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Lana Del Rey
Photo: EPA/ANDREW COWIE/CPImages
“Lana is simply one of the best songwriters in the country,” Bruce Springsteen said recently on his E Street Band SiriusXM station. “She just creates a world of her own and invites you in … a big favourite of mine,” the Boss continued. Not only that: she creates fab album titles, like the one for her new record, ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’, due out September 5. We all remember her dramatically titled 2012 debut, ‘Born to Die,’ and her most recent outing, 2019’s ‘Norman F**king Rockwell!’ If your autumn needs a soundtrack built out of glamorous, doomed romance and the melancholy that follows, ask your robot home assistant to put this one on repeat.
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Alicia Keys
What the world needs now is more Alicia Keys, so it’s handy that she’s releasing new work. The classically trained pianist, singer, and composer releases ‘Alicia’ on September 18. It serves as the followup to 2016's ‘Here’. This is only Keys’ seventh album and she’s already racked up 15 Grammys so this is worth getting excited about. Check out her latest single, “So Done”, a slow-burn R&B jam with Khalid that has a rad, prom-themed video.
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Carrie Underwood
CP Images
You already know this seven-time Grammy-winning country star who’s sold 64 million records worldwide. But maybe you didn’t know she has a bunch of stuff for you. First on the list is her new album, ‘My Gift’. It’s her first Christmas album (!) and she’s delivering it to you on September 25. It features all of Jesus’ fave birthday hits, like “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “Let There Be Peace”, “Away in a Manger”, and “Silent Night”. Also, it includes her cover of Canadian treasure Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. What else is in her bag of gifts? She’s released her first book, 'Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life'. Is there an accompanying app? Yep. It’s her new fitness app, fit52, available in the App Store and in Google Play. And one more gift: Apple Music recently announced XO Radio, a monthly radio show hosted and produced by Underwood, which airs on the newly launched Apple Music Country.
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Hannah Georgas
Supplied by Listen Harder
Canada’s indie-pop goddess drops ‘All That Emotion’ on September 4. “The album cover is an old family photo," Georgas said in a statement. "I love the image because it captures this calm confidence. It looks like people are watching a performance and it seems like he’s diving in without a second thought. Similarly, I find that it parallels the approach needed within art. The calm confidence of expressing yourself without the thought of consequence, regardless of anyone watching." The National’s Aaron Dessner produced ‘All That Emotion’ and he just finished up producing T-Swift’s major hit record, ‘Folklore’, so get involved.
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Keith Urban
ABC/Mark Levine
He's measuring the speed of now in two or more parts, at least that's what we've gleaned from the title of the country superstar's upcoming disk, 'The Speed of Now Part 1', out September 18. And on September 16, he'll host the Academy of Country Music Awards. No, that's not a misprint. Her Majesty Reba McEntire, the ceremony's 17-time host, is passing the reins to Urban this year.
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SuperM
SM Entertainment
How super are SuperM? This K-pop supergroup takes SHINee’s Taemin, EXO’s Baekhyun and Kai, NCT 127’s Taeyong and Mark, and WayV’s Lucas and Ten and puts them together. The result? With their 2019 debut EP, ‘The 1st Mini Album’, SuperM made history as the first Asian artists to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. “Beyond LIVE”, their online exclusive concert in April, drew viewers from 109 countries. So they’re pretty super. And their new record promises to be a super one. You can tell because they called it ‘Super One’. It drops September 25 so prepare for impact.
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Elliott Brood
via Six Shooter Records
Toronto and Hamilton fight over a lot of things, but at the top of the list, right beneath the CFL, is which city gets to claim alt-country trio Elliott Brood as their resident frontier rock band. For the sake of peace, let’s say they’re based in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. (The “GTHA”. It’s a thing now.) You know these guys from their Polaris Music Prize-shortlisted breakout album, ‘Mountain Meadows’, in 2008. Their seventh record, ‘Keeper’, out September 18, is the followup to 2017’s ‘Ghost Gardens’.
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Swae Lee
Rick Kern/Getty
**Note!** This American rap star, who also represents half of hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, is widely expected to release ‘Human Nature’ in September, but an exact release for his second album hasn’t yet been set. Lee has been featured on some major hits in the past three years, including French Montana’s “Unforgettable” in 2017 and "Sunflower”, his ubiquitous track with Post Malone from the “Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse” soundtrack in 2018. “Reality Check”, the lead single from ‘Human Nature’, reached the top 10 in July. (Also, Rae Sremmurd? Spell it backward.)
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Scott Helman
CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
The Toronto singer-songwriter behind hits like “Bungalow” and “Hangups” is back on September 4 with ‘Nonsuch Park (sa)’. “Not enough brackets and other such punctuation in album titles these days,” is what we always say. Here’s what Helman himself had to say, in a statement: “This album is about my changes, my growth, my hardships, my celebrations, my fears, my courage and my love.” Here for it.
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Marie Davidson & L’OEil Nu
Bonsound
This Montreal trio is set to drop some forward-facing, innovative pop with ‘Renegade Breakdown’, due out on September 25. You’ll find flecks of Fleetwood Mac, Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday, and Chet Baker in this blend. ‘Renegade Breakdown’ follows Marie Davidson’s 2018 breakout album, ‘Working Class Woman’, which was widely praised by critics and garnered a Grammy nomination.
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The Elwins
via Killbeat Music
You love them for their style, their imaginative facial hair, and most importantly, for their tight pop-rock sound. The Newmarket, Ontario, quartet will release ‘IV’ on September 18. It’s their fourth record, which probably means the album title is the Roman numeral for four and not an ode to intravenous stuff. “It’s about the desire to find someone, to have it all feel right, and have it last,” Elwins bassist Francesco Figliomeni said in a statement. So that settles it.
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Machine Gun Kelly
CP Images
You’re already loving the lead singles “Concert for Aliens” and “My Ex’s Best Friend (feat. blackbear)” and you’ll get the full wallop when Megan Fox’s new beau releases his highly anticipated pop-punk record, ‘Tickets To My Downfall’, on September 25. The rapper from Cleveland, Ohio, is embracing pop-punk for this, his fifth record.