Best Albums of 2022

Here are December Hotel’s Best Albums of 2022. With so many releases to explore, a few deserving records may have slipped through the cracks. Still, these ten albums offer plenty worth discovering, each great in its own way. Browse the list, revisit a favorite, or take a chance on something new. Enjoy!

Best of 2022 • No. 10

10. Fyr Fytr - Two

Fyr Fytr’s Two is a compact alternative-rock record filled with restless guitars, searching lyrics and a sense of hard-won hope. The brief opener "A Long Second Ago" leads into the melodic pull of "Way That We Change," while "And If My Heart Is a Goldmine" and "It’s Not Alright" give the album its emotional center. The songs acknowledge isolation, damaged relationships and a world that often feels unsteady, but they keep reaching toward love, faith and renewal. Rather than smoothing away every rough edge, Fyr Fytr lets the performances retain an intimate, handmade quality. Two feels personal without becoming insular and uplifting without pretending that healing comes easily.

Best of 2022 • No. 9

9. Phoenix - Alpha Zulu

Phoenix sounds renewed and effortlessly stylish on Alpha Zulu, an album filled with bright synthesizers, precise rhythms and the elegant melodies that have long separated the French band from its indie-pop peers. Recorded inside the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, the music carries a strange mixture of isolation and celebration. The title track moves with playful urgency, while "Tonight," featuring Ezra Koenig, pairs nervous romantic energy with one of the band’s most immediate choruses. "Winter Solstice" brings a darker and more reflective atmosphere, and "After Midnight" captures the band’s gift for making melancholy feel weightless. Polished without sounding lifeless, Alpha Zulu is a concise and colorful return from a band still capable of turning emotional uncertainty into irresistible pop music.

Best of 2022 • No. 8

8. Jonathan Ogden - Future Forever

Jonathan Ogden’s debut full-length album, Future Forever, brings worship music into a gentle world of soul, electronic pop and bedroom R&B. "Keeper" and "No One Like You" are immediate songs of praise, while "Garden," "Living Water" and "When I’m Home" make devotion feel quiet and personal. Ogden writes with his attention fixed on resurrection, restoration and the promised renewal of all things, giving the record a hopeful horizon even in its most reflective moments. Guest voices, including John Mark Pantana, Darla Baltazar and Molly Parden, add warmth without disturbing the album’s calm flow. Intimate in sound but expansive in purpose, Future Forever offers worship for both the gathered church and the solitary listener.

Best of 2022 • No. 7

7. Before Flags - Mountains, Go

Mountains, Go carries the dramatic sweep its title promises. Before Flags builds its songs from ringing guitars, spacious textures and rhythms that gather strength patiently, allowing moments of restraint to make the larger passages feel even more powerful. The record is rooted in struggle and perseverance, but its mood is never defeated; the music repeatedly pushes upward, turning uncertainty into resolve. Vocals and instruments share the emotional burden instead of competing for attention, giving the album a unified, communal feeling. Before Flags understands that hope can sound forceful without becoming simplistic. Mountains, Go is earnest, atmospheric alternative rock made for the moments when an obstacle seems immovable and faith insists that it is not.

Best of 2022 • No. 6

6. Colorvault - Faint

Colorvault’s Faint unfolds slowly, favoring atmosphere and spiritual reflection over conventional pop urgency. Across twelve tracks, producers Alf Bishai and Kerim Wilhelm surround a rotating group of voices with ambient electronics, restrained percussion and cinematic layers that seem to hover at the edge of silence. The title track, created with A. Bishai and Young Oceans, establishes the album’s meditative character, while "I Will Wait for You" deepens its feeling of patient devotion. The performances are spacious enough to let doubt, longing and worship coexist without forcing an easy conclusion. Faint is immersive and carefully paced, a record whose quiet beauty becomes more distinct when the listener gives it undivided attention.

Best of 2022 • No. 5

5. John Van Deusen - (I Am) Origami Pt.4 Marathon Daze

John Van Deusen brings his ambitious (I Am) Origami series to a powerful conclusion with Pt. 4: Marathon Daze. The album moves freely between intimate acoustic confession, melodic indie rock and sudden explosions of noise, reflecting the tension between spiritual longing and everyday frustration. "Oh, Sweetest Name" opens the record with questions about identity and dependence, while "Uninspired; Blowing Smoke" and "Broken Record" confront creative exhaustion with unusual honesty. Songs such as "Patient Saint" and "Be Not Far From Here" bring faith, marriage and human weakness into the same deeply personal conversation. The sprawling track list could have felt overwhelming, but Van Deusen’s emotional directness gives the album a clear center. Restless, vulnerable and ultimately hopeful, Marathon Daze presents faith as something lived through confusion rather than protected from it.

Best of 2022 • No. 4

4. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa

Lucifer on the Sofa brings Spoon back to the sound of a rock band playing together in a room. After the electronic textures of Hot Thoughts, Britt Daniel and company lean into tough guitars, loose piano and the rhythmic precision that has always made even their simplest ideas feel unmistakable. Their cover of Smog’s "Held" opens the door with swagger, "The Hardest Cut" slices through with one of the band’s sharpest riffs, and "Wild" turns escape into an enormous chorus. Beneath the confidence are songs about isolation, desire and the need to break free from stagnation. Rawer but never careless, the album proves that Spoon can return to fundamentals and still sound completely alive.

Best of 2022 • No. 3

3. The 1975 - Being Funny in a Foreign Language

The 1975 trade the sprawling experiments of their previous records for focus and immediacy on Being Funny in a Foreign Language. Working with Jack Antonoff, the band gives these songs the warmth of classic pop without losing the nervous self-awareness that defines Matty Healy’s writing. "Happiness" is effortless and bright, "Looking for Somebody (to Love)" places dark subject matter inside a charging arrangement, and "About You" turns romantic memory into a towering dream-pop finale. The polished surfaces are balanced by moments of genuine vulnerability, particularly on "Oh Caroline" and "When We Are Together." Concise, melodic and emotionally complicated, the album captures a band editing its many impulses into one of its most complete statements.

Best of 2022 • No. 2

2. Wild Earth - Weary Hymns Along the Way

Wild Earth’s Weary Hymns Along the Way is an eight-song journey through exhaustion, doubt and persistent Christian hope. "Dark Night of the Soul" begins in spiritual disorientation, while "Wake Me Up (Maranatha)" turns its longing toward Christ’s return. The band gives these themes room to breathe through expansive alternative rock, patient builds and melodies that feel both weathered and reassuring. Rather than rushing toward easy victory, the record remains beside listeners in the difficult middle, where faith is real but certainty can feel distant. Its recurring images of pilgrimage and home bind the songs into a coherent whole. Honest about weariness and equally serious about grace, the album feels like a companion for anyone still moving forward without pretending the road is easy.

Best of 2022 • No. 1

1. Harry Styles - Harry's House

Harry Styles makes his most relaxed and assured album with Harry’s House. Instead of chasing arena-sized drama at every turn, he builds the record from supple bass lines, bright synthesizers, close harmonies and small observations about intimacy. "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" opens with playful confidence, "Late Night Talking" glides on an easy groove, and "As It Was" hides loneliness inside one of the year’s most irresistible pop songs. Quieter tracks such as "Matilda" and "Boyfriends" give the album needed emotional weight, while "Satellite" gradually expands from reflection into release. Warm, melodic and carefully sequenced, Harry’s House turns domestic spaces and private feelings into vivid pop music, earning its place as December Hotel’s best album of 2022.