Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Life couldn’t be better for Michael Bublé. The Canadian superstar found his soulmate in Argentinean actress-model Luisana Lopilato, whom he married in 2011. Now the couple is expecting their first baby. Bublé’s eighth studio album reflects all of his domestic bliss. Says the 37-year-old B.C. native: “My new record is about love, happiness, fun and yummy things.” Featuring 10 standards and four originals, including three co-written by Bublé, To Be Loved is undeniably delicious pop. He rocks out with Bryan Adams on “After All,” written by David Foster and delivers a heartfelt version of the Bee Gees “To Love Somebody” and a giddy rendition of the Frank Sinatra classic “You Make Me Feel So Youn...

Steve Martin has been tickling funny bones forever, as a comedian, actor and author. But the Hollywood star of movies like The Jerk, Roxanne and Father of the Bride is also a serious art collector and first-rate banjo player. Martin’s first CD, The Crow, won the Grammy Award for best bluegrass album while his followup, Rare Bird Alert, featured Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks. Martin teamed up with Edie Brickell for lyrics and vocals on his latest album, whose cover features a painting (by comedian Martin Mull) of an anonymous couple. Edie, an accomplished singer-songwriter (and wife of Paul Simon), lends humor and warmth to songs like “Siamese Cat,” “Sun’s Gonna Shine” and the gorgeous ...

New Kids on the Block created pop hysteria during the late 1980s and early ’90s, with best-selling albums, top-grossing tours and merchandise that included dolls, lunch boxes and bed sheets. After several unsuccessful comeback attempts, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and Donnie Wahlberg have returned with their most mature album to date. Says Wahlberg: “We’re not kids anymore. We’re older guys now and we’ve got to balance family and work.” The group’s sixth album features savvy dance-pop tracks like “Crash,” “Now or Never” and “Remix (I Like The),” about a girl who transforms from “wallpaper to heartbreaker.” But the album’s best track is the opener “We Own Tonight...

She’s now 80—astonishing, given the suppleness of her voice. But that’s why Clark remains signed to a major label: she’s still got it. Along with covers of her friends John Lennon and Elvis Presley, the British pop legend tackles Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and delivers a surprisingly poignant rendition of her signature hit “Downtown.”

New Jersey’s other famous rock act soldiers on. Bon Jovi came to epitomize hair-metal music in the late 1980s. But singer Jon Bon Jovi and his bandmates survived by changing with the times and staying on the charts with power ballads and country crossovers alike. The veteran rockers’ 12th album is a stripped-down affair that focuses on their favorite theme: the plight of working people. On the Springsteen-like title track, an arena-ready rocker, Bon Jovi asks “who stands for the restless and the lonely, for the desperate and the hungry?” The acoustic “What’s Left of Me” champions “the teacher, the farmer, the union man” who find it “hard to make a living in this hard land.” The album’s anthe...

TV’s Smash star surprises with a strong debut album that contains not a single Broadway show tune. Megan delivers moving versions of Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” and Damien Rice’s “The Blower’s Daughter.” Other standouts include the breakup songs “Be a Man” and “Walk Away,” co-written by Ne-Yo and Carrie Underwood.

He’s no stranger to Motown. Although the singer born Michael Bolotin first performed in heavy metal bands, he soon gravitated to soul music with his solo career. His first album recorded under his stage name, 1983’s Michael Bolton, featured his buoyant take on the Supremes’ “Back in My Arms Again.” Since then, the Grammy-winning artist has regularly returned to the soul vault. This 12-song collection is Bolton’s tribute to Hitsville USA, the nickname given to Motown Records. With his distinctive tenor, he lovingly covers hits by many of the label’s top stars, including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves. But the real highlights are his authoritative versions of Marvin Gaye favo...

A modern-day Billie Holiday, Peyroux has a beguiling voice: fragile on the surface with a dark undercurrent below. Here, the Georgia-born, Paris-raised singer tackles songs well suited to her bittersweet vocal qualities, including Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire” and a jazzed-up version of Buddy Holly’s “Changing All Those Changes.”

Boz hit the big time in the 1970s with his Silk Degrees album and hits like “Lido Shuffle.” Now running a successful vineyard with his wife, the “Lowdown” singer is back with a stellar set of soul nuggets, including a tender cover of “Corinna Corinna” and a warm and breezy rendition of “Rainy Night in Georgia.”

David Bowie is full of surprises. His frequent ch-ch-changes over the years, both in sound and image, are the reason the term “musical chameleon” was invented. But the British icon’s dramatic return this month, after a decade living quietly in New York with his Somali-American model wife, Iman, and their daughter, caught even the most ardent Bowiephiles off guard. While deciphering Bowie is always a challenge, The Next Day deals with the anxious state of a chaotic world. There are ballads like the wistful, Berlin-referencing “Where Are We Now” and the elegiac “You Feel So Lonely You Could Die.” But the album is heavily rock-oriented. Thought-provoking songs such as the Ziggy Stardust-like ti...