Our Most Anticipated New Albums Of 2019

Welcome to 2019! After looking back at our favorite albums of 2018, we’re ready to forge ahead into what’s coming next. Here are our most anticipated albums expected to come out sometime in 2019.

It’s been more than five years since Avril Lavigne released her last album. The self-titled record was scattered and ill-fated, and soon into touring, Avril was forced to halt everything when she got Lyme Disease. She’s kept quiet, slowly writing and recording new music in addition to the occasional collaboration. At the end of 2016, Avril thrilled fans everywhere when she announced that she’d release new music in 2017. She signed with BMG that spring, but her album still wasn’t ready. Finally, in September 2018, Avril released her moving comeback single, “Head Above Water.” At the end of the year, she shared another surprising song, the soulful “Tell Me It’s Over.” Now we’re just one month away from her triumphant new album, Head Above Water, due out on February 15th.

Lana Del Rey never sits still long, and even though Lust For Life just came out in summer 2017, by last September she was already sharing new songs. “Mariners Apartment Complex” and “Venice Bitch” were our first tastes of her upcoming album, Norman Fucking Rockwell. She’s shared several song snippets and titles – “Cinnamon,” “Sylvia Plath,” “Happiness Is A Butterfly” – and performed new song “How To Disappear” in October. Her latest single is the minimalist “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it.” We still don’t have an official release date for the new album, but it’s rumored to drop on March 29th.

It’s been nearly six full years since Sara Bareilles released her Album-of-the-Year-nominated The Blessed Unrest. But that time has certainly been busy for her. She wrote a book – Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) In Song – and also wrote all the music for the hit Broadway show, Waitress. In 2015, she released an album of songs from Waitress, and has since starred in the show three times (her latest run just started this week). Sara has also appeared in and written for other musicals, hosted an awards show, released various soundtrack singles and collaborations, and even signed on to write music for an upcoming TV series. In short: Sara has been super busy! But amidst all that activity, she still found time to write new songs and record a full album. Our first single was “Armor,” released late in 2018. A music video is already in the works, and any day now, Sara will announce the title and release date for her anticipated new album.

In fall 2015, Ellie Goulding released her third album, Delirium. It was a generous offering – with 25 songs in total! – and it found her exploring a full pop sound. While we at Hidden Jams loved the album, fans seemed less receptive. The era was cut unfairly short, though we still get the occasional standalone single or collaboration. In 2017, Ellie teased on Twitter that her next album would be more similar to her sophomore record, Halcyon, the fan favorite among her three releases. Ellie has been in the studio for over a year, and late in 2018, she shared her first taste of the new music with “Close To Me.” We’re expecting to learn more about her fourth album – title, tracklist, release date – in the coming months.

Since releasing her underrated album Strip Me in December 2010, Natasha Bedingfield has been in musical limbo. She’s spent the better part of a decade in and out of the studio, releasing only a handful of singles over the years (see “Unicorn,” “Let Go,” “Hey Boy,” and more). All this time there’s been no full album in sight… until now. After giving birth to her first son one year ago, Natasha seems to have been rejuvenated. Last spring, she reentered the studio, this time with acclaimed songwriter Linda Perry. They’ve shared snippets and a few song titles, and have been excitedly referring to the new project as an actual album. There’s no timeframe just yet, but it looks like Natasha’s studio time is finally nearing its end. We have high hopes that her first album in nine years will finally see the light in 2019.

Way back in 2011, Editors’ Tom Smith teamed up with Andy Burrows to form a new duo: Smith & Burrows. That November, they released Funny Looking Angels, a holiday album made up of unexpected covers and a few glorious originals. Now, eight years later, it looks like the duo is finally planning a second record. Two months ago, they debuted a brand new song called “All The Best Moves” live. At the time, Andy told the lucky crowd that he and Tom were working on an album! There’s no timeframe for when we might hear the new record. Given that the first album was aimed at the Christmas season, it’s also unclear whether we should expect another themed record or something a bit more varied. In any case, it will be exciting to hear what new tunes Smith & Burrows have been cooking up.

In September 2016, BANKS released her confessional sophomore album, The Altar, featuring singles like “Gemini Feed” and “Trainwreck.” Since then, she’s shared a couple of new standalone tracks (see “Crowded Places” and “Underdog”) and spent the past year in the studio. She’s posted teasers and snippets here and there, though we’re still not sure when we’ll finally get to hear her new music. We expect her upcoming third album to drop sometime around this summer.

The Weeknd’s 2016 album Starboy was a smash hit – much like its 2015 predecessor, Beauty Behind The Madness. It gave us singles like “Starboy,” “I Feel It Coming,” and “Secrets,” but all too soon, The Weeknd had moved on to other projects. In 2017 he featured on Lana Del Rey’s “Lust For Life,” then in early 2018 he was part of Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther song, “Pray For Me.” The Weeknd dropped a 6-song EP last spring – featuring his single “Call Out My Name” – and just this month teamed up with Gesaffelstein on the controversial “Lost In The Fire.” At this point, The Weeknd promises his next album will have lots of songs. We still don’t know he soon we’ll get to hear them, but sometime by this summer seems likely.

After the wild popularity of “Wavin’ Flag,” K’naan became a household name and his record Troubadour become a must-have. His last album, Country, God Or The Girl, came out early in 2012, but now it’s been seven long years since we heard much from the Somali artist. In 2017, he dropped his first new song in years – “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” – as part of the Hamilton Mixtape. A year ago, he was active in the studio, sharing behind-the-scenes shots and an addictive song snippet as he recorded. He’s been quiet since then, but we have hope that a full album is imminent.

Simple Plan’s last album, Taking One For The Team, gave us an array of fun singles. From “Boom” to “Singing In The Rain,” it was a jam-packed era. After touring extensively and celebrating their debut album’s 15th anniversary, Simple Plan is now back in the studio writing new songs. Frontman Pierre Bouvier recently took to Instagram to promise fans that the new album will be phenomenal. The band hasn’t begun recording yet, but they likely will around springtime. With any luck, we could get their new record this fall.

Gavin DeGraw has laid low the last couple of years since releasing Something Worth Saving. He’s toured extensively, but sadly lost his mother to cancer in 2017. He later said many of the new songs he was writing were related to that tragedy, so his next album may be an emotional ride. At the time, he said his new album would be very raw and “acoustic-based” musically. In the last year, Gavin has also spent a lot of time with the country crowd, even recording a song called “Chapters” with country artist Brett Young. Will Gavin’s new album trade out pop for a country sound? At this point, we don’t know much about Gavin’s next album or when we may hear it. Fall seems like a safe bet for his next album.

Evanescence has always crafted stunning music, and such masterpieces take time. At this point, it’s been nearly eight years since the band dropped their self-titled third album, led by the single “What You Want.” In the years since, frontwoman Amy Lee had a son, composed the score for the film War Story (the tracks also appeared on her solo album, Aftermath), recorded a children’s album (Dream Too Much), and shared a few solo songs (like “Speak To Me,” from the movie, Voice From The Stone). In 2017, Evanescence reunited to release Synthesis, an album the reimagined some of their best hits and album tracks. The record led to a massive tour and live album/film, Synthesis Live. Now, it looks like the band is finally ready to write and record new songs for a proper studio album. We’re crossing our fingers that we’ll get to hear the new Evanescence album before 2019 is over.

In 2016, Green Day made a political statement with their album, Revolution Radio. It launched the singles “Bang Bang” and “Still Breathing,” but by the following year, “Back In The USA” introduced us to their latest greatest hits compilation, God’s Favorite Band. The band members formed a new group called The Coverups – they just perform covers – and last year, Billie Joe Armstrong formed another side project, The Longshot. That band put out a full album, Love Is For Losers, in April 2018. Last month, Billie Joe announced that he’s currently writing new songs for Green Day. We’re hoping Green Day’s next album will be out sometime late in 2019.

In October 2015, Vanessa Carlton dropped her album, Liberman. She quickly started writing new songs, performing “Love Is An Art” – the potential title track of her next record – in 2017. Last year she kept fans satisfied with a series of six cover songs, including Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” She’s also teased new music on her Instagram account, and recently confirmed that she’ll officially begin recording the new album on January 23rd. If she’s swift at recording, we may get her next album before the end of this year.

Garbage’s last album, Strange Little Birds, came out in spring 2016. Just a year later, the band was already sharing new music in the form of “No Horses.” Although they had planned to focus on recording new music throughout 2018, a celebration of the second album Version 2.0 turning 20 took center stage. This month, Garbage digitally shared their recent single, “Destroying Angels,” another dark song that forebodes an intense next album. Garbage will spend most of 2019 recording, and while a 2020 release is most probably, we *could* get the new album at the end of this year if we’re lucky.