Time to look into the internet crystal ball and see who may (and who may not) release an album for our ears in 2019. Will Grimes finally release another album? What’s the suss with Yandhi? Before we answer that, here’s some we know are on the way…

Tame Impala

Release date: 2019

When Tame Impala were announced to headline Coachella in 2019 last week, the band posted a picture of the festival lineup on Instagram with the caption “New year. New shows. New sounds.” When Beats 1 asked frontman Kevin Parker if the album would be out by 2019, he replied “I would very much hope so. I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t have something out by then.” It’s looking promising!

Vampire Weekend

Release date: 2019

Vampire Weekend’s last album ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ saw release way back in 2013 and fans have been waiting impatiently for its follow up ever since. Frontman Ezra Koenig teased audiences last summer at several live dates with details about the album; at Lollapalooza, in August he said “I wanted to tell you that the album is done now… I mean, we’re mastering it but it’s done. More on that to come – in the meantime, just enjoy the rest of your summer.” An Instagram caption also revealed the title to be Mitsubishi Macchiato but we have no official release date yet.

Hozier

Release date: Early 2019

Hozier fans didn’t quite get what they wished for with his four-track EP Nina Cried Power in September 2018, which did little to placate those who have been waiting for a follow-up album since his self titled debut in 2013. While he hasn’t announced a release date yet, he did state that his North American tour dates would “coincide with the release” of a new album titled Wasteland, Baby! (the 26-date tour runs from March 10th to April 14th).

Grimes

Possible Date: 2019

Grimes’ featured on this list last year when we were expecting her new album to materialise at some stage in 2018. It has reportedly been delayed by label disputes. While the full length still hasn’t been set a release, she spent a lot of 2018 in the limelight none the less; she recently started and ended a relationship with Elon Musk (with whom she attended the MET Gala with) and engaged in several public feuds with Azealia Banks on Twitter. She did release some new music in a new track last year with HANA titled We Appreciate Power so things look promising.

Solange

Release date: 2019

Solange released her acclaimed third album A Seat at the Table in October 2016 and its follow up has been long awaited since. In an interview with the New York Times last year, the singer stated that the album would be out in the autumn of 2018 but it hasn’t yet materialised. She shared that the album has “jazz at the core, but with electronic and hip-hop drum and bass because I want it to bang and make your trunk rattle.”  While the New York Times were wrong in their speculation of the release date, Solange did confirm with them that the album is finished so we expect it should see release in early 2019 (hopefully).

Maggie Rodgers – Heard It In A Past Life

Release date: January 18th

Maggie Rogers’ debut album is one of the few on this list with a definite release date (phew). Heard It In A Past Life has been a long time coming for the New Yorker, who has released a string of singles and an EP over the last three years. She’s been drip feeding us tasters of the album with tracks like Light On and Give A Little as well as posting song snippets on her Instagram page this week. Based on what we’ve heard so far, are shaping up to be pretty good.

Lana Del Rey

Possible Date: 2019

Lana Del Rey is a beguiling artist. The New York native seems unphased by the inner workings and politics of the music industry and just keeps churning out albums that she wants to make herself, rather than try to appease fans or record labels. Her new album is titled Norman Fucking Rockwell, which she explained to Zane Lowe was party due to Jack Antanoff who produced the record: “working with Jack, I was in a little bit of a lighter mood because he was so funny. So the title track is called ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ and it’s kind of about this guy who is such a genius artist but he thinks he’s the shit and he knows it and he, like, won’t shut up talking about it.” We’ve already heard ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’ and ‘ Venice Bitch’ which are both typical Del Rey in moody melodies and minimal instrumentation.

Mark Ronson

Possible Date: Summer 2019

Mark Ronson has been very busy as of late having co-written the soundtrack to A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga (their track ‘Shallow‘ won a Golden Globe this week). Before that, he released new singles with Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa and Diplo which are taken from his upcoming album ‘Late Night Feelings’. Ronson first came to prominence working with artists such as Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and this will be his first full length since 2015. He has described the album as an ode to sad bangers and we’re here for it.

Danny Brown

Possible Date: Early 2019

Danny Brown’s new album was expected to materialise in 2018 but he tweeted late last year saying that that would not be the case. The album is done (he gave sneak peeks at several of the tracks last year on Twitch) but no release date has been confirmed as of yet. The rapper’s last album Atrocity Exhibition saw release in 2016 and last year he contributed to towards alt-J’s album Reduxer.

Frank Ocean

Possible Release Date: Anytime would be good for us Frank

We’re kind of hoping against hope here but Frank Ocean is certainly due to release a new album and 2019 could well be the year that it happens. The enigmatic R&B artist recently made his Instagram public, bear with us. For an artist that truly loves his anonymity, to engage back in public life is a good sign that he’s gearing up to drop something for us. Fingers crossed.

Dave Harrington Group

Release Date: February 1st

The announcement of Pure Imagination, No Country came with the album’s first single and it gives a pretty decent indicator of what we can expect from Dave Harrington Group’s second album: hectic melodies and intricate drum rhythms mould together to form a jazz-electro infused hybrid (which is what Harrington does best). A press release about the album stated that it “showcases the most focused distillation of Harrington’s collaborative musical framework” with inspiration mainly drawing from Miles Davis’ electronic records. Musos rejoice!

Julia Jacklin

Release date: February 22nd

Julia Jacklin gave fans a double whammy last November with the announcement of her new album plus an upcoming international tour (including a date in Dublin’s Whelan’s). She said that Crushing reveals “how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives.” and is the followup to the 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win. 2018 was a busy year for Jacklin with an album with Phantastic Ferniture.

Toro Y Moi

Release Date: January 18th

Toro Y Moi’s eighth album Outer Peace, the first since last year’s Boo Boo, is set for release this January 18th. We’ve already heard ‘Freelance’ from it below and it’s a total bop, showcasing exactly what Toro Y Moi does best with layers of synths and bouncy percussion. He said that “this record is a response to how disposable culture has become and how it affects creativity. While listening, you might pay attention or ignore—either way, that’s ok, this is music for a creative mind.”

Dua Lipa

Possible Date: Winter 2019

Dua Lipa entered 2018 as an up and coming artist and exited the year as bonafide pop royalty. With two Brit Awards and two Grammy nominations under her belt, the pressure on her to release a successful follow up to her debut album will be palpable. She is already working on her sophomore so it could materliase towards the latter end of the year.

Beirut

Release Date: February 1st

February is shaping up to be a busy month for album releases. It’s been four years since Beirut released their last album No No No, and word of their new one was accompanied by the title track last October. If ‘Gallipoli‘ is anything to go by, the album will be quirky and brass-focussed with lyrics that summon images of sunny sojourns and long strolls by the beach. Zachary of the band said that “we stumbled into a medieval-fortressed island town of Gallipoli one night and followed a brass band procession fronted by priests carrying a statue of the town’s saint through the winding narrow streets behind what seemed like the entire town, before returning late to Sudestudio. The next day I wrote the song I ended up calling ‘Gallipoli’ entirely in one sitting, pausing only to eat.”

Kanye West

Possible Release Date: Autumn 2019

Your guess is as good as ours on this one. Kanye West’s forthcoming album Yandhi was originally set for release last September before West decided to embark on an impromptu trip to “what is known as Africa” for further recording. A recent Twitter clip (below) shows Kanye giving a sneak preview of a track where he raps about giving up his “slave name” and tells his daughters: “Saint, you don’t really need a last name/ North, you don’t really need a last name.“ He is reportedly collaborating with 6ix9ine, XXXTentacion and Rihanna on it too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orGu5lQsgNg

NEW YE. via @andycohn pic.twitter.com/WhyE8V3fcx

— TKDMEDIA (@mediatkd1) September 27, 2018

Chance The Rapper

Possible Release Date: Autumn 2019

No date has been set for Chance The Rapper’s upcoming album, the follow up to 2016’s wildly successful Colouring Book but it is certainly on the way. In July 2018 he quenched rumours that the album would be dropping that week with a tweet (below) but confirmed that he was indeed in the studio. We don’t know but much as of yet but there will definitely be a Childish Gambino feature and Kanye West is also apparently going to make an appearance. He also mentioned in an interview that the album would be seven tracks long, taking influence from the format of West’s Ye. 

Sorry no album this week, def been in the stu tho. 😎

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) July 17, 2018