With more uncertainty on the horizon, one thing that’s still for sure is a healthy release calendar. 2022 is already looking like a big year for new albums, with some artists readying their second—or third—releases of the pandemic. Many others, of course, are dropping a pandemic record for the first time. In any case, we’re happy to have the music. (As of January 4, all release dates have been confirmed. But as usual, everything is subject to change.)
100 gecs: 10000 gecs
100 gecs’ Laura Les and Dylan Brady are set to return this year with the follow-up to their breakthrough 2019 album 1000 gecs. The new one, called 10000 gecs, is set to include the new single “MeMeMe.” According to a recent feature, the album will showcase the artists as they ease up on Auto-Tune, though not absurdity—look forward to a song called “Doritos and Fritos.” Read Pitchfork’s Cover Story “This Is Your Brain on 100 gecs.” –Evan Minsker
Alice Glass: Prey//IV
Alice Glass has long urged her fans to stop streaming music by her former band Crystal Castles, which she departed in 2014. While individual singles and a self-titled 2017 EP followed, the first Alice Glass full-length arrives at the end of January. Prey//IV includes the singles “Fair Game,” “I Trusted You,” and “Suffer and Swallow.” Read Pitchfork’s 2018 feature “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Alice Glass.” –Evan Minsker
Amber Mark: Three Dimensions Deep
The debut album from Amber Mark arrives four years after her 2018 Conexão EP, and, so far, the New York–based singer, songwriter, and producer has shared “Worth It,” “Competition,” “Foreign Things,” “What It Is,” and “Softly.” Revisit Pitchfork’s feature “Meet Amber Mark, Whose Soulful Pop Will Make You Dance and Cry at the Same Time.” –Evan Minsker
Animal Collective: Time Skiffs
After releasing Painting With in 2016, Animal Collective stayed busy by scoring SoundCloud rap documentaries and revisiting a lot of older material. That nostalgic run appears to have been a pregame for their new record. Written over the span of 2020, Time Skiffs reportedly came together in a similar way to Strawberry Jam, with all four friends hanging out and having a conversation. Propped up by the singles “Prester John” and “Walker,” both of which feature harmonious melodies that spiral into loose jam sessions, Time Skiffs is an Animal Collective album that should satisfy longtime fans and casual listeners alike. –Nina Corcoran
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Bad Boy Chiller Crew: Disrespectful
It’s been a rapid ascent for the Bad Boy Chiller Crew, who issued their debut single, “450,” in July 2020 via House Anxiety. The song featured on the Bradford, England trio’s debut mixtape Full Wack No Brakes, which showcased Kane, GK, Clive’s love for dance music, samples, Grey Goose, and fast cars. The group is now on to its second mixtape, Disrespectful, released via Sony UK subsidiary Relentless (in partnership with House Anxiety). While the spotlight is a bit bigger and brighter, the Bradford boys still plainly love to have a good time, as heard on “Don’t You Worry About Me,” a standout from the 2021 Charva Anthems EP that’s being recycled for the mixtape. –Matthew Strauss
Beach House: Once Twice Melody
Beach House are rolling out their eighth album in chapters. The first chapter, featuring the title track and three other songs, arrived on November 10; the second chapter came out on December 8; the third chapter is set for January 19; and the last chapter, completing the album, is out February 18. Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally produced their album, which they recorded with a live string ensemble, arranged by David Campbell. –Matthew Strauss
Big Thief: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
In the time since their last LPs, the 2019 twofer U.F.O.F. and Two Hands, Big Thief’s members have peeled off with other projects: song-focused solo releases from Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek, plus an ambient electronic dive from drummer James Krivchenia. As a group, however, Big Thief have so far remained unmatched in their ability to set a new high bar for themselves and clear it with every new record. Now, with Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, the group continues to show its exceptional ability to bring empathetic, heartrending songs to life in dazzling detail. –Allison Hussey
Black Country, New Road: Ants From Up There
With last year’s For the First Time, the seven-person London ensemble Black Country, New Road brought their busy live energy to a record for the first time. On their follow-up, Ants From Up There, the band plunges even deeper into its bustling mélange of rock, folk, and the improvisational opportunities that lie between them. Black Country, New Road announced the project with the ebullient “Chaos Space Marine” in October, and vocalist Isaac Wood has said that second single “Bread Song” was inspired by Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. –Allison Hussey
Bloc Party: Alpha Games
Alpha Games, the sixth album from Bloc Party and their first since releasing Hymns in 2016, is billed as a return to form for the band. Like their early material, particularly Silent Alarm, the new record aims to capture a breakneck, raucous collection of indie rock gone post-punk, as introduced in lead single “Traps.” Perhaps that explains why they tapped Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Idles) to produce Alpha Games. Rounding out the band alongside co-founders Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack are Menomena bassist Justin Harris and drummer Louise Bartle. –Nina Corcoran
Blood Incantation: Timewave Zero
How do most death metal bands follow up their critically acclaimed breakthrough? Probably not with a 41-minute ambient suite. But Blood Incantation aren’t most death metal bands. After all, vocalist and guitarist Paul Riedl proudly wears an Enya logo on his leather jacket. In a statement about its new record, the Denver band said, “Timewave Zero is the distillation of these elements into a concentrated piece; stripping away the Metal and emphasizing the Dark, Cinematic, and exceedingly Cosmic atmosphere our music is known for.” –Matthew Strauss
Cardi B
Cardi B seems to be enjoying life as a very famous person, but whenever she’s in the mood to rap it has a seismic impact. It’s happened again and again, from mega hit singles like “WAP” and “Up” to memorable guest features on Normani’s “Wild Side” and Lizzo’s “Rumors.” There are almost no details out there about what her next album will sound like or when it will arrive, but it will probably be the soundtrack of a week or a month or a year. –Alphonse Pierre
Cate Le Bon: Pompeii
Pompeii is Cate Le Bon’s second Mexican Summer full-length, following 2019’s remarkable Reward. The new one, she wrote, “was written and recorded in a quagmire of unease.” In the music videos for “Running Away“ and “Moderation,” the Welsh musician has made a habit of wearing habits. –Matthew Strauss
Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ghost Song
After winning the MacArthur “genius grant” in 2020, Cécile McLorin Salvant makes her Nonesuch Records debut with an album themed around the concept of ghosts. It features the previously released single “Ghost Song” and an opening cover of the Kate Bush classic “Wuthering Heights.” “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before,” Salvant said of the album. “It’s getting closer to reflecting my personality as an eclectic curator.” –Evan Minsker
Charli XCX: Crash
To signal her new era, Charli XCX donned black latex and danced on a coffin in the visual for “Good Ones.” The lead single from her upcoming album Crash is a dark synthpop banger about abandoning goodness “in favour of the sinister,” as Charli XCX put it in press materials. Crash follows 2020’s How I’m Feeling Now, and features a slew of producers and collaborators (or, as Charli XCX refers to them, her “demonically talented” friends) like A. G. Cook, Rina Sawayama, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ariel Rechtshaid, and more. Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek also hopped on the album, contributing to Charli XCX’s most recent single “New Shapes.” –Madison Bloom
Danny Brown: Quaranta
Danny Brown has been teasing his Uknowhatimsayin¿ follow-up for some time, sharing an audio clip of music in October 2020 with the caption “XXXX.” The Detroit rapper, now 40 years old, recently gave an update to Anthony Fantano, telling him, “It’s not called 40, it’s called Quaranta,” the Italian word for “forty,” and one that certainly brings to mind “quarantine.” In the time since Uknowhatimsayin¿, Brown has revived his Bruiser Brigade Records, featuring on albums from J.U.S, Fat Ray, Zelooperz, Bruiser Wolf, and Quentin Ahmad DaGod, as well as the compilation TV62. –Matthew Strauss
Earl Sweatshirt: Sick!
Sick! is Earl Sweatshirt’s “humble offering of 10 songs” recorded in the wake of the pandemic, as he put it in press materials. The follow-up to 2019’s excellent Feet of Clay enlists contributions from Zelooperz, the Alchemist, and Black Noi$e—who produced Sick!’s lead single “2010.” The project also includes recent track “Tabula Rasa,” which features verses from Armand Hammer and production from Theravada and Rob Chambers. –Madison Bloom
EarthGang: Ghetto Gods
EarthGang—the Atlanta duo of Olu and WowGr8—are gearing up to release their sophomore LP Ghetto Gods. EarthGang announced the new album with a trailer narrated by fellow Atlantan 2 Chainz. They’ve since released the single “American Horror Story.” –Madison Bloom
Empath: Visitor
Philadelphia rockers Empath broke through in 2019 with Active Listening: Night on Earth. Now on Fat Possum, the group is back with Visitor, produced by Unknown Mortal Orchestra bassist Jake Portrait, marking the first time that band has formally recorded with a producer in a studio. Empath went to a carnival in the music video for “Born 100 Times,” and were depicted as claymation figures in the visual for “Diamond Eyelids.” –Matthew Strauss
Father John Misty: Chloë and the Next 20th Century
Nationwide attempts at racial-justice reckonings, riots at the Capitol, an ever-lengthening pandemic: so much has changed in the world since we last got an album from the as yet uncanceled agitator Father John Misty. When he’s not clowning around, Father John Misty can be an insightful, poignant songwriter, capable of unraveling delicate vulnerabilities and lancing the overstuffed commodification of the modern era (himself included). At the beginning of November, Father John Misty (or his team) posted a handful of black-and-white shots to Instagram, along with a portrait where he splits the difference between the monastic millionaire look of Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and the shorn, sulking version of the fictitiously contemptible Kendall Roy. A mysterious mailer followed. So, will Father John Misty spring for heartfelt reflections of his marriage in a pandemic pressure cooker, or cutting re-evaluations of failed American dreams? Anywhere in the middle should be at least a little interesting. –Allison Hussey
Hurray for the Riff Raff: Life on Earth
On her 2017 album The Navigator, Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra reckoned with her Puerto Rican identity, heartache, and self-determination through songs presented as a two-act concept record. Arriving five years later, their next record Life on Earth is a new chapter of introspection, with Segarra citing Bad Bunny, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and the Clash as major influences for the project. Segarra announced Life on Earth with “Rhododendron” in October, a song they described as “finding rebellion in plant life,” and they followed it with “Jupiter’s Dance” at the beginning of December. –Allison Hussey
Interpol
The new Interpol record is unlikely to sound like any we’ve heard before. Describing its aesthetic to Rolling Stone as “very relaxed,” “intimate,” “positive-feeling,” and “a bit more uplifting,” Paul Banks and co. appear to be in a very different place than that to which we’ve become accustomed. Recorded in London with Alan Moulder and Flood, the follow-up to 2019’s A Fine Mess EP—itself culled from the sessions for their last full length, 2018’s Marauder—promises to be a curious left turn, no matter what they end up naming it. –Matthew Ismael Ruiz
J. Cole: The Fall Off / It’s a Boy
Last year, when J. Cole announced the rollout of his “Fall Off Era”—supposedly a potential blueprint for his retirement—it wasn’t apparent that his kiss-off to the rap was a five-year plan. But if his two remaining projects, It’s a Boy and The Fall Off, follow suit and drop at a rate of one per year, that’s exactly where we’ll end up. Cole first hinted at his plan on the 2018 LP KOD, the final track of which is titled “1985 (Intro to ‘The Fall Off’).” He’d later say that two of his 2016 singles, “False Prophets” and “Everybody Dies,” were originally intended for The Fall Off. His last LP, The Off-Season, saw the typically serious Cole loosen up a bit; perhaps his swan song will finally live up to his own lofty expectations. –Matthew Ismael Ruiz
Jack White: Fear of the Dawn / Entering Heaven Alive
Four years after Boarding House Reach, Jack White is readying two new albums. The first, Fear of the Dawn, features the single “Taking Me Back,” which made its debut in conjunction with a Call of Duty promotional campaign. It also includes a new collaboration with Q-Tip (on a song called “Hi-De-Ho”), following their work on the final Tribe Called Quest album. Less is known about the summer release Entering Heaven Alive, though “Taking Me Back (Gently)” is an acoustic version of the first single. –Evan Minsker
Kaina: It Was a Home
Kaina’s follow-up to her 2019 album Next to Sun arrives in March. It Was a Home includes “Anybody Can Be in Love” and “Casita,” and she’s joined on the album by Sleater-Kinney, Helado Negro, and Sen Morimoto. Read Pitchfork’s Rising feature “Kaina Is a Restless R&B Healer Charting a Course to Self-Acceptance.” –Evan Minsker
Kendrick Lamar
Last August, Kendrick Lamar broke his long-held silence on the subject of his next record. “As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote on Oklama.com. Since releasing his Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning album Damn. in 2017, Lamar has guest starred on a number of songs; tracks with Nipsey Hussle, Rich the Kid, Anderson .Paak, Rapsody, Frank Ocean and Pharrell, Jay Rock—even U2. He curated the Black Panther soundtrack, launched creative agency pgLang with Dave Free, and laid down verses on two Baby Keem songs. On February 13, he’ll team up with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige for a Super Bowl halftime show. Hopefully an album will materialize shortly after. –Madison Bloom
Koffee
Koffee, the youngest artist to win the Grammy for Best Reggae Album, hasn’t even released an album yet. Her debut full-length is due this year. Over the past couple years, she’s released multiple singles—including “West Indies,” “Pressure,” and “Lockdown”—as well as collaborations with J Hus, Gunna, Daniel Caesar, and John Legend. And, on the soundtrack to the Western film The Harder They Fall, Koffee delivered the title track. –Evan Minsker
Let’s Eat Grandma: Two Ribbons
Let’s Eat Grandma—the UK duo of Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth—return after three years without new music. I’m All Ears producer David Wrench returns, too, for Two Ribbons, which takes inspiration from the Norfolk countryside. Lead single “Hall of Mirrors” is a billowing synth pop track, while the title track is a stripped-down song written solely by Hollingworth. –Kelly Liu
Lizzo
What can be expected from Lizzo’s follow-up to Cuz I Love You, the 2019 album that made her the most-nominated artist at the 2020 Grammys and one of the most omnipresent pop stars of its moment? So far, the only single that’s been released is the Cardi B–featuring track “Rumors,” which arrived in August 2021. It was her first new track in two years and arrived with a visual indulging in Ancient Greek aesthetic. –Evan Minsker
Mitski: Laurel Hell
Mitski’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2018’s Be the Cowboy is just around the corner. In addition to “Working for the Knife” (which was named one of Pitchfork’s “100 Best Songs of 2021”) and “The Only Heartbreaker” (co-written with Dan Wilson of Semisonic), it includes the recent single “Heat Lightning.” She’s heading out on a sold out tour behind the album this year. Revisit Pitchfork’s feature “Don’t Cry for Mitski.” –Evan Minsker
Nilüfer Yanya: Painless
Singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya is returning this year with her first full-length album since she released Miss Universe in 2019. The announcement of Painless arrived with a music video for “Stabilise”—a song, she said, “about your surroundings and how much they influence or change your perception of things.” Her last release was 2020’s Feeling Lucky? EP. She’s heading on tour this year. –Evan Minsker
Normani
Normani has taken her time with the rollout for her first solo record, sharing her attention-grabbing debut “Motivation” in 2019 before recruiting Cardi B for the slinky, luxurious “Wild Side” in July. She’s delivered those two powerhouse singles with stunning choreography and eye-popping visuals—full-suite treatments that bode well for anything else on the way. She’s nodded to titans like Janet Jackson and Aaliyah as she’s developed her own lane, maintaining a hold as one of the most promising young forces in the pop landscape. –Allison Hussey
Phife Dawg: Forever
Just before A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg died in 2016 from diabetes complications, he had been working on a new album. Forever finally arrives this year. The album includes “Nutshell Part 2,” his single featuring both Busta Rhymes and Redman. Another previously released track called “French Kiss Deux” features Illa J, better known as the brother of the late J Dilla. –Evan Minsker
Rosalía: Motomami
Only one song has been shared from Rosalía’s new album Motomami: “La Fama,” a collaboration with the Weeknd, is the first sample from her long-awaited follow-up to her 2018 Grammy-winning album El Mal Querer. She followed up her breakthrough album with high profile collaborations, including songs with Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and Oneohtrix Point Never. She even made a cameo in the “WAP” video. –Evan Minsker
Saba: Few Good Things
Saba hasn’t been silent in the three and a half years since his sophomore outing Care for Me, which was named one of Pitchfork’s “Best Rap Albums of 2018,” but fans have been missing a new full-length from the Chicago rapper. When not joining forces with the rest of his Chicago collective Pivot Gang, J. Cole’s Dreamville, or old friends Noname and Smino under the banner Ghetto Sage, Saba has released a healthy smattering of solo tracks. His upcoming third album, Few Good Things, reunites him with multi-instrumentalist Daoud on “Fearmonger” and silences self-doubt on recent single “Stop That.” Saba also recently appeared on a track by MFnMelo and late producer Squeak, both of Pivot Gang—and announced a 2022 world tour. –Marc Hogan
Sasami: Squeeze
Sasami’s debut self-titled album found the Los Angeles-based polymath getting lost in the comforting echoes of her own indie folk and shoegaze. By the sound of her latest singles “The Greatest” and “Skin a Rat,” however, Sasami plans on ditching that sound in favor of going darker for Squeeze. On the album, she’s joined by collaborators as disparate as Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren and comedian Patti Harrison. The result is a collection of tracks that sound like she’s digging her nails into the walls of a black hole in an attempt to escape, her mood alternating between feverish determination and clear-eyed hope. –Nina Corcoran
Shamir: Heterosexuality
After a self-titled album in 2020, Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Shamir explores his queerness on his next record, which he’s titled Heterosexuality. “I think this album is me finally acknowledging my trauma,” he said in a statement about the project, which was produced by Strange Ranger’s Hollow Comet. Using Baphomet imagery to enhance an otherworldly, beyond-the-body sensibility, Shamir confronts binary restrictions with “Cisgender” and dismisses notions of being boxed in with “Gay Agenda.” –Allison Hussey
The Smile
Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner are the Smile, a new band created in collaboration with Radiohead’s longtime producer Nigel Godrich. “Not the smile as in ‘ahh,’ more ‘the Smile’ of the guy who lies to you every day,” explained Yorke during the band’s debut performance at Glastonbury last year. That ominous set-up translates into aggressive guitar work by Greenwood, propulsive rhythms from Skinner, and rough, belted vocals by Yorke, or at least that’s what the live renditions of new songs “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings” and “Thin Thing” sound like. There’s no word yet what the Smile’s debut record will be called, if they choose to release it at all. After all, if there’s one thing Radiohead members love to exhibit, it’s elusiveness. –Nina Corcoran
Spiritualized: Everything Was Beautiful
Spiritualized bandleader Jason Pierce once said that 2018’s And Nothing Hurt could be his group’s last album. Instead, Spiritualized are returning with a record of cosmic proportions: It features 16 instruments, over 30 collaborators, and 11 different studio locations. “There was so much information on it that the slightest move would unbalance it,” Pierce (who’s once again using his J Spaceman alias) said in a statement. The record’s title, Everything Was Beautiful, also completes the Kurt Vonnegut quote that the 2018 record started: “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.” –Kelly Liu
Spoon: Lucifer on the Sofa
For a band that’s been going strong just shy of 30 years, it’s hard to believe that Lucifer on the Sofa will be just Spoon’s 10th album. Then again, the indie rock group is precise and sparing in its songwriting, only releasing music when it feels properly polished and free of filler. Described by bandleader Britt Daniel as “the sound of classic rock as written by a guy who never did get Eric Clapton,” Lucifer on the Sofa was written in hopes of being a simpler, more immediate rock record than 2017’s comparatively electronic Hot Thoughts. Lead single “The Hardest Cut” makes it sound like that goal was accomplished with catchy riffs to spare, and a cover of Smog’s “Held” suggests there are still surprises tucked throughout, too. –Nina Corcoran
SZA
Ever since SZA dropped her breakout album Ctrl in 2017, we’ve been impatiently waiting for the next one. But the immediate future just brought big collaborations: A song with Kendrick Lamar for the Black Panther cut “All the Stars,” another with the Weeknd and Travis Scott for the Game of Thrones track “Power Is Power,” and, unfortunately (but inevitably), a Maroon 5 single. Her first single as a lead artist didn’t arrive until 2020, when she dropped the Neptunes-produced “Hit Different” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign) and “Good Days.” Earlier that year, she insinuated that Top Dawg Entertainment had been holding up the release of her new music, and., in 2021, SZA self-released three tracks—“Nightbird,” “Joni,” and “I Hate You”— via an anonymous SoundCloud account. She issued the latter on official platforms months later, after a fresh string of collaborations, “Kiss Me More,” “Fue Mejor,” and “No Love,” to name a few. –Madison Bloom
Tears for Fears: The Tipping Point
It took 17 years for the duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith to return with a new album, and, in that timeframe, the ’80s hitmakers had a false start attempt at new music. In The Tipping Point’s announcement, the musicians explained that their prior management team had paired them with “some of today’s hit songwriters,” but it didn’t work out. They went back to the drawing board with longtime collaborator Charlton Pettus, and, in October, shared “The Tipping Point.” They’re touring this year, too. –Evan Minsker
The Weeknd: Dawn FM
Following the long campaign behind his 2020 album After Hours—an era defined by omnipresent hit singles, a Super Bowl halftime show, and a Grammy snub-turned-boycott—Abel Tesfaye is poised to return with a new album in 2022. His first single “Take My Breath” arrived in August, and it was followed by high profile collaborations with Rosalía and Post Malone. “The dawn is coming,” he teased multiple times, ahead of Dawn FM. Let’s see what that looks like. –Evan Minsker
Years & Years: Night Call
Formerly a trio, Years & Years became Olly Alexander’s solo project ahead of the dance-pop act’s third album, Night Call. Alexander isn’t alone on the followup to 2018’s Palo Santo, though, teaming up with Swedish electronic duo Galantis on “Sweet Talker” and Kylie Minogue for a remix of the filter-house anthem “Starstruck.” Another single, “Crave,” Alexander has called “a playful way of inhabiting the deranged sexual energy [he’s] always wanted.” An actor whose credits range from Skins to Belle and Sebastian’s God Help the Girl, Alexander starred in last year’s Channel 4 and HBO Max series It’s a Sin. –Marc Hogan
