Something To Look Forward To

Clearlake to release new album 'Amber' in January (finally!) Admittedly the clips of demos that I've heard seemed to be lacking a certain spark of brilliance that made 'Lido' and particularly 'Cedars' so special, but then they were clips. Of demos.

Next year's early release schedule is starting to take shape in general in fact:

• Embrace have written a new album in 9 days, which will be called 'Exploding Machines'. I am imagining at this stage an album full of Near Lifes but that may prove a little optimistic.
• Belle And Sebastian releasing 'The Goalkeeper's Revenge' too. Apparently named after an old book which I may in fact have read, I read too many football books at one stage and they were generally fairly indistinguishable from each other. If their new track on the Help:A Day In The Life album for Warchild (full review here later!) is anything to go by it should be at least as fantastic as 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress'.
• Grandaddy should have a new album ready to go soon, in the mean time they are releasing a mini-album in a few weeks while we wait.
• You never know, The Flaming Lips might actually finish 'At War With The Mystics'. Or, for that matter, their Christmas On Mars film.
• The Strokes are also looking for a January release, and are now slowly dripping news to the overexcited NME.