If the pandemic saw creativity locked up behind bolted doors, then 2022 is the year the dam burst. The past 12 months have seen a torrential flood of new music come our way, with entire genres rising and falling within a matter of weeks. It’s been, we have to say, a lot.
That’s perhaps why End Of Year lists are so useful. There’s a place for writers to gather their thoughts, shining a light on personal favourites in the process. We’ve already laid out our favourite albums; a 60 strong listing that moves from pop icons to underground heroes.
For our favourite tracks, we decided to do something different. In keeping with the mass of music sent across to us, it’s unnumbered – truly, how could we order the millions of worthy works of audio placed on streaming services each month?
So, we’re gathering the pivotal tracks nominated by staff and writers, 15 songs that move from R&B to afrobeats via maximalist pop, and genre-crunching experimentation.
Dive in now.
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Jockstrap – ‘Greatest Hits’
Jockstrap make puzzling pop songs. The band’s remarkable album ‘I Love You Jennifer B’ stood out through its unrelenting originality, presenting two musicians who staunchly refused to be hemmed in by genre barriers. Yet at heart, their quizzical constructions remained overtly pop – challenging and cerebral, but also open, and heart-stoppingly melodic.
Pulled from the album, ‘Greatest Hits’ is perhaps the apex of this instinct. It’s a wonderful piece of pop songwriting – a stellar vocal, the Morse code electronics tapping out in the background, the waves of distinct digitalism recalling everyone from industrial godheads Throbbing Gristle to slick 80s hit factory Stock, Aitken & Waterman.
Profoundly original, ‘Greatest Hits’ picked apart the rules, before discarding them altogether. The best part? You can still whistle it in the shower.
Robin Murray
Nia Archives – ‘Baianá’
There is no getting around the fact that Nia Archives owned 2022. The newgen junglist dominated clubs across the land, bodying crowds with her breathtaking arsenal of breaks-led futurism. Blending a stellar lineage of system culture with her own unique production voice, Nia Archives simply could not be ignored – where it was the nimble melancholy of her own ‘So Tell Me…’ or the bolshy Watch The Ride team-up ‘Mash Up The Dance’.
‘Baianá’ had something special. Sampling a Brazilian choir, Nia Archives supplied summer with its club anthem, a daring, breathlessly ambitious piece of system music that wrapped some truly divine vocal harmonies around a junglist percussive engine. An emphatically euphoric work, ‘Baianá’ came to sum up the energies of our first post-lockdown summer.
Robin Murray
Maggie Rogers – ‘That’s Where I Am’
Maggie Rogers’ aesthetic shift from folk-pop Earth mother to maximalist sensuality infused her album ‘Surrender’ with an incredible sense of ambition. An album that owed a debt to the Maine coast, her studies at Harvard, a Gallagher brother haircut, and late 90s production values, it was a gripping, bravura statement from one of the clearest voices in pop music.
The sonic rivulets running through the album came together on ‘That’s Where I Am’, a breathtaking display that merges her incredible, hedonistic songwriting with a daring, multi-faceted arrangement. A cry of both help and surrender, it pivots on that wonderful line: “It all works out in the end / Wherever you go, that’s where I am…” A mantra-esque moment of simplicity, it’s the sound of a daring pop voice being utterly true to herself.
Robin Murray
Beyoncé – ‘Virgo’s Groove’
As a Virgo rising I claim this track as my own. My most-played song of 2022 is arguably Beyoncé’s most accomplished expression of musicality ever. A lush and luxuriant piece of retro synthesis, Beyoncé fills every second of its 6-minute runtime time with a vocal masterclass that pulls from her previous eras: the call and response, the foreground-background interplay, the soothing purrs, the resonant moans, and of course, the acrobatic crescendo that so masterfully mirrors the erotic peak she builds to throughout.
‘Virgo’s Groove’ is a sensual space-synth fantasia, a voyeuristic soundtrack to sex, enduring love and the quest for mutual satisfaction.
Shahzaib Hussain
QuinzeQuinze – ‘Le Soleil’
Songs released at the top of this year ran the risk of being forgotten in the mire of a packed post-pandemic release schedule. But ‘Le Soleil’ from the Parisian-Polynesian collective left an indelible mark on me, setting the tone for a feeling of disconnect that would prevail as 2022 unravelled.
QuinzeQuinze do sound clash experiments so well, unhinging the listener with their brand of ritualistic anti-pop, yet this opening track from their ‘VĀRUA’ project dialled down the noise just a little for something vaporous and weightless. ‘Le Soleil’ consecrates the concept of deep, unabating melancholy; enveloping in its surround sound rapture, pain is transformed into elemental euphoria.
Shahzaib Hussain
404 Guild – ‘New Health’
This Eastbourne-via-London rap outfit exorcise grief on this pastel-tinged highlight from their excellent debut album, ‘False Dawn’. A stirring orchestral opening meets an anthemic clubland zenith, as the emotion-charged spoken-word draws on the safety of shared memories without ever feeling mawkish. A sonic balm that meanders between reality and a romantic dream-like state, ‘New Health’ reckons with the ghosts of 404 Guild’s past to forge a new identity forward.
Shahzaib Hussain
Burna Boy ft. Blxst & Kehlani – ‘Solid’
A coming-of-age project titled after his birth name, Burna Boy’s ‘Love Damini’ – “That’s how I like to sign all my letters” – offers fans an intimate glimpse of his life at 31. Spanning a triumphant 19 tracks, ‘Love Damini’ hosts showstopping features from Popcaan and Kehlani, to J Balvin and Ed Sheeran. The album feels free and vibrant as it moves further from Burna’s self-proclaimed “Afro-fusion” and leans more into R&B and contemporary pop elements to capture a new sound for the Nigerian artist. On the twelfth track, ‘Solid’, Kehlani’s smooth, yearning vocals bring Burna Boy as close to R&B as he’s ever been; soft and upbeat, the track fuses dancehall and Afrobeats for a standout track that’s deeply soulful and catchy.
Sabrina Soormally
Alex G – ‘Runner’
Alex G is no stranger to crafting perfectly packaged, highly obscure “scenes from a life” – a Rolodex of human experience emanating from an abundant career.On ‘Runner’, the prolific DIY legend Alex G toes a metaphoric line of obscurity and truisms. Autobiographical, fictional, about a dog and about God, ‘Runner’ is beautiful and ugly to look at – just like 2022.
Is ‘Runner’ about a canine companion? Or is it alluding to something far deeper? Who cares. It’s a masterclass of poetic lyricism. There’s a knowledge of lyrical spectacle in the most low-key of ways, existing between the fault lines of fantastical metaphor and hyper-realistic memoirs. Alex G’s song builds a relatively simple guitar riff into a swelling operatic, while never losing its warm glow. As the chorus grows, we lose the barrier between animalistic inhibition and human emoting. Perhaps the biggest beauty of Alex G’s discography is the take-it-or-leave-it, highly interpretive narrative. That’s what makes ‘Runner’ so beautiful, and one of the best songs of this year.
Ruby Carter
Hudson Mohawke – ‘Lonely Days’
2022 is the year Hudson Mohawke returned to releasing solo music for the first time in seven years with his third studio album, ‘Cry Sugar’. From breaking hiatus to his 11-year-old ‘Cbat’ becoming one of the most memeable songs of the year, the Glasgow native was catapulted back into the spotlight as a cultural phenomenon.
‘Cry Sugar’ is a project that explores the dichotomy between pain and pleasure: ‘Lonely Days’, the tenth song of the album, is an emotion-packed ballad that stops you in your tracks. Featuring slowed-down samples from Faith Evans’ ‘Soon As I Get Home’ over heavy-hearted strings, Hudson Mohawke calls upon the midway point of the album to take a step back and process the effects of isolation.
Arielle Lana LeJarde
SZA – ‘Kill Bill’
SZA’s highly-anticipated sophomore album ‘S.O.S’, is defined by its front cover: a solitary Solána Imani Rowe stares ahead, faced by the open sea. The icon ruminates over relationships both old and new, tackling an industry that has propelled her to stardom yet equally hindered her growth. Akin to the tides, it’s a reclusive yet open project, losing itself to passion, lust and heartbreak yet maintaining a sense of control throughout.
Second track ‘Kill Bill’ is a tongue-in-cheek ballad that hails SZA as one of RnB’s leading songwriters, exploring toxicity with an irresistible wit and a hint of charm. Across the hook she croons, “I might kill my ex/ Not the best idea/ His new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here?” It’s hard to pinpoint why we’re still on SZA’s side here, perhaps it’s because of the saccharine, vintage production, or maybe her unabashed honesty that spills over intrusive thoughts and delusion. Whatever it is, ‘Kill Bill’ is incredibly addictive.
Ana Lamond
Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal – ‘B.O.T.A.’
Across 2022, the commercial landscape steered towards a more impulsive, club-focused sound, embracing the vast spectrum of electronic music. The underground has done, or has been doing so for quite some time, the same; yet it’s the names Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal that first come to mind, powering their way to the top spot with bubbling summer anthem ‘B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All)’. It’s official, 90s nostalgia, Moschino shirts and champagne bottles are back in the spotlight.
The single hit the ground running, making its way around the festival circuit with an earworm hook, coated in Rose’s jazz-infused vocals, later going viral amongst the Gen Z on TikTok. Today, the single is a platinum-certified success story. In all its glossy, fun and referential Euro house bounce, ‘B.O.T.A’ assures local producers and musicians that mainstream acknowledgement isn’t as far-fetched as it may initially seem.
Ana Lamond
Steve Lacy – ‘Bad Habit’
Compton singer-songwriter Steve Lacy has made this year his own, commanding industry-wide acknowledgement from those who once sat outside his niche, tight-knit following. Since Lacy’s early work with The Internet, the 24-year-old set off on a solo career and consequently created a quirky, DIY branch of RnB that feels distinctly unconventional, yet universal.
The slick vocalist is two studio albums deep and, at least sonically, the formula hasn’t changed all too much. Breakthrough single ‘Bad Habit’ is a warm embrace, fusing together the artist’s trademark woozy synths and longing guitar strums. It’s a track that wears Lacy’s heart on its sleeve with an addictive, bittersweet hook that sent the TikTok contingent into a tailspin. ‘Bad Habit’ is an uncompromising lo-fi anthem that spotlights an area of stadium-sized RnB often overlooked.
Ana Lamond
Vince Staples – ‘WHEN SPARKS FLY’
Taken from the Long Beach rapper’s fifth studio album ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’, which landed at No. 5 on our Albums of the Year 2022 list, this is a track that gives the impression it’s about a romantic relationship between two people torn asunder by a murder charge. Once you start to dig deeper, it becomes clear that Staples is rapping in a kind of double entendre about a personified gun and the love shared between it and its owner.
Strangely the attachment expressed through this personified object is a perfect analogy for the attachment you can place on a romantic partner. His sampling of Lyves’ ‘No Love’ plays flawlessly against Staples’ raspy lyricism. The deep, slow atmosphere of the song pulls emotion from the pit of your stomach and layers it against bittersweet melancholy tinged with desperate longing.
Naima Sutton
Ethel Cain – ‘American Teenager‘
2022 became Ethel Cain’s year of triumph with debut album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’ gathering a cult-like following now hanging on her every word. ‘American Teenager’ encapsulates Cain’s undeniable gift for creating worlds, exposing the dark underbelly of the American dream using a twisted take on the small-town girl archetype.
The tracks conjures a nostalgia for something unknown. Epic synths and booming drum hits pair with a guitar melody just dripping with teen angst. How this is not the title track of a 90’s coming of age movie already I don’t know. The sparsely placed instrumentation scoring the verses, provides the perfect setting for Cain’s soaring vocals to set the scene; a high school girl wandering the bleachers, questioning her faith, questioning the world around her. An explosion of ferocious youthful energy bursts through in the chorus and Cain sings with infectious abandon: “Say it like you mean it with your fists for once.”
A clear standout track of the year, ‘American Teenager’ manages to capture an intense bleakness tinged with hope.
Oshen Douglas-McCormick
Daliwonga ft. Mellow & Sleazy and M.J – ‘Abo Mvelo’
Amapiano, like a lot of great dance music, often thrives on tension and release, but few songs this year tease listeners quite so expertly as Daliwonga’s ‘Abo Mvelo’. It’s an audacious two and a half minutes before any kind of drop hits — provoking an almost Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’ level of tease, though the Soweto native manages to keep the whole ride interesting with his impeccable earworm melodies and hooks sung in his native Zulu.
Finally, enter the 2022 Pretorian MVPs and duo-de-jour Mellow & Sleazy, who add their own boastful raps to the mix, and those huge, bouncing, wildly addictive log drums, and you have yourself one of the best tunes of the year from a truly explosive scene – and one sure-enough sign that this genre might just conquer the whole world.
Louis Torracinta
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