No hive mind, or Beyhive mind, here. There are no duplicates between diverse music critics’ top ten…at least not until you take into account various combinations of honorable mentions, at which point it becomes clear that everyone Do Such as Beyoncé, Rosalía, SZA, and Wet Leg. But the general lack of crossover between menus is another indication that, now more than ever, music is not only your greatest entertainment value but your greatest multiverse. In 2022, music has reached the point where more than 100,000 new songs are being uploaded to DSPs every day, and while no one has revealed how many albums add up to that, suffice it to say no one is even close to keeping up with it all. Records that get critical love within a year, not to mention The Hangover fall on completely deaf ears in the woods. What we can strive for is to absorb as many of the thousands of great records released in a year as possible, before succumbing to the inevitability that any path to the greatness of the year will have a powerful choose-choice-your-own-adventure component.
Deputy Music Editor Jim Aswad and Senior Music Writer/Music Critic Chris Willman have a wealth of adventures in store for you in the ten years below. You’ll find plenty of fan favorites among these lists, including Taylor Swift, whose RIAA just ranked “Midnights” as the year’s most-approved new seller, and Beyoncé, whose “Renaissance” dominated the early critics’ consensus lists, with “Motomami” being Rosalia’s not too far behind. There’s room here for polarizing picks, too, like Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers,” a record that produced such divided opinions (most of all within fans’ minds) that it was destined to land most of the top ten. But also previously determined to be #1 in any of them.
Whatever your taste, any music lover will find something new to cherish, checking out these multi-faceted, multi-genre lists. if not? Maybe you are the problem, you. (Click here to go to Chris Wellman’s list.)
[ad_2]
