Welcome to the new year: a lot has changed. Kanye West makes music with Paul McCartney now; Spooky Black has changed his name to Corbin and is working with Shlohmo; Ciara is slaying Future via the medium of break-up ballad (“you think you upgraded me, I upgraded you”), while Lil Durk and Dej Loaf are low-key loved-up. Dive in below for a sampler of the album releases we’re most hyped for right now (hey Future Brown, hey Eskmo, hey Purity Ring) as well as the triumphant returns of Panda Bear, Sleater-Kinney and uh, Willow Smith (who by the way, lives in another dimension now). But before any of that, though, you really need to meet your new Best Friend: the DJ Mustard-emulating 11-year-old Sophia Grace. Is it too early to make “we don’t want no boys round here” the official slogan of 2015?

Cover image courtesy of Hali Olalemi