the Top 10 Pop Albums of 2022

Pop speaks for itself. This list once includes hip hop, since that is basically what it has become. As a whole pop music has become a shit show, you have 40 producers working on one album and they are still recycling sounds from other artists. These albums broke from that factory of sounds and tried to do something different. Much like in years past sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list.  The fact these artists made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Pop albums of 2022

10-Pale Waves- "Unwanted" 

My not so guilty pleasure band who pretty much falls in line with Chrvches in the frame of my listening habits. Even though this is more of a teenage angst ridden pop punk album it still holds plenty of common ground with their previous albums. More guitar driving the bigger hooks this time around. She does a really good job of harmonizing her vocals on the emo power ballad feel of these songs

Abysmal Hymns: Pale Waves : "Unwanted"

9-Snow tha Product- "To Anywhere" 

I have not reviewed a great deal of hip-hop this year as the bulk of it has been garbage. However, I was really looking forward to this album and finally tracked it down, it came out without a great deal of fanfare. The first track is poppier than I expected with Snow singing more than rapping, though she does cut loose in a few places. The album is laid-back but really well done.

Abysmal Hymns: Snow Tha Product: "To Anywhere"

 

8-Yung Gravy-"Marvelous" 

In a world where hip hop tends to take itself too seriously someone this ridiculous is needed to parody it. His voice is not drenched in effect and auto-tune, and he puts words together in a clever manner than puts himself ahead of the bulk of the industry. The Swiss born rapper tend to make a train of thought wish list for the kind of bitch he needs, which is pretty fun.

Abysmal Hymns: Catching up with 2022- Yung Gravy: "Marvelous"

7-Ayria- "This is My Battle Cry" 

The thump of this album is pretty on point for what this artist does. She fuses future pop with dark wave, it has been a minute since I have given any of her work a listen as despite the goth trappings, she is pretty sugary sweet. Despite owing a huge debt to the 80s I think it works better than most of what is on the radio these days

 

Abysmal Hymns: Gothtober : Ayria : 'This is My Battle Cry"

6-the Rasmus - "Rise" 

This Finnish band gave themselves wide breadth to thrive in 2022. It is amazing for a band that has been around since 1994. Their singer does not sound 43. The symphonic elements are still in play and it's clear they do what Maneskin tries to do a great deal better.They have perfected the pop side of what they to and creates infectious songs that do not feel lost in the 90s.

Abysmal Hymns: the Rasmus : "Rise"

 

5-Corlyx- "Blood in the Disco" 

You got to love a band that refuses to make the same album twice. This time they are veering off into more of a 90s electro pop sound in the vein of bands like Curve. The vocals purr over the bass driven grooves, while they shadow of the core sound have not fade but give room for upbeat pulse of the song. Fans of the band will embrace the new sounds. 

Abysmal Hymns: Corlyx : "Blood in the Disco"

 4-Charli XCX- 'Crash" 

Quirky British pop singer Charli XCX is back. This time she is showing us that she makes an album with a half dozen less songwriters and producers than the likes of the Weeknd or Lil Nas X . She does continue a slick 80s retro path and I am not sure any of the songs strike me as bumping as hard as she did on  "How   I'm feeling now". She has a knack of riding the beats with odd chanted vocal lines and they tend to grow on me.  

Abysmal Hymns: Charli XCX : " Crash"

 

3-SRSQ- "Ever Crashing" 

Kennedy Ashlyn's former project Them Are Us Too were one of those bands whose influences they were paying tribute to was so apparent, in their case the Cocteau Twins, that if you are a fan of the said band then you welcome them. In the case of the Cocteau Twins they are not making any new music so I would welcome  a band that was filling that void for me. There is a hint of that influence still lingers, but she has come into her own artist under the SRSQ moniker. Even more so with this album. She is no longer basking in ethereal darkness and stepping into an 80's themed neon. The brighter tone of the album still works and finds this to be a monument of growth for Ashlyn

Abysmal Hymns: SRSQ : " Ever Crashing"

2-Tears For Fears-"the Tipping Point" 

After 18 years the silence has been broken. The duo that comprises this band went through their individual stressors that almost brough them to an end before they finished with the album, they began working on back in 2013. The record label pressure the band to work with younger artists, however they had the integrity to say " no, fuck that this doesn't sound like Tears for Fears. Sounding like Tears For Fears does not mean they are trying to recreate "Songs From the Big Chair", they pick up where they left off by venturing into folk and other dynamics. 

Abysmal Hymns: Tears For Fears - " the Tipping Point"

 

1-Taylor Swift - "Midnights"

Imagine a pop album not overrun by an assembly line of producers and outside songwriters. Taylor has got you covered with that. Having started off as a musician and song writer before fully wading into the pop waters, she has an advantage over her peers with whom she shares the radio waves. Taylor continues to excel while making music in a genre that normally vomits up disposable jingles for audiences who fall for anything sold to them, so imagine pop music with some thought behind it, what a concept. She writes great songs with clever lyrics which carries an infectious nature that found her beating out the likes of Tears for Fears, who was great but perhaps not as inspired. 

Abysmal Hymns: Taylor Swift: "Midnights"