Eminem – Curtain Call 2
Albeit a greatest hits collection, this still clearly warrants an inclusion on this list. Comprising all of the Detroit rapper’s creative endeavours since his 2009 album ‘Relapse,’ it will include tracks from side-projects, guest appearances, film soundtrack songs (including for the recent Elvis film), and choice cuts from his solo albums.
Kasabian – The Alchemist’s Euphoria
Kasabian’s seventh studio album, this will be the Leicester band’s first since the departure of former frontman Tom Meighan, who stepped away from the outfit in 2020 due to “personal issues”. Serge Pizzorno has said the album’s “huge sound… came from me bouncing off Kanye and old ‘70s soul cuts from digging in crates”. How intriguing.
Danger Mouse and Black Thought – Cheat Codes
Danger Mouse and The Roots’ Black Thought will drop their long-awaited joint album in the middle of the month. With plenty of high-profile guests among its 12 tracks, including A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Michael Kiwanuka and Joey Bada$$, this might be one of those albums with real cult classic potential. There’s also a feature from the late MF Doom, who died in 2020, and whose 2005 album The Mouse and the Mask was Danger Mouse’s last hip-hop album.
easy life – MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE…
Following the release of their highly-praised debut LP Life’s A Beach last year, easy life have a new record arriving this month. We’ve been given a few releases from MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE…, including the Kevin Abstract-featuring ‘DEAR MISS HOLLOWAY’ – a track which frontman Murray Matravers has described as “the cornerstone of the second Easy Life album.” Who knows exactly what that means. We’ll find out more once the album arrives.
NIKI – Nicole
The follow-up to NIKI’s debut 2020 album, Moonchild, this album is set to include “reimagined” old songs from the Indonesian singer-songwriter. The 88rising artist said she had been “quietly re-recording” songs she used to post on YouTube, which gained her the initial attention. Expect something of a return to NIKI’s roots.
Aitch – Close to Home
BRIT-nominated cheekie chappie (and Amelia Dimoldenberg’s muse), Aitch, is dropping his debut album this month. The last few years have been something of a whirlwind for the 22-year-old, whose already cemented himself among the finest crop of young British rappers with numerous hits, features and festival appearances. Finally, this month brings us his debut album.
Hot Chip – Freakout / Release
Freakout. There’s a release. And it’s from Hot Chip. So you just know it’ll be hot shit. The London five-piece have kept us moving for a couple of decades now, with the synth-led indietronica, and this will mark their eighth album in total.
Madonna – Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones
Admittedly another compilation album on this list. This one, specifically, is a collection of the icon’s favourite tracks from her extensive remix catalogue. We were given the first edition of this album in June, in the form of 16 tracks. And now, a far more plentiful offering is being released with Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones. As its title suggests, there’s 50 tracks, titled in reference to the singer’s 50 Billboard chart-toppers.
Phoebe Green – Lucky Me
Lucky Me. More like lucky us. This album isn’t exactly Phoebe Green’s debut, but it certainly feels like one (her first project, 02:00 AM, was released when she was still doing her A-levels). It’s a massive leap from the indie-rock we’ve grown accustomed to from Phoebe, with a distinct flavour of very personal pop. (Read our full interview with Phoebe here).
Muse – Will of the People
Just when we were trying to escape the perils of the last few years, Muse go and make an album that thematically encompasses all of it. And, obviously, we’ll be lending our ears to it. Created between London and L.A., the band have said it’s inspired by “a pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilisation of the global order”. All cheery stuff then.
Sports Team – Gulp!
London-based Sports Team have their second album out this month, via Island Records. Three releases have already blessed our earholes ahead of Gulp!, including ‘R Entertainment’, ‘The Game’ and the recently released ‘Cool It Kid’. The band described ‘R Entertainment’ as “packaging down of all human experience into entertainment, prompted by the infinite scroll through social feeds and the manic formlessness of the images we are hit with every day.” Thankfully, at least one of those things hitting us this month with be Gulp!
Stella Donnelly – Flood
The follow-up to Aussie indie-rocker Stella Donnelly’s 2019 debut album Beware of the Dogs, Flood is an 11-track album that will arrive near the end of the month via Secretly Canadian. With a couple of tracks out already, including the titular single, we have a sense of the hushed yet driven tone of the full record. And frankly, we can’t wait.
