The Weeknd has been making us wait for his album for months.
2020 and 2021 were both amazing years for music, but I think 2022 is going to please us this year with these highly anticipated albums that I found out today will be getting released in the next year. Some are from new and upcoming artists, some are from artists who haven’t released music in over a decade, and others are from artists who have been making albums and LPs for a good few years now and want to surprise us with something a bit different.
Years And Years – Night Call
Release date: 7th January 2022
Upon announcing the release of this new album, Olly Alexander said “I’m so happy this moment has finally come. Night Call has been my escape for the past couple of years, I put all my frustration, loneliness, hope, grief and optimism into making a fun record I could dance to, I’m so excited to put this out and share it with you all.” He also released the first single on the album, Crave, on September 28th. This was his second solo song since continuing Years and Years on his own, claiming that him and his bandmates Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen ’grew apart musically’.
Mitski – Laurel Hell
Release date: 4th February 2022
In an interview with Variety, Mitski described Laurel Hell as a “’soundtrack for transformation, a map to the place where vulnerability and resilience, sorrow and delight, error and transcendence can all sit within our humanity, can all be seen as worthy of acknowledgment, and ultimately, love”. In early November, Mitski released the single ’The Only Heartbreaker’ which depicts the feeling of knowing you’ve hurt someone you care for through the lyrics ’So I’ll be loser in this game, I’ll be the bad guy in the play.’
Tears For Fears – The Tipping Point
Release date: 25th February 2022
2022 will be a busy year for Tears For Fears, considering they will be going on tour (which I will be attending of course) and releasing a new LP with completely new music, which hasn’t happened since Everybody Loved A Happy Ending. On a more sad note, however, The Tipping Point will be influenced by the death of Roland Orzabal’s wife Caroline. Roland told The Rolling Stone “It came at a time when my (late) wife was very ill. I was watching her become a ghost of her former self, so the song’s narrator is in a hospital ward looking at people about to cross the threshold that we call death.”
The Weeknd – The Dawn
Release date: Unknown
The Weeknd has been teasing The Dawn release countless times this year, claiming in one of the very few interviews he has done it was ’the album he always wanted to make’. He also described the different genres we shall expect to see on the songs, saying we’ll hear ’EDM, hip-hop and three other types of sounds in one song – and somehow we make it work.’ And he certainly has, looking at his latest singles Take My Breath and Moth to a Flame ft Swedish House Mafia.
Bastille – Give Me The Future
Release date: 4th February 2022
Give Me The Future, according to the band, is a ’tribute to humanity in a tech age and reflects on the strangeness of living through times that feel like Science Fiction. Dan Smith also stated that the project was ’conceived pre-pandemic but took on a new life during lockdown.’ The first single of the album No bad days, which is heavily influenced by Sci-fi films Metropolis and The Matrix, has already been released back in October.
Lets Eat Grandma – Two Ribbons
Release date: April 8th 2022
Jenny Hollingworth – one half of the UK duo – told Pitchfork about their title track of the album, (which came out on November 11th) saying ‘Two Ribbons is a song I wrote to, and about, the closest people in my life, and how my relationships with them shifted over time through loss and life changes. It touches on the isolating experience of grieving, our powerlessness in the face of death, and the visceral emotions of grief.
Whose album are you looking forward to in 2022? Let me know in the comments below.