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Fall Music Preview 2008

The Killers, AC/DC, Britney Spears, 50 Cent, Bob Dylan: 50 of the Season's Biggest Records

Posted Oct 02, 2008 11:25 AM

The Killers

Day & Age 11/25

Photo: Torey Mundkowsky

One of Brandon Flowers' favorite songs on the new Killers record features a ripping tenor-sax solo, steel drums and a string section — not exactly instruments that would have fit on the band's New Wave-influenced first disc. But after getting some Springsteen-size ambitions out on 2006's Sam's Town, the band "just went for it" on its forthcoming third studio disc, Flowers says, smoking a cigarette in a New York hotel room. "Some people laugh at sax solos, but we just said, 'Fuck it.' "

Day & Age — an eclectic and ambitious party-starting record the group cut with British producer Stuart Price — began coming together two years ago, when Flowers started writing songs on the road. Price, who co-wrote and produced Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor, had worked on some Killers remixes, but the band (Flowers, drummer Ronnie Vanucci, guitarist David Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer) had never met him.

They finally hooked up in 2007, when the Killers began working on Sawdust, that year's collection of outtakes, remixes and rarities. "We had dinner with him in London," says Flowers. "Afterward, we went to his house. He has a studio, and in two hours we recorded 'Human.' We just knew that it sounded so good." That tune, which is Day & Age's first single, has a glittery future-disco vibe, with Flowers singing, "Are we human, or are we dancer?" over Europop beats. "It's like Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys," Flowers says happily.

Throughout 2007, Flowers would e-mail song sketches to Price, who cleaned them up and added atmospheric touches. In Rio de Janeiro he sent the song "Spaceman" — and the band found its swing through Australia particularly productive. "We'd provide the meat and potatoes," says Flowers. "And Stuart would add, like, the landscapes and galaxy that surrounds it. We treated Stuart like the fifth member of the band. He's not afraid to say, you know, 'That sucks' or 'Let's try something else.' That kept everything rolling."

With much of the preproduction already out of the way, the band reconvened this past May in Las Vegas at the Killers' new studio — which is hidden in a strip mall just three minutes from the Palms hotel, where they recorded Sam's Town. While that album was a musical love letter to their hometown, Flowers is more vague on what the new record is all about. "It's like looking at Sam's Town from Mars," the singer says. "I have a romantic notion of what America, the Wild West and Nevada embodies — and I'm trying to hold on to that."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

AC/DC

Black Ice 10/21

"My thought was, 'We don't need to reinvent this — we just need to make it great,' " says Brendan O'Brien, the Pearl Jam producer who guided AC/DC back to the combination of singalong choruses and gut-punch rock that defined classic discs like Highway to Hell and Back in Black. "They're a band that can do a lot of types of different records, but when we started emphasizing melody more, that was very second nature to them." Songwriters (and brothers) Angus and Malcolm Young spent nearly eight years perfecting the music before entering the studio with singer Brian Johnson and the rest of the band — and it shows on the sharp hooks of tracks such as "Big Jack" and the first single, "Rock & Roll Train." Still, the band's own back catalog can make writing new songs intimidating, says Angus: "You know, 'Is it good as that, is it good as this?' But then you say to yourself, 'Well, look, I did that.' " And he's pleased with the final result — which, like the Eagles' 2007 smash, Long Road Out of Eden, will be released exclusively through Wal-Mart. "Normally when we'd make an album, I play it a few times, and that's it," Angus adds. "But this one I keep coming back to. That's a good sign."

"Rock & Roll Train"

AC/DC's music video for "Rock & Roll Train."

Listen to "Rock & Roll Train" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Tom Morello

The Fabled City 9/30

For his second solo album as the Nightwatchman, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello reteamed with producer Brendan O'Brien, who helped him achieve a darkly folky Ghost of Tom Joad vibe on the first disc. But although the acoustic Springsteen influence is audible on The Fabled City, Morello and O'Brien amped the new disc with some serious guitar power. "I felt a lot more comfortable doing some good old rocking, along with the mysterious folk," says Morello. On the brooding jam "Whatever It Takes," Morello runs a nylon-string acoustic through electric-guitar effects, while the hard-charging jam "The Iron Wheel," with Shooter Jennings, rocks like the Pogues.

Perhaps the album's most powerful track, the Irish-style rocker "Saint Isabelle," finds the guitarist's surprisingly strong vocals soaring over driving harmonica, guitar and drums. "I've expanded my range as a singer doing the One Man Revolution tour," he says, referring to his eight-month trek behind the first disc. Morello — who made stops at both of the national political conventions — doesn't hesitate from speaking truth to power: The title track rails against U.S. border-control policies, and "Midnight in the City of Destruction" is about post-Katrina New Orleans. Says Morello, "The themes of hope, sorrow and revenge are strewn throughout the album."

"Whatever It Takes"

Listen to "Whatever It Takes" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Taylor Swift

Fearless 11/11

Taylor Swift shot to stardom by mining her real-life heartbreaks for poppy country hits, and she's not messing with the formula on her second album. "I just wrote songs about what I like to write about, which is boys," she says. Working again with producer Nathan Chapman, Swift spent nearly eight months in Nashville studios recording 50-plus new songs, from which she picked Fearless' 13 tracks. The banjo-plucked first single, "Love Story," is a modern Romeo and Juliet tale, and the uptempo "You Belong With Me" is about watching her best friend date a snobby popular girl ("It's a terrible movie that I lived a lot in high school," she says). Colbie Caillat sings on "Breathe," and Martina McBride's kids lend finger snaps to "Hey Stephen," an upright-bass-propelled groove inspired by a quickie crush. The one track that isn't about the 18-year-old's love life is "Change," a spunky pop song inspired by her career: It begins with a frustrated star-to-be struggling to get her music out on a small label and ends with gorgeous, triumphant "hallelujah" choruses. "I finished the song after I won the CMA Horizon Award," Swift says. "I'm happy the song got to end the way it ended."

"Love Story"

"Change"

The music video for "Love Story," the first single from Fearless.

Click here to listen to "Love Story" in full

Listen to "Change"

Britney Spears

Circus 12/2

Photo: Winter/Getty

If you're wondering what Spears has been up to this summer, the answer is: nothing scandalous. During the past four months, Spears has recorded some 30 tracks for her sixth studio album. "I wanted to experiment with producers I haven't worked with much before, like the Underdogs, who have a Timbaland kind of sound," says Spears from an L.A. studio where pop craftsmen like Dr. Luke ("I Kissed a Girl") and Danja teamed up with Spears for her comeback disc. Among the contenders are the thickly layered bump-and-grind of "Circus" and "Womanizer," produced by the Atlanta team the Outsyders. "I came into the studio because I had some free time," she says. "But once I started working, I was like, 'This is cool!' It just happened."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Jennifer Hudson

Spotlight 9/30

Hudson, who was a 2005 American Idol finalist and went on to big-screen glory in Dreamgirls and Sex and the City, worked with Robin Thicke, Diane Warren, Timbaland, Missy Elliott and the Underdogs on her debut — and the list of special guests includes T-Pain, Ludacris and 2004 Idol winner Fantasia Barrino. "I'm extremely excited about it because I get to show and display Jennifer," she says. "It's some R&B, I even have a gospel song, a couple of pop tunes," she says, adding that she strove to be eclectic. "Because Dreamgirls and Sex and the City have a broad audience, I have all types of people walking up to me, 'I can't wait for the album!' God, what am I gonna have for all these people? I can't just expect one genre to cater to everyone so it's a bit of everything."

Click here to listen to "Spotlight" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Robin Thicke

Something Else 9/30

Recorded in Los Angeles, and featuring horn players from Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Robin Thicke's third CD maintains the retro pop-soul feel of his 2007 breakthrough The Evolution of Robin Thicke. "It brings back the Seventies — loud horns, loud strings, loud drums," says Thicke. The other main influence? Barack Obama. "He's the inspiration for what I'm feeling," says Thicke. The funked-out first single, "Magic," is full of Obama-worthy optimism, and "Dreamworld" addresses the racism Thicke has seen while traveling with his wife, who is black. "That song is a direct response to walking in Mississippi and being looked at sideways," he says.

Click here to listen to "Magic" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Ani DiFranco

Red Letter Year 9/30

Onetime neo-folk enfant terrible Ani DiFranco's Red Letter Year is the product of both tragedy and triumph. It's the first batch of songs New Orleans resident DiFranco, 38, has written post-Katrina, and her first record since the arrival of daughter Petah Lucia. "Katrina is still happening to a lot of people in New Orleans," says DiFranco, and the anger is audible in the title track's sharp critique: "Man with a monkey for a face. ... flying over in his helicopter, whistling 'Dixie' and playing dumb." The album includes contributions from New Orleans pals like the Rebirth Brass Band, and C.C. Adcock. "I met him during Katrina," DiFranco remembers, "we evacuated to his apartment." But she says the biggest influence was her "co-producer and babydaddy," Big Easy native Mike Napolitano, who helped ferment the rich loam of folk-funk and atmospheric soundscapes.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Bob Dylan

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 — Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006 10/7

The eighth volume of Dylan's Bootleg Series illuminates his astonishing late-career renaissance, with live cuts, movie-soundtrack work and dozens of never-before-heard studio outtakes from albums spanning 1989's Oh Mercy to 2006's Modern Times. "People are always saying that Bob reshapes his songs live," says a source close to the Dylan camp. "These are perfect examples here of how Bob rearranges them in the studio." Many of the selections feature lyrics, melodies and arrangements wildly different from the album versions, including three radically varied takes on 2001's "Mississippi" and a folky take on "Most of the Time."

Click here to listen to "Dreamin' of You" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Oasis

Dig Out Your Soul 10/7

If lead singles "The Shock of the Lightning" and "Falling Down" are any indication, the Gallagher brothers are continuing to mine the formula that made them huge in the first place: borrowed Beatles riffs augmented with swirly psychedelic flourishes and Liam's lovably snotty vocals. Rather than run away from the comparisons, the Gallaghers are embracing it: the Liam-penned "I'm Outta Time" features a vocal sample from John Lennon, recorded just days before his death. "It's one for the ladies," says Noel.

"Shock of the Lightning"

The "Shock of the Lightning" music video.

Listen to "Shock of the Lightning" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

The Pretenders

Break Up the Concrete 10/7

"I've spent more time in Akron recently than I have since moving away over 30 years ago," says Chrissie Hynde. "It's given my music a rootsy sound that's been germinating in my head." On Break Up the Concrete — cut in L.A. with a killer band, including ace drummer Jim Keltner — Hynde delves into country rock ("Don't Lose Faith in Me") and classic Pretenders rave-ups ("Boots of Chinese Plastic"). The Bo Diddley-ish title track takes on the physical and moral decay of America: "On our last tour I looked out a bus window and all I saw was concrete. For months, all I thought was 'Break up the fucking concrete.'"

Behind-the-scenes video of the Pretenders making the video for "Boots of Chinese Plastic."

Click here to listen to "Boots of Chinese Plastic" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Rise Against

Appeal to Reason 10/7

"We've written our Bush-hating songs and our anti-war songs," says Rise Against's Tim McIlrath. "I don't want to be beating a dead horse thematically." So on the Chicago punk group's fifth disc, McIlrath and his crew focused their energies on other political and social injustices. "Collapse (Post-Amerika)" takes on the destruction of the environment, and "Re-Education (Through Labor)" imagines blue-collar workers overthrowing the wealthy. The group has expanded its sonic arsenal, too, after spending last year opening for My Chemical Romance. "I love that band — they have a great sound," says McIlrath. "Some of these songs trickled down from those shows that are still in our ears."

"Re-Education (Through Labor)"

Behind-the-scenes video of Rise Against.

Listen to "Re-Education (Through Labor)"

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

The Clash

Live at Shea Stadium 10/7

This live disc — documenting the Clash's 1982 gig opening for the Who — offers electric evidence of a band's late-period brilliance. "The dressing rooms were bigger than some of the gigs we'd played recently," recalls guitarist Mick Jones. "We were overwhelmed with excitement." Beginning with a frenzied "London Calling," the set features songs from the band's entire career — from "Guns of Brixton" to "Should I Stay or Should I Go." Despite the victorious performance, the Clash's original lineup played just 15 more shows before dissolving in early 1983. "We really couldn't handle the success," says Jones. "Our communication was failing."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Antony and the Johnsons

Another World 10/7

Photo: Chico DeLuigi

Some venture to the arctic for relaxation, others for new material. Such was the case with Antony Hegarty, leader of Antony and the Johnsons, whose recent trip way up north — where he saw "disoriented and dirty" polar bears — helped inspire the political- and eco-minded songs on his new EP, Another World. (A full album, The Crying Light, arrives in January.) "There's been a catastrophic shift in our sense of the planet," says Hegarty, "and I wanted to go on the record about certain things."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Megapuss

Surfing 10/7

While touring last year, Devendra Banhart passed the time backstage with drummer Greg Rogove writing free-form songs for their side project, which includes the Strokes' Fabrizio Moretti. "Before a show, we'd have 15 minutes to get in the zone," says Banhart. "So the plan was to have a finished song written in 15 minutes each night." But that doesn't mean it's half-assed: Tracks (from the party-starting rocker "Theme From Hollywood" to the doo-wop ballad "Chicken Titz") sound like outtakes from Banhart's 2007 breakthrough, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. "Usually, a lot of my songs are based on stuff from my shitty diary," says Banhart. "Megapuss is a lot more fun."

"Crop Circle Jerk '94"

Listen to "Crop Circle Jerk '94" in full:

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Rachael Yamagata

Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart 10/7

Rachael Yamagata got some supernatural inspiration for the follow-up to her 2004 debut. "I was up writing at 4 a.m., and I was convinced that I heard a ghost playing the trumpet," says the singer-songwriter, who cut the album — produced by Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis — in a 1920s-era mansion outside of Woodstock, New York. "I started tracing a line of it on the piano, and that become the intro to 'Over and Over.' " The stripped-down track's wistful vibe permeates the first half of Yamagata's two-disc set, which is split between dusty, often-macabre ballads — "a death in the family colored some songs," she says — and edgy, hand-clapping rockers about booty calls ("Sidedish Friend") and asshole dudes ("Don't"). "I didn't censor anything," says Yamagata, who let rip with confessional lyrics — "don't fuck me in front of me," she begs on "Don't." "When I wrote that," she recalls, "I thought, 'I can name a lot of women who are gonna get that right off the bat.' "

"Elephants"

Exclusive video of Rachael Yamagata recording her new album: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Listen to "Elephants" in full:

The Streets

Everything Is Borrowed 10/7

While writing his fourth record, Mike Skinner — the indie British MC who calls himself the Streets — started from scratch after cutting an original batch of tracks. "They just weren't good enough," Skinner says. "There was one about a donkey and another about the devil." Working for the first time with a live band, the disc he eventually finished is packed with pub-friendly shout-alongs ("Heaven For the Weather") and fat-bottomed, club-ready jams ("The Way of the Dodo"). "My albums tend to sound like the very last thing I wouldn't do," he says. "I'm always rebelling really. It's another way of getting away from the album I did before."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Deerhoof

Offend Maggie 10/7

After recording and performing as a trio since guitarist Chris Cohen quit in 2006, these San Francisco art-rockers have beefed back up to a foursome with Ed Rodriguez for their tenth record. "Ed opened up a whole lot of windows in our minds," says guitarist John Dieterich. Still, Offend Maggie, which the group wrote and rehearsed months before recording, is all about Deerhoof doing what they do best: noisy, time-shifting avant-garde tunes spiked with gnarly guitar riffs and singer Satomi Matsuzaki's goofy lyrics and girlish cooing. (Sample lyric: "Downy hairy tip toeing moony.") "There's no new techniques that made some huge impact on this record," says Dieterich. "This is just the cumulative effect of playing together for years."

"Offend Maggie"

Deerhoof perform "The Tears and Music of Love" live.

Listen to "Offend Maggie" in full:

Stream the Offend Maggie album sampler:

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Keane

Perfect Symmetry 10/14

"We almost lost everything," says Keane singer Tom Chaplin, referring to his rehab stint in 2006 and what he calls the "claustrophobic" sound of that year's Under the Iron Sea. "We had our troubles, so we decided to just enjoy ourselves." Hence the gushier synth-poppy textures on the band's third album, produced in part by Madonna collaborator Stuart Price. "We weren't sure if we were going to step into grotesque territory," says Chaplin of the trio's newly expansive sound. "But if you're brave enough to do it, it can be liberating."

"Spiralling"

Click here to listen to "Spiralling" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Lucinda Williams

Little Honey 10/14

Longtime Williams fans will notice two conspicuous developments on the follow-up to last year's meditative West. "These are rock & roll songs," she says. "They kinda remind me of the stuff on Car Wheels." Williams also sounds newly upbeat on songs like "Real Love" and "Honey Bee," inspired by her recent engagement to her manager, Tom Overby. "Little Rock Star" is about the travails of Amy Winehouse and Ryan Adams. "It's an empathetic look at what they're going through," she says. "It's not like I don't understand. There's part of me in there, too."

"Real Love"

Click here to listen to "Real Love" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Ray LaMontagne

Gossip in the Grain 10/14

If LaMontagne sounds congested on his third album, there's a reason: A head cold descended on the übersensitive troubadour as he was about to lay down vocals. "I'll always hear that my voice isn't as good as it could have been," he says of the album, whose wintry, orchestrated ballads recall Nick Drake. The disc also reveals an unexpected sense of humor in "Meg White," an ode to the female Stripe. "I can only hope," he says, "that she doesn't think it's ridiculous."

Click here to listen to "You Are The Best Thing" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Of Montreal

Skeletal Lamping 10/21

On Of Montreal's last record, Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?, frontman Kevin Barnes dug deep to explore his severe depression brought on by moving to Oslo, Norway, and starting a family. So it's a relief that on their ninth disc — which Barnes recorded in his attic studio in his hometown of Athens, Georgia — Barnes largely talks about sex on 15 tracks that are built on dozens of song fragments stuck together. Highlights include the triumphant horn rave-up "An Eluardian Instance," the noise-guitar explorations on "Nonpareil of Favor" and "St. Exquisite's Confessions," a silky-smooth jam which may be one of the group's funkiest yet, with Barnes crooning hilarious lines like "I'm so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city." "I always joke how each album is a parallel to a Prince record," Barnes says. "This one is my Sign 'o' the Times, Lovesexy and The Black Album all together."

"Nonpareil Of Favor"

"Id Engager"

Of Montreal performing "Nonpareil of Favor" (originally "Softcore") live in Los Angeles.

Download "Nonpareil of Favor" (Right click and choose "Save As")

Download "Id Engager" (Right click and choose "Save As")

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Brett Dennen

Hope for the Hopeless 10/21

Laid-back folk rocker Brett Dennen's finger-picked, jazz-influenced chord structures could be mistaken for Dave Matthews or early John Mayer tunes. And in fact, Hope for the Hopeless producer John Alagia has recorded both of those artists. First single "Make You Crazy" features Femi Kuti, and Dennen says, "I made the song catchy but it's about all the injustice in the world. 'It's enough to make you go crazy ... and I'm amazed I haven?t yet.' " Dennen adds that his follow-up to 2006's breakthrough disc So Much More is influenced by Joni Mitchell and the Rolling Stones, as well as his time on the road — some of which was spent with Mayer on his 2008 summer tour.

"Make You Crazy" (Feat. Fela Kuti)

Listen to "Make You Crazy" (Feat. Fela Kuti) in full:

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Queen With Paul Rodgers

The Cosmos Rocks 10/28

Queen's Brian May and Roger Taylor first backed former Bad Company vocalist Rodgers at an awards dinner in 2004 — and they've been touring together ever since. "It seemed the logical next step, to see whether it would work with new songs," says Rodgers. The result is the first new material from Queen in 14 years, with songs ranging from the bluesy "Voodoo" to the comically elaborate "Surf's Up . . . School's Out." Queen's signature stacks of vocal and guitar harmonies are intact, but Rodgers' rough wail is a far cry from Freddie Mercury's high-flying delivery. "We could have had any number of people come along and imitate Freddie, but it would be pointless," says May. "Paul's brought us back to a greater awareness of our instinctive side."

Queen and Paul Rogers performing "Celebrity" live

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

The Cure

4:13 Dream 10/28

"I like the sound of deadlines as they rush past my head," says Cure frontman Robert Smith, explaining why his new album has been two years in the works. Now, after a massive world tour, Smith has met his deadline. The Cure's latest has the same gloriously gloomy vibe as the band's Eighties discs — one song, "Sleep When I'm Dead," was originally written for 1985's The Head on the Door. Smith's new lyrics, however, take on current events. "I'm trying to be a bit more socially aware," says Smith. "I've always been very careful to shy away from that, but the songs are about things that bother me in a global sense."

"The Only One"

"The Perfect Boy"

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Hank Williams

Hank Williams: Unreleased Recordings 10/28

This historic trove of lost Williams recordings was originally broadcast on Tennessee radio in the early 1950s. In addition to rare versions of Williams standards like "Hey, Good Lookin' " and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," the set also includes dozens of previously unknown covers, from "On Top of Old Smoky" to "When the Saints Go Marchin' In." "This is like taking the Beatles or Elvis Presley, and 50 years after their deaths, finding 50 percent more music," says Hank's daughter Jett. "I'll bet the farm it never happens again."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Kaiser Chiefs

Off With Their Heads 10/28

Listening to "Good Days Bad Days," from his band's new disc, reminds singer Ricky Wilson of "walking through a foreign marketplace on a sunny afternoon." Wilson's cheery mood comes, in part, from getting Mark Ronson to produce his band's third record. But rather than boosting the group's sound with soul samples, the producer went subtle, adding stylish embellishments on guitar and keys to punchy tunes like "Addicted to Drugs." "All of our albums have merit," says Wilson. "But this one seals the deal."

"Never Miss a Beat"

Kaiser Chiefs performing "Spanish Metal," live at the Werchter festival in Belgium.

Listen to "Never Miss a Beat" in full:

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Pink

Funhouse 10/28

"I'm gonna get in trouble, I wanna start a fight," sneers Pink on the bratty, guitar-driven "So What," the Number One single from her fifth album. Pink co-wrote and produced the track with songwriting wunderkind Max Martin. Other reported collaborators on the LP include Butch Walker (who, like Martin worked on Pink's I'm Not Dead), Billy Mann (Pink's "God Is a DJ," Jessica Simpson) and EG White (Kylie Minogue, Duffy).

Click here to listen to "So What" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

Cardinology 10/28

The super-prolific Ryan Adams hasn't rested since releasing last year's Easy Tiger. He's been blogging, having tabloid-worthy romances and assembling the latest new studio album from the Cardinals, his band with guitarist Neal Casal, bassist Chris Feinstein, pedal steel player Jon Graboff and drummer Brad Pemberton. The record's 12 tracks include "Go Easy," "Cobwebs" and first single "Fix It." "Stop" will see its premiere on an episode of A&E's The Cleaner. So where did he come up with the band's moniker? "I suggested the Cardinals because it was my high school football team," he says. "I thought it would be very funny, considering those people wanted to beat the shit out of me. I'd go to school with Danzig shirts on. My nickname at school was literally 'Satanic.' I fucking really wanted to play football."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Snow Patrol

A Hundred Million Suns 10/28

For the follow-up to the smash Eyes Open, Snow Patrol reteamed with U2 producer Jacknife Lee to record in both the Irish countryside and Berlin. "We went from seeing nature to neon signs," recalls frontman Gary Lightbody — who says the changing scenery matched the album's mix of dramatic piano ballads ("Crack the Shutters Open") and big-guitar rockers ("Take Back the City").

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

John Legend

Evolver 10/28

John Legend made the aptly-named Evolver to show that he's more than just an R&B crooner. To spread his wings, he called in the largest number of collaborators he's ever brought in on an album, including Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Akon, Andre 3000 and Buju Banton. As for whether or not he'll be on the campaign trail with Barack Obama this fall (he premiered new single "If You're Out There" at the Democratic National Convention), Legend says, "I hope to do some work in my home state of Ohio, especially because black voters were shut out of the last election. But I'll mainly be campaigning for my new album."

"Green Light"

Listen to "Green Light" in full:

Exclusive video of John Legend on the making of Evolver, and performing music from it live.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Boz Scaggs

Speak Low 10/28

When picking songs for his second album of American standards in the past five years, Boz Scaggs tried to go down the road less traveled. "I found that more obscure songs offer more ways of expression," Scaggs says. "You aren't running over clichés or jumping over Nat Cole or Mel Torme or Chet Baker or whatever." The jazz-infused standards he selected include "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me" (Duke Ellington) and "Skylark" (Hoagy Carmichael). It was cut over four days at George Lucas' remote Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California. "You literally move into cottages and have access to the studio for all hours of the day," Scaggs says. "Cell phones don't even work out there. It leads to intense concentration."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Deerhunter

Microcastle 10/28

This Atlanta indie crew broke out last year with Cryptograms, a set of messy, brooding noise-rockers. But on their follow-up, Bradford Cox and Co. go prettily melodic, with Velvet Underground-style ballads ("Agoraphobia"), synth-powered new wave jams ("Nothing Ever Happened") and rootsy rockabilly tunes ("Twilight At Carbon Lake"). "I'm obsessed with rock & roll and I'm influenced by doo-wop groups like the Flamingos and soul groups and R&B," says Cox. "But the things I'm influenced by are usually the least obvious things in our sound."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Eagles of Death Metal

Heart On 10/28

"When I write songs, I butt-fuck Devo with the Rolling Stones," says EODM singer Jesse Hughes of the new Heart On. On their third disc, the L.A. outfit crafted power-chord anthems like "Secret Plans" and "Anything 'Cept the Truth" that are tighter than any of their songs on their first two records. "When people heard the first Eagles record, they thought we were joking around — 'side project deal,' " says drummer Josh Homme, whose day job remains fronting Queens of the Stone Age. "But the albums should step up production-wise each time — and shake a larger booty."

"Wannabe in L.A."

Listen to "Wannabe in L.A." in full:

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Fall Out Boy

Folie a Deux 11/4

Even though FOB's fifth studio album is coming out on Election Day, fans shouldn't expect much political content. "It's the musical equivalent of crashing your friend's company's Christmas party, but on a mass scale," says bassist Pete Wentz. Folie a Deux tones down the vocal bobbing and weaving and R&B influence of 2007's Infinity on High, focusing on tight rock songcraft. "I want to make pop art," says singer Patrick Stump. Lead single "I Don't Care," which marries a John Lee Hooker-style boogie with a massive glam hook, follows through on that promise. Wentz is especially pumped to gain one new fan: "The coolest thing is that this is the first record I'll get to play for my kid."

"I Don't Care"

Listen to "I Don't Care" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Q-Tip

The Renaissance 11/4

Instead of hiring big-name producers to work on his new album, Q-Tip hired a band and produced it all himself. "Some of my peers, to be edgy, will get Timbaland or Cool and Dre," he says. "But that's not me." The album, a return to Tip's jazzy roots in A Tribe Called Quest, does feature a few fantastic guest appearances: Norah Jones sings a glorious hook on "Life is Better"; Raphael Saadiq duets on "We Fight, We Love," about a soldier who joins the Army to pay for college and gets sent to Iraq; and D'Angelo appears on the funky "I Believe." The album, which opens with a segment of a Barack Obama speech, is hardly designed to go platinum, but Tip doesn't care. "If I'm gonna lose, I want to lose on my terms," he says. "It's a blessing to still be doing this."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Chris Cornell

Scream 10/14

Chris Cornell's previous solo album Carry On was on its way to being a footnote until it was rescued from obscurity by American Idol champ David Cook, who performed Cornell's version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" to great acclaim on the show. That melding of rock and R&B informs the onetime Audioslave frontman's new Timbaland-produced album, which was cut in a rapid-fire six-week studio run. "He's somebody who's a musical genius and records in very unorthodox ways," Timbaland has said of his latest collaborator's sessions, which resulted in songs that sound more like Gnarls Barkley than Temple of the Dog.

Click here to listen to "Scream"

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Hinder

Take It to the Limit 11/4

Oklahoma's Hinder return on Election Day with their second album Take It to the Limit. If their double-platinum debut Extreme Behavior or Limit's first single "Use Me" are any indication, the record will be devoted to the group's favorite topics: sex, drugs and living the rock & roll lifestyle. For Limit, the rockers reconvened with Extreme producer Brian Howes, and fans have voted "Without You" to be the next single.

Click here to listen to "Use Me" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Ludacris

Theater of the Mind 11/11

These days, Ludacris puts out more movies than albums (look for him this fall in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and opposite Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne), but at least he's bringing his acting chops to his music. "On this album, I took everything I learned over the last five years in movies and the past eight years in the music industry and combined it," the Atlanta MC says, explaining that each track unfolds like a film. "Calling Up My Homies," featuring Game, is a three-part tale of street jealousy, while an untitled track features former heavyweight Floyd Mayweather as a boxing coach talking Luda through a series of battles with other MCs.

Click here to listen to "What Them Girls Like" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

David Archuleta

Title TBD 11/11

This November, prepare for a David-off — Archuleta versus Cook, that is. The American Idol alums will release their debut albums within a week of each other. But judging by "Crush" — Archuleta's soaring, hooky ode to a love interest — the show's runner-up isn't letting the competition psych him out. He's even penning lyrics, as he revealed on his blog: "Writing is just so much fun, and there are so many different ways of doing it."

Click here to listen to "Crush" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

All-American Rejects

When the World Comes Down 11/18

After the success of 2005's multiplatinum Move Along, All-American Rejects spent "a year and a half of writing reflecting on the last three years of our lives," guitarist Nick Wheeler says. Their third set includes a collaboration with Southern folk-pop sisters the Pierces on "Another Heart Calls," which frontman Tyson Ritter describes as "our little 'Time After Time,' with a lot more energy." The album was partially recorded at Barefoot Studios in Hollywood, home base for producer Eric Valentine (Maroon 5, Queens of the Stone Age), who got the band accustomed to working 12-hour days. "It was great because we could all live at this house right between the Roxy and the Whiskey, right behind Sunset Boulevard. That was the most Hollywood rock star thing," jokes Wheeler, "without Hollywood rock stars in the house."

Exclusive footage of lead singer Tyson Ritter recording with an orchestra.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Beyoncé

Title TBD 11/18

When Beyoncé decided to record her last album, B'Day, in the midst of filming Dreamgirls, she holed up for a marathon three-week recording session with some of the game's biggest hitmakers. She's taken more time on its follow-up, and earned co-writing or co-producing credits on every track on the new LP. The disc also features big names like Justin Timberlake and Sean Garrett, who co-produced some of B'Day's big singles ("Ring the Alarm," "Upgrade U").

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

David Cook

Title TBD 11/18

As he rushes to complete his first post-Idol album, America's favorite faux-grunge rocker knows what's coming: the dreaded Daughtry comparison. "Um, I look at it this way," Cook says. "I've been called way worse." To make what he describes as a set of "substance-based rock," Cook recruited American Idiot producer Rob Cavallo and added an unreleased Chris Cornell song to the set. "I don't know what the expectations are," he says, "but I want to put out a Joshua Tree or White Album." He chuckles: "Hope for the best, expect the worst."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Nickelback

Title TBD 11/18

How do you follow up an album that sold roughly seven million copies? Nickelback will attempt to keep their momentum with the still-untitled follow-up to 2005's mega-selling All the Right Reasons this November. That album spawned six Top 20 singles, so Nickelback are bringing in the big guns: they're recording their new album with AC/DC producer Mutt Lange in their native Vancouver, British Columbia. The new album's first single, "If Today Was Your Last Day," hits radio September 30th.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

T-Pain

THR33 RINGZ 11/18

After popping up on a bunch of the biggest hits of the year, T-Pain scored a killer lineup of guests — Lil Wayne (on the lead single, "Can't Believe It"), Kanye West, Ludacris — for his third album. "People owed me some favors," says T-Pain, who produced the entire disc himself. Packed with his trademark electro-meets-R&B beats and a heavy dose of Auto-Tune-robot vocals, THR33 RINGZ is state-of-the-art pop, from the dancefloor jam "Freeze" to "Chopped and Screwed," which pairs a slow, grinding beat with ELO harmonies.

Click here to listen to "Can't Believe It" in full

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Scott Weiland

Happy in Galoshes 11/18

"There's no rules to the stuff I do on my own," ex-Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland says about his new solo disc. "I don't have to worry about radio playing it." The record — a concept album about his tumultuous marriage — was partially recorded by indie engineer Steve Albini, and features three-fourths of No Doubt. "I liken it to [Marvin Gaye's] 'I Met a Little Girl,' " he says. Unlike the straight-ahead hard rock of Velvet Revolver, the songs range in style from pop ("Missing Cleveland") to light electronica ("January Drum Machine Song"). "If it turns off the Stone Temple Pilot fans, so be it," he says. "There's art and there's commerce and at the age I'm at, I've accomplished the commerce part."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Common

Universal Mind Control Nov./Dec.

Chicago MC Common's new album was inspired by a bummer of a night in a Prague nightclub. "My own DJ was there — and even he wasn't spinning my songs," says the rapper, who's better known for lyrical insight than dance-floor jams. "I said, 'I got to make some club music.' " And he did: Neptunes-produced "Universal Mind Control" is a bass-heavy rump-shaker with echo-y vocals and good-time rhymes ("Like cash money, I stay in the pocket") while "Make My Day," with a sunny Cee-Lo hook, reinvents "California Girls" for the hip-hop generation.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

50 Cent

Before I Self-Destruct 12/9

While 50's reps tell us it's too soon to know what tracks are going to appear on the fourth and final disc of his Interscope contract, the rapper says it's based on songs he began writing before last year's Curtis. "This album is a little more Clark Kent than Superman," he says. "It has a little bit more of me talking about what my experience is. Like, people will say, 'You're rich now.' Does that mean I'm not creative anymore? It creates confusion about what angle to write from." But that doesn't mean he's feeling like an underdog: "I always feel like what I have is ahead of the curve and the greatest thing."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Ciara

Fantasy Ride 12/9

"I'm the Energizer playboy bunny," Ciara sings on "Go Girl," the Auto Tune-filled single off her third album. True to her claim, the Atlanta native — who boasts beats from Danja and Tricky and songwriting assists from Ne-Yo and the Dream — churns out hyperspeed tunes. "Of course I wanna keep the clubs rockin!' " says Ciara, who mixes Latin-flavored bangers ("Work") with cooing love songs ("When I"). The weirdest track is "High Price," a synth-backed freakout that features Ludacris rapping over Ciara's opera-style falsetto. "When people bounce around to that, you don't wanna be in that space," says Ciara. "That music is crazy."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

Neil Young

Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1 TBD

In 1990, Young told Rolling Stone about the career-spanning box set he had in the works: "Shit, that's a giant. I'm really into it, but it's not something you can knock off in a year." Nearly two decades later, the first 10-disc volume (available in both Blu-ray and DVD formats) is finally coming. What took so long? "Originally my problem was that digital sound wasn't good enough," Young said in May. "Blu-rays have this fantastic resolution." Highlights of the set — which traces Young's career through his 1972 breakthrough, Harvest — include gigabytes of unreleased music, from complete concerts with the original lineup of Crazy Horse to outtakes from After the Goldrush sessions. Said Young, "It tells the story of my music in days, step by step."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview

50 Cent (December 9)

AC/DC (October 20)

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals (October 28)

All-American Rejects (November 18)

Antony and the Johnsons (October 7)

David Archuleta (November 11)

Beyoncé (November 18)

Ciara (December 9)

The Clash (October 7)

Common (November/December)

David Cook (November 18)