Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

TomMurphy_QueenCitySounds_Bestof2022_108

Queen City Sounds
By Tom Murphy
Published Issue 108, December 2022

Here are 40 of the most re-listenable albums in one of the best years of music in recent memory.

ADULT_BecomingUndone_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

ADULT. – Becoming Undone

Discordant industrial dance tracks of catharsis and resistance.

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A Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You

A true fusion of industrial shoegaze scorch and emotionally earnest synthpop. 

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Author & Punisher – Krüller

Kinder not gentler soundscape contortions of late capitalism’s unevenly rapid decay. 

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Blacklist – Afterworld 

Hard rock infused folkloric post-punk pushback against doomerism. 

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Blushing – Possessions

Entrancing labyrinthine waves of transporting melodies and joyful melancholia.

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Charli XCX – Crash

“Beg For You” is the glitch/bedroom moody pop banger of 2022. 

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Chat Pile – God’s Country 

An unsettling and thrillingly devastating sonic mirror held up to the eviscerating consequences of America’s especially insidious brand of capitalism.

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Cloakroom – Dissolution Wave

A heavy space rock prophecy for the great civilizational reset to come. 

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Deserta – Every Moment, Everything You Deserve

Hazy tonal doorways to reconnecting with the life you thought you wanted to leave. 

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don’t get lemon – Hyper Hollow Heaven

Gorgeously lush, despair-laden, Future Islands-esque Neo Wave.

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Drowse – Wane into It

A pastoral folk drone meditation on the unmooring effects of the loss of mystery.

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Enumclaw – Save the Baby

Emo grunge post-punk songs on the redemptive power of unsentimental nostalgia. 

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GGGOLDDD – This Shame Should Not Be Mine

Harrowingly vivid, heavy industrial exorcisms of buried personal trauma.

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Gus Englehorn – Dungeon Master

Wonderfully eccentric storybook of colorful dreams, fantasies and nightmares.

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Holy Fawn – Dimensional Bleed

Black metal musique concrète shoegaze suspended in luminous ambient soundscapes.

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Hooveriii – A Round of Applause

Urgent, unabashedly bombastic psychedelic prog brimming with irresistible hooks.  

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Hulder – The Eternal Fanfare

Seething, orchestral black metal paired with deep woods tranquility. 

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Jon Spencer & the HITmakers – Spencer Gets It Lit

Spirited melding of early Devo and The Nation of Ulysses. 

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Kal Marks – My Name Is Hell

Desperate testimonials to the on the edge precariousness of modern human existence. 

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Lesser Care – Underneath, Beside Me

Dream-like post-punk poetic reflections on loss, healing and acceptance. 

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Letting Up Despite Great Faults – IV

Bittersweet, twee shoegaze guitar melody perfection.

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Lowertown – I Love to Lie

Hopeful avant-pop in the face of and against a bleak future.

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Meat Wave – Malign Hex

Melancholic desperation channeled into cathartic bursts of noise rock.

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Molly Nilsson – Extreme

A vital synth pop dance deconstruction of the destructive nature of power in our lives and the reclamation thereof for our collective benefit.

MooreKismet_Universe_AlbumCover_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Moore Kismet – UNIVERSE

A relentlessly creative, colorful and luminous update of electronic dance music.

NancyMounir_NozhetElNofous_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Nancy Mounir – Nozhet El Nofous

Brilliantly layered production of archival recordings of early 20th century Egyptian popular music and modern ambient arrangements.

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No Age – People Helping People

Engrossing contrast of joyful exuberance and blissed-out introspection.

OtobokeBeaver_SuperChampon_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Otoboke Beaver – SUPER CHAMPON

Ferocious none more punk dismantling of misogyny, consumerism and conformity.

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Palm – Nicks and Grazes

Art pop band leans into the weird with forays into the techno psychedelic avant-garde.

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Panda Riot – Extra Cosmic

Vibrant tonal colorings and driving guitar grit augment the veteran shoegazer’s transporting dream pop. 

Patriarchy_TheUnself_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Patriarchy – The Unself

Gloriously lurid and irresistible industrial disco synth pop. 

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Peel Dream Magazine – Pad

Shades of Tropicália, library music and psychedelia inform this journey into self-re-discovery.

PorridgeRadio_WaterslideDivingBoardLadderToTheSky_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Porridge Radio – Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky

Punk pop crackling with riveting authenticity and vulnerability. 

PROBLEMS_ThisIsWorkingOut_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

PROBLEMS – This Is Working Out 

Post-meta, surreal, maximalist 16-bit video game techno.

SecretShame_Autonomy_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

Secret Shame – Autonomy

Heartbreaking, radically vulnerable, confessional post-punk.

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Sound of Ceres – Emerald Sea

Washes of modern classical inform this dream pop concept album of cosmological proportions.  

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The Serfs – Primal Matter

Politically-charged post-punk imbued with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry-esque visceral urgency.

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Viagra Boys – Cave World

The most astute, vital and irreverently unironic set of socially critical songs on one album of 2022. 

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Vision Video – Haunted Hours

Refreshingly earnest New Wave-inflected post-punk swimming in uplifting melodies.

VRSex_RoughDimension_Queen City Sounds Best of 2022 by Tom Murphy

VR Sex – Rough Dimension

A caustic and gritty noise punk search for meaning in a world filled with too few meaningful choices. 


For more see queencitysoundsandart.wordpress.com


Tom Murphy is a Denver-based music writer and science fiction/fantasy/horror creator. He is also a musician, historian and itinerant filmmaker.


Check out Tom’s November Queen City Sounds install in case you missed it or head to our Explore section to see more of his past reviews.

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