05. Beck – TBA

Release date: October 21st



“I’m so tired of being alone!” Beck sings on “Blue Moon”, a highlight from his 2015 stunner Morning Phase. On “Morning”, from that same album, he asks: “Won’t you show me the way it used to be?” Clearly, Beck was looking for a connection, and considering the Grammy he won for the record, he certainly found it. After that moment of yearning and tenderness, it would seem he’s ready to celebrate. The anthemic “Dreams” and the swagged-out “Wow” set the stage for upbeat experimentation and a return to some of the funk and hip-hop experimenting he’s done in the past. “Standing on the lawn doin’ jiu jitsu/ Girl in a bikini with the Lamborghini shih tzu,” he offers in the latter, a sign of exactly how far he is from Morning Phase and how much fun the as-yet-unnamed record should be. –Lior Phillips

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04. M.I.A. – A.I.M.

Release date: September 9th

We’re three years removed since the release of M.I.A.’s criminally underrated fourth album, Matangi, six years since critics felt safe writing her off following Maya, and eight years since “Paper Planes” gained her global recognition, not to mention the second best-selling single in XL Recordings history. It’s interesting to look at all those timespans and think that for everything that has come along the way, be it a Super Bowl middle finger or tons of outspoken activism, the British rap titan has maintained a mystique equaled by few other artists. So with A.I.M., which she has said will be her last album, appearances from Skrillex and Diplo can’t overshadow another time peg for one of the most singular musicians of our time. It’s no accident that her album art reads “Uniting people since 2003.” –Philip Cosores



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03. Bon Iver – 22, A Million

Release date: September 30

We’ve gone five years without a new Bon Iver album, but in that time, Justin Vernon’s influence on modern music has remained inescapable. Flitting from collaborator to collaborator, Vernon has lent his voice to a range of projects, some that feel of a piece with Bon Iver (James Blake’s “I Need a Forest Fire”, for instance) and others that appear to exist on a different paradigm (Kanye West’s Yeezus). But as September ends, Bon Iver will take center stage with 22, A Million. The strange lyric videos of the two songs officially released so far and the head-scratcher song titles pose this third album as an inscrutable puzzle, but as this essay by band member Trevor Hagen reveals, 22, A Million might very well be Vernon’s most painful, powerful, and personal album yet. The world can hardly wait. –Karen Gwee

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02. Metallica – Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

Release date: November 18th

Metallica built up enough good will that not even the absolute stinker and Lou Reed collaboration Lulu could quell the anticipation for their new album. Their first record on their own since 2008’s strong Death Magnetic sounds like it’ll get back to basics. As an early preview of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the thrashy “Hardwired” puts vocalist James Hetfield front and center, his vicious riffs and iconic venom leading the charge. This one’s been in the works for nearly three years, so there should be plenty more of the pummeling pace and razor-sharp guitar that metalheads have been craving. –Lior Phillips

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01. Green Day – Revolution Radio

Release date: October 7th



There’s a viral Tumblr post that reads “You know we fucked up when Green Day had to come back with another political album.” Indeed, we last saw the Bay Area punk rockers a whole American election ago, and now they’re striding back into a modern music landscape inevitably informed by the particularly dangerous epic that is American politics today. “Bang Bang”, the single they’ve led with, doesn’t reinvent any musical wheels, but its urgent subject matter (the lyrics are written from the point of view of a mass shooter) makes it far more invigorated and specific than anything on their last triple release, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, ¡Tre!. Come October, Green Day won’t become the voice of a generation like they were with American Idiot, but they’ll still speak truth to power in their own solid, pop-punk way. –Karen Gwee