Sons & Daughters and Nick Cave have albums out soon. They'll be worth a listen.

EDIT: in fact, you can listen to tracks off the new Nick Cave album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, on the website: www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com

I've downloaded the Cat Power and British Sea Power albums. Not too sure about BSP yet but I've been enjoying Jukebox by Cat Power. (Shame about the cover art though.)

Got a ticket for Portishead at the Hammersmith Apollo today, a new album would be a bit of an event. These guys make The Stone Roses look like The Smiths.

When the last Portishead album was released, Tony Blair had only been in power for 5 months, Diana had only been dead for a month and Michael Hutchence was (insert inappropriate joke here.)

Have a new one out in Feb. Got to be worth a listen - they have to be the most consistent band of the last 15 years or so....

I'm looking forward to the new Goldfrapp and Portishead CDs. Also I'll be interested to hear Mike Oldfield's classical album "Music of the Spheres," but that's because I'm a long-term fan of his stuff and I'll probably end up buying anything he releases.

Some of the CDs I enjoyed most in the last few years are ones that I didn't know about until after they were released. Makes me wonder a little whether the anticipation spoils things.

the miracle Fortress are really great as are lacrosse and British Sea power rule !

is being re-released sometime soon as a deluxe edition. it probably ranks as Julian Copes best solo album and is worth a punt. Ron Sexsmith should have something new out in the near future too.

I'm going to say it, even though the band gets a lot of bad press in the magazine: U2's new album is the one that I'm most looking forward to this year. They're back working and, in a new twist on the relationship, co-writing with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, it sounds as if they've ditched, or are trying to ditch, the sound of the last two (one boring, one ok) albums, have moved into more experimental territory by recording in Morocco, and, dare I say it, should still have at least one really good album left in them. The only problem really is the fact that they still pander to U2 Ltd, and therefore will only release the album for the Christmas market, so October or November is a safe bet.

Looking forward to hearing Van Morrison's new album; I'd be stunned if it was much of a deviation from the last few albums he's done but hey, I liked those a lot so I guess I'll like this too.

Van Der Graaf Generator's new one, 'Trisector', I'm looking forward to hearing- thought the last one 'Present' was a bit patchy but still, it had its moments.

Don't know if they have too many acolytes in Word circles (though I've seen a couple of fans post here) but I'm looking forward to Marillion's new album. Saw them at my university last month and they were superb.

Praying that David Bowie ends his silence of the past few years and puts something new out. Same with Peter Gabriel.

Wasn't Eno handling Coldplay's album? Not a Coldplay fan but I'll keep my ears out for that; I dare say I won't be able to avoid it when it comes out anyway!!

I downloaded the Thao album as well, that's growing on me. I played it today (first start to finish) and it sounded the best it has yet.

And this evening, I downloaded the Adele album, but I've not even put it into itunes yet. And I'm retaining a healthy dose of skepticism

The new album by The Storys, called "Town Beyond The Trees", will be out on 17 March 2008. I'm really looking forward to it. Whisperin' Bob's already been playing tarcks from it and they sound pretty great in a west-coast harmony country tinged rock kinda way. If you don't know the Storys they do the country-rocky sounding "It's the Baaaawb Haaaa-ris Show" link on his Saturday night show. He refers to them as his "House Band".

The first single from the album will be "Long Hard Road" (b-side "Town Beyond The Trees" live) and will also be released in the UK on 17 March 2008.

In a convenient link, Rosalie Deighton (who guests on the Storys album) has a re-release of her excellent 21 Days album this spring - in a re-recorded, re-worked format.

And of course, it goes without saying that I'm looking forward to Beth Rowley's Little Dreamer.