Music makes our days better. In 2025 we Britney-danced with Addison Rae, we swooned with Olivia Dean, we discombobulated with Ninajirachi, we mope-rocked with Cameron Winter and Geese, we spiritualised with Rosalia, and we reggaeton-y-dembowed with Bad Bunny (to be honest, I haven’t stopped). But what will soundtrack our 2026? Well, these anticipated albums, for starters.

Madison Beer, Locket (January 9)

Madison Beer has had a treacherous go at pop stardom: signed at 12, dropped at 16, then bullied and harassed online to the point she almost gave it all up (her 2023 memoir The Half of It makes for harrowing reading). That she’s still in the mix is testament to her talent and tenacity but a bona fide pop smash has been missing. Her third album should rectify that equation. Locket is Beer’s best yet, a solid split between the Ariana-style vocals that are her bread and butter, and a welcome pivot to upbeat electro-pop. Add in the tabloid attention that comes with having a quarterback boyfriend who’s primed for a deep run in the NFL playoffs this month and we could have a real cultural moment.

A$AP Rocky, Don’t Be Dumb (January 16)

In the time since A$AP Rocky first teased his follow-up album to 2018’s Testing, the New York rapper has lived a veritable biopic: he escaped jail time twice, following trials in both Sweden and Los Angeles; he started dating Rihanna and had three children with her; he became a fashion muse and ambassador for the likes of Gucci and Chanel; he dropped what might be the greatest music video of the century in Tailor Swif (a single he now claims will no longer appear on his new album); and he became one of cinema’s most charming new presences, thanks to roles in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You with Rose Byrne. The repeat delays have already made Don’t Be Dumb mythical but an album cover designed by Tim Burton and a musical slot on Saturday Night Live confirmed for January 17 suggests A$AP’s new era is nigh.

Joji, Piss in the Wind (February 6)

The Japanese-Australian singer-songwriter’s new album Piss in the Wind – his first since leaving cult indie label 88rising – has been leading Spotify’s pre-save countdown for months now, with more than 900,000 pre-saves. In other words, he’s already guaranteed another chart-topper, following 2020’s Nectar and 2022’s Smithereens. More intriguingly, the album promises an interesting sonic departure for Joji: lead single Pixelated Kisses’ punishing rage-rap canvas brings some groove and grit to his typically lonesome, Radiohead-indebted, heart-grinding songwriting.

Charli XCX, Wuthering Heights (February 13)

What do you do after you’ve conquered the world with a smash album that brought indie sleaze back to cultural ubiquity? When you’re Charli XCX you do whatever the hell you want to do. After her career-defining Brat summer, Charli – ever the experimental iconoclast – has 180-ed to film. If you weren’t tipped off by her frequently updated Letterboxd, Charli’s said she’s more inspired by movies than music at the moment – which explains why her next project is an album-length soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. It’s already fascinatingly unpredictable: first single House was a noise dirge featuring John Cale; the second, Chains of Love, a swooning synth-ballad straight out of an ’80s John Hughes film.

Megan Moroney, Cloud 9 (February 20)

One of the best live shows I saw last year was US country star Megan Moroney playing to a couple of thousand people at Ridin’ Hearts when she’s already Taylor-made (typo intended) for stadiums. The self-christened “emo cowgirl” walked out to a pre-show playlist that included Fall Out Boy and Hannah Montana’s Best of Both Worlds before destroying with a set that included her monster singalongs Am I Okay? and Tennessee Orange, just two songs that straddle the line between arch and melancholy. The lead single from her coming album Cloud 9, 6 Months Later, is her best yet: a sassy kiss-off to an ex-lover that will have most twenty-something women yelling, “Sing that shit, girlfriend!” at their Spotify radios (I imagine).

Peach PRC, Porcelain (March 20)

It’s been almost three years since Peach PRC released her chart-topping EP Manic Dream Pixie, cementing her status as Australia’s most interesting pop star. If she’s been under the radar in the intervening years, it’s only because she’s been busy preparing her proper full-length debut – an album that aims to push beyond her TikTok persona. Porcelain has been described as “embracing the classic era of early 2000s Britney Spears, Katy Perry and EDM legends Infernal” – so expect melodrama, a side serve of camp, and bangers galore.

As easy as TBC

These anticipated albums are supposedly imminent, we just don’t know – or, in some cases, aren’t allowed to say – exactly when they’re due to be released yet.

Fakemink, Terrified

What do Frank Ocean, Clairo, Drake, Timothee Chalamet and your most online friend have in common? They all know that Fakemink was the most exciting thing that happened to music in 2025. The 20-year-old became the breakout star of the so-called “new British rap underground” thanks to an astounding run of singles including highlight Easter Pink, which paired his melodic flow with the blown-out beats of SoundCloud rap and the BPMs of Euro-club. His debut album, 2023’s London’s Saviour, was an eye-opening introduction but his new one’s already set to be a musical touchstone for 2026 – at least for me, Timothee Chalamet and your brain-rotted friends.

Robyn, Sexistential

Last year, Robyn popped up on a remix of Charli XCX’s 360 and sang: “Your favourite pop star is into me”. It was an understatement. Perhaps no other musician has been as responsible for defining the past decade-and-a-half of pop than the Swedish star, her melancholic alt-pop – highlighted by the iconic Dancing on My Own – having influenced Carly Rae Jepsen, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish and beyond. Seven years since her last album Honey, she’s not lost a speck of her power: her coming album’s lead single Dopamine is vintage Robyn, as she sings yearningly over sparkling synths, robotic blurps and steadily escalating propulsion. If you haven’t already blasted this at a summer party with a spritz in hand, your head banging with abandon, you haven’t really summered.

Drake, Iceman

The “6 God’s” resurrection is imminent. Almost two years since his public evisceration by Kendrick Lamar, Drake is finally set to deliver his official response with Iceman, his first solo album since 2023’s For All the Dogs. The album’s been pre-empted by three singles – the winky What Did I Miss?, the dancehall-tinged Which One with UK star Central Cee, and the bass-breaking Dog House with Yeat and Julia Wolf – and a hectic rollout of Twitch appearances and hour-long livestreams that play like Jim Jarmusch films. The last episode, released in November, showed Drake, lonely and paranoid, pursued across the globe by vigilantes dressed like Pinocchio. What does it mean? Let the Reddit conspiracy theories begin.

Lana Del Rey, Stove

It’s that time of year when we excitedly anticipate Lana Del Rey’s new album, only to have the pop icon burn us yet again. The singer’s country pivot – once titled Lasso, then The Right Person Will Stay – has again been rechristened as Stove, with vague reports that it’s done and set for release by the end of January. But updates from the source have been lean: besides an incredible cameo on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, shot during her acclaimed set at Stagecoach (the Coachella of country music) last year, she’s mostly been living a life of quiet domesticity with her alligator wrangler husband, Jeremy Dufrene. In other words, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Which artist’s new album are you most excited for in 2026? Let us know in the comments.

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