The Freshman 15: 2022's Best Debut Albums

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 8, 2022

Next week, we'll release our final overall list of this year's best overall albums. But our ongoing best of 2022 coverage continues right now with a look at this year's top newcomers in music.

Above is our list of the 15 best-reviewed debut albums of 2022, ranked by Metascore. Note that albums must have at least 7 reviews—and be a full-length LP (or mixtape) rather than an EP—to be eligible for inclusion. Albums are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding based on scores as of December 6, 2022.

4 of 16 photo by BMG

83Cheat Codes by Danger Mouse and Black Thought

(#12) Superproducer Danger Mouse and The Roots frontman Black Thought finally released their collaborative debut album in August after first beginning work on the project over 15 years ago. Their sample-heavy Cheat Codes also features guest appearances by Joey Bada$$, MF Doom, Run the Jewels, A$AP Rocky, and more.

“While Cheat Codes sometimes walks the tight-rope of being another installment in [Black Thought's] Streams of Thought series, it’s still a lesson in supreme lyricism and pristine production that should have any aspiring MC/producer combo aspiring to get on their level.” —HipHopDX

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