FEATURE:
Let the Records Show…
IN THIS PHOTO: St. Vincent/PHOTO CREDIT: Pamela Neal
Looking Ahead to Some Anticipated Future Releases – and Ones That I Would Like to See Arrive This Year
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EVEN though we are still in January…
IN THIS PHOTO: Jane Weaver
there are some great albums that we can look forward to. I am going to ignore February, as I am doing a separate feature about albums due then. Last year produced more than its share of wonderful albums, and I think we will get some immense albums in 2021. There are a few albums that have been announced for March. Jane Weaver is releasing her new album, Flock, on the fifth. After hearing the single, The Revolution of Super Visions, last year, I am really looking forward to the album coming out. FIRE explains more:
“‘Flock’ is the record that Jane Weaver always wanted to make, the most genuine version of herself, complete with unpretentious Day-Glo pop sensibilities, wit, kindness, humour and glamour. A consciously positive vision for negative times, a brooding and ethereal creation.
The album features an untested new fusion of seemingly unrelated compounds fused into an eco-friendly hum; pop music for post-new-normal times. Created from elements that should never date, its pop music reinvented”.
On 30th August, 2019, the release day of her seventh studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey announced that she had already begun work on her follow-up album, revealing the title to be White Hot Forever. The title has since been confirmed as Chemtrails Over the Country Club, and this is going to be one of the most-anticipated releases of the year. I think Norman Fucking Rockwell! was the best album of Del Rey’s career, so I am looking forward to hearing what arrives next. She seems to be in really prolific mood at the moment, and I think Chemtrails Over the Country Club will be one of the hottest releases of 2021.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lana Del Rey/PHOTO CREDIT: Chuck Grant for Interview Magazine
Expected in May, Paul Weller’s Fat Pop (Volume 1) is going to be another fantastic album. Weller only put out On Sunset last year, so it seems that he has spent a lot of time writing new material and being creative. Weller’s last few albums have been some of the best of his career, and I feel we will get another tremendous album regarding Fat Pop (Volume 1). I love the title alone, so it will be intriguing to see what sound Weller adopts for his sixteenth solo album. I have written about Lorde recently and, after 2017’s Melodrama made such an impact and got some incredible reviews, there has been this demand for her third album. She has suffered some personal setbacks since then, but it seems like we will get a new album from the New Zealand artist very soon. Her music is among the most extraordinary in the world, and I can see her album being among the very best of the year. Last year, Billie Eilish released a new song called Therefore I Am. When it comes to following up on her massive debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, I think we will see yet another staggering work.
I love that album, so I am looking ahead and anticipating what the teen genius comes up with. In this article from NME, Eilish’s brother/producer, Finneas O'Connell, provided an update:
“Billie Eilish‘s new album will not be released until she can safely tour, her brother and producer Finneas has said.
In a new interview with Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, Finneas said he didn’t want his or Eilish’s new albums to “be a bummer COVID record”.
“I have a desperate desire not to release them during COVID-19. It’s the vaccine record! I want it to be the album everyone’s out dancing in the streets to,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Finneas provided a brief update on the progress of the two albums while quarantining.
“Billie and I are full steam ahead on her next record, I’m working on my own album too. I haven’t suffered at all because of my set-up,” he explained.
“Billie and I can work one-on-one, and I’m working remotely with other artists who FaceTime me and ask if I want to work on a song”.
There are some other wonderful artists who are in the studio and expected to release material this year. St. Vincent is one such artist. Her music is so incredible, so I can understand why so many people (myself included) cannot wait! Pitchfork have reported the following in December:
“St. Vincent has said that she has a new album on the way. “The rumors are true. New record “locked and loaded” for 2021,” Annie Clark wrote in a tweet. “Can’t wait for you to hear it.”
Clark spoke more about the followup to 2017’s MASSEDUCTION in an interview with MOJO. Describing the record as a “tectonic shift,” Clark explained, “I felt I had gone as far as I could possibly go with angularity. I was interested in going back to the music I’ve listened to more than any other—Stevie Wonder records from the early ’70s, Sly and the Family Stone. I studied at the feet of those masters,” according to Stereogum.
Annie Clark also said the album has “the color palette of the world of Taxi Driver” and “Gena Rowlands in a Cassavetes film.” “I just wanted to capture the colors, the film stock, and tell these stories of being down and out, down on your luck,” she said.
Since the release of MASSEDUCTION, Clark has shared two reworked versions of the album, MassEducation and Nina Kraviz Presents Masseduction Rewired”.
Noel Gallagher is in the studio and has recently released a demo for We’re Gonna Get There in the End. I am not sure whether that will form part of a new album, though new Noel Gallagher material is always a good thing. Sinead O'Connor is also rumoured to be in the studio. The news was reported by NME in December:
“Sinéad O’Connor is to release a new album next year, her first in seven years.
The Irish singer-songwriter will follow up 2014’s ‘I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss’ with her 11th studio album. No release date nor title have been announced.
She confirmed the album news via Twitter yesterday (December 8) by gushing about the artwork. “Thrilled to say @JacobStackArt has drawn the cover of my album and it’s GORGEOUS!!!!! But you can’t see it until release in late 2021,” she wrote”.
2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was a slightly different sonic direction from Arctic Monkeys and, whilst some fans were not so keen on a less Rock-focused and hard sound, I am a big fan of the album myself. There has been talk for a while as to when the Sheffield band will follow that album up and, as this article teases, there may be something brewing from the band:
“The Sheffield band's manager Ian McAndrew has talked about the band's live album and revealed they've been "beavering away" during the pandemic.
Arctic Monkeys have been "working on music" according to their manager Ian McAndrew.
The music boss spoke to Music Week about the band's Royal Albert Hall live album and when asked what else they've been up to this year, he teased: "They’re working on music. In this rather disjointed time, the guys are beavering away and I hope that next year they’ll start working on some new songs, new ideas, with a view on a future release."
However, when asked if the band would be releasing their follow-up to 2018's Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino much sooner than their other records, he was far more measured.
"We followed that release with a fairly robust touring plan that went on until October 2018," said McAndrew. There weren’t any prearranged plans to get back in the studio quickly, so I don’t quite know the basis of that rumour honestly."
He added: "It’s fair to say that plans to write and record music have been deferred or postponed in terms of difficulties in getting together. Nevertheless, it in some ways creates a welcome opportunity, more time, more space and ability to go away and devote a bit more time to the creative process. That’s been a blessing in a weird way".
IN THIS PHOTO: Robert Plant
Although there is nothing concrete at the moment, I believe Robert Plant has been in the studio and may be working on a new album. His previous album, 2017’s Carry Fire, got some really positive reviews, so there are going to be a lot of Plant fans seeing whether the master brings us some new music very soon. There are two other big, confirmed forthcoming albums that I want to look ahead to. The Cure are readying the world for their forthcoming album. As Music News report, it is a darker and denser album than we may be used to:
“The ‘Close To Me’ hitmakers are expected to release their long-awaited new LP next year – their first since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’ – and guitarist Reeves Gabrels explained the record has been inspired by a “tough couple of years” for the whole band.
He said: “It’s a heavy and dark record. I don’t think there are any short songs on there.
“The description of Lou Reed’s ‘Berlin’ when it came out was that it was the “‘Sgt Pepper’ of depression” – I don’t know if we’re that psychedelic but we are that depressed.
“It was a tough couple of years for everybody. A by-product of getting older is that people around you keep dying. We all lost relatives. Robert lost his brother, I lost a step-dad and father-in-law – while we were on the road too, which meant there was more strain.”
IN THIS PHOTO: The Cure
The group have recorded so many songs, Reeves isn’t sure just how many albums frontman Robert Smith is planning.
He added in an interview with Uncut magazine: “We started the record in January 2019 in Wales – we went in for about two months.
“We’d all been writing before that. So we got together and listened to it all, learned it, went into the studio and recorded it.
“There’s enough material for two or three records, a lot of stuff”.
One band who have been in the news quite a bit lately are Chvrches. The band’s lead, Lauren Mayberry says they have learned from Billie Eilish’s debut album. I am interested to see what they produce when their new album comes out. The Guardian recently spoke with Mayberry about what we can expect from a new Chvrches album:
“Following three top 10 albums, the Scottish synthpop trio are preparing to release their fourth this spring, and will hopefully bring their pounding live show back to the festival circuit. Frontwoman Lauren Mayberry explains how the privations of 2020 helped them get rid of their baggage, and get to the heart of who they really are.
What’s the overall vibe for the album?
We sat inside and listened to music that we really loved all year, like Depeche Mode, the Cure and Brian Eno. I wanted the music that was the most comforting to me and that era of tunes was very formative for our band. It’s not the frilliest of Chvrches records, but I don’t think that now is necessarily a time for frilliness.
How have the events of 2020 shaped the music you’ve been working on?
We had a lot of the ideas and the concepts before this year started and got a few weeks of writing in before everything shut down, so we kind of knew what we were getting on with. The theme of it didn’t necessarily change, but it evolved because of the circumstances of 2020. I think it was also helpful for us to be removed from the bullshit of the music industry. Everybody says that you don’t think about that stuff when you’re making a record, but in practice you totally do. You might shut the door, but it’ll sneak in the window. Everyone always has advice and opinions about what you should do; everyone else knows best. But it was nice to go: ‘Fuck it!’”.
There has been talk of a new Janet Jackson album for a while now. Black Diamond was slated to come out last year, so hopefully we will see a follow-up to 2015’s Unbreakable this year. I am a big fan of Janet Jackson, so I am looking onward keenly and will definitely keep an eye out to see when Black Diamond arrives. Adele released 25 in 2015 so, after nearly six years, there are a lot of people asking when we will get a follow-up to that hugely successful album. It seems that this year is the earliest we will get a new album from her, and I do think that we will get something from her later in the year. After releasing the single, BRON, last year, there is news that Lykke Li will release an album this year. Her last album, so sad so sexy, came out in 2018 and it was received positively. She is another one of those artists who always creates brilliant music, so I do hope we get an album from her this year.
The final album that I want to look at is the forthcoming one from Royal Blood. The Brighton duo are one of our best British Rock acts and there is a lot of buzz around their new music. Mike Kerr of Royal Blood spoke with NME about what the new record is sounding like:
“Have you been working on the album through lockdown?
“We were actually in the middle of making the record before full lockdown hit. We had to call it, because it wasn’t safe for everyone to be working. We had a full studio gang of engineers and people coming in and out. During lockdown I ended up tinkering with the record on my own and ended up writing a couple more songs. It was a really creative time for me.”
What does ‘Trouble’s Coming’ tell us about the rest of the new album?
“All the tracks on this record have their own personality. This encapsulates the change and progression that we’ve made as a band and as people. We’re aware that we’ve been away for a long time, and we didn’t want to come back with something that we’d done before. This shows a maturity on every level. This record wasn’t just the next 10 songs that we wrote about the last album. We wrote an insane amount of music after coming off tour. To us this is like our sixth record, but it’s officially being released as our third!”
So what’s new?
“There are a lot more additional elements and luxurious production. It’s also a self-produced record. I know it’s traditional for a producer to push and challenge, but we felt like we were having people in the way. We knew so clearly what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. It felt like a very delicate direction. With rock music, it can very easily go wrong. You want to make something scary and with one slip-up it becomes spooky, which is just awful. Or you want something romantic and then the next minute it’s just cheesy. Rock’s so extreme, it can highlight these things quickly. A producer would have either held us back or pushed us so far that it would have destroyed the DNA and fabric of the band. We had to do this on our own and for ourselves”.
There are other releases confirmed and others less certain but, when it comes to artists we’d like to hear from, there are four that leap to mind for this year. I am a massive Björk fan and I have followed her career since the 1990s. She released Utopia back in 2017 - and she had left four-year gaps between albums before. I hope that there is another album from Björk in 2021, as every one of her albums is wonderful and she has this ability to create her own world that welcomes you in and blows your mind! I have not heard whether she is recording new material, but there are a lot of people who would welcome a fresh album from the Icelandic pioneer. Similarly, Queens of the Stone Age have left large gaps between albums before – Era Vulgaris (2007)/…Like Clockwork (2013) -, but I think 2021 needs a new blast of brilliance from the Californian band. Led by the awesome Josh Homme, I am hopeful that we will receive a gift from Queens of the Stone Age at some point in 2021. I think Rock is in a pretty good state right now, but I think Queens of the Stone Age are the finest Rock act in the world. It would also be great to get new albums from PJ Harvey, Portishead and Beyoncé. I am a big fan of all three. 2021 would be immeasurably lifted by albums from them.
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé
I think Radiohead are the band I am really hoping we hear more from this year. I adore their most-recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, that was released in 2016. The members of the band have been busy over the past few years putting out their own projects and albums, but they are at their finest and most mind-blowing when they are all together. There have been rumours and suggestions they are recording material but nothing solid has come to light regarding the veracity of those claims. Predictably, the last artist I want to mention is Kate Bush. Her last album, 50 Words for Snow, came out in 2011, and one would not have thought we’d have to wait nearly a decade for a new album – seeing as she released two albums in 2011! We can wait and be patient as Bush’s albums are always sublime, but I do hope that we get a new album in the autumn or winter (she tends not to release albums in the spring and summer). You never know when music will come out or what it will sound like, but the thrill of the unexpected means we could get an announcement in mere days – or it may be another few years! There will be a mix of surprise releases and big announcements coming through the year. I am looking at this fondly and I cannot wait to hear the albums that have already been announced. Music helped make a very dark 2020, and I think the musical treats we will receive this year will make things…
SO much brighter.