Despite only being a few weeks into the first month of spring, we have already been gifted with a rich array of excellent music – including fantastic new albums by Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker, Rosali, and more. Thankfully, there is no shortage of brilliant artists set to release new albums across the remainder of the season. Here are just a few albums we can look forward to between now and the end of May.
29 March – Cowboy Carter by Beyonce
When Beyonce released Texas Hold ‘Em earlier this year, it became her first UK number one single since 2009. That song – a banjo-led, dance floor ready anthem – features instrumental contributions from folk icon Rhiannon Giddens. The other pre-release single, 16 Carriages, continues Beyonce’s winning streak; a grown-up ballad with an autobiographical edge. Cowboy Carter – which has been billed as the second act of Beyonce’s 2022 Renaissance album and Beyonce’s first full-length foray into country music – arrives on March 29th.
5 April – Revelator by Phosphorescent
Phosphorescent is the moniker of Matthew Houck – an Americana songwriter who has earned acclaim across his two-decade career. Eleven years after the release of his album Muchacho, which many critics declared his career-defining masterpiece, Houck has released what he said is his “best song” ever, Revelator. His album of the same name is slated for release on April 5th and includes contributions from Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and Jim White of Dirty Three.
12 April – Don’t Forget Me by Maggie Rogers
In the eight years since an encounter with Pharrell Williams turned Maggie Rogers into a viral sensation, Maggie Rogers has undergone multiple transformations – from understated folk-dance singer-songwriter, to indie-pop darling and creator of maximalist synth-pop. The pre-release singles for Don’t Forget Me seem to be teasing another change – taking inspiration from both Rogers’ own indie-folk output and the sunny 2000s rock-pop of Sheryl Crow and Liz Phair. The most recent teaser for the album, So Sick of Dreaming, takes a breezy, effortlessly melodic approach that reflects the nature of the album’s creation – which was written in the just five days.
19 April – The Tortured Poet’s Department by Taylor Swift
Modern pop’s most productive and restless star is set to return in April with her fifth album of entirely new material in the same number of years. Announced at February’s Grammy Awards after Swift’s victory for Best Pop Vocal Album, The Tortured Poets Department features Post Malone and Florence and the Machine. Swift’s upcoming album sees her continue to collaborate with in-demand producer Jack Antonoff, who previously worked on her hits Anti-Hero and Cruel Summer.
26 April – All Born Screaming by St Vincent
“It sounds urgent and psychotic”, that’s how Annie Clark (better known as St Vincent) described her upcoming album All Born Screaming. That descriptor is certainly born out by the album’s lead single “Broken Man”, which channels Nine Inch Nails, Portishead and Sleater-Kinney, and crescendos into bracing guitar riffs, extreme loud-quiet dynamics and near-feral cries. All Born Screaming features contributions from Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and, formerly, Nirvana, – as well as from Welsh art-pop innovator Cate Le Bon.
3 May – Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa
Four years after Future Nostalgia made Dua Lipa one of the biggest, most inescapable artists of our age, the pop star returns with her long-awaited follow-up, Radical Optimism. Due for release on May 3rd, the album sees the British-Albanian songwriter recruit experimentalists Danny L. Harle (Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX) and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker for production duties. Fittingly, pre-release singles Houdini and Training Season have demonstrated a more idiosyncratic side of Lipa’s craft.
17 May – Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons
Fifteen years after Portishead’s last album, lead singer Beth GIbbons is finally set to make her solo debut. The psychedelic lead single Floating on a Moment, preceding the release of Lives Outgrown, represents a stark departure from her band’s music while maintaining the emotive power of the best Portishead songs. Here’s hoping the rest of the album proves similarly successful.
