, sticking to their guns with a hook that will inevitably lodge itself into your brain. Even though the track is the sleepiest on this list, something about its heavy-handed drum beat will always find me rocking out.
17. Lullaby – Grace Ives
There isn’t much that feels glamorous about being a complete bum at home, laying on the couch on a lazy Sunday, watching movies and scrolling through unobtainable property listings. However, on “Lullaby”, Grace Ives manages to bring a sparkling energy to this experience. With masterful pop songwriting, Grace tells us that being a hot mess is “nothing to be sad about”. Listening to this track, it almost feels like an exciting prospect.
16. Ovule – Bjork
It is astonishing to me that after decades of making music, Bjork’s experimental sensibilities have not eased up one bit. On “Ovule”, her love for the avant-garde is in full swing, with harmonizing voices that feel more like haunted shadows than backup singers, and a frantic drumbeat that matches her dramatic vocal performance. Yet underneath the sometimes jarring aesthetics, there is a beauty to the recurring brass and vocal melody, a grandeur to Bjork’s alien world. Even in her cryptic lyrics, as she sings “when I was a girl, I felt love was a building”, I can plainly hear her deep humanity.
15. Cada Músculo – Mabe Fratti
The Guatemalan cellist and experimental folk musician strikes a perfect balance of songwriting that is graceful, and profoundly eerie. Mabe’s voice and cello are initially inviting and warm, supported by lush synthesizers, but quickly a desperate feeling creeps into the track, with strings filling every empty space with tension. Yet each tense verse is released by a hypnotizing chorus that sounds full of intrigue. After an extended string outro that fully indulges in the track’s darkest tendencies, a glowing synthesizer resonates to the song’s conclusion, a symbol of her search for beauty within the unsettling.
14. Royal and Desire – Animal Collective
Animal Collective have explored so many sounds in their career, ones that are explosive, trippy, silly, bizarre, and on many occasions these sounds have been wonderfully mesmerizing, but never in their career have they crafted a song that was so plainly gorgeous as “Royal and Desire”. Deakin’s vocals are so emotional, swelling with music that has the cadence of ebbing waves on the shore, it’s impossible not to be moved. The band makes no switch-ups either, for the full duration of the song they drift in the serene landscape. Like a balloon released into the sky, it feels like I could watch it float up forever, enjoying the sight until it fades into just a speck.
13. Pharmacist – Alvvays
On the opening track to Blue Rev, Alvvays come out of the gate swinging, and swinging hard. All it takes is one line, “I know you’re back”, for Molly Rankin’s longing emotions and the track to come to life. As guitars roar into existence, we are instantly carried away into an indie rock banger, with the energy levels cranked all the way up. The track takes a breather for just one brief moment at the end, only to usher in a ripping guitar solo that would make Yo La Tengo proud. The guitar playing is somewhat messy, but charged with an electrifying vitality, one that vanishes as quickly as it came. So it goes in love.
12. American Coffee – Jenny Hval
On this track, and on Jenny Hval’s fantastic new album, she has decided to make some delightful gambles. Typically embellishing her work with an array of electronics and a heavy touch of experimentation, she is incredibly talented at mixing pop and dance beats with an eccentric passion. Yet on “American Coffee”, synthesizers and drum machines have been traded in for church organs, soulful choirs, and bongo drums. The result is a track that is just as danceable as her previous work, but this time groovier and more playful than ever. Getting lost in the instrumental, its almost possible to miss Jenny’s graphic description of suffering from a UTI while watching classic French cinema, a songwriting touch that is still very much Jenny Hval through and through.
11. Bread Song – Black Country, New Road
The deep heartbreak, the clever wordplay from Isaac Wood, and the gentle rock instrumentation of the incredible album Ants From Up There all come through on “Bread Song”. With arpeggiated guitars, slowly growing horns, and emotionally delivered singing, the track opens feeling a bit more like a distraught monologue from a musical, until a snappy drum kicks in to bring it new life. A snapshot of a failing relationship is illustrated here with a single line, with Isaac being asked to stop eating toast in bed and then reflecting “I never felt the crumbs until you said ‘This place is not for any man nor particles of bread.'” You’d be hard-pressed to see your breadcrumbs the same after this heartbreaking track.
10. Strung With Everything – Animal Collective
The second entry for Animal Collective on this list, unlike “Royal and Desire”, is all about them leaning into their most classic instincts and producing a bombastic, multifaceted track. After a sparse intro, we are sucked into the trippy rhythm plucked by a Japanese taishōgoto, which gives it a worldly flare. The song rises and falls in energy levels, but ultimately comes crashing down in a high octane jam, with Avey Tare pushing his voice to a yelp. As he sings about our connection to the world around us, I feel like the longtime bandmates are again feeling a deep connection to each other.
9. The Heart Pt. 5 – Kendrick Lamar
The latest installment in The Heart series is instantly a recipe for success. The funky instrumental, incorporating hand drums, a jazzy piano, and a commanding bassline, could open anyone’s ears to the imminent volley of verses from Kendrick Lamar. One of the greatest wordsmiths of his generation, Kendrick goes to great lengths to illustrate what he calls ‘the culture’. To put it simply, the culture is a cycle of violence, one that is senseless and unforgiving. The culture is responsible for someone’s nephew getting shot down, for ending someone’s hopes of turning a new leaf in their life, for seeing young men turn to addiction when the repercussions of the culture cause them pain, and for taking the life of Nipsey Hussle at the height of his blooming career. Certainly, Kendrick cannot be a cure for ‘the culture’, but he has unbelievable talent in holding up a mirror to the culture he sees so clearly.
8. Runner – Alex G
For a musician who loves to subvert expectations of indie folk with strange, sometimes off-putting decisions, “Runner” is, surprisingly, perhaps the catchiest, most agreeable song on this list. Even from the opening line “I like people who I can open up to, who don’t judge for what I say but judge me for what I do”, Alex’s demeanor is friendly and inviting, supported by a bright and uplifting acoustic guitar. And yet for all its pleasantries, Alex still manages to insert a bit of subversion into the track with a wild scream at the very end. As aggressive as it sounds, its easy to tell that Alex G is just having some fun, after all, what’s a little lighthearted shriek among friends?
7. Spitting Off the Edge of the World (feat. Perfume Genius) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The comeback single from Yeah Yeah Yeahs lives up to its title, sounding enormous and defiant. As synths roar to life, I can imagine standing in front of a massive tidal wave, waiting to be crushed by it. Sure enough, right after the brief respite offered by Perfume Genius’ airy vocals, the chorus resurges with colossal energy, an epic release that ends with a gliding guitar solo at the track’s conclusion. Although the rest of their newest album did not live up to the high bar set with this single, I’ll gladly embark on the epic journey offered by Yeah Yeah Yeahs on this track.
6. God Turn Me Into a Flower – Weyes Blood
There’s little else that could possibly describe Weyes Blood’s album centerpiece than breathtakingly beautiful. The first time I heard this track, I was completely absorbed by it, and I don’t think I could have had anything else on my mind if I wanted to. Natalie Mering pours her heart out in one of her most powerful vocal performances ever, and in the face of losing herself in the harsh world around her begs “oh God, turn me into a flower”, to be turned into something soft, something full of life and beauty. On her extended outro, she morphs into something more beautiful than any flower, her angelic voice humming against a swell of synthesizers, strings, and birdsong. You’ll be hard pressed to hear a track with more splendor and glow this year, or likely for many to come.
5. Spud Infinity – Big Thief
Adrienne Lenker, the Big Thief frontwoman and main songwriter, does not write lightly. Her words are more often profoundly heavy, sometimes shatteringly sad. So to see the title of “Spud Infinity” and to hear the track open with fiddles and a ridiculous jaw harp produced a certain amount of whiplash in me. But underneath the silliness of the subject matter, this track is the most joyful Adrienne and Big Thief have ever sounded, playing with an infectious energy that begs anyone listening to sing and clap along. Adrienne’s lyrical wit is not lost either, noting we are not so different from the famed spud on this enormous earth, and if we all love and enjoy eating it, who are we not to love ourselves? We should love every part of ourselves, even our elbows which she points out “rub up against the edges of experience”. Wisdom sometimes arrives with butter and a dash of sour cream.
4. Easy On Your Own? – Alvvays
It feels extremely difficult to pick out a favorite track from an album as good as Blue Rev, each one unique in the way it elevates itself to the highest quality standard. With “Easy On Your Own?” it shows the most bite, some of the greatest lyrical chops from Molly Rankin, and some of the band’s catchiest songwriting ever. Treading the line between shoegaze and indie rock, the band plays with the energy of true rock stars, confidently turning up their amps. Molly on the other hand writes with elegance, saying “college education’s a dull knife” and describing her experience as “crawling through monochromatic hallways”, and comparing this experience to that of waiting for unrequited love. At the end of the track the band digs deep one last time as Molly belts out the chorus with everything she’s got, a true performer at heart.
3. Hentai – Rosalía
Rosalía does not hide her sexuality on Motomami, from the album art to her music videos, she celebrates it with gusto. It should be no surprise then, that the song titled “Hentai”, the word for Japanese animated porn, is also full of sexual energy. What is surprising, is that this track is not a raunchy, reggaeton banger as other tracks on the album are, but instead is the most awe-inspiring and innovative ballad of the year. Sparse piano and Rosalía’s lovely flamenco-tinged voice come together to create an emotional ode to having a burning sexual desire for someone. The graceful music, set against lines like “I want to ride you like my bike” or “I want to ‘hentai’ you” feels hilariously at odds, but somehow manages to work perfectly. Ending with choppy, industrial percussion with the cadence of a machine gun, Rosalía simply sings “so so so good” over and over again, in love with the wild feeling of lust.
2. Sci-Fi Silence – Florist
Musically, “Sci-Fi Silence” is an exercise in balance, one that can be gleamed from the title alone. The marriage of plucked acoustic guitar and glimmering, crystalline synthesizers makes way for the most comfortable, familiar sound you can imagine. With Emily Sprague’s soft vocals, it feels like this track might completely wrap you up in the coziest blanket you’ve ever touched and lay you down in a meadow. The heartbreaking truth, however, is that this sense of comfort is Emily Sprague channeling the memory of her late mother, whispering “you’re the only thing inside I can follow through the night”. In devastating loss, Emily feels a void she describes as “sci-fi silence”, a silence that is other-worldly, unnatural, indescribable; it’s a thought that is just as sad as it is a beautiful reflection. Professing her endless love for her mom, she repeats “you’re not what I have, but what I love” to the end of the song. I cannot think of a more touching tribute than this serene track.
1. Midnight Sun – Nilüfer Yanya
I’m a real sucker for two things in music: building and resolving tension, and big explosive sounds. Often when I discuss music, I highlight the size I feel in a track, the way it can exude so much energy so as to become something with physical dimensions you can almost see. No track this year can match the size of Nilüfer Yanya’s “Midnight Sun”, undoubtedly the best track of her young career. This song is not one that begins large, but instead grows slowly over time. Two verses of shuffling plucked guitar chords beg for some release, as a straining tension mounts with each measure. Even the first chorus does not fully relieve us, actually stripping the song back even further. But finally, with the arrival of the last chorus, a fuzzed out distortion runs through the bassline, and makes way for the song to erupt with unrelenting power. Guitars roaring with overdrive, the beat reaching its full potential, and Nilüfer passionately singing “always I did it for you”. No matter how many times I listen, I can still feel sweaty palms as I brace myself for the biggest explosion of the year, a real shock and awe.
Listening Now 