Albums Out This Week: W/C 19th January 2009

Dissections of the hype machine ahoy. Both White Lies and Bon Iver are seeking to capitalise upon their buzz-wave this week. The former with their debut album, the latter with an album-bridging-E.P. To the right is the naysayers who claim the adulation is unfounded. To the centre is the hurrahs who claim each act will single-handedly revolutionise music. To the left is everything you own in a box to the left. Yeah that's your stuff.

Compiling a decade and a half of music, the Factory Records compilation out this week will broadcast to you the heady sound of Manchester without the need for you ever having to go there. Win-win situation if you ask us.

Low-key electro and folk releases also adorn the periphery of January 19, 2009. Oh Atoms, It Hugs Back and a little-known band called Anthony & The Johnsons will all be vying for your fragile little mechanical heart. You see, it's funny because they're really quite famous and we said 'little-known'. Is the neon sign with 'applause' written on it broken again?

White Lies: To Lose My Life

The first 'hot pick' of 2009 comes complete with the normal amount of hype attached. British-born post-punk with a heavy debt to Interpol and Editors, falling halfway between the second coming and a hard place.

Anthony & The Johnsons: The Crying Light

Winners of the Mercury Music Prize back in 2005 the steam shows no sign of abating with album number three. Someone requisition the orchestra, baroque pop is in town.

Bon Iver: Blood Bank E.P

The 'Jacob' of the music world, Justin Vernon is the man behind the curtain of the most revered acoustic/indie act of the last few years. For Blood Bank he goes full-band and breathes a breath of warm air into his dystopian soundscapes.

Factory Records: Communications 1978-92

This four-CD collection charts fourteen years of Manchester musical history by means of heavy contributions from Factory beacons New Order, Joy Division and Happy Mondays. The label declared bankruptcy in 1992 due to prohibitive recording costs for two of their heavy-hitters. Shawn Ryder was probably smoking the money.

Secret Machines: s/t

The first post-Benjamin album comes to the Kingdom's shores. Middling reviews may not be enough to propel it through a harsh beach invasion through to the heartland, never mind the stratosphere the band long to populate with their space-rock.

zZz: Running With the Beast

Perennial occupiers of the bottom of playlists everywhere and resolutely not featuring Vin Diesel the 'dark danceable' Dutch band take organ/percussion music to heights never before witnessed.

Shrag: s/t

With only two tracks not culled from the band's plethora of single releases, ardent fans will be finding little new territory to explore in the band's debut album. Formed from the ashes of noise-pop outfit Crest, Shrag sees them embracing an altogether punkier manifesto.

Oh Atoms: You Can't See the Stars From Here

A male-female duo in their thirties utilising an smorgasbord of eclectic instruments: guess who these two are getting compared to. We'll give you a clue, it ain't Laurel and Hardy. Popularised by Gurinder Chadha's follow-up to "Bend it Like Beckham", "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging". Who comes up with film titles, seriously, it's like retitling "Die Hard" as 'Sweaty Guy Shoots Germans'.

Soporus: 24110

A side-project of Saxon Shore's key players Will Stichter and Matt Stone, Soporus plays down the post-rock stylings in favour of ambient and down-tempo musings.

Gimp Fist: Your Time Has Come

Now here's some good clean family fun. British street-punk with 'OIs' to put Harry Enfield out of business permanently... now there's an idea. Released by Sunny Bastards records.

Alaska In Winter: Holiday

Art-school drop-out Brandon Bethancourt discovered that all good music comes from locking yourself in a cabin. Come 2010, if a tree falls in the woods, a musician is going to make a fair few sounds. Holiday is the sophomore album for the American electronic band currently residing in Germany.

Dead Guitars: Flags

Passed down to us by way of new wave band Twelve Drummers Drumming and alternative/progressive German band Sun, the members unite to concoct: erm, a mixture of alternative, progressive and new-wave. As you were.

It Hugs Back: Inside Your Guitar

The creepiest of monikers for a Kent-based indie/folk band belies their sunny disposition. Joining the roster of 4AD alongside TV on the Radio and Deerhunter, we have high hopes for these ones.