As the albums release schedule goes through its traditional halfway-point-of-the-year slump, with summer festivals dominating the agenda, it’s a good time to cast an eye over some of the buzzed-about records set for release in the latter part of 2017.
Let’s start with Californian queen of retro-noirish pop Lana Del Rey’s long-awaited LP Lust For Life (although you could be forgiven for thinking this one came out ages ago, at such languid length has it been trailered since its first single Love arrived way back in February). The final tracklisting remains a secret – Del Rey’s mysterious like that – but with Stevie Nicks, Sean Lennon and A$AP Rocky among the featured contributors, her cinematic high-drama torch songs are set to stretch wider screen than ever.
Due in late July, Arcade Fire’s (pictured above) fifth album Everything Now has been preceded by a trademark flurry of conceptual promotional trickery – from cryptic tweets by a fake Russian spambot to a fabricated fallout with a manipulative corporation. That and an ABBA-esque disco title track and lead single which, at risk of invoking high street buskers and the kind of non-music you might hear while getting a massage, at one point features pan flutes. No wait, come back – it’s good, honest. It’s co-produced by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk among others, so how could it not be?
After ruling the end-of-year charts like few other indie bands have done in recent memory with 2014’s near-universally acclaimed Lost In The Dream, Philadelphian purveyors of psychedelia-bathed heartland rock The War On Drugs make a switch to major label Atlantic for the much-anticipated follow-up A Deeper Understanding. It’ll arrive in August, and could see them make a well-earned commercial breakout in that way The National did thanks to Boxer’s critical reception back in 2007.
