Weezer, Olivia Rodrigo, St. Vincent, and 19 more albums we can’t wait to hear in May

There’s an expansion of the musical landscape for Sons Of Kemet’s fourth album, Black To The Future. Your Queen Is A Reptile (2018) may have been nominated for the Mercury Prize, but saxophonist and bandleader Shabaka Hutchings decided to change things up for the new record, bringing in numerous guest performers to push and evolve the jazz quartet’s signature sounds. Hutchings describes the concept of Black To The Future as being the attempt to “redefine and reaffirm what it means to strive for Black power”—and his group sounds up to the task. [Alex McLevy]

Annie Clark has evolved with each subsequent St. Vincent record, slowly segueing from scrappy guitar anthems to icy glam-pop workouts. And on Daddy’s Home, the New York-based musician slips into arguably her most chameleonic persona yet: As we described it ,” it seems Clark has entered her “Prince around the time he turned himself into an unpronounceable symbol, and Bowie in his Young Americans phase,” delivering slinky dancefloor grooves to match her angular lyrical provocations. [Alex McLevy]

If “Action,” from CHAI’s upcoming Sub Pop debut album, was meant to tease the Japanese four-piece’s shift into a mellower, minimalist sound, recent track “Ping Pong!” is proof the band hasn’t lost any of its knack for effervescent, celebratory party music. Sure, it’s not the maximalist chaos of the group’s debut, but WINK looks to possess a glitzy, glossy appeal all its own, incorporating EDM and R&B in gleefully idiosyncratic ways. [Alex McLevy]

There’s always been a bit of a “what if a hardcore band played shoegaze songs?” vibe to Fiddlehead’s music, a refusal to neatly adhere to any simple genre labels in the band’s roiling, anthemic rock. The group’s first album since 2018’s succinct but searing , Between The Richness should possess enough fist-pumping hooks for a half-dozen albums, while delivering the earnest emotional catharsis singer Pat Flynn brings to every track. (Moving single “Heart To Heart” is no exception in that regard.) [Alex McLevy]

Georgia Anne Muldrow proves her restless muse is in no danger of relaxing with VWETO III, a record very unlike the jazz stylings of last year’s Mama, You Can Bet (under her Jyoti moniker) or the everything-and-the-kitchen sink magic of 2018’s Grammy-nominated . Instead, Muldrew sets aside her unmistakable vocal cords for a largely instrumental album of beatscapes as varied and searching as a DJ Spooky mixtape. The artist “composed, performed, recorded, arranged, produced, mixed, and mastered the record”—as though Muldrow still needed to prove her multi-hyphenate bona fides at this point. [Alex McLevy]

Like a lot of bands who eventually channeled their pandemic isolation anxiety into new music, Mannequin Pussy’s forthcoming Control EP drew inspiration from difficult times. But unlike a lot of acts, they didn’t necessarily have a plan, going into the studio with only two tracks prepared, and writing the rest as they went along. The results seem to speak for themselves: The first two singles, “Control” and “Perfect,” are near-Platonic representations of the group’s ability to alternate between soaring alt-rock earworms and scorched-earth barnburners. [Alex McLevy]

Mdou Moctar and his band take the shredding power of ’70s and ’80s rock and fuse it to the undulating rhythms and melodies of traditional Tuareg music, a true fusion of Western and African influences far more inventive than many purveyors of that lazy catch-all term known as “world music.” Hypnotic like a great jam-rock outfit one moment, rocking out like a hard-rock behemoth the next, and pulsing like Tinariwen after that, Afrique Victime addresses fiercely political and deeply humanistic themes, all with masterful musical prowess. [Alex McLevy]

Inspired by his old pal Harry Nilsson’s album Nilsson Sings Newman, Micky Dolenz takes on a slew of songs by his Monkee bandmate Mike Nesmith, long an underrated songwriter, for his first solo studio album in nine years. Nesmith’s son Christian produces, giving “Different Drum” (a breakthrough hit for The Stone Poneys’ Linda Ronstadt in 1967) a jaunty, harmonica-aided flair. Dolenz’s vocals have thinned slightly with age, but are as compelling as ever, which bodes well for Monkees deep cuts on the record like “Nine Times Blue” and “Circle Sky.” [Gwen Ihnat]

It’s going to be Olivia Rodrigo’s year. The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series actress topped charts with her debut single, “Driver’s License,” when it arrived in January 2021. Her second single, “Deja Vu,” also charted in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Rodrigo’s music is a mix of pop and alternative rock, a quality that will show up in her first album, Sour. If it maintains the starry-eyed melody and cathartic lyrics of her first two songs, Sour is poised to become a mainstream hit. [Saloni Gajjar]

Twenty One Pilots return with album number six, Scaled And Icy, and the two songs already released find duo Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun in familiar territory. “Choker” chronicles the despair of searching for someone to share your innermost feelings with (“I see no volunteers to co-sign all my fears”), with Joseph adding a now-almost TOP signature rap at the end. But the poppy and energetic “Shy Away” inspires the listener to embrace the outside world (“Don’t circle the track / Break the cycle in half”), fueled by bright synths and Joseph’s more impassioned vocals. [Gwen Ihnat]

The members of Yautja all play in other bands (like Thou, Mutilation Rites, and Coliseum), which may explain why it’s been seven years since the ferocious Nashville trio released an LP. But time away has done little to soften the blow of its abrasive sound. The title of Yautja’s third full-length (and first since signing with Relapse) perfectly encapsulates the group’s approach—a blend of hardcore and sludge that moves like someone, yes, lurching around a mosh pit, their gait at once nimble and menacingly heavy. [A.A. Dowd]

Jay Som’s Melina Duterte and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner seem to have found a creative sweet spot in their new side project, Bachelor, with the early singles ranging from scrappy indie rock to ambling Americana to the Television-meets-Mpls Sound of “Anything At All,” which eventually builds to glorious release. There are some incisive lyrics and weighty themes, but musically, it sounds like nothing so much as a pair of talented artists reveling in the creative freedom of a newly discovered sonic match made in heaven. [Alex McLevy]

The live-wire unpredictability of London trio Black Midi continues on Cavalcade, the band’s follow-up to its 2019 debut, . As demonstrated on single “Slow,” the exhilarating mixture of frenetic post-punk, intricate math rock, and rumbling grooves (with a healthy dose of ambitious art rock, to boot) is only getting more impressive. There might be better albums that come out in 2021, but there won’t be many that are this thrillingly unpredictable—almost predictably so. [Alex McLevy]