Celebrating Five Years of The Best Is Yet to Come
On 26 February 2021, Bonnie released her 18th studio album, The Best Is Yet to Come.
Labelled Bonnie’s strongest work since Hide Your Heart (1988) by Retro Pop magazine, the record received some of the most glowing reviews of her career—earning five-star ratings from Cryptic Rock and Digital Journal.
The album premiered a brand-new track by legendary songwriter Desmond Child alongside collaborators Shelly Peiken and Ruslan Odnoralov. Their contribution, “Stronger Than a Man”, is a powerful feminist anthem that made an instant impact; it began trending on TikTok just two weeks after the album’s release, coinciding perfectly with International Women’s Day 2021.
The record also boasts impressive guest spots: Leo Rojas provides haunting panpipes on “Stuck to My Guns”, and fellow rock veteran John Parr lends his guitar skills to “You’re the One”.
Critics and fans alike were struck by Bonnie’s interpretation of two iconic covers. “I’m Not in Love” was re-imagined as a sweeping rock ballad, re-framing the 10cc classic using the blueprint of her previous soulful covers like “To Love Somebody” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. The second was a breezy, acoustic cover of the Donovan classic “Catch the Wind”, which brought Bonnie’s sound closer to folk-pop than ever before. Both are holdovers from the Between the Earth and the Stars recording sessions.
The singles have proven to be modern favourites. “When the Lights Go Down” and “Dreams Are Not Enough” both recently surpassed 1 million streams on Spotify. The platform’s editors were such fans of the tracks that both were featured on the prestigious Legends Only playlist.
The striking album art was designed by FULALEO, whose neon-soaked retro aesthetic caught the label’s eye after his work on the Bright Light Bright Light album, Fun City. To give the cover an authentic feel, FULALEO added layers of digital dust particles and artificial scratches, mimicking the look of a well-loved vintage vinyl record.
The wider concept centered on retrofuturism. This aesthetic drew heavily from synthwave culture—popularised by hits like Stranger Things—but for Bonnie, it was a return to familiar territory. The visuals serve as a spiritual successor to her work on Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 restoration of Metropolis and the city of Obsidian—a recurring dystopian mythology conceived by the late Jim Steinman. Representing a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, Obsidian is most prominently featured as the setting for the Bat Out of Hell musical, but it also served as the conceptual backdrop for Bonnie’s 1986 music video, “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)”.
Reflecting on the tracklist, the album’s pacing is one of its strongest suits. It’s the first album Bonnie has released where Side A is entirely upbeat. Usually, you run into a slower ballad early on, but The Best Is Yet to Come keeps that high-energy momentum driving all the way through to track seven.
The album’s creation was a testament to “the show must go on.” Due to travel restrictions, photographer Tina Korhonen and stylist Heidi Metsäkylä flew to Bonnie’s home in Portugal to conduct the album shoot with limited resources—delivering results that rivalled her biggest big-budget sessions.
With music video shoots off the table, artist Shaye Smith was brought in to create vibrant animated lyric videos. For “Dreams Are Not Enough,” Shaye created a cosmic narrative depicting Bonnie driving a red Porsche across a Rainbow Road in space, filled with nods to Orion’s Belt and Nebula Major, before ending with a Back to the Future-style finale.
The album debuted at No. 9 on the UK Indie Albums chart, completing a hat-trick of top-15 entries alongside Rocks and Honey (No. 13) and Between the Earth and the Stars (No. 4).
Bonnie prefaced the album’s release with the following message: “I have been anxious to sing for you all for the past 10 long and scary months. I realise some of you have suffered from the virus and loss of family and friends and my heart aches for you. Music can lighten our load and is always my personal retreat. I hope these new songs will lift your spirits. I am so happy and proud of this new album. It simply rocks and brings a smile to my face every time I put it on. The moment we can get back on stage and see your smiling faces will be extra special. I promise the best IS yet to come.“