Top 30 Albums of 2022

2022 was awash with Melody, anarchy, comebacks, throwbacks but ost important of all, pushed the envelope forwards yet again. Here’s to all the talent, labels, and tipsters who made it possible.

Here are our top 30 albums of the year:

30. The Heavy North - Electric Soul Machine (Full review here)

The Heavy North have achieved a great deal on this debut. The guitar solos are the big take home but, the creative flourishes with the drums and vocals begin to shine upon repeat listens. It leaves you with a sense of hope that, next time out, they could do something really powerful.

29. Kae Tempest – The Line Is A Curve

Tempest is a national treasure. Astute poetic observations from start to finish.

28. Lightning Seeds – See You In The Stars

Older and wiser but, still as vibrant as the ‘Jollification’ and ‘Sense’ days.

27. Jamie Webster - Moments

Mixing pop and politics with joyously righteous effects.

26. Enjoyable Listens - The Enjoyable Listens

The heir to Richard Hawley and Nick Drake.

25. Narcissus - A Sense of Place

Reimagining early 90s rave and hip hop for the modern day.

24. Embrace - How To Be A Person Like Other People

The euphoric anthems keep on coming!

23. Warmduscher - At The Hotspot

Bella Union’s best signing in a generation. Shaun Ryder-esque lyrics meet a drugged-up Talking Heads.

22. Andy Bell - Flicker

Bell’s creative streak is relentless at present. Flicker adds to his ever-expanding fine body of work.

21. The Mysterines - Reeling

Heavier and more badass than the debut. Their march to the top continues!

20. Skylights - What You Are (Full review here)

What was a fortuitous reformation has undoubtedly led to one of the albums of the year! This isn’t a breakout debut, it’s the sound of a band 3 albums deep commanding the respect of academy-sized audiences.

19. Suede - Autofiction

The outsiders return to their rightful place in the shadows howling at the world.

18. Maze – Chaos Interrupted

Wayward rock ‘n’ roll searching for its freedom.

17. David Long & Shane O’Neill - Age of Finding Stars (Full review here)

What started as an unplanned album has turned into a masterpiece of grief-stricken songwriting. Devastating lyrics and lost soundscapes unite on one of 2022’s albums of the year.

16. The Boo Radleys - Keep On With Falling (Full review here)

Without Martin Carr in the fold, the new lineup could have easily folded under the pressure of delivering a new Radleys album. Carr has been an exceptional solo artist after all. Nevertheless, Sice and co have paid tribute to all that they once were and pushed the band forwards with remarkable results.

15. The Shed Project - The Curious Mind of the Common Man (Full review here)

The guitars will inevitably lure people in. The licks of ‘Livin’ are so infectious it’s medically advisable to wear gloves when listening.

14. Chorusgirl - Collapso Calypso (Full review here)

In what must have been a testing time personally and creatively, Chorusgirl have come out the other side with a piece of art to be cherished!

13. The Skinner Brothers - Soul Boy II

Laconic but confrontational soon to be iconic.

12. Thousand Yard Stare - Earthanasia (Full review here)

Their previous album in many ways was a second debut album. It said everything they ever wanted to say to the world. They thought it would cap off a great few years playing live and release the odd EP. What it did is best expressed in their single ‘Measures’:

“It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Just be sure that you are here at the end / It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Take pleasure in the message it sends”.

This sentiment flows from every corner of the album and has allowed them to be more expressive than ever. Long may it continue.

11. The Shop Window - A 4 Letter Word (Full review here)

The Kent outfit have lit up a bleak year with this gentle yet defiant indie-pop record. Everywhere you turn there are nods to the 80s and 90s but, with astute sonic updates. Lyrically, they accept nostalgia less as a noose and more as a bridge to their untamed teenage selves and thus, provide endless tales for their souls to relive in the modern age.

10. My Raining Stars – 89 Memories (Full review here)

These more instantaneous moments breathe vitality into Haliniak’s body of work that will surely win the hearts and minds of many new fans sooner rather than later.

9. Armstrong - Grafitti (Full review here)

Classic songwriting rarely collides with guts, heart, and pop music but, Armstrong has it all.

8. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

Joni Mitchell meets Karen Carpenter in this beautiful debut.

7. Columbia - Embrace The Chaos (Full review here)

Somehow, they have reimagined the Stones, Stereophonics, Oasis, and Kasabian into something new on this debut. A life-affirming set of songs that will smash whatever stands in its way. For once, we alternative types beg the gatekeepers to put up barriers. It’ll only be that much sweeter when Columbia destroys them!

6. Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia

The most accessible record to date is met with the sound of fraying souls and demons.

5. Moses – I Still Believe, Do you? (Full review here)

‘I Still Believe! Do You?’ is blessed with The Kinks’ storytelling, Blur’s chaos, and Blossoms’ pop sensibilities.

4. The Orchids – Dreaming Kind

A stunning return from the former Sarah Records heroes. Angelic masterpiece!

3. Confidence Man - TILT

All the girls say “Ooh”. All the boys say “ahh”.

2. Charlie Clark – Late Night Drinking (Full review here)

A tumultuous cleanse of the soul that rewards creator and listener alike. Clark has built upon The National’s ability to embed melody into troublesome discourse by adding psychedelic pop to certain tracks. It’s a stunning debut from the Astrid bandmate, a piece of art in its purest form.

1. Deja Vega – Personal Hell (Full review here)

There’s no filler on ‘Personal Hell’, every track leaves an indelible mark on the soul.  ‘Precious One’ throbs with 70s debauchery and Wooden Shjips riffs to create yet more new pastures of the kaleidoscopic expedition! On and on the superlatives could go. ‘Personal Hell’ is a huge leap forwards from the debut, and whilst the live shows remain in small(ish) venues, for now, their rightful place is the upper echelons of mainstages. Over to you festival bookers of 2023.

Embrace - Refugees

The tens, a decade like no other since the 1960s. The arse fell out of the industry, record deals died, and a shot for working class glory dramatically fell by the wayside and reality TV reigned supreme for a way out.

This was a decade that threw out some wonderful moments but were under documented. In this series, we look back at the ones that mattered most. Rock’n’Roll found a way.

Embrace – Refugees

One of the 00’s most unlikely moments came from West Yorkshire’s Embrace. Three albums in, no-one expected anything from their fourth ‘Out Of Nothing’. What they got was a stunning piece of euphoric indie rock, launching them to the heart of a burgeoning scene of newbies (The Killers, Bloc Party & Kasabian).

Surprising as this was, it was only seven years on from their classic debut ‘The Good Will Out’. Their self-titled album was eight years on from the critical failure of ‘The New Day’, this album was surely just something to put out for loyal fans right?

What came to pass, was the rebirth of their awe inspiring anthemic melodies, radiating their love of the Bunnymen and New Order. Predominantly written by guitarist Richard McNamara, lead singer and brother Danny canned 50 of his own songs upon hearing the demo. At the core of this album’s success was the lead single, “Refugees”. The power this song possessed not only won them a place back in the hearts, but more crucially the minds, of the UK’s alternative community.

All the hallmarks of the band’s agony/ecstasy dichotomy were there, but this time sonically reimagined with post-apocalyptic rave drum loops, adding a touch of life and death drama the subject matter so rightly deserved. There is no sense of any sort of happy ending until Danny’s vocal in the latter stages of the track; even the euphoric uplift of Richard’s early chorus leaves the listener with a sense of woe.

The power of this New Order meets Embrace epic, comes crashing home lyrically in the second line:

“Like Bonnie & Clyde except we don't die tonight”

Does another monostich encapsulate the liberal decline of the UK more this decade?

In February 2013, BBC3 sketch show ‘The Revolution Will Be Televised’ took to the streets to ask “have we forgot about Syria?”. It was great satire but, sadly the reality was far worse. After the disastrous anti-democratic intervention in Iraq, Britain had lost its stomach to do the right thing in foreign lands. What was once a sympathetic land, had become one where it increasingly only likes white faces. When thirty-nine dead Chinese refugees were discovered in a lorry in Thurrock, the story barely ran for a week in the British media. Where was the outrage? Where was our heart? Grenfell, Windrush, the examples in this decade go on!

Embrace’s ability to rouse their fans is often taken for granted, often taking them elsewhere. Only here, the journey is very different. Anchoring the conscious in the Syrian conflict, the band shed light on just how the UK had let itself down. The honesty of the self-reflection of the way we casually ignore war zones and genocide takes integrity to another level:

“And my only defence is the worst of me / Out in the open for all to see”

‘Refugees’ could and probably should have been for this decade, what Cars’ ‘Drive’ was to the 80’s.

On ‘This New Day’, the band’s archetypal contrast of light and dark dissipates into the warmest of glows. Great for fleeting moments, it had everything an Embrace fan could wish for. Huge hits. Arena tours. But when the sun set for that final time, and the radio went dead, it all felt a bit…hollow. People needed that comeback album. They needed Embrace. Britain needed to be united in pain and in the misery of its own undoing. Then, and only then, could the nation accept the ecstasy in the McNamara’s chorus.

They needed Refugees.