2022 Power Rankings

Albums

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

RANK	ARTIST	ALBUM	GENRE	POWER INDEX	RATING
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
T12	RY X	Blood Moon	Alternative	75. 4
T16	Natalia Lafourcade	De Todas Las Flores	Mexican Pop	75. 0
T16	Charli xcx	CRASH	Pop	75. 0
18	SOHN	Trust	Indie R&B	74. 5
19	ODESZA	The Last Goodbye	Chillbeat	74. 4
20	Highasakite	Mother	Indie Poptimism	74. 2
21	Sharon Van Etten	We've Been Going About This All Wrong	Alternative	73. 4
22	Day Wave	Pastlife	Lo-Fi Indie	73. 1
23	Cavetown	worm food	Indie Pop	72. 9
24	Cubicolor	Sometime Not Now	Post-Rock	72. 6
25	SZA	SOS	Alternative R&B	72. 1
26	Novo Amor	Antarctican Dream Machine	Ambient	71. 4
T27	Denzel Curry	Melt My Eyez See Your Future	Alternative Rap	71. 3
T27	Jessie Reyez	YESSIE	Alternative R&B	71. 3
T27	Mansionair	Happiness, Guaranteed	Post-Rock	71. 3
T27	Shearwater	The Great Awakening	Indie Rock	71. 3
T27	Talos	Dear Chaos	Ambient Folk	71. 3
T27	Joan Shelley	The Spur	Folk Singer	71. 3
33	COIN	Uncanny Valley	Indie Anthem Power Pop	71. 0
T34	Ólafur Arnalds	some kind of peace — piano reworks	Classical	70. 8
T34	Julia Jacklin	Pre Pleasure	Alternative	70. 8
T36	Cordae	From A Bird's Eye View	Alternative Rap	70. 6
T36	S. Carey	Break Me Open	Ambient Folk	70. 6
T36	Barrie	Barbara	Bedroom Pop	70. 6
T36	Foals	Life Is Yours	Post-Rock	70. 6
T36	Shygirl	Nymph	Alternative R&B	70. 6
T36	Lucius	Second Nature	Indie Poptimism	70. 6
42	Lights	PEP	Pop	70. 3
43	Betty Who	BIG!	Pop	70. 1
T44	Lissom	Eclipses	Ambient	69. 8
T44	Nilüfer Yanya	PAINLESS	Alternative	69. 8
46	The Beths	Expert In A Dying Field	Bedroom Pop	69. 5
47	Amber Mark	Three Dimensions Deep	Neo-R&B	69. 4
48	Bazzi	Infinite Dream	Pop	69. 0
T49	beabadoobee	Beatopia	Bedroom Pop	68. 9
T49	Pale Waves	Unwanted	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 9
T51	∆	The Dream	Art Rock	68. 8
T51	Bay Ledges	Ritual	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 8
T51	Let's Eat Grandma	Two Ribbons	Alternative	68. 8
T51	The Big Moon	Here Is Everything	Alternative	68. 8
55	JID	The Forever Story	Alternative Rap	68. 7
T56	Bonobo	Fragments	IDM	68. 5
T56	TSHA	Capricorn Sun	Electronic	68. 5
T58	Bad Suns	Apocalypse Whenever	Indie Pop/Rock	68. 4
T58	Darius	OASIS	Filter House	68. 4
T58	John Legend	LEGEND	Pop	68. 4
61	Harry Styles	Harry's House	Pop	68. 2
T62	Angel Olsen	Big Time	Alternative	67. 8
T62	Henry Jamison	The Years	Folk Singer	67. 8
T62	Widowspeak	The Jacket	Dream Pop	67. 8
T65	Lucky Daye	Candydrip	Alternative R&B	67. 7
T65	The FAIM	Talk Talk	Emo-Pop	67. 7
67	Little Simz	NO THANK YOU	Alternative Rap	67. 6
68	Tourist	Inside Out	Chillbeat	67. 5
69	Hatchie	Giving The World Away	Bedroom Pop	67. 4
70	Saba	Few Good Things	Alternative Rap	67. 1
T71	Jake Xerxes Fussell	Good And Green Again	Chamber Folk	66. 7
T71	Big Thief	Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You	Alternative	66. 7
T71	BROCKHAMPTON	The Family	Alternative Rap	66. 7
T71	Arcade Fire	WE	Alternative	66. 7
75	Team Me	Something In The Making	Indie Pop	66. 6
T76	Years & Years	Night Call	Pop	66. 3
T76	Carly Rae Jepsen	The Loneliest Time	Pop	66. 3
78	Lizzy McAlpine	five seconds flat	Alternative	66. 1
T79	AUGUST 08	Seasick	R&B	65. 9
T79	Kendrick Lamar	Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers	Alternative Rap	65. 9
81	Tove Lo	Dirt Femme	Pop	65. 7
82	Aoife Nessa Frances	Protector	Alternative	65. 5
83	The Dear Hunter	Antimai	Post-Rock	65. 1
T84	BAYNK	ADOLESCENCE	Electronic	65. 0
T84	Blossoms	Ribbon Around The Bomb	Alternative	65. 0
T84	BROODS	Space Island	Shimmer Pop	65. 0
T84	Sylvan Esso	No Rules Sandy	Alternative	65. 0
88	Kae Tempest	The Line Is A Curve	Alternative Rap	64. 9
89	ROSALÍA	MOTOMAMI	Pop	64. 2
T90	Dehd	Blue Skies	Alternative	64. 0
T90	Mitski	Laurel Hell	Alternative	64. 0
T92	Taylor Swift	Midnights	Pop	63. 7
T92	Coheed And Cambria	Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind	New Prog	63. 7
94	Soccer Mommy	Sometimes, Forever	Bedroom Pop	63. 6
95	Florist	Florist	Indie Folk	63. 4
T96	Cannons	Fever Dream	Shimmer Pop	63. 2
T96	The Range	Mercury	Electronic	63. 2
98	MUNA	MUNA	Indie Poptimism	62. 9
T99	Brotherkenzie	NATHAN	Alternative	62. 5
T99	Fontaines D.C.	Skinty Fia	Post-Hardcore	62. 5
T99	SOAK	if I never know you like this again	Indie Rock	62. 5
T99	The Mars Volta	The Mars Volta	New Prog	62. 5
T103	Calexico	El Mirador	Alternative	62. 3
T103	Wet Leg	Wet Leg	Rock	62. 3
105	Gryffin	Alive	Pop	62. 2
T106	Damien Jurado	Reggae Film Star	Chamber Folk	62. 0
T106	XYLØ	unamerican beauty	Dark Pop	62. 0
108	Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin	Ali	Neo-Psychedelia	61. 9
T109	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Return Of The Dream Canteen	Alternative Pop/Rock	61. 8
T109	Stand Atlantic	f.e.a.r.	Emo-Pop	61. 8
111	The Weeknd	Dawn FM	Pop	61. 5
112	C. Duncan	Alluvium	Art Pop	60. 9
113	Dreamville	D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape	Rap	60. 7
114	Bear's Den	Trying: Season 3 \|Apple TV Original Series Soundtrack\|	Folk-Rock	60. 2
115	Spiritualized	Everything Was Beautiful	Alternative	59. 9
T116	Midlake	For The Sake Of Bethel Woods	Art Rock	59. 4
T116	Wallows	Tell Me That It’s Over	Indie Pop	59. 4
118	Post Malone	Twelve Carat Toothache	Melodic Rap	59. 3
119	EARTHGANG	GHETTO GODS	Alternative Rap	59. 2
120	Kid Cudi	Entergalactic	Melodic Rap	59. 1
T121	Coyle Girelli	Funland	Alternative	58. 9
T121	Peach Pit	From 2 To 3	Alternative	58. 9
T121	The Weather Station	How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars	Alternative	58. 9
T124	BROCKHAMPTON	™	Alternative Rap	58. 3
T124	Daniel Avery	Ultra Truth	Art Pop	58. 3
T124	Ethel Cain	Preacher’s Daughter	Alternative	58. 3
127	James Blake & Endel	Wind Down	Ambient	57. 8
128	Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul	Topical Dancer	Experimental	57. 4
T129	BANKS	Serpentina	Dark Pop	57. 2
T129	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Unlimited Love	Alternative Pop/Rock	57. 2
T129	Father John Misty	Chloë And The Next 20th Century	Chamber Pop	57. 2
132	Kota The Friend	MEMO	Rap	56. 8
133	Sudan Archives	Natural Brown Prom Queen	Alternative R&B	56. 6
T134	Delta Spirit	One Is One	Indie Rock	56. 1
T134	Nils Frahm	Music For Animals	Ambient	56. 1
136	Yot Club	Off The Grid	Lo-Fi Indie	55. 6
T137	Sasha Alex Sloan	I Blame The World	Pop	55. 2
T137	Weyes Blood	And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow	Alternative	55. 2
139	Syd	Broken Hearts Club	Alternative R&B	55. 1
140	Flock Of Dimes	Head Of Roses: Phantom Limb	Metropop	54. 9
141	Melt Yourself Down	Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In	Experimental	54. 8
142	Lykke Li	EYEYE	Alternative	54. 6
T143	Palace	Shoals	Indie Rock	54. 4
T143	Arin Ray	Hello Poison	Urban	54. 4
145	Noah Cyrus	The Hardest Part	Pop	54. 3
146	Elder	Innate Passage	Metal	54. 0
147	Lauv	All 4 Nothing	Pop	51. 5
148	Walt Disco	Unlearning	Alternative	51. 4
149	Leyla McCalla	Breaking The Thermometer	Alternative	50. 8
150	Jockstrap	I Love You Jennifer B	Experimental	50. 4
T151	Muse	Will Of The People	Rock	49. 7
T151	Strand Of Oaks	In Heaven	Folk Singer	49. 7
153	Andrew Bird	Inside Problems	Chamber Pop	49. 3
154	Brothertiger	Brothertiger	Chillwave	49. 1
155	Tep No	Finding Sounds	Tropical House	47. 1
156	The Tallest Man On Earth	Too Late For Edelweiss	Folk Singer	46. 7
T157	Cate Le Bon	Pompeii	Alternative	46. 2
T157	Black Country, New Road	Ants From Up There	Alternative	46. 2
159	Brandon Boyd	Echoes & Cocoons	Alt-Rock	46. 0
160	Kelly Lee Owens	LP.8	Experimental	45. 6
161	FKA twigs	CAPRISONGS	Art Pop	45. 4
162	Mura Masa	demon time	Electronic	42. 8
163	Kevin Morby	This Is A Photograph	Alt-Country	42. 7
T164	Sorry	Anywhere But Here	Alternative	40. 3
T164	Niia	OFFAIR: Mouthful Of Salt	Art Pop	40. 3
166	Christine And The Queens	Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles (Prologue)	Indie Poptimism	39. 5
167	Perfume Genius	Ugly Season	Alternative	39. 3
168	Aldous Harding	Warm Chris	Experimental	35. 0
169	yeule	Glitch Princess	Experimental	34. 9
170	i_o & Lights	Warehouse Summer	Dance	34. 7
171	Whatever The Weather	Whatever The Weather	Downtempo	33. 4
172	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	RATING
1	BLÜ EYES	Healing Hurts	Pop	84. 5
2	Forest Claudette	The Year Of February	Alternative R&B	75. 2
3	Stephen Sanchez	Easy On My Eyes	Folk Singer	72. 5
T4	Mosa Wild	Zip Your Coat Up For English Weather	Alternative	71. 7
T4	Wolf Alice	Blue Lullaby	Indie Rock	71. 7
T4	Purity Ring	graves	Poptron	71. 7
7	Emotional Oranges	The Juice, Vol. III	Urban	68. 8
8	Private Island	Valleyheart	Indie Rock	68. 3
9	Brothertiger	Fundamentals, Vol. IV	Chillwave	67. 8
T10	Typhoon	Underground Complex No. 1	Indie Rock	66. 7
T10	Mysie	Joyride	Neo-R&B	66. 7
12	McCall	...To Be A Dream...	Alternative	65. 5
13	Squirrel Flower	Planet EP	Lo-Fi Indie	64. 0
T14	EMBRZ	Don't Look Back	Progressive House	63. 4
T14	Random Forest	Ascension	Atmospheric Rock	63. 4
16	EMBRZ	Back Where We Belong	Progressive House	63. 1
17	Raffaella	LIVE, RAFF, LOVE (Act I)	Alternative	62. 2
18	Transviolet	Drugs In California	Pop	60. 2
19	POLIÇA	Madness	Alternative	59. 9
20	Empress Of	Save Me	Pop	59. 8
21	Yoste	Never The Same	Shimmer Pop	57. 4
22	Kidswaste	Colors Of Your Heart	Electronic	57. 2
23	chloe moriondo	puppy luv	Bedroom Pop	54. 0
24	Cautious Clay	Thin Ice On The Cake	Neo-R&B	52. 6
25	Patrick Watson	Better In The Shade	Art Pop	52. 2
26	Xavier Omär	b l u r r	R&B	47. 9
27	Pink Sweat$	Pink Moon	R&B	46. 6
28	Gang Of Youths	Gang Of Youths - Triple J Like A Version Sessions	Indie Rock	41. 6
29	Kota The Friend	Lyrics To GO, Vol. 3	Rap	41. 4
30	Kelsey Bulkin	Hear Me Beloved	Indie Electronic	33. 9
31	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.