It’s been a grueling wait for Noname’s next studio album. With her last full-length release being Room 25 in September 2018, fans of the 31-year-old have been dying to hear what she’s been cooking up in her absence.
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On Sunday (April 9), Noname finally revealed the light at the end of the tunnel. Posting a note to Instagram, she confirmed her new album Sundial is set to drop in July of this year. “Thank you for everything,” she succinctly wrote along with the announcement.
Sundial will be Noname’s second studio album, following up her mixtape Telefone from 2016 and her aforementioned debut in 2018. At first, she proclaimed that her next album would be titled Factory Baby, but soon canceled that project in December 2021 via Instagram story, which also saw her sadly contemplate retirement.
“Most days I’m not sure if I’ll ever make music again,” she wrote. “The last time I was consistently making songs was 4 years ago. It’s been so hard to find producers to link up with and who I genuinely connect with sonically. I’m truly grateful for the art I was able to release but that might be it from me. Like, it shouldn’t be this hard. No lie this sh*t actually makes me incredibly sad and I rarely leave the crib these days. I don’t want to keep lying and saying there’s an album on the way when there’s not. I’m sorry I’ve lead y’all on. I wanted to believe things would change but they haven’t.”
Nearly a year and a half later, though, it seems she’s now in a better headspace and ready to put out music. Along with doing tons of community activism such as her “Noname Book Club,” which gives reading materials to people in prison, Noname has put out a handful of songs since Room 25.
“Song 32” in 2019 was her first release since her debut. Then, “Song 33” (2020) saw her fire back at criticism J. Cole threw her away for her response to the Black Lives Matter Movement. “My ego got the best of me,” she later said in a now-deleted tweet about the song.
Most recently, “Rainforest” in February 2021 was meant to be the lead promotional single for the now-shelved Factory Baby. It’s unclear if the song will still be a part of the track list for Sundial, but the track proved how impressive of a lyricist and revolutionary Noname still is.
Currently, the Chicago native is gearing up for performances at Coachella. Her first live sets in years, it will be interesting to see how much new material she plays for her fans. After all, it may not be a coincidence that her album announcement came just days before she takes the stage.
(Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
