New Music Highlights: January — June 2022
Some of my favorite albums from the year so far, ordered from left to right, top to bottom.
The last time I assembled one of these highlight compilations, vaccine-fueled optimism led me to expect the pandemic to be squarely in the rear-view mirror by July 2022, but it’s not. Despite this, the first half of this year has seen the music industry really ramp up. Countless artists in the indie and mainstream spheres have announced and embarked on tours, festival season is back in full swing, and the red carpets of award shows are filled once again. Things finally feel normal again — whatever that word may mean now.
I couldn’t be happier to say that the sheer number of truly incredible albums released so far this year make early 2021 seem like a relative dead zone for new music. Instant-classic records from indie darlings such as Black Country, New Road and Big Thief (whose albums came out within a week of each other) stand tall amidst boundary-pushing projects from artists operating within the broad pop sphere, such as Perfume Genius, Rosalía, and FKA twigs. Often, the relentless deluge of new music has filled nearly every week of this year with a sense of excitement reminiscent of pre-pandemic times. It’s nice to feel overwhelmed again. To try and parse through all of these releases, let’s break down some of the major developments in various genres.
In the hip-hop world, unfortunate distractions such as Kanye West’s messy rollout (and rollback) for Donda 2 and even messier personal life have luckily not managed to overshadow recent releases from the genre’s biggest names, such as Pusha T, Future, Denzel Curry, and Kendrick Lamar. Breakout stars such as Yung Kayo and Yeat have made strong cases for the hype around their names with promising mixtapes that push trap further into the same rage-fueled landscape that Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red so successfully explored. Meanwhile, the hip-hop underground is still going strong, with artists like Earl Sweatshirt, Conway the Machine, and billy woods all dropping solid projects that refine each artist’s established sound.
It’s worth taking a second to highlight the important work that Kendrick Lamar does to shed his savior complex on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Across the album’s two discs, Lamar examines how generational trauma has caused his own personal struggles with lust and healthy relationships. To tell these stories, Lamar tries out new flows against a diverse backdrop of beats featuring flourishes of piano and orchestration and a smattering of well-placed features ranging from established legends to young stars. With the voices of his therapist and his long-term partner Whitney Alford as his guide, Lamar turns his incisive pen inward, forcing us to study an uncomfortable portrait of himself as a deeply flawed man — he is not our savior.
Folk will always be deeply tied to tradition, but the scene is still rife with innovation. Big Thief’s double album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, which I wrote down some thoughts on here, recontextualizes a century’s worth of tradition into a heartwarming testament to the power of unwavering companionship in the face of perpetual change. Other highlights include the magical Hispanic American folk of Silvana Estrada’s Marchita and Kurt Vile’s blissfully relaxing (watch my moves). Some of the year’s most interesting developments in alternative country have come from two stellar albums: 11:11 by Pinegrove and Boat Songs by MJ Lenderman. Each record engages in its own unique incorporation of country influences such as pedal steel and twangy guitar into distortion-fueled alt-rock. MJ Lenderman’s lyrics draw profundity out of seemingly quotidian details, creating a mirror for our own emotions out of wave after wave of country-fried distortion.
Few, if any, records in rock’s recent history have balanced sheer sonic grandeur and emotional nuance more effectively than Ants from Up There by Black Country, New Road. Intensely personal lyrics from frontman Isaac Wood, who unexpectedly departed the band four days before the album’s release, are framed by exquisite arrangements influenced by post-rock and chamber pop. Other notable releases in rock include the epic Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain and A Light for Attracting Attention, the eclectic debut of The Smile. Composed of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet, The Smile are able to effortlessly mesh the jazz sensibilities of Skinner’s drumming to electronic, classical, and rock-influenced instrumentation from Yorke and Greenwood. The end result is a consistently entertaining expansion of the Radiohead canon, adding enough wrinkles to keep things fresh while not losing sight of what these musicians are best at.
Pop has had an especially strong year so far. FKA twigs and Rosalía, two of pop’s most fearless innovators, each released freewheeling projects that play liberally with the album’s form. FKA twigs’ Caprisongs brings a laundry list of friends and collaborators into the fold, resulting in a loose R&B mixtape that pulls from many distinctly British subgenres such as grime and drum and bass. Like Kanye West’s Yeezus, Rosalía’s Motomami achieves maximal impact while adhering to a minimalist production philosophy that results in a considerably small number of instruments in the mix at any particular moment. Motomami is a radical deconstruction of Latin music, assimilating a myriad of genres including reggaeton, champeta, bachata and flamenco into the year’s best pop record. Meanwhile, revered indie acts Animal Collective and Beach House both dropped albums that earned their lengthy gestation periods, and Charli XCX demonstrated her expertise in mainstream pop with the gleaming Crash. Cutting-edge singles from Caroline Polachek and Jockstrap have pushed pop into new places, guaranteeing the pace of innovation will not slow down in the months ahead.
However, beyond all of these wonderful pop albums, the most fearlessly creative pop project I’ve heard this year is Ugly Season by Perfume Genius. Originally composed as a musical accompaniment to a contemporary dance piece, Ugly Season finds Perfume Genius stretching the limits of pop music, freeing himself from traditional song structures and synthesizing his music with the movement of the human body. The songs on this album pulse with life, shapeshifting fluidly between disparate genres including chamber music, dub, and electronica. With Ugly Season, Mike Hadreas cements himself as one of the most talented, innovative musicians of his generation.
Most higher-profile electronic releases this year have been disappointments (see: Diplo and Swedish House Mafia), but there've been quite a few underground releases that deserve more attention. One such album is Croatian Amor’s ethereal Remember Rainbow Bridge, whose ambient trance could easily soundtrack a 1990s chill-out room. Other highlights include Yeule’s Glitch Princess, featuring production from PC Music wizard Danny L Harle, and Topical Dancer, Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul’s gleefully acerbic take on house. Crest, the latest release from Drain Gang members Bladee & Ecco2k, features pillowy production by Whitearmor and is a sparkling jump in quality from the collective’s previous releases. Meanwhile, acclaimed experimental electronic producer Oneohtrix Point Never has begun crossing over into other genres, producing all of Soccer Mommy’s Sometimes, Forever and a significant amount of The Weeknd’s Dawn FM. Pay special attention to the singles I highlighted under the electronic section — all of these songs are incredible examples of the sense of wonder and excitement that I get from my favorite electronic music.
Below, culled from the countless new projects and singles I’ve listened to this year, are some of my favorite new releases from the first half of 2022. Enjoy — there’s something in here for everyone!
— Sha Frasier
Editor-in-Chief
Singles
(I’ve limited these to songs that aren’t already represented on their respective albums on the following list. Otherwise half of the Big Thief record would be on here.)
Hip-hop
2 Chainz — “Million Dollars Worth of Game (feat. 42 Dugg)”
Denzel Curry — “Walkin”
Pharrell Williams — “Cash In Cash Out (feat. 21 Savage & Tyler, The Creator)”
Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Yung Kayo — “YEET (feat. Yeat)”
Folk/Country
Christian Lee Hutson — “Strawberry Lemonade”
Father John Misty — “Goodbye Mr. Blue”
Stella Donnelly — “Flood”
Rock
beabadoobee — “Talk” / “See You Soon” / “Lovesong” / “10:36”
Horsegirl — “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)”
Jane Remover — “Royal Blue Walls”
Snail Mail — “Feeling Like I Do”
Soccer Mommy — “Shotgun”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Spitting Off the Edge of the World (feat. Perfume Genius)”
Pop/R&B
Animal Collective — “Strung with Everything”
Brent Faiyaz — “Price of Fame”
Caroline Polachek — “Billions”
Dev Lemons — “Autopilot”
Jockstrap — “Concrete Over Water” / “Glasgow”
Phoebe Bridgers — “Sidelines”
Steve Lacy — “Bad Habit”
Electronic
Anika — “Finger Pies (Maral at the Controls Dub Mix)”
Bleachers — “Stop Making This Hurt (A. G. Cook Remix)”
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ — “Call You”
Floating Points — “Vocoder” / “Grammar”
Flume — “Palaces (feat. Damon Albarn)”
Two Shell — “home” / “no reply”
Albums
Hip-hop
Conway the Machine — God Don’t Make Mistakes
East Coast hip hop, conscious hip hop, hardcore hip hop
Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Conscious hip hop, West Coast hip hop
Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry
Southern hip hop, gangsta rap
Folk/Country
Big Thief — Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Indie folk, folk rock
Kurt Vile — (watch my moves)
Folk rock, singer-songwriter
Silvana Estrada — Marchita
Chamber folk, singer-songwriter
Rock
Black Country, New Road — Ants from Up There
Art rock, post-rock, chamber pop
MJ Lenderman — Boat Songs
Lo-fi / slacker rock, alt-country
Parannoul — White Ceiling / Black Dots Wandering Around
Shoegaze, emo, noise pop
Pinegrove — 11:11
Indie rock, alt-country
The Smile — A Light for Attracting Attention
Art rock
Wet Leg — Wet Leg
Indie rock
Pop/R&B
Beach House — Once Twice Melody
Dream pop, neo-psychedelia
Charli XCX — Crash
Dance-pop
FKA twigs — Caprisongs
Alternative R&B
Lykke Li — EYEYE
Ambient pop, singer-songwriter, bedroom pop
Perfume Genius — Ugly Season
Art pop, experimental
Rosalía — Motomami
Neoperreo, art pop
Electronic
Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul — Topical Dancer
Art pop, tech house, synthpop
Croatian Amor — Remember Rainbow Bridge
Ambient trance
Two Shell — Icons EP
UK bass
yeule — Glitch Princess
Glitch pop, art pop
Jazz
Immanuel Wilkins — The 7th Hand
Post-bop, avant-garde jazz
I’m constantly updating playlists containing all of my favorite songs from this year. The content and chronological sequencing is the same on both Apple Music and Spotify. Check them out below!
edited by David Feigelson, Copy Editor and Treasurer.
collage by Sha Frasier.
each album’s cover art is believed to belong to its respective record label or graphic artist.
