National Album Day 2022 – Celebrating Debut Albums

In 2018, the British Phonographic Industry and the Entertainment Retailers Association came together to create National Album Day. An initiative to celebrate the album format, joined by the Josephine Artist Awards in France.

Each year, National Album Day follows a different theme. Previous themes included women in music, “don’t skip” or the 1980s. This year, the focus is on debut albums and the important step they represent in an artist’s career. For the occasion, some debuts are reissued, like I Should Coco by Supergrass, Illmatic by Nas or Emergency on Planet Earth by Jamiroquai.

IDOL takes the opportunity to present some debut albums released in 2022.

Press: “Three years after the breakthrough EP, his debut album NAG CHAMPA really proves how agajon can roll the Parliament synthesizers over soulful productions.” MusikExpress

Press: “Noa Erni combines the two most beautiful trivialities in the world: good wine and dope beats.” Cashmere Radio

Press: “Serge Ibaka just made some history for an NBA player … on Spotify” USA Today

Press: “Gone into exile in the Moroccan Atlas, the electro musician returns with a first album crossed with the pleasure of real instruments and the fragility of everyday sounds.” Le Monde

Press: “On this album with dark lyricism, the three rockers mix folkloric instruments and metal guitars, eighties synths and indus electro.” Télérama

Press: “The songs embody Miynt in her most raw and pure form, dancing between psych-rock textures and experimental pop arrangements that continue to define an unparalleled edge for Miynt and her output.” Broadway World

Press: “The enigmatic producer / musician has delivered this bass heavy banger, pulling in elements of bass, world and hip-hop together into something both unique and effortlessly present.” Back Seat Mafia

Press: “It’s well-sequenced and plays through like a journey, with the opening warmth of Prologue setting up the modern-edged Horizons with its strong opening guitar melody and solo, majestic horns and a subtle propulsive litl. […] If it’s just the start it will be exciting to hear what Jasmine Myra does next.” London Jazz News

Press: “Fragmented R&B dipped into aspects of electronica, his soulful approach aims at some form of connection.” Clash Magazine

Press: “Rawicz combines a sound that covers the range from the rasping drawl to an enveloping warmth in more lyrical passages, with a strong instinct for the well-chosen phrase, sense of space and pacing a solo. This is a fine album from an exciting, young band.” London Jazz News

Press: “A collegial and intense album. A project under high indie rock influence, where lightness and radicalism manage to mix well.” Les inRocks

Press: “DJ Piper channels his unbridled creative energy to release a multi-faceted instrumental album that evokes memories of the golden era of hip-hop.“ Faze Mag

Press: “After establishing himself first as a DJ and then as a remixer, Sam Redmore is now making a name for himself as an original producer of quality global grooves that can light up any dancefloor.” Actua News

Press: “The Parisian duo’s debut full-length harnesses controlled chaos, offering an engrossing introduction to their prismatic synth pop.” Pitchfork

Press: “This pair is shaping up to be a power-player of dark-pop indie, with ‘Epoch’ and ‘Gentle Squeeze’ both displaying a keen instrumental apt, with deep bass and danceable groove. They definitely hold onto the darkness in the sound, though. Think MGMT’s Little Dark Age, but again, fresher.” Far Out

Press: “Silvan Strauss is a musically as well as technically outstanding jazz drummer who is stylistically more diverse than almost any musician.” JazzZeitung