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    15 artists we can’t wait to hear in 2019

    Photo illustration/Photos from Globe services

    We’ve put away our year-end best-of lists and finally said goodbye to 2018. After all that looking back, it’s time to look ahead, to the artists — some old, some new-ish, some right on the verge of breaking out — whose praises we’ll be singing in 2019. Here are 15 who Globe music critics are especially excited about.

    DAWN

    In the ’00s, this belter was part of two groups: Pop&B foursome Danity Kane and Sean “Diddy” Combs’s nu-disco outfit Diddy-Dirty Money. But once Dawn Richard went solo in 2011, she took off like a rocket, blazing a brightly idiosyncratic trail with genre-melding, future-minded dance music. “New Breed” (Jan. 25) continues her experimentation, although it’s rooted in her past; she takes spiritual and musical cues from her upbringing in New Orleans on songs like the simmering title track and the percolating “Dreams and Converse,” while the stunning “Vultures | Wolves” is a pointed rebuke to those who have — thankfully, unsuccessfully — stood in her way. (Maura Johnston)

    Normani has risen above Fifth Harmony to launch a promising solo career.
    Dennis Leupold

    NORMANI

    Fifth Harmony has now been the launching pad for two bona fide pop stars: Camila Cabello, who made 2018 her year with a Grammy-nominated debut disc and two Top 10 singles, and Normani, who’s about to make 2019 hers. The 22-year-old’s first single as a soloist, jazz lounge-level smoky Khalid collab “Love Lies,” was evidence of the R&B flavor she’s said to be cultivating for her new album. She’ll release it early this year, likely before opening the first leg of Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener” world tour (its second stop is at TD Garden March 20). (Isaac Feldberg)

    MERCURY REV

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    Bobbie Gentry's 1968 sophomore release, “The Delta Sweete,” was a loose concept album that found her further exploring the Mississippi Delta life lurking behind the dinner-table narrative of “Ode to Billie Joe,” the smash hit that had brought her to the world's attention less than a year before. Fifty-one years later, with the help of a bevy of Gentry stand-ins, Mercury Rev is refracting that record through its own interpretive lens with “The Delta Sweete Revisited” (Feb. 8), reimagining without reinventing the album via a not quite song-by-song homage that puts the accent on sweeping strings and touches of gothic psychedelica. (Stuart Munro)

    PEDRO THE LION

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    David Bazan carved out a niche for himself in the fertile Pacific Northwest indie rock scene of the early 2000s with methodical, melancholy concept albums about religious angst and man’s inhumanity to man (if Death Cab for Cutie set a collection of Flannery O’Connor stories to music, it would probably resemble Pedro the Lion’s 2000 release “Winners Never Quit”). On the three songs we’ve already heard from “Phoenix” (Jan. 18), the first Pedro the Lion record in 15 years, Bazan turns his observant eye toward his own childhood, from the thrill of learning to ride a bike to the agony of peer pressure-induced bullying. (Terence Cawley)

    Ravyn Lenae performs at the Voodoo Music Experience in City Park on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
    Amy Harris/Invision/AP

    RAVYN LENAE

    Contemporary R&B has seen a surge of female voices — from Kelela to Nao to Dawn Richard — boldly blending traditional sources and electronic influences to reimagine the genre, and Chicago’s Ravyn Lenae is following in their footsteps. The 19-year-old has grown by leaps over her three EPs, “Moon Shoes” (2015), “Midnight Moonlight” (2017), and last year’s superb “Crush,” with slow-burn, pulsing songs featuring her poetic, personal lyrics and quirky phrasing. As she moves out of her teenage years, Lenae is growing into her voice, which has hints of Erykah Badu, and the emotional range of her songs is expanding (adolescent angst yielding to wisdom). Lenae seems more interested in making daring, challenging music than chasing the next pop wave, so mainstream acceptance may be elusive at first, but this is an artist in for the long haul. (Ken Capobianco)

    08StyleRogers - Maggie Rogers -- 4/10 Concert at the Sinclair. (handout)

    MAGGIE ROGERS

    This Maryland-born singer-songwriter caused lots of clicking in 2016, when video of her breakout single, “Alaska,” bringing Pharrell Williams to tears became a YouTube sensation; in the years since she has become a fixture on the festival circuit, with her sweetly genuine stage presence helping sway audiences into singing along with her hooky, emotionally honest, folk-inspired pop. Her major-label debut, “Heard It in a Past Life” (Jan. 18), collects “Alaska” and other songs she’s released over the past few years alongside collaborations with pop heavy hitters like Greg Kurstin (Adele, Paul McCartney) and Rostam Batmanglij (Solange, Haim). (Maura Johnston)

    Noname performs during weekend two of the ACL Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin on October 12, 2018. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP) (Photo credit should read SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images)
    Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images
    Noname

    NONAME/SABA/SMINO

    Rising together through Chicago’s close-knit hip-hop scene, these three — all melodic, sharp-tongued wordsmiths — share more than a producer (ubiquitous Phoelix) and guest spots on Chance the Rapper tracks. They’ve forged an out-of-studio friendship, one that’s suffused appearances on one another’s breakthrough solo projects with a sense of unaffected joy. When these three get in the booth, there’s nothing corporate about it. Recent near-posse cut “Ace” (off Noname’s “Room 25,” which she’ll likely play during sold-out Royale stops Thursday and Friday) felt something like the Soulquarians’ breezy second coming. “3 young GOATs casually reshaping what popular music will sound like for the next 20 of them thangs,” they’ve dubbed themselves on Instagram, promising a joint project this year. It’s a lofty claim from three artists who excel in exceeding expectations. (Isaac Feldberg)

    The Delines in their rehearsal studio, Sept 2018. Photo by Jason Quigley
    Jason Quigley

    THE DELINES

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    A successor of sorts to Portland, Ore., band Richmond Fontaine, the Delines’ magnificent debut, “Colfax,” came out in 2014, followed by what the band called a “full-length single” a year later, and then . . . nothing. There was a reason for that full-stop: Amy Boone, whose weary, barely-hanging-on vocals anchor the band’s sound and bring Willy Vlautin’s harrowing stories of the hard-luck and the desperate to life, was hit by a car in an Austin, Texas, parking lot. “The Imperial” (Jan. 11) — started prior to that accident and finished upon Boone's recovery — is a triumphant return of the band’s riveting, steel-and-horn-fueled country-soul music. (Stuart Munro)

    Amber Mark performs during weekend one of ACL Music Festival at Zilker Park in Austin on October 7, 2018. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP) (Photo credit should read SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images)
    Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images

    AMBER MARK

    Amber Mark is a pop star waiting to happen — she just needs to be heard. The 24-year-old R&B singer-songwriter has already released two diverse, stellar EPs, 2017’s “3:33am” and “Conexão,” which display the complexity of her style and vision. The smooth, sultry Mark is a bit out of step with the raw, confessional, hyper-sexualized direction pop R&B has veered into the past couple of years, but her sophisticated and often introspective music is undeniable, and she should break through to the mainstream when she releases her full-length debut. Over the course of her two EPs, she has moved from the dark edges of grief to a brighter musical direction that has some comparing her to Sade (she beautifully covered “Love Is Stronger Than Pride” on “Conexão”), but make no mistake, Mark has a sound all her own that looks back to traditional R&B while inventively moving forward. As her irresistible tracks “Lose My Cool,” “Way Back,” and “Love Me Right” attest, Mark’s moment has arrived. (Ken Capobianco)

    SHARON VAN ETTEN

    The acclaimed singer-songwriter’s piercing intensity has lost none of its ability to cut to the bone on “Remind Me Tomorrow” (Jan. 18), though her sonic palette has expanded to include synth-based tunes of triumph (“Comeback Kid”) and foreboding (“Jupiter 4”). Those who fell in love with Van Etten’s starker stylings will still find plenty to adore here, with the likes of “Malibu” and “Stay” holding the same shiver-inducing power as the acoustic incantations of albums past. (Terence Cawley)

    INGLEWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 09: Mike Posner performs on stage during KROQ Absolut Almost Acoustic Christmas at The Forum on December 9, 2018 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for KROQ/Entercom)
    Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for KROQ/Entercom

    MIKE POSNER

    It’s been nearly a decade since this Michigan-born crooner self-released his first mixtape, establishing himself as a singer-songwriter who borrows equally from velvety soul and laid-back folk. Since then he’s had two self-deprecating hits, 2010’s chugging “Cooler Than Me” and 2015’s remixed smash “I Took a Pill In Ibiza,” and co-written radio staples for the likes of Maroon 5 and Justin Bieber while further developing his own pop-soul chops. “A Real Good Kid” (Jan. 18) is his third full-length, and it grapples with love, loss, and the existential crises endemic to 21st-century life in an unflinching yet tender way. (Maura Johnston)

    NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 21: King Princess performs onstage during Live@837 with Mark Ronson and King Princess at Samsung 837 at Samsung 837 on June 21, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Samsung 837)
    Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Samsung 837

    KING PRINCESS

    The biggest songs by this Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter (heartbreaker “Talia”; sultry “1950,” which got a pivotal signal boost from Harry Styles) position her as the queer heir to Lorde’s anthemic dream-pop throne. Rising on the same social media-assisted tide as Troye Sivan and Hayley Kiyoko, the 20-year-old is likely the youngest in this new wave of gay pop torch-bearers, and — with a spring tour (including a Jan. 25 Royale stop) and planned new album — is shaping up to be one of the year’s busiest. (Isaac Feldberg)

    EASTNOR, ENGLAND - AUGUST 4: Kurt Wagner of Lambchop performs on the Castle Stage during the first day of the Big Chill music festival at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in the Malvern Hills on August 4, 2006 in Herefordshire, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
    Jim Dyson/Getty Images

    LAMBCHOP

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    “This (is what i wanted to tell you),” the title of the latest from Kurt Wagner and the fluid Nashville aggregation known as Lambchop, is amusing in its own right, since one can never be certain exactly what Wagner is wanting to tell you. What is certain is that Lambchop’s music is always beguiling and beautiful in its idiosyncrasy, a certainty that isn’t violated by “This” (March 22), which weds an apparent lyrical preoccupation with “you” (the pronoun is present not only in the album’s titular parenthetical, but also in all but the last of its song titles) to another inimitable Wagner sound collage. (Stuart Munro)

    SUMMER WALKER

    Summer Walker’s intimate, raw musical approach strips away excess, draws listeners in close, and refuses to let go. The Atlanta native relies on emotionally direct lyrics and spare keyboards/percussion/guitar-dominated tracks. Her music sounds like she’s whispering in your ear after the bars have closed, sunrise is approaching, and regret and revelation have set in. Her 2018 debut album, “Last Days of Summer,” is suffused with slow-drip grooves about conflicted love, sex, identity, and trust (or lack of it). At times, Walker’s woozy vibe, syrupy/slurred phrasing, and honesty echo early Jhenè Aiko, but Walker owes more to traditional R&B vocalists, especially when she opens up her sound. While many of the songs on her debut were slivers — ideas in search of realization — she will undoubtedly develop her aesthetic and evolve with time. Right now, she’s a refreshing voice that commands attention. By late summer, Walker should be on the pop radar and making noise. (Ken Capobianco)

    CASS MCCOMBS

    Though his unique take on cosmic Americana has earned McCombs no shortage of critical hosannas, his inscrutable nature (both on record and in his reluctantly granted interviews) all but ensures that he’s destined to remain a cult concern — and that fate seems more than all right with him. Much of “Tip of the Sphere” (Feb. 8) evokes the Grateful Dead at their most mellow and agreeable, but just as the listener is starting to get comfortable, something like the bizarre electro-spoken-word of “American Canyon Sutra” pops up to remind you that McCombs plays by no one’s rules but his own. (Terence Cawley)