“80s Babies” is the follow-up to 2007’s “Late Night Special,” which has sold 516,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The single “On the Hotline” reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On Thursday, Metallica’s outspoken drummer Lars Ulrich spoke about the record, which the band expects to finish recording next week.

He said there will be “a couple of nips and tucks next week, and then we should be done with it — hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday.” The album will be in stores “in mid-September, and literally, just yesterday, our graphic designer came down from San Francisco and showed us a few things. We should have an album title very, very soon, and all our songs — which are [currently] entitled ‘German Soup,’ ‘19,’ ‘10′ and ‘Casper, Wyoming,’ and whatever else they’ve been called over the last year — are going to get some real song titles attached to them.”

However, Ulrich said the band probably won’t be previewing the new material during its set next month at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The group also recently signed on for the one-day Ozzfest this summer.

After spending the past year in the studio honing the material, Metallica are about to enter album-promotion mode. “It’s all just starting right now,” he said. “We sort of promised ourselves that, unlike all the records we made in the ’90s that were just completely f—ing stressed out and nutty, that we were going to try and have a little bit of a more sane environment. And surprisingly, mostly for ourselves, we’ve been able to keep that.”

Ulrich said the band entered the studio with 26 songs written, and had to whittle that down to 14. In all likelihood, the record will feature 10 cuts, because “they haven’t made a CD yet that can contain more than 80 minutes of music.” He said most of the songs are epic in length — “they’re long songs, maybe seven-, eight-, nine-minute, nutty-ass songs” — and are as diverse as the band’s albums.

“It’s definitely pretty all over the place: a lot of variation, a lot of fast, slow, melodic, hardcore, nutty, super-fast speed stuff,” he said. “It’s more like some of the earlier records, which were a little more dynamic within the songs. And on those records, there were a lot of long songs that were — without sounding too corny — journeys. You’d go here and then you’d go over here and then this, and then that would happen. It feels like kind of a lot of that stuff. It’s difficult for me to sit down and brand it yet, because I’m still so close to it.”

Ulrich said that the release of their next one would be followed in October with a full U.S. tour, but had no additional information about the run.

Tickets for this summer’s “American Idols Live! Tour,” which features the TV show’s top 10 contestants, go on sale Saturday, said series creator Simon Fuller and concert promotion company AEG Live in an announcement Thursday.

With more than 50 stops, the tour is scheduled to begin July 1 in Glendale, Ariz., and end in September in Tulsa, Okla. A Toronto concert is included, with tickets for that concert on sale Friday.

Besides finalists Cook and Archuleta, other contestants taking part are Syesha Mercado, Brooke White, Carly Smithson, Chikezie Eze, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns and Ramiele Malubay.

The season finale of “American Idol” airs Wednesday on Fox.

Mercado, a 21-year-old actress from Sarasota, Fla., was the last woman standing on the top-rated Fox contest. The big-voiced belter surpassed a more accomplished singer (Carly Smithson), a fan favorite (Brooke White) and a statuesque country crooner (Kristy Lee Cook).

While other contestants floundered, Mercado challenged herself with ambitious song choices like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” She showed more personality — and lots of leg — while swiveling her hips in a glittery gold minidress for a rendition of “Proud Mary.” She cried when Paula Abdul gave her a standing ovation last week.

Abdul held the sugar on Tuesday’s performance show, telling Mercado that she thought her performance of “Hit Me Up” wasn’t “good enough to get into the finals.”

With Mercado out of the way, “Idol” can now fully hype the David vs. David matchup.

There’s Archuleta, the 17-year-old singing prodigy from Murray, Utah, with the overly involved stage dad. And there’s Cook, the 25-year-old former bartender from Blue Springs, Mo., with an emo edge that the angelic Arculeta lacks.

Who will snag the title next Wednesday?

One thing is for sure: His name will be David.

-AP

In addition, Lovato will tour with the Jonas Brothers on their Burning Up Tour this summer.

Ne-Yo remains on Alicia Keys’ tour as a support act; the trek pulls into Memphis on Thursday (May 15).