Releases from January–February 2022
Great albums from around the world
Click to order your copy to make sure you don’t miss out! You can pay for your order when you collect it. Please note that we cannot post items to you.
Find releases from 2023 | 2021.
Also check out some of the great reissues of classic albums.
The hottest pre-sale releases
Pre-sale of the week is Rome by The National, out on 13 December.
Jump to: 25 February | 18 February | 11 February | 4 February | 28 January | 21 January | 7 & 14 January 2022
Releases for 25 February 2022
We kick off 25 February’s best with Nightroamer, the third album from Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, a North Carolina band who merge raw country with punk grit and pop sensibilities and make straightforward, undiluted songs about shared hardships and unlikely victories that can bring even the most polarised people together. Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4 is an inward journey for Johnny Marr, dealing with the uncertainties of lockdown and reflecting Marr’s multi-faceted past while taking his music somewhere startlingly new. Beth Hart’s long-rumoured Tribute To Led Zeppelin highlights the incredible musical spectrum that the supergroup covered, backed by a cast of A-list musicians. On their new album, Raum, Tangerine Dream further develop the concept of precursor EP Probe 6-8, using full access to Edgar Froese’s Cubase arrangements and Otari Tape Archive, with haunting sequencer-driven soundscapes alternating with warm anthemic synthesisers. And Rock Believer is perhaps Scorpions’ most characteristic album to date – a recording by a band at the pinnacle of their musical art, with massive energy, a real adrenaline rush and uncompromising quality.
Our release of the week comes some forty years into one of music’s most impactful, sometimes tense and yet curiously enduring partnerships: Tears For Fears have finally arrived together at The Tipping Point, their ambitious, accomplished and surprising first new studio album in nearly two decades – an inspired song cycle that speaks powerfully and artfully to our present tense here in 2022.
- Some forty years into one of music’s most impactful, sometimes tense and yet curiously enduring partnerships, Tears For Fears have finally arrived together at The Tipping Point – their ambitious, accomplished and surprising first new studio album in nearly two decades. And now, at very long last, Tears For Fears find themselves back in peak form on an inspired song cycle that speaks powerfully and artfully to our present tense here in 2022.
- Nightroamer is the third album from Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, a North Carolina band who merge raw country with punk grit and pop sensibilities. They make straightforward, undiluted songs about shared hardships and unlikely victories that can bring even the most polarised people together: “We are not responsible for other people’s behavior and sometimes we have more say in our own lives than we believe. The moment we realize this we start awkwardly constructing this cerebral bridge that’s somewhat clunky and weird but its finally taking us in the direction we want to go. The songs on Nightroamer are beautiful, agonizing, magnetic, mischievous, indomitable pieces of the clunky and weird brain bridge to personal autonomy.”
- Fever Dreams Pts 1 – 4 was created during the long, uncertain period that followed the arrival of the UK’s first lockdown, when Johnny Marr’s focus was pushed into both his interior life and evoking the emotional states of others. “It’s an inspired record, and I couldn’t wait to get in and record every day,” he says. “But I had to go inwards.” The album reflects Marr’s multi-faceted past while taking his music somewhere startlingly new.
- Beth Hart’s nine-song Tribute To Led Zeppelin highlights the incredible spectrum that the supergroup operated in, from powerhouse rock to psychedelia, folk, jazz, prog, blues, funk, soul and beyond. Rumours about the album had been circulating for a few years. At the helm was super-producer Rob Cavallo and engineer Doug McKean. The A-list musicians include Cavallo on guitar along with Tim Pierce, Chris Chaney on bass, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards, Dorian Crozier on drums and Matt Laug, with orchestral arrangements by David Campbell. All that was left was the final piece of the puzzle – the voice.
- On their new album, Raum, Tangerine Dream further develop the concept of precursor EP Probe 6-8. Composed and produced with full access to Edgar Froese’s Cubase arrangements (and his Otari Tape Archive with recordings from 1977 to 2013), Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane and Paul Frick deliver real-time late-night compositions combined with classic studio productions, with haunting sequencer-driven soundscapes alternating with warm anthemic synthesisers.
- Legendary rockers Scorpions return with Rock Believer, which was created in the studio during the lockdown in their home base in Hannover. “The album was written and recorded in the style of the classic Scorpions DNA with core Schenker/Meine compositions. We really went back to the essence of what defined us in the first place,” says front-man Klaus Meine. The sound of the new album has massive energy, delivers a real adrenaline rush and shows uncompromising quality. The record consists of awesome tracks, each one of them a lyrical short story, minimal poems in prose, presented in a lavish sonic guise, featuring the Scorpions’ characteristic trademarks from the early 1980s, yet produced from a 2020s perspective. Rock Believer is perhaps the group’s most characteristic album to date – a recording by a band at the pinnacle of their musical art.
Releases for 18 February 2022
Our crackers for 18 February start with Texas Moon, an extension of Khruangbin & Leon Bridges’ chart-topping four-song Texas Sun journey on which they take an introspective stroll through the dark that pensively examines the musical perception of Texas. Small World is a return to simple pleasures, nature, and embracing more pared-down, songwriterly sonics, all while asking broader existential questions, but still pulses with the zesty, tongue-in-cheek joie de vivre you’d expect of a Metronomy record.
Our release of the week is Everything Was Forever, the first new album in five years from Sea Power (formerly British Sea Power). Their bold, galvanising and idiosyncratic music has won them some remarkable admirers, including Lou Reed, David Bowie and London’s National Maritime Museum.
- Everything Was Forever is the first new album in five years from Sea Power (formerly British Sea Power). Their bold, galvanising and idiosyncratic music has won them some remarkable admirers, including Lou Reed, David Bowie and London’s National Maritime Museum. Indeed, the Sea Power fanbase now includes Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes. Peter Capaldi is a confirmed fan: “A band of stark originality,” he wrote in his foreword for the reissue of the band’s 2003 debut album, The Decline Of British Sea Power. “Sea Power’s songs bring you the bite of the wind, the fury of the sea, and music that is simply exhilarating.” Daniel Radcliffe has talked in detail about his plan to get a tattoo featuring the 2002 T-shirt slogan ‘Bravery Already Exists’. Benedict Cumberbatch is also an admirer.
- An extension of Khruangbin & Leon Bridges’ chart-topping four-song Texas Sun journey, Texas Moon is an introspective stroll through the dark. “Without joy, there can be no real perspective on sorrow,” says Khruangbin. “Without sunlight, all this rain keeps things from growing. How can you have the sun without the moon?” Crediting their mutual home state for inspiration, Texas Moon pensively examines the musical perception of Texas, while paying homage to the marriage of country and R&B that’s become synonymous with the lone star state.
- Now on album number seven, Metronomy has continued where many of their 2000s ‘cool’ band peers have dropped off along the way. Small World is a return to simple pleasures, nature, and embracing more pared-down, songwriterly sonics – some moments wouldn’t sound amiss on a Wilco release – all while asking broader existential questions, which feels at least somewhat rooted in the period of time during which it was made – 2020. For all that bandleader Joseph Mount seems to think he has made a comparatively sombre record, much of Small World still pulses with the zesty, tongue-in-cheek joie de vivre you’d expect of a Metronomy record.
Releases for 11 February 2022
11 February’s smashers start with Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, a rambling account of Big Thief’s growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family. 4 is everything you’ve come to expect from Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, but also unlike anything you’ve heard from them before. Stories inspired by true crime and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont rub shoulders with some of alt-J’s most personal moments to date on The Dream. Eve Adams offers solace within life’s shadows and, with tender-hearted tales that tingle with Californian folk-noir, Metal Bird takes flight with the mysteries of love, death, insecurity and loneliness. Written and recorded over the last two years, Lucifer On The Sofa is Spoon’s purest rock’n’roll record to date: a shift toward something louder, wilder, and more full-colour, bottling the physical thrill of a band tearing up a packed room.
Our release of the week is The Sea Drift, the third album proper for country’s-got-soul’s finest, The Delines, on which they explore the US Gulf Coast, not far from where Amy Boone grew up, inspired by her 3-year recovery from being hit by a car in 2016.
- The Sea Drift, the third album proper for country’s-got-soul’s finest, The Delines, sees them exploring the US Gulf Coast, not far from where Amy Boone grew up. The songs in this cinematic opus all focus around this area and are inspired by when Amy asked Willy Vlautin to write her a song like Tony Joe White’s ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ after her 3-year recovery from being hit by a car in 2016.
- Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is a sprawling double LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief. To truly dig into all that the music of Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia desired in 2020, the band decided to write and record a rambling account of their growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family over four distinct recording sessions. In upstate New York, Topanga Canyon, the Rocky Mountains and Tucson, Arizona, Big Thief spent 5 months in creation and came out with 45 completed songs. The most resonant of this material was edited down into the 20 tracks that make up DNWMIBIY, a fluid and adventurous listen. The album was produced by drummer James Krivchenia, who initially pitched the recording concept for the album back in late 2019 with the goal of encapsulating the many different aspects of Adrianne’s songwriting and the band onto a single record.
- It’s been a decade since Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators released their debut album together, and since then they have been on one of the more impressive and unrelenting tears in rock’n’roll, issuing two more hard-hitting, hugely acclaimed records, and rocking stages all over the world. True to the band’s expanding legacy, the highly anticipated Dave Cobb-produced 4 is everything you’ve come to expect from Slash, Myles Kennedy, Todd Kerns (bass), Brent Fitz (drums) and Frank Sidoris (rhythm guitar), but also unlike anything you’ve heard from them before.
- The Dream is an album of intrigue, beauty and humanity – a coalescence of everything that has made alt-J a global band with true staying power. Stories inspired by true crime and tales of Hollywood and the Chateau Marmont rub shoulders with some of the band’s most personal moments to date. The album was created after a period of rest for the band following their seismic world tour in support of their previous hit album, Relaxer.
- “Delicious desolation … earning Adams a place in the pantheon of woozy contemporary torch singers alongside Mazzy Star, Lana Del Rey and Angel Olsen” 8/10 Uncut.
- Eve Adams offers solace within life’s shadows. Un-numbing senses with anthems of surrender and tender-hearted tales that tingle with Californian folk-noir, Metal Bird takes flight with the turbulence and romance of Hollywood’s golden age, and meditates on the mysteries of love, death, insecurity and loneliness.
- Spoon’s tenth album, Lucifer On The Sofa, is the band’s purest rock’n’roll record to date. Texas-made, it is the first set of songs that the quintet has put to tape in its hometown of Austin in more than a decade. Written and recorded over the last two years – both in and out of lockdown – these songs mark a shift toward something louder, wilder, and more full-colour. From the detuned guitars anchoring ‘The Hardest Cut’ to the urgency of ‘Wild’, to the band’s blown-out cover of the Smog classic ‘Held’, Lucifer On The Sofa bottles the physical thrill of a band tearing up a packed room. It’s an album of intensity and intimacy, where the music’s harshest edges feel as vivid as the directions quietly murmured into the mic on the first take.
Releases for 4 February 2022
Our soaraway six, hand-picked from the many new releases for 4 February, starts with Pompeii from Cate Le Bon, whose title suggests apocalypse. Although it’s not meant to refer to the immediate present, the double catastrophe of global pandemic plus climate emergency resonates all too eerily. Give Me The Future is a tribute to humanity in a tech age and reflects on the strangeness of living through times that can feel like science fiction: it’s playful but thought-provoking, dystopian but dancefloor-friendly, and as electronic as Bastille have ever been. Korn pioneered a genre, articulating a generational coming-of-angst and becoming the soundtrack for a generation’s arrival as a snarling, thrashing, systemically restrained freak show. Time Skiffs’ nine songs are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder: harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. We don’t typically look to pop albums to answer our cultural moment, but occasionally an artist proves the form more malleable and capacious than we knew, and with Laurel Hell, Mitski cements her reputation as an artist in possession of such power – capable of using her talent to perform the alchemy that turns our most savage and alienated experiences into the very elixir that cures them.
Our release of the week is Ants From Up There, which follows on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of Black Country, New Road’s acclaimed debut, For The First Time. The new album harnesses the momentum from their debut and manages to strike a skilful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before as well as a natural progression.
- Following on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut, For The First Time, Black Country, New Road return with Ants From Up There, which harnesses the momentum from their debut and manages to strike a skilful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before as well as a natural progression.
- The title of Pompeii, the sixth full-length studio album from Cate Le Bon and her follow-up to 2019’s Mercury-nominated Reward, suggests a coming apocalypse. However, this metaphor eclipses any dissection of the immediate present, says Le Bon, although this is not to downplay her nod to disorientation induced by the double catastrophe of global pandemic plus climate emergency’s colliding eco-traumas, which resonates all too eerily. What would be your final gesture? she asks.
- Give Me The Future is a tribute to humanity in a tech age and reflects on the strangeness of living through times that can feel like science fiction. Exploring both the opportunities of new technology and the dark side of lives lived online, it’s as playful and fun as it is thought-provoking, as dystopian as it is dancefloor-friendly, and as electronic as Bastille have ever been.
- Korn changed the world with the release of their self-titled debut – an album that pioneered a genre – while the band’s enduring success points to a larger cultural moment. The Fader notes: “There was an unexpected opening in the pop landscape and Korn articulated a generational coming-of-angst for a claustrophobic, self-surveilled consciousness. Korn became the soundtrack for a generation’s arrival as a snarling, thrashing, systemically restrained freak show.”
- Time Skiffs’ nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en-plein-air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder: harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. Here is Animal Collective nearing 20, and still in search of what’s next.
- We don’t typically look to pop albums to answer our cultural moment, let alone to meet the soul hunger left in the wake of global catastrophe. But occasionally, an artist proves the form more malleable and capacious than we knew. With Laurel Hell, Mitski cements her reputation as an artist in possession of such power – capable of using her talent to perform the alchemy that turns our most savage and alienated experiences into the very elixir that cures them. Her critically beloved last album, Be The Cowboy, built on the breakout acclaim of 2016’s Puberty 2 and launched her from cult favorite to indie star.
Releases for 28 January 2022
We unwrap 28 January’s winter warmers with Lu’s Jukebox Vol. 6: You Are Cordially Invited…, in which Lucinda Williams covers the Stones in full-band performances. Former Mansun frontman Paul Draper returns with a satirical analysis of the self-help manual genre: a guide to getting ahead in life by employing dirty tricks or Cult Leader Tactics to achieve your life goals. Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson take a break from Band Of Skulls with an album that covers the full breadth of human emotions, with songs about vulnerability, loss, change, love, identity and forgiveness – as well as the future and hope. The Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly offered Anaïs Mitchell a blank slate to reconnect with her own music, and her first collection of all-new material under her own name since 2012’s Young Man in America is a collaboration with Bon Iver, The National and her own band Bonny Light Horseman. With a voice that has stopped critics in their tracks, Lady Blackbird is a revelatory new talent with music that transcends the jazz scene in which the LA-based artist is rooted, reflecting influences as varied as Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner and Chaka Khan – a distinct and beguiling talent not to be missed.
Our release of the week is Extreme Witchcraft, the fourteenth studio album from Eels, one of the most consistently acclaimed bands in rock. The album was co-produced by band-leader Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, with John Parish, producer and guitarist for PJ Harvey, marking the first time the two have recorded together since 2001’s Souljacker.
- Extreme Witchcraft is the fourteenth studio album from Eels, one of the most consistently acclaimed bands in rock. The album was co-produced by band-leader Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, with John Parish, producer and guitarist for PJ Harvey, marking the first time the two have recorded together since 2001’s Souljacker.
- Lu’s Jukebox is a six-volume series of mostly full-band performances recorded live at Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studio in Nashville. Each volume features a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner Lucinda Williams, and in Vol. 6: You Are Cordially Invited…, she covers the Stones. The series aired as ticketed shows through Mandolin in late 2020 with a portion of ticket sales benefiting independent music venues struggling to get by through the pandemic. Like thousands of artists, Williams cut her teeth and developed her craft by playing in small, medium and large clubs.
- Former Mansun frontman Paul Draper returns with a collection of his finest songwriting since the band’s imperious phase. Cult Leader Tactics offers a satirical analysis of the self-help manual genre: a guide on how you can get to the top of your chosen profession, or ahead in life and in affairs of the heart, by acting in a Machiavellian manner, employing dirty tricks or ‘cult leader tactics’ to achieve your life goals. After observing these types of human behaviours and themes, the album arrives at the conclusion that the only true answer in life is love.
- Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson first started writing songs together in their teens after meeting at school in their Southampton hometown. Forming Band Of Skulls 17 years ago with drummer Matt Hayward, they went on to make five acclaimed studio albums together. Now, the pair have temporarily stepped away from Band Of Skulls to focus on a new musical project they’ve been dreaming about since their earliest songwriting days. The album covers the full breadth of human emotions, mining deeply into songs about human connection, vulnerability, loss, change, love, identity and forgiveness – as well as the future and hope.
- Anaïs Mitchell has spent the past 15 years wrapped up in the multi-faceted world of Hadestown, a musical project she began in Vermont in 2006 that has grown into a Tony- and Grammy-award-winning Broadway phenomenon with touring editions delighting audiences around the world. As it did for many artists, the Covid-19 pandemic unexpectedly offered Mitchell a blank slate to reconnect with her own music. The result is a new self-titled album made with close collaborators from Bon Iver, The National and her own band Bonny Light Horseman. This is Mitchell’s first collection of all-new material under her own name since 2012’s Young Man in America.
- With a voice that has stopped critics in their tracks, Lady Blackbird is a revelatory new talent with music that transcends the jazz scene in which the LA-based artist is rooted. Reflecting influences as varied as Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner and Chaka Khan, with critics drawing comparisons to Adele, Amy and Celeste, Lady Blackbird’s distinct and beguiling talent is not one to be missed.
Releases for 21 January 2022
21 January’s new releases open with Aoife O’Donovan, co-founder of the trio I’m With Her, who continues her passion for collaboration on Age Of Apathy, an album that includes guest appearances by Madison Cunningham and Allison Russell. Formed shortly before the pandemic, Yard Act have incredibly only played three gigs but have already released two superb singles, and debut album The Overload pulses with post-punk indie dance, their creativity thriving in difficult times. While the rest of the world was put on hold, alt-rock stalwarts The Sherlocks underwent a rebirth, with a new guitarist and bassist joining vocalist Kiaran Crook and drummer brother Brandon, and World I Understand stands as the band’s most unshackled and ambitious album to date. Acclaimed folk performer Jake Xerxes Fussell’s fourth album, Good And Green Again, is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalogue, and includes his first original compositions with atmospheric arrangements. And Ludovico Einaudi returns to the ivories for his first solo piano record of new material since I Giorni in 2001. Underwater was written with a fresh approach in mind, which can be heard in its memorable melodies.
Our release of the week is Things Are Great, the first studio album in more than five years from Band Of Horses. Sonically, it’s a return to the raw ethos of their earlier work, and it’s emotionally intense, both on a personal and elemental level, with founder Ben Bridwell more autobiographical than he’s ever been on record.
- Things Are Great is Band Of Horses’ sixth studio album and their first record in more than five years. Sonically, the album is a return to their earlier work and the kind of raw ethos that lies at the heart of Band Of Horses. Emotionally intense, both on a personal and elemental level, on Things Are Great we find the band’s founder Ben Bridwell more autobiographical than he’s ever been on record, detailing the nebulous frustrations and quiet indignities of relationship changes and what a person will do to make things right.
- Aoife O’Donovan, co-founder of the trio I’m With Her, continues her passion for collaboration on Age Of Apathy, an album that includes guest appearances by Madison Cunningham and Allison Russell. The album’s singles include ‘Phoenix’, ‘Passengers’ and ‘Prodigal Daughter’.
- Formed in 2019, Yard Act began life when friends Ryan Needham (bass) and James Smith (vocals) started creating minimalist rock tracks using a primitive drum machine and a borrowed bass guitar. They later drafted in George Townend on drums and Sammy Robinson on guitars, who they met at their spiritual home The Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. The quartet have only played three gigs but have already released two superb singles, and their debut album, The Overload, pulses with post-punk indie dance, their creativity thriving despite reduced circumstances this last year.
- While the rest of the world was put on hold, alt-rock stalwarts The Sherlocks were undergoing a rebirth, with the Davidson brothers Josh and Andy stepping down and two new band members, Alex Proctor (guitar) and Trent Jackson (bass), joining Kiaran Crook (vocals) and Brandon Crook (drums). Working closely alongside Manic Street Preachers producer Dave Eringa, World I Understand stands as The Sherlocks’ most unshackled and ambitious album to date.
- Jake Xerxes Fussell’s fourth album, Good And Green Again, finds the acclaimed guitarist, singer and interpreter of folk songs navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalogue. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions and atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings.
- Ludovico Einaudi returns to the piano for his first solo piano record of new material in 20 years, since I Giorni in 2001. Underwater was written with “songwriting, not composing. A fresh approach” in mind, which can be heard in its memorable melodies. Ludovico says: “a song is like a breath, it needs nothing more. The album is a place to freely reflect, a place without boundaries.”
Releases for 7 & 14 January 2022
Our pick of the new year’s releases opens with The Boy Named If (14 Jan), a new album of urgent, immediate songs from Elvis Costello & The Imposters with bright melodies, guitar solos that sting and a quick step to the rhythm. The Wombats have produced some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date while working over Zoom from their bases in Los Angeles, Oslo and London to create Fix Yourself, Not The World (7 Jan). In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album Silver Ladders, Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, Collected Pieces 2015–2020 (14 Jan), featuring new and previously unreleased material, Bandcamp-only singles and other obscurities. The Temperance Movement is one of Britain’s finest rock bands of the past decade, and Caught On Stage (Live & Acoustic) (14 Jan) features a collection of rare live tracks recorded in various locations, including intimate acoustic live shows, radio sessions with Planet Rock and rehearsal-room recordings, and it’s a must-have for any fan of the band. Arriving in the wake of his critically acclaimed debut solo album A Quickening, Orlando Weeks’ new record once again leans into themes of new life and parenthood, and Hop Up (14 Jan) is an altogether more joyous and life-affirming statement.
Our release of the week is Toy:Box (7 Jan). Following his triumphant Glastonbury 2000 performance, David Bowie entered the studio with his band to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964–71 in the ‘old school’ way with the band playing live. This fascinating album now finally sees the light of day in a set packed with alternative mixes and versions including proposed B-sides.
- 7 January: Following his triumphant Glastonbury 2000 performance, David Bowie entered the studio with his band – Mark Plati, Sterling Campbell, Gail Ann Dorsey, Earl Slick, Mike Garson, Holly Palmer and Emm Gryner – to record new interpretations of songs he’d first recorded from 1964–71. David planned to record the album ‘old school’ with the band playing live, choose the best takes and then release it as soon as humanly possible in a remarkably prescient manner. Unfortunately, in 2001 the concept of the ‘surprise drop’ album release and the technology to support it were still quite a few years off, making it impossible to release Toy, as the album was now named, out to fans as instantly as David wanted. In the interim, David did what he did best; he moved on to something new.
- 14 January: Elvis Costello & The Imposters release The Boy Named If, a new album of urgent, immediate songs with bright melodies, guitar solos that sting and a quick step to the rhythm. Costello tells us: “The full title of this record is The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories). ‘If’ is a nickname for your imaginary friend; your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own.”
- 7 January: Recording remotely over the past year from their respective homes, The Wombats have been working hard to produce some of the most captivating, inventive and forward-thinking music of their career to date. With frontman Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo and drummer Dan Haggis in London, they discussed each day’s plan via Zoom, then recorded separately to create Fix Yourself, Not The World.
- 14 January: In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album Silver Ladders (a year-end favourite of NPR, Pitchfork, the New Yorker and others), Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, Collected Pieces 2015–2020, featuring new and previously unreleased material, Bandcamp-only singles and other obscurities alongside standouts from her 2017 tape Collected Pieces.
- 14 January: The Temperance Movement is one of Britain’s finest rock bands of the past decade. Formed in London but with a Glaswegian singer, they are simultaneously anthemic, defiant and cathartic. Their special new release, Caught On Stage (Live & Acoustic), features a collection of rare live tracks recorded in various locations, including intimate acoustic live shows, radio sessions with Planet Rock and rehearsal-room recordings. This is a must-have for any fan of The Temperance Movement.
- 14 January: Arriving in the wake of his critically acclaimed debut solo album A Quickening, Orlando Weeks’ new record once again leans into themes of new life and parenthood. Whereas his previous work catalogued the emotions, expectations and anxieties that accompany imminent parenthood, Hop Up is an altogether more joyous and life-affirming statement.
Other releases for 2022
Find releases from 2023 | 2021.
© Hundred Records. Registered in England. Number 9153994. Registered address: 11 Chalice Court, Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire SO30 4TA.