So we were thinking about what should be on our Best Albums Of 2013 list, which we still haven't finished, and we started wondering would would be on our Best Albums Of 2014 list. Loads of albums that haven't been released yet, obviously. Some that haven't even been recorded yet.
So we started making a list, and we got a bit carried away.
EDIT: We started with 85 but have added another 20, although one of those is by Lewis Hamilton. :(
EDIT EDIT: Alright make that 106
Abba
This one might not actually come out or ever even exist so it's not a great one to kick off the list with but the latest round of rearrival rumours suggest something to tie in with the 40th anniversary of 'Waterloo', and Agnetha seems comfortable with being a popstar now in a way she hasn't for a very long time, so perhaps something could happen. In 2013 we presented five options for an Abba reunion; perhaps in 2014 a new album could be one of them?
Adam Lambert
Lambo has recently 'parted ways with' his old record label. Something will happen in 2014. We’ve heard some secret things about what’s going on with him and based on what we have heard he should have a really good year.
Adele
The follow-up to '21' ('25' if she releases it before May, otherwise '26') must surely be coming in 2014. Kid Harpoon and James Ford have already been named as collaborators; reports back in April said four songs were written but there were probably a shitload more even at that point. The phrase "modern jazz" was also mentioned.
Aiden
Aiden's recent EP release seemed like a bit of a clearing-out-my-closet, statementy type of affair following his departure from RCA, but it also sets the stage for something big in 2014. When he was on The X Factor we said he'd suit a one-man Hurts type of release and his EP feels like a move in that direction, but with more varied and unpredictable twists and turns.
Alex Metric
We asked Alex if he'd have an album out next year and he said possibly not, but we asked if his inclusion on this list might provide some motivation and he said yes, so here he is. Whether there's an album or not, there is a very exciting new single on its way (it's the follow-up to the excellent Stuart Price and Niki & The Dove collaboration 'Safe With You') and more details of that will no doubt emerge sooner rather than later.
Alexa Goddard
After a few years on the fringes of pop this British singer recently signed a major record deal, and from the music we've heard she could find herself positioned as a sort of British Rihanna. Lots of big tunes, really pop. Her first single’s due out in the spring, after which we presume there’ll be some ‘single two into album release’ type action.
All Saints
That’ll do nicely.
A*M*E
Fingers crossed for this one…
Amelia Lily
This album was supposed to come out in 2013 and things didn't look great when Amazon refunded all pre-orders but Amelia's Twitter followers will be well aware that the optimistic songstrel is still recording, so something way well come out in 2014. Leaked album track 'Truth Or Dare' certainly deserves an official release.
Anne-Marie
We’ve already featured Anne-Marie and she’s been off on tour with Rudimental in recent weeks. It looks like the groundwork is being laid for a single in the first few months of 2014 (her management's website bio suggests it might have been due in 2013) with an album to follow.
Aston out of JLS
This has been on the cards for some time and it’s a solo career that really hinges on the second single. You’d obviously expect a good showing for the first release, and for everyone to pull out all the stops to ensure that it’s a) decent and b) a hit. But it’s when the second single comes around that you really start to get a handle on whether label, A&R, management and even fans feel this can go the distance.
Avec Sans
This has all the makings of one of 2014’s best electronic pop albums.
Betty Who
Nothing says “I love you” quite like getting a company that shoots virals to record you proposing to your boyfriend while a conspicuously-well-credited song by a previously unknown act blares away in the background. Regardless of its true spontaneity this video created a lot of attention for Betty Who during 2013, the act subsequently signed to RCA, and there’s a full album due in 2014.
Beyoncé
Q1 apparently. We're sort of beyond caring at this point but that all depends on the first single.
Biffco
Imagine if a man, let’s call him Biff Stannard, had worked with acts like Kylie, the Spice Girls, Hurts, Calvin Harris, Will Young and Little Mix over the years, and imagine if to celebrate twenty years at the top of pop he roped in a load of people he’d recorded with over his career, and imagine if it all came out on an album of pop amazingness. Imagine that.
The Bird & The Bee
Apparently there'll be something from Greg Kurstin's side project during 2014…
Bonnie McKee
'American Girl' didn't launch Bonnie's solo career (or relaunch it — she had an album out almost a decade ago) as effectively as was perhaps intended, despite being extremely brilliant. 'Sleepwalker' was rather less brilliant, but we're still holding out for an album next year.
Brandon Flowers
Brandon recently confirmed that he's working on a new solo album. Its greatness (or otherwise) will depends on collaborators, but even if it's as bad as his first solo album there'll still be one good song.
Bright Light Bright Light
Whenever you're ready Rod.
Broods
It still seems early days for the New Zealand duo whose song 'Bridges' we wrote about a couple of months ago, but the other tracks we've heard are great (they've also been recorded with Lorde collaborator Joel Little) and an album late in 2014 shouldn't be out of the question.
Cady Groves
We think Cady has what it takes to be an international superstar and the music we've heard backs it up.
Calvin Harris
Obviously it's now the law that Calvin Harris can't release an album until about five of its tracks have been Top 3 hits, but the Alesso and Hurts collaboration 'Under Control' has just hit Number One so the countdown to the fourth Calvin album is already under way. An email sent out by his label last month said that an album would arrive in 2014, although this seemed to take Calvin himself rather by surprise.
Cassie
Could 2014 be the year this album finally comes out?
Charli XCX
Charli's already confirmed that this will be out around June. Even if it slips to The Other Side Of Summer (sadly no decent albums can be released between June and September as all record label employees are either off their heads at festivals or dealing with furious comedowns) that'll be fine with us. As long as it's on its way, that's fine. It was recently suggested that one of the collaborators on this album would be POP LEGEND CATHY DENNIS.
Cher Lloyd
We’ve been thinking about this album quite a bit over the last fortnight and the more we think about it the more we think it might contain one of 2014’s three best singles. The rest of the album could be all over the place of course, but doesn’t it seem as if Cher Lloyd could become properly amazing around this release?
Cheryl Cole
Expect something pretty big for the first single. And expect that to come in 'Q2'.
Chlöe Howl
This all seemed to be going a bit wonky before Howlo was added to the BBC Sound Of longlist, but perhaps that little boost will mean things could happen for her in 2014. Either way the album’s shaping up to be really good so there you go.
CHVRCHES
The band recently told us that they're already working on the follow-up to this year's 'The Bones Of What You Believe'. We'd put this one down for a late 2014 release, although 2015 isn't out of the question. You know how these things are.
Cinnamon Girl
Cinnamon Girl is brilliant. She’s signed to RCA, Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard is working on her album, the first bits are due out next year, and she might just be Britain's next pop superstar.
CocknBullKid
Anita Blay has spent the last year or so writing for other artists (including Neon Jungle, whose ‘Trouble’ she invented with Fear Of Tigers’ Ben Berry). She’s starting work on her second album in January, so we’d expect to hear stuff by the end of the year.
David Guetta
Expect one or two low-key guest vocalists.
Ella Eyre
As well as being the only singer on the BBC Sound poll longlist to be named after a line from a Rihanna song, Ella Eyre has some pretty good songs up her sleeve.
Ella Henderson
This will be a fairly big deal. Confirmed collaborators include Claude Kelly, TMS, Salaam Remi and Babyface among many others.
Elyar Fox
We haven’t heard anything truly incredible by this fella yet but it’s still early days right? Right??
Example
Stuart Price has been working on this so there will probably be some really good bits.
Florence '+' The Machine
It's already over two years since 'Ceremonials' came out, so Florence could do with pulling her finger out. (A recent thing in Q magazine said she'd been working with MNEK.)
Florrie
Any album that includes this…
…can’t help but be brilliant.
Foxes
This is going to be one of those “oh actually she’s released loads of immensely brilliant music without me really joining the dots and oh look here’s some more” albums, so expect it to be a bit of a word-of-mouth success.
Fryars
This'll be listenable.
Iggy Azalea
This'll also be listenable.
Janet Jackson
There are unconfirmed reports that Janet has been in the studio working on her first album in over half a decade. We’ll take that as a ‘definite Q4 2014’ then, thanks Janet.
Jennifer Lopez
There will be an album in 2014.
Jessie Ware
There is no way this album will be rubbish.
Joel Compass
Joel is one of the most notable exceptions from this year’s BBC Sound poll. He’s one of a handful of artists (Mikky Ekko being another) whose profile has been building during 2013 in Hype Machine-friendly areas, but (so?) hasn’t yet revealed exactly why he’s a proper popstar. We have it on pretty reliable authority that there’s huge stuff to come, so hopefully his absence from the Sound Of list takes the pressure off the whole ‘let’s keep tastemakers happy’ side of things and will just allow him to get on with being a pop thing.
Katy B
We’re already a couple of songs into this album campaign and both of those are brilliant, so Katy could be in proper ‘albums of the year’ territory by the time hers comes out.
Kelis
We’re probably in ‘one good single, a load of nonsense and a Lovebox appearance’ territory at this point in Kelis’ career but that’s good enough for us.
Ki Fitzgerald
This could be one of the more unusual albums of 2013: Ki writes for people like Lawson but he's also been working with RedOne on an album that has an operatic EDM (?!) feel.
Kids Of The Apocalypse
The Sound Of Arrows album was a masterpiece so the KOTA one should be too.
Kylie
Kylie’s currently working on her first album since signing with Roc Nation. As you know, ‘Skirt’ has already come out and was a bit of a strange affair. This album could be a disaster or a triumph (actually, it could very easily be a bit of a both). Either way we're really looking forward to hearing it, and Kylie herself seems pretty happy with her Sia work.
La Roux
This album is even more overdue than Beyoncé’s. As you'll recall, Elly debuted new tracks in March this year, which seemed to suggest a summer or autumn release, but nothing came. Even if they (is it a 'they' any more?) get this album out in the spring of 2014 it will have been half a decade since debut album 'La Roux'. Something has clearly gone very wrong in the last few years but we hope a second La Roux album does materialise because the first was a triumph from beginning to end.
Lady Gaga
Gaga's already been talking up a second instalment of 'ARTPOP'. Strangely, we're already more excited about this second set of songs than we were about the first. Maybe it's because the last time Gaga added an extra album to an existing release it was 'The Fame Monster' which as we all know is one of the best albums of the modern pop era.
Lana Del Rey
Once she's finished fucking around with all this short film nonsense we’ll be expecting a single from Lana in the spring, then a second single into the album during the autumn. This is based on complete guesswork but if you’ve got this far into the list we assume you’re no stranger to the world of speculation.
Le Youth
'Cool' was a certified banger; 'Dance With Me' is just as splendid. And there's a whole album of the stuff coming in 2014.
Lea Michele
The Glee 'actress' has a Sia-written first single due out any day now; the album’s out at the start of 2014 and will probably contain three great songs and a load of old shit, but ‘three great songs and a load of old shit’ is more than a lot of artists manage so we’ll take our chances.
Leona Lewis
Once this year's Christmas malarkey is out of the year Leona can concentrate on her next album, which she already says will have a Motown feel.
Lewis Hamilton
We first heard rumours of this a few years ago. Could it finally see the light of say in 2014? Earlier this year we asked Lewis' then-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger how good it was out of ten and she said "Well, I’m his girlfriend and I support him so I’m going to give him a ten", which didn't bode very well, be she also said "I think people will be pleasantly surprised", so all is not completely lost. (This album will probably be terrible, let's be honest, but it will at least be entertaining.)
Lily Allen
At one point Lily said she’d be back in Q1 2014, then she went and released two singles in Q4 2013, so it’s fair to say this woman is not to be trusted. Even so, a 2014 album release seems inevitable. We reckon there’ll be a proper Lily single in February (‘Hard Out Here’ felt more like a counter to the John Lewis ad than a ‘proper’ single), then an album in March/April.
Little Mix
Sometimes it feels a bit unfair on pop acts when they’re trapped in a ‘you must release one album per year until the whole thing’s over’ routine, but this year’s second album was extraordinarily good and their third — which we reckon must be due next November — could be their ‘Chemistry’. Yes we went there.
Madeon
We don’t know that he’s definitely making an album but it’s unlikely he’s not making an album, right? (This could be a contemporary classic.)
Margaret Berger
Likely to be one of those ‘greatest albums of the year but not released in the UK so nobody really goes on about it that much which is a shame’ releases.
Mariah Carey
Hm…
Marina & The Diamonds
Marina’s second album was the best of 2012 and her third could be the best of 2014.
Mark Feehily
The former Westlife warbler could be the stool-obsessed boyband evacuee with the most interesting solo career, which might not seem like much in light of Shane Filan’s solo effort, but we still reckon Mark has a few surprises up his sleeve.
McBusted
At the McBusted press conference we asked them if there was any new music on the horizon and they all went “no there’s just the tour for now” and to be frank readers we almost shouted “OH WHAT COMPLETE HORSESHIT” because you don’t book in an arena tour if you’re not going to flog something off the back of it, do you? So we reckon there are three options here: either there’s a ‘McBusted Perform The Hits Of McFly And Busted’ studio album released around the tour featuring re-recorded versions of their greatest hits, or there’s a ‘McBusted Doing Some New Songs They’ve Written Together On Tour’ album in the autumn, OR the whole thing is used to somehow launch a new Busted-on-their-own album for Q4.
Mikky Ekko
His debut album will feature collaborations with Ariel Rechtshaid and Greg Kurstin, among others.
MNEK
This will be good.
MØ
We’re already giving this one a 6/10 despite not having heard it.
Monsieur Adi
One of our favourite remixers also makes music of his own. We've heard some bits of what's to come and there are some very exciting tunes on the way.
Mutya Keisha Siobhan
The momentum has sort of fallen out of this whole project but as soon as you hear what the band spent the last two and a half years working on you will go bloody mental. This is a really excellent album and it deserves an audience.
Neon Jungle
It will be nice to hear a ballad from this lot.
Nick Gardner
This chap is a Proper Popstar, and after recording a load of YouTube covers he’s signed to Interscope. He’s off on tour with Gavin Degraw next spring but don’t let that put you off.
Nicki Minaj
The last album was a bit confusing so we’re crossing our fingers for a 2014 release that’s either Proper Rap or Proper Pop (followed eight months later by an album that’s either Proper Pop or Proper Rap).
Nicola Roberts
Amazing.
Nina Persson
The former Cardigan's album is called 'Animal Heart' and it's out in February. The first song from it was quite good.
No Doubt
Four words: Greg. Kurstin. Is. Producing.
One Direction
We originally thought that One Direction might have a year off from the album cycle in 2014, but it would be strange for them to go off on a stadium tour without having something new to flog.
Paloma Faith
She recently revealed that she was working with Pharrell and Stargate, among others. The new album will, apparently, be less emo than previous releases. (We quite Paloma being emo but we also quite like the idea of her being a bit more danceable.)
Patrick Wolf
Life always feels a bit better when there’s a new Patrick Wolf album on the horizon. He recently tweeted from the studio, mentioning in an interview — when asked about new material — that he’s reached a new sense of clarity.
Pharrell
One would imagine this will have some pretty decent tunes — and some pretty exciting guest appearances — on it.
Pixie Lott
The second album was mostly drivel but you’d hope for between three and four decent songs on this one, given that her career depends on it.
Porcelain Black
This RedOne protégé kind of seems stuck in development limbo at the moment, but some of the tunes that emerged earlier this year point to a great album.
Porter Robinson
We’re really looking forward to this one. If you follow Porter on Twitter you’ll know that the way he describes his relationship with music, and the way he analyses his thoughts in the studio, point to a really interesting and exciting ‘LP’.
Professor Green
The new 'Pro' Green album was supposed to come out in 2013 and if the first couple of singles had set the charts on fire it might well be out by now. The good news is that he can spend a bit more time adding new songs, although we heard some of it during the summer and it already sounded great.
Queen Of Hearts
This will be a good one.
Rihanna
The Eminem collaboration meant that Rihanna didn’t completely let us down in Q4, but there should have been an album. Could she have one out in the spring, or will she wait until the winter? And when it does come, will it be a Greatest Hits or a full album? Look we don’t know, we’re just listing artist names and waffling a bit.
Rita Ora
It will be interesting to see where Rita goes with her second album. Hopefully the answer isn’t ‘the dumper’, she's quite a good popstar with the wind behind her.
Robyn
The good but also slightly terrifying thing about knowing Robyn is working on material, and that she has been for some time, is that she is the sort of artist who could just drop a single at any time. In fact, she's the sort of artist who could drop three albums at any time. It might come on January 1, it might come on December 31, but new Robyn music will happen in 2014 and if it's rubbish we might as well all just give up and go home because would any of us want to live or work in a world where Robyn wasn't delivering the goods?
Sam Smith
The new single is extremely good, if you like that kind of thing.
SANDÉ
This has to be a Q4 banker for Virgin/EMI or whatever they're called by then. And while it might feel like Emeli Sandé has never really been away, 'Our Version Of Events' came out at the start of 2012, so that'll be a two-and-a-half year gap by the time the end of 2014 rolls around. Brace yourselves.
Say Lou Lou
This is likely to be one of the five best albums of 2014. Even if it just contains the singles so far and six recordings of people being sick into buckets it’ll be in the Top 10.
Shakira
In 2013 we’ve all spent so long moaning about Beyoncé’s tardiness that most of us forgot that another Proper Global Superstar must also be on the verge of releasing an album. This one’s been a long time coming but we’re really excited. We're not sure of an album release date, but the first single is coming far sooner than you're probably expecting.
Sia
It would be funny if she just got loads of other writers to give her songs for this, wouldn't it. (That's not happening.) We’d expect this album to come in the first third of 2014. ‘T1’ if you will. Likely to be Album of The Year material.
Scissor Sisters in some shape or form
Jake? Ana? Babydaddy? Del? Any of those four could release a great solo album in 2014.
Solange
Alert the ‘blogosphere’!
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
'Wanderlust' is out in January. The artwork's nice.
Tove Lo
Another Album Of The Year contender, we'd imagine. 'Out Of Mind' was very good indeed.
Take That
Alert your mum!
Tamera Foster
Single in February, album in March please. Let's not mess around.
Tanika
‘Bad 4 U’ is such a tune. Imagine a whole album of stuff like this. YES PLEASE.
Taylor Swift
Hopefully she’ll let Max Martin help out on the whole thing this time.
The Vamps
Their second single is really good.
The Veronicas
Twelve ‘4ever’s would be just fine.
Usher
This is due in May.
Will Young
After a decade with RCA, Will signed to Island earlier this year. As you well know, his last album 'Echoes' was extremely brilliant, so it stands to reason that this one will be too. (Anyone who has followed pop music for more than 18 months will obviously know that ‘it stands to reason’ is a phrase that has no place whatsoever when it comes to predicting album consistency but we trust Will on this one.)
YYZ
We love YYZ. Since we last wrote about them they’ve signed to Universal and made this video.
An album of those would be just super.
In Summary
There's going to be loads of amazing music released in 2014.
If we've missed anything send us an email, and if none of this excites you fear not — there’s a U2 album coming in the spring.