Album of the Year: The Winners

Remember in my last post when I talked about how taking breaks is important so we don’t fall apart and stuff? Apparently, my car needed to hear that advice just as much as I did, but unfortunately it did not hear it soon enough. Early on in my break, I went on a quick run to the record store. On my way back, my car decided it would die while I was in the middle of the road, sending me rolling down a hill with absolutely no control. It was not my favorite moment, but we survived so it’s all good.

Anyways, once I got the car to the shop, it also took a short vacation while I waited to find out what happened to it. It turns out both the high and low end fuel pumps were not working properly, which wasn’t allowing the engine to run (or if it starts then not for long). It took a couple weeks to get all of that figured out, during which I missed my car very dearly. However, I did not let the loss of my favorite music listening space stop me from coming to my final picks for 2022’s best albums of the year.

Previously, I listed some of my favorite albums of the year and thought that I would just trim it down from there. However, in the last month of listening I discovered some albums that I had missed and realized I forgot some as well. All of this listening led me to the following ranking of what I believe to be the top 11 albums of the year. Yes, 11, because both the 10 and 11 are so good that I simply couldn’t cut one from the list. Behold!

Honorable Mentions:

The Finalists:

11. ICYMI – EDEN

10. JAMIE – Montrell Fish

9. Nobody’s Home – Bakar

8. Ramona Park Broke My Heart – Vince Staples

7. Cheat Codes – Danger Mouse & Black Thought

6. Dawn FM – The Weeknd

5. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar

4. 2000 – Joey Bada$$

3. Once Twice Melody – Beach House

2. The Forever Story – JID

1. Luv 4 Rent – Smino

On top of that, I wanted to list some of my favorite singles from the year as well. The list below is in no particular order, but these are all incredible songs that I could not get enough of. I can’t wait to see what’s next for each of the artists here and I very strongly recommend checking any of these out if you have the chance!