Pop New Album

Kanye West

Album: Swish

Release Date: TBA

What will Kanye West's seventh album sound like? There's really no telling. Over the last year, Kanye has released a solo record ("All Day"), a collaboration with Paul McCartney ("Only One"), a collaboration with Paul McCartney and Rihanna ("FourFiveSeconds"), a song with Vic Mensa ("U Mad"), a song with Vic Mensa and Sia ("Wolves"), a "Jumpman" cover ("FACTS") and a remix of a classic Larry Heard house record alongside Ty Dolla $ign and Post Malone ("Fade"). And, according to Pusha T in an interview with Rolling Stone this past December, none of these records are making the oft-delayed Swish. Supposedly, music took a back seat to Kanye's fashion escapades this year, but Pusha also promises, even though he wasn't involved in its creation: "Everything I've heard is phenomenal."

Drake

Album: Views From the 6

Release Date: TBA

Drake remains hip-hop's foremost rap artist – critically acclaimed, a populist superstar, reshaping the genre simply when cosigning a trend. Even the revelation that Drake relied upon ghostwriters for recent hits hasn't noticeably slowed his momentum. Drake appeared on two full-length – ahem – "mixtapes" in 2015, What A Time to Be Alive with Future and If You're Reading This It's Too Late. But Views From the 6, Drake has emphasized in interviews, is to be more substantial, a deliberate statement. He told Rolling Stone that part of his return to Serious Business means working mainly with his longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib: "I just wanted to be able to come back to that and have it be important."

Rihanna

Album: Anti

Release Date: Still TBA, but tour starts February 26th

Rihanna came out guns blazing in January 2015, mentioning that her long-awaited follow-up to 2012's Unapologetic was on the way, executive produced by none other than Kanye West. But after a few singles, including the acoustic "FourFiveSeconds" with West and Paul McCartney, and the R&B radio hit "Bitch Better Have My Money," the campaign seemed to go quiet. The title and cover of Rihanna's 8th album was finally unveiled in November, and her Samsung app ANTIdiaRy has been teasing fans with cryptic hints — but 2016 has so far began with no new single or release date. "To me it's never done until it's done," Rihanna said of the album in September. As recently as November she canceled a performance at the Victoria Secret Fashion Show to put in some more work into it.

Lady Gaga

Album: TBA

Release Date: TBA

She's spent the last year touring classic pop songs with Tony Bennett and starring as the Countess on American Horror Story: Hotel, but Lady Gaga has also been working on her follow-up to 2013's Artpop. "I want the fans to be surprised," Gaga told Yahoo in late December. "But I will just tell you that it's a wonderful, soul-searching experience. … This record is like – my old self as a cadaver. And I'm just, I'm operating on my old self." Among the forensic investigation: Possibly returning to the studio with RedOne, if a studio selfie with the "Poker Face"/"Bad Romance" producer is any indication. "We took a little break from each other and now it feels like we are in a good place, both of us. She did her thing, I did my thing, and it feels like we're back on track together," RedOne said to The National

Frank Ocean

Album: Boys Don't Cry

Release Date: TBA

The follow-up to Frank Ocean's 2012 Grammy-winning R&B smash Channel Orange even has Adele impatient. "I'm just fucking waiting for Frank fucking Ocean to come out with his album," she told Rolling Stone this year. "It's taking so fucking long." In the works since early 2013, the concept album reportedly features collaborations with Hit-Boy, Tyler the Creator, Rodney Jerkins, Pharrell and Danger Mouse. Last year, Ocean announced, "I got two versions. I got twoooo versions. #ISSUE1 #ALBUM3 #JULY2015 #BOYSDONTCRY," and posted a photo with a stack of Boys Don't Cry magazines. July came and went, and Adele got nothing.

Bruno Mars

Album: TBA

Release Date: TBA

Beyond working on "All I Ask" off Adele's blockbuster 25, Bruno Mars has been focused on creating his third album, the follow-up to 2012's double platinum Unorthodox Jukebox. Despite the wait in between albums, Mars has never really exactly left the spotlight, playing the Super Bowl Half Time show and appearing on 2015's biggest single, Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk," which spent 14 weeks at Number One.

Sia

Album: This Is Acting

Release Date: January 29th

This Is Acting, Sia's seventh album, pays tribute to the bewigged Australian's other gig – writing songs for the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé and other chart-toppers. Acting will consist entirely of songs that have been rejected by bigger names, and the match between song and intended target will, at times, be apparent on first listen. "One of them is a Shakira reject, which there's no doubt when you hear it. You'll know that it was a Shakira reject because I sound like Shakira," she told Rolling Stone in December. "Alive," the album's lead single, was intended for Adele and written alongside the British belter and the hotly tipped Canadian troubadour Tobias Jesso Jr. "I chose the people that we worked with and I choose those people because they're so incredibly talented and they check their egos at the door too and allow me to be the artist. Then when I want to bring another artist, I try to check my ego at the door and be of service to them and allow them to be the artist."  

Charli XCX

Album: TBA

Release Date: TBA

Charli XCX kept busy in 2015, guesting on tracks like the Ty Dolla $ign single "Drop That Kitty," launching a fashion line, and releasing a documentary about pop and feminism. Later in the year, she focused on music, canceling her fall 2015 tour with Bleachers to work on her follow-up to 2014's Sucker. In September, she offered a few details about the still-untitled album to the U.K. newspaper The Mirror: "It's definitely the most electronic pop sound I've done," she said. "I've been really inspired by Paris Hilton, small dogs and a glitter, luxe lifestyle." In October she bore out that prediction when she released the dark, pounding "Vroom Vroom," produced by future-shocked electro artist Sophie.

Gwen Stefani

Album: TBA

Release Date: TBA

Beyond the glare of tabloid cameras and The Voice, tireless businesswoman and artist Gwen Stefani has, in fact, had some time to make some actual music. Stefani reportedly started work on her third solo studio album, the follow-up to 2006's The Sweet Escape, in 2014, but scrapped most of it. Instead, we got the first single, the nakedly personal ode to ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, "I Used to Love You." Stefani told Beats 1's Zane Lowe that the song arose as part of an unusually prolific, post-writer's-block period. "I think I have enough for probably two albums," she told him. "I have to write a few more songs, because I feel like, might as well keep going while it's there." It's not all torch songs and ballads, though, she told him. A new single, a "really happy song," is likely due out next — it's called "Misery." Go figure

Charlie Puth

Album: Nine Track Mind

Release Date: January 29th

Singer Charlie Puth came out of nowhere in 2015 with one of the biggest singles of the year, singing the chorus to Wiz Khalifa's Paul Walker tribute "See You Again." The track hit a billion views on YouTube in less than a year, spent 12 weeks at Number One and is currently up for three Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe. Puth will launch his 2016 with his solo debut, Nine Track Mind, which will include guest appearances from Meghan Trainor ("Marvin Gaye") and Selena Gomez ("We Don't Talk Anymore"). "[Listeners] should expect a soulful vibe," Puth recently promised in an interview with Vulture.