When it comes to big-name albums, it’s becoming rare for release dates to be announced in advance. The element of surprise is a big bonus, and social media spread the word like wildfire. Along with the three to-be-announced releases by Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, other marquee releases expected in early 2015 have no arrival dates.
• Marc Anthony (Feb. 13 at Boardwalk Hall). Stadium-filling New York-born Puerto Rican singer Marc Anthony — the former Mr. Jennifer Lopez — returned to his pop-salsa roots with his 2013 album 3.0, which spawned the massive hit “Vivir Mi Vida.”
• Madonna, “Rebel Heart” (on sale March 10). Six songs from this album were leaked in December, but the bulk of the music on the varied project, which includes contributions from Nicki Minaj, Avicii, Alicia Keys, and Kanye West, remains unheard. Madge’s other chief collaborator on the album is ever-rising former Philadelphian DJ-producer Diplo.
• Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield, “Seth Avett & Jessica Lea Mayfield sing Elliott Smith” (on sale March 17). One half of Americana sibling act the Avett Brothers and Mayfield, the talented Ohio songwriter who turned up the volume on last year’s “Make My Head Sing,” have teamed on this tribute album.
• Laura Marling, “Short Movie” (on sale March 24). The British songwriter is known for a throwback folk sound that draws comparisons to Joan Baez and Sandy Denny. But on her fifth album, the 24-year-old cranks it up with a sound that has been described as more Chrissie Hynde than Joni Mitchell.
• Sufjan Stevens, “Carrie & Lowell” (on sale March 31). It has been five years since indie baroque-folk wunderkind Sufjan Stevens released a full-length non-Christmas album under his own name. He returns with “Carrie & Lowell,” which he has characterized as about “life and death, love and loss, and the artist’s struggle to make sense of the beauty and ugliness of love.” It’s named after his mother and stepfather.
• Waxahatchee, “Ivy Tripp.” (on sale April 7). This Philadelphia band is led by Alabama native Katie Crutchfield, whose twin sister, Allison, leads Swearin’, another standout Philly indie band. “Ivy Tripp” is Waxahatchee’s first album since signing to Merge Records.
• Kendrick Lamar, Untitled new album, TBA. The Los Angeles rapper’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2012 classic “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” will surely arrive this season. Won’t it? The late-2014 activity from the extraordinarily precise and articulate rapper suggests that it will.
• Meek Mill, “Dreams Worth More Than Money” (TBA). A 2014 stint in lockup pushed back the release of this, Meek Mill’s second full-length album. The Philadelphian rapper, born Robert Williams, served five months in a North Philadelphia prison for violating probation stemming from a 2009 drug and gun conviction. With Jay Z, Big Sean, Rita Ora, Chris Brown, and Maybach Music boss Rick Ross guesting — not to mention Meek’s apparent romance with razor-tongued rapper Nicki Minaj — anticipation is high for “Dreams.”
• Kanye West, Untitled new album, TBA. What will Yeezus do? Back in September, West allegedly played an all-but-completed new album for listeners at parties in Paris. The world awaits the release of the full record, said to have been recorded largely in Mexico.
