Chief among the Unthanks' multifarious talents – an array of skills that includes clog dancing – is their ability to reinterpret other people's songs: not just aged folk tunes but more contemporary material. Best of all might be their version of Robert Wyatt's Sea Song, which makes their decision "on a whim" to stage a series of shows half devoted to Wyatt's music and half to the work of Antony and the Johnsons a genuinely exciting prospect. Tour begins at St James's Church, London W1 (0844 811 0051), 2 December.
Various old stagers return this autumn in improbable guises: there's the potentially knuckle-gnawing spectacle of Mick Jagger in the "supergroup" SuperHeavy, or the prospect of Lou Reed and Metallica collaborating on an album of songs inspired by the plays of German writer Frank Wedekind. Perhaps we might all be better off sticking with the first studio album in seven years by Tom Waits, as wildly idiosyncratic as you could wish a sixtysomething rock legend to be. Bad As Me promises to be "lean and mean, with strong hooks and tight running times, like a good boxer". Released 25 October.
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (Immersion Box Set)
This autumn's release schedules feature a glut of implausibly lavish box-set reissues, complete with recession-busting price tags: £225 for the complete works of the Smiths; a six-CD, four-DVD set of U2's Achtung Baby retailing at £75; Nirvana's Nevermind expanded to five discs. Treating classic albums with due reverence? Cynically parting fans from their cash? Either way, the most excitement has been generated by Pink Floyd's mammoth versions of their 70s albums, not least because the quartet have hitherto been characteristically reserved when it comes to the "previously unreleased" tracks lurking in their vaults. Released 26 September.
Their last album, Viva La Vida, was the most adventurous record of Coldplay's career, though snarky observers might loudly add that such things are obviously relative. Its gentle pushing at the boundaries of the band's stadium rock didn't put the fans off – it sold 9m copies – so perhaps its follow-up's intriguing title and shift in Brian Eno's position from producer to "collaborative songwriter" (or, as the credits put it, "enoxification") indicates they're continuing in that direction. Released 24 October.
The big female singer-songwriter event of the autumn is the release of Florence and the Machine's follow-up to Lungs, her chart-topping debut. But the most intriguing might be Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson's brief UK tour. Like her fellow Swede Robyn, she offers a defiantly warped and original take on electro-pop: her most recent album was emotive, dark and furious, touched with the influence of garage rock and Phil Spector and packed with fantastic pop songs. Tour begins at ABC Glasgow (0844 477 2000), 30 October.
