Culture Fix’s Most Anticipated Comebacks of 2023

2022 saw the returns of talents including Björk, a-Ha, Soft Cell and Years & Years. 2023 looks like an equally stacked year with new music teased from Sade, Peter Gabriel and Lana Del Rey. We have taken a run-through of the rumoured, confirmed and expected releases of 2023 that we are anticipating the most.

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Grace Jones

The formidable Jamaican alt-pop queen delighted with some new material at her 2022 summer Southbank shows as part of her Meltdown curation duties. Born Black and The Sun Shines in Wartime beautifully picked up where Grace’s 2008 opus Hurricane ended. It is hoped that they will see release in their studio form at some point in 2023, despite the Pull Up to the Bumper star’s iconic denial of the construct of time.

Sophie Ellis Bextor

Parking her Kitchen Disco fiesta for a brief moment, Sophie Ellis Bextor will deliver her third LP with producer Ed Harcourt in 2023 – following on from Wanderlust and Familia. Inspired by the British singer’s trip to Japan, Sophie teased ‘I can tell you there’s pop sensibilities woven throughout it and there’s definitely a lot of synthesisers.’

Jessie Ware

Picking up from her uber-successful What’s Your Pleasure? era, Jessie will continue to navigate the glamorous world of disco-soul citing her single Remember Where You Are as a continued influence. The musician and podcast guru shared: “I made something that sounds richer, has more live elements, has a lot of energy and a different rhythm. There is drama, seduction, aspects of “What’s Your Pleasure” that people appreciated,” on the new LP.

Róisín Murphy

Teasing her follow-up to Róisín Machine throughout 2022, the Irish Moloko star told NME: “I’ve worked on and off for the last five years with DJ Koze on my next album. It’s in the final stages now, I haven’t played it to anyone and I’m not signed. Now I’m in the process of sending out this slab of gold and seeing how it goes from there.” If it has even a smidgeon of the panache and cool of its predecessor, Róisín will have a lot of very happy fans.

Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is scheduled for a February 2023 release with the American singer-songwriter and current pop darling already giving us a taste of singles Bunny is a Rider, Billions, Sunset and Welcome to My World. The singer’s 2019 album Pang saw her reach her chart peak with a #4 independent album.

Sade

Sade, made up of  Sade Adu (vocalist), Stuart Matthewman (saxophonist), Andrew Hale (keyboardist) and Paul Spencer Denman (bass guitarist) have been largely absent from the musical soundscape since 2010 LP Soldier of Love. However regular studio sessions and scrapped plans to release an album in 2020 have suggested that the group could be poised for a 2023 musical comeback under their current label Epic Records.

Janet Jackson

Janet’s follow-up to her 2015 comeback Unbreakable was actually due as the pandemic hit, with the pop and R&B icon shelving her now mythical Black Diamond album. Janet shared (as recently as December 2022) that new music would be on the way during 2023 – as to whether this will be a standalone single like 2018’s Made for Now or a full album has yet to be revealed. US fans will have the opportunity to see Janet on the road on her Together Again tour, whilst us European fans will stay highly thirsty.

Kylie Minogue

Following on from her Disco era, Kylie looks set to stay positioned on the dancefloor but instead will navigate a more electropop sound. BMG shared that Kylie’s sixteenth album campaign is set to hit the ground running in the first half of the year and a tour that celebrates Disco and her new album is very much on the horizon.

Lana Del Rey

The snappy titled Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, the ninth studio album from Lana Del Rey arrives on March 10th. It features contributions from producers Mike Hermosa, Jack Antonoff, Drew Erickson, Zach Dawes, and Benji, and includes collaborations with Jon Batiste, Bleachers, Father John Misty, Tommy Genesis, and SYML.

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel’s first album of original music in over twenty years will arrive in 2023. Titled i/o, very little is currently known about the new set other than Gabriel has been recording with Manu Katché, Tony Levin and David Rhodes on seventeen new songs – some of which are likely to make the final cut of his upcoming LP. Gabriel teased the track Full Moon on his YouTube channel and his also announced a 2023 European tour coinciding with the release.

Courtney Love

With an autobiography in the works, Courtney Love is also embarking on her first new solo album since 2004’s America’s Sweetheart. Twelve songs have been recorded for the album with the LP currently being in its final mastering stages. Courtney shared the album was “not rock cause people aren’t really doing rock anymore.” Courtney will promote her book and new music with a documentary from Trevor Murphy also.

SG Lewis

The singer-producer and adorable slice of eye candy is set to return with AudioLust & Higher Love at the tail end of January. SG has given us a taster of the LP’s slick danceable sensibilities in numerous pre-release tracks including the addictive Missing You and Something About Your Love, as well as Tove Lo track Call on Me.

Måneskin

The Eurovision Song Contest winners’ third album Rush! is scheduled for a release in January 2023 and will see them present a mix of English language and Italian cuts. Max Martin productions including the previously released Supermodel and fresh numbers Baby Said and Don’t Wanna Sleep will appear on the seventeen song digital tracklist.

Shania Twain

Queen of Me, the latest and sixth LP from Shania Twain arrives February 3rd ahead of her upcoming world tour. Containing new singles such as Not Just a Girl, Waking Up Dreaming and the soon to be released Giddy Up, Shania will release through Republic Records – the first album of her career not to be released through Mercury Nashville. We have no doubt that Shania will still have brought the up-tempo country-pop bangers we need, however.

Dolly Parton

Each year we include Dolly in these lists, we hope she will return with her mythical gay dance record but instead Dolly turns to the equally camp world of rock music for her new album Rock Star. The album will see Dolly deliver her takes on Prince, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Rock Star is also set to be feature some rockier Dolly originals too – as well as some cameo appearances from the world of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Janelle Monáe

Whilst on the press tour for her latest acting project Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Janelle teased that she had a clone in the studio working on new music. Whether this gives a hint of thematic territory Janelle’s music will be inhabiting or she is simply a busy woman taking the piss, is anyone’s guess. Either way Janelle’s follow-up to 2018’s Dirty Computer just might be arriving in 2023.

Daphne Guinness

Hard at work in the studio since the release of her eurodisco flavoured album Revelations, Daphne Guinness is expected to deliver new music in 2023. The English singer-songwriter has been delivering musical excellence with famed producer Tony Visconti, playing with a variety of genres and thematic concepts – as well as pairing them with stunning visuals from the likes of David LaChapelle. We cannot wait to see what 2023 has in store for one of our favourite chanteuses.

Alison Goldfrapp

Mysterious, ambiguous visuals and comments on social media about big things for 2023 are all we really have to go on for the addition of Alison Goldfrapp to the list. It is hoped that we will hear new music from Goldfrapp – whether that be an Alison Goldfrapp solo project or a collaborative project with bandmate Will Gregory following on from the duo’s 2017 album Silver Eye. It could also be a candle range or a bespoke collection of teatowels. We really know nothing.

Gossip

Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto told 1883 Magazine: “Gossip just made a record and we’re working on that now. I keep getting different edits in for it. It’s done, we just need to find the time to get it out. I’ll never leave music; it’s the place I feel most at home.” Let’s hope the band find the time to get the album out over 2023.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Actress and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg has been on the promotion trail for documentary Jane by Charlotte centred on his talented mother Jane Birkin, but six years on from her album Rest it is expected that Gainsbourg will deliver some new music.

Madonna

Madame X may be long since brought to a close and Madonna and her team are known to be preparing deluxe editions of past albums. Madonna has been working with Swae Lee, producer and engineer Lauren D’Elia, and writer Jozzy. Hopefully we will hear some of that this year.

Blondie

After the collaboration driven Pollinator in 2017, the Debbie Harry fronted group are getting the ball rolling on their next album. In July 2021, Harry told NME: “We’re in the process of setting up a period of time to lay down some tracks and rehearse. We’re already looking at 10-12 songs, but it feels too early to talk about it.” Hopefully we will be hearing the fruits of their labour in 2023.

Jonas Brothers

Plans for a follow-up album to the pop trio’s Happiness Begins were slightly altered by the pandemic, but Nick, Joe and Kevin have assured fans that a ‘body of work’ of some sort is coming. In an Instragram live session Joe shared “We plan on releasing a body of work. We’re not 100 percent sure when, obviously this last year kind of shifted timelines quite a bit for everyone, so that’s our reasoning. We’re not holding anything back from the fans that want new music, but we’ve got some good stuff we’re working on and we can’t wait to share it with you guys.”

Louise

Louise delighted with her 2019 comeback album Heavy Love that spurred anthems such as Lead Me On and Stretch. Louise has been very clear about her love for creating music again and spoke to Metro about her upcoming new album. She shared: “I’ve already started working on the next album and I almost feel like it’s even a step up from the last album. It feels like the second album again, but it’s actually my fifth – sixth if we include the greatest hits – but it’s almost like we’ve veered even further in direction for the next album so I’m already so excited.” The singer recently released the Janet and Prince inspired gem Super Magic which is expected to feature on a new retrospective LP that combines re-recordings of solo and Eternal tracks as well as some new original gems.