Summer is sadly winding down, but that just means that fall is heating up. From Akon to Drake to Wilco, these 25 releases look ultra ready to set the tone for what looks like a vibrant season. Check out our 2011 fall album preview, and tell us which records are on your must list in the comments section below.
 | Akon | "Stadium" Date: TBD Twitter: @Akon Touring: Overseas late 2011 "It's a global, upbeat, feel-good album made to be played in arenas and clubs," Akon says. "A touring album with high-energy records that bring everything together under one roof -- pop, R&B, hip-hop and dance." |
 | Anthony "Romeo" Santos | "Formula Vol. 1" Date: Oct./Nov. Twitter: @RomeoSantosPage Touring: Early 2012 Santos is lead singer of successful bachata group Aventura, but this year the crooner is adding to his résumé by releasing a solo album. Santos' manager, Johnny Marines, refers to the project as "70% bachata and 30% American R&B and pop music in English," adding, "Romeo is super excited with the material he's recording and can't wait to get the music out to his fans. There are some songs in English, but we don't want to abandon the fan base that already knows him for bachata." First single "You" debuted at No. 1 on May 28 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs charts, where it has remained for seven weeks. |
 | Blink-182 | "Neighborhoods" Date: Sept. 27 (tentative) Twitter: @blink182 Two-and-a-half years after reuniting onstage at the 51st Grammy Awards, Blink-182 returns with Neighborhoods, the band's first studio album in eight years. Led by the single "Up All Night" (released July 14 through the group's website), Neighborhoods is poised to be another blockbuster success for the California pop-punk trio-Tom DeLonge (vocals/guitars), Mark Hoppus (vocals/bass) and Travis Barker (drums). Hoppus told MTV that the release of "Up All Night" crashed the band's site several times, as well as his own personal Google Plus account. On Aug. 4, Blink-182 will hit the road with My Chemical Romance as part of the Honda Civic tour. The band has sold more than 13.1 million albums since its inception in 1992, according to Nielsen SoundScan. |
 | Bob Seger | TBD Date: TBD Twitter: @Bob_Seger Touring: Fall Capitol and Bob Seger are gearing up for a busy fall. The game plan, according to music retailers, is to begin by releasing two live albums in September to help set up a new studio album in October, followed by a double-CD hits collection in November. While Seger was recently recording in Nashville with the hopes of bringing in some guest artists, the new, still-untitled studio album will be a rock'n'roll record, according to sources who have been informed about the project. Seger has scanned 19.6 million units in the SoundScan era (according to Nielsen SoundScan), including 9 million units for his Greatest Hits album. Capitol Records says the Seger has sold 51 million units worldwide during his career. Earlier this year, Seger played the Walmart shareholder convention, sparking speculation that the giant merchant will have some kind of exclusive this fall. |
 | Christian McBride Big Band | "The Good Feeling" Date: Sept. 27 Twitter: @mcbridesworld Touring: McBride's band Inside Straight tours into 2012. The acclaimed bassist's second album for independent, Michigan-based Mack Avenue-his eighth overall as a leader-is his first with a big band. Arrangements and compositions for big band music have been part of a 15-year journey for McBride, whose first big-band work was a commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1995. The album features originals and standards plus songs he has recorded with smaller groups, such as "Science Fiction," "The Shade of the Cedar Tree" and "In a Hurry." Saxophonist Steve Wilson, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and singer Melissa Walker are among the soloists in the band. |
 | Coldplay | "Mylo Xyloto," Date: Oct. 25 Twitter: @Coldplay Touring: ongoing It's an album destined to be filled with emotive, ambitious soundscapes that while true to the band's sound also furiously pushes limits and strives to convey big themes-all this in a marketplace dominated by singles. "Mylo Xyloto" is a concept album at its core. "A story... loosely a kind of romance in an oppressive environment," frontman Chris Martin explains, adding that (as of now) the "love story" will have a happy ending-depending on sequencing. Read the full Coldplay Billboard Cover Story here. |
 | Demi Lovato | "Unbroken" Date: Sept. 20Twitter: @ddlovato Touring: TBD late 2011/early 2012 The third album from the teen singer/actress is her first since she entered an Illinois treatment facility in October for eating disorders and self-mutilation. Lovato and producers were still working on the album last week, having recorded about 20 songs. "We haven't narrowed down what's on the album," Disney Music Group executive VP Ken Bunt says. First single "Skyscraper" was released July 12 and raced up the digital songs chart. It was recorded in late 2010, but the rest of the album will feature recordings made since she came out of treatment in January, one of which she has said is a duet with an R&B star. |
 | Drake | "Take Care" Date: Oct. 24 Twitter: @drakkardnoir Touring: TBD Slightly more than a year after he released his chart-topping debut, Thank Me Later, Drake is hoping to time the release of sophomore album Take Care to his birthday. (He turns 25 on Oct. 24.) According to Drake's manager Cortez "Tez" Bryant, who also manages Lil Wayne, the release date still looks good as Drake has been in "album mode," recording with his longtime producer/engineer Noah "40" Shebib in Toronto, and has already completed six songs. Bryant says the album will showcase a new sound, which he describes as "same melodies, more thump," and that Drake hopes to release a single for the project soon. Bryant adds that "Marvin's Room," No. 35 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, wasn't originally intended as a proper release-"that was just something to keep the fans happy," he says-but will now be serviced to radio and video and retail outlets due to the positive response. "I don't want to rush an album out just to rush an album out," Bryant says. "[But] hopefully we will hit that date." |
 | Estelle | "All of Me" Date: Oct./Nov. Twitter: @EstelleDarlings Touring: TBD All of Me marks Estelle's third album and second for Home School/Atlantic. The project's lead single, "Break My Heart" featuring Rick Ross, was inspired by a past relationship of the British "American Boy" singer. "Boy," featuring Kanye West, won best rap/sung collaboration at the 2009 Grammy Awards, and went top 10 on 19 charts in the United States and around the world. Additional guests on All of Me are reported to include Janelle Monáe and Common |
 | Evanescence | "Evanescence" Date: Oct. 11 Twitter: @Evanescence Touring: Oct.-Dec. South America, Europe, U.S. Earlier this year, Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee said in a statement that her Grammy Award-winning band was "reinventing our sound" and "experimenting with things we've never done before" for its self-titled third studio album. The Nick Raskulinecz-produced (Foo Fighters, Deftones, Rush) set is the band's first release in nearly five years. In recent weeks, vocalist/pianist Lee previewed several aggressive new tracks to MTV from Blackbird Studio in Nashville. The heavy "What You Want" touches on themes of freedom while "The Other Side" finds Lee singing about "death in a way that's sort of bitchy." |
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