Sky Ferreira

Masochism

“I refuse to put out something that isn’t honest,” Sky Ferreira said a year ago regarding new music. At that point, a song and short film she’d teased for summer 2015 had already been delayed over health issues and scheduling conflicts. She later said her next album, Masochism, would arrive in summer 2016. It didn’t. But, as we all know, honesty takes time. She has called her recent Playboy cover appearance, which she produced and directed, the first visual introduction for the album.

Fleet Foxes have shared plenty of hints about their next project. Frontman Robin Pecknold has also revealed he’s working on a solo album. In November, when asked about their new record, the band replied, “Alllllmost done.” They have plans to tour. Last month, Pecknold indicated the LP will have 11 tracks, be “55ish minutes” long, and include what a fan called “folk-soul songs.” We can alllllmost hear it now.

Girlpool

Powerplant

Girlpool’s Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker “are symbols of the rawness and honesty that our entire society lacks,” Willow Smith recently told The Fader. She’s not wrong. The Philadelphia-based duo’s debut album, 2015’s Before the World Was Big, had a minimalism rarely heard in indie-pop since a fellow guitars-and-vocals duo, the Softies, moved onto other projects in 2000. The follow-up is reportedly keeping things streamlined at 12 songs in just 28 minutes and was recorded in Los Angeles.

It has been more than two years since Alice Glass broke away from Crystal Castles, her duo with Ethan Kath, for “reasons both professional and personal.” Glass’ Twitter account has been essential reading ever since, but her only solo material so far has been 2015’s thrilling “Stillbirth,” a thunderous electro-punk statement of autonomy. In April, she said she was hoping to complete an album in 2016. “It’s incredibly personal,” she noted, adding that she has worked with multiple collaborators.

G.O.O.D. Music

Cruel Winter

Last June, Kanye West released the posse cut “Champions” and said it was the first song from the long-speculated sequel to 2012’s Cruel Summer compilation. In September, crew member Travis Scott said he was executive producing the forthcoming group effort. But, given Kanye’s recent tour cancellations and health issues—not to mention his support of Donald Trump, defying many of his fans and peers (including G.O.O.D. Music president Pusha T, who vocally backed Hillary Clinton)—it’s especially difficult to say what will happen in West’s world in 2017.

Gorillaz sure are acting like a (virtual) band that’s about to release a follow-up to 2010’s Plastic Beach. They’ve recently been doing absurdist interviews, sharing a series of multimedia narratives, and, why not, joining Instagram. Past collaborators De La Soul and Snoop Dogg have reportedly recorded parts for the new record. And co-founders Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn turned up in the studio together this spring, with Albarn confirming in July the next album “should be ready fairly soon.”

In October, Grizzly Bear tweeted that their fifth album was “90 percent done.” The band had started recording in June. In 2015, band member Ed Droste explained that Grizzly Bear were “feeling more adventurous with the sonic directions,” though their new LP would not be “a techno dance album.”

In July, Haim canceled their European tour dates because they were “at a critical point of finishing up” recording the follow-up to 2013’s Days Are Gone. Earlier in the year, they said they had written more than 12 new songs, which they hoped to release by the fall. That didn’t happen, but Haim did debut two ingratiating tunes, “Nothing’s Wrong” and “Give Me Just a Little of Your Love,” on their U.S. tour last spring. Before that, the trio had been hunkered down in Days Are Gone producer Ariel Rechtshaid’s studio; they also recorded some songs with the producer, Hamilton Leithauser collaborator, and former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij.