Spring has finally arrived, and with it, a colourful crop of new music announcements to soundtrack the long and sunny days ahead.
Here are 27 of our most anticipated albums of the season, from superstars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, to indie darlings like Waxahatchee and Vampire Weekend, plus Canadian acts Charlotte Day Wilson and Hua Li.
Friday, March 22
Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood
There are few songs in recent memory as immediately infectious as “Right Back To It,” the lead single from the upcoming Waxahatchee album “Tigers Blood.” Built around a steady backbeat and a crisp banjo part, the song’s chorus — sung in a perfectly understated harmony with guitarist MJ Lenderman — has a timeless, nostalgic quality that seems to burrow deep into your brain, triggering both pleasure and a quiet melancholy. (When was the last time an alt-country indie song became a meme?)
The song is an impressive return to form for singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, whose 2020 album “Saint Cloud” — a golden slice of indie Americana about her self-discovery following her struggles with alcoholism — became one of the most beloved soundtracks of the pandemic era. Arriving on Friday, “Tigers Blood” doesn’t sound like a departure from the sound of “Saint Cloud,” but reflects a new, more balanced chapter in Crutchfield’s life. “I’m really trying to squash the idea that you have to be completely chaotic and tortured to make interesting art, or have something interesting to say,” Crutchfield said in a recent interview.
—Richie Assaly
Julia Holter: Something In The Room She Moves
It’s been nearly six years since the last album from Julia Holter, an American singer-songwriter and producer known for her stirring vocal melodies and complex art-pop arrangements. Arriving March 22, her sixth album “Something In The Room She Moves” is a dreamlike soundscape of fretless bass, electric piano and woodwinds, inspired by French feminist theorist, the Beatles documentary “Get Back” and the Studio Ghibli film “Ponyo” (one of her daughter’s favourite movies). “I was trying to create a world that’s fluid-sounding, waterlike, evoking the body’s internal sound world,” she said in a press statement. If you’re a fan of Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush or Jenny Hval, don’t skip this one. —Richie
Future & Metro Boomin: We Don’t Trust You / TBA
After months of teasing fans, trap legend Future and superproducer Metro Boomin’ are set to release not one, but two albums: “We Don’t Trust You” on March 22, and an unnamed project on April 12. Of course, the two artists have been collaborating for over a decade, developing a dark, bass-heavy style of trap music that contrasts Metro’s distinct use of 808s and drum samples with Future’s hazy vocal textures. Aside from the trailer released last weekend, few details about the project have been revealed, but if it’s anything like their previous collaborations, fans can expect an extensive tracklist with at least a few features. —Jermaine Wilson
Adrienne Lenker: Bright Future
A prolific songwriter and the frontwoman for indie rock band Big Thief, Adrienne Lenker will release her sixth studio album on March 22. “Bright Future” will feature contributions from Nick Hakim, Josefin Runsteen and Mat Davidson, and will feature a new version of the Big Thief song “Vampire Empire.” “It felt like everyone’s nervous systems released,” Lenker said in a statement about her collaborators. “Once we were in the song, somehow we just knew. No one stopped a take. We didn’t listen back. I only listened after everybody else left.” The LP comes on the heels of “I Won’t Let Go of Your Hand, a collection of six demos Lenker released in support of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. —Richie
Wednesday, March 27
Hua Li: ripe fruit falls but not in your mouth
Montreal’s Hua Li, who describes herself as a “half-Chinese, half-militant, half-rapper of your heart,” is set to release her sophomore album via Next Door Records on March 27. Featuring production from Alex Thibault Lunice of TNGHT, the album is a tempestuous blend of hip hop, R&B and electronic music fortified by Li’s strutting charisma. On lead single “Sanctions of the Heart,” Li describes a recent love affair in Toronto — “Met the boy and Bloor and Bathurst, man he was the f — ing worst,” she raps over a muscular beat, setting the stage for a introspective journey of self-discovery. —Richie
Friday, March 29
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter
Brace yourself: Queen Bey is coming.
Arriving just two years after she shook the table with her fearless pivot into dance and electronic music on “Renaissance,” Beyoncé is set to release (or should I say “unleash”) “Cowboy Carter” — the second instalment of a three-part project that the inimitable singer conceived during the pandemic. In typical Beyoncé fashion, few details are available at this point, but based on lead singles “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages,” fans can expect yet another musical transformation, one that blends pop and R&B with the sounds and esthetics of country music. It’s a brilliant move, one that seeks to reclaim the Black roots of country music at a time of renewed mainstream interest in the genre. There are also rumours, spread by Dolly Parton herself, that the album will feature a cover of “Jolene.” If this happens, the internet may be broken beyond repair. —Richie
Sum 41: Heaven :x: Hell
Just a quick heads up that you only have until the end of January 2025 to debate whether Sum 41 are Canada’s greatest punk rock band. That’s when the two-time Juno Award winners will play their final shows at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, capping off a 10-month farewell tour in support of eighth and last album “Heaven :x: Hell.” And what a way for the Ajacians to go out: the ambitious double album features a “Heaven” side of traditional pop punk fare while the “Hell” portion is more metal in nature. Frontman Deryck Whibley described the heavier direction Sum 41 took as “somewhat of a nod to Black Sabbath.” I personally can’t wait to crank up Track 8 of “Hell,” a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” to see how it compares to fellow contemporaries Gob where current Sum 41 guitarist Tom Thacker was a founding member. —Gilles LeBlanc
Friday, April 5
Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us
Grab your Ray-Bans Wayfarers and a pink polo shirt — Vampire Weekend is back! The millennial indie rock veterans (and perpetual critical darlings) are back with their fifth album — their first in half a decade — with “Only God Was Above Us.” Ezra Koenig and the gang have already released three singles from the album, and they contain all the hallmarks of another Vampire Weekend classic — literary/self-aware songwriting, jovial/baroque musical arrangements, slippery/blown-out guitar riffs and sticky choruses. Co-produced by Koenig and long-time collaborator Ariel Rechtshaid, the album apparently draws inspiration from both the esthetics of 20th-century New York and from the Indian classical music tradition known as raga. In other words, it’s all very on-brand, which should be music to the ears of longtime VW fans. —Richie
Black Keys: Ohio Players
For a band whose main members hardly spoke to one another for an extended period in the late 2010s, The Black Keys have been incredibly prolific since Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney realized they are “trapped for eternity together” as revealed in the documentary “This Is a Film About The Black Keys” which just premiered at South by Southwest. “Ohio Players” will be their fourth full-length album since 2019 and includes collaborations from Beck (you’ve probably heard the insanely catchy “Beautiful People (Stay High)” already), as well as Noel Gallagher. For anyone who has been yearnin’ for a sequel to the Keys’ 2009 hip-hop project Blakroc, “Ohio Players” song “Paper Crown” will have rapper Juicy J presumably delivering rhymes over beats drummer Carney described in a press release as “something that most bands 20 years into their career don’t make, which is an approachable, fun record that is also cool.” —Gilles
Tara Kannangara: Extraordinary People
Toronto-based jazz trumpeter and alternative pop singer Tara Kannangara returns with “Extraordinary People,” an EP that covers the “complicated topic of being a woman caught between two worlds, never feeling like I quite fit into the Western culture I was raised in or the South-Asian culture I come from,” as the artist described it in a press statement. The EP will include the previously released “Name Song,” a biting disco-pop takedown of name-fumblers and folks who can’t be bothered to learn the proper way to say her name. —Richie
Khruangbin: A la Sala
American psych-rock trio Khruangbin is set to release their fourth studio album, their first without any additional collaborators. Its title, “A la Sala,” which means “to the room,” represents a back-to-basics approach, according to bassist Laura Lee. “Emotionally there was a desire to get back to square-one between the three of us, to where we came from — in sonics and in feeling,” she said. —Richie
Friday, April 12
METZ: Up On Gravity Hill
It’s been 12 years since Metz released their debut album, a lifetime in the grinding world of punk/post-hardcore music. Over time, the Ottawa-formed, Toronto-based trio has evolved, shifting its focus from explosive bursts of noise and feedback toward a sound that is more atmospheric and melodic. “The evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive,” a press statement reads. That’s not to say that their new material doesn’t go hard — single “99” is built around a sneering guitar riff and churning drums built to soundtrack a sweaty mosh pit. —Richie
Friday, April 19
Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department
Returning to her two-year album cycle, Taylor Swift is set to enter her latest era, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19. “All’s fair in love and poetry …” the Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department (Swift) wrote, as she shared the album artwork on Instagram. It is still unknown what genre the singer, who has already created Grammy-winning country, pop and alternative records with a few sprinkles of rock and punk in between, will be regaling us with this time. Apart from the 16 tracks and the Post Malone and Florence and The Machine features on the main album, there will also be four physical versions of the album, each featuring a different bonus track. For her past few records, Swift has taken to not releasing any singles ahead of time and dropping the entire album at once, so it’s safe for fans to expect that chaotic energy again. —Abhiraj Lamba
Pearl Jam: Dark Matter
Thirty years almost to the day since Kurt Cobain took his own life, grunge has metaphorically come full circle with the release of Pearl Jam’s “Dark Matter.” Superfan and wunderkind producer Andrew Watt promises a return to the intensity that characterized the former Nirvana rivals’ early albums. Eddie Vedder went as far as saying at a listening party that this is the Seattle band’s “best work to date” and how he couldn’t be prouder of everyone involved. There’s even a tenuous Canadian connection as some of the recording was done at Shangri-La in California, the studio once owned by The Band; Vedder said in a Mojo magazine interview that he felt they were “tapping into a sacred space.” As anticipated as Dark Matter may be, it will have a bit of competition on its April 19 release day in the form of the You-Know-What-Department from You-Know-Who. —Gilles
Cadence Weapon: Rollercoaster
Hamilton-based indie hip hop artist Cadence Weapon is set to release “Rollercoaster,” his first album since winning the Polaris Music Prize in 2021. The project features collaborations with Loraine James, Bartees Strange, Grandtheft and others. “Press Eject,” the album’s glitchy, bass-heavy lead single, arrived in February. - Richie
Cloud Nothings: Final Summer
Cleveland indie rock journeymen Cloud Nothings are set to release “Final Summer,” their eighth studio album, on April 19. The band’s sound has previously veered into punk and post-hardcore territory — most notably on their 2012 breakout album “Attack on Memory” and its excellent 2014 followup “Here and Nowhere Else.” Though their recent output, including lead single “Running Through The Campus,” finds them in poppier, more melodic spaces, the guitars remain as crunchy as ever. —Richie
Cloud Nothings will play Velvet Underground on May 4
Friday, April 26
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: F##CKN UP
Neil Young will be a still-spry 78 years old when he gallops onto Budweiser Stage with longtime backing band Crazy Horse to kick off Toronto’s summer music season this Victoria Day. If this isn’t enough Canadiana to go around, their “new” album Fu##in’ Up is a live effort that was recorded at legendary Queen Street West club the Rivoli. You may remember having heard about what will technically be Mr. Young’s fiftieth record back in November, as he and the Horse played reimagined versions of songs from 1990s Ragged Glory as part of a private birthday bash for Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss. The Star’s 2+ million Spotify users will be happy to know Fu##in’ Up should be available to stream since Uncle Neil ended his boycott of the platform recently. — Gilles
Justice: Hyperdrama
Justice took the world by storm back in 2007 when they released “cross,” an unholy fusion of pugnacious house music and stadium rock that briefly made Daft Punk sound twee by comparison. On April 2, the French electronic duo will continue to chase that high with the release of Hyperdrama, their first album in seven years. “Disco/funk and electronic music at large have always been core elements of the music we make,” Justice said in a statement. “In ‘Hyperdrama,’ we make them coexist, but not in a peaceful way. We like this idea of making them fight a bit for attention.” —Richie
St. Vincent: All Born Screaming
Songwriter and guitar virtuoso Anne Clark, who performs as St. Vincent, will release “All Born Screaming” on April 26. The self-produced album will feature contributions from Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and Cate Le Bon and — based on the angsty and distorted lead single “Broken Man” — should mark a pivot back to her rock roots after an unexpected detour into lounge-pop on her divisive last album “Daddy’s Home.” —Richie
Friday, May 3
Charlotte Day Wilson: Cyan Blue
Since she began releasing music in the mid-2010s, Charlotte Day Wilson has quietly left a significant imprint on the sound of Toronto R&B, crafting a gentler, more soulful alternative to the more muscular, radio-friendly (and often more toxic) approach of mainstream artists like The Weeknd, dvsn or Drake. Three years after she perfected her craft on her debut album “Alpha,” Wilson is set to return with “Cyan Blue” on May 3. The album is preceded by two stellar singles — “I Don’t Love You Anymore” and “Forever,” a sultry duet with Swedish R&B singer Snoh Aalegra, both featuring wistful melodies that float over downtempo, atmospheric production. “I’m getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect,” she said in a press statement. “I’m more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment.” —Richie
Charlotte Day Wilson will play a hometown gig at History on June 6kamasi washignkama
Dua Lipa: Radical Optimism
Dua Lipa dominated the airwaves for many months following the release of “Future Nostalgia,” with spawned not two, not four, but six hit singles, helping to usher in a new era of disco-inspired dance-pop. The set expectations sky high for the English-Albanian singer-songwriter, who will release her follow up “Radical Optimism” on May 3. The album’s early singles seem to suggest that Lipa plans to mostly stay the course on her third LP, but she does have a nice roster of collaborators in tow including Tame Imapala’s Kevin Parker, British hyperpop producer Danny L. Harle and Canadian songwriting wizard Tobias Jesso Jr. —Richie
Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement
American jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington has referred to his upcoming fifth studio album as a “dance album,” though not in a literal sense: “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music — expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing,” he said in a press statement. Still,“Fearless Movement” seems likely to be a more accessible project than some of his previous work, which often dips into psychedelic and freewheeling prog-jazz territory. The album will also feature contributions from a long list of musical luminaries, including Thundercat, Terrace Martin, André 3000, George Clinton and more. —Richie
Friday, May 10
A.G. Cook: Britpop
Sometimes referred to as the “Godfather of Hyperpop,” English producer A.G. Cook has taken an unconventional route to the upper-echelon of pop music — from the progenitor of the experimental musical collective PC Music to creative director for Charli XCX, to one of the producers on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” Cook’s third solo album “Britpop” arrives May 10, and, based on the self-titled single, will offer a colourful array of exaggerated pop esthetics, bubblegum-flavoured synths and left-of-centre dance-floor fillers. —Richie
Dehd: Poetry
Chicago indie rock trio Dehd will return with a new LP, “Poetry,” on May 10 — and if their latest singles are any indication, sincerity will be at the forefront. On “Light On,” guitarist Jason Balla ruminates on a lost love who he’ll “leave a light on” every day and night, no matter what. “All right, my ego just got in the way/ Turning every thought to jealousy/ But was it worth losing a home?” he sings. Meanwhile, bassist Emily Kempf writes about a guy with a motorcycle who Kempf crushed on hard in “Mood Ring.” “I never thought that you would start to feel the same.” You can dance along at Lee’s Palace on Oct. 17. —Manuela Vega
Kings of Leon: Can We Please Have Fun
There aren’t many outfits — especially of the rock variety — that can boast having an original, unchanged lineup stay together as long as Kings of Leon has. Of course, it maybe helps that three of the Followills are brothers (Caleb, Nathan and Jared) along with guitarist cousin Matthew. One thing that has definitely evolved since they started playing music together in 1999 has been KoL’s sound, from shambly Southern garage rock to universally appealing alternative such as “Mustang” their first new song in three years. They’ve also carried on the family tradition of album titles having precisely five syllables; Can We Please Have Fun follows in the wordplay footsteps that started with Youth & Young Manhood in 2003. For any criticizers wondering about 2016’s WALLS, the latter is actually an acronym for the five-syllable We Are Like Love Songs. —Gilles
Friday, May 17
Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown
Singer Beth Gibbons, the brilliant and reclusive lyricist and frontwoman for the legendary trip hop group Portishead, is set to release her first-ever solo album on May 17. Written and recorded over the course of a decade, “Lives Outgrown” is a deeply personal record inspired by experiences of motherhood, anxiety, menopause and “lots of goodbyes,” according to a press statement. “I realized what life was like with no hope,” Gibbons, 59, says. “And that was a sadness I’d never felt. Before, I had the ability to change my future, but when you’re up against your body, you can’t make it do something it doesn’t want to do.” Sour times, indeed. —Richie
Friday, May 24
DIIV: Frog In Boiling Water
The hype for “Frog In Boiling Water,” the upcoming fourth album from the Brooklyn rock band Diiv, has been growing steadily since the February release of the lead single “Brown Paper Bag,” a colossal slice of sludgy shoegaze that feels directly transported from 1991. The project’s title is a reference to Daniel Quinn’s 1996 environmentalist novel “The Story of B,” the band explained in a press statement. “We understand the metaphor to be one about a slow, sick, and overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism, the brutal realities we’ve maybe come to accept as normal.” Grim stuff, but should make for some compelling indie rock. —Richie
Friday, May 31
Bat For Lashes: The Dream Of Delphi
It’s been half a decade since we last heard from Natasha Khan, the whimsical art pop singer who performs under the stage name Bat for Lashes. On May 31, she’ll release her sixth album, “The Dream of Delphi,” which she describes as a folkloric reflection on the conception and birth of her daughter, as told through a character called the Motherwitch: “It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether,” she said in a press statement. “This is me calling on her soul.” The album’s mesmerizing title single works as perfect introduction to this fanciful theme, complete with dramatic synth loops, ethereal harp playing and Khan’s stunning falsetto. —Richie
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