MUSIC

European electro-pop has yet to make a resurgence in an artist who truly champions the genre while taking stock of the fundamental references that built the genre. With Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul's Topical Dancer, the wait for that resurgence is over! Here's everything to know about this amazing new album.

With more great reviews for Two Ribbons, left-of-center pop duo Let's Eat Grandma solidify their position as the go-to alternative pop option of the indie world. With a now-famous story charting the course of their third album, the British pop group is also equally as musically successful here, which is a tough but true statement following their critically acclaimed second album, I'm All Ears. With more human emotion than ever before and a great balance of catchy singles and memorable album tracks, Two Ribbons does much more than just keep this duo afloat.

Silent Alarm is the classic go-to record from post-punk revival band Bloc Party, period. If you don't know them (or if you do), it's the record to reach for 99% of the time. With that said, it was only a matter of time (in this case, just over 17 years) that they returned to the Silent Alarm sound for a nostalgia trip. While this English band certainly performs their self-imitation with some sonic success, it should not resonate with most people as any more than just that: a throwback attempt.

Following Sharon Van Etten's Remind Me Tomorrow, which came out in 2019 and marked her highest-charting album to date, We've Been Going About This All Wrong keeps the singer/songwriter's heartbreaking heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics and matching sonic palette intact. The indie artist definitely will not be topping the charts with this one, but taken on its own level, this 2022 album is moving and meaningful.

The follow-up to 2021's Ignorance was always going to be in the shadow of this great album. Considered one of the best records of the year, Ignorance fused Canadian songwriter Tamara Lindeman's penchant for classic folk with Fleetwood Mac-styled production and arrangements. The opening track, a slow and intentional light jazz-inflected number called 'Robber,' was a career highlight for Lindeman, and the rest of the album had not one miss on it. With that in mind, Lindeman's similar companion album from 2022, called How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars, is an understandable downgrade despite its quality sound.

With the release of the single 'Call Me Little Sunshine' (catch the sunshine=lucifer connection?), Ghost re-announced their presence on the path to album #5. IMPERA began life with this classic Ghost single, but when the full album came out, it revealed itself as so much more. Balancing their commercial '80s pop-metal nostalgia appeal with a unique freshness, IMPERA is unquestionably the best that the hard rock world will see in 2022.

Kurt Vile's small role in the Philadelphian rock band The War On Drugs unexpectedly turned into a successful solo career with his 2010s albums. By the time B'lieve I'm Goin Down came out in 2015, he cemented his music as the perfect balance between indie rock weirdness and stringed instrument mastery. On his ninth album, (Watch My Moves), he hits the balance once again, and while the record can be excessive at 73 minutes in length, it has some really good material on it.

Kae Tempest (formerly Kate) first transferred their skills in poetry and spoken word into music with 2014's Everything Down, and a Mercury Prize nomination later shaped the course of an exciting career. Their second album, Let Them Eat Chaos, was also nominated, already cementing a legacy of literate observations on the state of the world. With album #4, Tempest turns the focus inward, and the results are as phenomenal as ever. Here's what to expect from Tempest's new album, The Line Is a Curve.

Jack White fans are really getting a treat in 2022. After a four-year gap since his previous solo record, White returned bombastically in 2022, starting with the rocking first single and opening track 'Taking Me Back.' While this seemed like a return to form for White, heading back to his roots with The White Stripes, the rest of the album Fear of the Dawn continued the pathway to weirdness that began heavily with 2018's Boarding House Reach. With Dizzy Gillespie jazz on one track and arty hip-hop legend Q-Tip on another, this proved to be yet another set of bizarre choices from White. Luckily, another album is right around the corner.

After an exciting marketing campaign that used black-and-white classy still and cinematic images to promote the album with little other details, Chloë and the Next 20th Century came and went without a big splash. Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty) did not get nearly the streams of his past albums, and the sales and charting were down as well in most countries. The look of the rollout was certainly eye-grabbing, but sadly, the music does not quite hold up to his past records.

The great Irish singer/poet Van Morrison, known for his transcendent records Astral Weeks and Moondance, as well as the iconic single 'Brown Eyed Girl,' has shocked audiences around the world with a sudden shift into unbridled old-man complaining bluntness. 2021's Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 and 2022's What's It Gonna Take? both sound very out of place among Morrison's over forty other albums, with song titles like 'Where Have All the Rebels Gone,' 'No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,' and 'Stop Bitching, Do Something,' which all pretty much speak for themselves.

Former The Smiths guitarist and co-songwriter Johnny Marr has been quite active since that famous band dissolved in 1987. With a new late-80s influenced record Fever Dreams, Marr spread 16 tracks across four 'parts,' which work better collected together than as separate chunks. Here are the highlight moments to get you into Fever Dreams.

Put the bad reviews in context here: for fans of Avril Lavigne's prime era that has been forsaken for so long now, her 2022 release Love Sux is an absolute delight. While not every song is a winner, about two-thirds of the album is spot-on Avril, with driving guitars and hooky, righteous anthems about love and heartbreak. Here are the songs to check out, and the ones to avoid.

It's understandable if you've never heard of the Australian rock band Gang of Youths, who have slowly been transitioning from local fame to worldwide success. If you need something to listen to, there's no better album to get into Gang of Youths than their 2022 release Angel In Realtime, a well-crafted album that marks their second #1 on the Australian charts and first to chart outside of their home country. Lead vocalist of the quintet David Le'aupepe has a striking connection to the record, which will linger in one's ear for long after the album is finished.

Electronic producer Diplo is always one you can count on to latch onto whatever trend is going around. Sure enough, as soon as 'Old Town Road' become one of the most streamed songs of 2019, Diplo comes out with a country album in 2020. Here's what critics had to say about the remarkably bad Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley Chapter 1: Snake Oil.