Welcome to the heart of our countdown of the best albums of 2022. Before continuing, check out parts one, two, three and four.

Part 5 includes three of the year’s biggest commercial releases, from Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar, as well as a fantastic new album from ’90s Britpop band the London Suede, indie rock from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Afghan Whigs and Black Country, New Road, alt-country and rock from Drive-By Truckers, slick yet very dark pop of Alex Cameron and even a compilation tribute to Yoko Ono.

20. Suede

Autofiction – BMG

On Autofiction, The London Suede manage to look back while moving forward. It’s not an easy trick to pull off. Nine albums in, singer Brett Anderson has certainly earned the right to be nostalgic about the band’s “early days.” But lucky for him—and us—Autofiction goes for vitality over sentimentality. Many of the tracks were built from live studio performances, and it’s a better album for it. It’s raw, direct, honest and damn close to the power of Suede live shows.

Guitarist Richard Oakes pushes the band into some previously unexplored post-punk terrain, at times evoking bands like Magazine, The Fall and Siouxsie and the Banshees. It’s a great fit for the band on songs like “Shadow Self” and “Personality Disorder.” The glam stomp of “The Boy on the Stage” carries an echo of the band’s past with Brett Anderson examining the persona he created in the early ’90s. Suede albums are always good for an exquisite ballad or two, and “Drive Myself Home” easily takes its place in that pantheon. Autofiction is the most solid collection of bangers the London Suede has put together since 1996’s Coming Up.

19. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

Changes and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava – KGLW

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard released five LPs and an EP in 2022. We listened to all of them and loved two equally. Both of these were among three released in October. Ice is a musical ecosystem, with seven extended jams that sprout and mutate like the wildlife around Chernobyl. Each jam features one of the seven modes of the major scale: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. The first letter of each word in the title forms a mnemonic for the modes. The sessions were then edited down and overdubbed with flute, organ, percussion and additional guitars. The resulting album is a magic carpet ride through a series of kaleidoscopic musical landscapes.

Changes, meanwhile, is a jazzier amalgam of Queen, Stevie Wonder and the Beastie Boys. The songs set up their sonic base camps around vintage electric piano grooves and bumping drumbeats.

18. Drive-By Truckers

Welcome 2 Club XIII – ATO Records

Welcome 2 Club XIII constitutes another chapter in Drive-By Truckers’ three-decade examination of folks struggling to get by in America. If it doesn’t rock as hard as some of the earlier chapters—say, 2004’s The Dirty South or 2014’s English Oceans—rocking out isn’t really the point. Instead, the point is endurance; it’s about finding the strength to keep going no matter how rough the road gets. That’s why drummer Brad Morgan’s beat is key: It embodies that resolve to stay the course. At the same time, the solidly constructed tunes and the vivid, trenchant lyrics offer ample proof that the Drive-By Truckers are still one of the best modern American rock bands.

17. Bad Bunny

Un Verano Sin Ti – Rimas Entertainment

After consecutive summers of the pandemic, the world needed a lasting groove going into the summer of 2022. Un Verano Sin Ti by Bad Bunny emerged as that saving grace, providing a baseline for all to dance. Bad Bunny had the entire world singing along in Spanish and leaning into the Caribbean energy the album gifts us.

The album blends fresh soundtracks that play up diversity with distinct sounds being pulled from so many different genres, including cumbia, pop, merengue and tropicale (among others) while standing firm under the category of reggaeton. Un Verano Sin Ti is the first Spanish-language album nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It’s Benito time. His voice and vibe are globally recognizable from the clubs to the records of other mainstream musicians. Bad Bunny’s proclivity for hyper experimental sounds and rhythms come together under his signature sensuous melodies.

16. Kendrick Lamar

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers – Top Dawg Entertainment

These 18 songs give us plenty of time to soak in the jazz influences and introspective lyricism as Kendrick Lamar opens up about the deeper psychological issues that have manifested and festered in his mind, as well as the sociopolitical issues that have plagued the country for the last few years.

“I grieve different,” he raps on “United In Grief” as harmonized vocals lead into piano key strikes, hi-hats, snares and a brighter jazz melody. Strings swell, and Lamar raps about how wealth has served as a coping mechanism. E-40 drops in on on “N95,” about the unrest that’s forced us to grapple with the true essence of who we are. Then, on “Die Hard,” he acknowledges his own struggles to open up to others. It was a popular topic for hip-hop artists in 2022, and Lamar did it really well.

15. Alex Cameron

Oxy Music – Secretly Canadian

For all the pleasures of Alex Cameron’s sly croon, witty lyrics, sleek production and immaculate pop-tunes, Oxy Music’s take on substance abuse—paired with some smart, sensitive digs at online culture—is almost as harrowing and powerful as Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night. “Best Life” is about putting your best foot forward on social media and still not reaching the next step. The music reflects a fake-it-’til-you-make-it mentality. The melody is so sunny and the production so glossy that they’re like the aural equivalent of J.J. Abrams’s “Star Trek” lens flare. All this prettiness might tempt you to ignore the anxiety and loneliness at the song’s core.

“Sara Jo” is about a woman who’s ready to kill someone over the B.S. that her family absorbs online. “Prescription Refill” puts a new spin on the phrase, “love is the drug.” “Hold the Line” ditches love and goes all in on the drugs. The protagonist of “Breakdown” has to deal with mental illness on top of addiction. Further and further down the rabbit hole he goes.

14. Taylor Swift

Midnights – Republic Records

Midnights is clearly not the third part of a trilogy to Folklore and evermore for Taylor Swift. The dark storytelling remains, but much of the folky backdrop has been replaced by distorted synths. The harmonies are slick and tight, the lyrics smart, and after a pair of introspective albums, it’s refreshing to hear Swift lean back into poppy songwriting. Swift again collaborated with Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff on the record, which helps foster consistency in sound. Perhaps more impressively, even though Taylor Swift didn’t release any early singles, every one of these songs is a hit.

Chances are you have most of these songs memorized: from “Lavender Haze” to “Maroon,” “Anti-Hero” and “Vigilante Shit.” Taylor Swift is truly a master of the dark arts for making an album as buzzy, poppy and deep as Midnights.

13. Black Country, New Road

Ants From Up There – Ninja Tune

The sophomore album from Black Country, New Road is just as rewarding of a listen as the band’s debut, even if it’s pretty different. The debut’s air of doom and gloom has all but vanished. The guitars do drone, but they ring and jangle much more than they clang. They also share equal footing with—and even cede ground to—the band’s violin, sax and piano. The biggest change is in the tunes and the tempos, which range from serene to ecstatic. Some post-punk devotees might grouse that Black Country, New Road is trying to jump on the Mumford & Sons bandwagon 10 years too late. But for all the acoustic instruments and touches of folk music, Ants From Up There’s genial melodies, pitch-challenged singing, wry lyrics and loose, ambling feel recall another ’90s indie-rock cult favorite: Pavement. Wood comes across as less snarky and more vulnerable than Stephen Malkmus, though, and good for him. Vulnerability tends to age better than snark.

12. Afghan Whigs

How Do You Burn? – BMG

Since reuniting in 2012, the creativity and verve of the Afghan Whigs’ output has rivaled anything they put out in their ’90s heyday. How Do You Burn? is their third post-reunion record, which finds the band reenergized by the presence of new member and coproducer Christopher Thorn (Blind Melon). The album features cameos from singers Susan Marshall and Marcy Mays, who appeared on previous Whigs albums, as well as from the late Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), whose question to Greg Dulli (his way of asking “what excites you?”) became the title.

By turns ferocious and yearning, the band travels seamlessly from the full-throttle Queens-of-the-Stone-Age-esque rock of opener “I’ll Make You See God,” through the Beatlesque “The Getaway” and all the way to the jazzy closer “In Flames.” Dulli’s older and wiser, but he hasn’t changed his stripes: “Snowblind and left behind/ I’m on the street and I’m looking for a good time,” he sings.

11. Various Artists

Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono – Canvasback Music

Curated by Death Cab for Cutie frontman Benjamin Gibbard, Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono is a collection of covers of one of the world’s most misunderstood artists by a who’s who of margin-walkers and boundary-breakers including David Byrne, The Flaming Lips and Yo La Tengo. For example, take Sharon Van Etten’s rendition of “Toy Boat,” off of Ono’s 1981 album, Season of Glass. Some may conclude that Van Etten’s tender piano ballad is a far cry from the diabolical yodeling they imagine to be Ono’s vocal style. In fact, Van Etten’s cover captures the innocent synth-pop sophistication of the original.

Sudan Archives deliver a chilling performance of Ono’s 1973 deep cut “Dogtown.” On “Nobody Sees Me Like You Do,” Japanese Breakfast’s delivery is a little less pitchy than Ono’s original, but the song’s simple and direct tenderness is amplified by the quiet arrangement.

20: Suede. 19: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. 18: Drive-By Truckers. 17: Bad Bunny. 16: Kendrick Lamar. 15: Alex Cameron. 14: Taylor Swift. 13: Black Country, New Road. 12: Afghan Whigs. 11: Yoko Ono tribute album.

The 67 best albums of 2022: 10-1