SWEET RELEASE
Out with the old tunes, in with the new: Darryl Sterdan presents 18 of the most-anticipated albums of 2018 in chronological order, along with a list of other upcoming releases. But before you mark the calendar, remember the release dates are subject to ch
FALL OUT BOY| MANIA
FOB will release no music before its time — and it’s finally time for their seventh studio album, which was pushed back from the fall because they felt it was being rushed. (Jan. 19)
MIGOS | CULTURE 2
Badder and Boujee-er? We’ll see if rap phenoms Quavo, Offset and Takeoff can keep the momentum flowing on this sequel to their 2017 commercial breakthrough. (January)
FRANZ FERDINAND | ALWAYS ASCENDING
Nearly five years after Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the Scottish indie-rockers return with a fifth album. You couldn’t have it much better than that, right? (Feb. 9)
SUPERCHUNK | WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE
No, the Chapel Hill, N.C., indierock icons aren’t covering Drake and Future’s 2015 mixtape. They’re plugging back in to tackle lighthearted topics like, as frontman Mac McCaughan puts it, “incipient authoritarianism.” (Feb. 16)
COWBOY JUNKIES | TBA
Dim the lights and get comfy — Canada’s beloved alt-country siblings are about to release their first disc of original material since their Nomad Series wrapped in 2012. (February)
DAVID BYRNE | AMERICAN UTOPIA
Ain’t got no records to play? Take heart — according to one early online retail listing, the former Talking Head’s first solo studio album in more than a decade will finally arrive this spring. (March 9)
JIMI HENDRIX | BOTH SIDES OF THE SKY
The late guitar god’s umpteenth posthumous release unearths another 10 previously unreleased cuts, including collaborations with Stephen Stills and Johnny Winter. (March 9)
JUDAS PRIEST | FIREPOWER
Can the veteran metal gods still deliver the goods? Find out when lead shrieker Rob Halford and Co. unleash their 18th studio album in 44 years. (March)
BUTTHOLE SURFERS | TBA
There’s a time for drugs and a time to be sane . ... And if there ever was a time for these Austin, Texas, weirdos to reunite and release their first album in 15 years, it’s now. (summer)
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE | TBA
The good news: JT has suggested he has new music “on the way” this spring. The bad news? His first non-soundtrack disc since 2015 is rumoured to be a country album. (TBA)
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS | TBA
Now fronted by ex-X Factor finalist Jeff Gutt — who slides right in on their recent single Meadow — the California crew return with their long-overdue seventh studio set. (TBA)
LILY ALLEN | THE FOURTH WALL
Our Lil has apparently been working on her memoirs — and the followup to her 2014 album Sheezus. Based on first single Trigger Bang, it might be a fairly languid affair. (TBA)
TOOL
After 12 years, Maynard James Keenan and Co. are readying a disc that is “epic, majestic, symphonic, brutal, beautiful, tribal ... and very Tool” — according to Tom Morello. (TBA)
VAMPIRE WEEKEND | TBA
According to frontman Ezra Koenig, the beloved New York indie crew’s fourth full-length was inspired by everyone from Kanye West to Kacey Musgraves. Um, OK. (TBA)
JACK WHITE | BOARDING HOUSE REACH
If eternal iconoclast White’s followup to 2014’s Lazaretto is half as eclectic and puzzling as his four-minute teaser video, we’re in for some serious freaka-deliciousness. (TBA)
IGGY AZALEA | SURVIVING THE SUMMER
Well, fancy that: After years of drama, delays and difficulties, Aussie rapper Azalea finally seems ready to follow up her 2014 career-making debut, The New Classic. (TBA)
CARLY RAE JEPSEN | SPREAD LOVE
Call her clumsy. It seems the Canadian popster unwittingly revealed the name of her next disc while tweeting about the single Cut to the Feeling last summer. (TBA)
LORETTA LYNN | WOULDN’T IT BE GREAT
The country legend pushed back the release of her latest disc after suffering a stroke last year. It would be great if she were fully recovered by the time it debuts. (TBA)
ON THE HORIZON Jan. 5
Jon Brion | Lady Bird Soundtrack Lil Pump | Lil Pump Summoning | With Doom We Come
Jan. 12
Bad Company | Live At Red Rocks Big Star | Live At Lafayette’s Music Room-Memphis, TN
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Wrong Creatures
Black Veil Brides | Vale Camila Cabello | Camila Petula Clark | Living For Today Anderson East | Encore Tinsley Ellis | Winning Hand Meghan Patrick | Country Music Made Me Do It
Joe Satriani | What Happens Next Umphrey’s McGee | it’s not us
Jan. 19
Anvil | Pounding the Pavement Bahamas | Earthtones
Belle and Sebastian | How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 2) Black Label Society | Grimmest Hits
Chick Corea + Steve Gadd Band | Chinese Butterfly
Tommy Emmanuel | Accomplice One
First Aid Kit | Ruins Fleetwood Mac | Fleetwood Mac (Deluxe Edition)
Inara George | Dearest Everybody John Gorka | True in Time
Go! Team | Semicircle Glen Hansard | Between Two Shores
Kimbra | Primal Heart
Meat Beat Manifesto | Impossible Star
Moon Taxi | Let the Record Play Mudhoney | Lie
Of Mice & Men | Defy
Joe Perry | Sweetzerland Manifesto Phillip Phillips | Collateral Porches | The House
Charlie Puth | Voicenotes
They Might Be Giants | I Like Fun Tune-Yards | I can feel you creep into my private life
Walking Papers | WP2
Jan. 26
Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals | Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue Calexico | The Thread That Keeps Us
Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons | The Age of Absurdity Country Joe & The Fish | The Wave of Electrical Sound
Craig David | The Time Is Now Mary Gauthier | Rifles & Rosary Beads
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa | Black Coffee
Loudness | Rise to Glory Machine Head | Catharsis Nightmares on Wax | Shape the Future
Ty Segall | Freedom’s Goblin Rick Springfield | The Snake King Steep Canyon Rangers | Out in the Open
Feb. 2
Awolnation | Here Come the Runts Field Music | Open Here James Hunter Six | Whatever It Takes
Montgomery Gentry | Here’s to You Saxon | Thunderbolt
Simple Minds | Walk Between Worlds
Story Untold | Waves
Feb. 9
Beth Nielsen Chapman | Hearts of Glass Dashboard Confessional | Crooked Shadows
Brian Fallon | Sleepwalkers Ezra Furman | Transangelic Exodus Joan As Police Woman | Damned Devotion
Son Lux | Brighter Wounds
Feb. 16
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet | Landfall Belle and Sebastian | How To Solve Our Human Problems (Part 3) Born Ruffians | Uncle, Duke & The Chief Brandi Carlile | By the Way, I Forgive You Lee DeWyze | Paranoia Escape the Fate | I Am Human I’m With Her | See You Around Neal Morse | Life & Times Senses Fail | If There Is Light, It Will Find You U.S. Girls | In a Poem Unlimited Wild Beasts | Last Night All My Dreams Came True Wiley | Godfather II
Feb. 23
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong | Cheek To Cheek: The Complete Duet Recordings
Femi Kuti | One People One World Grant-Lee Phillips | Widdershins Professor and the Madman | Disintegrate Me
Shy Kids | In a State