Massive Album Art Update - Part 2

Here's part two of my "Massive Album Artwork" update. The artwork comes from a variety of sources including Popjustice, Coverlandia and official major label resources.

The Best of Enya is the Irish singer's 4th best of set, the last one being 2002's Only Time - The Collection boxed set. Due out on November 16th, the album will be available in both a standard version as well as a deluxe CD/DVD version. While the album doesn't contain any new tracks, however "Aníron," from The Lord Of The Rings will appear for the first time on an Enya album. While I don't identify as an Enya fan per se, I do appreciate the beautiful and ethereal quality to her voice. While her stage presence leaves something to be desired (she's very shy and awkward, from what I've seen) she has a beautiful voice. I also love this artwork. I love the way her red dress pops against the black background.

I'm surprised that All Or Nothing is going to be British singer Jay Sean's debut U.S. album. Maybe this is because I've been more intently focused on the UK music scene and I've seen quite a few singles released over the past couple of years. Due out on November 23rd, All Or Nothing features Sean's hit single "Down," featuring U.S. rapper Lil' Wayne, hitting the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. The album will be released on Universal Music Group's Super Monday, with all of the label's higher profile albums being released on the Monday before the holiday to take advantage of the start of the busy shopping season. Jay Sean has seen success in both the UK and in the Asian markets, but has yet to tackle the U.S. music scene. With a successful first single in the bag, this seems like the perfect time for Sean to launch his career in the States. "Do You Remember," the second U.S. single was released to radio on October 10th and features guest appearances from Lil Jon and Sean Paul.

John Mayer's 4th studio album, Battle Studies and will be released on November 17th, a follow up to 2006's 2X Platinum Continuum. First single "Who Says" was released on October 13th and so far has peaked at #26 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart. I really like "Who Says" and am excited for Battle Studies. It's apparently a sonic departure from his last album, being described as a "fresh style of song writing." This should be interesting.I love Mayer's look on the album cover...B&W...well styled...sexy.

29 year old British singer Katherine Jenkins isn't your average pop star. In fact, she's not really a pop star at all. Jenkins is a chart-topping, award-winning mezzo-soprano, hitting the top of the UK album charts and winning two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards. Impressive! "Believe" is believed to be the lead single off of Jenkins' forthcoming best of compilation, due out October 26th. It also happens to be the title of the CD, which can be pre-ordered on Jenkins' own website. The album also features "Bring Me To Life," which has been remixed by Almighty. Beautiful girl, beautiful voice - it's hard to believe that at just 29, she already has 7 albums under her belt. Impressive indeed.

As I mentioned before, Katy Perry is getting ready to release her first live album, an MTV Unplugged album no less. I love the cover artwork, a photo still from her live performance. Perry looks stunning in pink. With a smile on her face and a guitar in her hands, Katy Perry looks like she's in her element. The album is due out on November 17th.

This is the artwork from American Idol Season 8 winner, Kris Allen's debut album. The set is due out on November 17th and features collaborations with Claude Kelly, David Hodges, Salaam Remi, Joe King of The Fray, Toby Gad, Alex Band of The Calling, Dan Wilson of Semisonic, Lindy Robbins, Chris Daughtry and Mat Kearney. PHEW! Now that's quite a list! Allen released his debut single on September 21st (digitally on September 25th), "Live Like We're Dying," which was originally done by Irish band, The Script. If the single is indicative of the sound Allen is going for, I think it's going to be a strong album. What's more...how cute does Kris Allen look on the covers? *DROOL*

To capitalize on the MASSIVE success of Lady Gaga's debut album, The Fame, she's releasing The Fame Monster, due out on November 24th. In addition to material originally included on the previous release of The Fame, The Fame Monster includes 8 new tracks. According to an interview in Rolling Stone Magazine, Gaga said that "originally [my label] wanted me to put out three songs and now it's much more than that, it's a new album's worth of material." 4 of the new tracks are produced by RedOne ("Bad Romance," "Alejandro," "Monster," "So Happy I Could Die"), while Fernando Garibay ("Dancing In The Dark"), Rodney "Dark Child" Jerkins ("Telephone"), Teddy Riley ("Teeth") and Ron Fair ("Speechless") produced one track each. Lady Gaga wrote all of the songs, including lead single "Bad Romance," due to be released on October 19th. This is one release that I'll have NO problem purchasing. I am also loving the artwork for the album. So different than anything I've seen Gaga wearing before. Very interesting. I think of the two, I prefer the blond Gaga. The dark haired photo reminds me too much of an early Shakira.

I'm not really too sure what I think about Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester's debut solo single, "Somebody To Love." While it's got the electro-pop production and features silky smooth vocals by one of my favorites, Robin Thicke, the song just lack energy from it's leading lady. Meester seems to fade into the background here. Produced by Mike Caren and Oligee (Flo-Rida, Cobra Starship), the single was released on October 14th and serves as the lead single from Meester's as yet untitled debut album. A video for the single is due out sometime this month, followed by a UK release sometime in December. I expected more out of this single, especially considering how much I enjoyed her featured vocal in the Cobra Starship track, "Good Girls Go Bad." I'm still choosing to remain optimistic about her debut album, due out sometime this Fall.

"Trouble Is A Friend" is the second single off of Australian singer Lenka's debut self-titled album, released in September of 2008. Lenka's first single was "The Show," in June, followed in August by "Trouble Is A Friend." The newest single will be "We Will Not Grow Old." The talented Aussie singer/songwriter and actress first gained U.S. attention when her song "The Show" appeared in an Old Navy commercial. Two of her songs, including "Trouble Is A Friend" were featured in the U.S. TV show Grey's Anatomy as well as the American reboot of 90210. I love what I've heard so far out of Lenka and look forward to hearing a great deal more.

"Who'd Have Known" will be the 5th (4th in the UK) single off of Lily Allen's hit album, It's Not Me, It's You and I couldn't be happier. "Who'd Have Known" has always been one of my favorite album tracks. It was written by Allen and Greg Kurstin, and samples Take That's single "Shine." The single is due for a release on November 23rd, preceded by the video which portrays Allen as an obsessed Elton John groupie. Brilliant! I love this video. Lily is hilarious. She and Elton John are apparently friends in real life, despite media reports saying the opposite. I also quite enjoy this single artwork, although it does stray away from Allen's posing around some gigantic numbers and letters, as she had in the artwork for her previous singles. Allen looks beautiful and sounds beautiful.

Lola (AKA Jennifer Lopez) has a hot new single "Fresh Out Of The Oven." Yep - that's the title. "Fresh Out Of The Oven" featuring Pitbull, produced by The Neptunes will NOT be on Lopez's forthcoming album, Love? due out January 25, 2010 in the UK and January 26th in the U.S. This single is a "buzz single," being released strictly for promotional purposes. Lopez's label confirms that Lopez is NOT adopting a new persona, saying "Lola is just for this song....She hasn't become Sasha Fierce. There won't be anything to do with Lola on her Love? album." While I'm confused as to why this song won't be featured on the upcoming album, which has been described as a return to Lopez's dance/pop roots - it's certainly doing it's job creating a buzz. I'm pumped for some new Lopez. Anything beats 2007's Brave bomb.

Malice In Wonderland is Snoop Dogg's 10th studio album. Wow. That's quite a career! Due to be released on December 8th, 2009, the album was produced by Dr. Dre, Nottz, DJ Quik, The Neptunes, The-Dream, and more. Expect guest appearances by The Game, The-Dream, R. Kelly, Kid Cudi, Soulja Boy - just to name a few. First single, "Gangsta Luv" was produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. I'm loving this album artwork. It's a dark and sexy cartoon. To be honest, I'd rather not see Snoop Dogg's mug on another album cover.

This is the "new" posthumous single from Michael Jackson, off of his This Is It compilation album due out on October 26th. The album promotes the motion picture release, Michael Jackson's This Is It - a film chronicling what was going to be his big comeback tour. While originally tauted as a new single, information recently came to light, revealing that Paul Anka co-wrote the song with Jackson in 1983. Sa-Fire later included the song on her 1991 album, back when it was called "I Never Heard." While the single was released to radio only on October 12th, it impressively debuted at #43 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song itself isn't really anything impressive, but it's "new" to most of us so naturally people are going to love it, especially with it being so soon after Jackson's death.

"I Wish" is the second single from English electro-pop group Mini Viva, due out November 30th. Produced by Xenomania, managed by Simon Fuller and signed to Geffen Records UK - Mini Viva consists of Frankee Connolly and Britt Love. Debut single "Left My Heart In Tokyo," was released on September 6th and in my opinion is a total club stomper. While I haven't yet heard any snippets of their second single, I'm really excited. I've been following producer/remixer Cahill's tweets and he's been talking about working on the new single. I can only imagine with Cahill on the remix, that it's going to be a smash. No release date has been set yet for Mini Viva's debut album, but I imagine that it will be early next year.

As I previously mentioned in another post, Norah Jones released her new single, "Chasing Pirates" on October 13th. The single is definitely different than anything Jones has done before and that's totally a good thing. I'm really excited for her forthcoming album, The Fall, due out November 17th. The artwork is nothing new...in fact it's practically identical to her album artwork. The single artwork includes a different pose and a few more dogs. Go download this single now on iTunes!