2022 was another great year for rock music (and thankfully, aren't they all in one way or another), and there was no shortage of excellent new releases from veterans and new comers alike in most corners of the genre. Legends like Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson released well-received solo albums made up completely or mostly of cover songs, and the continuing adventures of the reunited '80s duo Tears for Fears caught some attention among critics as well as their longtime fans.
The alternative wing of hip hop and R&B continues to grow stronger this decade and last year gave the world notable and well-reviewed LPs by a reunited Black Star, The Weeknd, Pusha T, and SZA, each of whom were also invited to perform on network TV shows like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and others.
Veteran alternative rockers including Wilco, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Arctic Monkeys all made welcome returns, some after releasing music only a few months prior and some after lengthy hiatuses of several years. Weezer issued a series of four EPs in lieu of one full album, each focusing on music indented to evoke a particular season. Newer alt-rock acts like The 1975, Wet Leg, and Perfume Genius each received praise and attention for their latest releases and were covered or referenced in concert by high profile names like Pearl Jam over the course of the year.
With respect to those artists and a number of others who graced listeners with more great songs and albums to add to their playlists and libraries of favorites, the 10 albums that stood out just a bit more in 2022 each offered something creative, new, and interesting within the context of the artists' established sounds and previous work.
10. Kendrick Lamar-Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
This double LP (single CD), Lamar's first in 5 years, follows a period of writer's block during which he also began therapy and became the father of two children with his longtime partner and dealt with pandemic life, experiences that influenced deep reflection and personal exploration as he composed this collection of new songs. Classic hip hop fuses here with electronic and pop elements and production that includes rapped tracks without choruses, dramatically-acted interludes and narrative segments, and songs based entirely around singing, both from guest vocalists and Lamar himself, sometimes harmonizing while rapping. Stand-out tracks like "N95," "Father Time," and "Rich Spirit" comment on Lamar's own life and past as much as various stages of life itself and continues to feature his vulnerable honesty and creative delivery while offering unique takes on topics both personal and universal. "Auntie Diaries" and "Mother I Sober," featuring vocals from Portishead's Beth Gibbons, end the album with intensely, sometimes uncomfortably personal recollections of Lamar's childhood, offering a different version of the unguarded truths that also made Kanye West's earlier work stand out in the field of hip hop and beyond.
9. Stoner-Totally...
The sophomore release from Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri's (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and countless others) latest project expands on but doesn't surpass their excellent debut album, released just a year prior, but it carries on classic desert rock traditions in sound, style, and production. Vocal duties are more balanced here than on the first album with Oliveri and Bjork tagging in and out from track to track on stand-out cuts like "A Million Beers," "Strawberry Creek," and "Turn It Around," but catch the band live to experience the skull-rattling power of their rock prowess in its proper environment.
8. Bjork-Fossora
Many artists released their "COVID albums" in 2022, songs and cycles written and recorded during months of lockdown and now ready to be released into the world, and Bjork was no exception. On her 10th LP, the highly-regarded, alternative rock performer continues to blend sounds from various genres to establish connected tones and lyrical themes between tracks with a mixture of electronic beats with woodwinds and keyboard melodies against plodding basslines that create entirely original music that is incomparable to that of any other artist. Fossora was composed partly under the influence of mushrooms which only adds to Bjork's already unique ideas and results in some of her most psychedelic tracks to date, including singles like "Ancestress" and "Ovule" as well as abstract pieces like "Mycelia." Arguably not the best place to start with Bjork for newcomers, Fossora is a modern culmination of many years of completely free artistic and musical expression.
7. Dead Cross-II
Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo and friends return with a second full-length of hardcore punk and thrash metal tracks that switch things up with a bit more experimentation musically and a chance for bassist Justin Pearson to handle lead vocals on a few tracks rather than being a copy or re-tread of their excellent self-titled debut from 2017. Tracks like "Heart Reformer" and "Reign of Error" fit perfectly next to those earlier songs while others like "Love Without Love" and "Christian Missile Crisis" offer interesting, alternate tones and elements which lead to a more engaging listen due to the variety.
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers-Return to the Dream Canteen
The second of two new (double) LPs from the legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers expands on the first by taking the tunes in experimental, often psychedelic directions, sometimes recalling their great funk and punk tracks of the past 40 years and sometimes working in newer sounds with synthesizers, drum loops, and extra-grungy guitars. Standout tracks like the singles, "Tippa My Tongue," referencing Sly & The Family Stone, and "Eddie," an ode to the late Van Halen guitarist, are immediately engaging and prominently feature excellent guitar work from returning axe-man John Frusciante, but lesser traditional/more experimental songs like "My Cigarette," "Handful," and "In the Snow," as well as Frusciante's synth work and electronic manipulation of recorded segments of vocals and instruments make Return to the Dream Canteen unique among the band's many other excellent albums.
5. Jack White-Entering Heaven Alive
The second of two new albums from alternative rock's last (or at least most recent) guitar virtuoso, Jack White's Entering Heaven Alive leans hard into softer, acoustic music for the duration, a first among albums from White's many projects. This collection is the quiet counterpart to the louder, very electric Fear of the Dawn, both presenting material White wrote and recorded during the COVID lock down which blended well with each other on his amazing, accompanying world tour but were separated on the two LPs. A few songs here might have benefitted from a more electric arrangement or sound a bit too similar from track to track, but "Queen of the Bees" and "Madman from Manhattan" stand out because of the uncommon instruments, such as xylophone, and hip hop vocal phrasing. "Love Is Selfish," the most achingly beautiful track from either of White's 2022 albums, is the strongest cut here and carries the less-engaging songs on its back to result in a strong, thematic musical statement. (Read our full review of the album here.)
4. The Smile-A Light for Attracting Attention
The excellent debut album from the latest of many Radiohead side projects, this one including that band's primary songwriters, Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, The Smile ended up creating a record that sounds more like Radiohead than most of the last two Radiohead LPs. Blending signature guitar, piano, and vocals with strings and horns on 13 focused, engaging tracks, The Smile found success on tour throughout 2022 as well and seem poised to continue with more material rather than retreating or returning to their primary band just yet. Yorke's vocals, as emotional as ever, vary from anger on "You Will Never Work in Television Again" to pained heartache on "Speech Bubbles." The groove of "The Smoke" is as funky as these blokes have ever been together, and many tracks feature a nice blend of guitar effects and electronic accents and flourishes. After a number of songs that would fit well alongside tracks from Radiohead's In Rainbows, The Smile casually toss in "Free in the Knowledge," a song that sounds like a forgotten outtake from The Bends, returning to a writing style Yorke and Greenwood have hardly explored since about 1994.
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers-Unlimited Love
The first of two ambitious new albums from the veteran funk-punk-alternative rockers, their 12th overall, and their first with returning guitarist/vocalist John Frusciante following a 10 year absence from the band, Unlimited Love packs a dizzying amount of music into its 17 tracks and lengthy run time. The recording sessions yielded 50 finished songs, partly due to working during the COVID lockdown, and the variety among them is staggering. Leaning here more into straightforward rock, funk, and the fusion for which the band became known during and after 1999's Californication, tracks like "Black Summer," "Aquatic Mouth Dance," and "She's a Lover" offer familiar but sharply-executed sounds fans have enjoyed for over two decades, but RHCP are still interested in adding and working with new elements as well, both within the songwriting itself and with the methods of production. It can't be overstated how much Frusciante's return brings to the table in both of these areas, and each track features additional decoration and manipulation via synthesizers and effects added to vocals and instruments alike, standing out the most on "Heavy Wing," on which he sings lead during the chorus. The funky flow of "Poster Child" mixes in elements of hip hop while running through a list of shout outs to various figures in rock history while the single "These Are the Ways" incorporates tones of grunge, adding even more classic sounds to the group's toolbelt. (Read our full review of the album here.)
2. The Mars Volta (self-titled)
Perhaps the most surprising and unexpected return in alternative rock in 2022 was that of The Mars Volta, the psychedelic-prog-fusion group who had disbanded a decade prior and moved on to other projects. The engaging new album and subsequent tour were highlights for long-time fans and for those who had discovered them during their years of inactivity. The updated version of The Mars Volta retains their Latin musical references and continues to alternate between English and Spanish lyrics but has a more focused approach and a more mature, experienced tone compared to the band's earlier work. While songwriters Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala continue to add electronic experimentation throughout, there is a better balance between acoustic and traditional rock instruments on their self-titled LP than on their previous release in 2012. Singles like "Black Light Shine" and "Graveyard Love" got the most attention from the group, but the creative mixing of styles on "No Case Gain" and "Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon" are even more interesting and add variety among the more focused or less musically adventurous tracks which all fit and flow together well here. (Read our full review of the album here.)
1. Jack White-Fear of the Dawn
A electric blue shock of high-voltage, modern garage rock, Jack White's fourth solo LP set a tone in the spring of 2022 that no others could match or surpass. With a blazing collection of 12 (mostly) fast and fuzzy, loud rock songs in just under 40 minutes, Fear of the Dawn was both reinvigorating to fans and cleansed the palate from 2018's far more experimental and electronic (though nearly-equally excellent) Boarding House Reach. Every track here is strong and many flow together or segue like a classic Rick Rubin production, especially the double punch of the first two tracks, "Taking Me Back" and "Fear of the Dawn" and the mid-album stretch that includes "Into the Twilight," "Dusk," and "What's the Trick?" A pleasantly unexpected guest appearance from Q-Tip and creative samples of Cab Calloway, William S. Burroughs, and The Manhattan Transfer add great texture to the album which is already so otherwise well-written, performed, and produced, these additions get worked in as part of the mix rather than as featured or exclusive attractions. Fans of rock history from nearly any era will find plenty to enjoy here, and no modern rock album better captured the spirit and excitement of rock and roll in 2022. (Read our full review of the album here.)
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