Some of the year’s buzziest artists (Charli XCX, Chappell Roan) are headlining tours and festivals this fall, and a bevy of new albums from established stars (Shawn Mendes, Jelly Roll) and up-and-comers (Flo, Nemahsis) are on the way. Dates and lineups are subject to change.
September
NILÜFER YANYA The British musician Nilüfer Yanya makes pensive, intricately layered songs that revel in unexpected textural jolts. On “Like I Say (I Runaway),” the lead single from her third album, “My Method Actor,” the deadpan, Sade-like cool of Yanya’s vocals is interrupted by a sudden eruption of PJ Harvey-esque guitar distortion. A melodically rich meditation on identity, desire and the reverberations of heartache, “My Method Actor” is a confident and hypnotic follow-up to her 2022 release, “Painless.” (Sept. 13; Ninja Tune) LINDSAY ZOLADZ
NEMAHSIS Nemahsis — the songwriter Nemah Hasan, who has Palestinian roots — sings about seizing her tangled identity as an independent artist, a Muslim, the daughter of immigrants and a self-questioning but determined individualist. On her debut album, “Verbathim,” her producers include Drake’s regular collaborator Noah (40) Shebib, with songs that can be folky or test the electronic edges of hyperpop. (Sept. 13; Verbaithim) JON PARELES
SEXYY RED Fresh off several high-profile collaborations with Drake, Sexyy Red, the 26-year-old St. Louis rapper, makes the leap to headlining arenas on her Sexyy Red 4 President tour, on which she’s playing songs from her latest mixtape, “In Sexyy We Trust.”. That’s one way to kick off election season. (Sept. 17; Barclays Center) ZOLADZ
CHARLI XCX AND TROYE SIVAN Most live performances by the British pop singer, songwriter and producer Charli XCX tend to feel more like semi-legal warehouse raves than highly choreographed arena shows, but the breakout success of her sixth album, “Brat,” means that, on the Sweat Tour that she is headlining with the Australian pop star Troye Sivan, the 32-year-old industry veteran will be playing some of the largest venues of her career. Bid farewell to Brat Summer in style starting Sept. 14 in Detroit. (Sept. 23; Madison Square Garden) ZOLADZ
MUSTAFA Mustafa, the Sudanese-Canadian songwriter formerly known as Mustafa the Poet, titled his full-length debut album “Dunya,” the Arabic word for earthly, mortal life. Although he has collaborated with Shawn Mendes and the Weeknd, his own songs are folky and melancholy, sung in a breathy voice that’s almost ghostly. On “Dunya,” he ponders faith, love, family, painful memories, gang violence and the cultural tensions of growing up Muslim in the West. Tucked into the gentle tracks are self-effacing appearances by Clairo, Aaron Dessner and Nicolas Jaar. (Sept. 27; Jagjaguwar) PARELES
SOPHIE Sophie, the hyperpop pioneer and virtuoso producer of snappy synthetic sounds and glossy pop hooks, left behind a nearly completed album when she died, in a fall, in 2021. Benny Long, her studio manager and longtime collaborator, completed her digital work in progress for a final album, “Sophie,” with assorted collaborators including Kim Petras. It’s both a memorial and a reminder of unrealized possibilities. (Sept. 27; Future Classic/Transgressive) PARELES
ALL THINGS GO FESTIVAL The Washington, D.C.-area music festival All Things Go is expanding to New York City for the first time this year, and its inaugural lineup at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens is a smartly curated mix of household names (Janelle Monáe), indie favorites (boygenius’s Julien Baker; the goth princess Ethel Cain) and rising stars (the “Mean Girls” alum Reneé Rapp; the pop-rock trio Muna). The weekend’s prime attraction is the sudden sensation Chappell Roan, whose jubilant synth-pop singalongs and impressively wrenching vocals have been drawing massive (and sequin-clad) crowds all festival season long. ATG is a rare concert series to commit to gender diversity in its booking; in a striking contrast to most other music festivals, nearly every act on the New York bill is a female artist or female-fronted band. (Sept. 28-29; Forest Hills Stadium) ZOLADZ
October
DRUG CHURCH The Albany-based hard rock band Drug Church’s music beats with a persistent and defiantly empathetic heart. Many of the songs on its pummeling fifth album, “Prude,” tell harrowing stories about people on society’s fringes: a young runaway on a missing person poster (“Hey Listen”), a drug addict who fakes his own kidnapping (“Business Ethics”). The vocalist and songwriter Patrick Kindlon sketches these characters with compassion and a sharp eye for the absurdity of modern life; the lead guitarist Nick Cogan provides loud, chunky riffs that match the intensity of Kindlon’s cathartic shouts. (Oct. 4; Pure Noise) ZOLADZ
THE SMILE While Radiohead hasn’t released a new studio album since 2016, two of its members — Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood — have been downright prolific in the Smile, their band with Tom Skinner on drums. On “Cutouts,” its third album (and second this year!), the Smile leans into analog-sounding synthesizer tones. Its songs are still balancing dread and beauty while toying with sound and structure. (Oct. 4; XL) PARELES
ODEAN POPE Odean Pope’s mighty tenor saxophone sound reflects a lifetime of precious experience, from backing Motown greats and practicing with his friend John Coltrane early on to playing alongside the drum legend Max Roach for more than two decades. A connoisseurs’ favorite with a broad C.V. that encompasses funky fusion, gritty post-bop and extensive work with his nine-strong Saxophone Choir, he remains underrated at age 85, likely in part because of geography. Audiences outside Philadelphia, Pope’s home since childhood, rarely get to hear him live; this Jazz at Lincoln Center gig, under the banner Hometown Heroes, is a welcome exception. (Oct. 8; Dizzy’s Club) HANK SHTEAMER
BILLIE EILISH Even when the pop phenom Billie Eilish is whisper-singing one of her quietest, most ethereal ballads, she has enough charisma to captivate an entire arena. The songs on her third album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” show off entirely new facets of Eilish’s sound, occasionally even calling for her to belt to the rafters. Her pair of buoyant recent hits, “Lunch” and “Birds of a Feather,” are likely to be live crowd pleasers on her tour supporting that LP, which kicks off Sept. 29 in Quebec, but expect a set list scattered with past smashes, too: The nine-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar winner already has a much deeper back catalog than most 22-year-olds. (Oct. 9 at the Prudential Center in Newark; Oct. 16, 17 and 18 at Madison Square Garden) ZOLADZ
JELLY ROLL After a long, independent journeyman career mixing rap and country, Jelly Roll went national singing arena-country songs that lean into narratives of adversity, addiction, self-doubt and ultimate redemption. A new album, “Beautifully Broken,” is due in October, while his tour of the same name is already underway. It comes to Madison Square Garden on Sept. 27, the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on the afternoon of Sept. 28, UBS Arena on the night of Sept. 28 and Prudential Center in Newark on Sept. 29. (Oct. 11; Broken Bow/BMG/Republic) PARELES
SAMARA JOY Samara Joy found herself in a rare position for a contemporary jazz singer when she took home last year’s Grammy Award for best new artist, a win that felt all the more surprising given that her breakthrough album, “Linger Awhile,” made zero concessions to popular trends. “Portrait,” the 24-year-old vocalist’s upcoming LP, stays firmly grounded in the classic mode of her heroes like Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter. The record features several sets of lyrics by Joy, the addition of a horn section and an intriguing array of material (including a Sun Ra piece and originals by two of Joy’s bandmates), but the singer’s dazzlingly rich and expressive delivery remains the star attraction. (Oct. 11; Verve) SHTEAMER
IMMANUEL WILKINS Immanuel Wilkins’s stunning fluency on the alto saxophone was clear from his first solo on his 2020 debut, “Omega.” But his second record — “The 7th Hand,” a sweeping, thematically weighty set informed by biblical symbolism — showed that this rising jazz star was aiming at something higher than mere proficiency. That’s clearer than ever on “Blues Blood,” where the 27-year-old Wilkins makes ample space for vocalists (including the jazz luminary Cécile McLorin Salvant, the singer-songwriter June McDoom and the genre-blurring composer Ganavya) and reflects on memory, ancestry and the rich history of the blues as an expression of, in Wilkins’s words, “pleasure in pain” for generations of Black people. (Oct. 11; Blue Note) SHTEAMER
STURGILL SIMPSON In 2021, shortly before a scheduled five-night residency at Webster Hall, the cosmic-minded country iconoclast Sturgill Simpson ruptured his vocal cords and canceled the remainder of his tour. The ensuing three years have been a time of personal transformation for Simpson: He traveled extensively, moved to Paris and, just this summer, released “Passage du Desir,” a searching, eclectic album under the name Johnny Blue Skies. This fall, Simpson and his lively longtime backing band will finally return to the stage on his “Why Not?” Tour, which includes his first New York City show in five years. (Oct. 19; Forest Hills Stadium) ZOLADZ
SHAWN MENDES Shawn Mendes started making hits as a teenager and racked up four No. 1 albums and billions of streams with earnestly affectionate, exuberant pop. But he called off his 2022 tour, citing his mental health, and hasn’t released a full album since “Wonder” in 2020. His return, “Shawn,” focuses on a folkier, more introspective side, with hints of confessional: “I stepped off the stage with nothing left,” he recalls in “Why Why Why,” a prerelease single. “But here I am singing songs again.” Instead of arenas, he’s touring theaters, including a sold-out show at the Brooklyn Paramount on his album release day. (Oct. 18; Island) PARELES
LEGACY OF WAYNE SHORTER During the first half of his career, Wayne Shorter played key roles in three major jazz groups: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis’s 1960s quintet and the eclectic fusion outfit Weather Report. In 2000, the visionary saxophonist and composer founded one more, a quartet that drew on his robust back catalog but pushed fearlessly into the unknown, as heard on “Celebration, Volume 1,” a new archival live release. Here, the band’s surviving members — the pianist Danilo Pérez, the bassist John Patitucci and the drummer Brian Blade — honor the giant with help from the eminent saxophonist Mark Turner. (Oct. 21-22; Blue Note) SHTEAMER
SOCCER MOMMY A pervasive sense of loss courses through “Evergreen,” the fourth album Sophie Allison has made as Soccer Mommy. Where her previous album, “Sometimes, Forever,” deployed surreal electronics, “Evergreen” relies on hand-played instruments, from guitars to woodwinds. It circles back toward Soccer Mommy’s original indie-rock from an inevitably more mature perspective. (Oct. 25; Loma Vista) PARELES
November
FLO So much was going on in 1990s girl-group R&B — independence, feminism, seduction, harmonies, electronics, dance moves, fashion statements — that the English trio Flo has plenty to build on, even as it very clearly extrapolates from Destiny’s Child and TLC. Flo has been pumping out crisply assertive singles and EPs since 2022, and its full-length debut album, “Access All Areas,” is on the way. (Nov. 15; Island) PARELES
December
WADADA LEO SMITH AND AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS The trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and the pianist-organist Amina Claudine Myers met in Chicago in the late ’60s, when both were recent Southern transplants and early members of the storied avant-garde collective the A.A.C.M., but they didn’t record together until 2021. The result, a set of spacious duets released in May as “Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens,” ranks among the year’s loveliest and most immersive discs. This concert, featuring music from the record, promises poetic balladry and heartfelt communion from two boundary-pushing elders. (Dec. 4; Roulette) SHTEAMER
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