My Top 22 Songs I Listened to in 2022 Based on Memory Alone

I used to often do one of those ‘My Top 20 Albums of the Year’ posts, but in recent years I’ve struggled to be inspired by any new releases and I actually don’t even keep on top of release dates anymore. I saw a post the other day where someone was sharing their Top 200 new albums of the year. How is that even possible? Firstly, they must have an incredibly varied taste in music and secondly, four new albums a week? How does anyone find enough time to even listen to that much new music?

So I decided to do something a bit different. Without the use of Spotify Uncrapped, or whatever they call it, I am going to share my top 22 songs I listened to in 2022 based on memory alone.

22: No One Knows – The Divine Comedy

A cover of what I consider to be the only decent Queens of the Stone Age song by that Irish band that did the song in the 90s about being on a bus with the immortal line “but it’s hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country”. Check it out on YouTube.

21: Stranger Than Fiction – The LA Bluegrass Hoppers

A bluegrass version of a Bad Religion classic? Yes please.

20: We Are the World – USA for Africa

Yes, the 80s charity song by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. Don’t tell Geldof, but this pisses all over Band Aid. I spent an afternoon listening to charity songs for some reason and I got stuck on this one for hours.

19: Basket Case – Green Day

Before Green Day became a stadium rock band, they were an amazing pop-punk band. I bought Dookie on cassette not long after it came out and this song in particular still makes me smile almost 30 years later, even though I once absolutely ruined it at a karaoke evening.

18: Bat out of Hell – Meatloaf

Like many people, I have a tendency to revisit the work of artists after they die. When Meat died in January, I listened to the Bat out of Hell in its entirety for the first time ever. The title track is by far the best and remains an absolutely epic song. It also transports me back to The Bowes in Darlington where this was one of the ‘best value for money’ songs on the jukebox in about 1992.

17: Russell Crowe’s Band – Frenzal Rhomb

These Aussie punks spend 72 seconds repeatedly telling us that “Russell Crowe’s band’s a fucking pile of shit.” Genius.

16: Thrasher – Evile

Modern British thrash at its best. There is some impossibly fast picking on this song and I’m excited to see them for the first time at Hammerfest in Birmingham this year.

15: Entubado – Ratos de Porao

Who doesn’t love a bit of Brazilian hardcore? I’ll tell you who – my mate Gaz on the first day of a music festival when he’s been up since 5 and you’re heavily drinking Southern Comfort with his other half in his room while he’s trying to sleep at midnight. Actually from a ’22 release. It apparently means ‘intubated’ if you don’t speak Portuguese and it has an absolutely killer thrash/crossover riff.

14: The Thing That Should Not Be – Primus

Primus are mental, but building the sound of a band around the bass is actually incredibly clever. John the Fisherman, My Name Is Mud, Winona’s Big Brown Beaver or one of a hundred other songs could easily have made this list, but their romp through this Puppets-era Metallica classic is too good to ignore.

13: It’s My Job to Keep Punk Rock Elite – NOFX

This comes from So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, arguably the band’s heaviest-sounding album. It might only be 70 seconds long, but the positive thing about that is it gives you more time to listen to it again and again.

12: Walking Corpse – Brutal Truth

“I hope you make sure we’re properly dead before you start” followed by guttural screaming and some of the fastest drumming ever committed to record. This grindcore masterpiece is as good today as it was 30 years ago.

11: Good Looking Out – Sick Of It All

I had the pleasure of seeing SOIA for the fifth time this year in exotic Hull. They’re a band that never disappoints and this anthem of camaraderie has been my favourite of theirs since the release of Built to Last in 1997.

10: Speak Spanish or Die: SOD featuring Mike Patton

SOD are not everyone’s cup of tea and they have long been wrongly accused of racism. The fact is that their entire output is based on a rather unsavoury character called Sargent D who hates everyone, and hating everyone is pretty much the same as loving everyone in that it isn’t discriminatory. This reworked version that was recorded during lockdown substituting Billy Milano with Mike Patton of Faith No More/Mr Bungle/Fantomas/etc. is the definitive version of this ground-breaking song from 1985 – SOD are widely credited with fusing hardcore and thrash to create crossover.

9: Arise – Sepultura

This has always been a good song and even though the band now only contains 50% of the members who played on the original, the lockdown version they uploaded to YouTube shows how cohesive a unit the band still is.

8: Propagandhi – Pigs Will Pay

Any song from the excellent How to Clean Everything album could have made this list as I’ve listened to it a lot this year, but this anti-police rant gets the nod.

7: Technocracy – Corrosion of Conformity

Before they became some kind of stoner rock outfit, COC were a reasonably good punk band that then morphed into a thrash/hardcore/crossover act. This offering from 1987 showcases pretty much everything that was good about them in those days.

6: This Love – Pantera

Is it OK to even listen to Pantera anymore seeing as Big Phil is a racist? Well, I’ll happily separate the art from the artist for the sake of this belter from A Vulgar Display of Power – NO! MORE! HEAD! TRIPS!

5: Tornado of Souls – Megadeth

Rust In Peace was the first thrash metal record I ever bought and the solo in this song still gives me goosebumps. The entire album is close to perfection too, were it not for the slightly silly Dawn Patrol with Mustaine doing “an accent” over just bass and drums.

4: Dyer’s Eve – Metallica

Following the success of Master of Puppets in Stranger Things, it was only natural for me to listen to a completely different Metallica song on repeat. I still maintain the band hasn’t really been that good since 1988 and if you’ve heard their latest effort, Lux Æterna, you’ll probably also agree that their best days are well behind them. Also, don’t expect Lars to play the drums properly on this song anymore when they play it live.

3: Search and Seizure – Nuclear Assault

Why were Nuclear Assault never bigger? Their 1989 album Handle With Care is one of the greatest and most complete thrash albums of all time, but they just don’t get the plaudits they deserve. Anyway, this is easily the best song from that album.

2: Unleash the Bastards – Municipal Waste

A couple of years ago, I saw the Waste in London and they didn’t play this song. To say I was fucking furious would be something of an understatement. However, they atoned for this error when they played it while supporting Anthrax this October. They have the kind of crossover thrash sound bands like Nuclear Assault and DRI could only dream of.

1: Overactive Imagination – Death

Death were awesome. Although Chuck Schuldiner’s revolving door policy regarding band membership suggests he was perhaps a nightmare to work with, this display of technical brilliance is enough to leave even the most ardent opponents of death metal open-mouthed.

The second I click on ‘publish’, I just know that I’m going to think of something else that should have been included on this list that I’ve forgotten – I mean I haven’t even included any of my own songs, for Christ’s sake (check out Snort My Cremains by Tim Jones on Spotify if you want though, which I think is perhaps the best song I’ve ever written). And now I’ve actually blown the dust off this blog, maybe I’ll actually start posting things here semi-regularly again.