Now that January is over, I’ve begun looking forward to see what music we might be getting in 2016. The line-up looks pretty promising with big names like Kanye West and iconic returns like Missy Elliot. Here’s a rundown of some the albums I’m excited for this year.

First off, it would be a shame not to talk about the surprise of the year. A day before performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Beyoncé dropped a new single, “Formation,” without any notice. She just posted a picture and a link to the video and the rest was an onset of freak-outs and meltdowns. I absolutely love the song; it has amazing production that is similar to her popular hit “7/11” and the beat is purely dance-able. I am a die-hard Beyoncé fan so take my obsession with a grain of salt, but even if you don’t like the song, the video has a powerful message that is presented extremely well. For an in-depth overview of the video check out this article on the blog New South Negress. After her performance at the Super Bowl she even announced a world tour, which is a pretty clear sign that a new album will be released soon.

 

Another album to look out for is Ariana Grande’s “Moonlight.” After her first single, “Focus,” seemed to fail with radio stations and listeners alike, I’m interested to see where this album goes. “Focus” has the make-up of a perfect pop hit, but then the chorus hits and it just sounds like a strange man incoherently yelling “focus on me,” which just killed the whole song for everyone. Grande has been sending out tidbits of songs from the upcoming album and they seem promising, but we’ll find out soon because the album is set to release early this year.

Moses Sumney  is also gearing up to create an album. I was introduced to Sumney about two years ago and the only music he has released since are a few small EPs and singles. He’s extremely talented and has a voice like butter. He released one single, “Pleas,” which is the first from this album but he seems to be taking everything very slowly. Here’s a live performance of his song “Everlasting Sigh,” the first song that made me fall in love with Sumney and will hopefully pique your interest too.

One album that I’ve been hoping would come out for the past year should be coming out this year and that’s Frank Ocean’s “Boys Don’t Cry.” After promising a release back in July 2015, Ocean has since been MIA without a peep of a new release date. It has been four years since his first album “channel ORANGE,” which was a masterpiece. I, just like so many other people, have been patiently waiting for this new album, but I don’t think anyone is patient anymore. The hope is we get some semblance of a release date soon.

Some other albums to look out for are Tinashe’s “Joyride,  M.I.A’s “Matahdatah” and Gallant’s currently untitled project, which all look promising.This year looks bright for music and a lot of great artists are releasing albums, let’s just hope they all live up to their hype.