Fall Music Preview: From Kanye West and Kings of Leon to Taylor Swift and Elton John, A First Listen to 2010’s Hottest Albums
From Kings of Leon's follow-up to their 2008 smash Only by the Night to the first-ever studio collaboration between Elton John and Leon Russell and big reissues from Dylan and Springsteen, Rolling Stone has the lowdown on the season's biggest records. Read on for more on these, plus 22 more albums to know — including Taylor Swift's entirely self-penned album, My Chemical Romance's party record and rapper Nicki Minaj's debut full-length.
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Zac Brown Band
You Get What You Give 9/21
The Zac Brown Band have hit upon a killer formula: a mix of mainstream country, easygoing pop and jam-band vibes. "We have five songs that are solid country, so we can get played at country radio," says Brown, who duets with Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett on the follow-up to their double-platinum debut, The Foundation. "On the others, we can stretch out and convert some jam people to country, and vice versa." One highlight: the mournful ballad "Colder Weather," which is "about the gypsy side of me that's out all night chasing the song," says Brown, "and the other half that wants to be with my family. It's trying to balance those two things."
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Soundgarden
Telephantasm 9/28
Coinciding with their recent reunion at Lollapalooza, the grunge pioneers assembled their first career-spanning set, from 1987's Sub Pop Screaming Life EP to their 1996 swan song, Down on the Upside. "Everyone focused on Pearl Jam and Nirvana," says drummer Matt Cameron, now in Pearl Jam himself. "We want to reclaim some of that. Our music was very intricately played — It wasn't just three-chord butt rock from Seattle." The disc includes the rarity "Black Rain," an unreleased track from 1991's Badmotorfinger. "We'd totally forgotten about it," says Cameron. "It's not one of our best songs, but it has all the elements people like about us — a driving riff and Chris' super-loud voice."
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Mark Ronson
Record Collection 9/28
No more Mr. Soul Guy: For his third LP, 34-year-old producer Ronson has ditched the horn-drunk sound he minted on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and his own Version for an Eighties-saluting, synth-heavy party vibe, courtesy of Ronson and his new band, the Business Intl. The guest list is head-spinning: Q-Tip, Boy George, D'Angelo, Simon Le Bon and many others. "My last album was me in a room bringing in a horn section and a singer," says Ronson, "and this was a bunch of people in a room for two months. More like a band." VIDEO: Ronson Previews His New LP
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Young Jeezy
TM 103 9/28
Like a hip-hop Tony Robbins, Young Jeezy promises the latest in his Thug Motivation series will be the most inspiring yet. "I'm rhyming about how I absolutely, positively will not fail," says the Atlanta MC. "The sound is epic and futuristic." He's already cut a splashy, classic-soul-inspired jam that features both Andre 3000 and Jay-Z. "It's a different type of track for me," Jeezy says.
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Bruno Mars
Doo-Wops & Hooligans 10/5
For a new artist, Mars has a big head start: The 24-year-old Hawaiian singer-songwriter is behind three big hits — B.o.B's "Nothin' on You," Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" and Cee Lo's "Fuck You," all of which he co-wrote and produced with his Smeezingtons team. For his debut LP, it looks like Mars will continue the hot streak — the first single, "Just the Way You Are," is already a Top 20 hit. The rest of the album matches razor-sharp hooks with a sprinkling of retro soul. "We're like a band," he says. "We bring a live instrumentation to the pop world."
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John Lennon
Solo albums 10/5
To mark his 70th birthday, Lennon's solo LPs are being remastered by the team who upgraded the Beatles catalog last year. "We went back to the original tapes," says engineer Paul Hicks. "?'Imagine' actually sounds quite different." Also due: a "stripped-down," remixed version of 1980's Double Fantasy and a box set that includes a disc of unreleased home recordings.
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Kings of Leon
Come Around Sundown 10/19
"We needed a change of scenery, a shock to the system," says Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill of the band's decision to record its fifth LP in New York. "In New York, walking to the studio each day was an adventure. But living there definitely reminded us that we're still Southern boys." The resulting LP mixes the surging, modern-rock sound of 2008's million-plus seller, Only by the Night, with some of the most overtly country songs the Kings have cut — including the slide-guitar-and-fiddle-laden "Back Down South" and "Mary," a bluesy paean to weed. " 'Back Down South' was the last song we did," says Followill. "You can just hear 80,000 people singing along to that at a festival."
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Elton John and Leon Russell
The Union 10/19
"Two pianos and no egos" is how John describes his first-ever studio collaboration with Russell. Produced by T Bone Burnett, The Union features 14 songs written by Russell, Burnett, John and his longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, delivered in the euphoric gospel-rock-soul style of Russell's early-1970s LPs. "It was like a revival meeting on those records," says John, and he and Russell went for that effect by cutting their tracks live. "One or two takes, that was it," John swears. For him, the LP is a gift to one of his biggest influences. "It sounds hokey," he says, "but I've never been involved in such a beautiful project."
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Bob Dylan
Bootleg Series Vol. 9, the Witmark Demos 10/19
Dylan's latest bootleg stretches back to the beginning of his career, when he cut demos in the hope that other singers would record them. "This was not long after he signed to Columbia," says a source close to the Dylan camp. "The idea was, 'Shit, if I don't make it as a recording artist, at least I'll make it as a songwriter.'?" A solo show from 1963, discovered in the archives of late Rolling Stone editor Ralph Gleason, will be offered as a bonus disc on Amazon.
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Taylor Swift
Speak Now 10/25
"As far as inspiration goes, I've been dealt a lucky hand," says Swift. "I'm excited for people to delve into the album and unravel the secrets." For the first time, Swift penned every cut on the album without co-writers. The first single, "Mine," is about "what it would be like if I let my guard down and saw a relationship through," says the 20-year-old. "The Story of Us" — a supercatchy pop nugget lifted by a hot guitar solo — was inspired by running into an ex at an awards show. Swift won't say if the track is about ex Joe Jonas and only laughs when asked if the dramatic power ballad "Back to December" is about former boyfriend Taylor Lautner. "After I wrote it, I realized that I've never apologized to someone in a song," she says. "This album is about my confessions."
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Bryan Ferry
Olympia 10/26
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, David Gilmour, the Scissor Sisters and all of Ferry's former Roxy Music bandmates help out on his latest solo LP. "It's good to have a mixture of these young guys and old-timers," Ferry says. Highlights include the trip-hop-goes-glam "Alphaville," the hypnotic "You Can Dance" and a superlush cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren," which features more than 20 musicians. "I love to write," says Ferry. "But making records — arrangements, producing — intrigues me most."
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Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
Acoustic Sessions 10/26
A collaboration between Sean Lennon and his girlfriend, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger makes "surreal folk music," says Lennon. "We write songs based on poetry and stories." The duo play all the instruments — Lennon on guitars and banjo, Muhl on keyboards — and recorded the LP in their apartment. "It was just more fun writing together than being alone in your room," says Lennon. "I didn't realize how boring that is until I started writing with Charlotte."
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Elvis Costello
National Ransom 11/2
Recorded with a hybrid electric-acoustic band that mixes members of the garage-rocking Imposters and a crew of top Nashville pickers, Costello's latest album "juxtaposes time and place," he says. The set threads through historical narratives ("Jimmie Standing in the Rain" is about a 1930s British country singer) and classic Costello male-female turmoil (the rockabilly shuffle "Five Small Words"). One first: the whistle solo on the jaunty acoustic swing tune "A Slow Drag With Josephine." "I've kept that talent under wraps," he says. "You've gotta keep something in reserve for the third decade."
VIDEO: Costello and Burnett Talk National Ransom -
Weezer
Pinkerton 11/2
The 1996 cult favorite is being expanded with B sides, live cuts and outtakes. One tune, "Tragic Girl," "is better than a lot of the album," says Rivers Cuomo. "People will be overjoyed to hear it."
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Christina Perri
Title TBD 11/2
"I feel like the song's happening, and I'm just running after it," says Christina Perri. The song in question: her radio hit "Jar of Hearts," a wrenching, Pink-style ballad that's a kiss-off to an ex. The song was played on So You Think You Can Dance in June, before Perri even had a record deal — her best friend passed it to the show's choreographer. Suddenely, Perri scored a deal with Atlantic Records and started working on new material: Her upcoming EP, as well as an LP, which is due in 2011. Expect more "Jar of Hearts"-style anguish: "All of my songs are about me, and they're usually about love," she says. "I'm a terrible girlfriend. I've broken up with the same guy literally twenty times."
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Jimi Hendrix
West Coast Seattle Boy 11/9
This four-CD set traces Hendrix's growth from sideman to star, most of it by way of rarities and live cuts. "This is not a pretty box with stuff you already have," says co-producer John McDermott.
MORE: The West Coast Seattle Boy Track Listing
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Kid Cudi
Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager 11/9
Kid Cudi's 2009 debut was a Top Five hit, but the MC says there was a downside to success: constant paranoia and a nasty cocaine habit. "This album is me closing that chapter," he says. "I'm moving on in a positive light." The rapper cut most of his second LP in Hawaii, at the same studios that mentor Kanye West was using. "We'd meet up and talk about what we created," says Cudi. "It was magic." The two team up on "Wylin' 'Cause I'm Young," a haunted electro cut, and Mary J. Blige — whom Cudi cornered at the airport — sings on "These Worries." "At the studio, I told her what I was going through," he says. "Mary helped me get my shit together."
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Bruce Springsteen
Darkness on the Edge of Town (Reissue) 11/16
A deluxe reissue of Springsteen's stripped-down 1978 classic expands the original 10-track, 40-minute LP into a massive three-CD/three-DVD box set that includes 21 studio outtakes, hours of live footage and a new documentary, The Promise (airing October 7th on HBO), about the making of the album. "The outtakes alone are a great lost album," says Springsteen's manager and Darkness producer, Jon Landau. Some of the outtakes — such as "Fire" and "The Promise" — are well-known to Springsteen fans, but songs like "Save My Love" and "Outside Looking In" have never been heard. The set also includes a 1978 Houston concert and a complete live performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town, shot last December.
MORE: Inside the Set -
Kid Rock
Born Free 11/16
Kid Rock is feeling cocky about his eighth studio album. "This album is focused on great songs, and the things that I feel close to," he says. "I've always thought I soak up everything around me and squeeze it back out on paper, but for too long, I've been squeezing my own dick." Recorded in Los Angeles with Rick Rubin, Born Free features stadium-size rockers (the five-minute title cut), superstar cameos (Bob Seger, T.I., Zac Brown) and more intimate moments like "Collide," a moving duet with Sheryl Crow. "I don't know if she's a hot girlfriend, a sister or a mother," Rock says, "but somehow when I sing with Sheryl, we are both at our best."
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Rihanna
Loud 11/16
Just a year after releasing the dark Rated R, Rihanna is back with a new LP — and a more uplifting vibe. The first single, "Only Girl (In the World)," is a frothy club cut that sets the tone. "I didn't want to go backward," she says. "I wanted the next step."
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Black Eyed Peas
The Beginning 11/16
"The record is finished," says Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am of the group's next LP. "Now I have to unfinish it!" For the MC-producer, that means turning "hundreds and hundreds of songs" into an album's worth of potential tracks. He says he's once again turning to the Euro-house sounds that made the Black Eyed Peas' 2009 set, The E.N.D., into a global smash. "Dance culture is the only thing that's vibrant," he says. "Everything else is bullshit." But Will.i.am also wants to take BEP's songs out of the realm of "just audio." "Everybody's thinking outside the box," he says. "We're gonna stay in the box, kick the fucking sides out, and now the box is an octagon."
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My Chemical Romance
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys 11/22
My Chemical Romance had nearly finished a dark, Stooges-influenced LP when frontman Gerard Way came to an important realization: He hated it. "We were just trying to be America's young rock band," he recalls. "We did that, and what came back was boring." They scrapped the record and started over with a new set of mostly synth-happy, technicolor pop tunes, complete with an unabashed dance beat on "Planetary (GO!)." Like 2006's Black Parade, the new disc has a unifying conceit: It's supposed to be a transmission from a post-apocalyptic radio station in 2019. "It's a party record," says Way. "The scariest thing was to admit to ourselves that we wanted to have a good time."
VIDEO: My Chemical Romance's Danger Days Trailer -
Nicki Minaj
Pink Friday 11/23
Ask Nicki Minaj about the progress on her debut album, and the 25-year-old MC answers with a culinary metaphor: "I got the meat and potatoes out of the way. Now I just gotta add the cookies and cheesecake." For her first non-mixtape, the Barbie-loving punchline queen says she's ditching the "superficial" subject matter of her many guest appearances in favor of more "timeless" pop-minded collaborations with superproducers like Swizz Beatz and Kanye West. "I'm trying to make music for the masses," she says. "This is my chance to bring everyone into my party."
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Kanye West
Title TBD November
After his VMA outburst in 2009, Kanye put his career on hold, escaped to Japan to elude paparazzi, and then spent last winter interning with Fendi in Rome. When West was ready to start recording again, he camped out in a Honolulu studio with a new outlook. "That incident took me to a greater place as a human being," he says. Recorded with friends like RZA, Q-Tip, Bon Iver and Pete Rock, the as-of-now-untitled LP is a return to the deeply textured, lyrically dense style of his first three albums. "I'm trying to bring back true authenticity," West says. "It's the anti-everything-that-was-before."
VIDEO: Kanye West Debuts New Music at RS
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Cee Lo Green
The Lady Killer 12/7
"I'm picking up where Barry White left off," says the Gnarls Barkley frontman of his new solo LP. "It's a collection of songs about love with an urban undertone and lavish string arrangements" — tracks include the viral sensation "Fuck You" and the Danger Mouse-produced "Scarlet Fever." The singer-rapper says he thinks the album can help him score with people who only know him as the guy who sang "Crazy." "I'm a fairly sophisticated man," he says. "This album shows my softer, more sensitive side."
VIDEO: Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You" Clip
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T.I.
King Uncaged December
T.I.'s long-awaited seventh album has had several major setbacks. First, he spent seven months in prison in 2009 on federal weapons charges. Then, earlier this month, the Atlanta MC and his wife were arrested on drug charges in L.A. — which may send him back to jail. But as of press time, T.I.'s label says the record will be out this year. He's cut about 60 songs since being released from prison last December, including the stomping, eight-minute "Pledge Allegiance to the Swag" and the triumphant pop cut "Got Your Back." Thematically, T.I. says, the record will conclude the trilogy that began with 2007's T.I. vs. T.I.P. and bring this "unfortunate" chapter in his life to a close.
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Also Released
• KT Tunstall, Tiger Suit 10/5
• Antony and the Johnsons, Swanlights 10/12
• Belle and Sebastian, Write About Love 10/12
• Darius Rucker, Charleston, SC 1966 10/12
• Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz 10/12
• Die Antwoord, $0$ 10/12
• Ne-Yo, Libra Scale 10/19
• Shakira, Sale El Sol/The Sun Comes Out 10/19
• Rod Stewart, Fly Me to the Moon . . . The Great American Songbook, Volume V 10/19
• Good Charlotte, Cardiology 11/2
• Brian Eno, Small Craft on a Milk Sea 11/2 -
Also Released
• Natasha Bedingfield, Strip Me 11/9
• Bush, Everything Always Now 11/9
• Lee DeWyze, Title TBD 11/16
• Nelly, 5.0 11/16
• Stereolab, Not Music 11/16
• Social Distortion, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes 11/23
• Robyn, Body Talk PT 3 November
• Michael Jackson, Unreleased material Winter
• Daft Punk, Tron Legacy Soundtrack WinterReporting by David Browne, Patrick Doyle, Josh Eells, Jenny Eliscu, Michael Endelman, Gavin Edwards, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Austin Scaggs, Evan Serpick, Jonah Weiner and Gus Wenner