Twenty-twenty is already shaping up to be a huge year for artists both big and small with many already confirming new music is on the way this year. The River has looked at those artists currently at the top of their game who are bringing out new music, striking while the iron is hot, and those who are returning after a hiatus. Here is a list of seven albums to look out for.
Dua Lipa
With her debut album exploding, propelling her onto a global platform, Dua Lipa is hoping to gain just as much hype with her second album Future Nostalgia. The Grammy and Brit award winner confirmed the news via her Instagram and is hoping that her second album will be just as successful as the first.
The 1975
It feels like only the other day that the Manchester-based band presented the critically-acclaimed third album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships to their fans. But The 1975 are showing that there is no rest for the wicked with their fourth studio album set for release in February this year. The band, led by vocalist Matty Healy, hope that their new album, titled ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’, will gain as much stardom and popularity as its predecessors.
Lana Del Rey
Speaking of artists who are striking while the iron is hot, Lana Del Rey has confirmed that she is already working on her next album straight off the back of her 2019 release ‘Norman F***ing Rodwell’. The new album could come out at any time during the year the New York artist said last August. Del Rey will also be releasing a spoken-word album and a poetry book – a busy year all-round for the American singer!
Tame Impala
Believe it or not, it has been five years since the Australian band released Currents, but fans will only have to wait until February for Tame Impala’s fourth studio album. The album, titled The Slow Rush, will see the psych-rock band being as experimental as ever with inspiration, in frontman Kevin Parker’s own words, coming from the likes of “weird seventies stadium rock” and Meat Loaf.
IDLES
Highly rated on the indie punk scene, fans and critics alike saw IDLES’ second album Joy as an Act of Resistance as one of the most important and defining albums of the past decade, hence why many are waiting with excitement for their next offering. With the last album not shying away from controversial topics, such as toxic masculinity and Brexit, the third album should be no exception.
The Strokes
One of the biggest bands of the early years of the 21st century, 2020 is finally looking like the year where The Strokes release a new album. The American bands’ last album came in 2013 and since then, besides a festival appearance now and then, The Strokes have barely been seen. Despite this, frontman Julian Casablancas confirmed at a recent live show that the band were releasing a new album very soon saying: “We took the 2010s – whatever the f**k they’re called – we took them off, but now we’ve been unfrozen, and we’re back.”
Sam Smith
Sam Smith will also be returning with a new album, a follow up to the 2017 The Thrill Of It All and his debut album In The Lonely Hour, which became the biggest debut album of the 2010s. The singer announced the new disc back in October last year, with the collection expected to be more soulful but also more pop related than the previous two. There is no doubt that this will be another significant year in the career of Sam Smith.
Megan Kelly 
Plamedi Mbungu 
Anize Keers