Alex Kapranos likes to think of the third FRANZ FERDINAND album, to be recorded this winter in their native Glasgow in hopes of a summer release, as a greatest-hits collection. Churning out songs in a variety of styles is more of a priority than presenting a single, cohesive sound. “Our one rule,” he says, “is we don’t want anything to sound like Franz Ferdinand by numbers.” With the songs “What She Came For” and “Ride Together” looking to make the cut, Kapranos says the band have been basing their new material on rhythmic ideas rather than guitar riffs, soaking in Ethiopian pop for what Kapranos calls its “dark, mesmeric quality.” This isn’t to say they’re straying too far from their roots. “We’re the antithesis of pop punk,” he says. “A lot of bands think they’re adding a lighter touch to punk music, but we’re trying to turn pop more punk.”

FROM TOP: PEROU/CAMERA PRESS/RE TNA; SOREN MCCART Y/ WIREIMAGE. COM

After the platinum success of 2005’s Move Along, the All-American Rejects sought inspiration from a Georgia locale best known for, well, forcible sodomy. “We went to where they filmed Deliverance to write,” says guitarist Nick Wheeler. “We went crazy because nobody was around, but we got great songs.” They’re headed into the studio in early 2008 with a

bare-bones approach and no real deadline. “On the last record, we were in a hurry to get back on the road,” says Wheeler. “We’ll know when we’re ready.”…The second Raconteurs album— again produced by Jack White, again recorded in Nashville, and again featuring his three very fortunate pals—is due in May…. You’d have to be crazy—sorry—to think Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-

Lo Green and Danger Mouse aren’t hoping to match the surprise success of 2006’s St. Elsewhere with their latest genre mash-up, which arrives in March, along with a fresh collection of wacky stage getups.…Three years after the breakthrough I Am a Bird Now, Antony and the Johnsons again go for baroque with their third album, The Crying Light, this

spring.…My Morning Jacket are recording in New York, hoping to have their follow-up to Z out by June.…Kevin Shields insists this year’s My Bloody Valentine tour will be accompanied by a new album, presumably one so good it’ll be clear why it took 16 years to make.…And it’s only taken them 11 years, but the third Portishead album is out this spring, because the kids today

love them some trip-hop....Poor Weezer can’t even break up right. In April, two years after Make Believe was thought to be the band’s swan song, they’re back with a new album, featuring lead vocals from members not named Rivers.…Nigel Godrich again mans the boards for Beck’s tenth proper album....Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy will finally...oh, never mind.

KIM DEAL

> MOUNTAIN BATTLES, the first BREEDERS album since 2002’s Title TK,
finds Kelley Deal in robust postaddiction health. Which must please
her twin sister Kim. Right? “Well, there’s good things and there’s bad
things to it,” Kim says from her home in Dayton, Ohio. “Kelley was so

pliable when she was high. Now she’s got opinions, she’s conscious...” Produced— sorry, recorded—in Chicago by Steve Albini, a Breeders record again consists of songs Kim wrote while with the Pixies. Since “Regalame Esta Noche” is even in Spanish, any chance the songs were considered for a new Pixies album? “Are you fucking kidding?” Deal cackles. “It’s like, ‘Get the fuck away from me!’ No!”