Top 5 Best Albums of 2022

No 5. Bad Bunny: Un Verano Sin Ti

The appeal of Bad Bunny is legendary as it is uncommon: The biggest pop star in the world, a charismatic, musically inventive critic who adores his island, releases the biggest pop album of the year, one that perfectly evokes the sound and nostalgia of a beach day in the Caribbean. Reggaeton, dembow, dream-pop, EDM, and mambo are all marshaled in Un Verano Sin Ti, which at times uses sex-fueled perreo while at other times muses over better futures. UVST is a sprawling love letter that fully embraces Boricua humor, swagger, and astute social commentary, whether he refers to his “baby gravy” on “Titi Me Preguntó” or tells the tale of a liberated Puerto Rican woman with Buscabulla on “Andrea.”

The relentless yet healing whirlwind of “El Apagón,” an electronic bomba banger, addresses Puerto Rico’s colonial status, gentrification, and ongoing blackouts. He reiterates, “Puerto Rico is well cabrón,” almost as a call to action. Un Verano Sin Ti is a magnificent declaration of the endurance and camaraderie that are essential to Caribbean life. Santiago, Gio

No 4. Special Interest: Endure

Although there is a long history of punks creating unadulterated pop, no one has done it quite like Special Interest, who incorporates rap cadences, pop-house vocals, technoise textures, and textures from the dance music genre. The New Orleans band transforms its once-blistering sound into a force that is more palatable and anthemic, but also significantly more confrontational, on its astounding third full-length. A world where pleasure and conflict intertwine into a liberationist jumble of club fog, Telfar bags, and unsettling truths that demand that we “burn it down to build it again” is the setting for the fiercely original experiment Endure. Jennifer Pelly

No 3. Alvvays: Blue Rev

Alvvays writes songs about the things in life that endure, fade, and come back to haunt us as we age. The Toronto band makes a comeback on their third album, ready to pierce through all of your defenses like one of the old flames they sing about. Blue Rev is a crinkled, panoramic collection of small dramas—a run-in at the pharmacy, a break-up over milkshakes in the drive-through—with a sense of humor. In their world, college is a bore, pedantic poetry stinks, and solace is that one good song on the radio, even though Molly Rankin and company have ascended into the wiser terrain of their 30s. They still summon the dizzying emotions of your rookie years, when the sense of paralysis and betrayal seemed so acute.

With its squalling arrangements and sublime melodies that sound as though you’ve been singing them your entire life, this album is one to put on when you get home. Alvvays demonstrate on Blue Rev that they were the ones all along. Zhang, Cat

No 2. Sudan Archives: Natural Brown Prom Queen

On the title track of Natural Brown Prom Queen, a vivacious, transformative love letter to herself written in a kaleidoscopic mash-up of house, R&B, pop, and hip-hop, Brittney Parks chants, “I’m not average.” The L.A. musician has previously made her violin a focal point of her songs, but Natural Brown Prom Queen’s collagist style allows Parks’ talented playing to more intricately stitch together her scathing, frequently humorous lyrics. In songs that range from straightforward rapping to delicate singsong, themes of independence, family, and heartbreak are present. No one will ever again describe Parks as “average” thanks to Natural Brown Prom Queen’s lyrical candor and head-spinning beat changes and violin loops. Erik Torres

No 1. Beyoncé: Renaissance

As the lights dim and sweat drips down your back, you can feel the liberating effects of dance music. Beyoncé lends her voice to a Harlem vogue ball, bathes in undulating R&B melismas, and spits over four-on-the-floor rhythms, seamlessly tying it all into her own resplendent cosmology as Renaissance basks in that emancipatory magic. Watch her golden falsetto float on “Cuff It’s” roller-rink sparkle. On “I’m That Girl,” notice how a jagged dembow riddim cuts through her supple melodies. You could also be moved to action by Bey’s “Break My Soul” demands that you let go of your worries about the world.

Beyoncé owes her queer Black ancestors, who fought valiantly for the refuge of this relief, the grandeur of her most recent reinvention. For many of us, going to the club is more than just a fun night out; it’s also a hub for social interaction, a vital part of our survival economy, and—most importantly—an unavoidable form of enjoyment. Bey cites her ancestors and contemporary authors to capture a lot of that in this work, sometimes making us yearn for their physical presence. In addition to disco glitterati like Grace Jones and bounce music icon Big Freedia, there are tributes to ballroom DJs, producers, and drag queens Kevin Aviance and Kevin Jz Prodigy. Every interpolation is effective and exact, producing a DJ mix and a history lesson at the same time.

Over the years, Beyoncé’s music has served every function: It can lift a disheveled spirit, vault femme erotics, or treat the wounds of a devastating relationship. But Renaissance eclipses Bey’s previous statements of hard-won self-love and romantic resilience. It does more than revere the dancefloor; it bottles its joy, conviviality, and verve, all while transcending the condition of homage. Its affirmations electrify the body, coursing through the veins like a life-saving shot of adrenaline: Consider the lines “Don’t even waste your time trying to compete with me/No one else in this world can think like me” on “Alien Superstar,” or, “It should cost a billion to look this good” on “Pure/Honey.” As the world burns, Renaissance invites us to remember what it’s like to feel good. -Isabelia Herrera

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