Govrik’s Grooves: My Top Songs of 2022

Every year, Spotify provides each user with a roundup of their listening habits from that year. It includes data like top artists, top songs and total minutes listening to music on the platform.

According to my Spotify Wrapped this year, I listened to 37,226 minutes of music. My top genre was rock and apparently I had a tendency to seize the day with “Mellow Laid Back Feel good.”

My initial plan for this edition of Govrik’s Grooves was to break down my most listened to songs this year from my Wrapped. However, I opened the Spotify app on Nov. 30 and eagerly tapped through my listening data only to find that my top five songs were all from the same album.

I went through a major Dominic Fike phase this year — a phase that proved to be detrimental to the variety of my Wrapped.

After this discovery, I briefly panicked while trying to figure out something else I could write about. But one of the many reasons I love Spotify is because it also gave me a playlist of my 101 most played songs this year.

Here are four songs from my “Your Top Songs of 2022” playlist.

“Why” by Dominic Fike

It would have been criminal not to include my most played song this year — the sixth track from Fike’s July 2020 album “What Could Possibly Go Wrong.”

An infectious, fast-paced drumbeat is the foundation to Fike’s casually charismatic vocals, making “Why” seem overdone initially. But upon further listens, “Why” begins to sound like the perfect end-of-summer pop anthem.

“Too many factors to be sure / So many reasons to think twice / And nobody asked you to before / But do you ever wonder why?” Fike sings.

After seeing Fike perform at Lollapalooza at the end of July, I found myself obsessed with Fike’s discography. I listened to “Why” 155 times this year, with the most listens on Aug. 2, and I ended up in the top 0.005% of the artist’s Spotify listeners. 

“Linger” by The Cranberries

Coming in at number 36 was The Cranberries’ “Linger.” This probably doesn’t come as a shock to my roommates, who heard me play it on repeat for several days after remembering the song’s existence.

The song, written by lead singer Dolores O’Riordan, explains rejection and uncertainty within a relationship. The singer’s delicate vocals float atop enchanting symphonic instrumentals, drawing on audible desperation and frustration.

On the second day of this semester, I walked into a class in which my professor was making the class watch the “Linger” music video. I really don’t know why, but the song had a strong grip on my Spotify queue for the following weeks.

“Music For A Sushi Restaurant” by Harry Styles

With “Music For A Sushi Restaurant,” it was love at first listen. The opening track to Harry Styles’ May release “Harry’s House” charted at 38 on my list.

“Harry’s House” deviated from the classic instrumentals and lyric-heavy style of Styles’ last two albums, and “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” was the perfect introduction to his developed sound. Modern synths and bass lines contrast jazzy horns and scat singing. 

“Green eyes, fried rice, I could cook an egg on you / Late night, game time, coffee on the stove,” Styles’ sings in the opening lines.

Styles released “Harry’s House” on my birthday this year. Naturally, my green eyes and I felt an immediate connection to it. My dad’s random affinity for “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” over the summer,  my mom’s Chicago visit to attend a Styles show with me in early October and the song’s artistically unique music video released at the end of that month made “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” a frequent listen.

“Willin’” by Little Feat

While the preceding songs made their debut appearance on my top songs playlist this year, Little Feat’s discography has been a staple in my listening habits over the past several years. “Willin’” ranked at 52 on my list of most-played songs.

“Willin’” is an example of frontman Lowell George’s classic narrative-style lyricism, detailing the life of a truck driver’s travels through the southwest United States. George’s effortless sing-talking in combination with a twangy guitar are complemented by a subtle piano tune.

Sometimes, nothing sounds good. I can’t find music that fits my mood — I don’t want to listen to new music and my favorite songs start to get repetitive. Little Feat is usually the exception to this. The 1972 release “Willin’” never gets old.