My 2022 Year in Music
My 2022 Wrapped
What a year for music! In 2022, I scrobbled 346 tracks across 41 different artists and 52 albums. That’s roughly 20 hours of music - or about 0.8 days of non-stop listening. On average, the albums I listened to are 25 years old.
Pink Floyd earned the top spot with 60 plays (17.3% of your year).
Lets dive into the numbers and see what made 2022 special.
By the Numbers
Thats 0.8 days of music, or roughly 1 tracks per day. My peak listening month was January with 194 scrobbles.
Artist of the Year
Pink Floyd
With 60 plays (17.3% of my total listening), Pink Floyd dominated my 2022. They were my top artist in January.
- View Pink Floyd on russ.fm
Album of the Year
”A Momentary Lapse of Reason” by Pink Floyd
This album earned the top spot with 55 plays (15.9% of my listening). It was my most-played album in January.
Top 25 Artists
- 🥇 Pink Floyd — 60 plays
- 🥈 The Smiths — 38 plays
- 🥉 Mansun — 27 plays
- 4. Amplifier — 24 plays
- 5. The Style Council — 22 plays
- 6. Jesus Jones — 16 plays
- 7. Kate Bush — 14 plays
- 8. Beth Orton — 13 plays
- 9. Rush — 12 plays
- 10. The Stone Roses — 11 plays
View artists 11-25
- 11. Riverside — 10 plays
- 12. Faith No More — 10 plays
- 13. U2 — 9 plays
- 14. Talk Talk — 9 plays
- 15. Steven Wilson — 9 plays
- 16. Big Big Train — 7 plays
- 17. Lovage — 6 plays
- 18. Yes — 6 plays
- 19. Alice in Chains — 5 plays
- 20. Metallica — 5 plays
- 21. James — 5 plays
- 22. Black Sabbath — 5 plays
- 23. The Smashing Pumpkins — 4 plays
- 24. New Order — 2 plays
- 25. Blind Ego — 1 plays
Top 50 Albums
- 🥇 A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd — 55 plays
- 🥈 The Sound of the Smiths by The Smiths — 38 plays
- 🥉 Attack Of The Grey Lantern by Mansun — 26 plays
- 4. Long Hot Summers: The Story Of The Style Council by The Style Council — 22 plays
- 5. Echo Street by Amplifier — 18 plays
- 6. Doubt by Jesus Jones — 16 plays
- 7. Hounds of Love by Kate Bush — 14 plays
- 8. Central Reservation by Beth Orton — 13 plays
- 9. The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses — 10 plays
- 10. Angel Dust by Faith No More — 10 plays
View albums 11-50
- 11. Wasteland by Riverside — 9 plays
- 12. The Joshua Tree by U2 — 8 plays
- 13. The Colour of Spring by Talk Talk — 8 plays
- 14. Hand Cannot Erase by Steven Wilson — 8 plays
- 15. English Electric, Pt. Two by Big Big Train — 7 plays
- 16. Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits by Rush — 7 plays
- 17. Lovage: Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By by Lovage — 6 plays
- 18. Highlights - The Very Best of Yes by Yes — 6 plays
- 19. Amplifier by Amplifier — 6 plays
- 20. Greatest Hits by Alice in Chains — 5 plays
- 21. Moving Pictures by Rush — 5 plays
- 22. James: The Best Of by James — 5 plays
- 23. Greatest Hits by Black Sabbath — 5 plays
- 24. Metallica by Metallica — 4 plays
- 25. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins — 4 plays
- 26. Meddle by Pink Floyd — 3 plays
- 27. Republic by New Order — 2 plays
- 28. Animals by Pink Floyd — 2 plays
- 29. Liquid by Blind Ego — 1 plays
- 30. Tales From Outer Space by RPWL — 1 plays
- 31. No Decoder by Yogi Lang — 1 plays
- 32. All Change by Cast — 1 plays
- 33. Elastica by Elastica — 1 plays
- 34. Get The Message - The Best Of Electronic by Electronic — 1 plays
- 35. Grace by Jeff Buckley — 1 plays
- 36. The Sun Is Often Out by Longpigs — 1 plays
- 37. Forever Delayed by Manic Street Preachers — 1 plays
- 38. Six by Mansun — 1 plays
- 39. Loveless by my bloody valentine — 1 plays
- 40. Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose by The Cooper Temple Clause — 1 plays
- 41. Second Coming by The Stone Roses — 1 plays
- 42. The Age of Consent by Bronski Beat — 1 plays
- 43. …and Justice for All by Metallica — 1 plays
- 44. Please by Pet Shop Boys — 1 plays
- 45. Purple Rain by Prince — 1 plays
- 46. Sparkle in the Rain by Simple Minds — 1 plays
- 47. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk — 1 plays
- 48. The Unforgettable Fire by U2 — 1 plays
- 49. Beyond Beliefs by Ben Böhmer — 1 plays
- 50. All This Will Be Yours by Bruce Soord — 1 plays
Monthly Breakdown
Heres how my listening habits shifted throughout the year:
Most active month: January (194 plays)
Quietest month: November (0 plays)
Best quarter: Q1 (Jan-Mar) (251 plays)
View monthly data as table
| Month | Plays | Above Average |
|---|---|---|
| January | 194 | ✓ |
| February | 56 | ✓ |
| March | 1 | |
| April | 6 | |
| May | 0 | |
| June | 13 | |
| July | 0 | |
| August | 0 | |
| September | 26 | |
| October | 0 | |
| November | 0 | |
| December | 50 | ✓ |
Genre Breakdown
My top genres based on album metadata from my collection:
View as text list
- 1. Rock — 224 plays (64.7%)
- 2. Prog Rock — 99 plays (28.6%)
- 3. Adult Alternative — 87 plays (25.1%)
- 4. Alternative — 79 plays (22.8%)
- 5. Prog-Rock/Art Rock — 73 plays (21.1%)
- 6. Arena Rock — 69 plays (19.9%)
- 7. Art Rock — 69 plays (19.9%)
- 8. Pop — 62 plays (17.9%)
- 9. Alternative Rock — 60 plays (17.3%)
- 10. AOR — 55 plays (15.9%)
Hidden Gems
These albums might not have topped the charts, but they earned a special place in my rotation:
No hidden gems identified this year.
New Discoveries (Released in 2022)
No albums released in 2022 made it into my top 100 this year.
Featured Albums
A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd 🎸
55 plays in this year
Recording history & creation story 🛥️
After Roger Waters left in 1985, David Gilmour quietly began work on material that started out as a solo project and gradually became the first post‑Waters Pink Floyd album. Sessions ran late 1986–1987 at Astoria (Gilmour’s houseboat), Britannia Row and studios in London and L.A., produced mainly by Gilmour and Bob Ezrin. The making was shaped by legal fights over the Pink Floyd name, Richard Wright’s return only as a paid session musician, and heavy use of session players — a pragmatic choice while the band rebuilt itself. A colorful studio anecdote: the monstrous opening guitar on “Sorrow” wasn’t conjured in a booth but by blasting Gilmour’s guitar through the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena PA and re‑recording the result to get that cavernous, arena-sized tone.
Musical style, synths & production techniques ⚙️
Sonically the album sits at a crossroads: Pink Floyd’s atmospheric art‑rock DNA filtered through late‑1980s digital production. It leans on Kurzweil and other digital synths, MIDI sequencing, drum machines alongside live drummers, gated 80s drums and lavish reverb. Gilmour’s lyrical, sustained guitar remains the emotional core, yet the record is noticeably more polished and synth‑forward than 1970s Floyd. The team recorded digitally (32‑track ProDigi systems, Macintosh control), making it one of Floyd’s most tech‑driven records to that point — which delights some listeners and alienates purists who miss the ragged warmth of earlier work.
MTV, singles & how it navigated mainstream vs underground 📺
“Learning to Fly” became the obvious bridge to a younger MTV audience — an accessible single with an evocative video that married literal aviation imagery to metaphorical escape. The album consciously embraced radio‑friendly song structures and arena dynamics (helpful for the huge tours that followed), while still offering longer, atmospheric pieces like “Sorrow” and the instrumental “Terminal Frost.” That balance let Pink Floyd stay relevant on MTV and AOR playlists without fully abandoning their art‑rock identity — though the tradeoff sparked long debates among fans about authenticity.
Reception, compositional ambition & legacy 🕰️
Critically and commercially the record relaunched Pink Floyd: it reached the top charts worldwide and funded grand stadium shows. Reviews were mixed — praised for Gilmour’s melodies and production sheen, criticized for overreliance on session musicians and 80s gloss. Compositional ambition here is subtler than in past concept epics: tighter song forms but rich textural and timbral complexity, recurring themes of absence, memory and escape, and moments of genuine prog atmosphere. The 2019 remix — which added new Mason drum parts and elevated Wright’s contributions — was presented as an attempt to “restore balance,” underscoring how this album remains a pivotal, contested chapter in Pink Floyd’s story.
The Sound of the Smiths by The Smiths 🎶
38 plays in this year
Recording, creation and remastering ✨
Released by Rhino in November 2008, The Sound of The Smiths is a career-spanning compilation assembled from recordings made between 1983–1987. What makes this set notable is that both Morrissey and Johnny Marr were credited with assisting in the project — Morrissey reportedly coined the title and Marr supervised the remastering — a rare show of cooperation after the band’s split. The collection exists in a single-disc “greatest hits” form and a two-disc edition stuffed with B-sides, 12 mixes and live rarities (including a Troy Tate-produced early version of “Pretty Girls Make Graves”). Marr’s involvement in remastering was touted as bringing greater clarity and balance to the classic tracks without robbing them of their original bite.
Musical style and what makes it distinctive 🎸
The Smiths’ sound is a defining jangle-pop/indie-rock template: Marr’s chiming, intricately layered guitar work—built from creative use of chorus, tremolo, flanging and multi-tracked lines—wraps around Morrissey’s theatrical, literate vocal delivery and mordant lyrics. Unlike contemporaneous synth-pop acts, The Smiths foregrounded organic textures: guitars, bass and acoustic interplay rather than keyboard-driven hooks. That tension—pop-song craft that’s melodically irresistible, paired with lyrics steeped in melancholy, irony and British social observation—is the group’s signature and what this compilation captures so effectively.
Reception, legacy and influence 📈
As a retrospective, the compilation was welcomed as a solid entry-point: it gathered singles and many once-hard-to-find B-sides in one place and benefited from updated mastering. Critics and fans appreciated the curated nature and the improved sonics; commercially it served more as a legacy consolidation than a chart-shattering reissue. The Smiths’ influence, however, has been huge — indie and alternative bands since the late ’80s repeatedly cite their guitar textures, songwriting economy and Morrissey’s persona as blueprints for blending mainstream pop appeal with underground credibility.
Production choices, MTV and the DIY spirit 🔧📼
Although the era was saturated with synthesizers and glossy MTV visuals, The Smiths largely resisted synth-pop tropes and the glossy video machine. Their relative absence from heavy MTV rotation reflected both aesthetic choice and the band’s UK-centered identity; instead their visual language used stark black-and-white imagery, film stills and Morrissey’s cultivated iconography. Production-wise, the band used studio techniques—guitar layering, spacey effects, careful mixes—to create modern textures without embracing synthesizers as a core instrument. Finally, their roots in Rough Trade and single-driven releases underline the DIY/independent ethic: tightly controlled artistic choices, frequent non-album singles and a fiercely independent voice that kept them distinct from mainstream pop while remaining melodically immediate.
- View The Smiths on russ.fm
Attack of the Grey Lantern by Mansun 🎭
26 plays in this year
Recording & creation — a “con” concept and studio marathon 🎙️
Mansun cut Attack of the Grey Lantern across 1996–97, tracking in places like Rockfield Studios (Wales) and Olympic Studios (London). Paul Draper led the vision — he wanted a full-blown rock opera but later cheekily called it “half a concept album — a con album.” The sessions stretched as the band tried to marry pop hooks with sprawling ideas; Draper co-produced alongside Ian Caple and Mark “Spike” Stent. Andie Rathbone joined during the sessions, completing the lineup that would give the record its punchy backbone. Little stories stick: the theatrical ambition, the character vignettes (a transvestite clergyman in “Stripper Vicar,” the nihilism of “Taxloss”) and the cheeky publicity stunts (the “Taxloss” single video famously involved throwing money at commuters).
Musical style & how the band sounds — guitars, bass and drums 🔊
This album refuses neat labels. It sits at the crossroads of Britpop melodies, prog ambition, psychedelia and indie’s oddball instincts. Guitar-wise there’s a distinct twin-guitar conversation: Paul Draper’s chordal heft and Dominic Chad’s melodramatic, often cinematic leads create dense textures—think jagged riffs one minute, chiming hooks the next. Stove King’s bass is melodic and propulsive, grounding songs while often carrying hooks of its own. Andie Rathbone’s drumming moves between tight, danceable grooves (“Wide Open Space”) and more adventurous, syncopated patterns (“Dark Mavis”). The result is a widescreen sound — accessible singles that sit inside a larger, slightly weird song-cycle.
Reception & legacy — charts, cult status, and influence 📈
Released 17 February 1997, the album hit No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart and stayed on the chart for weeks; singles like “Wide Open Space” (boosted by a Paul Oakenfold remix) became minor UK and alternative radio staples. Critics praised the ambition and British character of the record, even if some bemoaned its unevenness. Over time it’s gained cult classic status — often cited as one of the most ambitious debuts of the Britpop era and a template for British bands that wanted both hooks and scope. Its blend of prog maneuvers and pop sensibility can be heard in later UK acts who dared to blur genres.
Context in the 90s — Britpop, alternative rock and DIY spirit 🕰️
Mansun arrived amid Britpop’s chart dominance but never fully bought into the laddish aesthetic; instead they channeled an indie, DIY audacity and prog-style conceptualism. They weren’t following American grunge’s raw angst — they shared grunge’s desire to push rock beyond formulas but did it in a distinctly English, theatrical way. In an era of genre-mixing, Attack of the Grey Lantern stands as a bold answer to the decade’s diversity: pop-friendly singles with an appetite for experimentation and storytelling.
Long Hot Summers: The Story Of The Style Council by The Style Council ☀️
22 plays in this year
Recording history & creation process 🎙️
This is a career‑spanning anthology released in October 2020 (Polydor) rather than a new studio album — think of it as a tightly curated biography in three LPs. Tracks come from sessions across the 1983–late‑80s period (notably early Paris sessions — “Long Hot Summer” was cut at Studio Grande Armée — through the Café Bleu/Our Favourite Shop era). The set was remastered at Abbey Road by Geoff Pesche, pulling together singles, B‑sides, demos and rarities so the compilation reads like a story, not just a hits package. Fun bit: the extended “Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse” was dusted off and timed to make a pointed political echo in a modern election year.
Musical style, production, and the synth/visual era 🎛️📺
The Style Council were stylish chameleons — soul and blue‑eyed R&B at heart, but flirting constantly with jazz, funk, synth‑pop and later house. Mick Talbot’s keyboards (piano, organ and 80s synth pads) are the sonic glue: tracks like “Long Hot Summer” ride dreamy synth textures rather than guitars, while many others layer strings, horns and lush chord voicings. Production moves between live drums/funk grooves and drum‑machine‑tight pop; extended 12 mixes show their club ambitions. Visually they were made for the early MTV world — slick videos (the “Long Hot Summer” clip on the River Cam is pure chic) and a lifestyle image that amplified the music’s cosmopolitan vibe.
Hooks, mainstream appeal and underground moves 🎯
What makes this material stick is the union of soulful melodies and pop-smarts: irresistible choruses, warm low‑end, tasteful piano hooks and radio‑friendly arrangements that still leave room for grooves aimed at dancefloors. The band navigated mainstream charts (hits like “My Ever‑Changing Moods,” “You’re The Best Thing,” and the No.3 UK single “Long Hot Summer”) while dropping politically charged cuts and extended mixes for clubs — a rare combo of radio accessibility and underground credibility. Their late‑80s flirtation with house is part of that story, though the anthology notably omits the shelved “Modernism” project, which would have underlined their club bona fides even more.
Reception, legacy & influence 🏁
Critics welcomed the anthology as a concise, remastered entry point and praised its rarities and narrative sequencing, though some flagged omissions (Modernism, more Dee C. Lee material) and modest packaging. Long Hot Summers reasserts The Style Council as a key bridge between post‑punk/new‑wave and a sophisticated, politically aware pop that soaked up jazz, soul and club culture — a template that later British bands borrowing from indie, soul and dance would follow. In short: stylish, political, and still stubbornly influential.
- View The Style Council on russ.fm
Echo Street by Amplifier 🎚️🌌
18 plays in this year
Recording & creation story 🛠️
Released 11 March 2013 on Kscope, Echo Street was written and tracked in a feverish burst: Amplifier say they wrote and recorded it in about 3 weeks in September 2012 (AllMusic notes broader August–September sessions at Loudhailer, Manchester). Mixed by Chris Sheldon and mastered by Jon Astley, the record was conceived as a tighter, more focused reaction to the sprawling double-album The Octopus — less riff‑saturation, more atmosphere. The band even cheekily called it “a good smokers record,” hinting at the slow‑burn, immersive vibe they aimed for. It was issued as digital, heavyweight 180g double‑vinyl and a special edition bundled with the Sunriders EP.
Musical style & compositional ambition 🎸🌀
At its heart Echo Street is prog-minded but song-first: long forms (Matmos ~8:12, Extra Vehicular ~12:11) that unfold through repetition, layering and huge dynamic arcs rather than technical showboating. Think spacey, delay-drenched guitars, dense ambient washes, and slow-building crescendos — “tidal wave” songwriting where minimal motifs swell into catharsis. The album’s complexity lives in texture and contour: extended narratives, suite-like cohesion, and emotional development across tracks rather than frequent time‑signature gymnastics. It sits at the crossroads of prog, space/psych rock and alt‑rock — deliberate post-genre blending thats modern without abandoning old‑school ambition.
Reception, impact & legacy 🏁
Critics in the prog and rock press greeted Echo Street warmly — Scene Point Blank praised its relentless dynamics and Kerrang! gave it a strong review — and it became Amplifier’s first charting album (peaking at #90 in Germany). Commercially modest but influential within the scene, Echo Street cemented the band’s mid‑career renaissance, brought them into Kscope’s orbit, and widened their touring and streaming audience. For many listeners it became the ideal entry point to Amplifier’s catalog.
Streaming era, themes & cultural context 📲🪐
Coming in the early streaming decade, Echo Street straddles album-minded prog and digital accessibility: long tracks that still find life on Bandcamp and playlists, and benefit from Kscope’s algorithmic discovery. Lyrically and atmospherically it responds to the 2010s through metaphors of isolation, time and “a life that never was” — introspective and cosmic rather than overtly political. Its legacy is quiet but durable: a cult modern‑prog statement showing how texture, mood and focused composition can flourish in the streaming age.