Image via Complex Original
Over the past couple of months we’ve gotten a pretty solid string of album releases (thanks to Miguel, the Internet, and A$AP Rocky), but in the midst of this recent musical reign of greatness we’ve also been getting hints at a handful of new albums that are tentatively being dropped this year by some of the music industry’s biggest powerhouses.
Amongst whispers of these long-awaited new records, we’ve rounded up five albums that we’re patiently waiting for and everything that we know about them so far.
Blaire Monroe is a writer living in New York. Follow her @dare2blaire.
Kid Cudi
Yes, Mr. Solo Dolo has been dropping hints about his next album, Speedin' Bullet to Heaven, for quite some time now. But it’s hard to blame the guy for taking his time with this release since he’s clearly been killing it all over the creative board with a variety of side projects that he’s been working on. Homie has been acting in movies, launching new television shows and writing, producing, and recording not one, but two albums.
On the 4th of July the Lonely Stoner let us know via Twitter that we’ll be getting our first dose of his fifth studio album, SBTH, before the end of the month.
Sbth is 98% finished You will hear the first single before the end of the month
— Scott Mescudi (@KidCudi) July 4, 2015
He also let us know that he has produced every track on the album, along with some help from longtime collaborator Plain Pat, and no, there will not be any synths or electronic sound on this album.
I produced every record myself, the only other person involved creatively production wise is Plain Pat.
— Scott Mescudi (@KidCudi) July 4, 2015
There are no synths or electronic sounds on the album It consist of all guitar and bass played by myself
— Scott Mescudi (@KidCudi) July 4, 2015
I've ripped my heart out and carved it into tiny pieces of musical madness
— Scott Mescudi (@KidCudi) July 4, 2015
Your grind is appreciated, Cudder. We’ll be keeping an eye out.
The Weeknd
The Weeknd has already been bringing the heat this summer by dropping two back-to-back, chart-topping singles—“The Hills” and “I Can’t Feel My Face,” and it looks like he’s not slowing down any time soon. In fact, he recently took to Twitter to announce his album title, Beauty Behind the Madness, and added that the pre-order will be available shortly.
ALBUM TITLE: BEAUTY BEHIND THE MADNESS (PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE SHORTLY) pic.twitter.com/tSTSS89alw
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) July 9, 2015
Although there hasn’t been much else reported about the release date for the album, Ed Sheeran recently (and randomly) revealed to Zane Lowe that the only feature on the Weeknd’s upcoming album will be none other than Kanye West.
After seeing the duo’s Coachella performance back in April, we really don’t need anymore convincing that this album is about to be straight flames.
Rihanna
A new album RIH-lease from the Bad Gal is long overdue. Rihanna hasn’t had a new album out since the release of Unapologetic back in 2012, and her fans are hungry for her next studio album, which is tentatively being called R8. So far we’ve gotten a tiny taste of what’s to come with singles “FourFiveSeconds” and “BBHMM,” but we haven’t yet gotten word of any solid release date.
We’ve been temporarily satisfying ourselves by gorging on her latest controversial visuals for “BBHMM” and all of the think-pieces that have come along with it, but this will only last us for so long.
We need that new new, Rih Rih. Where’s it at?
Kanye West
Yeezy may have some leeway as to why his upcoming album, SWISH (f.k.a. So Help Me God), hasn’t been dropped yet since he spent most of last year having sex with Kim Kardashian 500 times a day, conceiving a baby boy, releasing a clothing line, and what not, but Yeezus, we are ready for some new music.
There have been speculations of a fall 2015 release date, but none of these have been confirmed by the Louis Vuitton Don himself.
It’s hard to get a grasp for what the album is going to sound like when comparing his two official singles, “All Day” and “Only One.” However we do hear a little bit of the old, College Dropout'Ye mixed into “Only One,” which makes longtime fans hopeful for a winning eighth studio album—not that Kanye gives any fucks about what we think.
Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean is probably the only artist we know whose absence from the music industry keeps him just as relevant as his music does. We’re really missing the shit out of this guy. We can’t go on continuously visiting and revisiting Channel Orange hoping it will hold us over until we get that new record. Seriously, where the hell is Frank Ocean? Has he seen the state of R&B? Does he not know that the game needs him desperately? The Internet can’t carry this load on their own forever, man, and we can’t keep letting Miguel get away with thinking he owns the place, ya dig?
We’ve barely heard anything from the R&B singer since the release of the wildly successful Channel Orange, aside from when he fired shots at Chipotle. However, a rep of his confirmed with Billboard back in April that he will be releasing both a new album (untitled as of right now) and a new publication called Boys Don’t Cry some time this month. *Insert prayer hands emoji*
It looks like the next couple of weeks are about to be major for the music world.