Oasis, Foo Fighters top new summer CDs

By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
Get Out

The Valley isn't the only thing heating up these days.

The summer CD season is getting hot too, with a bevy of anticipated releases set to hit shelves in the coming weeks.

British rockers Oasis, featuring the fighting Gallagher brothers, are dropping “Don't Believe the Truth,” their long-awaited follow-up to 2002's somewhat disappointing “Heathen Chemistry,” on May 31.

Known for its mod fashions, Beatle-esque melodies and onstage
tantrums, Oasis hit the big time in 1994 with the classic “Definitely Maybe” but has since struggled with defections, songwriter/guitarist Noel and singer Liam Gallagher insulting each other in the press and a catalog that hasn't lived up to the quality of the debut record. This new disc will make or break the band, making it a force to be reckoned with again or relegating it to has-been status.

June 7 will bring three new discs into stores that are sure to please music fans. English popsters Coldplay return to making their melody-rich music after a three-year absence, during which the tabloids had a field day with singer Chris Martin and his marriage to actress Gwynneth Paltrow; The White Stripes will release “Get Behind Me Satan,” a record that promises a sonic expansion on the duo of Jack and Meg White's minimalist electric garage rock; and eclectic hip-hoppers the Black Eyed Peas will drop their new record, “Monkey Business.”

Alterna-rockers Foo Fighters will release their first album in three years on June 14, a sprawling double disc called “In Your Honor” that reportedly features a mixture of acoustic tracks and Foo Fighters' patented hard pop. Boy band the Backstreet Boys will see whether they still have an audience when, on the same date, they issue “Never Gone.”

June 21 will bring the first solo release for former Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan, titled “The Future Embrace.” Corgan, as much as anybody this side of Kurt Cobain, helped build the early-1990s sonic boom of alternative music, with Smashing Pumpkins’ “Siamese Dream” considered by many to be the blueprint for psychedelic grunge.

Country fans always look forward to a new disc from traditionalist George Strait, arguably the most successful country singer of the last quarter-century. Following up his last studio album, the terrific “Honkytonkville” (2003), Strait will release “Somewhere Down in Texas” on June 28. With a record-setting 51 No. 1 country hits under his belt, it's a safe bet that the new record will spawn a few more chart-topping singles.