Joey’s Top Ten Songs of 2023

It’s rather disturbing to think that we’re less than a year out from seeing half-decade lists. I write contracts for my job and keep seeing “1/1/25,” and it really doesn’t seem real. Seems like a fake year. I often feel like there’s no way it’s been almost four years since mid-March of 2020, but at the same time so much has happened that only four years seems fortunate.

I’m just not ready for 2024. It’s going to be so mentally taxing to go through another presidential election. I finally moved to Minneapolis at the start of October, and almost the entire time since then, the IDF has been flattening Gaza.

Snow didn’t finally stick in the Cities until probably December 30, and while I really don’t like the snow and my mood’s been better, it does feel all the time like we are swirling down into something terrible.

But there is still music! The year in music was okay. Most people liked it better than I did. But even in a down year, there’s so much music that the absolute cream of the crop is just tops blooby. So once more we return to this. Happy new year. Perhaps if we say it enough, it’ll come true.

Ineligible But Worthy

“The Ick”
by Panic Shack

Panic Shack is awesome. Hopefully they’re about to produce a great debut this year, but I missed 2022’s Baby Shack EP, which peaks with single “The Ick,” which capitalizes on the recently popular phrase by having lead singer Sarah Harvey take great exception to a date who puts the milk in first and another who shushes her in the cinema. I’ll admit I’m a little curious what Harvey did to earn her shush in the first place, but her ensuing tantrum about it is one of the best punk vocal moments I’ve heard in a damn while.

“Tennessee Orange”
by Megan Moroney

It probably says something that the other best country song of the decade, Carly Pearce’s “Next Girl,” was also something I only got around to hearing when its album released the next year (perhaps that something is about my ability to authoritatively call something “country song of the decade”). Well, this song is quite the opposite (or simply about an earlier stage in the same cycle). Moroney’s softer vocal is just right for a love song, and it turns out that college football is the ideal vehicle for a modern Romeo and Juliet tale. My favorite moments are the bridge (“I’m learning the words to ‘Old Rocky Top'”) and that final kicker: “I still want the Dogs to win.”

Top Ten

10. “Shakira: BZRP Music Sessions #53”
by Bizarrap & Shakira

It’s already pretty random that Shakira scored her first top ten hit in sixteen years with, as the title denotes, an entry in a YouTube series, but that it’s the best diss track since “The Story of Adidon” is a development no one could have expected, though it makes sense given her personal life. Her recentish split from Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué is the context, and while it’s fun to listen to her roast him (and his new girlfriend) throughout the song, the success of “Music Sessions #53” is more because it’s all about Shakira asserting her power and value. And hopefully that attitude persists. It would be great if this was a sign of a resurgence for her.

9. “The Window”
by Ratboys

The heart of Ratboys’ breakthrough The Window is its towering title track, a heartbreaking song about how COVID kept frontwoman Julia Steiner’s grandparents just apart in her grandmother’s final moments. Not only was the sixty-year marriage cut short by the pandemic, but they were robbed of the proper dignity that had usually been allowed in those last days. But “The Window” doesn’t linger on this injustice and treats the window as matter-of-fact, no time for worrying about the particulars. Steiner’s affected vocal elevates “The Window,” and it climaxes with “Sue, Sue, you’ll always be my girl” repeated on the bridge. In 2020, I said “marjorie” was a perfect anthem for a year when we lost too many grandparents to COVID. With “The Window,” unfortunately, a fantastic song literally about that actually exists.

8. “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”
by Chappell Roan

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is largely about Chappell Roan embracing her queerness, specifically her love for women. There are plenty of great songs about this on the album, but “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” is easily the bluntest, swearing off “all these hyper mega bummer boys” (in case you were confused about exactly what she was saying in the chorus). The evisceration of this man in the first verse actually reminds me of “The Ick” above (“not overdramatic, I know what I want” might as well be that song reduced to a single line), and the chorus is absolutely enormous, rendering “SGUMG” the banger of the year. Here’s hoping it warms up the Olivia fans in the spring. Speaking of.

7. “bad idea right?”
by Olivia Rodrigo

What originally came off as a pretty weird second single quickly embedded itself deep into my brain. “bad idea right?” is Olivia Rodrigo’s most infectious song yet, and it’s made more insidious by her most inadvisable moment also sounding like the most fun she’s ever had. Like, yeah, maybe two people can reconnect. But it’s fairly clear that’s not really what’s being proposed here. It’s a bad idea, fucking duh, and Olivia knows it, but most importantly, she really loves it. We hear her delight turn her talk-singing nearly into a whistle by “but I really can’t remember when,” and her brain goes “ah” so hard by the end that instead of a third verse or final refrain, we get a weird Jack White-esque guitar solo.

6. “Shit Talk”
by Sufjan Stevens

Man. I mean, first things first, if you haven’t read Sufjan Stevens’ Instagram post dedicating Javelin to his late partner Evans Richardson, do that. And then try to listen to this, his most glorious composition ever (credit to Bryce Dessner on guitar and Mina Tindle on backing vocals), the sort of climax albums seldom reach and usually never even aspire to. I wince at trying to guess what all is implied by Sufjan’s two verses. “I will always love you, but I cannot live with you.” “Our romantic second chance is dead.” The one clear theme is that obviously bickering is pointless when mortality is in the room, but “Shit Talk” is still hinting at further pain beyond even the death of a partner. But even so, “Shit Talk” feels very clear when it hits “hold me closely.” The ears perk up, the eyes go wide, the ducts fly open.

5. “Super Shy”
by NewJeans

Longtime readers will know that K-pop is not generally something I’ve made myself hip to. So please realize I’m not holding up “Super Shy” as the only K-pop single in years that’s worthy of one of these features, but instead as a come-to-Jesus moment (and no, I’m not given any credit for already loving “Gee”). Anyway! “Super Shy” feels distinct. It’s airy, breezy, lightweight. Its backing track has propulsive little video game sounds. Actually, that all sounds kind of like another song still to come on this list. But that song comes from an artist who, despite it feeling like she broke through this year, has not had much additional resounding chart success. That other song is lightning striking. NewJeans, a recent development in the K-pop hierarchy that you will absolutely need to pay attention to, tries the sound on in a more real-deal pop machine vibe, and the mopey-on-paper “you don’t even know my name, do ya?” hook sounds more like confidence. Is the consequence of shyness that this guy has to wait a minute? So A/Bing this with Steve Lacy, my belief that NewJeans are authentically super shy is rather shaken. But authenticity is for losers, and “Super Shy” is a fresh context for these enduring concepts.

4. “namesake”
by Noname

Look, this is a pretty good song for a lot of it. Then Noname brings up the NFL and Jay-Z. And look, yeah, the NFL’s promotion of the military industrial complex is a pretty fire thing to bring up in a rap song. And yeah, sure, fuck Jay-Z, not really a shocking guy to hate on, he’s pretty content to be a punchline. But Noname brings in Rihanna. She brings in Beyoncé. And she brings in Kendrick. These are three of the most beloved names in music, and it’s not really just that she disrespects them. Noname makes them sound small. Unimportant. And she is hypnotically gleeful about it, her smile bouncing around the end of this song like the Cheshire Cat’s. You’ll see “propaganda for the military complex” quoted in a lot of blurbs about this song, but for me it’s more about the way she hits those syllables.

Also, that bit about “the same gun that shot Samir in the West Bank” hits a little harder since release.

3. “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2”
by PinkPantheress & Ice Spice

This is about the most you’ll catch me stretching my strict year-of-release rules. Around half of “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” was already figured out in the November 2022 release “Boy’s a liar.” That part one actually peaked at #38 on the UK charts but didn’t appear on the Hot 100. You’ll note that the difference between a modest chart success and the out-of-nowhere smash of 2023 (non-country division) is Ice Spice. Her more self-assured verse contrasts PinkPantheress’s more devastated sincerity: “Bet he blowin’ her back/Thinkin’ ’bout me ’cause he know that it’s fat.” It’s just a crazy moment of pop alchemy that hasn’t just worked, but worked wonders.

PS: I might actually like this song better if it was like it sounds and PP is telling us “that boy’s a Leo,” tapping into the recent online astrology craze. That said, I have no idea if the song’s subject is actually exhibiting Leo-like behavior.

PPS: “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” is the second song in the Joey Daniewicz canon featuring two women who finally realize some guy doesn’t care about them, the other being what I called the #1 song of 2020, Bree Runway and Yung Baby Tate’s “DAMN DANIEL.” Despite being about basically the same thing, the two songs could not possibly be more different.

2. “Not Strong Enough”
by boygenius

“Not Strong Enough”‘s first verse (courtesy Phoebe) introduces a pretty standard “running into poor mental health in the standard everyplace” setup but pulls the rug out in the second (courtesy Julien): “I lied! I am/Just lowering your expectations.” It’s a delightful betrayal in the moment, but it raises a pretty knotty question about the possibility of taking space giving way to lack of accountability in a partner. And while it’s unclear if this thought is turned squarely inward or outward, that epic, repeated bridge line, “Always an angel, never a god,” hints at a gendered dynamic. That bridge and the finale (courtesy Lucy) feel cleansing, like a heightened moment of awareness (“there’s something in the static, I think I’ve been having revelations”). “Go home alone” is framed as a new development, perhaps the manipulator from the second refrain has been dropped.

Or, I dunno. That’s what I got from this song. Thank you for humoring me. You might have gotten something else entirely. It’s a tough one to penetrate. I really just think the guitars and harmonies hit in just the perfect way to totally justify the boygenius project, which has somehow massively raised the profile of each individual artist. My favorite moment in their well-deserved banner year.

1. “Chosen to Deserve”
by Wednesday

Couples aren’t really obligated to report to each other if they, say, were present for a friend overdosing on Benadryl when they were a teenager, but Karly Hartzman clearly holds some shame she’d be relieved to unload in her relationship. But there’s still no doubt in her framing. Her partner was chosen. She’s saying “thank God” in the same breath she’s remembering pissing in the street.

And if this is the extent of Hartzman’s rap sheet, she’s right not to worry. Still, it’s all a little gross, right? The Benadryl, the piss, the…sex underneath the dogwood tree sounds almost romantic without the details about the cul-de-sac and the SUV. And that she teaches at the Sunday school during all of this?

The Benadryl verse is what really stays with me. First of all, it sounds like a pretty pathetic way to get high. Secondly, Hartzman’s voice is scary, like the way she rises into “he had to get his stomach pumped.” But I really linger on the way she sings “they took him,” something about Hartzman’s delivery setting in my mind that her friend was practically a bag of meat before medical intervention.

“Chosen To Deserve” is the best song of the year not just because of its novel concept and vivid origin stories, but because Hartzman’s vocal delivery slowly crawls over every detail and, it must be mentioned, that guitar riff is incredible. There has been absolutely nothing this year that I’ve enjoyed listening to more than those meaty guitar bursts, and that takes “Chosen To Deserve” from a great song to my favorite of the year.

The Next 15

11. Alex Lahey: “You’ll Never Get Your Money Back”
12. Chappell Roan: “Casual”
13. Olivia Rodrigo: “get him back!”
14. Olivia Rodrigo: “love is embarrassing”
15. Water From Your Eyes: “Barley”
16. Troye Sivan: “Rush”
17. Kylie Minogue: “Padam Padam”
18. Maxine Ashley: “Somebody Else”
19. Emperor X: “An Objection to the Location of the Entrance to the Girard Ave. ACME (for SEPTA and PRA)”
20. Maisie Peters: “Watch”
21. Sufjan Stevens: “Goodbye Evergreen”
22. Megan Moroney: “Sleep On My Side”
23. Victoria Monét: “On My Mama”
24. Armand Hammer (ft. El-P): “The Gods Must Be Crazy”
25. Carly Rae Jepsen: “Psychedelic Switch”

Honorable Mentions

Ava Max: “One Of Us”
Big Thief: “Vampire Empire”
Billie Eilish: “What Was I Made For?”
billy woods & Kenny Segal (ft. Danny Brown): “Year Zero”
Björk (ft. Rosalía): “oral”
Blondshell: “Salad”
Jeff Rosenstock: “FUTURE IS DUMB”
Maisie Peters: “Lost The Breakup”
Mannequin Pussy: “I Got Heaven”
Mitski: “My Love Mine All Mine”
Nourished By Time: “Daddy”
YAOSOBI: “IDOL”
100 gecs: “Frog on the floor”
100 gecs: “I got my tooth removed”

And as always, here are Spotify playlists to go with this feature, first of all the songs listed and then of just the top ten.

Joey’s Top Fifteen TV Shows of 2022

I know I tend to stick to ten with these, but I was too heartbroken by the things I’d have had to leave off this list that I’ve expanded to fifteen. This is in part because I watched a crapload of TV this year – I watched well north of forty shows from this year – but also because 2022 wildly surpasses 2020 and 2021 to the point where it felt unfair to feature 2021’s #10 but not 2022’s #15.

Before I begin, let me mention a few shows that wrapped things up in 2022. The Expanse finished its run with two episodes this year, and while it ended well it’s a shame they’re not continuing to the final third of the source material. Station Eleven and Yellowjackets each had three episodes this year, with Station Eleven finishing its limited run spectacularly and Yellowjackets setting things up for its return this coming March. Ranking of Kings narrowly missed this list wrapping up its fantastic first season, but I mostly wanted to mention it because its 2022 OP is so cool. Check that out.

Finally, 2021 made me think that the future of television would be defined by the miniseries. Then 2022 proceeded to have almost zero miniseries. Go figure! Long live the long-running series.

This is the last of my 2022 lists. Thanks so much for reading. If you haven’t, be sure to check out my top songs, albums, and TV episodes of the year. See you next year for the next round.

15. The Rehearsal
season 1
6 episodes
stream: HBO Max

The Rehearsal‘s first episode, in which Nathan Fielder helps a guy have an uncomfortable conversation through extravagantly realistic rehearsals, is enthralling, but The Rehearsal quickly pivots to deeper scenarios. The show can feel a little stuck in the mud with Fielder’s parental rehearsal, making all side plots feel greatly refreshing. But the A-plot still goes to some pretty confounding places, and the finale properly interrogates the ethics of the show even if the announcement of a second season might cheapen that a bit. Problems aside, there is nothing like this show, not even close, and I’m fascinated to see how it manages to disappear up its own ass even further next time around.

14. The Owl House
seasons 2 & 3
22 episodes (41 total, 12 in 2022)
stream: Disney+

Finally. For so long now, The Owl House, essentially Gravity Falls if it was an isekai into a wizarding world, has been promising pretty big things, and while it’s been a joy to watch it chip along, it’s withheld its deepest secrets and taken great care to not reveal the obviously dark places it was sure to go. No longer. The Owl House has finally lined up all its dominos and revealed its endgame. It’s just a shame that Disney Channel has contracted its final act. In related news, things continue to get gayer.

13. For All Mankind
season 3
10 episodes (30 total)
stream: Apple TV+

Here we go. This is surely one of the great things they had in mind when they made For All Mankind, a piece of speculative fiction about a space race that never ended. This is where its historical fiction crashes into its science fiction and sees a three-way race to Mars. Though the show has sometimes lacked the perverse delight in twisting history found in its first season, For All Mankind‘s third season is easily its most fun and contains its most brazen historical twist yet.

12. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
season 3
13 episodes (37 total)
stream: Crunchyroll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEb4CQ7DBrs

Kaguya has spent the last couple seasons establishing itself as one of the strongest still-running anime, but its third season – subtitled Ultra Romantic – elevates the show from great to classic. This show, a romantic comedy where the leads are engaged in a Death Note-like game of cat mouse, can only get away with its bullshit for so long without meaningfully rolling the ball forward. Kaguya‘s epic school festival arc rolls that ball just brilliantly, though it remains to be seen how its hook can survive such a progression. Manga readers promise that Kaguya will remain a classic up until its end.

11. Mob Psycho 100
season 3
12 episodes (37 total)
stream: Crunchyroll

Though One-Punch Man got more eyeballs, Mob Psycho 100 has proven to be mangaka ONE’s masterpiece, its premise fuller and its adaptation more wholly realized. Awkward junior high schooler Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama has the most powerful psychic powers in the world, and instead of seeking to conquer his talent and build his life through that God-given path, he instead chooses to work on his weaknesses, working hard to improve his body and gain social ability. Mob‘s third and final season continues to dazzle with its unique perspective on what it means to really work on oneself. And quite appropriately, the climaxes of its lengthy arcs are less wowing than the ending of a humble, two-episode story. Mob Psycho 100 ends its run as one of the most significant anime of the last ten years.

Also, just look at that intro. One of the finest I’ve ever seen.

10. Smiling Friends
season 1
9 episodes
stream: HBO Max

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_Ii6IxCJI

Netflix import Tuca & Bertie aside, it feels like Adult Swim’s animated comedy canon hasn’t had any new entries since Rick & Morty premiered… almost ten years ago??? But unlike Rick & Morty‘s high concept Dan Harmon bullshit, Smiling Friends brings Adult Swim back to its basics: realistically awkward conversation, a creative approach that suggests drug-use either on your part or the writers’, and casually-employed insanity. The childrens’ show premise in which our heroes are part of an organization that sets out to put a smile on unhappy faces of course disintegrates quickly and is a fairly loose setup. Smiling Friends is most impressive as a love letter to the age of internet animation that bred it: Newgrounds’ Tom Fulp, David Firth of Salad Fingers fame, and Mike Stoklasa of RedLetterMedia are just a few of the internet personalities that have voice roles in Smiling Friends, and it’s an overdue reminder of the type of show that couldn’t really exist without Adult Swim around.

9. Industry
season 2
8 episodes (16 total)
stream: HBO Max

The hook of Industry‘s first season was that scores of recent graduates, among them our four heroes, were undergoing a competitive intern program at a premier investment bank in London. So Industry‘s second season sees them on the other end and has to find a new way to impress. Each of our main characters is put into a far different context, most notably in Harper’s pursuit of a major, eccentric hedge fund manager as a client that tests both her abilities and her loyalties. It’s hard not to compare Industry to Succession despite the difference in both tone and financial situation of its characters, but the main bit is that Industry‘s craft is around the quality of Succession‘s, no small feat. It’s not quite there, but Industry does provide it sturdy competition for the best show on television built around money and business. In part because its characters, though less monstrously harmful, are every bit as depraved and sick.

8. The Bear
season 1
8 episodes
stream: Hulu

The Bear doesn’t really have a hook. After his brother commits suicide, Carmy tries to use his culinary talent to make something of the Chicago beef restaurant his brother left him. There’s a lot to work with there, but don’t be surprised if The Bear doesn’t grab you right away. Expect the show to win you over on execution, especially in its wonderful final two episodes. The Bear clearly has things to say about the culture of cooking, which makes it very cruel how forcefully it makes you feel the anxiety of that work.

7. Reservation Dogs
season 2
10 episodes (18 total)
stream: Hulu

Though Reservation Dogs arrived last year surprisingly fully-formed, season two came rocking even more freedom and confidence. Our four Oklahoman reservation heroes find themselves in more interesting spots than before: the world’s creepiest man picks up hitchhiking Elora, Cheese is thrown into a Kafkaesque foster home nightmare, Willie Jack gets fed up with dubious decolonization lessons from a city-slicking “Young Elder,” and Bear…gets a job? And as the shows prophecy of California is finally fulfilled, it’s striking how easy things feel for Reservation Dogs. In an era where the best TV comedies have gotten a bit artsier and become a bit more dramatically focused, Reservation Dogs is at the vanguard.

6. Pachinko
season 1
10 episodes
stream: Apple TV+

Pachinko is the story of Korean Kim Sunja’s immigration to Japan in the 1920s and the lives of her family for the next two generations, and the show’s strength in depicting each time period reverberates. Though the show is at its strongest when depicting the Japanese occupation of Korea, this bolsters its 1989 story of Sunja’s grandson trying to convince a woman his grandmother’s age to sell her home to a large Japanese corporation. Pachinko is a wonder, and though I haven’t read its source material, it feels clear that season one leaves a lot on the table for what’s next.

5. Atlanta
seasons 3 & 4
20 episodes (41 total)
stream: Hulu

It’s a shocker to think that Atlanta is definitively over. Unlike other shows on this list that ended in 2022, it wasn’t apparent that this would be it until its fourth season was surprise-announced as its last. But it’s not surprising in retrospect, it had been four years since its fantastic second season, and a full quarter of its final twenty episodes – yes, this year’s offerings doubled the show’s length – shift focus entirely away from its characters. So while Earn, Alfred, Darius, and Van travel Europe, we also see a horror story about a black boy fostered by two white women, some white guy suffering the repercussions of real actual reparations, and a white-passing high school senior taking a flamethrower to his school when he’s denied a college scholarship meant for black teens. Meanwhile, season four takes everyone back to the titular city and gives us some final time with everyone. Atlanta goes out as arguably the most essential and imaginative show of the last decade.

4. Severance
season 1
9 episodes
stream: Apple TV+

Imagine if you could separate your consciousness so you were entirely oblivious to your work self and your work self knew nothing about who you were outside the office. How would your “innie” feel about this reality it did not choose? Severance‘s premise is dynamite, but just so harrowing, and its first season’s nine episodes are psychically brutal. The offices of Lumon Industries are instantly one of the most iconic prisons in all of fiction, and it’s hard not to shake the feeling that something like this is happening to you, too.

Though I liked some shows better, it’s hard to deny that Severance was the show that defined 2022.

3. Barry
season 3
8 episodes (24 total)
stream: HBO Max

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6AS0zzfGM

Barry was once a show about a hitman who tried to escape his dark past through the joy of acting class. No longer. Barry‘s core relationships have all been a little too disturbed, and through the first half of the season it feels eerie and alarming to feel so disconnected from what once was. Then the show becomes all things: as suspenseful and explosive as Breaking Bad, as artfully contemplative as The Sopranos, and still somehow one of the funniest shows on TV in a style all its own. Its fourth season will be its last, but as with Succession, Barry‘s third season has become a defining moment where the show lifts from one of the best things on TV to outright modern classic status.

2. Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
season 2
10 episodes (20 total)
stream: HBO Max

I actually wasn’t even excited for Primal‘s second season. Season one was a great showcase of Genndy Tartakovsky doing his silent storytelling even more stripped down than in Samurai Jack, but despite the finale promising something a bit more, I thought its ten episodes, all pretty self-contained, did the job well enough.

The second season’s first episode is really more of the same. But from then on Primal becomes an entirely new animal. Season one was all about caveman Spear and T-Rex Fang, each recently widowed, teaming up to kick some ass in a brutal world openly hostile to their survival. Season two is about love, revenge, saving lives, saving souls, Gods, evolution, slavery, civilization, death, and birth. With Primal‘s second – and presumably final this time – season, Genndy Tartakovsky once again establishes himself as one of the greatest working storytellers in animation. We can only pray that his huge creative deal with WB survived the merger from hell with Discovery.

1. Better Call Saul
season 6
13 episodes (63 total)
stream: Netflix (eventually 🏴‍☠️)

Better Call Saul may not have the dynamite premise of Breaking Bad, and Jimmy McGill’s known destiny might remove a layer of suspense from the proceedings. But Better Call Saul stands as a near-equal to its revolutionary predecessor for two reasons: 1. It plays with your knowledge and makes you suffer even worse than if you didn’t know and 2. Much of the team behind Breaking Bad is simply more learned now at how to make good television. Better Call Saul‘s sixth and final season is the creative team showing off. You’re reminded that even though it’s really not essential for this show, Better Call Saul is the best-looking long-running series there is, the knack for cinematography simply unparalleled on television aside from 18-hour-film Twin Peaks: The Return. The writers creatively approach the need to conclude the stories of both Jimmy McGill and Gene Takovic. Better Call Saul continues to be the most well-acted show since Breaking Bad, with Odenkirk, Seehorn, Mando, Esposito, Banks, and Dalton all giving way to unexpected MVP Patrick Fabian.

Better Call Saul‘s unique approach to its finale is one I’m still processing. It always had a hard job in front of it, by design serving mostly as prequel but also partly sequel. But I think its ending is at least as successful as Breaking Bad‘s great-but-not-all-time-great conclusion. But that’s more than enough to count Better Call Saul‘s sixth season as a wild success, a successor that rose to the occasion set by the titan preceding it and the greatest drama of the last ten years.

Honorable Mentions

Abbott Elementary, seasons 1 & 2
Amphibia, season 3
Andor, season 1
Blue Lock, season 1
Bob’s Burgers, seasons 12 & 13
Bocchi the Rock!, season 1
Chainsaw Man, season 1
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, limited series
Dead End: Paranormal Park, seasons 1 & 2
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, limited series
Hacks, season 2
Heartstopper, season 1
Pantheon, season 1
Ranking of Kings, season 1
Russian Doll, season 2
Stranger Things, season 4
The White Lotus, season 2
Tuca & Bertie, season 3
Undone, season 2

Joey’s Top Ten TV Episodes of 2022

Honestly, 2022 was such a strong year of television that it’s alarming to think of what little we had in 2020 and 2021. Clearly a lot of the best stuff was saved for the first full year of post-lockdown, and while I’ll celebrate the shows themselves tomorrow, here were the individual episodes that most stood out to me this year.

10. “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”
Euphoria
season 2, episode 5
stream: HBO Max

I’ve mostly found myself poo-pooing Euphoria‘s hype train. Though immaculately crafted, its plot is an absolute train wreck and it just generally leaves me feeling fairly gross. Before Euphoria turned in one of the most inept season finales in recent memory, “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird” was a visceral dive fully back into the plot that really keeps this show moving: Rue’s fight with addiction. Rue frantically running around town to avoid further addressing her struggle is enormously successful and for a moment justifies the large platform this show has found itself.

It does, of course, commit the sin of kicking off the hype cycle of Maddy vs Cassie, HBO’s second Cleganebowl, to put it unkindly.

9. “Shadow of Fate”
Primal
season 2, episode 2
stream: HBO Max

Up until this very episode, Primal had been a string of one-offs, with only very occasional gestures towards continuity. Its second season’s first episode felt like the language-speaker Spear and Fang met would only alter the locations of the action, seeing them struggle while crossing the sea. Then, “Shadow of Fate” proceeds to do absolutely everything. Fang finds herself in a relationship with a red T-Rex while Spear finds himself being taken in by a moderately more advanced civilization. The two plots collide, and it’s immediately apparent how much more complicated the emotions of this show would be from this point forward.

Also Considered: “The Red Mist” (season 2, episode 4), “The Primal Theory” (season 2, episode 5)

8. “The Fielder Method”
The Rehearsal
season 1, episode 4
stream: HBO Max

Nathan gets away from his fake household to teach a class on his method, but in trying to be a better teacher, he finds himself tumbling down a Kaufmanesque rabbit hole. When he returns “home,” he demands that his relationship with his son take on a gritty realism. Two of The Rehearsal‘s most memorable turns are both in this one episode.

7. “Nippy”
Better Call Saul
season 6, episode 10
stream: Netflix (eventually 🏴‍☠️)

There are a lot of ways to go with this slot given Better Call Saul‘s stellar final season, so I’ve chosen the episode most unlike the others: Gene Takovic’s black and white heist in a closed mall. This episode might have been frustrating given how little time they had to still wind things down for the show (only three episodes came after), but this was great showing off by a team that can’t help but make good television, culminating in the most stressful episode of the year in one that had Severance and The Bear. Though Gene sets this heist in motion to satiate the man who’s recognized him, it’s clear that the process sees him slipping back into the man he spent this series becoming.

Also Considered: “Rock and Hard Place” (season 6, episode 3), “Plan and Execution” (season 6, episode 7), “Saul Gone” (season 6, episode 13)

6. “Three Slaps”
Atlanta
season 3, episode 1
stream: Hulu

With “Teddy Perkins,” Atlanta began the trend that would come to define its third season: shoving the main story aside to just be bold. Inspired by the Hart family murders, “Three Slaps” follows young Laquareeous as he accidentally tumbles into the foster system. The white lesbian couple that adopts him puts him and their other black adoptees to work and feeds them like shit. Things deteriorate, and without getting too far into it, Atlanta makes the climactic scene with the van almost operatic. A dizzying episode of television.

Also Considered: “Crank Dat Killer” (season 4, episode 6), “The Goof Who Sat By the Door” (season 4, episode 8)

5. “Chapter 7”
Pachinko
season 1, episode 7
stream: Apple TV+

Though its 1989 plot dovetails so well in its fourth episode, Pachinko‘s strongest mode is when it’s following young Sunja in Korea and Japan in the 1920s. So it makes sense that its strongest episode focuses entirely on that period: “Chapter 7” takes place mostly on the day of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the Kanto Massacre of Koreans in Japan that immediately followed. But “Chapter 7” focuses on the backstory of Koh Hansu, who was up to some mustache-twirling manipulation of Sunja just an episode ago. Pachinko‘s use of the history of the occupation of Korea by Imperial Japan is a large part of what makes it such a great show, and “Chapter 7” sees its strongest foot forward.

Also Considered: “Chapter 4” (season 1, episode 4)

4. “710N”
Barry
season 3, episode 6
stream: HBO Max

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6AS0zzfGM

Barry‘s third season is on shaky ground, and it knows it. Its status quo has been too upset and all of its characters aren’t in the houses the story had given them. So the moment Barry‘s brilliant third season snaps into place is when shit finally gets maximally chaotic. The motorcycle chase at the end of this episode is the best individual scene this year.

Also Considered: “candy asses” (season 3, episode 7)

3. “Dual Confessions, Part 2 / The Shuchiin Afterparty”
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
season 3, episode 13
stream: Crunchyroll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEb4CQ7DBrs

Kaguya finally gets to it. Up until now, the show has constantly reset to its status quo – that’s kind of its whole thing, really – and this stone is finally split in two. The tension of the moment is really earned, and the show goes all out in presentation, bringing back some key music and making all of its balls in the air crash down dramatically. “Dual Confessions, Part 2” is one of the most well-executed climaxes in all of anime.

2. “Review”
The Bear
season 1, episode 7
stream: Hulu

Oh, god. After a very cool montage of Chicago set to Sufjan Stevens, “Review” begins a single, unbroken shot of the kitchen to throw you into the chaos. The Original Beef trials Sydney’s new ordering system, and the store gets slammed when she fails to turn off the pre-order option. What follows is pandemonium, including two blow-ups and knife. And you’re trapped in the kitchen with all of this for about twenty minutes.

Also Considered: “Braciole” (season 1, episode 8)

1. “The Plight Before Christmas”
Bob’s Burgers
season 13, episode 10
stream: Hulu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQdRPJic2z0

Bob’s Burgers in its thirteenth season is a bit like King of the Hill in its thirteenth season: still very good, but no longer special and essential. But “The Plight Before Christmas” is yet another demonstration that this show steps up for its holiday episodes. Bob and Linda are in a pinch: Tina, Gene, and Louise all have Christmas events at the same time, and obviously between them they can only see two. Hearing that Louise just wants to gross out everyone at a poetry reading, Bob and Linda opt for the more wholesome offerings of Gene’s xylophone performance and Tina’s turn as a star – not the star, a star – in the play. But to their horror, they learn too late that Louise’s story was a cover for her doing a reading of a sincere Christmas poem she wrote.

In a year where Bob’s Burgers released a theatrical film, Louise’s moment of sincerity in “The Plight Before Christmas” feels like the show’s biggest landmark in years. “The Plight Before Christmas” makes a serious play for the show’s best holiday episode when there’s already plenty of competition for that, and it might be the show’s best episode. A fantastic note on which to end 2022.

Honorable Mentions

“Chapter Four: Dear Billy,” Stranger Things, season 4 episode 4
“Defiant Jazz,” Severance, season 1 episode 7
“Doomcoming,” Yellowjackets, season 1 episode 9
“Dr. Chaudhary,” Station Eleven, episode 9
“Driftmark,” House of the Dragon, season 1 episode 7
“Go Flip Yourself,” What We Do in the Shadows, season 4 episode 8
“Jerusalem,” Industry, season 2 episode 8
“King’s Tide,” The Owl House, season 2 episode 21
“Mabel,” Reservation Dogs, season 2 episode 4
“Morning Light Falls on You,” Bocchi the Rock!, season 1 episode 12
“Night Family,” Rick & Morty, season 6 episode 4
“Rix Road,” Andor, season 1 episode 12
“The Hardest Thing,” Amphibia, season 3 episode 18
“Transmission 2 ~Encountering the Unknown~,”
Mob Psycho 100, season 3 episode 8

Joey’s Top Ten Albums of 2022

Here it is folks, the big event. I went all in on this feature last year, and I think I’ve done even better this year. I was pretty shocked at how many very good albums I had to cut even from the honorable mentions.

You’ve maybe noticed there’s no section this year for stuff I missed in 2021. That’s because I both did a great job in 2021 and because I didn’t go back looking for a lot.

Here we go! See you next week for the best TV of 2022.

10. Wet Leg
by Wet Leg

Nothing here touches their three 2021 singles, but they apply the same lessons: the arena rock moves of “Too Late Now” are on “Angelica,” the perfect pop bullying of “Wet Dream” is on “Ur Mom,” and while they don’t repeat their mission statement “Chaise Longue,” everything here serves it in its own way. In the year where I’ve finally had it with British talky postpunk, I’m entirely relieved to receive the one with some pop sense. And “Too Late Now” comes alive as a conclusion, a sincere moment after a half hour of irony.

Listen: “Ur Mum”

9. SOS
by SZA

You see? This is why I don’t put these out in December. It’s true that December is mostly barren, but just in the last ten years we’ve had monster albums by Beyoncé, D’Angelo, Run the Jewels, Taylor Swift, and now SZA come out after most editorial lists are already released. Anyway, expect an apology tour next December, because SZA has realized she can start swinging. Ctrl was clean and sensible, SOS is a glorious mess, fun and spontaneous in ways its predecessor lacked. She goes many places here, but shitty exes might want to skip this one: “Smoking On My Ex Pack,” “I Hate U,” “Ghost in the Machine,” and “F2F” are a murderer’s row. It’s been great to see SZA’s ascent, and SOS cements her status as one of the most singular artists of the era.

Listen: “F2F”

8. Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville
by Ashley McBryde

Ashley McBryde put together this ensemble concept album by locking herself and her collaborators in a house for a week and just writing. The result is something like a country The Who Sell Out, complete with fictional advertisements to remind you of the concept. Lindeville paints its so-named fictional town through its personals section, its canine friends who know too much, and its communal bonfires whenever some asshole guy gets caught cheating. So there must be a few of them, because an alarming number of these songs insist that everyone is cheating on everyone. Kooky as hell and brief but not slight, Lindeville is the best country music of the year.

Listen: “Brenda Put Your Bra On”

7. Aethiopes
by billy woods

It’s been interesting to see billy woods finally catching on, but it’s understandable that it’s been slow-going. People aren’t really looking for albums that open with “I think Mengistu Haile Mariam is my neighbor” when they’re thinking about their top five rappers of the moment. So I submit Aethiopes for your consideration: “Multiverse Benzino/Rode back on a black Pegasus/Medusa’s head in a sack/Senegalese twists snakin’ out the bag” gives you an idea of how his flow is more like a tumble, and it’s in character to catch him rhyming “blessin'” with “rhododendron” and “thickness” with “rictus.” Deep dive essays like this (I genuinely highly recommend this) into woods not only escape ridiculousness, it feels like his works demand them. I slightly prefer his 2019 album hiding places with Kenny Segal because its powerful music more effectively punctuates his intense train of thought, but producer Preservation’s ear for international music very well serves these anxiety-inducing beats. Aethiopes is that gift of an album that never gets old because your job as a listener is never truly done, which is rough because with five albums since 2019, woods is extremely prolific. The work is never done.

Listen: “No Hard Feelings”

6. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
by Big Thief

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is a real statement album, a coronation of sorts for a group that’s been in the conversation for best band for a bit now. Their great 2019 efforts U.F.O.F. and Two Hands were entirely separate styles cordoned off from each other, so here they’ve put it all in one place, modeled after those legendary double albums you hear about where a band tries anything and can’t fail because their chemistry is just too good. The throw-everything-at-the-wall approach especially works well for Lenker, whose lyrics have gotten substantially more surreal, on some real Bringing It All Back Home shit. Rock to “Little Things,” boogie to “Spud Infinity,” just vibe to “Time Escaping,” because Dragon New Warm Mountain pleases in so many different ways.

Listen: “Time Escaping”

5. The Lakes of Zones B and C
by Emperor X

The Lakes of Zones B and C is successful largely for the same reasons Western Teleport and Oversleepers International were – you should revisit those albums, there’s a great chance you’re underrating them – but this outing is characterized by a feeling of despair, sardonically inserting “There’s no need to give ourselves a hernia, the real heavy lifting’s for the young” into the colossal opener. It keeps going: “God built an arsenal, and now there’s a hole in the beach,” “No one imagined we’d be winners in the long run,” and uh, “We’ll die.” But despite the heaviness, Chad Matheny’s music is never a downer, because the way he paints this bleak picture is too engaging. People cry “like luminant plankton,” Matheny calls out the Metaverse, and he includes various assertions about the afterlife’s transit situation (no one’s on the freeway or the bicycle lane in Heaven, there’s no parallel parking in Hell). If that’s still too heavy for you, there’s a quietly catchy song about a brave hummingbird making it through a storm. We can only hope for that.

Listen: “Communists in Luxury”

4. Blue Rev
by Alvvays

Twee torchbearers Alvvays have shapeshifted. I mean, they still write a lot of twee pop songs, but now there’s a bit more push and pull, more drama, more variety. And they’re drenched in guitar. Blue Rev is proof of five years well spent, a great demonstration that just as importantly as writing big choruses they’re executing the heck out of them. After just one listen you’ll be along for the big rousers: “When you walk away better be for good,” “You know it happens all the time, it’s all right,” “Moving to the country, gonna have this baby,” “He’s only one follow away!” It definitely thins towards the end, but that doesn’t lessen the thrill of a long dormant band so strongly realizing itself.

Listen: “After the Earthquake”

3. Natural Brown Prom Queen
by Sudan Archives

Natural Brown Prom Queen is a flex. Sudan Archives can do it all: she can sing, she can rap, she can write, she can produce, but her foundational skill is actually her training in the violin. Though this album’s main theme is her struggles with body image and her path through it with self-love, the star is simply her talent, turning in a casually great R&B song on “Ciara,” a gentle earworm on “Freakalizer,” a buzzsaw banger on “OMG BRITT,” a dizzying rap display on “NBPQ (Topless),” and obviously the crown jewel that is “Home Maker.” It really feels like she can do anything, and more importantly, it feels like she knows it.

Listen: “Home Maker”

2. Expert in a Dying Field
by The Beths

The band that sang “You Wouldn’t Like Me” seemed to shrink down even further on its second outing, so it was quite the experience to hear their sound completely open up this cycle. There is suddenly a confidence in their anthems about their own tepidness.

Their power pop has both more power and more pop, “Silence Is Golden” more vicious than previous rockers “Uptown Girl” and “Not Getting Excited,” and “Knees Deep” is their strongest hook to date. I’ve sometimes not been sold on their epics (“Little Death,” “Not Running”), but “2am” is such a strong finale, a truly convincing piece of evidence for Elizabeth Stokes mastering even more than just her bread and butter power pop. Expert in a Dying Field is a bold evolution from one of my personal favorite bands to one of the best rock bands working today. Experts in, well, yes. You get it.

Listen: “Head in the Clouds”

1. RENAISSANCE
by Beyoncé

This time last year, I was pretty unsure about how the new Beyoncé album cycle would go. Ages have passed since Lemonade, and while she hasn’t been absent since, EVERYTHING IS LOVE and The Lion King: The Gift weren’t especially encouraging signs. Had her dominance run its course? Was there still space for an unchallenged Queen?

Well, there is: Donna Summer. While RENAISSANCE didn’t command discourse the way Lemonade did, it brilliantly sidesteps these unreasonable expectations by putting out her most fun album since B’Day, a dance album not just for the dancers, but for nerds. Beyoncé doesn’t attempt to conquer this music. Though her braggadocio hasn’t lost a step, this is a deeply humble album, paying respect to dance music legends like Robin S, Grace Jones, and of course Nile Rodgers and Donna Summer. You can spend hours scanning the writer and producer credits and WhoSampled, finding songs you don’t know and songs you don’t know that you know. Or just learning about people. I was listening to “PURE/HONEY,” was like, “who’s that?” and learned about Moi Renee, a New York City drag queen legend.

But of course it’s not just that she’s done her homework. RENAISSANCE is the album of the year not just for the head but for the hips. “VIRGO’S GROOVE” sounds like a classic Michael Jackson song. “CUFF IT” sounds like peak Chic. “ALL UP IN YOUR MIND” lets A.G. cook. And while “SUMMER RENAISSANCE” might not be among the album’s finest songs, ending with Donna Summer is the gesture that embodies the album: by going back in time and paying such tribute to the history of the music, Beyoncé has made her own entry in the dance music canon, and it’s one of the finest dance albums ever made. It’s also, and this is saying quite a bit, her finest album. Too classy.

Listen: “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA”

The Next 15

11. Miranda Lambert: Palomino (Listen: “Geraldene”)
12. Let’s Eat Grandma: Two Ribbons (Listen: “Levitation”)
13. The Mountain Goats: Bleed Out (Listen: “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome”)
14. Soul Glo: Diaspora Problems (Listen: “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)”)
15. Plains: I Walked With You A Ways (Listen: “Abilene”)
16. Pusha T: It’s Almost Dry (Listen: “Diet Coke”)
17. Grace Ives: Janky Star (Listen: “Lullaby”)
18. Camp Cope: Running with the Hurricane (Listen: “Sing Your Heart Out”)
19. Craig Finn: A Legacy of Rentals (Listen: “Birthdays”)
20. The Regrettes: Further Joy (Listen: “Show Me You Want Me”)
21. MUNA: MUNA (Listen: “Home By Now”)
22. The Paranoid Style: For Executive Meeting (Listen: “Barney Bubbles”)
23. Cheekface: Too Much To Ask (Listen: “We Need A Bigger Dumpster”)
24. Horsegirl: Versions of Modern Performance (Listen: “Anti-glory”)
25. Romero: Turn It On! (Listen: “Talk About It”)

Further Top 50

Amanda Shires: Take It Like A Man (Listen: “Hawk for the Dove”)
billy woods: Church (Listen: “Pollo Rico”)
Charli XCX: CRASH (Listen: “Constant Repeat”)
FKA twigs: CAPRISONGS (Listen: “tears in the club” (ft. The Weeknd))
Gangs of Youth: angel in realtime. (Listen: “in the wake of your leave”)
Gogol Bordello: Solidaritine (Listen: “Take Only What You Can Carry” (ft. KAZKA))
JID: The Forever Story (Listen: “Dance Now” (ft. Kenny Mason))
Jockstrap: I Love You Jennifer B (Listen: “Greatest Hits”)
Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (Listen: “N95”)
Kiwi jr: Chopper (Listen: “Unspeakable Things”)
Momma: Household Name (Listen: “Rockstar”)
My Idea: CRY MFER (Listen: “Cry Mfer”)
Petrol Girls: Baby (Listen: “Baby, I Had An Abortion”)
Pillbox Patti: Florida (Listen: “Suwannee”)
Porridge Radio: Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky (Listen: “Back to the Radio”)
Sabrina Carpenter: emails i can’t send (Listen: “Vicious”)
SASAMI: Squeeze (Listen: “Make It Right”)
S.G. Goodman: Teeth Marks (Listen: “All My Love Is Coming Back To Me”)
Sorry: Anywhere But Here (Listen: “Let The Lights On”)
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa (Listen: “The Hardest Cut”)
The Interrupters: In The Wild (Listen: “In The Mirror”)
The Smile: A Light For Attracting Attention (Listen: “You Will Never Work In Television Again”)
The Weeknd: Dawn FM (Listen: “How Do I Make You Love Me?”)
The 1975: Being Funny in a Foreign Language (Listen: “I’m In Love With You”)
Vince Staples: RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART (Listen: “AYE! (FREE THE HOMIES)”)

Honorable Mentions

Alex G: God Save The Animals (Listen: “Blessing”)
Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep (Listen: “What It Is”)
Anxious: Little Green House (Listen: “In April”)
Arctic Monkeys: The Car (Listen: “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”)
BabyTron: Bin Reaper 3: Old Testament (Listen: “MySpace”)
Bad Bunny: Un Verano Sin Ti (Listen: “Tití Me Preguntó”)
Bartees Strange: Farm to Table (Listen: “Heavy Heart”)
beabadoobee: Beatopia (Listen: “the perfect pair”)
Beach Bunny: Emotional Creature (Listen: “Karaoke”)
Carly Rae Jepsen: The Loneliest Time (Listen: “The Loneliest Time” (ft. Rufus Wainwright)
Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul: Topical Dancer (Listen: “Mantra”)
Danger Mouse & Black Thought: Cheat Codes (Listen: “Belize” (ft. MF DOOM))
Daphni: Cherry (Listen: “Cherry”)
Dry Cleaning: Stumpwork (Listen: “Don’t Press Me”)
DYLAN: No Romeo (Listen: “Someone Else”)
dynastic: I know there’s something left for you (Listen: “caldecott” (ft. Polygon Cove))
Future Girls: Year Long Winter (Listen: “Defeat Repeat”)
GloRilla: Anyways, Life’s Great (Listen: “Tomorrow 2” (ft. Cardi B))
Harry Styles: Harry’s House (Listen: “Late Night Talking”)
Hatchie: Giving the World Away (Listen: “This Enchanted”)
Hurray for the Riff Raff: LIFE ON EARTH (Listen: “PIERCED ARROWS”)
JER: Bothered/Unbothered (Listen: “Clout Chasers!”)
King Princess: Hold On Baby (Listen: “For My Friends”)
Little Simz: NO THANK YOU (Listen: “Gorilla”)
Maren Morris: Humble Quest (Listen: “Humble Quest”)
MJ Lenderman: Boat Songs (Listen: “You Have Bought Yourself A Boat”)
Nilüfer Yanya: PAINLESS (Listen: “stabilise”)
No Age: People Helping People (Listen: “Compact Flashes”)
Oso Oso: sore thumb (Listen: “pensacola”)
Pictoria Vark: The Parts I Dread (Listen: “Wyoming”)
Pigeon Pit: Feather River Canyon Blues (Listen: “Milk Crates”)
Pool Kids: Pool Kids (Listen: “That’s Physics, Baby”)
PUP: THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND (Listen: “Totally Fine”)
Ribbon Stage: Hit with the Most (Listen: “Playing Possum”)
Saba: Few Good Things (Listen: “Come My Way” (ft. Krayzie Bone))
$ilkMoney: I Don’t Give A Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore (Listen: “I Ate 14gs of Mushrooms and Bwoy Oh Bwoy”)
Special Interest: Endure (Listen: “Concerning Peace”)
Steve Lacy: Gemini Rights (Listen: “Mercury”)
Superchunk: Wild Loneliness (Listen: “Wild Loneliness”)
talker: In Awe of Insignificance (Listen: “For The Sake Of It”)
Tegan & Sara: Crybaby (Listen: “Smoking Weed Alone”)
The Chats: Get Fucked (Listen: “6L GTR”)
The Linda Lindas: Growing Up (Listen: “Oh!”)
The Wonder Years: The Hum Goes On Forever (Listen: “Wyatt’s Song (Your Name)”)
Tom Zé: Língua Brasileira (Listen: “Metro Guide”)
Two Shell: Icons (Listen: “Pods”)
Various Artists: Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album (Listen: “The Drama You’ve Been Craving” by Tunde Adebimpe)
Wednesday: Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ’em Up (Listen: “Perfect” (ft. MJ Lenderman))
Yumi Zouma: Present Tense (Listen: “Astral Projection”)
100 gecs: Snake Eyes (Listen: “Torture Me” (ft. Skrillex))

As always, here are some Spotify playlists. The first includes a song from all of the albums in this article, the other is just the top ten albums in their entirety. See you next year (or next week if you care about TV).

Joey’s Top Ten Songs of 2022

I had a blast with music in 2021, and for most of 2022 I figured I couldn’t bring the same heat to this year’s lists. And though I’ve done a bit more December cramming than usual, I’m pleased to say that I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve got here, especially because now it’s become more difficult than ever to stay on the pulse of popular music, especially without immersing myself in TikTok. Maybe I’ll have to take the dive in 2023.

As always, I’m featuring my top ten songs and then giving you some further listening after, complete with Spotify playlists.

10. “Simulation Swarm”
by Big Thief

On an album with so many directions and so many standouts, this is the one that stops the show. Originally unveiled in an Instagram Live the first month of the pandemic, “Simulation Swarm” eagerly takes the “Shine A Light” position as the emotional climax in the album’s seventeenth slot. Three vivid yet vague verses start to come into focus before the reveal: Adrianne Lenker is thinking about Andrew, the older biological brother she’s never met. It’s quite the twist that Lenker has dedicated her sweetest, most tender love song not to a lover, but to a brother.

9. “Pharmacist”
by Alvvays

One of the finest moments in music this year was the instant the guitars hit on “Pharmacist,” letting loose Alvvays’ dreamier, louder sound five years after their last album. Short, sweet, to the point, “Pharmacist” is the despair at someone else’s happiness, trying to go home only to realize it’s a time, not a place. Then the self-reassurance “it happens all the time” – the wilting “happens” another of the year’s finest moments, as Jeff Tweedy noticed – ultimately only giving way to an even more tragic thought: “I know I never crossed your mind.” Alvvays has other more impressive lyric sheets this time out for sure, but “Pharmacist” just lands such a punch.

8. “ALIEN SUPERSTAR”
by Beyoncé

I didn’t expect to be up for more Beygency propaganda, but she’s pulled me back in. No longer satisfied with her command over this world, she’s making like Goku and taking on the universe. Though she keeps the WhoSampled page fresh throughout, it’s that close encounter with the hovering synth over the chorus that puts this into orbit, those “Oh baby, I’m…” bits enough to make one never doubt her again.

7. “Speeding 72”
by Momma

Narrowly defeating yet another worthy entry from Maren Morris, “Speeding 72” is the driving anthem of the year. Funny enough, I less hear the direct influences in this than I hear ghosts of ’90s revivalists past Yuck, but of course I’m won over by the Pavement shout out, even if “Harness Your Hopes” and Beabadoobee mean they’re en vogue anyway. But at its heart, “Speeding 72” is about the excitement of moving to the next thing, coming from a complicated place (at best) but then finding someone clamoring “keep me in your car.”

6. “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”
by Hitkidd & GloRilla

A breakup?! No way. A block party. If there’s discussion at all about GloRilla’s ex-as-of-ten-seconds-ago, it’s purely incidental. “F.N.F.” is focused on the freedom: “Hoppin’ out in red lights, twerkin’ on them headlights.” Finally, a breakup anthem to pump you up.

5. “Cate’s Brother”
by Maisie Peters

Trial ballooned on TikTok, “Cate’s Brother” was so ferociously beloved by Maisie’s fans (even before they’d heard its incredible refrain) that she was pressured into pumping this song out ASAP. And it’s catnip, the gushing ’80s guitars perfectly carrying a three minute diatribe about the millisecond you get a little too obsessed with someone before even hearing a word. Taylor Swift: This could be you right now, but you playin’.

@maisiehpeters

i played cate the verse i wrote about her brother and it went like this u gotta watch til the end #originalsong #bestfriends #livelaughlove

♬ original sound – maisie peters

4. “Bad Habit”
by Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy’s name has definitely been out there for a while, obviously with his band The Internet but also with a few odd features, but this was usually as a secondary figure. So it’s pretty shocking that he’s front and center in the pop song of the year, but it also makes sense that said song is about a guy in the background. “Bad Habit” is just too broadly relatable, a moment of romantic fright focused less on the missed opportunity and more on the mental situation that will create more of them. The year’s most inescapable yet undeniable song.

3. “American Teenager”
by Ethel Cain

Not since “Merry Go ‘Round” has a great song been so biting about small town USA, but Ethel Cain sets “American Teenager” apart by instead sending things skyward, putting together such an emotionally convincing piece of heartland rock that Obama missed the implications. The point is actually that the hopefulness is the tragedy, the character begging “Jesus, if you’re listening, let me handle my liquor” and fighting off doubt with promises of better things to come: “Just give it one more day, and you’re done,” “It’s just not my year.” Like the next one will be.

2. “Happy New Year”
by Let’s Eat Grandma

In addition to genius collaborator SOPHIE dying in 2021, co-lead Jenny Hollingworth’s boyfriend Billy Clayton died after a battle with cancer in the spring of 2019, after which the childhood best friends canceled their US tour and found themselves living apart for the first time. Communication between the two broke down, and they struggled to get to the bottom of their rocky period. And despite all that, through multiple deaths and hardship, here we are. Two Ribbons is one of the year’s most underrated albums, an emotional wallop, and its finest song is its opener by Walton about how the two found each other again: “I’d wanted the old us back,” “and now we’ve grown in different ways.”

“Because you know you’ll always be my best friend, and look at what we made it through.”

Happy new year to you.

1. “Expert in a Dying Field”
by The Beths

Sometimes you hear a song and think, okay that’s the best thing they’ll ever write. “Expert in a Dying Field” is such a moment, Elizabeth Stokes absolutely stuffing the thing with heartstabbers: “I can flee the country for the worst of the year, but I’ll come back to it,” “All of my notes in a desolate pile I haven’t touched in an age,” “I can close the door on us but the room still exists,” “Love is learned over time!” And then she repeats that desperate, mocking HOW DOES IT FEEL as rueful and haunting as Bob Dylan’s.

With this, Stokes puts herself in the company of today’s greatest songwriters. “Expert in a Dying Field” is the best rock song of the last several years.

The Next 15

11. Beyoncé: “CUFF IT”
12. Emperor X: “False Metal”
13. The Mountain Goats: “Training Montage”
14. The Beths: “2am”
15. MUNA: “What I Want”
16. FKA twigs (ft. Shygirl): “papi bones”
17. Ashley McBryde, Caylee Hammack, Brandy Clark, & Pillbox Patti: “Bonfire at Tina’s”
18. Special Interest (ft. Mykki Blanco): “Midnight Legend”
19. The Regrettes: “Barely on My Mind”
20. Maren Morris: “Circles Around This Town”
21. MUNA: “Anything But Me”
22. Camp Cope: “Running with the Hurricane”
23. The Beths: “Knees Deep”
24. Baby Queen: “LAZY”
25. The Weeknd: “Take My Breath”

Honorable Mentions

Alex G: “Runner”
Amanda Shires & Jason Isbell: “Not What You Want”
Beyoncé x Ellie Goulding: “BREAK MY SOUL (Girl Talk Remix)”
Chat Pile: “Why”
Megan Thee Stallion: “Plan B”
Phoenix (ft. Ezra Koenig): “Tonight”
Plains: “Problem With It”
SASAMI: “The Greatest”
Sudan Archives: “NBPQ (Topless)”
talker: “Don’t Want You To Love Me”
The 1975: “Part of the Band”

And as always, here are Spotify playlists to go with this feature, first of all the songs listed and then of just the top ten.