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

8. RENAISSANCE – Beyoncé

While I would never contend the importance, influence, or popularity of Beyoncé, the repeated hosannas that followed her every move in the 2010s did feel like overkill to me, and her inescapability verged on the oppressive. So, yes, I’m as surprised as you are that RENAISSANCE made this list, but what can I say: fun Beyoncé is much more interesting to me than angry Beyoncé, and this is certainly a very fun record. It’s also a staggering work of tribute and historiography – RENAISSANCE’s lengthy tracklist is littered with tributes to the (primarily LGBTQ) dance music pioneers of years past and the communities and movements they helped spawn by giving people a reason to gather peacefully and joyously. “Break My Soul” and the other dancefloor bangers grabbed the headlines, but the coup de grace for me are the funk and soul tracks, where Beyoncé displays a warmth that’s been missing not only from her work, but from pop music as a whole. It may seem simple, but sometimes all you really need is a real, live bass player and some horns to set a song apart from today’s mechanized chart toppers. But to make it really soar, you need a vocalist and figurehead like Beyoncé, who makes the simple pleasures of love, sex, and music sound simultaneously within reach and unattainable. 

Recommended Tracks: “CUFF IT,” “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA,” “VIRGO’S GROOVE” 

7. Household Name – Momma

As I discussed in my earlier review of this album, Household Name is a fantasy, a celebration, and a lament. Momma, who crept around the dark corners of suburbia on 2020’s Two of Me, hit the open road in search of fame and fortune, doing their best 90s rock star impersonation all the way. They don’t find the success they’re looking for, but that’s not the point – Momma relishes in the struggle, the alcoholic lead singers and the sticky clubs, tapping into a generational longing to live out the rock and roll lifestyles of their Gen X and Boomer predecessors. It’s a little cheesy, sure, but the freedom and confidence to be cheesy is part of the appeal as well, and Momma, big guitar chords and all, have all the confidence in the world.

Recommended Tracks: “Medicine,” “Rockstar,” “Motorbike”

6. Easy Listening – 2nd Grade

So much modern music criticism (my own included) leans on an artist’s relationship to current events to justify its greatness. It’s an impulse that makes sense, but can make it difficult for an album like 2nd Grade’s Easy Listening, which is devoted completely entirely to delivering listeners the stickiest and prettiest melodies possible, to break through and get noticed. Splitting the difference between Alex Chilton’s master craftsmanship and Robert Pollard’s grubby, lo-fi work ethic, 2nd Grade frontman and songwriter Peter Gill composes perfectly compact songs of joy and yearning, sacrificing none of the underground appeal as his band moves into a slicker, more professional sound. True to its title, Easy Listening’s songs go down smoothly, like a big gulp of ice cream, but if that ice cream was keenly attuned to the human need for shelter and escape, and the fleeting nature of bliss.

Recommended Tracks: “Strung Out On You,” “Me & My Blue Angels,” “Poet in Residence,” “Teenage Overpopulation,” “Hands Down”

5. I Walked With You a Ways – Plains

A collaboration between Waxahatchee mastermind Katie Crutchfield and indie folk singer Jess Williams, Plains explores the same intersection of country and indie rock as Saint Cloud, Crutchfield’s 2020 post-rehab album. Sometimes, on songs like “Summer Sun” and “Abilene,” the country wins out, with Crutchfield and Williams singing in playful and heartfelt harmony against a bed of rich acoustic streams. Other times, the two genres rich a kind of perfect balance on tracks like “Problem With It” and “Last 2 on Earth,” mixing the pair’s twangy vocals with a steady, rock influenced backbeat. What shines through in either instance is a distinctly American sound that’s never frivolous, but radiates a certain buoyancy absent from modern music of all genres. 

Recommended Tracks: “Summer Sun,” “Problem With It,” “Last 2 On Earth”