New year, new music.
2021 was the year many musicians showed us the works they created during the 2020 pandemic. And since the pandemic is still (somewhat) raging around the world, it’s giving musicians even more time to perfect their craft.
In 2022, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2022, in no particular order.
Tears For Fears
Album: The Tipping Point (Concord)
Release Date: 2/25
Could it be? Is this actually happening? Are we finally getting brand spanking new music from Tears For Fears? Yes. Sound the alarm. The last time these British legends dropped an album of new original material was 2004’s Everybody Loves A Happy Ending. 18 years later, we’ve been gifted The Tipping Point, ten songs fueled by sadness and pain which nearly pushed Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith to their tipping points (no pun intended). Let’s see if the nearly two decade long wait was worth it when it drops this Friday.
D.R.U.G.S.
Album: TBA (Velocity)
Release Date: TBA
Don’t call it a comeback. Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows aka D.R.U.G.S. have been really busy creating their second album, their first since 2011’s self-titled debut. Back in December, frontman Craig Owens announced that the vocals were all recorded. “Can’t begin to tell you how much this new D.R.U.G.S. album means” he wrote on Twitter earlier this month. “Those who’ve heard it say it’s my best work yet. We are at the beginning of a new era, and I can’t wait to share this experience with all of you. Get ready! It’s coming soon…” Earlier this month, the band dropped a new track called “DESTINY”. No release date has been posted, but it will come out this year on Velocity Records (Eve 6, If I Die First, Thursday).
†††
Album: TBA (Warner)
Release Date: Spring
It’s the return of Crosses (spelled †††)! The experimental superduo consisting of Deftones’s frontman Chino Moreno and Far’s Shaun Lopez dropped two covers over the last two years, but now they are confirming new music is on the way. “Very happy to announce that @crossesmusic recently signed a worldwide deal with @warnerrecords. Looking forward to working with such an amazing crew,” Lopez posted in a statement on Instagram. The record should come out this spring on Warner Records (Avenged Sevenfold, The Head And The Heart, Saweetie).
Weezer
Album: The SZNS Saga (Atlantic/Crush)
Release Dates: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
Last year, Weezer dropped two albums. Now, they’re upping the ante by releasing four albums in 2022. Dubbed the “SZNS” saga, each record is supposed to have a sound relating to its coordinated season. As NME put it, “Each of the project’s albums is due to be released on the first day of every season next year, and will feature its own unique style. For example, one of the four records will be inspired by Elliot Smith. Another will be inspired by Weezer themselves.” So if this is happening, the first album should come out March 20.
Avril Lavigne
Album: Love Sux (DTA)
Release Date: 2/25
If you told me a decade ago that Avril Lavigne would be making a comeback in the pop-punk world, I would’ve laughed. But alas I’m the fool. Coming this Friday is the Canadian pop-punk superstar’s comeback record Love Sux, dropping on Travis Barker’s label DTA. Her seventh album has her collaborating with stars like Machine Gun Kelly, blackbear, and Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, and was produced by her boyfriend Derek Smith aka Mod Sun and scene producer John Feldmann (311, Escape The Fate, The Used).
Streetlight Manifesto
Album: TBA (Pentimento)
Release Date: TBA
Just to let you know how long it’s been since Jersey ska legends Streetlight Manifesto dropped a record, Victory Records was still around, Obama was president, and I was still in high school. And it seemed that we would never get that long-awaited sixth album. That all changed when the band posted last July that a new album was underway. “So you’ve been asking about it and we’ve been coy about it. And there’s a reason we’ve been keeping things on the down low, and that’s simply because we don’t want to talk about something until it’s well under way and inevitable. That changes today because, well, it is now WELL under way and inevitable,” the band posted on Facebook. “Along with everyone else on the planet, our plans for 2020 and 2021 were a bit… steamrolled. We are now back on track and for the last few months have resumed working in the studio after a year apart from one another, both remotely and in person, on what will be our next album. This is simply a proof of life post, with some photos to prove that all of the SM gentlemen are alive and being kept busy in the studio. Hydration and food rations are being provided when absolutely necessary. We won’t have anything to share with your earballs for a bit, but we’re on course to release this behemoth of a record sometime in 2022. We will sporadically provide updates now and then, but we want all of you faithful and kind (and PATIENT) Streetlight fans to know we are hard at work and hope to exceed your expectations with a new batch of jams soon.” Now all we can do is be patient. But hey, at least we know it’s coming!
Dashboard Confessional
Album: All The Truth That I Can Tell (AWAL)
Release Date: 2/25
After a four year gap and an almost deadly motorcycle crash in 2020, Chris Carrabba’s beloved acoustic emo/rock band Dashboard Confessional has returned with new music on a new label. Dropping this Friday is the eighth album All The Truth That I Can Tell, releasing under the AWAL banner (Aly & AJ, Everything Everything, Lauv). Carrabba opened up about the album to Kerrang!, saying, “Honesty was at the heart of the writing process, at the heart of the recording process, and at the heart of this collection of songs. I had the rare opportunity to be unflinchingly honest. But I think I would have thought in the early days that that would be commonplace. Now, I realize it’s some kind of cycle within your life and there’s great personal reward in accepting that.”
Belmont
Album: Aftermath (Pure Noise)
Release Date: 3/4
After dropping two EPs with Pure Noise Records (Devon Kay & The Solutions, Grumpster, Moon Tooth), Chicago easycore trio Belmont will be finally dropping their first full-length with the label, Aftermath, next Friday. The album is the band’s second overall. Vocalist Taz Johnson talked about Aftermath in a press release, stating, “There’s a lot of serious stuff on this album. It’s personal and vulnerable and hopefully people can relate to it. But at the same time, the process of making it taught us to remember to have fun.” Drummer Brian Lada adds, “All our influences are here, and we put them into one big melting pot. More than anything, I just hope this album inspires people to give less of a fuck and instead do whatever they want.”
100 gecs
Album: 10000 gecs (Atlantic/Big Beat/Dog Show)
Release Date: TBA
100 gecs were one of the many bands I have let slip through my fingers on my Prenatt’s Picks a few years ago. Still won’t get over that, especially with how popular the experimental hyperpop duo of Laura Les and Dylan Brady have gotten. Their groundbreaking debut record 1000 gecs changed the game of pop music for the greater good (or not, your opinion). And now, with 10000 gecs, they’ll up the ante somehow. So far, we’ve heard some tracks off of 10000 gecs on their 10000 gecs tour last fall like “Hey Big Man”, “Fallen For You”, “One Million Dollars”, “Hollywood Baby”, and the only commercially released song “mememe” (with the Toronto date being cancelled and being moved to Buffalo, which I got to see with the creator of the Punk Goes Prenatt logo and icon. And someone recorded the show on their Nintendo 3DS.) With what has been performed and released, 10000 gecs will blow their debut out of the water.
Nekrogoblikon
Album: The Fundamental Slimes And Humours (Mystery Box)
Release Date: 4/1
The greatest goblin-inspired melodic death metal band has returned. Santa Barbara’s Nekrogoblikon are set to unleash their heaviest goblin-est record to date, The Fundamental Slimes And Humours, hitting stores and steaming services on April Fools’ Day. If you wanna hear a sneak peek at the record, check out “This Is It”, a heavy banger that has the band sounding as tight as ever. “This was the first song that got completed during the writing/demoing process, meaning it’s also the one we’ve been waiting the longest for you all to hear,” the band wrote in a press release. 2022 is no longe the year of the tiger, now it is the year of the goblin.
Part two will come out next week!
Punk Goes Prenatt 