Ten CDs to Heat Up Your Summer

Fans of non-mainstream popular music have much to look forward to this summer. Many indie bands and singer-songwriters have new albums planned for release in the coming months, including some long-anticipated follow-ups to critically-acclaimed previous efforts.

Here are the ten I most look forward to purchasing.

Death Cab For Cutie
The title of the album, due out May 31, is Codes and Keys. It will be hard for the indie band to top 2008's Narrow Stairs, but the already-released single "You Are a Tourist" indicates that this CD could actually exceed it predecessor.

Flogging Molly
The Irish-American punk band will release Speed of Darkness on May 31, and it will be their first new material since 2008's Float. Fans can expect the band's combination of the grunt of The Pogues with the punk of The Clash.

My Morning Jacket
Jim James (Yim Yames) and the Louisville band he fronts are releasing the follow-up to Evil Urges, the album which made the group a household name among fans of indie rock. The album is called Circuital, and several tracks have been made available digitally. The entire CD hits stores on May 31.

Arctic Monkeys
Suck it and See, set for a June 7 release, promises to be better than the 2009's Humbug, based on the single "Don't Sit Down 'cause I Moved Your Chair." The track has the band's previous sound, which is a combination of Oasis and the Strokes.

Duncan Sheik
The singer-songwriter whose "Barely Breathing" qualifies him as a one-hit wonder has put continued to record smooth, soulful pop in the 15 years since he hit the charts. His upcoming album of covers from the 1980s, scheduled for a June 7 re;ease, is aptly called Covers 80s.

Owl City
All Things Bright and Beautiful will be released on June 14, and Adam Young should continue to display his penchant for clever lyrics as well as the charming tenor that made 2009's Ocean Eyes such a huge hit.

Weird Al Yankovic
The king of musical parody does a take-off on Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (Al's version is "Perform This Way") on his new album Alpolcalypse due out June 21.

Fountains of Wayne
Of all the summer releases, this is the one I am anticipating the most. The yet to be named CD is due out on August 9, and it will likely include the wide range of country, rock, and soft tracks evident on the band's other albums. For almost twenty years now Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwoood have been writing clever, catchy songs that have (thankfully) somehow eluded pop radio stardom.

Kaiser Chiefs
The yet to be named follow-up to Off with Their Heads should arrive in the late summer. "Little Shocks" has already been announced as the first single, and the rest of the tracks will likely have that heavy bass and electric guitar sound swirling around the humorous lyrics fans have come to expect from the British indie band.

Alice Cooper
Welcome to My Nightmare 2, whose summer release date has yet to be determined, i s the sequel to the rocker's 1975 smash album. The concept still focuses on the character named Steven, only now he is thirty years older when he has the nightmare. The album's producer, Bob Ezrin, is also the same one who produced the original.

Sources:
www.mergerecords.com
www.billboard.com