5 Albums we’re looking forward to hearing in 2020

From the looks of things 2020 is going to be another busy year for new albums. Stereogum has listed its 101 most anticipated albums, 6 Music has listed the 20 its ‘most looking forward to’ and Albumoftheyear.org has what seems to be a mostly complete list of 352. ]

1. Idles: Toneland

The album that takes our eye from both Stereogum and the 6 Music lists is inevitably the third album by Idles - ‘Toneland’ which follows on from 2018’s excellent Joy As An Act of Resistance. There’s no release date set as yet , but I guess we’ll know it’s on its way when the singles start coming. 

2. Sorry: 925

Another on the Stereogum list that looks very promising is 925 by Sorry due out in the Spring on Domino Records. We know that the excellent single ‘Rock and Roll Star’ is on it and imagine that ‘Right Round the Clock’ will be too, and it should be a very interesting listen for a band who so far veer between sounding like the Pixies, Portishead and Madness.

Our next 3 albums don’t appear to be on any of the lists of schedules, but we know they’re on the way and likely to arrive in the early part of the year. 

3. The Eskimo Chain: EXO Incorporated - An Original Motion Picture

The first of these is EXO Incorporated – An Original Motion Picture by the Eskimo Chain. Rather than create a conventional second album the band decided to channel their creativity into making the soundtrack to an imagined sci-fi movie, releasing the first track from it ‘Evacuation Day’ on Youtube only at the start of December. You can find out more about the album in our feature here.

If you’ve listened to the Eskimo Chain’s first album ‘Abnormal Dreams’ you’ll be aware of just how good this band are, and if you haven’t, have a listen and treat yourself. The band maintain a relatively low presence on social media so this album has the potential to fly under the radar, but from the sounds of Evacuation Day (which you can listen to here) this will be an excellent follow up. 

4. Slift: Ummon 

Next we have Ummon by Slift, due out at the end of February. The French bands’ follow up to ‘La Planete Exploree’ by all accounts is going to be a double album and if the lead, title track from it which was released at the end of November (which you can listen to here) is anything to go by, it will be another beauty. If you’re unfamiliar with Slift, imagine what Oh Sees would sound like if they were more consistently space rock, rather than jumping genres every other song. No dates confirmed as yet but it looks like that Slift will be touring the UK in May.    

5. The Black Delta Movement: TBC

The last of our picks is the second album by the Black Delta Movement. We know not when the follow up to ‘Preservation’ is due for release, as the band maintain about the same level of social media presence as the Eskimo Chain (ie very little) but we do know that it has been completed, so can only assume it’s going to be with us soon.

Out of the mooted other releases, a potential new album by My Bloody Valentine looks interesting (although I’d rather a second album from Percolator), as does the new album by Tame Impala.

Albums we hope will be released in 2020 include the debut from Squid and second albums from Crows and the Blinders. We know that Squid started work on their album after their last round of gigs was concluded, Crows previewed a couple of new tracks on their last tour and the Blinders have been slowly introducing new material into their sets for a while but that’s it so far.  

There were some cracking albums released in 2019 (click here for our best of the year) so hopefully it will be the same again in 2020.