The post-pandemic flood of self-released ambient records has oversaturated the market in the best way: here are the best ambient albums of 2022.
The 1975 want to be funny in a foreign language, but on their fifth go-round, their ambitions are tempered in plain English.
Free of major-label constraints, Tove Lo turns her dark sex-positive pop into something wiser and mature. Yet fans need not worry as Dirt Femme‘s BPM still kicks.
Having only put out five albums in the past two decades, Beth Orton’s Weather Alive embraces her electro-folk past while embracing a weathered, gorgeous future.
In lockdown, George FitzGerald’s studio became stale. Yet a love of stargazing and the conversion of images into music resulted in a dynamic new album.
Sampling recordings over a century old, Egyptian composer Nancy Mounir delivers an album where the past and present converse to help write the future.
Moving from Kazakhstan to Russia to pursue her electro dreams, Minona Volandova’s Men Seni Suyemin project harbors surprising influences from Foals to Gorillaz.
After disappearing for several years, New Zealand’s beloved alt-rock scholars Popstrangers are back with a new record. To celebrate, they note their five all-time favorite venues.
Swedish synthpop revolutionary Jonna Lee revives her iamamiwhoami moniker and takes on time to give us her forceful folk album, Be Here Soon.
When not directly attacking Brazil’s dangerous Bolsonaro administration, drag queen Pabllo Vittar is changing the world one shaking bootie at a time.
Conceived out of the pandemic’s hopelessness, outre-art rapper and film composer OHYUNG has crafted a two-hour ambient record for the ages in imagine naked!.
In collaborating with hip indie acts, Amadou & Mariam met with critical rebuke. Ten years on, Folila is a masterpiece that bridges the gap between two sonic worlds.
