6. Tyler, the Creator, Wolf (May)

Tyler has stated that Wolf will be a departure from the uber-dark violence, misogyny, and homophobia that characterized Goblin. "Talking about rape and cutting bodies up, it just doesn't interest me anymore... What interests me is making weird hippie music for people to get high to. With Wolf, I'll brag a little more, talk about money and buying shit. But not like any other rapper — I'll be a smart-ass about it... People who want the first album again, I can't do that." It'll be interesting to see if Wolf will alienate Tyler's fans, or earn him some new ones.

7. Santigold, Master of My Make Believe (Spring)

Santigold's first album, Santogold (the name change was precipitated by a lawsuit) dropped in 2008 and quickly developed a lot of buzz over skittering, danceable tracks like "L.E.S. Artistes" and "Creator." She's since spent time collaborating with everyone from GZA to Julian Casablancas, and hopefully that wildly eclectic spirit will continue to animate her long-awaited follow-up. (And maybe let her finally shake all those pesky M.I.A. comparisons.)

8. D'Angelo, James River (TBA)

I am so fucking excited about this album it makes me want to stand naked on my specially-constructed rotating platform and sing "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" for days. According to Questlove, the long-awaited follow-up to D'Angelo's modern-soul masterpiece Voodoo is "99% done." It's doubtful that James River will live up to the backstory surrounding Voodoo and D'Angelo's subsequent meltdown, but man, I hope it will. D'Angelo deserves it. We all deserve it.

9. MGMT, MGMT (TBA)

Wesleyan University's favorite alumni (sorry, Michael Bay) took a slight hit with their sophomore release, Congratulations, though nothing could have matched the hype that surrounded their debut, Oracular Spectacular. Founder Benjamin Goldwasser hinted at songs "that can easily be extended or have sections that could turn into a really trance-y, repetitive thing live" in an interview, but that was in November of 2010, so who the hell knows what they've been at in the interim. Personally, I'm hoping for a sequel to Congratulations' hyper-caffeinated "Brian Eno." Maybe "Robert Fripp?"

10. The Mars Volta, TBA (TBA)

After their disappointing "acoustic" album, Octahedron, the Mars Volta scrapped the album they'd already recorded, and leader Omar Rodriguez-Lopez backed away from what he called his "benign dictator" approach to composition and moved towards a more collaborative approach. Vocalist/spaz Cedric Bixler-Zavala took to his surreal YouTube channel last year to report the following on the sixth album: "Sorry no Spanish on this record, no Zeppelinesque voyages, no Santana-like flourishes or Vishnu accuasations. No congas, no Hammond organ stabs, no thirty-minute songs, no drums that sounds like mosquitos buzzing in your ear. Just future punk. That's the only way to describe it from my point of view." Got that?