I always feel a little guilty about not speaking a second language (I took French in high school and retained little of it), and feel like it should be a long term goal of mine to learn Spanish someday simply because it's spoken by so many people in America and elsewhere in the world. And a year like 2022, where Bad Bunny and a few other Spanish language acts made a huge impact, can really make a music lover feel like they're missing out if they're not fluent. Without understanding the lyrics, I get limited enjoyment out of Bad Bunny's music, I just don't love his voice. But I could listen to Rosalia's voice all day, and her ear for beats has gotten so adventurous and unpredictable over her three albums, I love where she's taken her sound on Motomami. 

Once again, I feel like my lack of fluency in anything besides English has served me poorly, because while Christine and the Queens' 2018 album Chris was issued with versions of each song sung in both French and English, most of Redcar is purely in French. But while I have less of a clear idea of what Heloise Letissier's new songs are about, his art pop collaboration with hip hop legend Mike Dean is a fascination new step forward for his sound. 

Roc Marciano and The Alchemist were in the mix way back in the '90s, working with Busta Rhymes and Mobb Deep respectively, at the peak of east coast boom bap rap's splashy blockbuster era. But as that sound has moved away from the forefront of mainstream hip hop, both Roc and Alc have become leading figures in a more deliberately niche strand of street rap, sample-driven but with lighter drums (or none at all), designed more for headphones than for getting spun at the Tunnel. So hearing them do an album together in 2022, when each's influence is at an all-time high, feels like an event, even if the music they're making is sort of the opposite of a blustering event album. 

I have not been a huge fan of Danger Mouse's production in the past, and thought his project with Black Thought would interest me a lot less than his album with Salaam Remi. But I will give Danger Mouse some credit, he is versatile and he understood the assignment here, chopping samples for more Alchemist-style minimalist beats that suited Tariq's bars. 

Some rappers just make better mixtapes than albums, it's just the nature of how industry expectations can hurt more high-pressure projects. And last year's tape Something For Thee Hotties will probably always be my favorite Megan Thee Stallion project, it's just all killer and no crossover-friendly filler. But Traumazine is a better attempt at a mass market something-for-everyone Megan album than Good News, and the way she opens up about the craziness of the past couple years really makes her a more nuanced and relatable songwriter than the Tina Snow superhero figure she played so well in the past. 

I've loved the Swedish singer LÉON's voice since her debut single "Tired Of Talking" in 2016. About a year ago her Jonas Blue collaboration "Hear Me Say" became LÉON's biggest song since "Tired Of Talking" and entered the U.S. and UK charts, but it didn't seem to really do much to bring attention to her third album, which is a mellow gem with smokey Stevie Nicks-style vocals. 

I love the bass, and I've played with some great bassists, and sometimes when making music you can't help but notice that these awesome basslines that you get to hear in isolation when putting a song together wind up kind of buried under all the other instruments. And I know, I know, that's kind of the point, you're supposed to feel bass more than you hear it, but sometimes I wish bassists got more room to breathe. And that's something I dig about what Carrtoons is doing, he's created pretty detailed tracks, but there's always space in the mix to hear what he's doing on the bass, even if he's not playing it as a 'lead' instrument in a flashy Les Claypool sense. 

During Superchunk's initial burst of albums from 1990 to 2001, it seemed like they were on a steady slide from fast, breezy anthems to slower, more textured songs. When the band resumed making albums in 2010, they mostly kept it uptempo like the early days, culminating in the fiery protest punk of 2018's What A Time To Be Alive. But Wild Loneliness feels like album they probably would've made in 2003, the mellowest Superchunk album ever, with horn arrangements that are more comforting and autumnal than the tart experimental textures of 1999's Come Pick Me Up. 

It's such a flex to release an album this good on your 18th birthday. I love that this kid is from here in Prince George's County, Maryland, I can't wait to see where he goes from here because the sky's the limit, his rapping and his production are growing by leaps and bounds with each release. 

Maren Morris and the late Michael Busbee were such a perfect team on her first two albums, I was wary that she might lose some of the magic on her third album. But she has pretty great chemistry with Greg Kurstin, too, and it's fun to one of pop's most versatile hitmakers really show off how well he can do straight-up country on this album.