The Most Anticipated Albums of 2026

The country-rock superstar with a Springsteenian bent is issuing his first album since making a $350 million catalog deal. Even his less overtly commercial albums have done bonkers business these last few years, so this one may also out of the gate strong enough to make Bryan’s business partners feel like they made a wise investment. He went up to the minute with it; in December, he tweeted that he was heading into the final five days of recording. (In other words, don’t expect the vinyl version any time soon.) Even with the release imminent, a track order was hard to come by, but songs he’s indicated will make the cut include “In Dreams,” “Madeline,” “Bowery,” “In Dreams,” “Plastic Cigarette” and “Rockaway.”

You might feel just a little dumb for believing any release date for the rapper’s first album since 2018, but this one sure seems fixed in place. How many updates have fans gotten? “Leaks and sample clearances are disrupting the album… I’m sorry for the wait,” Rocky tweeted in summer 2024, as the album was then supposedly about to come out after multiple delays. But with a video tease for “Punk Rocky” released Jan. 2 and featuring no less a leading lady than Winona Ryder, this time it’s for real. Look for an all-star roster of collaborators… from Mike Dean, Tyler, the Creator, Madlib, Swedish House Mafia and Metro Boomin all the way to Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.

Yes, we know that some may consider this one of 2026’s most dreaded, but there is still a huge audience out there rooting for him to pull it together creatively as well as personally. Technically, the artist formerly known as Kanye West released “Bully” — or a version of it — in March 2025 as the soundtrack to a Hype Williams-directed film starring his son Saint. He prefaced the release by stating on social media that the album was “not finished and half the vocals AI,” and took down the films essentially a day later. After a string of pushbacks that r/Kanye fans tracked like the phases of the moon, “Bully” appears to be actually, really dropping on Jan. 30 after pre-orders recently popped up on his site. Longtime collaborator Mike Dean confirmed that he co-produced all songs on the project, which several Ye associates promised would not have any traces of AI.

Charli has been known to veer between pure pop and edgier modes, and her soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s Emily Bronte movie adaptation is surely veering toward the latter, based on the first teased song, a collaboration with Velvet Undergrounder John Cale. So maybe it won’t show up as a meme affecting pop culture and even electoral politics, but even a side project from Ms. XCX is an event, post-“Brat.”

Fans have waited patiently for Jilly from Philly to head back to the studio for her first record since 2015’s “Woman.” And wouldn’t you know it, the R&B singer started off the year by announcing that her sixth album “To Whom This May Concern” would arrive just in time for Valentine’s Day. Along with the release of the first single “Beautiful People,” Scott revealed that the project will feature collaborations with Ab-Soul, J.I.D., Tierra Whack and Too Short, and will include production from DJ Premier, Adam Blackstone, Om’Mas Keith, Camper, Andre Harris, Trombone Shorty, Seige Montracity, Eric Wortham, DW Wright and VT Tolan.

Harle may not be a household name but he’s collaborated with Charli xcx, Dua Lipa, Caroline Polachek and many others — some of whom appear on his solo album, which also features PinkPantheress, Clairo, Oklou and more. 

The fastest-rising female star in country is making the move from amphitheaters to arenas with her spring tour. She officially entered her “Cloud 9” era last year with “6 Months Later,” her third album’s debut single, which became a country airplay top 5 hit. In a recent interview with Variety during CMAs Week, she explained the album’s and tour’s pink color scheme, as opposed to the previous green and blue. “I chose pink because I think there is a softness about this music that isn’t in my other albums,” she said. “And I think it’s come from the confidence that I have now. It’s about falling in love and falling out of love, but when you’re truly confident, it’s not the end of the world when it doesn’t work out, you know what I mean? And my other albums, maybe I perceived it as the end of the world. Now this new music is just more carefree and confident. So I thought pink was a perfect color to feel empowering and confident, but also soft, and that’s what the new music is like.”

We last heard from this one-time teen queen, musically, all the way back in 2015. No wonder she’s being slightly sly in naming her comeback single “Mature.” On Jan. 7, she released video footage teasing what might be the second single from the forthcoming release, with provocative lyrics including: ““I only want the beginning, I don’t want the end/I want the part where you say goddamn/Back of a dive bar giving you head/Then sneak home late, wake up your roommates…” The song longs for a time “before we swept us under the bed/And we became practically roommates/I’m touching myself by the front door/But you don’t even look my way no more.”

Has Mars really not released an album since 2016, when the Grammy-hoarding blockbuster “24K Magic” came out? It’s true, although if it doesn’t seem quite that long, it’s because he’s hardly been dormant. In 2021 he released a project as one-half of Silk Sonic alongside Anderson .Paak, which earned them Grammys for record of the year, song of the year, best R&B performance and best R&B song. And his one-off duet with Lady Gaga, “Die With a Smile,” became one of the biggest songs of the 2020s, before he joined up with Rosé for “APT.,” currently nominated for record of the year, song of the year and best pop duo/group performance at the Grammys next month. At this rate, an actual solo followup eight and a half years later is practically just gravy.

Puthers, rejoice. Charlie Puth gave a long lead heads-up for his fourth album “Whatever’s Clever,” releasing the excellent lead single “Changes” in October 2025 and giving a tease of what to expect. The project, co-executive produced by BloodPop (Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga), could see Puth heading in a more mature direction based on the sound of “Changes,” which pulls from ’80s pop like Phil Collins and Bruce Hornsby. Fans can likely expect the song “Sideways,” a duet with Coco Jones, to appear on “Whatever’s Clever” after the two debuted the ballad during his Blue Note LA residency last fall.

Their collective South Korean military service is done — and so is their first brand new group album since “Be” in 2020 (unless you count the anthology album “Proof” from 2022). “Guys, we just finished recording,” Jimin said in November. “It can come out next spring.” That was manna, or butter, to the ARMY’s ears. An official announcement on New Year’s Day offered a March release date but no title. Their world tour will be announced Jan. 14.

Combs’ sixth album will be his first since “‘Fathers & Sons” in 2024. A good amount of the 22 tracks have already been released a number of tracks from the 22-song set, including the No. 1 airplay single “Back in the Saddle,” “My Kinda Saturday Night,” “Days Like These” and “Giving Her Away.” The country superstar kicks off a stadium tour in Las Vegas the day after the album comes out.

It turns out the Swedish emo-dance-pop queen is on a reliable schedule of a new album every eight years. Just as that long a period passed between 2010’s “Body Talk” and 2018’s “Honey,” so will that much time have elapsed leading into her 2026 release. The Swedish pop singer first teased the project in the fall with the release of first single “Dopamine,” then released the title track and “Talk to Me” when officially announcing the album earlier this week, so a third of its nine songs are already out. “Sexistential,” the song, is “possibly the world’s first rap about having one-night stands while 10 weeks pregnant after IVF,” she noted — good of her to add that “possibly” in case she’d been beaten to the punch.

Del Rey’s purportedly country/Americana-leaning album is on its third title and is now also into its third year of being promised for release. Just like “The Right Person Will Stay” (to cite a former title), the right release date also will stay, right?

Last year, the rapper teased a March 26 release date for her sixth album… but that was before she announced she was quitting music… which was before she announced that wasn’t true… which was before she went full MAGA at an appearance with Erika Kirk in December. Will the music she’s been working on be retrofitted with anti-trans raps to mollify her new “boys should be boys” fan base?

She’s been leaning into folk-pop with every album since the Grammy-winning “Golden Hour,” but there have been at least hints that her new one will mark more of a return to her original country sound, if only in part. When last spring she announced re-signing with Lost Highway, the newly restarted label that was actually the imprint she first signed with at Universal Music Group, she discussed the direction she was taking. Talking with THR at the time, she said, “There was ‘Same Trailer’; then ‘Pageant Material’ went even harder in the country direction — it was a love letter to all the classic country I love. Naturally, it felt good for me to explore some other sounds, and I went into ‘Golden Hour’ territory. Then I went through a divorce and was in a really intense place in my life, and I went in the opposite direction with ‘Star Crossed.’ With ‘Deeper Well,’ I swung back in toward my center…” Now, she said, “I’ve been feeling really good playing around with some more… I want to say ‘traditional’ songs, but at the same time, there always has to be a modern edge there in some way.”

The British vocal gymnast, multiple BRIT Awards winner and Grammy nominee is coming off of a U.K. No. 1 single with “Where Is My Husband!” and promised in a recent SiriusXM interview that the follow-up to her 2023 debut is coming “definitely first half of [2026] at least. Hopefully sooner!” If the single is any indication, it will be an effervescent blast of R&B, pop and future nostalgia.

It seemed like the album the Rolling Stones had been recording for 15 years might never get done until producer Andrew Watt, who is nearly 50 years younger than the band members and acted as a sonic fountain of youth for Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne and others, got in the studio with them — and presto, there was 2023’s unexpectedly lively “Hackney Diamonds.” According to multiple insiders, the Stones and Watt reunited last year and there’s another album finished and on the way.

Not much is known about the album dubbed “OR3,” but both Rodrigo and co-writer/producer Daniel Nigro have said her next missive is basically finished. Some fans believed or hoped it might be announced this week when she teased something on the way, but the actual news there turned out to be that she was aligning with other artists on a series of covers of songs from her five-year-old “Sour” album, starting with a David Byrne interpretation of “Drivers License.” But if that rollout ends with the May five-year anniversary of “Sour,” that still leaves the whole second half of the year to truly fulfill fans’ wishes for album #3.

Is a return to the dance floor in the cards for her Madgesty? Just as her milestone 2005 album “Confessions on a Dance Floor” turned 20, Madonna teased that she was at work on a potential sequel to the sweaty dance project. She posted images of herself back in the studio with “Dance Floor” producer Stuart Price, and in September revealed that a brand new dance album would impact in 2026 following her re-signing with Warner Records nearly two decades after leaving the label. Time to dust off the leotard.

What a tease Harry Styles is, releasing a video just at the end of 2025 that suggested new music would be arriving imminently. Turns out that clip was just for an instrumental rendition of “Forever Forever” that he performed during the final night of his “Love on Tour” trek in 2023. But that hasn’t stopped rumors from swirling otherwise that a follow-up to 2022’s “Harry’s House” is in the works. Several outlets have speculated a tour is also brewing — could 2026 once again be the year of Harry? All signs could be pointing in one direction.

The Toronto rapper has been teasing out his ninth studio album “Iceman” amid the fallout from his very highly publicized feud with Kendrick Lamar (and subsequent legal dealings with UMG), giving fans glimpses of what the project may sound like via hours-long livestreams bearing the album’s name. Through those streams, he debuted several tracks “What Did I Miss?,” “Which One” featuring Central Cee and “Dog House” featuring Yeat and Julia Wolf, all of which would later become available on streaming. Who’s to say when “Iceman” will actually arrive, but based on past release strategies, it could come at any moment.

J. Cole has teased “The Fall Off” since at least 2018, when he included “1985 — Intro to ‘The Fall Off’” as the concluding track on “KOD.” There have been years of rumors and teases from the man himself, plus subsequent releases including 2024’s “Might Delete Later” that dropped amid his brief involvement in the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef. It’s unclear where the record stands, but Cole fans still have hope it’ll surface this year.

Kehlani has been riding the “Folded” wave as it gradually picked up steam since its release in June 2025. That throwback R&B sound fitted her buttery vocals nicely, setting the stage for the next single, “Out the Window.” Not much is known about her untitled fifth album, though she did claim in a November interview with “The Cruz Show” that it’s a “very confident body of work.” “I wanted to make a great R&B album and I’m working on making a great R&B album with some of my favorite people of all time who I’ve always loved,” she said. “For some reason, everything is falling perfectly into place.”

It’s coming up on nine years since U2 released its last album of new material, 2017’s “Songs of Experience.” Considerable time has been spent in the studio, over the years and recently, with the band reportedly starting from scratch on a new album in August 2024. Could it be… time? ““Everyone in the band seems desperate for it,” Bono told Esquire last year. “It’s like their lives depend on it. … And, as I tell them, they do.” It’s not as if the pressure hasn’t been on from fans. ““I hope they’re going to still be there for us,” he said. “We’ve pushed them to their elastic limit over the years. And now it’s a long time that we’ve been away. But I still think that we can create a soundtrack for people who want to take on the world.”

In the recently released book about Wings, McCartney said, “Right now, I have 25 songs that I’m finishing in the next few months, new songs that are interesting.” This was good news for fans who wondered if the work he had reportedly been doing with producer Andrew Watt on and off for years would finally result in McCartney’s first album since his DIY pandemic album in 2020. And, in a fansite Q&A at the end of 2025, when he was asked what he is most looking forward to in 2026, he answered, “My new album!” He added, We’re just starting to think about how to put that together,” so don’t expect him to suddenly jump out in January with a surprise release after this long wait.

Like many Beyoncé projects, little is known about when the final act of Beyoncé’s trilogy will arrive, let alone sound like, but the Beyhive has been buzzing for years that it could very well be a rock album. That, of course, is based on the tiniest of clues — that she dressed as Betty Davis for Halloween in 2024, or that her Levi’s campaign was rock-influenced. Beyoncé runs on her own schedule, but with the conclusion of the “Cowboy Carter” tour last July, the timing for a new record in 2026 makes sense.

Doechii got some new music in under the end-of-2025 wire with her collaboration with SZA, “Girl, Get Up,” released as a single on Dec, 30. It seems a little silly to say out loud that we are still waiting on Doechii’s debut album after all this time. There are probably few fans who don’t consider 2024’s “Alligator Bites Never Heal” to have been a debut album, even if it bore the technically disqualifying “mixtape” tag. And all the songs released in 2025, including her re-recorded version of 2019’s “Anxiety,” sure make her seem almost like a veteran artist at this point. Nevertheless, we will celebrate with everyone else when she lands with what everyone can certify as a proper full-length.

Not a peep, publicly, about this one yet, but we’re putting it on our inevitable list… fine, wish list. Bridgers hasn’t had a solo album out since “Punisher” in 2020, so we’re almost positive six years is the longest gap she’s going to go with before sating fans. And Boygenius cohorts Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker did both return to their own solo careers last year, so the deck is properly clear is avoiding stepping on their release dates was at all an issue.

That TBD is doing a lot of heavy lifting considering that this album has been promised for, what, a decade? Still, we’re blindingly holding out hope that 2026 could be the year that the very long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s “Night Time, My Time” touches down. Fans once again got their hopes up when she said “Masochism” would come in 2025, and it seemed legit considering she mentioned it amid the press blitz for her “Babygirl” soundtrack song “Leash.” And yet, another year, another bullet point on a most anticipated albums list.

Projects are either reported or strongly rumored to be coming from:

Steve Lacy
Megan Thee Stallion
4 Non Blondes
Evanescence
Foo Fighters
Bjork
Massive Attack
Sublime
Mumford & Sons
Gorillaz
Madison Beer
Louis Tomlinson
Megadeth
Ella Mai
Robbie Williams
Peter Gabriel

Bruce Springsteen
Flea
Mitski
Lucinda Williams
Nick Jonas
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