It’s New Year’s Eve and it’s time for my personal #BestSongsOf2022 list!
Ten songs from ten different artists, listed from number 10 to number 1.
Let’s start!
10th place: Rivers of Mercy by Tears for Fears.
More than 35 years have passed since The Big Chair, but these guys haven't lost the gift of recording breathtaking ballads. Close your eyes and you'll feel the summer breeze.
9th place: Surrounded by Spies by Placebo.
Dark, paranoid and slightly unsettling. Basically, Placebo in a nutshell.
8th place: Trigger by Kavinsky.
This would be the perfect lost soundtrack for a never-made '80s movie. Giorgio Moroder called and wants his song back!
7th place: The Rhythm by Hatchie.
If this track had been recorded in the UK in the '90s it would have become a hit. But unfortunately it's 2022 and Hatchie is (until now) severely under-appreciated. Check out her records!
6th place: Night and Day by Johnny Marr.
This stomping poppy tune from Johnny's latest record is a real earworm. You'll be caught casually whistling it while you're driving and when you're taking the rubbish out.
5th place: Hold Me Together by Ryan Adams.
I'm happy to see that Ryan is back and even more prolific than ever. Hold Me Together is an acoustic ballad that explodes into a wonderful tangle of jangly guitars. "When we develop all the Polaroids we like / it'll be just like that photo album / I had learned to live without".
4th place: Pretty Boy by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
A menacing mood, a pounding drum machine and an addictive riff: the perfect taster for the new album, which is coming next year.
3rd place: Pressed by Alvvays.
If they reformed, not even The Smiths would be able to record a song that sounds more Smiths-y than this one. The guitars, the lyrics, the mood: a flawless re-creation with the light-hearted Alvvays touch.
2nd place: Change Your Heart or Die by The Midnight.
This band keeps delivering, release after release. Audio cassettes, '80s cars, Ray-Bans, the sunset in LA: it's all there. Retrowave at its best!
1st place: Something Like Love by Andy Bell.
This is the song that sums up the mood of the last year for me: nostalgia, hope and daydreaming. Yes, I'm still "lost in a reverie of future days...".
Marco Carugati 