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Hey, Have You Heard These 50 Tracks from 2022

As is the tradition around these parts I have once again compiled a list of 50 tracks from this year that I felt worthy of highlighting for one reason or other. Some incredibly strong releases this year meant I had to make some brutal cuts to the list, but I’m happy with what I narrowed it down to in the end. As always songs are in alphabetical order (there is no internal rating to the 50) but if I had to choose a single song of the year it would be Gendering Teddy by The Narcissist Cookbook, please listen to that track if nothing else. A Spotify playlist of the included songs is linked below for your listening pleasure.

Spy — 1-800 Let’s start this list with a bang. Spy has been consistently making some of the most to-the-point, brutally efficient hardcore in the scene of late, and this year was no exception. No nonsense, viscerally malevolent fun.

Blood Command — A Questionable Taste in Friends Blood Command released their first full-length with ex-pagan vocalist Nikki Brumen this year. And it is a delight. Tasty pop hooks, groovy instrumental sections, and it isn’t afraid to get disgustingly heavy when it needs to. I could have easily put any track from Praise Armageddon on this list, but the woo-oos here win it for me.

CLT DRP — Aftermath (CW: SA/abuse/gendered violence/trauma) So, ummm… content warning… things might get heavy on this list. This is a song about SA/gendered violence, and it doesn’t shy away from the subject in any way. CLT DRP strip back the fury and energy of their usual sound for a deeply personal rumination on generational trauma caused by existing in a patriarchal society where harassment is seen as a routine part of life and abuse could come from anywhere. “I’m just as afraid of the men I know as I am of these strangers.” It’s about how, in a post-me-too world, as men are starting to find their repentance in confessing to their faults, women and non-binary people are still left picking up the shattered pieces of our lives left in their wake.

ZAND — Battery Acid (CW: abusive relationships) It’s a coincidence that this landed next to Aftermath on this list, a coincidence but a fitting one. A bittersweet queer story about escaping from an abusive relationship and finding strength and solace in the arms of someone new. The sparse instrument here is beautiful, letting the storytelling take centre stage. The change of lyrics in the final chorus is such a triumphant moment as the narrator overcomes the hold their boyfriend has on them and gains the inner resolve to end things.

Carly Rae Jepsen — Beach House That’s enough deep stuff for now. Back to fun songs — and who else can do fun like CRJ!? Beach House is a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek pop song about the woes of trying to date men. It’s full of great character and charisma.

Brutus — Brave Everything that makes Brutus so exciting is on full display on Brave. Starting at a breakneck pace before effortlessly dancing between elements of hardcore punk and post-rock. Drummer-vocalist Stefanie Mannaerts is a force to be reckoned with as their voice switches from gravelly shouts to ethereal choruses as the track never lets up.

Enter Shikari — Bull (ft. Cody Frost) Hey, Enter Shikari, more of this, please. Cody Frost brings a raucous youthful energy back to Shikari’s sound. Everything that always made them so interesting is working here, but there’s also that extra element that pushes this into being something special. This is going to be incredible live.

Evie Enby — Christmas Fears Oh shit how did this get in here? Look, this is my list, and I’ll use it to pat myself on the back if I want to. While I’ll be the first to admit Christmas Fears doesn’t deserve a space on this list through any technical merit; writing, recording, producing and releasing a song was an insane personal achievement for me, helping to pave the way for what I’m planning for 2023 and so it is personally one of my top tracks of the year.

Baby Dave — Clarence’s Dead Dad Isaac Holman of Soft Play [formerly Slaves] swaps punk attitude and drums for personal storytelling and synths for his solo project, Baby Dave. Clarence’ is a song that just gets weirder the longer it goes on, buoyed along by Damon Albarn’s masterful production, adding to the weirdness.

HEALTH & Lamb Of God — Cold Blood This is the most I’ve enjoyed anything Lamb Of God related in a while, HEALTH have a masterful ear for collaborations (just look at everybody they’ve worked with throughout their career) and the balance they strike against Randy Blythe’s iconic growled vocal timbre is nothing short of sublime.

Andy Morin & Backxwash — Dig Yourself a Grave Speaking of great collaborations… Andy Morin may be best known as one of the people who makes noises in Death Grips, but he makes a strong claim to be known on his own merit here. The production is huge as Backxwash’ ‘s always brilliant bars cut across layers of heavily distorted synths and fog horn stabs of noise.

Whitmer Thomas — Don’t Have a Cow This song is so sweet. A three-chord, post-breakup lament. Reflecting on how people and relationships change, about the impacts we leave on the people whom we invite into our lives. I adore how the sparse indifferent instrumentation gives way to a swelling cacophony of emotion in the final moments. It feels almost cinematic.

100 Gecs — Doritos & Fritos Something about eating burritos with Danny DeVito? I have no idea what’s going on here, but it SLAPS (do the kids still say slaps?) The punchy bass that could be straight out of Feelgood Inc., the Sonic Youth guitars. It’s a romp.

Petrol Girls ft. Janey Starling — Fight For Our Lives Fight For Our Lives carries a desperate urgency that is so tangible in Petrol Girls’ live performances but rarely translates this well to record. This is the sound of anger. This is the sound of direct action. This is the sound of a fight for survival.

Zeal & Ardor — Firewake Up until last week, I had a totally different Z&A track on this list. Then Firewake was released as a part of Subpop’s record club and I had to reassess everything. There’s so much going on here and I love every second of it. The mournful opening, the military drums that morph into hellish machine gunfire, that bass melody that punches through in the chorus, Manuel Gagneux’s germanic black metal screeches about a war for everything. Metal songs about war will never beat Metallica’s Disposable Heroes, but this comes close.

Teenage Halloween — Floating Sometimes, a lyric rings so true that it hits you right at your core, and you have no choice but to put it in your top songs of the year list. That’s what happened here. It’s not even that brilliantly formed a lyric. It just struck me with its brutality and simplicity.

Cancer Bats & Amy Walpole — Friday Night Friday Night is a party anthem for the misfits. Joined by Witch Fever’s Amy Walpole (more on them later) Cancer Bats smash through a refreshingly sincere ode to celebrating who you are and shaking off the haters as Tay Tay might say.

The Narcissist Cookbook — Gendering Teddy Okay, this isn’t just an essay about the history of mathematics. Stick with it. I don’t want to say too much, because discovering this track for the first time was one of my favourite music moments of the year, and I want you, dear reader, to share in that experience.

Creeper — Ghost Brigade Of course, new Creeper is going to make this list… after a sold-out show at Camden Roundhouse, Creeper announced that they were signing to Spinefarm Records, their current era was coming to an end and a new single had been released. Ghost Brigade feels like a return to their roots, full of punk energy with more than a splash of their signature theatricality. When the bells first rang out in the chorus, my heart sang.

Ada Rook — Gravity Weapon Hold on to your fuckin balls, this is gonna kill you.

Asunojokei — Heavenward I think a big part of what drew me to this track this year is how fascinating its production is. At its most frenetic moments, everything gets muddled together into a maelstrom of noise before a single element is flung outwards to the listener. It’s that same sense of dense layered noise that made Deftones so captivating on their best records, but here applied to a post-black-metal, shoegazey, math-rock behemoth of a track.

Electric Callboy — Hurrikan Not to spoil the ride, but strap in, this may be the wildest thing you hear all year.

Kid Kapichi — I.N.V.U Kid Kapichi are one of the bands ensuring that the new wave of British post-punk that was first bought to the mainstream consciousness with bands like Idles last decade isnt going to stagnate anytime soon. I.N.V.U brings a laddish 90s britpop swagger to the genre and the result is thoroughly entertaining.

Witch Fever — I Saw You Dancing I told you we’d get back to Witch Fever. I love this piece as a companion to The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There”. Turning John and Paul’s sweet ‘love song’ into a horror story, a commentary on the implicit entitlement and ownership men feel over women’s bodies. The way vocalist Amy Walpole repeatedly screams “Oh, my how you’ve grown” is as nightmare inducing as any slasher, as the song is driven along by a disgustingly sinister bassline.

Fontaines D.C. — In ár gCroíthe go deo Any song that gets you deepdiving into a legal case regarding language used on a gravestsone has to be doing something right. In ár gCroíthe go deo (which roughly translates to ‘in our hearts forever’) is a song that speaks of being away from home in a place that tries to erase your heritage. There’s a sense of deep anxiety to the mechanically rigid Joy Division style bassline, the drums skitter uneasily and there’s a trembling fear to frontman Grian Chatten’s voice as it slowly rises in intensity to the climax of the song. A remarkable opener to a remarkable album.

Annie DiRusso — Infinite Jest When the dams of this song break in all of their reverby garage rock glory, its an unmatched moment of fantastic cathartic release… but the build up to get there is just as good.

Orville Peck — Kalahari Down I’m not generally a fan of country, but theres some intangible element to Orville Peck’s work that just gets to me. It’s like… it’s clear he’s doing country as a ‘character bit’ but it’s not pastichey, its not played for comedy, its sincere and honest. Apparently the artist behind Orville Peck used to be in a punk band, and I think that punk approach to music comes across in spirit if not sound here. Anyway, I’m rambling… this is just a brilliantly crafted, emotionally honest song and I love it.

Nova Twins — K.M.B. Nova Twins channel a mix of Destiny’s Child and their own inimitable sound into a gleefully violent revenge fantasy.

Ezra Furman — Lilac and Black My love for Ezra Furmans music is well known, her journey of gender identity has closely tracked with my own and her music has been a constant source of comfort to remind myself I’m not alone at my darkest moments. I needed this rallying cry — this call to action — this year and as always, Ezra delivered.

The Hellp — meant2be This is just another fun one, I’m a sucker for somebody yelling WOO through a vocal distorter and this song brings me a lot of uncomplicated joy.

Taylor Swift — Midnight Rain Ever since Lorde’s Pure Heroine turned the pop world on its head in 2013 (wow, I feel old), there’s an argument to be made that the slow Antanoff-ication of pop music is a bad thing. But then it will turn out a track like this and we have to ask ourselves, is that really such a bad thing?

Alice Longyu Gao — MONK Okay, so you know earlier when I said that Hurrikan may be the wildest thing you’d hear this year? I lied.

L.S. Dunes — Permanent Rebellion Emo is well and truly back baby! Featuring members of MCR, Circa Survive, Thursday and Coheed and Cambria, L.S. Dunes is the supergroup of my formative musical years and if this track is anything to go by they are not fucking around.

Bob Vylan — Pretty Songs Bob Vylan are arguably the most important band in the UK right now and no punches are being pulled here. Pretty Songs is as straightforward as punk gets, a simple message, we’re here to fight for what we believe in.

The Garden — Puerta de Limosina Puerta starts off with what I affectionately like to call a “the drummer fell down a flight of stairs” intro and things just get more chaotic from there. This one won’t be for everybody, but I revel in its insanity. Also, the bass tone, delicious.

Ibraki ft. Gerard Way — Ronin Gerard Way doing black metal vocals? Yes please. Ibraki is the project of Trivium frontman Matt Heafy, who can be heard putting in tremendous effort to not be totally overshadowed by the aforementioned Way here. Even outside of the phenomenal vocal performances, Ronin is a formidable track, a 9 minute long black metal epic with guitar work from Emperor’s Ihsahn, telling the story of an ancient japanese warrior bent on vengance.

Paledusk ft. Hideyoshi — Slay!! Slay!! defies genre with such reckless abandon it seems pointless to write a description. I love the jazzy guitar lick that crops up throughout this track before getting absolutely bulldozed by some fresh new idea. Its impossible to guess where the song could go from moment to moment and I could wish for no greater entertainment.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Perfume Genius — Spitting Off The Edge of the World Karen O has long been one of my favourite vocalists, but I never truly clicked with the musical direction Yeah Yeah Yeahs went after their debut. This though, this i really like. That soft, analog Perfume Genius sound mixes perectly with Karens vocals. Beauty within doom. A perfect soundtrack to the end times.

Johnny Booth — Storyteller God damn, this slaps. Hard. If you like Dillinger Escape Plan, you’ll love this. Breakneck, hundred riffs a minute, mathcore. It’s exciting, it’s energetic, and it feels so wonderfully fresh.

My Chemical Romance — Foundations of Decay Here it is boys. The big one, the reunion we’ve all been waiting for. I didnt know if new MCR was anything we were ever going to get and even if we did, if it would be something worth having. Let me tell you, IT IS WORTH HAVING. The lofi production speaks more to their debut than the more commercial sounds of their later works, its been leveled as a criticism of the track by some but personally works for me. This is the sound of a band rediscovering, re-igniting their flame in the best way possible, I cant wait to see what’s next from the my chem boys.

Ithaca — The Future Says Thank You If you haven’t been watching Ithaca up to this point, its time to start watching. They’ve probably been one of your favourite metal musicians favourite bands since the release of their debut in 2019, and 2022 was their year. Their knack for blending a killer hook with absolutely brutal genre blending metal violence is second to none.

Paramore — The News In case this list hadn’t quite made it clear yet, 2022 was the year to herald the return of emo. Not only with the reformation of My Chem, but with new material from Paramore. The news recaptures the angst iin Hayley Williams vocals present in their earlier work while throwing in a more current decade twist to keep things modern. If i have one complaint here, I just wish that the production leaned sligjtly heavier, it’s a minor gripe though.

Pupil Slicer & Cara Drolshagen — Thermal Runaway Pupil Fuckin Slicer. Holy shit. Just when I thought there was no way they could top their 2021 debut, Mirrors, they release this absolute monster of a track. Featuring guest vocals from The Armed’s Cara Drolshagen, Thermal Runaway smashes everything before it out of contention. Special mention to that satisfying af bass solo before everything descends into total brutality in the breakdown.

Let’s Eat Grandma — Two Ribbons Two ribbons is a song about grief, its about how grief affects relationships, its about a desire for connection, its about mending things that have been broken for too long. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Black Dresses — u_u2 Devi McCallon and Ada Rook continue to make some of the ,ost uncomprising and relentlessly distressing music possible under the Black Dresses name. u_u2 is a song that bristles with the internal torture of gender dysphoria. It’s aggressive, confrontational and sounds incredible.

Sam Smith, Kim Petras & Nova Twins — Unholy (remix) I wanted to like Unholy, I really did. A hit collaboration between a trans and non-binary artist? Kim Petras in the charts? Of course I wish I could stan. But the original song just felt toothless to me, I needed it to have more bite. Then along came Nova Twins with a veritable treasure trove of teeth (this metaphor got away from me). Anyway, Nova Twins inject the energy that was always missing from Unholy for me, and now I cant stop listening to it.

The HIRS Collective & Shirley Manson — We’re Still Here “This collective, a version of therapy, for ourselves and anyone who feels the need to scream their lungs out for one more day of living. We’re still here.” A-fucking-men to that.

Architects — When We Were Young Architects’ “The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Heart” was met with a mixed reception upon release, but I was there for the album launch show and let me tell you, the new stuff goes hard live. Especially this track, the almost Refused like punk energy at the heart of the track propels the band into a different tone from their previoous work but its one they suit surprisingly well.

Muse — You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween “Halloween” asks the question, what if Matt Belllamy listened to a shit tonne of Ghost, the answer is pure camp delight.

Poly-Math — Zenith What’s a top 50 list without some chaotically dark unhinged jazzy math rock to close things out? Fortunately Brighton-based mainstays for this particular niche have us well and truly covered. The sax work by Chris Olsen on Zenith is of particular note as it spirals off into total insanity in the final movements.

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