The most anticipated albums of 2025

Will Oldham is one of the most consistently reliable singer-songwriters in the business, both in terms of music quality and volume. Under the moniker Bonnie “Prince” Billy, he’s put out 24 records in the past 26 years. At the end of January, he’ll add another album to that list. The Purple Bird is an unusually collaborative album for Oldham; this is only the second time in his career that he’s worked with a producer. That producer is David “Ferg” Ferguson, who’s also credited as a songwriter on seven of the album’s 12 tracks. Sonically, The Purple Bird is shaping up to be the most straightforward country record of Oldham’s career, likely thanks to the influence of Ferguson, a legendary Nashville recording engineer who worked on several of Johnny Cash’s late-career albums. Oldham has always been something of a musical shapeshifter, so we’re excited to see him fully commit to a genre with the help of some pretty impressive collaborators.

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is the first record Van Etten has fully written with a band. The members of The Attachment Theory (bassist Devra Hoff, keyboardist/backing vocalist Teeny Lieberson, and drummer Jorge Balbi) were Van Etten’s longtime backing band when she was touring and recording as a solo artist, but for her upcoming record, she welcomed them into the writing process. For Van Etten, the process of letting go was difficult, but ultimately freeing. “Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go—letting go of her normal modus operandi or the need for control or attachment to the outcome. No safety net,” reads a note about the album. What that sounds like in practice is a looser, shaggier sound than we’ve ever heard from Van Etten, incorporating more synths and electronic experimentation. The two singles released so far, “Afterlife” and “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like),” are like cousins rather than siblings, and that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the rest of the record will be similarly surprising.

Doves had the good manners to only make us wait five years for Constellations For The Lonely, an improvement upon the 11-year gap between their previous two albums, 2009’s Kingdom Of Rust and 2020’s The Universal Want. And yeah, technically we should be grateful for any new music from Doves at all, considering the hiatus after Kingdom Of Rust could have been permanent, but it wasn’t, and The Universal Want was such a good return to form for the band that we got a little greedy. Constellations For The Lonely continues the band’s evolution, drawing inspiration from Roy Batty’s (Rutger Hauer) “tears in rain” speech from Blade Runner. “We wanted [album opener and lead single] “Renegades” to start with this apocalyptic atmosphere,” guitarist Jez Williams explained to NME. And though that’s an accurate description of “Renegades,” there’s also a sliver of hope in there toward the end as the music builds and swells into something bleak and beautiful. This is the most self-assured Doves has sounded in decades.

Horsegirl’s second full-length album is a departure from their first. Rather than the fuzzed-out shoegaze sound of 2022’s Versions Of Modern Performance, Phonetics On And On explores “new, bright, clear, sonic territories that highlight the inventive nature of these new songs.” What’s not different is the band’s uncanny ability to transport listeners with their music; their first album was a throwback to the indie scene circa 1997, while this one sounds more like it belongs in the early 2000s. It’s an impressive thing for three people who weren’t even alive in the ’90s to be able to capture and their ability to filter that sound through a modern lens is captivating.

Banks is getting back to her roots with her upcoming fifth album, Off With Her Head. “In many ways, this album serves as a big sister to [my first album] Goddess. After a decade apart, I’ve reunited with the core musicians and producers who shaped my debut. Yet, it also represents something entirely new, reflecting my growth as both an artist and a person,” Banks said in a press statement. Plus, she teamed up with rap’s hottest young star, Doechii, for the album’s first single, “I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend,” and it’s pretty great.

After 15 solo albums, Bob Mould knows exactly who he is—and what kind of music he likes to make. “On the surface, this is a group of straightforward guitar pop songs. I’m refining my primary sound and style through simplicity, brevity, and clarity,” Mould said about his upcoming album, Here We Go Crazy. “Under the hood, there’s a number of contrasting themes. Control and chaos, hypervigilance and helplessness, uncertainty and unconditional love.” That all sounds intriguing, but honestly, we’d take anything Mould is willing to give us.

Pop music is having a moment right now, a fact that is clearly not lost on SASAMI. The former synth player of Cherry Glazerr has released two solo albums since parting ways with the band, each distinct in style. Her first album, SASAMI, had a low-key singer-songwriter vibe, while her second album, Squeeze, embraced heavy metal. With Blood On The Silver Screen, she’s changing tactics once again and going full-on pop, explaining to Bandcamp,  “Pop music is like fuel. It’s just invigorating.” Despite the genre’s current popularity, the pivot doesn’t feel like she’s trying to capitalize on a trend. Instead, her new songs showcase the elasticity of pop music and her ability to form it into something wholly unique.

The title of Japanese Breakfast’s upcoming album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), comes from the record’s first single, “Orlando In Love.” It’s a retelling of Orlando Innamorato, a Renaissance poem by Matteo Maria Boiardo, in which a knight pursues a princess through forests and castles and duels and wars. In singer, guitarist, and lyricist Michelle Zauner’s hands, the tale turns into the story of a poet living in a Winnebago by the sea who is tempted by a siren’s song. Temptation is a major theme of the album, and Zauner drew from her experience with becoming an overnight sensation after the success of her 2021 memoir, Crying In H Mart. Japanese Breakfast has been a cool-kid bellwether since their 2016 debut, Psychopomp, but with Zauner’s newfound mainstream fame, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) might be the band’s major breakout, too.

It’s not really fair to say that Coheed And Cambria are back on their bullshit, because they’ve almost never been off it. Ever since the prog rock band’s first record, 2002’s The Second Stage Turbine Blade, they’ve been using their music to tell an epic sci-fi story. Vaxis: Act III: The Father Of Make Believe is the 10th concept album in that story, which is called The Amory Wars and also includes comic books and novels written by frontman Claudio Sanchez. Look, it’s a lot, and it’s intimidating to get into, but even if you don’t know the whole backstory and don’t understand anything that’s going on in the lyrics, Coheed And Cambria’s music still sounds like the soundtrack to the last stand in a post-apocalyptic hellscape war where fire rains down from the sky, and that’s still pretty awesome, even after more than 20 years.

Lana Del Rey announced her 10th record, The Right Person Will Stay, in an Instagram post back in November 2024, but there isn’t much information available on it; she hasn’t yet released any singles. However, in January 2024, she said to Billboard about her next album: “We’re going country!” She also said that album would be called Lasso and it would be released in September 2024, and neither of those things turned out to be true, so it’s not clear yet if The Right Person Will Stay is still going to be her country album, just with a different name, or if she’s shelved the whole country thing for now. But in her announcement post for The Right Person Will Stay, Del Rey promised that we’d hear some new songs before the country music festival Stagecoach, which takes place in April. Whether or not Lasso and The Right Person Will Stay are the same album, it seems like a safe bet that Del Rey’s new music will probably lean more country than her previous work, and we’re intrigued by what she’ll do in that space.

Cover The Mirrors is Ben Kweller’s first album since his 16-year-old son died in a car crash in 2023. The record is his way of processing his grief. “When [my son] Dorian died in 2023 I was overcome with the need to make music. I didn’t care what came out of me because it was the only way I could find peace in my earth-shattering grief,” Kweller said in a press release. “Cover The Mirrors is helping me cope with my new reality and these songs are part of that journey.” The first single, “Optimystic,” is disarmingly upbeat, a surface-level groove hiding lyrics laced with dumbstruck pain. The layers and nuance in just that one song point toward Cover The Mirrors being one of Kweller’s definitive records.

A$AP Rocky has been teasing his fourth album, Don’t Be Dumb, since June 2024. It was supposed to drop in August of that year but was eventually pushed back, first to fall 2024 and then to early 2025. We still don’t have an official release date for the record yet—the rapper claims sample clearance is causing the delay—but the three singles released so far have been great, and the guest artists, including Tyler, the Creator, Dean Blunt, and Jessica Pratt, are exciting.

The Cure released one of our favorite albums of 2024 after a 15-year absence, but according to frontman Robert Smith, the wait for the next album won’t be nearly as long. Smith told Radio X that the band is planning to release a companion album to Songs Of A Lost World before summer 2025. The songs on the upcoming record were recorded during the same sessions as Songs Of A Lost World, which was originally intended to be a double album. Smith said the new record will probably include 10 songs.

Doechii had a banner year in 2024 with her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, and she also had a prime guest spot on Tyler, the Creator’s “Balloon.” But she’s got her sights set even higher in 2025. She told Variety, “I was able to birth [Alligator Bites Never Heal] out of pure presence and creativity, and I think I want to carry that with all of my projects and have that mentality moving forward.” She also told the publication that her official debut album will definitely drop in 2025. “All I can think about is this album, so I’m just looking forward to making more hits, making more music, and achieving more of my goals. That’s it,” she said.

The Barcelona music festival Primavera Sound is responsible for getting our hopes up about a new LCD Soundsystem album in 2025, hopes which frontman James Murphy tempered—but didn’t completely dash—soon after. The timeline goes like this: On October 22, 2024, Anu Ambasna premiered a new LCD Soundsystem song called “X-Ray Eyes” on her NTS radio show Soup To Nuts. It was a surprise drop with no official announcement from the band (classic LCD Soundsystem). Then, Primavera Sound sent out a press release announcing the festival’s 2025 lineup, which features LCD Soundsystem, that included this exciting tidbit: “The influential band led by James Murphy will come back to the festival (and with a new album!) to make it clear that, although they are an inherent part of our best memories, their time is always now.” Given the low-key premiere of “X-Ray Eyes,” it wasn’t especially surprising that this would be how the band chose to announce their new album, too. Except, this time, Primavera got a little ahead of themselves, and Murphy finally clarified what was going on in a Facebook post on November 1. “so [sic] there’s a new lcd song now called x ray eyes,” he wrote. “it’s the first single of what’s shaping up to be a new album.  don’t ask me when that is, because we’re still working on it.  but it feels very good to be putting out new music.” It might be a while before we hear a whole new album, but official confirmation that the band is working on new material is still great news.