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Singaporean song-writer Linying may have had a stressful time going in and out of the studio meetings with various producers for the birth of her debut album, but the final product makes it clear: the effort was worth it. The 28-year-old broke out with her 2016 single “Sticky Leaves” off her EP Paris 12, which peaked at #27 on Spotify’s United States Viral Hits chart and overtook iTunes’ Singapore chart with the #1 spot the day of release, instantly bewitching soon-to-be fans with her songwriting prowess and enchanting vocals. With ties to the EDM (electronic dance music) community (she’s lent her voice in the past to German DJ Felix Jaehn for tracks performed at Coachella), Linying wows with standout tracks such as the album’s opener, “This Time, Tomorrow,” which ropes listeners in with wispy instrumentals and dreamy falsettos, and “Faith,” an effervescent ode to living in the moment. 

The project gets an extra boost thanks to her extensive search for the right producers—the credits sport a number of names, like Tentendo, Micah Jasper, and the duo Myriot. The defining collaboration for the project, Linying told NME magazine, came in the form of her hero, Chris Walla, former guitarist of Death Cab for Cutie, who cowrote the final track. “Daylight Blows into One Door” is a tense, dramatic, and lush closer about the perseverance of the human will, throwing back the doors for Linying’s promising, and exuberant, entrance into the music world.

Despite being just 25 years young, Norwegian singer AURORA, born Aurora Aksnes, is well known for the ethereal quality of her voice. The Norway native hadn’t intended to pursue music as a career, but opportunity came with an agency offer after a classmate uploaded a school performance of her online. The budding artist subsequently broke into the Billboard 200 chart with her debut album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend. Three years after the release of her two-part album, 2018’s Infections of a Different Kind (Step I) and 2019’s A Different Kind of Human (Step II), Aurora dives back headfirst to create an album inspired by Greek mythology.

It’s difficult to pin the singer-songwriter down to a definite label, but it’s rooted in her own unique style: a mix of delicate folk pop and poppy dance beats. She released the lead single “Exist for Love” in May 2020, ushering in a self-proclaimed “new era of music.” It marked a first for AUROR, who has said in interviews that she rarely writes music about herself, preferring to focus on worldwide experiences. However, a Tweet revealed the personal progress she’s made since she began writing the song in 2017: “I never thought that I would ever write a song about love. But now I am ready. My heart is ready.” The singer’s tender track stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, with lyrics like: “I can’t imagine how it is to be forbidden from loving / Cause when you walked into my life / I could feel my life begin / Like I was torn apart the minute I was only born.” Other tracks, such as “Giving In to the Love,” “Cure for Me,” and “This Could Be a Dream,” continue the exploration of the LGBTQ+ struggle, defiance, and the gaps of self-discovery in between

Mysterious and private, indie rock soloist Mitski Miyawaki has been teasing her return following a two-year hiatus that seemed to be the end of her career. The Japanese-American singer has spent the last two years working on her sixth studio album, despite declaring in 2019 to a sold-out Central Park crowd that the show was her last “indefinitely.” The announcement came as a shock, considering her 2018 Be the Cowboy had put her on the map, with numerous critics naming the album one of the best releases of the year, including critic moguls Pitchfork, giving the project the coveted #1 ranking. The reason for her departure? A fear of the music industry’s oversaturation. Mitski details her almost reluctant return in the first single of her upcoming album, “Working for the Knife,” where she critiques the capitalist machine that the industry functions under: “I always thought the choice was mine / Now at 29, the road ahead appears the same / Though maybe at 30, I’ll see a way to change / That I’m living for the knife.” Three other singles set to be on the album have been released, “Love Me More,” “The Only Heartbreaker,” and “Heat Lightning,” with fans eagerly anticipating the full release on February 4.

The founding members of English rock band alt-J, named after the delta sign (meaning uncertainty in quantum mechanics) met at Leeds University in 2007. The quad comprises Joe Newman on lead vocals and guitar, Thom Sonny Green on drums, Gus Unger-Hamilton on keyboard/vocals, and Gwilym Sainsbury on guitar and bass. Alt-J released their debut album, An Awesome Wave, two years after graduation in 2012, and much to the group’s surprise, won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. The award propelled the act’s success on the charts, but soon after, Sainsbury announced his leave from the band, to be replaced by Cameron Knight as a supporting member on tours.

The band saw incredible success, as their 2014 sophomore project This Is All Yours garnered both a Grammy Award and a Brits nomination, and their most recent, in 2017, Relaxer, not only charted on the UK Top 10, but once again netted the group a Mercury nomination. From the looks of the three already released singles off the upcoming album, “U&Me,” “Get Better,” and “Hard Drive Gold,” the project is sure to be a smashing hit. (“Hard Drive Gold” is a cheeky song about people’s desires to get rich through cryptomining, poking fun at the fantasy of getting rich overnight: “My teacher took me to one side and told me I was scum / I left then googled “neoliberal.’) The Dream is set for release February 11.

Rapper. Producer. Fashion designer. Cultural icon. There is no lack of descriptions for Ye—the man simply needs no introduction. For those who have been living under a rock, Kanye Omari West, artist name Ye, is credited with being one of hip-hop’s greats, going all the way back to the beginning with his 2004 debut album, The College Dropout, which rapidly took the #2 spot on the US Billboard Top 200 chart and cemented its relevance with Best Rap Album Award at the 2005 Grammys. Ye’s longtime fans, however, are painfully aware of his track record when it comes to album releases, spanning from the dawn of his career to the present day. The College Dropout, initially scheduled to drop in January 2004, was postponed three times due to his perfectionist tendencies.

West has a long history of delaying his albums, up to his latest release, Donda, originally slated for July 24, 2021, but released over a month later. Donda, littered with stunning choir backings and features from high-profile stars like The Weeknd, Kid Cudi, and JAY-Z (and even more controversial figures from the likes of DaBaby and Marilyn Manson), reads less like an album and more like a mishmashed, half-thought-out playlist. Nevertheless, Donda contains gold in the form of tracks like “Off the Grid,” an incredible generational banger, “Praise God,” a testament to the rapper’s faith, with assistance from his late mother, Donda West, and “Keep My Spirit Alive,” a track whose original has since been updated with a different version, but still (excuse the low-effort pun), managed to kept its spirit alive in a reupload of the original on Donda (Deluxe). 

The follow-up to Donda is scheduled for release February 22. There are rumors that Marilyn Manson and Ye have been working in the studio day in and day out to get the project ready in time, but looking at Ye’s track record, keep your fingers crossed for a punctual drop.