October music preview: The Rolling Stones return, and Taylor Swift revisits 1989

A. Savage, co-leader of the excellent New York post-punk band Parquet Courts, is releasing his second solo album. Several Songs About Fire, the follow-up to 2017’s Thawing Dawn, was produced by frequent PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish and features contributions from Cate Le Bon, Modern Nature/Ultimate Painting’s Jack Cooper, and others. Savage’s voice, both literal and literary, remains as distinctive as ever, and fans of Parquet Courts and/or laconic wit will be eating well.

In the ’90s, Keanu Reeves played bass in an alt-rock band called Dogstar. They broke up in 2002. But the Keanuaissance triumphs over all, and Dogstar are returning soon with their first album in 23 years, Somewhere Between The Power Lines And Palm Trees. Their music still sounds like classic ’90s alt-rock, and you’ll get a chance to see them on tour this fall.

As one of the original stars of A.G. Cook’s PC Music label, Hannah Diamond played a pivotal role in hyper-pop’s mainstream breakthrough. The British singer is finally getting to release her sophomore album, Perfect Picture, the follow-up to her 2019 debut, Reflections, produced by David Gamson of Scritti Politti. “Pop music is this magical form of communication to me,” Diamond says. “It has the power to transform ephemeral things into tangible worlds and help it take on other forms and become expansive. That’s why ‘Perfect Picture’ became the album title track. It really does feel like it captures me. Not just one side of me but all the many layers that make up who I am at my core.”

Javelin, Sufjan Stevens’ first official solo album since 2020’s The Ascension, is billed as “his first in full solo singer-songwriter mode since 2015’s Carrie & Lowell” and “a testament to classic ’70s Los Angeles studio recording sessions.” If you’re a certain kind of Sufjan fan, that’s enough to get you salivating. And if you’re any kind of Sufjan fan, the slowly unfurling majesty of lead single “So You Are Tired” is enough to win you over completely.

Gucci Mane is hoping his new album, Breath Of Fresh Air, will be exactly that for the mainstream rap world. “I’m just not in the mood to hear a whole bunch of drilling and killing,” the prolific rapper told Apple Music in a recent interview. “Let me just kind of lead by example and show people that there is more to rap about than my opps. You can rap about going out to eat with your girl or your wife. And that’s what all the songs are about.”

Idiosyncratic neo-soul singer Jamila Woods is one of the leading lights of the Chicago music and poetry scene. She’s described her upcoming album Water Made Us, named after a line from the track “Good News” that references a Toni Morrison quote, as “the most personal and vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever made ... I hope it feels like a playlist that carries you through the life cycle of a relationship, whatever stage of the journey your heart may be in.”

Nashville singer-songwriter Margo Price released her album Strays less than a year ago, and she’s already expanding on it with Strays II, an extended double album featuring nine new songs separated into three acts. All of the material was recorded with producer Jonathan Wilson during the same sessions that birthed Strays, and new guests like Big Thief’s Buck Meek and Harry Styles band member Ny Oh are arriving to join the party.

Last year, Metric came back with Formentera, their first LP in four years. This year, it’s getting a sequel in Formentera II. “The first part of Formentera started with a huge amount of anxiety and ended in a moment of personal release and freedom,” the band’s guitarist Jimmy Shaw explains. “But Formentera II takes that escape even further. The back half of Formentera II really takes you off the map completely and you end up in a place in your mind that is blissfully further from reality.” Lead single “Just The Once” finds the Toronto indie rock veterans exploring some disco-revival-adjacent territory inspired by Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia.

Jonny Pierce’s indie-pop band the Drums has become a solo project in recent years, and his new album, Jonny, will be his most personal work yet. Featuring Pierce in the nude on the album cover, Jonny digs into the childhood trauma that the musician experienced growing up in a cult-like religious community in upstate New York. “When I finished Jonny, I listened to it, and I heard my soul reflected back at me,” Pierce says. “It is devastating and triumphant, it is lost and found, it is confused and certain, it is wise and foolish. It is male and female, it is hard and gentle.”

Troye Sivan is following up his 2018 LP Bloom with a new one called Something To Give Each Other, which the Australian pop singer describes as “my something to give you—a kiss on a dancefloor, a date turned into a weekend, a crush, a winter, a summer. Party after party, after party after after party. Heartbreak, freedom. Community, sisterhood, friendship. All that.” A celebration of queer love and “the joy of human connection,” Something To Give Each Other is sure to provide plenty of pure pop banger,s a la lead single “Rush.”

Blink-182’s classic lineup of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker aren’t just doing a reunion tour—they’re giving us a whole new album, too. The aptly titled One More Time is produced by Barker himself, who explains that the title track is “about ‘why does it take these catastrophes like me being in a plane crash or Mark being sick for our band to get back together?’” DeLonge adds, “Coming out with these words, ‘One More Time,’ it’s like, ‘Hey, this is the last time we’re going to fuck this up.’”

Bombay Bicycle Club’s new album, My Big Day, might not have the most enticing cover art, but it does have plenty of star power behind it. Produced by the band’s own Jack Steadman alongside Paul Epworth and Ben H. Allen and mixed by Dave Fridmann, the LP will feature Damon Albarn, Jay Som, Nilüfer Yanya, and Holly Humberstone.

Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan has had a long and fascinating career, and it’s about to get another chapter with the release of Lighthouse, his third solo album. If you had any lingering doubts about McKagan’s rock pedigree, guest appearances from big names like Slash, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, and proto-punk pioneer Iggy Pop should quickly dispel them.

It’s been too long since the last Sampha album. The London singer is finally following up his 2017 debut, Process, with Lahai, which takes its title from Sampha’s grandfather’s name—and the artist’s own middle name. The LP boasts collaborations with kindred spirits like Yaeji, Léa Sen, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Ibeyi, Morgan Simpson (Black Midi), Yussef Dayes, Laura Groves, and Kwake Bass, but Sampha’s inimitably soulful voice is enough to hook listeners.

The Rolling Stones’ upcoming album Hackney Diamonds is the rock legends’ first album since 2016's blues covers collection Blue & Lonesome and their first album of original songs since A Bigger Bang way back in 2005. Produced by Don Was and Andrew Watt, Hackney Diamonds features contributions from the late Stones drummer Charlie Watts and original bassist Bill Wyman along with Lady Gaga, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

While DJ Shadow’s last few records have featured plenty of big-name guests, Action Adventure will be a little different. “There are 14 tracks, and all but one is instrumental,” the producer explains. “This, by definition, places it closer to Endtroducing and The Private Press in terms of personality and feel, but this is no throwback. The songs represent my continued evolution as a producer and songwriter, and I can honestly say that I couldn’t have made these tracks even a few years ago.” New DJ Shadow in the vein of his masterpiece, Entroducing? Sign us up.

Duran Duran is shepherding us into the spooky season with their new album, Danse Macabre, inspired by a Halloween show that the new wave icons played in Las Vegas last year. Featuring three new tracks alongside reimagined versions of Duran Duran classics and covers of tunes by Billie Eilish, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, and more, the LP will feature Nile Rodgers and original Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor. “The record metamorphosed through a pure, organic process, and not only was it made faster than anything since our debut album, it has also resulted in something none of us could have ever predicted,” Nick Rhodes explains. “Emotion, mood, style, and attitude have always been at the heart of Duran Duran’s DNA. We search for light in the darkness and darkness in the light, and I feel we have somehow managed to capture the essence of all of that in this project.”

Taylor Swift is going through and rerecording her back catalog to regain control of her masters (and to stick it to Scooter Braun, who’s been losing clients left and right lately). We’ve already gotten Taylor’s Versions of the albums Fearless, Red, and Speak Now. Next on the list is 1989 (Taylor’s Version), coming out nine years to the day after the original 1989 and including five unreleased tracks. “To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane,” Swift writes on Instagram. “I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”

The Kills’ Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince composed their new album God Games, their first since 2016’s Ash & Ice, on piano and keyboard instead of guitar, a first for the band. They then decamped to an old church to record with Grammy Award-winning producer and Adele collaborator Paul Epworth. “Paul was our very first soundman in 2002,” Hince recalls. “Since he was with us when we had two amps, a lightbulb, and a couple of mics in a van, it seemed perfect. He knew how far it had come and could trace the thread back.” God Games promises new colors and textures shading in the band’s classic blues-influenced sound.

2002’s All Hail West Texas is one of the Mountain Goats’ most beloved albums. Over 20 years later, it’s getting a sequel in Jenny From Thebes, which is all about a recurring character in the Mountain Goats universe first introduced in the All Hail West Texas track “Jenny.” “People like to hedge bets by using terms like ‘concept album’ but let’s be clear, this is a rock opera about a woman named Jenny, who buys a Kawasaki to ride as far away as she can from a town she’s been carrying on her shoulders too long,” the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle says. “If we’re going to do a sequel to a record that was recorded almost entirely on a boombox, why not do the opposite and make it as big as possible?”