– featured image courtesy of minimally minimal –
the home stretch of each year always provides a plethora of new albums vying for contention in year-end best-of reviews. invariably, at least one heavy-hitter holds onto a project until the quarter is almost over before unleashing it and messing with the internet’s ballots by proxy (here’s looking at you, the weeknd and lorde). the full list for this fall is exhausting; google searches and metacritic are good tools to keep yourself in the know, but we’ve also compiled a handful of albums we’re especially itching to dig into. read on for more detailed explanations.
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mick jenkins – the healing component
september 23rd (free nation)
after years of building anticipation, mick jenkins will finally release his long-awaited debut album, the healing component, tomorrow. if early looks like “spread love,” “drowning,” and “fall through” are indicatives of the album’s tenor, then the healing component should more than clear the high bar jenkins has imposed on himself.
jenny hval – blood bitch
september 30th (sacred bones)
only a little more than a year has passed since jenny hval released her excellent apocalypse, girl, but the norwegian composer and songwriter has already completed a follow-up album, blood bitch. hval’s new effort is billed as an about-face from its predecessor and has been bolstered by the strengths of lead single “female vampire” and “period piece,” a standout component of this year’s adult swim singles series.
moses sumney – lamentations
september 30th (self-released)
moses sumney’s live performances are a wonder to behold, and his recorded music is nearly emotive. after thriving off of a handful of singles and his debut ep, mid-city island, sumney will self-release his latest extended play at the end of this month, but be on the lookout for his much-anticipated debut album sometime soon after.
takuya kuroda – zigzagger
october 7th (concord records)
those not familiar with japanese bandleader and trumpeter takuya kuroda would do well to pick up his 2014 album, rising son, a perfect union of jazz, hip-hop, and r&b. kuroda and his band continue to hone that aesthetic on zigzagger, his fifth studio album and first for concord records. for a primer, start with the album’s lead-off single, “r.s.b.d.”
ricky eat acid – talk to you soon
october 28th (terrible records)
sam ray will return to his ricky eat acid moniker at the end of next month to release the project’s first full-length in over two years. 2014’s three love songs is a timeless masterpiece, and ray’s divergence from its ambient magnetic pull on subsequent singles, mixtapes, and eps suggest that talk to you soon may be broader in scope and ambition, but almost certainly as uniquely emotive as its predecessor.
– other notable releases –
bon iver – 22, a million (september 30th)
danny brown – atrocity exhibition (september 30th)
s u r v i v e – rr7349 (september 30th)
ahem – just wanna be (october 7th)
jagwar ma – every now & then (october 14th)
american football – american football (october 21st)
the radio dept. – running out of love (october 21st)
forth wanderers – slop (november 11th)
the weeknd – starboy (november 25th)
childish gambino – pharos (tba)
chromatics – dear tommy (tba)
vancouver sleep clinic – tba (tba)
kanye snubbed us in 2015. frank ocean snubbed us in 2015. rihanna snubbed us in 2015. james blake snubbed us in 2015. for every high-profile album that did emerge this year, there seemed to be one that was withheld; as we inch closer to 2016, we’re taking a look at fifteen albums that will hopefully see the light of day in the new year. alphabetical order is your friend. dig in after the jump.
chairlift – the two singles chairlift released this fall indicate that the brooklyn duo’s forthcoming album moth, due out january 22nd, will be a bit darker and more ominous than its predecessors, but still more than capable of delivering a smattering of memorable hooks.
daughter – not to disappear will most likely be the first impressionable full-length of 2016. both “doing the right thing” and “numbers” double down on the themes of isolation and incredible sadness explored on if you leave, and the trio’s instrumentation is as lush and expansive as ever.
field division – 2015 was a quiet year for the nashville-via-iowa duo, but we’re hoping that field division drop off their full-length follow-up to 2014’s excellent debut reverie state sometime very soon.
florist – emy sprague’s appropriately-bucolic quartet florist popped up on our radar earlier this fall with holdly, a compact ep crammed with sharp songwriting and memorable melodies that thankfully serves as a placeholder for the birds outside sang, a full-length coming january 29th via double double whammy.
frank ocean – who knows where frank ocean is at? the follow-up to his profound 2012 album channel orange is still missing-in-action, and probably will be for some time. here’s to hoping that 2016 is the year that it finally surfaces.
james blake – radio silence was due in the spring of 2015, then the fall, and now the album is promised in the early months of 2016. we’ll wait; hopefully it arrives in the dead of winter and provides solace for those cold, cruel months.
kanye west – yeezy season is perpetual. kanye teased snippets of what could be on swish – “all day,” “fourfiveseconds,” “only one,” “wolves” – throughout 2015, but the album’s name could change again, and its release date certainly isn’t set in stone. expect the internet to collectively lose it when new kanye material does drop, though.
memoryhouse – one of the more pleasant surprises of this year has been the reemergence of memoryhouse. the canadian dream-pop duo are prepping their sophomore album, soft hate, for a january release, and sneak peaks “dream shake” and “arizona” suggest the two have picked up right where they left off in 2012.
mick jenkins – the healing component is the end game that mick jenkins has hinted at all along. 2014 delivered a very well-received mixtape in the water[s] followed by a new ep this year, wave[s], so it stands to reason that a proper full-length would come next.
pillar point – scott reitherman will continue to hone his signature brooding electro-pop on marble mouth, out january 22nd via polyvinyl. “dove” is already pillar point’s best work to date, accentuating both extremities of reitherman’s timbral spectrum; the rest of the album should at least be on par.
pity sex – michigan quartet pity sex effortlessly blended shoegaze with bits of pop-punk and emo on their excellent 2013 debut feast of love, and now the band is gearing up to drop white hot moon this coming spring via run for cover records. be ready for ample amounts of forlorn looks.
the 1975 – if you want a huge pop record in 2016, you probably won’t have to look any further than the 1975. matt healy’s manchester outfit is slated to release i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it in february, and its early singles hint at a massive, killers-esque synth-pop romp.
tycho – scott hansen and company have decamped to work on the follow-up to 2014’s excellent awake. if analog synth-driven ambient soundscapes are your thing, you’ll be particularly enthused when the new tycho album drops.
vancouver sleep clinic – the vancouver sleep clinic camp was frustratingly dormant all year, but project architect tim bettinson has promised something substantial in 2016. whether that something is an album or an ep remains to be seen, however.
wild nothing – jack tatum will deliver a new wild nothing album, life of pause, february 19th via captured tracks. it’s the band’s first record in nearly four years, and will be a welcomed addition to an already-stellar discography.
Dimestore Saints 