Fall Release Preview

[Note:  Some editions of the Metro papers carried this column yesterday.]

I didn’t spend a lot of money on music over the summer because there wasn’t much of anything to buy.  Unless you’re into metal, of course, but that’s an entirely different column.  But with the coming of Labour Day, the new release pipeline is starting to fill up.  The fourth quarter is make-or-break time for both the labels and record stores.

Red Hot Chili Peppers/I’m With You (Out now):  The first RHCP album in five years features new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, the ninth person to hold down that gig in the band’s ten-album career.  A solid record that should satisfy fans.  Expect this one to live on rock radio for the next two years.

Lenny Kravitz/Black and White America (Out now):  Like a lot of bass with your guitar funk?  Then this will do fine.  Features co-writes with Jay-Z and Canadian star Drake.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks/Mirror Traffic (Out Now):  Malkmus, ex of lo-fi slacker kings Pavement, got Beck to produce his fifth album with excellent results.

The Rapture/In the Grace of Your Love (Tuesday):  Managed by the same company as U2, the Rapture returns after a five-year absence with their four album of dance-punk.

St. Vincent/Strange Mercy (Sept 13):  Ex Polyphonic Spree member Ann Erin Clark’s third album already has hipster bloggers saying that this could one of the great records of the last half of 2011.  

Tori Amos/Night of Hunters (Sept 20):  Tori covers her favourite songs from the last 400 years.  No, that’s not a typo.

Blink-182/Neighbourhoods (Sept 27):  More than two years after the big reunion, fans will finally get the promised reunion album.

Jane’s Addiction/The Great Escape Artist (Oct 4):  Speaking of reunion albums, I’m quite looking forward to this record on the strength of the singles we’ve heard so far.  Note that the release date has been pushed back a week.

Evanescence/Evanescence (Oct 11):  I’ve heard five tracks from the album.  Dense and heavily produced, Amy Lee’s first release in five years has her in fine vocal form.

Noel Gallagher/High Flying Birds (Oct 18):  The war with Liam really begins.  Watch the British music media to more go apeshit than at any time since the Oasis vs. Blur battle in August 1995.

Coldplay/Mylo Xyloto (October 24):  To say that EMI is betting its very existence on the success of this album isn’t an understatement.  And no, I don’t know what the title means, although some people have literally translated it as “unambiguous hoverflies” or some such rot.