We aren’t going to say any cliché bits and pieces about how 2021 was another year like no other… with its ups and downs… etc. You already know. We’re all kind of bored of it by now – but what remains true, and bears repeating again and again and again, is that music made this year fantastic. The music that came breaking through this year was especially stunning, providing us with new sources of comfort, solace, escape, energy, and excitement. We picked a selection of stunners ourselves at the start of the year, if we say so ourselves, and lots of them have had absolutely beautiful 2021s. But it’s far from over – so we’ve rounded up our 2022… ones to keep watching…
Mollie Coddled
Leeds bedroom-pop darling Mollie Coddled has provided the dreamy goods this year across just two singles – Wavelength and Lonely Bitch are both hazy masterpieces on a micro and macro level. She gave us tunes to hum along to and giggle about how hard you relate to her kitchen-sink lyricism, and she also gave us shimmering, cloud-level soundscapes that are as comforting as they need to be. After shows including supporting Phono fave Zuzu and a gorgeous Sound City set in Liverpool (aka the stomping ground of every Next Big Thing), Mollie is ready to enchant all the way through 22 too.
Cruel Hearts Club
Cruel Hearts Club could have called it a day after giving us Dirty Rotten Scum, because we love that song so much we could probably just listen to that until the end of time. Or so we thought, until they released their equally gorgeous EP Trash Love this year. Sets alongside the likes of The Libertines have closed the door on 2021 for Cruel Hearts Club, but 2022 looks set to be a busy one – and the grungy goodness of Cruel Hearts Club is surely most entrancing live.
Squid
We might be a bit proud that we had our eye on Squid before their comet-like ascension in 2021. From the release of Sludge, pre-lockdown way back in 2020, to their utterly astounding debut full-length Bright Green Field that came out last year, we knew… OK, we’ll stop going on about that now. What’s so incredible about Squid is that they’re doing it like nobody else is doing it, making mind-boggling music that you can still fathom a hook out of, building skyscrapers of sound out of rattles and ringing. We got a sneak peek into it on their Fieldworks tour, which was awe-inspiring, but honestly if the only gig we get down to in 2022 is a full-on Squid show, we’ll consider it a success.
Milk.
Milk. had a bit of a headstart because they released an excellent EP in 2020, so all they had to do was follow it up… easier said than done, but they did it excellently. Their atmospheric indie-pop sound has been spread out, diluted, expanded and extrapolated into something that’s just as catchy but a little deeper, a little more glitchy and buzzy, in the form of 2, The EP. The singalongs soar to new levels of catchy, but the instrumentals are a bit more challenging, creating vortexes of musical worlds to get lost in. COVID hasn’t been the friendliest to Milk., causing them to cut their tour short, but they’ll be back in 22, and when they do, we’ll be there!
Baby Queen
We said at the start of the year that Baby Queen was ‘out to make alt-pop hers’. Has she done it? Has she done it? Yes, we think so. Across some of her most gorgeous singles to date (Dover Beach, You Shaped Hole, Raw Thoughts, et al tbh), a mixtape, and some of the brightest performances of the year, she’s connected with us in such a special way. Sellout debut headliners at London’s Omeara tell of great things, but what’s more special about Baby Queen than selling tickets or getting streams is her ability to speak candidly and effortlessly through her music… Skills that certainly won’t go unnoticed by Olivia Rodrigo’s fans, on Baby Queen’s support slots next year. She’s a star, and the world is ready to see it!
Lauran Hibberd
Lauran Hibberd spent a very respectable 2021 becoming everyone’s one to watch (we were there first hehe) and we’re so excited about it. Her output this year has consisted of 100% brilliant, easygoing, best-friend songwriting telling tales of moments of youth and excitement and buzz and resentment and disenchantment, and overall creating an intensely vivid, incredibly apt portrayal of those little moments. And Bleugh was one of the best songs of the year. And How Am I Still Alive, her team effort with Lydia Night of The Regrettes, was a match made in heaven that we always needed but never realised. So if 2022 is the year Lauran goes stratospheric, we’ll be super pleased – because she deserves it!!!
Home Counties
Home Counties are the moment. Post-punk had its revival and over 2021 every band who everyone shouted were the new post-punk thing just because they had kind of jagged riffs and were a little bit leftfield has widely renounced the label – so maybe something akin to pop-post-punk (not pop-punk affiliated, please) is more apt. Home Counties have definitely nailed that Je Ne Sais Quoi popularised most lately by the wild likes of Sports Team, with a technicolour helping of witty lyricism and a veritable funfair of instrumentation. This year brought bangers: Modern Yuppies, White Shirt/Clean Shirt, and most recently, mission statement The Home Counties – but next year is the year of the Home Counties EP, where their excitement will reveal itself in extended play glory.
Bears In Trees
Bears In Trees are more or less ending their year the way they started it – laughing away with fans who are friends on twitter, being the internet’s favourite dirtbag boyband, and making light out of the dark. Except now they’re doing it with a completely lovely debut album tucked away in their pockets, and a slew of shows under their belts. After … and everybody else smiled back… Bears In Trees are the same band, the same smiley, honest, easygoing team we know we can depend on, but they’ve got a much wider catalogue of tunes that say real life like we never could – and they’re off on tour next year to sing it all with us.
Public Body
Public Body have definitely bided their time this year. But the wait is worth it, as their autumn singles Formica and Hard To Concentrate completely sizzle, and set us up ready to hit the ground running in the new year. Biting, spiky guitar lines, and nonchalantly cool yet self-deprecatingly real lyricism come together to make essential listening ahead of Public Body’s upcoming EP. And it may be backwards looking, but Formica was absolutely one of the best songs of the year.
Here’s a handy playlist of these lot, just so you can reflect on the madness of the year with a bit to look forward to.
