Wrapping It All Up: 100+ New Albums In 2022

Last night, after counting down to the new year, the kids and I decided to go outside and light the sparklers we had left over from last year.

The air was still warm enough for a light jacket, if any, and in the sky was a steady stream of clouds traveling east, and a waxing gibbous moon shining clear and bright in the west. We all stood for a few seconds, close to each other and silently staring up.

All around us neighborhood fireworks boomed, though none were pitched high or close enough for us to see.

When we tried to light our sparklers they wouldn’t catch fire. “Do fireworks go bad?” I wondered right before the first one, and then the rest, sparked.

We spread out. I began dancing and drawing rings of light with my magic wand. Dancing the way one dances when there is no music playing but the weather is perfect and the only people around are ones you love deeply. Between my spins, I saw them. The girls were talking and laughing together, their faces lit by the starbursts they were cautiously holding forth. My son’s sparkler had gone out and he appeared to be examining one of the Hydrangea bushes.

Then a black Sudan drove slowly past our house. I could hear music coming through the car, but the volume was too low for me to discern the song. We watched as the vehicle continued up the road, and then everyone went back to doing their thing.

After we were back inside, my daughter asked, “What will your first song of 2023 be?”

“That’s a good question,” I said, then spent the next hour spiraling out, putting too much significance on the word “first.” By the time I came out of that spiral I was exhausted and no closer to a decision. It’s 3:30pm New Year’s Day and I still have yet to listen to my first song of the year, but when I do, it will most likely be a song from one of the albums, or Tiny Desk Concerts, listed below in bold.

I joined Nia’s (Nia Simone McLeod) 100 new albums in 2022 challenge a year ago this month. Forthcoming is all the music I listened to (that I can remember) as a result of joining that challenge. There’s no way I would’ve dove as deep or swam as wide in music last year without it. Instead, I would’ve spent much of that time listening to albums I already know and love because last year had several rough, anxiety-inducing patches, and good music is for me a wonderfully weighted blanket. I can’t know for sure which albums to thank you for sooo — THANK YOU FOR ALL THE MUSIC, NIA!!!

The Albums

1. Fivio Foreign — B.I.B.L.E.
2. Stevie Wonder — Hotter Than July
3. Don Toliver — Heaven or Hell
4. Grant Lee Buffalo — Fuzzy
5. Raury — Strawberry Moon
6. Smino — Love 4 Rent
7. Megan Thee Stallion — Traumazine
8. Metro Boomin — Heroes and Villains
9. I DON’T KNOW HOW THEY FOUND ME — RAZZMZTAZZ
10. Saba — Few Good Things
11. Cordae — From A Birds Eye View
12. Sick! — Earl Sweatshirt
13. J. Cole — Born Sinner
14. Morgan Wallen — Dangerous
15. Cautious Clay — Deadpan Love
16. Lucky Daye — Candy Drip
17. Big Lotto — 777
18. Solange — A Seat At The Table
19. Cheap Trick — In Color
20. Funkadelic — Maggot Brain
21. Little Simz — No Thank You
22. Bjork — Fossora
23. Harry Styles — Harry’s House
24. Danielle Ponder — Some Of Us Are Brave
25. Emil Sandé — Let’s Say For Instance
26. Metallica — The Metallica Blacklist
27. Jack White — Fear of the Dawn
28. PJ Morton — Watch the Sun
29. Dead Fish — Serva-Se
30. Yung Bleu — Tantra
31. Danger Mouse and Sparkle Horse — Dark Night of the Soul
32. Nas — King’s Disease III
33. SZA — SOS
34. Adele — 30
35. Ashniko — Demidevil
36. Big Thief — Masterpiece
37. Jazmine Sullivan — Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales: The Deluxe
38. Kyle Dion — SUGA (Deluxe)
39. Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers
40. Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry
41. Freddie Gibbs — Soul Sold Separately
42. Vince Staples — Ramona Park Broke My Heart
43. FKA twigs — Caprisongs
44. JID — The Forever Story
45. Steve Lacy — Gemini Rights
46. Drake — Take Care
47. Drake — Nothing Was the Same
48. Drake — Thank Me Later
49. Drake — Honestly, Nevermind
50. Drake — Her Loss
51. Beyoncé — Crazy In Love
52. Beyoncé — B-Day
53. Beyoncé — I am Sasha Fierce
54. Beyoncé — 4
55. Beyoncé — Beyoncé
56. Beyoncé — Lemonade
57. Beyoncé — Renaissance
58. Bilal — In Another Life
59. Bilal — A Love Surreal
60. Bilal — Airtight’s Revenge
61. Tyler Childers — Country Squire
62. Tyler Childers — Tyler Childers|Our Vinyl Sessions
63. Tyler Childers — Purgatory
64. Tyler Childers — Can I Take My Hounds to Heaven
65. Panic! At The Disco — Viva Las Vengeance
66. Panic! At The Disco — Too Weird To Live, Too Weird To Die
67. Panic! At The Disco — Vices & Virtues
68. Panic! At The Disco — Pray For The Wicked
69. Panic! At The Disco — Pretty. Odd.
70. Tyler, The Creator — Wolf
71. Tyler, The Creator — Flower Boy
72. James Blake — Friends That Break Your Heart
73. James Blake — Assume Form
74. Jack Harlow — That’s What They All Say
75. Jack Harlow — Nail Tech
76. Jack Harlow — Come Home the Kids Miss You
77. Westside Gun — 10
78. Westside Gun — Peace “Fly” God
79. Sananda Maitreya — Introducing the Hardline According to…
80. Sananda Maitreya — Ttd’S Vibrator
81. Sananda Maitreya — Symphony Or Damn
82. Funkadelic — One Nation Under Groove
83. Funkadelic — Maggot Brain
84. Funkadelic — America Eats Its Young
85. Future — 56 Nights
86. Future — I Never Liked You
87. Future — DS2
88. The Warning — Error
89. The Warning — Queen of the Murder Scene
90. Frank Sinatra — Watertown
91. Frank Sinatra — Strangers In The Night

Tiny Desk Concerts

1. Tems
2. Yebba
3. Mumu Fresh ft. Black Thought & DJ Dummy
4. Taylor Swift
5. Santigold
6. Cordae
7. FKA twigs
8. Yebba
9. Rico Nasty
10. Jack Harlow
11. Giveon
12. Snoh Aalegra
13. Roy Ayers

EPs

1. Cyhi — EGOT
2. Panic! At The Disco — House of Memories
3. Tems — If Orange Was A Place

Soundtracks

1. The Lion King: The Gift
2. Judgement Night

Wishing all of you the best in 2023, in every way imaginable. 💖