Preston Smith
2018 has already been a good year for music, but it’s only going to get better in June, which will see the release of three long-awaited albums – in three consecutive weekends, no less!
Nicki Minaj’s Queen is slated for a June 15 release, Bebe Rexha follows up with a June 22 release for Expectations, and Florence and Machine rounds things out with High As Hope on June 29.
Queen follows “Chun-Li” and “Barbie Tingz” – two songs released last month to promote the album. It succeeds 2014’s The Pinkprint as Nicki’s fourth studio album. Since The Pinkprint, Nicki has released the ever-deliciously shady “No Frauds” and has appeared on more than a handful of collaborations, including Migos’ “Motorsport”, Yo Gotti’s “Rake It Up”, and Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish” just to name a few.
Nicki remains tight-lipped regarding any more details about the album, but she did appear on the season finale of Saturday Night Live alongside Tina Fey to perform “Chun-Li” and promote the album.
According to Nicki herself, Queen is not only her favorite album from her discography, but it is also the favorite of some important people in her life:
Queen. W/o a shadow of a fkng doubt. A very important person said the same thing last night. Many ppl have said it. ????????♀️????????????????????♥️???????????? https://t.co/UtricLRcUc
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 18, 2018
While Nicki has been M.I.A. for a while, Bebe Rexha has been steadily releasing music leading up to Expectations – her first full-length studio album. (Nicki and Bebe even released “Hey Mama” and another song together during Nicki’s hiatus!)
Expectations rides not only on the success of “Meant to Be” (which has spent 24 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart), but also on Bebe’s two 2017 EPs: All Your Fault Pt. 1 and All Your Fault Pt. 2. Bebe gave listeners a tease of her forthcoming album with two new songs last month. “2 Souls on Fire” finds Bebe singing with Quavo from Migos in a sultry love song, while “Ferrari” sees Bebe reflecting on her music journey “in the fast lane.”
As is the case with Nicki Minaj, it has been a couple years since Florence and the Machine’s last album – 2015’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
Despite coming out in June after both Queen and Expectations, High as Hope is the only album of the three whose track list is known. It is as follows:
- “June”
- “Hunger”
- “South London Forever”
- “Big God”
- “Sky Full of Song”
- “Grace”
- “Patricia”
- “100 Years”
- “The End of Love”
- “No Choir”
“Hunger” and “Sky Full of Song” were released to promote the album, and both feature Florence Welch’s voice soaring over beautifully melodic rhythms. If these two tracks represent the entire album, then we have no doubt this album will be just as phenomenal as Florence’s three prior albums.
All three of these albums will be available for purchase on iTunes, and for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.
To keep updated on these albums, follow Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Florence and the Machine on their social media:
Nicki Minaj: Instagram, Twitter
Bebe Rexha: Instagram, Twitter
Florence and the Machine: Instagram, Twitter
Are you excited for these three new albums? Comment below and tweet us @Fuzzable with your love for all things Nicki Minaj, Bebe Rexha, and Florence and the Machine!
Update: Since this article was published, it has been confirmed that Nicki Minaj has moved the release of Queen to August 10, 2018.
