Batten Down the Hatches

The end of year polls might only just have been compiled for 2004, but already it’s shaping up to be a mouth-watering year for music fans as the predictions get underway for the albums of 2005.

Undoubtedly one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year, Coldplay fans can expect to get their hands on the follow-up to 2002’s massively successful A Rush Of Blood To The Head in March. Despite having binned sessions with their long-time collaborator Ken Nelson, Chris Martin is promising the album “will be the best thing anyone’s ever heard”.
You can also expect to hear American rock bands reclaim some of the limelight stolen by their British counterparts last year. The White Stripes are reportedly keeping it typically lo-fi on their fifth album, while Julian Casablancas and his New York cohorts are trying to claw back some of the cool factor that they lost on 2003’s Room On Fire.
Losing key members Nick Oliveiri and Mark Lanegan had lead to fears that we might have heard the last of the brilliant Queens Of The Stone Age, but mainman Josh Homme has instead called in favours from the likes of Garbage’s Shirley Manson (due to release their fourth album Bleed Like Me in April), The Distillers’ Brody Dalle and, er, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. Lullabies To Paralyze is due in March.
Britpop veterans Oasis have also ditched sessions and their producers Death In Vegas, but fans will be hoping their new album displays signs of life ahead of their massive tour dates in the summer. Fellow Manchester natives Doves release Some Cities at the start of February, while Beck, The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev will all be delighting fans with new albums due in the shops by the time the summer festivals kick off.
Bell X1, Damien Rice and The Frames have all been getting new material down in the studio, Neil Hannon is planning a covers album and Josh Ritter is also hoping to get a record out before the year’s end, but on the homefront it could be the year when the singer-songwriters take a back seat.
Meath rockers Turn have a new bass player on board and are demoing material for what is a make or break album for them, while JJ72 have also been recording with new bassist Sara Fox. With most of the work done last summer, their as yet untitled third offering is due in April.
2004 was a great year for Future Kings Of Spain, and having toured with the likes of Muse around Europe they will be hoping to maintain the impetus with their second album due before summer.
Another very promising Irish rock band are The Chalets, with their debut due in early Spring, while Republic of Loose, Pony Club, 8Ball and Automata will all be helping to keep things very interesting on the home scene.
It’s a long long way, but Tipp native Gemma Hayes is currently in L.A. recording the follow-up to her Mercury-nominated debut Night on My Side, while Damien Dempsey is putting the finishing touches to his new album in the somewhat less sunny surroundings of Rockfield Studios in Wales. Producer John Reynolds is once more at the helm, with the album due in Spring.
Finally, they might have conquered all before them last year, but don’t think that means you’ve heard the last of Franz Ferdinand, The Killers or Snow Patrol. Not content with resting on their laurels, all three bands are at various stages of recording the follow-up to their enormously successful breakthrough albums, with Alex Koparanos and company having already nailed twenty songs. Expect them to crash land into the charts around the tail end of Autumn.
This is barely a taster of some of the great albums expected during the year, so keep your ears open because it’s promising to be a good one.