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.

24 of 25 photo by Rhino

BONUS: Biggest disappointments

While most out-and-out terrible albums don't get enough reviews to obtain a Metascore (if they even get reviewed at all), here are 2022's worst-reviewed albums receiving a minimum of 7 reviews from professional critics:

(#1)
47 18 by Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp

(#2)
51 Come Home the Kids Miss You by Jack Harlow

(#3)
55 Mainstream Sellout by Machine Gun Kelly

(#4)
58 Dope Don't Sell Itself by 2 Chainz

(#5)
60 Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 2 by Calvin Harris

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