2022 Albums of the Year Bracket Results

The results are in! Last month we named Change the Rotation's 32 favorite albums of 2022. Now we have the results of our 10th annual albums of the year bracket showdown. How did the matchups go down and who was the last album standing? Find out below. First, a little bracketology: four of us (Dave Anians, Danny Collins, Steve O and myself) each submit a list of our favorite full-length albums of the year. Any record appearing on at least two of our lists automatically makes it onto the bracket. The remaining spots are divided evenly between the four of us. Once we have our field of 32, the albums are drawn randomly into their positions on the bracket. All four of us vote on each matchup until we have a champion. Four voters means there are bound to be some ties. We each assign a point value to each album before the voting begins (32 points to our favorite album, 1 point to least favorite). In the case of a tie, we add the four point values for each album to determine the winner. Below, see how it all came out and stream all 32 albums through the links toward the bottom of the post.

Beach Bunny took the first quadrant with their second full-length album, Emotional Creature. Beach Bunny's first album appeared on the 2020 bracket, going out in the first round to The Chats. Pigeon Pit, Je'raf, Bodega and Ho99o9 made their first appearances on the bracket this year.

Soul Glo also advanced to the final four in their second appearance on the bracket (their previous album also went out in the first round, in 2019). Soul Glo took down local hardcore favorites Snuffed, hardcore mainstays OFF! and a ripper of an album from The Chats.

Everyone who won a matchup in the third quadrant was a first-timer on the bracket, except Frank Turner. In fact, PUP and Brutus were the only other bands in this quadrant that have appeared on the bracket before. The Bobby Lees took it, edging out Otoboke Beaver.

2019 champions Petrol Girls return to the final four with Baby. Again, this is bracket 10 and we have never had a band win the whole thing twice. Was 2022 the year? We're almost there. Local hardcore mainstays La Armada made it to the last eight.

Soul Glo's Diaspora Problems beat out Beach Bunny's Emotional Creature to advance to the final.

Petrol Girls advance to the final matchup for a second time with Baby, beating out The Bobby Lees' Bellevue.

Diaspora Problems by Soul Glo is Change the Rotation's album of the year! Diaspora Problems joins our previous bracket champions: The Beauty Between by RVIVR (2013,) Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me! (2014,) Constructs of the State by Leftöver Crack (2015,) , Dies by Gouge Away (2016,) Rhombithian by Sincere Engineer (2017,) The Gutters of Paradise by The Kreutzer Sonata (2018,) Cut & Stitch by Petrol Girls (2019), Imperio Maldito by Evil Empire (2020) and Fuck These Fuckin Fascists by The Muslims (2021). Congratulations to all the bands on this year's bracket. Stream all 32 albums through the links below.

La Armada - Anti-Colonial Vol. 2
Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature
The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
Bev Rage & The Drinks - Exes & Hexes
The Bobby Lees - Bellevue
BODEGA - Broken Equipment
Brutus - Unison Life
The Chats - Get Fucked
Escape From The Zoo - Countin' Cards
The Flatliners - New Ruin
Fluppies - Fluppies
Frank Turner - FTHC
Ho99o9 - Skin
Hot Water Music - Feel The Void
JER - Bothered/Unbothered
je'raf - All My Friends Are Holograms
The Linda Lindas - Growing Up
Martha - Please Don't Take Me Back
Meat Wave - Malign Hex
Morrow - The Quiet Earth
Myteri - Illusion
OFF! - Free LSD
Otoboke Beaver - Super Champon
Petrol Girls - Baby
Pigeon Pit - Feather River Canyon Blues
Pinkshift - Love Me Forever
PUP - The Unraveling of Puptheband
Snuffed - Coping Human Waste
Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
Special Interest - Endure
Titus Andronicus - The Will To Live
Voice Of Addiction - Divided States