2020 Music Forecast
by Killian Laher

Looking ahead to 2020, the first album of note will be from punk/cheese outfit Beach Slang.  The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City will be out January 10th and will feature The Replacements’ Tommy Stimson on bass and also this song, Tommy In The 80s.

If you tolerate this, on the complete other extreme, Dakota Suite are set to release their final album also in January, The Indestructibility of the Already Felled, and here’s a taster for it:

Watch out for Aoife Nessa Frances, who releases her debut album Land of No Junction in January.  Pat Barrett releases his first music post-Hedge Schools, this time as The Arrivalists.  The EP should be out in March.

Mark Lanegan is shaping up to have a very busy year.  In April Mark Lanegan releases an autobiography plus an accompanying album Straight Songs of Sorrow.  The album promises to hark back to the style of his earlier solo material, in keeping with his looking back at his life.  He’s also contributing vocals to Rob Marshall’s Humanist album, releasing in February.  An electronic project with his wife entitled Black Phoebe may also surface in 2020.

Stephen Malkmus will do a 180 degree turn and release acoustic Traditional Techniques in March, while young guns
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever will release their second, disco influenced album in summer/autumn.  And that’s not all, The Fontaines DC will have a second album, reportedly influenced by the Beach Boys of all people.

The Cure and My Bloody Valentine may well release new material, having promised it in 2019.  The Cure are promising a gloomfest with the working title of Live From The Moon, while MBV are talking EPs.  IDLES may well be back with their third album, called Toneland.  Pearl Jam are touring so maybe, just maybe we’ll get an album, in spring perhaps? Neil Young plans some archive releases, the most notable being his 70s album Homegrown.  Though this could change at the drop of a hat.  Dinosaur Jr are in the studio recording, as are the Jesus and Mary Chain… allegedly.  Caught in the Wake Forever should also have an album out towards the end of 2020, and Nine Inch Nails will record new music next year.