The Great Anticipation of 2006

I am of course referring to albums due out sometime within the rest of this year. I'll list the ones I am looking forward to, as this is in-fact my blog. So there! However, feel free to leave me comments with any albums that you are looking forward to, I'm a pretty open minded kinda guy, so chances are if you are looking forward to it, then I might just appreciate it too.

DJ Shadow – Well, I could write a whole essay purely based on Josh… but I wont, I'll only get angry. Firstly, many were expecting a new Shadow album last year, evidently we didn't get one. Secondly, is it gonna be shit? Serious, first we had that Keane remix and then 3 Freaks, it doesn't bode well. I have it on good authority that despite these 'blips', the new Shadow album is still meant to be very good – one person even suggested to me that 3 Freaks might not be on the album… here's hoping! Anyway, check out this link, it basically says that the new album is complete, it has a very diverse sound, and will be called The Outsider. No word on a release date though.

Jurassic 5 – Another overdue album. I wasn't too impressed with the last effort, although some have said it is a grower (so I will listen again soon), but this new album Feedback is due out on 25th July. If you check out the track posted on their MySpace page Work It Out (feat. Dave Matthews Band), maybe you will cry a bit… I did. This particular track reeks of being commercial radio friendly, surely this is intentional? The groups motivation? The fuck should I know?! Either way, I'll be checking this new one out to give it a good going over, myself.

Cut Chemist – J5's very own ex-producer has his album The Audience's Listening due out 13th June (although some sources suggest 11th July). I've always greatly enjoyed the Chemist's work, whether it be with J5, Shadow, or on his own, and I have high expectations for this upcoming release. I sincerely hope I'm not setting myself up for a fall, but there is only one way to find out. Secretly (he says, on an public site!), I reckon it will be excellent – otherwise… I'll cry some more – what an emotional blog entry!

Bonobo – Sorry folks, I literally have nothing to tell you, other than it is due out this year (hopefully!) and should be pretty cool. You can read a small diary entry from the man himself (posted end of March) here. Still, it's not all bad, that Live Sessions album of his never gets boring, that'll tie us over!

Lily Allen – Well, scroll down near to the bottom of this page and you'll see I posted bout Lily last week. As we already know her ska/pop debut album is due out on Regal records on 17th July.

Radiohead – I think Radiohead are great (shock horror!), but I haven't been following that closely how the new album is going – but a friend told me today that the new album due out in October has now been pushed back to 2007. But… Thom Yorke has an album out on July 11th called The Eraser.

Boards Of Canada – The new EP is called Trans Canada Highway, it is coming out on 29th May. Watch a weird (I guess promo) video here, on Warp's site. I must stress that this is an EP and not an album – only 5 new tracks will be on this release.

Venetian Snares – This guy's music has the ability to scare me and excite me. Anyway, enough of my personal life. The new album is beautifully named Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms and is due out sometime in June. Hopefully it will be in a similar vein to the last album, that was a whole lot more listenable than his older work. Although, this is just my opinion, I know some people like that stuff.

Amon Tobin – I don't actually know the name of his new album, either I've missed that detail or nobody knows yet (feel free to educate me). Some details from an early May blog entry can be found here. Sounds like he's just been doing a load of field recordings and stuff, says he is bout half way through it all now. Hopefully we'll see this before the year is out.

I'm sure there are plenty of other hotly anticipated albums due out this year, so feel free to tell me bout them. Also if I am missing any info in the above brief reports (or something is wrong, heaven forbid!), then tell me too.

Useful links:

• DJ Shadow
• Jurassic 5
• Cut Chemist
• Lily Allen
• Radiohead
• Boards Of Canada
• Venetian Snares
• Amon Tobin