TGIF: The Most Exciting New Music Releases to Listen to in January 2020
Welcome to TGIF, our series in which our music insider Felicity Cain shares the most exciting new releases to listen to each month. From your favorite artists' latest projects to up-and-coming names you should know, we're here to keep your playlist feeling fresh.
Looking for February new music? Click here for the latest releases.
Happy Friday! Welcome to TGIF, L’Officiel USA’s new (!) monthly (!) music column. Since we love to do all the hard work for you, we’ll be rounding up each month's new music release highlights, and delivering it neatly to you. This month’s column is coming to you a little late (got a slow start to 2020...my apologies), but the good news is that means much of January 2020's most exciting new music releases, from Chelsea Cutler's debut album to much-awaited projects from the likes of Selena Gomez and Halsey, is already out there for you to enjoy. Usually, TGIF will occur on the first Friday of each month, giving you a central place to learn about all the best new music releases before (or just as) they happen. Without further ado, please enjoy our first TGIF. We hope you enjoy.
Just over four years after the release of her last LP, Selena Gomez is back in 2020 with her new album, Rare. The lead single off of the album, “Lose You to Love Me,” topped the Billboard Hot 100 list after its release in October 2019.
Bops-only maker Quinn XCII dropped a new single, “Two 10s,” last Friday, and for that, we are so grateful. Mr 92’s last (and incredibly catchy) single, “Stacy,” amassed over 40 million streams and, lucky for us/our ears, he has a new album on the way.
Khalid and his silky sound have blessed us with a new single. “Eleven,” which dropped last Friday, is (predictably) a smooth jam. In April 2019, the musician released his last album, which is objectively Very Good. With this following the release of "Up All Night" in November, it looks like Khalid has another big year ahead.
It appears that Justin Bieber is back for 2020 with his new single, “Yummy.” I personally have a lot of thoughts on this song, but perhaps you should just listen for yourself. All I’ll say is for someone so capable of producing catchy jams, this song is...something else. The beloved Canadian’s last album, Purpose, came out in 2015 and he’s collaborated on a couple of singles since. But 2020 is set to be a big year for Mr Bieber, with a new album, a documentary TV series, and a tour on the docket.
Aw, Sam Hunt. On the heels of his DUI arrest, the “Body Like a Back Road” singer is bouncing back in 2020 with a hot new single release, “Sinning With You,” an emotional ballad of introspection. Hunt dropped his much-loved debut album, Montevallo, in 2014, and the genre-bending country artist allegedly has another album on the way. We shall be waiting patiently.
Alec Benjamin dropped his new single, “Demons,” yesterday, and it's a perfect, slow jam for this grey winter season. (It was 63 degrees and sunny in New York City last weekend, but you get the idea). Benjamin, who you probably know for his hit single “Let Me Down Slowly,” amassed over 1 billion global streams in 2019. The Phoenix-born artist will also be performing at Coachella this year for the first time.
Today, Mac Miller’s sixth studio album, Circles, is here. The posthumous release comes just under a year and a half after the rapper’s tragic and untimely death in September of 2018. Miller started working on Circles as a companion album to Swimming, which he released a month before his passing. Jon Brion completed the production of Circles, which has come to be a bittersweet look at what was on Miller's mind in his unexpectedly final months.
Thank god, Chelsea Cutler’s new (and debut!) album, How To Be Human, has arrived. It is so good I could cry. The ever-so-relatable artist released two mixtapes back in 2018 and has since signed with Republic Records. In February, the 22-year-old will be embarking on a world tour, with sold-out shows in New York and Boston, so it's not long before you can enjoy her new tracks live.
Queen Halsey is back with her much-anticipated third studio album, Manic (!). The album’s lead single, “Without Me,” went to number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. The LP contains three features: Dominic Fike, Alanis Morisette, and Suga of BTS. After originally planning for a 2019 release, Halsey took to Twitter to say she wanted the album to be perfect, which might explain the delay (hey, at least she gave us more warning than Kanye). But thankfully, the album is here (!!).
Right in the middle-school-nostalgia-feels, Kesha’s fourth studio album, High Road, drops at the end of this month. Kesha’s last album, Rainbow, came after a turbulent few years in which the singer dealt with an eating disorder and a legal battle with her former record producer. High Road is set to be a departure from the last album, with Kesha returning to her pop roots. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting this album.
