The best pop music albums of 2022

If 2022 was a year of at least trying to return to normalcy, part of that process for music makers was putting all they had to say out there, releasing the pent up accumulation of ideas accrued over two years of pandemic living.

This list includes one artist who made a major label debut with a 34-song triple album, and a collective of musicians that released five free ones in a single day. And my alphabetized Honorable Mentions makes room for double albums by Big Thief and Kendrick Lamar, plus SZA’s new 23-song S.O.S, released just under the wire this month.

Not everything is oversized. Some entries find strength in simplicity and restraint. But all benefit from a sense of release, that now is beyond the time to get back out there and reconnect with the world.

The Catalan singer who broke through with the flamenco-focused El Mal Querer in 2018 accelerates her experimental practice on Motomami, with dizzying results.

I don’t speak Spanish, but that’s never an issue: The sheer momentum of the music — constantly mashing up genres and shifting gears — carries you away for the thrill ride. Fabulous dance music and also great driving music that crisscrosses the globe to make a world of its own.

The only reasonable explanation for why Sault isn’t on more best-of lists is that nobody took the time to listen to everything. The London collective that cultivates an air of mystery released five new albums as free limited-time downloads in a single November day “as an offering to God.” That brings the number of Sault releases since 2019, including last year’s powerful Untitled (Black Is), to 11.

Nothing called too much Sault. These albums taste just right. There’s a remarkable level of quality control across the releases and include contributions from singer Cleo Soul and rapper Little Simz and who knows who else: Sault are excellent secret keepers. They draw on funk, dub, neo-soul, R&B, gospel, 1970s sound tracks, and on Aiir, symphonic music.

“Please you ain’t messin’ with amateurs, homie,” Black Thought raps. “Philly ain’t known for cheesesteaks only.” The full-length collaboration between the Roots rapper and Danger Mouse is a fruitful, creative partnership. The producer’s dusty groove samples provide a rich backdrop for the offhand profundity and complex wordplay that are Black Thought trademarks. Also worth listening: African Dreams, Black Thought’s EP with Nigerian bandleader Seun Kuti.

Haverford-raised indie rock hero Alex Giannascoli has slowed his roll: He used to put out multiple laptop pop releases a year, but this is his first proper album since 2019. He also released his first movie soundtrack in 2022, for the indie horror film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.

Taking his time has its benefits. Alex G’s songs still have a taste for subversion, but he’s now more likely to let his gift for melody shine through, and there’s a spiritual component to these not overtly religious songs which imbues them with meaning. “How many songs am I supposed to write?” he sings. “Before I turn it off and say good night?” More, please.

» READ MORE: From Beyoncé to Bad Bunny to Taylor Swift, the best songs of the year

With Beyoncé in 2013 and Lemonade in 2016, Beyoncé paired every song with a video, making herself the Queen of the “visual album.” One thing that’s striking about Renaissance is that her coming-out-of-the-pandemic record goes the opposite route. This celebration of decades of club culture relies on no visual aids whatsoever, other than the cover photo of her appearing Lady Godiva-like atop a horse made out of glass. (Or is it ice?) Instead, the propulsive, sexy, smart, and funny Renaissance lets the music do the work of seeking “a new salvation” on the dance floor.

Bartees Strange’s Farm to Table is the even more confident follow-up to the 2020 breakout Live Forever that marked him as a rising indie rock star with range. “Cosigns” dips into hip-hop and playfully boasts about being endorsed by Bon Iver and Phoebe Bridgers. “Hold The Line” is a gently sweeping power ballad that eulogizes George Floyd. “Heavy Heart” wrestles with guilt and depression: “Last year I thought I was broken.” Then the guitars come crashing in, and the music lifts him up.

Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak, which blessedly-if-briefly knocked Morgan Wallen off the top of the country charts in May, is a 34-track opus from the Japanese-born, Oklahoma-raised U.S. Navy vet country songwriter, now based in Philadelphia. It’s a lot, and still apparently not enough for Bryan to achieve his aim of “explaining what being a 26 year old man in America is like.” Two months later, he followed it with a nine-song EP, Summertime Blues.

What sets Bryan apart from other young “Ronky Tonk” rock-influenced country artists is his writer’s eye and compulsion to tell honest stories. “Got to get my no good soul back to where it belongs,” he sings, meaning the road, “and do my best to keep truth in songs.”

The most satisfying release of the year on the Neil Young-to-Uncle Tupelo world-weary roots rock continuum. Lenderman — who also plays guitar in the Asheville, N.C., band Wednesday — writes with uncommon economy and humor. And pay attention, sports fans: This album contains one song inspired by Michael Jordan, another called “Dan Marino,” and a third, “TLC Cagematch,” about WWE wrestlers that Lenderman somehow turns into a sadly beautiful steel guitar-kissed lament about friendship, loss, and self destruction. He plays Johnny Brenda’s on Feb. 3.

Spinning Joan Shelley’s fourth album — released on Philadelphia’s No Quarter label — on vinyl was my go-to Sunday morning peace-of-mind music this year. Shelley writes spare, personal folk songs that connect to the natural world in concrete ways, building a bridge between Appalachian mountain music and British folk tradition. There’s tension in the instrumental shadings of cello and subtle percussion, and a shadowy haunting presence in the contributions of guests like Bill Callahan and Meg Baird of Philly freak folk band Espers. A steely minded record, never merely pretty.

For two decades, Miranda Lambert has maintained an arena-sized audience in a mainstream country world oft-dominated by pandering bro country knuckleheads, without bowing to convention or compromising the rebellious streak that’s her creative lifeblood.

On Palomino, she follows up the COVID campfire songs project, The Marfa Tapes, with an American travelogue about a woman on the move, suffering no fools. She covers Mick Jagger’s “Wandering Spirit,” writes with subtlety and self-awareness, and urges mamas to encourage their daughters to grow up and be whatever they damn well please on “If I Was a Cowboy.”

Alvvays, Blue Rev; Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You; Elvis Costello, The Boy Named If; The Delines, The Sea Drift; Jockstrap, I Love You Jennifer B; Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers; Spoon, Lucifer of the Sofa; Vince Staples, Ramona Park Broke My Heart; SZA, S.O.S; and Nilüfer Yanya, Painless.