By Casey Newton

Wilco’s 8th record, The Whole Love, came out in September, and was greeted with hosannahs by rock critics yearning for a return to form. “Powerful, mind-reeling stuff, if you have the heart for it,” said Rolling Stone. “Wilco’s most sonically adventurous work since 2004’s A Ghost Is Born,” offered Entertainment Weekly. Pitchfork, in the most enthusiastic 6.9 review you’ll read, said The Whole Love “recaptured some of that old unpredictability”: “From Being There through A Ghost Is Born, the band’s best work has always perched itself upon the edge of traditionalism and experimentation, and The Whole Love is the first of their albums in years not to shy away from such risks.”

To make their case, reviewers fixated on the record’s little sonic oddities, which Wilco festooned upon its new songs like so many rhinestones on a belt buckle.

Great news for fans of Sharon Van Etten’s stunning sophomore record, Epic: the Tennessee raised, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter is setting out on a massive U.S. tour while beginning work on a follow-up LP with none other than the National’s Aaron Dessner.

“It’s been really nice just to get the bare bones,” Dessner told Pitchfork recently of the “intimately heart-wrenching songs” they’re recording during free moments at home in his Brooklyn garage/studio. “She has a lot of songs. It’s going to be interesting to see all of the things that we can record. She just has such an amazing voice… I don’t even know if I would call it ‘producing’ as much as, just, we’re out there working.”

Notably, Dessner referred to “we” numerous times in that interview and elsewhere, so perhaps other members of the National — not to mention a certain BFF — will be involved in this highly anticipated release. We won’t be finding out anytime soon, though, as Van Etten will be on the road through April. Check out tour dates here and enjoy her cover of R.E.M.’s 1995 Monster single “Strange Currencies,” performed with Megafaun’s Brad Cook at the Bowery Ballroom tour kickoff show over the weekend, below (via Muzzle of Bees):

Our first taste off R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, arrived this morning in the form of the first (free!) song, “Discoverer,” the LP’s opening track. While it isn’t a hook-laden single, per se, this tune certainly opens the record up with a thrill, ably doing its part to build anticipation for the 11 tracks to come on March 8. (Still looking forward to hearing “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I,” “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter,” and the Patti Smith-guested cut, “Blue.”)

Download “Discoverer” in exchange for an email address here.

Next spring, R.E.M. will release their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, a 12-track set produced by longtime collaborator Jacknife Lee that features guest vocals by Patti Smith, Peaches, and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. While some track titles were previously revealed by Mike Mills in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this month (“Blue,” “Walk It Back,” “All The Best,” etc.), the band’s newsletter just hit my inbox with the full tracklist, including a few more eye-catching titles, such as “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter” and “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I.” I wasn’t too crazy about their last effort, but with those song names, I’m a bit more intrigued to hear what Michael Stipe, Mills, and Peter Buck cooked up in Portland, New Orleans, Nashville, and Berlin, where the LP was recorded. Let’s get acquainted with the Collapse Into Now tracklist below:

The list of notable LPs set for next year (Fiona, PJ, Jason, Chan, etc.) grows longer as stadium-filling acts like the Beastie Boys, R.E.M., and U2 have all revealed new album plans for the first half of 2011 in recent days. Let’s round ‘em up…

Following last week’s performance on Letterman, a break in the Dead Weather begins as Alison Mosshart preps a new album with Kills partner Jamie “Hotel” Hince, LJ joins the Greenhornes for their first LP in 5 years, Dean Fertita hits the road with Josh Homme’s QOTSA, and Jack White plots his next 50 or so Third Man Records releases. As I pondered imminent new music from members of our favorite supergroup of the past 16 months, however, it occurred that Mosshart’s evolution from leader of Floridian pop-punk outfit Discount (she “didn’t make up the name”) to co-conspirator in a London art-rock duo to stealing Jack White’s spotlight has gone woefully underappreciated around here.

Though the one-sheet narrative of Mosshart moving from Gainesville, FL to London for an unknown Hince collaboration has been making the rounds since the Kills’ 2003 debut, Keep on Your Mean Side, little has been noted about her first group, Discount, including their 3 LPs and countless EP/7” releases. Let’s get the ball rolling with a few early pop-punk covers of Billy Bragg and R.E.M., 2 originals, and a live video from Mosshart and Discount below:

In a recent interview with BBC Radio Scotland (watch below), Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody spilled the beans on two upcoming side projects to be recorded this month in the United States. The first will be a “countryish, country-tinged” record loosely inspired by Gram Parsons, which he will begin recording in Portland, OR with Belle and Sebastian drummer Richard Colburn (supergroup alert!), producer du jour Jacknife Lee (U2, Snow Patrol, Weezer, R.E.M.) and two then-secret “very special guests.”

So who are these mysterious co-conspirators? According to Hot Press, Lightbody told Q magazine that R.E.M.’s Peter Buck will collaborate with his new band, called Tired Pony. The other “special guest” is still a mystery.

But that’s not the only side project in the works for the “Chasing Cars” singer: