Two months in, why not start highlighting some new albums which have dropped that are worth a listen. Interested to hear what others may have discovered.
Anyway, here are some albums which have stood out for me (so far, WIP etc).
The Weeknd - Dawn FM. Solid Pop stuff.
Mitski - Laurel Hell. For me, a very interesting change of direction from Mitski (less rock, more pop). I know some fans aren’t happy, but I love to see musicians evolve.
Cate Le Bon - Pompeii. This grows on me with each listen. Slow, haunting vocals. Quite unique vocal style.
Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa. Kinda classic rock vibes. Solid album. Hadn’t listened to Spoon previously (apparently they’ve been on the go since the early 90s).
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe You. Long title, long album. Perhaps suffers a bit from length (1hr 20), and everything sounds faintly similar. Still very good folk rock, and Adrianne Lenker is an amazing singer.
Beach House - Once Twice Melody. Indie Pop? Great melodies, at times gives me David Lynch vibes (slightly unnerving beauty).
Bioshpere - Shortwave Memories. Electronic album made with old-school equipment (thing 70s / 80s). This is not electronic dance, fits somewhere between early Kraftwerk and a pure ambient album.
I’ve listened to all of the ones you listed, there are some good ones on there (most surprisingly for me personally on the Weeknd album)
I’d add Robert Glasper - Black Radio III - an AMAZING blend of jazz, hip-hop & pop with excellent guest vocals
Mark Guiliana - Music for Doing - one of the best drummers in the world just having fun, some jazz, some ambient, some experimental. I particularly recommend “Song for Listening” for headphone listening, brilliant drumming, great mix, could be my go-to for treble-testing
EDIT: I’ll add also Aurora’s new album, I wasn’t a fan of her earlier, but there’s some amazing tracks on there, and she’s more melodic than anything I’ve heard of hers prior to this one, Everything Matters is my favorite track.
He’s one of those guys where you’ll find a track for yourself no matter what genre you’re into
and then when you go into critical listening, there’s a whole other level to his stuff
I listen to a lot of new releases in many different genres, including some of the records listed by @syscrusher. I also keep a running Spotify playlist of the albums I know will factor into my consideration of my top 10 albums of the year this December.
So far, I only have two records released in 2022 on my list:
I’m a longtime Spoon fan, and I take the band’s consistent excellence for granted. The new record is quite good but not among their best, so it didn’t make my Spotify playlist. The Weeknd’s record also is good, but like Spoon’s record, it didn’t compel me to repeated plays after the first listen.
Mitski was OK. But that describes my relationship with all of Mitski’s music. It’s not great; it’s not terrible. It’s just OK.
This is such a Fantastic idea. I’ve listened to the first three you mentioned and I definitely dig the new big Thief album. I’ve been heavy into indie as of late. The new Weeknd album was pretty great too. Sacrifice is my pick of the album.
Although it’s not been released this year, the new Japanese Breakfast album has been my go to since it’s release. Slide tackle has some fantastic drum kicks in the beginning and that sweet sweet acoustic guitar in the back of the chorus towards the end of the song gets me every time.
Catharsis is Sven Väth’s first solo album in almost 20 years, and the 50th album to be released on his incomparable label, Cocoon Recordings. Produced alongside Gregor Tresher, it arrives on the 25th February 2022 and is a musical autobiography that charts Sven’s most extraordinary life in techno.
If you like alt-rock/R&B/pop, you can do a LOT worse than the new release from British singer Nilufer Yanya. Really unique, cool sound. Definitely will be in consideration at year’s end for my top-10 albums of 2022 list.
