By the end of 2016, there could be some amazing new artist that has arrived and blown us all away with their debut.

Unfortunately, we don't possess that kind of psychic foresight (yet), so we're working off the potential upcoming slate for some of the biggest artists in the world.

Some of these are absolutely confirmed, some are only a rumour at this point, but all of them are worth your time when they do eventually hit your headphones.

BECK

After the brilliant but mostly downer-buzz of 2014's Morning Phase, Beck is clearly back in playful form, teaming up with mega-producer Greg Kurstin for first single 'Dreams', which was released way back in June. A new album can't be far away, although any and all details are still completely unknown.

BEYONCE

Its been a little over two years since Beyonce Beyonce'd her last album, Beyonce. There's been rumblings lately that she's back in the studio, with song-writer Sia stating that she'd been asked for material, and rumours of collaborations with the likes of Future and Bone, Thugs & Harmony indicating a much more hip-hop edge. Or it could all mean nothing and she'll suddenly drop a minimalist industrial calypso album. It's Beyonce, she can pretty much do whatever she wants to.

BON IVER

Over four years since the indie folk band released their last album, and they've been keeping busy, if frustratingly vague. Having announced a load of live dates for 2016, they've been performing some new songs at festivals lately, but keeping their titles secret for now. No official word on an album, but all of this activity must be pointing towards something!

CRYSTAL CASTLES

Album (I) arrived in 2008. Album (II) arrived in 2010. (III) came in 2012. We all expected (IV) to arrive in 2014. Instead, lead vocalist Alice Glass dramatically left the group. She was promptly replaced by the enigmatic Edith, and she and producer Ethan Kahn have been releasing tracks, leading up to an album at some point in 2016.

DAVID BOWIE

Here's one you don't have long to wait for, as his new album Blackstar is out from January 8th! Regular producer Tony Visconti is back, while LCD Soundsystem member James Murphy appears on some of the tracks, too.

DRAKE

Riding high after the double whammy of critically acclaimed mixtape If You're Reading This It's Too Late and commercially huge single 'Hotline Bling', Drake is already gearing up for the release of View From The 6. No release date yet, but talk of Beyonce and Skepta appearing on the album would hint at some big, experimental things.

FRANK OCEAN

channel ORANGE was absolutely huge when it hit back in 2012, and everyone wants to be involved with it's follow-up. Reports say that Pharrell Williams, Tyler The Creator, Danger Mouse, Tame Impala, Hit-Boy, Rodney Jerkins were all involved with the Boys Don't Cry album, and Ocean was claiming that The Beach Boys and The Beatles were the primary influences on the album. So far, 'Memrise' is the only hint of the direction this new album will be taking, and we're not even sure its definitely on the new album.

GORILLAZ

Music's most productive artist Damon Albarn has been talking about a new Gorillaz album since 2014, claiming that the new album will have "a benchmark of 125 bpm and nothing underneath that", claiming it to be very upbeat, humorous and positive. Considering that Plastic Beach had a collaboration roster ranging from Snoop Dogg to Little Dragon, we can probably expect something similar this time around.

JAMES BLAKE

2013 saw the release of the multi-award winning Overgrown, and Blake has been keeping busy with other people's projects since then. Radio Silence is tentatively expected early next year, with this recent cover of the Simon & Garfunkel classic clearly referencing back to his own upcoming album. Tracks with Bon Iver and Kanye West were recorded, but Blake claims they may be ditched if they don't suit the vibe.

KANYE WEST

The now infamous SWISH album has gone through more title changes and lead singles than we could keep up with. Remember when it was called So Help Me God and the lead single was 'Only One' with Paul McCartney? More recent track release 'All Day' finds the rapper on more solid ground, but what the final product will consist is still anyone's guess.

M83

Its been more than four long years since the hugely popular Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, and while M83 have been keeping busy scoring movies - Tom Cruise sci-fi Oblivion, teen-lit adaptation Insurgent - their actual proper releases have been thin on the ground. Remember how the entire world seemed to fall in love with 'Midnight City'? No pressure guys, but that's what you've got to follow up.

MISSY ELLIOTT

Popping up with Katy Perry at last year's Superbowl Half-Time performance reintroduced the world the madness of Missy, but her pure fire single 'WTF (Where They From)' showed that she hadn't lost any of her creativity or capability of unleashing an absolute earworm. Its been over a decade since The Cookbook, and reports have it that Timbaland, Pharrell Williams and Diplo will be the primary contributors to the long-delayed follow-up.

NINE INCH NAILS

Hesitation Marks in 2013 showed the industrial rock band had still very much got "it", even though front-man Trent Reznor had been busy moonlighting as the composer for David Fincher movies. No actual information on the new album, other than what the man himself posted on Twitter recently.

New NIN coming in 2016. Other stuff, too.

— Trent Reznor (@trent_reznor) December 18, 2015

PJ HARVEY

Flying in the face of most artists' approach to new music, Harvey allowed anyone who was interested to see her working on the follow up to the Mercury Music Prize winning Let England Shake, which was actually released almost five years ago. No solid date, beyond "Spring 2016".

RADIOHEAD

While teasing that listening to Russian radio stations, decrypting photos from their website and analyzing old live shows would give hints at the band's follow-up to 2011's King Of Limbs, it would seem we don't have that much longer to wait. They released the unused 'Spectre' track on Christmas Day, Thom Yorke hinted that a song he performed in Paris recently would be on the new album, and all signs are pointed to an imminent release.

RIHANNA

Having released an album in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Rihanna took a break. A nice long break. But now its time to comeback, Miss Fenty. Anti has already released three singles - 'FourFiveSeconds', 'Bitch Better Have My Money', 'American Oxygen' - we can see it's promotional art and tie-in campaign with Samsung, but still no album. She recently cancelled her performance at the Victoria Secret fashion show to finish the album, so it can't be far away now, can it?

SIGUR ROS

Since the release of 2013's Kveikur, the band have been keeping occupied, appearing in both The Simpsons and Game Of Thrones, and preparing the re-release of their back-catalogue, while also telling fans that new, unreleased material is also incoming. With worldwide tour dates planned for Summer 2016, expect that new material in and around that time.

TINASHE

Every few years we're presented with a new pretender to the pop princess crown, and Tinashe could be the one to swipe it away from ... whomever happens to have it right now. Some of pop's biggest producers - Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Hit-Boy, boi-1da, Mike Will Made-It, Cirkut, Diplo - are involved, and if Joyride is anything like 2014's Aquarius, expect great things.

THE xx

2009's xx blew us all away. 2012's Coexist was just as good. Jamie xx's solo album In Colour was one of the best albums of 2015. Recent Facebook, Twitter and Instagram updates tell us that the trio are back together and will be spending the winter recording album number three. When you've got a CV like theirs, anticipating is always going to be high, no matter how hard we try to keep them low. We just can't wait to see what they've got in store for us.