We gaze into our crystal ball for forthcoming LPS

There are reasons aplenty to believe 2021 will be a more positive year than the one it replaces – but it has its work cut out delivering a better crop of albums. However, if these already promised ones are anything to go by, then we shouldn’t worry.

CERTIFIED LOVER BOY DRAKE

Initially expected in summer 2020, when he released lead single Laugh Now Cry Later, Drake’s sixth studio album was pushed back to January, which served only to heighten the anticipation. It’s not as if the world’s biggest rapper has been missing, dropping his Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape in May, but he says Certified Lover Boy will be “music to evolve to”.

UTOPIA TRAVIS SCOTT

Drake isn’t rap music’s only big hitter primed to release new music in 2021. Travis Scott announced the follow-up to 2018’s Astroworld a few months ago. If the single Franchise is anything to go by, we can expect some huge features, with Young Thug and M.I.A. appearing on that track.

SOUND ANCESTORS MADLIB & FOUR TET

Kieran Hebden released his tenth album as Four Tet in 2020 and, in December, revealed he has spent the past few years working with rapper and producer Madlib on an album to be released in January. “I was listening to some of his new beats and had the idea it would be great to hear them on a Madlib solo album,” he said. “Not for vocalists to use but arranged into an album designed to be listened from start to finish.”

AS THE LOVE CONTINUES MOGWAI

Mogwai’s first non-soundtrack album since 2017’s Every Country’s Sun, is to be released on 19th February – 25 years since the band released its first single, Tuner/lower. The Scottish post-rock pioneers have evolved since then, but the lead single Dry Fantasy shows that their output is no less atmospheric.

SPARE RIBS SLEAFORD MODS

Jason Williamson is someone whose thoughts we are always ready to hear, for the acerbic wit as much as the value of their content. And if ever there was a time we needed Sleaford Mods’ input, it is now. We’ve had a taster with the single Mork + Mindy and we can’t wait for the album’s full release on 14th January.

LEGACY+ FEMI KUTI & MADE KUTI

Father and son duo Femi and Made Kuti – son and grandson respectively of legendary Nigerian bandleader Fela Kuti – will release Legacy+ on 5th February. It’s a double record made up of the albums For(e)ward and Stop The Hate. “I’ve learned so much from my father, politically, socially and musically, that I know this lovely project is only the beginning of more beautiful things to come,” says Made.

TBA THE CURE

We’ve been awaiting another record from The Cure since 4:13 Dream in 2008, so there’s no guarantee it will actually arrive, but Robert Smith hinted this has been a fruitful year for the band when he spoke to BBC Radio 6. “Our whole idea for this year was really finishing off the album we started last year,” he said. “Because there have been no other distractions; I’ve actually got a lot of what I wanted to do done.”

AS DAYS GET DARK ARAB STRAP

It’s set to be a big year for Mogwai’s record label, Rock Action, which is also home to the return of Arab Strap. Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton released their first songs under the moniker for 15 years in 2020, with the singles The Turning Of Our Bones and Compersion Pt.1, and that pair of shadowy poems will find their way onto As Days Get Dark on 5th March.

ISLES BICEP

If Bicep’s self-titled debut album introduced the Northern Irish duo to the mainstream in 2017, Isles is surely about to launch them into the stratosphere. We’ve already heard enough to expect an even more euphoric set of festival-ready dance tunes when the new album is released on 22nd January, the singles Atlas, Apricots and Saku filling us with the hope of a summer spent with everyone we missed in 2020.

TBA FKA TWIGS

We haven’t quite got over the majesty of FKA twigs’s second album, Magdalene, yet she has written another. “I ended up making a whole album in quarantine,” she told the Grammy Museum’s Programs At Home series. “It was maybe one-third of the way through and I just said, ‘you know what, I’m going to make an album’.” There’s no title or release date confirmed, but we’ll be here whenever it drops.