It’s already time to start thinking about next year’s best music. The first few months of 2025’s album catalogue are already filling up with tales of escapism, of unexpected self-destruction, of growing up, of embracing fun – and, if Clipse delivers, of a family reunion.
The Weather Station – Humanhood (Next Door/Fat Possum, Jan. 17): Toronto’s Tamara Lindeman has spent her past few records building new kinds of intricate worlds that depart from her early acoustic folk releases – embracing a full band on 2021’s Ignorance and sitting largely at a piano for 2022’s How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars. On Humanhood, Lindeman embraces a roster of collaborators that, her team has said ahead of the release, help her grapple with “a complicated truth”: “Sometimes, life simply tries to dismantle us, no matter how good everything may seem, and we must accept that in order to survive.”
The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow (XO/Republic, Jan. 24): The Weeknd likes to work in patterns. The Toronto-raised gritty-pop sensation first shot to superstardom last decade with a triad of mixtapes, and he has confirmed that January’s Hurry Up Tomorrow marks the end of a trilogy started with 2020’s After Hours and 2022’s Dawn FM. The trilogies bookend a journey into global superstardom that saw him work with some of the world’s biggest producers (and, in the case of Oneohtrix Point Never, one of its most interesting), while his subject matter shifted from unbridled hedonism to, well, slightly more restrained hedonism. Hurry Up Tomorrow’s early singles embrace a broad range of the Weeknd’s strengths, from club bangers to stadium pop; whether the end of the trilogy is the start of something new remains to be seen.
Sam Fender – People Watching (Capitol, Feb. 21): There a lot of artists out there that, deliberately or not, conjure comparisons to Bruce Springsteen. For northern England’s Sam Fender, it’s a comparison well earned, even if the Geordie accent doesn’t sound anything like a Jersey one. He’s got an ear for hooks and riffs and a lyrical tendency toward societal criticism, self-reflection and good old-fashioned escapism. The title track, released as an early single, chugs forward like an unstoppable train – hardly downbound, but soaring forward.
Tate McRae – So Close to What 2025 album cover
Tate McRae – So Close to What (RCA, Feb. 21): Alberta’s most popular non-petrochemical export this century (outside of Edmonton hockey clubs) is back with her third album. Among other producers, the already multiplatinum 21-year-old is working with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, who made McRae’s 2023 album Think Later shine. The new album, label RCA says, “represents the journey of growing up when the road ahead feels infinite and the destination increasingly elusive.”
Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out (Def Jam, TBA): The sibling duo Clipse made some of the most memorable and lyrically devastating hip hop of the early part of this century, then disappeared – sort of. Malice, the elder, stepped back from rap in 2010, while his brother Pusha T became a key Kanye West collaborator and a critical darling. When they announced their reunion last June, Pusha promised New York magazine that “the next year is going to be filled with appearances, touring and a rap album of the year.” It didn’t arrive in time for 2024’s year-end lists, but we’ve still got 2025. Hopefully we don’t need to wait a decade and a half again.
