The most anticipated music albums of 2020, from Rihanna and Selena Gomez to Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne

With 2019 finally behind us – along with its glut of year- (and decade-) end lists of the best in music – it’s time to look forward to what’s in store for 2020.

Here are 10 of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year.

Selena Gomez, “Rare” (January 10)

The one-time Disney Channel star has never quite gotten the credit she deserves for her adventurous record-making. Sure, her and DJ Snake’s Taki Taki was a shameless Latin-pop play (complete with a regrettable “fiesta”/”siesta” rhyme), but before that she turned the Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer into the sinuous Bad Liar while her last album, 2015’s “Revival”, feels now like a precursor to Billie Eilish’s whispery ASMR-core.

Preceded by a No 1 single in the grandly emotional Lose You to Love Me, “Rare” was released last week and covers her intimate thoughts on her break-up with Canadian singer The Weeknd as well as her recent health troubles.

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Halsey, “Manic” (January 17)

Heed that album title: along with the country-ish Finally / Beautiful Stranger and the chart-topping EDM ballad Without Me, the latest from this style-hopping streaming native features far-flung hookups with Alanis Morissette (a clear influence), Dominic Fike and Suga of BTS (with whom she teamed for last year’s sprightly K-pop hit Boy With Luv).

Green Day, “Father of All …” (February 7)

The pop-punk veterans will play stadiums this summer as part of the rock’s-not-dead Hella Mega Tour that also includes Fall Out Boy and Weezer. Yet what’s appealing about the short and snappy songs on Green Day’s 13th studio album is that they sound like they were born in a tiny club.

Grimes, “Miss Anthropocene” (February 21)

The Canadian singer and producer has spoken expansively about her oft-delayed follow-up to 2015’s Art Angels, most recently saying it’s “about a modern demonology or a modern pantheon where every song is about a different way to suffer”, as she put it in a published conversation with Lana Del Rey. But even Grimes knows that many listeners will be scrutinising “Miss Anthropocene’s” knotty electronic pop for clues about her unlikely romantic relationship with Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Frank Ocean

The elusive R&B auteur hasn’t revealed anything official about his feverishly anticipated follow-up to 2016’s “Blonde”. But now that he’s set to headline Coachella 2020, Ocean seems all but certain to time his new album to the April mega-festival (as Kendrick Lamar did a few years ago with “Damn”).

Dua Lipa, “Future Nostalgia”

Last year’s Grammy winner for best new artist has had disco and house music on her mind, to judge from Electricity and One Kiss – a pair of excellent collaborations with Silk City and Calvin Harris, respectively – and from Don’t Start Now, the delightfully rubbery lead single from her sophomore solo disc set for release sometime this year. The throwback sound suits Lipa’s throaty vocals, which have grown more soulful since her catchy but faceless 2017 debut.

Haim

Los Angeles’ premier sister trio aren’t making it easy to predict where the three will go on their third studio album. Summer Girl, the first of three 2019 singles, was a stripped-down Lou Reed-style jam, while Now I’m in It was classic uptempo Haim and Hallelujah a folky acoustic tune.

Justin Bieber

With appearances on tracks by a diverse array of acts including Luis Fonsi, DJ Khaled, Ed Sheeran, Gucci Mane, Billie Eilish and Dan & Shay, Bieber hasn’t exactly been hard to hear in the half-decade since his last solo record, 2015’s Christian-themed “Purpose”. But this year, he’ll be nearly impossible to escape, with a comeback single, Yummy, released earlier this month, a world tour that kicks off in May and a new (as yet unscheduled) album.

Rihanna

The wait for “R9”, as fans refer with increasing impatience to Rihanna’s coming ninth studio album, has become an internet joke – so much so that Rihanna herself got in on it recently with an Instagram post in which the singer captioned a video of a dancing puppy like so: “update: me listening to ‘R9’ by myself and refusing to release it”.

Ozzy Osbourne, “Ordinary Man”

The 71-year-old heavy-metal pioneer found himself in the middle of the pop conversation last year when Post Malone recruited him for Take What You Want, their pitch-perfect power ballad from Malone’s smash “Hollywood’s Bleeding” album. Now, Osbourne is readying a record of his own that he made with Malone’s producer Andrew Watt; bassist Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith are also in the mix.