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Step aside Rihanna, One Direction and Emeli Sandé. In 2013 we’ll hardly have time to listen to any of the biggest stars of today as the stars of yesterday all plan their attack to make this the year of the comeback. It’s all begun with the announcement of a brand new David Bowie album, his first in a decade and even at the ripe old age of 66 he’s still hitting as cool as he ever was, launching himself hard upon the itunes chart with first single, ‘Where Are We Now’. Bowie still manages to inspire so many artists around today, Lady GaGa, Scissor Sisters, Muse, Patrick Wolf and even Marilyn Manson have cited him as an influence, and as his 27th album hits stores in March, it could be another massive year for him.
R&B fans like myself will be pleased to discover that 2 of the most successful acts in the genre also plan 2013 comebacks. Formerly of American boyband, N’Sync, Justin Timberlake took to Twitter this week to announce that after a 7 year hiatus, a new album is due later this year. Justin has, thus far, sold 17 million of his first 2 solo albums. It’s perhaps no wonder then that he wanted to wait until the time was right to bring out the third. Since 2006 he’s turned his hands more to film (which for the most part needs glossing over). He did tease us with the possibility of a new album towards the end of 2008 after his feature on Madonna’s ‘4 Minutes’ as well as a bunch of other demos leaking, such as the track ‘Magic’ which later became the hit ‘Love, Sex, Magic’ for Ciara. There were other hits with T.I. (‘Dead and Gone’) and Timbaland (‘Carry Out’) in 2009, but until now no sign of that long awaited LP. The question is whether he can still cut it against today’s breed of young male R&B stars, such as Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Jason DeRulo and Trey Songz. I don’t see it being too much of a challenge.
Out of nowhere, we’re also to expect a new Destiny’s Child album by the end of January. Well, sort of. The girls, led by Beyonce have regrouped for a compilation album, Love Songs, in time for Valentines Day. A full tracklisting has yet to be announced, but we know there’s at least one new track on it: ‘Nuclear’, which as I write has just been leaked. It’s not the big ladies dancing round their handbag club track we were expecting, more a Massive Attack influenced 90s trip-hop sounding number. But if you were wanting something a bit more Bootylicious, rumours are that the girls will be making a one off appearance at the Super Bowl next month.
All this comes at a time when ITV2 announce their forthcoming new show, The Big Reunion (tentatively pencilled in for January 31st), in which former popbands from the late 90s and early 00s, 911, The Honeyz, Atomic Kitten, Five, B*witched and Liberty X will be followed as they gear up for their first comeback gigs since their split. Whether this will launch any of them back into stardom, or flop like another S Club reunion, is anyone’s guess.
Add to the above, new singles in the next couple of months from Blue, 50 Cent, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sinead O’Connor, Freemasons and Paramore, and you might be feeling a little bit of déjà vu throughout the early part of 2013.
