The 40 Best Albums of 2022
The gallery on this page contains Metacritic's list of the 40 best-reviewed albums of 2022, ranked by Metascore. This list only includes new albums receiving at least 7 reviews from professional critics.
Otherwise, all full-length studio albums (or mixtapes) released between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022 are eligible, though reissues, live albums, box sets and other compilations are excluded. (Those excluded titles are included in a separate list at the end of the gallery.) Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding based on scores as of December 19, 2022.
(#4) It may not quite be the best-reviewed album of the year—or even of Beyoncé's career ( Lemonade scored a point higher)—but Renaissance is simply another stellar outing from one of the planet's greatest pop artists. Her first proper studio album in six years was another commercial hit and collected a year-high nine Grammy nominations, making Beyoncé the most-nominated artist in Grammy history (in a tie with her husband Jay-Z). The album is also dominating critics' year-end top 10 lists.
“'Renaissance' is miles ahead of the competition. ... It’s like a carefully curated library, this whole thing, with an astonishing depth of knowledge regarding rhythm and harmony that puts Beyoncé as an arranger and bandleader on a level with Prince and Stevie Wonder.” —Los Angeles Times
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