Best records of 2022

I don’t do the top ten albums anymore, much to the chagrin of Scott Sellers and Lee Hill, but I do feel an obligation to let y’all know which albums and singles are the best of 2022 – in fact, not in my opinion. In fact.

The best album belongs to Wet Leg and is their debut. I like to suggest to people that I introduced them to North America, and that sort of is almost true, because I’ve been listening to them from just about the first moment they popped up on TikTok and blew my mind.

This album – Wet Leg, fittingly – is without flaw. Every note, every chord, every lyric, is perfect. There is nothing that needs to be changed. These two women, and their back up gang of Isle of Wight guys, are going to be massive stars. Just listen to ‘Wet Dream,’ if you don’t believe me.

The contest for best song of the year is a tie – and both of them relate to current events. Drug Church, who are the logical extension of the Pixies and Fucked Up and the Stooges, are intense and angry and important. This song, ‘Million Miles of Fun,’ features a lyric in the chorus with which all of us can now identify: “Newsflash – I need news less.”

That tune is tied with this one, which pre-dated the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but it will be eternal. It’s also a loud and proud defence of abortion, and women’s rights to control their own bodies. Best part: when the Petrol Girls’ Ren Aldridge screams “AND I’M NOT SORRY!” Vital, furious, essential.