Having already established himself as a touring artist to watch, Brett Dennen is hoping to take his recorded-music career to the next level with the Oct. 21 release of “Hope for the Hopeless” (Dualtone/Downtown). First single “Make You Crazy” features Afrobeat scion Femi Kuti.

The pairing was orchestrated by Downtown head Josh Deutsch, whose company publishes Kuti’s music. “He’s been wanting to break me into a mainstream format, but to also break Femi that way as well,” Dennen says. “When he heard me demo the song, he was like, ‘Man, I hear Femi on this. I was like, ‘How are you going to get Femi Kuti?’ He says, ‘Well, I happen to publish him.’ So we met in the studio — he flew in from Lagos [Nigeria] to be a part of the record.”

Kuti’s appearance crowns an album that finds Dennen moving away from the “wholesome-sounding, Americana singer/songwriter” sounds of 2006’s “So Much More,” which has sold more than 80,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

“It’s all over the map, but the vocal and the narrative is a good common thread between all of it,” Dennen says. “The grooves are heavier and it’s way more direct.”

The artist, who is distinguished by his red hair and lanky six-foot-five-inch frame, admits he’s still getting comfortable in the studio, owing to having spent so much time on the road in the past four years. Most recently, he served as the supporting artist on John Mayer’s summer amphitheater tour.