2022 Albums of the Year
This is my eleventh year doing album lists. For years I planned on doing a 10-year recap where I’d break down my best and worst picks over the last decade.
Alas, the tenth year was last year and I forgot. Guess I’ll have to do that for the 20th anniversary. Stay tuned.
Honorable Mentions:
Black Keys - Dropout Boogie (a fun album, but too much of it felt like B-Sides from Let’s Rock.)
Delta Spirit - One is One
Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti
Nikki Lane - Denim & Diamonds
Paul Cauthen - Country Coming Down
10. Beau Jennings & the Tigers - Heavy Light
Beau makes classic Americana rock n roll. His last album, The Thunderbird, was my top album of 2019. Heavy Light rocks a little harder than that one with some great tunes like “I’m Reaching, Lord” and “The Comeback.” But Beau is at his best with deeply personal songs like “Colorado.”
9. Arcade Fire - WE
Arcade Fire’s first four albums were perfect. No one could be expected to keep that streak going and 2017’s Everything Now brought it to a screeching halt. It made me think they’d completely lost the magic. No longer the earnest French-Canadian band trying to right the wrongs of society, they came across as deeply arrogant, uncaring, and aloof. As we found out in 2022 that might be because those are the exact characteristics that lead singer Win Butler was exhibiting in his personal life. I was extremely skeptical of WE, but I gave it a shot and was completely shocked at how beautiful, epic, and earnest it was. Gone is the arrogance and aloofness of the previous effort. Arcade Fire are always at their best when they are holding up a mirror to society and showing us the ugliness and the beauty that mix together to make us who we are.
8. Dr. John - Things Happen That Way
If you know anything about my musical tastes you know that I love Dr. John. His collaboration with Dan Auerbach in 2012, Locked Down, is one of my favorite albums of all time. But after that time he seemed to spend the rest of his decade on earth, before passing away in 2019, playing it safe musically so when the news came out after his death that he’d been dedicating all of his time to making one last album I was worried it would be another safe effort like his album of Louis Armstrong covers. Though Things Happen That Way does feature many covers, it’s a deeply original work. Dr. John made a country album, collaborating with Willie Nelson and his son Lukas Nelson on separate songs, covering Hank Williams and traditional country songs, and writing a few original tunes to boot. In all it’s a beautiful picture of perhaps the most unique American artist to ever live. There will never and can never be another Dr. John and I’m grateful that his final album was so beautiful.
7. Tobe Nwigwe - moMINTS
Tobechukwu Dubem Nwigwe’s got nothing left to prove. He’s built a career as an independent rapper and earned the respect of everyone from Dave Chappelle to Erykah Badu, but with moMINTS he stepped up to a new level collaborating with Pharell, 2 Chainz, CeeLo Green, and Damian Lillard. The result is an album full of bangers, but the only drawback is that fans of Tobe’s other albums will notice a lot of retreading of the same tropes throughout his lyrics. I’d like to see his next efforts explore some newer lyrical territory. “Been Broke” is an amazing tune, featuring a (relatively) clean verse from 2 Chainz and an ultra-rare verse from Houston legend Chamillionaire.
6. Lecrae - Church Clothes 4
The king of Christian rap for the better part of a decade, Lecrae has always saved his best rapping skills for his Church Clothes mixtapes and the fourth installment of this series may be his best yet. He pulls no punches on songs like “Deconstruction” or “Still in America.” The latter will hit you directly in the gut no matter where you stand on any issues in modern day America.
5. Rosalia - Motomami
“La Fama” with the Weeknd was a global megahit, but this album features four other songs with more than 100,000,000 plays on Spotify. One reason for La Rosalia’s success is her ability to switch genres at the snap of a finger. She’s much more than a reggaeton singer. “Candy” and “Despecha” are good examples of her varied styles.
4. Pusha T - It’s Almost Dry
All you need to know is that Pusha T calls himself “Cocaine’s Dr. Suess” and it’s only like the 5th best coke-related line in the album.
3. Marcus King - Young Blood
Dan Auerbach has a knack for finding young talent and producing records that bring out the best they have to offer. Marcus King might be the man in his Easy Eye Studio roster that most resembles the young, blues-guitar-obsessed kid that Auerbach was at the same age. King’s Young Blood showcases his guitar skills alongside great songwriting. You can’t write the blues unless you’ve lived it, and you can tell King has been through some things in the making of this record. “Blood on the Tracks” is a great blues rocker, but I really love the slower, country blues of “Blues Worse Than I Ever Had” that closes out the album.
2. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa
Spoon is one of the few great indie bands from the 1990s and 2000s that just flat refused to fade into obscurity like the rest. And somehow, they’ve avoided being able to be slapped with the “they were better in the beginning” label. Lucifer on the Sofa is my favorite of their albums. Though the band members are now in their 50s they still rock hard and write great hooks, like on “The Hardest Cut” and “Wild.”
1. Plains - I Walked with You a Ways
Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud album topped my 2020 list with it’s beautiful simplicity in the midst of a chaotic year. Her follow up to that record was always going to face an uphill battle to reach that level of perfection, but she somehow did it. This time she partnered with Texan Jess Williamson to form a new group, Plains, to make one of the best country albums of the 21st Century. Though Katie Crutchfield’s (Waxahatchee’s real name) voice has a strong Alabama twang, you couldn’t describe her as a bonafide country artist before this album. But with Williamson, whose solo music is also far from country, the two weave beautiful harmonies that are reminiscent of country records of the 1990s. I saw Waxahatchee perform at Red Rocks earlier this year, the week after the death of Naomi Judd, and she performed “Why Not Me” in Judd’s honor. You hear a lot of the Judds’ influence on this album. It’s a record I have returned to over and over again since its release in October. Stand out tracks include “Problem With It” and “Line of Sight.”
What are your top albums of the year? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for sticking with Trial & Error for another year. It’s through T&E that I discovered my passion (and apparent talent) for performing stand up comedy. I did a few shows in November and December and will have more in the future. You can see some clips on my Instagram.
But don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about T&E. I scheduling some wild things for the future. So stay tuned and subscribe if you haven’t already.