Whether you need some music to push you out the door to the nice spring weather, or you’re the type to stay indoors as long as you can while spinning a new soundtrack, this season is waiting for you.
Spring 2024 is serious about new music, with fresh releases from icons, mainstays and rising stars. Here are just 15 of the entries you’ll want to check out in the coming months.
March 29: Beyoncé, “Act II: Cowboy Carter”
Beyonce is American music expressing itself through its many incarnations and directions. Here, she promises to bring together the sounds of her native Texas in a way that is all her own.
March 29: Sheryl Crow, “Evolution”
New music from the newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — and University of Missouri alum — comes five years after 2019’s “Threads” and the initial announcement that she was out of the record business. Thankfully, Crowe has changed his mind, offering up a new set of 10 songs, including a collaboration with Peter Gabriel on his own “Digging in the Dirt.”
April 5: Phosphorescent, “Revelator”
Matthew Houck’s project has long spoken about the wild nature of our inner lives. His latest promises to address “life’s great sadness,” and there are few people more worthy of putting that conversation into song.
April 5: Old 97, “American Primitive”
Perhaps on the most underrated American rock band of the last 30 years, Rhett Miller and his fellow Texans return with a new set of sublime, spring-loaded country songs for heart-pounding and various eras of boredom.
April 5: Vampire Weekend, Only God Was Above Us
Every Vampire Weekend record is an event and a validation – of who we are now and the strength of our connection to where we started. Early songs show the band discovering new wrinkles in the signature sound.
April 12: Maggie Rogers, “Forget Me Not”
The title track, cut from Rogers’ upcoming third album, is a masterclass in restraint, with the singer using melodic ups and downs to convey the fear of being left behind by life.
April 19: Cloud Nothings, “Final Summer”
The Cleveland group has built one of the great canons of modern indie rock; his eighth record promises more great, brooding guitars and wry melodies from bandleader Dylan Baldi and Co.
April 19: Pearl Jam, “Dark Matter”
The alt-rock innovators are hoping for a strong follow-up to their second-act highlight, 2020’s Gigaton; the title track pairs Matt Cameron’s thunderous beat with Joan Jett-esque guitars.
April 19: Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”
Evocative song titles and collaborations with the likes of Florence Welch and Post Malone promise another indelible listening experience from Swift, who never does anything by halves.
April 26: Iron and Wine, “Light Verse”
One of our truest bards, Sam Beam, never fails to create challenging, ultimately comforting work. His first full solo project in seven years promises to deepen and broaden the perspective that Iron and Wine offers. Fiona Apple, Dawes’ Griffin Goldsmith and more lend Beam their talented hands.
April 26: St. Vincent, “All Born Screaming”
Annie Clark is one of those musicians who immerses herself and listeners in sound; the artist known as St. Vincent, calls “All Born Screaming” “post-plague pop” and with that label you know the music will leave a mark.
May 3: Kamasi Washington, “Fearless Movement”
The saxophone deity of our generation, the Los Angeles native always delivers jazz that is cinematic and spiritual in equal measure. The latter weaves together a formidable group of kindred spirits, including Andre 3000, George Clinton and Thundercat.
May 17: Avet Brothers, eponymous
Among the most dynamic and inventive acts under the big tent called Americana, the boys of Avett offer their first full-length album since 2019’s Closer Than Together, a record clearly worthy of signing their name twice.
May 17: Guster, “Ooh La La”
Forever evolving, fusing their folk-rock truths with fresh pop colors, Guster once again promise to rise to the occasion; the early songs—as well as the album’s emotional artwork—address the beautiful and devastating aspects of our moment with equal sobriety.
May 24: DIIV, “A Frog in Boiling Water”
Brooklyn’s DIIV make great melancholic rock ‘n’ roll, and “Frog in Boiling Water” promises to tell our current American “collapse” from multiple angles with unusual sensitivity and depth of purpose.
Aarik Danielsen is the Tribune’s articles and culture editor. Contact him at [email protected] or by calling 573-815-1731. He’s on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.
