1. Selena Gomez — Rare (January 10)
With Gomez’s chronic health troubles, publicised relationships and familial spats, the singer said she’s relieved to be wrapping up her third record. “It took me four years now to even feel at a good place with this album, just because I had such huge moments that happened in my life … There’s always going to be a sense of strong pop in my music, but I explored more with electric guitar and soulful tracks.”
2. Poppy — I Disagree (January 10)
YouTube sensation Poppy is peculiar — one of her videos, titled ‘I’m Poppy’, is just 10 minutes of her repeating those two words; it has more than 23 million views. For her first two albums, Poppy partnered creatively with Titanic Sinclair. But this week, the 24-year-old accused Sinclair of “glamorising suicide” and manipulating her. Poppy’s upcoming album ‘I Disagree’ will head in a heavier direction, she’s said. “People are calling it my third album, but it really feels like my first,” added Poppy, signalling a rebirth.
3. Halsey — Manic (January 17)
Halsey is baring her soul on ‘Manic’, paying homage to her pop rock inspirations with tracks like ‘Graveyard’ and getting real about doomed relationships on ‘Without Me’. With unreleased track names like ‘You Should Be Sad’ and ‘I Hate Everybody’ — as well as an interlude by queen of break-up songs Alanis Morissette — we expect a cynical but spirited turn for Halsey.
4. Bombay Bicycle Club — Everything Else Has Gone Wrong (January 17)
Frontman Jack Steadman says the band’s first album in five years is “about the frustration of not being able to express myself to others, of leaving conversations feeling dissatisfied and misunderstood but relying on music to communicate.”
5. Kesha — High Road (January 31)
Kesha’s 2017 album ‘Rainbow’ was tethered to an emotionally taxing legal battle — everyone was waiting to hear the singer’s powerful comeback and lyrical lashing of her former producer. But her fourth album ‘High Road’ sees her return more fully to her pop roots, as Kesha says she “reconnected to the unrestrained joy and wildness that’s always been a part of me.”
6. PartyNextDoor — Club Atlantis (January, TBA)
This will be PartyNextDoor’s first studio album in four years, and the lead track ‘Loyal’ is a collaboration with Drake, who put his fellow Canadian singer-songwriter on the map back in 2013, when PND became the first artist to sign with Drake’s label OVO.
7. Green Day — Father of All… (February 7)
Our favourite potty-mouthed punk rockers are back. They’re aiming for raw and unfiltered on their 13th studio album, describing its content as “soul, Motown, glam and manic anthemic. Punks, freaks and punishers! … The life AND death of the party. Not political. Surviving in chaos. The real [expletive].”
8. Lauv — How I’m Feeling (March 6)
Lauv has become the poster boy for contemporary emo pop — a bottle blonde reincarnation of dark-fringed sad boys that reigned in the early ‘00s. Lauv’s ‘How I’m Feeling’ — stylised as ~how i’m feeling~ — is irresistible so far, with tracks like ‘Mean It (ft LANY)’ and ‘I’m So Tired (ft Troye Sivan)’ hitting the sweet spot between catchy and melancholic.
9. Alanis Morissette — Such Pretty Forks in the Road (May 1)
2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Alanis Morissette’s seminal album ‘Jagged Little Pill’. After an eight-year hiatus, the Canadian songstress returns with a brand new offering, and if the new single ‘Reasons I Drink’ is any indication, we expect sprightly piano numbers juxtaposed against Morissette’s perfectly evocative vocal and bitingly relatable storytelling.
10. Justin Bieber — TBA
After tying the knot with Hailey Baldwin last year, Justin Bieber took time off to focus on his faith and to lead a normal life — as normal as a millionaire pop star’s could be. But it’s been a full five years since his trendsetting 2015 album ‘Purpose’ and fans are ecstatic that the hit-maker is back with the single ‘Yummy’ (dropping on January 3) and an album set for 2020. We’re fully expecting him to innovate and shift the course of pop yet again.
11. Cardi B — TBA
Cardi B’s debut album ‘Invasion of Privacy’ is Spotify’s most-streamed female rap album in history, passing 2.8 billion streams — but the Bronx star is not done yet and says she’s in competition with herself on album two. “I’m just going to have fun in the studio and do what I like to do,” said Cardi.
12. The Killers — Imploding the Mirage (TBA)
The Nevada rockers are going back to their synth-rock roots on a follow-up to 2017’s ‘Wonderful Wonderful’. According to frontman Brandon Flowers: “Some of that stuff is starting to resurface and a lot of that had to do with synthesiser music. It’s always been part of our DNA but it’s definitely creeping up.”
13. Megan Thee Stallion — TBA
In September, rising Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion signed a management deal with Roc Nation, the same Jay Z-owned agency that shot Rihanna to superstardom years ago. Megan dropped her mixtape ‘Fever’ in 2019 but hinted at releasing her debut studio album next, possibly under a new moniker: Suga. “I never wanted to do an album ‘cause I was like, ‘Oh, that feel like marriage. That’s a commitment.’ But now, I’m ready to settle down with an album,” she said.
14. Rihanna — R9 (TBA)
Our New Year Resolution? That Rihanna releases new music. The Barbadian pop star (head of Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty) has continued to torment us about ‘R9’ and withhold intel on the elusive album, focusing on her make-up and lingerie brands instead. Just last week she teased fans with a video of a white puppy headbanging with the caption: “update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it.” Her last album ‘Anti’ came out in 2016, so it’s about time she gives in to her fans’ demands to, and we quote, ‘DROP THE ALBUM’. (That being said, we’ll wait forever if we have to.)
15. Normani — TBA
Post-Fifth Harmony, Normani is gaining momentum with solo pop hits (‘Motivation’) and sensitive duets (‘Love Lies’ with Khalid). But the singer, who often throws it back to old school vibes a la Destiny’s Child, has promised to wow with even more aspects of herself on her debut solo album.
16. Dua Lipa — Future Nostalgia (TBA)
Dua Lipa has already dropped ‘Don’t Start Now’, the lead single from her sophomore album, and if it’s anything to go by, then ‘Future Nostalgia’ will have a disco-pop vibe to it. According to Lipa, the follow-up to her 2017 self-titled debut album will feel “like a dancercise class”.
17. Lana Del Rey — White Hot Fever (TBA)
Fans of Lana Del Rey’s acclaimed 2019 album ‘Norman [Expletive] Rockwell’ won’t have to wait long for new music — Del Rey has already announced a 2020 album titled ‘White Hot Fever’. “I’m really excited right now. I don’t want to take a break,” she said, adding that it will likely be a surprise release.
18. Kid Cudi — Entergalactic (TBA)
Kid Cudi’s first solo album since 2017’s ‘Passion, Pain and Demon Slayin’’, ‘Entergalactic’ will be accompanied by an animated series on Netflix. ‘Black-ish’ creator Kenya Barris writes and executive produces, saying: “[T]here’s never been an album and a series dropped at the same time, so each song will have a 30-minute narrative that kind of explains what that song is about… It’s a youthful love story told through Cudi’s music.”
19. Angels & Airwaves — (TBA)
Tom DeLonge has called the new Angels & Airwaves album “potentially the most mature and emotional work I’ve ever done”. Formerly of Blink-182, DeLonge is lead vocalist and guitarist of the band, which released five albums between 2006 and 2014, making the next their first in six years.
20. Ava Max — (TBA)
You may know Ava Max from her ‘Sweet But Psycho’ single. The 25-year-old American singer was initially supposed to release her debut album this year, but has postponed it until 2020, saying the album will house “a ton of strong, pop anthems.”
