__Joanna Newsom

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How does America's favorite harpist follow up a masterfully labyrinthine 124-minute triple album? With any luck, we’ll learn the answer this year. As the four-year gap between 2006's Ys and 2010's Have One on Me attests, Joanna Newsom works on nobody’s schedule but her own. But given the fact that she’s been trying out new material live—she played a few new songs at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, including the arresting "Look and Despair"—there’s reason to hope this could be the year she puts out her fourth full-length release. —Lindsay Zoladz

__Kanye West

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Last year had Kanye West gloriously hogging the spotlight once again, and don’t expect 'Ye to cede his shine in 2014—with a number of potential DONDA initiatives apparently in the works and a forthcoming fashion line with Adidas, his cultural omnipotence is all but inevitable. The shape or timeframe of these endeavors is TBD: He may return with a new “eight song” album that’s co-produced by Q-Tip and Rick Rubin, or a possible sequel to Watch the Throne, or both. One thing you probably won’t see, though—a wide release date for his much-anticipated Nike sneaker. —Corban Goble

Kendrick Lamar__

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Outside of a Beats by Dre commercial, there’s not a lot on the record to suggest Kendrick Lamar will embark on the unenviable task of topping Pitchfork's favorite album of 2012, good kid, m.A.A.d. City. But, you do get the sense that Lamar’s competitive nature will get the best of him in 2014, as well as a sense of opportunity—speculation suggests that the rapper's label TDE will release as many as six albums this year, so prime yourselves for the takeover. —Corban Goble

Liars

*Mess

*[Mute]

March 25

Every Liars album brings surprises, and one of their most shocking left turns yet came in the form of 2012's WIXIW, a melancholic album about leaving and regret that found the three-piece delving deep into the cold, industrial sounds of early electronic music. The cover for that album was as spartan as the music that accompanied it, and the blown-out-colored-yarn-wig cover of the band's follow-up, Mess, suggests that they're taking their electronic fixations to more colorful level. The shout-along vibes of first single "Mess on a Mission" suggests a return to their more abrasive tendencies, proving yet again that it's impossible to pin these guys down. —Larry Fitzmaurice

Mac DeMarco

*Salad Days

*[Captured Tracks]

Spring

“Shit, what can I say? I love the fans,” Mac DeMarco wrote before “leaking” the “title track” from his “new album” Eddie’s Dream. Then, he shared a video featuring a catchy soft rock tune about pussy and a dude dancing nude behind an acoustic guitar. When you consider the creepier moments from 2012's Rock and Roll Night Club EP or his live BTO covers (punctuated by shouts of “suck my dick”), this teaser could very well be viewed as believable and legitimate. But as he’s since revealed, Eddie's Dream isn't his new album. It’s actually called Salad Days, and based on acoustic renditions he’s played on the radio and at shows, the new material seems to lean closer to the mellow sounds he offered on his last record, 2. —Evan Minsker

Mastodon

Spring

Mastodon’s as-of-yet-untitled sixth LP is primed to continue with the straightforward sound of 2011’s The Hunter, sporting beefed-up production from Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush). According to drummer Brann Dialor, the new record will dish up “lots of huge riffs and new directions,” making it a “culmination of everything” the Atlanta quartet has accomplished in its 14-year existence. No word yet on whether or not this one’ll have a theme—but with an estimated 25-30 tracks waiting in the wings, it’s clear the band has no shortage of ideas. —Zoe Camp

__Nicki Minaj

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Following the release of 2012’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, Nicki Minaj expressed a desire to return to her grittier mixtape sound. Then, in late 2013, the reigning female MC released a remix of PTAF's “Boss Ass Bitch” that finds Minaj barking out tongue-twisting metaphors and promising her own hard-hitting return in an entrancing, unrelenting coo. She subsequently confirmed plans for a 2014 album. —Molly Beauchemin

__OutKast

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Who do you believe, Queen Latifah or more than a decade’s worth of evidence that OutKast are no longer a functioning artistic unit? Since Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, we’ve heard not a single note of new OutKast music besides the one-off single “Royal Flush” (what is this “Idlewild” of which you speak?). But no one expected OutKast to be headlining Coachella in 2014 (or any year for that matter) either, why not hope for a minute that Andre 3000 and Big Boi may be using their 40-festival gauntlet as a means of road-testing new material? After all, the man himself said nothing lasts forever... so what makes an OutKast hiatus the exception? —Ian Cohen

Radiohead____

____Radiohead’s last album, 2011’s The King of Limbs, was a surprise release that crept up on the internet with its glitchy, wafting textures. After touring in support of that record, the band reportedly recorded something at Jack White’s Third Man Studios in Nashville—material which they have yet to release. Some speculate that the recording might be issued on a forthcoming album, which will be the band’s ninth. Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich, meanwhile, have been touring with side-project Atoms for Peace, but were also rumored to be working on the upcoming album as recently as last fall. —Molly Beauchemin

Real Estate

*Atlas

*[Domino]

March 4

The lackadaisical guitar pop of New Jersey chillers Real Estate came more sharply into focus on their 2011 sophomore LP, Days; with an expanded lineup, Real Estate made the maddening mundanity of the suburbs sound romantic. Since then, bassist Alex Bleeker released a record with his solo project and guitarist Matt Mondanile released two with Ducktails. The just-shared preview of Real Estate's next LP, Atlas, sounds louder and more lyrical—a proper progression from a band that hopefully has more than a few left in them. —Jenn Pelly

__Robyn

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Robyn's stellar 2010 LP Body Talk has had an impossibly long album cycle: "Dancing on My Own" had been out for a good year and a half before she killed it on “SNL”, and she was still putting out new videos from the the record as recently as last summer. Last year, though, the Swedish fembot confirmed that she’s finally begun working on new material. “I don’t know what it will be,” she said in a July 2013 interview. “It's too early to say if it's going to be an album or an EP.” Last month, though, she tweeted a more promising hint of recent productivity: a picture of her and future tourmates Röyksopp logging studio time. —Lindsay Zoladz