This week saw the release of the new Santigold album, which has been four years in the making, although somehow it seems a lot longer. While we’re not entirely sold on Master of My Make-Believe, it did get us thinking about the fact that 2012 is shaping up as a good year for ticking off the list of long-awaited records that will (hopefully) be arriving at last. After the jump, we’ve pulled together a selection of 10 albums for which we’ve been waiting far too long — shit, some of them have been pending for longer than Chinese Democracy was! Did we miss anything?
Sigur Rós — Valtari
We’ve been waiting… 4 years
After Sigur Rós’s hiatus and Jonsi’s solo endeavors, it looked like this album might never happen at all, so it’s a pleasure to be able to say that it’s due out later this month. (We’ll ignore the fact that it has in fact already leaked, as a commenter pointed out yesterday.)
The Knife — TBA
We’ve been waiting… 6 years
The six years since the release of Silent Shout haven’t been idle for the Dreijer siblings — Karin Dreijer Andersson released a contender for our favorite record of the ’00s with 2009’s Fever Ray, and her brother Olof has been busy producing and doing field recordings in Brazil. And, of course, there was the opera they co-wrote about Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species, which, um, well, if you like opera, we’re sure it made for fascinating listening. But still, it’s been way too long since the last Knife record, which is why we’re delighted that a new album is scheduled for later this year.
Missy Elliott — Block Party
We’ve been waiting… 7 years
Elliott has been talking about this record for years, and it had apparently been recorded and re-recorded a couple of times even before she was stricken with Graves disease, a debilitating autoimmune disease that apparently affects the thyroid gland. Happily, she’s healthy again now, and the latest estimate is that Block Party will arrive later this year.
Dexys Midnight Runners — One Day I’m Going to Soar
We’ve been waiting… 27 years!
No, really — apparently there’s a new Dexys Midnight Runners album in the works. The ever-unpredictable Kevin Rowland confirmed the release to the BBC in February — the band are calling themselves “Dexys” these days, and they’re a four-piece rather than a seven-piece as they were in their heyday, but nevertheless, this is officially the follow-up to 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down. We’ll be fascinated to hear it.
A proper Flaming Lips album
We’ve been waiting… at least 3 years, and arguably a decade
While the Flaming Lips’ idiosyncratic releases over the last couple of years — packaging music in a gummy bear skull, recording with Ke$ha, making a song with Lightning Bolt called “I’m Working at NASA on Acid” — have all been very entertaining, we’re still hanging out for an actual album that’s worth hearing. It’s been three years since Embryonic, but really, the band haven’t released anything to rival their great turn-of-the-millenium albums — 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots — in a decade.
Garbage — Not Your Kind of People
We’ve been waiting… 7 years
Garbage always seemed to polarize opinion for some reason — even in their heyday, some people seemed determined to write them off as a manufactured band, or grunge-lite, or whatever else. We always liked them, and were thus sad when their output tailed off after 2005’s Bleed Like Me. It’s good to see them back, and also to see that advancing years haven’t dimmed Shirley Manson’s penchant for giving awesome interviews.
Boards of Canada — TBA
We’ve been waiting… 6 years
Our eagle-eyed night editor Alison Nastasi spotted some news about this release in late February – word is that it’s going to be a double album, although nothing has been confirmed as yet. Even a single album would be just fine with us — we’ve been hanging on for new Boards of Canada action for far too long!
Black Star — Black Star Aretha
We’ve been waiting… 14 years
There’s an argument to be made that Talib Kweli and Mos Def/Yasiin Bey’s 1998 collaboration Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star represents the apogee of both men’s output (although Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides admittedly presents some pretty stiff competition). Whether or not you subscribe to this theory, it’s a pleasure to see the duo working together again — a mixtape inspired by Aretha Franklin is due out some time this year, although we’re still not entirely sure when.
Cat Power — Sun
We’ve been waiting… 6 years, really
We say six years as we’re not really counting Jukebox, which was a covers record that couldn’t hold a candle to, um, The Covers Record. That means it’s been it’s been six years since The Greatest, and — even harder to believe — a decade since the glorious You Are Free. The wait for a new album will end in September, when Sun is scheduled for release. Yay.
The Avalanches — TBA
We’ve been waiting… 11 years and counting
And, yes, finally, the Chinese Democracy of cerebral sample-based electronica. This year! Maybe!