As 2015 nears its inevitable end, we must be especially appreciative of the promising albums that have yet to drop. These albums are not only bringing 2015 to a close, but are also setting the scene for music in 2016. I’ve picked out a few albums of varying genres for which I have high expectations. Check them out below!
Deerhunter
Courtesy: Rolling Stone
Genre: Experimental noise rock
Album title: Fading Frontier
Release date: October 16
Fading Frontier will be Deerhunter’s first album in two years and their first album since frontman Bradford Cox was hospitalized after a serious car accident. Judging by the creepy video for the first single released off the album, “Snakeskin,” it seems that Deerhunter will continue their inimitable trippy and hazy sound with Fading Frontier.
BØRNS
Courtesy: Spin
Genre: Indie pop, psychedelic pop
Album title: Dopamine
Release date: October 16
BØRNS creates raw, emotional and romantic music that is undeniably charming. Dopamine will be his first full-length album, but he has already opened for acts such as Charli XCX and Bleachers. Refreshingly, he isn’t your basic star-eyed performer; he wrote this album while living in a treehouse that he rented through Airbnb, has never bought an instrument because he always borrows them from friends and he recorded a music video in which he was forced to hang upside down under water. Clearly, we shouldn’t expect Dopamine to be basic, either.
Ellie Goulding
Courtesy: E! Online
Genre: Synthpop, indie pop
Album title: Delirium
Release date: November 6
Our girl Ellie Goulding produces some of the most haunting and unique music that’s on the radio today. With so much music on the radio sounding the same, Ellie Goulding’s songs are like a beacon of light whenever I hear them. She has plenty of familiarity with writing love songs (she told Entertainment Weekly that her obsession with love songs is why she started writing them in the first place), and her experienced third album looks like it will take love songs to an entirely new and empowered level.
Check out the first single off the album, “On My Mind,” here.
Tomas Barfod
Courtesy: Bandcamp
Genre: Dance punk
Album title: Glory
Release date: November 13
Tomas Barfod became interested in electronic music after watching a bad movie about raves in the 1980s. However, his creations are anything but bad. He’s won several awards in Denmark for his music and for DJing and has produced platinum records. His ambitious dance music is reminiscent of artists such as SBTRKT and has been described by Gorilla vs Bear as “dreamy, shimmery and always evocative.”
Check out the first single off the album, “Glass Slipper,” here.
Parquet Courts
Courtesy: Pitchfork
Genre: Indie rock
Album title: Monastic Living
Release date: November 13
This NYC-born band may have only formed in 2010, but their albums have already been featured on Billboard albums charts and been featured on New Girl. Sometimes operating under the moniker Parkay Quarts, the delightfully unusual band is keeping a lot of things about Monastic Living under wraps. However, a recent switch in record labels from What’s Your Rupture? to Rough Trade suggests that we may possibly hear something a little different on the new album.
Baroness
Courtesy: Loudwire
Genre: Progressive metal
Album title: Purple
Release date: December 18
A theme throughout all of Baroness’ album titles is that they’re names of colors; their first album back in 2007 was titled Red Album, their second in 2009 was Blue Record (which was also included on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2009), and their most recent in 2012 was Yellow & Green. The album took two years to record and the band elaborated that “Purple is the recorded experience of Baroness piecing ourselves back together in order to become something more than we had ever imagined we could be.”
Check out the first single off the album “Chlorine & Wine” here.