Doubts remain over the gigs and tours planned for 2021, but recorded music looks set for another great year, with plenty of albums in the pipeline. Adrian Thrills looks ahead to the treats in store…
Barry Gibb
The new year kicks off with a fresh spin on some timeless pop as the sole surviving Bee Gee dips into his classic repertoire on a new duets album.
A long-time country and bluegrass fan, Gibb teams up with Nashville’s finest on Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1.
Working in the studio once used by Elvis and Roy Orbison, he revisits I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You with Keith Urban, Words with Dolly Parton and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart with Sheryl Crow.
Out January 8 on EMI.
The new year kicks off with a fresh spin on some timeless pop as the sole surviving Bee Gee dips into his classic repertoire on a new duets album
Foo Fighters
Due last year, the tenth Foo Fighters album finally arrives next month. Frontman Dave Grohl has always been musically broad-minded: recent single Shame Shame was built around drum loops rather than the customary guitar barrage, suggesting that Medicine At Midnight — made in a reportedly haunted house in LA — will be every bit as kaleidoscopic as 2017’s Concrete And Gold.
The album was produced by Greg Kurstin, and the former jazz pianist is at the helm again on a record that Grohl has likened to David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
February 5 on Roswell.
Sia
The reclusive Australian is set for a busy 2021 with the release of her first film, Music, and its accompanying soundtrack.
The movie — which stars Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr. and Maddie Ziegler — looks set to be a blockbuster and the singles already released suggest that Sia, who directed the film and wrote the screenplay, has come up with a show-stopping score.
Together is a rousing mid-tempo anthem; Courage To Change, originally written for Pink’s Hurts 2B Human album, is a dark, pounding ballad.
February 12 on Atlantic.
Alice Cooper
The Godfather of shock rock salutes his hometown on Detroit Stories. Alice and producer Bob Ezrin first teamed up in Motor City 50 years ago, and are reunited on a new album that features MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, a local horn section and contributions from Detroit clothes designer John Varvatos.
‘Detroit was heavy rock central in the 1970s,’ says Cooper.
‘It was the only place that recognised our crazy stage show. You couldn’t be a soft-rock band or you’d get your ass kicked.’
February 26 on Earmusic.
Evanescence
The gothic metal quintet from Arkansas are releasing their first album of new material in ten years with The Bitter Truth.
Evanescence — who topped the UK singles chart with Bring Me To Life in 2003 — promise a crunchy, guitar-driven comeback, with singer Amy Lee’s biting lyrics prominent.
Their December single Yeah Right offered a jaundiced view of Lee’s experiences in the music industry.
The group, who produced their own videos in lockdown, are planning to tour the UK in the autumn.
March 26 on Sony.
Bryan Ferry
The former Roxy Music singer’s spring 2020 tour was one of the last before the lockdown and its Royal Albert Hall date is being celebrated with a live album.
Available through Ferry’s website on CD, double vinyl LP and digitally, the album will feature solo hits such as Sign Of The Times plus Roxy standards like Virginia Plain, Street Life and Dance Away. Proceeds go to Ferry’s road crew and band.
April 2 on bryanferry.com.
The former Roxy Music singer’s spring 2020 tour was one of the last before the lockdown and its Royal Albert Hall date is being celebrated with a live album
Originally due in September, Del Rey’s seventh album is now expected in the spring
Lana Del Rey
Originally due in September, Del Rey’s seventh album is now expected in the spring.
The American torch singer’s October single, Let Me Love You Like A Woman, was a superb piano ballad that points to Chemtrails Over The Country Club being another set of cool, bluesy songs steeped in mystery and fading Hollywood glamour.
The album’s title track, out on January 11, should provide further clues.
Early 2021 on Interscope.
Drake
Another release delayed by the pandemic was Drake’s sixth studio effort. The Toronto singer and rapper topped the UK charts with his Dark Lane Demo Tapes compilation last May, but Certified Lover Boy will be the official follow-up to 2018’s Scorpions.
Built around woozy horns and sampled beats, his summer single Laugh Now Cry Later was smooth and laid-back, reiterating his standing as the prince of melancholy but melodic R&B.
Early 2021 on OVO Sound.
The Toronto singer and rapper topped the UK charts with his Dark Lane Demo Tapes compilation last May, but Certified Lover Boy will be the official follow-up to 2018’s Scorpions
London Grammar
The Nottingham trio’s third album, Californian Soil, looks set to be darker and more introspective than 2017’s chart-topping Truth Is A Beautiful Thing — certainly on the evidence of the two singles released so far. There’s a folky edge to Hannah Reid’s singing on the title track, while last summer’s Baby It’s You was trance-like.
‘This record is about gaining possession of my own life,’ says Reid. ‘You imagine success will be amazing. Then you see it from the inside and ask: why am I not controlling this thing?’
Early 2021 on Ministry Of Sound.
Marina
Formerly known as Marina & The Diamonds, the theatrical Welsh singer-songwriter and keyboardist regained her old sparkle on 2019’s two-part Love + Fear album.
She will be hoping to capitalise further with an as-yet-untitled fifth LP of dreamy alternative pop.
Her November single Man’s World was a tuneful taster, made with an all-female production cast including American synth player and backing vocalist Jennifer Decilveo.
Later 2021 on Atlantic.
The U.S. superstar says she won’t put out her second album until the pandemic is over and she can tour again, but it’s still one of 2021’s most hotly-anticipated releases
Billie Eilish
The U.S. superstar says she won’t put out her second album until the pandemic is over and she can tour again, but it’s still one of 2021’s most hotly-anticipated releases.
Eilish has finished 16 new tracks with her producer brother Finneas, and the three singles she released in 2020 suggest something more diverse than 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
The James Bond theme No Time To Die was an epic; the jazzy My Future could have been a show tune and Therefore I Am reverted to the no-frills electronics of her debut album.
Later 2021 on Polydor.