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2019 has already given us its fair share of massive music moments, but we’re only just over halfway through.

Here’s a guide to the most exciting albums still to come in the last five months of the year, from confirmed releases by the likes of Bat for Lashes, Foals, Angel Olsen, and Underworld to records that have been teased for 2019 by acts such as The Cure, Grimes, Tame Impala, and Fka twigs.

And don't forget to listen to 6 Music daily to discover more great new music.

Release Date: TBA

It's a huge year for fans of The Cure. Frontman Robert Smith has revealed plans to release the group's first album in over 10 years, and their 14th full-length will follow a recent, triumphant headline set at Glastonbury.

Speaking to shortly after their return to Worthy Farm, Smith told fans to expect a "downbeat and heavy" new LP, adding that he would be "extremely bitter" if it didn't end up coming out in 2019. "The lyrics I’ve been writing for this album, for me personally, are more true. They’re more honest. That’s probably why the album itself is a little bit more doom and gloom.”

The band also celebrate the 30th anniversary of their classic LP Disintegration this year.

Release Date: September 6

Ahead of her fifth album, Natasha Khan has already showcased 80s-nodding wonderment (‘Kids In the Dark’) and the funk-laden, synth punch of 'Feel For You'. Both tracks are at completely different sides of Khan’s spectrum, which always reaches new bounds with every record.

The 10-track album also sees Khan employing an alter-ego – the character Nikki Pink – and creating the narrative of a coming-of-age film “in which gangs of marauding female bikers roam our streets and teenagers make out on car hoods.” As with every Bat For Lashes record, Khan is letting her imagination run riot.

Release Date: TBA

Kevin Parker has been busy in the three years since 2015’s 'Currents', the most recent instalment in his psychedelic adventures with Tame Impala. He's worked with Lady Gaga, Kali Uchis, Travis Scott and even popped up - - on 'Violent Crimes' from Kanye West’s 2018 album 'Ye'.

Somehow he's also managed to find the time to work on a new Tame Impala record. He initially indicated in July 2018 that , but barring any last-minute surprises, it might miss its initial deadline. So far, we’ve heard glistening, disco-leaning singles 'Patience' and 'Borderline', which are both presumably taken from a new LP.

Release Date: Out now digitally, out 30 August physically

Justin Vernon says Bon Iver’s upcoming fourth album represents the completion of a “cycle”. ‘I,i’ is the autumn to the winter of remarkable debut ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, the lush spring of ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’, and the “unhinged” summer of 2016’s ‘22, A Million’. The latter is viewed by even the most diehard Bon Iver fans as a challenging, albeit rewarding listen. So in these terms, we can expect follow-up ‘i,i’ to be more at ease, happy to be swept up in a new season.

That’s also the impression given by tracks showcased from the new album, including the serene but emotional ‘Hey, Ma’, which is surprisingly lacking in the vocoder that defined Vernon’s previous record.

According to Vernon: “The sense of community around the record grew through honest, generous inspiration within the group of artists involved in the creative process of the record.” Recording began at Wisconsin’s April Base and then developed in Texas’ Sonic Ranch, with collaborators including The Brooklyn Youth Chorus with The National’s Bryce Dessner, Jenn Wasner (of Wye Oak) and Frank Ocean collaborator Buddy Ross.

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Release Date: September 20

Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard named debut solo album ‘Jaime’ after her sister, who died of cancer when both were teens. The record, however, is not a direct account of that time, or indeed of Jaime. Instead, Howard says it’s the most personal work she’s ever made – a big feat considering the soul-bearing excellence of 2015 Shakes album 'Sound & Color'.

“I'm very private, but my favourite work is when people are being honest and really doing themselves,” she says, adding that turning 30 gave her another outlook on what she wanted to do with her life. She’d released music outside of Shakes via other project Thunderbitch, but she recently saw the need to do something more personal. “Do I want to play the same songs until I'm 50 and then retire, or do I do something that's scarier for me? Do I want people to understand me and know me, do I want to tell them my story?”

Release Date: September 6

Iggy Pop always gives the impression of being completely without inhibition, but he claims total freedom is a feeling he only recently experienced – following the tour for previous album ‘Post Pop Depression’. “I felt sure that I had rid myself of the problem of chronic insecurity that had dogged my life and career for too long. But I also felt drained. And I felt like I wanted to put on shades, turn my back, and walk away. I wanted to be free.”

‘Free’ is an album he “let happen,” fuelled by the belief that all you need in life isn’t “happiness or love necessarily, but the feeling of being free.” The record is being billed as showcasing a more reflective side of Iggy, and it saw him working with jazz musician Leron Thomas and ambient producer Noveller.

Release Date: October 11

Elbow’s seventh album was announced on a London billboard, captioned ‘11.10.19’.

Since then, we've heard lead single 'Dexter & Sinister', which debuted on 6 Music. It's a bruised and emotionally broken track underpinned by distorted bass, with frontman Guy Garvey singing: "I've the heaviest heart jackhammering in me. And I don't know Jesus anymore."

Garvey told that he was “writing remotely” in 2018, adding that the band are less at loggerheads than they used to be: “There isn't the same arguing, wailing, gnashing, endless insisting your point being the right point. We just rowed for 10 years about over what should happen next. Like storming out rows. That doesn't happen anymore. There's intense discussion, but it doesn't get personal.”

• Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour returns to 6 Music on Sundays, from 11 August 2019

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Release Date: October 25

The follow-up to Michael Kiwanuka’s chart-topping and Mercury-nominated ‘Love & Hate’ is anticipated for late 2019.

At the start of the summer, he released ‘Money’, a funk-laced collaboration with nu-jazz musician Tom Misch. The song sounds cash-hungry at first glance, but it actually hones in at the hollow nature of doing things just for the bank balance.

Occasional 6 Music presenter Kiwanuka says the single is a standalone, and won’t feature on his third album. He's instead leading with the string-backed 'You Ain't The Problem', a rousing song about self-acceptance. He performs at End of the Road festival this August – following a sun-drenched set at Glastonbury’s Park Stage – before touring Europe this winter.

Release Date: September 20

"Good things coming on the horizon," Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis in October 2018, and he wasn't kidding. The Oxford band are delivering two full-lengths in 2019, separated by just six months.

They began working on their fifth LP in 2017, and the self-produced sessions were so fruitful they also ended up writing album six.

'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost' is split into two parts. The first is out now and nominated for 2019’s Mercury Prize, containing epic lead single 'Exits' and the more streamlined 'On the Luna'.

Philippakis explained the wait for their new album, : "We haven’t made a straightforward record. That wasn’t the concern. We wanted to have a more wildly creative experience and experiment more, take more time over the music, really try and push ourselves to make a record that we would feel was the defining expression of the band, where in 20 years time we’d look back and hopefully it would be our favourite. And then we ended up with two."

Release Date: TBA

It's been nearly four years since critically-acclaimed album 'Art Angels', but it finally looks like there's a new Grimes record on the way.

Taking to Instagram in early 2019, Claire Boucher revealed the title 'Miss_Anthropocene', calling her new LP "a concept album about the anthropomorphic goddess of climate change."

Single 'We Appreciate Power' came out at the start of December 2018. Refining the unholy alliance forged on one of her previous album's standout tracks, 'Kill V. Maim', between K-pop, riot grrl punk and industrial metal, its lyrics are quintessentially Grimes too, touching upon simulation theory, artificial intelligence and self-discovery. It also features long-time collaborator Hana.

There's still no official date for the album, but Grimes says she plans to first release "an EP or a few more singles of synth-based stuff" before it comes out.

Release Date: August 9

First emerging as a folk-leaning star in waiting, Marika Hackman’s music took a dramatic turn towards grunge-y, liberated pop on 2017’s I’m Not Your Man. Follow-up Any Human Friend sees Hackman honing in at her true self.

“This whole record is me diving into myself and peeling back the skin further and further, exposing myself in quite a big way,” she says in a statement. “It’s blunt, but not offensive. It’s mischievous. We all have this lightness and darkness in us.

Asking yourself what’s really inside your head is never easy, and Hackman cites sleepless nights and post-midnight writing sessions when making the record. But the end result looks set to be her most sincere, hard-hitting record yet.

Release Date: September 13

In 2016, Metronomy’s Joseph Mount made the decision to limit touring in favour of more time in the studio. Since previous album ‘Summer 08’ came out that same year, they’ve since returned to the road more regularly, and in a statement around new LP ‘Metronomy Forever’, Mount summer up his current situation: “I’m making music, I’m going to do some concerts, I need to feed my children.”

Still, the songs unveiled so far seem rooted in the synth-led wizardry that characterises Mount’s best records, and it sounds as if he’s been making the most of extra time in the studio. ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ is a simple, bopping pop song with subtly perfectionist production, while the brooding ‘Lately’ harks back to 2008 breakthrough ‘Nights Out’.

Release Date: TBA

Since 2014’s Mercury Prize-nominated ‘LP1’, FKA twigs hasn’t exactly left the spotlight – she released the dark and twisted 'M3LL155X' EP, some hugely ambitious accompanying visuals; plus she’s starred in several high-brow, high-budget adverts. But there remains a sense that she’s been working hard behind the scenes, and 2019 looks set to be the year she’ll finally reveal what’s up her sleeve.

It began with a simple message on Instagram (“It’s time”) and the brittle, broken-hearted lead single ‘Cellophane’. The song came complete with a visually stunning video of twigs mastering pole dancing before being sent skywards into an alternate universe. And it’s a reminder that twigs is one of the most ambitious artists working today, and one who fully earns the right to take their time.

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Release Date: October 4

As the days begin to get shorter, Angel Olsen is set to release her darkest album yet – a record about the more grizzly, shadowy side that every human harbours.

“In every way —from the making of it, to the words, to how I feel moving forward— this record is about owning up to your darkest side,” she says of 'All Mirrors'. “Finding the capacity for new love and trusting change, even when you feel like a stranger. This is a record about facing yourself and learning to forgive what you see. It is about losing empathy, trust, love for destructive people. It is about walking away from the noise and realising that you can have solitude and peace in your own thoughts, that your thoughts alone can be just as valid, if not more.”

The title-track is a dark, cascading hint of what’s to come, produced by John Congeleton and featuring a dramatic 14-piece string section not far removed from Jonny Greenwood’s compositional work.

Release Date: TBA

They don't exactly have a reputation for sticking to schedules (their last record, 2013's m b v, took 22 years to arrive), but Kevin Shields has promised that there’ll be two new My Bloody Valentine albums in 2019. Mind you, he had also previously stated that the band would "one hundred percent" have an album out in 2018, self-imposing a deadline of releasing it before the group's live dates in the summer.

However, festival season came and went with no sign of an album. They did play new songs live at the shows in question though, while Shields has also recently released two haunting collaborations with Brian Eno, The Weight of History and Only Once Away My Son, that may indicate the direction their new material is heading in.

Shields told interviewers at Summer Sonic festival in Japan this year that he hoped to have a seven or eight track album finished by November, adding: "We’ll also be recording new material next year. There will be a lot of new material coming in the next year, there will be about two new records." Maybe it won’t be two decades until we get another LP from the legendary shoegazers then.

Release Date: October 25

Until 2019, electronic pioneers Underworld had released four albums since the turn of the Century. But if any fans felt short-changed by Rick Smith and Karl Hyde’s output, in the last 12 months they’ve had new material from the duo for 52 consecutive weeks.

Underworld’s ‘Drift’ project saw the pair creating a new piece of music, video or multimedia art every week. In part, it was an attempt to withdraw from the traditional studio-release-tour cycle that almost every band sticks to by default.

Hyde described ‘Drift’’s weekly experiment as “the most inspiring process that we’ve ever engaged in,” and the end result is ‘Drift Songs’, an album that builds on the best material from these ridiculously fruitful sessions.

Release Date: October 25

On 2016 debut ‘Varmints’, contemporary composer Anna Meredith says she wanted songs to contain “moments of privacy and moments of power and build.”

And while that holds true on ‘Paramour’, the lead single from second LP ‘FIBS’, she’s applied this logic on a maximalist scale. If there are moments of privacy, it’s only in a relative sense. Everything is all-caps and manic, guitar solos bundling past brass sections and a fidgety, ever present synth pattern.

Its distinct, twitchy sound ties to the way someone’s imagination runs riot when they make up a tiny lie – or a fib, which Meredith describes as “nice friendly lies, little stories and constructions and daydreams and narratives that you make for yourself or you tell yourself.”

Release Date: August 30

Anger lines the seams of what Ezra Furman dubs his band’s “punk record,” ‘Twelve Nudes’. Recorded in Oakland, California, Furman found himself fully fed up with the world in late 2018, and quickly went about making an album that neatly bottled up his rage.

“It’s the sound of me struggling to admit that I’m not okay with the current state of human civilization, in which bad men crush us into submission,” he says. “Once you admit how bad it feels to live in a broken society, you can start to resist it, and imagine a better one.” It is, however, an “emotional” reaction to geo-politics, rather than something pointedly one-sided, or narrowed down to one issue.

The record is equal parts inspired by Canadian poet Anne Carson and one of punk’s late heroes, Jay Reatard, and it swiftly follows 2018 album ‘Transangelic Exodus’.

Release Date: September 27

Dublin’s grand, ceremonious Ballintubbert House isn’t the first place you’d associate with four-piece Girl Band’s erratic, mind-expanding post-punk. It’s traditionally a wedding venue, and the former home of 20th Century poet C. Day-Lewis.

Despite that, in November 2018 Girl Band found themselves in Ballintubbert, recording the follow-up to 2015 debut Holding Hands With Jamie. They describe the studio as “a few pay grades above what we’re used to,” but it doesn’t appear to have softened the edge and dissonance that defined their first batch of songs.

Release Date: September 20

M83’s Anthony Gonzalez is best known for penning giant, all-encompassing synth pop songs that relate to real life on a mass scale. One person’s adolescence might seem alien to someone else, but tracks like ‘We Own The Sky’ and breakthrough hit ‘Midnight City’ somehow managed to feel like very personal capsules of those blurry years growing up.

This time, Gonzalez is ditching real life for the fantastical world of video games. ‘DSVII’ is inspired by the soundtracks of iconic retro flicks, like Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. And it’s also inspired by compositional greats including Brian Eno and John Carpenter.

In his words, it’s a record that captures the “solitary knights, dreamy landscapes, strange animals, forgotten myths and old spells” he grew up loving.

• !!! – Wallop (August 30)
• Beck – Hyperspace (TBA)
• Big Thief – Two Hands (October 11)
• Childish Gambino – TBA (TBA)
• Common – Let Love (August 30)
• Floating Points – TBA (TBA)
• Friendly Fires – Inflorescent (August 16)
• The Futureheads – Powers (August 30)
• Gruff Rhys – Pang! (September 13)
• Kim Gordon – TBA (TBA)
• Kindness – Something Like A War (Sept 6)
• LIFE – A Picture of Good Health (September 20)
• Mystery Jets – TBA (TBA)
• Oh Sees – Face Stabber (August 16)
• Pixies – Beneath The Eyrie (September 13)
• Q-Tip – TBA (TBA)
• Raphael Saadiq – Jimmy Lee (August 23)
• Ride – This Is Not A Safe Place (August 16)
• Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels 4 (TBA)
• Sampa The Great – The Return (September 13)
• Sir Was – Holding on to a Dream (September 20)
• Sleater-Kinney – The Center Won’t Hold (August 16)
• Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind (August 9)
• Squid – Town Centre EP (November 15)
• Tinariwen – Amadjar (September 6)
• Tool – TBA (August 30)
• Ty Segall – First Taste (August 2)
• Vince Staples – TBA (TBA)
• Whitney – Forever Turned Around (August 30)
• Wilco – Ode to Joy (October 4)

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