Fall/winter albums: Look for One Direction, AC/DC, Mehr 

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Fall/winter albums: Look for One Direction, AC/DC, more

Taylor Swift\'s 1989 may be dominating the charts and the headlines, but lots of others have huge releases stacked up over the next few months. USA TODAY\'s music team take a look.

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Martín Caballero, Elysa Gardner, Brian Mansfield, Jerry Shriver and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY 6:04 a.m. EST November 16, 2014

DEC. 9 | Lil Wayne, \'Tha Carter V\' (Part 1) 

(Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images for BET)

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Rappers (left to right, standing) Ghostface Killah, Method Man, GZA, RZA, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Raekwon, (L-R, seated), Masta Killa and U-God of the Wu-Tang Clan pose at a press conference to announce they have signed with Warner Bros. Records in October.

Haters gonna hate, but Taylor Swift — and her album

1989 — is 2014\'s biggest success story, with the new material selling 1.287 million copies in its first seven days. The Shake It Off singer continues to dominate the music news cycle weeks after the album\'s release, but plenty of other worthy contenders have huge releases stacked up over the next few months. USA TODAY\'s music team reviews the big names who have releases this fall and winter.

The British vocal group is back with its fourth album in as many years, and the first single, Steal My Girl, is currently at No. 17 on USA TODAY\'s top-40 airplay chart. If other already-released tracks (Fireproof, Ready to Run and Where Do Broken Hearts Go) and the album\'s second single, Night Changes, are any indication, the group that had the world\'s top-selling album in 2013 may have another winner on its hands. — Brian Mansfield

Their multi-platinum days may be behind them, but the polarizing Canadian rockers remain a regular presence on American rock radio. The group has a new label, Republic Records, for its first album since 2011\'s platinum-selling Here and Now. But the first two singles — the politically charged Edge of a Revolution and its more pop-minded follow-up, What Are You Waiting For? — stick to familiar musical turf. The album promises at least one swerve, though: Rapper Flo Rida appears on the horn-drenched Got Me Runnin\' Round. The album\'s title refers to it having been recorded in several locations, from Maui to Vancouver. The band will begin a North American tour in February. — Mansfield

For his sixth album, the DJ/producer, who enlisted top R&B talent for 2009\'s One Love and 2011\'s Nothing But the Beat, offers arguably his most eclectic lineup of collaborators yet. Alt-pop singer/songwriter Sam Martin appears on Lovers On the Sun, already a No. 1 hit across the pond, and Dangerous. Sia pops up twice as well, on Bang My Head and The Whisperer. Nicki Minaj and Afrojack team up on one track (Hey Mama); Nico & Vinz and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on another (Lift Me Up). The guest list also includes Emeli Sandé, John Legend, and the Irish band The Script. The textures are diverse, too, with Guetta bringing piano, violins and guitars into his electronic mix. It\'s "my most personal album lyrically," he said in a statement, explaining the title. — Elysa Gardner

Uncertainty over a new release is nothing new for the Aussie rockers, who are celebrating 41 years as a band, but this time they\'re taking it to a new level. Rock or Bust marks AC/DC\'s first studio work in six years and just the second since 2000. But fans have stayed loyal: 2008\'s Black Ice hit No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. The band worked with Black Ice\'s producer Brendan O\'Brien in Vancouver last spring and came away with 11 tracks, including Play Ball, featured during broadcasts of Major League Baseball playoffs. However, those sessions were conducted without founding member/rhythm guitarist Malcom Young, who suffers from dementia and has retired. Stevie Young, the nephew of Malcom and his brother, lead guitarist/co-founder Angus, plays rhythm guitar on the album and is scheduled to join the band on a world tour next year. But the future was muddied again on Nov. 6, when drummer Phil Rudd was arrested in New Zealand and charged with threatening to kill, and drug possession. Stay tuned. — Jerry Shriver

The very fact that Wu-Tang\'s sixth and likely last group album will finally be released is a minor miracle in itself. Mired in public disputes between mastermind RZA and some of his acolytes (namely Raekwon) over the LP\'s musical direction, the album was intended to be released last year to mark the 20th anniversary of their classic debut, Enter the Wu-Tang. They missed that date, but it may have been worth it, as the group sounds reunited and ready to rumble on the single Ruckus in B Minor. Expect a return to the Clan\'s "witty unpredictable" style of rugged rhymes and dusty soul-sampling beats, but also some creative marketing; the album will be available pre-loaded on an exclusive Bluetooth speaker released by Boombotix. — Martín Caballero

Could Weezy\'s prolific career as a solo artist really be over? That\'s what the Young Money star claims heading into the release of his 11th studio album this December. Clearly he has a lot on his mind, cutting 31 tracks that will be split over two albums, sold separately. He aims to top the 964,000 copies Tha Carter IV sold in its first week, and traction on his first single, Believe Me (peaking at No. 26 on Billboard Hot 100), seems to indicate he\'ll do well again this time. As for the music, Wayne has teased a bit of everything: Expect both the requisite collaborations with Drake and Nicki Minaj, and more personal material, as he\'s emphasized his growing maturity when discussing the album in interviews. If anyone is going to go out in style, it\'s Weezy. — Caballero

Nicki Minaj apologizes for Nazi imagery video

It\'s been more than two years since the hip-hop provocateur put out a new album (2012\'s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded), but that hasn\'t stopped Nicki Minaj from pervading pop culture, whether she was judging American Idol in a short-lived stint or hopping on a remix of Beyoncé\'s Flawless that all but crashed the Internet. Her Pinkprint (a play on Jay Z\'s Blueprint) campaign was set into motion in May with slow-burning first single Pills N Potions, but bounced to new heights in August with her bonkers ode-to-booty Anaconda and powerhouse pairing Bang Bang with Jessie J and Ariana Grande, both of which jiggled into the top 5 on Billboard\'s Hot 100. Now exerting her dominance on new song Only with Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown, Nicki has made it abundantly clear that she isn\'t messing around. — Patrick Ryan

Charli XCX performs during the MTV EMA's 2014 on Nov. 9, in Glasgow, Scotland.

(Photo: Samir Hussein, Getty Images for MTV)

The singer first turned heads in the States as co-writer of Icona Pop earworm I Love It, but it wasn\'t until this summer that Charli XCX (short for "Kiss Charli Kiss") did a number of her own on pop radio. Not only did she channel Gwen Stefani on the chorus of Iggy Azalea\'s inescapable song-of-summer, Fancy, but the 22-year-old fashioned a smash of her own with the stomping Boom Clap, a cut off The Fault in Our Stars\' soundtrack that peaked at No. 8 on Billboard\'s Hot 100. And with new single Break the Rules climbing USA TODAY\'s top-40 airplay chart (hitting No. 29 this week), the young Brit has procured a remarkable batting average going in to her sophomore record (following last year\'s debut True Romance). — Ryan

Meghan Trainor lines up North American tour

The major-label debut for the 20-year-old Nashville-by-way-of-Nantucket singer/songwriter promises more of the doo-wop-meets-hip-hop sound that made breakthrough All About that Bass one of 2014\'s biggest hits. A multi-million-selling track that spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, All About that Bass has been viewed about a quarter-billion times on YouTube and has spawned almost that many essays on its positive portrayal of body image. Trainor recorded the album near Nashville with producer Kevin Kadish after bonding over a shared love of late-\'50s/early-\'60s pop and R&B. The quick chart rise of follow-up single Lips Are Moving suggests there\'s more to the witty, plainspoken Trainor than just her bass. — Mansfield

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