"If 2021 was the year musicians finally returned to the road, then 2022 is the year they released albums designed to draw crowds. Here at early July's dead center of the year, we're already neck-deep in stellar LPs, many of which were envisioned at the height of pandemic isolation and uncertainty. These artists bided their time, using it the only way they knew how: channeling their joy and anxiety, wisdom and rage into their songwriting.
We've spent the past two years wondering when things will go "back to normal," but 2022 is showing us that "normal" no longer exists. That makes the very humanity of music all the more precious, doesn't it? They call them "records" for a reason—these are documents of how, when faced with overwhelming challenges in a rapidly changing world, we did what humans always do: We persevered, and made the best of it."
