As we close out the year we shall never speak of again, it seems as though many are looking for the next to be —a salvation.  Me?  I’m banking on the fact that 2021 will be better — but I’m not looking to oversell it.  Just — let the new year flow over you and see how it feels.  Kinda like how people should approach new music.  have some excitement & anticipation, but don’t overthink it.  Good plan, right?

Here are a few of the most anticipated albums of 2021 — either confirmed or assumed:

Foo Fighters

Dave Grohl says the band pushed forward with the idea of releasing an album in the middle of pandemic — because “people need something to lift their spirits.”  Agreed.  Medicine At Midnight will be Foo Fighters 10th studio album and and it will be out on February 5th.

Queens Of The Stone Age

When the band announced their first show in like — three years, people started speculating that Queens Of The Stone Age would follow up their appearance at the 2021 Reading and Leeds Festival with new music.  Besides speculation on the internet, that’s all we got to work with.  The festival is in August and if we don’t see any new music from the band by then, I would be shocked.  Shocked.

CHVRCHES

It feels like a hundred years since we last saw Lauren Mayberry and the trio at The Nights We Stole Christmas (in fact, its only been TWO).  But this is how a pandemic messes with the brain.  As for how it messes with a band?  Lauren says the band haven’t seen each other in person since last spring, but have taken to video conferencing and screen sharing like most of the rest of the world in piecing together the rest of the new album.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I’m not sure what people are anticipating more in 2021: the fact that new music will be coming from the Red Hot Chili Peppers….or the fact that John Frusciante will once again be playing with them.  Regardless of whether you are more geeked for the live sets or for the recorded note, Frusciante says the chemistry is still there — and that he will be using just one guitar to lay down the new tracks.

Phoenix

Last December, we got Instagram confirmation that Phoenix had returned to the studio — and one of the end products of that session was a new song for the On The Rocks movie soundtrack (see below).  So if you’re working on one song, why not work on more than one?  While 2021 sounds like a good time to hear more from our French friends, it’s been just under three years since their Te Amo.  They took four years between their last albums, so…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Cure

Bet on a new album from the band.  That’s because Robert Smith confirmed the entire thing is in the can, as they say in the biz.  This will be The Cure’s first new album since 2008(!), and such phrases as “so dark” and “incredibly intense” has been used to describe it.  Shocker.

Billie Eilish

The youngest musician to win the Big 4 at the Grammys is back with a new song, “Therefore I Am.”  And while she revealed that yes, indeed, she is working on tracks for a new project, she was pretty secretive about details on what that project will look like with her annual Vanity Fair interview.  If I’m a betting person, I’d bet on Billie in 2021.

Add in anticipated releases from Lana Del Rey, Bleachers, Spoon, Arcade Fire, & Lorde — amongst the others of the 101 Most Anticipated Releases of 2021 from Stereogum — and it’s gonna be one hell of a year (we hope).  — [eric]