Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Having released the double album In Your Honor, consisting of a hard rock disc and an acoustic one, it makes sense that the Foos would eventually blend their two musical personas together. Here, Dave Grohl mixes stomping stadium rockers like “The Pretender” and “Long Road to Ruin” with such folkie, finger-picked tracks as “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners” and “Stranger Things Have Happened.” Nirvana’s former drummer even plays piano on “Statues” and the orchestrated “Home.” Still, it’s strange. Sept. 25

The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson is Canada’s poetic punk-rock laureate. Need proof? Check out just two of the titles on the Winnipeg band’s latest album: “Hymn of the Medical Oddity” and “Virtue the Cat Explains Her Departure.” When he isn’t writing thoughtful narratives and singing them with The Weakerthans, Samson publishes leftist fiction, non-fiction and cultural studies. But the most radical thing about the band is his wildly inventive songs, including the brilliant hockey tribute “Elegy for Gump Worsley.” Sept. 25

Khan’s first new album in a decade is a freakin’ riot, a funk-filled return to form for the old-school soul diva. Produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it features Khan covering Prince’s “Sign O’ the Times,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Castle Made of Sand” and Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies Man.” There’s also “Disrespectful,” a tear-the-roof-off-the-sucker duet with Mary J. Blige. Best of all, the album features a medley of “Pack’d My Bags” and “You Got the Love” by Khan’s pioneering ’70s funk band, Rufus. Be prepared to be Rufusized. Sept. 25