THE TOP 20 SONGS OF 2022

                     

Welcome to The Top 20 Songs Of 2022!  Playlist is up above in that there window if you want to listen along.  I genuinely hope you find something you love!  Below is my comments on each song, and a few addendums (including Honorable Mentions) at the end.  Let's kick things off with:

20. Denzel Curry & Slowthai "Zatoichi" 

Drum & Bass continues its understated, yet insistent resurgence and I'm here for it.  A pretty good sonic equivalent of an anime sword fight, but with really well placed half-time gut punches.

19. Nilüfer Yanya "stabilize"

Really cool note choices and frantic drumming.  I'm pleasantly surprised this got as much play on Indie radio around here as it did.

18. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard "Kepler 22b" 

Space is the place and Gizz is the Wiz to take you there.

17. Methyl Ethel & Stella Donnelly "Proof"

Thanks, AOTY Worst Albums Of 2022 running list for this recommendation!  This song slaps!  And I never would've found it if Methyl Ethyl hadn't got such a low aggregate review score.  (It's not in their bottom 25 now, fwiw.  Most of that has changed from when I tried to review the countdown in July.  Including a new #1!)

16. Sudan Archives "Home Maker"

If the rest of Natural Brown Prom Queen was this good, it might've been #1.  This song wrecks.

15. Melody's Echo Chamber "Alma - The Voyage" / "Alma"

Technically two songs, one of which is sort of the radio edit of the other, but they're back to back at the end of the album and the shorter "Alma" is a more satisfactory conclusion, so this is technically a tie.  But it's some of the most luscious chamber pop you're gonna hear in 2022, so get on it!

14. Σtella & Redinho "Up And Away"

Another 60's French Pop sounding thing, but a little more simplified.  That hook is just...*chef's kiss*.  The rest of it is really gorgeous too.

13. Amber Mark "One"

One of the most pump up anthems of the year and it's the opener for an R&B record.  But like the chorus shouts at you in the most hype way possible: "WHAT YOU SEEK YOU WILL FIND IF YOU LOOK INSIDE!"

12. G Flip "Get Me Outta Here"

Took me awhile to get into this one because the chorus vocals are a bit bratty, but once I heard it a few times I caught the vibe.  Seeing the video helped, because as a drummer, I respect that G Flip themself is playing the drums (quite tastily, I might add; that bridge is solid).

11. Florence + The Machine "Free"

One of the stickiest choruses of the year backed with a beat that propels everything forwardforwardforward all the time.  Recipe for success.

10. Don Omar & Lil Jon "LET'S GET CRAZY! (Mambo Drop)" 

My co-workers are primarily Spanish speakers, so we're listening to La Gran D (ciento quatro punto siete) all day err day.  I hear this one a lot.  And I'm still not sick of it!  This shit gets me pumped up every time I hear it.  The feel good song of the year for me.

9. Hudson Mohawke "Intentions"

The freakiest song in the Top 20.  Lots of in your face bass and sounds so urgent that it's trying to "Take On Me" thrash its way out of a cartoon existence and into another realm.  (If you've never seen that music video, skip to the end.  You'll get it.)

8. Ibibio Sound Machine "All That You Want"

Anthemic, danceable, and affirming.

7. The Beths "Expert In A Dying Field"

As opposed to this, the heartbreaker of the year.  The quiet, sad resignation of it all just hits you square in the chest.  The Beths are good at constructing an environment out of specific human emotions and experiences. 

 

6. Taylor Swift "Anti-Hero"

I've only ever heard four Taylor Swift albums, and I'd say she's fairly hit or miss overall, but when she hits GODDAM.  How do you make something this catchy and poppy yet this moody and contemplative at the same time?  

5. Amber Mark "What It Is"

The Quiet Storm jam of the year.  I love love love this chorus.  You might even say I feel it in my bones.

4. Florence + The Machine "Cassandra"

I'd been thinking about adding this one for awhile, but godDAM did this one pack a whallop when doing the Albums List.  I'd already written the Songs List, had it ready to go for more than a week, yet here we are setting a record for latest edition to a list (though those two Roses Gabor songs from 2019 were first heard much later in the year, they were instantly on the list; this took seven months for me to get my head out of my ass).  Beautifully orchestrated, starts in a major key yet somehow becomes apocalyptic in its sadness, and both as a 40-something and as someone who has lived through the last seven years of America, yeah, I relate to "Everything I thought I knew has fallen out of view in this blindness I'm condemned to" in a visceral, serrated way.

3. Nilüfer Yanya "the dealer"

This was the front runner for #1 for most of the year.  And that's with me not knowing most (if any) of the words.  Nilüfer Yanya does not annunciate on this song, but I kinda don't wanna know the words because I sing along anyways and it's still awesome.  The way everything in this song *sounds* is amazing.  The bass guitar adding just the right amount of backbone in those choruses seals the deal.  Damn near perfect.

2. Lake Street Dive "Linger"

For perfect, we have to go here.  I didn't know a Jody Watley-ass cover of The Cranberries was gonna hit so hard for me, but it's everything I ever wanted and a few things I didn't even know I did.  Best cover song I've heard in a long long time.

So how do you top perfection?  Easy.  Have a first line in the song that cuts to the goddam core of the listener's soul.

1. Florence + The Machine "My Love"

When I was compiling this list, it had been a rough....well, it's been a rough "Since My Late 20's" for me, but especially the last six months, I just stopped creating.  From June onward, I think I wrote two review blogs and a set of lyrics?  I think that's it.  I'd been sitting on this list for weeks without writing a thing.

So when I heard the line "I was always able to write my way out", a laser beam pierced my being.  Oh.  I'm seen.  I didn't even need to hear the rest of the song; I knew this was #1.  Helps that the rest of the song is amazing too; Florence Welsch is my favorite singer, so for her that's Tuesday.  And all of this from a song I didn't even like the first two times I heard it.  As a single, I wasn't feeling the dance beat, but coming in at track 11 on Dance Fever, the context brought me around.  And I'm glad it did.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Lizzo "About Damn Time"
• Flying Lotus & Devin Tracy "You Don't Know" 
• Father John Misty "Goodbye Mr. Blue"
• Lava LaRue "Hi-Fidelity"
• Wet Leg "Chaise Lounge"
• Juan Gabriel, Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga & La India "Ya" 
• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard "The Dripping Tap"
• Spoon "The Hardest Cut"'

RANDOM FACTS:

Counting duets as one half, there are only three and a half songs on this countdown with male vocalists and only one in the top ten.  Going back to 2016, it ranged from like six & a half to eight per year (before that it was way more of a sausage fest).  I don't really know what to make of it, just something I noticed.

Okay, two down, one to go!  Stick around for The Top Albums Of 2022, coming soon to a blog near you!  (This one specifically.  Probably should point that out.)

Love Over Fear.