WIRED's 12 Best Albums of 2022

Unique, strong, and sexy—that’s how Beyoncé wants you to feel while listening to *RENAISSANCE*. Crafted during the grips of the pandemic, her seventh solo album is a celebration of freedom and a complete immersion into house and dance that serves as the perfect sound bed for themes of liberation, release, self-assuredness, and unfiltered confidence across its 16 tracks. *RENAISSANCE* is playful and energetic in a way that captures that Friday-night, just-got-paid, anything-can-happen feeling, underscored by reiterated appeals to unyoke yourself from the weight of others’ expectations and revel in the totality of who you are. From the classic four-on-the-floor house moods of the Robin S.- and Big Freedia-sampling lead single “BREAK MY SOUL” to the Afro-tech of the Grace Jones- and Tems-assisted “MOVE” and the funky, rollerskating disco feeling of “CUFF IT,” this is a massive yet elegantly composed buffet of sound, richly packed with anthemic morsels that pull you in. There are soft moments here, too: “I know you can’t help but to be yourself around me,” she coos on “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA,” the kind of warm, whispers-in-the-ear love song you’d expect to hear at a summer cookout—complete with an intricate interplay between vocals and guitar that gives Beyoncé a chance to showcase some incredible vocal dexterity. “CHURCH GIRL” fuses R&B, gospel, and hip-hop to tell a survivor’s story: “I\'m finally on the other side/I finally found the extra smiles/Swimming through the oceans of tears we cried.” An explicit celebration of Blackness, “COZY” is the mantra of a woman who has nothing to prove to anyone—“Comfortable in my skin/Cozy with who I am,” ” Beyoncé muses on the chorus. And on “PURE/HONEY,” Beyoncé immerses herself in ballroom culture, incorporating drag performance chants and a Kevin Aviance sample on the first half that give way to the disco-drenched second half, cementing the song as an immediate dance-floor favorite. It’s the perfect lead-in to the album closer “SUMMER RENAISSANCE,” which propels the dreamy escapist disco of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” even further into the future.

“Money made me numb,” Vince Staples repeats over and over again on “THE BLUES,” from his fifth full-length studio album. It’s not the song’s chorus and you can picture him saying it in the mirror, attempting to reckon with a truth he clearly understands but also maybe doesn’t quite know what to do with. At the time of *RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART*’s release, the Long Beach, California, MC was more popular and financially successful than he’s ever been. So, he chose—beginning with 2021’s *Vince Staples*—to release some of the most affecting and autobiographical music of his career. The decision sounds, across the album, much less a professional risk than a personal one, Staples utilizing production from Mustard, Cardo, and Coop the Truth, among others, to expose his innermost thoughts about turf politics, romantic relationships, and the ways money may or may not be changing him. More than anything else, he aims to honor those who have in some way contributed to his survival, often calling them out by name, holding especially close the memories of those no longer in his orbit. “Tryna make it to the top, we can’t take everybody with us,” he sings on “THE BEACH.” There are few artists who come off as comfortable as Staples does regarding their contributions to music culture at large, but what *RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART* makes abundantly clear is that few things mean as much to Staples’ art as the neighborhood that made him.

“I want to love unconditionally now.” Read on as Steve Lacy opens up about how he made his sophomore album in this exclusive artist statement. “Someone asked me if I felt pressure to make something that people might like. I felt a disconnect, my eyes squinted as I looked up. As I thought about the question, I realized that we always force a separation between the artist (me) and audience (people). But I am not separate. I am people, I just happen to be an artist. Once I understood this, the album felt very easy and fun to make. *Gemini Rights* is me getting closer to what makes me a part of all things, and that is: feelings. Feelings seem like the only real things sometimes. “I write about my anger, sadness, longing, confusion, happiness, horniness, anger, happiness, confusion, fear, etc., all out of love and all laughable, too. The biggest lesson I learned at the end of this album process was how small we make love. I want to love unconditionally now. I will make love bigger, not smaller. To me, *Gemini Rights* is a step in the right direction. I’m excited for you to have this album as your own as it is no longer mine. Peace.” —Steve Lacy

Santi White did a lot of the work on what would become her fourth album, *Spirituals*, at a quiet cabin about an hour outside Vancouver. “It was like me and a woodpecker and some chickens,” she tells Apple Music. But after a long, pandemic-induced stretch stuck inside, tending house and caring for three young children, White felt adrift from herself and her art in ways only isolation could resolve. “It was like the only opportunity to find my way back to myself was through art,” she says. “So, it was really more of a lifeline I was weaving.” Like all White’s work, *Spirituals* is bright and punky and eclectic, bridging gaps between collaborators like Rostam Batmanglij and The Weeknd affiliate Illangelo, dance producer SBTRKT and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner. But there’s also a heaviness to it that feels new, if redemptive. The title came in a flash. “I realized that these songs were doing the same things for me that traditional spirituals had done for slaves,” she says, “allowing me to experience freedom and transcendence and moving toward evolution through music.” The bird was both a welcome visitor and a kind of guiding spirit. “What’s interesting about the woodpecker is that it burrows beneath the surface like it’s going for something deeper,” she says. “Sometimes they’re not even pecking for food. Sometimes they’re just sending out sound as a signal for mates. And I was so much thinking about being in my own rhythm. That’s what this period was really about: redefining my rhythm during this crazy, tumultuous time.” Here, she provides a track-by-track glimpse into the mood and making of *Spirituals*. **“My Horror”** “It was about being stuck in that role that was just too small to fit my whole self. Like, during lockdown, just being mother all the time—washing dishes and changing diapers and cooking and cleaning. And that’s it. No time to think, no time to shower, no time to sleep. So, it’s the redundancy of this task-oriented thing and not getting a chance to be the me that I am. But it’s also the climate of a world where everything’s so heavy that people have just chosen to disconnect, whether it’s living in the metaverse or doing drugs or just being deep in social media world rather than the real world. Like, what’s it like when everybody around you is just walking dead or sleepwalking—where you’re living an existence where nobody’s actually turned on? I actually did a series of photos that I called my Mom series. There’s one of me standing in front of the refrigerator in a veil with my kids. But there’s another one where I’m standing by the pool, and my kids are swimming, and I’m on fire with a drink in my hands.” **“Nothing”** “If you’re a Black woman, if you’re a woman, if you’re anyone who ever feels unseen, well, what’s the effect of living with that daily? How does that affect who you turn into? From being a child to a grown-up even—what are the things you didn’t even know you were carrying? I think ‘Nothing’ touched on all that for me in a way that was very personal but really connected me to \[Black Lives Matter\] and the struggle outside. And I cried. I was really able to emote finally. It felt really good.” **“High Priestess”** “I wanted to make a song that felt punk in a futuristic way. And I tried so many different things to just get the energy right, including some really bad moves with guitars and stuff that I immediately took out. A big thing I always set out to do in Santigold music is take things that you would never expect to go together and find a way for them to exist together. And I think that’s what’s exciting—for me making the music and for the listener too.” **“Ushers of the New World”** “It’s about us taking responsibility for the future. And instead of trying to tear people down for being uncomfortable, figuring out if we could just look at ourselves and be, like, ‘Hey, *I’m* uncomfortable. Where is this coming from? What’s my trauma? How can I move through this?’ I think that’s the way to create the future that we want. I’ve been reading a lot. More books than I’ve read in a long time—I don’t usually read ’cause I have so many children! We’ve been focusing on policy and legislation for hundreds of years, and we haven’t really gotten nearly where we need to. It’s really that we need to start focusing on our trauma and what we’re bringing to the table and being able to work through that—to work together.” **“Witness”** “I wanted there to be an ethereal quality in many of the songs. ‘Witness’ has it. It’s almost like you’re going through dimensions, or like you’re stuck in the webbing between dimensions.” **“Shake”** “That was just a surprise. I never would’ve thought I would’ve picked a beat like that. And I literally just started singing, ‘Shake/Ooh, shake.’ It was not a voice that I think I’ve used on a song before. And it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever written. That energy—it’s almost like being enraptured.” **“The Lasty”** “It was a fictional story based on George Floyd. In my mind, I created a character who was a regular, nondescript type of person—you know, that nobody was paying attention to. And all these other people had gone ahead and surpassed him and gone beyond him, and he hadn’t stepped into his power yet. And then, all of a sudden, there’s an opportunity where he could be the one to save everybody. ‘Lasty’ is just a word I made up. It has a dual meaning. It’s the person who’s last and also the person who lasts.” **“No Paradise”** “Yes, we’ve been struggling, and things are hard, and we’ve been struggling for generations, honestly. But it’s not for nothing. Like, there’s power in that struggle. There’s resilience that has been shown over and over again. I love the bridge of that song because it sounded like a protest to me—a celebration of the fight. And, of course, it’s referring to that old religious idea of an afterlife where you’re finally rewarded with your peace and your riches. But it’s also about making the changes you need to make in the present.” **“Ain’t Ready”** “As a kid, I did go to church some with my mom mostly, and I did not like it. I thought her church was really boring and stale. It wasn’t me. But my dad’s family was from Baltimore, and his grandma was a pastor, and my great aunt was the organist, and that church was awesome. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a church where it’s got all the ushers dressed in white, and the music is going, and the people are catching the Spirit and falling out. Some people speak in tongues, some people are fainting, and the usher’s job is just to hold them up and fan them as they’re enraptured, you know? So, I pictured these ushers holding this woman. And the woman is in the process of this ascension, and she’s falling out. And that woman is me, but the ushers are me too. So, it’s like my song to myself. Like, ‘You’ve got what you need to do everything you need to do here.’” **“Fall First”** “‘Fall First’ was a song that I started with Doc McKinney, who’s one of my oldest writing buddies. He and I are both like old punkers at heart. And so, we started ‘Fall First’ and just decided to do whatever we wanted. And later, I handed it over to Rostam. He has such good taste and is always excited to mess around. And he just took it *everywhere*.”

A lot has been written about Cuco, the Mexican American musician Omar Banos. His bilingual, chilled-out, hyper-personal indie pop first made waves in 2017 with “Lo Que Siento,” laying the groundwork for his debut LP, *Para Mí*, in 2019. Now, on his second album, Banos’ ambition knows no limits: *Fantasy Gateway* is a concept album about an unknown dimension where “the dream world and purgatory are in the same realm,” he tells Apple Music, “and corporations lead you into the fantasy gateway.” The cost of admission is a beloved memory, replaced with a new, mechanized one; as the listener travels deeper and deeper into the LP, utopia starts to look a lot like dystopia. The promise of perfection comes at a price, as explored in the trippy ’80s synth-pop “Caution” or the ’60s bossa nova and samba “Aura.” At the heart of *Fantasy Gateway* are catchy songs about anxiety and existentialism (“Sweet Dissociation”), breakups and relationships (“Fin Del Mundo”), and gratitude (“When the Day Comes to an End”). Like any reality or created universe in any artistic medium, however, the listener can choose how deeply to read into each track. Below, Cuco walks Apple Music through every song on *Fantasy Gateway*. **“Heaven Is Lucid Dreaming”** “This is the HILD corporation, like ‘Heaven Is Lucid Dreaming.’ The whole idea is, you enter this gateway and it\'s where the purgatory and dream world connect. The whole concept of a utopia is so twisted. It\'s such a weird thing to think about. I\'ve always thought purgatory and being in a dream state is the same thing. I\'ve always thought when somebody passes away, their soul is just free roaming. Being in hell is being stuck in a nightmare, not being able to accept the fact that you passed.” **“Caution”** “When I wrote ‘Caution’ I was just thinking about how I go about issues I deal with, and how I bottle things up. If things are just going wrong, I don\'t like to make it known. It’s a bit chaotic. I suppress it but it still hurts the people around me, because clearly something\'s wrong. \[This song is about\] finding a balance in my solitude, being able to deal with things, and at the same time, being able to escape some of those things, not in an unhealthy way.” **“Aura”** “‘Aura’ is a straightforward, feel-good track—that bubbly feeling in a really good dream. In the Fantasy Gateway, you can\'t really see a person, you talk to the person\'s surrounding spirit. It\'s maybe the most dumbed-down track of the album, but it still has a deepness to it. I’m explosive and self-destructive at some points and then good. There’s a feeling of sadness because it\'s about somebody who is clearly not there with you anymore, but you\'re making it known. It\'s like, \'No matter what it is, you saved my life, and I\'ll be there forever in spirit.\'” **“Paraphonic”** “We called it ‘Paraphonic’ because me and \[co-producer\] Andrés \[Rebellón\], when we started working on the song, I had this keyboard from 1974, a paraphonic keyboard. Essentially, a paraphonic keyboard has multiple oscillators that can play a different note that goes through the same output. It’s different from polyphony, which is more technical—I\'m still not sure what it all means. But I thought the name was cool. And it means, like, individual sources for the same thing.” **“Artificial Intelligence”** “Producing it and making it was so, so fun. It has this robotic feeling, and I wanted to create something so soulful, so felt, but contradicted with artificial intelligence, because machines don\'t feel, they just do. And sometimes the coldness of a person can feel robotic. When you look in the mirror, you might feel that way, and when I was writing it, I was feeling a little lost.” **“Fin Del Mundo”** “\[Bratty and I\] had already known each other through the music industry. I like her music, and it is cool to bring somebody into this and give their own input to get into it. ‘Fin Del Mundo’ sets up the scenario where your world is ending. It doesn\'t necessarily have to mean the physical world; it could mean a chapter is ending. It could be, \'I think it\'s time for me to go into this Fantasy Gateway.\' And it has such \'60s-\'70s production, it’s pretty peaceful. It has that sound where you’re watching the world end, but you know life is about continuing on to this next dimension. But you still have no idea what\'s about to happen.” **“Time Machine”** “‘Time Machine’ asks, ‘What would you have done differently before your world ended?’ If we come back to this earth again for purgatory, you write what you want your life to be on the other side of the Fantasy Gateway. You submit a form to the HILD corporation, and they take account of what you want to see in this next dimension.” **“When the Day Comes to an End”** “I made this song because I wanted to be able to express every feeling I could possibly feel, in one song, and make it feel nice. We are so wrapped up in trying to \[find\] a solution, we never take the time to appreciate life. We never take the time to be grateful for where we\'re at. That’s what the song is to me.” **“Sitting in the Corner” (feat. Kacey Musgraves)** “Working with Kacey Musgraves and Adriel Favela was like a dream, because they\'re great people, great artists, and very open to doing everything and anything. Nothing sounded off or forced, because I\'ll never put out a song if it feels the slightest bit like pushed. That didn\'t happen with this song. This is a psychedelic mariachi song.” **“Foolish”** “‘Foolish’ is actually the first song I made for the album. Me and \[co-producer\] Manuel Lara were working in Mexico in November 2021. It\'s like a dance song. When you go out and listen to a house or disco or techno song and you dance in a public space—but the lyrics are opposite. They talk about this feeling of \'no matter what I do, if I\'m out, I just need to be by myself.\' I need to fix my own issues being by myself and not being with the crowd, being my own individual once again.” **“Sweet Dissociation”** “Dissociation is something I go through daily. I have severe, severe anxiety. Dissociation is hard to come back from sometimes, but at the same time, it takes me away. Sometimes you\'re stressed out and your dissociation is your best friend. So I’m kind of mocking it, but also being accountable for certain ways of how I cope.” **“Decir Adios”** “It’s a goodbye and an intro at the same time. I wanted it to seem big, like theme songs, shows from the ’80s or sitcoms, the very nostalgic feeling of something that you\'d hear, like a Juan Gabriel song, good vibes. I feel like \[this song is\] my cliffhanger, because now people will know this whole album is an introduction into this world I created. I want people to just be able to form just their own connections to it.”

“I like to prepare myself and prepare the surroundings to work my music,” Bad Bunny tells Apple Music about his process. “But when I get a good idea that I want to work on in the future, I hold it until that moment.” After he blessed his fans with three projects in 2020, including the forward-thinking fusion effort *EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO*, one could forgive the Latin superstar for taking some time to plan his next moves, musically or otherwise. Somewhere between living out his kayfabe dreams in the WWE and launching his acting career opposite the likes of Brad Pitt, El Conejo Malo found himself on the beach, sipping Moscow Mules and working on his most diverse full-length yet. And though its title and the cover’s emoting heart mascot might suggest a shift into sad-boy mode, *Un Verano Sin Ti* instead reveals a different conceptual aim as his ultimate summer playlist. “It\'s a good vibe,” he says. “I think it\'s the happiest album of my career.” Recorded in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, the album features several cuts in the same elevated reggaetón mode that largely defined *YHLQMDLG*. “Efecto” and “Un Ratito” present ideal perreo opportunities, as does the soon-to-be-ubiquitous Rauw Alejandro team-up “Party.” Yet, true to its sunny origins, *Un Verano Sin Ti* departs from this style for unexpected diversions into other Latin sounds, including the bossa nova blend “Yo No Soy Celoso” and the dembow hybrid “Tití Me Preguntó.” He embraces his Santo Domingo surroundings with “Después De La Playa,” an energizing mambo surprise. “We had a whole band of amazing musicians,” he says about making the track with performers who\'d typically play on the streets. “It\'s part of my culture. It\'s part of the Caribbean culture.” With further collaborations from familiars Chencho Corleone and Jhayco, as well as unanticipated picks Bomba Estéreo and The Marías, *Un Verano Sin Ti* embodies a wide range of Latin American talent, with Bad Bunny as its charismatic center.

Classic Music Company are proud to present 'Black Girl Magic', the highly anticipated sophomore album from the inimitable Honey Dijon. An artist in every sense of the word, across 15 tracks of attitude, energy, heart and community, Honey demonstrates a broad range of disciplines and influences, enlisting A-List collaborators such as Channel Tres, Eve, Pabllo Vittar, Josh Caffe, Mike Dunn and more for an unmissable, boundary-pushing LP. Redefining what it is to be a DJ in 2022, this year Honey's production capabilities have been enlisted by the upper echelon of musicians. Producing two records for Beyonce's chart-topping album 'Renaissance' and remixing lead single 'Break My Soul', as well as working in the studio with Madonna on new material. Now unapologetically expressing her own sound on 'Black Girl Magic', she unveils the next chapter of her development as a producer and songwriter. Since the first teaser of the album, the BBC Radio 1 playlisted collaboration with Atlanta singer-songwriter Hadiya George 'Not About You', to the most recent single 'Show Me Some Love' featuring Compton royalty Channel Tres, the 'Black Girl Magic' project has consistently illustrated Honey's dedication to profiling diverse vocal talent. Shining a spotlight on a new generation of queer people and people of colour, Honey's intentions to "keep this culture in the conversation," are demonstrated with the featured artists on the LP. Behind the scenes Honey has worked closely with Classic Music Company founder and close friend Luke Solomon, as well as regular collaborator Chris Penny, on the production of the album. Her most adventurous and explorative output yet with a diverse range of influences, Honey's Chicago musical upbringing is a driving force behind the album, with her sights set on demonstrating how she first experienced the music of her hometown felt deeply across the record. Working with British sculptor Jam Sutton, an artist who explores the relationship between technology and antiquity, 3D sculptural digital renderings of Honey have formed the artwork for all preceding singles leading into 'Black Girl Magic'. Exploring identity, form, technology and classical portraiture, the artwork for the album comes as the final piece in the series of bespoke displays of Honey. From her stratospheric DJ career to her fashion line with COMME des GARÇONS: Honey Fucking Dijon, to soundtracking some of the most iconic fashion shows of the 21st century, Honey's influence is felt far and wide across the worlds of music, fashion and art, with 'Black Girl Magic' a powerful physical statement of her interdisciplinary artistic impact.

Listening to Atlanta MC JID’s third studio album *The Forever Story*, it’s hard to imagine the Dreamville signee pursuing a career in anything other than rap, but according to the man born Destin Choice Route, establishing himself as one of his generation’s most clever wordsmiths was plan B. “I ain\'t always want to be a rapper, artist, or nothing like this,” he told Apple Music’s Ebro Darden ahead of the album’s release. “This wasn\'t my dream. This was just like, ‘I’m really fire at this. I\'m really gifted at this.’ I always wanted to be a football player, you feel me? That was my whole shit.” Though he’s long ago moved on from any delusions of playing the sport professionally, the voicemail tacked on to the end of album intro “Galaxy” reveals a closeness to the sport, and more specifically those who helped him learn it. “That\'s my old football coach,” JID says of the voice we hear chewing him out for not answering the phone. “He was just giving me shit. That was his whole demeanor, but it was always for the better. He was my father away from home. He was just a big part of the whole story.” *The Forever Story*, to be specific, is a deep dive into the MC’s family lore and an exploration of what growing up the youngest of seven meant for his outlook. If JID’s last proper album, *The Never Story*, was an introduction to his lyrical prowess and a declaration that he had a story to tell, *The Forever Story* is an expansion of that universe. “*Never* came from a very humble mindset,” he says. “It was coming from, I *never* had shit. *The Forever Story*\'s just the evolved origin story, really just giving you more of who I am—more family stories, where I\'m from, why I am kind of how I am.” He tells these stories in grave detail on songs like “Raydar,” “Can’t Punk Me,” “Kody Blu 31,” and “Can’t Make U Change” and then includes collaborations with heroes-turned-peers (“Stars” featuring Yasiin Bey, “Just in Time” with Lil Wayne) that acknowledge a reverence for his craft. He raps about his siblings on songs like “Bruddanem” and “Sistanem,” but it’s “Crack Sandwich,” a song where the MC details an encounter in which his family fought together, that seems the most like a story JID will enjoy telling forever. “We were all together like Avengers and shit,” he says. “Back-to-back brawling in New Orleans. It was crazy.”