The time to compile those best-of lists for last year is over. It's time to move on and get a head start on the new year's best-of rankings. The first few months of 2012 promise legendary comebacks, potential pop blockbusters, and the debut disc from one of the Internet's most buzzed about personalities. Here's what we'll be watching for:
Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Feb. 14)
She was named Billboard's Rising Star of 2011 (and seemed to be as ubiquitous as hip-hop's go-to, very special guest star for a good year before that), but 2012 is primed to be another year of Nicki Minaj. If we're giving credit where it's due, though, the year ahead may be more about Roman Zolanski, Minaj's psychopathic male alter-ego. Minaj shared news of the record on the one-year anniversary of Pink Friday's release, explaining the disc would be an all-new affair. (The Pink Friday title had caused some confusion online.) A Roman Reloaded track listing has yet to be revealed. Minaj, however, seems to play better with others than just about anyone else in the game. Past collaborators include Drake, Lil Wayne, Madonna and Britney Spears. This time, it's not yet clear whether she'll be collaborating with more artists on her new album.
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"I don't think I'm hitting up anybody for features for this sophomore album," she told MTV, "but I never give away all my secrets."
Other releases that are popping out at us:
? Dev, The Night the Sun Came Up - Jan. 10.
? Melanie Fiona, The MF Life - Feb. 7.
? Estelle, All of Me - Feb. 28.
? The Ting Tings, Sounds from Nowheresville - March 6
? Adam Lambert, Trespassing - March 20.
? Willow Smith, So You Think You Know Me - April 3.
The Shins, Port of Morrow (March - Date TBA)
When the Shins' fourth full-length disc arrives in the spring, it will have been five years since the Portland, Ore. act's last effort, the Grammy nominated Wincing the Night Away. Shins ringleader James Mercer has been active since then, notably through his Broken Bells collaboration with acclaimed producer Danger Mouse. Mercer and his current touring lineup - featuring Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer, among others - played several shows throughout 2011, and even previewed some new songs from Port of Morrow.
The Shins' upcoming album will mark its first one away from the Sub Pop record label. Instead, it will be released through
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Columbia Records and Mercer's label, Aural Apothecary. Producer Greg Kurstin - who has worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Kelly Clarkson, Lily Allen, Sia and Ladyhawke - is reported to have produced all 10 tracks on Port of Morrow.
Other releases from indie mainstays that will make you sprout an ironic moustache out of unbridled anticipation:
? Craig Finn (of the Holdsteady), Clear Heart Full Eyes - Jan. 24.
? Nada Surf, Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy - Jan. 24.
? Of Montreal, Paralytic Stalks - Feb. 7.
? Andrew Bird, Break it Yourself - March 6.
? Magnetic Fields, Love at the Bottom of the Sea - March 6.
Madonna, Untitled (March - Date TBA)
Since the early '80s, Madonna has defined a certain brand of pop music and pop stardom, and although it's difficult to think of any other performer - female or otherwise - who's come close to holding a candle to her, the Top 40 landscape has changed significantly since her last album, Hard Candy, in 2008.
The electro-pop she's revelled in - and occasionally reinvented - since the '80s is everywhere. Pop stars, including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj, are building their own multidiscipline cults of personality that might one day rival Madonna's own.
It'll be curious to see how Madonna's latest will fit in the dance-pop-saturated landscape, but the once, and possibly future, queen of pop has scheduled an unusual launching pad for her 11th studio effort.
On Feb. 5, she'll play the Super Bowl in a number that will include the new single, Gimme All Your Luvin.
An unpolished recording of the track, which features rappers M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj, leaked in November, upsetting the pop star, as her manager Guy Oseary tweeted: "Madonna told me this morning, 'My true fans wouldn't do this.' " Since then, it was revealed that Madonna's as-yet-untitled disc will be the first of a three-album deal with Interscope. (Madonna severed her long-standing relationship with Warner Music Group four years ago, when she signed a deal with Live Nation. The company will share in the profits of the star's new record as part of the Interscope deal, according to the Associated Press.) As for collaborators, longtime producer William Orbit and French DJ Martin Solveig are reported to be involved. Madonna fan sites have suggested contributors could include everyone from the NPR-beloved singer-song-writer/master guitar-shredder St. Vincent to rapper Kid Cudi.
Other releases from living leg-ends:
? ? Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas - Jan. 31
? ? Paul McCartney, Untitled - Feb. 7
Kathleen Edwards, Voyageur - Jan. 17
Previews of Voyageur, Kathleen Edwards's followup to Polaris nominated Asking for Flowers (2008), have positioned the record as a reinvention for the singer-songwriter. However, the album track Change the Sheets still suggests the musician hasn't exactly abandoned the observational twang she's developed over her last three discs.
Voyageur seems to be more of a musical exploration of sorts. For one, Edwards co-produced the disc with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, her boyfriend and sometime tourmate who's topped countless Best of 2011 lists.
"As a fan, I wanted to make sure (I helped) make this fourth record not a complete departure, yet definitely marking a new era in her songs," Vernon said in a behind-the-scenes video about Voyageur. "She's ready to step out of some of the boxes people placed her in, not necessarily the ones she placed herself in."
Vernon isn't the only collaborator involved.
"For the first time, I was open to the idea of co-writing, and what had previously been an in-tensely private process became a challenge to see what would hap-pen with an open mind to a different approach," Edwards said in a statement about the project.
Featured artists are said to include Norah Jones, Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas, Feist) and Bon Iver's Sean Carey, among others.
Other releases that will make your heart bleed with Canadian pride and, possibly, maple syrup and whisky:
John K. Samson (of the Weak-erthans), Provincial - Jan. 24
? ? Islands, A Sleep & A Forgetting - Feb. 21
? ? Plants and Animals, The End of That - Feb. 28
? ? Said the Whale, Little Mountain - March 6
Lana Del Rey Born To Die - Jan. 30
She has a Jan. 14 gig on Saturday Night Live, she's been featured in Rolling Stone and Q , and she's the sultry singer behind Video Games, which the Guardian newspaper named as the best song of 2011. All this, and her first album hasn't even been released yet. Del Rey began generating attention online this past summer with her video for Video Games. Raised in Lake Placid, N.Y., as Lizzy Grant, Del Rey has repeatedly told the media she struggled as a musician for seven years. When she posted a self-made video for Video Games, her ambitions were modest: She expected her friends to see it. Instead, it went viral and led to a record deal. The songs on Born To Die, Del Rey said in a statement, are "an homage to true love and a tribute to living life on the wild side." The cinematic video for the title track takes that mission statement seriously. Del Rey is styled to look like the second coming of Ann-Margret - albeit while wearing a fringed jacket that could have been swiped from the wardrobe department of Footloose - who joyrides with her All American boy-toy, only to die in a fiery blaze. In other scenes, she's a deep-voiced goddess on a throne, flanked by two live tigers.
Other releases from web-worthy bands aiming to reclaim their buzz:
?? Chairlift, Something - Jan. 24
? ? Sleigh Bells, Reign of Terror - Feb. 14
? ? Tennis, Young and Old - Feb. 14
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