Cobra Starship
"Hot Mess" (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen)
Full of synth-pop hooks and throttling guitars, Cobra Starship's third full-length album, "Hot Mess," should give fans plenty of reason to start a dance party. The band brought awareness of the new set-the follow-up to 2007's "Viva la Cobra!," which debuted at No. 80 on the Billboard 200 and sold 114,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan-to fans by supporting Fall Out Boy on tour dates, and Cobra Starship repays the favor by paying homage to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz on the crowd-mover "Pete Wentz Is the Only Reason We Are Famous." They also collaborated with "Gossip Girl" actress Leighton Meester on the track "I Made Good Girls Go Bad." More.



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Jay Reatard
"Watch Me Fall" (Matador)
The Memphis garage-punk wunderkind Jay Lindsey, better-known as Jay Reatard, has put out dozens of LPs, EPs and vinyl singles with various bands, side projects and as a solo artist since he was a teenager in the mid-'90s. But in many respects, "Watch Me Fall" will be his first conventional release. "This will be the first LP I've made for any label knowing what label it was going to be on ahead of time," he says of his deal with Matador, which issued a compilation of his singles in 2008. He says the record is "kind of paranoid," with a definite punk sensibility but moodier than his earlier material, and "my first record where I'm kind of exiting the dumb kid part of my life." At 12 songs, the album will also have fewer tracks than a typical Jay Reatard LP, although five additional songs will be offered on the vinyl edition only. The tracks themselves will be longer than usual: "The album closes with a ballad that's four minutes and six seconds," Reatard says. "That's a pretty epic jam for me."

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Reba McEntire
"Keep On Loving You" (Valory Music/Starstruck Records)
Reba McEntire's "Keep On Loving You" is her first for Valory Music and reunites her with CEO Scott Borchetta, with whom she previously worked at MCA Nashville. The set is co-produced by longtime collaborator Tony Brown and Mark Bright (Rascal Flatts). McEntire's first solo project in six years includes a rarity: a song that she co-wrote. "She's Turning Fifty Today," which McEntire wrote via e-mail with Liz Hengber and Tommy Lee James, tells the story of a wife whose husband left her for a younger woman. McEntire, who has recorded "not many, under 10" of her own songs through the years, credits her tour with Kelly Clarkson last year for the new album's attitude. "I got into singing pop songs, I enjoyed it," McEntire says. "When we started looking for songs for this album, I started looking for sassy, uptempo songs." The first single, "Strange," was written by Wendell Mobley, Jason Sellers and Neil Thrasher and is a tongue-in-cheek rocker about lamenting (or perhaps not) a spurned love.



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Sean Paul
"Imperial Blaze" (VP/Atlantic Records)
It's been four years since dancehall star Sean Paul released a new studio project. But with the April 25 unveiling of the lead single "So Fine," the Grammy Award-winning artist is gearing up for for the release of his fourth album, "Imperial Blaze," the anticipated follow-up to his 2005 platinum album "The Trinity." The project's producers include "So Fine" mastermind Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, as well as a host of lesser-known Jamaican producers such as Arif Cooper, Jeremy Harding and Donovan "Don Corleon" Bennet.



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Sean Kingston
"Tomorrow" (Epic Records)
Making a name for himself with the hit single "Beautiful Girls," Sean Kingston returns with his sophomore set "Tomorrow." The 19-year-old Jamaican singer/songwriter describes the forthcoming album as a "reflection of his growth as a young man and evolution as an artist." The former is referenced in such tracks as the title cut, "Face Drop" and "Magical," which address personal acceptance, while the latter is evidenced by Kingston's expanded circle of collaborators. In addition to J.R. Rotem-a guiding light on Kingston's 2007 self-titled debut album-production collaborators include Wyclef Jean, Bruno Mars, Detail and RedOne (Lady GaGa's "Just Dance"), who produced Kingston's recently released lead single, "Fire Burning."



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Colbie Caillat
"The Breakthrough" (Universal Republic)
What happens after an artist's first single garners millions of MySpace views, a major-label deal and a hit debut album? That's the question Colbie Caillat faces as she finishes recording "The Breakthrough," her follow-up to "Coco." "There's that sense of worry where you hope it does as good," the 23-year-old singer says. "You want to make sure everything's perfect. And while doing that, you don't want to lose sight of who you are and how the music should sound." To achieve that balance, Caillat set up a "writing camp" in February with songwriters Kara DioGuardi and Rick Nowels, producer John Shanks and Caillat's father Ken, who produced half the album. Though "Falling for You," the album's first single that premieres in June, is spiritually akin to "Bubbly," Caillat says many of the other songs that emerged are "a different style, definitely more pop and uptempo."

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Colbie Caillat Chart History

Christina Milian
"Elope" (Interscope/Radio Killa/MySpace Records)
Three years after her well-documented split with Def Jam, Christina Milian is ready to mount a comeback with her fourth album, "Elope," planned for a late-August release. "I do feel like I'm starting from scratch," she says. "It's been a second since I've been out." But if Milian is ruffled by the pressure, she's not showing it. Having recruited songwriting/production duo the-Dream and C. Tricky Stewart to produce the album, Milian promises female anthems in the form of "Zipper," a come-hither club track that has already leaked online; "You Better Not Play Me," one of two duets with the-Dream; and "Version of Love," which she describes as "if you took 'Purple Rain,' set it in 2020 and put a female voice on it." As for her new, three-label family, Milian says she's never felt more at home. "Even if you are established and you go to a major label, sometimes you get lost in the mix. For me it's about being a big fish in a small pond . . . I feel the definite support and also the concern with being the best."

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Brand New
Title TBA (DGC/Interscope)
Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey says his emo-rock band's new effort is more collaborative than previous releases. "The lyric writing on this record was shared a lot more between [guitarist] Vincent [Accardi] and myself," Lacey says. "After the last three records I think I was feeling a little exhausted for ideas, and I think Vin has a brain full of them. We write about what we want to know, and I think the four of us question our lives and life in general in the same way." Lacey adds that even though more voices are involved, the band's songs haven't changed all that much. "The song 'Stones' again started out with a guitar track that didn't really sound like you could do anything on top of. I was having trouble hearing what could happen with someone singing over the track. Then I came in one morning and Vin had laid down this really pretty and chanting chorus over the beginning of the song and it was smoother sailing from there. We managed to make it obnoxious by screaming over the rest of the track, which is what we do when we're stuck."

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Dashboard Confessional
Title TBA (Vagrant/Interscope)
Emo king Chris Carrabba says he's powered by coffee, so it's no wonder he describes his forthcoming album as "more energetic." Carrabba, who records under the name Dashboard Confessional, tried new songwriting methods for the new collection. "Usually I start writing on guitar or piano, but with this one I started with drums sometimes or started on piano and finished on guitar," he says. He describes the song "Belle of the Boulevard" as almost an accident. "I was working on a song that seemed like a sure thing but I was getting blocked, so I sat down to write a song that I thought had no potential to clear my head. I ended up with this very graceful song that wasn't angular like the rest of the tracks, and it became a favorite." But he hasn't moved away from the spare, emotional tracks that made him popular, describing the song "Even Now" as "a return to the guitar and the simple story."

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Dashboard Confessional Chart History

Trey Songz
"Ready" (Songbook Entertainment/Atlantic)
The third time's a charm-at least, that's what Trey Songz is hoping. With the release of his third album this summer, Songz is ready to be the R&B crooner of the moment. For "Ready," Songz worked with producers Eric Hudson, Sean Garrett, Bryan-Michael Cox, Soul Keys, Jermaine Dupri, Soundz, Stargate ("Can't Help but Wait") and longtime collaborator Troy Taylor. Tracks on the album include the lead single "I Need a Girl," which reached No. 39 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart; "Brand New," about a one-night stand; "One Love," which he describes as a male version of Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You" and finds him belting "Take my hand/We will stand/This was made to last forever" over drums and guitar riffs; and the guitar-heavy "Black Roses."

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Jessica Harp
"A Woman Needs" (Warner Bros. Nashville)
Keith Urban's fingerprints are all over Jessica Harp's major-label solo debut. Longtime Urban bassist Jerry Flowers produced it, and Urban plays guitar on the first single, "A Boy Like Me." The album finds Harp, who co-wrote most of the tracks, telling relatable stories about her life, loves and heartbreaks on tracks like the playful "A Boy Like Me," "A Woman Needs" and "Homemade Love," which features guest vocals from Vince Gill. "I like to tell stories with my songs," Harp says. "This is the album I have dreamed of making since I was 8 years old and singing along to my mom's Judds and Reba McEntire records."

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The Flaming Lips
Title TBA (Warner Bros)
Feeling a renewed sense of ambition, the Flaming Lips are recording their first double album as the follow-up to 2006's "At War With the Mystics." "Somewhere along the way it occurred to me that we should do a double album," frontman Wayne Coyne says. "Just this idea that you can kind of weave a couple of themes in there and you can sort of sprawl a little bit. Our past couple of records, we've always had this little dilemma, like, 'How many songs do you put on? How many instruments do you put on? What's the focus?' " So far the band has written 13 tracks, with eight or nine to go before the release is completed. Coyne says the new material's vibe is different from previous studio-polished albums. Among the new songs currently in the mix are the Joy Division-meets-Miles Davis Group "Convinced of the Hex" and the John Lennon-inspired "I Don't Understand Karma," which Coyne describes as his response to "Instant Karma." More.

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Best of the Rest Out In August
Collective Soul, TBA (Loud & Proud/Roadrunner, Aug. 4) /// Tour Dates
Throw Me the Statue, TBA (Secretly Canadian, Aug. 4) /// Tour Dates
A Fine Frenzy, "Bomb in a Birdcage" (Virgin, Aug. 11) /// Tour Dates
Avett Brothers, "I and Love and You" (Columbia, Aug. 11) /// Tour Dates
Otep, "Smash the Control Machine" (Victory, Aug. 18) /// Tour Dates
Madness, "The Liberty of Norton Folgate" (Yep Roc, Aug. 18) /// Tour Dates
David Bazan, "Curse Your Branches" (Barsuk, Aug. 25) /// Tour Dates
Willie Nelson, "American Classic" (Blue Note, Aug. 25) /// Tour Dates
Hockey, "Mind Chaos" (Capitol, Aug. 25) /// Tour Dates
Jet, "Shaka Rock" (Atlantic, Aug. 25) /// Tour Dates
Choir of Young Believers, "This Is for the White in Your Eyes" (Ghostly International, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
David Gray, "Draw the Line" (Mercer St./Downtown, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Powerman 5000, TBA (Mighty Loud, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Cave Singers, TBA (Matador, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Lou Barlow, "Goodnight Unknown" (Merge, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Yung L.A., "Futuristic Leland" (Grand Hustle/Interscope, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Mew, TBA (Columbia, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Pissed Jeans, TBA (Sub Pop, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates
Trouble Andrew, TBA (Virgin, Aug. TBA) /// Tour Dates