Culture Fix’s Most Anticipated Music Releases of 2022

2021 was a year stacked with high profile music releases and it looks like 2022 is going to give it a run for its money with several big hitters expected to be dropping new albums throughout the year. We take a run through of some of the expected upcoming musical releases of the year including stars like Björk and Janet Jackson. Let us know on social media the albums that you are excited for in 2022. – Twitter / Instagram / Facebook

Björk

The Icelandic singer’s most recent album was 2017’s Utopia, a somewhat esoteric yet rewarding musical feast. Björk is thought to be dropping a new album in 2022 describing the music as being “for people who are making clubs at home in their living room, restricted to their ‘Christmas bubble.'” She added “But in this new album there’s a lot of chill in the first half of the song and a lot of calm in the second half, but when there’s one minute left the song turns into a club.” Whether this means we are getting a slight return to dance music Björk, we are not quite sure but we are massively excited nonetheless.

A-ha

The Norwegian pop icons will return with film and album True North – a tribute to their home country’s landscape. On the film, the group share “We want this film to be a poetic homage to the importance that nature holds in Norwegian culture, and in particular the ocean, which has provided us with a privileged life up here, from the early fishing boom to the troublesome riches extracted from the seabed in the form of oil.” Expect emotional, dramatic orchestral Scandinavian pop from Morten and co. – marking their first new music since 2015’s Cast in Steel.

Soft Cell

Marc Almond and Dave Ball have reunited for a successful tour paying homage to their classic debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, forty years after its release. Their latest musical output will be arriving in February 2022, *Happiness Not Included, which is described in the following way by record label BMG: “One play of ‘*Happiness Not Included’ reveals all of the traits that fans first adored Soft Cell for: that distinctive and striking balance between light and shade, hope and despair, the personal and the universal.“

Sugababes

After successfully regaining ownership of the Sugababes name, Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan released an expanded reissue of their acclaimed debut album One Touch. They are set to headline Mighty Hoopla 2022 and have shared discussions about new music. Siobhan told NME:  “We’ve got so much material that we need to work through. We probably need to do a little more recording. As soon as we can get back together in the studio, we’re going to work on something fresh. But there’s a lot of material that I feel we should collate together because it’s some of our best work ever and it would be a shame for it not to be released properly.”

Louise

Louise delighted with her 2019 comeback album Heavy Love that spurred anthems such as Lead Me On and Stretch. Louise has been very clear about her love for creating music again and spoke to Metro about her upcoming new album. She shared: “I’ve already started working on the next album and I almost feel like it’s even a step up from the last album. It feels like the second album again, but it’s actually my fifth – sixth if we include the greatest hits – but it’s almost like we’ve veered even further in direction for the next album so I’m already so excited.” The singer has announced some live dates for 2022 and has suggested we may hear some new music then.

Craig David

The smooth tones of Craig David have already been heard on his lead single Who You Are with MNEK which lead his upcoming album 22 which is scheduled for May 2022. The single takes on a more restrained soulful approach, although it’s not clear if the full album with take on this style or delve into the club-sounds that populated the singer’s recent albums The Time Is Now and Following My Intuition.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Fresh from the success of her Children in Need fundraising, supporting Steps arena tour and releasing her memoir Spinning Plates, it is hoped that 2022 will see a new album from Sophie Ellis-Bextor. In 2020 the singer told The Sun, “I’ve done enough dining out on what I did in the past with the discos. What we’re doing is sort of quite proggy pop. I do love dance music but I want my albums to reflect where I am at and I’ve done enough of singing about fancying people in clubs.” Expect something more akin to Wanderlust and Familia than Make a Scene then.

Blondie

After the collaboration driven Pollinator in 2017, the Debbie Harry fronted group are getting the ball rolling on their next album. In July 2021, Harry told NME: “We’re in the process of setting up a period of time to lay down some tracks and rehearse. We’re already looking at 10-12 songs, but it feels too early to talk about it.” Hopefully we will be hearing the fruits of their labour in 2022.

Jonas Brothers

Plans for a follow-up album to the pop trio’s Happiness Begins were slightly altered by the pandemic, but Nick, Joe and Kevin have assured fans that a ‘body of work’ of some sort is coming. In an Instragram live session Joe shared “We plan on releasing a body of work. We’re not 100 percent sure when, obviously this last year kind of shifted timelines quite a bit for everyone, so that’s our reasoning. We’re not holding anything back from the fans that want new music, but we’ve got some good stuff we’re working on and we can’t wait to share it with you guys.”

Janet Jackson

Despite initially announcing her Black Diamond album with the intention of a 2020 release, the pandemic scuppered those plans for Janet Jackson. The album is set to feature collaborations with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and will feature collaborations with Darrel Randle, Earth, Wind & Fire’s Ralph Johnson, Siedah Garret and Marcel East. The hotly anticipated album is Janet’s first since 2015’s Unbreakable.

Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly has been in the studio with producer Rostam Batmanglij who has confirmed that new CRJ music will be arriving in 2022. The pair had runaway success with E•MO•TION back in 2015, so it is hoped that they can recapture some of the flawless pop magic of that album.

Kim Petras

Kim Petras has been causing gay meltdowns across the globe with her anthemic banger Coconuts and the singer has also been sharing details regarding its accompanying album: “I feel very passionate about this album — it’s everything I’ve ever wanted to make,” she notes. Kim also teased that some of the songs from her debut album with Republic Records were outrageous and we’re already screaming: “I feel like I’m now brave enough to do outrageous songs that I never thought I could do, songs that I was kind of limiting myself from.”

Charli XCX

Giving us a taste of her upcoming eighties-inspired album through singles Good Ones and New Shapes, Charli has teased a more mainstream album with the artist sharing “Much-needed mainstream album coming soon, I promise.” It turns out that soon is March 18, 2022 when Crash drops.

Anastacia

Fresh usic from Anastacia is set to arrive in 2022, with the singer revealing some of the details to Official Charts who share that it will be ‘uptempo and in the vein of her old hits.’ Anastacia shared “It’s going to be what you want. It’s my recipe! I might as well feed my people!”

Samantha Fox

Our Sam has been missing from the pop landscape for far too long. The iconic eighties model and singer has shared that she has a pop album and a rock album ready to go and would like a label to back the release. Cherry Red or BMG, are you guys about? Sam’s last piece of pop music was 2018’s Hot Boy – and it has left us truly hungry for more.

Atomic Kitten

The pop trio made up of Natasha Hamilton, Liz McLarnon and Jenny Frost have been teasing AK2022 and have announced that they are touring with Blue next year, after the surprise success of Southgate You’re the One (Football’s Coming Home Again) – in support of England’s Euro 2020 hopes. Rumours have been rumbling that the ladies will be trying to get some new material together for 2022.

RuPaul

RuPaul’s MAMARU arrives in the first week of 2022. The drag icon has already given us a taster with the sass-packed anthem Blame It On The Edit and Catwalk which showcase a minimal electronic vibe, hopefully the album will pack some earworming bangers that Mama Ru has become known for.

Years & Years

Years & Years have been on a winning streak with hits Starstruck, Crave and Sweet Talker and frontman Olly Alexander’s album Night Call is set to deliver the euphoric bops that we need to kickstart our year.

Grace Jones

We write this with a sense of doubtfulness, but who knows if ABBA can deliver the goods, maybe Grace can too? Yet Grace has been working on her Ivor Guest-produced follow-up to 2008’s Hurricane for some time, with her most recent update on the project being back in September 2019. The singer shared a photo from the studio with the caption “Something wicked this way comes!” – hopefully in 2022.

Madonna

Madame X may be coming to a close and Madonna and her team are known to be preparing deluxe editions of past albums. Although Madonna has recently teased new music will be arriving in 2022, sharing: ““So great to be back in the studio making Music again,” and captioning the post “Surprises in the New Year.” Madonna has been working with Swae Lee, producer and engineer Lauren D’Elia, and writer Jozzy.