NOW that the year-end lists are out of the way, it's time to look to the future.
Goodbye 2011; here are some of the albums coming out in 2012... for better or worse.
Leonard Cohen
THE legendary Canadian singer-songwriter was content to live a quiet life until he was declared bankrupt in 2005 after his ex-manager allegedly ripped him off to the tune of $5 million. Forced to get off his laurels and hit the road, Cohen returned to the spotlight in 2008 with a three-year-long world tour that was his first in 15 years and which brought him to Australia in 2009. The 77-year-old appears to be completely back in the game and enjoying more popularity than ever before so a new 10-track album - Old Ideas - is being prepped for a late-January release. A host of new songs were debuted during the tour, including Lullaby and The Darkness, which are on the record. The song Show Me The Place is up on his website now.
Or you can hear it here:
Smashing Pumpkins
HAVING declared the album format dead (or maybe he was just referring to the awful Zeitgeist record), head Pumpkin Billy Corgan has gone back on those words and announced the release of Oceania. Billed as "an album within an album", the record comes amid the song-at-a-time project Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, which began in 2009 and will feature 44 songs released as free MP3s. The Pumpkins are 12 songs into Teargarden (which features some of their best work in years) and it seems Oceania will comprise the next 13 songs. Live recordings of some of the tracks are on YouTube. The album is due out in the first half of the year.
Here's a live recording of Quasar, the Siamese Dream-ish sounding album opener:
Cloud Control
THE pressure is on for this Aussie quartet now based in London. Their debut Bliss Release was much-loved and in August they're expected to drop their second album, even though only three songs are written to date, according to an interview with Rolling Stone. "It's hard to say what the whole thing is going to sound like," frontman Alister Wright said. He added that one track was "simple and down to earth" while another reminded him of Portishead. "I don't want to go too crazy. It's still going to sound like four people playing instruments: organ, guitar, bass and drums." At least one of the new songs is expected to be played at their festival gigs this week, which include Pyramid Rock, Woodford Folk Festival and Field Day.
Nothing new to post, so here's There's Nothing In The Water:
Soulja Boy
NATURALLY, there are going to be some bad albums in 2012 and we're going to jump the gun and predict this might be one of them. Soulja Boy's fourth album (really?) is titled Promise and due out in April. About a dozen producers have worked on the record, which features guest spots from Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, 50 Cent, and Busta Rhymes, which admittedly does make it sound vaguely promising. But this is Soulja Boy we're talking about, whose last two albums barely rated a mention in Australia and only sold moderately well in the US.
I'm not posting a video of this guy on principal.
Tool
ACC ORDING to a bizarre newsletter posted in May 2011, the fifth Tool album is expected to be released in May 2012, six years after 10,000 Days. Work apparently began on the album in March 2010, but Tool are renowned for taking their time on records. Singer Maynard James Keenan recently confirmed the band was writing but acknowledged it was a slow process. "With Tool, we practice jams, but there’s no actual recording going on until it’s time to record," Keenan said. "I haven't done anything yet. I'm allowing them (the other members of Tool) their space to do what they do."
There is only this:
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