23 hotly anticipated albums released in 2020
Featuring The Killers, Green Day, Foo Fighters and more
Last updated 27th Feb 2020
2019.was another vintage year for music with a plethora of excellent albums being released into the world.
Among the many musical zeniths from the past 12 months were Sam Fender’s ambitious heartland rock tour-de-force ‘Hypersonic Missiles’, Vampire Weekend’s gorgeous 18-track opus ‘Father of the Bride’, Liam Gallagher’s all-conquering ‘Why Me? Why Not.’, Stereophonics’ heartfelt and optimistic ‘Kind’, Coldplay’s sprawling double album ‘Everyday Life’, Foals’ two storming records ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 and ‘Part 2’, and The Chemical Brothers’ psychedelic tinged electro gem ‘No Geography’.
Looking forward to 2020, here at Absolute Radio we’ve rounded up a series of confirmed (and, admittedly, highly tenuous) albums that are set for release this year and will kick off the decade in fine style:
1. The Killers – ‘Imploding The Mirage’
Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stroemer and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. unveiled the title of their sixth studio album when they announced the Imploding The Mirage UK stadium tour back in November. There’s scant information album the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, however we do know it’s set for release in spring 2020 ahead of the completely sold-out stadium trek.
2. Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Ordinary Man’
Poor Ozzy endured a torrid 2019. First, he contracted flu that developed into pneumonia, and then be suffered a serious fall in his bedroom that left him in agonising pain, resulted in neck surgery and forced him to postpone his world tour. However, this woe inadvertently inspired Ozzy’s new album ‘Ordinary Man’, which he wrote and recorded while recuperating, with producer Andrew Watt on guitars, Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses) on bass and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on drums. Featuring the towering lead single ‘Under The Graveyard’, it’s due for release in early 2020.
3. Courteeners – ‘More. Again. Forever’
Due for release on Friday 17th January 2020, Courteeners frontman Liam Fray has promised that the band’s sixth record ‘More. Again. Forever’ is “explosive” and custom-built to “blow you away live.” The Middleton indie-rockers have already shared three tantalising tasters of the album – ‘Heavy Jacket’, 'Better Man' and title track ‘More. Again. Forever’ – and the omens sound very good indeed.
4. Green Day – ‘Father of All…’
Legendary punk-pop trio Green Day will unleash their thirteenth studio album, ‘Father of All…’, to the world on Friday 7th February 2020. The punchy lead single and album title track ‘Father of All’ has been a mainstay on Absolute Radio’s airwaves for months now and strongly hints at great things to come from the record. According to singer Billie Joe Armstrong, the album will be highly eclectic and embraces “Motown, glam and punk.”
5. The 1975 – ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’
Having picked up blanket critical acclaim and topped the UK album chart with November 2018’s ‘A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships’, the big question is whether Matthew Healy and co. will keep up the ante when their fourth album ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ lands on Friday 21st February 2020?! Judging by the singles ‘People’ and ‘Frail State of Mind’, we have every confidence in The 1975 lads.
6. Pet Shop Boys – ‘Hotspot’
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe will kick off 2020 by releasing their fourteenth studio album, ‘Hotspot’, on Friday 24th January. Recorded primarily at the fabled Hansa Studios in Berlin (where David Bowie recorded ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’), the 10-track album was produced once again by studio wizard Stuart Price, who helmed Pet Shop Boys’ previous two albums ‘Electric’ (2013) and ‘Super’ (2016).
7. Weezer – ‘Van Weezer’
Just like Green Day, Weezer announced their fourteenth studio album on the same day they revealed details of their global Hella Mega Stadium Tour. Unlike their pop-tinged previously albums ‘Pacific Daydream’ and ‘Weezer’ (aka “The Teal Album”), the record will see Weezer embrace a hard rock sound and takes influence from KISS, Black Sabbath, Metallica and, of course, Van Halen who directly inspired the album’s title. ‘Van Weezer’ is released on Friday 15th May 2020.
8. Blossoms – ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’
Stockport’s most famous export since the hat, Blossoms, will release their third album ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ on Friday 31st January 2020. Featuring the lead singles ‘The Keeper’ and the Absolute Radio playlisted ‘Your Girlfriend’, the album was produced by Rich Turvey and The Coral’s James Skelly at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. Incredibly, despite ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ still being unreleased, Blossoms have already started work on their fourth album!
9. Foo Fighters – TBA
Speaking backstage at Reading Festival in August, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins said the band’s “fearless leader” Dave Grohl already has “a lot of demos that he's worked on” for their next album. He continued: "It's a long process, we do a lot of demoing and stuff, but I think that we'll have, I'm hoping, I think we'll have a new record by next year. We should." Fingers crossed the album comes into fruition!
Taylor Hawkins also spoke to Claire Sturgess about the new record on Absolute Radio in November:
10. Kasabian – TBA
Kasabian began teasing their next studio album back in August when they posted a photo of a fist on social media with the words “Light BBQ, tune guitar, album 7” scrawled on it in pen. Hopefully the new material will see the light of day in time for Kasabian’s homecoming gig at Leicester's Victoria Park in June.
11. The Offspring – TBA
In November, pretty fly white guys The Offspring confirmed their first album since 2012’s ‘Days Go By’ will be out in early 2020. Explaining why there’s an eight-year gap between albums, guitarist Noodles told Halifax Today: "The evolution was really slow. We’ve moved back to playing music we fell in love with and finding a way to keep it fresh. Punk rock was there when we were young, trying to figure out where to go and what to do. We also always wanted songs you could play along to, and ones you’d get stuck in your head.”
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers – TBA
At a book signing event for his brilliantly monikered memoir Acid For The Children in November, bassist Flea said Red Hot Chili Peppers had started work on their twelfth album. Asked when it’s coming out, Flea said: “I can’t give a date for that. We’re working on it, we’ve been writing and piecing it together…. I don’t know but next year some time for sure.” With legendary guitarist John Frusciante rejoining Red Hot Chili Peppers this month a decade after he quit, fans are rightfully getting excited about the direction the new material will take.
13. Liam Gallagher – TBA
His chart-conquering second long-player ‘Why Me? Why Not’ was only released in September, but Liam Gallagher already has a title for his third album. “The next one is going to be called ‘Come On You Know’, pure positive,” Liam said in October. “As soon as I get the titles man, we are off.” Although this is a highly tenuous one, Liam is highly prolific as a solo artist, so it wouldn’t be a big surprise if the record came out in 2020.
14. Pearl Jam – TBA
News of Pearl Jam’s new long-player first emerged in March 2018 when the Seattle rockers premiered the politically charged song ‘Can’t Deny Me’ and confirmed it’s from their forthcoming eleventh studio album. With fans duly titillated, bassist Jeff Ament dropped the bad news two months later that the album was “in limbo” and they were yet to commence work on it. Then, in September 2019, guitarist Mike McCready revealed they have been writing songs for the follow-up to 2013’s ‘Lightning Bolt’. With European shows in the pipeline next summer – including a headline slot at American Express presents BST Hyde Park – here’s hoping it FINALLY comes out next year!
15. Lana Del Rey – ‘White Hot Forever’
On the same week Lana Del Rey released her acclaimed sixth album ‘Norman F---ing Rockwell!’ in August, the singer told The Times her seventh record was already in the pipeline. “I’ve already written parts of it,” Lana said. “It’s called ‘White Hot Forever’. I feel like it probably will be a surprise release sometime within the 12 or 13 months.” She added: “I’m really excited right now. I don’t want to take a break.”
16. Biffy Clyro – TBA
Speaking to Absolute Radio’s Danielle Perry backstage at The Q Awards at The Roundhouse in October a night after Biffy Clyro played a spectacular pre-show concert at the venue, ever-genial frontman Simon Neil confirmed their next record will land in 2020. “We’ve been in the studio for the past couple of months so to come out of hibernation and kind of reconnect with people was incredible,” Simon told us. Asked when the material will surface, he added: “Our album will be out at the start of next year.” We truly cannot wait.
17. AC/DC – TBA
The music legends are notoriously secretive, but over the past 18 months rumours have been intensifying that they’re on the cusp of returning to the fore. First in August 2018, fans shared photos of the band – including ex-members Phil Rudd and Brian Johnson – outside Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, then weeks later JAM Magazine quoted sources claiming the new album will be dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Young. In January of this year, grindcore band Terrorizer revealed on Facebook that Brian Johnson told them he had rejoined AC/DC, before their engineer Mike Fraser confirmed in April that they’re in the studio “doing something.” We'll have to wait and see...
18. Bon Jovi – ‘2020’
Bon Jovi are so confident their new album will land in 2020 that they’ve called it ‘2020’. Titular frontman Jon Bon Jovi says: “It’s a real statement record… It’s not political, but it’s very socially conscious, you know, just awareness of so many things going on in the world right now… whether it is the environment or politics, it’s the wider array of things that need our attention right now.” He added: “The Amazon is burning and the hurricanes are flooding and people need to bond together. We're all in this together at the end of the day.”
19. Alice Cooper – TBA
Shock rock extraordinaire Alice Cooper released a new six-track ‘Breadcrumbs’ EP in September featuring covers of songs by artists hailing from his home city of Detroit. Alice’s label earMUSIC teased his 21st record, by simply writing: “watch out for the new studio album in 2020.” Alice’s last studio album, ‘Paranormal’, was released in July 2017 and featured bonus tracks performed by three members of the "classic" line-up of the Alice Cooper band, Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway, and Michael Bruce.
20. The Cure – TBA
The inimitable Robert Smith has revealed that The Cure have not one but THREE albums in the works. The first album - which will be the first since 2008’s 4:13 Dream – is likely to surface next year and has been inspired by the devastating deaths of Robert’s mother, father and older brother. “They are in The Cure’s style, but much darker and emotional,” Robert said. “I think I still have a hard time talking about the new songs, because they came from my gut… they are inspired by change, loss and the physical absence of my mother, my father and my brother.” He said the second album is “freer and louder and stronger”, while the third is “crazy” and “is a record of noise, with several aspects and environments.” Intriguing stuff.
21. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - TBA
The Boss announced in May he has penned a series of songs for a new E Street Band record that will pave the way for a tour. Reflecting upon his many years of writers’ block with the E Street Band, Bruce said in a Q&A with legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese: “About a month or so ago, I wrote almost an album’s worth of material for the band. And it just came out of almost nowhere!” If the E Street Band album is anywhere near as good as Bruce’s recent solo record ‘Western Stars’, then we’re in for an absolute treat.
22. Ed O’Brien – TBA
Following in the footsteps of Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood and Phlip Selway, Ed O’Brien is the latest Radiohead member to go solo and will release his debut album in early 2020. Working under the moniker of EOB, the as-yet-untitled Flood produced record features guest spots from Laura Marling, Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Wilco’s Glenn Kotche and Ed’s Radiohead band mate Colin Greenwood. The first track from the album, ‘Brasil’, was released on 5th December and it’s a sprawling nine-minute folk-electro opus that hints at great and experimental things to come from the album.
23. Deep Purple – TBA
The hard rock torchbearers are heading out on a headline UK arena tour in October 2020 in support of their as-yet-untitled 21st studio album, which frontman Ian Gillan recently confirmed the band had finished recording. It’s the follow-up to April 2017’s ‘Infinite’, which dented the UK album chart at no.6.