Year-end time is list time! That’s why, in keeping with tradition, we didn’t miss the opportunity to choose the 50 best records of the year for the Musikexpress issue 01/2023 as the heart of our big 46-page annual review special. A highly esteemed conglomerate of incorruptible editors and authors voted for it, each of whom submitted their top 20 and from which we calculated our official top 50 in a mathematically possibly highly complicated but certainly democratic process. We published the complete list on musikexpress.de on Christmas Day.
As an appetizer for the magazine itself and for the sake of democratic disclosure, we gradually showed you which albums were most celebrated by whom in the editorial department, here are the top 20 by Stephan Rehm Rozanes, Linus Volkmann, Julia Lorenz, Julia Friese, André Boße, Annett Scheffel, Thomas Winkler, Frank Sawatzki, Aida Baghernejad, Hella Wittenberg, Emma Wiepking, Fabian Soethof and Felicitas Boell.
In the printed magazine, however, we also looked beyond the albums of the year: Which films, series, books and songs were particularly recommended in 2022? Here are the top 10 of our songs of the year – places 11-50 can be found in the magazine.
The 10 songs of 2022
1. The 1975 – “Part Of The Band”
A terrific introspector, Matt Healy’s masterwork as a lyricist is this: “Enough about me now / You gotta talk about the people, baby / (But that’s kind of the idea).” The accompanying music: Midwest emo-folk chamber music -Pop. Better than anything Bon Iver has done recently.
2. Rosalia – “Saoko”
Rosalía deconstructs styles as if pop were a game whose rules only she knows. “Saoko” is a hit between the musical and historical worlds, just over two minutes long but absolutely complete.
3. Harry Styles – “As It Was”
Harry Styles is there when grandparents, parents and kids ask for the radio to be turned up louder. Difficult to describe how he does it, but this hit from his hit album brings back faith in all-generational pop.
4. Wet Leg – “Angelica”
Following the first two singles, “Chaise Longue” and “Wet Dream,” Variety praised the rarity of a “new band releasing two songs and that they’re both great.” In 2022, the Isle of Wight band upped the ante and mesmerized us with the indie mantra Angelica. At the Berlin concert, they wanted to dedicate it to all the namesakes present – after none were there, they assigned it to everyone who accepted the second part of the name as a self-designation: “lica”, i.e. “licker”.
5. Mitski – “Love Me More”
Good DJs put on the piece “Beat auf Beat” after “When The Rain Begins To Fall”, which also unites the 80s hit and this Mitski super piece: A refrain that would make you fall to the ground, it hits the mark Heart.
6. Voodoo Jürgens – “Feather Dress”
A song about the impermanence of all things accompanied by a bitter-sweet symphony from a video that shakes and then calms you down. Another timeless masterpiece by this incredibly good Viennese chansonnier. “Owa friha or späda, autumn is coming into the country / the fruit is getting sweeter and sweeter until it owefoit from the trunk”. Enjoy it while it lasts, this life.
7. Porridge Radio – “The Rip”
“And now my heart aches!” The same mantra, the same effect. The Brighton band bring the best of emo to 2022: an outburst of all bad feelings.
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Spitting Of The Edge Of The World”
No, the New Yorkers didn’t have to come back with a brawler like “Pin”, nor with something frenetic like “Gold Lion” or a disco banger like “Zero”. They’ve already done all that. After ten years of abstinence, the trio shows us how dramatic Electro-Pop can position oneself in a dignified – and above all – cool way beyond the 40s.
9. Black Country, New Road – “Chaos Space Marine”
The chaos orchestra and the estate manager of bad dreams: the band and their singer play great revue pop between style and madness, a final testimony to the congenial brilliance, now it has to go on without the vocalist Isaac Woods.
10. Stromae – “L’enfer”
Unforgettable moment of the year when Belgian Stromae sang his beautiful song about personal agony on French news programme. A staging, of course. But a poignant one.
You can follow who, where, how and with what also reviewed the pop year 2022 at musikexpress.de/tag/ Jahresrueckblick-2022/. Do you want to vote for yourself and win prizes? This way to our Pop Poll 2022!