Wesleyan's Top 20 Albums of 2022

For the THIRD year in a row, Aural Wes asked the Wesleyan community to vote for their favorite albums of the year. Last year, Doja Cat’s Planet Her took the crown. Read through to see this year’s Top 20 - we extended the list how fun!

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20. FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS

19. Weyes Blood - And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow

18. Beach House - Once Twice Melody

17. Alvvays - Blue Rev

16. Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights

15. JID - The Forever Story

14. ROSALÍA - MOTOMAMI

13. Ethel Cain - Preacher’s Daughter

12. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

11. The 1975 - Being Funny In A Foreign Language

10. Lizzo - Special

9. Maggie Rogers - Surrender

8. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There

7. Mitski - Laurel Hell

6. Bad Bunny - Un Verano Sin Ti

5. Taylor Swift - Midnights

4. SZA - SOS

3. Harry Styles - Harry’s House

2. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

1. Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE

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Ranking Guidelines

After we collected all responses, we assigned each album a score based on the votes it got. In the poll, respondents were able to rank their top 10 albums of each year - both from our list of 100 popular albums, and through a write-in form. For each vote, we gave each album a certain number of points based on where it was ranked; a 1st place album got 10 points, 2nd place got 9 points, 3rd place got 8 points, etc. In the case of a tie between two albums, we gave preference to the album with more overall votes. If there was still a tie, we broke it by tallying the number of 1st place votes, then the number of 2nd place votes, etc. until one album had more votes in the nth place than the other.

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Fun Facts

• The average album got 5.86 votes, including write-ins.

• The album with the most overall votes was Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, with 29 votes. Three albums tied for the second most overall votes: Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE, Harry Styles - Harry’s House, and SZA - SOS all got 26 votes.

• 51 unique albums were written in; of those, 8 albums got more than one write-in vote. The most written-in album was Noah Kahan - Stick Season, with 4 votes.

• Coincidentally, there were 8 albums on our list that got no votes at all!

• The album with the most votes that didn’t get any 1st place rankings was Lizzo - Special. (15 votes)