This is part three of four. If you haven’t read part two yet, check it out here.
While 2020 was shit, the albums we got that year were pretty tight. But some records were delayed for the sole purpose of releasing them when touring was given the “OK” to. As of now, touring is still off limits, but that won’t stop some bands from dropping new music this year.
In 2021, we’re getting several great albums some several great bands and artists, but out of all the albums that are coming out this year, these are the ones you need to keep your eyes on. Here are the most anticipated albums of 2021, in no particular order.
Weezer
Album: Van Weezer (Atlantic/Crush)
Release Date: 5/7
Tomorrow’s the big day! After the surprise release of their baroque-pop influenced album OK Human back in January, Weezer are following that record up with Van Weezer, an album packed with elements of stadium rock and power pop. If you’ve longed to hear Weezer playing songs with an extra emphasis to rock, you won’t be disappointed with this beauty comes out at midnight.
Rise Against
Album: Nowhere Generation (Loma Vista)
Release Date: 6/4
Announced back in March, Chicago punk rockers Rise Against unveiled their ninth album Nowhere Generation. It will be their first album released via Loma Vista Recordings (Ghost, Manchester Orchestra, Show Me The Body). “I’ve come to realize that people want honesty and that music can be a catalyst for change,” frontman Tim McIlrath told 98KUPD on the record. “I think in many ways, we’ve been on a mission to rile people up, and I feel very lucky to be able to do that. Our hope on this record is to jostle people awake, even it if makes you uncomfortable.” And knowing Rise Against, they surely won’t disappoint.
Billie Eilish
Album: Happier Than Ever (Darkroom/Interscope)
Release Date: 7/30
After making waves with her Grammy Award winning debut When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Billie Eilish has returned. She spent her time during the pandemic crafting tracks with her brother Finneas. So far, she’s dropped three tracks off of Happier Than Ever. Who knows if she can top the massive success her debut gave her when the album drops in late July.
Oceans Ate Alaska
Album: TBA (Fearless)
Release Date: TBA
It’s been four years since the world got a new album from British prog-metalcore act Oceans Ate Alaska. But all of that changed when we finally got a new song from them back in November, “Metamorph”. The track marks the return of original vocalist James Harrison who left OAA in late 2016. While no word of a follow up to 2017’s Hikaru has been made, one has to hope that a new OAA record will drop sometime this year on Fearless Records (The Almost, NOT A TOY, Varials).
Drug Church
Album: TBA (Pure Noise)
Release Date: TBA
I absolutely loved Drug Church’s last record Cheer. I put it as my favorite album of 2018. Three years have passed and no word of an album as announced (except the killer song “Bliss Out” dropping during the pandemic), until they told BrooklynVegan that LP4 was on the way. While announcing their upcoming EP Tawny, coming out May 28 on Pure Noise Records (Action/Adventure, Four Year Strong, Meg & Dia), the Albany post-grunge act said that a fourth album would be coming out in 2021. When? Who knows. Let’s see if it’ll be #1 on my list yet again.
twenty one pilots
Album: Scaled And Icy (Fueled By Ramen)
Release Date: 5/21
Scaled And Icy, the new album by alt-hip-hop duo twenty one pilots, seems to be picking up right after the end of their last record Trench. The title is an anagram for “Clancy Is Dead”, the main protagonist from Trench. While working on Scaled And Icy, Rolling Stone wrote, “Scaled and Icy was created largely while the two band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun were in Covid-19 lockdown in their respective homes. The two collaborated on the album virtually, with Joseph writing and producing in his home and Dun recording and engineering his drum takes from across the country.” So far, fans are loving the new songs that are dropping.
Senses Fail
Album: What The Thunder Said, Hell Is In Your Head and TBA (Pure Noise)
Release Date: TBA
Yes that’s right. We’re getting TWO Senses Fail albums coming this year on Pure Noise. The news about the two records came out back in September, along with announcements for vocalist Buddy Neilson’s other projects Speak The Truth…Even If Your Voice Shakes, Bayonet, Sweater Weather, remixes, and full acoustic renditions of Let It Enfold You and Still Searching. Are we strong enough to handle all of this post-hardcore awesomeness?
The Maine
Album: XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time (8123/Photo Finish)
Release Date: 7/9
The Maine were busy in 2020. As Alternative Press put it, “[they] have been working every possible second of 2020 to bring us a new record in 2021, which is crazy considering frontman John O’Callaghan got married and drummer Pat Kirch became a husband and father this year. While in quarantine, the band performed livestreams to say goodbye to their 2019 record, You Are OK, play through Forever Halloween for the first time ever and record a cover and music video for Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.” To keep that busy streak going, they worked on their eighth studio album XOXO: From Love And Anxiety In Real Time and are partnering up with Photo Finish Records (3OH!3, Handsome Ghost, SHAED) to help distribute it. O’Callaghan told AP, “It’ll be a concise record in that it’s exactly what we wanted people to hear. And I’m just really excited to finish the damn thing.”
Lorde
Album: TBA (Lava/Republic/Universal)
Release Date: TBA
Fans of Lorde have been dying for a new record from the New Zealand alt-pop artist for years. Ever since Melodrama came out in 2017, we’ve been craving anything from Lorde. But the pandemic, as well as her Antarctic expedition in 2019 and the passing of her dog Pearl that same year, caused the making of her third album to be continuously delayed. She’s working on the album with longtime producer Jack Antonoff (fun., Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift).
AFI
Album: Bodies (Rise)
Release Date: 6/11
Goth-punks AFI have returned and are releasing their 11th album Bodies next month on their new label Rise Records (Chapel, Flogging Molly, Make Them Suffer). From what we’ve heard so far from the album, it sounds like nothing the band has done before, and it’s a beautiful breath of fresh air from a band that’s been trucking along for the past 30 years. “Anyone who knows our catalog knows that no two records really sit together,” guitarist Jade Puget told Louder about Bodies. “Some sit a little closer, maybe. We do certain things, just by virtue of who we are, that are consistent, but those things come about organically. Every time we do something, I have to judge it on its own merits. Some fans are going to judge a new album, or a new song, based on what’s come before. But as artists, we can’t do that, because it would only hinder our creativity.”
Look out for part four which will come out soon!
Punk Goes Prenatt 