2022

(MMXXII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2022nd year of the Common Era (CE) and

Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 22nd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2020s decade.

2022 saw the removal of nearly all COVID-19 restrictions and the reopening of international borders in most countries,

and the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continued. The global economic recovery from the pandemic continued, though many

countries experienced an ongoing inflation surge; in response, many central banks raised their interest rates to landmark levels.

The world population also reached eight billion people in 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the largest armed conflict in

Europe since World War II, caused the displacement of 15.7 million Ukrainians (8 million internally displaced persons and 7.7

million refugees), and led to international condemnations and sanctions and nuclear threats, the withdrawal of hundreds of

companies from Russia, and the exclusion of Russia from major sporting events. Many prominent figures died in 2022, including

world leaders Shinzo Abe, Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth II, Jiang Zemin, and Pope Benedict XVI; entertainers Sidney Poitier,

Olivia Newton-John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jean-Luc Godard, and Angela Lansbury; and footballer Pelé.



in short, it was okay. here's some Stuff that i liked

  • EARTHGANG - GHETTOGODS
  • first album of 2022 that i could say i liked, the absolute charisma is undeniable. nice taste of what was to come later in the year ;) also, i don't think anyone can hate on these guys, i've never seen shit thrown at them anywhere. This is a good thing. I've seen people compare them to Outkast, being from the same city and everything. Here's hoping that they reach similar heights.

  • Palm - Nicks And Grazes
  • i first listened to this on a speaker and fucking hated it besides one song lol. So glad i gave it a second chance. It's not as good as Rock Island, but the noisier approach is VERY welcome.
    The steel drum noise never gets old.

  • Action Bronson - Cocodrillo Turbo
  • This is a SOLID album that i actually think everyone should check out. it accomplishes what it sets out to do very well. the bronson vision. i can easily see this being someone's favorite album of all time.
    Reminds me of canada :)

  • Mr Oizo & Phra - Voilá
  • its gettin hotte in hear
    so taek off all yor cloths

    the first couple of Oizo x Phra songs wre addictively groovy; it was like they struck onto something, they caught a wave. The collab album is more or less what I expected, but kinda one-note. With a runtime of 19 minutes, it's really not that big of a deal.

  • Mathilde Sobrino - VIZIO
  • Found it after one of its songs was auto-queued by Spotify. Kinda weird, as it's so obscure it's not even on rym yet. I would add it, IF I COULD..
    But yeah, sum good latin electronic stuff here. Sometimes she raps. Sometimes she sings. Sometimes she just wanna be arca. Keeping an eye out

  • Obonjayar - Some Nights I Dream Of Doors
  • i was driving my car when i first heard this guy, featured on a Danny Brown song.

    i was riding my bike the whole time i first heard this. the second time i heard it i was playing minecraft. third time i listened to it i was making this website. where will i be on the fourth one?

  • Niños Del Cerro - Suave Pendiente
  • i am going to kill you. why didn't you tell me of this band sooner? porter sucks now, the album that they put out this year was incredibly forgettable, but this scratches the exact same itch they used to in Moctezuma.

    viva chile weon, gracias por el mejor album indie rock del año

  • Irepelusa - Un Koala En Una Palmera
  • Amazing things are happening in Venezuela. I'm very thankful for discovering the lo-fi hip-hop collective/label/whatever Comida Para Llevar, sum terminally chill stuff here.

  • Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
  • second best indie rock album this year, please put it on sometime, Christ there's some really good stuff in here. A bit too long to be in the top 5, but otherwise, oo weeh.

    same thing with once twice melody. wait, was't that one so long that they had to cut it up into three pieces? gatdamn. some gorgeous songs doe. in this one and that one. not a dissapointment. just looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    Speaking of DISSAPOINTMENTS...

  • M.I.A. - MATA
  • it would have been funny as hell if this was good. anti vax and 5g bars over some bomb ass diplo beat. but not this time/

    As your favorite artists start to age, you WILL see more of them start to become detached boomers. Get ready :^)

  • Sweet Trip lol
  • idk who i should feel more sorry for. the maladjusted frontman who idealized his bandmate for years? the unfortunate female vocalist who had to deal with him? the pissed off husband of her, who had to break the news to a bunch of redditors? nobody wins in the most pathetic band breakup of 2022. if it was 4 years ago i could easily write a 2000 word article on this.

    rip sweet trip, it was lovely while it lasted.

  • Kanye West
  • Pi'erre Bourne - Good Movie
  • dude, half of the tracks feel off. like, the synth being off tune and not in a cool way. his last effort had similar lows, but some of the songs were hypnotic and fun enough to be true earworms. not this time around. his music never sounded.. broken? maybe he's been leaning too far into the videogame noises? get this man back to producing for carti or something

  • Danny Ocean - @dannocean
  • who the fuck writes a song comparing a girl to doritos and coke? disgusting

    his last album was not perfect but it hit some chill reggaeton vibes that i was was very surprised by. this is just very forgettable. besides fuera del mercado. fuera del mercado bangs: it taps into that same corny ass sentimentality that porter robinson does, where it's so cringe but it still registers as a good song.

    Onto the main event now: The best albums

    1. Jockstrap

      I Love You Jennifer B
      Listen
    2. I remember when I first listened to that EP. It stuck with me because it showed promise. I imagined a kanye collab, the vibes they conjure remind me of his most experimental moments.
      Just like the (currently) disgraced rapper, the music here is all over the place: its very manic and very beautiful at the same time. I guess the tracklist is a bit of a mess, but it fits the theme. The highs are high, planted across a field of a buncha experimentation and gorgeous arrangements.

      And it is so innocent! I've seen people accuse this of some jaded hyperpoppian irony, which is unfair. It just grabs what it wants from wherever it wants, not taking itself too seriously in the process, very child-like.

      Get a Switch and I'll connect with ya
      Never thought I'd be a g-g-gamer girl


      and

      Pain is real
      And love is real
      But pain is also growth
      And grief is just love with nowhere to go


      are both real lyrics that exist within this album. Funny elements are definitely part of the canvas, yes, but they are never the sole focus. Also, the talent is undeniable. I guess they're linked to Black Country New Road, another lauded zoomer UK group. I should probably put them on sometime. Just let me finish listening to Debra, the best song that M.I.A. never put out.

      7.5

    3. Bad Bunny

      Un Verano Sin Ti
      Listen
    4. the first seconds of Moscow Mule play. You start feeling the hype. This is gonna be a good summer. The realization that thousands are feeling the same exact thing right now sets in. Woah

      bad bunny is no longer just a musician. under a certain latitude of the continent, this man is an institution.

      It just so happened that he released his best album to date this year. NBD. The last one, all the way back in 2020, felt like such a disappointment to me: just a lot of boring rock-inspired sadboy anthems.
      but now I see the vision, this man is actually pretty savvy. Save the summer party vibes, the actual bangers, for when the pandemic kinda ends. This move resulted in 20,000 beaches across the world simultaneously bumping this album.
      I think an important reason the man has grown so much is his own taste: there's a loooot of genre hopping in his stuff, in a good way. There's gotta be at least one song here that you're into. You got Otro Atardecer for the indie fellas, Aguacero for the lo-fi hip-hop beats to study gang, Después De La Playa for the people who love 80's synthwork to get beat switched to some fucking mambo (dude it's okay but i was VIBING TO THAT).
      Tainy remains the GOAT reggaeton producer. (So glad to got to see him DJ live, hyped for his solo album sometime soon.) Most of the best songs here bear his trademarks: impeccable melodies, instrumentals that never sit still in one place, and a clean mix, all thanks to years of experience. This, adding in the ever dynamic do-not-overthink-shit lyricism of mr boni makes for proper party choons. 100 million listeners couldn't be wrong!

      Also, it would be silly for me to not mention all the wonderful memories I've made this year while a song from this album was playing. Thanks for everything :')

      7.5

    5. Alvvays

      Blue Rev
      Listen
    6. Man, this just feels good. the whatever-gazy-haziness made it feel samey and boring on my first listen, but when i sat my brown ass down and listened i was rewarded with a bunch of sugary sweet synths and hooks and bridges and and and and and it just feels right. Def the best live show I got to see last year.

      Some moments that deserved to be mentioned:
      - The cute cherry-flavored intro in Bored In Bristol
      - The unexpectedly ethereal bridge (and the apropriate lyrical tonal change) in Very Online Guy. It's so cool that they Actually made a song about Literally Me
      - That little calm bit right in the middle of Belinda Says, where she envisions starting over and moving to an idyllic country town. It just hits
      - After The Earthquake's groove. Shout out to the kid who was jumping and dancing around to this song like a dumbass. I was too.
      - That cute solemn lil note that she hits in Many Mirrors right before ending the song, very memorable
      - Easy On Your Own's swagger. It reminds me of the train, I think it's because there was a station nearby outside the venue where I saw them.
      - And Pharmacist in general. The first song I heard, off a shitty phone speaker while maneuvering a forklift, but it still registered as something special.

      There's not a lot here that's particularly mindblowing. Just an incredibly solid album, and that's all it really needed to be.

      8

    7. Hoke & Louis Amoeba

      BBO
      Listen
    8. I've been keeping an ear out on the Spain hip-hop scene (mainly branching out from Agorazein & associates) where shit is actually kinda bussin for some reason.
      It was only a matter of time. Two up-n-coming spanish rappers/producers/weed-smokers/designers (explains why the cover's hard asf) have dropped a certified banger.

      Medallones was the first song by them I ever heard, and it stuck with me because of it's almost lethargic chillness, somewhat reminicent of what Vince Staples' been doing this year (shoutout to that album too).

      The grind is Olympic, big lyrical motif here. Try to count how many sport references happen per minute. On a longer project this might get annoying, but that's the thing: at 26 minutes, the thing stays sharp, concise, and filler-free.

      But yeah, It's very good. Here's a good series of write-ups made by a bunch of people way better at writing than me that you can read instead of This

      8.5

    9. JID

      The Forever Story
      Listen
    10. I do not have a lot of context for this album. I have not been a long-time fan of JID, and this is the rapper's first LP that I hear, but I just can't deny the absolute lyrical charisma of this man. The flow in Bruddanem (woah, dude can sing too) could easily come out sloppy from a less experienced lyricist, but he makes it work. The gunfire spitting in the middle of Money. The mosh-ready flow in Can't Punk Me (what him and EARTHGANG do here is phenomenal, undeniable chemistry). oooo weeh

      My favorite songs are the ones with the beat switch. Like every other song here switches up in the middle, usually towards a psychedelic angle. Synths are SO well utilized in this album. I love it so much: Sistanem, Cant Make U Change, Better Days, all good examples. It helps maintain the stamina of the record, hour-long (and further!) rap albums don't tend to stay engaging, but this one easily endures.

      You gotta have those little flourishes too, oh my god just look at all the little stabs and strings and strums and ad-libs and flutes that make every song just a little bit more elegant. The replayability value increases. Again, it's about that ENGAGEMENT folks!!

      I've heard so many people try to make this album: Denzel, IDK, Amine (kinda, before he went digicore), Joey, Earthgang (these last two have gotten close), etc.. I'm just glad someone finally made it.

      Love it when you see a dude reach the zenith.

      9

    In Conclusion:

    This year wasn't really as good as 2021 because El Madrileño came out that year. It wasn't bad, but C Tangana did not drop an album this year.

    I'd say this was maybe 2020-level. A lot of good stuff, but more spread out. Let's pray to God that 2023 is more concentrated and plentiful.