2022 Power Rankings

Albums

Ranked albums of 2022 as rated by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	ALBUM	GENRE	POWER INDEX
1	Beach House	Once Twice Melody	Dream Pop	90. 6
T2	Gang Of Youths	angel in realtime.	Indie Rock	84. 7
T2	flor	Future Shine	Indie Pop/Rock	84. 7
4	Tomberlin	i don’t know who needs to hear this...	Alternative	82. 2
5	Bear's Den	Blue Hours	Folk-Rock	81. 6
T6	OWEL	The Salt Water Well	Post-Rock	78. 2
T6	King Princess	Hold On Baby	Indie Poptimism	78. 2
T8	Hippo Campus	LP3	Indie Pop	78. 1
T8	Utah	This Sounds Like UTAH	Chillbeat	78. 1
T10	Ásgeir	Time On My Hands	Ambient Folk	77. 8
T10	Loyle Carner	hugo	Rap	77. 8
T12	Lane 8	Reviver	Progressive House	75. 4
T12	Laufey	Everything I Know About Love	Alternative	75. 4
T12	The Smile	A Light For Attracting Attention	Art Rock	75. 4
15	Natalia Lafourcade	De Todas Las Flores	Mexican Pop	75. 0
16	SOHN	Trust	Indie R&B	74. 5
17	Highasakite	Mother	Indie Poptimism	74. 2
18	Sharon Van Etten	We've Been Going About This All Wrong	Alternative	73. 4
19	Day Wave	Pastlife	Lo-Fi Indie	73. 1
T20	Cavetown	worm food	Indie Pop	72. 9
T20	ODESZA	The Last Goodbye	Chillbeat	72. 9
22	Cubicolor	Sometime Not Now	Post-Rock	72. 6
23	SZA	SOS	Alternative R&B	72. 1
24	Novo Amor	Antarctican Dream Machine	Ambient	71. 4
T25	Denzel Curry	Melt My Eyez See Your Future	Alternative Rap	71. 3
T25	Jessie Reyez	YESSIE	Alternative R&B	71. 3
T25	Mansionair	Happiness, Guaranteed	Post-Rock	71. 3
T25	Shearwater	The Great Awakening	Indie Rock	71. 3
T25	Talos	Dear Chaos	Ambient Folk	71. 3
30	Ólafur Arnalds	some kind of peace — piano reworks	Classical	70. 8
T31	Cordae	From A Bird's Eye View	Alternative Rap	70. 6
T31	S. Carey	Break Me Open	Ambient Folk	70. 6
T31	Barrie	Barbara	Bedroom Pop	70. 6
T31	Foals	Life Is Yours	Post-Rock	70. 6
T31	Shygirl	Nymph	Alternative R&B	70. 6
T36	Lissom	Eclipses	Ambient	69. 8
T36	Nilüfer Yanya	PAINLESS	Alternative	69. 8
38	Bazzi	Infinite Dream	Pop	69. 0
T39	beabadoobee	Beatopia	Bedroom Pop	68. 9
T39	Pale Waves	Unwanted	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 9
T41	∆	The Dream	Art Rock	68. 8
T41	Bay Ledges	Ritual	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 8
T41	Let's Eat Grandma	Two Ribbons	Alternative	68. 8
T41	The Big Moon	Here Is Everything	Alternative	68. 8
45	Bonobo	Fragments	IDM	68. 5
T46	Bad Suns	Apocalypse Whenever	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 4
T46	Darius	OASIS	Filter House	68. 4
T46	John Legend	LEGEND	Pop	68. 4
49	Harry Styles	Harry's House	Pop	68. 2
T50	Angel Olsen	Big Time	Alternative	67. 8
T50	Henry Jamison	The Years	Folk Singer	67. 8
T50	Widowspeak	The Jacket	Dream Pop	67. 8
53	Little Simz	NO THANK YOU	Alternative Rap	67. 6
54	Hatchie	Giving The World Away	Bedroom Pop	67. 4
55	Tove Lo	Dirt Femme	Pop	66. 9
T56	Jake Xerxes Fussell	Good And Green Again	Chamber Folk	66. 7
T56	Big Thief	Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You	Alternative	66. 7
T56	BROCKHAMPTON	The Family	Alternative Rap	66. 7
59	Team Me	Something In The Making	Indie Pop	66. 6
60	Years & Years	Night Call	Pop	66. 3
61	Lizzy McAlpine	five seconds flat	Alternative	66. 1
62	Aoife Nessa Frances	Protector	Alternative	65. 5
T63	BAYNK	ADOLESCENCE	Electronic	65. 0
T63	Blossoms	Ribbon Around The Bomb	Alternative	65. 0
T63	BROODS	Space Island	Shimmer Pop	65. 0
T63	Sylvan Esso	No Rules Sandy	Alternative	65. 0
T67	Dehd	Blue Skies	Alternative	64. 0
T67	Mitski	Laurel Hell	Alternative	64. 0
69	Taylor Swift	Midnights	Pop	63. 7
70	Soccer Mommy	Sometimes, Forever	Bedroom Pop	63. 6
T71	Cannons	Fever Dream	Shimmer Pop	63. 2
T71	The Range	Mercury	Electronic	63. 2
T73	Brotherkenzie	NATHAN	Alternative	62. 5
T73	Fontaines D.C.	Skinty Fia	Post-Hardcore	62. 5
T73	SOAK	if I never know you like this again	Indie Rock	62. 5
76	Calexico	El Mirador	Alternative	62. 3
T77	Damien Jurado	Reggae Film Star	Chamber Folk	62. 0
T77	XYLØ	unamerican beauty	Dark Pop	62. 0
79	Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin	Ali	Neo-Psychedelia	61. 9
T80	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Return Of The Dream Canteen	Alternative Pop/Rock	61. 8
T80	Stand Atlantic	f.e.a.r.	Emo-Pop	61. 8
82	The Weeknd	Dawn FM	Pop	61. 5
83	C. Duncan	Alluvium	Art Pop	60. 9
84	Dreamville	D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape	Rap	60. 7
85	Bear's Den	Trying: Season 3 \|Apple TV Original Series Soundtrack\|	Folk-Rock	60. 2
86	Spiritualized	Everything Was Beautiful	Alternative	59. 9
T87	Midlake	For The Sake Of Bethel Woods	Art Rock	59. 4
T87	Wallows	Tell Me That It’s Over	Indie Pop	59. 4
89	Kid Cudi	Entergalactic	Melodic Rap	59. 1
T90	Coyle Girelli	Funland	Alternative	58. 9
T90	Peach Pit	From 2 To 3	Alternative	58. 9
T90	The Weather Station	How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars	Alternative	58. 9
T93	BROCKHAMPTON	™	Alternative Rap	58. 3
T93	Daniel Avery	Ultra Truth	Art Pop	58. 3
95	James Blake & Endel	Wind Down	Ambient	57. 8
96	Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul	Topical Dancer	Experimental	57. 4
T97	BANKS	Serpentina	Dark Pop	57. 2
T97	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Unlimited Love	Alternative Pop/Rock	57. 2
99	Sudan Archives	Natural Brown Prom Queen	Alternative R&B	56. 6
100	Delta Spirit	One Is One	Indie Rock	56. 1
101	Yot Club	Off The Grid	Lo-Fi Indie	55. 6
T102	Sasha Alex Sloan	I Blame The World	Pop	55. 2
T102	Weyes Blood	And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow	Alternative	55. 2
104	Melt Yourself Down	Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In	Experimental	54. 8
T105	Palace	Shoals	Indie Rock	54. 4
T105	Arin Ray	Hello Poison	Urban	54. 4
107	Noah Cyrus	The Hardest Part	Pop	54. 3
108	Elder	Innate Passage	Metal	54. 0
109	Lauv	All 4 Nothing	Pop	51. 5
110	Walt Disco	Unlearning	Alternative	51. 4
111	Leyla McCalla	Breaking The Thermometer	Alternative	50. 8
112	Jockstrap	I Love You Jennifer B	Experimental	50. 4
T113	Muse	Will Of The People	Rock	49. 7
T113	Strand Of Oaks	In Heaven	Folk Singer	49. 7
115	Brothertiger	Brothertiger	Chillwave	49. 1
116	Tep No	Finding Sounds	Tropical House	47. 1
117	The Tallest Man On Earth	Too Late For Edelweiss	Folk Singer	46. 7
118	Brandon Boyd	Echoes & Cocoons	Alt-Rock	46. 0
119	Kelly Lee Owens	LP.8	Experimental	45. 6
120	FKA twigs	CAPRISONGS	Art Pop	45. 4
121	Mura Masa	demon time	Electronic	42. 8
122	Sorry	Anywhere But Here	Alternative	40. 3
123	Christine And The Queens	Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles (Prologue)	Indie Poptimism	39. 5
124	yeule	Glitch Princess	Experimental	34. 9
125	i_o & Lights	Warehouse Summer	Dance	34. 7
126	Whatever The Weather	Whatever The Weather	Downtempo	33. 4
127	Phosphorescent	The Full Moon Project	Alt-Country	15. 7

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Spotify

The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.

EPs

Ranked EPs of 2022 as rated by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	EP	GENRE	POWER INDEX
1	BLÜ EYES	Healing Hurts	Pop	84. 5
2	Stephen Sanchez	Easy On My Eyes	Folk Singer	72. 5
T3	Mosa Wild	Zip Your Coat Up For English Weather	Alternative	71. 7
T3	Wolf Alice	Blue Lullaby	Indie Rock	71. 7
5	Emotional Oranges	The Juice, Vol. III	Urban	68. 8
6	Private Island	Valleyheart	Indie Rock	68. 3
7	Brothertiger	Fundamentals, Vol. IV	Chillwave	67. 8
T8	Typhoon	Underground Complex No. 1	Indie Rock	66. 7
T8	Mysie	Joyride	Neo-R&B	66. 7
10	McCall	...To Be A Dream...	Alternative	65. 5
11	Squirrel Flower	Planet EP	Lo-Fi Indie	64. 0
T12	EMBRZ	Don't Look Back	Progressive House	63. 4
T12	Random Forest	Ascension	Atmospheric Rock	63. 4
14	EMBRZ	Back Where We Belong	Progressive House	63. 1
15	Transviolet	Drugs In California	Pop	60. 2
16	Empress Of	Save Me	Pop	59. 8
17	Yoste	Never The Same	Shimmer Pop	57. 4
18	chloe moriondo	puppy luv	Bedroom Pop	54. 0
19	Cautious Clay	Thin Ice On The Cake	Neo-R&B	52. 6
20	Gang Of Youths	Gang Of Youths - Triple J Like A Version Sessions	Indie Rock	41. 6
21	Kelsey Bulkin	Hear Me Beloved	Indie Electronic	33. 9
22	The Rare Occasions	Attaboy	Garage Rock Revival	28. 4

SCROLL →

Spotify

The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.