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.
(#15) After releasing a pair of acclaimed albums (Two Hands and U.F.O.F.) in 2019, Brooklyn indie rockers Big Thief made fans wait a bit longer for album number five. But Dragon New Warm Mountain made up for the wait with quantity and quality: Not only is it a double album (with 20 tracks), it matches their career-high Metascore.
“This record sounds like four musicians coming together, telepathically attuned to each other’s ideas, reveling in the strange mystery that unfolds when they play together under the same roof—a fragile sanctuary from the collapsing world outside.” —Paste
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