Albums To Look Out For In 2024: This Year’s Most Anticipated Releases

Tones And I: ‘Beautifully Ordinary’

After becoming a viral superstar during lockdown thanks to her international superhit Dance Monkey, all eyes are on the quirky Australian pop singer Tones And I to see if her second album, Beautifully Ordinary, can help her conquer TikTok all over again. Lead single Dreaming is an acoustic R&B-flavoured bop with idiosyncratic vocal acrobatics that cleverly disguise deeper lyrical themes of sadness and torment. “Mostly the album presents itself as whatever the listener takes from it,” Tones And I said in an interview with Rolling Stone Australia. “There’s an undertone of loneliness, heartbreak, desperation, fear, vulnerability and triumph (but not too much).”

Release date: 2 August 2024

What to expect: Dreaming

Ravyn Lenae: ‘Bird’s Eye’

With so many contemporary R&B singers veering into sonic sterility by relying too much on Auto-Tune and quantised grooves, it’s refreshing to discover an artist like Ravyn Lenae, who follows the beat of her own drum. Upon the release of Love Me Not, the lead single from her upcoming second album, Bird’s Eye, it was obvious Lenae sits in the lineage of classic R&B and funk, her music giving off a live feel that does great justice to her gutsy, powerful voice. “With the music I’ve been making since Bird’s Eye, I’m belting way more,” Lanae said in an interview with The Fader. “It doesn’t have to sound perfect. I’m letting the emotion drive the notes. I’m still finding my voice.” Frankly, we’re all in for a treat with Bird’s Eye, which could give alternative R&B its much-needed moment in the sun.

Release date: 9 August 2024

What to expect: Love Me Not

Foster The People: ‘Paradise State Of Mind’

Having been at the forefront of indie-pop throughout the 2010s, it’s high time that Foster The People re-emerge from the wilderness. With seven years having passed since the release of their previous album, Sacred Hearts Club, the Los Angeles outfit promise an upbeat, danceable affair in the shape of their fourth outing, Paradise State Of Mind. “The record started as a case study of the late 70s crossover between disco, funk, gospel, jazz and all those sounds,” lead vocalist Mark Foster said. “It was such a beautiful moment in time, when these different styles of music were cross-referencing each other – artists like Nile Rogers and Chic, the Tom Tom Club and Giorgio Moroder.” The album’s lead single, Lost In Space, gives us a taste of what to expect, transporting us back to an era where bellbottoms were all we needed to take us into orbit.

Release date: 16 August 2024

What to expect: Lost In Space

Fontaines D.C.: ‘Romance’

Adding a splash of colour to their nobly poetic ambitions, Irish post-punk group Fontaines D.C. will shed their moody and morose image with their fourth album, Romance. Now signed with XL Recordings, the group have signalled their new direction with the album’s lead single, Starburster, turning a song about a panic attack into a vibrant Madchester-tinged rocker that shows off their more playful side. “I’ve just been being myself, I suppose, but I’m recognising that the self is something that you can play with as well,” frontman Grian Chatten told Crack Magazine. “The bigger we get, it’s becoming an instrument of its own.” Recorded with Arctic Monkeys and Blur producer James Ford, Romance looks set to be Fontaines D.C.’s most fun and accessible record yet, and is likely to make fans of the band fall in love with them all over again.

Release date: 23 August 2024

What to expect: Starburster

David Gilmour: ‘Luck And Strange’

Aiming to steer himself into new territory, legendary guitarist David Gilmour has teamed up with Alt-J and Marika Hackman producer Charlie Andrew for his fifth solo album, Luck And Strange. “He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine,” Gilmour has said of Andrew. “He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you.” The album is reported to feature a song with keyboards from the late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright and bass work from longstanding cohort Guy Pratt, while Gilmour’s wife and lyricist Polly Samson claims the lyrical focus is on death and mortality, so you can fully expect Luck And Strange to be a deeply emotional entry in the guitarist’s already-masterful catalogue.

Release date: 6 September 2024

What to expect: The Piper’s Call

Fat Dog: ‘WOOF.’

Making a name for themselves supporting bands such as Viagra Boys and Yard Act, London dance-punks Fat Dog seem to have a bark that’s probably just as vicious as their bite. The seven-minute electro freakout of King Of The Slugs is a skin-crawling delight with a punky breakdown that got all the indie kids leaping about again. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” Fat Dog keyboardist Chris Hughes said. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.” With live performances impressive enough to earn the group entry into the Domino Records kennel, the fact that Fat Dog’s debut album, WOOF., is co-produced by James Ford should be enough for any self-respecting indie fan to fetch it.

Release date: 6 September 2024

What to expect: King Of The Slugs

Blossoms: ‘Gary’

Last year, Manchester band Blossoms played their part in one of the best Glastonbury moments of 2023 after teaming up with 80s pop star Rick Astley to perform some of The Smiths’ greatest songs at the Woodsies tent. This year, however, it’s business as usual, as the group are back with their fifth studio album, Gary, which is shaping up to be their most streamlined indie-pop record yet. “During the writing process,” singer-songwriter Tom Ogden said, “we were listening to a lot of Bowie, Blondie and Hall And Oates.” Rick Astley is also in on the action again, appearing in the music video for the album’s lead single and title track, in which the group steal an eight-foot-tall gorilla statue and Astley is tasked with bringing them to justice. Brilliantly eccentric and catchy as ever, Blossoms are bringing a much-needed dose of humour to the UK indie scene.

Release date: 20 September 2024

What to expect: Gary

Coldplay: ‘Moon Music’

Described by Chris Martin as “the second Music Of The Spheres volume”, Coldplay’s tenth studio album, Moon Music, once again sees the group team up with pop super-producer Max Martin for another clutch of celestial stadium-rock anthems. The record’s lead single, feelslikeimfallinginlove, frames devotion as a synth-pop epiphany, with a rush of “la la la”s to sweep away your melancholia. And if that wasn’t enough, Moon Music is set to be a historic release in and of itself, as the group take a bold stance on reducing CO2 emissions by releasing Moon Music as the world’s first eco-friendly vinyl, with each record being made from recycled plastic bottles (CD editions will be manufactured from 90 per cent recycled polycarbonate). A boon for environmental sustainability as well as being a musical event in its own right, Moon Music should see the tides turning once again in Coldplay’s favour.

Release date: 4 October 2024

What to expect: feelslikeimfallinginlove

Albums To Look Out For In 2024: Rumoured Releases

Whether teased by the artists themselves or hinted at by those closest to them, these new albums are rumoured to be dropping this year…

Cardi B: TBC (Second Studio Album)

With the gap between her Grammy Award-winning debut album, The Invasion Of Privacy, and its follow-up getting ever bigger, it seems increasingly likely that Cardi B will finally release her second album in 2024. Though information is scarce, the Bronx-based rapper has herself acknowledged that the record indeed on its way. “I’m going to be putting it out very soon,” the WAP star said during a radio interview with Ebro In The Morning, in September 2023. “Everything just has to be like perfect from everything because I feel like people are expecting so much.” It’s not been confirmed whether Cardi B’s latest single with Megan Thee Stallion, Bongos, will feature on the new album, but with its dembow rhythm and tropical touches, the track already sits among the best Cardi B songs, and her next full-length release is likely to be just as eclectic and diverse. Few of our albums to look out for in 2024 are as eagerly anticipated as this.

Release date: TBC

What to expect: Bongos

J Balvin And Ed Sheeran: TBC (Collaborative Studio Album)

Celebrated as one of the world’s best-selling Latin artists, the Colombian “Prince Of Reggaeton”, J Balvin, has been hinting that his as-yet-unnamed collaborative album with Ed Sheeran will finally see light of day at some point in 2024. “It came about in an organic, natural way,” Balvin said in an interview with NYLON. “[The record]’s going to be another album that will offer a lot to talk about because it’s like merging two worlds.” Within the past few years, Balvin and Sheeran have dropped the hit singles Forever My Love and Sigue, so it will be fascinating to see how their creative meeting of minds translates to a full-length studio project.

Release date: TBC

What to expect: Sigue

Lil Nas X: ‘LNX2*’

Lil Nas X, a pop-rap trailblazer and prominent advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, has been whipping up a frenzy in anticipation for his upcoming second album. Courting controversy in the music video for single J Christ, in which he is mounted upon a cross in a pose reminiscent of a messianic martyr, the Georgia-born rapper has shown that he’s willing to challenge religious taboos, much like Madonna did with her game-changing hit Like A Prayer. What’s speculated to be called LNX2* is due out at some point in 2024, with Lil Nas X telling Vanity Fair that fans can expect large doses of “happy escapism”. “I’ve made it important for me for this last year or so to make sure I keep my inner child alive, because that’s what keeps me going and creative,” he said. If he’s brandishing colourful songs that will shower his fans in a rainbow-tinted cascade of joyful individuality, the cultural zeitgeist of 2024 could be Lil Nas X’s for the taking.

Release date: TBC

What to expect: J Christ

Miguel: ‘VISCERA’

With his hit 2011 single Sure Thing rocketing back up the US Hot 100 after going viral on TikTok in 2023, R&B singer Miguel is getting ready to seize the moment with his fifth studio album, VISCERA. Due to be released sometime in 2024, the album has been teased by Give It To Me, a sultry electro-R&B ballad with stabs of synth-rock guitar, containing more than a touch of The Weeknd-inspired darkness. “This is a beautiful, violent, joyous, album and moment in life,” Miguel said in an interview with Man About Town. “It gives audiences a chance to get closer to me and me to get closer to them.”

Release date: TBC

What to expect: Give It To Me

In Case You Missed Them…

These albums are already out, but if you’re still playing catch-up, here’s what to expect…

Green Day: ‘Saviors’

Keeping the rebellious spirit of rock’n’roll alive and well, Green Day’s new album, Saviors, will be the pop-punk godfathers’ 14th studio outing, and is definitely one of the most highly anticipated albums to look out for in 2024. “It’s raw and emotional. Funny and disturbing,” the band said as they revealed the album’s release date. “It’s a laugh at the pain, weep in the happiness kind of record.” Expected to cover a broad range topics such as the twin threats of climate change and the alt-right, the perils of the opiate epidemic in North America, and social media’s role in stoking the culture wars, Saviors seems set to show that Green Day have lost none of their political bite.

Release date: 19 January 2024

What to expect: The American Dream Is Killing Me

The Smile: ‘Wall Of Eyes’

Comprised of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, of Radiohead fame, and former Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, art-rock trio The Smile are releasing their second album in late January 2024. Unlike their Nigel Godrich-produced debut, A Light For Attracting Attention, Wall Of Eyes will be produced by Sam Petts-Davies (Johnny Marr, Roger Waters, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and features strings from the London Contemporary Orchestra. Supported by a music video directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, Wall Of Eyes’s title track is an eerie acoustic ballad that comes across like a postmodern amalgam of bossa nova and psych-folk. With Radiohead increasingly unlikely to release new music any time soon, all eyes will be on The Smile for the foreseeable future.

Release date: 26 January 2024

What to expect: Wall Of Eyes

Declan McKenna: ‘What Happened To The Beach?’

Promising a joyful crop of energetic indie-pop songs for his third studio album, What Happened To The Beach?, Declan McKenna’s quirky songwriting talents have grown in leaps and bounds in recent years. “I wanted to open up and not worry about things so much,” McKenna has said. “I was putting a lot of pressure on myself in the past when I just needed to drop the intensity a bit and have some fun.” Hearing McKenna toy around with trumpet-toting psychedelia akin to Tame Impala on his new album’s lead single, Sympathy, is like basking in rays of pure sunshine. If the rest is as summery as this, What Happened To The Beach? will be worth dipping your toes into.

Release date: 9 February 2024

What to expect: Sympathy

IDLES: ‘Tangk’

Co-produced with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, The Smile) and hip-hop beatmaker Kenny Beats, IDLES’ fifth album, Tangk, will be released in February 2024. “I needed love. So I made it,” frontman Joe Talbot said when announcing the album. “I gave love out to the world and it feels like magic. This is our album of gratitude and power. All love songs. All is love.” Blessed with Talbot’s rage-filled screams and guitarist Mark Bowen’s punky thrashing, Tangk’s lead single, Dancer, is a reliably abrasive blast of choreographed chaos, with backing vocals provided by LCD Soundsystem members James Murphy and Nancy Whang. There’s a fine line between love and anger, it seems, and we’re sure these post-punk agitators will walk that tightrope with more passion and conviction than ever.

Release date: 16 February 2024

What to expect: Dancer

Hurray For The Riff Raff: ‘The Past Is Still Alive’

The Americana-inspired indie-rock group Hurray For The Riff Raff are set to return with their ninth studio album, The Past Is Still Alive, in late February. Giving fans the lowdown on why it sits among the albums to look out for in 2024, singer-songwriter Alynda Segarra explained that much of the new material processes the trauma of losing his father, with the band’s lead single, Alibi, disentangling the knots of grief and bereavement. “The Past Is Still Alive is an album grappling with time, memory, love and loss,” Segarra said in a press release. “A reckoning with time and memory.”

Release date: 23 February 2024

What to expect: Alibi

Liam Gallagher And John Squire: ‘Liam Gallagher John Squire’

Surprising fans with the swirling psych-rock single Just Another Rainbow, released in January 2022, Liam Gallagher put all the online rumours to rest by confirming that he had teamed up with John Squire for a collaborative full-length album. “We demoed eight of them in John’s studio and then John [has] done another two songs and we recorded them for the first time,” Gallagher said. “[I] sang them for the first time out in America in LA.” With the former Oasis frontman describing the results “the best record since [The Beatles’] Revolver”, Liam Gallagher John Squire has set out to hypnotise listeners into a psychedelic haze.

Release date: 1 March 2024

What to expect: Just Another Rainbow

Everything Everything: ‘Mountainhead’

It’s always fascinating to unpick the creative eccentricities of progressive-pop mavericks Everything Everything, whose previous album, 2022’s Raw Data Feel, utilised AI to satirically expose the dehumanising effects of technology – with surrealistic results. This time around, the band are releasing a fully fledged concept album, Mountainhead, which explores the social disunity wrought by capitalist forces. “It’s got a fairly simple concept; it’s about a fictional world wherein all of society is consumed with the building of a giant mountain,” singer Jonathan Higgs said in an interview with DORK magazine. “The only problem is they have to dig a big hole in order to build it, and they have to live in the hole.” With their strong track record of oddball intelligence and often hilarious lyrics, you can always rely on Everything Everything to unearth some indie-pop bangers, particularly if Mountainhead’s lead single, Cold Reactor, is anything to go by.

Release date: 1 March 2024

What to expect: Cold Reactor

Ariana Grande: ‘Eternal Sunshine’

2010’s most-streamed female artist on Spotify, Ariana Grande, is finally ready to reclaim her crown as pop’s saviour, with her first album in four years, Eternal Sunshine, due to be released on 8 March 2024. With Swedish super-producer Max Martin at the helm, we’re fully expecting it to be a blissfully sugar-coated affair full of punchy dance-pop floor-fillers and contemporary R&B-flavoured ballads. Giving Grande’s fans a taste of what to expect, the album’s lead single, yes, and?, instantly topped the US Hot 100 and peaked at No.2 in the UK, its dance-pop braggadocio setting expectations for Eternal Sunshine about as high as they could be.

Release date: 8 March 2024

What to expect: yes, and?

The Libertines: ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’

The Albion sails on course! It’s been eight long years since the quintessentially English indie-rockers The Libertines last released some new material, so their fourth studio album, All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, is primed to spark a 2000s rock revival. Recorded with producer Dimitri Tikovoï (Ghost, Placebo, Charli XCX) in a basement recording studio at the band’s hotel, The Albion Rooms, in Margate, Kent, it’s clear from the album’s lead single, Run Run Run, that songwriters Pete Doherty and Carl Barât are in fine fettle. “Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity,” Barât said during the announcement. “This one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”

Release date: 8 March 2024

What to expect: Run Run Run

The Black Keys: ‘Ohio Players’

Getting by with a little help from their friends, The Black Keys seem to have had a great deal of fun making their 12th studio album, Ohio Players. For their most collaborative project yet, the garage-rock duo teamed up with 90s alt-rock legend Beck, Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher and psych-rap visionary Dan “The Automator” Nakamura for a guest-packed musical journey. “We’d never worked harder to make a record,” Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach said in a press statement. “It’s never taken us this long to make an album. We took our time and did it right.” Due to be released on 5 April 2023, this cameo-filled fusion of gritty blues-rock and disarmingly psychedelic twists has found The Black Keys in a flow state of creativity, as evidenced by the album’s groove-heavy lead single, Beautiful People (Stay High).

Release date: 5 April 2024

What to expect: Beautiful People (Stay High)

English Teacher: ‘This Could Be Texas’

Hotly tipped for big things in 2024, Leeds-based post-punk group English Teacher have announced that their much-anticipated debut album, This Could Be Texas, will be released on 12 April 2024. Having been helmed by every indie hipster’s favourite producer, Dan Carey (Black Midi, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg), the album will see singer Lily Fontaine lyrically upping the ante on songs such as Albert Road, which reflects upon the problems of being mixed-race in post-Brexit Britain. “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space,” Fontaine said, “and it turns out it’s almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about in-betweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths.” Following the group’s incendiary performance of last year’s single, The World’s Biggest Paving Slab, on BBC TV show Later… With Jools Holland, all eyes will be on English Teacher on this year’s festival circuit.

Release date: 12 April 2024

What to expect: The World’s Biggest Paving Slab

Justice: ‘Hyperdrama’

It’s been seven long years since electro-house DJs Justice released their last album, Woman. In January 2024, however, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay came out of hiding to post a couple of video teasers revealing that their fourth studio album, Hyperdrama, is on its way. “I can tell you right now, they will have a new album and a new tour in 2024,” Pedro Winter, the founder of Justice’s label, Ed Banger Records, has revealed. With only a short snippet of a song, One Night/All Night, featuring Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, to go by, the French duo’s shimmering fusion of electro-house and 80s synth-funk grooves looks set to remind club-goers just how much Justice have been missed.

Release date: 26 April 2024

What to expect: One Night/All Night

Dua Lipa: ‘Radical Optimism’

As the most-streamed album from 2020, Dua Lipa’s second record, Future Nostalgia, was a cultural phenomenon that spawned numerous hit singles and TikTok dance crazes. Her follow-up, Radical Optimism, is due out in May and is said by the singer to be influenced by Britpop, trip-hop and “1970s-era psychedelia”. A retro-pop fusion of disco and synth-funk, a trailer single, Houdini, is already one of the best Dua Lipa songs and offers some clues about what to expect from its parent album, its dark and synth-heavy sound proving why Lipa is one of the most influential female artists of her generation. “I’m very excited about some of the new songs,” Lipa told Elton John during one of her Service95 podcasts, echoing how most fans feel about the release that tops our list of albums to look out for in 2024, “so it’s always exciting to look forward towards something.”

Release date: 3 May 2024

What to expect: Houdini

Rachel Chinouriri: ‘What A Devastating Turn Of Events’

Hailing from Croydon, South London, alt-pop songwriter Rachel Chinouriri is expected to make a major splash this year with the release of her debut album, What A Devastating Turn Of Events. With the singer describing the collection as “a personal journey of all the hardship and struggles that have ultimately made me the person I am today”, the lead-off single, Never Need Me, showcases Chinouriri’s love of indie-pop as it collides with an intoxicatingly eclectic array of influences. Taking her cues from the instant gratification of Sugababes to the dreamy wistfulness of Daughter, Chinouriri dabbles in a kaleidoscopic palette of sounds that is sure to appeal to this year’s Mercury Music Prize judges’ panel.

Release date: 3 May 2024

What to expect: Never Need Me

Sia: ‘Reasonable Woman’

Cloaked in an air of mystery, Australian pop songwriter Sia has long maintained her mystique by concealing her face behind oversized wigs. After putting her solo recording career on pause following the release of her 2017 Christmas album, Everyday Is Christmas (she co-wrote, directed and wrote the soundtrack for the movie musical Music, in 2021), Sia will return with her tenth album, Reasonable Woman, in the spring. Its very existence makes it one of the albums to look out for in 2024, and the Chandelier hitmaker has even begun doing interviews ahead of the record’s release, shedding light on the reasons behind her prolonged absence. “The truth is that I had just been every now and again writing a song here or there for the last six, seven years,” Sia told Zane Lowe, explaining that she had been struggling through “such a dark time” following her divorce. “And then, finally, it just turned out we had enough songs to make an album, enough good ones.” Reasonable Woman’s lead single, Gimme Love, is an electro-pop apéritif for Sia’s forthcoming sonic feast, offering a tantalizing glimpse into the alt-pop extravaganza that awaits.

Release date: 3 May 2024

What to expect: Gimme Love

Meghan Thee Stallion: ‘Megan’

Recently signing a major-label distribution deal, Texan rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s third studio album promises to bring her fiercely independent breed of hardcore hip-hop from the Dirty South to the heart of the pop mainstream. “I’m excited for this era because I get to do everything that I want to do whenever I want to do it,” Megan said during an Instagram Live. Last year’s single Cobra boasted a grimy fusion of chugging rap-rock guitar and trap beats that saw Megan shed her skin by recounting her struggles with depression, rattling off rhymes like a venomous Caspian. More recently, Hiss saw her coiling around reptilian vibes as if protecting a forbidden fruit, suggesting that this upcoming album could be Megan Thee Stallion’s most captivating offering yet.

Release date: 28 June 2024

What to expect: Cobra

Griff: ‘Vertigo’

Ever since she hit the UK Top 20 with Black Hole – one of the best songs of 2021 – the British alt-pop star Griff has gone from strength to strength supporting heavy-hitters such as Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and, most recently, Taylor Swift. Her debut studio album, Vertigo, is believed to be the first in a trilogy that will offer up an array of synth-pop pleasures to mess with our centre of gravity. “The album is about vertigo as an emotion and the dizziness and upside down feeling of heartache,” Griff announced. “I wanted to drop this project in parts from insular low feelings (Vol.1) to desperate euphoria (Vol.2) and with volume three, the full story.”

Release date: 19 July 2024

What to expect: Miss Me Too

Check out the best albums of 2024.

Original article: 29 December 2023

Updated: 5 March 2024. 28 July 2024