#BestOf2022: Top 100 Tracks (100-76)

The time to recall our favourite songs of the year has come. Beginning, as it is tradition, with the symbolic 101 position, dedicated to a guilty pleasure of the last twelve months, left bubbling under our selected list. In this case, the catchy bubblegum glory of ‘Sunroof’ by newcomers Nicky Youre feat. Dazy, which showcases the growing power of TikTok as a music discovery provider for the young. The effects of the popular platform have been greatly noticed everywhere. In the charts it may be the main responsible for a fewer number of hits that last longer among the audience´s preferences. Also, its popular Throwback channels are bringing recurrent hits to the charts, from recent enduring ones as The Weeknd´s ‘Blinding Lights’ to all sort of 90s R&B and 00s dance blasts from the past. The sounds of UK garage and 90´s house have been a big influence in many of the year’s top pop hits. A good example is that at least half a dozen of them rescued the iconic sound of Robin S House classic ‘Show Me Love’. TikTok helped reinforced as well those tracks that were back into the spotlight thanks to TV series, the biggest of which has been Kate Bush, having the biggest hit of her career, again, with ‘Running Up That Hill,’ as it profusely featured in the latest season of ‘Strangest Things.’ All this phenomenon of young people looking back at the past, may or may not mean that Today´s pop music is not delivering enough thrills to engage them.

2022 mostly belonged to very few artists: Kendrick Lamar brough another hip-hop masterwork with a very personal, spiritual and therapeutic focus; Beyoncé dazzled everyone once more by collating the sounds of gay black music, from disco to house and ball culture; Big Thief expanded their alternative folk-rock songwriting; Alvvays made indie great again and Rosalía took her blend of flamenco, Latin music and electronica to new groundbreaking heights, controversally creating her own private musical vocabulary in the almost conceptual, strong female empowerment statement of ‘Motomami’ .

The Spanish singer was one of the most visible figures in Latin Music’s unstoppable world conquering expansion. She has opened the gates for a new generation of flamenco & flow artists both sides of the Atlantic such as Ralphie Choo; Omar Montes or Travis Birds, next to Bad Bunny whose summer album has been the year’s most listened one; the ubiquitous Brazilian superstar Anitta or the influential Argentinean hip-hop musician Bizarrap, whose sessions have provided a popular platform for the promotion of up and coming Spanish and Latinamerican rap and R&B artists. Three of them, Quevedo, Villano Antillano and Trueno´s have made our best of the year selection. On a moment in which inclusivity and diversity ranked high in the cultural agenda, African (Fireboy DML; Rema; Burna Boy…)and Asian (Yeule; BTS; Blackpink…) pop idols have also made feel their presence. No album worth its chart impact missed a duet with one of them.

Elsewhere, it was rather business as usual, with something for everyone and a few surprises in the shape of irresistible catchy songs by veteran (Lizzo; Caroline Polachek; Jessie Ware…) and newcoming suspects (Sudan Archives; The Knocks & Dragonette; Raye & 070 Shake; Jockstrap…) Plus the welcome returns of Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Beth Orton; Danger Mouse; Fever Ray and Radiohead´s Thom Yorke and Peter Greenway under their new guise as The Smile. Altogether they made of the last few months if not the most memorable of years for music lovers, at least enjoyable enough to keep us going.

Here’s the first part of our Top 100 favourite songs of the year, from number 100-76. Hope you enjoy cheking it as much as we did compiling it.

And the rest of the list: