New music 2023: 11 albums for spring

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published 23 March 2023

Listen, those April showers and May flowers aren't going to soundtrack themselves. Below, we've rounded up 11 upcoming releases sure to liven up your spring:

Angel Olsen, 'Forever Means' (April 14)

Alt powerhouse Angel Olsen returns April 14 with Forever Means, a sure-to-be potent follow-up to 2022's grief-stricken Big Time. This new EP will feature a deposit of songs from Big Time recording sessions that all "hold a common theme," Olsen said: "Within the wisdom borne from the twin stars of grief and love comes the realization that there is no finish line, no destination or static end point to life while you're living it."

Forever Means' lead single "Nothing's Free" is about "that point when self-denial breaks, and you notice how long you've been restraining who you are," the singer added. The song felt "really difficult to exclude it from Big Time but it felt more soulful than the direction of that record, it was coming from a different place. For me, when I wrote it, I was coming to terms with my identity and sexuality. I was opening up in a new way."

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Prepare … to headbang. Legendary rockers Metallica are back April 14 with 72 Seasons, their first album in seven years. According to Vulture, "[t]he project is a return to [Metallica's] beginnings, with the title itself referencing the first 18 years of our lives, which 'form our true or false selves,' the band said in a statement." Better still, the album's 12 tracks total over 77 minutes, meaning it should sufficiently satisfy even the Metallica superfans until the concurrently-announced M72 Tour begins.

Indie-folk singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson — better known by his stage name, The Tallest Man on Earth — announced his forthcoming LP Henry St. alongside lead single "Every Little Heart," on Feb. 1. "When I'm in motion, I can focus on my instinct, have my daydreams again. When I was finally able to tour again, I started writing like a madman," the performer said in a statement. Per Pitchfork, Henry St. will be Mattson's first album of original material since 2019's I Love You. It's a Fever Dream. Title track "Henry St." is also out now.

"I have never been more excited about anything in my entire life," indie songbird Indigo De Souza has said of her junior album, All of This Will End, out April 28. "I am blessed with the chance to embody my work from a place of absolute truth, and grateful for the support around me in doing so." Per Consequence of Sound, the project draws inspiration from "some of the most resonant moments of [De Souza's] life," including trips to the Appalachian mountains and instances of proud and fulfilling self-advocacy.

Good news — this ongoing Jessie Ware drought will soon come to an end. The British pop diva is set to release her latest project and fifth studio album, That! Feels! Good!, on April 28, 2023, roughly three years after dropping the disco-infused What's Your Pleasure? in June of 2020. "That! Feels Good! stems from over 10 years of understanding who I am, and who I enjoy being as an artist and the thrill of performance," Ware said of the new project. Lead single "Pearls," which Ware also noted is inspired by greats such as Donna Summer and Chaka Khan, "doesn't take itself too seriously but demands you to have a dance."

That last project, Berninger said, came from a "very dark spot where I couldn't come up with lyrics or melodies at all." This go-around, however, the group "managed to come back together and approach everything from a different angle, and because of that we arrived at what feels like a new era for the band." Of Frankenstein's 11 songs, Swift and singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens each feature on one, while Phoebe Bridgers features on two.

Order-of-operations enthusiast Ed Sheeran will release his sixth studio album Subtract on May 5, thus rounding out his decade-long era of mathematically-themed LPs. In an Instagram post announcing the project's title and release date, Sheeran said he had been working to "sculpt the perfect acoustic album" for a decade, "writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be." But "at the start of 2022, a series of events" — the death of his best friend and U.K. music personality Jamal Edwards; copyright lawsuits regarding his hit songs "Thinking Out Loud" and "Shape of You"; and a health scare involving his then-pregnant wife — "changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art."

Rock behemoths Dave Matthews Band will release Walk Around The Moon — their 10th studio album — on May 19, just in time for the launch of their U.S. summer tour. Per the band's website, Walk Around The Moon "took shape during the pandemic and is as much a reflection on the current times as it is an urge to find common ground." It's also the storied supergroup's first project since 2018's Come Tomorrow, whose buzzy and bright title track features backing vocals from fellow genre heavyweight Brandi Carlile.

Lean into June with the forthcoming sophomore album from serene U.K. songstress, Arlo Parks: My Soft Machine, as it is titled, will arrive two years after Parks' 2021 debut Collapsed In Sunbeams, which won the Mercury Prize and garnered two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album, per The Fader. This latest project is named after a quote from The Souvenir, the 2019 film starring Tilda Swinton and her daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, and also features a track with the genre-dominating Phoebe Bridgers.

Former One Direction member Niall Horan has been awfully quiet since the release of Heartbreak Weather in 2020, save for a few collaborations here and there and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere." But all that changed on Feb. 17, when the Irish heartthrob dropped "Heaven," the lead single for his forthcoming third studio album, The Show. "This album is a piece of work I'm so proud of and now it's time to pass it over to you to go and make it your own," Horan wrote on Instagram. "Thank you so much for being there for me all this time and I can't wait to share the next couple of years of this new era with you. I've missed you all so much. It's good to be back."

When it comes to a new album, electro-pop connoisseur Christine and the Queens has it all figured out. Paranoïa, Angels, True Love, the second installment of an Angels in America-inspired oeuvre, "is a key toward heart-opening transformation, a prayer toward the self — the one that breathes through all the loves it is made of," the French singer said of his latest project. The follow-up to 2022's Redcar les Adorables Étoiles (Prologue), Paranoïa, Angels, True Love will also feature three songs with Madonna — "Angels Crying in My Bed," "I Met an Angel," and "Lick the Light Out."

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Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.