Earwyrms Wyrpped 2022

The Best Of
Written By Jeff Lehman

ISSUE #226

Welcome to your Earwyrms Wyrpped for 2022. This year, we explored a lot of new genres here in the dirt, from phonk to roadhouse, dungeon synth to goth. We got through 42 issues together — if you read at least one of them, you’ll have read more than 99.99% of Americans — but your favorites were the ones that sounded like home. Here are the most popular Earwyrms issues of 2022:

  1. Cozycore

    Issue #224: “Grab your weighted blanket and pull out your earmuff headphones because here comes a treat, fresh out the oven: the world’s comfiest playlist, just in time for the holidays…”

  2. Music for Reading

    Issue #225: “All seasons are reading seasons, but this one most of all—what better for the day after Thanksgiving than to wrap yourself in leftovers and sink into a story? This playlist is full of songs I find nice to play while I’m reading…”

  3. The Chrono-Canon

    Issue #222: “It’s been a full year since I embarked on my journey to name the 100 Best Songs Ever, to carve my personal history in golden vinyl and try to glean some novel insights from my reflection in the glow…”

  4. Pool Day

    Issue #199: “Nothing complicated here—sometimes the office closes early for a holiday and you have to send your newsletter quickly because you're going to the pool. We have all been there. Cool off, kitties, and enjoy this little pool playlist…”

  5. Another End of the World: Annivyrsary 2012

    Issue #217: “It was the year the world was supposed to end. For music, in a way, it did. As the 2009 class of indie darlings delivered underwhelming follow ups, critics were reckoning with the rise of poptimism…”

Thank you for sticking around for another year. I’m hard at work on next week’s year-end list, The Best Songs of 2022, so you will have to forgive me for transposing my most-streamed songs of the year as this week’s playlist.

“But Jeff,” you might say. “Why would I listen to your most-played songs when I have my own Wrapped to reckon with?” Well, my answer might point out how, because it takes so many streams to craft each week’s playlist, mine ends up being a snug encapsulation what the year in Earwyrms sounded like.

Also, straw person, because the songs rip. Please stay warm — I’ll see you next week.

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The future is back, baby! Coming at the heels of two bifurcated years—one by a virus, the other its vaccine—2022 stands tall in history as the year the Great Machine roared back to life. Belch ye black smoke into that unbearable blue sky!

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This is the year of our reclaimed youth: I’ve loved more skate pop and power emo this year than I have since Earwyrms began. Last year around this time, music’s big players were coping with the pandemic by dropping albums early or cashing in on nostalgia while young bands waited in the wings and prayed there’d be a future to play through.

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As I said before, lists can be as prescriptive as they are restrictive if they are read as a hierarchy. Mine should not be; they're subject to the whims of my everyday thoughts and feelings (two of my most favorite things—until we reach the limit of my being and encounter yours). I intend to serve and share, not impose. This is less a competition than a hundred-course meal for the ears, each song a specialty dish on a gourmet menu.

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The Best Of
Jeff Lehman
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