Year-end consensus · Indie & Adult Alternative · eleven countdowns combined

The best indie rock songs of 2022

Q: What was the top indie rock song of 2022?

Combining 11 year-end radio countdowns, the top indie rock song of 2022 is "Burning" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which appeared on 10 of the lists.

Eleven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2022: 107.1 The Peak, 90.9 The Bridge, Exit 97.7, Indie 102.3, KXT, Lightning 100, The Current, WERS 88.9, WFUV, WTMD and WXPN. Combining every list, the top indie rock song of 2022 is “Burning” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which appeared on ten of the eleven countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Eleven different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender, “Playground” by Flare Tha Rebel, “Where We Are” by The Lumineers, “On the Radio” by Spoon and “Off My Mind” by Joe P and others. Spoon was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 22 times across the countdowns.

11countdowns

499songs charted

11different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2022

All 499 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2022 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Burning Yeah Yeah Yeahs	843	10	#1	1
2	Out Of My Head First Aid Kit	773	10	#8	–
3	Wild Child The Black Keys	749	11	#12	–
4	That's Where I Am Maggie Rogers	697	10	#2	–
5	Wild Spoon	686	8	#2	–
6	Simulation Swarm Big Thief	660	8	#3	–
7	Here To Forever Death Cab for Cutie	606	10	#4	–
8	About Damn Time Lizzo	573	6	#1	1
9	Bad Habit Steve Lacy	566	9	#10	–
10	Jackie Down The Line Fontaines D.C.	562	7	#1	1
11	Next To Normal Lucius	556	10	#2	–
12	Goodbye Mr. Blue Father John Misty	528	10	#13	–
13	Weird Goodbyes The National	518	9	#5	–
14	Want Want Maggie Rogers	503	10	#14	–
15	As It Was Harry Styles	502	6	#2	–
16	Alpha Zulu Phoenix	488	9	#11	–
17	What, Me Worry? Portugal. The Man	488	8	#11	–
18	Cracker Island Gorillaz	474	8	#4	–
19	I'm Just a Clown Charley Crockett	471	9	#21	–
20	Too Late Now Wet Leg	465	7	#1	1
21	Sidelines Phoebe Bridgers	460	7	#13	–
22	Broken Horses Brandi Carlile	459	6	#5	–
23	Grace Marcus Mumford	448	9	#9	–
24	My Love Florence And The Machine	439	7	#17	–
25	Part Of The Band 1975	433	8	#7	–
26	Shotgun Soccer Mommy	431	8	#10	–
27	Love Me More Mitski	421	7	#7	–
28	Mistakes Sharon Van Etten	406	6	#4	–
29	Believe CAAMP	406	7	#9	–
30	Free Florence And The Machine	406	5	#6	–
31	Softly Arlo Parks	398	8	#11	–
32	My Babe Spoon	396	8	#13	–
33	All Comes Crashing Metric	390	6	#17	–
34	New Body Rhumba LCD Soundsystem	389	6	#4	–
35	Where We Are Lumineers	385	7	#1	1
36	Virginia The Head and the Heart	381	6	#12	–
37	Bad Love DEHD	380	7	#13	–
38	Spitting Off the Edge of the World Yeah Yeah Yeahs	376	5	#4	–
39	Falling Apart (Right Now) Wilco	375	8	#7	–
40	B-Side Khruangbin & Leon Bridges	372	5	#15	–
41	The Otter CAAMP	368	7	#12	–
42	Miles And Miles The Heavy Heavy	363	7	#10	–
43	These Are the Days Inhaler	356	5	#2	–
44	First High Nikki Lane	349	6	#4	–
45	Made Up Mind Bonnie Raitt	347	7	#2	–
46	Stick Season Noah Kahan	346	4	#2	–
47	Lemon Tree Mt. Joy	343	6	#2	–
48	This Is Why Paramore	339	5	#3	–
49	Saturdays Broken Bells	326	7	#41	–
50	Soul Sweet Song Tedeschi Trucks Band	322	5	#8	–
51	Big Time Angel Olsen	322	5	#22	–
52	Hollywood Forever Cemetery Allison Ponthier	317	6	#9	–
53	Once Twice Melody Beach House	311	5	#3	–
54	Boy The Killers	303	7	#16	–
55	Hard Drive Gold Alt J	297	5	#10	–
56	Roman Holiday Fontaines D.C.	297	6	#4	–
57	Problem With It Plains	292	7	#21	–
58	Should've Been Me Mitski	288	5	#8	–
59	Wet Dream Wet Leg	287	3	#1	1
60	Break My Soul Beyoncé	285	4	#6	–
61	Take A Picture Andrew Bird	285	6	#22	–
62	Warning Signs Band of Horses	279	5	#13	–
63	You and Me On The Rock Brandi Carlile	275	3	#3	–
64	Come Back Trombone Shorty	272	5	#10	–
65	Becoming All Alone Regina Spektor	271	5	#6	–
66	Run Away To Mars Talk	266	3	#1	1
67	Until I Found You Stephen Sanchez	265	3	#4	–
68	Chapstick Coin	256	4	#1	1
69	The Hardest Cut Spoon	247	4	#12	–
70	2AM Foals	247	4	#14	–
71	I'm On Your Side Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats	239	5	#32	–
72	Runner Alex G	234	5	#21	–
73	All The Good Times Angel Olsen	227	4	#6	–
74	Snap Rosa Linn	227	6	#47	–
75	Brighter Day Michael Franti & Spearhead	218	4	#19	–
76	The Perfect Pair Beabadoobee	213	4	#31	–
77	Hospital Madison Cunningham	212	4	#18	–
78	Seventeen Going Under Sam Fender	209	4	#1	1
79	Change The War On Drugs	208	4	#14	–
80	Slide Tackle Japanese Breakfast	207	3	#6	–
81	Ain't Killed Me Yet Adia Victoria	206	4	#14	–
82	Night Moves Lissie	202	5	#37	–
83	Tonight Phoenix	190	5	#47	–
84	Hard Working Man Marcus King	190	6	#15	–
85	Talk Beabadoobee	186	4	#17	–
86	Tongo Barra Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin	179	3	#24	–
87	Stay Out Of It Michigander	179	3	#41	–
88	Clarity Vance Joy	178	4	#13	–
89	Brother The Cloud Eddie Vedder	176	5	#34	–
90	Taking Me Back Jack White	176	4	#12	–
91	Silk Chiffon Muna	175	2	#10	–
92	This is a Photograph Kevin Morby	175	2	#10	–
93	2 Be Loved (Am I Ready) Lizzo	173	3	#14	–
94	There'd Better Be A Mirrorball Arctic Monkeys	173	3	#26	–
95	Speeding 72 Momma	173	4	#9	–
96	One Step Ahead Jack Johnson	172	3	#11	–
97	Puffer Cautious Clay	171	4	#48	–
98	Off My Mind Joe P	166	4	#19	–
99	A Little Bit Of Love Weezer	165	6	#42	–
100	The Only Heartbreaker Mitski	164	4	#32	–

Every station’s number one of 2022

Station	Number one song	Countdown
107.1 The Peak	Seventeen Going Under Sam Fender	WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2022
90.9 The Bridge	Playground Flare Tha Rebel	90.9 The Bridge Top 90 Songs of 2022
Exit 97.7	Where We Are The Lumineers	WEXT Top 97 of 2022
Indie 102.3	On the Radio Spoon	Indie 102.3 Top 102.3 Songs of 2022
KXT	Off My Mind Joe P	KXT Top 91.7 Songs of 2022
Lightning 100	Brighter Day Michael Franti & Spearhead	Lightning 100 Top 200 Songs of 2022
The Current	Want Want Maggie Rogers	The Current Top 89 Songs of 2022
WERS 88.9	Burning Yeah Yeah Yeahs	WERS Top 88 Songs of 2022
WFUV	Jackie Down The Line Fontaines D.C.	WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2022
WTMD	Run Away to Mars Talk	WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2022
WXPN	Cosmic Guilt Cosmic Guilt	WXPN Top 100 Most Played Songs of 2022

All 2022 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2022 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2022 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all eleven qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the indie & aaa results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.