After what I considered to be a pretty down year for music in 2021, 2022 felt like it bounced back in a big way, with releases from some of my favorite artists, some new discoveries, and even releases from old artists I was always lukewarm on that finally made me a convert. Read on if you want a three months late list of albums to check out and round out your own 2022 playlists.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

12. The Last Thing Left – Say Sue Me

The race for Spotify streams and TikTok samples has made subtlety and patience a rare sight in the modern music industry, so it’s refreshing when a band like South Korea’s Say Sue Me comes along. Unspooling gentle songs of love and friendship at a leisurely pace, Say Sue Me recalls the best of K Records and C86 but without the overbearing sense of twee. Sometimes they’re jaunty (“Around You”), sometimes they’re noisy (“The Last Thing Left”), and sometimes they just sit back and make audio sunshine (“Still Here”), but their arrangements always feel rich and full, and without the of the artificial sheen of their bigger label peers. It’s wholesome, but not naive or cloying, music, the kind of thing that feels like the product of genuine emotion and not market forces

Recommended Tracks: “Still Here,” “To Dream,” “The Last Thing Left”

11. We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong – Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten reinvented herself on 2019’s Remind Me Tomorrow by  introducing massive, body-crushing synths to her folk influenced sound. Her quieter, more acoustic side claws back some ground on We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, but all that quite strumming is still preamble to big, swelling arrangements that feel designed to be heard across a barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland. “Power ballad” has become something of an outdated term, but I don’t know that there’s a better way to describe the enormity of “Come Back” or “Anything,” in which Van Etten sounds like she’s doing everything possible to bridge an uncrossable divide.

Recommended Tracks: “Anything,” “Headspace,” “Come Back”

10. The Will to Live – Titus Andronicus

Once the source of epic rock operas like The Monitor and The Most Lamentable Tragedy, New Jersey’s own Titus Andronicus slid into kind of uneasy wilderness period, putting out albums that either disguised their strengths (2018’s scattershot, folk influenced A Productive Cough) or felt like they had nothing new to say (2019’s generic An Obelisk). The Will to Live doesn’t reach the heights of their classic work, but it’s a life affirming step in the right direction. Titus may have always been a punk band, but their appeal lies in their ear for melody and their warmth. Patrick Stickles is still writing songs about being scared and alone in a cold, indifferent universe, but just as he did in the band’s earlier work and at their live shows, he finds joy and unity in the company of others;the best songs on The Will to Live simulate that live show feeling on record without sacrificing any of the lyrics’ confessions or insight. You could easily make the case that there are other albums on this that deserve to be in the number ten spot, but none of them gave me the meeting-an-old-friend-for-the-first-time-in-a-while feeling that The Will to Live did. 

Recommend Tracks: “(I’m) Screwed,” “Bridge and Tunnel,” “Give Me Grief,” “All Through the Night”

9. Big Time – Angel Olsen

After two albums of sonic expansion where she tried desperately to run away from the “sad, cartoon country girl” image created by her early work, the Laurel Canyon-inspired Big Time feels like something of a homecoming for Angel Olsen. Written and recorded in the backdrop of her parents’ deaths and coming out as a lesbian, there’s no shortage of sad moments and heavy themes on Big Time, but they feel less like dark nights of the soul and more like confessions made by the campfire, important things said by a close friend rather than venting ripped from a diary page. The outdoors dominate the positive moments of Big Time as well, which only enhances the music’s restorative qualities. The past few years have made us even more dependent on technology to connect and express ourselves. Big Time urges us to get lost in the woods with someone, and promises us that we’ll be better for it.

Recommended Tracks: “All the Good Times,” “Big Time,” “This Is How It Works”