A Quiet Friday, Last Friday Of The Year For New Releases

And so 2022 comes to a conclusion, which doesn’t make it much of a year:

1 – there is nothing much left to say about afrobeats and Latin Trap, though Bad Nunny was the most popular artist of the year and Yemi Alade with a killer EP is amongst the leaders. And while it has been a good year for black women, SZA just dropped a great album, it has been a small percentage of releases and while 2020 and 2021 were good for women in country, by 2022 we were less impressed. It has been nearly four years since Steve Earle told me he believed women are the future of country but are they still

2 – Tomas Doncker had a great year highlighted by the multimedia (and album of the year) Endangered.

3 – despite the success of Harry Styles and a handful of others, the two biggest albums of the critical community, both of whom I admired, both Beyonce and Rosalia disappointed

4 – The one big thing in 2022 was r&b and pop punk genre mash up. Maybe 2023.

Till then, try the new ILOVEMAKONNEN: an r&b, low key, and tech adventure, a swift 25 minutes of soul hooks.