15 albums we can’t wait to hear this year
2019 is already shaping up to be a promising year in the world of music
New year, new music. From releases that already have a confirmed date to the tobe-announced projects that artists have hinted at in interviews and on social media, 2019 is already shaping up to be promising when it comes to the new albums on the horizon.
Some familiar names, such as Avril Lavigne and Carly Rae Jepsen, haven’t shared a fulllength album in years, while others such as Ariana Grande and Kanye West will return with new projects mere months after their previous releases.
Read on for the 15 confirmed and strongly rumored albums we’re expecting, and excited, to hear in 2019.
Ariana Grande, ‘Thank U, Next’ (release date TBA)
Arianators – the preferred name for Ariana Grande fans – received great news in late 2018 when the singer announced she was finishing her new release “Thank U, Next,” which shares the name of her No. 1 single, just months after her fourth album “Sweetener” came out in August.
Avril Lavigne, ‘Head Above Water’ (Feb. 15)
Lavigne’s sixth album is her first release in five years, a stretch in which she battled Lyme disease and spent a while away from singing, struggles she documents on the “Head Above Water” lead single and title track.
Backstreet Boys, ‘DNA’ (Jan. 25)
Six years and one hit Las Vegas residency later, the Backstreet Boys are returning in 2019 with their 10th studio album, “DNA,” the band’s first full-length effort since “In a World Like This” in 2013.
Bruce Springsteen, title TBA (release date TBA)
Ahead of closing his yearlong “Springsteen on Broadway” run Dec. 15, the rocker shared he’d be spending his 2019 working on “various recording projects” and told the U.K’s Sunday Times that he has a finished album locked and loaded, “a singer-songwriter album – more of a solo record.”
Carly Rae Jepsen, title TBA (release date TBA)
The “Call Me Maybe” hitmaker turned cult pop icon confirmed that her effervescent new single “Party For One” will be part of a new album set for 2019, her first full-length release since 2015’s “Emotion.”
Florida Georgia Line, ‘Can’t Say I Ain’t Country’ (Feb. 15)
The cheeky album title is a fitting description for the country band, whose forthcoming fourth release also includes features from guests Jason Aldean and Jason Derulo.
Kanye West, ‘Yandhi’ (release date TBA)
West has been teasing a new release titled “Yandhi” for a good chunk of 2018. The album had been set for release Black Friday, but the rapper delayed it again, saying his recent performance with Kid Cudi inspired him to get back in the studio and keep tinkering with his music.
Lana Del Rey, ‘Norman (Expletive) Rockwell’ (release date TBA)
For her sixth album, the singer teamed with producer Jack Antonoff – who was behind recent albums from Taylor Swift, Lorde and St. Vincent – and has since released the promising lead single “Mariners Apartment Complex.”
Madonna, title TBA (release date TBA)
The pop legend told WWD in October that she would be releasing her 14th studio album in 2019, sharing on Instagram the next month that the music was in the final mixing stages.
Mike Posner, ‘A Real Good Kid’ (Jan. 18)
The “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” singer/producer shared that his forthcoming third album was inspired by a particularly difficult two-year stretch in his life during which he moved back to his childhood home outside Detroit to care for his terminally ill father.
Meghan Trainor, ‘Treat Myself’ (Jan. 25)
The pop singer delayed her third studio album from an August release to January, sharing on Instagram that she “(couldn’t) stop writing songs” and needed more time in the studio to make her visions come to life.
Miley Cyrus, title TBA (release date TBA)
After stepping away from hip-hop influences for a twangier sound on her 2017 album “Younger Now,” Cyrus confirmed she recorded songs for a forthcoming album with Mike Will Made-It, the rap producer behind Cyrus’s 2013 album “Bangerz.”
Pearl Jam, title TBA (release date TBA)
Pearl Jam fans were given a serious reason to believe the band’s new album will be arriving soon when frontman Eddie Vedder announced at the band’s final show of 2018 in Boston that the next time the bandmates would play together would be in the studio. A local Seattle record store also confirmed Vedder was hard at work recording.
Weezer, ‘Weezer (The Black Album)’ (March 1)
The follow-up to 2017’s “Pacific Daydream,” the band’s self-titled “Black Album” may or may not include its successful cover of Toto’s “Africa” from earlier last year, which followed a social media campaign to get Weezer to record the cult classic song released in 1982.
Jennifer Lopez, title TBA (release date TBA)
Way back in 2017, Lopez confirmed she had a Spanish-language album on the way, sharing that the title would be “Por Primera Vez” (“For the First Time”). And while that album never materialized, she returned in early 2018 with the single “Dinero” featuring DJ Khaled and Cardi B, raising questions about whether more new music would follow soon.