Spring Music Preview: Fifty Must-Hear Albums

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APRIL

Arctic Monkeys
Favourite Worst Nightmare
Out April 24th

Having scored the fastest-selling debut in U.K. history with 2006's Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the Arctic Monkeys might have felt some serious pressure when it came time to record the follow-up. They didn't. "We found the process easy," says frontman Alex Turner. "We'd record at night, then we'd go to the pub." The result of their relaxed efforts is the bigger, heavier Favourite Worst Nightmare, which offers a darker sound but keeps up the debut's riff-fueled attack on cuts like the banging shout-along "D Is for Dangerous" and "Brianstorm." "This album is a step onward," says bassist Nick O'Malley. "It's better than the first one."

The Nightwatchman
One Man Revolution
Out April 24th
Key track: " The Road I Must Travel"

"I'm a one-man revolution," Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello sings on his first album as a solo singer-songwriter. While the lyrics are a return to Rage's left-wing agitprop, the music is a departure: He sings in a rich baritone and plays strummy acoustic guitar (with keyboards courtesy of producer Brendan O'Brien). "It's the vibe of Springsteen's Nebraska, Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' and maybe a pinch of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen," says Morello.
[ Click here for an expanded Q&A with Tom Morello]

MAY

Feist
The Reminder
Out May 1st
Key Track: " 1,2,3,4"

After spending two hectic years on the road playing songs from her jazzy, blissed-out major-label debut, Let It Die, Feist knew she wanted to record the next one somewhere peaceful. "We literally made The Reminder in our pajamas," says the erstwhile member of Canadian indie collective Broken Social Scene. "The flowers were just pushing through the frost, and the experience was all about being stationary." Even at their most kinetic, Feist's new tunes reflect this mellow approach, with songs such as "My Moon, My Man" settling into a deliciously laid-back groove or "The Water" finding its own way around a spooky melody while wind chimes tinkle in the background. Feist settled down with her three-piece band at La Frette, a centuries-old mansion in the countryside near Paris. "We recorded in the main house rather than the studio in the basement," she says, adding that the record includes lots of ambient sounds, from the clip-clop of her shoes to the sound of birds outside her window. "We put up a forest of microphones in the two parlors and throughout the bedrooms. The point was to not use headphones as much as possible. We had all these musicians together, and I thought it would be a shame if we couldn't hear each other." (JENNY ELISCU)

Ne-Yo
Because of You
Out May 1st
Key Track: " Because of You"

"If anybody wasn't paying attention, they're definitely paying attention now," says R&B star Ne-Yo, who co-wrote Beyoncé's smash "Irreplaceable." For his own album, Ne-Yo wasn't afraid to emulate his heroes: The first single, "Because of You," is all Michael Jackson, with falsetto vocals and a catchy "Billie Jean"-style hook. He does Stevie Wonder on "Do You" and Prince on "Addicted," in which he refutes rumors that he's a sex addict. "I'm rich, I'm decently cute, and I have a healthy sexual appetite," says Ne-Yo. "That's all." "Crazy," the likely next single, is a stripped-down cut featuring a cameo from label prez Jay-Z; "Leaving Tonight" is a duet with vocal powerhouse Jennifer Hudson. "The crazy thing is, I had to tell her to stop holding back," Ne-Yo says. "And she brought it out. It was real, real cool."
[ Click here for an expanded Q&A with Ne-Yo]

Tori Amos
American Doll Posse
Out May 1st

For Amos' ninth album, the singer came up with a new concept: She wrote and sang the songs from the perspective of five characters. "These women are symbolic of different personality traits and different beliefs," says Amos. "It's no different than Ziggy Stardust as an extension of David Bowie." She also gets explicitly political on the anti-Bush tunes "Yo George" and "Dark Side of the Sun" and fleshed out her classic piano-driven sound with some new influences: "I had myself open up to the Clash and the Doors," she says.

Dinosaur Jr.
Beyond
Out May 1st

After flaming out in 1989, Dinosaur Jr.'s original lineup -- guitarist J Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph -- got back together a couple of years ago to tour. And when they hit the studio this winter to record their first album since Bug, it still wasn't easy. "We were practicing and recording at the same time," says Mascis. "It seemed like we were never going to get anything done." But the eleven new songs (including the knockout opener) sound just like classic Dino, with Mascis' blistering Neil Young-ish solos bolstered by Barlow and Murph's heavy accompaniment. Barlow even contributed some quieter cuts. "It's always been a struggle," says Mascis. "He doesn't ever want to give us any songs, thinking we're going to ruin them."

Björk
Volta
Out May 8th

Volta is all about the beats, the brass and Björk's rediscovered desire to "go out into other people's universes and be innocent again." The Icelandic singer says that her previous two discs, Medúlla and Vespertine, were "introverted," but this time around Björk collaborated with Timbaland -- for three tracks, including the upbeat single "Earth Intruders" -- and enlisted virtuosic performers including Toumani Diabaté (African kora) and Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons (vocals). "I wanted this record to be more mature, more ethnic and not so clean," says Björk. "There's a better word for it: 'dirty.'"

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Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
Out May 15th
Key track: " What Light"

This is how Wilco made their sixth studio album, Sky Blue Sky, according to the band's leader, singer-guitarist-songwriter Jeff Tweedy: "Six people in a room, playing one song all day for six or seven hours, and everyone reaching a consensus on how it should sound." Tweedy laughs, marveling at that simplicity and how long it took him to get it. "After so many configurations of the band, I guess one of them's bound to get it right."

Tweedy is quick to point out he doesn't want to be negative about earlier lineups, but Sky Blue Sky -- released by Nonesuch on May 15th -- is the work that he claims he wanted all along. "I always liked the Band as a model -- a bunch of guys sitting around with a typewriter, drinking coffee, writing. That seemed the most fun -- a collective thing. And somehow we ended up being that."

Bassist John Stirratt, the only other survivor of the original Wilco from the band's 1995 debut, A.M., puts it another way: "This was definitely the most civilized record Wilco has ever made."

Its twelve songs are also a startling turnaround from the scarring distortion of Wilco's commercial breakthrough, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and 2004's follow-up, A Ghost Is Born. There is a vocal clarity and wide-open space to Sky Blue Sky -- in the tender lysergic whirl of "Either Way" and the mix of Dixie-soul balladry and Badfinger-style pop crunch in "Hate It Here" -- that echoes the Grateful Dead's honing of their early acid rock into the warm detail of 1970's Workingman's Dead.

Drummer Glenn Kotche credits guitarist Nels Cline, who joined in 2004 after the release of A Ghost Is Born, with bringing some of that psychedelic sparkle. "People think Nels is this avant-garde guitarist stuck on Jazz Island," Kotche says. "But he loves Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds."

Tweedy, in turn, says the mix of Pacific-sunset romance and freak-out funk in "You Are My Face" was partly inspired by the lone eponymous album by an early-Seventies California band, Relatively Clean Rivers. "It's pretty fucking obscure," Tweedy says. "It sounds like the Dead, but it also has these hip-hop beats, years before there was such a thing. I was digging that record a lot while we were messing with the groove in that song."

Tweedy, Stirratt, Kotche, Cline, guitar-keyboard player Pat Sansone and keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen rehearsed and recorded Sky Blue Sky at Wilco's studio in Chicago, the Loft, starting in August 2005. The band worked in two- and three-week spurts. "We would make these minirecords," Stirratt says, "working on things that tended to sound alike." Wilco also tested a few songs onstage, like the jaunty "Walken," while touring between sessions. But Tweedy's guiding principle for Sky Blue Sky was something he mentioned to Stirratt during recording -- "about being able to put a song in your pocket," the bassist recalls, "and take it with you."

"I got nervous about the technology on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," Tweedy confesses. "If you need a certain amp or pedal to make a song what it is, it isn't a song."

But Tweedy is also a different songwriter now. "I went through some well-documented miserable times," he admits, referring to the personnel dramas and record-label tumult at the time of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and his 2004 spell in rehab to beat an addiction to prescription medicine. "When you're in a place with a lot of denial, it's hard to be direct about yourself. You need to encode things, because you're hiding a lot."

On Sky Blue Sky, he says, "I had no interest in being complex" -- which explains the optimism right up front in the final songs, "What Light" and "On and On and On." "I'm more hopeful than I used to be," Tweedy insists. "It's just easier to hear now -- there's less static." (DAVID FRICKE)

Linkin Park
Minutes to Midnight
Out May 15th

For their ambitious, rocking third disc, Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park made the bold decision to abandon the rap-rock style they helped usher into the mainstream. "It's already been done," says singer Chester Bennington, whose band brought in Rick Rubin to help find a new sound. (Co-frontman Mike Shinoda shares the producing credit.) "[Rubin] was the first person on our list of people we wanted to work with," says Bennington. "He seemed really into shaking things up." At Rubin's suggestion, the band, which typically writes in the studio, arrived with more than 100 songs sketched out and used studio time to structure and arrange them. "It was very tedious," says Bennington. "But in the end we walked away with a record we can live with." The twelve resulting songs include the string-heavy ballads "Leave Out All the Rest" and "Shadow of the Day," as well as more textured cuts like "The Little Things You Give Away," featuring glitchy, syncopated beats. The latter track's lyrics ("The levees are broken. . . . Six feet under water") suggest a Hurricane Katrina connection, but Bennington prefers not to divulge too much. "We're at an age where we're paying attention to politics," he says. "But we don't want to preach." (KEVIN O'DONNELL)
[ Click here for an expanded Q&A with Chester Bennington]

Rufus Wainwright
Release the Stars
Out May 15th

After Wainwright laid down a few jangly cuts in Brooklyn, he headed off to Berlin to record the rest of his "bare-bones, confessional" masterpiece. Though the record has somber moments ("Not Ready to Love"), Wainwright veers into Wagnerian grandiosity ("Do I Disappoint You"), incredible vocal acrobatics ("Slideshow"), a sweet waltz ("Tiergarten") and a good old NC-17-rated pop gem ("Between My Legs"). "The big stuff is offset by very delicate moments and, thus, looks even bigger," says Wainwright. "This album is the culmination of all of my work."

Three 6 Mafia
Last 2 Walk
Out May 22nd

"We didn't try to change the sound too much from before," says DJ Paul -- whose Memphis duo won an Oscar last year. "You know: gangsta gutter ghetto music." Though Paul and his partner, Juicy J, produced the record themselves, they got help from guest MCs like Lil Jon, Lyfe Jennings and Chamillionaire, who appears on the first single, "Doe Boy Fresh." But Paul says he'd still like to add one more guest: Good Charlotte. "They're friends," he says. "We hang out all the time."

Maroon 5
It Won't Be Soon Before Long
Out May 22nd
Key track: " Makes Me Wonder"

"We were really overwhelmed by our influences when we started the record," says Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine of the follow-up to the L.A. band's multiplatinum 2002 debut. "We had to edit songs so [the ones that sound like] Prince and the Talking Heads wouldn't stand out." Even so, the album is a blast of Eighties-style pop. "Can't Stop" has a reggae breakdown that's pure Police, and "Makes Me Wonder" recalls Michael Jackson. "There are more hyperactive, fast-paced songs than on our first record," says Levine. "I think it's better."

R. Kelly
Double Up
Out May 29th

R. Kelly had originally intended his latest album to be a collection of R&B "baby-making music" -- with the apt title Making Babies -- but after scoring hits with Young Jeezy and Snoop Dogg, he changed course. "I started getting calls from a lot of rappers, so I felt like the wind just changed for me," Kelly says. "I decided the album was going to be seventy percent hip-hop, thirty percent R&B. I felt like dancing and having a good time and going to the club on this album." The resulting disc is packed with guest stars, including Yung Joc, Jeezy, Snoop, T.I., Pharrell and Twista. "It's like the all-star game -- it's as intense as the other games are, but all the celebrities are there, and you're just having fun," he says. The album will also include five ballads and midtempo tracks: "I still have my vintage R. Kelly -- I have to give my fans the things that made me who I am." Kelly has also completed an additional twenty-two chapters of his bizarre R&B soap opera Trapped in the Closet and will release the first eleven on DVD this summer. "As long as the world turns, there will be another chapter," Kelly says. "It's funny, and then it goes back to serious. It's going to blow your mind, man."

Satellite Party
Ultra Payloaded
Out May 29th
Key track: " Wish Upon a Dogstar"

"Jane's Addiction quit and Lollapalooza went down the same week [in 2004]," says Perry Farrell, who formed his new band (with Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt on guitar) in 2005. "My void was enormous." But out of the dumps grew the upbeat Ultra Payloaded, a spaced-out mix of headbanging rock and trippy electronica. Fergie, Thievery Corporation and Flea guest on the disc. "All my aspirations are coming true," says Farrell. "I'm working with amazing musicians to transform the world."

Velvet Revolver
Libertad
Out May 29th

Velvet Revolver's 2004 debut album was an immediate, chart-topping hit, but Scott Weiland wasn't anxious to repeat Contraband's straight-ahead hard-rock formula. Instead, the band's second disc is layered with melody, slippery funk and wild effects, plus Slash's trademark guitar. "It has texture and depth," Weiland says. "This is the kind of record I wanted to make."

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JUNE

Ozzy Osbourne
Black Rain
Out Early June

For Osbourne's first album of new material in five years, the metal pioneer was thrilled to be creating music again. "Better than sitting and watching Iraq getting blown to bits," says Osbourne, who brings that news-inspired imagery to some of his first political songs since "War Pigs": the fitful hard-rock riffs of "Civilize the Universe" and "Countdown's Begun."

Marilyn Manson
Eat Me, Drink Me
Out June 5th

Manson spent most of 2006 exorcising personal demons, but Halloween night proved a turning point. The next morning, Manson began writing his most honest work ever. "I've never been willing to write about myself in this way," he says, "because I didn't want to deal with the reaction from people around me." Referencing Lolita (the first single, "Heart-Shaped Glasses") and Bonnie and Clyde, and featuring car crashes around every bend, Eat Me, Drink Me is a mirror reflection of Manson's inner turmoil.

Rihanna
title tba
Out June 5th

Even though she was only two when the Eighties ended, Barbadian pop princess Rihanna is steadfastly devoted to the decade: She hit Number One last year with the "Tainted Love"-cribbing "SOS," and her new disc's standout track, "Shut Up and Drive," features the bass line from New Order's "Blue Monday." "It's edgier," Rihanna says about her new album during a break from recording a track with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. "Umbrella," with Jay-Z, is a midtempo ballad, and "Breakin' Dishes" expresses the dinnerware-smashing fury of a woman scorned. "I know ladies can relate to that song," she says.

Queens of the Stone Age
Era Vulgaris
Out June 12th

Josh Homme was ready for surprises when he began work on the new Queens of the Stone Age album last summer. For the first time, the frontman wrote most of the songs in the studio -- an approach that resulted in raw, rocking tracks like "Sick, Sick, Sick," which swings hard and fast with the urgency of the band's 1998 debut. Joining the Queens were Trent Reznor, the Strokes' Julian Casablancas (on Casio synth guitar) and sometime QOTSA member Mark Lanegan. "I like combinations that no one would expect," says Homme. "It's the cool part of any surprise party."

Bryan Ferry
Dylanesque
Out June 19th

Ferry's very first single from his 1973 solo debut was "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," and over the years, the Roxy Music frontman has sprinkled his solo discs with choice Dylan cuts. But, he says, "For a long time I've thought, 'One day, I'm going to do a whole album of Dylan's songs -- I just feel at home with his material.' " In fall 2006, the time was finally right to record Dylanesque, on which Ferry's fragile tenor tackles eleven Dylan gems, including "Gates of Eden," "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," "Positively 4th Street" and "Make You Feel My Love." Though he had just broken ground on the first Roxy Music album since 1982, Ferry says, "I figured it would be a long project, and I thought, 'I don't want to wait two years before putting out a new record -- this would be an ideal time for me to do something quickly.' " So, on a break from a lengthy European tour, Ferry hustled his road band into a London studio and churned out Dylanesque in just a week. (Roxy man Brian Eno contributes electronics on "If Not for You.") "I just worked out the keys and the feel, and we just played them," Ferry says. "Quite often, it's the first take that made the album." There's a subdued elegance in Ferry's voice and harmonica, and his crack band follows suit. "There are a lot of great players on this album," he says. "It was a real pleasure to make, unlike some albums, which sometimes are an angst-ridden process. This was done very joyfully and spontaneously." (AUSTIN SCAGGS)

Rooney
Calling the World
Out June 19th
Key track: " When Did Your Heart Go Missing?"

In the four years since L.A. power-pop band Rooney released their debut, they took three stabs at recording a follow-up before completing Calling the World. "We're like Goldilocks: The first one was too cold, the second was too hot, the third was just right," says frontman Robert Schwartzman. "We have a lot of B sides." The end result feels like a tour of pop history, from the Culture Club-ish frolic of "When Did Your Heart Go Missing" to the Weezer-esque whine of opener "Calling the World."

M.I.A.
Kala
Out June 26th

For the follow-up to her excellent 2005 debut, rapper-producer M.I.A. adopted a globe-trotting MO: She recorded in India, Trinidad, London and Baltimore, drawing on local flavors for cuts like the amazing "Bird Flu." "At one point, I was recording with thirty Indian drummers," she says. "Indian musicians do stuff you're just never going to hear in the West. They've got seventy-two different scales -- we don't even know they exist." M.I.A. also called on some American producers, including longtime associate Diplo and her "idol," Timbaland. M.I.A. calls the diverse-sounding Kala "outsider music": "You can experiment so much with music," she says. "I think I have the most interesting-sounding record."

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Paul McCartney
title tba
Out June

McCartney takes a look back at his life on his new album, which he worked on with Strokes producer David Kahne and which will be the first album released on Starbucks' new Hear Music label. McCartney played most of the instruments on this collage-style disc, which includes a fifteen-minute Abbey Road-style suite. "It's him being reflective," says Glen Barros, CEO of Starbucks partner Concord Music Group. "You can hear real elements of the Wings and Beatles eras."

Ryan Adams
Easy Tiger
Out June

"I didn't listen to anything but hip-hop while making this record," says Adams. "That freed me from any obvious influences." Tiger doesn't sound anything like hip-hop, but it does sound great: Killer cuts include the chugging, Seventies-rock "Halloween Head" and the gorgeous country ballad "Rip Off." And Adams' voice sounds sweeter than ever. "There is an ease now in my playing and singing," he says. "I have a tendency to overwrite. But this time I surrendered control and asked for advice from my friends and the band."

Chris Cornell
Carry On
Out June

Cornell's new solo disc, recorded in Paris and Hollywood with U2 producer Steve Lillywhite, finds him singing over his most riff-heavy tunes since Soundgarden. A number of songs were inspired by the war in Iraq, including the anti-Bush "Safe and Sound," which, he says, "definitely has a tip of the hat to gospel." But not all of the tunes are political: "There's a song called 'She'll Never Be Your Man,' which came from hearing a few stories of guys' wives that left them for another woman," he says. "It's this weird, idiosyncratic, special kind of heartache."

The White Stripes
Icky Thump
Out June

With the Raconteurs, Jack White got a taste of playing in a more traditional band, complete with a bass player -- but he had no problem returning to the just-him-and-Meg setup of the White Stripes. "I've always loved Meg more than any other drummer I've ever played with," says Jack. "She's so perfect." He went into rehearsals with no particular concept in mind: "I just had a lot of ideas for songs." The resulting album was recorded in three weeks in Nashville's Blackbird Studio and ranges from blues to country to "surf/speed metal," with some mariachi horns along the way. The first single is likely to be the title track, on which Jack plays an ancient Univox synthesizer. "Sonically, it's not the same," Jack says of the album. "It's a really enjoyable experience."

JULY

Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Out July 10th

"We kept asking, 'How can we make it sound thrilling?' " says Spoon singer-guitarist Britt Daniel of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon's sixth LP, the follow-up to 2005's much-loved Gimme Fiction. To find that sound, Daniel demo'd material in a practice space in Portland, Oregon, where he moved last year from Austin, Texas, working while local indie heroes the Thermals and death-metal bands practiced nearby. Spoon then spent months recording, often working from noon till midnight. They recorded some unusual sounds -- including koto (a Japanese string instrument), harpsichord and a packet of Emergen-C bubbling up -- and even got Kanye West and Fiona Apple collaborator Jon Brion to produce one track. The result of all that effort is a record that beefs up Spoon's typically spiky alt-pop attack on killer songs like the Brion-produced "The Underdog" and tosses in experimental cuts like "The Ghost of You Lingers," whose chugging, synthesized groove inspired the record's title. There are also what Daniel calls "more emotional" songs, including "Black Like Me." The title of that song comes from John Howard Griffin's 1961 exposé (in which the white author posed as a black man), but the sound comes from Daniel's personal pain. "I broke up with my girlfriend just before we recorded that one," Daniel says. "Right then, I actually felt as desperate as I sound." (CHRISTIAN HOARD)

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Will.i.am
Songs About Girls
Out Summer

"I never really had an aspiration to do a solo album," says Will.i.am, the mastermind behind the Black Eyed Peas and the producer of some of the hottest tracks of the past year, including Nas' "Hip Hop Is Dead" and Fergie's "Fergalicious." "I always wanted to be in a group, but I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to try and reinvent myself." On four Peas albums and his many hit records for other artists, Will has become known as an expert beat crafter with a killer ear for pop hooks -- perhaps the only man who could hear hits in the choruses of songs such as "My Humps" and "Let's Get Retarded." But rather than use his solo debut to call in favors to get A-list guest performers, Will.i.am wrote Songs About Girls as a concept album about a DJ and the women in his life. He is still recording the music, but he says it will feature a wide range of styles, from classic R&B to rock, but no guests -- not even his beloved Peas. "I don't think I would be doing myself justice if I went in on my solo project and got a whole lot of other people to dilute the concept I have in my head," he says. "I want to make the kind of record that I'm feeling. If people like it, that's cool, but just so I get my nut off." (EVAN SERPICK)

Kelly Clarkson
My December
Out Summer

Clarkson's previous album, 2004's Breakaway, sold nearly 6 million copies -- but the original American Idol winner still had higher aspirations for her latest release. "My first two albums are very scattered, with different producers and different writers," she says. "They're collections of songs, not albums by any means." Clarkson wanted her third album to be more cohesive, to tell the story of a tumultuous two years in her life -- during which she won two Grammys, went through a rough breakup, hit her mid-twenties and tried to grow up. Against her label's wishes, she opted to write most of the songs herself, with members of her touring band. The resulting album, produced by David Kahne (who worked on the Strokes' First Impressions of Earth), ranges from alt-country (she names Patty Griffin and Ryan Adams as influences) to Foo Fighters-style rock to bare-bones acoustic ballads. "Never Again" and "One Minute," the candidates for the first single, are both rockers; Clarkson calls the former, penned about the aforementioned breakup, "one of the most bitter songs I've ever written in my life." Kahne brought in an unlikely guest musician for about half the tracks: ex-Minutemen bassist Mike Watt."He played on the rock ones and also on some of the ones with a more singer-songwriter vibe," says Clarkson. "He's a badass on the bass -- he can play anything." (BRIAN HIATT)

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Mavis Staples
We'll Never Turn Back
Out April 24th

Charlotte Gainsbourg
5:55
Out April 24th
Key track: " The Songs That We Sing"

Bill Callahan
Woke on a Whaleheart
Out April 24th

Patti Smith
Twelve
Out April 24th
Key track: " Gimme Shelter"

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Baby 81
Out May 1st
Key track: " Weapon of Choice"

Rush
Snakes & Arrows
Out May 1st

Travis
The Boy With No Name
Out May 8th
Key track: " Closer"

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Strength & Loyalty
Out May 8th

UGK
Underground Kingz
Out May 8th

The View
Hats Off to the Buskers
Out May 8th

The Horrors
Strange House
Out May 15th
Key track: " Gloves"

The Bravery
The Sun and the Moon
Out May 22nd
Key track: " Time Won't Let Me Go"

Richard Thompson
Sweet Warrior
Out May 29th

Swizz Beatz
One Man Band Man
Out June 5th

Slim Thug
Boss of All Bosses
Out June 12th
Key track: " Problem Wit Dat"

Fabolous
From Nothin' to Somethin'
Out June 12th

Bon Jovi
Lost Highway
Out June 19th

Mandy Moore
Wild Hope
Out June 19th

Mya
Liberation
Out June 26th

Mike Jones
The American Dream
Out June

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Q&A: Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman

Tom Morello spoke to our Brian Hiatt about One Man Revolution, his solo album under the moniker "The Nightwatchman," out April 24th.

I'd seen you play at least once as Nightwatchman, and this is, it's actually, even though you knocked it off in four days, it's a little more polished than I expected. It's not just -- you and Brendan [O'Brien] kind of fleshed it out a bit.
Right, right, right. I mean, the foundation of all the songs is acoustic guitar, vocals, and a harmonica. But we did augment them a bit to add depth and character. A lot of songs are first takes. The thing was to capture a moment in time. These are songs that had been written across the last four years, and I chose the selection of them, and I think were pretty representative of the Nightwatchman's world view.

Why record the album now since you've had this going?
Well, over the summer there was some time to reflect, and I thought this was something that I very much wanted to get out. Also, I played a benefit show for Amnesty International, with Incubus up in Portland. And at the time Incubus was making a record with Brendan. Nightwatchman was not something I pushed on Brendan or anybody, but the Incubus guys called them up after the show and gave them a favorable review. Brendan called and asked me for some demos, I sent them, and you know, he called me up the next day and said "Let's make a record!" I went down to Atlanta and worked a few days at his house and a few days at Southern Tracks?and all of a sudden a record came together that surprised the both of us.

The influences seem fairly pronounced. Would you agree with that?
Yeah. In my electric guitar playing, I shoot for as varied influences as possible, from shredding to lawn-mower noises to DJ scratching. As the Nightwatchman, I've really tried to narrow the influences to one or two albums, you know, maybe a handful of songs?from the vibe of Springsteen's Nebraska to Dylan's "The Times They are A' Changin'" to maybe a pinch of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. I came upon acoustic music later in life. I've always written my heaviest rock riffs on the acoustic guitar. You know, the only guitar I have in my home is a nylon-stringed acoustic. But it's really been the last five years or so that I've realized that I really love dark and heavy music, and I found that sometimes the darkest music can come from just acoustic guitar and vocals and doesn't need a Marshall Stack.

So you're going to tour behind this [album]?
Yeah, absolutely.

And your live shows will be like that -- just vocals and acoustic?
Well, the solo shows will be just like that. I mean, at shows at the Hotel Café [in Los Angeles], we've been doing these more collaborative numbers where a bunch of friends gather and we each play a few songs together. But it is likely that the solo tour will be all acoustic, all me -- depending on who I tour with.

Right, right. So why call [the project] The Nightwatchman? Why not just Tom Morello?
Well, from the very beginning I wanted to separate these songs from my day job, (Laughs) you know, as guitar hero. Sort of take a step in the realm of full mythology. And that required a moniker. And it's also a very exclusive way to separate the points of view in my daily life, you know, as I am a very affable, rational activist and musician, and the Nightwatchman is much more concerned with, like I said, bitterness and revenge.

Also, [the nice thing about a solo project is that] I could be anywhere in town or in the world just by picking up that guitar case and start playing for the people. And there's something about that that's just very liberating and kind of the core of the one-man revolution. Self-reliance.

So you're going to be playing with Rage Against the Machine at Coachella later this month. Why did you guys wait til now to reunite?
Well, I mean, again, over the course of the last six months there was time to sort of think about what we were going to do, and there was clearly not going to be an Audioslave tour and Timmy C. reached out to Zack and established a friendship and shortly thereafter we decided it was time . . . Rage Against the Machine! It's a return! And we're very thrilled about playing Coachella as well as playing the shows with Wu Tang Clan.

Have you guys all rehearsed in a room yet?
No. We've all gotten together, but we haven't rehearsed yet.

What's it going to be like to get on stage and play that show?
What do you think, man? There's already, like, the electricity. You know, it's going to be crazy.

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Q&A: Chester Bennington, Linkin Park

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington checked in with our Kevin O'Donnell from Disneyland -- where he was patiently waiting in line for Space Mountain with the wife and kids -- to discuss the band's new album, Minutes to Midnight, out May 15th.

So how did you guys decide to hook up with Rick Rubin? Was that your idea or did he approach you?
We -- the band -- made a list of people we wanted to work with. Rick is somebody we wanted to work with since we started making records. If you don't think about working with Rick Rubin then you're probably an idiot, you know what I mean? We decided to approach him, and after meeting with him we didn't even bother with meeting with anybody else. He seemed really into shaking things up as far as what we were going to do musically and lyrically. We were looking for a new direction and we knew he was going to get us there.

Which of the songs best encapsulates the results of working with Rubin?
"In Between" is a track that probably best captures what I'm talking about, It's a song that just starts out with a cello. There's literally a cello and a little sample beat. A piece of a beat. And Mike comes in and he sings the whole song.

He sings, he doesn't rap?
Right, he's singing the whole song, it's a very heartfelt, beautiful track,and its something no one would expect on a Linkin Park record.

What about "Hands Held High" and "Little Things You Give Away"?
Well "Hands Held High" [musically lends itself to singing]. And Rick was like, 'Forget that lets rap on that, Mike go ahead, do you thing.' It was an interesting piece of music to rap over but it works really well. "Little Things You Give Away" is this epic long, beautiful ride, and it's a little unconventional in the way its arranged too. So I think that's something that represents the diversity of the record.

Was it lyrically inspired by you know your Music for Relief charity for the tsunami?
The thing about this record we have made some observations on our perspective of things, we don't want to preach or get into politics or what ever, we are at an age where we're paying attention to that more in our lives.

So what kind of ideas did Ruben have that you guys really like and what ones did you try that he threw your way and you guys just really couldn't go for?
We took everything Rick said to heart. We have a lot of respect for him and he's got great taste in music and a really good ear so if he was like, 'Let's try this beat,' we really tried everything. We took every challenge and worked on it, that's the reason we wrote close to a hundred and fifty songs, and narrowed it down to 12 tracks on our record.

How did you whittle them down? Was there a grading system?
There's a grading system for everything and there's also a voting. We graded everything, voted, graded them again and voted again and that process just happened throughout. It was very tedious. Sometimes democracy felt like it wasn't a very good idea, but the end result was that we all walked away with a record that was lyrically stronger, very musical, really well written. think [we all looked at Rick] and thought we could live with this one. This one's good.

Does Mike do a lot of singing on the album? Because the songs I've heard are largely you singing.
Mikes was like, 'I wrote myself out of the record.' There's not a lot of Mike on this record -- there's a couple of songs he's rapping on, he has a couple of songs he's singing on, he's singing a lot of harmonies and playing a lot of guitar. And, you know he produced this record as well, so it was interesting. I questioned that early on, like, 'Hey there what are you doing? Maybe we should try some rapping or more of you.' And he was like 'No, no, no. This is all you dude.' It was almost like after awhile we just stopped paying attention to him. We were just writing songs.

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Q&A: Ne-Yo

EVAN SERPICK

When you came into the project did you have clear-cut idea of what you wanted to showcase or what you wanted to do with it?
Not really. In the beginning it really was just cutting different songs that I had written on everything from toilet tissue to napkins to notebooks to everything. One of the cool things about this album is that it was written all over the place. Some of it was written in London, some of it was written in Japan, all different cities all over the United States because I was on the road, [touring behind] In My Own Words. So I didn't really have the luxury of saying, "Wow, I got an idea for song, let me get to a studio asap," you know? I had to get it in where ever I could. So when I first got to the studio and started recording, it was a little weird because I walked in with this big bag of what looked like crap.

You really have a song written on toilet paper?
Yeah, I do. I really did. [laughs] Not so much a song but I'll have an idea for a line for a song or a melody idea, If I'm in the bathroom and there's nothing else around, I"ll grab a piece of toilet paper and just write it on there and have it.

So what's your actual process like when you sit down and write a song? Is it all lyrics? Is there a melody in mind? What comes first?
The melody almost always comes first. I'll sit down with it and mess around, hum around, trying to figure out what melodies work with what parts of the song, then I'll come up with the actual parts. As far as the lyrics go, its always different -- some times the hook comes first, some time the verse comes first, it really doesn't matter there but the melody is always the very first thing to come.

I want to talk about first the single, "Because of You." Stargate produced that right?
Yes. They brought me the track. I loved it right off top. It actually gave me an idea for what I wanted the rest of the album to be. That song, as if you couldn't hear it already, has a very Michael Jackson-ish edge to it. I did that on purpose. That was actually the song that gave me the idea of, throughout the record I did what I like to call unofficial tributes to the people who are kind of responsible for my sound, you know? That one is an unofficial tribute to Michael Jackson, and another one, "Addicted," is an unofficial tribute to Prince. A good majority of record is Michael Jackson and Prince because Prince is someone I respect for his musical genius and his melody selection and Michael Jackson was somebody that I studied very closely when learning how to sing. You know, I have a very nasally tone to my voice. I hated my voice when I first started singing because I sounded like I was singing through my nose. So when I decided that I really wanted to do this, my mom gave me Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson to study because they have a similar nasally tone to their singing voice. I took a little bit more from Michael than Stevie in terms of singing, but with Stevie I was influenced by the lyrical content, the way that he would write a song.

The song "Addicted" as I understand was sort of a response to a story about you that ran in Vibe magazine [alleging that you were a sex addict]. That was something you really felt bothered you.
It didn't bother me. It bothered me that everyone was so quick to believe it. You know, my mom called, my friends were like, "See I knew there was something wrong with you." No, there's nothing wrong. And if you read the actual article it doesn't really even say anything about me being addicted to sex. [The writer] just took a bunch of the things that I said and that what she got from it. "Okay Ne-Yo's addicted to sex." When actually I'm not addicted to sex at all. I'm 24, I'm rich, I'm decently cute and I have a healthy sexual appetite, that's all that is. I thought it was something important enough to write a song about, I just thought that it was funny that the first rumor out about me would be that I'm addicted to sex. So okay, let me touch on that.

Well in the grand scheme of things, if you are going to have a rumor, that's not the worst thing to have.
Absolutely not. And that was proven later on, that worse things could be said, the whole Essence magazine thing, questioning my sexuality that was one that really, really buzzed me at first. I don't know how much you heard about it, but apparently there was something on the internet that there was going to be an article in the October issue of Essence magazine where I come out of the closet to the interviewer. When, in actuality, I've never spoken to Essence magazine. I'm not gay so there is no coming out of the closet. It was just a plot, I guess, I don't know, to just bring me down. Things were going so good something bad had to happen.

Do you have any idea where that came from?
I have no clue. When it first came out I was really like, "Okay let me just pick my brain and backtrack and think who I might have did that wrong to where they'd want to start these lies about me." And, honestly, I can't think of anybody I did that wrong. I'm not perfect. I've broken a heart or two in the past, but I don't think I did anything wrong to deserve that.

Did you ever think of responding to that, either on the record or...?
Nah. Because when something like that comes out about you, it's kind of like a double-edged sword. If you defend yourself, then it's like, "Well, look how defensive he's getting. It must be true." But then if you don't say anything, its like, "Oh, look he didn't say anything, then it must be true." What do you do? I've been looking at it like this: I've been an open-book since day one. Anything anybody wants to know about me, it's as simple as asking a question. I'm gonna tell you. I don't have anything to hide. So if anybody wants to know my sexual preference, ask the question, I'll tell you. It is what it is.

There's the song "Angel" which is, like you said, sort of a Prince-inspired thing.
Mmm hmm.

And "Do You"? Is that sort of a sequel to "So Sick"?
Kind of. Well "Angel" is a concept record about what it would be like to be in love with a real live angel. You know I hear guys call their girlfriends, they say 'that's my angel' or girls say it about their guy friends, or whatever the case may be, so I got to thinking like what would it be like if you were for real, for real in a relationship with an angel. Like I could imagine that it would be absolute bliss because, well its an angel, but at the same time it would be kind of painful because be all the way in love but you could never claim this person as your own.You couldn't marry an angel because an angel belongs to God so at some point she would have to go back up to heaven. It's like absolute bliss and pain at the same time because she can never be yours.

And "Do You"?
"Do You" kind of picked up where "So Sick" left off but it's a little farther into the future. The picture that it paints is maybe two, three years in the future. The girl from "So Sick" has moved on. She's engaged to be married, she's just had a little baby. So one day she looks down at her door step and she sees a letter, and it's a letter from me basically congratulating her on everything that's going on in her life but asking the question, "Do you ever think of me anymore?" and just still harboring feelings for her. The song is based off the truth but its not an absolutely true story. When "So Sick" was cracking, I couldn't get a hold of the girl that I wrote it about to save my life. Could not get a hold of her and she did not contact me which made me think that she was still harboring negative feelings for me, for the way that we broke up or whatever. Maybe about five or six months ago I get a phone call out of the blue and it's her.

I'm like, 'Hey what's going on with you?' just like out of nowhere. Which leads me to believe she had my number all that time and just didn't want to call. But she explained to me why she hadn't called. She was still holding on to that a little bit because the way that it happened. We were very much in love and I betrayed her trust and that hit her pretty hard, so it was what it was. So we didn't really talk about the past, we talked about what was going on in her life, for example she's about to be married and she just had a little baby girl, so all that stuff is very true. I'm not harboring any feelings for her so talking to her was definitely closure for me on that issue, even more closure than writing a song.

Did you tell her that you were going to write this song?
Yeah, I did. I told her this conversation might very well end up being a song. And she said, "Well, I'd be honored all over again."

And have you spoken to her since?
No. Just because after that I got ridiculously busy but I do have her number, and she has mine and we promised to keep in touch.

You worked with Jennifer Hudson on the track "Leaving Tonight." How was that?
It was a very painless session. She's not at that point where you can't tell her nothing. You know, some artists have been in the business for so long that you try to hit them with some constructive criticism and they don't know how to take it. She's absolutely not that. She was open and willing and follow instruction.

What kind of instruction did you give her?
Well, actually, the crazy thing is I had to tell her to stop holding back. She has this big huge voice so I'm expecting this big huge voice and she's holding back. People don't really know who Jennifer Hudson is. They know Effie from Dreamgirls because that's pretty much all that she's done and those are the songs that she sings. Jennifer Hudson has this big huge voice, but there is more to that voice than that larger than life element. She can definitely tone it down if necessary and the song shows that. She softened up for the beginning of the song and then the parts where that larger than life element was necessary, she brought it out. The crazy thing is we had to tell her to bring it out. On this part you can go, "Are you sure?" "Please, by all means do what you do." So it was cool. It was real, real cool.

Did you guys get along?
Oh yeah. She's regular people, which is the most important thing to me. You know, this whole celebrity thing is cool . But at the end of the day everybody's got to sit down and go to the bathroom, you know what I mean? So she's aware of that and I love that she's on some primadonna,"Oh, I'm sorry, can I get Fiji water instead of this?" She's not that and I pray to God she doesn't become that because that's just really disgusting to me.