The Most Anticipated Albums of 2020
As the New Year charges on, some the biggest artists on the planet have been preparing to reveal their latest releases. In anticipation, we’ve put together a list of some of the most exciting upcoming albums that we think will be playing on repeat over the next twelve months.
Tame Impala – The Slow Rush
Expected: Feb 14
Tame Impala’s style may be a hard-to-define blend of genres, but they certainly honed it on 2015’s Currents. The Aussie group has already given us a taste of the fourth album, having spent last year releasing a steady stream of singles, and while the familiar moments of dance-able psychedelia are there, so are shimmering pop sounds and heavy riffs. It’s safe to say the band is unpredictable, but you have to admire front-man Kevin Parker’s insistence on keeping things fresh.
Grimes – Miss Anthropocene
Expected: Feb 21
Since the release of 2015’s Art Angels, most news about Grimes seems to have been focused on her coupling with tech-bro extraordinaire Elon Musk – in fact recently she announced her pregnancy via some very Grimes-like Instagram posts. Hopefully the release of her new album should put the spotlight firmly back on her music. Named after an anthropomorphic goddess of climate change (as if you didn’t already know that), each song on Miss Anthropocene represents “a different embodiment of human extinction as depicted through pop star demonology”, according to the artist herself. She’s already released a few tracks from the LP, but what the rest of it sounds like is anyone’s guess.
Frank Ocean – TBD
Expected: spring/summer
Frank Ocean released two singles near the end of last year; the cover art for each single featured Frank sitting in a specific pose, and along the bottom was a silhouette of the pose alongside twelve others. Surely this points to an album, or at the very least a series of thirteen single releases. Conspiracy theories aside, Odd Future’s biggest success story (sorry, Tyler) has been discussing new material in recent interviews and even signed a new publishing deal in December. If this wasn’t enough, there’s a Coachella headline slot with his name on it, and he’ll need something to promote.
Kendrick Lamar – TBD
Expected: spring/summer
Having released three of the most critically acclaimed hip-hop albums over the past decade, it will surely be interesting to see how Kendrick Lamar begins the 20’s. Rumors have circulated that the Compton native has been “pulling in more rock sounds” for his new material, according to former Billboard editorial director Bill Werde, but it’s unclear how this will compare to his previous releases. What we do know is that Kendrick has a number of European festival headline slots booked, so it shouldn’t be long before he has some new songs to perform.
Cardi B – Tiger Woods
Expected: summer
Cardi wasted no time after releasing her debut album, Invasion of Privacy, back in 2018, claiming that she began work on the follow-up immediately. Since then she’s dropped standalone singles, featured on various other artists’ songs, gotten to grips with motherhood, made her acting debut in ‘Hustlers’ and even found time to talk up future political aspirations, with inspiration from Bernie Sanders. What does all this mean for her second album? Presumably a whole wealth of new sources for her to draw lyrical inspiration from.
The Strokes – TBD
Expected: late 2020
Frontman Julian Casablancas recently told fans “the 2010’s… we took ‘em off but now we’ve been unfrozen and we’re back.” The garage rock icons last full-length album was 2013’s Comedown Machine, so it’s fair to say they’ve had a relatively relaxed decade. Recent shows have seen The Strokes play only songs from their first three albums, while others have included new tracks ‘Ode To The Mets’ and ‘The Adults Are Talking’. As it stands, fans are curious to know what effect their extended break has had on the music.
Lady Gaga – TBD
Expected: any time
There’s a lot of anticipation on Lady Gaga’s shoulders right now; she’s still riding high from 2018’s smash hit ‘A Star Is Born’, in which she wowed audiences with both her acting and singing talents. As it stands, it’s not clear what her next release will sound like, having ditched the pop sound that made her famous with 2016’s softer, country-styled Joanne (as well as 2014’s Cheek to Cheek, an album of jazz duets with Tony Bennett). Rumored collaborations for her next release include Sophie, BloodPop, Boys Noize and Shallow co-writer Anthony Rossomando, which doesn’t really clear anything up.
The Cure – TBD x3
Expected: any time
It’s been twelve years since The Cure’s last album, 4:13 Dream. What have they been up to in that time? Well, writing-but-not-releasing three records, apparently. Singer Robert Smith originally stated that the first of these three albums would likely drop before Christmas, but clearly that didn’t come to fruition. However, that surely means that the actual release date can’t be too far off. Smith also claimed that the new songs were “merciless” and lyrically more personal, as well as stating that two of the three albums have a “more advanced” sound. Right now, only time will tell if we’ll get to hear all three (or any) of these new albums this year – but if the rest of The Cure’s discography is anything to go by, it’ll be worth the wait.
Stuart Robinson is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in the United Kingdom. You can reach him at inquiries@thenationaldigest.com.