Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Vampire Weekend and more: 15 new albums to hear this spring
Whether you need music to push you through the door into fair spring weather, or you're the type to stay indoors as long as you can spinning a new soundtrack, this season is waiting for you.
Spring 2024 is a serious one in terms of new music, with fresh releases from icons, mainstays and rising stars. Here are just 15 of the records you'll want to dig into in the coming months.
March 29: Beyonce, "Act II: Cowboy Carter"
Beyonce is American music, expressing herself through its many incarnations and directions. Here, she promises to unite the sounds of her native Texas in a manner that is distinctly hers.
March 29: Sheryl Crow, "Evolution"
New music from the newly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — and University of Missouri alum — comes five years after 2019's "Threads" and an initial pronouncement that she was out of the record-making business. Thankfully, Crow had a change of heart, offering up a new set of 10 songs, including a collaboration with Peter Gabriel on his own "Digging in the Dirt."
April 5: Phosphorescent, "Revelator"
Matthew Houck's project has long spoken to the wilds of our interior lives. His latest promises to address "the grand sadness in life," and there's few people more worthy of convening that conversation in song.
April 5: Old 97s, "American Primitive"
Maybe the most underrated American rock band of the past 30 years, Rhett Miller and his fellow Texans return with a new set of sublime, spring-loaded country-leaners about heartbreak and various eras of ennui.
April 5: Vampire Weekend, "Only God Was Above Us"
Every Vampire Weekend record is an event and an examination — of who we are now, and the strength of our connection to where we started. Early tracks find the band discovering new wrinkles in a signature sound.
April 12: Maggie Rogers, "Don't Forget Me"
The title cut from Rogers' forthcoming third record is a master class in restraint, the singer using melodic upturns to convey the fear of being left behind by life.
April 19: Cloud Nothings, "Final Summer"
The Cleveland band has built one of modern indie-rock's great canons; its eighth record promises more great, moody guitars and wry melodies from bandleader Dylan Baldi and Co..
April 19: Pearl Jam, "Dark Matter"
The alt-rock trailblazers hope for a strong follow to their second-act highlight, 2020's "Gigaton"; the title cut weds Matt Cameron's thunderclap drumming to Joan Jett-esque guitars.
April 19: Taylor Swift, "The Tortured Poets Department"
Evocative song titles and collaborations with the likes of Florence Welch and Post Malone promise yet another indelible listening experience from Swift, who never does anything halfway.
April 26: Iron and Wine, "Light Verse"
One of our truest bards, Sam Beam never fails to create challenging, ultimately consoling work. His first full solo project in seven years promises to deepen and widen the view Iron and Wine offers. Fiona Apple, Dawes' Griffin Goldsmith and others lend Beam their talented hands.
April 26: St. Vincent, "All Born Screaming"
Annie Clark is the sort of musician who baptizes herself and listeners in sound; the artist known as St. Vincent has referred to "All Born Screaming" as "post-plague pop" and, with that label, you know the music will leave a mark.
May 3: Kamasi Washington, "Fearless Movement"
Our generation's saxophone deity, the Los Angeles native always delivers jazz that's cinematic and spiritual in equal measure. His latest weaves in a terrific cast of kindred spirits, including Andre 3000, George Clinton and Thundercat.
May 17: The Avett Brothers, self-titled
Among the most dynamic and inventive acts under the big tent called Americana, the Avett boys offer up their first full-length since 2019's "Closer Than Together," a record apparently worth signing their name to twice.
May 17: Guster, "Ooh La La"
Forever evolving, uniting their folk-rock bonafides with fresh pop colors, Guster promises once again to meet the moment; early tracks — as well as the album's evocative cover — handle the beautiful and devastating aspects of our moment with equal sobriety.
May 24: DIIV, "Frog in Boiling Water"
Brooklyn's DIIV makes wonderfully melancholy rock 'n' roll and "Frog in Boiling Water" promises to chronicle our current American "collapse from various angles with unusual sensitivity and depth of purpose."
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: New music from Beyonce, Taylor Swift among 15 must-hear spring albums
