The Most Anticipated Albums of 2015

We're not sure if you're aware, but time truly waits for no one. We just got done celebrating the end of 2014, and here we are studying a long list of albums that are set to drop in 2015. We can't front: 2014 ended up giving us some truly awesome albums, if what's on the horizon ends up going down in 2015, we're in for a memorable year. We've assembled 30 albums that we've heard information on, although the majority of them are more in the "to be announced" stage. And even with that being the case, you androids out there should be just as excited as we are for 2015's crop of albums.

Release Date: January 20, 2015
Label: Anjunabeats / Ultra Music

The level of craftsmanship shown by this trio of UK trance legends these days is astounding. It's as if digging into their own catalog for a series of non-electronic performances has heightened their attention to upping the level of time and energy being expended on their songs. 2011's "Sun and Moon" may have put theim on the map, but 2014-released eponymous lead single "We Are All We Need" could actually be better constructed, which means that the entire album project–if it mirrors that same level of excellence–may be one of the year's most worthwhile full listens. Could we get something along the lines of hearing the album performed in full for a Madison Square Garden return engagement? This is entirely possible.

Release Date: January 22, 2015

Label: Revealed

DJ Mag's #1 DJ for two years running is finally set to drop an album, and it's set to be a defining moment in his career. He's owned the EDM landscape for some time, but there's a difference between churning out big singles and selling out crowds and making a proper statement as an album artist. With features from Headhunterz, Jason Derulo, Mr. Probz, and Tiesto, Hardwell's looking to strike a balance between the huge EDM world and the mainstream arena that's awaiting EDM's next big artist.

Release Date: February 3, 2015
Label: Duck N Cover

When it comes to that bounce, DJ Clent's productions have never let us down. 2014 saw him release a number of projects that murdered juke sets the world over, and he's back in early, making that Last Bust to Lake Park for all of the new heads out there, especially since he has vets like RP Boo, DJ Puncho, and DJ Milton on as features.

Release Date: February 23, 2015

Label: Warp

Fatima Al Qadiri, Nguzunguzu, and J-Cush formed like Voltron as Future Brown, a quartet that's aimed at giving the moodier side of electronic music a voice. Future Brown is the sound of everything the Internet loves–brooding hip-hop, haunting beats, raw lyrics. With features all over the project, we'll see if fans will take a page out of their book and open up their studios and experiment more with vocalists. Or it could just be a dope, singular event that we can't stop playing.

Release Date: February 23, 2015
Label: Friends of Friends / Dubsided

If you want to be an asshole about this (and there's tons of you who want to be an asshole about this), this album might be five years too late. However, if you appreciate great music for what great music can be as a form of expression, then Nadastrom's likely not-so moombahton heavy debut album is going to be amazing.

Matt Nordstrom's worked with Grammy-winning engineers and legends like Deep Dish. Dave Nada could be one of the most significant stylistic chameleons in modern dance, seamlessly expanding his career from punk to top-40 to Baltimore club to tech house to moombahton and more. Thus, limiting either of these men to making dembow-friendly EDM that moves between 108-112 BPM is pretty silly. Seeing Switch and Justin Martin remix "Fallen Down" in 2014 was pretty amazing as well. Nadastrom holding up to and exceeding the standard being set in all of the genres they've touched in just under a decade together should be demanded and expected by this release.

Release Date: February 16, 2015
Label: Kapsize

If we're going to keep it 100, we didn't know what to expect when we heard that Joker was set to drop his sophomore album, The Mainframe. 2011's The Vision was awesome, but by the time it'd been released, a lot of those tunes had been rinsed. That said, the Purple WOW don set us straight with the release of "Midnight," which taught us the art of keeping calm and recognizing that Joker's not lost a step... and has learned some new ones in the time since he release The Vision.

Release Date: March 1, 2015
Label: Sotto Voce (?)

Feed Me left the drum & bass scene–where he was known as Spor–in 2008 to explore different sounds in the electronic music scene, to much acclaim. People have been wondering when a new Spor project would drop; with no new Spor since 2012's "Ziggurat," it'll be interesting to see what a new Spor project would sound like held up against the growth that dnb has experience since Feed Me blew up.

Release Date: February 2015, September 2015

Label: TBA

So, let's get this straight. You want one enormous moombahton single featuring a reggaeton artist we loved in the mid-2000s, a trap track that blends elements of ratchet underground dancehall with whatever Lex Luger made for Rick Ross, and certainly another left-field ballad like Ezra Koenig's "Jessica" or Amber Coffman's "Get Free" and bam. Diplo's already talking like this one has been in the bag for months, which means that it'll probably include some DJ Mustard-style top-40 raps and twerk-happy turn ups, too. He also says there's going to be a second release due some time in September. Is there anything else left for the Major Lazer project to spread its sonic roots into? Probably not, but for where the project has expanded in five years, they've tilled a lot of fresh soil that can still yield major rewards.

Release Date: TBA

Label: PMRD / Universal (?)

Back from the brink of literal death, Avicii brings his heavily Ralph Lauren-branded "Oh Brother Let's Rave Thou" blend of folk-as-EDM plus the potential of Madonna completing a one-for-one trade given that he has a track placed on her forthcoming Rebel Heart. "The Days" and "The Nights" sound like turn ups meant for shopping mall dressing rooms and heavily branded "music experiences," though. Of course, given where we are in this era, that should be believed to be par for the course.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Bromance / Parlophone (?)

The answer to every question that everyone has about what lies beyond trap in EDM for hip-hop culture will likely be answered by Brodinski's Brava. "Can't Help Myself" features Chicago drill emcee SD and sounds chilling, vacant, brooding, and near post-apocalyptic in style. The expectation of what a collaboration with cheery trapmaster Makonnen could bring is intriguing, but it's on the more traditional dance side with the idea of Brodinski pairing with Louisahhh or Bromance favorite Club Cheval crew members where things get truly exciting. Similar to what Gesaffelstein meant to 2013, Brodinski will likely do the same for setting rhe pace for techno-as-pop in 2015.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Ultra

Aside from the title and the lead single, there's not much word about what we can expect from NERVO's long-awaited album Collateral. We know they can write hit songs–they have the Grammy to prove it–but it'll be interesting to see what a full-length album from these sisters will sound like. Will it be a full-on anthem session, or will they give us deeper, more intriguing vibes along the way?

Release Date: TBA
Label: Columbia

Feels like this Madeon album's been long overdue. We spent the better part of the last two years receiving random singles and hearing his work with Lady Gaga, but now it looks like Columbia's ready to release the debut album from this young EDM talent. "You're On" has us open, from the R&B-influence to the overall cool of the tune, and should be proof positive that Madeon could easily knock out some solid material that'll appeal all over.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Ultra / Dim Mak

Steve Aoki's still throwing cakes in people's faces, being interviewed by Larry King and getting Bud Light to sponsor his videos. However, he's also releasing double alnums with Ultra Records, with the second half of his Neon Future release expected in 2015.

Part one included tracks with Flux Pavilion, rappers Waka Flocka and MGK, Afrojack and Empire of the Sun. While one could believe that Aoki would just hit us with a ham handed double-fisting of more raps, more bass and more major-key synth build driven tracks, he's also mentioned he's enamored with techno. Let's presume that in a year where Disclosure, ZHU and "deep house" are going to be a "thing" that Neon Future II is where we get some of those tracks, and possibly more.

In retrospect, this could actually be a telling project in Aoki's history, the space where the festival maestro finds the space between the present and the future that allows the #plurnt generation to comfortably fit into what will be so many pairs of "boots and pants and boots and pants and boots and pants."

Release Date: TBA
Label: Size

Releasing "Wasted Love"–a collaboration with Dougy Matangi of Australian indie rock act The Temper Trap–didn't get treated by Columbia Records with the attention and care that one-time Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello wanted. So, in what will go down in history as one of modern music's biggest power plays, he bought back his album from Columbia lock, stock and barrel–and is now planning an "independent" release. Following in a line similar to Alvin Risk's Venture project, let's expect that Wild Youth will reveal much more of he humanity behind the house music legend. Angello is 20-plus years into the game and either looks at this record as cashing out or possibly a significant artistic achievement. Either way, we know it means a lot and in his own hands will be treated with the care he feels it deserves.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Def Jam / Virgin EMI

At best, this will sound like what we'd imagine a "next" Swedish House Mafia album would sound like. At worst, this will sound like what we'd imagine a "next" Swedish House Mafia album would sound like, too. Axwell and Ingrosso never forgot the galloping bassline or soaring leads that defined their sound (that defined a generation of EDM). While Steve Angello seems content to "go indie," let's expect that this album will "go mainstream." How far mainstream? Well, if Diplo, Skrillex and Avicii are defining what top-40 will sound like, then Axwell and Ingrosso are likely the sound that's still accessible by every other hard electro EDM name not cashing a paycheck from any number of one-name and ubiquitous female pop superstars. "Can't Hold Us Down" and "Something New" sound acidic, dance-friendly and "different." Still based in the same formula, 2/3 of one of EDM's most significant acts are going to take a slight left turn, and we're all likely going to listen.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Mind Of A Genius (?)

"Genius," huh? We still don't even know who (or what, or why or how or yes, when) a ZHU even is, but we absolutely know that we apparently adore him (he's a him, right?). Nightday was the EP that was made for the bloggers, the blog lovers, the cool kids, the not-so-cool kids, and the kids who hate everything cool but love a great song. "Faded" was everyone's favorite, but rapper Goldlink hopped on "Paradise Awaits," Lana del Ray is singing on "West Coast" and Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin solved world peace while "Superfriends" played in the background. One of those three statements is an obvious lie. However, ZHU did become completely ubiquitous in under a year and let's presume that this is the audacious statement of an album that blends top-40's bombast with Disclosure's soulful cool and is a crossover smash.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Sony / RCA

"74 Is The New 24?" Vegas party sets? Disco balls? Do we have the cocaine spoon from those Studio 54 days sitting around anywhere? Can we rebuild it? Yes, these may all sound like absurd questions, but the idea that septugenarian Moroder is releasing an album in 2015 is kind of bizarre, too.

Britney Spears will be starring in the role of Donna Summer here, and let's suppose that like every other girl who's sang "Last Dance" into a hairbrush or who's wanted to have that storied in-studio orgasmic experience to "Love To Love You Baby," she'll slay. Reported featured acts Charli XCX, Kylie Minogue, Foxes, and Mikky Ekko all have track records of crushing it, too. Thus, this is the album where we get to hear what the rest of the pop world sounds like when they meet up with disco.

The eponymous single mixes in some expected electro-tinged big room feels, but for the most part 2015 for Moroder is going to feel just like 1979.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Warp (?)

One of the albums we thought we'd get in 2014 was whatever HudMo's been working on. He mentioned in late August that the album was done, and word is that he's been getting some vocals in order for it. We wonder how much of it will sound like the star-studded remix of "Chimes," and where else HudMo will be taking his sound when it touches down.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Young Turks

We saw Jamie xx truly shine in 2014, with a string of beautiful, moving singles (including the epic "All Under One Roof Raving"), culminating in what will be one of the most talked-about projects in 2015, Jamie's debut solo album. Word is the album features material he's been working on for the last three years, and should be a doozy. Don't be surprised if this one is on a number of album of the year lists at the end of 2015.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Sony / Ultra

Without a doubt, 2014 was the break out year for tropical house and one of its most talked about producers, Norway's Kygo. Inking a deal with Sony/Ultra is a huge move for him, and should speak to how huge his 2015 should be. While there has only been scant word about an album on the way, we have high hopes for whatever he's working on.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Def Jam

If you were in literally any mainstream clothing or apparel store over the holiday season, you heard "Heroes"–aka Alesso's collaboration with Swedish pop vocalist Tove Lo–approximately 100 million times. Def Jam's EDM strategy is rather obvious and in your face. They're pairing with the big room mashers, (names like Afrojack, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Axwell) who seek and destroy PLUR-loving hearts with deadly precision. In being the major label that's going to give EDM the budgets that rap acts once had, Alesso–more than any of the other dance acts–arguably stands to gain the most because he's the least proven commodity in the American pop market and thus has the most unique potential for growth and superstardom.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Broadwalk Records

While fans loved Bashmore for standouts like "Au Seve," he was heavily berated for "Duccy." While the track worked (well), his fans seemed to calm down when he released tunes like "Peppermint" and "Simple Love," which was the single he used to announce his forthcoming album. No word on the direction his sound will take, but he's been working with Jessie Ware, so expect some slick vocal work in some way, shape, or form on this one.

Release Date: TBA

Label: XL Recordings

Back in August, we got a chance to hear "Leave Me Alone," a cut that was said to be from Kaytranada's first EP on XL Recordings, which was due out that fall. The EP never materialized, although since then he announced that his EP has become an LP. With a style that seems to shift from head-nods to house bounce in a heartbeat, Kaytra fans should NOT be disappointed.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Three Six Zero Music (?)

The Prodigy is looking to start 2015 off right with a new single, but truthfully, it'll be interesting to see where they fit in today's electronic music scene. The time for veterans to re-emerge is now, but will today's fans be into the intense, aggresive sounds that The Prodigy made famous?

Release Date: TBA
Label: Big Beat

This duo has been coy on when we can expect their album, but their single "Runaway (You & I)" helped bring them to scores of heads towards the end of 2014, and should be the basis of where their sound is going, appealing to the pop-loving heads as well as their core EDM audience.

Release Date: TBA
Label: Astralwerks

In 2014, Astralwerks added some solid artists to their camp, including deadmau5, Dirty South, and Porter Robinson. They also announced signing Australia's Alison Wonderland, a name that many have pegged as being next up, as her Calm Down received a grip of acclaim. Aside from it dropping in "early 2015," word's been relatively mum on what Alison hs in store for her full length project, but we have a feeling she'll turn some heads.

Release Date: TBA

Label: Mansion Sounds (?)

While there's been no new Reprazent releases since Roni Size re-mastered their Mercury Prize winning debut album New Forms in 2008, but when Roni announced his new imprint, Mansion Sounds, he advised that a new Reprazent album would be dropping in "early 2015." That was in July, and there's been no information since then, but just word alone that Reprazent's back in some form will get drum & bass heads in a tizzy. At the very least, their live shows will be insane.

Release Date: TBA

Label: TBA

Ed Simmons announced in November that he was leaving the Chemical Brothers live show, but stressed that he was still making music as Chemical Brothers. This is great news, as they announced in December that their next album is "pure Chemical Brothers." They also have a knack for linking with some big names on their tracks, but we'll see what a "pure Chemical Brothers" album means in 2015, especially when it comes to features.

Release Date: TBA
Label: TBA

Skream spent 2014 in a weird state; his official material (and remixes) were fire, and he's been dipping into the murkier house and techno sounds. He told Annie Mac that a new single is on the way, followed by word about his next album, which is "dark," and sounds like his older material, "at a different tempo." It'll be interesting to see what the story behind that is.

Release Date: TBA

Label: TBA

There's little in the way of actual info on this one; he dropped an EP in November with mention of putting something out before his album drops, but hasn't mentioned anything regarding what or where that'll end up. We can assume he either drops it himself or it comes out via Hyperdub, but we have a feeling that Earl, who's definitely "next up" from the TEKLIFE squad, will make sure that the future of footwork is properly represented.