A month on from the end of 2022, it genuinely does feel like it was one of the best years in music for a while. With new releases from Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift and Arctic Monkeys, it really was a year blessed with musical talent.

And we know what is expected of us, as a music publication. Almost as hyped as the albums themselves are each music blogs Albums of the Year list. So, of course, we have done our own here at Forge. Each of the two music editors has picked five of their favourite releases from the year, with a little description as to why they have chosen each album.

Charlie’s Picks

5. ‘The Car’ – Arctic Monkeys

The seventh album from Sheffield’s very own Arctic Monkeys, The Car somehow manages to be one of their best. Taking all that was good about their seminal 5th album AM, as well as their last outing Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, and improving on it all, The Car is easily the best thing the band has done since Humbug. Featuring Alex Turner’s trademark crooning, as well as some smooth, rich instrumental backing, I can’t wait to see the band in Hillsborough Park this summer.

(You can read Charlie’s full review of ‘The Car’ for Forge here.)

Favourite Song?: Body Paint

4. ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’ – Big Thief

Folk-rock band Big Thief’s fifth album is easily their best to date. Encapsulating folk, rock, country, bluegrass and even trip-hop, this 20-song behemoth has no right to be as good as it is. Yet in its own prismatically rambling way, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You feels too short. Instrumentally very rich, no part on the album feels too much like filler, or particularly boring. Every single second of this 1 hour 20 minute masterpiece feels deliberately placed and thought-out.

Favourite Song?: Simulation Swarm

3. ‘ALPHA PLACE’ – Knucks

The debut album from London-based rapper Knucks, ALPHA PLACE is one of the best British rap albums in recent memory. Combining jazz, grime, drill as well as conventional rap, ALPHA PLACE is seemingly unlike anything coming out of the UK scene. Knucks’ fantastic use of samples, as well as his lyrical realism and beautiful flow, create a new sound and style that should surely take UK rap to new heights.

Favourite Song?: Hide & Seek

2. ‘Skinty Fia’ – Fontaines D.C.

Following on from their incredible debut album Dogrel, and their equally-brilliant sophomore album A Hero’s Death, Dublin-based five-piece Fontaines D.C. delivered their best album yet in Skinty Fia. Featuring a more complex and experimental sound, the band effortlessly combines the best bits of their first two albums, whilst at the same time creating something differently entirely. However, the biggest highlight of the album is lead-singer Grian Chatten’s lyrics, dealing with intense, emotional subjects whilst matching the overall atmosphere of the album.

(You can read James Wilson’s full review of ‘Skinty Fia‘ for Forge here.)

Favourite Song?: The Couple Across The Way

1. ‘Ants From Up There’ – Black Country, New Road

I truly do think Ants From Up There will go down as one of the best albums of the last ten years. It is simply a masterpiece. Tender and fiery, delicate and frenzied, uplifting and devastating, Ants From Up There is a work of art. The melancholia felt throughout the album is echoed in real-life due to the departure of lead-singer and primary song-writer Isaac Wood, yet all this does is create a feeling of beautiful finiteness.

(You can read Charlie’s full review of ‘Ants From Up There’ for Forge here.)

Favourite Song?: The Place Where He Inserted The Blade

Alice’s Picks

5. ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’ – Fickle Friends

Fickle Friends certainly helped to beat my January blues, kicking off the year with a new collection of their euphoric indie pop sound in the form of their second album ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’.  An ‘80s infused toe-tapper of an album, laced with sparkly, electronic sounds and simple chord patterns, ‘Are We Gonna Be Alright?’ had to feature in my top five. The perfect accompaniment to any power walk or bedroom dance party, ‘Pretty Great’ and ‘Glow’ are personal favourites and are certainly ones to be added to any upbeat playlist. 

Favourite Song?: Pretty Great

4. ‘Homesick’ – Sea Girls

Having peaked at no. 3 in the UK charts, Sea Girl’s second LP Homesick is packed with teenage nostalgia, something of which – having started listening to Sea Girls when I was seventeen myself – couldn’t escape my top five. Topping their first album ‘Open Up Your Head’ was always going to be a mean feat for the four piece, but the familiar anthemic choruses and mosh-pit inducing bridges created an undeniably festival-worthy album. Taking the album as an opportunity to explore more emotional lyricism, ‘Sleeping With You’ and ‘I Got You’, added an extra depth of melancholy to a classic indie rock album.

Favourite Song?: Again Again

3. ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ – The 1975

The first creation by producer Jack Antonoff to be featured in my countdown, The 1975’s fifth studio album ‘Being Funny in a Foreign Language’’, is a refreshing reminder of the band’s jarringly glossy sound. Frontman Matty Healy, stated that while he previously felt pressure to pursue an all-encompassing “Magnum Opus”, ‘Being Funny in A Foreign Language’ is more akin to a small-scale Polaroid in its musical and lyrical focus. The band have produced a stripped-down album that, although goes back to the basics of what the 1975 do best  (echoes of 80’s pop-rock littered with catchy hooks and clever lyricism), explores a new sense of maturity. My personal highlights include what is essentially the new postmodern Christmas bop ‘Wintering’  and the melodic ‘About You’, featuring a duet with the angelic vocals of Carly Holt, lead guitarist Adam Hann’s wife.

(You can read Caleb Masters’ full review of ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ for Forge here.)

Favourite Song?: Wintering

2. ‘Midnights’ – Taylor Swift

‘Midnights’ is spirited pop for the small hours. Romantic and revengeful, Taylor’s tenth album glides through every emotion at that mystifying hour, from sweet dreams to night terrors in a newly subdued and nebulous pop sound.

Another Jack Antonoff special, the album returns to the familiar electronic pop Swift temporarily closed the door on in 2019 exploring feelings of revenge to innocent love. Despite the overall album creating its own stand-out sound, it can’t go without mention that some songs sound more like they belong on ‘reputation’ than reputation itself. ‘Karma’, ‘Midnight Rain’ and ‘Vigilante Shit’ are calm, collected and calculated. Similar to ‘Maroon’, these reflections are mature; luxurious, and revealing her enemy’s comeuppance.

 If ‘Folklore’ is brooding on a walk through the woods, ‘Midnights’ is walking home at 3am after a night out, with your makeup slightly smudged, reflecting on life. From the catchy chorus of ‘Anti-hero’ to the gut-wrenching bridge of ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’, the album does exactly what it says on the tin: following the calculated thoughts of an overthinker, to admiring the prettiness of the hour, the album and its bonus tracks explore every emotion that could be felt when the clock strikes twelve.

(You can read Alice’s full review of Midnights for Forge here.)

Favourite Song?: Paris

1. ‘five seconds flat’ – Lizzy McAlpine

My top album of 2022 is a far cry from the electronic bops of Fickle Friends or The 1975 and the revengeful yet sugary pop of Taylor Swift, instead, being the soft sounds of 23 year old Lizzy McAlpine. A songwriter who’s talent involves crafting the most gut-wrenching lyrics accompanied by simple, swelling chords, leaving any listener breathless and exhausted by such a rush of emotion and sound. McAlpine’s duet with Ben Kessier in my personal favourite from the album ‘reckless driving’ is a perfect example of such an emotional journey the listener is taken on: the song imitating a metaphorical car crash with a perfectly abrupt end. Whilst ‘ceilings’ elegantly a whole love story that – spoiler – is all inside her head. McAlpine’s narrative technique is one to be marvelled at, each song calmly telling stories from beginning to end, laced with beautiful home audio clips and adlibs to reinforce the astounding sense of relatability of each song she creates. An album for the hopeless and the hopeless romantics, ‘five seconds flat’ is, to me, the best of 2022.

Favourite Song?: reckless driving