The 40 Best Albums of 2022

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 21, 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.

23 of 25 photo by Capitol

BONUS: Best reissues and compilations

We excluded reissues, box sets, EPs, live albums, and compilations from our main list. But here are 2022's highest-scoring releases that fall into any of those categories.

(#1)
100 Revolver Special Edition (Super Deluxe) [Box Set] by The Beatles

(#2)
92 Against the Odds 1974-1982 [Box Set] by Blondie

(#3)
92 Divine Symmetry: The Journey to Hunky Dory [Box Set] by David Bowie

(#4)
89 Live at the Fillmore, 1997 by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

(#5)
86 Live at the El Mocambo by The Rolling Stones

(#6)
84 Citizen Kane Jr. Blues 1974 (Live at the Bottom Line) by Neil Young

(#7)
83 Words & Music, May 1965 by Lou Reed

(#8)
82 Pulse of the Early Brain: Switched On, Vol. 5 by Stereolab

(#9)
82 Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal by Pavement

(#10)
81 Antidawn [EP] by Burial

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