This past year, I turned 30 which is an arbitrary year to which we (by this I mean, I) attribute a lot of existential weight. Every year, I arbitrarily rank some of my favorite albums from the year. I suppose any tradition is worth re-evaluating, and as if to confirm that notion, I also re-set my website this past year and, in the process, also lost the last 5 or so years of my lists. No, I didn’t have backups saved. See, aging is arbitrary; every year, I vow to become more organized and… well, here we are. Still, I can’t quit the process of revisiting a year through the albums that took me through it. Here are fifty albums (and some more because I couldn’t bear to leave them out even though I have left them unranked) that I kept coming back to this year.
Spotify Playlist: Fifty Favorite Albums of 2022
- billy woods & Preservation – Aethiopes
- Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
- Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems
- Alvvays – Blue Rev
- McKaya McCraven – In These Times
- Nilfüer Yanya – Painless
- Vince Staples – Ramona Park Broke My Heart
- Black Country, New Road – Ants from Up There
- Quinn Christopherson – Write Your Name in Pink
- Leyla McCalla – Breaking the Thermometer
- Nick Hakim – COMETA
- Special Interest – Endure
- Bartees Strange – Farm to Table
- Björk – Fossora
- Steve Lacy – Gemini Rights
- Contour – Onwards!
- E L U C I D – I Told Bessie
- billy woods – Church
- Beyonce – Renaissance
- Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers
- Caroline Shaw – Evergreen
- Say She She – Prism
- Yaya Bey – Remember Your North Star
- Open Mike Eagle – Component System with the Auto Reverse
- Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen
- Rosalía – MOTOMAMI
- Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor
- Jacob Banks – Lies about the War
- Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn – Pigments
- SZA – SOS
- The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention
- Cate Le Bon – Pompeii
- Syd – Broken Hearts Club
- Carly Rae Jepsen – The Loneliest Time
- Leikeli47 – Shape Up
- Beach House – Once Twice a Melody
- Smino – Luv 4 Rent
- Lorelei K – Swimming Pool Eternity
- Boldy James & Nicholas Craven – Fair Exchange No Robbery
- Shamir – Heterosexuality
- J.I.D. – The Forever Story
- The Comet Is Coming – Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam
- Saba – Few Good Things
- Kikagaku Moyo – Kumoyo Island
- Kids on a Crime Spree – Fall in Love Not in Line
- Earl Sweatshirt – Sick!
- Ethel Cain – Preacher’s Daughter
- Dehd – Blue Skies
- Omar Apollo – Ivory
- Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Other Favs (in no particular order)
- R.A.P. Ferreira – Five to the Eye with Stars
- Ka – Languish Arts
- Ka – Woeful Studies
- Shabaka – Afrikan Culture
- Cameron McCloud – 7 Days in the Life
- Sweet Pill – Where the Heart Is
- MJ Lenderman – Boat Songs
- Mitski – Laurel Hell
- Ghais Guevara – There Will Be No Super Slave
- Plains – I Walked with You a Ways
- Show Me the Body – Trouble the Water
- Big Joanie – Back Home
- Binker and Moses – Feeding the Machine
- Gabriels – Angels & Queens – Part 1
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Cool It Down
- The Chats – Get Fucked
- Jitwam – Third
- MUNA – Kind of Girl
- Fly Anakin – Frank
- Quelle Chris – DEATHFAME
Sean Enfield 
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