Two Forthcoming Albums to Get Stoked For

Of course, there are far more than two upcoming albums that are very exciting. Daft Punk, Portugal. The Man, Kanye West (apparently), John Mayer (apparently), etc. Those are just this things I've read about this morning. But here are two records that are both newsworthy and super exciting.

First: Fitz And The Tantrums. This is not a new announcement, I've been talking about this since March. The album comes out next week (May 7). It's called More Than Just A Dream. It's back in my "newsworthy" column because, as of the other day, it is streaming in-full via Hype Machine. And oh, sweet lord. It is so much better than I hoped (I had pretty high hopes). Get into it.

Second: The Civil Wars have just announced that they will be releasing their sophomore, self-titled studio album soon. No official date or info yet, other than a couple of fun notes and some cover artwork (below) on their website's landing page, but the information available seems to imply that the album is finished, so hopefully that will be out soon. If you don't know The Civil Wars, familiarize yourself. They are beautiful and talented and adorable and amazing. You really can't not like them.

The announcement arrives as the band remains in a fairly ambiguous state of turmoil. They canceled a tour last fall because of internal discord, and there's uncertainty as to whether this album will make for a reconciliation or a postmortem. While that's all still hanging over our heads, we have a lot to look forward to in this album. They're great writers and musicians, and I expect a really beautiful, if somewhat somber, group of tunes.