TONY CLAYTON-LEAchecks out which albums are ready to roll – almost
BEACH HOUSE: TEEN DREAM
One of the few bands to successfully fuse the psychedelic waves of My Bloody Valentine with the narcoleptic pop of Mazzy Star. Interesting trivia: band member Victoria Legrand is related to acclaimed composer Michel Legrand. January 25
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB: BEAT THE DEVIL’S TATTOO
They’ve been around the block and they’ ve influenced bands in the process, but there are still few out there who can match this US act’s fusion of black-leather-jacket cool and scorched-earth rock/Americana. March 8
CORINNE BAILEY RAE: THE SEA
Following the death of her husband in 2008, Bailey Rae suspended working on this, the follow-up to her multi-million selling 2006 self-titled debut. Expect songs of mourning wrapped up in a warm soul/pop blanket. January 29
DAVID BYRNE: HERE LIES LOVE
Along with Peter Gabriel, David Byrne has always been viewed as one of rock’s smartest movers. Here, Byrne is back to what he does best: pop music with tendrils slithering this way and that. February 19
EDWYN COLLINS: TBC
This one has been coming in stops and starts, due in no small part to Collins’s stroke of a few years ago. Yet all seems set to go for an album created with the help of The Cribs’ Ryan Jarman, Sex Pistols’ drummer Paul Cook, and members of Franz Ferdinand, Magic Numbers and Teenage Fanclub. March
EELS: END TIMES
Mark Everett returns with yet another markedly introspective collection of songs that focuses once more on his neuroses and idiosyncrasies. Wha-hey! January 18
FIONN REGAN: THE SHADOW OF AN EMPIRE
Irish singer-songwriter Regan’s follow-up to his Mercury Prize-nominated 2006 album The End of History sees a change of direction – more electric, slightly more Dylanesque. February 2
HAM SANDWICH: TBC
Meath band follow their 2008 album Carry the Meek with an even more invigorating set of songs. Excellent first single Out of the Darkness displays a resounding love of sturdy boy-girl pop, which surely bodes well. March
HIM: SCREAMWORKS: LOVE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
Scandinavian metal/pop it’s safe for your kids to love? HIM have been threatening to cross over for several years now, and this looks like the one that will break for the border. February 5
LAURA MARLING: TBC
Britain’s latest fey nu-folkie has got herself a brand new handbag of sounds, courtesy of Ryan Adams’s producer Ethan Johns. Expect a harder edged set of material. March
LAURA VEIRS: JULY FLAME
Former punk rocker from the Portland, Oregon area who specialises in elemental imagery while simultaneously invoking the spirits of Incredible String Band, Fleet Foxes and Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison. January 11
MAGIC NUMBERS: TBC
Just when you thought it was safe to write off this band, back they bounce with not just more strong, ringing rock/pop but also the final song arranging work from one-time Nick Drake associate, Robert Kirby. March
MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS: FAMILY JEWELS
Hotly tipped last year on the back of her debut EP, Marina now faces the acid test. From the glitzy skewed pop we’ve heard so far, Marina passes with flying colours. February 12
MIDLAKE: THE COURAGE OF OTHERS
The highly anticipated follow-up to The Trials of Occupanther sees Midlake peer into darker corners than heretofore, yet still enveloped in music that is steeped in traditional British folk. February 1
NATALIE MERCHANT: LEAVE YOUR SLEEP
One-time 10,000 Maniacs singer returns after a reasonably lengthy lay-off with an album based around the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. February 26
PETER GABRIEL: SCRATCH MY BACK
In which one of rock music’s best-known polymaths reconstructs songs from the likes of Radiohead, Elbow, Paul Simon, Magnetic Fields and Regina Spektor. January 25
U2: SONGS OF ASCENT
Opinion: No Line on the Horizonis nowhere near as good an album as many people say it is, and with this swift follow-up (more "meditative", apparently) U2 will surely want to prove their critics wrong. Over to you, then. April
ALSO SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE ...
Albums from: Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, Goldfrapp, Hot Chip, Isobel Campbell, Kissaway Trail, Lawrence Arabia, Lightspeed Champion, Magnetic Fields, Massive Attack, The Specials, Toni Braxton, Vampire Weekend and White Stripes.
