New Releases: Jason Mraz Gets Wordy

The dog days of summer mean new releases are few and far between, but just in case you're not interested in the four John Cougar Mellencamp reissues hitting store shelves tomorrow, here are a few other suggestions:

Cuff The Duke are making a highly-anticipated return, following up their outstanding 2002 debut, Life Stories For Minimum Wage. The band took the self-titled route on this LP, and with Three Gut Records closing shop, they have made the move to Hayden's Hardwood Records label. You can expect to see the band pass by, as they tour across the nation with dates right through to October.

Babyface takes another stab at producing material for himself, instead of Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton and every other adult contemporary musician under the sun. Does the title of his new disc — Grown And Sexy — perhaps suggest the soulful singer's a little miffed with his nickname, given that he's now in his mid 40s?

Someone who wasn't a baby quite so long ago, Jason Mraz, will release his sophomore effort tomorrow, the smugly-named Mr. A-Z. An appropriate title given his oh-so-clever single, "Wordplay," which is currently enjoying plenty of airplay on the radio. Let's hope payola's not involved.

Finally, there's a new disc from Fruit Bats, a.k.a. Eric Johnson — one of those thoughtful, indie-pop, singer-songwriter types over on the king of the independent labels, Sub Pop. Apparently his new release, Spelled In Bones, was intended to be a "dark bummer record" but the lad's own happiness got in the way.

Other records hitting stores on Tuesday include MIR's The Acoustic Record, American Minor's self-titled disc, Fear Factory's Demanufactured — 25th Anniversary Edition, A Perfect Murder's Strength Through Vengeance and another self-titled disc from Everything At Once.