the top 50 best songs of 2022

I’ve said before that this is the list I look forward to making the most every year - that might be true more in 2022 than ever before.

Because if I were to highlight a consistent reality for me this year, it was that transcendent songs leapt off the page more than albums, the sort of tracks I’d put toe-to-toe against any of my year-end lists and they’d likely have a strong chance to beat them all, certainly in my top ten. But it goes further - often times it felt like even if the album wasn’t that good there were singular cuts that felt special, to the point where I found myself going back to the albums to check whether they wound up better than I remembered just based off those songs alone! That’s rare for me, especially when I've sat with an album and come to a conclusion, but that’s how great certain cuts were this year!

And I feel obliged to mention that there’s a lot of country on this list - as per usual, it’s me, but the genre had a field day both independently and in the mainstream - but I’d also say rap had a really strong year, particularly in the indie scene. as well as a pretty solid balance of pop and indie rock. But more importantly, as I’ve said in the past, this is the list that always feels the most personal… but unlike last year, 2022 was a really good year for me, for a number of reasons that go past the music. And it leaves the tone of this list feeling different - euphoria in a feedback loop, huge positive emotions reinforced by artistic counterparts… it’s a strange, almost audacious feeling, but I kind of love it? So no more wasting time, let’s get started with…

50. …okay, so it doesn’t start on a super positive note, but hey, if you want a song that actually captures the feeling of stewing in monotonous tension as the synths and guitars seethe before the choppy acoustics begin ratcheting up against lockstep drum machines, it’s this one. What I appreciate with this one, beyond the terrific liquid guitar interplay and Emily Haines cooing over the bridge before her husky rasp drops back for the hook, is that it feels lived in, abstracted but that plays into the frustration of keeping it all under the surface. In other words, for those who were appalled by a certain song high on my list of the worst hits of 2022, at least for me, this is how to do it right!

49. JID is such an unbelievably strong rapper that there’s a part of me that just wants to marvel at how he careens off of words and that pulsating bass and shuddering trap beat switch and the football penalty flag samples that pick up added resonance when you remember JID himself used to be an athlete! And there is a jock jam-esque quality to how the bars just keep beating you over the head, but the song is also smarter, because he knows he’s inside a bad system that’s both corrupted and doing exactly what it’s designed to do, where he’ll get slapped back if he unveils his true power, both physically and ‘morally’. Because it ain’t just rapping, it’s spiritual what he’s trying to do - I’d argue he succeeds.

48. But speaking of rappers who know that rapping itself can be its own spiritual fulfillment, here’s the latest entry to this list and one that shocked me how much it stuck. Is some of it DJ Premier’s production and scratching that plays into Ab-Soul’s embrace of throwback battle bars, absolutely - those keys and that horn sample is gonna get me - but Ab-Soul’s pile-up of punchlines is married to stakes that feel more tangible and personal; he mentions his suicide attempt and moving forward from it, because his is a soul that’s not leaving yet, especially as his late hypeman stands as a guardian angel going forward. For as much as his talent stands supreme, it’s also rooted in a humanity that keeps him going, even as it’s an artifice that places a target on his back. But he’s capable of ascension - his best song since Control System, and even if I didn’t love Herbert, this song is transcendent.

47. Yeah, we’re starting with a lot of dense, thoughtful hip-hop, and we’re not stopping yet, because at the penultimate moments of Aethiopes, billy woods delivers a devastating song, not just highlighting a personal moment of envy of those who achieve wealth in the system and a fear that poverty will never see him pass down his success, but then comes a critique of generational wealth that’s bound to make any capitalist second-guess one’s principles in passing it down. But he’s not purely anti-capitalist either, because he’s got some scathing words for the internet socialists unable to inspire direct action in his second verse… and even if they did, there’s a risk of authoritarian takeover of which they’re rarely conscious, cycles of history that need to be considered. Also, the haunted, scratchy samples and wailing vocals… god, it’s heartbreaking to see the complicated failures of man, even if there’s a freedom in believing it’s not going to get much better.

46. This song floored me on first listen, and that’s because I knew the context - yeah, Amanda Shires’ willowy vocals against the hollow keys, aching strings, and that slow burn smolder of guitar has a ton of appeal, but when you know the song is all about the fractured relationship between her and her husband Jason Isbell, which he previously chronicled across albums especially Reunions and he plays guitar on that interlude, and you get the other side of the curtain to the words he previously wrote… it’s a devastating song, especially given that him being the more famous songwriter most wouldn’t go to her for a more complicated truth, strip the wings from the angels. The fact that their marriage survived in the wake… it’s powerful stuff.

45. So remember when I said certain albums were dragged to greatness on the backs of truly transcendent songs? This is a major case of such, with Ashley McBryde recruiting Benjy Davis to sketch the misty night at a small town strip club where you get more than a few glimpses at the folks on the fringe who are hoping for a vestige of grace… or hell, just a joint, a downer, or a few dirty dollars that have been passed around. It’s a side of faith that, to be honest, has way more resonance for me than a lot of religious doctrine - it’s grounded and tangible and there’s a communal feeling where the spirit feels more present. Coupled with gorgeous production from John Osborne, it’s a phenomenal torch song even if we only get snippets of Ashley McBryde herself here… but more on that later.

44. And now for the darker side of that simmer, and probably my favourite Special Interest song to date - and no, just because it sounds like a long lost Savages song, although that helps! No, this is brazenly political on a global stage, the turning point of the album where after dancefloor revelry we get the darker edge that questions the colonization of the mind, where Special Interest wants you to confront how much we view the commodification of love and relationships as a product of living under late capitalism, and the boot heels it enables overseas for you to live so well, even on the fringes. There’s no ‘promised land’, a loaded line both religious and colonial contexts, and this is the siren call to spur a challenge to it all.

43. Full disclosure, if the production was a little better and some of the higher frequencies were cleaned up, this would be among my absolute favourites of 2022. And while I can’t call it Wade Bowen’s best - he’s set a high standard for himself - it’s the warm, sad simmer of looking across a dive bar and seeing an ex of yours with a new partner and you know for a fact that there’s nothing else you can possibly do, but there’s still a lingering ember that he just has to reflect on and keep moving forward. And for what it’s worth, the pianos, lingering guitars, and simply excellent snare pickup on this song are enough to get this up here - just a phenomenal country song that got slept on by too many, it’s worth looking up.

42. And speaking of phenomenal country songs that got slept on, Ian Noe’s sophomore album contained many a story of folks struggling with time slipping away too fast around them, and this is probably my favourite of his in that lane, a spare, organ-accented character portrait that picks up a borderline martial stomp as he traces the story of the veteran who deploys over and over again, leaving behind family, and can never quite escape a calling and discipline that has left him scarred and a bit lost as the world tears past him… but he remains the same whenever the call arises. What I really like about the song is how it doesn’t judge him for this - that sort of trudging stoicism is who he is, and while it takes a toll, there’s a nobility that resonates through the cut. Not quite my favourite from the album - we’ll get to it - but I went back to this more than I expected.

41. So full disclosure, Soul Glo in 2022 is probably best discussed on a different list, but if there’s a cut that surges above the rest, it’s when they team up with Iojii and McKinley Dixon for a slow crescendo of a jazz-inflected banger of insane potency. And while there’s a level of creeping danger that builds up from the streets, there’s also a very potent spiritual dimension that goes beyond the radical politics and anticapitalist revolution that must come a-calling, even acknowledging the rappers who would chase wealth at the expense of Black power - McKinley Dixon in particular with a sly callback to For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her, I really appreciated, questioning the danger of becoming angels. But on some level, some of that spiritual power just blasts through with horns and final hook that goes off insanely well, where the menace ignites into an inferno. Crazy shit, it kicks ass!

40. This song may have one of my favourite lyrics of 2022 that could have easily come from the previous song: ‘we may have run out of bullets, but we’re never gonna run out of hostages’! Of course, in John Darnielle’s context he’s writing from a more complicated point of view, where the entire song plays out like a hostage drama straight from the late 80s or 90s, complete with the echoing sweep of the guitars that eventually contribute to a fantastic outro - and what I like is that the song leaves it mostly ambiguous where any morality falls, whether the lead is more John Q or Hans Gruber or likely somewhere in between! But what he does know is that he’s likely not going to get out alive, and that creates a bizarre sense of exultant freedom - which is a little perverse with that main lyric! It’s a tremendous, deceptively challenging song where you second guess every time you want to sing along or tweet about it… but damn, it’s affective!

39. So in this case, at least part of this placing so high is because I saw billy woods live this year and he did this song, and the line ‘this thing was broke from the jump / no point going back and forth over who did what’ stuck with me all year. And in the context of the heartbreak that underscores so much of Church that billy woods could never quite escape, especially in the context of his career where he can see echoes of new cycles forming, juxtaposed against the aftermath of revolutions he’s seen and a world that never quite looks the same after that… the funereal, organ-inflected shambling sadness of the hook just cuts deep, where amidst the cheap snacks, expensive weed and booze the hope for hoes in paradise is both earnest and revealing of genuine pain. I’ve always said billy woods is most powerful for me when he doesn’t just wind around abstract paranoia, but gets to an incredibly textured raw humanity - this was his best portrait this year, bar none.

38. Yeah, to the surprise of nobody, Ethel Cain is going to be on this list a bunch, and ‘Thoroughfare’ is a goddamn tour de force in her own right. The song is huge and sprawling like the Americana her character traverses, a windswept expanse, entrenched in the American westward glance that’s baked into the country’s history and iconography, where the harmonica simmers and the acoustics creak as the drums build and Cain’s burnished tones cut through the mist before the guitars erupt through - I feel not nearly enough attention is given to the fact that she produced this all herself! But what I love is the balance of this track - you get traces on that bridge that the man she’s travelling with is going to treat her badly when they get to California, and… well, the album goes there and so far beyond, but there’s a yearning to the framing of this song that just gets me - she wants to believe, and the song soars to match that power. Again, not my favourite of hers, but as an album centerpiece, it’s breathtaking.

37. So this is a considerably more restrained song… and arguably that’s one of the reasons it feels so special. Adeem The Artist paints such a grounded, believable picture of a cafe scene in Minneapolis with a partner during Pride and while there’s religious iconography and metaphor interlaced through it - you title a song ‘For Judas’ and lean on the biblical and queer angles simultaneously, you’re going to draw attention - but that’s not how the song feels. It’s just a very believable queer love story where the betrayal left a sting, but Adeem The Artist still has wistful, fond memories, especially with roots of their art tangled within it. And with the pianos, gentle guitars and percussion, it almost feels like a lost singer-songwriter cut from the early 90s with such a low-key, normal charm of which such queer stories have been denied. I really love that Adeem The Artist traced that story this way anyhow - that’s the magic.

36. Goddamn it, Deaf Havana just know how to write songs that hit me like a ton of bricks, in this case looking back on their last tumultuous decade and openly questioning if their old rock star dreams are still the main priority, especially jaded with years of frustrations and setbacks. On some level it feels like an old rock’n’roll survivor song you occasionally saw from old veterans who saw peers perish or burn out on the road, but combine that with the past few years of plague, mortality is in sharp relief and Deaf Havana are going to rend themselves asunder questioning that dream as the guitars spark and roar off the keys and an overcompressed, surging mix - again, this album is one good producer from being transcendent. In the meantime… damn, this goes so hard.

35. Am I giving The 1975 a pass for making the best song Lionel Richie never made, all about a love that’s probably oversold and too desperate for its own damn good? Well… yeah, probably, but when the pianos play off the textured bounce of one of the best rollicking grooves Jack Antonoff has ever produced even before the sax creeps in, and Matt Healy sounds convincingly earnest - there’s something very late-period Bleachers about the flagrant 80s influences and subtle rawness of which I’m not complaining - I’m all the way there. Plus there’s something about Matt Healy complaining about a bad experience with cuckoldry that makes me snicker… but then I realized he made me care enough about his feelings that the song worked regardless - I think he wins this round too, goddamn it.

34. No, it’s not entirely Mic The Snare’s influence or fault this is on my list - no, it comes down to me doing this at karaoke and realizing it absolutely goddamn slaps! The funny thing is that outside the obvious, it’s tough to pin down why this works so well in comparison with other Spoon songs - the lyrics mostly flit around abstract, swaggering ‘going out and kicking ass no matter what anyone says’ vibes, where there’s a sense of indeterminate danger that’s echoed by the menace of the clattering percussion and the clipped bluesy groove that builds up more sparking embellishments leading into that solo. But let’s be real, this song is on the list for that sizzling post-chorus riff - it makes the song in every way, it kicks a ton of ass, this goddamn rocks!

33. Man, I wish that Wombats album was better, but again, call it a case of an album elevated by a few fantastic songs and this was the standout, a cyclical guitar melody and killer groove that simmers around this lingering, frustrated disillusionment where there’s still a hint of the old glamour, but it’s been tempered by failure and a stark reality that you can’t really change people - only time can do that, with everything that comes with it. Frankly it’s way more cynical than I’d normally endorse, especially from this band, but there’s something about the desire to keep on trying amidst everything that’s set to ground you down, especially opposite very harsh awareness of your limitations… I dunno, maybe some of that old spirit will erupt forth, and the bridge seems to give a snapshot of what could be. And hell, making one of the catchiest indie rock songs of 2022 will sure as hell help!

32. And on the topic of hope… you know, if it wasn’t for a slightly dicey vocal mix, this would be even higher on my list, as Ashley McBryde calls in Caylee Hammack, Pillbox Patti and Brandy Clark for a stellar fireside sing-along where they can cut loose and throw daggers at the jackasses who would pit them against each other and brand them as bitches if they unite. It’s a moment of penultimate solidarity that McBryde gets has to feel huge even despite every rough edge that she lets erupt forth, so the countrypolitan strings rise around the electric sizzle and the song feels like the proper musical climax point I’ve been yearning for the entire album! And man, they just cut loose - if you follow country you know just how much all of these women have deserved better by the industry, a note of subtext that burns all the hotter, and you get hints of the vocal runs they’re capable of by the final hook, and I can’t imagine how huge this’ll sound live with everyone onboard! Just an incredible moment - still not my favourite from the album, we’ll get to that!

31. From solidarity, we get a lonely post-breakup musing that would be bitter as hell if it wasn’t laugh out loud funny, and Ian Noe got the balance impeccably. What I like that he does - beyond just an understated mix and knowing that all he needs for this composition is to play as hangdog and traditional as he can, especially with that pedal steel and that lonely solo - is that there’s so many homespun, intimate details where Ian Noe feels a little detached and adrift from the world in the wake of the breakup, little conveniences he’s acutely aware he’s missing, where it spills into his art and he can’t even write. So he’s audibly bored and lonely and it translates into the weirdly cathartic moment when he gets drunk and burns down his Christmas tree. It’s unbelievably charming and a little too real… and that’s why I adore this - it sounds timeless, like an undiscovered standard - if we’re lucky at least in indie country, it can become one.

30. Oh shut up, even the people who didn’t like Love Sux thought this song ruled, and they were right, this was everything we wanted from a return from pop punk Avril Lavigne! I’m still plenty annoyed just how many people turned on this after the collected ignoring of everything she made when she tried to grow up, only for her to get scolded for ‘not growing up’ - I could highlight how most of those people still worship the washed up rock stars and rappers who are considerably more immature and dated, but who really cares if the song is immature when she can sell it! She has more convincing attitude and intensity than the field, to say nothing of a frankly ridiculous range, it’s one of the few songs where Travis Barker’s production gives her a tune to work with, and she at least seems smart enough to acknowledge a bad relationship that didn’t work even if her ex didn’t. Yeah, this song rules - should have been huge everywhere in 2022, I stand by it!

29. Hey, sometimes the obvious lead-off single works. The terrific blur of percussion building off the wells of strings and pianos and backing vocals, the hook that just goddamn soars from Dave Le’aupepe, and even as time whirls past him, he’s trying to grapple with the man he now wants to be in the face of his father’s passing. My favourite line on the song comes on the bridge: ‘so take a single step at a simple pace / and the outward momentum will maybe unfuck you in time’ - if that’s not a perfect line untangling the messy process of grief, I don’t know what is. Obviously you all know there’s more Gang of Youths coming, but if you need an easy as hell introduction, this’ll do it!

28. Sometimes there’s a blast of relief at acknowledging that you’re “screwing up”, potentially wrecking your life in slow motion, but you feel you can control it - it kind of throws any sense of judgement out the window, especially if you’re unapologetic, clear-eyed and you know exactly how much damage you can do, it’s euphoric in a bizarrely captivating manner. And that’s kind of what Deaf Havana tap into with ‘Going Clear’ - it’s as anthemic as they’ve ever been and it almost feels wrong with those clarion tones echoing over the mix and chugging bass and the reflections on how if this is all over, maybe they don’t want to be sober for the moment. And… fuck, I can’t judge them for it. especially when it goes this hard - it’s not healthy, but art rarely is, especially like this, and I’ll take it.

27. It should be common knowledge that the order of a list like this can fluctuate - often wildly - throughout the course of a year, and unless you have a top-of-the-line standout, you could swap songs by a specific artist back and forth and it wouldn’t really matter much. This is the case for ‘Books & Records’, which on some given days I’d say is the best song from White Trash Revelry with the warm pedal steel and gentle acoustic groove and anti-capitalist weariness where they’ve had had to sell off what they love but are hopeful they’ll be able to buy it all back at some point. As it is… well, we’ll see, but if you’re looking for a tremendously rewarding deep cut, I’d point to this one as a favourite.

26. I view it as a categorical failure of Billboard, Dreamville, and the listening public at large that this song was not a smash hit, because it goddamn deserved to be - would that this have been what most folks know JID for and not ‘Enemy’! The collage of samples, the great swing of the low-key trap hook where JID proves he could play that game but then after the beat switch smirkingly eats everyone’s lunch in the bassy darkness, the brief Baby Tate segment that left me wanting more, and, of course, 21 Savage - if you want the reason I was so angry with Her Loss, it’s because you can tell 21 put more effort into one verse here than anything he put on that album with Drake! I do think JID got the best line saying he turned into a rapper ironically - he’s smart enough to do anything he want but also knows how to work within the system to disseminate his message - but again, we’re not done with him just yet.

25. …so I wouldn’t normally put a very obvious cover on my year-end list, especially of a classic song - it feels like cheating, even if the cover is top of the line with fantastic harmonies like this is. But I also cannot deny that the moment I heard this come onto my stereo listening to the album this last fall, without looking at the track list and the sheer feeling of surprise and euphoria I got listening to that note perfect moment… it was one of the best moments I had with music all damn year. It also comes at the perfect place on the album and fits seamlessly, the vocal arrangement is stellar, the production is perfect to nail the vibe… I don’t know how in good conscience I could exclude it! Call it cheating, I don’t fucking care - this is the best cover of the year!

24. I think I first reviewed this song in 2021, but it was on MUNA’s self-titled this year and it counts, and I think it took this long to finally sink in as a stellar song, even if the pure sapphic bliss of the cut is not something I’ll ever share. But the joy of this cut - the 90s and 2000s pop rock rollick that comes with the warping touches, the bright acoustics, and how Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t really work at all here but that’s kind of the magic anyway! She’s a little too downbeat and depressed, it’s all still a little too real, but she’s being tugged into this joyous expanse and there’s a part of her that kind of desperately wants to believe it can work for her too; it’s pushing out of the comfort zone of irony into something genuinely sincere, and it’s charming as all hell - this is sacrilegious but I’m fairly certain this is the most I’ve liked either act at any point, just a wonderful song

23. This is a case of what stuck with me - I wanted to say ‘We Cry Together’ is the better song with the Florence sample and uncomfortable realness, but it’s not a song I revisited as much as this, Kendrick’s slow burn melodic rap song with the haunted chords, Sam Dew’s echoing vocals, and shuddering bass backing the snap beat; there’s a part of me that’s still convinced that Vince Staples could slip onto a remix and it’d make perfect sense! But the great thing with this song is how well it serves as a check on ego - Kendrick is flexing on this song, make no mistake, but it’s pruning back a lot of the things that don’t matter, trying to find something real and that demands a different style of flexing altogether. The growth comes in spirit, and while you can absolutely ask questions surrounding what the ramifications of how this internal growth manifests, on an individual track, it’s absolutely stellar. Every year for me needs a few brooding songs, this was a big one.

22. I’m still kind of stunned that Brett Eldredge actually made this at all. On the one hand, it’s vintage country soul, the sort of song that he has no trouble selling whatsoever because he’s basically overflowing with natural charisma. But on the other hand, it’s the sort of blunt breakup song I’m kind of stunned that he attempted to make, where it’s otherwise framed so cheery with the gente patter of the percussion and the bright guitar rollick that you almost don’t notice how mean it can be! I think some of my fondness for this comes down to the sheer audacity of the thing, but at the same time… it’s kind of a fantastic mature breakup song that comes from someone at their absolute wits end, and Eldredge has just enough of a light touch to make it really click! I get how it wouldn’t work for a lot of folks - again, it’s kind of wild his best songs are so sour this year - but for me… goddamn.

21. This is a song that lives and dies on the performance of Orville Peck, because after a fashion, it’s also a breakup song, but the sort coaxed through rich, burnished tones and swells of echoing guitar, the sort set against golden sunrises and a vast expanse of roadway where the faint snap and every vocal ahh has its own little flair. But there’s a part of me so enamoured with the roguish charm of it all - Peck is self-deprecating but can tell that everything is on its way out, so time to hit that next road ahead, and man, that honeyed vocal just sounds stellar! Not gonna lie, this became a karaoke staple for me as well, and if there’s a song that’s designed to blow the doors of the place, it’s this one - what a tune!

20. Nobody expected this to be good - hell, I’m fairly certain this was critically savaged before it was even released, and even then, this was not the song that attracted attention. And yet that’s kind of a shame, because ‘Hole In My Head’ rides its own burnished acoustic Americana and gauzy synths into a scene that swiftly flips from nostalgic yearning into something grittier and rougher, where innocence becomes corrupted across the reality of tours for both music and military. Not always sure that’s a great parallel to be drawn - there’s a song later on this list that hits these notes better - but when Yelawolf starts howling over that hook, it’s stunning how magnetic it can be, even before Shooter Jennings lets the keyboards and oily guitars flood the mix! I’d call this an example of an individual song transcending a mediocre album, but the project was way better than it got credit - this is just a shining example of what can be delivered!

19. Okay, even Canada’s charts screwed up not letting this become a hit - it actually charted over here and just never got the proper traction beyond a few weeks, likely because of The Weeknd’s guest verse… but this should have been huge, the sort of glassy, futuristic R&B coaxed through waves of shuddering autotune and quaking bass that showed just how well fka twigs could command this atmosphere even mid-breakdown. And while it can come across as sketchy as The Weeknd encroaches into this, fka twigs knows exactly what she’s doing in using and discarding him - I’m not sure the fuck is therapeutic as he croons, but it’s what she needs in this moment, and her vocals remain as stunning as ever. Couple with a song that’s rammed through with so many subtle melodic hooks… yeah, the public was deprived of something extraordinary with this.

18. Okay, if you want the prime example of a song so obviously transcending everything it came from, it’s this from Alex Cameron, which might be the most frighteningly real portrait of being too online as a creator that I heard all year. And there’s a lot I can highlight beyond that central conceit - the horns sound great, the hook is insanely catchy, the groove is rock solid, the nascent seedy soft rock vibe doesn’t feel undercooked like the rest of the album - but what I love the most is that Cameron doesn’t frame himself as having all the answers online; if anything he’s sprawling across the web and trying to fish for the reaction to seem interesting and present the best possible version of himself, and nothing prepares you for the ego death that comes with realizing not only do you not have universal appeal, fewer folks care than you realize. It’s a gutpunch of a song and one that I do relate to a little too much… but hey, there is a breezy relief in that realization, and in a year where things got better… well, fuck the irony, I’m rolling with it!

17. There was a part of me that wanted to be the contrarian and say, ‘no, Adeem The Artist had better songs than this’ - and ‘Reclaim My Name’ is better, I’ll stand proudly on that hill… but ‘Middle Of A Heart’ is so goddamn excellent that even the folks who wanted to disparage them for stupid reasons couldn’t help but acknowledge it. The gentle acoustics, the subtle sound design touches that foretell where the protagonist will go, the moral ambiguity and plain lack of judgement for the kid who wants to provide for his family and serve his country no matter the cost - and patriotism always demands a cost - all centered around the gun that echoes across US iconography. Again, like the best of country music, it feels damn near timeless - that final chorus in particular just sends a shiver down my spine every time - and now that Adeem The Artist is here, they can break so many hearts anew.

16. On the flip side, this is a huge, symphonic power metal song with glorious 80s-inspired synths where Bob Catley once again steps up for the huge assist like he did back in 2019 for ‘Lavender’! And hell, I’d argue this album is even better than Moonglow, with this song as a prime example - the production feels more burnished and refined, Tobias Sammet’s vocals are better than ever, the hook is glorious especially as the twinkling magic shimmers up around them with full strings bursting into a major key interlude that feels so goddamn triumphant, where if Tobias was looking to create some epic magic, he succeeded in spades! Too many folks don’t take Avantasia seriously - and sure, I get it, but if you willingly choose to deprive yourself of this sort of fun, that’s on you!

15. Taylor Swift growing up and embracing a more complicated moral ambiguity is by far the best thing that’s happened to her writing in recent years, and while this isn’t the most pop-accessible version of that, as a concluding track ‘Mastermind’ is glorious. I love how she admits how she pursued her partner, and then highlighted the messy rationale behind it as the keys shimmer amidst the strings and the song picks up its pace - powerful women have to behave shrewdly to maintain their power or else they become pawns, and when you realize so much of Swift’s calculation is rooted in desperation for genuine human connection despite her wealth and power… I dunno, even if that in and of itself is calculated, I got it. But of course the best moment is when Swift discovers that her partner knew all along what she was doing, and she wasn’t approaching someone to dominate, but an equal to match her, and that sense of raw joy… yeah, especially this year, it stuck for me. I’ve praised this song time and time again, it deserves it!

14. It’s funny that most folks, including myself, tend to focus on John Darnielle’s intricate skills as a songwriter, but sometimes he chooses to remind us all that his music can kick so much ass! ‘Rain In Soho’, of course, is the top tier, but ‘Training Montage’ overwhelmingly succeeds thanks to its killer crescendo, Darnielle’s holler, the fact that it literally sounds like it could soundtrack a midtier guy’s movie training montage with the rough guitar rattle that erupts into hammering smolder, and the fact that he knows so much of these conflicts are rooted in old school vengeance - and yeah, the album’s going to deconstruct the hell out of that, but you need to set the stage and man, he delivers! This is the loosest and most natural The Mountain Goats have sounded in kicking ass in years, and I bought it all the way down - it’s a banger!

13. I don’t know if this is the most pathetic Josh Tillman has allowed himself to be on record - unlike a lot of acts, I think I’d have to make a list to figure that one out - but if you’re looking for an even harsher deconstruction of modern machismo than Darnielle, Tillman might have it with this one. Tillman has described this as directed at a daughter who has moved past their father after he gets out of prison and tries to reconnect - which gets all sorts of warped when you realize Lana Del Rey covered this song and I don’t even want to touch that subtext - especially when that girl has now, well, become ‘everybody’s girl’. But that’s the thing: as the song proceeds with the gorgeous saxophone and burnished old school production, you realize that she’s just fine in her life - he’s the one trying to undermine her and her principles, where he’s trying to assert authority and failing spectacularly, where even if he goes back to the bar full of old-timers, they’ll never believe a word he says. It’s almost sad how profound the yearning for connection feels, be it hers or his, and in the case of another album being dragged up by its best… yeah, Father John Misty nailed another one. Don’t think about that turn of phrase too hard.

12. ‘She had Billie Eilish style'…. this might be one of the most quotable songs of the year amidst a certain part of online indie music fandom… and man, I get it, as it’s probably Black Country, New Road’s most accessible song and damn near their best. Another break up song - I’m a little stunned how many of them showed up on my list, I guess I was processing some shit earlier this year - as the horns, guitars and synths continue to build, Isaac Wood tries to process seeing his long-term dreams implode, trying to accept that it’s clearly over even despite mingled feelings of antipathy and love and a cavalcade of references both opulent, nerdy, and ridiculous. But I get it, especially as the song gets more cacophonous and Wood starts howling - I mean, to quote the titular movie, “you don't know about real loss 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself”. If that doesn’t sum up the tempest here, I don’t know what does.

11. And speaking of not loving yourself, this might be Taylor Swift’s best single from any album, it’s certainly up there! The shuffling pad of the percussion as the shuddering but twinkling synth melody fleshes out the atmosphere, with Swift’s overwritten lyrics that are as sharp as they are idiosyncratic down to the bones. It’s utterly bizarre to me that this song has been a massive hit - Swift writing about getting older but never wiser, wracked by paranoia and her own schemes, where she’s consciously aware of how her reputation precedes her to crush everything in its path, where even her death won’t be sacred from those who want what she has more than her… but she also knows she did it all to herself, narcissism disguised as altruism and how it didn’t really fool anyone paying attention, and the kind of person she is can just be exhausting, especially when any self-awareness fails to manifest. In other words, this is another song I’ve talked about in some form time and time again, and it’s so acutely relatable in ways I did not expect and are likely not healthy… but hey, I’ve known I’m the problem for a long time.

10. There are songs every damn year where it’s just nearly too much for me to say anything, it cuts that deep. I did not expect that it would wind up being this in the end, but between Ethel Cain’s husky delivery, the grand, horn accented build-up and sweep of this song balanced against the religious angst where amidst the rest of the album building to a grisly moment we get a snap back to childhood, and some of the most utterly devastating lines on the entire record… yeah, it gets there.

9. Let’s lighten the mood a bit - with a song that seemed to split music critic consensus right down the middle, with lyrics half crafted from AI and the other half from batshit insanity, all wiry, jagged synth grooves and unearned bombast as Jonathan Higgs strains his voice to the absolute limit to just bellow through the song! And that’s the point: this is a song running on arrogance and delusion, where posturing that’s both ridiculous and pathetic but it’s the only thing you have so you’re going for broke - and if that’s not both trauma response and a searing indictment of internet culture, I don’t know what is! It was a tossup between this and, well, the other Everything Everything song on this list which would attain the higher spot, but ignore those who dismiss this as a shallow, overbaked meme - that’s the point, that’s why it works, that’s why it rules!

8. My favourite karaoke DJ has nearly every Orville Peck song that I want to sing on a regular basis… except this one, and it drives me nuts because in his most spare, stripped down cut, he finds absolute gold. Against the acoustics and touches of pedal steel for what’s borderline a torch song, we get a departure song where they’ve both clearly moved on, but there’s still something of a lingering spark, and we get why Peck might linger - he’s getting older and more weary, he’s hoping for one last trace of that spark after getting burned so many times, so he’s dropping one last line to hope his lover picks up and they can rekindle. It’s just such a lovely, plainspoken song that’s transcendent in its straightforward purity - a slept on deep cut, to be sure, but I think I’d call this the best thing he’s ever done.

7. This is one of two songs in my top ten that I reviewed solo on my instagram and Tiktok before I even thought of covering the album, and I was wary about JID settling into his fame… only to realize amidst the swampy, brittle acoustics and warped swing of the groove with the echoing chant vocal and brisk hi-hat we’re seeing the steep costs of fame play out, not just in blood but in what he can really do to help the community when there’s a steep limit of his influence. Because while he can constantly give back, the lingering temptations and dangers of the rapper lifestyle hang heavy - this isn’t a prosperity gospel as he bends across accents and horn flourishes and endlessly playful bars that can’t escape the menace, it’s a sacrilege where he’s just trying to ride the beat and survive - after all, he made the deal, and Kenny Mason’s layered harmonies echo it. I didn’t expect it… but I think this is my favourite rap song of the year.

6. I feel like it’s a cheat code with Deaf Havana and this formula - they make a self-flagellating anthem that’s on the borderline of toxic where they lay it all bare and seem to expect that they get dumped in its wake, where there’s just a tease that some sort of love will linger, and it gets me every damn time. ‘Sinner’ was my favourite song of 2018 playing that formula, and while this doesn’t have that grand magic, there’s something about the smothered but roiling guitars, the drippy blur of drum machines coursing into live percussion, and then how the choppy riffs crash in after that pause on the bridge… damn near perfection. And if this is Deaf Havana’s final project and swan song… fuck, what a way to go out.

5. Yeah, y’all knew this was coming - the other Everything Everything song where Jonathan Higgs confesses his love for a computer. Well, only half literally - while there is this glorious sense of wonder at the computer and everything it can do that’s beyond human comprehension that plays out in the wonky synths and stuttering groove and grandly silly chorus and that warbling guitar solo, he also gets that this computer can be both deeply dangerous and is a slave to the programming that we give it. This is framing that when Bastille tried this earlier in 2022 they couldn’t quite pull off, because this doesn’t exactly speak to a great future ahead… but again, for someone looking for any way to escape, there is a desperate thrill to charging into this technicolor world and Everything Everything just owns that weird vibrancy. I think this was the song and moment that properly convinced me that Raw Data Feel was something special and that I could finally start appreciating Everything Everything - I might not be in love the future, but the present delivered something special.

4. This might be the biggest surprise of 2022 for me, both the artist and the fact that she could pull off such a theatrical masterwork. ‘doomsday’ is absolutely melodramatic - the breakup is framed as death and an apocalypse, but that makes sense when you realize that word is rooted in ‘revelation’, where despite very real feelings she’s got to make a plan for how she’s going to handle getting dumped in a blur of sarcasm and very real pain, which just erupts on the bridge for a glorious, trembling bit of honesty - the bridge just takes this to a different stratosphere, it’s insane. And the music builds to it - the darker acoustics and shuddering percussion building its haunted lockstep off the piano as McAlpine’s vocal line bends across major and minor keys where the tension simmers and roils, where the defenses can only hold for so long before it all breaks. Just a stellar, out of nowhere album opener that, again, is one of the biggest surprises all damn year. Well, except for maybe for this.

3. She’s back. She did it - and I’m breaking my rules that the song had to be on an album I covered in 2022 because from what I can tell it’s a standalone single and it’s not going to make the album planned for next year. But even if that changes and this gets tacked on as a bonus track, I reviewed it on IG and TikTok, it counts… and this is everything I’ve wanted P!nk to make for over a decade. It’s her best song since the 2000s and while I could easily praise it for just going back to the raw pop rock that I’ve loved from her as the guitars shed layers of effects to pick up the fire, she went further. This song was released in the wake of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, and I saw the tangible backlash to P!nk ‘going political’ because the idiots apparently never listened to a P!nk album fifteen to twenty years ago, but what I think really stings here is that P!nk is in her 40s and the weariness at systems and rights being dismantled and then being told she and women are irrelevant in their genuine rage at this - I watched American news, that line of reasoning was all over mainstream coverage in the run-up to the midterms, let’s not rewrite history here - it’s a blast of anthemic catharsis that by pop and rock radio stridently ignoring it proves her point in spades. And there’s not a shred of ironic detachment or deflection here, it’s rage, and the truth that a lot of the kids feel the same but won’t scream it out. Call it corny or oversold, pretend you’re too goddamn cool, that doesn’t actually change shit, some of us have lived through this before. P!nk gets it - and while I can’t pretend to hope that all of that next album will follow in the wake, we can hope, right?

2. Of all the songs that made my year-end list in 2022, I did not expect this one to become so highly acclaimed! Granted, when you make a soaring, synth-inflected pop rock banger where it feels like notes were being mixed from Journey and Taylor Swift alike, I get the universal appeal, but even Ethel Cain feels weird that this song wound up among Barack Obama’s favourites in 2022! And that’s all the more weird because this song is spitting in the face of that “American Dream”, not so much that it’s a lie but a crushing truth that’s only given to some while leaving others stranded alone scrabbling to achieve it, an individualized narrative and hierarchy that if you’re on the outside looking in you can’t help but see its horrific consequences - it feels like a jock jam where the jock who can’t make the college team enlists and dies, where she’s melting down in the bleachers and at the pep rally she drinks to blackout and prays for a salvation that always feels out of reach. But she keeps on yearning and hoping against hope, and even if it doesn’t represent much of what’s to come on Preacher’s Daughter, it’s an anthem for a generation. What could possibly be better?

1. I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone that this is my favourite song of 2022, a magnificent tour de force and album centerpiece from Gang Of Youths at a point of glorious revolutionary power, where Dave Le’aupepe takes the complicated immigrant story of his father and turns it cinematic in the workaday struggles that can’t steal away dreams. The poverty and struggle is palpable, from the inability to cut into his debts and every job that robs him of a little more as he tries to save enough to send home, and when situations inevitably got worse he wonders what image to send home to his family, that of a wondrous new world or the brutal unfair reality of their state sanctioned exploitation. And the music captures that chaotic struggle - the vocal swell, the near-breakbeat percussion, the driving piano keys driving the strings, the pedal tone of the guitars on the second verse that opens up to the sleigh bells on the second hook, and then that bridge… my god, the melodic interplay floors me every time. It’s the sort of song you feel like you only hear every couple of years, the sort of song that doesn’t just pull its album into transcendent territory but leaves you wondering if there’s anything that can even compete! The first time I heard it, I listened to it five more times in succession and I just don’t do that in the context of an album, you need to create something utterly wondrous to pull that off, and Gang of Youths did. Best song of 2022, and it’s not close - if there’s anything that can match this in the foreseeable future, forget 2023, the world will be better for it - we’ll see the upside of it.