New music albums for February: Releases and announcements from your favourite artists

By Sarah Kramer

It’s the month of love, which means it’s time to fall in love with some hot new music from iconic artists and hidden gems. 

Usher’s set to drop his 9th studio album titled, ‘Coming Home’. The album will be released two days before his big Super Bowl half-time performance. This will be his first solo album since his release of ‘Hard II Love’, nearly eight years ago in 2016. 

‘Coming Home’ is set to have features from rap icons 21 Savage, H.E.R, and Burna Boy, along with several others. 

London’s own, Declan McKenna is also releasing an album on February 9th, ‘What Happened to the Beach?’. Compiled of 12 tracks, four of which were released as singles, hopefully, showcase McKenna’s vocal range. 

Of the four singles, Mulholland’s Dinner and Wine by far strays the most from his usual tone and melody, at its core, it’s a dance song but the lyricism provokes a deeper feeling than most songs you’d hear at the club.

Rafael Aimle, a bartender, 32, said: “I’ve heard a couple of his songs, I have Brazil on my phone. If any of the songs on his next album are anything like that I’ll definitely like it.” 

The difference truly shows his versatility when creating sound and lyrics, this follows in Elevator Hum, another single on the album. Elevator Hum has interesting melodic, dreamy, electronic sounds through the background of the song; while still having Declan’s usual romantic lyricism. 

Since the album drops just days before Valentine’s Day, hopefully, there are a few more love ballads on there. 

February 9th is a big day for new music, artists from all types of genres are releasing new tunes, notably for rock fans, Mean Jeans is dropping their first album since 2019, titled ‘Blasted’.

Their next album includes three singles: I Don’t Give a Shit Anymore, Lost My Mind, and Something’s Going On. Each of them is unique in its own respective new-age rock way. Lost My Mind is reminiscent of Blink-182 but with some surf-rock in there. The energy and pace of I Don’t Give a Shit Anymore leaves you excited for the rest of the album. 

The buzz isn’t solely on the albums coming out in February, but the albums announced to come later on in the year. Swifties expected ‘Reputation(Taylor’s Version)’ to be released next, but they never thought she was planning an entirely new album. 

Erika Poloni, 37, said: “I’ve been seeing her announcement all over Instagram, a bunch of my friends have been talking about it. I’m not the biggest fan but I’m going to give it a chance.” 

At the Grammy’s this Sunday, Swift announced her 12th studio album while accepting her award for Album of the Year, for her previous release of ‘Midnights’. She revealed the next album will titled, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, due to drop on the 19th of April.

The much-anticipated album is up for preorder on the artist’s website, it is said to include 16 tracks and one bonus track titled The Manuscript. 

If none of the artists here spark excitement for new music, there are so many other artists from every genre imaginable releasing something this month; it’s the perfect time to discover some new favourites.