Fall Music Preview 2014: 25 Must-Hear Albums

The title to The Pink Print is a reference to Jay Z's 2001 classic The Blueprint. "It's the best album I've ever done," Minaj tells Rolling Stone. "If I didn't write it, I would still listen to it all the time as a fan." Minaj called in several big-time producers – including Dr. Luke, Boi-1da and Polow Da Don, who left his mark on the deliriously raunchy new single "Anaconda" – and she says she goes deeper lyrically than ever before. "I don't think any of these songs could have been on my last album," she says. "I've grown as a writer. I'm braver in terms of speaking about things I didn't feel comfortable sharing two years ago."

Stevie Nicks' new album is a labor of love: a journey through her past in tunes dating back to 1969. These are stray songs she wrote over the years, but never recorded until now. "I used to give my songs away," Nicks says. "I'd write a new song, put it on a cassette, then someone would say, 'Hey, can I have a copy?' You had no idea it would be all over the Internet 30 years down the road. We didn't worry about it back then. It was all part of just sharing your music."

Some are so personal, not even the rest of Fleetwood Mac ever heard them. "'Lady' was the first piano song I ever wrote. It was a song I never played for anybody. Nobody but Lindsay [Buckingham] had ever heard it." She put the album together quickly with Nashville session men. "We had three five-day weeks to get the tracks," Nicks says. "These are union people – they don't mess around. So I had to get up at 9:00 in the morning, which for me is just ridiculous."

The title track on Browne's first studio album in six years started as a song about the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti – but came to encompass much more than that. "It has to do with where our world is broken," Browne says. "It became a song about poverty everywhere. The entire album is about relationships in the light of what's happening in the world right now." Recorded in L.A. with his longtime touring band, the disc takes on everything from the moribund political system to the pollution of our oceans. But it kicks off with a new recording of "The Birds of St. Marks," a tune Jackson wrote in 1967. "I always thought it would work as a Byrds song," he says. "But I got sick of waiting for them to re-form, so I did it myself."

Swift has pitched her fifth album as a shift from country to pure pop. But how big a departure is that for her, really? "It's not a sucker punch," Swift says of the change. "But I want to be honest with people about the fact that it's my first pop album. I'm celebrating that, and I'm not scared of it." Though she worked with modern Top 40 maestros like Max Martin, Ryan Tedder and Jack Antonoff, Swift says she drew from pop of the past, listing Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox as inspirations. "It's pop sounds from the Eighties and pop sounds now," she says. "I just thought, 'There are no rules to this album. Why not explore all the different possibilities?'" ​

On their first album in four years, the alt-rock vets return to the bright power pop of their touchstone 1994 debut (known to fans as the Blue Album). Working with Blue Album producer Ric Ocasek, the ever-mercurial Rivers Cuomo came up with what he calls "a complex, classic album" that mixes "classic girl songs" with weightier topics: Cuomo sings about his historically contentious relationship with fans, as well as the delinquent dad he sang about on the Blue Album's "Say It Ain't So." "I put the deepest part of my soul into this," says Cuomo.

"The band is killer," Thurston Moore says of his latest project. "It's so much fun playing with them." For The Best Day – the singer-guitarist's fourth solo record, and second major release since Sonic Youth went on hiatus in 2011 – Moore collaborated with Nought guitarist James Sedwards, My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe and Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley. The record's eight tracks play out like a survey of Moore's songwriting sensibilities – angsty post-punk, feedback-saturated experiments, acoustic acid trips – but he credits his band with the LP's sound. "When Deb and Steve locked in together, I knew right away it was really rock & roll magic," Moore says. "It was immediately astounding." The quartet has a fall U.S. trek booked, and Moore says it's been going so well that he hopes this lineup sticks. "I've learned to take one day at a time, but it seems like we all like each other," he says. "So I have my fingers crossed."

"I always liked bands' second albums," Johnny Marr tells Rolling Stone. "I like the Talking Heads' second album a lot. I liked Wire's second album. I couldn't wait to get the follow-up record from my favorite new band." The former Smiths guitarist liked second albums so much that he began work on Playland – which follows his 2013 solo debut The Messenger – as soon as the last record came out. Accordingly, Playland continues the jangly modern rock of its predecessor with catchy tunes like the single "Easy Money," which continues the Smiths' tradition of lyrics that condemn greed and materialism in a way that's not too heavy-handed. "I like the idea of sneaking a serious concern into the mainstream, disguised as a big pop tune," he says of the song. "The riff was so catchy and infectious that I wanted it to be about something that appeared to be trite but was actually quite universal."

After singing on two of the summer's biggest smashes (Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" and her own "Boom Clap"), XCX has created a radio-wrecking LP of her own. Sucker is a drastic departure from her 2013 debut, True Romance. "The press was like 'Charli XCX is gonna make [another] synth-pop album!'" she says. "Fuck that." The 22-year-old Londoner called in longtime collaborator Patrik Berger, as well as Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Weezer's Rivers Cuomo. She decided to "play around with a lot of punk," but even so, she adds, "I think this record is a bit of a pop monster."

On her new album, Nika Rosa Danilova (a.k.a. Zola Jesus) hasn't given up her signature moves – the cinematic synths, violin flourishes, and an impressive operatic register are all still present – but she has let some of her earlier influences seep in. "My songs have always been poppy, but I've always covered it in noise and distortion," says the 25-year-old singer, who grew up on late-Nineties staples like the Spice Girls, TLC and Mariah Carey. "For this record, I was like, 'I'm not going to be ashamed of my natural style.'" The resulting 11 tracks (like the Katy-Perry-goes-goth single "Dangerous Days") she says, have lost the "fear" present her early work, and gained a new confidence – along with more literal lyrics. "I find that when I have a message I'm communicating, the song is more powerful," she says. "If I'm just saying abstract things that don't mean anything to anybody, I don't feel like I'm doing my job."

The second album from noise-hungry hip-hop boastaholics Run the Jewels has been recorded, mixed, mastered and set to come out on Mass Appeal Records: "We're not gonna push the date back or anything," says Killer Mike, one-half of the duo. The only thing they have to do now is keep their mouths shut. "We got jams on this record that directly mean something in relation to everything that's sort of popping off right now," adds El-P about the record, which lyrically touches on police brutality and the militarization of cops. "To some degree we would love to just drop it on everybody right now, but we're trying to be a little bit disciplined."

Unlike their 2013 debut, the follow-up – which features appearances from Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha, Travis Barker, Boots and Foxygen drummer Diane Coffee – features a little more of the personal rage and righteous indignation that the two MCs are known for in their solo careers. "It's still a Run the Jewels record, so it's mostly just about punching animals," deadpans El-P before Mike busts into a hearty laugh, "but there's a rebellion and an anger in this record that's more present. We wanted to make sure that Run the Jewels wasn't only just a vacation from the things that we cared about. And it's surrounded, of course, by the highest level of ignorance and shit-talk we could possibly achieve – which is also very important to us."

Two years after the release of her dance-floor-ready, soul-inflected debut, Devotion, Ware is ready to release a risk-taking follow-up. "I feel like we were allowed to be really creative," she tells Rolling Stone. "I don't think it's safe, which is nice. I definitely opened up a bit more." Produced by Top 40 specialists Benny Blanco and Two Inch Punch (known as the collective BenZel), the record includes the sultry Ed Sheeran-assisted single "Say You Love Me" as well as her most recent steamy slow jam, "Kind of, Sometimes, Maybe" with R&B crooner Miguel. Dev Hynes, the xx's Romy Madley-Croft and singer Sam Dew also appear. "It's been really good working with people like Miguel and Ed and Sam Dew, who are singers," Ware said. "I think they've pushed me vocally, actually. It's been totally collaborative, and it felt really fun to make."

Little is known about the L.A. singer's follow-up to 2012's Channel Orange, but collaborator Nabil Elderkin let slip that the new LP "blows the sophomore-album myth out of the water." Last October, Ocean said that we could expect the album by summer 2014, but at this point, fall or winter seems more likely. The latest rumors suggest that he has been in the studio with Hit-Boy ("Niggas in Paris," "XO," "Flawless") and Rodney Jerkins ("As Long as You Love Me," "Say My Name").

Once, this album was scheduled for a 2013 release. Now, as Wayne tours the country with his protégé Drake, the two are insisting that it will be coming out before the end of the year. This May, the pair teamed up for "Believe Me," supposedly the album's lead single, and they returned in September with "Grindin'," a menacing showcase for five minutes of the duo's best bars. "I was feeling the success of Tha Carter I," the rapper recently told XXL, attempting to contextualize the new record. "I felt like people wanted to hear me. I was amped to do that, but then Tha Carter III? I don't know what happened. It was amazing. And then Tha Carter IV was just unexplainable, and now this one here, there's no words. I just hope everyone likes it."

After opening at Number 25 on the Billboard country singles chart, Brooks' new "People Loving People" dropped back to Number 36 in its second week. Nevertheless, 13 years after releasing Scarecrow, his last LP of original songs, the singer remains a commercial juggernaut: Last Christmas, his four-disc box set of 77 covers (available exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club) easily hit Number One, selling nearly a million copies in the process. The new album will be released via GhostTunes, a new online sharing service he co-created.

For the third record in a row, Jerry Lee Lewis has recorded with an all-star cast of special guests, including Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Nils Lofgren and the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ron Wood. But of course, the Killer was always the star. "They were all superb musicians," Lewis tells Rolling Stone. "They know me, I know them, and we just fall right into it." Highlights include Lewis trading bluesy piano cadences with Derek Trucks on a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Mississippi Kid" and some rare moments where Lewis played guitar, such as a take on his Million Dollar Quartet pal Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." "It's been years since I played guitar," he says. "It kind of hurt my fingers a little bit, but it came out pretty good." The record also features the 78-year-old playing songs by Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Jimmie Rodgers and more. "I just think it's a blessing from God that I'm still living," he says, "and I'm still rocking."

For the first official Floyd album in two decades, David Gilmour has pulled together a disc of "mainly ambient and instrumental music" that draws from the recording sessions of 1994's Division Bell. The project began with Gilmour and Floyd drummer Nick Mason sorting through music they recorded with keyboardist Rick Wright (who died in 2008) during the Division Bell sessions. "We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album," Gilmour said in a statement. "Over the last year we've added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album."

For those not satisfied with the six discs of original recordings found on The Basement Tapes Complete, Lost on the River gives material from Dylan's legendary Sixties sessions a modern twist. With the singer-songwriter's permission, producer T Bone Burnett enlisted Elvis Costello, Mumford and Sons' Marcus Mumford and My Morning Jacket's Jim James to write and record their own songs using lyrics Dylan penned. "What transpired during those two weeks was amazing for all of us," Burnett said in a statement. "There was a deep well of generosity and support in the studio at all times, which reflected the tremendous trust and generosity shown by Bob in sharing these lyrics with us in the first place."

Jessie J had previously achieved some chart success with the 2011 singles "Price Tag" and "Domino," but her second album, 2013's Alive, didn't even come out in the States. Her latest single, the Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande-featuring "Bang Bang," however, has made sure that the new album will fare a little bit better. "Max Martin had sent ["Bang Bang' to me and said, 'What do you think?'" she says. "I was like, 'I've never sang a song like this before.' And I'd always wanted to."

That said, expect Sweet Talker to bring the singer back toward her gospel roots: "I love pop music, and I naturally write pop music, but I sing naturally soul and gospel. A lot people don't know that about me. At the moment, I'm trying to marry the two, and still be commercial and still be pop, but have the element of soul."

So far in 2014, Tunde Adebimpe has toured with his Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band and Dave Sitek has produced a new album for R&B singer Kelis, but come November, they and the rest of TV on the Radio will reunite to release Seeds, the band's first album since the death of bassist Gerard Smith. "We've been through a lot of stuff in the past few years that could have stopped the band cold," Adebimpe said in a statement. "But I'm glad we got it together and took stock of the unique connection we have between each other because the record is, 1,000 percent, without a doubt, the best thing we've ever done."

For his first new album since 2006's Face the Promise, Bob Seger is mixing original tunes with covers of songs like Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand" and Woody Guthrie's "California Stars." On lead single "Detroit Made" (a John Hiatt cover), the singer expressed some local pride in his hometown's auto industry. "I feel really good about this record," he said in a statement. "This album touches on how I think a lot of us feel about finding our place in a more complicated world – from how we appreciate things as simple and pure as love, to navigating through the corruption and violence that permeates the news."

Dan Snaith has been an acclaimed electronic musician for more than a decade, but it was only recently that he realized he could make people dance. "After we toured for Swim, people would tell me stories of how they were 17, and they went to Ibiza on their summer holiday, and they danced on the terrace to 'Sun,'" the DJ-producer tells Rolling Stone. "That was like, 'Wait a minute, that's totally not like my life! That's amazing.'" Accordingly, the new album under his Caribou moniker is his boldest step yet toward the world of dance music: 10 deep grooves that hit with a physicality his heady psychedelic jams once only hinted at. "The whole initial impulse was to make something for everybody to listen to," Snaith says. "And that's such a shift for me."