The Best Albums of 2022: #20-16

I’m back for another year of counting down the best albums of 2022! Each article will cover five albums. As Always, share your thoughts on the chosen records in the comments below. Be sure to check out my write-up on #25-21 ahead of reading through the next five. It’s worth noting that I spend the entire year working on this, listening to 204 albums this year. Onwards to #20-16!

#20 – Saba, Few Good Things

2018’s Care for Me felt like a crucial moment in Saba’s career. If his feature on Chance the Rapper’s iconic Acid Rap was an introduction, the 2018 effort was the Chicago rapper defining himself in his terms. 2022’s Few Good Things is a fitting project that showcases Saba’s self-awareness, acceptance, and that not only is his life changed for good, but he earned it.

A particular strength in Saba’s latest is his commitment to using melody as a driving force behind his mastery over flow switches and dominating a beat, many of which he works to create himself. While it feels like Care for Me’s complete package was more poignant, 14 tracks over around 48 minutes is a perfect length to solidify Saba as one of the more stately talents in rap you won’t find on radio.

#19 – The Beths, Expert in a Dying Field

On their third full-length album, New Zealand’s own The Beths put out the album I truly had the most fun listening to in 2022. Much like contemporaries in alt-pop such as Beach Bunny or Snail Mail, there’s an immediacy to the structure of these songs that feel like you’ve had them in your life for years. In reality, they’re just so masterfully crafted that you’re convinced they mean a lot to you from the first listen.

I’m a huge Hop Along fan, and something I see The Beths, particularly their vocalist and songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, sharing with them is an emotional competency that outweighs many indie rock outfits. Songs about breakups, missed chances, or even our own shortcomings are delivered like a psychiatric diagnosis. Stokes knows her feelings and thoughts as well as anyone writing today. They’re shared with us in catchy, melodic songs that never stretch beyond 4 minutes.

#18 – Rina Sawayama, Hold the Girl

Rina Sawayama’s 2020 album was like a cold shower on a hot day in the depths of the early pandemic days. It’s astonishing to me that we haven’t seen a big breakout for this Japanese-British pop artist yet. Some high-profile features on Charli XCX’s album this year certainly helped, but Hold The Girl might be the most grounded, convincing pop album of the year. It deserves some love that hopefully carries on into 2023.

Hold The Girl is a stellar collection of pop songs formed through a mix of 90s pop influences and the exosphere of experimental pop. There’s a theatrical element to Sawayama’s vocals that are matched in the resplendent instrumentals featured across the 13-track project. It’s likely that the drama of her music keeps it from being as popular as the likes of hyperpop’s finest, but I’m glad we have someone like Sawayama who knows herself so well that we’ll just have to wait for others to catch up.

#17 – MUNA, MUNA

Dropped by their major label and picked up by Phoebe Bridgers for her new company, MUNA’s self-titled album is a reintroduction to the California trio’s queer-driven pop rock. There’s an inherent joy to each track on MUNA, one that was certainly catapulted into awareness by “Silk Chiffon,” featuring none other than Bridgers herself. As the lead track, we get the big-name feature out of the way for MUNA to shine on their own over 10 additional tracks even better than the first.

When talking to anyone this year who loved “Silk Chiffon,” I’d manically ask them if they’d heard the rest of the album. Not that the main single isn’t great, but the band’s unique style is really on display when singer/songwriter Katie Gavin is utilizing her mesmerizing vocal intonations over subdued instrumentals. Often the songs explore heartbreak, longing, and even the occasional bout with regret. The album is joy and disappointment altogether, just like life.

#16 – Charli XCX, Crash

Did anyone have a better year than Charli XCX? I mean good lord, about half of 2022’s Crash made waves at some point in the year. That’s not even counting the real establishment of Charli as a pop force no longer pushed to the hyperpop corner of the internet. Playing major slots at festivals all around the world, Charli is now as huge as she always deserved.

The British artist built on a critically beloved album (2019’s Charli) with a pandemic album, how i’m feeling now, and closed the three-album run with Crash. How do these three fit together? They’re every color in the pop music rainbow. Seriously, name a type of pop music you love and it’s here. With vintage tins and quite literally a flawless tracklist, I’m desperately hoping that while this is Charli’s final album in a major label contract, we’re not left waiting for a follow-up for too long.