The 25 Finest Dance Albums of 2022: Workers Picks

In 2022, dance albums have been an even bigger a part of the cultural dialog than they’ve been in years. Not solely did a number of artists lastly launch the fervour initiatives they’d labored on in isolation in the course of the covid years, marquee acts dropped long-awaited follow-up albums, and two of the most important pop artists on this planet each launched dance-focused LPs inside weeks of one another. 

Exploring completely different influences and dimensions of home music, Drake and Beyoncé introduced dance music to mainstream audiences – and the highest of the Billboard 200 – with drive not seen because the peak EDM years. These efforts additionally probably introduced a minimum of just a few mainstream ears to the deeper realms of the sprawling dance area. 

Listeners nostalgic for the golden age of EDM have been additionally blessed with LPs from just a few of their faves, too. And whereas releases from the likes of Swedish Home Mafia and Krewella didn’t match the business success of their earlier works, artists within the post-EDM period prioritized creative reinvention over streaming numbers, discovering success and increasing their legacies within the course of.  

Whereas the everyday path to a dance artist’s debut album runs by means of a marathon of membership and competition dates, prodigious debuts from artists like Shygirl and Ariel Zetina arrived within the aftermath of DJ units being confined to Zoom. Whereas home masters Honey Dijon and The Shapeshifters have been dependable delights throughout our collective coronaraving years, every seized this second to flex their bonafides on long-anticipated LPs, which proved properly definitely worth the wait.

As in years earlier than, 2022’s finest dance albums show true range – of race, gender, age, nationality, and elegance – unmatched by every other style. Right here’s to all of the artists who gave us long-players for the lounge, for the dancefloor, for previous heads, for brand spanking new followers and for everybody in between.

These are our 50 favourite dance/digital albums of 2022, introduced alphabetically by artist.