The 50 best albums of 2022

Frank LoCastro is a self-taught pianist who grew up in Dallas, Texas, soon finding his way as a stand-in musician in studios and on stage and quietly releasing little-heard solo albums on his own. While he had a love of '60s/'70s movie scores, jazz, and exotica, those influences had never come together as they do on Gung Ho, his debut outing under his KOLUMBO moniker. 

With a professional studio polish that would make Steely Dan blush, Gung Ho is one of the year's most exciting records — drifting between sounds and styles, bringing in lush woodwinds, and soaring string sections to give his powerful piano melodies extra oomph and charm. A clear student of bossa nova and cultural exchange Hollywood soundtrack legends like Les Baxter, there's a sadness in the samba of Gung Ho. Tracks like "Nukoli'i" paint a sultry cinematic picture, while "Mysterious Femme" builds a powerful narrative around an old Wurlitzer riff that goes off in unexpected directions. 

Gung Ho sounds like nothing else that came out in 2022, serving up one of the year's most pristinely produced and endlessly replayable records that serves the aural equivalent of setting up some tiki torches while sipping on a Mai Tai.

In a post-"Despacito" world, few reggaeton pop stars have captured the public imagination quite like Bad Bunny. From his over-the-top stage shows to his willingness to get up in drag and flaunt traditional machismo conventions, Bad Bunny has quickly turned into the de facto Latinx pop star. 

While his pair of 2020 albums were cultural touchstones, 2022's Un Verano Sin Ti outperformed even his stratospheric expectations — topping the U.S. charts for a dozen weeks and becoming the first Spanish-language album to snag an Album of the Year nomination at the Grammys. While he achieved crossover success with the help of Western rap stars like Cardi B and Drake, Un Verano Sin Ti is largely a showcase for Bad Bunny and Bad Bunny alone. 

The horn break in "Después de la Playa" gets us every time, and his sexy club duet with rising star Rauw Alejandro ("Party") is an unmissable highlight. Yet Bad Bunny is conscious that the global platform he is afforded allows him to do some good. For his music video for "El Apagón - Aquí Vive Gente," he married his song with a 20-minute documentary exploring the energy crisis that has plagued his home country of Puerto Rico. Un Verano Sin Ti is an important album for many reasons, but at the end of the day, it's a landmark moment for reggaeton and unquestionably the biggest album of the year.

Finding a beautiful path pitched between shoegaze fuzz and pop-rock ear-candy, Winter's new album What Kind of Blue Are You? is hardly blue at all. Instead, it's built on warm red tones through its 10 delightful tracks. 

For the Los Angeles-based Samira Winter, Blue marks a notable change from her last record, which luxuriated in more traditional dream-pop textures. Here, songs like the shuffling "Sunday" run at a breathy midtempo pace, while "Good" radiates the kind of light you'd expect from a distant Mazzy Star. The opener "Wish I Knew" feels like a long-lost My Bloody Valentine B-side, and the closer "Kind Of Blue" pushes every fuzz-washed texture it can into the forefront. 

At times, the vocal effects cause us to lose some of Winter's lyrics, but it's a small sacrifice when the result is a record that nods to many different '80s and '90s college rock tropes while still carving out its distinct niche. We'd be fine if this Winter lasted all year long.

"Nobody calls me daddy, sadly / And nobody sends me nūdes anymore," opines Hippo Campus' Nathan Stocker on his debut release under his brotherkenzie moniker, a record that hides a quarter-life crisis under its punchy brand of indie-pop. While Stocker can knock out a closing piano ballad like nobody's business ("Stars Above"), most of NATHAN weaponizes catchy guitar licks to paint a lyrical world that's filled with self-doubt, worry over the fate of the planet and the kind of thoughts we've all be having in these increasingly strange times. 

With most tracks clocking in right around three-and-a-half minutes, Stocker hits cathartic notes without overstaying his welcome. The quiet piano pounds of "Bike No More" echo the works of peers like Alex G. There's a wry sense of humor to Stocker's lyrics, but the underlying sense of fatalism gives this quirky album more depth than one would expect on the first spin. It might just be a side project for Stocker, but here's hoping it's the start of an illustrious discography.

If Aofie O'Donovan had decided to retire at any point in the last few years, her legacy would've been more than secure. Having been in bands like Crooked Still, Sometymes Why, and I'm With Her — along with being a go-to collaborator for folk/bluegrass greats like Sarah Juroz and Chris Thile — O'Donovan has racked up a body of work that is impressive to the point of being insurmountable. 

Instead of resting on her laurels, O'Donovan presses on. With Age of Apathy, she achieves new songwriting highs. Swapping out longtime producer-in-crime Tucker Martine for Joe Henry, there's a warmth to Age of Apathy that stretches beyond its lovely instrumentation. While the ghost of Joni Mitchell has cast its shadow over her solo work for some time, Age of Apathy, at times, embraces it outright.

The dramatic title track could've easily fit on Mitchell's 1976 sprawling epic, Hejira. Yet, O'Donovan's style has always been more than a mere summation of her influences, and on the heart-rendering reconciliation epic "Prodigal Daughter," her words cut right to the bone. "Prodigal daughter returns like a lamb to the slaughter / She yearns for the things that you taught her," she coos. The effect is riveting. This Age is a golden one.

Having proven himself adept at making great songs about virtually any topic, fans of The Mountain Goats are always curious as to what odd new conceit frontman John Darnielle will center his songwriting around. For Bleed Out, the band's 21st album, Darnielle has penned a series of songs slyly indebted to the gritty action films of the '60s and '70s. 

"First Blood" is a witty swipe at Sylvester Stallone's action icon ("We worship nothing in the foxholes / John Rambo never went to Vietnam"). As Bleed Out bleeds on, Darnielle touches on psycho killers, wartime morality, training for revenge, and possible dystopian android-dominated futures. Some smart post-rock power chords and lovely chamber pop dalliances buoy Darnielle's whipsmart lyrics. Maybe one day, The Mountain Goats will release a bad album, but they're batting 21 for 21. Not a bad ratio heading into 2023.

While never officially a member of Earth, Wind & Fire, Charles Stepney helped write and produce some of the band's biggest hits, giving colorful touches to tracks like "September" and "Shining Star." Yet when not helming records for Ramsey Lewis or playing alongside Minnie Riperton, Stepney was in his basement in his home in Chicago, tinkering with synths and producing his own tracks. Many went unheard until this year's wonderful archival release, Step on Step. 

While Madlib and The Fugees have sampled several Stepney productions, it's fascinating hearing him bang out some lo-fi demos with surprising musical sophistication, adding intricate piano parts to mid-tempo funk workouts that stretch well beyond what most of us would expect from a demo. Some of the tracks here would later be recorded by the likes of Rotary Connection; a select few eventually made their way onto some Earth, Wind & Fire albums proper ("Imagination," "That's the Way of the World"), but hearing them in their stripped-down, nascent forms is nothing short of a revelation. 

With nearly two dozen tunes, Step on Step is an incredibly fun piece of R&B history. Given Stepney's passing in 1976, it serves as a beautiful tribute to his undeniable talents.

It's hard to describe exactly what Los Bıtchos do since they do a bit of everything. Mixing some Argentinian cumbia with surf rock guitar? Throwing in a little Peruvian chicha over a pure '70s disco drumbeat? This U.K.-based group is more than happy to crisscross continents and eras to get the punchy sound they want — all easily achieved in a relatively traditional drum-bass-guitar-synth setup. 

Almost entirely instrumental, Let the Festivities Begin! glides along at a relatively brisk 37-minute runtime, exploring wild grooves that border on hypnotic. On the stellar "Tripping at a Party," some "96 Tears"-indebted keyboards are buoyed by a smart bongo pattern and some especially screwy guitar effects, making for quite a party-starting time. Imbued with a smart global sense of rock music, it's hard not to listen to this album and immediately want to go out and buy an era-appropriate lava lamp. Let the Festivities Begin! has the most accurate album title of the year. It's a party.

Brooklyn's Momma was raised on '90s alternative rock, and their incredible debut album Household Name reads like a love letter to the bands they grew up listening to. One-part Smashing Pumpkins and one-part Sonic Youth during their brief flirtation with MTV popularity, the band fronted by Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman knows that sometimes all you need is a fuzz-rock guitar and the truth. 

Immediate, catchy, and dynamic, there's no weak song on Household Name. Their reverence is built right into every verse and chorus. Echoing the likes of The Breeders, The Verve Pipe, and Nada Surf, the stop-start riffage of "Medicine" and sliding pre-chorus on the excellent "Speeding 72" capture the feeling of driving down the highway with the windows down and the local rock radio station cranked. There's a certain wistfulness to the band's lyrics, showing a simultaneous reverence and antipathy to suburban living ("Can't connect it / Just wanna be neglected," they opine on "Callin' Me"), but these kinds of strange internal contradictions were commonplace for the era. Who knows that one of the year's best throwback rock records would also double as a nostalgia-powered time machine?

Nonbinary artist Robert Ouyang Rusli has made a career out of scoring films and occasionally dabbling in hardcore, face-melting extreme rap music. When the pandemic lockdowns hit them while living in Brooklyn, Rusli used their OHYUNG moniker to unleash two wildly different albums: the extreme noise terror of GODLESS and the astonishingly warm, delicate, ambient masterpiece that is Imagine Naked! 

With song titles adapted from a t. tran le poem, Imagine Naked! is Rusli's first true attempt at ambient music — fully exploring a style they were familiar with but hadn't approached with vigor. What's most astonishing about Imagine Naked! is there's rarely a dull moment across its two-hour runtime. Rusli understands the power of tension and release, of genre-hopping and texture-changing, even within the framework of an ambient record. Minor key piano chords set a sad tone on one track, while warm billowing clouds of synths can wrap around you on the next. 

Imagine Naked! is a meditation, a journey, and an emotional diary all at once. There is no shortage of good ambient material released every year, but OHYUNG's masterwork loudly announces itself with soft, beautiful whispers. Harold Budd would be proud.

When you're a multi-instrumentalist/producer as talented as Louis Cole, wherein you can make any musical idea come to life, your only challenges left are the ones you make for yourself. While Cole's close connections with Thundercat and Flying Lotus have endeared him to fans of contemporary funk and alternative hip-hop, Cole's solo albums are genre journeys. On Quality Over Opinion, Cole has furnished what might be his funniest record, turning seemingly-jokey one-offs like "Outer Moat Behavior" into serious synth-funk masterclasses. 

Yes, he gets earnest on tracks like "Disappear" and the lovely closing instrumental "Little Piano Thing," but even a track with a title like "Park Your Car On My Face" sports one of the funkiest direct homages to Stevie Wonder we've ever heard. Whether it's the furious acoustic finger-picking in "Not Needed Anymore" or the Marc Rebillet-styled extended party groove of "I'm Tight," Louis Cole proves time and time again that there is no genre he can't master. Part of the fun of Quality Over Opinion is hearing him one-up himself on each new track. It's one of the most joyful records we've heard all year, but that's just our own quality opinion.

Carly Rae Jepsen will do what she always does every three or four years: quietly drop a legendary pop record. Bear in mind, this is all done through a lot of work (she reportedly writes up to 200 songs for every full-length), but few people are making legendary bangers on the scale that Jepsen is these days. The Loneliest Time does find the lovable diva trying out some different textures this time out, like finding a breezy mid-tempo groove on "Western Wind" or going full martini-clutching camp on the Rufus Wainwright-assisted title track. 

While some preview singles like "Beach House" proved somewhat divisive in her fervent cult fan base, songs like the hushed electro number "Bends" and funky bass strut "Bad Thing Twice" proves that there's a certain level of quality assurance on a Carly Rae Jepsen record that you don't get from other pop artists. Oh, and then she'll drop a number as strong as "Talking to Yourself," which features the single best pop chorus that 2022 had to offer. Even when you're going through your own loneliest time, know that the songs of Carly Rae Jepsen are always here to comfort you.

Manchester's Everything Everything is a powerfully weird group, mixing arty dance-punk with Jonathan Higgs' rapid-fire yelps and high notes to create something that feels wholly unique in the rock realm. After their early albums picked up some highly regarded Mercury Music Prize nominations, their more recent material has branched into stranger, more ethereal directions — frustrating some fans who loved the band's sprightlier early days. 

With Raw Data Feel, Everything Everything is back in a big way. To help create an album that specifically addresses our current relationship with technology, Higgs created an AI bot that would help write lyrics in real-time, feeding it everything from "Beowulf" to 400,000 posts from 4Chan to LinkedIn's entire Terms & Conditions page. Although Higgs only used a small fraction of the lyrics the bot generated, the creative tension it inspired helps make Raw Data Feel pop in a way that feels fresh for Everything Everything. 

"Bad Friday" shows the group fully in charge of the catchy brand of quirkiness, while the mid-way track "Cut UP!" does an extraordinary job of folding the album's themes, titles, and characters into itself in a meta-club number that defies explanation. Everything Everything lives up to their band name with this record because, for all its propulsion and wild lyrical detours, it captures the human experience of wanting everything, everywhere, all at once.

Denzel Curry has always been a rapper's rapper. While switching between numerous voices sometimes remained a polarizing element to his flows, Curry still flexed a deep knowledge of the rap legends who have come before that hip-hop heads appreciated. While his 2019 full-length ZUU was his attempt at making a retro hip-hop club record, his recent Kenny Beats mixtapes have allowed him to stretch his sound into wild new directions. Thus, Melt My Eyez See Your Future is his most accomplished album and one of the year's best rap releases, full stop. 

While the guests are huge (T-Pain, Slowthai, Saul Williams, JID, Rico Nasty), the focus is always on Curry, who works with a cavalcade of producers to deliver some of his most potent tracks yet. He acknowledges his lack of mainstream success beautifully on "X-Wing": "All these beats go dumb in the stereo / But I'm just too smart for the radio / Masked up like a young Rey Mysterio / Mask off when I'm back in the studio." While the brilliant Kal Banx-produced "Walkin'" is perhaps his best standalone single ever, Melt My Eyez succeeds because, even with the dozen-plus producers credited, it feels like Curry's most coherent statement yet. If ZUU was his throwback party record and his 2018 breakthrough TA13OO was his tour through horror-trap, then Melt My Eyez feels like the first record that is entirely, unabashedly, the sound of Denzel Curry. We can't wait for more like this in the "Future."

Medicine Singers is something of a miracle group. The self-titled record from this tight collective is unlike anything you've heard. Echoing guitar strums run into ethereal trumpets before crashing down in traditional log drums and wildly layered and filtered Indigenous vocals. A psychedelic fusion of elements, tracks like "Hawk Song" scream out of your speakers and overwhelm you with the sheer totality of sounds on display while using fuzzed-out effects to make everything palpable to alternative rock ears. At times meditative, at times disorienting, and at times approaching unexpected catharsis, Medicine Singers have created an entire sonic universe. It's rocking, it's cinematic, it's unexpected, and it's brilliant. This "Medicine" will cure what ails you.

Guided By Voices put out an astonishing amount of records during their initial 1987-2004 run. Since reforming in 2012, they've managed to put out more, much to the astonishment of fans and already-overworked GBV archivists. Despite already releasing two brand new studio records in 2022, the band ended the year with Scalping the Guru, an archival release that culled tracks from their hard-to-find EPs released during 1993-94, which many fans regard as the group's finest era. 

Thus, there's a rough-hewn charm to these barely produced, lively scraps that could've easily fit onto their seminal 1994 classic Bee Thousand. Frontman Robert Pollard gives us a rare screaming rock vocal on "Rubber Man" while the charming "Hey Aardvark" trades in classic GBV lyrical surrealism over thickly-strummed acoustic guitars. Even casual indie rock heads are likely familiar with the lo-fi charms of Bee Thousand, so to have a whole album of bite-sized rarities from the era feels like a treat on top of the already-great records they've put out this year. Just be glad you don't have to fill in on guitar during a GBV show 'cos you never know which one of their 1,600-plus songs they'll put out next.

Japan's Fishmans are a best-kept secret, even in hardcore indie rock circles. Largely active in the '90s, the group gained notoriety for mixing dream-pop aesthetics with trip-hop and dub elements, creating exciting and incredibly distinct albums. While the group initially disbanded following the 1999 passing of lead singer Shinji Sato, their impact was still felt and soon found its way to the ears of Keith Abrams, frontman for New Jersey's Pine Barons. Many eyebrows were raised when he wanted to make an album that covered nothing but Fishmans recordings. When Abrams insisted that the album's closing track be a cover of the Fishmans' legendary 1996 album Long Season, which was 35 minutes long and released as a single uninterrupted song, it was clear that he was going all-in on this wild-eyed project. 

Luckily, Abrams' clear reverence for the material has resulted in an extraordinary record that resonates whether you're familiar with Fishmans. From tackling every movement of Long Season to creating wild new guitar solos for the great "ゆらめき IN THE AIR," I LOVE FISH brings a cult act's music into the modern era, finding joy and excitement in these near-forgotten tracks and putting their unique spin on them. They may love Fishmans, but we're learning to love Pine Barons.

Egyptian-by-way-of-Alexandria composer Nancy Mounir is deeply aware of her country's musical history. Despite mastering the bass guitar, the violin, the Theremin, and much more, her research into microtones and classic singing techniques has made her dig up multiple recordings from the 1900s. These often-damaged sounds of early audio-age Egyptian singers possess a haunting, tragic quality, so for her debut album Nozhet El Nofous (which translates to Promenade of the Souls), she decided to breathe new life into them. 

Leaving the original performances unchanged (and giving each of these deceased legends a prominent feature credit), she builds new orchestrations around each century-old recording, sometimes even padding out her songs with synths and other unconventional instruments to give these documents vital new life. The result is an album drenched in emotion, as the ghosts of the past are dancing with the sounds of the present — creating one of the most dynamic, powerful listening experiences of recent memory. Almost impossible to properly describe, Nozhet El Nofous is one of the year's greatest finds and something we'll be listening to for decades to come. 

If you get a call from Robert Glasper, you make sure to pick it up. Decorated in Grammys and Emmys, jazz pianist Glasper has made his way through almost every angle of the contemporary Black music experience. His collaboration-heavy 2012 album Black Radio found Glasper working with a litany of vocalists, rappers, and other musicians to put all working genres of Black music in perspective. After a rush-released sequel the following year, Glasper found his way working on film and TV scores, which makes his 2022 return to the Black Radio aesthetic nothing short of refreshing. 

The guest list for the third volume feels velvet-rope exclusive: Killer Mike, Q-Tip, H.E.R., Meshell Ndegeocello, Jennifer Hudson, Esperanza Spalding, Lalah Hathaway, Common — the list goes on. The highlights are numerous, but hearing Ty Dolla $ign being pushed into balladry on the closing song "Bright Lights" is a thrill, to say nothing of Yebba's star turn on the smooth, florid jazz piano rhythms on "Over." Launching as close as possible to the 10th anniversary of the original Black Radio, Glasper has created the rare kind of trilogy that you only hope expands further.

To make your mark in the music world, you either have to innovate or do one thing extremely well. For Los Angeles-based guitar-pop kingpins No Win, their second full-length Dodger Stadium takes the latter route by rocking out better than any of their peers. Like a beautiful hybrid between the power pop smarts of Fountains of Wayne and the no-filler grit of Brendan Benson, Danny Nogueiras' outfit wants to have a good time and maybe even get to the point where they, too, are playing Dodger Stadium. After all, each one of these songs packs a solid punch that would sound great in a live crowd setting, with tracks like "Time Killer" and the big '70s AM radio throwback "Working Late" getting better with each spin. 

With chiming guitars and the perfect amount of cowbell, NO WIN cover topics like handling your midlife crisis and escaping your dead-end job to fist-pumping effect. In some ways, you've "heard" the sounds of Dodger Stadium before but rarely weaponized so effectively. It doesn't sound like a new NO WIN album so much as it sounds like a greatest hits CD right out of the gate.

The beauty of Fire-Toolz is that the relationship between you, the listener, and mastermind Angel Marcloid is based on trust. You have to trust that Angel knows what they're doing because they will drag your ears through some of the most daring, confounding, and memorable music you'll hear in your entire life. Some '70s-indebted elevator jazz over electro beats with a hardcore screamo vocal laid on top? That's usually just the first track. Following four daring full-lengths, I will not use the body's eyes today. is marketed as an EP despite clocking in at over 30 minutes. In that timeframe, we are led deep into the heart of modern synth ambient ("Sophrosyne In The Mirror Of Simple Souls"), sample-based alternative-electro pastiche ("There Is Only One Suffering..."), and detour on a track that threatens to go full Wilson Phillips before spiraling into a psychedelic saxophone odyssey ("Soda Lake With Game Genie"). 

I will not use the body's eyes today. is the culmination of everything that makes Fire-Toolz records unique listening experiences while expanding the outfit's sound in subtle new ways. For a first-time listener, the only thing you can expect is the unexpected, but this is the kind of record you will never forget.

Many have called The Smile's debut album the best Radiohead side-project, and it's easy to see why. Formed during the pandemic, this quartet of Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke and genius guitarist/composer Jonny Greenwood in conjunction with Sons of Kismet drummer Tom Skinner and longtime Yorke producer Nigel Godrich has resulted in an album that feels a lot like Radiohead. While there are easy compositional similarities between Yorke's main gig and The Smile, there are subtle changes to the standard Radiohead formula that helps makes A Light for Attracting Attention pop. 

Greenwood's years as a film composer have given his orchestrations a new edge, and to hear strings run side-by-side with the group's piano-lead pseudo-ballad "Pana-vision" is a real melodic treat. Skinner, an adept percussionist unafraid to change time signatures on a dime, calls in several of his friends from the alternative jazz world to give songs like the slithering "The Smoke" some surprising horn-driven passages of pure serenity (which serves in sharp contrast to the horrific lyrics). Acoustic laments, electronic experiments, traditional fuzzed-out angular rockers: The Smile has it all and is definitely attracting our attention.

What makes Miranda Lambert one of the best artists working today is that no matter what album she puts out, it will probably be one of the best country records of the year. Following her public divorce from fellow musician Blake Shelton, she put out 2016's emotional double-disc epic The Weight of These Wings. Then, she formed the acclaimed trio Pistol Annies, dropped the instant-classic dusty throwback record The Marfa Tapes in 2021, and now, in 2022, she dropped the beautiful Palomino. Per usual, Lambert plays by her own rules, bringing three of her Marfa songs into the studio limelight while also covering Mick Jagger's "Wandering Spirit" for extra spice. Yes, she really did bring in The B-52s to guest on "Music City Queen," but as is always the case, Lambert's songwriting is the star of the show. 

Her characters suffer from perpetual wanderlust, and she always makes them powerfully relatable, like on "Tourist," which has that instantly memorable line, "I'll take a couple memories but I won't stay behind / I'll never be a number on a population sign." Miranda Lambert is more than the most reliable artist working in country music today: she a rare idol who keeps getting better with each new release.

While Australia's anthemic rockers Gang of Youths have been gaining momentum for some time, nothing could prepare old fans and new listeners for the revelation that is angel in realtime. Since 2017's Go Farther in Lightness, lead singer David Le'aupepe's father passed away, and in digging into his possessions and learning more about him, Le'aupepe discovered that his father lied about many details of his life, trying to protect his family from a cruel, intolerant world but at a strange emotional cost. Angel in realtime. has us watch Le'aupepe as he processes all of this information against gigantic, cathartic rock choruses.

 Le'aupepe's everyman vocal tone almost disarms you from the severity of the lyrics, which carry immense weight. "It'll torture me at first, then it'll hurt a little less / And I will pour through every piece of you 'til nothing new is left / Just your eyes in my reflection / And the heavy thing now beating in my chest," he croons on the opener, "you in everything." How the single "in the wake of your leave" didn't become a radio smash is beyond us, but any lucky soul who's been blessed by this angel knows that this album has a powerful, beating heart that pumps even stronger with each new listen — a rock masterpiece in an era with too damn few of them.

On the second track of It's Almost Dry , Pusha T's fourth full-length album proper, he refers to himself as "Cocaine's Dr. Seuss." He's not wrong. Featuring numerous productions from Pharrell Williams and his Daytona collaborator Kanye West,  It's Almost Dry defies its hideous cover art to come down as one of King Push's best long-players to date. 

The beats are often gritty, sparse, and claustrophobic, making Pusha's voice all the more prominent. Despite guests verses by everyone from Kanye to Jay-Z to Lil Uzi Vert, the star of the show is always Pusha T, happy to spit some of his best bars to date. On "Rock N Roll" with Kid Cudi, he drops classic line after classic line: "I been getting at these coins as I'm breaking down a brick / Make the jump to each level, Super Mario exists!" While the beats can sometimes get haunting to the point of upsetting, Pusha's conviction never wavers, and It's Almost Dry proves that, after all these years and all these beefs, he's only become more powerful. Unquestionably one of the best rappers in the game right now.

Chicago guitarist Eli Winter is marching to the flick of his own strum, having stretched himself to the very limits of what one man can do with his guitar. He knocked it out of the park in 2020 with an album that featured daring 20-minute-plus compositions and challenges to conventional fingerpicking form. With his brand new self-titled effort, Winter focuses on more digestible song structures while delivering some of the most polished instrumentals of his career. 

Benefiting from colorful production and a litany of amazing collaborators (Ryley Walker, Jordan Weyes, David Grubbs, frequent partner in crime Cameron Knowler), Eli Winter the album veers from pastoral landscapes to Pavement-styled indie rock freakouts, constantly challenging the listener's expectations in the most satisfying ways. Critics have always noted Winter's obvious talent, but with this incredible full-length, he's announced himself not as the up-and-coming six-string wizkid but someone you'll regret not keeping tabs (or frets) on.

Zach Cooper and "Sic" Vic Dimotsis come off as regular guys. Their press photo shows them decked out in plaid with paint covering their hands. You wouldn't think at first glance that they just won a Grammy for helping write and produce Jon Batiste's heralded album We Are or that they've worked with The Weeknd and SZA. These two dudes are in such demand because they are true students of the great history of soul music in America. The group's debut under their King Garbage moniker was more of a beatscape experiment than an album proper, but their sophomore effort, Heavy Metal Greasy Love, is nothing short of a revelation.

Obsessed with re-creating the garage sound of early Motown (which acts like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Durand Jones & The Indications, and The Marches have all tried to do), Greasy Love marries spare drum taps with swinging horns and dusty Mellotron grooves. They're doing soul-pop on their own terms, never once running for explicit recreation so much as taking a specific sonic texture and repurposing it for the modern era. You could tell us that opener "Checkmate" was dug up on a Numero Records archive set, and we'd believe you, but tracks like "I Miss Mistakes" marries era-specific vocal affectations to shimmering keyboards, distinguishing their album from any specific era. The music of King Garbage is its own creation, and we'd be hard-pressed to name an album from 2022 that's as inventive or flat-out surprising.

When founding member Gary Leib of country ambient stalwarts SUSS passed away in 2021, the three remaining musicians faced the difficult question of whether they'd continue as a band. Following last year's Night Suite EP, featuring their previous recordings with Leib, the group figured they could create a connected set of smaller releases that would culminate in a massive double album. 

Thus, SUSS is a double-disc set consisting of four distinct EPs. While the mournful Night Suite is expectedly bleak in tone, the group soon finds warm soundscapes in the desert-themed Heat Haze EP, appropriately chilly and isolated textures in the sweet Winter Was Hard EP, and then a glowing sense of optimism in the closing Across the Horizon set. 

With over 80 minutes of music, it makes sense why SUSS self-titled this record. It does feel like a statement, with purring slide guitars and lush acoustic strums stacking in tandem to create the group's signature cinematic sound. With nary a word, SUSS deftly slow-shuffles through numerous emotions and beautiful textural detours, those swells of pure sonic capturing our attention in a way few other groups can. Whether one consumes it in a single sitting or via one thematic EP at a time, SUSS readily proves that even in the wake of unspeakable loss, their beautiful muse will never leave them.

For all the chewing gum memes and bits about how chaotic her songs are, it's easy to forget that Rosalía is not only breaking new boundaries in reggaeton and urbano but is doing so while enriching herself in great Latin music tradition. Motomami , her wildest release to date, made headlines with its duet with The Weeknd and the wild opening track "Saoko," but the strengths of this album rest in its ballads. "Hentāi" has the draw and allure of a modern Fiona Apple torch song, while her cover of Cuban singer Justo Betancourt's classic "Delirio de Grandeza" bridges classic balladry with modern production aesthetics in delightfully unexpected ways. Throw in a bonus edition with singles as colorful as "Despechá," and you have the makings of a groundbreaking artist who never once forgets her musical history.

The North Carolina-bred duo of Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath have been following their own muse for some time, finding a beautiful balance between bedroom electro-pop experiments and indie-rock catchiness under the name Sylvan Esso. This has led them to headline tours and even a Grammy nomination, but for 2022's No Rules Sandy, they decided to go back to the basics. 

They made up the songs on the fly out of a rented house in Los Angeles, bringing nothing with them into the recording process. It resulted in an album that features their most experimental electro numbers, some earnest guitar ballads, and a newfound sense of spontaneity and fun. "Sunburn" is a '90s rave number on a home recording budget, while the lush "Your Reality" contains echoes of cut-n-paste legends The Books within its musical DNA. There were no rules for how the band made this album and even fewer rules for how you can enjoy it.

A lot of music industry people care a lot about the fonts of festival posters. Headliners are obviously on top of the billing, but lots of behind-the-scenes bickering goes on as PR and agents argue with festival organizers about what line their artist should be on and how big their artist's font should be. When Beach Bunny started getting booked for festivals this year, they were in the middle of many of these posters, but if you looked at their monthly Spotify listener totals, they were easily among the top five most popular acts of any lineup. Even without huge radio hits, Lili Trifilio's alt-rock staples have developed a massive following with their sharp melodies and cutting lyrics. As they slowly lean more into their natural pop instincts, they seem to get better. 

Emotional Creature is their best record to date, delivering one catchy power pop classic after the next, caked with lines that feature powerful moments of self-realization. "The problem is you think you're only viable for love / When someone makes you feel complete," Trifilio spits on the obvious single "Weeds." Don't worry: they'll be headlining festivals before you know it.

Can you smell it in the air? Yes, that's the scent of the alternative-rock revival: the '90s are cool again, in case you didn't hear. While the glut of pop stars turning to Travis Barker to go full pop-punk is its own lane, other acts like beabadoobee have been mining the works of Smashing Pumpkins and Imperial Teen to scope out a new type of rock sound in the disparate soundscape of the 2020s. For the young Canadian Hannah Judge, her fanclubwallet project was largely born out of the pandemic, dropping singles and an EP on the way to her full-length debut, You've Got to Be Kidding Me. 

We would take any alt-pop confections nowadays, but what's so shocking about fanclubwallet is how incredibly well-developed her sense of melody is. The opener "Solid Ground" sounds like it could've been a mid-tempo stunner for peak-era Everclear, while the lithe "Toast" has structural nods to Wheatus' "Teenage Dirtbag" but lyrically notes on how introverts handled the pandemic ("I haven't learned a thing all damn year / It doesn't really matter since I disappeared"). "Gr8 Timing!" is a rocker so good it's surprising that Ben Kweller didn't try to steal it, but it's partway through this album that you realize all of these comparisons are just that: easy ways to try and frame the unique, deeply satisfying sound that Judge has crafted for herself. To make an album this good on your first go-round? You've got to be kidding me.

The last time we checked in with Black Thought, his overdue debut studio album topped PopMatters' Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2020 survey, and for good reason. As for Danger Mouse, still with a need to prove that he was more than just the smart sample guy who made The Grey Album all those many years ago, he was getting lost in making bland indie rock with his Broken Bells project while producing a string of unremarkable records for the likes of U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. While the duo had been in contact for years, Cheat Codes finally found its finished form in 2022, and it's an absolute knockout. 

While Danger Mouse hadn't hung up his rap production side completely, he sounds reinvigorated here, using classic soul samples in a dexterous but not overwhelming way, serving as a beautiful basis for some of Black Thought's fiercest lines to date. The guest list is stacked to the brim (A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, and the late MF DOOM), but Black Thought is the reason to tune in. "My skin tone is aubergine / I'm a war machine," he spits on the opener, "Sometimes," and then proves it by demolishing every verse that follows. Essential listening.

The Suffers are a great band because they do whatever they feel like. While their large membership and active horn section, coupled with powerhouse lead vocalist Kam Franklin, has garnered a lot of comparisons to the late, great Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Suffers are very much their own thing. Sure, they can do throwback soul-pop, but they all are down with reggae, funk, and sometimes straight-ahead '70s rock vibes when the mood strikes them. Even the powerhouse opener "Don't Bother Me" from their new album, It Starts with Love, shuffles with enough cowbell and horn charts to almost move into full-bore Gloria Estefan territory. 

It Starts with Love tackles many issues and covers a lot of territory, tackling racism one moment and the parasitic nature of the music industry the next. Some '80s synth pads creep up in a couple of numbers, but The Suffers still make full use of their multi-talented membership to give every song a lively, full-band feel. This is a joyous record filled with layers of excitement, but our favorite track may very well be the samba-esque groove of "Be You," a surprising late-album cut that shows that The Suffers aren't bound to a certain genre or anyone's expectations. They will write a great song in whatever style they like, and our ears are all the better for it.

We hear it from the cultural bleachers every year: "Rock is dead!" Every year, the answer is always the same: No, it isn't. You're just not looking hard enough. While the Travis Barkerfication of pop music has opened nostalgic doors to the sugary pop-punk inflection points of the early 2000s, the real rock craftspeople have been toiling in obscurity, making each new power chord sound more epic than the last. Boston's Pet Fox doesn't need flashy guests to make their point. Instead, they got into a studio and tracked the 10 excellent songs of their debut album, A Face in Your Life, in a single room. 

Fans of the era may hear apparent influences like The Verve Pipe on tracks like "It Won't Last" or Creeper Lagoon on the beautiful mid-tempo closer "Slows Me Down," but Pet Fox is still very much their own creature. They know the power of a solo guitar hook, a steady melodic bassline, and lyrics rife with self-doubt. In fact, after hearing A Face in Your Life, we aren't sure if we're being transported to alternative rock's past or getting a glimpse of its storied future.

When the Canadian indie rock staple Frog Eyes announced that 2018's Violet Psalms would be their final album, music fans and the entire editorial team at cokemachineglow felt pangs of sadness akin to lyrical bloodletting that frontman Carey Mercer always put himself through. While his new band Soft Plastics featured the same members and managed to put out their own full-length album, it didn't make sense to try and continue while pretending that this was anything other than Eyes. Why not just make another Frog Eyes record? 

Surprise comeback record The Bees features everything fans have come to know Frog Eyes for: Wiry guitar lines, thunderous drumming, and Mercer's theatrical, wild, sometimes unhinged singing style. "Why would I write such sad, sad songs?" Mercer yelps on "Scottish Wine," opining and reconciling with himself at the same time. Even with the title track serving as a swirling eight-minute epic, The Bees doesn't break any new ground so much as reaffirm how idiosyncratic and unique Frog Eyes are. The Bees will leave you absolutely buzzing.

Few artists could earnestly get away with a line like, "Only bad bıtches in my trellis," but few artists are as dynamic as Sudan Archives. When Brittney Parks debuted the moniker on 2019's Athena, she got some great critical notice, but her follow-up Natural Brown Prom Queen feels like an expansion of her violin-soul-pop sound in the best way. 

Tracks like "ChevyS10" have a real dance bounce to them, but wild detours like "Copycat (Broken Notions)" switch genres and sound so easily that it feels like Parks is just showing off. Yet as confident as this new album is, the heart of it rests in Parks' lyrics, which alternate between comically braggadocious to nakedly confessional. Even tracks like the seemingly sexual "Milk Me" house a disconnected sense of unfulfillment that belies its sensual groove, creating a dramatic tension that we rarely see in contemporary R&B records. 

This begs the question: Is Natural Brown Prom Queen an R&B record? The more time you spend with it, the more you realize that it's not because Sudan Archives is a project that's carving out its own lane for itself, something that defies easy categorization but is the kind of thing we expect people to copy for years to come.

When you think of "melodic, piano-pounding punk rock music," what band comes to mind? If you thought of the legendary Bomb the Music Industry!, you're an old-school head who still goes to incredible Jeff Rosenstock shows. Yet, if you said Pup, you'd also be in the right. This Canadian quartet has done an incredible job of merging their innate sense of self-loathing with songs that scratch, claw, and even soar. 

The incredible "Matilda," a standout from their great new full-length, is an anthem about the faded love of one lonely guitar begging to be played ("I was locked in the coffin case / Not even on display / As you fret, my frets decay"). On the surface, it's quirky and funny, but the sense of sadness the guitar displays speaks to much deeper human emotions — as does most of this album. Sometimes featuring horns, synths, and other elements that haven't been at the forefront of Pup records prior, The Unraveling of PUPTheBand shows the group at their most chaotically confident. They claim to be unraveling, but the truth is that Pup has never sounded tighter.

Throughout the '90s, mainstream music flirted with electronica, as rock and pop acts wondered how they could take the emerging hard dance scene and integrate it into their sound. While rave DJs ruled the roost, a counter-movement called Big Beat soon broke its own ground, with acts like Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, and The Chemical Brothers mixing house beats with more alternative-rock-minded innovation — resulting in stellar records that sometimes felt more liked dance-affected pop music than the other way around. 

Italian producer Cioz clearly remembers those times because his sophomore full-length Supermassive Whole pays clear homage to a time when club tracks behaved more like rock songs. There are no guitars to be found here, but tracks like the nighttime grit-synth workout "Is This Real?" and especially the looped vocal stunner of an opener, "B1," cackle with an energy and sense of fun that is sorely missing from contemporary EDM. This whole thing is a great listen, but we'd be even happier if this is the record that made Cioz go supermassive.

When the African supergroup Les Amazones d'Afrique was formed, it featured a wide arrange of stars: Angélique Kidjo, Mariam Doumbia (of Amadou & Miriam), Nneka, and seven more. After the outfit released its debut in 2017, several lineup shifts left only Mamani Keïta and Rokia Koné on board. Thus, Les Amazones soon rounded out its requirement of having 10 members by adding eight new voices to the lineup. While the outfit's daring attack on genre conventions by moving from hip-hop to dub to West African blues with beautiful abandon garnered them attention, a global pandemic hit shortly after the release of their sophomore LP. 

Rokia Koné, who had a hard drive full of material she was working on separately from Les Amazones, eventually got put in contact with Jacknife Lee, the rock superproducer who helmed latter-day albums by everyone from U2 to The Killers to his main squeeze: R.E.M. Somewhat disillusioned by the direction his life had taken him and with not much to do during the lockdown, he was put in contact with Koné and immediately began bringing her song ideas to refreshing new light. Occasionally adding thundering drums and liquid synth pads, Lee worked with Koné to deliver an African pop album that didn't play by any standard rules.

"Kurunba," for example, breathes lively club energy, while the delicate "Bambougou N'tji" finds a beautiful midpoint between Congotronix and contemporary Western ambient. Koné's vocals are beautiful throughout, but BAMANAN is a distinct meeting of worlds, escaping standard "worldbeat" expectations by becoming something wholly unique. One of the year's most fascinating discoveries.

A little old-school hip-hop-sampled drum break, some spritely Dap-Tone guitar and piano, and some contemporary production tricks are all it takes for Australia's Surprise Chef to knock you out. It might seem simple, but on Education & Recreation, the third album from this quirky quintet, they simultaneously manage to capture the feel of jazz records and funk soundtracks from the '70s. 

Instrumental-only, there's a grit to these recordings that elevates them beyond mere jam-band histrionics. "Ten & Two" uses the simplest of Casio keyboard beats to give us a surprisingly introspective guitar vamp that never overstays its welcome. "Grinners Circle" has some of the album's spikier riffs, but the vibe remains immaculate. Education & Recreation exudes an easy cool, but the emotional places it goes to aren't necessarily made for chill listening. There are touches of sadness in these notes, often found in wandering riffs reaching around curious sonic corners. 

It's a fascinating album — the kind where your favorite track will change depending on your mood. Maybe this is the year you have discovered this group, but as you go through their back catalog, you won't be surprised to learn they've always been this good.

The best part of being a fan of an artist who constantly evolves is that you never fully know what new chance they will take. However, followers of Ryan Lee West's Rival Consoles project were undoubtedly being led into strange waters during the pandemic, as albums like 2021's Overflow went into dark, sometimes nauseating territory with long, dour grooves. Yes, it may have been an accurate reflection of the worldwide mood, but what a relief it must be when Rival Consoles' Now Is dropped this year, with West finding his home in the rhythmic ambient genre. 

Plastic beats pulse underneath waves of rich, foamy synths, with sharp melodies often cutting through as his songs bend, flex, and sometimes even come disarmingly close to boogieing. Tracks like "Echoes" flirt with upbeat gestures, but Now Is showcases that with a little pep in your step, ambient music still can take a listener through quite the emotional journey — a stellar record.

Josh Tillman never made it easy to embrace him as an artist. Once he adopted his Father John Misty moniker, he turned into a headline-grabbing impish prankster on the indie rock scene, often comically mocking the music industry while putting out albums of straight-faced opulence. At times brilliant, at times frustrating, even hardcore FJM acolytes could acknowledge why he was a divisive figure. So, imagine the surprise when the world collectively decided that Tillman's full-bore Tin Pan Alley throwback record Chloë and the Next 20th Century was one of the best records of his career. 

Drenched in an earnestness that defied his earlier work, Chloë is imbued with sincerity, the lush Nelson Riddle Orchestra-inspired string arrangements giving Tillman's voice a certain sweetness that greatly helps the material. Forlorn and at times ragingly funny ("Funny girl, your schedule's pretty crazy / Doing interviews for the new live-action 'Cathy'"), Tillman's latest reinvention could easily be read as a joke were it not for the fact that it all feels genuinely authentic. He doesn't fully drop his folk-guitar leanings (see: "Goodbye Mr. Blue"), but with a record this fully committed, we may be listening to this one well into the next 20th century.

Hailing from Switerzland, brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez have a very specific viewpoint on how instrumental guitar music should be played. While they are both dexterous six-string bandits, the point of their compositions isn't to show off their skills so much as to create a groove, an atmosphere, and a dusty-but-warm vibe. With smart production by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, there's a lot of emotional ground covered on their stunning El Bueno Y El Malo, from would-be '60s desert ballads ("Tres Hermanos") to cinematic mood pieces ("Los Chicos Tristes"), all held together with finger-picked melodies and palmed strums used to keep tempo. It might be a breezy listen at only 33 minutes, but it's the kind of piece you find yourself returning to repeatedly. No vocals, no excessive third-party instruments, just a beautiful record celebrating the power of musical chemistry between two clear geniuses.

When Beyoncé released her companion (but not soundtrack) album to coincide with her role in the mega-blockbuster remake of The Lion King, original songs were peppered in between dialogue from the film, making for a somewhat confusing listening experience. Her 2020 deluxe re-release streamlined things and was anchored by her decadent Black is King film, but in the eyes of some, it was Queen Bey's first quasi-fumble after dropping her 2016 masterpiece Lemonade. 

Following an extended silence, Beyoncé shocked the world when she dropped the Robin S.-sampling house-indebted new song "Break My Soul," pointing her sound in a clubbier direction. The album that it stemmed from, RENAISSANCE, ended up playing with numerous dance tropes across the spectrum, from disco to soul to ballroom. Despite not dropping any music videos, fan edits and dance challenges soon created numerous viral moments for a record doted with quotable lyrics ("Uncle Johnny made my dress" quickly became the new "Becky with the good hair"), immaculate horn grooves, and a sense of playfulness and reverence for dance culture that made it endlessly replayable. 

By the time she incorporates Donna Summer's legendary "I Feel Love" on closer "Summer Reinassaince," she's deliberately aligning herself with a specific type of pop music lineage, one that she's spent the last 15 tracks proving why she's earned. This is allegedly the first part of a three-album project, and wow, do those following two acts have a high bar to clear.

The last we heard from British folk legend Beth Orton was back in 2016 when she dropped a curious record of bedroom electronic pop called Kidsticks. Orton was often looped in with electronic artists, giving her the broadly drawn but inaccurate "folktronica" label, even though her albums were so much more than that. While Orton did manage an appearance on a track with her old pals The Chemical Brothers in 2018, she took time off to focus on raising her children and dealing with some personal matters. Thus, the announcement of Weather Alive, her eighth full-length and the first time she produced it entirely herself shocked many.

Even more surprising are the songs contained within — lucid, dreamy, piano-driven folk-pop numbers that shapeshift right before your ears. Orton's lyrics are lovestruck and tired, her voice weathered over time, and the overall effect is warm and haunting simultaneously. Armed with a backing band made of guitarist Alabaster DePlume and go-to indie drummer of the moment Tom Skinner, this record breathes with life, with no second left unfilled with beautiful, swirling sounds. Weather Alive contains multitudes, and you discover something new with each listen. Here's hoping we don't have to wait six more years for her next one.

Not many people knew of Charlotte Adigéry or Bolis Pupul when Topical Dancer was released earlier in 2022, but anyone lucky enough to have their ears blessed with this Belgian duo's hyper-literate electro-pop sound knows that they are soon going to become household names. Wildly accessible and casually confrontational, Topical Dancer is a record about racism, politics, and identity, all backed by abstract dance beats that are as irresistible as they are instantly memorable. 

Co-produced by Soulwax, Topical Dancer pops out of your speakers due to its neverending sonic surprises. "HAHA" takes Adigéry's laughter and chops it/rearranges it into fascinating new shapes that don't sound too dissimilar to legendary indietronica act The Books. "Making Sense Stop" is a loving and unexpected Talking Heads tribute, and "Reappropriate" is a stark note about the importance of embracing one's sexuality. At the same time, the raw, self-deprecating look at societal appearance standards that is "Ceci n'est pas un cliché" stutters, stops, restarts, and engages with the listener immediately. A dynamic record with a distinct identity and few immediate sonic peers, Topical Dancer is a hell of a topical album that demands you dance to it. Mission accomplished. 

Most people will probably discover the music of saxophonist Byron Asher through his new moniker Basher, but his love of jazz runs much deeper than leading the "free jazz party band" that his press release describes him as. In 2019, the young musician released Byron Asher's Skrontch Music, a complex, deeply layered suite of compositions that wove original material between classic Hot Jazz samples and spoken word recordings that showed his deep love and reverence for New Orleans' rich musical history. 

It was heady stuff, but it's a thrill to hear such an intellect of Asher's stature let loose with Basher's debut recording, Doubles. Dual drum kits and paired-up saxophones find themselves dueling and playing off each other in joyful ways, making tracks like "Carnival 2019" and "Primetime-A-Go-Go" leap off the speakers. Some purists may scoff at Basher's use of modern synths to accentuate their songs, but those people don't know how to get down with jazz's past and present like Basher. Stick with them long enough, and Basher might be the kind of artist other artists are sampling decades down the line.

Experimental music is often a hard sell, as the mere mention of the genre alone conjures ideas of screeching soundscapes and musique concrète formlessness. Yet the thing about experimental music is sometimes the experiment works, and on Anna Butterss' debut, it works gloriously. Featuring nary a word (save the looped voices on "Doo Wop"), Butterss explores entire sonic realms using her fuzzed-out bass guitar, minimalistic beats, and often otherworldly use of synths. 

Having worked with artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Aimee Mann, and Josh Johnson, Butterss knows her way around conventional instrumental structures but often runs circles around them, turning looped bass notes into soulful grooves, ethereal stretches, and whatever other crazy sonic shapes her mind can envision. Jazzy, poppy, strange, and intangible are all phrases associated with Butterss' curious and memorable Activities.

Min Hee-jin knows exactly what she's doing. As the woman responsible for branding numerous iconic K-pop outfits, no one batted an eye when it was announced that she would be given her own sublabel and would launch it with a brand new girl group. New K-pop outfits are a dime a dozen, but after delaying the launch of NewJeans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the outfit premiered in 2022 with one of the most explosive debuts in recent memory.

Their first EP features only four songs, but the quintet assembled covers a lot of ground in 12 minutes — each track proving catchier than the last. The two lead singles, "Attention" and especially "Hype Boy," had a casual cool that made them instantly iconic. Even the prerequisite ballad "Hurt" and the stupidly-controversial "Cookie" proved that instead of finding their sonic identity over the next few years, NewJeans arrived fully confident in their strengths. A bit '90s pop, a bit chillwave, and a whole lot of cool, NewJeans are already outpacing groups several years older than them. In other words, you could say that these NewJeans fit just right.