Top Five Most Anticipated Albums for the Rest of 2015

2015 has been a great year for music already, with quite a few releases really wowing me. I’ll cover those in more detail in another post, but for now, let’s look forward to what the rest of the year holds. This is strictly personal opinion, and this list may not represent the quality of these albums whenever they actually come out. So without further ado…

5. A$AP Rocky – At. Long. Last. A$AP (May 26th)

A$AP Rocky’s debut album Long. Live. A$AP genuinely surprised me when it was released in 2013. I had never been a fan, and in fact thought of him as a lazy rapper. That impression was turned on its head as he held his own on lyrical posse cuts like “1Train”, but it feels like I haven’t heard anything from him in a while. Even his singles like “Pretty Flacko 2” and “M’$” have gone under the radar. However, I really have loved those songs, and with the release of the Rod Stewart-sampling, Mark Ronson-produced “Everyday”, I am very interested to see what Rocky comes up as his singles have indicated he’s going for an auteur vibe with this album. It’s fascinating to see what happens when an artist lets go of going for mainstream singles.

4. Frank Ocean – Boys Don’t Cry (unconfirmed title) (July)

Somehow in a group called Odd Future, Frank Ocean has always seemed like the odd one out. He’s been the calm and collected figure amongst a bunch of insane misfits. But when channel ORANGE was released in 2012, it made sense. Odd Future has always been a group that had creative juices flowing out of every crevice. And now, Ocean is more-or-less striking out on his own with the release of an album/magazine combo. If the results bring us more songs like “Pyramids” and “Sweet Life”, then I’m all for it.

3. Hudson Mohawke – Lantern (June 16th)

Hudson Mohawke has intrigued me as an artist since he was signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music label as a producer. Since then, he’s proved himself to be a very versatile beatmaker, but I’ve really been interesting to see him go back to a solo effort so I could see what he’s truly made of. It’s interesting then that he’s decided not to surround himself with the rappers he produces for on this album, and is actually going back to his roots as an electronic artist. I look forward to hearing what the whole project sounds like.

2. Pusha T – King Push (TBA)

Pusha T released his first solo album, My Name Is My Name, in 2013, and ever since I’ve been eagerly awaiting the follow-up, King Push. MNIMN was a surprisingly experimental album and offered something unique amongst the landscape of mainstream rap. And given that the only song to appear from the next album, “Lunch Money”, has gone even more experimental, I’m extremely hopeful that this album will turn out to be even more amazing.

1. Kanye West – SWISH (TBA)

I’ll forgive the terribly misleading marketing which has left everyone in the lurch. I’ll forgive the awful album title change which makes the whole thing seem like a joke. All I want in this entire world is for a Kanye West album to completely amaze me again for the first time in five years. I know he’s capable of it, and I genuinely think that the singles so far are a good sign (yes, really), so I know it can happen. Whether it does or not is beyond me. Time will tell if Kanye really still has it.