FEATURE:
Seriously Fresh Start!
IN THIS PHOTO: Wet Leg/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris McAndrew for The Times
Seven Incredible Debut Albums from 2022
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ALONGSIDE brilliant albums from artists…
IN THIS PHOTO: Gabriels/PHOTO CREDIT: Julian Broad
who are some way into their careers, there have been some amazing debut albums. I think these are among the most interesting, as it is the start of an artist’s career really. You get to see those early footprints and impressions. It can be difficult making impact on the first album, so to get great reviews and really start with intent and memorability should be applauded! This year has been a supremely strong one for debut albums. I have named seven awesome debut albums from this year. These are artists who have got off the blocks hugely impressively, and I reckon they will continue to make great albums for years to come. Alongside the major albums and ones from artists who are some way into their careers, these debut gems are to be commended! Below are seven terrific debut albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Los Bitchos
FROM this year.
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Tate McRae - i used to think i could fly
Release Date: 27th May
Label: RCA
Producers: Alexander 23/Blake Harnage/Blake Slatkin/Charlie Handsome/Charlie Puth/David Cook/Finneas/Greg Kurstin/Jackson Foote/Jasper Harris/KBeaZy/Kyle Stemberger/Louis Bell/Russell Chell/Styalz Fuego
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/tate-mcrae/i-used-to-think-i-could-fly
Standout Tracks: don’t come back/hate myself/what’s your problem?
Key Cut: what would you do?
Review:
“At just 18 years old, Canadian singer, songwriter and dancer Tate McRae has carved out a career for herself that has won the hearts of people across the globe.
Back in 2020, Tate emerged onto the pop scene with her debut EP ‘all the things I never said’, which featured single ‘you broke me first’, a tune that was welcomed with open arms by the TikTok community and resulted in Tate’s EP racking up over 100 million streams
Fast forward to 2022, Tate is about to release her debut studio album ‘I used to think I could fly’, a body of work dotted with pop anthems tied together by poetic, angsty lyricism and music videos that showcase her implausible dancing talents.
The album opens with a 16 second intro that features audio of Tate professing “it’s funny to me because you grow up, you lose friends and you’re suddenly scared of things you were literally never scared of before”
This short confessional tape perfectly captures the theme of Tate’s record, a theme of navigating adulthood and the good and bad that comes with it.
Second on the track list is ‘don’t come back’, a radio ready pop tune that reflects on heartbreak and failed relationships.
Listeners may find solace in the lyricism expressed across the albums 13 tracks, as Tate sings about experiences many will be able to relate to. Tracks like 'hate myself' and 'she’s all I wanna be' are both honest accounts of feelings evoked through heart-ache.
Yet amongst this heart-ache and angst comes upbeat and contagious pop anthems. The production and use of instrumentation on the record ticks all the boxes needed for a 2022 pop record. Yet tracks such as “you’re so cool” utilise electric guitars that give the album a timeless energy.
Recent single 'what would you do' meets the definition of bubble-gum pop, displaying this timeless contagious instrumentation. The track comes with a video which again showcases Tate’s celebrated dancing abilities.
The final track on 'I used to think I could fly' is a melancholic ditty that’s bound to break hearts. Again, showcasing the lyricism of this rising star and her distinct style as a vocalist.
7/10” – CLASH
Gabriels - Angels & Queens - Part I
Release Date: 30th September
Labels: Atlas/Parlophone
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/gabriels/angels-and-queens-part-i
Standout Tracks: Angels & Queens/If You Only Knew/To the Moon and Back
Key Cut: Taboo
Review:
“However odd their background, Gabriels quickly gained momentum: critical acclaim; a major label deal; a showstopping appearance on Later With Jools Holland. It would be easy to suggest that their rise is down to Lusk, who has vast charisma and an entirely astonishing voice: he has a startling ability to sound intimate and warm one second, then unleash an agonised, shiver-inducing falsetto the next.
But an astonishing voice isn’t necessarily enough on its own, as evidenced by Lusk’s pleasant but inconsequential 2018 EP My Love Story, which framed him with too-slick production, equal parts early 90s slow jam and Mellow Magic-friendly 80s AOR. Without wishing to take away from the power of his vocals, it’s hard not to feel that Love and Hate in a Different Time derived its head-turning power from the fact that it was a fantastic song and from an overall sound that smartly keyed into soul music’s past without feeling like a painstakingly researched historical reenactment. It was obviously cut from a very different, more traditional cloth to most contemporary R&B, but it was cheeringly hard to put your finger on exactly what aspects of the past it was evoking.
That’s even more true of Angels and Queens Part One. Lusk is, plainly, incredible throughout – the sound of his voice multitracked to infinity on If You Only Knew is quite something – and the standard of songwriting set by Love and Hate in a Different Time never dips, as evidenced by the dense funk of the title track and piano ballad If You Only Knew, written from the perspective of Lusk’s late godsister, which shifts from wrenching misery to euphoria.
This album highlights that Gabriels, having drafted Kendrick Lamar collaborator Sounwave as producer, are far more than revivalists. He helps craft a sound that feels entirely of the moment, and not merely because there’s a constant, nagging sense of tumult and foreboding lurking behind even its prettiest songs. There’s certainly nothing retro about a track such as The Blind, where the beat is made of a stumbling, clattering array of samples, Lusk’s vocal is drenched in backwards reverb and the piano and strings battle for space with droning, overcast synths. The orchestration that opens To the Moon and Back could have transported there directly from a 1940s jazz ballad, but it’s swiftly replaced by a cavernous-sounding swirl of massed vocals and an insistent, cyclical bass riff.
You can hear Lusk’s background in gospel, but it’s tempting to say that you can hear his collaborators’ previous jobs, too. There’s something weirdly cinematic about both the songs’ structures – they’re filled with sudden cuts and strange twists, as when Remember Me dramatically shifts gear halfway through, and moments when they suddenly focus in on tiny details, not least the agonising scrape of a plectrum being dragged down a guitar string on To the Moon – and the arrangements. The orchestrations frequently seem to be there, not as a lush embellishment or a nod to the days when soul records were orchestrated as a matter of course, but to heighten the tension, as on a soundtrack. On the album’s murky highlight, Taboo, every snare crack is amplified by a vicious stab of brass; the strings, meanwhile, slice through the track at unexpected angles, ratcheting up the drama.
If it seems counterintuitive to split your debut album in two – Part Two is due in March – a song like Taboo makes it feel like common sense: like a lot of Angels and Queens Part One, it’s intense listening. The seven songs here last barely 30 minutes, but a powerful, concentrated half hour dose is all you need. Certainly – it’s all you need to stake a strong claim to the title of album of the year”- The Guardian
Los Bitchos - Let The Festivities Begin!
Release Date: 4th February
Label: City Slang
Producer: Alex Kapranos
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/los-bitchos/let-the-festivities-begin
Standout Tracks: The Link Is About to Die/Pista (Fresh Start)/Good to Go!
Key Cut: Lindsay Goes to Mykonos
Review:
“If you think instrumental music makes for perfect background noise, Los Bitchos prove you to be sorely mistaken – Let The Festivities Begin! is a captivating debut, from the first magic-mushroom-laced beat until the last. An intoxicating mix of retro-futuristic surf guitar sounds and galloping drums, the record boasts the exact feeling of a Tarantino soundtrack to an all-female 70s Western.
Pista (Fresh Start) feels like grooving to music playing in a Nando's bathroom while tripping on a hallucinogen in the best possible way, transporting listeners from a series of Groundhog lockdowns into a percussion-soaked fiesta. With the album produced by Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, it's no surprise that Las Panteras boasts a mid-song shift-up similar to Take Me Out, derailing the track from a relaxed psychedelic, lava-lamp-marvelling experience into a frenzied, cowbell-accompanied command to dance.
By the time the Lindsay Lohan-inspired closing track Lindsay Goes to Mykonos unfurls, it's easy to forget about singing altogether, until the final incoherent chant-breakdown of the track closes the album with a bang. Every second of the record is unconventional, rule-breaking, and mind-bending; the kind of album to ride a horse into sunset to. The Bitchos kick ass and you just know they enjoyed every lasso-twirling second of it” – THE SKINNY
Koffee – Gifted
Release Date: 25th March
Labels: Promised Land/Columbia
Producers: Koffee/JAE5/Frank Dukes
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/koffee/gifted
Standout Tracks: Shine/Lonely/West Indies
Key Cut: Defend
Review:
“It seems like the musical talents of 22-year-old Mikayla Simpson, AKA Koffee, know no bounds. Since the release of her 2019 breakout hit ‘Toast’, the Jamaican artist has marched onwards and upwards by delivering new and exciting takes on reggae and dancehall as well as dropping collaborations with the likes of J Hus, Gunna and John Legend. The biggest validation of her thriving career so far, though, came in 2020, when she became the first female and youngest-ever artist to win Best Reggae Album at the Grammys for her 2019 EP, ‘Rapture’.
Koffee’s ever-growing legion of fans have, understandably, been eagerly awaiting her debut album ever since. Fittingly, the 10-track ‘Gifted’ wastes no time by grabbing its listeners from the off, offering a blissful soundtrack to the upcoming summer months through its mix of slow bops, punchy tracks and genuine moments of joy. Take the uplifting opening track ‘x10’, which celebrates the idea of not taking life for granted (“I’m glad I woke up today”) and delivers that message through confident, unwavering vocals which sit atop soft guitar strums.
Good vibes are a recurring theme across ‘Gifted’, as the album bursts with positive imagery and heartening messages. “Just believe and you’ll achieve whatever you want to,” Koffee encourages on the slow and relaxed ‘Shine’, adding later on: “Life just reminded me, we’re diamonds / We shine away.”
The record also showcases Koffee’s versatility, with the provocative ‘Defend’ blending R&B and reggae sounds as she delivers an impactful commentary on the importance of political activism (“Emergency state, we can’t escape it / Inflation crazy for the old lady”). It may be the shortest track on ‘Gifted’, but its evocative tone lingers long in the memory and only emphasises her songwriting strengths.
Crossover party anthem ‘Pull Up’, a collaboration with frequent J Hus associate Jae5, bursts with energy and flair, illustrating the attitude and charisma in her lyricism. “Zero to a hundred in two / Yeah, so me flex ‘pon you,” boasts the singer atop a contagious beat and flavourful rhythm. Seemingly keen to check herself amid the hype, Koffee also pays tribute to the “good company” who are keeping her grounded through her blossoming success on ‘Lonely’.
After making such an encouraging start to her music career, many observers are already calling for Koffee to be crowned as the next queen of reggae. Given its creator’s effortless vocals, smart lyricism and obvious ability to craft new bangers, ‘Gifted’ will only add to the clamour surrounding Koffee’s name: time will tell how far she will continue to rise from this point” – NME
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Release Date: 8th April
Label: Domino
Producers: Dan Carey/Jon McMullen/Joshua Mobaraki
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/wet-leg/wet-leg/vinyl-lp-yellow-plus
Standout Tracks: Chaise Longue/Angelica/Wet Dream
Key Cut: Ur Mum
Review:
“For those old enough to remember the immediate, seismic crater in the indie landscape that the arrival of Arctic Monkeys’ debut single proper for Domino, ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, made back in 2005, there will have been familiar wafts of excitement ringing upon the arrival of Wet Leg’s irrepressible ‘Chaise Longue’ last year.
It’s not just that the two bands share a record label, a penchant for a ridiculous two-word nom-de-plume, and an ability to write a seemingly-throwaway sentiment into the musical history books; it’s hard to think of an incident since Alex Turner and co. first sowed the seeds of what viral fame would mean in a burgeoning internet age that one song has so wholly declared the dominant arrival of a band. An omnipresent fixture across the airwaves of late 2021, by the time the duo - Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers - released its follow up, the equally cheeky ‘Wet Dream’, they were already selling out 1000-capacity venues; in the time since, they’ve been on a sold out US tour, appeared on TV both sides of the pond and emerged from SXSW as easily the buzziest band of the festival. At the time of almost all of these occurrences, Wet Leg had released less tracks than the fingers of one hand.
Maybe it’s timing, that after two years of incessant global trauma, what the world collectively needed was a reminder that life can be fun (“Good times, all the time” goes the mantra of ‘Angelica’). But more than just a lucky combination of time and place, there’s an indefinable sparkle to everything Wet Leg do - the sort of effortless magic that can allow those few indie bands with the golden touch (not THAT band…) to turn an age old formula, guitar bass drums, into something life-affirming. Take opener ‘Being In Love’. A steadily pulsing drum beat gives into a giddy Camera Obscura-esque exhalation in the chorus, but there’s something just that little bit odd about Rhian’s tumble into the feels (“I feel like someone has punched me in the guts / But I kinda like it cos, it feels like being in love”) that sets ‘Wet Leg’’s stead up from the off.
Wet Leg’s instant classic debut album arrives next month to prove that you really can believe the hype. DIY finds the pair clinging onto each other through the whirlwind career trajectory of dreams.
Throughout the album, there are shades of indie past to be found, from the 2min30 fuzzy ‘Fever To Tell’-era Yeah Yeah Yeahs spikes of ‘Oh No’ to the off-kilter, rickety Moldy Peaches charm that skips through ‘Supermarket’. The riff that peppers ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Out’ is an unashamed nod to Bowie / Nirvana’s [delete according to preference] ’The Man Who Sold The World’ while the infectious bounce of former beau-dissing ‘Ur Mum’ has shades of Le Tigre to its dancefloor potential. All these references you’ll note, however, are the sides of the genre that have aged well - and so while you’ll more often than not hear ‘indie’ bookended by either ‘landfill’ or ‘sleaze’ these days, ‘Wet Leg’ is a product of neither.
However, influences aside, it’s the slightly wonky worldview of the band themselves that really elevates ‘Wet Leg’ into the realms of the truly special. Don’t be fooled by the prairie dresses and sweetly innocent vocal delivery, Rhian has bite and gleefully revels in a rude one liner. Whether she’s shrugging off a suitor who insists on sending text updates of his nighttime fantasies (“What makes you think you’re good enough to think about me when you’re touching yourself?”) or wearily eviscerating an ex on the deceptively laid-back ‘Piece of Shit’ (“Well if you were better to me then maybe I’d consider fucking you goodbye”), ‘Wet Leg’ is packed with righteous middle fingers and playful bon mots.
The album ends with ‘Too Late Now’, a slowly crescendoing climax packed with lyrical uncertainty: about growing up and giving up, the anxiety of the modern world and the meta fears that the song she’s singing isn’t even a real song. It’s in keeping with the cheeky winks of the duo to end their debut in such a contrary fashion, doubting their own futures and abilities, when the reality is so very far from that. Whatever Wet Leg say they are, that’s what they’re not, eh?” – DIY
The Linda Lindas – Growing Up
Release Date: 8th April
Label: Epitaph
Producer: Carlos de la Garza
Standout Tracks: Oh!/Talking to Myself/Racist, Sexist Boy
Key Cut: Magic
Review:
“Viral videos come in many forms: a lightsaber demonstration, a musical celebration of Fridays, a pig rescuing a drowning goat. In May 2021, the young punk band the Linda Lindas got their own taste of internet fame with a filmed performance of their song “Racist, Sexist Boy.” “A boy came up to me in my class and said that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people,” the band’s drummer, Mila de la Garza, explains at the start, referencing an interaction that occurred shortly before Covid lockdowns. “After I told him that I was Chinese, he backed away from me.” Like countless women before them, the Linda Lindas reclaimed this painful experience by transforming it into a sludgy punk song. “We rebuild what you destroy!” bassist Eloise Wong shouts. The internet gobbled the clip up, with everyone from Thurston Moore to Paramore’s Hayley Williams declaring the Linda Lindas the absolute coolest.
The Linda Lindas were destined for greatness, one way or another. The Los Angeles quartet—whose members range between 11 and 17 years of age and are Asian American, Latin American, or both—began as part of a kid cover band organized by Dum Dum Girls’ Kristin Kontrol. The musicians, a mixture of sisters, cousins, and chosen family, then formed their own band. Within a year, they were opening up for Bikini Kill, who they later covered in Amy Poehler’s riot grrrl film Moxie. Shortly after the release of “Racist, Sexist Boy,” the Linda Lindas signed with the long-running punk powerhouse Epitaph. Their debut album, Growing Up, is potentially the most heartwarming record of the year.
The songs on Growing Up center on anxieties heightened by adolescence, like self-doubt, loneliness, and a lack of control. All four members—the aforementioned Wong and de la Garza alongside Lucia de la Garza (guitar) and Bela Salazar (guitar) —split songwriting duties, and each expresses her innermost thoughts with candor and precision. “If I were invisible/No one would judge me for/Wanting to be by myself,” goes one heartwrenching verse on the upbeat “Magic.” “But I’m already invisible/Enough without anybody else’s help.” But even when monstrous insecurity threatens to swallow them, the Linda Lindas anchor themselves to the hope that tomorrow will wash away the pain of today. On the Spanish-language “Cuántas Veces,” Salazar laments the agony of feeling like an outsider but lands on a place of acceptance: “I’m different/Not like everyone else,” she concludes. “And not the whole world/Will understand me.”
Beyond emotional acuity, the Linda Lindas also understand the power of a great hook. Arriving at under 30 minutes, Growing Up moves at a tight, bouncy clip, pogoing between power pop and punk, political statements and tributes to cats. The latter, “Nino,” is a post-punk sibling to the Shaggs’ “My Pal Foot Foot” that unexpectedly segues into a spacey, haunted breakdown; if you listen closely, the band say, you can catch a keyboard performance by a cat named Lil Dude. Other songs are more melodically straightforward: The anxiety spiral “Talking to Myself” channels the bubblegum stickiness of the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack while the shout-along “Oh” evokes the Go-Go’s at their punkiest moments. Of course, “Racist, Sexist Boy” makes an appearance at the end of the album and sounds as invigorating as it did in the viral video; Wong’s sludgy snarl places her in a lineage of powerhouse punk vocalists.
Growing Up is produced by the de la Garzas’ dad, Carlos de la Garza, who has worked with Paramore, Best Coast, and Bleached. This detail, along with the bandmembers’ ages, might inspire cynics to levy charges of nepotism. But to do so would deny the Linda Lindas their agency and ignore one of the album’s major themes: that through the collective action of making music together, the Linda Lindas are empowering themselves and each other. This idea comes to a head on the title track as the band acknowledge that growing up can’t be either hastened or slowed. But if they have to be on this rollercoaster, they choose to ride its highs and lows together” – Pitchfork
The Mysterines - Reeling
Release Date: 11th March
Label: Fiction Records
Producer: Catherine Marks
Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/the-mysterines/reeling
Standout Tracks: On the Run/Under Your Skin/In My Head
Key Cut: Life's a Bitch (But I Like It So Much)
Review:
“There’s a mighty noise whipping around the banks of the Mersey right now. For the first time in years, Liverpool’s historic scene is living up to its weighty reputation again. Since the pandemic alone, we’ve seen a bevy of guitar-wielding Scousers take over the airwaves and pack out UK-wide tours; look no further than the rousing post-punk of STONE, the biting social observations of Courting, or the glimmering cosmic pop of Pixey.
The Mysterines have also been pivotal in ensuring that the city’s name is being heard far and wide, but they’ve had to put in the graft to get here. They came up through a local scene that didn’t look quite so rosy a few years back amidst venue closures and tough crowds to please. But they weren’t a band to take no for an answer, and kicked through the noise with their 2020 ‘Love’s Not Enough’ EP, a three-track effort loaded with brilliantly noisy, angsty songs made for the biggest of stages.
The band have built on that explosive energy with their epic debut album ‘Reeling’. Opener ‘Life’s A Bitch (But I Like It So Much)’ tears into the gigantic rock sound that sealed them as such an exciting prospect. Later on, vocalist Lia Metcalfe burns with a sense of emotional turmoil as distorted guitars swell out around her on ‘Hung Up’: “My words like bullets through your heart / But I will keep on trying / Cause I like to watch you dying.”
That dark and intimate charm isn’t lost in the makings of this record. Metcalfe’s confident attitude is felt at every turn as she opens up on themes of self-destruction and love. Even in the slower, moodier moments she holds all the intensity and drama, elevating these heavy tracks further. A highlight comes in the brooding grunge ballad of ‘Dangerous’: “I was riding the fire / I was down on my knees / Before you said that desire / Oh, it’s such a dangerous thing,” she sings.
‘Reeling’ is gripping throughout, and the band always seem ready to ascend to another level. ‘Old Friends Die Hard’ is a swaggering romp, while the gritty ‘On The Run’ sounds like a ‘Celebrity Skin’-era Hole classic, managing to summon a heartfelt melancholy within its grungy acoustic lines. Elsewhere, ‘The Bad Thing’ is equipped with a shout-along chorus fit for a festival crowd.
After meeting the four-piece on home soil in early 2020, NME touted The Mysterines as a band “poised to be the nation’s next favourite rock gang”. ‘Reeling’ is an album that sees them grab that title – but it doesn’t sound like they ever had any other plan” – NME