Pop Albums Releasing in 2022

Following his 2020 release, After Hours, The Weeknd will kick off 2022 with a new album, Dawn FM, out Jan. 7. Set to explore “a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd,” the project features collaborations with Quincy Jones; Tyler, the Creator; Lil Wayne; Oneohtrix Point Never; and even actor Jim Carrey. The latter even gave a shout-out after The Weeknd announced the new music. “I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony,” the actor tweeted.

Now that Years & Years is Olly Alexander’s solo project, he’s ready to release a third album. Titled Night Call, the artist has said it was a challenge to work on the record by himself during the pandemic. “But it was like my escape,” he told Apple Music 1. “So I put all the kind of stuff I was missing, like going out, dancing, having sex. [I] just put it all into the record. And it’s just such a good feeling because you never know when something’s going to be finished, if you’re ever going to put it out. But it’s coming out.” The record drops Jan. 21.

Foxes will finally make her grand return with her third studio album this year. Titled Kick, it’s due out Feb. 11 via PIAS Recordings. Speaking about the album’s lead single in a statement, the English performer shared, “’Sister Ray’ came from a wild part of me during lockdown that was craving a night of freedom and fun again, a longing to let go. The Velvet Underground reference is a nod to describing the most debauched night you could ever imagine but in its spirit, it’s a celebration of the people you can have those indescribable times with. I wanted to encapsulate that energy in a song so I could imagine that feeling forever.”

Avril Lavigne is ready to return to her pop-punk roots. Regarding her upcoming album, the Canadian icon told Enertainment Weekly, “I got to do exactly what I wanted and what I feel like I’ve probably wanted to do for a long time.” Reportedly due out in February, Lavigne’s album is still untitled. The singer released her comeback single, “Bite Me,” in November 2021.

Following the release of “Good Ones” in September 2021 and then more recently “New Shapes,” Charli XCX will drop her latest LP, Crash, on March 18. The new record (and allegedly her final album with Atlantic Records) includes collaborations with Rina Sawayama, Oneohtrix Point Never, A. G. Cook, The 1975’s George Daniel and Ariel Rechtshaid. In a press release, Charli said she unleashed her “femme fatale powers and a multitude of dark spells and curses” for Crash, which follows her 2020 release How I’m Feeling Now.

Camila Cabello plans to release her third solo album, Familia, in 2022, and the title track is currently featured on Just Dance 2022. In 2021, Cabello released singles “Don’t Go Yet” and “Oh Na Na” off the forthcoming record. And while the singer hasn’t revealed a specific drop date just yet, she confirmed its impending 2022 release in a New Year’s Eve Twitter post.

This year, Sky Ferreira will finally be releasing a new album for the first time since her 2013 debut album, Night Time, My Time. Reportedly called Masochism, there’s still no release date yet. When Stereogum included Ferreira’s upcoming album in their “101 Most Anticipated Albums of 2022” list, the singer shared a screenshot and reposted the mention on her Instagram Story, saying, “Top 5 most anticipated albums of 2022 @sterogum … [it] happens every year but it’s actually coming out this time.”

Just when we thought Paramore might be over, Hayley Williams announced that the group will be making their return in 2022. In a fan newsletter she sent in November 2021, Williams wrote, “Paramore can’t be ‘on a break’ forever now can we? I love y’all. See you sometime next year?” In February 2021, the pop-rocker mentioned being ready to get back into the studio with fellow members Zac Farro and Taylor York in a since-deleted tweet.

Kim Petras is very excited about her upcoming “extreme pop” album coming out in 2022. “I feel like I’m now brave enough to do outrageous songs that I never thought I could do, songs that I was kind of limiting myself from,” she told People about the project. There’s no set release date just yet, but Petras did release, “Coconuts,” a single off the record, which dropped back in December.

Following backlash surrounding the music video for her single “Boyz” in 2021, as well as her blackfishing controversy, it was rumored that the storm of scandals pushed Jesy Nelson’s planned solo debut album to 2022. However, those close to Nelson and her label Polydor have said that an album was never meant to drop last year. Before any album news, however, a second single is rumored to release sometime soon.

This one might be wishful thinking, but if there’s any artist people have been waiting to hear new music from for what feels like forever, it’s Rihanna. In 2021, when a paparazzo asked the “Love on the Brain” singer if there would be any new music, she responded, “Soon, soon, soon.” Will 2022 finally be the year we get a new RiRi record? Rihanna’s last album, Anti, dropped in 2016.