The 41 Most Anticipated Albums of 2021: Kendrick, Rihanna, Adele, and More – Pitchfork

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About six months after she told fans that the death of her dog Pearl had disrupted the timeline for a new album, Lorde returned with brighter news in May, sharing that shed been working on new material with Jack Antonoff. Although the COVID-19 pandemic further scuppered their plans to collaborate, she promised fans, The work is so fucking good, my friend, in her newsletter, adding, I am truly jazzed for you to hear it. The singer-songwriter instead released a photo book documenting her 2019 trip to Antarctica to tide fans over in the meantime. Allison Hussey

January

Old friends Otis Jackson Jr. and Kieran Hebden decided to rejoin forces over dinner one night. Hebden, aka Four Tet, had floated the idea of a Madlib solo album of tracks that could all flow together, rather than beats for rappers. Whether or not he was volunteering himself, Hebden was deemed perfect for the job, and Jackson proceeded to send him hundreds of unfinished tracks to arrange, edit, manipulate, and combine into a full-length. The result, preceded by the fiendishly addictive Road of the Lonely Ones, will be the first extensive collaboration between the pair, and follows Four Tets 2005 EP of Madvillainy remixes. Jazz Monroe

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February 19

Mogwai have been a band for 25 years, but the process of making their tenth studio album, As the Love Continues, presented the Scottish group with a new set of challenges. Separated from producer Dave Fridmann by the COVID-19 pandemic, the band holed up in Worcestershire, England to record the followup to 2017s Every Countrys Sun. Guests on the album include saxophonist Colin Stetson and Nine Inch Nails Atticus Ross. With live shows on hold for the foreseeable future, the bands Stuart Braithwaite hopes the album can be transforming, unless you are somewhere really amazing and then why are you listening to some weird music like this?, as he says in a press release. Quinn Moreland

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The follow-up to Room 25 feels long-awaited, even if its predecessor came out just over two years ago. This might be because its fate has hung in the balance: Over the past two years, the beloved rapper has shied from the spotlight after amassing a giant following as both an artist and public figure, launching her own book club and using her Twitter feed to patiently highlight the ills of modern capitalism. Her latest transmission lasts just 70 seconds, but Song 33swells with the sort of understated wisdom and world-weariness that most legacy rappers would gape (or balk) at. Jazz Monroe

January 22

Art-punk trio Palberta recorded their fifth album Palberta5000 in Peekskill, New York. The follow-up to 2018s Roach Goin Down is, at least partly, pop-inspired, with Lily Konigsberg telling Stereogum, I kind of only listen to pop music. Ani Ivry-Block added, The way we play and our production will always be weirder than mainstream pop allows. Allison Hussey

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It had seemed as though the Frenchmen of Phoenix were stirring again with the August release of Identical, a new song recorded for Sofia Coppolas comedy On the Rocks. The track even came with a video directed by Roman Coppola. But despite scoring the film, Phoenix have otherwise kept quiet on their plans for more music. The bands most recent record was 2017s Ti Amo, and, in 2019, they released a book about their development titled Phoenix: Libert, galit, Phoenix!. Allison Hussey

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Rihanna gave us a crumb of fresh material in March, joining PARTYNEXTDOOR on his PARTYMOBILE track BELIEVE IT. Otherwise, its been a long few years without any new music from the singer, who issued ANTI in 2016 and has focused her attention on her lingerie and makeup enterprises of late. In 2018, she insisted that she was working on a reggae album that would arrive the following year; she has yet to update the public on her progress. Allison Hussey

January 15

Drunk Tank Pink is the second record from the English rock band Shame, who made their debut in 2018 with Songs of Praise. The James Fordproduced album includes Alphabet and Water in the Well. Frontman Charlie Steen wrote much of Drunk Tank Pink in a small pink room that he called the womb. Allison Hussey

February 5

UK rapper slowthais 2019 album Nothing Great About Britain was nominated for a Mercury Prize, resulting in a spectacle where the grime rapper hoisted an effigy of Boris Johnsons severed head at the awards ceremony. In February, hes back with more rabble-rousing on TYRON, which includes nhs and feel away, featuring James Blake and Mount Kimbie. Skepta, A$AP Rocky, Denzel Curry, Deb Never, and Dominic Fike all make guest appearances elsewhere on the double-disc record. Allison Hussey

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The last time we heard new music from St. Vincent, she delivered a pair of radically different albums. There was 2017s MASSEDUCTION, which found Annie Clark teaming with Jack Antonoff for the most immediate and danceable music of her career. And then there was the companion album, 2018s MassEducation, which reimagined those songs in stark, solo piano arrangements. Her as-yet-untitled follow-up appears to be another reinvention, with Clark citing Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, and Martin Scorseses 1976 classic Taxi Driver as influences. Cant wait for you to hear it, she teased. The feeling is mutual. Sam Sodomsky

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Since releasing her breakout Ctrl in 2017, SZA has kept to collaboration, working with a roster thats included Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, the Weeknd, Post Malone, DJ Khaled, and more. But, in September, she returned with Hit Different, a Neptunes-produced track featuring Ty Dolla $ign, along with a video she directed herself. The video teased another new song, which turned out to be Good Days, released on Christmas. Although the singer had tweeted and deleted posts about having a tense relationship with her label Top Dawg Entertainment, it seems like more music will get released, one way or the other. Allison Hussey

March 5

The first album in five years from Teenage Fanclub is also their first without bassist and vocalist Gerard Love. In his place, the group recruited Euros Childs of the Welsh band Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. The whole process of making this album was very invigorating, guitarist and vocalist Norman Blake said in a press release. After a 2018 vinyl reissue series put many of their iconic albums back in print, Endless Arcade looks to be another welcome reintroduction to Scotlands power-pop giants. Sam Sodomsky

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Having completed 2019 with his JACKBOYS label compilation, Travis Scott spent 2020 collaborating with just about everybody: Kanye West, Big Sean, Kid Cudi, Rosala, Christopher Nolan, LeBron James, PlayStation, McDonalds. By fall, Scott had teased that his fourth studio album was on the way. Likely titled Utopia, with a to-be-determined release date, it could include his singles HIGHEST IN THE ROOM and FRANCHISE, which features M.I.A. and Young Thug. Allison Hussey

January 8

Stockholm six-piece Viagra Boys look to cement their reputation as the raucous post-punks du jour with Januarys Welfare Jazz. After the slightly calmer Common Sense EP, recent single Aint Nice (about a long-term relationship, taking drugs every day, and being an asshole, according to lead grunter Sebastian Murphy) doubles down on the snark and rascalry of their debut, Street Worms, using gags to conceal a reputed social consciousness. In the singles videoa send-up of the bewigged bourgeoisie and Swedish polite societya scootering Murphy is engulfed in flames, and a shopping cart mysteriously sinks into a giant swimming pool. What does it all mean? Stay tuned for answers, maybe. Jazz Monroe

February 5

After she finished touring in support of 2017s The Weather Station, singer-songwriter Tamara Lindeman engaged in local climate-change activism, which led to a new set of songs that address the turmoil of reckoning with environmental devastation. The result, Ignorance, is her fifth full-length as the Weather Station and her first on Fat Possum. Lindeman composed most of the songs on piano rather than her usual guitar, once again writing string arrangements, too. She also self-directed the videos for the first two singles, Robber and Tried to Tell You. Allison Hussey

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The only thing we know for sure about Weyes Blood LP5 is that its on the way. Natalie Mering recently revealed that shes been locked away the past few months in a new studio, taking psychedelics and working on the follow-up to Titanic Rising. Last years Fear of Death, her collaborative album with comedian Tim Heidecker, tapped into the 70s singer-songwriter vibe for which Mering has become known. And given that shes been listening to everything from King Crimson to Lionel Richie while in isolation, we should expect some surprises on her next solo record. Noah Yoo

February 19

Wild Pinks sophomore album, 2018s Yolk in the Fur, cemented their reputation for contemplative lyrics in the style of early Death Cab for Cutie melded with the surrealistic highway anthems of the War on Drugs. The New York bands follow-up, A Billion Little Lights, enlists producer David Greenbaumwhos won Grammys for his work on two Beck albumsas well as a host of guest musicians. Julia Steiner of Chicagos Ratboys lends a lilting vocal harmony to breakup strummer You Can Have It Back, while The Shining But Tropical has a trippy majesty, like if Tame Impala remixed a vintage E Street Band outtake. Fittingly, frontman John Ross has said, I wanted to have something very lush and just bigger than anything that Id done before. Marc Hogan

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The 41 Most Anticipated Albums of 2021: Kendrick, Rihanna, Adele, and More - Pitchfork