Adele, Pink Floyd and Prince herald the season of the comeback

The big guns are back this autumn. Every year, this is the time when the major labels release their most important records, but 2014 sees a pile-up of A-list talent as a series of major artists make their returns. Pink Floyd, presumed lost in action following the death of Richard Wright in 2008, will re-emerge with their cosmic grandeur; Adele – saviour of the music industry with her last album – will excite both the record-buying public and the executives, if she can get her album out before Christmas. Those long-rumoured Prince albums finally get a release. And there lurks the faint hope that one of pop’s most unpredictable talents – someone who has thrilled both critics and punters – might finally follow-up one of the most memorable albums of the 90s. It is, truly, the season of the comeback.

The most anticipated returnee is Adele, whose last record, 21, was the world’s biggest selling album of both 2011 and 2012. Her new album – which pretty much everyone in the world is certain will be called 25 – has been tipped to be released in November, though it may be held back to the new year, when there’s no competition in the charts. But given she’s apparently now happy and contented, and has devoted much of the past 18 months to motherhood, will her new songs capture the public imagination the way the heartbroken laments of 21 did? “I’ve been out of the loop, really,” she told Rolling Stone in 2013. “I’ve just been singing my baby nursery rhymes, so I don’t really know what’s cool and what’s not.”

We know, though, that she almost certainly hasn’t made an album that will stray far from the very middle of the road, given that among her handpicked collaborators are Phil Collins and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.

At the older end of the scale, this month sees three very different artists of huge reputation returning. On 22 September, Aphex Twin releases Syro, his first album for 13 years, with the big question being whether he can still be ahead of the curve after such a long absence, or whether these days he’ll sound like one of his imitators. For those who prefer actual songs, with melodies and lyrics, Leonard Cohen’s Popular Problems comes out the same day, continuing one of the few great career renaissances to have been necessitated by being robbed blind by one’s manager. Don’t expect a wild change of tack from Cohen, who turns 80 the day before the album comes out – Popular Problems is as laconic and gravelly as ever. A week later, Prince comes back with not one but two new albums, capitalising on the wild excitement caused by his return to Britain earlier this year – one solo album and one with his new band 3rdEyeGirl.

Two of classic rock’s big beasts rejoin the fray, albeit both with only half their core members remaining. Pink Floyd – we learned from the Twitter account of Polly Samson, David Gilmour’s wife – will be unveiling their first studio album in 20 years, The Endless River. However, given its origins as a side-project to The Division Bell, arguably the least essential Floyd album of all, this may not be quite the event fans will be hoping for from Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. Meanwhile, the Who promised earlier this summer that they were starting work on their first album since 2006’s Endless Wire, and only their second since 1982. Even if that doesn’t emerge this year, there’s the prospect of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey taking to the road for a 50th anniversary. And while it may be easy to sneer, the Who remain a surprisingly compelling live spectacle.

And what of the mavericks? We can be certain that the autumn will bring more surprise releases, the surprise release having become as grimly predictable a marketing tool for superstar acts as the megabudget video was in the 1980s. You may wish to place money on Radiohead being among those springing new music upon the world with no notice, given the rumblings along the group’s tectonic plates. At the start of September their PolyFauna app was updated to include the group’s first new music for three years, and – rather more obviously signalling their intent – Jonny Greenwood promised the quintet would be regrouping at the end of the summer.

But to hip-hop and R&B lovers, the most enticing prospect would be new music from Lauryn Hill. The former Fugees singer signed to Sony in 2013, but there’s been no sign of a followup to her only solo album so far, 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. But she has returned to the public eye – although she couldn’t really avoid a certain amount of attention, given she was imprisoned for three months last year for tax evasion. Immediately before her incarceration she released one new single, with another following during her time in jail. This summer, she put out a sketch of a song on SoundCloud – but still there’s no album. Could this autumn see one emerge? And might the fact Hill is touring – including four UK dates in September – be a clue to her intentions? It’s worth hoping so, if not putting your house on.