top 50 of 2022 | 40-31

40. Paper Twins - "Neon City Funk"

Funny enough, I came across this one when a YouTuber I follow used it as bed music in one of his videos. I loved it so much I Shazamed a part that he wasn't talking over. Absolutely killer chord progression and groove!

39. OITU - "Leave A Light On"

Ha, I didn't even notice until just now that these two instrumental tracks ended up next to each other on this year's list. That wasn't intentional!

For a musical act that named itself after a Coldplay song, they certainly don't make shitty married millennial pop like one would expect. This is just a fluffy, glowing little synth bop.

38. Magdalena Bay - "Dawning Of The Season"

Magdalena Bay seems to have had quite the year. They're one of those bands that I'd never heard of, and then suddenly all my friends seemed to be fans one day. And for good reason! They're making some damn fine pop music.

I must also mention their incredible and very Web 1.0 website.

37. Kind Regime - "The Deep End (Reimagined)"

Ah, our first synthwave track of this year's list. No secret that I love this stuff, even when the vocalist sounds like he's sounds like he's riffing on Family Guy's bit about '90s singers.

This is a retooling of the artist's own track, and I definitely prefer this new version!

36. Meresha - "Enter The Dreamland"

Reminds me of some of the cool dance music that was coming out of Europe in the mid 2000s, but with far more interesting production. Love these vocals!

35. McCone ft. Benedikte - "All The Answers"

Straddling the line between synthwave and indie pop ballad, this beautiful little song combines minimal production with a gorgeous vocal performance.

34. LOOME & Oktae - "Talking To Strangers"

I turned on the song "Drinking In L.A." for a Gen Z friend a few months ago and he described it as "vibes." I think that's a pretty apt descriptor for this one, too.

33. Little Image - "Lungs Burn"

Really odd little song with a weird video to match but I really like it. Lead singer is a mega cutie!

32. Mehro - "Pretty Kids"

Making a song about youth party culture (and perhaps one's feelings of exclusion from said culture) is certainly nothing groundbreaking, but this song is just so cute. The lyrics and song structure are both interesting enough to elevate this to something special.

31. Band Of Silver - "Machine"

I love songs about technology. I love that idea that people get excited enough about gadgets to write songs about them. This is not to the level of say, Jane Child's "DS-21," but it's still dorky as hell and I love it.