Indie pop, escapism and a Harry Styles blockbuster — the best albums of the year so far
L-R: Harry Styles, Just Mustard and Charli XCX are among the artists of 2022 - so far
Japanese-American pop star Mitski Miyawaki wrote her sixth album recovering from the burn-out of cult fame. How ironic, then, that , her expansive mix of Florence Welsh, Kate Bush and Lana Del Rey, should turn her into an even bigger star.
But she proves worthy of the hype on songs such as 'The Only Heartbreaker' and 'Should Have Been Me'. And she was a true star when she played Dublin’s Vicar Street, the performance 50% Kate Bush in the 'Wuthering Heights' video, 50% Gen Z TikTok sensation.
Nineties-style indie pop is enjoying a revival and the jangling, discordant spirit of My Bloody Valentine, Nirvana and everyone in between is captured on the firecracker debut from Chicago teens Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein and Gigi Reece.
Channelling the heartache she suffered following her break with future Robert Pattinson, Tahliah Barnett’s last album, , was an emotion-shredding tour de force. But her latest release — technically a 'mix-tape' rather than full LP — puts fun and escapism back in her sound. It grabs the attention with Weeknd collaboration 'Tears in the Club' while elsewhere Twigs works with artists ranging from electronica producer, Koreless, to Nick Cave collaborator' Warren Ellis.
Dundalk has emerged as a hotbed of underground rock — and most molten of them all is five-piece Just Mustard. Having drawn on the droning wooziness of early 1990s groups such as My Bloody Valentine on their first LP, with their follow-up they deliver something more vivid and vibrant, singer Katie Ball the calm in the middle of a storm of guitars.
Long before Billie Eilish or Halsey, LA singer, Jillian Rose Banks, was bringing a gothic sensibility to shiny chart pop. Her fourth album sees her pressing reset, as it is largely self-produced and a perfect introduction to her dark strain of pop, with recent health struggles giving the songs a shadowy undertow.
Charli — real name Charlotte Aitchison — has described this as the last in a series of albums in which she takes on the role of mass-market pop star. And initial listens suggested that was indeed one of those more commercial albums where the Essex-born, LA-based singer and producer set her sights on the heart of the charts. But the LP is gradually revealed to have hidden depths as Charli explores heartache and career frustration — with help from collaborators including Caroline Polachek and Rina Sawayama.
Goth pop thrills from electro producer, Andy Butler, and regular collaborator, Anohni, that swaps the dance floor for a rock club flooded in angst and dry ice.
Recorded in the shadow of the death of the boyfriend of singer Jenny Hollingworth, Lets Eat Grandma’s third album sees Hollingworth and musical partner, Rosa Walton, delivering melancholy and optimism in knock-out qualities.
It’s a synth-fuelled meditation on death and love, loss and learning to move on both from your grief and from a fractured friendship. Because while Walton and Hollingworth didn’t quite have a falling out, they’ve grown apart to an extent — and this record is both a testament to what they’ve lost and also a celebration of the different sort of friends they have become.
How could so slight an album prove such a blockbuster? Styles’ third record is a sweet but massively ephemeral serving of early 70s pastoral whimsy that owes a little to Harry Nilsson and Joni Mitchell (including its title, taken from a 1975 Mitchell track). It is deeply pleasant and at pains not to frighten the horses. And yet it has become a juggernaut, clearing the landing strip for Styles' recent sell-out at Aviva Stadium.
Heartache is served up in unlimited qualities in this dark, zinging indie affair from singer, Dana Margolin, and collaborators.
Playful, irascible, sad and brimming with savvy, the debut album from Wet Leg turned the all-female duo from the Isle of Wight into a sensation. It also demonstrates there is more to Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers than the novelty wit that crackled through their 2021 single, 'Chaise Longue' (“Is your mother worried?/Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?”). This was a record about friendship, break-ups and pushing through the drama of life in your 20s.
Kanye West released yet another overblown, undercooked record this year. But perhaps he isn’t ready for the scrap heap just yet, having contributed production to the latest glittering and punchy LP from rapper Pusha T. circles Pusha’s favourite subject: his years as a cocaine dealer in the coastal resort town of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Yet once again, cocaine proves a prism through which he can explore racial inequality, late-stage capitalism and the unforgiving reality of life on the margins of society.
Released just a few months before the death of Microdisney/Fatima Mansions singer, Cathal Coughlan, his collaboration with producer, Jacknife Lee, is both a love letter to and a withering deconstruction of mid-20th century Ireland. It explores religiosity and the brainwashed quality of everyday life as reflected through Irish television of the 1960s and 1970s — with a soundtrack that lands between Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and an Adam Curtis documentary.
State-of-the-nation hip-hop has never been more essential than when Kendrick Lamar is at the lectern. This is big-picture music about race in America that also drills into Lamar’s struggles with fame.
A stirring comeback from the Lake District indie band, who’ve dropped the 'British' from their name but whose new album continues to explore perennials such as life, death and the gently menacing quality of the natural world.
