NEW RELEASES SPRING INTO ACTION

The thaw is in the air. Pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training, and we’re less than six weeks away from opening day of the baseball season. Hope springs eternal, especially among record labels, who prepare to release new albums from platinum superstars Avril Lavigne, Janet Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, Cypress Hill, Usher and Alanis Morissette.

• Cypress Hill, Till Death Do Us Part (Columbia): OG L.A. rap-rockers return to their Latin hip-hop roots with follow-up to platinum 2001 effort, Stoned Raiders (3/23).

• N.E.R.D., Fly or Die (Virgin): Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are back with a more rocking follow-up to 2002’s gold-plus In Search Of… (3/23).

• Usher, Confessions (Arista): Successor to four-million-selling 2001 effort 8701 from R&B superstar, featuring single "Yeah!" with Lil’ Jon and Ludacris (3/23).

• Aerosmith, Honkin on Bobo (Columbia): A collection of blues and R&B covers such as "Baby Please Don’t Go" and "You Gotta Move" (3/30).

• Eric Clapton, Me and Mr. Johnson (Reprise): With a band that includes Billy Preston and Doyle Bramhall II, the Hall of Fame guitarist performs low-key versions of the Robert Johnson delta blues classics he cut his performing teeth on (3/30).

• Janet Jackson, Domita Jo (Virgin): Controversy is bound to follow the Super Bowl diva as her latest is filled with salacious pop-funk (3/30).

• Shakira, Live and Unretouched (Epic): Latin superstar’s live album follows success of 3.2 million-selling 2001 Laundry Service (3/30).

• Drowning Pool, Desensitized (Wind-up): Texas rockers’ sequel to 2001 platinum-plus debut Sinner with new lead singer Jason "Gong" Jones after tragic death of Dave Williams (4/20).

• Diana Krall, The Girl in the Other Room (Verve): Perennial Grammy winner and now Elvis Costello’s wife returns with a set of jazz-tinged piano songs after the platinum success of 2002’s live A Night in Paris (4/27)

• Method Man, Tical O: The Prequel (Def Jam): Wu Tang rapper is back after his 1.6 million-selling 1999 effort, Blackout! (5/4).

• Lenny Kravitz, Baptism (Virgin): Seventh album from swaggering rocker includes the hard-driving first single, "Where Are We Runnin’" (5/18).

• Alanis Morissette, So-Called Chaos (Maverick): Fourth studio album succeeds 2002’s Under Rug Swept, which sold three million world-wide (5/18).

• Avril Lavigne (Arista): The as-yet-untitled album is the young rock ingenue’s sophomore effort after the six-million-selling Let Go. First single is reportedly "Don’t Tell Me," in a rock vein (5/25).