I am a music junkie. Music dictates most of my life. You know that thing that happens when you listen to a song and it takes you back to a very specific place and time? That happens to me with basically every song I listen to. That and pretty colors, because I have synesthesia. Because of this, new music is very important to me. It’s my future soundtrack. A song I’ve heard for the first time, will in a year’s time, mean something completely different to me then. It’s exciting. When my favorite artists (or even artists that I like, but am not insane about) release new music it’s like Christmas Day or when Pumpkin Spice Latte’s are back in season. This is a good year for me. Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy, Sleater-Kinney, Kelly Clarkson, Falling in Reverse, Sleeping with Sirens, Purity Ring, Madonna, Kendrick Lamar, Florence + The Machine, Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men, Ciara, Carly Rae Jepson, Passion Pit, Muse, AND Adam Lambert have already dropped new albums and we’re only half way through July. There’s another five and half months to go! This music will become the soundtrack of my next year; indulge me for a moment, as I look to the albums we’re yet awaiting, reminisce on past releases, and predict what memories I’ll be looking back on when I hear these songs in 2017 (also, you’ll know what I’m looking out for and maybe get some new music in the process).
July ? - Frank Ocean Boys Don’t Cry
Frank Ocean released Channel Orange in the summer of 2012. That was one of the best summers of my life. That album takes me back to hanging out in the repair room with my boys (in my previous life I was a mobile device technician for a very well known fruit company), and tooling around with my then boyfriend. We listened to that album LITERALLY every day, usually multiple times a day. It was good times.
Considering it’s July 16th, I highly doubt we’re going to get a new album from Frank before the month ends, even though it’s been supposedly coming out this month for ages. I can’t wait for this album. I want it so badly. I hope he pulls a Beyonce and just lets us have it out of nowhere. I predict this album will remind me of hanging out on rooftops drinking craft beers and dancing as the sun sets around me. I just need to find a rooftop to hang out on first.
August 7 - Chelsea Wolfe Abyss
Chelsea Wofle released Apocalypses summer 2011. I didn’t find it until the following fall. It reminds me of taking the bus to aforementioned job, because I didn’t have a car yet, and trying to concentrate on my first year Grad School reading while the woman next to me did the crossword. I liked her; neither wanted to make bus friends so we just ignored each other every morning.
I think I probably won’t get into her new effort until fall; she’s just got a fall vibe to me. I imagine listening to it while driving to different Halloween haunts with friends, and making out to it while thinking of bobbing for apples, even though I’ve never once bobbed for an apple.
August 28 - Beach House Depression Cherry
Their last release Bloom in the spring of 2012 found me at a great time. I listened to it mostly before going to bed while texting my then paramour.
I imagine baking cupcakes and journaling while channeling my inner manic pixie dream girl at the end of this summer.
Sept 11 - Leona Lewis I Am
I am a hug Leona Lewis fan. I have all of her albums, I know all of the words, she is everything. Spirit Nov 2007 reminds me of my freshman year of college and living in my all girls dorm where this song was blasting out of someone’s window every single day. Echo Nov 2009 reminds me of forcing my older brother to partake in Leona sing-a-longs when he was my best friend, Sami, and I’s DD. Glassheart Oct 2012 was one of my “oh my god, did I really just get dumped?” albums. Christmas with Love Nov 2013 reminds me of the magical Christmas when my family returned to Disneyland together for the first time 20 years to the day.
I think this new album will be the soundtrack to girl power nights with my best friends, making our own mixed drinks and talking shit on their balconies while we Tinder.
Sept 15 - The Dead Weather Dodge & Burn
Okay, I listened to both Horehound and Sea of Cowards from 2009-2011, that I almost can’t stand either album anymore. They both remind me equally of my last year of college and riding around the valley trying not hate my life the year after college ended. Not the lightest of memories to get called up on a whim.
I want this new album to make me think of the days shortening, watching movies outside, driving to shows, and trying on clothes that I don’t need at my favorite malls.
Sept ? Lana del Rey Honeymoon
Born to Die was my everything album in 2012. Feel sad? Born to Die. Feel sexy? Born to Die. Mad at my man? Born to Die. Love my man? Born to Die. It was, and still is, the perfect summer album. Ultraviolence while still the soundtrack to last summer, didn’t have the same vibe to me.
I hope Honeymoon eclipses my not so enthusiastic feelings about Unltraviolence and is my everything Fall 2015 album.
Oct 9 Coheed and Cambria The Color Before the Sun
Coheed and Cambria is one of THOSE BANDS for me. You know, THOSE BANDS, the ones that so heavily define a time period so long that they’re a part of your makeup and you wouldn’t be who you are without them. I discovered them my freshman year of high school and they were my everything. Claudio Sanchez is the only celebrity I have fangirled over when actually talking to, because I usually try to keep it chill and try to remember they are just people.
I really want this album to allow me to relive my teenage emo glory and listen to it in bed while I scroll through tumblr.
The following artists are rumored to be putting out albums this year, but none of them have release dates;
Britney Spears Please queen, release a new album (better than Britney Jean), that can become the reason why I pre-game ala Blackout, Circus, and Femme Fatale. I was too young to pre-game for Baby One More Time, Oops! I Did It Again, Britney, and In the Zone, when they came out, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t subsequently.
Christina Aguilera With the current climate of the nation I need some angry feminist pop anthems in my life. I’m counting on you, Xtina.
Coldplay I predicted that Muse would make a good album once Matthew Bellamy ended his relationship with Kate Hudson, and I was right. I pray the same is true for Chris Martin and Gwenyth Paltrow.
Drake I hope I don’t have any reasons to drive around being sad during this years end, which is usually what I do when I listen to Drake, and I want a new Drake album, so…sacrifices must be made.
Ellie Goulding Ellie Goulding makes me feel empowered and like I can do anything all while wearing high heels and plastic wings. So, yes, more of you, Ellie.
Garbage Garbage introduced me to feminism and female fronted bands i the early 90’s, so I will always love them religiously. I want to think of driving down Sunset Blvd in the wee hours of the morning, singing at the top of my lungs when I listen to this album in two years.
Gwen Stefani I legitimately stopped a family road trip in order to get to a record store and buy Gwen’s first solo album. My world stops for Gwen. I can’t even process that there’s possibly a new album from her coming out.
Kanye West Kanye is my writing music, so I really to listen to this album and think of this blog and all of the other projects I’m working on coming into fruition and ceasing to be ideas in my head.
Macklemore Playing pool in a dark room with a sweaty beer in one hand is all I want from the memory of this album.
Pierce the Veil Give me all of the adult teen angst.
Rihanna Rihanna is on a whole nother level right now, and I can’t really think about.
Selena Gomez I don’t have a visceral reaction to Selena the way I do the other artists on this post, but I just love her so.
The Smashing Pumpkins Still super bitter I missed the Smashing Pumpkins/Marilyn Manson joint tour this summer, so I don’t even want to think about this album. That and I haven’t really paid attention to their new releases post-Zeitgeist because shit got weird.
TLC I want to listen to this album and not cry over Left Eye,
The Weeknd I hope this album sees me on long rainy nights, waxing poetic about relationships with people I’ve just met.