Listening to albums is the best way to explore music: long-form musical compositions allow a listener to connect with an artist more deeply and experience their story in a more cohesive way. A good album isn’t just a collection of songs, it’s a progression of art that works better together than separately. To celebrate this idea, I selected a standout album from each month of 2022 so far. This is the second edition of a three-part series, and by the end of the year, we will have identified 12 beautiful albums, one for each month of 2022.
May
Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti oozes with summer, as if heat is radiating from the record’s beating heart. The radiant style of the album cover reflects the playful color in the music, but the frowning, one-eyed heart reminds us that, for Bad Bunny, summer is not equivalent to pure happiness. While some tracks, such as ‘Después de la Playa’, ‘Tarot’, and ‘El Apagón,’ feel like a reggaeton-laden, raving party on the beach, others, like ‘Aguacero’ and ‘Otro Atardecer’ feel overburdened with thick, heavy production that pushing down on Bad Bunny with inescapable weight. Even so, Bad Bunny feels supported by salient beats influenced by cumbia, mambo, and techno. Bad Bunny does not hesitate to push the boundaries of his musical style, keeping his confidence on display even as he explores sides of him we don’t often see. On this record, Bad Bunny is a multifaceted artist, vulnerably exploring an inner conflict between euphoria and depression throughout the course of Un Verano Sin Ti, creating a project that will always be a welcome listen.
June
XYLØ’s unamerican beauty is an inspired debut album with a purpose. The tantalizing execution of haunting and lachrymose vocals are reminiscent of Lana Del Rey, Phoebe Bridgers, and other ‘sad girl’ singer songwriters, but with a fresh, R&B flavor that distinguishes unamerican beauty to be XYLØ’s own. Tracks like ‘red hot winter’ and ‘sugar free rush’ infuse the record with an air of subtle mystery through lush wordplay, while ‘starf*cker’ and ‘family politics’ feel like they’re being performed in a smoke-filled bar in a nameless city. unamerican beauty lifts the listener away from reality to dance in the winds of XYLØ’s voice, twisting to unique harmonies and a subtle melodic intentionality that designates unamerican beauty as the best album of June 2022.
July
Beyoncé knows how to make a comeback album, and RENAISSANCE, her first album since 2016’s Lemonade, is no exception. Over the course of RENAISSANCE’s 16 tracks, Beyoncé pulls inspiration from dance, techno, house, and hyperpop genres, legitimizing each style while also designating them as the future of the pop industry. Here, Beyoncé is at her most powerful, comfortably gliding through each track with grace and determination. ‘CHURCH GIRL’ and ‘MOVE’ press the gas pedal to the floor, punching energy with unflinching conviction. When Beyoncé tells us to move, we do it. Even so, other tracks, like ‘PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA’ and ‘VIRGO’S GROOVE’ highlight the subtleties of Beyoncé’s voice, allowing it to flow sweetly over sharp and effective production. RENAISSANCE is an album with a story and listening to the tracks in order pays off with brilliant transitions and masterful musicality from the artist. RENAISSANCE is aptly named, as Beyonce’s experimentation with genre and slick musical elements are sure to influence the next generation of pop projects and have clearly struck a chord with raving fans and critics alike.
August
Teen Suicide has meticulously carved a new niche within grunge, and honeybee table at the butterfly feast cements the band as a staple of post-punk. After a near-fatal asthma attack, Sam Ray once again flexes his songwriting muscles as Teen Suicide’s primary composer, casting the band under a star speckled canopy of mortality and little joys. Without deviating much from previous roots in slow, grungy musicality, honeybee table at the butterfly feast finds beauty in little moments of humanity, casting each against the certainty of life and death. In ‘new strategies for telemarketing through precognitive dreams,’ Ray writes, “the taste of blood and the sound of rain,” marking each against the manufactured, plastic shell of human modernity and convenience. Moments of acoustic guitar in ‘I will always be in love with you (final)’ and metal in ‘violence violence’ feel like they should be corny, but Ray’s sweet passion rebrands them as warm and sentimental. Honeybee table at the butterfly feast is an incredible addition to Teen Suicide’s discography, where Sam Ray’s lyricism and storytelling truly surfaces.