I was looking over at Metacritic's upcoming albums and it looks pretty bleak for a month or so. Anything coming up soon that you're excited about?

What about Magnetic Fields on Jan. 15th? Stereogum has seemed pretty keen on it.

I know they're bordering on irrelevance now but I am cautiously optimistic about the new REM dropping on April 1. Hearing good reports about the new songs played live last year.

I'm looking forward to hearing the new Midlake album. Does anybody else here like Midlake?

I like Midlake. I bought their record for $1 at Tower Records and it was worth every penny. The new Goldfrapp sounds great but different. Since she's a British female it's no suprise that she gets a lot of comparisons to the Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush but their new single reminds me of Sigur Ros.

I like "Roscoe", from their last album. It had a strange soft-rock-meets-indie appeal that I kinda dug.

That Magnetic Fields album hasn't been received very well. I'm still interested to hear it though.

Goldfrapp doesn't come out for a few months though. I'm super excited for that one. Supernature barely missed my top 100 list.

Goldfrap leaked 3 months ago and it is really stunning, you will love it. I can give you a link if you like.

très bon ! (laughing yellow, like we say in French, if you see what I mean)
rire jaune : to force a laugh (you're laughing, but your head is hurting in the perspective of the song-listing..)

New albums from Xiu Xiu and Mountain Goats seems very interesting. I'm looking forward to those. And Scarlett Johansson is releasing a Tom Waits cover album, produced by David Sitek from TV On The Radio, featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs? I can't wait.

British Sea Power's Do You Like Rock Music? is the answer to the question.

"Scarlett Johansson is releasing a Tom Waits cover album, produced by David Sitek from TV On The Radio, featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs"

Lot going on there...

Scarlett Johansen? Tom Waits? Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Is this another put-on of Anthony's? (If not, can anyone supply a link?)

Stammer, I'm anticipating the new R.E.M. as well, but I'm not optimistic (which hurts to admit). The songs from Around the Sun also sounded pretty good live...and color me skeptical, but it's really rare for a rock band as old as they are to cough up a masterpiece. (The average age of Buck/Mills/Stipe is 49, and yes, I just looked that up.)

It is actually true. I'm intrigued, that's for sure, but also skeptic. If it's going to be of Lost In Translation quality..

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,221001,00.html

Agreed, Schleuse. REM is a group I have followed from the beginning (wrote a review of Chronic Town in the school paper in '82) so I guess it's just the loyalty in me. Although I actually thought Around the Sun was better than Reveal and the main problem lied in the sterile production which hopefully they have corrected. If I keep talking maybe I'll convince myself.

Same counts for me: Out of loyalty I still keep curious about the next release of my all-time favorite band, but to be honest, Stipe and Co. have not impressed me much anymore since New Adventures.

Stammer, do you still have a copy of your Chronic Town review? Would be interesting, and maybe even funny, to see what you mention about these fine jangle-pop songs. Carnival of Sorts is my personal favorite.

Nah. My old copies of the paper got lost somwhere along the line in one of my many moves but still have my original vinyl version of Chronic. I do know it was love at first listen and to this day remains my favorite EP ever.

My favorite EP too, Stammer. If you don't mind, I'll start a new thread on the topic 'favorite EP'.

sounds good.

Also, as a Denverite, I'm really hoping DeVotchKa gets some good reviews on March 18th. How it Ends was awesome, but it sneaked in under the radar. Thanks to their soundtracks I don't think this one will be ignored.

I'm still waiting for the first great album of 2006

A few other contenders for at least very good album of the first couple of months.

School of Language – Sea From Shore. Solo album David Brewis’ from Field Music (whose 2007 album Tones of Town was one of last year’s best, simply, economic, XTC / Steely Dan style melodic pop songs,) and it’ very similar to their output with a deeper more pulsating rhythm section and a little more spike to it.

Lightspeed Champion - Falling Off the Lavender Bridge. Solo album from Dev ex-Test-Icicles (a pathetic sixth form joke of a band) which is somehow a brilliant folky ballard album despite his past. Try to find the song “Galaxy of The Lost” if you can.

Los Campesinions! – Hold On Now, Youngster ADD twee-rock from Welsh teenagers, like a Junior Broken Social Scene. Contains the 2007 single “You!, Me! Dancing!” which is a must hear.

These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid Like a streamlined version of the Fall, check out single “Elvis” fo an idea of their sound.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend This is the one, bound to top a few the end of year charts, containing the theme of the year (Afro-beat tinged pop see Yeasayer and Foals) but despite the way that that influences the music it’s one of the best debut collections of Indie style songs since The Strokes.

2006 was so much better in comparison to 05 and 07. It only got so many jeers because it was dominated by women, Brits and new bands. 07 was too familiar and lacked new music with originality. We've seen Radiohead, Polly Harvey, the White Stripes and Damon from Blur and his many side projects in the top 20 so many times it gets boring. It's time for something new and refreshing

january/february/march
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS
THE MARS VOLTA
HOT CHIP
GOLDFRAPP
GUILLEMOTS

I hope all these albums will be good !

I've heard a little bit of Vampire Weekends stuff. They've gotta be the the biggest buzz band since CYHSY. But, it sounds ok.

I love Midlake, definitely one of my favourite bands.
Their first album is very good, and the second is fantastic. On their last album, Wilco has tried to recreate this same 70s soft-rock sound as Midlake has done on "The trials of van occupanther" but hasn't succeed.
Midlake is better by far !

I predict the first really good album of 2008 will come from somebody hardly any of us have heard of and even fewer expect anything from.

(You could argue the first really great album of 2008 was In Rainbows :P)

Now that I've heard the new Magnetic Fields album, it's safe to say it won't be the first great album to drop in 2008.
Just like '69 Love Songs' was exactly that, and 'i' was a bunch of songs starting with that letter, 'Distortion' refers to the sonic approach on the the new album, which, for me, made it a rather dreary listen.
I'm a pretty big '69 Love Songs' fan, and I quite liked 'i,' but I just can't get into the new one. For those wondering, Merritt spreads out the vocal duties this time out, unlike on the last release.

I think 69 Love Songs would be a great album if it were cherry-picked to a normal album-length collection.

It's a great listen but not a great three hour listen.

I can't remember a year though where the first great album was by somebody I previously knew about. Probably because most of the groups with an already established fan base aim for the summer or fall.

I'm looking forward to Operator Please's first album. Probably won't be the album of the year, but if they succeed in finding enough of such fresh and dynamic songs, it might be one of the most entertaining.

Anticipating the new Van Hunt album dropping the 15th. The previous albums has been some of the coolest soul & r'n'b of recent years.

the new Duke Spirit has been getting a lot of press. So far their ep sounds terrific so I'll bet they put out another fine record that gets plenty of airplay.

Nada Surf's Lucky has the year off to a great start.

Of course, you never know, because Neil Young and Dylan had comebacks in the 90s. But REM has been pretty lame since Automatic.

Also, didn't Flaming Lips not even get good until they were in like their forties?

Listening to Distortion. It's...okay.

Nada Surf is still writing music? I thought they were just some one hit wonder from the nineties.

Seems the critics are quite content with Distortion. 80%.

BillAdama,

Join the club. I thought Nada Surf were a one-hit wonder too, until a few years ago when a friend suggested that I check out their last few albums (which have been largely ignored.) I did, and was really surprised. They write some really intelligent and melodic indie rock – miles above what you’d expect from a band known for a crappy mid-‘90s alt-rock tune.

Maybe I'll check some of their stuff out. Is Lucky even out yet? It's not on metacritic's release list?

Is there a better way than allmusic to check out their catalog?

I don't think they'll be any 'great' albums in 2008(depends what your definition of great is but there has probably been half a dozen or less 'great' albums in the last ten years)

I have to check out the new Nada Surf. Let Go was a really great album but I didn't like The Weight is a Gift at all.

I can't wait for the new Portishead album!

Yeah, it does depend where your threshold for 'great' is.

There tend to be two or three per year that fall in my definition.

But, Sufjan Stevens and My Morning Jacket both have records planned this year. I wouldn't be surprised if either of those were great.

The folks over at metacritic.com are raving about a few albums from leaks. Most notably British Sea Power, Destroyer, Atmosphere, Xiu Xiu, Vampire Weekend, and a few others.

I'm very excited for Destroyer. He's always been one of my favorites.

You can probably skip the New Hot Chip and Mars Volta albums if you're looking for 'greatness.' Both are OK, but won't have much appeal outside of their fan base. I'm looking forward to the new Drive-By Truckers album.

hmm. probalby los campesinos will be the first one people talk about. i´m still waiting for the 2nd moldy peaches. any new gossip about them?

Vampire Weekend's going to be huge and probably the first highly rated of 2008. I don't think it's "great" but the buzz is extremely high and most of the album has already been heard. Hype based on actual output should equal huge success right?

Vampire Weekend's album is pretty good, not quite "great," but close. Reducing them to a Strokes meet 'Graceland' label is accurate as far as it goes, but after just a couple of listens, there seems to be more to them than just that.

I just found out the new Drive By Truckers comes out tomorrow. Allmusic says it's a return to form, so that might be the first great album of 2008.

Even though they haven't been that good since Decoration Day.

In my opinion, British Sea Power has already got at least some claim to being the first 'very good' album of the year. Ok, i can imagine it maybe just missing my top 20 at the end of the year, but I do think it has the consistency to let it be spoken of in grand terms.

Back to the R.E.M. record for a second...

Described as a “return to form” and features Peter Buck’s guitar prominently. schleuse - still not excited? Also, just noticed that the tracklist has been leaked, and there’s a song titled “Houston”. (that’s a bit like Radiohead releasing a song called “Edmonton”.)

Well, they've already got "Texarkana" and "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" under their belts, so they were in the neighborhood. As long as it's not a song about oppressive humidity, the absence of zoning laws, or flying cockroaches, we should be OK...

From what I've read, it looks like they're promoting Accelerate as a return to Monster (rockin' out and all that)--which would be welcome, at this point.

You got a link for me, Anthony?

“Houston” was originally titled “Where’s the Infrastructure, Mr. White?”, but the band decided against that name.

I was reading about the new album here.

Aaand...well played.

Thanks.

I'm always hearing about this Cambodian band called Dengue Fever. They have so much hype behind them they're bound to have a hit in the near future.

I don't know why REM would have the first great album since they haven't put out a great album since 1987...(covers head).

Weezy F. Baby - Tha Carter III, of course.

I finally got around to listening to the Vampire Weekend record. Pretty dang great. I still don't like Mansard Roof very much but the rest is pretty solid.

For some reason, I'm expecting 2008 to be the worst year for music for this decade.

I haven't been too impressed so far.

I guess I'm the only one that doesn't really care - it just seems such a waste of time and money to me to pay full price for all these new albums when I can get loads of established classic albums from the glory years of rock for half the price

Listen to the Nick Cave album
it's AWESOME
I'm reviewing it for a site (but in Français)

I think 2009 might be worse than 2008.

Yes, but 2074 will be the best year of the 2070's

I think it just dropped, as I already mentioned in another topic, with Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago". A magical album.

Of course, nicolas. The anticipation is so great that it will kill us all.

"Yes, but 2074 will be the best year of the 2070's"

I'll be 88 y/o. lol

DC, let us know how it goes.

2008 is pretty good so far. At least, I would take it's first two months output as the best first two months output since I started listening to indie in 2005.

Of course, in those three years 80% of the best albums came out between May and October, so it's way too early to make any kind of generalizations about the whole year.

You can't even really judge by release schedule because the last few years, 80% of the great albums IMO came from people who I didn't expect to release a great album.

Personally I've found both the first quarter of this year and last to be quite strong. Especially considering that it's generally been quiet in years past.

New albums by Michael Jackson, Madonna and Eminem.

I dunno. Just doesn't look like the right climate for anything good to come out. Plus, I bet Portishead's "Third" doesn't get more than a third of the acclaim of their debut.