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NPR Music 2022 Staff Picks: Gabby Bulgarelli

Sudan Archives
Edwig Henson
/
Courtesy of the artist
Sudan Archives

This year, if it wasn't gassing me up or soothing my spirit I didn't want it. So, in creating this list, I thought a lot about what energy I want to carry with me into 2023 and beyond. That essentially boils down to tracks and projects that offered me some comfort or inspiration, or challenged my perspective. This was a sick year for hip-hop and R&B, and while newcomers definitely made a splash onto my radar, a lot of my favorite artists put out what I think is some of their best work to date. So here's a list of more than just music: It's good vibes, advice and feelings I just can't seem to let go of. I hope you carry some of them forward with you, too!

Top 10 Albums of 2022

▶ LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

• Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen
• FKA twigs, Caprisongs
• Denzel Curry, Melt My Eyez See Your Future
• Flo Milli, You Still Here, Ho?
• Bartees Strange, Farm to Table
• JID, The Forever Story
• Ravyn Lenae, HYPNOS
• Nick Hakim, COMETA
• Rico Nasty, Las Ruinas
• Omar Apollo, Ivory

Top 10 Songs of 2022

▶ LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

• Ravyn Lenae, "Light Me Up"
• Doechii, "Crazy"
• Khruangbin & Leon Bridges, "B-Side"
• Baby Tate, "Perfect"
• Megan Thee Stallion, "Not Nice"
• Beyoncé, "PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA"
• FKA twigs, "oh my love"
• Smino, "Matinee"
• Nick Hakim, "Perfume"
• Steve Lacy, "Give You the World"

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Gabby Bulgarelli
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