It's true that so far the new year feels like a flashback from hell to the damned 2020, thanks to amounts of hysteria, fear, variants and uncertainty, that do not give the feeling that we are on our way out of the global health crisis.
On the other hand, as the plague years have taught us so far, these strange times (and the lack of stages to perform on) have brought out the best of our artists, well, the best.
Many of them have found themselves shutting themselves in homes and recording studios, recording new material in anticipation of performing them in front of a live audience, as the world returns to revolving at its normal pace.
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It's hard to say the situation looks bright at the moment, at least in terms of the live performance industry, but no one can stop the music.
Nor a cursed virus with twelve thousand cousins of different ethnic origins.
In honor of the new year, here is a list of albums we would like to hear in 2022.
Some are already officially happy, others are the product of rumors and speculation, but all are intriguing and give some hope for a more normal year - at least in music.
Arctic Monkeys
When the Arctic Monkeys released "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" more than three and a half years ago, they surprised the world with an album that no one thought they would release.
After the huge success of the great album "AM" from 2013, a collection of songs that finally elevated them to the major leagues (and also caused antagonism among quite a few of their old audience), many expected more from the material that produced hits like "Do I wanna Know?"
And "RU Mine?".
Instead they released an atmospheric jazz-themed piano album, which divided its listeners between those who thought it was pure genius and those who found it quite heavenly (except for the iconic line that opens it: "I just wanted to be one of the Strokes, now look what you made me do."
Will continue to move away.
Arctic Monkeys, Photo: Gettyimages
The band's drummer Matt Holders has revealed that the new album "is going to continue from where the previous record started, but move a bit away", and beyond that very little is known about the next controversy that the band from Sheffield is planning for his fans.
There is currently no official release date for the album, but chances are it will be out before the summer, to allow the band to go on a festival tour.
If there will be any this year.
Jack White
It's hard to say that Jack White's latest solo album from 2018 was a huge success, or even that it provided the veteran fans.
It was an album with heavy electronic influences, in which the musician moved away from the sound that made him one of the big (and last) names in rock'n'roll, and quite a few fans just did not connect to the new sound.
Two in a row.
Wait,
But hopefully at least one of the two albums he plans to release this year, in the spring and summer, will catch on to their tastes and show us more of the good we’ve been accustomed to from White for quite a few years.
The first album, "Fear of the Sawn" is scheduled for release on April 8, while the second "Entering Heaven" will be released on July 22.
Rihanna
It has been no less than six years since Rihanna released an album.
The last one she released, "Anti", came out in January 2016 and of course included the hit "Work" which featured Drake, but since then it's hard to say that the singer has worked too much on her music or been signed to too many hits.
In recent years, Rihanna has concentrated on becoming a businesswoman, amid rumors of a loss of her singing ability.
But reports from the star's entourage insist that a new album is about to be released "real soon" and she herself has talked over the years about recording a reggae album.
Does that mean this year Rihanna will break her professional silence?
Maybe.
And maybe not.
The Weekend
"What," you will surely say.
"De Weekend has just released a new and not bad album at all, with hosts from Quincy Jones, Tyler the Creator, Lil Wayne and even Jim Carrey. If he wanted to release another record, he would have already released a double album!"
well yeah.
Although very little is known about De Weekend's intentions for the coming year, one-eyed fans and followers could not help but notice the tweet the pop star posted on Twitter last week, which read: "I wonder ... Did you know you're experiencing a trilogy?", Alongside a picture of him as an old man , From the photo session for the cover of his new album released last week.
Could it be that in 2022 we expect not one but two more DeWeekend albums?
Very possible.
Eddie and Der
Eddie Vedder's first solo album, from the soundtrack of the beautiful film "Into the Wild", is remembered by many as one of the finest works of the first decade of the millennium.
Vader has since released "Ukulele Songs" in 2011, a Ukulele song album that exhausted its gimmick pretty quickly and became manges with each passing song.
On February 14, lead singer Pearl Jam plans to release "Earthling", another solo album after 11 years, produced by Andrew Wyatt, known to many as electronic indie pop lead singer Mike Snow and who has also worked with names such as Lady Gaga, Liam Gallagher, Bruno March and Lord.
Supergroup something.
Eddie Wooder,
In case the world does not stop reigning again, the veteran rocker plans to promote the album on a US tour, alongside a band called The Earthlings. Former Peppers (who is currently playing gigs with Pearl Jam) Josh Klinghoffer, Glenn Hansard from the primaries, Chris Cheney from Jains Addiction and producer Wyatt.Suppgroup, if you will.
Kendrick said
Things Kendrick Lamar has been doing since 2017 and the masterpiece album "Damn" (which also won Grammy Awards and even Pulitzer): recording a successful soundtrack for the movie "Black Panther", setting up a creative agency called "pgLang" and inspiring artists like Khalid and Doa Lipa.
Things Kendrick Lamar has not done in five years: Recorded a new album.
Genius takes time.
Kendrick Lamar, Photo: Reuters
The esteemed rapper and producer has been starring on such charts for a number of years, but some would say that "genius takes time" which is why we haven't won a new batch of songs for a long time.
Next month he will appear alongside colleagues like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Marie J. Blige and Eminem in the media semi-performance of the Super Bowl, and hopefully in the next 12 months we will get to hear more from one of the most influential artists of the last decade.
Father John Misty
Another artist on this list who has not released an album in over three years is Peter John Misty, a kind of indie troubadour who always has something to say about the times he lives in (and probably has something to say, in his sarcastic and witty way, about what's going on in our world lately) .
Not that he's completely off the radar (he's not), but this year Misty, or by his real name Josh Tillman, is going to release "Chloe And The Next 20th Century," a new and fifth album in a row that may contain material he'd already played live before the plague, And is scheduled to release on April 8th.
Goose without roses
The last studio album recorded together by the band Ganz n 'Roses, which included Axel Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McGagen was "" The Spaghetti Incident? ", Which was released in late 1993 and included covers of rock and punk bands that influenced the band members. Together was the double "Use Your Illusion", which came out in 1991 and brought to the world a series of nineties rock hits that to this day are played quite a bit on your radio.
Ganz N 'Roses in Israel, Photo: No credit
Since the historic reunion of the original band members (minus Izzy Stradlin and Stephen Adler, who sometimes still jumps to play with them but not regularly), band members have talked in interviews about new material they are recording or plan to record, and will see light sometime in the future.
In an interview he recently gave to Classic Rock magazine, Slash talked about new songs coming out in the coming months as singles, until they were merged into one album.
Last year we got "Absurd" and "Hard Scholl", two old songs that got redesigned and didn't exactly satisfy the fans' wishes.
As it turns out, in the coming year we will get more from this united bunch, hoping for really new (and really good) things.
And how much more worth waiting for them
It's hard to prepare in one list every 12 months of new albums (some of which we didn't even think about and more will land on us by surprise).
But just to prepare you in advance, we are told that in 2022 dozens of more intriguing works and new materials are expected to be released that are too short to expand on here, from names like: FKA Twigs, Billy Talent, Else, Moe, Alt J, Animal Collective, Frank Turner, Avril Lavigne, Tires For Pierce, Johnny Marr, Brian Adams, Dolly Parton, Placebo, Craig David, Forcupine Terry, Ozzy Osborne, Machine Gun Kelly, Maghdad, Liam Gallagher and many other goodies.
In short there is something to look forward to.
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