Gyro's 2022
I listened to a fucking lot of music this year and about 90% of that was David Bowie, so.
I kind of missed the bus on a lot of releases and did some big-mode cramming these last few months. I’m still missing several key albums so I’m gonna hold off on making a best-of albums list and instead make this one about the tracks that resonated most with me from 2022. Repeated artists abound. I’ll give some general thoughts throughout maybe. Idk. Prob. And lyrics 4 filler. |
| 36 |  | Son Lux
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Come Recover (Empathy Fight)/Your Day Will Come (Empathy Fight)/Specks of Time: This suite of songs is amazing and so is this movie. One of the most life-affirming, beautiful films of 2022 and a stellar soundtrack to boot. |
| 35 |  | Sharon Van Etten
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
Come Back: Sharon Van Etten is a fantastic artist but I can only stomach her music in small doses. Come Back is just about everything I look for in her songwriting though. |
| 34 |  | Yuka Kitamura
Elden Ring
Godfrey, Da First Elden Lord: Another stunning soundtrack as per usual for a FromSoft game. This was used in the promo trailer leading up to the game’s release and for good reason. |
| 33 |  | Everything Everything
Raw Data Feel
Jennifer: “Cause the pain, in the end (pain, in the end)/Is all in your memory (all in your memory)/Try it again (try it again)/Try it another way (try it another way)” |
| 32 |  | Destroyer
LABYRINTHITIS
Labyrinthitis: This is a super weird pick and I’m gonna lol if it triggers Destroyer fans. |
| 31 |  | Sigh
Shiki
Fuyu Ga Kuru: Sigh’s back! This is maybe their best album since Scenes From Hell. Ridiculously overlooked band. |
| 30 |  | Soul Glo
Diaspora Problems
Spiritual Level Of Gang Shit: This album is sooooo so so so good. Probably the craziest thing I listened to from 2022. Spiritual Level really isn’t the best representation of that statement lol but it’s such a great end to the record |
| 29 |  | Alex Cameron
Oxy Music
Oxy Music: “Let me tell you 'bout some fun/My son/No one ever gets that one and done/The habit's gonna weigh a ton/And if you want some fun/My son/You only need one bullet in the gun/You only ever need one bullet, my son” Lol. Holy shit the latter half of this song is a jam. Had that shit stuck in my head for days at work. |
| 28 |  | Black Country, New Road
Ants From Up There
Snow Globes: I was pretty critical of their last album but this one is a very solid comeback for them. There are maybe objectively better tracks here but Snow Globes is the one I found myself coming back to most. |
| 27 |  | Lexie Liu
The Happy Star
Shanti: Beautiful track, very solid conclusion to an album that’s pure glossy pop goodness |
| 26 |  | Ada Rook
UGLY DEATH NO REDEMPTION ANGEL CURSE I LOVE YOU
Gravity Weapon: “Let’s gooooooooooooo motherfucker!” Another suuuuuuuuuper late discovery that comes courtesy of Johnny. The entire record is madness, but Gravity Weapon just has a certain energy and flow to it. It seems like something I should hate but I don’t. It’s just so off the walls fucking nuts and I love it. |
| 25 |  | Chat Pile
God's Country
Slaughterhouse: And this. |
| 24 |  | Saya Gray
19 Masters
I FOUND A FLOORBOARD UNDER THE SOIL!: Same with this one. |
| 23 |  | Honey Harper
Honey Harper and the Infinite Sky
Reflections: “If I felt like this we’d never have to leave/But it’s not enough for me” This one should be in my top 10 but I didn’t want to have too many repeats right out the gate. |
| 22 |  | Alex G
God Save The Animals
Forgive: For years Alex G has been changing his sound between albums, sometimes drastically, and GSTA has a similarly distinct feel to it. Idk how I feel about this album at the end of the year, a part of me feels disappointed but then I also think a slew of his best tracks are here, and Forgive stands out as the best of the best. |
| 21 |  | Billain
Lands Unbreached
Breach: None of you have heard this (except Observer and like 2 other people), but you should! |
| 20 |  | Perfume Genius
Ugly Season
Ugly Season: I respect the hell out of PG for doing something totally different for this album, and some of it is damn good. I still can’t help feeling it peaks with the title track though. |
| 19 |  | Big Thief
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
The Only Place: “The atom is an empty vase/A vehicle to know embrace/The way you feel/The way you taste/It multiplies” I’m kind of miffed that Blue Lightning ends the album instead of this song. It seems like the perfect finale to an album that feels like an adventure front to back. |
| 18 |  | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Eyes: “Take me far from those demons/That won't go/Disappear/Disappear in silence, slow” Hauntingly beautiful track. Go listen to the album. |
| 17 |  | Ethel Cain
Preacher's Daughter
Family Tree: “And take me down to the river and bathe me clean/Put me on the back of your white horse to ride/All the way to the chapel, let you wash all over me” This album has some really great stuff but I almost never have the patience for it but this song is too good. |
| 16 |  | Fontaines D.C.
Skinty Fia
Jackie Down The Line: “I will hurt you, I’ll desert you, I am Jackie down the line”. Gotta thank Doof and anat for this and many other late-year discoveries. |
| 15 |  | Ashenspire
Hostile Architecture
The Law of Asbestos: “If I drink Tollen’s Reagent will I finally shine inside? And will I see myself as God sees me if I pour it in my eyes. Pour it in my eyes!” This album hard peaks on its opening track, but that’s okay! Because what a behemoth of a track it is. |
| 14 |  | Jakey
Romcom
Pine Barrens: Emo Rap is one of my least favourite sub genres but what can I say? It’s NakeyJakey, baby. This song is maybe objectively cringe and esp to those unfamiliar with this YouTube content creator’s stuff. I’m probably a bit biased because I’ve been following his music career from the start, but the production on this track is really solid and the chorus is huge. |
| 13 |  | Naked Flames
Miracle in Transit
Pan Matsuri: This one’s a very late discovery for me but one I’ve already played the shit out of. I don’t really have anything to say about it other than that it’s a gorgeous track and the album it comes from is just kind of mid tbqh imho. |
| 12 |  | Archive
Call To Arms and Angels
Daytime Coma: This album has diminishing returns and a decent bit of filler, which is why I think it was shrugged off by many but some of the ideas here are explored really well. Daytime Coma is a massive track with so many moving parts it’s hard to even begin dissecting it so I won’t because I’m feeling very lazy today. Trust me though, it’s well worth a listen |
| 11 |  | Lack the Low
God-Carrier
Small Windows: I feel like people really slept on this mini indie-pop gem of an album. The melodies and chorus hooks here are so damn good: they keep building more and more on a solid foundation until it seems like they reached their climax, but then they just keep going. They’re so embellished, it’s like a straight up hit of dopamine. |
| 10 | | Everything Everything
Raw Data Feel
Kevin’s Car: I’ve never really been into these guys but some of the tracks on Raw Data Feel surprised the hell out of me and Kevin’s Car is far and away the highlight. |
| 9 | | Honey Harper
Honey Harper and the Infinite Sky
Boots Mine Gold: One of the best choruses of 2022. Absolute earworm. Country is a genre I find myself warming up to more and more as I get older but I’m still very particular about what I listen to. I feel like if albums like this one were the representation of country in pop culture more people would say they enjoy the genre. |
| 8 |  | David Bowie
Heathen
Sunday: This isn’t even from 2022 but so what? It’s David friggin Bowie. I played his entire catalog of songs about 3x over (at least) this past year - many more (like this song) I played upwards of 10 times. Idk, it feels weird to omit Bowie from this list since, according to Spotify, I was apparently in the top 0.05% of Bowie listeners that year |
| 7 | | Chat Pile
God's Country
Wicked Puppet Dance: This whole album is fucking nuts. Chat Pile went harder than ever for this and it paid off hugely. If you haven’t heard this song/album, check them out - guaranteed to be the filthiest thing you hear from last year! |
| 6 |  | City of Caterpillar
Mystic Sisters
Manchester: "You made the songs, made the songs all the youths will sing/You make the slang, make the slang all the youths will speak" It’s refreshing to see a reunion as triumphant and true to form as CoC’s. It really is just more of the same quality stuff from CoC but more matured and polished. It’s all stellar but this is the one that gets stuck in my head most. |
| 5 |  | Material Girl
i85mixx21-22
i85mixxlive: user Luci noted that the rapping on this album is goofy and I agree, it sometimes stands in stark contrast to the excellent production tricks at play, but after multiple plays the record really opened up to me. This whole thing -much like Saya Gray’s 19 Masters- is just: idea, idea, idea. Not everything sticks, but there’s plenty of moments that’ll make your ears perk up. It’s just refreshing to get artists like these who are actually out there trying to experiment and do different things with their sound, and for me, i85mixxlive is the perfect synthesis of Material Girl’s bag of tricks (albeit it’s kind of an outlier track here lol). |
| 4 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Bites on My Neck: Without a doubt my most played track from 2022 (it’s actually disgusting how many times I’ve played this song, if Spotify’s analytics are accurate). My gf told me she thinks it’s annoying af and I’m just glad she put up with hearing it so much throughout the year. Legit though, this is a gorgeous, lush track from the best album of 2022. If you haven’t heard the song or the album, def check them out and have some patience with it - it wasn’t all immediate for me personally. |
| 3 | | Saya Gray
19 Masters
Sadness Residue: “Welcome to the eraser room, choose one thing to say goodbye to” I can’t get this hook out of my head. There’s more going on in this three-and-a-half minute track than the entirety of some albums I heard last year. In fact this whole album is just *muah* chef’s kiss. |
| 2 |  | Black Midi
Hellfire
Welcome To Hell: I get why people don’t like this album that much - the singles were powerhouses but a bit of a red herring. For my money though, this is black midi’s best song to date by a wide margin. If you don’t enjoy the theatricality and inventiveness of it all, and if you don’t chew Big Red, then fuck you. |
| 1 |  | Biosphere
Substrata
The Alt version of this isn't in the db but I'm not adding it right this second.
Poa Alpina - Alternative Version: Is this my soty? Kind of a weird choice for soty I feel. Like it’s certainly not as layered or creative as a lot of the tracks on here are, but it possesses this ineffable quality; it’s so mesmerizing, so relaxing. I’m always in a good headspace when I put it on. I softly criticized these alt versions a few months ago for losing some of the natural atmosphere that carried the originals, but this particular mix is a winner. |
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