It may only be January but several albums are already throwing down the gauntlet for the year to come and two of those are available for your listening pleasure below. Let England Shake, the new offering from PJ Harvey is released this Friday and is giving the singer some of the best reviews of her career. HP muso Paul Nolan gave the album 4/5 in our latest issue calling the album "extraordinary...likely to feature on many album of the year lists". The album is more politically-charged than anything Harvey has done before, addressing topics such as the Iraq War and the state of modern-day England.

Meanwhile, Bright Eyes (aka Conor Oberst) are set to release the band's first new album in four years, The People's Key on the masses also this Friday. Of the new album Oberst said, "we wanted it to be rocking and, for lack of a better term, contemporary, or modern". Enjoy both!

Click here for PJ Harvey, and here for Bright Eyes.