2008: the year of the ...

Hmmm. Already we have had a new album from the Magnetic Fields (whose last album was released in 2004). In the pipeline are new albums from My Bloody Valentine (1991), Portishead (1997) and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2004). Now we discover that there will also be a new album by Tindersticks, who last released an album in 2003 and have since been missing presumed defunct (Stuart Staples releasing a solo album entitled "Leaving Songs" was a pretty solid hint, I would have thought). It is the last of that list that I am most looking forward to. Tindersticks have always produced work of the highest quality, and each album has added something to (or sometimes, crucially, taken something away from) what has come earlier. I don't know where they could go from "Waiting For The Moon", which was a solid (if perhaps in parts less than surprising) summation of The Story Of Tindersticks up to that point, but I am more than happy that I will get a chance to find out.