By Tianna Henry

If you had high hopes for the warmer weather, but now aren’t sure whether “shot girl summer” is going to be a thing thanks to the pandemic and ongoing vaccine delays in Ontario, hello, welcome to my world. But I’ve been thinking and I’ve decided there is a solution: all the musicians who have been promising us new music just have to deliver. Easy, right? From Drake’s Certified Lover Boy to Rihanna’s long-awaited R9 to Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, which at least has an actual release date, here are six albums that I hope will drop this summer and consequently save the season. (No pressure.)

Rihanna, R9

Time Frame: The release date for R9, as the superstar’s next album has been dubbed by her fans, has been moved back multiple times, though Rihanna has confirmed that we might hear new music “soon.” In the meantime, she has been featured on singles including PARTYNEXTDOOR’s “Believe It,” released last year.

What We Know About the Project: Not much. In 2019, word was that Rihanna was making a reggae-inspired album. In an interview with Vogue she said, “reggae always feels right to me. It’s in my blood. It doesn’t matter how far or long removed I am from that culture, or my environment that I grew up in; it never leaves. It’s always the same high. Even though I’ve explored other genres of music, it was time to go back to something that I haven’t really homed in on completely for a body of work.” Then last October, she told Associated Press she’s held “tons of writing camps” with songwriters who to come up with fresh ideas, though they clearly signed ironclad NDAs because we haven’t heard a peep since.

Vibe Check: Whatever R9 becomes—and whenever it drops—we can expect a feel-good sound. “I just want to have fun with music,” she told AP. “Everything is so heavy. The world that we live in is a lot. It’s overwhelming every single day. And with the music, I’m using that as my outlet.”

Kanye West, Donda

Time Frame: West promised his tenth album would drop on July 24th, 2020, which obviously didn’t happen. Now? Who knows.

What We Know About the Project: West teased an album titled God’s Country last summer with a music video for “Wash Us in the Blood” and snippets of songs posted on Twitter. (That’s also where he announced it had been renamed to Donda after his late mother.) Then a lot of things happened, including news breaking that his marriage to Kim Kardashian was officially over—but, according to rapper Cyhi the Prynce, who’s signed to West’s GOOD Music label, as of March 2021, he was working on the album again.

Vibe Check: It’s hard to tell how this one is going to go. West recently won his first gospel Grammy for 2019’s Jesus is King, so he may continue in that vein. Then again, the songs and snippets he’s released are giving me Old Kanye vibes.

Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever

Time Frame: In April, Billie Eilish announced that she’ll be releasing her second studio album on July 30, 2021.

What We Know About the Project: Happier Than Ever will kick off a new era in Eilish’s career. It will feature 16 songs and was written by Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell, who is also her producer, and so far I haven’t heard about any outside collaborations. The tracklist will include her most recent single, “Your Power,” as well as previously released singles “My Future” and “Therefore I Am.”

Vibe Check: Based on “Your Power,” I’m expecting this album to be a stripped down take on Eilish’s signature emo-pop sound.

Saweetie, Pretty Bitch Music

Time Frame: Following Saweetie on Instagram means following the process of her upcoming album Pretty Bitch Music, where she shares promotional artwork and updates. No release date has been confirmed, but she recently teased fans with a collaborative 7-track EP titled Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1.

What We Know About the Project: Saweetie’s music is full of hot-girl party anthems, and it sounds like Pretty Bitch Music will be no different. "I really wanted to do something and release something that empowered my girl best friends," she told Paper magazine earlier this year. "I have a lot of dope women in my life and we all felt like we needed a record. And just going back to Destiny's Child, they had so many women-empowered anthem themes." 

Vibe Check: More Icy Gang Empowerment—and, I’m betting, at least a few worthy successors to her previous hits, including “Tap In” and “My Type.”

Time Frame: According to an interview with XXL earlier this year, Cardi said she needs to “go away for a long time” and finish her album. “I feel like at this point, it’s like a timeline that I created. Because last year I was like: ‘I gotta put out my album this year,’' she explained. “But, then I just stopped working on my album out of nowhere because I feel like the whole COVID thing discouraged me to put out my album. Because I want to put out an album, and I want to tour.” She continued to explain that she finds virtual album promo and interviews difficult, and that’s delaying her process, too. Vaccine anyone?

What We Know About the Project: Again, not much. Cardi tends to work with producers such as Benny Blanco, 30 Roc, Boi-1da, DJ Mustard and Murda Beatz. And considering the success of “WAP,” which has received a five-times platinum certification, we can be reasonably assured it’ll be a banger.

Vibe Check: The raunchiest empowerment anthems ever, if a 2020 interview with Elle is anything to go by. “My music is always going to make a woman feel like a bad bitch. When you make a woman feel like she’s the baddest bitch in the room, to me, that’s female empowerment,” Cardi told the mag.

 Drake, Certified Lover Boy

Time Frame: We thought we’d be getting Drizzy’s next album in January, but on January 20, he revealed in an Instagram story that Certified Lover Boy was delayed. "I was planning to release my album this month but between surgery and rehab my energy has been dedicated to recovery," he wrote. "I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all in 2021.” In March, Drake revealed on OVO Sound Radio that the album is “currently being chef’d in every way possible… I don’t have an exact date, but it’s in the pot and it’s coming soon.”

What We Know About the Project: The Lover Boy himself is working with his regular collaborators, Noel Cadastre and Noah “40” Shebib, and if DJ and radio host Akademiks is to be believed, it’s going to be a “masterpiece.” (Despite mixed critical reviews, Scary Hours 2, the EP he surprise dropped in March, was very well-received by fans, with all three songs debuting at the top of Billboard’s Top 100 chart. In true Drake fashion, that’s another record broken—no other artist has debuted three songs at numbers one, two and three simultaneously.)

Vibe Check: Old-school Drake + new-school Drake = perfect fusion