![]() The debut album by the 24-year-old Mexican songwriter brims with the specific sadness of not just one’s first breakup, but “mourning that first idea one has about love”, she has said. Backed with his equally distinctive burbling guitar, Say Laura is a perfect gateway to his oeuvre with some of his loveliest compositions – and There They Were may be his best ever. Permit some warranted hyperbole: the Canadian songwriter has one of the all-time great singing voices in popular music, an intensely romantic Chet Baker-ish instrument that seems to float with piercing direction, like a paper aeroplane thrown hard through mist. It wasn’t just about breaking up with her label, but the conclusive end of her wavering long-term relationship and the loss of her late collaborator, Sophie. ![]() Crash works because it never feels weighed down by the concept, filled with instant songs such as Beg for You and Baby, and no small amount of emotion. On her last album for Atlantic – a fractious relationship – XCX decided to play them at their own game, leaning into the character of “major label pop star” and embracing blue-chip co-writes and radio friendly bangers. LS Charli XCX – CrashĪ rare example of an artist pulling off a perfect pop heel-turn. It’s cool, with a weird strut you couldn’t hope to emulate, but also distinctly vulnerable, with Le Bon offering up unvarnished humanity as a gesture towards hope. Pompeii is rich with mercurial saxophones and a tarnished sense of dark glamour, as if someone had roughed up early Roxy Music. “Raise a glass in a season of ash,” Le Bon sings on her sublime sixth album, written as she attempted to lean into the chaos of the pandemic and, inspired by the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, embraces curiosity instead of fear. BBT Axel Boman – LUZĭubby breakbeat house, smooth yacht-rock atmospherics, South African hip-hop: the first of Stockholm producer Boman’s two 2022 collections is headily eclectic and a rare entity in a genre where tracks almost always trump albums: it repays listening from beginning to end, rather than cherrypicking songs for a playlist. Even more amazing than their versatility and hit rate is their strength of feeling: Adrianne Lenker’s vocals and the band’s playing are suffused with struggles and utterly sincere love. BBT Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in Youįolk-rock at heart but spanning bluegrass, squalling rock, scratchy trip-hop and more on this 20-track double album, songs continue to pour from one of the most prolific bands in the US today. Hopping from trap to mambo to house to EDM to wistful pop to every pace of reggaeton, he evokes every possible mood of summer. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, his vocal lines are so packed with poignancy that little romances and histories suggest themselves anyway. The world’s most popular pop artist, if we’re using streaming data as the measure, is also one of its most gifted. ![]() Photograph: Eric Rojas Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti ![]()
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