PopBase: 2024 Album Anticipation: The Year's Most Awaited Releases

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So far, we have seen so many amazing albums released this year. From releases by Beyonce to 21 Savage to Ariana Grande, 2024 has been a year full of music. The number of releases will not be slowing down anytime soon, as there are albums by Ice Spice and Sabrina Carpenter. There are also many rumored albums including a sophomore album from Cardi B and Taylor Swift’s Reputation (Taylor’s Version).

1. Ice Spice, Y2K! (10K Projects/Capitol Records) July 26^th

Ice Spice, the 24-year-old rapper from the Bronx, burst onto the scene after the release of her hit single "Munch (Feelin' U)." The single led to the release of her debut EPLike..?, which featured popular songs “Princess Diana” and “Deli.” Since this EP, Spice has collaborated with Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj and has won many awards including Best New Hip-Hop Artist at the 2024 iHeart Radio Music Awards.

On June 5^th, the album cover shot by David LaChapelle was revealed alongside the release date for her debut album. The Y2K! World Tour was also announced to start on July 4th at the Roskilde Festival. The tour currently has 25 dates with shows across North America and Europe. Fellow rapper, Cash Cobain will open during the North American leg, and the tour will conclude on August 31st.  

So far, there have been three singles with the first, "Think U the S***(Fart)" being the lead single. The song was released on January 26th and became her highest-charting solo single on the Billboard Hot 100 at 37. The other two singles, “Gimme a Light” and “Phat Butt,” were released on May 10th and June 21st, respectively. She also confirmed that there will be collaborations on the album saying that a “crazy collaboration” has been “locked in.”  

2. Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet (Island Records) August 23^rd

Sabrina Carpenter, the multi-talented pop artist and actress, first rose to fame while starring in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World (2014–2017). During her time at Disney, she signed to Hollywood Records and released four albums. Carpenter started to find more success musically when she transitioned to Island Records in 2021. In the same year, she released "Skin" —her first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

This then led her to release her most successful album Emails I Can't Send (2022). The album spawned the singles "Nonsense" and "Feather". Both singles became highly successful and catapulted her into mainstream success. Carpenter capitalized on the success of these singles by releasing "Espresso" on April 11th. The song followed the success of her previous two singles and became her first Top 10 hit.

On June 3rd, Carpenter announced the arrival of her new album. Three days later she released the second single from her upcoming fifth album. The pop-country single, “Please Please Please,” became her most successful song ever, debuting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 20, 2024, the Short n' Sweet Tour was announced. The tour will consist of 29 concert dates throughout North America. It begins on September 23rd and ends on November 15. 

3. SZA, Lana (Top Dawg Ent. / RCA) date TBD

R&B superstar SZA became a mainstream success after releasing her debut album, Ctrl (2017) with Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records. The critically-acclaimed album earned four Grammy nominations and led her to release her sophomore album SOS in 2022. This album surpassed Ctrl’s success and spawned five top-ten songs on the Billboard 100. This album also earned SZA her first number-one song “Kill Bill.” Her highly successful career has led her to receive four Grammy Awards, among many others.

The acclaim from SOS led SZA to announce a deluxe version of the album. It was slated to feature ten more songs and multiple covers were released on social media (one seen above). These songs would consist of some new and some outtakes from SOS. This changed after a few of the songs from the deluxe were leaked. After the leak, SZA took to social media saying, "At this point, y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks [...] Seems like a fair deal. Enjoy." She later clarified saying she would release all the leaked songs and outtakes from SOS. These songs would be released as the SOS deluxe edition. New songs would now be a part of an entirely new album.

It is believed that Lana will be the title of this new album. If so, it will be her third studio album and may feature “Saturn.” This single debuted at the 66th annual Grammy Awards and was released on February 22nd. The song was critically-acclaimed and peaked at number six on the Billboard 100. The album could also feature an untitled song teased on social media on June 29th. The social media teaser saw SZA as an alien/insect with a caption being lyrics from the song being, “I know you told stories about me. most of them awful. All of them true. Here’s some for u.”

4. Cardi B, TBA (Atlantic Records) date TBD

Cardi B first started to gain notoriety on Vine and Instagram. This notoriety led her to become a cast member on the VH1 reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York. Cardi B appeared on the show for about two years before her success became even more astronomical with the release of “Bodak Yellow.” The single became an instant success and topped the Billboard Hot 100.

The success of this single led to the 2018 release of her debut studio album Invasion of Privacy. The album performed well and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album also won a Grammy for Best Rap Album, making Cardi B the first female solo artist to win the award.

Her success has carried on since then, and her sophomore album is slated to be released this year. This album will come after years of one-off singles and features for artists like Shakira, Peso Pluma, GloRilla, Latto, and many others. The currently untitled album could feature the single released in 2023 with Megan Thee Stallion, “Bongos.” Other possible songs from the album are “Enough (Miami)” and “Like What (Freestyle)” both released in 2024. In June, Cardi B started teasing the album by asking fans to guess what the album title is on her Instagram Story.

Later in the month, she stated during an X (f.k.a Twitter) Space that “There will be signs and some of the signs are going to confuse you” regarding the album's announcement or possible theme. Since then, fans have been closely watching hoping to find out any clues relating to the album. One of the possible clues came at the BET Experience on June 28th. While performing, the rapper wore a jersey with the number 11 on it. This could hint at a November release date, but fans will not know until Cardi B confirms the hints she has been giving out. On July 1st, Cardi B finally teased new music asking fans “Yall like this vibe for CB2?”

5.  Taylor Swift, Reputation (Taylor's Version), (Republic Records) date TBD

Taylor Swift, the country turned pop star has been making hits since 2006. The 14-time Grammy award winning singer first received a number one record with her 2012 album Red. "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" which comes from the album, made Swift bigger than she had ever been at the time. This success only grew larger with albums like 1989 and Reputation.

Reputation (2017) is Swift’s sixth studio album and her last with Big Machine Records. The artist left the label in 2018 for Republic Records. A year later, news broke that the label sold her music to then music manager Scooter Braun. This devastated Swift as she had shown interest in owning her own music. This led her to re-record the albums released under Big Machine Records as Taylor’s Version. This would allow her control over what her music gets used in. So far, Swift has re-recorded albums two through five. Fans speculate that the next one that will be released is Reputation. But, when?

Fans believe that the album will be announced at the end of her next Eras Tour leg in Europe. This could be possible as Swift announced the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on the final show of the American leg. There have been snippets of songs from the album released on Prime Video shows, like “Delicate” in season two of The Summer I Turned Pretty. This further proves that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is coming.

Other fans believe that the announcement could be randomly announced like the original album. Fans could get their answer on August 20th, which is the final show in London. Whenever Swift decides to release the album, it will probably follow the success of the other re-recorded albums. These re-recordings have all topped the Billboard 200 and have spawned Hot 100 hits.