The start of every new year comes with a few musical ‘trends’. We get very excited about the new acts that are going to emerge over the coming weeks and months – lists are made, people are tipped – but it’s not just about the fresh blood. It’s also about the more established, familiar names and what they might have in store. With that in mind, here’s a far from exhaustive list of thirty three albums we’re expecting we may get over the next twelve months that we think you should be excited about.
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Our Siggers has already been out there dropping new music in the form of twin pop bops ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Burning Bridges’ – early smoke signals for a second full-length set to follow in 2022. With a run of huge UK shows planned for March, it’s safe to say we should maybe expect it to be with us at some point in the spring. Call it an ‘educated guess’ we should be able to confirm really quite soon, if we’re right. SA
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Caroline’s ‘Pang’ remains a bit of a modern classic round these parts, so obviously we’re quite excited to see what comes next. Dropping the Really Very Good ‘Bunny Is A Rider’ earlier in 2021, she also debuted some new material at her recent London show (more on that here). While we don’t know exactly when we’ll see it, we’re under the impression a new album is ‘on the way’ soon. Exciting stuff. SA
→ TITLE: PAINLESS
→ RELEASE DATE: 4th March 2022
Nilüfer Yanya’s first album might only have arrived back in 2019, but that already feels like an age ago. Nothing to worry about there, though. The follow up to one of the standout debuts of that year has already been announced. Titled ‘PAINLESS’, it’ll be with us on 4th March 2022. We’ve also got a track from it to, ‘stabilise’ – a song based on the jolly and uplifting central theme of “no one coming to save you ever” – Nilüfer’s own words, there. The album is “a record about emotion” – “I think it’s more open about that in a way that Miss Universe wasn’t because there’s so many cloaks and sleeves with the concept I built around it,” she explains. “I’m not as scared to admit my feelings”. SA
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Foals have long since established themselves at indie rock’s top table, but following up on 2019’s double album extravaganza with their first record as a three piece, anything could follow. Even… erm… disco? We caught up with Yannis to ask the important questions about what comes next for one of Britain’s biggest bands. Follow the link below to find out. SA
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What is going on with The 1975? No, not Dork’s new strapline, but an honest question based on a touch of confusion and a lot of whispering. At the start of last year’s Covid-sponsored madness, the band were building up to the release of their fourth album – and second instalment of the Music For Cars ‘series’ – ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’. Though the album still hit its May release date, those final laps were compromised by lockdowns, restrictions and a total pause on live music. With no opportunity to take the album on tour proper, everything seemed to get a bit… well… unpredictable. And let’s be honest, Dear Reader, The 1975 have never been the most predictable of bands in the first place.
When Dork last talked to frontman Matty Healy ‘on the record’ around the release of ‘Notes’, he was making a lot of noise about doing something under the band’s pre-fame guise, Drive Like I Do. Probably not a full album, the idea had been whispered, teased and even hoaxed for a good while previously. For once, it started to feel like it might happen. Rough dates were suggested, even an Instagram account appeared. And then, well, nothing.
Since then, the digging has started once more. Matty started sharing teasy looking artwork on Instagram – images that were also posted by the band’s long-term creative collaborator Samuel Burgess-Johnson. He also appeared just a couple of weeks ago, supporting Phoebe Bridgers at an LA show, with ‘new songs’ in tow. There’s an impression, shall we say, that a new album from The 1975 will be with us next year, with a tour to accompany it. Something’s happening, anyway. Keep your eyes peeled for the traditional teasing ‘soon’. SA
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What are we expecting from Arctic Monkeys then? Hard to say. After the iconic blast of uber-bangers that was 2013’s AM, the 70s-infused retro-futurism of Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino in 2018 was, shall we say, a surprising manoeuvre. We will tastefully not reignite the drama here (we’re nothing but tasteful here at, erm, the magazine called Dork) but in the interest of journalistic integrity let it be noted that when it came to Tranquility Base, indie was a house divided. Was this a sign of Arctic Monkeys’ sonic evolution, a truly fun concept album about a space hotel, or the overwrought stylings of a band who perhaps needed a little sleep and a gentle reintroduction to the real world? Here, on the cusp of a follow-up, we’re no closer to an answer. And that makes it very difficult indeed to speculate on what might come next.
The only thing we can broadly agree on is that Alex Turner’s lyrical flair never wavered, which means it’s probably safe to assume we’ll get a knowing line here and there, the occasional flash of elastic wit amid a string of poetic observations about… well, lord knows what. It would certainly be unusual for a massive indie band to follow up a weird concept album with another, perhaps even weirder concept album, but once again for the people in the back; the last one was a record about a space hotel. There was literally no way we could have predicted that. Are we thinking an underwater Butlins for this one? A Travelodge in hell? Could be. Or it could be what we were sort of expecting last time around – a slew of absolutely unrivalled indie hits. LK
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There’s not really a lot of solid information on new music from Florence – she’s not dropped anything new, and even failed to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of her album ‘Ceremonials’ recently – but, BUT, she’s been announced to headline a few big European festivals in 2022. And why would she be doing that if she didn’t have something new to play, hmm? Exactly. We’d keep an eye on her movements as we get closer to the summer, just in case. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 18th March 2022
Charli XCX has been pushing the cutting edge of mainstream pop for years now, but something about the forthcoming ‘Crash’ feels different. Her final album for her current deal with Atlantic Records, its first taster ‘Good Ones’ was everything we’ve always wanted. Pure, direct pop brilliance, it instantly became one of Charli’s most iconic songs. Followed up with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek collab ‘New Shapes’, it’s an album that has its fair share of all star names involved. There’s regular contributor AG Cook, The 1975’s drummer and production wizz-kid George Daniel and fellow pop-icon Rina Sawayama. We’re expecting big things come March. SA
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Pretty much from the moment Sports Team released their debut album ‘Deep Down Happy’, they were talking about its follow-up. At one point, it felt like we might see it in 2021 – though that never really felt fully real. Once their first full-length’s victory lap is out of the way, 2022 may provide the perfect opportunity, though. When we talked to frontman Alex Rice about the potential new music earlier this year, he described it as “a genuine departure from the first album”. “We realised that whatever we try to do, it’s always going to have me singing in a bad voice, Oli playing the root notes on bass, Henry trying to riff his way out of anything and everything,” he continued. “So with that in mind, we decided to experiment a bit more and trust that those things will keep us sounding like Sports Team.” Sounds both promising and ominous. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 11th February 2022
By the time alt-J drop their new album, ‘Get Better’, it’ll be getting on for five years since their last – 2017’s ‘RELAXER’, and almost a decade since their debut ‘An Awesome Wave’ first arrived. The three-piece have always felt like a band who would suit established veteran status, though. We’ve already had a couple of songs from the record – lead single ‘U&ME’ and its tender follow-up ‘Get Better’. With a tour planned for May too, it’s good to have them back. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 21st January 2022
Olly Alexander has always been an amazing pop star. Like top tier future icon level. This year he’s taken that stardom to the next level with his role in hit telly drama ‘It’s A Sin”. He already has an impressive legacy of hits and progressive pop with Years & Years but this is a rebirth. A new era and a new journey for one of pop’s most engaging characters. Now a solo project, Years & Years third album ‘Nightcall’ is Olly’s vision and passion beautifully unfiltered. From ecstatic pop bangers to dramatic and intense fantasy with a laser-focused target for dancefloor euphoria the album promises to be Olly’s defining statement. MY
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→ RELEASE DATE: 21st January 2022
Leeds four-piece Yard Act may only be releasing their debut album at the start of 2022, but it’s already feeling like it’s going to be a bit of a runaway winner. Dropping back a couple of weeks due to vinyl production issues, it actually now looks like it’ll arrive in a quieter chart week – quite convenient that. For a band who sell out their shows and are growing a sizeable and rabid fanbase, expect them to start their year with a bang. By the time it gets to the festivals, they’ll be one of the must-sees. No doubt about it. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: Spring 2022
Fontaines D.C. don’t hang around when it comes to new music. Like so many of their peers, they’re a band constantly in motion. When they headlined Alexandra Palace recently, they brought a new song – ‘I Love You’ – which certainly whetted the appetite for what comes next. Whatever that is doesn’t look too far away, either – a call was put out for fans to appear as extras in a music video, filmed in London in mid-November. With that in mind, European dates in March and April, and festivals booked for the summer, we’d expect for the boys to drop their third album in the early part of 2022. SA
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Immediate and defiant pop powerhouse Baby Queen has only just dropped ‘The Yearbook’ mixtape, a 10-track release that steered clear of the ‘album’ label and instead housed an outrageous array of both sonically glamorous and lyrically cavernous bops, but now Bella is already shaping up a momentous debut record – we presume we’ll see at some point in 2022. Suave and self-aware new single ‘Wannabe’ is seemingly introducing us to a new era for the future superstar, pumping laidback and yet uncompromising vocals over a stripped beat with pseudo-psychedelic synths laying down a potential new direction for this as-of-yet-untitled new project. Baby Queen is only just getting started and despite admitting to being a “fucking hopeless mess”, expect this essential new record to carry her momentum to new heights. FH
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→ RELEASE DATE: 8th April 2022
It’s fair to say Let’s Eat Grandma’s second album, 2018’s ‘I’m All Ears’, transformed everything for the duo. Future-focused modern pop, it set a good band out in front of the pack with one of the best records of its kind in years. Its follow up, ‘Two Ribbons’, will arrive on 8th April – described as the story of the band’s last three years. Filled with personal loss, but also growth, it charts a point where their internal relationships changed, were challenged and reformed. It already sounds an important one. SA
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We’ve already heard one song from Blossoms’ next full-length – August’s single ‘Care For’. When talking upon its release, frontman Tom Ogden confirmed they’d been “sitting on it for ages now”, but suggested it’d be with us in 2022. That’s nearly here – durr – and every sign suggests we should be hearing more about it very soon indeed. If 2020’s ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ is anything to go by, it could be one to keep a very close eye on. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 4th February 2022
2020 saw Phoebe Bridgers make a cultural breakout, while in 2021 Japanese Breakfast dropped an album which moved the dial. If we’re looking at our indie faves making moves that switch them up a level, maybe its finally time for Mitski to go stratospheric? New album ‘Laurel Hell’ will arrive on 4th February – a record which seeks to strip away the façades and find some honest truth. With some songs written during or before 2018, and the final album mixed in May 2021, it’s the longest time Mitski has spent on a record. We’ve already had two tracks from it, the excellent ‘Working for the Knife’ and the teasingly new ‘The Only Heartbreaker’. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 18th February 2022
It’s comes as a bit of a shock to realise that Metronomy are now a band seven albums deep – a feat they’ll achieve with the release of new full-length ‘Small World’ on 18th February. A record described as “a return to simple pleasures, nature and embracing a more pared-down, songwriterly sonics”, it’s also an album rooted in 2020 – a year in which we all had to find ourselves and our place in the world around us. Its fittingly titled lead track ‘It’s good to be back’ is already out there. An identifiable message. SA
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Following a raw punk debut about growing up and a fairly expansive exploration of romance across a second record, The Regrettes have surprised us with new single ‘Monday’, which utilises a fresh toolbelt of sounds to invigorate the ever-present hooks with some exciting new energy. Exploring the anxiety experienced throughout lockdowns, we can anticipate a shift in direction both thematically and sonically in what singer Lydia Night claims is, “the most powerful album we’ve made.” With alt-pop production sounding excellent on this first tease and a songwriter no longer stepping into our world but bringing us into hers, an imminent album is sure to explore new areas for the talented Californians. FH
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Indie’s golden wonder, Alfie Templeman is set to finally release his much anticipated debut album in 2022. While expectations may be sky high, from what we’ve heard our Alf has grabbed the opportunity with both hands, doubling down on his obvious talent for solid gold bops. Want to hear more? Check out our chat with the man himself by following the link below. SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 25th March 2022
After finally capitalising on their naturally anthemic tunes through a slew of notable festival performances and an energised headline tour, it’s clear that Sea Girls have the indie-pop prowess to keep fans jumping to even the freshest material. It’s a good thing, then, that they’re already following 2020’s commendable debut ‘Open Up Your Head’ with 11 new catchy melodies in the form of ‘Homesick’, a record the band have promised is more sonically ambitious than the last and has already proven to pull on further personal experiences. As frontman Henry Camille has teased, we should expect the setlist additions to be, “quite heart-on-our-sleeves.” FH
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→ RELEASE DATE: Summer 2022
2022 might well be the year of Rina Sawayama. While we’re very excited for her to appear in the fourth instalment of the John Wick franchise, that’s already been shifted back to 2023. Still, perhaps more fitting for these pages is news of her second album. In a recent Twitter Q&A with fans, she confirmed that she’s aiming to drop it in “late summer”, and wrote the songs in “1/20th of the time of the first one… working with some producers I’ve always dreamed of.” SA
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→ RELEASE DATE: 4th February 2022
Those who loved Black Country, New Road’s 2021 debut ‘For The First Time’ really did feel quite passionately about it. One of those records that either perfectly hit the mark or was ‘a bit much’, its follow-up is already sounding like it’ll follow confidently in its footsteps. A quick-sharp turnaround, lead track ‘Chaos Space Marine’ suggests that ‘Ants From Up There’ will keep everything that worked about that first effort, but add a whole universe of new brilliance too. SA
→ TITLE: Fix Yourself, Not The World
→ RELEASE DATE: 14th January 2022
You can’t keep a good Wombat down – and certainly not in 2022 when the three-piece return with their fifth full-length, ‘Fix Yourself, Not The World’. Recorded remotely from three different countries over the pandemic, the band would discuss the day’s plan with a morning Zoom meeting, then head off to record their individual parts before firing the results over to a star-studded list of producers. “We’ve explored new genres and pushed ourselves further than ever musically,” explains drummer Dan Haggis. It’s anything but a modern glitch. SA
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100 gecs are the most bonkers band on the planet. And that’s why we love them and why their forthcoming second album ‘10000 gecs’ promises to be one of the most thrilling comebacks of 2022. In truth we don’t really know what this is going to sound like, maybe even Dylan Brady and Laura Les have no idea what it’s going to sound like. We do know, however, that it will be super energised, feverishly excitable and will sound a bit hyper and there will be a lot of pop. You see gecs aren’t wilfully experimental shock merchants. They can write bangers. The most gloriously sugar-coated fizzing pop bangers you could ever wish to hear. The word on the street is this time they’re leaning even further into the pop-punk sound that they touched on with the debut and emphasised with their recent Fall Out Boy remix collab. The perfect midpoint between super accessible pop-punk and insanely creative future pop, gecs’ new album looks set to launch them into a new and even more crazy stratosphere. MY
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When we caught up with Conan for the cover of Dork a few months back, he revealed that his second album isn’t out yet because “it’s not done”. “I’m tearing pieces of my soul out to write these songs,” he explained. “It’s going to take a little while. [A finished record] isn’t too far off, but I’m still in it. I’m deep in the middle of the process right now.” That completion point may very well be closer – or even here – by now. Not only has he dropped a solid gold pop, ‘Telepath’, but a full world tour has been announced for 2022. Kicking off in the US in March and hitting the UK in June, it seems sensible to suggest that we’ll be getting that full-length in the first half of the year. Can’t wait. SA
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Do we know we’ll get a new Paramore record in 2022? No, not really. Does writing this form some part of a manifestation spell we’re trying to cast in order to bring back one of the best bands on the planet? Couldn’t possibly say. Still, we’re pretty confident work is underway on something new from the trio. There’s quotes that sound interesting, too. Last year, Hayley Williams suggested that Taylor York had confessed that he misses guitars, and that the band had found themselves listening to a lot of older music they grew up with – but that doesn’t necessarily mean a return to their roots. The delight of modern Paramore is how they’ve shifted with their own creative urges, always making something brilliant along the way. If, when and what they give us remains to be seen, but whatever it is, we’re pretty sure it’ll be brilliant. SA
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Wallows second album is produced by Ariel Rechtshaid – which is exciting. The collaboration’s first fruits, recent single ‘I Don’t Want To Talk’, is already ‘out’, too. Following on from their most recent EP ‘Remote’ – recorded during the pandemic – they’ve announced they’re set to hit the road Stateside for part 1 of a North American tour between April and July of 2022 too. Titled the ‘Tell Me That It’s Over Tour’, every suggestion is that we’ll be getting that record at some point in the first half of the year. SA
→ TITLE: Give Me The Future
→ RELEASE DATE: 4th February 2021
The iconic indie-turned-mega-pop quartet Bastille are back with their long-awaited fourth album, the first in what will be almost three years and also the first to break their naming convention of two-word alliteration. It breaks other conventions, too, throwing together a horde of futuristic sounds to form a new wave of alt-pop; when unleashed as part of their Bastille: ReOrchestrated shows this summer, there was no denying the band were trying something fresh. With several bangers already redefining a new sound for the group, a desire for reinvention will hopefully prove to keep Bastille current in a new era. FH
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Maggie Rogers is clearing out her webstore “to make way for the next chapter”. She’s “making the record [she’ll] tour for a lifetime”, and has said that it feels like being seventeen again – because everything feels “so fresh and free” and not, we presume, because she went to bed as Chandler Bing and woke up a young Zac Efron (It’s happened to us all). The second album could easily have proved daunting after Heard It In A Past Life hit the Billboard charts at no.2 and bagged Maggs a GrammyTM nomination, but thankfully the sailing seems to be smoother than smooth. But the big question remains: will she draft in pal Phoebe Bridgers for the album version of their cover of ‘Iris’, thus becoming the track’s rightful owners a-la Johnny Cash’s ‘Hurt’? Only time will tell. LK
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→ RELEASE DATE: 8th April 2022
The much-anticipated debut album from our Hype List 2022 cover stars is set to land pretty early in to 2022. After a whirlwind of hype around their earliest material, expectations are high for the Isle of Wight duo’s first big collection, but on the evidence of what we’ve heard so far they should have no problem delivering on that promise. Quite probably the most exciting new band on the planet right now have nothing to fear. SA
→ TITLE: If My Wife New I’d Be Dead
→ RELEASE DATE: 25th February
We’ll frequently refer to CMAT as the greatest new pop star on the circuit for obvious reasons. Personality, humour and a crackingly joyous, smart bunch of winning songs, she’s got both style and substance down. Her debut album, ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’, is set for release in February. It couldn’t come more highly recommended. SA
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The very best thing we can say about Phoebe Green is that she’s still growing as an artist. The progress from her earliest works to now shows genuine development – not only in quality, but in terms of finding her own unique voice within the indie pop circus. With an album planned for later this year, the expectations are already high. So far, she’s exceeded them at every step. Don’t bet on that stopping any time soon. SA
