With 2014 rapidly coming to a close, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead, which promises to be a musical paradise for indie and folk band fans such as myself. 2015 marks the return for several veterans and newcomer indie and folk music bands. Here are the five albums I am eagerly awaiting in the new year.

Mumford & Sons


One of my favourite bands (if not favourite), British folk group Mumford & Sons has been on hiatus since their second album Babel in 2012 won Album of the Year at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Although the quartet has said that there won’t be any Mumford & Sons activities for the foreseeable future, band member Ben Lovett confirmed in July this year that they were recording their third studio in London. Reports have said that the album will be released at some point next year and that the band is working with James Ford, who is a producer for two of my other favourite bands Arctic Monkeys and HAIM.

image source

HAIM


Speaking of HAIM, the trio of sisters from Los Angeles are rounding out the year with a bang, between the release of a new collaboration “Bite Down” for British rock band BASTILLE’s third mixtape VS. (Other People’s Heartache, Pt. III) and a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Their debut album Days Are Gone was released in 2013, and as of 2014, the band has said that it is recording its second album.

image source

The Decemberists


The American indie folk rock band has already released a new single “Make You Better” this year ahead of their seventh studio album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, which will hit the shelves on January 20, 2015. And as I wrote previously, what excites me about this album is the fact that it signals an apparent return to the band’s original The Smiths-esque sounds.

image source

Belle & Sebastian


Another band I have not visited since my high school days, Scottish indie pop band Belle & Sebastian is releasing ninth studio album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance on January 19, 2015. The band has already released  a single “The Party Line” and will be gracing Taipei with its presence in February next year to promote its new record.

image source

Florence and the Machine

Florence and the Machine is finally returning to the airwaves with Florence Welch confirming that a new album is in the works. The band has not released anything since its 2011 second album Ceremonials, although Welch provided powerful vocals for Calvin Harris’ “Sweet Nothing” in 2012 for their second collaboration after “Spectrum (Say My Name)”.

image source