Hopes & Fears

The new year is upon us, which, in the music world usually means a couple of barren months before things start picking up again. Considering how January is usually the worst time of the year for new releases, you'll be hard pressed to find anything notable on the horizon (at least until next month). That being said, there's no better time to make a few predictions for the upcoming year. Then this time next year we can all look back about absurdly inaccurate I was. Here are a few obvious and not so obvious things that I'm seeing in my crystal ball:

2009 will be owned by U2. Any idiot could have told you this. U2's (oft delayed) first new album since 2004 finally has a firm release date -- March 3rd to be exact. Bono and crew will release New Line On The Horizon to much fanfare, and will will probably roll out a massive sold-out world tour, a new iPod line, and endless face time that will help the front man's cause to finally win that Nobel Peace Prize he's been eying for years. U2 is one of the few bands in the world that can actually be a boon to all facets of the music business these days. Industry suits are thanking their lucky stars that these guys will be back in the limelight this year.

Coldplay's album will be pushed up. Riding on the coattails of of their aforementioned Brian Eno-enhanced predecessors, Coldplay will be smart and not wait until the end of the year to release their follow-up to last year's now-controversial success Viva La Vida. They need to wash their hands of the recent Joe Satriani hoopla and start fresh with new material. That is, unless they "break up" for an eighth time.

Radiohead will be up to their same schemes. Rumor has it that the band is already finished with their follow-up to In Rainbows. Details are still sketchy, but if history is any indicator, Thom Yorke is going to outdo himself here. The album will be epic like Rainbows, and will probably drop on some idle Tuesday when we least expect it.

The Fleet Foxes will be no one trick pony. When I saw these guys in early October, they previewed material they had already written and it of course blew me away. I wouldn't be surprised if album number two saw a release date some time this summer. Why not keep a good thing going?

Noel Gallagher will release his first solo album. AND it will be better than anything that Oasis has released in over a decade. In the past eight or so years since Gallagher has shared the songwriting pen with his bandmates, Oasis' material has invariably sucked. Forgoing Liam, Gem, and Andy will only allow Noel to get out of the band mentality -- the first step to thinking outside the box and writing decent tunes once again.

The Gaslight Anthem will do me proud and hit it big. As predicted, the band has announced a headlining tour in bigger and better venues (playing Webster Hall in March). The greater blogosphere has finally begun to embrace these guys and even the dreaded hipster-zine Pitchfork Media has given The '59 Sound an unprecedented 8.6/10 review (even surpassing my initial review). It is impossible to not like this band, a pretty soon everyone will understand why.

The recently reunited Blur will be 2009's equivalent of The Verve. Sometimes all a band needs is time to release a stellar record. Blur hasn't played a show or written material together in five years, but this hardly means they're washed up. Damon Albarn and and Graham Coxon have made it abundantly clear that the chemistry is back and that they fully intend on getting back to work. Their recently announced show in London's Hyde Park sold out in two minutes, so there is evidently demand for England's second best Britpop band. Look for these guys to make the standard US Festival appearances too.