Best Songs of 2022

A totally arbitrary, subjective ranking of the songs that got me through 2022.

10. Cuff It - Beyonce

I just as easily could have put 'Alien Superstar' here but I can't deny the way this song makes me feel. It is an absolute jam. It is smoother than butter. This song never fails to make me dance, which is precisely what it is intended to do. This song, for me, is the culmination of all the elements Beyonce was capturing on Renaissance. The signature driving disco beat, string instruments, harmonies, bass line, synths, and horns all have their moment on this song. 'Cuff It' is the best track on the album and perfectly represents the celebratory and care-free nature of the music it pays tribute to.

Favourite Lyric:

"Go where nobody's been

Have you ever had fun like this?"

9. Buddy's Rendevous - Father John Misty

This song quite literally transports you to a smoke-filled jazz bar where you're watching some half-drunk guy smoothly play the piano and sing about the saddest stories you've ever heard. My god this song is so cinematic and bluesy. Off the album Chloe and the Next 20th Century, it is exactly what cinema is: a story. It is written in the perspective of a man reconnecting with his daughter after being released from prison and offering her some pretty shitty fatherly advice. I quite honestly have never heard anything like it. It settles into a haunting simplicity that lulls the listener into a state of suspended awe. Father John Misty is so committed to the emotion as a songwriter and a storyteller that it makes the whole thing seem all the more genuine. The song is sexy, intimate, soulful, and completely and utterly heartbreaking. Also Lana del Rey does a brilliant cover that tells the same story, but almost as if in the perspective of the daughter, reflecting on her past-self having changed as a person since she last saw her father. Either way, the emotion hits you all the same.

Favourite Lyric:

"My destruction is an hour late

I'm at Buddy's Rendezvous

Tellin' the losers and old timers

How good I did with you

They almost believe me, too"

8. Part of the Band - The 1975

Being Funny in a Foreign Language. The perfect album for a track like this to be on. It's playful, with silly lyrics and a weird instrumental. It has themes of self-deprecation and reflection while being humorous and sarcastic. It feels like the finale piece to a one-man show about life. There isn't much else to say about this track other than I hope you enjoy its orchestral whimsy and cheeky honesty just as much as I do.

Favourite Lyric:

"I know some Vaccinista tote bag chic baristas

Sitting in east on their communista keisters

Writing about their ejaculations

'I like my men like I like my coffee

Full of soy milk and so sweet, it won't offend anybody'"

7. Yuck - Charli XCX

One of THE bops of 2022. CRASH as a whole is an absolute masterpiece of a mainstream pop album made by one of the pioneering artists of hyperpop. Charli XCX is unbelievably self-aware of her own absurdity and ridiculousness as a pop artist, and no track captures that like 'Yuck'. Lyrically, it talks about the noncommittal fear of intimacy that is so stereotypical of Gen Z, while the production adds an undeniable groove to it. When the chorus hits, the beat comes through and the vocals create a wave in the rhythm that practically forced you to sing along. This one is made to put on in the Uber to the club with your friends.

Favourite Lyric:

"Yuck, that boy's so mushy

Sending me flowers, I'm just tryna get lucky

Yuck, lookin' at me all sucky

Yuck, quit acting like a puppy

Fuck, going all lovey-dovey on me"

6. Let Me Drown - Orville Peck

I genuinely am not exaggerating when I say this is the best male vocal performance I have ever heard. It is also utterly devastating in its honesty, soaked in melodrama, and full of a desperate yearning only a gay cowboy could achieve. The production is simple; mainly drum, piano, and strings. But boy does it build, just as the vocals soar. Orville's major lyrical themes of solitude and hope have never been more beautiful and vulnerable. But as I said, it's the vocals, the gritty delivery and soulful belts, that truly leave you speechless. Bronco, as Orville's first major label album release, is an absolute triumph and 'Let Me Drown" is the shining example of his talent.

Favourite Lyric:

"And then suddenly we're writing out the same old lie

When water is all around

Baby, I can be the one you drown tonight

Well, I had sun in my eyes and I'd confide

We're no worse off than the worst of 'em, it's fine"

5. Free - Florence + the Machine

One of my most played songs of the year. The only way I can think to describe this one is 2000s pop rock meets 90s folk and it is absolutely perfect. The lyrics detail Florence's struggle with anxiety, beginning with the best opening line of the year: "sometimes I wonder if I should be medicated". Its a very '2022' version of a ballad - ripe with introspection and self-acceptance, but electric with the need to move. This one is for those who use art as an escape or a release from their anxieties. As cliche as that sounds, the track's light-hearted production and optimism elevate it to a level where the simple sentiment is all you need. There's also an acoustic version which brings out the beauty and poignancy of the words. But it's the album version that appears on Dance Fever that ultimately feels the most genuine and the one that will make you feel the best.

Favourite Lyric:

"But I hear the music

I feel the beat

And for a moment

When I'm dancing, I am free"

4. Sun Bleached Flies - Ethel Cain

Im going to go ahead and keep making bold claims in this list, but this song contains one of the best metaphors I have ever heard put to words. On this song, Ethel Cain likens the experience of a Southern-Baptist mother praying her children can escape their life to flies sitting on a hot window sill in the sun until they burn to death. The comparison is bleak and heart wrenching and stands out on an album all about desolation and depravity. The gentle piano playing is out of tune just enough to feel weak and lonely, while the church organ commands your attention in a way that is captivating. To put it into context of the album, which tells the story of Ethel Cain, a fictional girl who ran away from her deeply religious upbringing only to be manipulated, murdered, and ultimately cannibalized, 'Sun Bleached Flies" serves as the artist coming to terms with her own death, but even more so her difficult life before that. Despite the depressing story, the song is triumphant and determined, as Ethel finds herself and finally achieves peace as the instrumental explodes and it ends with the repetition of the comforting message :"if it's meant to be, then it will be". Her simple answer: "I forgive it all as it comes back to me".

Favourite Lyrics:

"What I wouldn't give to be in church this Sunday

Listening to the choir so heartfelt, all singing

"God loves you, but not enough to save you"

So, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself"

"But I always knew that in the end, no one was coming to save me

So I just prayed, and I keep praying and praying and praying"

"And I'm still praying for that house in Nebraska

By the highway, out on the edge of town

Dancing with the windows open

I can't let go when something's broken

It's all I know and it's all I want now"

3. Slow Song - The Knocks (with Dragonette)

This is electro-pop at its absolute finest. Of the songs in recent memory trying to emulate the nostalgic feeling of disco, this one comes the closest. How 'Yuck' is for listening with friends, 'Slow Song' makes you dance on your own (remind you of any other iconic sad pop-bop?). Most interestingly, the song is a complete subversion of its title. Its brimming with violins, atmospheric synths, a pounding bass line, and a four-on-the-floor beat meant for the dancefloor. The only song you'll want to put on when you feel like too much for someone to handle, it has a confidence that reminds you you can have anyone wrapped around your finger.

Favourite Lyric:

"Oh, I got ways of losing you, baby

I'm faster than whatever you're chasing

I'll keep beating on your heart 'til I break it

And if you can take it, I'm gonna go crazy, baby"

2. Kalahari Down - Orville Peck

The first repeat artist on my list (subtle hint for #1) and the second song from Bronco, this one is a total career masterpiece; a magnum opus that perfectly encapsulates who and what Orville Peck is. I have written about this song extensively in my album review of Bronco, so no need to go into too much detail, but this is one that continually amazes me. It has all the charm of any track by a famous crooner, the loneliness of traditional country music, and the heartache of a rock and roll power ballad. It is a reflection on one's past; where you have been, but also where you are going. What you have left behind, and what you can achieve.

Favourite Lyric:

"I was born in the Badlands, honey

Strange place for a boy to drown

Spent my days on a mountain, baby

Twelve miles north of Sofiatown"

1. American Teenager - Ethel Cain

Right from the first guitar riffs and vocal fluctuations this song is a rally cry; an anthem for a generation. As the most pop-leaning song on Preacher's Daughter, this song is Ethel Cain at her most palatable. But that doesn't mean she is shying away from her usual dark themes. On 'American Teenager', Ethel celebrates the naivity of youth and juxtaposes it to the harsh realities of the world, particularly, her life as a young, transgender girl raised in a deeply religious family in Midwest America. Lines about high school football games are followed by lines about her neighbours brother dying in the military for a country that doesn't care about him. It's anti-war, anti-patriotism, and anti-American. It speaks on the numbness to violence and death that is too common in youth today. Ethel likens the experience to a war that kids are at the frontlines for; they are the ones most affected and yet they are the ones expected to change their future. She questions this responsibility but triumphantly takes it on, dedicating the song to the kids who are always told they can do or be anything they want, but the reality is some things simply aren't possible for them. For Ethel, she questions what she has been told about God, and how supposedly he is always there for her despite all the terrible things that have happened in her life. The song acknowledges how hard it is to be a teenager, but doesn't focus too much on the negatives; it encourages resilience and hope for the future with synths, guitar solos, and banging drums that all come together in a Springsteen-esque, fist-pumping stadium banger that feels like the release every young person needs.

Favourite Lyrics:

"Say what you want, but say it like you mean it

With your fists for once, a long cold war

With your kids at the front"

"Head full of whiskey but I always deliver

Jesus, if you're listening let me handle my liquor

And Jesus, if you're there, why do I feel alone in this room with you?"

Honourable Mentions:

Would've, Could've, Should've - Taylor Swift, Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. - Lana del Rey, Hold My Hand - Lady Gaga, Morning Elvis - Florence + the Machine, What I Want - MUNA, Funny Girl - Father John Misty, Surrender My Heart - Carly Rae Jepsen, Alien Superstar - Beyonce, A House in Nebraska - Ethel Cain