My favorite songs of 2022
Because sharing is caring!
As my friends know, every December since 20101, I’ve turned my favorite songs from the previous 12 months into a CD-length mix to share with folks, and to help cement in my mind the year that just passed. And, pals, it’s getting to be that time again. I figured I’d do a writeup here since I really like talking about music, and I thought maybe someone could find a new track to love out of my favs!
Some general notes on what follows:
I set some rules for myself in compiling these, most importantly that every album I bought during the year contributes one song2. The rest of the songs are made up of single tracks I ended up listening to a lot.
I make no claim that these are the actual “best” songs that came out this year (what does that even mean?); I just call these playlists “Best Ofs” because it’s punchier!
Tracks are arranged to flow well as a mix, so the numbers associated with each song are their position in the playlist, not rankings.
With that said, here’s a link to a Spotify playlist of all the below songs, except one, because Square Enix doesn’t always play nice with Spotify.
1. The Mountain Goats: “Training Montage” — The lead-off track of Bleed Out, “Training Montage” kicks off a set of songs to soundtrack an action movie that doesn’t exist. Bleed Out is my favorite record of the year and also my favorite Mountain Goats record; the hardest music the Goats have ever recorded only amplifies their ear for melody and their incredible lyrical turns. Really something special.
2. Jonas Ledang: “The Great American Love Story” — A total Spotify find (Spotify recommended a lot of Norwegian singer/songwriters to me this year for some reason; more on that below), but one that obviously really stuck with me. This feels like a Bizarro Taylor Swift, almost.
3. Wackbards: “Party Lions” (feat. Murder by Death) — Another Spotify find I don’t know too much about, but I really dig the production here, especially the guitar tone, which kind of glides through the song in a treble register. Super neat! I also appreciate the cello assist by Sarah from Murder by Death, one of my favorite bands of the aughts. Finally, man, check out this fantastic cover art. These lions are ready to party.
4. Jax: “Victoria’s Secret” — This track came to me through my friend Ben; we always share our mixes with each other. But apparently it’s also super popular. Who knew?? I love the specificity of this lyric: “I know Victoria’s secret, and girl you wouldn’t believe / he’s an old man who lives in Ohio.” I don’t know if you could come up with a more isolating, sad, and condemning statement about the women’s beauty industry than that. The fact that it’s (more or less) true is just icing on the cake.
5. North by North: “Baby’s on Fire” — A two-piece Chicago act that merges garage rock, power pop, and horror-tinged lyrics, North by North works their alchemy to conjure some of the catchiest, most driving hooks you could hope for. I had the pleasure of seeing them live last year with my friend Änna, and this song was the set standout to me. Very stoked that they released it as a single this year.
6. Harry Styles: “As It Was” — Harry Styles is one of those pop stars that’s garnered some rock and indie cred; if I had to guess, it’s because he’s got a sharp backing band behind him that can dig into some real grooves. Any way about it, you just can’t escape the hook in this song. It’s kinda “Take on Me”-ish, I suppose. Certainly one of the biggest earworms of 2022, in part because it kind of was everywhere.
7. The Weeknd: “Out of Time” — Dawn FM, a concept album that takes the form of a dystopian, euthanasic radio broadcast, is another one of my favorite records of the year; weirdly it reminds me a lot of Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime thematically if not sonically. Truthfully, the sonics couldn’t be more different; “Out of Time” feels like a silky smooth update of “Baby Be Mine,” but twists back to the album’s theme with some incredibly creepy voiceover from DJ Jim Carrey at the end.
8. Ghost: “Spillways” — I love Ghost’s ability to navigate the trappings of a bunch of different metal genres, from doom to glam to death to hair, and produce something that feels slick, menacing, wicked, and catchy at the same time. IMPERA is a heck of an album top to bottom, but the punch of “Spillways” is just too good.
9. Sanctioner: “Haruspex” — My friend Adam’s band (so how could I not get their EP?); this is a good deal heavier than the music I usually listen to, I grant you, but I’m truly a fan of what Adam and his bandmates have put together here. The guitarwork nicely navigates between crunch and melody; the backing vocals in the chorus have so much attitude. Also, I’m really impressed with the production, which apparently came from Adam teaching himself how to mix. Really proud to know this dude.
10. Gray Ghost: “Shut Up and Listen” — Another band of friends, and one that’s appeared on my year-end mixes before. I love Gray Ghost; I like to say they’re like They Might Be Giants if TMBG could execute heavy riffs, since the lyrics are clever, referential puzzles that reveal more and more each time you listen. “Shut Up and Listen” is a fun critique of idiot dudes on the internet, with some really nifty backing vocals. Can’t recommend these guys enough.
11. Nobuo Uematsu: “Searching for Friends” (Pixel Remaster) — From Final Fantasy VI; IMO, no Pixel Remaster song got a bigger glow-up than this one. I honestly never really liked the original “Searching for Friends”; something about the 16-bit instrumentation really grated on me as I wandered around the World of Ruin in 1994. Uematsu’s reorchestration is a total 180 that I think perfectly captures the feeling of exploring the back half of the game. I love the way this piece starts with a lone flute voicing the melody, then gradually adds more and more instruments (as the player will add members to their party), until the theme is eventually delivered by boisterous brass, with a majestic string filigree to accentuate it. What a crescendo. The first time I heard this version, I had to stop moving my pixel guy around the world map and just enjoy it. (Note: None of the Pixel Remaster soundtracks seem to be available on streaming sites, so this isn’t on my Spotify mix. Sorry pals!)
12. Orville Peck: “Blush” — A masked troubadour who sings cowboy songs with a voice like Roy Orbison and is proudly queer — there’s so much to love about Orville Peck. 2022’s Bronco kicks ass from top to bottom; I find myself really drawn to the strut of “Blush,” but you can’t go wrong with anything on his latest.
13. Craig Finn: “The Amarillo Kid” — When I listen to Craig Finn, I think that maybe I could write songs. I find Finn’s use of specific place and character while remaining conversational very inspiring. I love this ditty off his latest, a potent short story about a guy who gets caught up in the drug trade because he didn’t have much else going on. “They gifted me a CR-V, and a decent place to live / a pistol and a nickname; I’m the Amarillo Kid.”
14. Soccer Mommy: “Shotgun” — A really engrossing piece of indie pop; I love the instrumentation in the chorus, especially how three quick snare hits accentuate the lyric “I’m a bullet in a shotgun waiting to sound.”
15. Neko Case: “Star Witness” — Originally released in 2006, “Star Witness” sits on this mix because Wild Creatures — Neko’s absolutely essential career retrospective — got me to realize that this is probably my favorite Neko Case song. What a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of music.
16. Taylor Swift: “Anti-Hero” — "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby” must be one of the worst lyrics ever written. It’s, like, iconically bad. And honestly, I love this song for that. Taylor is a great songwriter, and I really appreciate that she thought up this lyric, surely knew how bizarre it sounded, and charged full steam ahead with it anyway. It’s very earnest. I really appreciate Taylor’s commitment to being herself on this record.
17. Dan Wilson: “On the Floor” — The singer of Semisonic covering Perfume Genius; I love the groove when all the instruments kick in on this track. I also really appreciate that Wilson didn’t change the pronouns of this song and let it remain a very heartfelt love song to another man.
18. Lucy Dacus: “It’s Too Late” — Lucy Dacus is one of those rare vocalists where you believe every single word she’s saying — even in a cover. I love her.
19. Bruce Springsteen: “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” feat. Sam Moore — Only the Strong Survive is kind of a tough record for big Bruce fans like me, in large part because it’s so unessential. But, you know, it sounds like the Boss is having fun, and his duets with the legendary Sam Moore on here are really nice. This song especially channels the classic soul feel this album’s aiming for, with its wonderful interplay of strings, xylophone, and bass in the opening riff.
20. Sam Fender: “Wild Grey Ocean” — Following Bruce in the mix is a man who follows Bruce musically as well, although this particular Sam Fender track feels more Rusted Root-y to me, propelled as it is by a single muted guitar line throughout. Of course, that mournful sax coming in towards the end reminds us where Sam picked up his rock chops. That’s just fine by me.
21. Erlend Ropstad: “Gleden & sorgen” - The Bruce Block continues with a song that feels so much like the biggest mid-80s smash hit Springsteen never wrote. It’s how the shimmering synths interplay with the vocals and guitar that really does it. But, remember how I said Spotify was giving me a lot of Norwegian singer-songwriters this year? This song isn’t even in English! I have no idea what it’s about!3 I’ve never had this experience of falling in love with a song I couldn’t understand before, but this may truly be my favorite song of 2022. The first time I listened to it, I said to myself, “if Erlend does some ‘na na’s to echo the synth line in the chorus, this song would be just about perfect.” And you know what, he did. And it is.
22. Corey Taylor: “On the Dark Side” — The Bruce Block concludes with the vocalist from Slipknot covering a song from 1983 that everybody thought was Bruce Springsteen (but was really John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band). Except what starts out as a fun run-through of a song that represents a specific moment in time becomes, in the breakdown, a tribute to the entire genre of 1980s rock songs trying to sound like 1950s rock songs. This made me cheer at my desk at work the first time I heard it, and it’s still energizing me almost a year later. And so, even though I’ve never put a Slipknot song on any of my year-end mixes, Corey Taylor closes out my favorite tracks of 2022.
Hope you enjoyed this collection of music that moved me over the last 12 months! If you have a similar year end playlist or even a favorite song or album, please share — I’m always hungry for more music!
As an early pandemic project, I also went back and put together hypothetical year-end mixes from 1970-2009 on Spotify, although these are much more sculpted with the critical eye of distance than the playlists that come from the actual years they represent.
I actually bought multiple records from the Mountain Goats, Gray Ghost, Nobuo Uematsu, and Taylor Swift this year; so they didn’t soak up all the space on my mix, they each only got one track on the primary playlist. However, I did make myself a “Best of 2022 EP” supplement that has extra songs from each of them. Those are:
“Battle” (from Uematsu’s Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster soundtrack)
“White Caller” (from Gray Ghost’s Complete part 2 of 6)
“Anti-Hero (feat. Bleachers)” by Taylor Swift
“Battle at the Big Bridge” (from Uematsu’s Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster soundtrack)
“Brontosaurus Cop” (from Gray Ghost’s Expansion Pack)
“Tulsa Imperative” (from the Mountain Goats’ The Jordan Lake Sessions volume 5)
Tbh I did run the lyrics through Google Translate just to make sure it wasn’t, like, grossly problematic (Spotify gave me a Ben Shapiro track earlier this year so you never know!). Google translates the title as “Joy & sorrow.” In my best Stefon voice, “this song has everything!”