Spring term may feel like a time warp back to the ’90s, when rock dominated the music charts. Think back to the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots. While this spring will only bring back two of those bands, rock looks like it’s making a comeback.
First up is heartland rock. Bruce Springsteen – OK, so fans might have to jump back to the ’80s for his best work – will release “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” on April 25. The album, which focuses on music inspired by American folk legend Pete Seeger, is a surprise to fans, as the voice of blue-collar rock came out with “Devils & Dust” just last year.
Back to the ’90s: the Goo Goo Dolls, which found success with 1998’s “Dizzy Up The Girl,” will release “Let Love In” April 25 as well. The band returned to its hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., to write the album, its first since 2002. Godsmack will also release a new album the same day.
Two bands that made a name for themselves in the early ’90s will release albums on May 2. Pearl Jam will release a self-titled record nearly four years after its last studio album. The new album was a collaborative effort that spanned a two-year writing and recording period in the band’s hometown of Seattle, according to a report in Rolling Stone.
Pearl Jam’s single, “World Wide Suicide,” took the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Radio Monitor modern rock charts last month, according to Billboard’s Web site.
With just four album releases since its formation in 1990, the band Tool will release “10000 Days” on May 2, a follow-up to 2001’s “Lateralus.”
Jewel will release “Goodbye Alice in Wonderland” on May 2. The record is expected to be her most personal and autobiographical to date, according to her Web site.
In what is likely one of the most anticipated albums of the year, the Red Hot Chili Peppers will release “Stadium Arcadium” on May 9. The band, which began working on the album in September 2004, hired Rick Rubin as producer and returned to the same house where 1991’s “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” was recorded.
Bassist Michael Balzary, better known as Flea, told Rolling Stone that the two-disk set, each with 14 tracks, is “by far the best thing we’ve ever done.”
Released the same day will be Nick Lachey’s “What’s Left of Me” and Paris Hilton’s “Turn It Up.”
Hoobastank will release “Every Man for Himself” May 16.
Angels and Airwaves, made up of Blink-182 guitarist-singer Tom DeLonge, former Distillers singer-bassist Ryan Sinn, Offspring drummer Atom Willard and guitarist David Kennedy, will make its debut with its album “We Don’t Need to Whisper” on May 23.