The 10 Most Anticipated Albums of 2025
After the earthquake comes the aftershocks. So it’s always fascinating to see what happens when there’s a real shake-up in music’s direction. Of course, 2024 was dominated by an explosion in subversive girly pop—Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan. Presumably, though, those women all have more touring and writing to do before we hear new music from them. So what follows in their wake, and can the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna compete on this new playing field?
Country music continued to make inroads by expanding its parameters (from Jelly Roll to Shaboozey), so it’s easy to imagine the genre will only keep growing, in whatever new forms it might take. A rumored new Morgan Wallen album would keep the momentum rolling for the Nashville superstar who defines this era.
The old-school formula of announcing a release date ahead of time and setting up an album with a single seems almost quaint now, so information about 2025’s big records is obviously limited. We expect new projects from Ed Sheeran (he’s “getting back into big pop”) and Miley Cyrus (inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall!), know that Blondie and LCD Soundsystem are putting albums out, and hear rumbles, however uncertain, from Janet Jackson and Cardi B.
Some predict that Taylor Swift will lay low for a while following the end of the Eras tour, but I don’t believe she’s capable of that. And then there’s, sigh, Rihanna—nine years since the last album and we still feel obligated to close our eyes and make a wish every January. Meantime, here’s what we know so far about the year to come.
Mac Miller, Balloonerism (January 17)
In 2020, Circles was the first posthumous release from Miller after his death in 2018, and it became his biggest album ever, including the hit “Good News.” This often-bootlegged collection dates back to 2014, and apparently contains several tracks featuring a then-obscure young singer known as SZA. In announcing the project’s release, Miller’s family noted that the rapper had gotten so close to finalizing the album that he had commissioned artwork. “We believe the project showcases both the breadth of his musical talents and fearlessness as an artist,” said the estate. “Releasing Balloonerism was something that Malcolm frequently expressed being important to him.”
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The Weeknd, Hurry Up Tomorrow (January 24)
The final installment in a trilogy that began with 2020’s After Hours and continued on 2022’s Dawn FM, Abel Tesfaye’s sixth studio album will be accompanied by a “psychological thriller” feature film starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, due out in May. Producers on the new record include Max Martin and Pharrell Williams, and Tesfaye has said that the album is “probably [his] last hurrah” under The Weeknd persona; “I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”
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Lana Del Rey, The Right Person Will Stay (May 21)
Last January, a few months after her mysterious appearance working the counter at an Alabama Waffle House, Lana Del Rey said that an album called Lasso was coming out in September and that she was ditching the dream-pop and going country. As the recording went on and the title shifted to The Right Person Will Stay, she seems to have backed off the strict genre description—though she’s still headlining the Stagecoach festival in April. Del Rey has teased that the first single from the 13-track album is “Henry” (presumably the same song as “Henry, Come On,” previewed with a snippet last year), and indicated that producers include previous collaborators Jack Antonoff, Zach Dawes, and Drew Erickson, as well as Nashville powerhouse Luke Laird.
Lady Gaga, TBA
Having survived the disaster of the Joker: Folie a Deux movie, Lady Gaga bounced back with “Die with a Smile,” her smash duet with Bruno Mars, and “Disease,” the first single from her upcoming seventh album, which she says is coming in February. Gaga claims that the record contains “so many different genres, so many different styles, so many different dreams,” and that “there’s a lot of pain associated with this adventure…And when I start to explore that pain it can bring out another side to my artistry.”
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Paul McCartney, TBA
We knew that Sir Paul was working with superproducer Andrew Watt on his first album since 2020’s solo “rockdown” project McCartney III; that’s how he ended up in the studio with the Rolling Stones in 2023. Things seemed to have gone quiet since then, but McCartney recently posted on his website that his new year’s resolution is to complete the album. “I’ve been working on a lot of songs, and have had to put it to the side because of the tour,” he wrote. “So, I’m hoping to get back into that and finish up.” Some speculation has the project coming sooner rather than later.
Elton John, TBA
His five-year-long farewell tour finally ended, but Sir Elton hasn’t slowed down. In the last few months, there was the Never Too Late documentary (complete with a new duet with Brandi Carlile), the opening of The Devil Wears Prada musical in London (at which he announced his struggle with vision loss), and the opening—and closing—of the Tammy Faye musical on Broadway. Captain Fantastic has also said that he’s working on a new album with lyricist Bernie Taupin; “You will be getting some more [music],” he recently told Stephen Colbert. “The juices have never dried up.”
J. Cole, The Fall Off (TBA)
Let’s not forget that it was actually a J. Cole lyric that lit the match on the Kendrick Lamar-Drake battle that overshadowed hip-hop in 2024. At a recent Madison Square Garden performance, Cole dropped a hint that his new album could come out before the fifth and final Dreamville festival in April; “Hopefully I’ll have something new to perform for y’all,” he said at the close of the show. The Fall Off has been a long time coming; he started work on it in 2016, announced a release in 2020, but maybe this time it’s for real.
Madonna, TBA
Since the release of her last studio album, Madame X, in 2019, Madonna hasn’t had an easy time. The Celebration tour was postponed after she was hospitalized (and put in a medically induced coma) with a bacterial infection, her brothers Anthony and Chris both passed away, and she has grappled for years with the autobiographical film she planned to direct. She recently wrote that she’s shifted her focus to recording new music with longtime collaborator Stuart Price. “Songwriting and making music is the one area where I don’t need to ask anyone for their permission,” she posted. “i’m so excited to share it with you. Who wants to hear new music in 2025!”
Bruce Springsteen, TBA
It’s shaping up to be an interesting year for The Boss. He turned 75 in September but he remains on the road, returning to Europe for dates over the summer. August will mark the 50th anniversary of Born to Run, and filming continues on Deliver Me From Nowhere, with Jeremy Allen White playing Springsteen during the making of the Nebraska album. And in December, his team put out a statement indicating that releases (plural) in 2025 will include “a look back at Springsteen’s storied recording career, featuring never-before-heard material,” leading to widespread whispers about a sequel to 1998's Tracks—a box set which included outtakes, B-sides, alternate versions, and demos.
Spinal Tap, Spinal Tap II (TBA)
Turn the amps up to 11, hide your drummers—the Tap is back. Forty-one years after the mother of all mockumentaries, This is Spinal Tap, was released, Spinal Tap II is due out later this year. The soundtrack album will include guest spots from Paul McCartney and Elton John, who both have cameos in the film (not “Spinal Tap-type songs,” according to director Rob Reiner, “ones that people know”). It’s unclear whether we’ll get music from other stars who show up on screen (Lars Ulrich, Garth Brooks, Questlove), but Reiner did reveal that one new Derek Smalls track is called “Rockin’ in the Urn”—"all about the fact that even after he’s dead, he’s still going to be performing.”
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