L = Label, M = Management, B = Booking Agent
Mary J. Blige
“A Mary Christmas” TBD
L Matriarch/Verve/Interscope
M Kendu Isaacs
B Rob Light, Creative Artists Agency
Blige spices up the holidays with her first Christmas album. Helping the Grammy winner wrap up soulful interpretations of holiday classics is legendary producer and Verve Music Group chairman David Foster. Blige takes on “This Christmas,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and highlight “When You Wish Upon a Star,” a tree-topping duet with Barbra Streisand. Their pairing marks the first time Streisand has allowed a duet to be released first on the other artist’s project. “A Mary Christmas” is Blige’s 11th studio album since her landmark 1992 debut, “What’s the 411?” “This record showcases how deep and wide her talent runs,” Foster says.
HAIM
“Days Are Gone” Oct. 1
L Columbia
M Roc Nation
B Adam Voith, Billions Corp.
“I feel like every day is a perpetual surprise party for me,” says bassist Este Haim, whose alt-rock trio with sisters Danielle and Alana has traversed the globe and received glowing critical acclaim in the months prior to their debut album release. HAIM performed in Los Angeles for more than five years before releasing its “Forever” EP in early 2012 and signing to Columbia later that year. Singles like “Falling” and “Don’t Save Me” were showcased to burgeoning crowds at Bonnaroo, Glastonbury and Lollapalooza, and the rest of Days Are Gone maintains a similarly effortless understanding of rock arrangements. But the oldest Haim sister is still surprised that the album even exists. “I honestly never thought that we would put out a full record,” Este says. “It was always daunting.”
Deltron 3030
“Deltron 3030: Event II” Oct. 1
L Bulk Recordings
M Toni Isabela (Dan the Automator), Tion Torrence (Del the Funky Homo-sapien), Ryhna Thompson (Kid Koala)
B Peter Schwartz, the Agency Group
Thirteen years after its cult favorite self-titled debut, trio Deltron 3030 — consisting of Heiroglyphics rap vet Del the Funky Homosapien, turntablist Kid Koala and sample master “Dan the Automator” Nakamura (Gorillaz, Kasabian) — is reuniting for another album of iconoclastic sci-fi alt-rap. An unlikely range of collaborators are joining the dystopian party, including Blur’s Damon Albarn, comedian David Cross, the Lonely Island, Black Rob and Zach De la Rocha. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if you put this and this together?'” Del says. “We wanted it to be well-rounded and I think we did a good job. It’s bigger, better, stronger, faster than the first one.”
Helene Grimaud
“Brahms Concertos” Oct. 1
Deutsche Grammophon
Libby Abrahams, IMG Artists
With “Brahms Concertos,” Grimaud will become the first woman of the 21st century to record what’s known as the Mount Everest of piano works: both Brahms’ “Piano Concerti No. 1” and the notoriously difficult “No. 2.” “Recording ‘No. 2’ without ‘No. 1’ was inconceivable,” Grimaud says, “though it took me nearly as many years to get around to playing the second concerto as it did Brahms to write it.” The composer took 22 years to write the follow-up to his popular “No. 1,” which the intrepid Grimaud, also a published author and wildlife conservationist, first recorded in 1998.
Miley Cyrus
“Bangerz” Oct. 8
L RCA Records
M Larry Rudolph and Melissa Ruderman, Reign Deer Entertainment; Tish Cyrus, Hope Town Artist Management
B Creative Artists Agency
“I want to start as a new artist,” Cyrus told Billboard in June. “I consider my upcoming album my first, really.” Indeed, Cyrus’ first full-length since 2010’s uneven “Can’t Be Tamed” will represent a departure from both her Disney image (the former “Hannah Montana” star is working with hip-hop mainstays like Mike Will Made It, Pharrell Williams and Future) and Disney-affiliated former label home: “Bangerz” will be her first release on RCA after leaving Hollywood Records. Top 40 has certainly taken a shine to “Miley 2.0,” as “We Can’t Stop,” her fourth album’s lead single, has hovered in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 for more than two months.
Prince Royce
“Soy El Mismo” Oct. 8
L Sony Music Latin
M David Sonenberg
B William Morris Endeavor
Royce premiered the first single from his new material during the Premios Juventud awards telecast and the song, “Darme Un Beso,” promptly debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. The track heralds the album itself: a collection of mostly romantic bachata tracks plus a few pop tracks. The set is in Spanish, but Royce has already announced plans to release in the spring an English-language album, which he’ll co-produce.
Panic! at the Disco
“Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die” Oct. 8
L Fueled by Ramen
M Crush Management
B Creative Artists Agency
Eight years after it stormed the “Total Request Live” countdown with mascara-gunked pop-punk and capricious punctuation, Panic! at the Disco demonstrates life after hype with an ambitious fourth album. “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die” takes its name from a Hunter S. Thompson quote and its concepts from that writer’s great muse and lead singer Brendon Urie’s hometown. “Las Vegas is a big character in this album,” he says. “I came back to the city that I grew up in and for some reason made me so bitter when I was 17. It was cathartic.”
Cage the Elephant
“Melophobia” Oct. 8
L RCA
M Q Prime
B Marsha Vlasic, ICM
The Bowling Green, Ky., act’s upcoming set, led by first single “Come a Little Closer” (No. 14 on Billboard’s Alternative chart) was recorded in Nashville with Jay Joyce, producer of the band’s last two albums. Prior release “Thank You Happy Birthday” hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2011. The group will tour with Muse in September.
Paul McCartney
“NEW” Oct. 15
L Concord
M Scott Rodger, Quest Management
B Barrie Marshall, Marshall Arts
As his Out There tour winds down a massive U.S. jaunt that included stops at Bonnaroo, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Outside Lands, McCartney is prepping a return to pop-rock with a gaggle of A-list producers. Mark Ronson, Paul Epworth and Ethan Johns are among the confirmed collaborators tapped for “NEW,” which will be the Beatle’s 16th solo album and first “rock” record since 2007’s “Memory Almost Full” after dabbling in classical (2011’s “Ocean’s Kingdom”) and jazz (2012’s “Kisses on the Bottom”). Expect some new rhythms from McCartney: In July he collaborated with EDM act Bloody Beetroots for the single “Out of Sight.”
TLC
“TBD” Oct. 15
L Epic
M Bill Diggins
B Stephanie Mahler, Creative Artists Agency
As the first collection of new music from T-Boz and Chilli since 2002’s “3D,” this half-hits, half-originals compilation already has two confirmed tracks: “Posh Life,” co-written by Lady Gaga and longtime TLC producer Dallas Austin, and the Ne-Yo penned “Meant to Be,” whose title will double as the tag line to VH1 biopic “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” which airs Oct. 21. Expect other collaborations with noted hip-hop fans like Drake, who tapped TLC for his OVO Fest in August, and J. Cole, who enlisted the duo for current single “Crooked Smile.”
The Head and the Heart
“Let’s Be Still” Oct. 15
L Sub Pop
M Jordan Kurland, Zeitgeist Management
B Ali Hedrick, Billions Corp.
Indie-folk Americana band the Head and the Heart took its time with the follow-up to its self-titled debut, an album that was originally self-released in 2009 before getting picked up for rerelease by Sub Pop two years later. New album “Let’s Be Still” doesn’t take its own advice, revving up the tempo just shy of barnburner in a shift that should appease growing throngs of fans at the band’s well-reputed live shows.
Gary Numan
“Songs From a Broken Mind” Oct. 15
L Machine Music
M David Zonshine
B Jeremy Holgersen, the Agency Group
Now that electronic elements are present in every corner of popular music, electro pioneers like Daft Punk are reclaiming their ground. Another return, if less fanatically publicized, is that of industrial godfather Gary Numan, who will self-release his first album since 2006’s “Jagged,” and hit the road with Nine Inch Nails at the request of superfan Trent Reznor. Numan says that during the absence, he had two children and suffered a major depressive episode. “The last thing I wanted to do for a few years was make another album. I got over all that, moved the family to America in 2012, loved life again,” he says. “All that bad stuff became food for creativity.”
Lucius
“Wildewoman” Oct. 15
L Mom+Pop
M Ben Levin, Tony Margherita Management
B Dave Rowan, High Road Touring
One hallmark of 2013 in music has been the rising profile of acts with multiple strong, unified female voices like HAIM and Icona Pop. Enter Lucius, a Brooklyn indie-rock band fronted by Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, whose joyous, melodic anthems have become favorites of tastemakers like NPR’s Bob Boilen. While tracks from debut LP “Wildewoman” are ripe for licensing, Wolfe says the group’s focus is on being a live band, and that the most rewarding moments of a breakout year have been “the unexpected performances in small towns, where people are truly grateful for any music.”
Donna Summer
“Love to Love You Donna” Oct. 22
L Verve Records
The legacy of the late Donna Summer will live on this fall, as the first posthumous release from the singer — who died of cancer in 2012 — will arrive Oct. 22. “Love to Love You Donna” will feature new remixes of her classic songs, from such producer/artists as Hot Chip, Frankie Knuckles and Summer’s most famous collaborator, the legendary Giorgio Moroder. He reworks Summer’s first hit, “Love to Love You Baby.”
Brandy Clark
“12 Stories” Oct. 22
L Slate Creek Records
M Emilie Marchbanks, Fitzgerald Hartley Management
B Abby Wells Baas, William Morris Endeavor
Brandy Clark has had songs cut by the likes of Sheryl Crow and Reba McEntire, and scored No. 1s as co-writer on the Band Perry’s “Better Dig Two” and Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart.” Yet a recording contract initially eluded her. On “12 Stories,” Clark is delightfully left of center on songs like “Get High” about a pot-smoking housewife and the single “Stripes” about a woman who refrains from killing her cheating lover because prison uniforms aren’t flattering. “My goal as a songwriter has always been to write a song that someone who wasn’t a songwriter would write if they could write a song,” she says.
Arcade Fire
“TBD” Oct. 29
L Merge
M Scott Rodger, Quest Management
B David “Boche” Viecelli, Billions Corp.
Arcade Fire has revealed few details about its fifth studio album beyond a release date randomly tweeted to a fan in July and a mysterious “Reflektor” campaign suggesting that something will be announced or previewed at 9 p.m. on Sept. 9. But producer James Murphy reports a happy dynamic during the album’s making. “[There’s] a lot of them…I figured, ‘They’re all super talented. Do they need another dude there with his opinions?'” Murphy told Billboard recently. “It turned out it was really nice, and everyone was amazingly respectful of one another.” Also new to Arcade Fire’s team? Universal, which will distribute the record with Capitol promoting the project to radio, though the band remains with longtime label partner Merge.