Adele, Pink Floyd and Prince herald the season of the comeback
This autumn, major artists are queueing up to unleash long-awaited albums, plus there’s the tantalising possibility of a return from Lauryn Hill
The big guns are back this autumn. Every year, this is the time when the major labels release their most important records, but 2014 sees a pile-up of A-list talent as a series of major artists make their returns. Pink Floyd, presumed lost in action following the death of Richard Wright in 2008, will re-emerge with their cosmic grandeur; Adele – saviour of the music industry with her last album – will excite both the record-buying public and the executives, if she can get her album out before Christmas. Those long-rumoured Prince albums finally get a release. And there lurks the faint hope that one of pop’s most unpredictable talents – someone who has thrilled both critics and punters – might finally follow-up one of the most memorable albums of the 90s. It is, truly, the season of the comeback.
The most anticipated returnee is Adele, whose last record, 21, was the world’s biggest selling album of both 2011 and 2012. Her new album – which pretty much everyone in the world is certain will be called 25 – has been tipped to be released in November, though it may be held back to the new year, when there’s no competition in the charts. But given she’s apparently now happy and contented, and has devoted much of the past 18 months to motherhood, will her new songs capture the public imagination the way the heartbroken laments of 21 did? “I’ve been out of the loop, really,” she told Rolling Stone in 2013. “I’ve just been singing my baby nursery rhymes, so I don’t really know what’s cool and what’s not.”
We know, though, that she almost certainly hasn’t made an album that will stray far from the very middle of the road, given that among her handpicked collaborators are Phil Collins and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.
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http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...f-the-comeback 
