2022 was another great year for music. Every year, members of the For The Punks team submit their favorite music whether that is a single, debut, album, live performance, or album artwork. If they submit, their favorites make it on to a post and Spotify playlist for our readers, you, to check out!
With that being said, we are celebrating the end of 2022 with a collection of some of our favorite music including Florence + The Machine, Sabrina Carpenter, Noah Kahan, Cherie Amour, Ashe, Flor, Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, and so many more!
This list of the perfect representation of some of our 2022 favorites so far we hope you enjoyed this years releases as much as we did! Just because a release is not on here, does not mean we didn’t like it.
Along with highlighting some of our favorite releases, we want to take a second to highlight some of the live shows we were able to cover this year. From MAX, Four Year Strong, Knuckle Puck, Dayglow, Joywave, Angel Du$t, Meet Me @ The Altar, Soccer Mommy and to festivals like Act Like You Know, Four Chord, In Between Days, Foreastle, Moon River, and Americanafest, we were given the amazing opportunities to feature a variety of so many artists. 2022 was our biggest year yet for coverage.
If you are interested in viewing these photo galleries by our wonderful team of photographers, you can do so by clicking here.
We would like to give a special shoutout to the Act Like You Know festival team for letting us work with them on coverage this year. It was an amazing time being able to feature and chat with so many artists and to have our contributor Precious Tucker on site!
With that being said, this is For The Punks Best of 2022.
Challen Carter
Challen’s favorite album of the year was Dance Fever by Florence + The Machine and her three favorite songs from the album were “Free,” “King,” and “Girls Against God.”
On the album Challen shares, “The ferality from Florence + The Machine’s early albums comes back in full force with this new album. These songs are reminiscent of the band’s greatest hits while also offering an unexpectedly mature take.”
Her favorite music video of the year came from Dove Cameron for her song “Breakfast.” Challen says, “If you felt any kind of way by the overturn of Roe v Wade, you’ll understand the anger and catharsis behind this video.”
Along with Dove Cameron and Florence + The Machine, Challen enjoyed Paramore’s return single “This Is Why” along with releases from Maisie Peters, Devon Cole, and Tank and The Bangas.
Emma Agosta
Emma’s favorite album of the year was Sabrina Carpenter’s emails i can’t send and her top three songs from the album were “Nonsense,” “Tornado Warnings,” and “Read Your Mind.”
On the album she shares, “I’ve been a fan of Sabrina for years and this album showcases her versatility. This is definitely a standout work of art from her.”
Nessa Barrett’s young forever album cover art is her favorite of the year. Emma says, “The album has many themes of heaven, and her lyrics shares her mental health struggles. The cover is dark yet ethereal, featuring her with angel wings, referencing her song ‘dear god’ with lyrics “can’t you see l’ve got these angel wings sowed onto my back…”
Some other albums Emma enjoyed include albums from Charli XCX, Nessa Barrett, Lauren Sanderson, Maggie Lindemann, Stand Atlantic, Demi Lovato, Harry Styles, Tate McRae, blackbear, and Kelsea Ballerini.
Krishna Farol-Schenck
“It’s been a wild ride listening to the 1975 when I found them in 2013. Since then they’ve explored so many facets of their sound. However, this album is melancholic but nostalgic, heart-breaking, but healing,” says Krishna about Being Funny In a Foreign Language by The 1975. This is their top album of the year and songs “About You,” “Oh Caroline,” and “Happiness” were stand our tracks.
They continue by saying, “The songs I’ve chosen are personal favorites, but I feel like they reflect the aforementioned vibes of the album!”
Along with the album, Krishna enjoyed a live performance of “Oh Caroline,” which you can watch below. They share, “Matty Healy, frontman, sounds so good! But it’s simple showcase of the band further reinforces how great they are.”
Outside of The 1975, Krishna’s other favorite album of the year was Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl album.
Haley May
Haley’s favorite album of the year was Noah Kahan’s Stick Season. With top songs “She Calls Me Back,” “Homesick,” and “Orange Juice,” Haley says, “This album was long awaited as Noah had been sharing them on Instagram lives as he was working on them. It is so nice to hear the album fully come together and have these songs that are so relatable and meaningful.”
Along with Noah’s album, Haley enjoyed a few other releases of the year.
She shares, “Corey Harper’s debut album Future Tense! It is seriously a no skip album. “One Day” is my favorite off the record. And break the curse- Arlie is such a fun album that never gets old. Also Alt Bloom’s Yesterday Forever EP.”
TJ Hayes
TJ’s top picks of the year were from Baltimore based band Cherie Amour and their album Spirtual Ascension. TJ says, “I love Cherie so much and they killed it on every track. It’s a good mix of fun party vibes and deeper meaningful tracks.”
“God Be A Woman,” “Spirtual Ascension,” and “Low n Lean” were their three favorite songs from the album release.
TJ loved the music video that Cherie Amour made for their track “God Be A Woman.”
Olivia Marie
Olivia Marie’s favorite album of the year was Midnights by Taylor Swift. She loved the three songs “Labyrinth,” “Midnight Rain,” and “Wouldve Could’ve Should’ve.”
She says, “All three of these songs are incredibly different and they show Taylor’s ability to really mix genres. WCS has some of the best song writing to me, Midnight Rain is really fun and Labyrinth is super unique.”
Along with Taylor’s album release, Olivia Marie enjoyed Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, specifically the song “Homesick.”
She also loved Lucy Dacus’ cover of “Home Again,” Masie Peters’ Not Another Rock Star, and Megan Trainor’s new album.
Jasmine Robinson
Jasmine’s favorite album of the year is Rae by Ashe. She shares, “I think this album just explores so many emotions in a validating and explorative way! It’s just genius!”
Her top three songs on the album are “Love You Need,” “Love Is Letting Go,” and “omw.”
Jasmine had a lot of other favorits this year including release from Louis Tomlinson, Ella Jane, and Reneé Rap.
Her favorite album artwork of the year was the artwork for Conan Gray’s album Superache because, “it’s just perfect and sums up the album really well.”
She also enjoyed some things from Harry Styles this year including his music video for the song “As It Was” because “it was the start of a whole era and a new chapter”. She also enjoyed the live performance that Styles and Lizzo gave together at Coachella for the song “I Will Survive.”
Kirsten Newbrough
“Although so many amazing albums came out this year, flor’s Future Shine stood out as an incredibly strong cohesive album that both delivered on it’s recorded version and in person at a live show,” shares photographer Kirsten Newbrough. She had the chance to cover flor three times this year for us.
She shares that “Big Shot,” “Gotta Do Something,” and “Future Shine” are her top three traacks from the album, “Those three songs are just a small look into the rest of the album including all of the great lyrics and killer sound production.”
Other favorite releases from Kirsten include MUNA’s self titled album, Greyson Chance’s album Palladium, and mxmtoon’s album rising.
Some of Kirsten’s photos from flor’s Boston, MA show on October 2 are available to view below.
Karalyn Hope
Karalyn’s top albums of 2022 include releases from Soccer Mommy, Dayseeker, Rina Sawayma, and Terror. Some standout tracks include “This Hell” by Rina Sawayma, “Crying While You’re Dancing” by Dayseeker, “Unashamed” by Terror featuring Madi Watkins, and “With U” by Soccer Mommy.
Some of her other favorite releases include albums from Pinkshift, Anxious, Bartees Strange, Soul Blind, Charli XCX, Pool Kids, Inclination, Young Culture, and Pictoria Vark.
Karalyn shared, “One of my favorite performances this year was seeing Manchester Orchestra and Foxing play together in March in Buffalo. I was lucky enough to be able to cover this event for For The Punks. These bands were two of my top bands of 2021.”
Watch the music video for “Crying While You’re Dancing” by Dayseeker below.
Jade Ivy
Last but not least, Jade Ivy shared their favorite releases with us. HOLY FVCK by Demi Lovato made the top of Jade’s list with their top three songs being “Substance,” “City of Angels,” and “Wasted.”
Jade shares, “Why? I have been waiting years for Demi to make a rock album, her voice fits the genre so well. Substance was one of the lead singles from the album, and it set the tone for the album; painfully truthful and full of edge. City of Angels is about how they are jaded by Los Angeles, but their partner makes it new and exciting. Wasted is a love song (and my favorite song on the album), comparing being in love to being intoxicated.”
Two other albums that Jade enjoyed this year include Marvelous by Yung Gravy and Traumazine by Megan thee Stallion. Jade also worked at Yung Gravy’s show on November 15 and loved the performance.
When it comes to visuals, Jade enjoyed Taylor Swift’s music video for her song “Bejeweled,” which you can watch below.
They also really liked the artwork that Addison Grace had for the single “I Wanna Be a Boy.” Jade shares, “this song talks about wanting to be a boy and uses old pictures of him to make a collage of him.”
We hope you agreed with some of our staff picks this year! Read our mid-year 2022 review by clicking here.
Leave a comment below with some of your favorite releases of the year!
If you are interested in listening to some of our top picks, check out the playlist that we made on Spotify with 50 of our top songs.
Happy Holidays and we cannot wait to see what 2023 brings for the music industry!
