Pop Music: New Season

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Dates are subject to change.

SEPTEMBER

CARLA BLEY BIG BAND “Appearing Nightly” is the latest soulful big band effort from one of the wittiest composers in the genre. The album, recorded in Paris in 2006, retrofits an image of old-fashioned nightclub glamour with flickers of good-natured irony. Tuesday. ECM. (Nate Chinen)

GYM CLASS HEROES Travis McCoy, the Gym Class Heroes’ frontman, is a rapper fronting an emo group, so maybe it was only a matter of time before the band split the difference and became a soul group. On “Cookie Jar,” the first single from its third album, “The Quilt,” the band teams up with the Dream for a song-length metaphor that would do R. Kelly proud. Tuesday. Atlantic. (Jon Caramanica)

JOAN OSBORNE After many wanderings, including a stint with the Grateful Dead, Ms. Osborne has collaborated again with the songwriting and production team from her multimillion-selling 1995 album “Relish.” Their new songs on “Little Wild One” gleam with guitars and mandolin as Ms. Osborne pours her voice into lyrics about love, longing and New York City. Tuesday. Womanly Hips. (Jon Pareles)

OKKERVIL RIVER Okkervil River’s leader, Will Sheff, gets all worked up as he sings: slurring, shouting, quivering, groaning. On its fifth album, “The Stand Ins,” the band is equally rambunctious, knocking around various kinds of roots-rock with just enough finesse. And none of that hubbub interferes with the deft, self-conscious way Mr. Sheff’s words depict characters tangled in love and show business. (There are songs called “Singer Songwriter” and “Pop Lie.”) He’s literary — nothing to be ashamed of. Tuesday. Jagjaguar. Performing Oct. 6-7, Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street, East Village, (212) 353-1600, bowerypresents.com (J. P.)

BOBO STENSON TRIO The great Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson has made another quiet but potent album, “Cantando,” weaving a flowing tapestry out of spacious improvisation and music by, among others, the jazz maverick Ornette Coleman, the tango paragon Astor Piazzolla and the Viennese School innovator Alban Berg. Tuesday. ECM. (N. C.)

TRICKY Trip-hop’s innovative and elusive producer, songwriter and gruff-voiced talk-singer, Tricky, rematerializes after a five-year gap between albums with “Knowle West Boy.” The tracks dispel some of the old trip-hop haze and draw on Tricky’s ex-girlfriends for guest vocals, as the lyrics dip into autobiography and the music reveals some roots in dance hall, electro and punk. Tuesday. Domino. (J. P.)

METALLICA “Death Magnetic,” the band’s first album in five years, is a refresher in everything that has worked best for Metallica over the last 20 years: whiplash tempos, precise pummeling of guitar and drums, some dark blues boogies and lyrics apocalyptic and sneering (“Asphyxia, snuff reality,” goes one track, “incinerate celebrity”). What’s absent are pop compromises; over the course of the 1990s those were tried, exploited and discarded. Sept. 16. Warner Brothers. (Ben Sisario)

PATRICIA BARBER Ms. Barber’s verbosity and arch intellectualism are uncommon traits for a jazz singer, and she has sometimes been held at arm’s length by wary traditionalists. “The Cole Porter Mix” may change the game a little, with its songbook conceit and a guest turn by the saxophonist Chris Potter. Sept. 16. Blue Note. (N. C.)

MARC BROUSSARD While a white-soul revival unfolds around him, Marc Broussard, from Louisiana, has been curiously overlooked. His rock and soul originals, as on his debut album, “Carencro,” were more intriguing than his covers (from last year’s “S.O.S.: Save Our Soul”). “Keep Coming Back,” his third album, sounds like a return to form. Sept. 16. Atlantic. (J. C.)

BUCKCHERRY In the music of Buckcherry, the Sunset Strip of the 1980s is still alive and well (or, more accurately, alive and strung out). But in an age of wimpy rock frontmen flaunting their emotions, hearing this Los Angeles group tear through their odes to hard living (the new one is “Too Drunk ... ”) on “Black Butterfly,” its fourth album, is a refreshing slice of retrograde. Sept. 16. Atlantic. (J. C.)

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM Does anyone love his guitar collection as much as Mr. Buckingham does? This guitarist, the man behind Fleetwood Mac’s hooks, has made another solo album, “Gift of Screws,” largely by himself with occasional help from Fleetwood Mac’s rhythm section. The songs bounce along, contemplating love and eternity, as he layers intricately picked guitars (mostly acoustic) with loving attention to every choice of strings and amp settings. Sept. 16. Reprise. Performing Oct. 19 at Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 930-1950, nokiatheatrenyc.com. (J. P.)

GEORGE CLINTON “George Clinton and Some Gangsters of Love” is a stroll through the funk czar’s favorite oldies, by Barry White, the Impressions, Marvin Gaye and others; par for the course for this kind of guy/this kind of record/this kind of time, it’s made with celebrity friends, including RZA, Carlos Santana and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sept 16. Shanachie. (B. R.)

DJ KHALED The idea that DJ Khaled, the incessantly-shrieking radio personality from Miami, would be a hip-hop force would have been unthinkable even five years ago. But now his hometown is the de facto home of new-money hip-hop, and his albums have featured some of the most invigorating posse cuts of the last few years. Expect more guests (including Kanye West and T-Pain), more attitude and more surprise on “We Global.” Sept. 16. Koch. (J. C.)

FUJIYA & MIYAGI Deadpan, near-whispered vocals and muted, metronomic dance beats add up to some epitome of hipster cool. Fujiya & Miyagi’s second album, “Lightbulbs,” is full of knowing allusions in the lyrics and in music that fondly recalls the Kraut-rock and synth-pop of the analog era. Sept. 16. Deaf Dumb & Blind. (J. P.)

MUSIQ SOULCHILD Musiq Soulchild was the first singer to give neo-soul a bad name, thanks to his affectless vocals and dim lyrics. But he’s perked up recently, particularly on last year’s hit “Teachme.” His current single, “Radio,” from his fifth album, “On My Radio,” also shows signs of life. Sept. 16. Atlantic. (J. C.)

NE-YO This elegant R&B singer-songwriter may not be allergic to fame, but fame certainly seems to be allergic to Ne-Yo. His disco-esque single “Closer,” from his third album, “Year of the Gentleman,” is among the best R&B songs of the year, but sometimes it seems as if the only people who notice are other musicians: New Kids on the Block tapped him to work on their comeback album. Sept. 16. Def Jam. (J. C.)

AMANDA PALMER Dark and furious as ever, Ms. Palmer — the singing, songwriting, piano-playing half of the Dresden Dolls — goes for full-blown orchestral impact on “Who Killed Amanda Palmer,” which was produced in Nashville by Ben Folds. The melodrama is intentional, as is the title’s allusion to “Twin Peaks.” Sept. 16. Roadrunner. (N. C.)

DARIUS RUCKER On the album “Learn to Live,” the South Carolina-born Mr. Rucker, who led Hootie and the Blowfish, has switched format from rock to country. He works with Nashville songwriters for verbal twists and reassuring thoughts of family life while the music trades folk-rock strumming for pedal steel guitar and fiddle. It’s a startlingly easy transition. Sept. 16. Capitol Nashville. (J. P.)

RAPHAEL SAADIQ The neo disappears from neo-soul on Raphael Saadiq’s album “The Way I See It.” Mr. Saadiq, who sang in Tony! Toni! Toné! and went on to a busy career producing hip-hop and R&B, now aims straight for the tambourine-shaking, live-band sound of late-1960s Motown. He’s after equal parts Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and production team in a wholehearted homage. Sept. 16. Columbia. (J. P.)

COLD WAR KIDS Half of what this quartet from Long Beach, Calif., does is standard-issue, blog-era indie rock: wobbly rhythms, unhinged vocals, obtuse lyrics right out of a poetry seminar. But with its second album, “Loyalty to Loyalty,” the band continues to explore relatively new territory for the genre, wrapping songs of paranoia and delusion in a bluesy, echoey fog of piano and guitar. Sept. 23. Downtown. (B. S.)

COMMON Could Common finally be ready to throw his hands in the air and then in turn to wave them like he just does not care? Caring has always been a burden for this Chicago rapper, who has lived and died with his sincerity. The early indications about “Invincible Summer,” his eighth album, are that what he now cares about is having a good time and that maybe he should have arrived at that decision sooner. Sept. 23. Geffen. (J. C.)

EVERLAST Ten years ago this former frontman of the rap group House of Pain released a shocking album, “Whitey Ford Sings the Blues,” that repositioned him as a (not quite) sensitive folkie. “Love, War, and the Ghost of Whitey Ford” is something of a sequel and includes a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” that samples the beat from Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain.” Sept. 23. Martyr Inc. (J. C.)

KENNY GARRETT The initials in “Sketches Of M. D.: Live at the Iridium” refer to Miles Davis, one source of inspiration for the alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Other sources include John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, whose styles lurk behind some of the compositions; and Pharoah Sanders, who plays forceful tenor throughout the album. Sept. 23. Mack Avenue. (N. C.)

KINGS OF LEON “Only by the Night” is the fourth album by this Southern-rock band of brothers (and one cousin), and it reflects a strong push toward driving rhythm and yearning melody: a smart move, for reasons creative and commercial. Sept. 23. RCA. (N. C.)

JENNY LEWIS Ms. Lewis, the clear, warm voice and hard-headed lyricist for Rilo Kiley, has some promising collaborators on “Acid Tongue,” her second solo album. Among them are Elvis Costello, Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes and indie rock’s quietly ubiquitous M. Ward. Sept. 23. Warner Brothers. Performing Oct. 4, Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, Harlem, (212) 531-5300. (J. P.)

RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA A searingly intense alto saxophonist, Mr. Mahanthappa has explored his Indian heritage before, but never more directly than on “Kinsmen,” an ambitious and engaging collaboration with the Carnatic saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath and a mixed ensemble of Indian and American musicians. Sept. 23. Pi. (N. C.)

PUSSYCAT DOLLS Quick: how many Pussycat Dolls can you identify? This neo-burlesque dance-pop act has staked a lot on name recognition, though its members have clearly worked harder developing stripper-style dance moves than individual personalities. Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer, is reportedly calling her long-delayed solo album “Her Name Is Nicole,” and “When I Grow Up,” the first single from the group’s second album, “Doll Domination,” is an ode to pop ambition that proclaims, “You know what it’s like to be nameless/Want them to know what your name is.” But without looking, can you say who that lead singer is again? Sept. 23. A&M/Interscope. (B. S.)

PRETTY RICKY Since its last album, the underappreciated “Late Night Special,” this well-oiled R&B foursome parted ways with Pleasure P, its most visible member. If anything, though, that has only steeled the remaining members’ resolve to be the best come-on artists they can be. The first single from the group’s third album, “Eighties Babies,” is a remake of H-Town’s seminal 1993 hit “Knockin’ Da Boots” that is somehow more salacious than the original. Sept. 23. Atlantic. (J. C.)

JAZMINE SULLIVAN This Philadelphia R&B singer is barely out of her teens and has already kicked around the record industry — a failed deal with Jive, some songwriting for other singers. On her debut, “Fearless,” she collaborates with Missy Elliott, among others. Sept. 23. J. (J. C.)

ANI DIFRANCO The songs on “Red Letter Year” are no less assertive or politically charged than others in Ms. DiFranco’s restless, prolific career, but they do feel more accepting and relaxed. Some of this has to do with the producer Mike Napolitano; some of it involves the trust generated by her working band. Sept. 30. Righteous Babe. (N. C.)

JENNIFER HUDSON Since losing on “American Idol” four years ago, Ms. Hudson has proven that she has genuine star power, eclipsing no less than Beyoncé Knowles in “Dreamgirls” to win an Oscar. But can she score a hit album? For her self-titled (and long-delayed) debut, her label, Arista, is pairing her with Timbaland, Stargate and other top producers to strike gold. Sept. 30. (B. S.)

JESUS AND MARY CHAIN When Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields recently claimed in an interview that the Jesus and Mary Chain’s album “Psychocandy,” from 1985 — the great morose-violent take on bubblegum-pop — was “the last significant event in pop music production,” he was ... completely wrong. And yet he had a point. “The Power of Negative Thinking” collects four CDs of the band’s B-sides and rarities, including “Bo Diddley Is Jesus” and “Kill Surf City.” Sept. 30. Rhino. (B. R.)

TAJ MAHAL This irrepressibly eclectic bluesman welcomes a handful of guest stars on “Maestro” — Angelique Kidjo, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson among them — but keeps a steady hand on the tiller. He’s celebrating 40 years in the business and knows how to keep things moving. Sept. 30. Heads Up. (N. C.)

ROBIN THICKE “Magic,” the first single from Mr. Thicke’s third album, “Something Else,” is the most deliberately retro-sounding song he’s made (if you don’t count the blast of Beethoven on his debut single all those years ago). It’s elegantly made and confidently delivered blaxploitation-era soul, never mind that the voice behind it belongs to the son of the TV personality Alan Thicke. Sept. 30. Interscope. (J. C.)

MERCURY REV Electronic pulses and echoes suffuse Mercury Rev’s new album, “Snowflake Midnight,” a set of songs about impermanence and ecstasy that carries the band’s blissed-out pop another step away from earthbound reality. A free instrumental album, “Strange Attractor,” will be released simultaneously on yeproc.com. Sept. 30. Yep Roc. (J. P.)

T.I. In July of last year, this Atlanta rap star released his most disappointing album. Then in October he was arrested on a range of weapons charges and eventually placed under a form of house arrest (though he’s now free to travel). Neither experience has much changed his music, as seen on two recent singles: “No Matter What,” an ode to his own resilience, and “Whatever You Like,” a typically polite come-on. Expect “Paper Trail,” his sixth album, to be balanced between those two urges. Sept. 30. Grand Hustle/Atlantic. (J. C.)

OCTOBER

ANNUALS This Raleigh, N.C., group’s debut album, “Be He Me,” released two years ago, was a lovely, wistful slice of modern art-folk. It returns with “Such Fun,” its major label debut, which is fuller and more eclectic than its debut but maintains the air of curiosity that is the band’s strength. Oct. 7. Canvasback/Columbia. (J. C.)

CALLE 13 Politically aware and wildly raunchy, proudly Puerto Rican and knowingly pan-American, the duo Calle 13 — the rapper Residente and the producer Visitante — is the most consistently startling group to emerge from reggaetón, a genre that has never confined it. On the duo’s third album, “Los de Atrás Vienen Conmigo” (“Those Left Behind Are Coming With Me”), they annex Argentine cumbia villera and Eastern European Gypsy music. Oct. 7. Sony. Performing Oct. 9, Nokia Theater, 1515 Broadway, at 44th Street, (212) 930-1950, nokiatheatrenyc.com. (J. P.)

THE CLASH “The Clash at Shea Stadium” captures this important London punk band at a ferocious peak and a point of high strain. (The guitarist Mick Jones was still on board but not for long, and the drummer Terry Chimes was back but only briefly.) The tension works, and so does the scale of the show: this album, never before released, packs the force of a depth charge. Oct. 7. Epic/Legacy. (N. C.)

DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES Daniel Rossen, who joined Grizzly Bear in 2004, had a previous band, Department of Eagles, with a college roommate. He has revived the partnership for the album “In Ear Park.” It’s an elegy for his father and a reminiscence of childhood in a swirl of memories and reveries, sparse acoustic moments and lavishly layered pop — gorgeous and suffused with mystery. Oct. 7. 4AD. (J. P.)

BOB DYLAN “The shadowy past/Is so vague and so vast,” Bob Dylan quips on “Dreamin’ of You,” one of the previously unreleased songs on “Tell Tale Signs,” his newest title in Columbia/Legacy’s popular Bootleg Series. But this odds-and-ends set spans a relatively recent stretch, from 1989 (the sessions for “Oh Mercy”) to 2007 (“Huck’s Tune,” from the soundtrack to “Lucky You”). The music is often dark and typically elusive; for Mr. Dylan, the near present can be shadowy, too. Oct. 7. (N. C.)

EL GUINCHO Pablo Díaz-Reixa, a musician from Barcelona who records as El Guincho, conjures a giddy world of noise and pop on his debut album, “Allegranza,” which has been available overseas since earlier this year but is being released worldwide by XL Recordings. Like Animal Collective and Ariel Pink, Mr. Díaz-Reixa makes convoluted but still tuneful sound collages — drawing from Afrobeat, dub, tribal beats and swaggering old-fashioned rock — that are blissfully aimless. Oct. 7. (B. S.)

KERI HILSON This R&B singer has done her best to keep busy while waiting for her repeatedly delayed solo debut, “In a Perfect World,” to arrive. As part of the Clutch songwriting collective, she’s helped pen songs for Chris Brown, Amerie, Jennifer Lopez and Omarion, among others. She also sang on the grating Timbaland hit “The Way I Are,” though certainly she would like that not to be her most notable vocal performance. Oct. 7. Interscope. (J. C.)

LAMBCHOP “OH (ohio)” brings out a softer and less meta side of this Nashville band’s singer-songwriter, Kurt Wagner. Its songs are mysterious and beautiful soundscapes; in lots of places, you don’t know if this is R&B, folk, country or something weirder and more rarefied. Oct. 7. Merge. (B. R.)

THE PRETENDERS Chrissie Hynde and her latest band of Pretenders recorded the album “Break Up the Concrete” in 10 days. The briskness shows in lean, unfussy arrangements that head toward blues and country roots, leaving room for Ms. Hynde to ponder righteousness and romance. Oct. 7, Shangri-La Music. (J. P.)

OF MONTREAL Kevin Barnes, the songwriter behind this band from Athens, Ga., overstuffs his pop songs with structural twists, elaborate wordplay, vocal harmonies and hooks exploiting everything from harpsichords to funk vamps. With song titles like “Beware Our Nubile Miscreants,” the new album, “Skeletal Lamping,” plunges into thoughts of lust, love, pleasure and betrayal. Oct 7. Polyvinyl. (J. P.)

LOU REED “Berlin,” Mr. Reed’s grim 1973 rock opera about drug addicts and lovers in Berlin, was belatedly staged in 2006, an event turned into a documentary film by Julian Schnabel. Now, along with the DVD release of the film, there’s a live album. Oct. 7. Matador. (J. P.)

RISE AGAINST This Chicago punk band has the ability to turn political sloganeering into neat, catchy pop bursts. Not that it doesn’t don’t try to bum you out, though. The first single from its fifth album, “Appeal to Reason,” is the slightly dour “Re-Education (Through Labor).” The title of the album is taken from the Socialist newspaper at the turn of the 20th century best known for commissioning Upton Sinclair to write what would become “The Jungle.” Tres punk. Oct. 7. Geffen. (J. C.)

RACHAEL YAMAGATA Ms. Yamagata broods first and rocks later on her album “A Record in Two Parts ... Elephants and Teeth Sinking Into Heart.” With production by Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, the album starts with doleful, intimate songs about loneliness and separation, then snaps out of it with a guitar-driven vengeance. Oct. 7, Warner Brothers. (J. P.)

YO MAJESTY A two-woman hip-hop duo from Florida, doing a mixture of past and future: crunk and funk and techno touches, all under fast-swinging rhymes about sex, nightclubbing and, as one of their song titles puts it, “grindin’ and shakin’.” It’s all-American grit, but they’ve got English beat-making teams behind their first album, “Futuristically Speaking ... Never Be Afraid”: Hardfeelings UK, for most of the album, and Basement Jaxx on the great “Booty Klap.” Oct. 7. Domino. (B. R.)

THE CURE Fans of the Cure have already heard part of “Dream 13,” the band’s 13th studio album, since the Cure has been releasing songs since May. They’re on the band’s extroverted, post-psychedelic side, full of wah-wah as the singer Robert Smith exults in both desperation and true love. Oct. 14, Suretone/Geffen. (J. P.)

ARETHA FRANKLIN Another major figure leaves the major labels behind: Aretha Franklin, now on her own, is releasing an album of Christmas songs, the first in her career. Oct. 14. DMI. (J. P.)

RAY LAMONTAGNE Much of “Gossip in the Grain,” the third record by this singer-songwriter, conveys a sense of soft-murmuring wonder: at nature, a lover or the bittersweet splendor of heartache. He also takes a moment to serenade the White Stripes drummer Meg White, with at least a hint of earnest humor. Oct. 14. RCA. (N. C.)

Q-TIP This summer Q-Tip joined his former brethren in A Tribe Called Quest, one of the definitive hip-hop groups of the 1990s, for a successful reunion tour. “The Renaissance,” his first official solo release since 1999 — there have been several false starts in the interim — mines a different strain of nostalgia, with its influence meter pointing straight toward the funky soul of the 1970s. Oct. 14. Motown. (N. C.)

J. D. SOUTHER In 1985 J. D. Souther stopped making albums and turned full-time to what was already a hugely successful songwriting career: for the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and, more recently, the Dixie Chicks and George Strait. After an EP last year, he has made a new studio album, “If the World Was You,” with songs that place his sweet, countryish tenor in arrangements newly tinged with jazz. Oct. 14. Slow Curve. (J. P.)

LUCINDA WILLIAMS Happiness hasn’t exactly been plentiful in Lucinda Williams’s catalog, but it bursts out on her album “Little Honey,” on which at least some of her love songs are joyful ones. Recorded with her road band, the songs set her voice drawling, sliding and rasping above raw-boned, bluesy roots-rock. Oct. 14. Lost Highway. (J. P.)

AC/DC When AC/DC releases a new album, it’s usually of the ain’t-broke-not-fixed variety, hewing to its formula of lightning-bolt power chords by Angus Young and guttural squeals by Brian Johnson. But “Black Ice,” its first in eight years, innovates in at least one respect: following similar and successful deals by the Eagles and Journey, the album will be sold only at Wal-Mart stores. Oct. 20. Columbia. (B. S.)

LABELLE It’s only been 30 or so years since Labelle — Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash — recorded an album of original material. But even though much of the quirkiness of their ’70s material has been thoroughly mainstreamed, to expect “Back to Now” to be an exercise in anything other than tribute would be foolish, especially with production from the yesterday-obsessed Lenny Kravitz and Wyclef Jean, as well as the Philly soul legends Gamble and Huff. Oct. 21. Verve. (J. C.)

NIKKA COSTA “Pebble to a Pearl” is the next album by the funkiest and beltingest of the current blue-eyed female soul singers. She’s not so current, to be truthful — she’s been making records on and off for more than 25 years, since she was a 7-year-old child star — but she manages to seem surprising each time. Oct. 24. Stax. (B. R.)

DEERHUNTER This Atlanta band conquered indieland with its debut album, “Cryptograms,” on which psychedelic clouds of guitar mixed with the spectral vocals of Bradford Cox to become nightmarish and violent. The follow-up, “Microcastle,” which has been floating around the Internet since it was leaked in May, tones down the ugly side of its sound a bit but never loses its sense of eerie confusion. Oct. 28. Kranky. (B. S.)

JOHN LEGEND The piano-playing songwriter Mr. Legend has veered between the programmed beats of hip-hop and the live musicianship of older soul and R&B. Preliminary signs are that he leans toward hip-hop again for the latest batch of love songs on his album “Evolver,” whose guests include Kanye West and André 3000 from OutKast. Oct. 28. Columbia. (J. P.)

LUDACRIS Ludacris is many things: a fiery, kinetic rapper; an Obama supporter (even if the campaign would prefer he weren’t quite so vulgar in so doing); a passable actor who prefers his given name (Chris Bridges) when gracing the screen. But despite several hits, he is not a music superstar, not just yet. The curiously named “Theater of the Mind” will be his latest attempt to rectify that. Oct. 28. Def Jam. (J. C.)

PINK She became a star seven years ago by affirming her party skills (“Get the Party Started”). On “So What,” the guitar-charged and aggressively bouncy first single from her fifth album, “Funhouse,” the singer born Alecia Moore makes the scene-causing rock-star lifestyle an antidote to the post-divorce blues: “I’m still a rock star,” she sings. “I got my rock moves/And I don’t need you.” Oct. 28. (LaFace/Zomba). (Pink will perform “So What” at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday.) (B. S.)

CHRIS CORNELL Bye-bye, grunge — well, almost. Mr. Cornell, a grunge pioneer as the lead singer of Soundgarden, worked with the producer Timbaland for his third solo album, “Scream,” and their collaboration places his brooding voice amid Timbaland’s synthesizers and samples. The computerized tracks end up somewhere between Justin Timberlake and Gnarls Barkley, but his lyrics and his voice still hold that sullen grunge resentment. October. Interscope. (J. P.)

NOVEMBER

DIDO This melancholy English singer and songwriter turns to an American producer for her third album, “Safe Trip Home”: Jon Brion, who has abetted the brooding of Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Elliott Smith. Nov. 4. Arista. (J. P.)

FALL OUT BOY Emo stars do not have a great track record when it comes to growing up. (Do you wear skinny jeans forever? And what about mascara?) But on its new album, “Folie a Deux,” with the bassist and songwriter Pete Wentz now married (to Ashlee Simpson) and expecting a child, the band goes after the ultimate personal-transition topic: parenthood. Nov. 4. Island/Def Jam. (B. S.)

HINDER One of the last practitioners of the dying art of anthemic bar-rock, the Oklahoma band Hinder, remains dedicated to the lowest common denominator on its second album, “Take It to the Limit.” Some representative song titles (and potential lifestyle decisions): “Use Me,” “Loaded & Alone.” Nov. 4. Universal Republic. (J. C.)

T-PAIN He’s spent most of the last year loudly complaining about those who have been appropriating his robotic, AutoTune-vocal style without clearing it with him first. (Kanye and Lil Wayne are off the hook.) “Thr33 Ringz,” his third album and first since becoming the most imitated man in R&B, is his chance to reassert his turf. Nov. 11.. Jive. (J. C.)

NEIL YOUNG For decades Mr. Young has been promising fans — or warning them — that he would open his overstuffed vaults of recordings and films once the technology to preserve them evolved to his satisfaction. That evolution has apparently happened with Blu-Ray, the high-definition DVD format, and this fall Mr. Young releases “Archives Vol. 1 (1963-1972),” the first of five enormous archival volumes on 10 Blu-Ray discs, filled with unbelievable treasures like video of the “Harvest” sessions from 1971 and unheard songs galore. (Also available on regular old DVDs for those of us not quite so up to date.) Nov. 11. Reprise. (B. S.)

BEYONCÉ While her husband, Jay-Z, works on his umpteenth comeback album, Beyoncé will be doing what she always does: creating pneumatic-force R&B hits and smiling throughout, as if it’s not impossibly hard work. This album, still untitled, will only be her third solo studio work, and yet she’s already reached the level of inevitability. There are few sure things left — ask Jay-Z — but Beyoncé is one. November. Columbia. (J. C.)

MISSY ELLIOTT “Block Party,” the seventh album by Ms. Elliott, has been pushed back several times. Maybe it’s politics, or maybe it’s the whiff of the familiar. As heard on the singles “Best Best” and “Ching-A-Ling,” she’s sticking with the whimsical, too-clever sounds that made her career, but those innovations don’t seem so shocking anymore. November. Atlantic. (J. C.)

THE KILLERS The brightest new hope of rock radio, this Las Vegas band showed from the start that writing catchy, adrenaline-drenched songs was no problem at all. After a disappointing second album two years ago (“Sam’s Town”), Brandon Flowers, its lead singer and hype man, has sworn with the kind of determination known only to rock stars that the band is up to the challenge to deliver hits on Album No. 3, which does not yet have a title. “Everything is at stake on this album,” he told Rolling Stone. What responsibility! November. Island/Def Jam. (B. S.)

DECEMBER

CIARA For Ciara, who is releasing her third album, “Fantasy Ride,” using Aaliyah as a template has had its up and downs. On the one hand, she’s got a breathy sultriness and sinuous dance moves. On the other hand, she’s known more for how she uses her body than her voice, and rightly so at that. Dec. 9. Jive. (J. C.)

MAINO This Brooklyn rapper has been one of 2008’s unexpected success stories. “Hi Hater,” a jubilant taunt to naysayers, has become a breakout hit, a catchphrase and, if he’s lucky, a career maker. It all rests on “If Tomorrow Comes,” his long-awaited major-label debut. Dec. 30. Atlantic. (J. C.)

MY MORNING JACKET Of course: as the new kings of expand-your-mind, religious-experience rock, it makes sense that My Morning Jacket should play Madison Square Garden on New Year’s Eve. It was hard to see this coming even a few years ago. We will say the same thing five years hence, when there will surely be Laser Jacket shows at the Hayden Planetarium. Dec. 31. Madison Square Garden. (212-307-7171, or ticketmaster.com.) (B.R.)

2009

FRANZ FERDINAND Not much is known about the forthcoming third album by this Scottish band, which did as much as any to popularize the dance-rock revival of the mid-’00s. There’s no title yet, and representatives say there is no guarantee that a new song, “Lucid Dreams” — available on the band’s Web site, franzferdinand.co.uk — would be on the album. But if that song is any indication, Franz Ferdinand’s chops in joining perfectly melodic disco to antsy, dissonant punk haven’t diminished one bit. January or February. Epic/Domino. (B. S.)

MARK OLSON AND GARY LOURIS For long-suffering fans of the Jayhawks, former standard-bearers of alt-country, “Ready for the Flood” marks a bittersweet moment: it revives a strong creative partnership but also suggests that Mr. Louris and Mr. Olson have indeed moved on. Good news for everyone: the songs are lovely, and the production, by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, works just fine. January. Hacktone. (N. C.)