Upcoming Album of the Week (Ending January 9)

Well, the holidays are over and things are getting back into full swing. After a couple of weeks of almost no new album announcements (aside from "surprise" Christmas music drops), we had a deluge of announcements this week. As always, you can view a longer list of upcoming albums here!

It's a new year, so why not try something new, right? I've enjoyed writing this post every week (and it is one of the few things I've actually been able to keep up on), but I sometimes find it difficult to spotlight only one new album. Sometimes, many of my favorite artists make announcements in the same week! Starting this week, I will cover a couple albums that have me excited, rather than just one. Here goes!

For just seven short years, we had a wonderful glam rock band in Smith Westerns. They released three albums during their time together, including 2013's Soft Will. Although anchored by a pair of brothers, the members went their separate ways in 2014. Now, one of those brothers, Cullen Omori, is officially going solo. This week, he announced his debut album, New Misery,  for March 18 and released the album's lead single and video, "Cinnamon."

Kanye West spent just about all of last year promising a new album, but 2015 ended with no such release from the producer and rapper. Earlier this week, his reality star wife implied that he would be releasing new tracks every Friday leading up to this mythical new album. And indeed, he did drop some new tracks yesterday (though not before posting and deleting them multiple times). Now, he's apparently actually given the release date for Swish. In a tweet posted late last night, and that has not been deleted, he announced the album for release on February 11.





While, with some bands, you never know when you might get new music, others adhere to a more consistent release schedule for new albums. Yeasayer is a band that is going in the direction of the latter, with three albums and no more than three years between each. It's now been just over three years since Fragrant World and, sure enough, the band announced their fourth album, Amen & Goodbye, for April 1. The band also released the album's lead single and accompanying music video (which is somehow only the second weirdest video I've watched this week, thanks to Animal Collective).

Also announced this week:

Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel Reissue (February 19)
Contact (For Giorgio) (February 26)
Kano - Made in the Manor (March 4)
Mavis Staples - Livin’ on a High Note (February 19)
Michael Jackson - Off the Wall Reissue (February 26)
RJD2 - Dame Fortune (March 25)
Sonic Youth - Various vinyl reissues (January 22 and February 19)
White Denim - Stiff (March 25)