Pitchfork

Common, please slow down! Not a year after the Chicago MC released Finding Forever, with a whole mess of activity in the interim, he has given word of its follow-up, not to mention a blockbuster acting role.

According to a Billboard.com report, Common's eighth album is called Invincible Summer, and it is tentatively scheduled for a mid-July release. (However, Common's MySpace page says it will be out June 24.)

Billboard.com calls the sound of Summer "electro-tinged," which is an interesting departure from Common's usual M.O. of beats based around dusty old jazz and soul samples. With a tune called "Runaway" "drawing its guitar riff from Pat Benatar's 'Love Is a Battlefield'," we're kind of imagining Electro Circus.

"I created this music for the summer time. It's about feeling good. This is the type of music I felt was missing from my body of work," Common told Billboard.com regarding Invincible Summer's musical direction, and he certainly surrounded himself with respectable contributors. The record's production comes from the Neptunes and Outkast producer Mr. DJ. Cee-Lo, Santogold, and Neptunes associates Chester French lent their singing and rhyming talents. Frequent Common collaborator Kanye West was absent from the proceedings because he was preoccupied with work on his "Glow in the Dark" tour.

"Universal Mind Control (U.M.C.)" looks to be Invincible Summer's first single, and it is planned for release at the end of May. Billboard.com's preliminary tracklist for the album is after the jump.

As for Common's blossoming acting career, he appears alongside Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, and James McAvoy in the pretty sweet-looking Wanted, which hits theaters June 27. Also, according to a Variety report, Common will join Christian Bale's John Connor in a new Terminator movie called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Common's character is "a freedom fighter and member of Connor's inner circle," and the movie is scheduled to appear in theaters May 22, 2009.

Invincible Summer [preliminary]:

Universal Mind Control (U.M.C.)
Make My Day [ft. Cee-Lo]
Punch Love
What a World [ft. Chester French]
Changes
Party Shit
Dreaming
Runaway [ft. Santogold]

Common:

06-26 Milwaukee, WI - SummerFest
07-05 Cologne, Germany - Fuhlinger See (Summer Jam)
07-08 Eindhoven, Netherlands - Effenaar
07-09 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
07-11 Frauenfeld, Switzerland - Frauenfeld Open Air Festival
07-13 Joensuu, Finland - Ilosaarirock Festival
09-27 Chicago, IL - TBA (Common Ground Foundation Event)