Ring out the old, ring in a cascade of eagerly anticipated album releases from some of pop’s biggest names.
This month alone we have new full-length outings from The Weeknd, Manic Street Preachers, Franz Ferdinand, David Gray and Ringo Starr who becomes the latest legend to turn his hand to country music next week in collaboration with T. Bone Burnett.
Will Lana Del Ray climb into the saddle too? Early reports suggest she aims to move closer to country on her tenth album, The Right One Will Stay – due out in May.
Lana, who has already released a cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads and performed Stand By Your Man live, has confirmed it will be “a classic country, American, southern Gothic production”.
She also says the new songs won’t be “a radical departure” from 2023’s critically acclaimed chart-topper Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. The first taste, the title track, is a haunting and achingly tender collaboration with Post Malone.
Ed Sheeran has just released +-=÷× (TOUR COLLECTION), with 25 of his biggest-selling songs recorded live, plus “exclusive memos” from the singer on the CD and vinyl versions.
But Ed has also finished a new studio album which will see him return to “big pop” after the relatively glum Autumn Variations and – (subtract).
We can expect new releases from Sam Fender in February – he’s already teased us with the superb People Watching – and The Darkness in March.
And perhaps surprisingly The Cure are threatening to release a companion to last year’s Songs Of A Lost World this summer.
Chris Martin says Coldplay will bow out with one last record, and Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Blondie, Morrissey, The Distillers and Stereophonics are also promising albums. And Madonna is said to be working on new music with Stuart Price, the head producer on her 2005 album Confessions On A Dance Floor Let’s hope there’s room for fresh talent to get noticed too.
X-Ray Spex. Live At The Roundhouse.
The iconic punk band’s final gig – recorded in 2008, three years before Poly Styrene’s death at 53 – is loud, proud, and bursting with energy. They play their greats – the gloriously defiant Oh Bondage Up Yours! and the slower, strangely bewitching Germ Free Adolescents. Vigorous belters Identity, The Day The World Turned Dayglo and I Am A Poseur still pack a punch.
The Skabratts. Koolest Kat.
Peter Azzopardi’s London-based five-piece specialise in breezy Ska and upbeat pop reggae. It’s impossible to listen to original numbers like Soon You’ll Be Gone and The Vultures Are Coming without smiling. Their music sound doffs its pork pie hat to the 2-Tone years, and is close in feel to the cheery apolitical bounce of Madness and Bad Manners. Ten tracks of sunshine.
Jeff Christie. Here & Now.
Best known for his 1970 hits, the chart-topping global smash Yellow River and the follow-up San Bernardino, the former Christie star now specialises in melodic Americana. ‘On the road to Graceland, dust beneath my wheels,’ he sings on Driving Down To Memphis. Soul-infused Building Bridges is a heart-felt plea for global peace in an ever-grimmer world. Better By Now, about long-term relationships, boasts an instant chorus.