Our most anticipated albums of 2023

It’s only January, but we’re already getting excited about some of the albums that are due for release this year. And based on the list of upcoming releases we’ve compiled so far, it’s going to be another fantastic year for music!

Keep in mind that these are the ones we know about so far. There may be more new releases from your favorite artists on the way – and we’ll update this list as we learn about them. Rumors are, for instance, that the Cure, Michael Stipe, Beyonce, and even My Bloody Valentine will have new music this year – and that Nick Cave is writing new music for an album release with his band the Bad Seeds.

The upcoming albums below are listed alphabetically by artist name. Some of these artists have already released singles and/or videos from these releases, and we’ve included a selection of them below. We’ve also included release dates if we know them (if not they’re marked as TBD), though keep in mind that these are subject to change.

Boygenius 

Title: The Record

Release date: March

Boygenius is an indie supergroup of sorts that features Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. The group formed in 2018, and The Record will be their second album. Upon announcing the new album, the group release three new songs: “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry,” and “True Blue.”

Depeche Mode

Title: Memento Mori

Release date: March 24

Highly anticipated, Memento Mori will be Depeche Mode’s 15th studio album. It’s also the group’s first as a two-piece lineup of Gahan and Gore, after the 2022 death of cofounder Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher. The band has also announced a worldwide tour this year.

Everything but the Girl

Title: Fuse

Release date: April 21

Tracy Thorn and Ben Watt are back with their first new album under their band name Everything but the Girl in 24 years.

Fantastic Negrito

Title: Grandfather Courage

Release date: Feb. 3

Grandfather Courage is an acoustic reworking of Fantastic Negrito’s 2022 album White Jesus, Black Problems. The lead single is “Oh Betty,” a love story about his 7th generation grandparents.

Fruit Bats

Title: A River Running to Your Heart

Release date: April

We’ve been spinning a couple of the new songs from A River Running to Your Heart, including “Waking Up in Los Angeles.”

Gorillaz

Title: Cracker Island

Release date: Feb. 24

If you saw Gorillaz during their 2022 tour, you heard this song, as it was one of a handful of new songs included in their set.

Peter Gabriel

Title: i/o

Release date: TBD

We’re thrilled that Peter Gabriel will release his first album of new material in many years. The first single we’ve been spinning is “Panopticom,” which Gabriel released on Jan. 6, a date deliberately coinciding with a full moon. “The full moon club has returned,” he said in a recent video, and then “with i/o, it’s a little like getting a Lego piece each month, and then you put it together.” Meaning…there are more songs to come before we get the full album release. “Every time you look up at the sky and see the moon getting full,” he continues, “you’ll know there’s a new track coming out.”

The Heavy

Title: Amen

Release date: April 21

The Hold Steady

Title: The Price of Progress

Release date: March 31

The Price of Progress is the ninth studio album from Craig Finn’s band the Hold Steady, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. “These are some of the most cinematic songs in the Hold Steady catalog,” Finn said, “and the record was a joy to make.”

Lydia Loveless

Title: TBD

Release date: TBD

Regarding her upcoming album, Loveless says “it was the first time I was writing songs where … I wasn’t trying to get so complicated. I think this is probably the most punch I’ve packed into my lyrics, and without being so verbose, and I think that was probably a product of being alone so much.”

Lucero

Title: Should’ve Learned By Now

Release date: Feb. 24

Baaba Maal

Title: Being

Release date: March 31

The Senegalese singer will release his first new album in seven years.

The National

Title: First Two Pages of Frankenstein

Release date: April 28

Guitarist/pianist Bryce Dessner noted that the National “managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band.” Guests in the new album include Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, and Sufjan Stevens.

Arlo Parks

Title: My Soft Machine

Release date: May 26

The sophomore album from Mercury Prize-winning artist Arlo Parks. “This record is life through my lens, through my body,” Parks says, “the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity- what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body.” 

Caroline Polachek

Title: Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Release date: Feb. 14

Quasi

Title: Breaking the Balls of History

Release date: Feb. 10

U.S. Girls

Title: Bless This Mess

Release date: Feb. 24

Sunny War

Title: Anarchist Gospel

Release Date: Feb. 3

“This album represents such a crazy period in my life,” War explained in a statement. “But now I feel like the worst parts are over. What I learned, I think, is that the best thing to do is just to feel everything and deal with it. Just feel everything.”

Related: Sunny War shows her two sides on “No Reason”

“I don’t really make music with a traditional roots audience in mind,” she continued. “I like weird music, outsider music, like Daniel Johnston and Roky Erickson.”

Yo La Tengo

Title: This Stupid World

Release date: Feb. 10

As Bryan Bickford said in a YouTube comment, new song “Fallout” is “like meeting a new friend that you’ve known forever. Beautiful.”

Young Fathers 

Title: Heavy Heavy

Release date: Feb. 3

The Scottish band has released a couple new songs from Heavy Heavy so far, including “I Saw.” In a statement the band describes that song as “a big bully with shite down their leg, still swaggering. That pamphlet through your door blaming the establishment and immigrants for everything going wrong. The stench of long-dead empire, trudging along, a psychological hammer to your head in every step. The delusion.”